Let My People Vote

This week it's just Manny and Chuck holding it down. With the mic split two ways, the guys build the hour around Manny's lane: constitutional authority, federal rulemaking, and the courtroom back-and-forth behind the fastest-moving voting-access story of the midterm cycle so far. Three storylines, one converging Friday, Trump's Executive Order 14399 and the USPS's brand-new mail-ballot verification portal (which, per a whistleblower, was built by two teams who each built their own kill switch without knowing the other team existed), North Carolina's State Board of Elections quietly rewriting four mail-ballot rules the same morning ballots hit mailboxes, and a fresh round of FBI voter-data subpoenas out of Nevada. Plus: the guys announce a four-state midterm special arc starting with North Carolina and Georgia, tease PTP's 100th episode and 2-year anniversary coming up in the next couple of weeks, and close with Spotlights on a new North Korea–Russia bridge and a scary weapons incident at an Ohio governor's-race campaign event.

Topics covered:
The national mail-in ballot fight: EO 14399, the USPS's 95-page final rule, a whistleblower's account of the portal build, and the injunction-court-injunction pattern headed to a September 8 Supreme Court briefing deadline

North Carolina rewrites its own mail-ballot rules: signature mismatch, unsealed inner envelopes, multiple ballots in one envelope, and who's allowed to hand-deliver, all passed as memos, not formal rules, on a party-line vote

DOJ/FBI subpoenas in Nevada: 7 subpoenas over 9 months, a DHS nine-state voter-fraud “surge,” and a claim of nearly 16,000 non-citizen registrations that DHS itself walked down to 185 “potential” cases

Manny's Spotlight: an armed man rushes a candidate event in Ohio, and the real cost of political security, including former Gov. Cooper's quarter-million-dollar security bill

Chuck's Spotlight: North Korea and Russia open their first road bridge

Transcript

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PARDON THE POLITICS
Season 3, Episode 34
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[00:00:00] Manny: Hello, world!
[00:00:01] Manny: This is not Jeezy.
[00:00:03] Manny: This is your boy, Manny, and I'm here…
[00:00:07] Manny: with the captain, the leader, the chairman of Chaos himself, Chuck.
[00:00:13] Chuck: Brother.
[00:00:14] Chuck: I have a new title this week.
[00:00:16] Chuck: I am Captain Congestion.
[00:00:19] Manny: Oh, damn.
[00:00:20] Chuck: Bruh, not even so much down, man, I…
[00:00:24] Chuck: I don't even want to start a diatribe of my nasal passage and sinus cavity, and oh my god, but needless to say.
[00:00:34] Chuck: I've taken, some allergy medicine to hopefully clear this up, but… Boy. Yeah.
[00:00:40] Manny: Jeez.
[00:00:41] Chuck: If I sound any worse than I normally do, good listeners.
[00:00:44] Chuck: Peace be the journey, and I appreciate you going on this audio adventure with me and Manny on today.
[00:00:52] Chuck: Guys, I sound like trash.
[00:00:55] Chuck: Oh, but before we start, shout out our brother Jeezy.
[00:00:58] Manny: Always, always.
[00:01:00] Chuck: He… look, we say it all the time, actor, present parent, a family man, husband, just across the board.
[00:01:10] Chuck: How to do with your…
[00:01:11] Manny: gotta do.
[00:01:11] Chuck: Yeah, he's with family right now. There's nothing wrong. He's good. He'll be back next week. As my grandmother said, Lord willing.
[00:01:21] Chuck: But yeah, shout out to our brother Jeezy. Just wanna let y'all know that everything is good.
[00:01:29] Manny: Yeah, yeah, we're gonna… one thing y'all know at this point, one thing we're gonna do, we're gonna… we're gonna prioritize our families and taking care of them, so…
[00:01:37] Chuck: Barely believe it.
[00:01:38] Manny: Yeah, well… Man, this week.
[00:01:42] Manny: Twas another week.
[00:01:45] Chuck: Twas the week before foolishness. And all through the house, chaos was stirring.
[00:01:55] Manny: Everywhere. Everywhere. Everywhere.
[00:01:58] Chuck: It, it, it, it was…
[00:02:01] Chuck: interesting… here's the… here's the crazy thing. It wasn't anything that popped off that was like, oh my god…
[00:02:09] Chuck: The world's about to end.
[00:02:11] Chuck: But it was stuff like… Oh, yeah, I mean…
[00:02:14] Manny: I could do this one was coming.
[00:02:16] Chuck: What now? Now, hold on, what? Yep. Okay, we ain't expecting that. But hold on, what just happened over here? It's been an interesting week, man.
[00:02:25] Manny: It's a bunch of… we're starting to see the re-emergence of a bunch of storylines that we almost say, had forgotten about, but they… because every week there was a new.
[00:02:36] Chuck: Push to the back, yes.
[00:02:37] Manny: Here we go, here we go. Hey, y'all forgot about this.
[00:02:40] Chuck: That's a great way to put it, except for the Epstein files. That continues to get pushed away more and more.
[00:02:48] Manny: front.
[00:02:49] Chuck: But still be on the…
[00:02:50] Manny: center, like…
[00:02:51] Chuck: There's still something that happens to bring it back to the forefront as much as they try to push it away.
[00:02:57] Manny: because he had Thomas Massey out there on the House floor.
[00:03:00] Chuck: Thomas Massey was not playing no games. None whatsoever.
[00:03:04] Manny: He's like, let me go ahead and… Calling names.
[00:03:07] Chuck: Calling names.
[00:03:09] Manny: That, at this point, is the only way. Before midterms, that's the only way we're gonna find out any of these names, is if someone.
[00:03:18] Chuck: Yes.
[00:03:18] Manny: does exactly what he did.
[00:03:20] Chuck: Yes.
[00:03:21] Manny: And about time.
[00:03:22] Chuck: And he is one of the very few and select handful, I won't even say a handful of individuals who have the unmitigated gall to do that.
[00:03:34] Manny: Yep.
[00:03:35] Chuck: It's not many of them.
[00:03:36] Manny: And I think it's key for our listeners to remember, on the House floor, what you say you can't actually be criminally charged for.
[00:03:46] Chuck: Yep.
[00:03:46] Manny: So… and, quite frankly, everything he's saying…
[00:03:50] Chuck: What's factually fact.
[00:03:53] Manny: He's fat.
[00:03:54] Chuck: I'm reading directly from an FBI report and filing, so it's not like he's making things up and pulling names out the sky.
[00:04:05] Manny: It's gonna be real interesting to see what happens with the Epstein files as we kind of progress and get closer, because you're seeing two things kind of happen at once. You see a congressional body who's ready to be done with the Congress activities for this year.
[00:04:21] Chuck: They haven't…
[00:04:23] Manny: elections to go.
[00:04:24] Chuck: I have a new… I have a new career ambition, Manny.
[00:04:30] Chuck: I think I want to go run for Congress.
[00:04:32] Manny: Oh, man.
[00:04:33] Chuck: Because the amount of days that these jokers work.
[00:04:37] Manny: Bruh.
[00:04:39] Manny: Bruh, they… phenomenal, phenomenal people.
[00:04:43] Chuck: Talk about work-life balance.
[00:04:45] Manny: Y'all wanna do anything this week? Alright, I'll see y'all in 3 weeks.
[00:04:52] Chuck: Let's end session so, you know, we can just go…
[00:04:57] Chuck: Wherever, and then come back and not really get much done.
[00:05:01] Chuck: It is… They make it look so fun.
[00:05:05] Manny: And I get it, it's hard, like…
[00:05:08] Manny: not being in DC. Like, you gotta come back home, you gotta raise money, you actually gotta run your campaign, you're running against somebody who doesn't have that job.
[00:05:19] Manny: One of the things that I think, if I go back to my 2018 run, one of the disadvantages that I had is that I am not independently wealthy.
[00:05:30] Chuck: Beers.
[00:05:32] Manny: So, from…
[00:05:34] Chuck: So I had to work.
[00:05:35] Manny: So, from 7.30 in the morning to about 5 o'clock in the evening, my time belonged to somebody else, and then I could go out and camp.
[00:05:42] Chuck: I'm like… Yes.
[00:05:43] Manny: That's a… that is a lot of hours just gone. So to think about to not even be in the state, to have to be in D.C. doing the job you signed up for, I'm sure that's less than ideal for a lot of us.
[00:05:56] Chuck: But you know it would make that a lot easier?
[00:06:00] Chuck: if you went to DC and was effective in your job, that you had something to go back home to speak on.
[00:06:08] Chuck: Or, as the good book said, let your works speak for you.
[00:06:14] Manny: If we were doing…
[00:06:15] Chuck: If we were…
[00:06:16] Manny: Doing our job… if you're doing your job in DC, and you are.
[00:06:19] Chuck: Good.
[00:06:19] Manny: doing your job all the.
[00:06:21] Chuck: Yes.
[00:06:22] Manny: other breaks that you had out… back at home? Yes. People would be like, oh, well, they're in D.C. doing such and such, and you wouldn't have to worry as much.
[00:06:30] Chuck: That's a fact. Because you could speak to…
[00:06:34] Chuck: I am here doing this for my people. I am stepping up and speaking for… you see what I'm doing, here it is.
[00:06:42] Manny: Yep.
[00:06:42] Chuck: Instead of…
[00:06:44] Chuck: you go back to a town hall, and you're getting obliterated, and people question it, what are you really doing up there? Why did we send you there?
[00:06:51] Manny: Why did you do this? You told us that you were never going to do thing X, but here you are, doing thing X, and we don't.
[00:06:58] Chuck: Three times.
[00:07:00] Manny: Like, stop.
[00:07:01] Chuck: You denied me thrice.
[00:07:06] Manny: But… congressman, and…
[00:07:10] Manny: I don't know what they're going to end up doing. We know they're ultimately getting ready to be done for the.
[00:07:15] Chuck: Yes.
[00:07:16] Manny: At least until the lame duck sessions. Yep. But the amount of things that Congress still has to work through, we saw them extend the debt ceiling this past week.
[00:07:27] Manny: With no fight. No fight. None.
[00:07:31] Manny: Not a mumbling word.
[00:07:33] Chuck: Pay off.
[00:07:34] Manny: We'll see y'all. They literally said, hey, y'all, we'll see you in December.
[00:07:37] Chuck: Alright. Everyone's alright. There was a response, alright.
[00:07:41] Manny: bed.
[00:07:42] Manny: Nothing. And I'm just… and you know what? If you're not gonna do anything, go home.
[00:07:49] Manny: Go home at this one.
[00:07:50] Chuck: Please.
[00:07:51] Manny: It's already sunken costs on the American taxpayer's fault. Like, you're not gonna be different between now and November. It's not like we got a performance review we're getting ready to drop, and be like.
[00:08:01] Chuck: Look at me.
[00:08:03] Manny: here.
[00:08:03] Chuck: Am I gonna get a pay raise based off my performance from this year? Right, yeah, don't.
[00:08:07] Manny: Don Davis, the people, the… Oh, listen, Don Davis, you… dirty…
[00:08:13] Chuck: Rotten.
[00:08:14] Chuck: Nickel slick, Negro.
[00:08:17] Manny: None.
[00:08:17] Chuck: Let me tell you, son.
[00:08:18] Manny: Like…
[00:08:19] Chuck: Let me tell you something.
[00:08:21] Chuck: I got smoked for a lot of those individuals, but Don Davis?
[00:08:28] Chuck: Cause I know some people who know you.
[00:08:30] Manny: Hmm.
[00:08:30] Chuck: And… Bruh.
[00:08:33] Chuck: Disappointment… I can't even say it's a disappointment. It's disgusting. It's utterly disgusting, because I know… I know the people you represent.
[00:08:41] Chuck: I know that area very well.
[00:08:44] Chuck: And those people, you're not representing those people very well.
[00:08:48] Manny: Well, it's why he's got a battle.
[00:08:50] Chuck: Oh, yeah.
[00:08:51] Manny: he's gonna end up with a battle.
[00:08:54] Manny: And it'll be interesting. As we get into the midterms and start breaking down all of these races that are happening, like, it's… the block is going to be hot for a lot of these people.
[00:09:05] Chuck: Yes, sir.
[00:09:06] Manny: And as we… I just saw here near my house, driving back home, gas prices up another 20 cents.
[00:09:14] Chuck: Listen, AAA, talked about the record gas prices.
[00:09:20] Chuck: For this, Labor Day holiday season, shout out to our folks on Labor Day. I hope you got your nice burger.
[00:09:29] Chuck: Some folks like the burnt hot dogs,
[00:09:32] Chuck: But yeah, they talked about those prices and how high they are, and then, not to mention, and this is where I hate that our good brother's not with us today, because he could speak to this on a high level, on a professional level, the price of diesel.
[00:09:50] Chuck: The price of diesel has hit another record high. I think the last report I saw, the previous record high was $5.19 a gallon. It's creeped up to almost $5.21 a gallon. Hey people, I can speak to…
[00:10:05] Chuck: to a slightly, not as high a level as my good brother Jeezy, having previously worked for a package carrier, and then currently in my job, we're in e-commerce, so we deal with
[00:10:18] Chuck: the couriers on the back end, and I'm in those meetings where we're setting or negotiating delivery costs. And I hear often about how high it costs to get a package delivered and shipped to you.
[00:10:32] Chuck: Well, guess what?
[00:10:34] Chuck: With these diesel prices going up.
[00:10:36] Manny: Can it get much higher?
[00:10:39] Chuck: So hot!
[00:10:43] Chuck: And it's insane, and it's gonna hit you in every aspect of life.
[00:10:48] Manny: Yep.
[00:10:48] Chuck: We have these long-haul trucks.
[00:10:52] Chuck: big tractor trailers taking stuff everywhere. You have your delivery services, yes, a lot of them.
[00:11:00] Chuck: Are starting to roll out electric vehicles, but there's a lot of natural gas and diesel vehicles still on the road.
[00:11:07] Manny: That's still delivering it to your house. But that's still time and infrastructure.
[00:11:10] Chuck: Yes.
[00:11:11] Manny: costs, like, if.
[00:11:11] Chuck: Very much so.
[00:11:12] Manny: planning for a major electric overhauling of your fleet, and now you're having to do that on… those capital costs have to come from somewhere. You gotta get that cash infusion somewhere.
[00:11:22] Chuck: For sure.
[00:11:23] Manny: Where are you getting them from?
[00:11:24] Chuck: But most importantly, in America, tractor-trailers are king when it comes to getting goods across the country.
[00:11:34] Chuck: And they're gonna… those costs are gonna hit you
[00:11:39] Chuck: After it hits the company, because the company's gonna say, okay, This is costing us more?
[00:11:44] Chuck: Every single time.
[00:11:45] Manny: Everyone…
[00:11:46] Chuck: We pay for it.
[00:11:48] Chuck: she didn't.
[00:11:48] Manny: those scoops.
[00:11:49] Chuck: I was just written to say that.
[00:11:50] Manny: I was… Dude, but they just got that refund, man!
[00:11:54] Chuck: They… they holding that… they not like us. They gonna hold that tariff refund and allocate that to bonuses. Yup.
[00:12:02] Manny: Yep.
[00:12:03] Chuck: They just keep raising the price up on you. Cutting jobs, keeping that bottom line at a black number for them.
[00:12:13] Chuck: And increase their bonus.
[00:12:15] Chuck: Like, it's getting ugly.
[00:12:18] Manny: It's good room.
[00:12:19] Chuck: ugly.
[00:12:19] Manny: With the cost of shipping, just the cost of importing everything, because.
[00:12:25] Chuck: All of it, yeah.
[00:12:26] Manny: In America, we don't really make anything.
[00:12:29] Chuck: Nope.
[00:12:30] Manny: So, all of these projects…
[00:12:31] Chuck: Or, or, or, as your president told you.
[00:12:36] Chuck: Manufacturers coming back strong. We're gonna get these black jobs.
[00:12:40] Chuck: You know, when these factories come back.
[00:12:42] Manny: He's so caring.
[00:12:44] Manny: It's okay, I… you know what, I… I, for one…
[00:12:47] Manny: I am so thankful we have a president who cares so much about the black jobs.
[00:12:54] Chuck: Because black unemployment is the highest in the country.
[00:12:58] Chuck: But we're just waiting on the… we're just waiting on these factories and manufacturing to come back very strong that we were promised on the campaign trail two years ago, because when those black… when those manufacturing jobs and factories come back.
[00:13:12] Chuck: Hey, full of Black jobs.
[00:13:14] Manny: Hey, I mean, at this point, and when we talked about this, listeners, you guys are hearing us hit on a subject that we've talked about before.
[00:13:24] Manny: how was he going to find all of these people? And we said there was getting ready to be layoffs, we were getting ready to see hits in education, putting all these peop… all these people looking for jobs.
[00:13:36] Chuck: Yes.
[00:13:37] Manny: Here we are.
[00:13:37] Chuck: We're here.
[00:13:38] Manny: Here we are. We told y'all it was coming.
[00:13:41] Chuck: We're here. And what's crazy is, we've gone on this, and this is a tangent. This is not even the topics we have to discuss today.
[00:13:48] Manny: This is a free topic. Free topic for the day.
[00:13:52] Chuck: Oh, man. But in true, Manny and Chuck fashion, we gotta nerd out for y'all before we really hit our topics.
[00:14:00] Chuck: On this week, we have a new Apple event coming up, and they are supposed to be unveiling their foldable device, reportedly, whatever they want to call it. I've seen a couple different names. I'm just gonna say their foldable device at this point.
[00:14:17] Manny: the eyeballs.
[00:14:19] Manny: It's gonna be, it's gonna be something trash.
[00:14:21] Chuck: I hope not. And not only are they coming out with their, unveiling their new foldable device, they're supposed to be dropping their new AirPods that have a camera on it.
[00:14:34] Manny: Absolutely not.
[00:14:36] Chuck: Why?
[00:14:37] Manny: -
[00:14:38] Chuck: Why… why is your… why are you walking down the street in your AirPods capturing photos of individuals around you?
[00:14:46] Chuck: I don't care what they say, I don't trust anybody. I don't trust them. Don't trust them.
[00:14:50] Manny: Absolutely not.
[00:14:51] Manny: Now, I trust Apple as a company.
[00:14:55] Chuck: I don't.
[00:14:55] Manny: A little… a little bit more than I trust some of these other ones, but.
[00:15:00] Chuck: I know.
[00:15:00] Manny: Tough.
[00:15:01] Chuck: After they changed Lake Ontario to Lake America on the U.S. side.
[00:15:06] Manny: pressure.
[00:15:07] Manny: That's wild. I thought… I really thought they were gonna let that one slide.
[00:15:11] Chuck: I did too.
[00:15:12] Manny: No, just like… But shout out to MapQuest.
[00:15:16] Chuck: So, listen, we were our proper people.
[00:15:19] Chuck: When MapQuest was king, and we had to rely on MapQuest
[00:15:24] Chuck: to get where we needed to go, because people couldn't read a map in the first place. But…
[00:15:29] Chuck: Shout out to MapQuest, man.
[00:15:30] Manny: Print that out and travel around the world like pirates.
[00:15:34] Chuck: Arg.
[00:15:36] Chuck: Got a pirate story as well. But, so with this,
[00:15:43] Chuck: I know Manny and myself are gonna watch.
[00:15:46] Chuck: And find out what's going on, but we're not excited about it, because, quite frankly.
[00:15:51] Manny: Apple's trash.
[00:15:52] Chuck: Yes.
[00:15:54] Chuck: Yes. Yes.
[00:15:57] Manny: Simple as…
[00:15:57] Chuck: We… we're… we… look, now, what's funny is we both have iPhones.
[00:16:02] Manny: I was bullied very much into my iPhone by my wife and a litany of my friends in a, like, a 10-year campaign.
[00:16:10] Chuck: Yes, and I was not one of those friends. Now, I have a… I have an iPhone, very…
[00:16:18] Chuck: kind of similar to Manny, but not bullied into it, for family purposes. So, my wife and kids all have iPhones, so it's easier for us to communicate and, you know, that whole ecosystem lockdown and being able to connect with them, they love their iPhones.
[00:16:35] Chuck: I… Contrary to my stance on privacy.
[00:16:43] Chuck: am an Android fan. I've had an Android since, what, 2010? Is when the Evo 4G dropped, I believe? Yeah. 09, 2010, yeah.
[00:16:54] Manny: somewhere.
[00:16:54] Chuck: around now. I've had an Android since then. Actually, Yeah, because I transitioned from…
[00:17:05] Chuck: what did I have? I had a, sidekick.
[00:17:08] Manny: Sidekick. You had the sidekick, and you… I think you went quickly, you had the Blackberry with all of.
[00:17:12] Chuck: I had… now that… The Blackberry days.
[00:17:17] Manny: That's just a good, solid.
[00:17:19] Chuck: Phoebe. Phoebe and me, baby.
[00:17:23] Chuck: me through the phone. But, yeah, so I had, I had a sidekick, I had,
[00:17:30] Chuck: two of the three iterations of the Sidekick, and then…
[00:17:35] Chuck: A lot of my friends had blackberries and talked about how fantastic BBM was, and…
[00:17:44] Chuck: I was… everybody kind of left me. When my sidekick, you could… I was undefeated with Aang. Like… and let me… let me put some context on this. This was college days.
[00:17:55] Manny: Bruh.
[00:17:56] Chuck: So, on the back end of college days, for me.
[00:17:58] Chuck: But… well, actually, no, when I first got my side… my first sidekick, I was in college. But…
[00:18:04] Chuck: And having a sidekick, When you… when we were in college, it was…
[00:18:10] Chuck: cell phones… texting was not as heavy or prevalent as it is now. Because it costs money.
[00:18:16] Manny: It still costs money, like, that's 10 cents. I gotta make sure this message is…
[00:18:21] Chuck: We're aging ourselves, for sure.
[00:18:23] Manny: But…
[00:18:24] Chuck: I had an advantage because I can send messages on AIM, and in college, generally, you're in your room on your computer. We didn't have much…
[00:18:35] Chuck: access to the internet outside of that space. And so…
[00:18:40] Chuck: What? Hit on, Amy. Hey, what you doing? Where you about to come through?
[00:18:45] Manny: bet.
[00:18:46] Chuck: Then, you know, then that BBM wave took off, and I was like, let me see what's going on.
[00:18:51] Manny: And that's really where BBM really took that step. It filled that gap, like, hey, you can send text messages without spending money. Bad.
[00:18:58] Chuck: Because I… because, again, we're college kids, we didn't have the money for two-way pagers.
[00:19:04] Manny: Bruh, absolutely not. -
[00:19:06] Chuck: You have to waive money for that.
[00:19:08] Chuck: But then we transitioned, like I said, I got the Evo 4G, and, you know, took off from there.
[00:19:15] Chuck: And I actually got my first iPhone…
[00:19:19] Chuck: I wanna say it was 2011.
[00:19:22] Chuck: maybe 2012, I got my first iPhone.
[00:19:26] Chuck: because I was working for a Verizon retailer, and they allowed me to get a phone, a phone through the company, so…
[00:19:35] Chuck: As a… as a representative, and having to speak with people.
[00:19:41] Chuck: I had an interesting job there, man. We're gonna get to our topics in a moment, I'm sorry, y'all. But I was kind of, like, customer service slash technical support, because, like I said, it was a Verizon.
[00:19:52] Manny: Yeah.
[00:19:53] Chuck: at Verizon itself.
[00:19:54] Chuck: And so, I'm one…
[00:19:57] Chuck: I'm the type of person that, if I'm gonna speak on something, I wanna know what the heck I'm talking about.
[00:20:02] Chuck: And I can't technically help you with an iPhone.
[00:20:08] Chuck: in-depth if I don't know the ins and outs, just reading the cue, the cue cards on the computer, and, you know.
[00:20:16] Chuck: Really didn't cut it, but that was my first iPhone. I got rid of that.
[00:20:22] Chuck: strong Android until, you know… The family thing, and the family dynamic.
[00:20:27] Chuck: But, yeah, man, this new… this new device coming out. It's gonna be interesting because…
[00:20:35] Manny: It's gonna.
[00:20:36] Chuck: I won't even call this…
[00:20:37] Manny: H.
[00:20:38] Chuck: Oh, for sure.
[00:20:39] Manny: It was small.
[00:20:40] Chuck: Or… if this thing is less than $2,000, I'll be shocked.
[00:20:44] Chuck: I will be shocked.
[00:20:45] Manny: Oh, yeah.
[00:20:46] Manny: I mean, I think.
[00:20:47] Chuck: They're gonna do it.
[00:20:47] Manny: Best case scenario for anyone rooting for it is you might get an 1899 or a $19.99. Like, ha!
[00:20:55] Chuck: $2,000.
[00:20:58] Chuck: But, for me, apple hasn't had any innovation, honestly, since…
[00:21:05] Chuck: what, 2017? Yeah. And Face… the introduction of Face ID. Now, there were other devices that did…
[00:21:13] Chuck: something similar with facial unlocking, but the technology that Apple uses with the 3… was it, like, 30-something thousand laser points and the 3D mapping, nobody had been doing that, so…
[00:21:29] Chuck: Yeah, it's… sorry for nerding out on y'all for a moment, but, you know, we try to keep y'all abreast of some things going on, and… and…
[00:21:38] Chuck: Tim Cook. I guess it could tie up politically, because,
[00:21:43] Manny: Tim Cook.
[00:21:43] Chuck: Trump has had… Trump has had these different,
[00:21:47] Chuck: tech heads, at the White House, talking about many different things.
[00:21:53] Chuck: But Tim Cook would not be there.
[00:21:55] Chuck: Tim Cook would not be a part of this for the first time in…
[00:21:59] Chuck: How many years? It's been… Almost 20 years?
[00:22:01] Manny: years?
[00:22:03] Chuck: It's been a good minute.
[00:22:04] Manny: 15, 20 years? Yeah.
[00:22:05] Chuck: Yeah, so…
[00:22:06] Manny: Cook has stepped down.
[00:22:08] Chuck: Yeah, new CEO, I don't even have his name, because I really don't care.
[00:22:11] Manny: is John Turnus.
[00:22:14] Chuck: There we go.
[00:22:14] Manny: So, you know what?
[00:22:15] Chuck: Turnus.
[00:22:16] Manny: I'm optimistic for Apple.
[00:22:19] Manny: you know, with a hardware guy stepping in to take over the operations, like…
[00:22:24] Chuck: See some new innovation.
[00:22:25] Manny: He might, he might do something. Or, he might just make sure charts keep going up and to the right.
[00:22:31] Chuck: You know that's their favorite thing.
[00:22:32] Manny: Up and to the right.
[00:22:34] Chuck: That's their favorite thing. So, yeah, that's…
[00:22:38] Chuck: our Dire Tribe and Nerd Out session, on the Apple event that's coming up. I know there'll be some people who get it.
[00:22:47] Manny: We figured we'd start with something light, because everything from this point is sad and depressing.
[00:22:53] Chuck: It pisses me off.
[00:22:54] Manny: Sorry.
[00:22:55] Chuck: You get really good.
[00:22:56] Manny: That's why we took some time, like, because everything from here on is sad and depressing.
[00:23:02] Chuck: It. No one's here.
[00:23:04] Manny: I'm shocked about it at this point.
[00:23:05] Chuck: If our resident therapist, Eric, was on with us right now, he would say, this is a strong case of avoidance.
[00:23:14] Manny: Damn.
[00:23:14] Manny: Yep. Yep. I was like, alright, well…
[00:23:18] Chuck: He'll… he'll therapize us. I know that's not a word, folks, I don't care! But, yeah, he would tell us this is a strong case of avoidance.
[00:23:25] Manny: Yeah.
[00:23:25] Chuck: I know what we're here to talk about, and we're deflecting.
[00:23:30] Manny: We weren't really trying to talk about it.
[00:23:32] Manny: But alas, here we are. So…
[00:23:37] Chuck: Looks like every…
[00:23:37] Manny: one, take a moment, hop back with us, into our hot tub time machine, go back to March 31st of this year.
[00:23:49] Manny: On March 31st, Trump signed Executive Order 14399, Ensuring Citizen Verification and integrity in federal elections.
[00:24:01] Manny: This was his second related executive order, election-related executive order, after the first one was already blocked by 3 votes.
[00:24:12] Manny: What this did is it did three things. It said that states must upload every mail voter's name and ballot and barcode into a new USPS portal before ballots can be mailed.
[00:24:29] Manny: The second piece is the Postal Service is required to run an automated check comparing the batch manifest versus what's in the portal list. So basically, what's in the list, what they have in the system.
[00:24:43] Manny: And the third one is, at a post office, a clerk physically has to scan sample each batch.
[00:24:51] Manny: And if even one barcode in the sample fails to match, the Postal Service rejects the entire batch, sending it back to the state to fix, and then they have to resubmit.
[00:25:05] Chuck: This already sounds like… a tragedy. Because, before we get into the thick of the technicalities of things.
[00:25:15] Chuck: How many of y'all have experienced very expeditious mailing
[00:25:21] Chuck: of items through USPS. They already don't have the staffing.
[00:25:28] Chuck: To adequately and efficiently run their facilities. Now, you have to have an individual personally scan.
[00:25:37] Manny: Every single one.
[00:25:39] Chuck: Every single one. Which could be thousands. Come on, now.
[00:25:44] Manny: And it just… This isn't gonna work for our thousands, thousands upon thousands of reasons, but let's…
[00:25:53] Manny: Let's kind of go into it. So, on August 21st, last month, the Postal Service submitted a 95-page final rule to implement the order.
[00:26:04] Manny: Again, the states must enroll in the portal, and submit it, and submit all of this stuff. What makes this interesting is North Carolina, and we'll get to more of North Carolina in a little bit, North Carolina has started mailing mail-in ballots because of what's required, so…
[00:26:24] Manny: This thing has been playing around, so let's kind of go through the timeline of this executive order.
[00:26:32] Manny: there was an injunction asked for on July 25th, the First Circuit affirmed that injunction. On August 11, a second, broader injunction from a different case, but same judge blocked it.
[00:26:45] Manny: August 24th, the Supreme Court stepped in and stays the, injunction from the 25th.
[00:26:53] Manny: On the 26th.
[00:26:55] Manny: the August 11th order gets lifted, and the Postal Service publishes its final rules, so we finally actually got to see it. There was another injunction put in on the 27th, almost immediately.
[00:27:10] Manny: Then on September 3rd, the Solicitor General asked for the Supreme Court to get involved, and that preliminary injection had been blocked again. All that is going to lead up to is September 8th. Justice Kentaji Jackson
[00:27:28] Manny: has a deadline for challengers to brief the court on whether they need them to step in. So, it follows a pattern and precedent with this administration of injunction court, injunction court, injunction court, court, court, court. Overruled, overridden.
[00:27:46] Chuck: Yes.
[00:27:46] Manny: And we told you guys last year, when this happened, that it was going to be a great time in America.
[00:27:53] Manny: If you were an election lawyer.
[00:27:55] Manny: And we have seen that.
[00:27:58] Chuck: Show me the money!
[00:28:00] Manny: But, Chuck, here… here's my… one of my concerns, so let's go into some of my… our concerns around this.
[00:28:06] Chuck: Yes.
[00:28:07] Manny: First off, let's talk about the system.
[00:28:10] Manny: Okay.
[00:28:11] Manny: So, I deal in, you know, professional enterprise software.
[00:28:15] Chuck: Yes.
[00:28:16] Manny: You… you mean to tell me… that…
[00:28:21] Manny: you put this in March 31st, so people are gonna start working on it April 1st.
[00:28:26] Manny: That…
[00:28:27] Chuck: If, if that.
[00:28:29] Chuck: If that.
[00:28:30] Manny: You're telling me that we have a completely functioning and working system?
[00:28:35] Chuck: With all bugs… with all bugs worked out?
[00:28:38] Manny: I wouldn't say all, let's just go with…
[00:28:42] Chuck: I'm.
[00:28:42] Manny: Cool ones.
[00:28:43] Chuck: Okay, let's go, let's start now. Critical. The critical bugs worked out, it's been stress test, it's been simulated, it's been, not demoed,
[00:28:58] Chuck: isolated testing?
[00:29:00] Manny: Yeah.
[00:29:00] Chuck: Yeah, yeah. Isolated testing,
[00:29:04] Chuck: And then, you know, you start rolling it out. Generally, folks, when there's new software rolled out.
[00:29:13] Chuck: It's not done all at one time.
[00:29:16] Manny: It's not done at all at one time, it's not developed all in one time.
[00:29:20] Chuck: No!
[00:29:21] Manny: Like, again, you're talking 4… you're talking a situation where if this was going to be ready for states to start uploading stuff this week.
[00:29:31] Chuck: This thing…
[00:29:31] Manny: would have had to be done late July, early August of this year, even in best-case scenario.
[00:29:37] Chuck: Best case.
[00:29:38] Manny: For… to… to think about a larger implementation and role.
[00:29:42] Chuck: Oh, and at this scale, you would have a pretty sizable team on it.
[00:29:48] Manny: a men's team. Just in raw support, human support for when this does not work.
[00:29:54] Chuck: Guess what departments don't have an immense amount of workforce.
[00:29:59] Manny: Well, it's Department of Defense, right?
[00:30:02] Chuck: Listen.
[00:30:05] Chuck: The only department that I know right now that has an immense workforce, or a segment of a department, is ICE.
[00:30:12] Manny: Ice. Yep.
[00:30:15] Chuck: Everybody else getting cuts.
[00:30:17] Manny: It… it is… wild. So, one of the final rule timelines is states must submit voter enrollment data at least 30 days before an election.
[00:30:31] Manny: With portal registration due no later than 2 business days before an outbound mailing.
[00:30:38] Manny: Well, if you're following us at home.
[00:30:42] Chuck: Jeez.
[00:30:42] Manny: North Carolina started mailing today. I'm sorry, started mailing this week. That means 30 days before
[00:30:49] Manny: last month… beginning of last month, so beginning of August, like we said.
[00:30:54] Manny: Absolutely no chance that we got our stuff in there. At least, and it's fully functioning. Absolutely no chance.
[00:31:01] Chuck: Now, let's talk about uploading this information into this portal.
[00:31:05] Chuck: Why?
[00:31:07] Manny: Why?
[00:31:08] Chuck: Because… Time and time again, when we talk about securing elections and combating election fraud.
[00:31:19] Chuck: There's a disproportionate number that's given versus the actual.
[00:31:24] Manny: Humongous.
[00:31:26] Chuck: Versus the actual, and we will tap into something more specific with another state in a little bit, but…
[00:31:36] Chuck: Also… I'm… a lot of times, There's one side that is… proportionately.
[00:31:45] Chuck: More apt to commit election fraud.
[00:31:49] Chuck: and it's happened time and time again, I'm not gonna point any fingers. You can go look it up. Because it hits the news, and it's like, y'all want to sit here and scream for the mountaintops about combating election fraud.
[00:32:07] Chuck: But it seems to be…
[00:32:09] Chuck: the same type of individuals who are being caught committing this fraud. And my good brothers have talked about before, before I even joined the pod, the amount of actual election fraud
[00:32:26] Chuck: is very minimal. Very minimal. Comparative…
[00:32:29] Manny: To be able to impact elections in the way that y'all be saying it.
[00:32:34] Chuck: Until 2024, anyway. But, we won't play no X-Files music for that.
[00:32:40] Manny: To circle back on this, and the app, we had a whistleblower come out. Yes. Love me a good whistleblower, and basically just said, hey, this thing is a hot mess.
[00:32:54] Chuck: Oh, no, that's not what they said. Santa's a hot mess with being kind. They said this is screwed up, and everything is burning to hell already.
[00:33:07] Manny: So, to talk about that, the, there were no written technical requirements existed for most of the build.
[00:33:16] Manny: As someone who writes technical requirements, and they said that the developers were left to glean requirements from opaque comments at meetings.
[00:33:28] Chuck: Which means…
[00:33:30] Manny: Oh, they're making it up as they go.
[00:33:32] Chuck: Hey, I think that's what they said. We'll see.
[00:33:36] Manny: There were two separate teams, each who independently built their own kill switch toggle for the entire system, unaware the other team was doing it.
[00:33:50] Chuck: That's crazy.
[00:33:51] Manny: Enterprise software is really hard.
[00:33:55] Chuck: Without question.
[00:33:56] Manny: And not a lot of people, but…
[00:33:59] Manny: To have two teams working on the same function and feature.
[00:34:03] Manny: And it not being done on purpose.
[00:34:06] Manny: Is wild.
[00:34:07] Chuck: That could quite possibly cancel out each other, or negative… or what that function of one team was working on could negative… negatively…
[00:34:18] Chuck: Impact the other one, causing them to flip their kill switch?
[00:34:24] Manny: Hey, make a kill switch, cool. These guys go off, both doing it in completely different ways.
[00:34:31] Chuck: Oh, man.
[00:34:32] Manny: It's chaos.
[00:34:34] Chuck: Then the whistleblower alleged that… For high-volume mail-in ballot states.
[00:34:42] Chuck: This could result in tens of thousands of ballots not even getting to voters on time.
[00:34:51] Manny: Voters on time, getting counted…
[00:34:53] Chuck: Let's not even get to count it yet, because that's obvious.
[00:34:58] Chuck: But if you don't even get it to them in the time frame, in a timely manner.
[00:35:04] Chuck: to be able… To then turn around.
[00:35:08] Chuck: And get it back out. So that… so that it can be postmarked.
[00:35:13] Chuck: Because if you mail their ballot out, and they get it a week before the elections.
[00:35:21] Manny: What time?
[00:35:21] Chuck: Yeah.
[00:35:22] Manny: How much time you got?
[00:35:25] Manny: And the… the one thing that I heard, it sounds like a crazy requirement that somebody put into CYA, and people are running with it, but this whole 0% failure issue…
[00:35:39] Manny: That if… even one of the barcodes doesn't match what was uploaded in the portal.
[00:35:46] Manny: The entire batch. So, I have a batch of 10,000 ballots. One of those is a mismatch.
[00:35:53] Chuck: That's wild.
[00:35:54] Manny: think about the different routes that you could have a mismatch. The biggest one, someone getting married.
[00:36:02] Chuck: Yeah?
[00:36:03] Manny: And the name changes.
[00:36:05] Manny: Entire thing has to… gets sent back to the state.
[00:36:09] Chuck: And people get married every day, B.
[00:36:12] Manny: every day.
[00:36:13] Manny: Every day.
[00:36:16] Manny: Every day.
[00:36:17] Chuck: What scares… what scares me is the high level of human error that can negatively impact.
[00:36:25] Manny: Oh, absolutely.
[00:36:26] Chuck: A swath of, of ballots.
[00:36:30] Chuck: Because you're requiring and relying on such a large amount of data to be uploaded into a portal.
[00:36:38] Chuck: And this data has to be entered in.
[00:36:42] Manny: Has to be.
[00:36:44] Chuck: And as we stated, I'm sure these people are working long hours.
[00:36:49] Manny: Oh, absolutely.
[00:36:50] Chuck: Absolutely.
[00:36:51] Manny: 80 hours. 80 hours. 80, 60, 70, 80-hour weeks trying to turn this over in a quarter.
[00:36:57] Chuck: Yes. Yeah.
[00:36:59] Manny: And, like, here's the other thing that no matter what business that you're in, and you're dealing with technology, the real… oh, well, if we just hire more developers, because we already know this administration. If we just have more developers developing on it, that's gonna make it go faster. It's not.
[00:37:15] Chuck: It's not.
[00:37:16] Manny: It's not. There's very, very few occasions where throwing money at a problem.
[00:37:22] Manny: is going to solve it. In fact, I would argue, if you have a problem you can throw money at and fix it, you don't really have that big of a problem.
[00:37:35] Chuck: Hey, brother.
[00:37:36] Chuck: It's a very valid point.
[00:37:39] Manny: If writing a check… Fixes this problem.
[00:37:44] Manny: It's not that big of a problem.
[00:37:45] Chuck: It's not that big of a problem.
[00:37:47] Chuck: At all.
[00:37:48] Manny: But…
[00:37:52] Chuck: I hadn't even thought about it in that fashion, but that's facts.
[00:37:55] Manny: If I'm in $10 million of debt.
[00:37:59] Manny: I could write a check, $10 million. Now, do I have 10 million? Absolutely not. But I could theoretically write a check, and that problem would go away.
[00:38:08] Chuck: million dollars right now, you would not be hearing my voice.
[00:38:13] Chuck: Oh, you actually… actually, yes, you would. You'd probably hear my voice a lot more.
[00:38:16] Manny: Yeah.
[00:38:17] Chuck: Because I'll be… I'll be making a podcast about any and everything.
[00:38:21] Chuck: everything.
[00:38:22] Manny: But it's like, if you need a heart transplant, Yes.
[00:38:27] Manny: Money does not quickly solve that problem.
[00:38:30] Manny: That's a big…
[00:38:31] Chuck: Not most times. Not most times. There are a few instances. Shout out to John Q.
[00:38:38] Manny: But… we'll… hmm…
[00:38:41] Chuck: Great movie.
[00:38:42] Manny: That was a great movie.
[00:38:44] Manny: So, it's… it is going to be interesting to see how these injunctions kind of play out.
[00:38:50] Manny: Because it's gonna be a chaos. Even when this was announced, Tammy Patrick from the National Association of Election Officials had said that it would take about 4.9 years, so essentially 5 years.
[00:39:08] Manny: To fully implement a compliance scanning operation like this.
[00:39:14] Chuck: It makes sense.
[00:39:16] Manny: Five years.
[00:39:17] Chuck: Because you, Manny, you think about it, on a grand scale.
[00:39:23] Chuck: We're talking about the entire United States.
[00:39:26] Manny: Yep.
[00:39:26] Chuck: Okay, so that one singular country. But let's break down these 50 independent entities of this country.
[00:39:34] Manny: Yep.
[00:39:35] Chuck: All states are not created equal.
[00:39:37] Chuck: Yes, you, you have… these people under the umbrella of the USPS,
[00:39:43] Chuck: But everybody's resources and facilities of USPS are not the same.
[00:39:50] Manny: A little bit different.
[00:39:52] Chuck: And so, in that, you have to take that into account.
[00:39:57] Chuck: You have to take into account volume.
[00:40:01] Chuck: And then, in this window of time.
[00:40:04] Chuck: Realistically, this stuff is not… cannot be done effectively, efficiently.
[00:40:11] Chuck: Or competently, and that's not speaking on the work of the development team, because they're under an immense amount of pressure. They're…
[00:40:22] Chuck: I… Haven't done coding in a while, but when I got my master's.
[00:40:28] Chuck: I had to do a bit of coding, and I can tell you.
[00:40:32] Chuck: Manny can speak to this, because that's his day-to-day…
[00:40:36] Chuck: Thing, but in my instance of coding, Oh my god.
[00:40:42] Manny: And Claude's only gonna get you so far.
[00:40:45] Manny: Likewise.
[00:40:46] Chuck: Facts!
[00:40:46] Manny: Clyde's gonna help, but it's only gonna get you so far.
[00:40:49] Chuck: co-pie.
[00:40:50] Manny: Like, ChatGPT, enter your AI tool of choice. It's only gonna get you so far.
[00:40:55] Manny: When you're having to now debug somebody else's clogged code…
[00:41:00] Chuck: Many lives.
[00:41:01] Manny: Why'd y'all do it?
[00:41:02] Chuck: Why'd you… why'd you go this route? Why… what do you… why'd you put this here? And… and… you… you think about those… those aspects.
[00:41:12] Chuck: Coming into… to this, it's really like putting a puzzle together, and you're using pieces from two different boxes.
[00:41:20] Manny: Yes.
[00:41:23] Manny: Yep.
[00:41:23] Chuck: what are you doing? And it's funny, because…
[00:41:28] Chuck: I don't know if people realize… I… the reason I gave that analogy, because I've done that before.
[00:41:35] Chuck: As a young kid, just messing around.
[00:41:38] Chuck: And sometimes those… although it's the same puzzle picture, Same company.
[00:41:43] Chuck: Same brand.
[00:41:46] Chuck: Those pieces are not all cut equally the same.
[00:41:50] Chuck: You can be the same spot.
[00:41:52] Chuck: Could be the same shape, but it's not the exact same dimension.
[00:41:56] Manny: there is a company that sells murder… and I know this because I saw… I've seen it before, it sells murder mystery puzzles. It's two puzzles, same box, you get no picture.
[00:42:09] Chuck: And you gotta…
[00:42:10] Manny: And it's a murder scene before and after. Oh, that's crazy. I was like, that's… that's wild.
[00:42:17] Chuck: They're creating killers.
[00:42:22] Chuck: But yeah, it's scary,
[00:42:25] Chuck: It's scary to think about, and so many people who rely on mail… mail-in ballots, and what baffles me… no, it doesn't baffle me.
[00:42:34] Chuck: It baffled me previously.
[00:42:36] Manny: We knew that play.
[00:42:38] Chuck: We're not just that.
[00:42:39] Chuck: For a president who does mail-in ballots, Himself. And… yes, himself.
[00:42:48] Chuck: And has done mail-in ballots for many of years.
[00:42:52] Chuck: It… it's… It's a… it was astonishing previously, now it's like…
[00:42:59] Chuck: It's that cousin that you know is a screw-up.
[00:43:03] Chuck: And you're not surprised when they screw up.
[00:43:06] Manny: Dream.
[00:43:06] Chuck: That's what this is for me, in regards to someone who
[00:43:11] Chuck: Talks trash about mail-in ballots and wants to make it difficult, but use them themselves.
[00:43:16] Manny: I think Senator Bumenthal from Connecticut said it best. He says, this is a system that is intended to fail.
[00:43:25] Manny: Because absent a party, like, no one…
[00:43:29] Manny: Government has never shown a propensity to do big things
[00:43:35] Manny: quickly and well, and we're asking them to do both. In one of our most crucial processes as a country.
[00:43:43] Chuck: And not even… and take it off government.
[00:43:46] Chuck: Even your private sector companies, Can't do anything big.
[00:43:51] Chuck: well. Fast.
[00:43:53] Manny: -
[00:43:54] Chuck: Especially when we're dealing with software.
[00:43:59] Chuck: It doesn't work like that.
[00:44:01] Chuck: It does not… Work like that.
[00:44:04] Chuck: Shoot, we just… we talked about the iPhones.
[00:44:08] Chuck: Think about the rollout of a new phone.
[00:44:11] Chuck: How fast do you receive an update?
[00:44:13] Chuck: After the release of a new phone.
[00:44:15] Manny: Bam, bam, bam, bam, bam.
[00:44:17] Chuck: You know why, folks?
[00:44:20] Manny: That's a problem, that's a problem.
[00:44:21] Chuck: And they've been planting that for about 16 to 18 months.
[00:44:27] Chuck: Before it even gets released.
[00:44:30] Manny: Yep.
[00:44:30] Chuck: And they come back that fast with updates. So now you take something of this nature that's even larger than a device release.
[00:44:41] Chuck: And… You expected the work out the gate?
[00:44:45] Manny: Oh, and then on top of that, you're… we're a couple weeks removed from the whole Hugging Face AI situation.
[00:44:55] Manny: Yeah. So, how susceptible is this system to being hacked.
[00:44:58] Chuck: To…
[00:44:59] Manny: At this standpoint, for something that you had to build in about 3 months.
[00:45:05] Chuck: And speaking of the… well, guy's about to go on a nerd diatribe again, because OpenAI was working on their kill switch for…
[00:45:17] Chuck: Wow times at Ridgemont High.
[00:45:21] Manny: This… As a person who's built products.
[00:45:25] Manny: every… I would say, by and large, most of the things that I've… I've ever built have some type of kill switch. In case this thing goes…
[00:45:34] Chuck: you have.
[00:45:34] Manny: goes awry. I need to shut this down immediately.
[00:45:39] Chuck: You have to.
[00:45:45] Chuck: Made a little watch.
[00:45:47] Chuck: Between me and V.
[00:45:51] Chuck: Cause your mail-in ballot about to be absent, one from another.
[00:45:55] Manny: And, like, so here is the quote-unquote positive, I think, in all this.
[00:46:01] Manny: You know. You're listening to this pod, you know. Yep. You know the situation we're going to step into.
[00:46:09] Manny: Plan.
[00:46:10] Chuck: And not just that.
[00:46:12] Chuck: you know… Let someone else know.
[00:46:15] Manny: Tell somebody else.
[00:46:16] Chuck: share. And we say at the end of the pod all the time, you know, in sharing the message, share the pod with someone, share this message, because…
[00:46:28] Chuck: we talk about the civic duty and the civic nature of voting, and the importance of voting. And it's not even a party side, it's not who you vote for, but to be able to diminish and
[00:46:43] Chuck: I'll… I'll ruin, I'll say it, ruin someone's opportunity to let their voice be heard.
[00:46:51] Chuck: is discouraging.
[00:46:52] Chuck: Because… there's not one particular side that only does mail-in ballots. Yes, in certain instances, in certain states.
[00:47:01] Chuck: It leans more favorably to one side than the other, depending on the state and the area, but it's everybody who is impacted
[00:47:10] Chuck: with this.
[00:47:11] Manny: Colorado… Colorado's system is largely mail-in ballots. They have mailboxes all… listed all around for you to drop off your mail-in ballot. Like…
[00:47:23] Manny: You have… there's lots of options here, but plan.
[00:47:27] Manny: Look at your state. Look at when your early voting starts.
[00:47:31] Manny: You know, look at when your regular voting starts.
[00:47:35] Manny: playing.
[00:47:35] Chuck: And no more… Plan and read. Read thoroughly. Read thoroughly.
[00:47:42] Manny: what do you need to take with you? Do you have to show ID? And we'll save all that for the next section, but…
[00:47:48] Chuck: Yeah, make sure you're filling it out properly, you know, but yeah.
[00:47:53] Chuck: Please, please, please, please.
[00:47:55] Manny: What… Let's be honest about what this is going to cause.
[00:48:00] Manny: Because of this, people are not…
[00:48:03] Manny: People are not going to do mail-in ballots. Cool.
[00:48:07] Manny: Get ready to wait in lines.
[00:48:09] Manny: Get… get ready…
[00:48:12] Chuck: Listen.
[00:48:13] Manny: Prepared.
[00:48:14] Chuck: Get… get… get your… put your patience in your purse.
[00:48:17] Chuck: And carry it along with you.
[00:48:19] Manny: Cause you're gonna need it.
[00:48:20] Chuck: Don't need it.
[00:48:22] Manny: Because these…
[00:48:22] Chuck: Because not only have they… mucked up the mail-in ballot process, they've cut down early voting.
[00:48:30] Manny: Yep.
[00:48:31] Chuck: So, the access to be able to get your early voting on has been reduced as well.
[00:48:41] Chuck: So, yeah.
[00:48:45] Manny: Whoop.
[00:48:46] Chuck: Peace be the journey. Yeah.
[00:48:48] Manny: That's our first subject, and like we told you at the beginning of this podcast, it is all downhill for me.
[00:48:54] Chuck: Not pretty.
[00:48:55] Manny: It is all downhill from here.
[00:48:59] Manny: So Chuck, any last things on that piece of our, our voting rights and letting our people vote?
[00:49:08] Chuck: Let my people vote. That's it, brother. I just… you know, that last plea, like we said, this is not about political party, it's not about…
[00:49:18] Chuck: your political choice. It's about your right to be able to have access
[00:49:24] Chuck: To vote, and cast your vote.
[00:49:27] Chuck: I want everyone to be able to have that opportunity and not be hindered
[00:49:34] Chuck: by some miniscule BS. As my brother said, if a barcode mismatched the whole batch.
[00:49:43] Chuck: Yours could be perfectly fine.
[00:49:45] Manny: Yeah.
[00:49:45] Chuck: And be spot on, but your whole batch is returned?
[00:49:50] Chuck: And now, somebody has to get and start the process over.
[00:49:55] Chuck: I… I don't…
[00:49:56] Manny: I think it is very likely in this election cycle that some of these races are not decided until well into 2027.
[00:50:06] Chuck: It's very possible.
[00:50:08] Manny: They're going to be… we could be… we could potentially be seeing a scenario where we're sitting in members of Congress and not sitting others, because we're still waiting on some of these ballots to be counted.
[00:50:19] Chuck: Sadly, I agree. Sadly, you agree.
[00:50:24] Manny: So… Alright, moving on to the Old North State, North Carolina. We'll… We…
[00:50:32] Manny: We couldn't let Nationals just have fun all by itself.
[00:50:36] Chuck: We got, we got it.
[00:50:36] Manny: get on it.
[00:50:37] Chuck: Carolina said, hey, hey guys.
[00:50:39] Chuck: Don't leave me out. We here.
[00:50:41] Manny: We here.
[00:50:42] Manny: So, North Carolina did two things, this week. The first, like we said before, we started mail-in ballots. We started mailing them. We are the first state in the country to do so.
[00:50:55] Manny: We didn't wait on the USPS to figure out what they needed to do, we just started mailing. And to that, I say kudos, state North Carolina. Way… way to… way to throw the finger at the feds.
[00:51:09] Manny: Because we already know, this is gonna keep going back and forth, like, even though with, Kentaji Brown's, injunction for the 8th…
[00:51:19] Manny: This is still probably going to take another 2 weeks or so to… to get out. So, North Carolina, we have our own rules. We want our servicemen overseas to get it. We need the people who, want to be able to access them.
[00:51:32] Manny: to be able to get it, so we started mailing them. A quick caveat before I go a little bit deeper on that. If you are in the state of North Carolina, you can now go look up your ballot.
[00:51:44] Manny: And see who's on your ballot, you can start figuring out who's running for what offices, so you have time from now
[00:51:52] Manny: through Election Day to figure out what decisions you want to make.
[00:51:57] Manny: Let those choices be educated.
[00:52:00] Manny: Alright.
[00:52:01] Manny: So that's the first thing it did. The second thing is where it gets a little bit hairy. And by a little bit, I mean a lot bit.
[00:52:08] Chuck: I was about to say, Woolly Mammoth hairy.
[00:52:10] Manny: Yep.
[00:52:13] Manny: So, the State Board of Elections decided to rewrite its rules around mail-in ballots.
[00:52:21] Manny: Why?
[00:52:22] Chuck: Yay!
[00:52:24] Manny: Because our good ol' old 10th Amendment, you know, the feds don't say what we can do, we have our own rules.
[00:52:30] Chuck: Yes.
[00:52:31] Manny: Before we get into what we… well, we'll just hop into what we did. There are four specific rules that the NCE board approved.
[00:52:41] Manny: The first…
[00:52:43] Manny: And these are gonna be rough. Back to what Chuck said. Read, follow directions. And it was something we struggle with as an American public as a whole, but we… this election cycle, we gotta read…
[00:52:56] Chuck: And we got a phone.
[00:52:57] Manny: directions.
[00:52:58] Chuck: Oh, they always… we always could do this, and… Nope. Oh, I thought they said… no. No.
[00:53:03] Manny: What does that paper say today?
[00:53:07] Chuck: Exactly.
[00:53:08] Manny: Can and can't do.
[00:53:09] Manny: The first is, if there is a signature mismatch, then you are disqualified. So, if the signature on a return ballot does not match the name on the ballot application return envelope, it's gotta go. They gotta throw it out.
[00:53:27] Chuck: And you know what's disgusting about that?
[00:53:30] Chuck: That's a high-level discretionary item.
[00:53:32] Manny: Super high.
[00:53:34] Manny: Super high.
[00:53:36] Manny: Super high.
[00:53:36] Chuck: Like, how? How are you gonna tell me if my signature matches my name? Because if I'm doing a signature…
[00:53:45] Manny: If you look at my signature from when I first got my license to now.
[00:53:51] Chuck: Completely different.
[00:53:52] Manny: Different signatures. I would even say experts might say, two different people wrote this. Well, because, yeah, that was 18-year-old me, this is 39-year-old me.
[00:54:02] Chuck: My, my…
[00:54:03] Manny: different people.
[00:54:03] Chuck: Well, my brain developed. I realized I didn't just need to write in cursive, I needed to develop a signature as a professional.
[00:54:14] Manny: Yep.
[00:54:15] Manny: The… the second thing he did, unsealed inner envelopes.
[00:54:23] Manny: Get it out of here. Disqualified. No exceptions. So…
[00:54:27] Chuck: Which is crazy.
[00:54:29] Manny: You take your ballot, you put it in an envelope, you seal it, you put it in another envelope, you send it off.
[00:54:35] Manny: You gotta seal that. You have got to seal that in our own.
[00:54:39] Chuck: Seals on seals. Kiss. Kiss by your rose. Yeah, seal them up.
[00:54:45] Manny: 2026, y'all, is not the year for inferring or assuming. Nope.
[00:54:52] Manny: You do what them words say.
[00:54:57] Manny: Multiple ballots in one envelope. Spoiled. Nope. If more than one ballot comes in a single envelope, they all get destroyed. So…
[00:55:06] Chuck: Aunt Gene, listen up. Aunt Gene…
[00:55:10] Manny: Mine, baby, -
[00:55:11] Chuck: Y'all tell your aunties, you tell your grandmas…
[00:55:16] Chuck: Listen, I understand, because the current price…
[00:55:21] Chuck: To mail off a mail-in ballot.
[00:55:23] Chuck: is, like, $2.
[00:55:25] Chuck: Give or take. There's at least 3… about 3 stamps.
[00:55:30] Chuck: That ain't cheap.
[00:55:31] Manny: Not at all.
[00:55:32] Chuck: Not cheap at all. So I understand. However…
[00:55:37] Chuck: You can't… Gene and Johnny can't stand theirs together no more.
[00:55:42] Chuck: Go ahead and get your $4 up.
[00:55:44] Chuck: Go… go… go get them coins out the cushion.
[00:55:48] Manny: Yep.
[00:55:48] Chuck: and… Get him out of there, cause…
[00:55:53] Manny: You do have an option if you don't want to mail them.
[00:55:56] Manny: So, you can hand deliver them, but…
[00:56:00] Manny: Only a near relative or legal guardian can hand-deliver a ballot on a voter's behalf.
[00:56:08] Manny: Third-party organizations can no longer return ballots for somebody else.
[00:56:14] Manny: And you know what?
[00:56:15] Manny: Of the four.
[00:56:18] Chuck: That's the most sensible.
[00:56:19] Manny: the most out of it. I'm like, I'm like, okay, I…
[00:56:22] Chuck: Although, as we stated earlier, the actual… Level of fraud committed.
[00:56:32] Chuck: In worst case scenario, one of these third-party companies, you know, manufactured and coerced ballot, you know.
[00:56:43] Manny: Oh, no, but remember, Chuck, in 20… I'm gonna go with 18.
[00:56:49] Manny: I'm gonna go with 2018. Mark Harris, the congressional campaign down in southern North Carolina, hired a consultant that was doing just that. They were having people fill out requests for mail-in ballots, then taking them, filling them out themselves, and as a third-party organization, sending them off.
[00:57:08] Manny: So this is something we know happened.
[00:57:10] Chuck: Yes.
[00:57:12] Manny: have… has happened.
[00:57:14] Chuck: Listen, if there is a avenue to be crooked, there's gonna be an individual…
[00:57:20] Manny: There's gonna be somewhere to take it.
[00:57:22] Chuck: Who's gonna… who's gonna go down that avenue?
[00:57:25] Chuck: No questions about it. That's why I say this is the most sensible one.
[00:57:29] Chuck: But you also… to combat that, you could have…
[00:57:35] Chuck: Accredited institutions and third-party companies that you can vet, verify, and accredit.
[00:57:45] Chuck: To be able to pick up these mail-in ballots, because there are legitimate individuals who do not have the resources or access
[00:57:54] Chuck: to do this, to get, you know, to get it in.
[00:57:56] Manny: care facilities.
[00:57:58] Chuck: Exactly, exactly.
[00:58:00] Manny: Senior homes.
[00:58:02] Manny: roles in general.
[00:58:03] Chuck: Yes, very much so.
[00:58:05] Chuck: Very much so.
[00:58:07] Manny: So, those… those are the four things it did. What… here's a key call-out, and this is where they got funny, and, you know, if you… if you're gonna shenan once.
[00:58:19] Chuck: He ain't go shenan again.
[00:58:21] Manny: These are actually in there as numbered memos, not formally adopted rules. The… the board's actual permanent rules…
[00:58:33] Chuck: So you're telling me these are suggestions?
[00:58:37] Chuck: Yes, somebody's gonna take… somebody's gonna take it as law.
[00:58:41] Manny: Hmm.
[00:58:41] Manny: Memos, I'll let the board impose immediately.
[00:58:46] Manny: sidestepping any delay. So basically, you can set.
[00:58:50] Chuck: Something just…
[00:58:50] Manny: as a memo, and then state rules allow when things can become official rules. So, by doing it, by putting it in a memo, it allows them to get an immediate, implication, not implication, application of the.
[00:59:06] Chuck: Yeah.
[00:59:06] Manny: Without some of the… the drawn-out, kind of.
[00:59:10] Chuck: Implementation was the eye word you were looking for.
[00:59:14] Manny: There it goes, there it goes.
[00:59:16] Chuck: But that's interesting that a memo It's so impactful and effective.
[00:59:22] Manny: Yeah.
[00:59:23] Manny: And it's kind of problematic.
[00:59:25] Chuck: Very problematic.
[00:59:27] Manny: Because all this also got passed on… this'll probably be shocking… on party lines.
[00:59:34] Chuck: Oh, no, not in North Carolina.
[00:59:36] Manny: Yeah, yeah, through… So… Yeah…
[00:59:43] Manny: And here's my thing, here's my… so let's talk about North Carolina. One of the other things that was floating around in North Carolina is ID, voter ID, and having all that.
[00:59:55] Manny: I… This is a conversation I've had with Republican elected officials around
[01:00:01] Manny: ID. And they said to me, he's like, Emmanuel, you know, you need ID for all these other things. And I'm like, fair. He's like, there's, you know, go to ABC store, cash a check, you need an ID. I'm like, why shouldn't they show ID as well? I'm like.
[01:00:18] Manny: That's fair. I… I can't actually push back on that argument.
[01:00:22] Manny: But here's what I will say.
[01:00:24] Manny: I will say that in making someone's show ID to be able to vote, You are putting a barrier.
[01:00:32] Manny: Between somebody and their ability to vote.
[01:00:36] Manny: Yeah. No matter how simply quantified that is, you are still putting a barrier. So, if you are going to do that.
[01:00:46] Manny: You have to have ample ways and opportunities for people to be able to get these IDs at no cost.
[01:00:56] Chuck: And the stories out here coming out of North Carolina in the past year or so.
[01:01:01] Chuck: and the ability, access, and ease of getting an ID, It's the contrary.
[01:01:09] Manny: Right, yeah.
[01:01:10] Chuck: I'm talking about people waiting for hours.
[01:01:13] Manny: the D… the D… and it's one of the things Josh Stein has been working through, like, trying to speed up, DMV lines.
[01:01:21] Manny: And, allegedly, it's worked, but you need people to be able to get the IDs, so it's working with DMV is going to be key. What I also know for a fact… actually, before I get to that, most DMVs are not make printing IDs at this standpoint. So if you lose your ID two days before Election Day.
[01:01:41] Chuck: Guess what you gotta wait for?
[01:01:42] Manny: You, you have to go?
[01:01:44] Chuck: Look at what USP is.
[01:01:46] Manny: We had to go vote provisionally, and…
[01:01:49] Chuck: And pray for me.
[01:01:50] Manny: get scared.
[01:01:54] Chuck: Yeah, I'm… I'm with you in regards to the voter ID. You provide a barrier.
[01:02:01] Chuck: Most people… If you're gonna commit fraud.
[01:02:05] Chuck: And I go back to that point, because that's their whole basis of these arguments.
[01:02:11] Manny: is fraud.
[01:02:14] Chuck: There's not many people who… One would have all of your information.
[01:02:21] Chuck: To be able to vote on your behalf.
[01:02:24] Chuck: Number 2.
[01:02:27] Chuck: Where are you finding all these extra people?
[01:02:30] Manny: beer.
[01:02:32] Chuck: Because…
[01:02:35] Manny: I mean…
[01:02:36] Manny: Graveyards? Like, that's gotta be it at this standpoint. Like, I know we… we clean up our rolls pretty frequently in North Carolina, but you're gonna… you're having to find a lot of people.
[01:02:49] Chuck: A lot of people.
[01:02:50] Manny: Oh.
[01:02:51] Chuck: All out of the people.
[01:02:51] Manny: flip these elections… it's not like you're trying to flip the Dodge catcher race in Zebulon. Exactly.
[01:02:59] Chuck: Exactly.
[01:02:59] Manny: I don't need to find 7 votes, I need to find 7,000 votes.
[01:03:06] Chuck: Donald Trump told, Raffensperger… Hey, just find me 11,000 votes.
[01:03:12] Manny: Buy me $11,000?
[01:03:13] Chuck: Where? In my back pocket?
[01:03:16] Manny: Right.
[01:03:18] Chuck: It… the amount… like you said, the amount of individuals needed to flip a vote in a race.
[01:03:27] Chuck: You're not finding that around the corner at your local gas station.
[01:03:31] Manny: And Chuck, I'm gonna say something controversial.
[01:03:35] Manny: It's gotta be easier to just do your job as an elected official.
[01:03:39] Chuck: Whoa. Whoa.
[01:03:41] Manny: It's got.
[01:03:42] Chuck: Slow down. Just slow down, sir.
[01:03:43] Manny: Shop.
[01:03:45] Chuck: Slow down here. Do my job!
[01:03:48] Chuck: How dare you?
[01:03:49] Manny: I'm sorry. Sorry, I knew it was a controversial idea.
[01:03:53] Chuck: Yeah, like, no, absolutely not do my job, huh?
[01:03:57] Manny: If you just help the people.
[01:04:00] Chuck: That's it, man. Like, it's so…
[01:04:04] Chuck: It's really killing the vigor of voting.
[01:04:10] Chuck: That's what it's doing, because I remember… Before I turned 18,
[01:04:15] Chuck: knowing that I would be able to vote on this next cycle, and the level of excitement. And even outside of myself, with my daughter, when she was turning 18, the top of the year, we knew she actually was able to vote during the presidential cycle.
[01:04:33] Manny: Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember that price.
[01:04:34] Chuck: For her, yeah, for her first time voting, and it really,
[01:04:40] Chuck: It really made me smile, because my daughter has always been one who has been into politics.
[01:04:46] Chuck: But she immersed herself even more
[01:04:49] Chuck: To make sure that she was informed, and the excitement to be able to vote
[01:04:56] Chuck: And now, I can tell… and she's a Poli Sci major in college.
[01:05:00] Chuck: And even now, although she is going to vote, and she is amped up to vote because of all the foolishness.
[01:05:08] Chuck: she even echoed the sentiment of the discouragement because of the measures that have been put in place or done to try to stymie someone's desire to vote. Because that's what…
[01:05:23] Chuck: That's what they feel like they're doing.
[01:05:27] Chuck: But I think it's gonna have a reversed effect.
[01:05:30] Chuck: Because you're gonna… you're gonna have people… who are… better.
[01:05:36] Manny: Yep.
[01:05:38] Chuck: And…
[01:05:39] Chuck: When they get fed up, they're gonna do one of two things. They either quit, or they're gonna push back.
[01:05:44] Manny: Yep.
[01:05:45] Chuck: And as my good brother Gigi, spotlighted last week, and the students at A&T, and you taking their ballot access, off of campus, which…
[01:05:57] Chuck: Again, is another… counterproductive measure To be able to allow people to have access to vote. You would think…
[01:06:09] Chuck: You would think you would want to give… make it easier for people to have access to vote.
[01:06:14] Manny: Well, you know, you want more people to vote if you're actually doing your job, but…
[01:06:19] Chuck: Oh, well, yeah, let's go back to that. Let's go back to that.
[01:06:23] Manny: But we've said it on the pod before, Election Day should be two things. On a weekend.
[01:06:31] Chuck: Amen.
[01:06:32] Manny: a national holiday.
[01:06:34] Chuck: Agreed.
[01:06:35] Manny: But, it makes it so much easier for so many people involved.
[01:06:40] Chuck: Everybody. Everybody. And as we said it before.
[01:06:46] Chuck: And this may be controversial, I… quite frankly, I don't care.
[01:06:50] Manny: But…
[01:06:51] Chuck: If you're gonna reduce early voting.
[01:06:54] Chuck: Then you take these measures to make it easier for people to vote.
[01:06:59] Chuck: Because… and at that point, you can make early voting A week.
[01:07:06] Chuck: A week and a half, whatever.
[01:07:08] Chuck: Because people know… A large swath of the country will not have to work.
[01:07:15] Chuck: To be able to go vote.
[01:07:18] Chuck: And… You can make it a weekend.
[01:07:21] Chuck: And a national holiday, so that we're off that Friday.
[01:07:25] Chuck: And then you have that Saturday.
[01:07:27] Chuck: You, you, you, it's essentially a win-win.
[01:07:30] Manny: Yep. Participation goes up.
[01:07:33] Manny: Like, your cities essentially stop for the weekend.
[01:07:38] Chuck: Yes.
[01:07:38] Manny: this done, but it's fine, because everyone is largely stopped to attend.
[01:07:42] Chuck: And you also take pressures off companies, because…
[01:07:46] Chuck: You can't… you're not… the company is not trying to balance… and it is… it's so funny, because you'll have a company say, hey, we'll give you…
[01:07:56] Chuck: A couple of hours of dedicated time to go vote.
[01:08:01] Chuck: But I gotta get it done before my shift or after my shift.
[01:08:04] Manny: Right.
[01:08:05] Manny: And then, if you do it before or after you… the best time, I think, to go vote…
[01:08:10] Manny: My own personal stance?
[01:08:13] Manny: right around… 10.30… On election day.
[01:08:18] Chuck: That's a great time.
[01:08:19] Manny: Everyone's gone to work, you've missed the lunch rush.
[01:08:24] Chuck: Yes.
[01:08:24] Manny: The secondary time is about 2, 2.30, not as great in the morning, because a lot of people, I'm going in to vote at 2.
[01:08:34] Chuck: And then… I'm on the road. Because in some areas, kids are out of school.
[01:08:38] Manny: Yeah.
[01:08:39] Chuck: Because you're utilizing the schools as polling places.
[01:08:42] Manny: places.
[01:08:43] Chuck: So, so some areas, kids are, you know, out of school. Well, let's not…
[01:08:48] Chuck: Let's make this easier on parents as well.
[01:08:51] Manny: Yeah.
[01:08:52] Chuck: My kids are out of school, I'm off work.
[01:08:57] Chuck: While I'm at…
[01:08:58] Manny: One failed swoop. One failed swoop.
[01:09:01] Chuck: Hey, Manny, I think I have a phenomenal idea right now.
[01:09:06] Chuck: You go ahead and, you start your, campaign engine back up.
[01:09:11] Chuck: I'll get mine going. We'll figure out what level we'll start at first.
[01:09:19] Chuck: If we want to go state legislature.
[01:09:22] Chuck: you know, you governor, lieutenant governor, whatever, and then we matriculate our way on up, and we get into the high office. You can be president, I don't want it, because they… they're not gonna… Boy, they'll…
[01:09:36] Manny: Look, look, let me tell you…
[01:09:39] Manny: We… we got about 47… 47 hours to get everything done that we need to do. You know, we're gonna be.
[01:09:47] Chuck: be rolling.
[01:09:48] Manny: Famous!
[01:09:48] Manny: They're like, oh no, oh no.
[01:09:51] Manny: We can't… we can't let them get to the first 48. 47 hours, they're like, hmm, these two must be stuck.
[01:09:57] Chuck: Immediately.
[01:09:59] Chuck: Oh, and it's not just us, guys.
[01:10:03] Manny: The whole team! Right.
[01:10:06] Manny: If you thought Trump was something, what he did in his first month, wait till you see our first 48.
[01:10:14] Chuck: But here's the beautiful thing about it.
[01:10:17] Chuck: We're working to make everybody's life better.
[01:10:20] Chuck: But boy, it's gonna be some action.
[01:10:22] Manny: Bu…
[01:10:23] Chuck: It's gonna be similar.
[01:10:24] Manny: Let me tell you. Let me tell you.
[01:10:26] Manny: Go ahead and just queue up all the executive orders.
[01:10:31] Manny: As soon as… as soon as we're done with the oaths.
[01:10:35] Manny: Right? Let's sign the executive orders that we need to.
[01:10:37] Chuck: Right there on the balcony.
[01:10:39] Manny: We getting to work, y'all.
[01:10:41] Chuck: Hey, I'm gonna hand you this Bible back, hand me that pen.
[01:10:46] Manny: There we go. We get into work immediately.
[01:10:49] Chuck: Immediately.
[01:10:50] Manny: Now, will a lot of these get challenged? Yep, but Congress.
[01:10:53] Chuck: Yeah, sure.
[01:10:54] Manny: Congress will know immediately what I'm expecting of them to do.
[01:10:58] Chuck: And I'm gonna be on that congressional floor going, no work. Ain't no Cory Booker in me.
[01:11:03] Chuck: Man. No Hakeem Jeffries and me, bruh. No Zerg.
[01:11:08] Manny: To wrap up on North Carolina, let's… let's just think about what some level of this impact would be. In the 2026 primary.
[01:11:19] Manny: There were over 1.5 million mail-in ballots, and we had about a 6% rejection rate.
[01:11:30] Manny: And that was before the ruling.
[01:11:32] Chuck: That's going up. That's going up.
[01:11:35] Manny: So, that… that is going to be a problem. Especially, we saw some of these races get solved… get…
[01:11:44] Manny: You know, resolved with very low vote counts.
[01:11:48] Manny: So, you're talking about holding up votes, and now, I know some of you guys might be listening, it's like, hey, you guys said that, you know, voter fraud doesn't really impact elections.
[01:11:58] Manny: It doesn't. But you know what does hold up? Elections? Holding out ballots.
[01:12:03] Chuck: Rejected ballots. Rejected ballots, yes. Holding ballots.
[01:12:07] Manny: Choosing not.
[01:12:07] Chuck: Delayed ballots. For sure. And you said that rejection rate is about 6.6% off 1.5.
[01:12:17] Chuck: if it's… if it's less than 10% with this new, rules and things, I would be blown away.
[01:12:25] Manny: I think we'd be doing fantastic, if that…
[01:12:28] Chuck: Listen, if it's less than 10%,
[01:12:32] Chuck: Be honest, if it's at 10%, I would be… Shocked. Pleasantly shocked.
[01:12:40] Chuck: That it was only at 10%.
[01:12:42] Manny: Yep.
[01:12:45] Manny: So…
[01:12:46] Manny: Well, that's in North Carolina, so let's, let's peruse very quickly from North Carolina to another state that at least
[01:12:54] Manny: That has one city that needs to be burnt to the ground.
[01:12:57] Chuck: A state that we've spent some considerable time in that…
[01:13:01] Chuck: Felt like they didn't want to let us go.
[01:13:03] Manny: Bruh, every time I step in Nevada, like, why don't y'all stay a little while longer? No. No, I want to go home longer. I want to go home. Bruh, that whole, Jaden Smith in Karate Kate, I hate it here.
[01:13:17] Chuck: I wanna go home.
[01:13:19] Manny: Let… let me go.
[01:13:21] Chuck: Oh, man.
[01:13:22] Manny: For our listeners, anytime the boys stepped into the state of Nevada.
[01:13:29] Manny: that place refuses. It's a fantastic time, but it also.
[01:13:33] Chuck: Fantastic time.
[01:13:34] Chuck: It refuses…
[01:13:35] Manny: Just to let us go.
[01:13:36] Manny: like, I… so, Chuck, me, me and my wife, we were on our way to, Portland.
[01:13:42] Manny: for one of her friends' graduation, we had a layover in Nevada.
[01:13:47] Manny: And our flight got delayed. I said, why?
[01:13:50] Manny: Wow. It doesn't…
[01:13:51] Chuck: It doesn't fail. It does not fail.
[01:13:53] Manny: Why are y'all always trying to keep me here? I'm trying to leave.
[01:13:58] Chuck: This is Matthew.
[01:14:00] Manny: And here's the thing, I wasn't even supposed to have a layover there. The original plan was fly from North Carolina to Denver to Portland, issue in Denver, so we ended up going from Raleigh to Denver to Vegas, then to Portland.
[01:14:17] Chuck: Oh, God.
[01:14:19] Manny: it involved staying overnight in the Denver airport. It was a rough trip, but still.
[01:14:24] Chuck: That sounds rough. And then, didn't you, weren't you presented with… The opportunity,
[01:14:33] Chuck: Because the flight was overbooked that one trip.
[01:14:36] Manny: Yep.
[01:14:37] Chuck: Yeah.
[01:14:38] Manny: Oh, yeah.
[01:14:40] Manny: Look, when… listeners, one thing that Manny is gonna do on a trip…
[01:14:44] Chuck: Hey, L.
[01:14:45] Manny: Well, I'm gonna… I'm gonna get me a voucher.
[01:14:47] Chuck: I'm eating.
[01:14:47] Manny: I'm leaving you with something.
[01:14:48] Chuck: I'm presenting, if I'm presenting, guess what? I'm taking it. I don't care. Wife and kids, I see you. I talk to you. Hey, job, guess what? I can't make it.
[01:15:00] Chuck: He's like, I'm not gonna pass on this opportunity.
[01:15:02] Manny: Anytime I travel, the day I'm landing there, I don't have anything planned. Why?
[01:15:09] Chuck: Oh, no.
[01:15:10] Manny: I need to have that flexibility.
[01:15:12] Chuck: Yes, sir.
[01:15:13] Manny: I was like, oh, hey, you'll get this $300 voucher if you take this flight an hour from now. Yes. Why, yes, I.
[01:15:20] Chuck: Yes, I will. Yes, I will.
[01:15:21] Manny: boom.
[01:15:22] Chuck: Let me help you.
[01:15:24] Manny: So, CNN, not CNN, Nevada.
[01:15:31] Manny: They're dealing with stuff. So, the Department of Homeland Security Investigations launched a coordinated nine-state voter fraud surge on September 1st, redirecting agents that normally handle trafficking and exploitation cases to voter roll investigations.
[01:15:50] Chuck: Hold on, back up, back, back up, back up, back up, back up, back up.
[01:15:54] Manny: Yep,
[01:15:55] Chuck: These individuals do what?
[01:15:57] Manny: Own the day.
[01:15:58] Chuck: today?
[01:15:59] Chuck: Trafficking…
[01:16:02] Manny: Trafficking?
[01:16:03] Manny: exploitation cases. I'm gonna…
[01:16:05] Chuck: You gotta laugh at this.
[01:16:07] Chuck: You gotta laugh at that.
[01:16:09] Manny: We're making it up as we go.
[01:16:12] Manny: We're making it up as we go.
[01:16:13] Chuck: Come on, Mark Wayne.
[01:16:17] Manny: But I don't even think this is him.
[01:16:19] Manny: I think he got… he was… he was told that this is what he was going to do.
[01:16:24] Chuck: For sure. For sure. Without question.
[01:16:29] Manny: So, and then on Friday, the Nevada Secretary of State disclosed that it had quietly received 7 separate FBI voter, separate FBI voter data subpoenas over the preceding 9 months.
[01:16:44] Manny: So, they've been working on building this case against Nevada.
[01:16:51] Manny: neither the Department of, sorry, the Department of Justice or the Secretary of State's office has said what information's… what information the subpoenas seek.
[01:17:03] Manny: But it makes it a really, really interesting timing.
[01:17:09] Manny: To be doing all this in Nevada right as we're getting ready to get into the throes of election season.
[01:17:17] Chuck: Yeah, I know with those subpoenas, they followed up a dismissal.
[01:17:28] Chuck: from a federal judge in a lawsuit that was already in place from the DOJ a few weeks prior.
[01:17:34] Chuck: So this feels very retaliatory in regards to…
[01:17:40] Chuck: them issuing these subpoenas, and it's funny, because with that previous dismissal, I think I saw that it was, like, the 22nd consecutive district court loss nationwide that the DOJ had suffered.
[01:17:56] Manny: They catching these elves.
[01:17:58] Chuck: Left and right, you're catching elves. In fact… You're getting an L.
[01:18:03] Manny: You get an L, you get a…
[01:18:05] Chuck: In fact, you're kind of diminishing the DOJ's win percentage overall, like, like…
[01:18:12] Manny: Well, it used to be, if the Department of Justice had a case on you.
[01:18:19] Manny: You might as well plead, cause it's over.
[01:18:21] Chuck: It's gonna be a… you know…
[01:18:23] Manny: Now?
[01:18:24] Manny: Now you might get…
[01:18:26] Chuck: You might get a chance. I got a puncher's chance. I have a puncher's chance.
[01:18:30] Manny: sign.
[01:18:31] Chuck: And so, the Nevada Secretary of State, Francisco Aguiler, excuse me, was very vehement in his…
[01:18:43] Chuck: strike back against not only the DOJ, but Homeland Security, and saying that, hey, bring it on, we're not scared of you.
[01:18:53] Chuck: And I'm giving y'all the family-friendly edited version of what he's saying.
[01:18:58] Manny: First off.
[01:19:00] Chuck: He said, we're not scared of y'all when asked about, the threat of criminal charges for noncompliance.
[01:19:08] Chuck: book.
[01:19:09] Chuck: to a point earlier, when I talked about Mark Wayne, and you said that he's probably being coerced in these efforts.
[01:19:19] Chuck: He made a claim, and this is also to a point that we spoke to earlier.
[01:19:24] Chuck: He made a claim that over 15,000, almost 16,000 non-citizens were registered to vote.
[01:19:32] Manny: In Nevada.
[01:19:33] Chuck: In Nevada. One state alone.
[01:19:36] Chuck: You want to pick on them, because they're close to the Mexican border, you know, all these illegals are coming over, they're getting registered to vote, they're stealing all of our federal aid, and, you know, they're getting healthcare and food stamps. Unsubstantiated claims, of course.
[01:19:54] Chuck: Then the DHS later had to admit they only confirmed 185… Here's a key word.
[01:20:03] Chuck: potential.
[01:20:04] Manny: potential.
[01:20:06] Chuck: cases.
[01:20:07] Chuck: Not 185 confirmed cases, 185 potential cases that quite possibly could not be anything at all.
[01:20:19] Chuck: Versus… 15,903.
[01:20:23] Chuck: claimed.
[01:20:24] Manny: That is a rate of 1.2%.
[01:20:29] Manny: Barely work.
[01:20:29] Chuck: Potentially.
[01:20:30] Manny: Potentially. Hopes and dreams.
[01:20:34] Chuck: Only thing I… only time I want a potential is when I'm playing spades.
[01:20:38] Chuck: And the 1.2% potential in playing spades is like you calling the potential on the jack.
[01:20:44] Manny: Yep.
[01:20:44] Chuck: Well, it's not likely.
[01:20:47] Manny: And to think about how Nevada also comes into play with the mail-in ballot, 80… since 22,
[01:20:56] Manny: 86% of Nevada citizens have used mail-in ballots.
[01:21:03] Chuck: Sheesh.
[01:21:04] Manny: So when we talk about these rules, and, like, in North Carolina, where the bulk of our stuff is still in person, okay.
[01:21:11] Manny: But you get to some of these states, like in Nevada, like in Colorado, like, these changes to mail-in ballots are… is gonna be crazily impactful.
[01:21:23] Chuck: But, and what's disconcerting with this situation with Nevada is…
[01:21:30] Chuck: Two… on two fronts. Number one, as my good brother stated earlier.
[01:21:35] Chuck: The Constitution leads election rules up to the states.
[01:21:39] Manny: For now.
[01:21:40] Manny: Until Congress… well, Congress actually has to be in session.
[01:21:44] Chuck: Until Congress does what? That requires work. No.
[01:21:52] Chuck: But… This is a lot of federal intervention.
[01:21:58] Chuck: That the state is supposed to be running number one.
[01:22:01] Chuck: Number 2.
[01:22:04] Chuck: You're asking for… Let me… let me get back to it so I can give specifics.
[01:22:11] Chuck: driver's license numbers, Unredacted voter registration list.
[01:22:18] Chuck: That partial security… social security numbers.
[01:22:22] Chuck: Name, address, The full 9 that's on your registration info… voter registration information.
[01:22:30] Chuck: Why do you need all this information?
[01:22:33] Manny: Well, then they can take that and pair it against the flock cameras.
[01:22:38] Chuck: Voila!
[01:22:41] Manny: I'm just…
[01:22:41] Chuck: Voila!
[01:22:42] Manny: Yeah, I was just…
[01:22:43] Chuck: And so, in this.
[01:22:50] Chuck: We have a right to privacy.
[01:22:53] Chuck: But I have no privacy.
[01:22:56] Chuck: if you… are taking… My voter information, because… We all know.
[01:23:06] Chuck: We give out our information left and right across the board.
[01:23:11] Chuck: But there should be no way for you to correlate who I'm voting for, how I'm voting.
[01:23:18] Chuck: In connection with all of my personal data.
[01:23:24] Manny: Right.
[01:23:26] Chuck: There's no… there's… there should be no reason for that. Some people will allow… excuse me… allow for…
[01:23:35] Chuck: They're, you know, they'll tell and disseminate their information on their own, but if I do that, allow me to do that on my own.
[01:23:43] Manny: Let it be my choice.
[01:23:46] Chuck: Right.
[01:23:48] Chuck: It's crazy, man. It is… Beyond crazy to me.
[01:23:55] Chuck: Right. And the federal government intimidating these states, or trying to intimidate these states.
[01:24:02] Chuck: To force them to hand over this information?
[01:24:07] Chuck: Wait, no.
[01:24:09] Chuck: No. If this is the case and you're getting this information, y'all need to… take over.
[01:24:17] Chuck: And…
[01:24:20] Chuck: relieve the states of the burden, and I say that word lightly, but it's become a burden because there's been so many different nuances that's been put before the states, and then they're having to…
[01:24:34] Chuck: Tap dance and move around to meet these nuances.
[01:24:40] Chuck: on a whim. We told you how fast… This executive order was signed.
[01:24:48] Chuck: When it was signed, and then the implementation of these different things.
[01:24:52] Chuck: And guess who has to front those costs?
[01:24:55] Manny: Yep.
[01:24:55] Chuck: Because they're not sending the state any aid.
[01:24:57] Manny: None, whatsoever. And it's not like the states don't have anything else to fund, like, they don't have Medicaid to fund, Medicaid.
[01:25:05] Chuck: You know, we had that special episode about education and funding and education.
[01:25:12] Chuck: Yep. Generally, when there are things to be cut, education's near the top of the list.
[01:25:18] Chuck: They start cutting stuff.
[01:25:22] Chuck: Yep. What are we doing? What are we doing?
[01:25:25] Manny: So… Yeah, so the chaos begins. The chaos begins.
[01:25:32] Manny: And… We'll see… we'll see where it takes us from here, man.
[01:25:39] Chuck: Yeah.
[01:25:40] Manny: Ugh,
[01:25:41] Chuck: So, at this point in the episode, we normally provide the pickle of the week, but that is our Good Brother Jeezy's thing, and…
[01:25:51] Manny: We're not gonna, we're not gonna…
[01:25:52] Chuck: There's so many different individuals that could be put in the jar with the brine.
[01:25:57] Chuck: But my brother… nobody does it like my good brother. So at this point, my… Manny and I…
[01:26:04] Chuck: Well, the collective, we discussed something that we want to do for…
[01:26:08] Chuck: Not just our fantastic listeners, what we call them the pardoniers?
[01:26:15] Chuck: Yeah, we're working on that.
[01:26:16] Manny: I don't like that yet. We're working on a nickname for y'all.
[01:26:20] Chuck: people. PTPers. PTPers.
[01:26:23] Chuck: Primetime.
[01:26:25] Chuck: I don't know whether.
[01:26:26] Manny: Probably…
[01:26:27] Chuck: Whatever. But, this is something that we want to do, not only for you all, but for…
[01:26:35] Chuck: your people. Again, we want you to not hold this information for yourself, but to share and disseminate it to others. Not only will that draw people to the pod and listen.
[01:26:47] Chuck: But also, we want you informed. That, that is the whole purpose that this podcast was started. Two brothers.
[01:26:54] Chuck: who wanted… who discuss politics, has an affinity for politics, but also has an affinity for sharing information. Because not once have we said, you should do this, you should vote this way, and lean that way. No, we just provide
[01:27:11] Chuck: a down-to-earth viewpoint, a very…
[01:27:17] Chuck: common way of discussing this thing so that you can grasp it, understand it, and then regurgitate it to others. Because many times, you get political information, and people want to talk at such a high level that it feels above their head.
[01:27:33] Manny: It mystifies the reality of what.
[01:27:35] Chuck: Yeah.
[01:27:35] Manny: talking about?
[01:27:36] Chuck: Exactly, and that's not what we want to do. We want to make it very…
[01:27:41] Chuck: I don't want to say low level, make it very common for you, very, very colloquial, everyday speech, you know, and in that, I'll pass to my good brother, so he can give you the framework of what we're looking to do in the coming month and a half that we have left.
[01:28:03] Manny: Yeah. Yeah, well…
[01:28:04] Chuck: It's about 2 months, buddy.
[01:28:05] Manny: We're gonna try to get through as many of these different states and locations, so we're gonna break it down state by state, and…
[01:28:14] Manny: we're gonna be going through the House races, the Senate races, as well as some of the key other ballot initiatives or state-level offices. So maybe you have a governor's race, a lieutenant governor's race. So, North Carolina and Georgia will be two of the states we cover. Why?
[01:28:33] Chuck: For sure. Because we're here.
[01:28:36] Chuck: Because we're in each state, but also, these are highly contested, hotbed states that have a heavy implication on the country, what's going on in the country, and what's going to be moving forward with this country. So, yeah, for sure.
[01:28:55] Manny: Yeah, so if you want, you know, if you are interested in having us cover your state, shoot us a message, man. We will be evaluating all the states. Unfortunately…
[01:29:06] Manny: Time will not allow us to be able to cover all 50… well, including Puerto Rico, 51 different territories, but we.
[01:29:15] Chuck: Hold on, hold on. We gotta include Canada as our.
[01:29:19] Manny: Oh, sorry.
[01:29:20] Chuck: Angry Lance.
[01:29:20] Manny: Oh, 53? Venezuela.
[01:29:23] Manny: 54.
[01:29:23] Chuck: It is 54. You're right.
[01:29:25] Manny: There we go. Cuba?
[01:29:28] Chuck: That's on the potential list.
[01:29:31] Manny: So, we're gonna be covering each of the states. We're gonna try to get to the major races, but we're gonna try to hit as many as we can between now and Election Day, to give you that breakdown, let you know.
[01:29:44] Manny: what's happening, and then news events that are floating around with these races as they're happening. I think that's one of the… that's been one of the biggest challenges in our prep here, is like, how do we do this with timing to be right, that some of the stuff is still relevant?
[01:30:02] Manny: And here's… here's the reality, y'all.
[01:30:04] Manny: It's not going to be.
[01:30:06] Chuck: news changes every… I can't even say every day, every minute.
[01:30:10] Chuck: Something… something has happened.
[01:30:13] Manny: So, charge it to best effort, but we will try and endeavor to make sure that we have the most
[01:30:21] Manny: accurate and easily digestible information about these races, available. We will have them up as stand-alone segments on our YouTube, so you can share it that way as well.
[01:30:33] Manny: But we're really excited to be able to kind of tear into this, and then ultimately look back on how we assess these races, and see how right or wrong we were.
[01:30:44] Manny: We've only really been… we've only really been wrong on the pod one time.
[01:30:48] Chuck: Yeah.
[01:30:49] Chuck: Yeah, everything else is… if it's not spot on, it's not far off.
[01:30:53] Manny: Yeah.
[01:30:54] Chuck: Game of darts.
[01:30:56] Manny: We close. So…
[01:30:59] Manny: Yeah, so with that, get ready, we're excited. As we also lead up into our pod two-year anniversary and our 100th episode also coming up in the next couple weeks, we'll be dropping more information about that as we progress.
[01:31:16] Chuck: Yeah, yeah. I'm excited… I'm excited about this. It allows us to really…
[01:31:23] Chuck: Provide that information, because sometimes people are like, well.
[01:31:28] Chuck: I only know some key faces.
[01:31:31] Chuck: And, you know, we're not gonna drill down.
[01:31:35] Chuck: to your municipalities, we don't have the time.
[01:31:39] Manny: Unless it gets hairy, but, like, we would unfortunately not be covering the, lieutenant, Board of Elections…
[01:31:51] Manny: In Biloxi, Mississippi. We are unfortunately not be able to get to that race.
[01:31:55] Chuck: No, but we will try to give you at least a…
[01:31:59] Chuck: High-level, common sense, understanding of what's going on in your state.
[01:32:06] Chuck: Where, on those impactful levels, definitely congressional races, some gubernatorial races, and quite possibly some state races, depending on how…
[01:32:18] Chuck: Much of a hotbed it is, because… Quite honestly.
[01:32:23] Chuck: those state races hit you harder in what's going on than some of your congressional races. So, and then definitely your municipalities. Please make sure that you are on top of what's going on with those individuals who are running in your areas.
[01:32:40] Chuck: But yeah, we're excited about this aspect that we're gonna be bringing to you. We've talked about it for some time, we'll try to, you know, work through some…
[01:32:50] Chuck: structure of how we're gonna present it, and I think we… we like…
[01:32:55] Chuck: where the resolve that we came to on how we want to present it to you, and I think it'll be very beneficial.
[01:33:02] Manny: Agree.
[01:33:03] Manny: Well, with that, we've, we've hit our, our part in the episode where…
[01:33:10] Manny: We want to talk about our spotlights of the week. So, Chuck, My man.
[01:33:16] Chuck: Yes, sir.
[01:33:17] Manny: Your Spotlight of the week.
[01:33:19] Chuck: My spotlight this week, I went through a couple different things, and then something… Caught my eye.
[01:33:26] Chuck: It was reported, by NBC News that North Korea and Russia
[01:33:34] Chuck: Have opened their first road bridge.
[01:33:38] Manny: Hmm.
[01:33:40] Manny: Interesting.
[01:33:42] Chuck: very interesting on several fronts, which we know North Korea and Russia have had a budding relationship for some time now.
[01:33:51] Chuck: they… North Korea had even sent some troops to assist Russia
[01:33:57] Chuck: I want to say back in, 2022, at the start of the war with Ukraine.
[01:34:04] Chuck: you know, sending troops to help Russia
[01:34:09] Chuck: I'm sorry. It's 2024. The war started in 2022. 2024, they sent some troops to try to assist Russia in, an incursion in a…
[01:34:23] Chuck: area of Ukraine that… Russia had started to overtake, and the North Koreans assisted them in
[01:34:33] Chuck: Pushing back against that incursion.
[01:34:36] Chuck: But then, there was a visit in 2024 as well, where Vladimir Putin went to North Korea.
[01:34:44] Chuck: And so this showed us that they were continuing a budding Friendship.
[01:34:52] Chuck: Now…
[01:34:53] Chuck: we talk about this road bridge, and there was a previous existing bridge called the Friendship Bridge, but this was a rail bridge. So this was about, you know, commerce and shipping goods, things of that nature.
[01:35:09] Chuck: This road bridge, they are saying.
[01:35:11] Chuck: Can lead to an impact of tourism.
[01:35:16] Chuck: And… People visiting each country.
[01:35:23] Chuck: Excuse me.
[01:35:25] Chuck: Well, the messaging always on our end, coming out of North Korea is.
[01:35:31] Chuck: they're very locked down tight. You're not having many visitors come over.
[01:35:37] Chuck: to see what's going on in North Korea. There are individuals who…
[01:35:41] Chuck: Try to sneak in, and get video, and, you know, Leak it out.
[01:35:48] Chuck: But… They restrict internet access to their people.
[01:35:53] Chuck: they control… you know, what they see on TV, so… For them to have a…
[01:36:01] Chuck: act, availability… Open road.
[01:36:04] Manny: Texas.
[01:36:05] Chuck: Yes, via open road,
[01:36:09] Chuck: Well, I don't know how open it'll be. I'm sure they'll have some checkpoint of guards there, but you present to your Russian…
[01:36:15] Manny: Option, though, of potentially exiting.
[01:36:18] Chuck: Yes, yes. And so, the prime… Russian Prime Minister, Mikael…
[01:36:27] Chuck: Mooshestin. I… I probably tore that up.
[01:36:31] Chuck: But, said that they were excited.
[01:36:34] Chuck: For this bridge, because it should spur development between the two countries in various spheres, including tourism.
[01:36:42] Chuck: And create new jobs.
[01:36:45] Chuck: And that tourism… aspect is very interesting.
[01:36:49] Manny: Well, we saw that with that whole, like, resort town they built last year, allegedly.
[01:36:55] Manny: So…
[01:36:56] Chuck: Yeah, but even with a resort town, you kind of can restrict.
[01:37:00] Manny: Yep. You still gotta give visas.
[01:37:03] Chuck: Access, yes. So, so this, this is gonna be very interesting, and like I said.
[01:37:10] Chuck: knowing the history of access in and out of North Korea, On top of the recent
[01:37:19] Chuck: Love Fest comments that… the President of the United States had for Kim Jong-un, and the…
[01:37:28] Chuck: I don't want to say irrepute toward…
[01:37:31] Manny: South Korea. South.
[01:37:34] Chuck: this further makes you go, hmm… and the love fest he has for Vladimir Putin in his head, for…
[01:37:41] Manny: Yee.
[01:37:41] Chuck: A long time.
[01:37:44] Chuck: you know, we already know how that goes, so… Yeah, man, that's my spotlight. It caught my eye, it was very interesting.
[01:37:53] Chuck: And it's gonna be interesting to see, because I…
[01:37:57] Chuck: Yeah, it's North Korea and Russia.
[01:37:59] Manny: Yeah.
[01:38:00] Manny: It's like, it's like you…
[01:38:01] Chuck: Jesus himself.
[01:38:02] Manny: It's like you see your two exes talking to each other, and you're like, hmm… This can't be good.
[01:38:10] Manny: This can't be good. How do y'all know each other?
[01:38:13] Chuck: Exactly. When did y'all start talking?
[01:38:16] Manny: Wait, y'all friends now? What?
[01:38:18] Chuck: What? What's going on here? What's going on here?
[01:38:21] Manny: Well, continuing our theme of just things being sad and depressing on this episode.
[01:38:26] Manny: Let's go… for my spotlight, we're going to the state of Ohio, and what we're getting ready to cover is breaking news, so details are evolving, as, as, you know, we're currently reading through it, but…
[01:38:41] Manny: on September 6th, Sunday, there was a man who allegedly bull rushed through a crowd at,
[01:38:50] Manny: in the Mahooning County Dem Party Tent while at Amy Action.
[01:38:58] Manny: Ohio's Democratic governor nominee and the former, state health directors running against Vivek Ramaswamy, was speaking. In that whole process, two people got knocked down, including an elderly man with Parkinson's.
[01:39:17] Manny: And Acton's security detail was able to take the individual, down. When they searched the individual, he was found to find… have two handguns, brass knuckles, and a taser.
[01:39:33] Manny: So…
[01:39:34] Chuck: Hold on, hold on, hold on.
[01:39:38] Chuck: Yep.
[01:39:39] Chuck: Wh… Two handguns, insane.
[01:39:44] Manny: Brass Nooks.
[01:39:44] Chuck: Why you got the brass snuggles, bro?
[01:39:47] Manny: Look.
[01:39:48] Chuck: It's a taser!
[01:39:49] Manny: I know the FBI says from…
[01:39:53] Manny: In guns compares to a knife. A knife is more dangerous within 20 feet.
[01:40:00] Chuck: For sure.
[01:40:00] Manny: So maybe he was like, hey, it's a crowd, it's gonna be tight, let me go ahead and have my brass nucks in case I'm trying to fight through. But how you have brass nucks and a taser?
[01:40:10] Chuck: But in the transition from brass knuckles to anything else.
[01:40:15] Manny: It's not a smooth one.
[01:40:16] Chuck: No.
[01:40:17] Manny: I've watched a lot of WWE, and I've seen a lot of brass nuts be put on.
[01:40:24] Manny: And you never see it happening fast, it's always, you know, takes some time to get the… you gotta find.
[01:40:30] Chuck: Little cumbersome. Little cumbersome.
[01:40:32] Manny: Yeah, so, at this point, the individual has had 3 charges filed against him. They're all misdemeanors. I think what's important to point out is that Ohio is a constitutional carry state.
[01:40:48] Manny: So, yes, you can walk into a candidate's event with two loaded handguns, and…
[01:40:56] Manny: you only really get hit with disorderly conduct. So, where I think this is interesting is it plays onto a larger issue we have with violence in politics.
[01:41:09] Manny: Every year, it tends to get worse. If you're looking just in North Carolina at the latest FEC filings, Governor Cooper, well, former Governor Cooper has spent a quarter of a million dollars just on security.
[01:41:25] Chuck: That's insane.
[01:41:27] Manny: Like, not getting your message out, not helping voters or anything, literally just makes.
[01:41:33] Chuck: Just watching my back.
[01:41:34] Manny: We're safe, yeah.
[01:41:36] Manny: And I think it becomes interesting, because if you look, like, at North Carolina and a couple other states, it's how people are paying for protection, where, in some cases, like, you look at, I was gonna say Schumer, not Schumer, Cooper versus Whatley.
[01:41:54] Manny: Where you have Cooper, who's funding his own, security, whereas some other Republican and GOP organizations will fall on the party to help provide some of that. Or fraternal… in some places, the Fraternal Order of Police provide protection.
[01:42:13] Manny: That's… that gets real interesting, but as things get testier and testier and testier as we're going towards elections.
[01:42:22] Manny: And just watching the… the anger rise. Because as… elections are made to get people riled up.
[01:42:31] Chuck: Oh, yeah.
[01:42:32] Manny: like, they're… one of the strongest emotions that people can play on is anger. So, we're having an environment like that, you seed into the fact that it's very personal.
[01:42:43] Manny: And it's tough out here. I think this is something that we could potentially see more and more of as we go through, and again, there is no place in our political process for violence.
[01:42:55] Chuck: Edo.
[01:42:56] Manny: And I… again, one of the things, I think, if you look at our political process and why we're having such an issue right now, is finding the right people to be able to run.
[01:43:08] Manny: Well, if I know I have.
[01:43:09] Chuck: Yeah, man.
[01:43:10] Manny: out a quarter million for 6 months at this standpoint to run for office.
[01:43:17] Manny: And that's not even running for office, that's just to keep me safe, let alone my family. Like, the likelihood of finding good individuals willing to subject themselves to the rigors of the American electoral system is going to keep driving lower and lower and lower, and the quality of people
[01:43:35] Manny: It's going to go lower and lower and lower, because you are limiting yourself just to the people who can protect… pay to protect themselves, and are independently wealthy, and they're retired.
[01:43:47] Manny: So, situations like these does not make our situation any safer, any better. It makes it worse.
[01:43:54] Manny: So we'll see kind of how this plays out as we… as we roll into that.
[01:44:00] Manny: Roll into Election A in the midterms.
[01:44:03] Manny: And that is my Spotlight of the Week.
[01:44:06] Chuck: That is… That's crazy.
[01:44:08] Manny: Yeah.
[01:44:09] Chuck: Yeah, that's crazy.
[01:44:10] Chuck: Before we… before we wrap this up, I wanna, sing condolences to the individuals who were killed in that Amazon, plane crash.
[01:44:20] Manny: playing, yeah.
[01:44:21] Chuck: Yeah, at last I saw was about… I think it was 5 individuals.
[01:44:26] Manny: 5 injured, 5 dead at this current standpoint.
[01:44:29] Chuck: Yeah, so,
[01:44:31] Chuck: Thoughts and prayers, are with those impacted by this, and I'm not talking about you people who, their package was delayed getting to.
[01:44:39] Manny: Not y'all. Not y'all. Yeah. It'll get there when it gets…
[01:44:43] Chuck: Yeah.
[01:44:44] Manny: I'll get there when it gets there.
[01:44:45] Chuck: Yeah, screw y'all.
[01:44:46] Chuck: But yeah, that… Hearts and minds are all clear, brother.
[01:44:51] Manny: Yeah, and just to our listeners, if you took nothing from this episode, Get prepared.
[01:44:57] Manny: And read the instructions.
[01:44:59] Manny: That is the name of the game going into the midterms. Prepared Plan Instructions.
[01:45:06] Chuck: Read.
[01:45:07] Manny: freedom.
[01:45:08] Chuck: Reading is not just fundamental, it is direly… Needed.
[01:45:14] Manny: Yep.
[01:45:16] Manny: Well…
[01:45:17] Manny: So, everyone, we've reached the end of our episode, and again, we want to thank you guys for joining us for episode 34.
[01:45:25] Manny: of the Partner Politics podcast, you guys, please like, share, follow, Comment with the boys.
[01:45:33] Manny: Subscribe, you know.
[01:45:36] Manny: We love being able to produce this content for you guys. Thank you guys so much for your time.
[01:45:41] Manny: Brother Chuck, all hearts and minds clear.
[01:45:45] Chuck: Just one last thing, shoutout again to our brother, he'll be back.
[01:45:50] Chuck: Lord willing, with us next week, to… to present you all the information that we do on a daily… a daily… Weekly. A daily basis. A weekly basis. Jeez, I could…
[01:46:03] Manny: Hey, hey, hey, hey, from your mouth to the Lord's ears.
[01:46:08] Chuck: There's power…
[01:46:10] Chuck: In the world…
[01:46:11] Manny: In the Word.
[01:46:13] Chuck: So, yeah, that's it, brother.
[01:46:16] Manny: To our listeners, we love y'all, like we say on the pod, if don't nobody else love y'all, y'all know the boys here at the pod, we love y'all, we hope this podcast finds you in the best and most restful state possible. Enjoy your time, enjoy Labor Day, and we will see you guys next week.
[01:46:34] Chuck: B.
[01:46:34] Manny: Peace.