While Republicans in Congress sought to bar incoming trans Democratic Representative Sarah McBride. A similar fight played out in Montana with different results. And of course, I'm talking about which bathroom they can use. [00:00:15] Lawmakers in Montana crossed party lines this week to reject a measure that would have banned a transgender representative from using the women's bathroom at the state capitol. While not singled out by name in the measure's draft, [00:00:30] it was clearly aimed at Democratic State Representative Zoe Zephyr, who is trans and just won reelection last month. The measure was introduced by Republican State Representative Jerry Schillinger, who, at a meeting earlier this week said it says what probably shouldn't need to be [00:00:49] said and puts in the rules what probably shouldn't need to be put in the rules, that the gals restroom will be used only by gals, and the guys restroom will be used only by guys. But I also want to point out that during the nearly 15 minute discussion [00:01:09] in which no women participated, lawmakers in favor of the rule said it would safeguard women's spaces, while those opposed questioned its utility and how it would be forced. Thankfully, some Montana Republicans crossed party lines to join Democrats [00:01:29] in killing the proposed bathroom rule. The the proposal, which needed support from a majority of both committees, passed in the Senate committee but ultimately failed in the House committee by a vote of 10 to 12. Representative Zephyr had this to say. [00:01:46] I'm happy to see that this proposed ban failed and am grateful for my colleagues, particularly my Republican colleagues, who recognize this as a distraction from the work we were elected to do. I'm ready to represent my constituents and look forward to working [00:02:02] on behalf of Montana. Now, John, when I saw this headline in the state, I was surprised. Pleasantly surprised. What do you make of this story? Yeah, I was definitely surprised as well. I, you know, glad to hear it. Obviously it just doesn't it seem so pathetic and not even, like, pathetic [00:02:19] in the way that, you know, everything that mace was doing was deeply, deeply pathetic and try hard and pick me and all that. But like, it's like they saw that that was going on and some of the Republicans are like, hey, we can we can do that and make it seem like we're doing something. And they they couldn't even get that done. [00:02:36] And they didn't even have a couple of Republican women who take this opportunity to pretend to be standing up for women's rights by attacking trans people. Like they didn't even have that paper thin shield. All they had was a couple of Republican guys using an opportunity [00:02:54] to talk about gals restrooms, which, by the way, like the second they refer to as the gals restrooms. I think I know everything about you, sir, and about your politics. I don't need to hear any more and I don't want to hear anymore. But anyway, at least it failed. But even in trying it, I think it's a great reminder [00:03:12] to Republicans that they voted, whatever reason they had that they voted for the Republicans and different Republicans will have voted for different reasons. This is what you're going to get. You're not going to get lower prices. You're not going to get more jobs. All of that's a sham. [00:03:27] Your money's going to be transferred to billionaires economically. You are about to be all, like ultimately screwed over, but you will be given this sort of stuff, the, the, the culture war equivalent of bread and circuses, like, hey, look, we're going to demonize trans people for a week, maybe sometimes successfully, [00:03:43] maybe sometimes we'll fail, but it'll look like we're attacking some people who've been trained to hate. And the question, you know, to my mind is, is this going to be successful in placating conservatives into thinking that the people they sent into elected office or hearing them [00:03:59] out that they're trying to take out their. You know, cultural enemies. I don't think so. I certainly hope not. But anyway, what do you think? Yeah, I think the distraction piece is important. And the people who push this are typically [00:04:18] and in many cases and this is in the media especially like talking heads who are at think tanks or, advocacy organizations on the right that are funded by these corporate interests. They want you they gin up all of this outrage. [00:04:37] So you focus on that and not the corporations funding these operations who don't want you to pay attention to how they're pilfering the government. So all of these companies have equity statements, almost every single company. [00:04:53] Diversity, equity, inclusion. It's the standard in the corporate world. But they fund all of these Republican candidates. They donate to all these Republican candidates who make an issue out of it, because they know it's also a useful distraction. And you many people might be more distracted by that [00:05:09] than Trump wanting to cut their taxes. Trump giving them a handout, giving more government, giving more subsidies to their industries, further enriching the CEOs and the investors. They don't want you to pay attention to that. They want you to worry about a trans lawmaker on the Hill [00:05:25] in which bathroom she uses. Who cares? Does that affect your everyday life? Thankfully, you all are smart enough to see through it. And of course we're going to cover what these companies are doing. But the mainstream media and legacy media very often runs with these things. [00:05:41] Credulously and acts like there is this national movement against things like Dei or critical race theory. Think about when that just materialized out of thin air, pushed by Chris Rufo, who works at the Manhattan Institute, which is funded by giant corporations [00:05:57] and special interests. Wow. You think it's something he just came up with on his own? Come on. I know you all are smarter than that. I wish more people would see through it and recognize that we don't need to care. We don't need to care about which bathroom people uses, which people use. [00:06:15] All I'm worried about, and I've said this before on your show, John. All I'm worried about in the bathroom is if they wash their hands. And I think that would be a good rule of thumb for everyone to adopt. Yeah, I think it would be great. Unfortunately, one of the thought leaders is Pete Hegseth, so that's probably not going to happen. There's nothing is sacred anymore. [00:06:30] Your hands aren't sacred. Certainly your marriage isn't sacred. It's all gone dirty. Can I can I ask you a super quick question, though? Because you're talking about how they're going to use these distractions to, like, you know, like, try to get people to not focus on the fact that they're not delivering economically. [00:06:46] Like, I kind of I have this, like, growing sense. I guess I would describe it as like an inevitability to the failure of Trump's second term because the stuff that he campaigned on, like, cannot deliver. [00:07:01] Like it's just definitionally not going to deliver. And he seems to really be trying to put into place the people who are going to make good on it. Like it doesn't seem like he was running in one way, but he's actually going to be more reasonable. He's putting insane people in charge. Like if he does these tariffs, it is going to devastate people. [00:07:18] And so I don't know, like I'm worried that I'm developing almost like an overconfidence that like two years from now they're going to be absolutely shellacked in the midterms because like all of the crossover voters that might not really like Trump, but like, I don't know, inflation's kind of bad. [00:07:33] So we we just we want something. And like pretend populism I guess is more appealing than a continuation of the status quo. Like I kind of feel almost like an inevitability. But but what do you think? It's a good point and something that I think we all should think on more. [00:07:50] I, I'm a little concerned by Elon's comments that there's going to be hardship. There might be a little bit of pain during this transition as they remake America or whatever. I think they recognize that this could be really bad. These could be these tariffs could be devastating. [00:08:06] And I just don't think they care because they know the end result would be further enriching the donors and the capitalist class. Trump hopes to be part of that. And I don't think they really care if it means even intermediate suffering [00:08:22] for especially the most vulnerable, the working class. They're not going to care because largely their donors are going to be fine. And of the people that they kind of care about his base, his supporters, his voters, they'll just go along with it. [00:08:38] But we need to do this, this, this has to happen. They're just going to accept their fate, as part of a larger political project, if that makes sense. Thanks for watching. If you become a member, you get to watch all this ad free. Except for, of course, this ad still hit the join button below.