Sources with Knowledge

Yes, the rumors are true. (Stop saying, “what rumors, who are you people and how did you get into my living room?”) This is the final episode of Sources with Knowledge. Eric and Joe reflect on the program, which managed to outlast both Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and Madigan’s replacement in the legislature. So, that’s not nothing. Vaccine rollout is going actually really well, and an op/ed in the Wall Street Journal suggests that we could hit heard immunity by April. It’s time for optimism, folks. In a shocking surprise, Eric and Joe are joined by two ex-presidents who turned out to be fans of the program: Donald J. Trump and George W. Bush both join to the final episode. And finally, as if like Mexican manna from heaven, Taco Bell has released a Fried Chicken Taco as their entry in to the chicken sandwich wars. Don’t they realize they already made fried chicken perfection in the Naked Chicken Chalupa?

Acknowledgments – Eric and Joe would like to thank a few people who made this program possible: Marcus Brown and everyone at AM 560 The Answer for giving us air time and the opportunity to do this program; Hilary Yelvington, Melanie Krakauer and Rachel Wittel who helped us name this show; Thea Baldwin for designing the program logo; John Giokaris for his appearance on this episode as Donald Trump; Zachary Urevig for his appearance on this episode as George W. Bush; and, finally, everyone who listened to this program. We’re humbled by it all, even if we’re also baffled as to why you wanted to hear what we thought about anything. Thank you.

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After a mere 50 years in the Illinois General Assembly, Michael Madigan has resigned his seat. You just hate to see a career cut short like that. Eric and Joe discuss what this means for the future of Illinois. The media is not letting democracy die in darkness during the Biden administration, with hard hitting pieces looking at Jill Biden’s hair accessories and Joe Biden’s MarioKart triumphs over his granddaughter. Meanwhile, the media finally bothers to take a close look at Andrew Cuomo and finds out he didn’t really do such a good job after all. Was it all those nursing home deaths that clued them in? Talk radio titan Rush Limbaugh passed away this week at the age of 70. This show wouldn’t exist without him. Eric and Joe reflect on his legacy. It’s Britany b***h. The new documentary on Britany Spears looks mostly at her legal conservatorship, but the bigger story is how a young girl was explained for media headlines and paparazzi photos. And finally, Burger King enters the Chicken Sandwich Wars with a new sandwich that they promise to touch more than any other restaurant touches their sandwich. 

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Is it just us, or was everything about the Super Bowl boring this year? The game? Dull and over before the 4th quarter. The halftime show? Only good for a new meme of The Weeknd looking confused. The commercials? Uninteresting and forgettable. Eric and Joe debate if the quality is really the problem, or if our online, immediate culture is destroying our ability to enjoy things. Impeachment Part Deux is underway. No one is taking it seriously, even though they should. Which is basically the story fo the last five years. Gavin Newsom is facing a possible recall election. Eric and Joe reminisce about the last California recall and conclude that the people of California chose their governor knowing who he was, and now they deserve to get it good and hard. A woman runs out of hairspray and decides to style her hair with Gorilla Glue. It goes about as well as you’d expect. And finally, a dietician ranks the healthiest meals at Taco Bell. Spoiler alert: they aren’t just the healthiest because you have to run to the bathroom 30 minutes after enjoying.

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It’s Super Bowl weekend. How do we know? Because Tom Brady is playing. Is Saturday Night Live right that Tom Brady is the only thing left in America that still works right? And if so, shouldn’t we all be rooting for him? AOC inflates her Capitol riot story. Marjorie Taylor Greene believes all kinds of crazy crap. Maybe we should just stop focusing so much on back-bencher congress-critters? Pritzker will let the General Assembly jump the vaccine line. If they want to be treated as essential workers, shouldn’t they do some essential work first? Pension reform comes to mind. The bloom is off the Cuomo rose, as health officials resign and his own party’s attorney general releases a damning report on his handling of COVID and nursing homes. It’s not so easy without Trump around, is it Governor? And finally, Washington D.C. will use eminent domain to claim the “Weird Wendy’s” in the name of public safety. How dare DC rob its people of such an important piece of culture?

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The Biden era is underway with a flurry of executive orders. Queue the whataboutism. But what is everyone missing? This is all because Congress just won’t do its job. Hate the executive orders all you want, and do the dumb comparisons between Trump and Biden. But recognize that its Congress who should get the blame. It’s National School Choice Week, and the Chicago Teachers Union is celebrating it by trying to drive every Chicago parent to be a school choice fanatic as they continue to refuse to do their job like so many other front-line workers have been asked to do theirs. Fire them all, and do it now. A forced monkey labor controversy erupts in the coconut milk business. Yes, you read that correctly. But, how do we know the labor was forced? Maybe they were justly compensated monkeys? A bunch of people on Reddit send the stock price of GameStop through the roof and cause some hedge fund people to loose a ton of money. Eric and Joe explain what happened like they’re talking to a 5-year old, because that’s how they needed it explained to them. And finally, the Wall Street Journal ran a feature on the chicken sandwich wars, showing once again how Eric and Joe are ahead of their time in talking about these trends. Taco Bell, it’s your turn to introduce a chicken sandwich.

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Joe Biden is now President of the United States. I guess Q didn’t come through after all. Imagine that. Eric and Joe take stock of the beginning of the Biden administration and how, technically, for at least 9 minutes we had an illegitimate president. Former Cubs scout and Mets GM Jared Porter, after sending 16 unanswered text messages to a female reporter, decided to break out his, uh, personal bat to try to woo her. Has this ever worked? Now he’s out of a job and hopefully back in his pants. What state has been most effective in distributing the COVID vaccine so far? The answer might surprise you, but it’ll definitely “take you home.” The Chicago Teachers Union is threatening to strike if they’re asked to return to in-person teaching. How long are Chicago parents going to tolerate this kind of crap from them? And finally, one of the big changes with the new Biden administration in the White House: President Trump’s magic button to have a Diet Coke brought to him on a silver platter is no more. Pour one out for the button.

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Everything is happening while Eric and Joe are talking about it. First, impeachment. It was inevitable and it was well deserved. Trump will forever be known as the only president to be impeached twice. Now, on to the Senate. In Springfield, the Madigan reign of power comes to an end. What do we know about new House Speaker Emmanuel “Chris” Welch? Well, let’s just say that math is hard. The youngest a member of Congress can legally be is 25, and we have a 25-year old congressman in North Carolina’s Madison Cawthorn. Is that really a good idea? Not sure if you’ve noticed this, but young people tend to act like they’re, ya know, young. Parler is dumped by Apple, Google and Amazon. Clear case of persecution of conservative speech? Not so fast. Maybe we should take a look at the actual evidence. And finally, former Bengals wide receiver Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson says he avoided injury in the NFL by eating a McDonalds diet. Look, if you can eat that much McDonalds, you probably are indestructible. 

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On the heels of losses in both Georgia run-off senate races, a gaggle of Trump supports storm the U.S. Capitol building and bring the counting of the electoral votes to a halt. Who could have guessed that being lied to constant for two months about a stolen election would have ended up in such insanity? Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley commit to making fools of themselves in the process. Who would have guessed that two overly ambitious politicians could play themselves like that? For years we heard the argument that the good things to come out of the Trump administration (the judges, the deregulation, the tax bill, etc.) were worth the trouble that Trump created? Do we still think that? Or were the people who said this would all end badly from the get go right all along? A high ranking official in the Chicago Teachers Union who opposes opening schools shares her beach bikini pics from her vacation to Puerto Rico. The lesson: her leisure is more important than Chicago Public School students. And finally, KFC has introduced an upgraded chicken sandwich to the Chicken Sandwich Wars. Not to be outdone, McDonalds apparently released a flock of pecking chickens on unsuspecting customers. Those live chicken were as inedible as the rest of McDonalds fare.

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New year, new Proco “Joe” Moreno? Not so much. The former alderman was charged with DUI after doing a nice job of sideswiping 8 cars in the Gold Coast. It’s just the latest in a long line of crazy Moreno stories. New outmigration numbers are out and it’s not nice news for Illinois. Eric and Joe talk with Illinois Policy Institute chief economist Orphe Divounguy about why people are fleeing the state for nicer pastures. President Trump may have signed the new COVID relief bill already, but he’s still making a last ditch effort to make the stimulus payments even nicer by raising them to $2,000. What would major historical events have been like if Twitter had existed. Yeah, we would have been able to get searing hot takes on the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which would be terrible, but at least we’d get some nice memes out of it, we guess? And finally, a man ends up in the hospital after drinking chocolate milk from McDonalds and experiencing a burning sensation in his chest. What did you expect, a nice time? It’s McDonalds.

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2020: the year that will always feel like it was about 10 years long. Eric and Joe look back at the year that was … something. How will the Trump presidency be remembered? Initial polls show that people have soured even more on his one term, but it’s always difficult to look at the present the way we look at the past. The four teams are set for the college football playoff and, eh, it’s about as predictable as it could be. Why do we continue to cling to a process that was supposed to be a big improvement in the BCS that clearly isn’t a big improvement on the BCS. At all. Get yo wallet ready, because another $600 in Corona Cash is coming at you as Congress finally passes another stimulus package. And finally, Chick-fil-a’s Polynesian sauce is exploding and the KFC logo actually looks like a stick figure of Col. Sanders. 

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