Happy Advent! Welcome to the final 2016 episode of Two Catholic Guys!

This episode’s Church Father is St Augustine of Hippo.

• 00:00: Greetings, and what we’re drinking this time around.
• 01:30: St Augustine’s Christmas Sermon (185).
• 03:27: Opening prayer.
• 03:55: The election results are in! …and Donald Trump won. Brandon is clairvoyant. Here’s how it went down on the 538 Live Blog.
• 05:52: How were the polls so wrong? Pollsters chime in. Did they miss some people?
• 06:42: How close were we to an alternate narrative where we would be drawing totally different conclusions? Were voters motivated by a desire for change? We hope someone actually addresses their problems this time around.
• 07:55: Can we say that one or the other candidate “won brilliantly”? Would a different candidate on either side have made the victory a landslide against such terrible candidates?
• 09:02: The transition team has started naming people to cabinet positions. With a few notable exceptions, Trump and his team have been naming a mix of conciliatory “establishment” people and big-name CEOs. The most interesting cases have been where he has named people who opposed him. So, he’s been on his best behavior, except on Twitter, where he continues to be himself.
• 11:26: A survey of various reactions to the results: people were calling suicide hotlines, others were yelling about it, Stephen Colbert had to console his audience, protests broke out, and HuffPo devolved into the Drudge Report.
• 13:38: Do particular demographics “owe” their vote to particular parties or candidates? Not everyone votes according to your expectations. What about those who choose to vote third party? What’s it like to live in a swing state?
• 15:27: Meanwhile, word on the street is that they’re “grooming” Chelsea Clinton for congress. So our celebration of the end of the Bush and Clinton dynasties might be premature.
• 16:05: What does the president-elect plan on doing in his first 100 days? How will his nominee for HHS tackle Obamacare? What progress will we see for the pro-life cause, especially under Mike Pence? Trump has been softening his stances on various issues, deprioritizing others. We’re definitely in a wait-and-see mode, but in some aspects, the reality might be very different from what he promised on the campaign trail.
• 19:06: Trump reaches a deal with Carrier, to keep nearly 1000 jobs in Indiana. We discuss similarities between Trump and Obama.
• 21:14: Two appointments that make us raise an eyebrow: Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist and Ben Carson as Secretary of HUD. We also discuss the Labor Secretary, Andrew Puzder, and the larger impacts of automation, especially in the food service and transportation industries. Is a basic income a potential solution to the looming unemployment that will be brought forth by automation?
• 30:10: Back to surveying reactions to the election: US bishops encourage unity and prayer, Jonathan Pie (warning: language), Russell Brand, and Bernie Sanders.
• 31:35: Trump’s victory speech vs Hillary’s concession speech. Who’s fault was it that she didn’t win? She blamed Comey. Meanwhile, Pelosi struggled to win her reelection.
• 34:49: Trump is part of the worldwide populist zeitgeist, so naturally, other populists like him: Nigel Farage of the UK, Rodrigo Dutuerte of the Philippines, and Marine Le Pen of France. We discuss Nationalism vs Globalism vs Catholicism.
• 38:30: Social media and fake news. How Facebook is handling it. What Denzel Washington thinks about it.
• 40:21: What’s going to happen over at the Supreme Court? Will Ginsburg (83) retire and move to New Zealand, or will she try to ride Trump out?
• 42:18: The American Solidarity Party got 476 votes in Ohio!
• 43:38: Pop culture time! Arrival (movie; check it out) and Fluency (book; avoid). Rogue One. Is George Lucas a great guy in real life? And how cool is it that the actress who played Mon Mothma in Ep III got another shot at it?
• 49:32: Elon Musk — aspiring Bond villain — is building a hyperloop between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, Larry Page — who could also pull off being a Bond villain — spearheaded Project Javelin, which lead to the creation of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. We also have proof that they’re working on a secret Moon base because Google not-so-subtly invested $1B in SpaceX. All they need to do to complete their evil trifecta is to woo Mark Zuckerberg, AKA The Mandarin. Side-note: A few months ago, Google had two AIs invent their own encryption.
• 53:22: In other news, Dungeons & Dragons has been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. Man, that escalated slowly. Also, a passing reference to Barbie Horse Adventures.
• 54:36: Other upcoming movies: Assassin’s Creed, Lego Batman, The Dark Tower, and Silence. We discuss the Scorcese love project that is Silence, and its all-star cast, including Spiderman, Kylo Ren, and the guy from Taken. Apparently, Andrew Garfield was deeply moved by his preparation for the role, which included an Ignatian Retreat.
• 55:45: Speaking of love projects, we hear that’s all George Lucas is doing these days. Maybe with some of the equipment left over from when they shot test footage at Skywalker Ranch. Meanwhile, Anthony just wants Rogue One to be the X-Wing series.
• 57:41: MIT hosted the first Gold Mass for Catholic scientists on Nov 15th, the feast of St Albert the Great, patron of scientists. Meanwhile, in Italy, they’ve opened the cause for the canonization of “computer geek” Carlo Acutis an incredible, holy boy who cataloged all the Eucharistic miracles in the world before dying of leukemia at 15 years of age.
• 1:00:07: The Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose motto is “The Love of Christ Impels Us”, did a carpool karaoke video, with hilarious outtakes (h/t to For Her, on Aleteia).

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