Latest / Luke Thomas Gets Political (LTGP) / Luke Thomas Political Live Chat, Ep. 8

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Luke Thomas Political Live Chat, Ep. 8 · Luke Thomas Gets Political (LTGP)

• 0:01
  All right, we're supposed to be off. I
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  don't know if we are. I think we are.
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  Yeah, looks like we're cooking. All
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  right. Hello everyone here on this 23rd
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  day of October uh 2006. 2006 2026. My
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  name is Luke Thomas. Oh, to be 2006
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  again. I'd be 26. Can you believe that?
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  In any event, nobody cares. Welcome to
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  episode eight of my political live chat.
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  Thank you so much for being here. I
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  really appreciate it. Um, so much to
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  really talk about the midterms now, what
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  are we just a couple of weeks, almost
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  three, not quite three weeks away at
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  this point. There's a lot to discuss in
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  any of that. Vivic Ramaswami has doubled
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  down. The president has doubled down on
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  Ramaswami's slime.
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  Well, you've got everyone from like
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  hardcore liberals,
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  um, even the left, of course, uh, I
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  would even say center right. I saw
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  National Review came out against it. And
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  even even I mean he's got an axe to
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  grind with Vivic Ramaswami for a variety
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  of reasons. Some of them good, some of
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  them definitely not so good. But even uh
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  Nick Fuentes was was out there being
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  like what are you doing with this ad? Um
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  you know
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  quite quite the menagerie of different
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  people who have managed to figure out
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  that it's a bad idea. And then Trump
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  doubled actually like double triple down
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  whatever the proper terminology is for
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  it today actually under further
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  questioning when he was informed about
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  the details of the case involving Amy
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  Actton and he just continued to to
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  double triple down. Uh that's gross.
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  That's real gross. Oh, and the
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  Department of Justice sued Alaska
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  um for a quirky ballot issue because
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  there are two people on the ballot with
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  basically the same names
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  and they're suing to have the vote count
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  or the vote tally
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  uh essentially what the lawsuit claims
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  is that they can't certify the election
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  results. The states, remember the
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  federal government doesn't run the
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  elections. the uh these kinds of
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  elections anyway, the states states run
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  them. Yeah.
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  And the the DOJ's suit alleges that they
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  can't s the states should not be able to
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  certify the election pending an
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  investigation to make sure that people
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  who voted for uh one of the guys with
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  the names weren't intending to vote for
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  the other guy with the other name or
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  vice versa. But of course, the argument
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  is essentially self-refuting because
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  like what would be the evidence of
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  something like that? How many how many
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  different ways could you do that?
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  There's probably going to be a wide
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  disparity between them because one of
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  them is very well known uh and one of
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  them would be not uh as capable of
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  collecting a high vote total
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  uh
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  would be the ballot itself, the results
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  of the ballot itself.
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  It's like essentially a self-refuting
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  argument to say nothing of the fact that
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  the legal argument that they're using uh
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  my understanding of it is that it's
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  described to me as very thin because it
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  it implies a reading of the text that
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  doesn't have any ballot administration
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  laws at all in in the chapter that it
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  cites. Like there's literally nothing in
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  the chapter about it. They had to take a
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  piece of the preface of it and then clip
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  out the context to just make it sound
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  like it has this broad swath of
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  authority that literally doesn't exist
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  and then referencing the chapter from
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  which it was pulled has no mention of
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  ballot administration and handling.
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  So fun times fun times. So uh here's how
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  this will go. We'll go for about an hour
• 3:30
  or so on political topics. Please keep
• 3:33
  this to again it can it doesn't have to
• 3:35
  be like 100% politics but no MMA no
• 3:38
  sports well not no sports per se but
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  certainly no combat sports okay but
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  that's I do a live chat on Thursdays and
• 3:44
  you can watch that all right for that
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  one um the way to contribute for this
• 3:50
  one would be to get something into the
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  super chat I'm glad you're all here I
• 3:52
  really appreciate it like and subscribe
• 3:54
  all the fun things but the best way to
• 3:56
  contribute it's a great way to support
• 3:57
  the channel is to fire in some super
• 3:59
  chats okay all right let's see what we
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  got
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  Okay.
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  What do you think the implications will
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  be for the war in Iran
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  if the Saudis are able to push back and
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  neutralize the Houthis?
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  Well,
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  I don't think that that's very likely,
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  but there is another scenario that could
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  be kind of interesting and worth paying
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  attention to. And I do think that's a
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  little bit more of an interesting
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  question off of this one. Namely, uh you
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  may have paid you may have seen in the
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  news that for example, the United
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  Kingdom is putting uh I would say, you
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  know, not a huge degree of military
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  assets, but certainly some including
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  fighter jets that they are parking in
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  Saudi Arabia. Let's assume for the sake
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  of argument that one way or the other
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  those those planes are attacked or Saudi
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  Arabia asks asks for help in some kind
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  of way. They lobby the UK government
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  like they've already got the assets
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  there. Let's use them against the
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  Houthis. And let's say that that even is
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  somewhat effective at holding them off.
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  Although we all know that the Houthis
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  have been bombed
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  for years uh and it doesn't seem to
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  really be able to meaningfully make a
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  difference. So I don't I don't I think
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  any kind of limitation of the Houthis
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  just really in general certainly over
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  the long term has to come through some
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  kind of diplomatic agreement whatever
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  that may look like and whatever however
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  that may be produced but what if you get
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  a situation where they can be contained
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  for a little while because now you're
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  bringing in uh some other military power
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  from another sovereign nation let's say
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  the UK the sovereign nations in that
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  case
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  and now they're involved in the conflict
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  in a direct military I would imagine
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  that they're not going to want to be,
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  but I I I I
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  mean, God only knows with what we are
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  apparently. I mean, we're It seems like
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  inevitable, right, that we're getting an
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  attack after the midterms. God help. I
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  mean, I don't imagine we're necessarily
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  going to get one before then, but who
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  even knows whether or not this is
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  going to be able to be contained. It
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  seems like this could pop off at any
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  moment. who is Israel being its own kind
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  of wild card here
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  could shake this up in any number of
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  different ways. Um although I suspect
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  that they'll have feelalty to what the
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  US u uh US wants. Almost said UFC to
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  what the US wants and therefore they'll
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  wait until after the midterms. But but I
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  don't I I I I think this idea that like
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  oh the Houthis can be militarily
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  contained. I mean, I suppose it depends
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  how much territory of Yemen broadly they
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  they want to take and certainly um you
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  know their ability to capture the full
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  country should be questioned but not
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  necessarily doubted and even then
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  they're still going to have sovereign
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  their own sovereign territory such as
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  you can call it that from which to lob
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  military attacks. This is a or a group
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  that has suffered enormous suffering
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  and
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  uh bombardment and siege the likes of
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  which is hard to imagine and they're
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  still doing this. Once again, there's
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  been a bifurcation between military
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  spending and military might or at least
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  you know context
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  military prowess.
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  Uh, and I I really I really would try to
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  disabuse everyone of the idea that oh,
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  you know, with just a little bit more
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  bombing, they can be contained this
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  time. Can they? You might see I have
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  like a thing on my nose here. I I think
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  it's I wear nasal strips at night and uh
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  I did CNN today and they had to put like
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  a liquid band-aid on my face and put
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  makeup on top cuz I [ __ ] scratched it
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  and I I don't quite understand how it
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  happened from the nasal strip, but it
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  apparently did.
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  Uh have you seen the reports of Jared
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  Kushner having an Israeli government
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  bank account where NBS and NBZ have
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  funneled a billion?
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  Well, yes and no. Hold on. Funnled a
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  billion dollars to him. I did see I I am
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  I know some of the details. He'll be
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  pardoned for everything and it
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  infuriates me. Yeah. I mean, I think
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  anyone expecting him to go to jail can I
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  mean maybe there's state charges in some
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  kind of way that a presidential pardon
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  won't reach, but I'm not holding my
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  breath, right?
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  I did not read the full article. It
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  started in Vanity Fair. Apparently,
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  there's like a whole book coming out
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  about it. Ryan Grim from Dropside News
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  and Breaking Points.
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  was sharing it. He was sharing it. There
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  was like an alpha and a beta account and
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  one was an Israeli account and then one
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  was this other kind of emirates
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  Arab account
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  and um basically the the my
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  understanding for the reporting is that
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  it it basically says like a there's a
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  there's a series of things very very
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  very important things that just on a
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  disclosure level had to be disclosed and
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  simply were not. that that alone is its
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  own set of crimes, right?
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  But the real crux of the story is that
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  the degree to the the the manner in
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  which Jared Kushner was acting and some
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  of this I think requires further
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  substantiation, but the but my
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  understanding from the reporting is that
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  his actions amount to being
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  uh a foreign agent. that like like and
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  and and to do that you have to register
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  of course and that there puts a degree
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  of you know rules around what Ford
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  agents can and can't do and he had done
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  none of that as well to say nothing of
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  like what kind of financial embezzlement
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  might be happening along the way
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  or other forms of financial impropriety
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  beyond that. So Vanity Fair has an
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  article about it. I think Drop Sight's
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  got a story coming out about it. And
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  again, my understanding is there's even
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  a book about it. Um
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  I I did C Let me tell you something. I
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  did CNN today and uh I it I enjoyed it.
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  It was fun.
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  Um
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  that's two Fridays in a row I did it.
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  There was a disagreement today on the
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  panel. One of the questions kind of came
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  up about like hey should the Dems if
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  they get back AOC I think was in Maine
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  last night or this week anyway. She was
• 10:26
  in Maine stumping for Troy Jackson and
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  she's asked about like you know what the
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  agenda is going to be if the Dems take
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  back the House and maybe even the Senate
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  but certainly the House where she is.
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  And it was like, you know,
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  investigations and we're gonna every
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  head of every agency and every
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  department is going to be under
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  investigation. And they were asking
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  like, you know, is this really a good
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  thing? And they were the two other
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  panelists who who seemed, by the way,
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  very friendly, very lovely, um, very,
• 10:54
  very nice, you know, bright ladies. But
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  I disagree with them. Their attitude was
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  basically like, hey, what you know, what
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  the public wants to see is a legislative
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  agenda. And that's of course true. like
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  I don't disagree with that under any
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  circumstance whatsoever. The reality is
• 11:09
  the left flank of the party and the
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  center of the party are battling it out.
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  So we haven't really come to like a
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  clear what did the Democrats stand for?
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  What's really we we have to see what the
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  election results are and what this means
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  for what kind of ideas are going to get
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  shephered. So yes, it doesn't really
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  have that. But like just on a
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  fundamental level, if the if a democracy
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  can't punish the people looting it, you
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  can't keep a democracy, right? Just as
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  sort of like a basic operating rule. And
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  more to the point, you can even look now
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  and see some polls. Corruption is top of
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  mind in ways that I've never seen in my
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  life. And it's not my guess about that.
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  It is verifiable in polling that people
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  are identifying. I do not imagine that
• 11:45
  hauling Pete Hexath before some House
• 11:48
  committee to testify is exactly what
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  everyone wants to see as the most
• 11:52
  important thing. Of course they want
• 11:53
  relief at the pump. Of course they want,
• 11:55
  you know, greater access to healthcare.
• 11:57
  Of course they want their bills to go
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  down. Of course I understand. And
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  frankly, as I've said a million times,
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  winning means nothing if the Dems
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  ultimately don't deliver. But the idea
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  that, dude, I lived through the Iraq
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  war.
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  I lived through it. I lived through it.
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  I lived through it. And then afterwards,
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  no one having to answer for the failure,
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  which by the way, Bush gets out of
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  office in '08. And it leads us right
• 12:23
  into the financial crisis. And who went
• 12:25
  to jail for that, too.
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  I have watched what happens when a
• 12:30
  country does that. It is super bad for
• 12:32
  the country.
• 12:34
  It is important for the country's
• 12:36
  survival. Not that any kind of
• 12:37
  prosecution of those looting it
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  automatically means you will save the
• 12:41
  republic. It does not necessarily mean
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  that. But that if you don't do those
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  kinds of things, what is the point in
• 12:47
  trying to keep one at all?
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  And I also argued I think that there is
• 12:54
  voter demand for it. uh they didn't
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  necessarily agree,
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  but
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  I want to see that in the next term. And
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  I don't know how many of those people
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  can go to jail given that Trump could
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  pardon. God only knows how many of them
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  and for what reasons and how much of
• 13:11
  that will stick.
• 13:14
  I I don't know how to I don't know how
• 13:15
  to navigate that anymore than anybody
• 13:17
  else does. But me personally, I don't
• 13:20
  think this thing's going to make it if
• 13:23
  we can't hold people criminally liable
• 13:27
  for when they're looting the [ __ ]
• 13:28
  place.
• 13:31
  Just my two cents on that.
• 13:44
  If institutions shape public values, how
• 13:47
  can a society distinguish genuine
• 13:49
  democratic consent from consent
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  manufactured by the institutions
• 13:53
  themselves?
• 13:54
  If institutions shape public values,
• 13:57
  which they in many ways do, how can
• 14:00
  society distinguish between genuine
• 14:01
  democratic consent?
• 14:05
  What would you call genuine democratic
• 14:07
  consent?
• 14:09
  I mean our very no I don't I don't in
• 14:13
  thinking about democracy every way in
• 14:16
  which we understand democracy at least
• 14:18
  okay well it's actually this
• 14:20
  conversation might be different if
• 14:21
  you're young but I can only speak about
• 14:23
  my upbringing every notion you had about
• 14:25
  democracy was that it was taught to you
• 14:28
  in history as again remember I graduated
• 14:30
  high school in the late 90s or graduated
• 14:32
  college in the early 2000s around this
• 14:34
  time this is when Francis Fukuyama was
• 14:36
  putting out um the end of history,
• 14:38
  right? Where we get to this place where
• 14:41
  it feels like, wow, this democratic
• 14:42
  coalitions and growth that's happened
• 14:44
  across the modern world, particularly
• 14:45
  since the fall of the Soviet Union, this
• 14:47
  is the way that that that that this is
• 14:50
  the future of of uh world governance in
• 14:53
  some capacity or another. Uh not for
• 14:55
  every place, but in general. And of
• 14:57
  course, there's been, it's funny, I told
• 14:58
  you guys this, I follow this uh uh
• 15:00
  political books podcast where they're
• 15:02
  just constantly interviewing authors of
• 15:04
  books who who are writing political
• 15:06
  science books. If you just search
• 15:07
  democracy as like a topic for like, oh,
• 15:09
  what's this? What's this interview
• 15:11
  about? What's this interview about? All
• 15:12
  of the democracy scholars are talking
• 15:14
  about how it's receding. I mean, there
• 15:16
  are some growth stories, but in general,
• 15:18
  it's about how it's receding, which is
• 15:20
  kind of fun. [ __ ] where was I going
• 15:22
  with this? I got off on some ridiculous
• 15:24
  tangent. Oh, but anyway, so when I grew
• 15:27
  up, you were taught about ancient Greece
• 15:30
  and then the the creation of like early
• 15:32
  forms of democracy and you know, uh I
• 15:36
  yes, you are I I grew up in Georgia for
• 15:38
  part of my time, DC for part of my time,
• 15:40
  you know, I I I had it mixed, but I went
• 15:42
  around when you know, you had to say the
• 15:44
  pledge in most of these places and uh
• 15:47
  you know, yes, that certainly um infuses
• 15:51
  a degree of what the state wants you to
• 15:54
  value a civic virtue, but like you know
• 15:56
  consider all the art and entertainment
• 15:58
  at that time post first golf war like
• 16:00
  the violence of the '9s um to say
• 16:03
  nothing of like you know various forms
• 16:05
  of anti-government messaging at the time
• 16:07
  like where are you getting a what a
• 16:10
  genuine democratic consent as anything
• 16:12
  like outside of the culture which bleeds
• 16:15
  in every direction there's there's I'm
• 16:17
  trying to point out like I don't know
• 16:19
  what it means to distinguish the two I
• 16:21
  understand that conceptually there's a
• 16:23
  difference between the kinds of civic
• 16:24
  virtues that are nurtured in these
• 16:26
  institutions, schools, but not but
• 16:28
  beyond that as well. Uh versus what you
• 16:31
  might just sort of absorb as like what
• 16:32
  naturally happens. But to me, all of it
• 16:35
  is oriented as part of like a
• 16:36
  nationalist project in some ways,
• 16:38
  wittingly and unwittingly. Um, and it
• 16:41
  has just various instantiations or
• 16:43
  manifestations along the way. And it's
• 16:44
  very hard to disentangle the two of
• 16:46
  them. I don't mind the state promoting
• 16:49
  uh a minimalist version of civic virtue.
• 16:53
  Like I mean in a healthy society in a
• 16:56
  healthy society people should not love
• 16:58
  their government per se but they should
• 16:59
  like their station in life. They should
• 17:01
  generally be happy. They should
• 17:03
  generally have a degree of trust about
• 17:05
  the government. The government should be
• 17:06
  generally responsive and effective and
• 17:08
  not too intrusive but you know u
• 17:10
  sufficiently capable of solving tasks to
• 17:13
  some degree large and small. Like there
• 17:15
  should be some level of em emotional
• 17:19
  um not connection but
• 17:26
  you have to have some kind of bond to
• 17:28
  the to
• 17:30
  some kind how do how do you say this
• 17:31
  exactly? bond. But you have to have some
• 17:33
  kind of a relationship to the government
• 17:35
  that is,
• 17:38
  you know, more than
• 17:40
  in a healthy society, more than just or
• 17:42
  at least a prepoundonderance of people
• 17:44
  can't just have a passive or negative
• 17:45
  attitude. In a healthy society, that's
• 17:47
  just not the kind of thing that would be
• 17:49
  nurtured. Protecting that which is
• 17:50
  working would be naturally the kind of
• 17:52
  thing you would imagine. Of course, the
• 17:54
  problem happens when we get to a place
• 17:56
  where there's like a a giant gap between
• 17:58
  what is claimed as civic virtue and then
• 18:01
  what the state is actually owed as a
• 18:02
  consequence of the material conditions
• 18:04
  that they set into place or the or the
• 18:07
  ethical responsibility that they have
• 18:09
  acred. I understand that. But I think as
• 18:11
  a general thing like I I the pledge is a
• 18:13
  little bit much. Do kids still do the
• 18:14
  pledge? I don't know if they do the
• 18:15
  pledge anymore. Um I'm being told that
• 18:18
  maybe that's happening a little bit
• 18:19
  less. Certainly, I think that's a
• 18:20
  welcome development, but I'm not super
• 18:22
  opposed to um you know, these ideas
• 18:26
  about participatory responsible
• 18:28
  government, you know, pro-social
• 18:30
  activity.
• 18:33
  I I think um I think the state had does
• 18:37
  have some kind of a role uh in promoting
• 18:40
  sort of universal universalist values in
• 18:42
  that way.
• 18:48
  LT, can meritocracy exist when
• 18:50
  residential segregation lets the upper
• 18:52
  middle no questions about like present
• 18:54
  news? LT, can meritocracy exist when
• 18:57
  residential segregation lets the upper
• 18:58
  middle class inherit the very conditions
• 19:01
  that determine success? This is a big
• 19:04
  one. Um, I don't know if I have time to
• 19:05
  get into all of these. Okay, let me see
• 19:06
  if I can do this one.
• 19:09
  When residential segregation like
• 19:10
  redlinining less the upper middle class
• 19:12
  inherit the very conditions. Um, this is
• 19:15
  a very complicated question and I don't
• 19:17
  really
• 19:19
  what's a good way to let me think about
• 19:21
  this.
• 19:27
  I mean, you have to understand we are
• 19:29
  going through a present moment which is
• 19:31
  not just starting. It's been
• 19:32
  longstanding. It's taken on a degree of
• 19:36
  hyperrowth more recently. But this
• 19:38
  transfer of wealth upwards is very very
• 19:40
  real. It is a very real source of
• 19:42
  societal tension. People can feel it. It
• 19:45
  to me it's part of like the biggest
• 19:47
  reason why you're just seeing
• 19:48
  anti-immigrant attitudes because people
• 19:50
  can see that they're having [ __ ] stolen
• 19:52
  from them. They're just not able to
• 19:54
  identify who exactly is doing the
• 19:56
  stealing. It's a little bit more subtle.
• 19:58
  Uh and they're getting a lot of bad
• 20:00
  messaging about it. That's this is my
• 20:01
  firm belief. Um
• 20:04
  but you have to know on some level like
• 20:07
  it's uh for I mean there's a there
• 20:10
  social mobility is m is first of all
• 20:12
  like uh
• 20:15
  there are all kinds of ways to measure
• 20:16
  inequalities like the jinny coefficient
• 20:19
  and
• 20:21
  but these can just be like words on a or
• 20:23
  numbers on a on a paper. um when you go
• 20:27
  to other places where social class
• 20:30
  rigidity is much more visible like it's
• 20:34
  very very it doesn't blend in as easy.
• 20:36
  I'm not saying that that's it's hard to
• 20:38
  find that kind of a thing in the United
• 20:40
  States, but just humor me for a moment
• 20:41
  to go to a place, let's say, that's much
• 20:43
  poorer. Uh, but you do have some
• 20:45
  elements of the class there that have a
• 20:47
  great degree of material wealth. It is
• 20:49
  very easy to notice, not really that
• 20:51
  there is a difference, but it's also
• 20:53
  very easy to notice that the ascendancy
• 20:55
  of one to the other based on what kind
• 20:57
  of money that the people at the bottom
• 20:58
  make and how long it takes to get
• 21:00
  wealth, you can just see that they
• 21:02
  they're born poor. They're going to die
• 21:04
  poor. like ve just it's going to happen.
• 21:08
  The math doesn't work out any other way.
• 21:10
  There's really no way to ever cross
• 21:12
  class. And then when that happens, it
• 21:14
  kind of hardens social attitudes uh
• 21:16
  within the class itself over time. One
• 21:19
  of my biggest gripes with Latin America
• 21:20
  is there's a big portion of them in a
• 21:22
  place that's very very unequal that are
• 21:26
  unwilling to do anything about poverty
• 21:30
  or very little about poverty other than
• 21:32
  to use the state to violently repress
• 21:35
  it.
• 21:36
  I hate to say that, but that's a but one
• 21:38
  of the biggest lessons I've had is that
• 21:40
  dude, there's a [ __ ] lot of people in
• 21:43
  in Latin America that just don't believe
• 21:46
  the state has any more role in
• 21:48
  alleviating
• 21:49
  uh social ills, particularly poverty,
• 21:52
  and that the best use of their time is
• 21:54
  to just give everyone the wood shampoo.
• 21:58
  Um,
• 21:59
  when you see that, when you see that,
• 22:01
  you're like, dude, the game is rigged.
• 22:04
  Our economy is a difference in degree
• 22:07
  not in kind.
• 22:09
  Um we don't have the same kind of im
• 22:13
  immobility between social classes and we
• 22:16
  have I think a greater capacity for
• 22:17
  wealth generation generally here and
• 22:20
  then relative to let's say many places
• 22:22
  in Latin America. But you yes the game
• 22:24
  is to a degree rigged. Yes. Most likely
• 22:27
  you're going to be born into a class
• 22:28
  that you're going to die in. Uh, most
• 22:31
  likely most likely your friends will be
• 22:33
  from the same class. Most likely your
• 22:34
  zip code will kind of show us the places
• 22:37
  where you shop and like what that income
• 22:39
  dictates like who your friends are, the
• 22:41
  churches you attend, the places where
• 22:43
  you shop for groceries, the schools your
• 22:45
  kids go to. All of this is determined by
• 22:47
  ways that is that is transgenerational.
• 22:51
  Um, it's not to say that there's not an
• 22:53
  argument for hard work. I think there
• 22:54
  is. Or that even hard work within the
• 22:56
  you can go from lower middle class to
• 22:57
  upper middle class, that's a pretty big
• 22:59
  improvement. Uh it's not the idea that
• 23:01
  we should never try or that there can't
• 23:02
  be useful ways in which achievement can
• 23:05
  be meaningfully used in the real world.
• 23:06
  But you know also just kind of having
• 23:08
  our eyes open here.
• 23:10
  Social mobility is even a great
• 23:12
  challenge here.
• 23:15
  What has been the most unforgivable
• 23:17
  nomination to the Trump team?
• 23:18
  Unforgivable. It's got to be Pete
• 23:20
  Hexath, right? Uh it's got to be TFK for
• 23:23
  Oh, okay. Fair enough. Old RF. You said
• 23:26
  TFK. RFK for Health and Human Services.
• 23:29
  He's none of those things. Um, yeah. You
• 23:33
  know what's kind of funny? This was an
• 23:34
  interesting one. Uh, did you guys see
• 23:36
  some polling that Joe Rogan has taken
• 23:38
  like a nose dive in terms of popularity
• 23:40
  with young men? You may have seen this.
• 23:42
  There was a poll that came out. Forgive
• 23:43
  me. I don't know who put it out. Um, but
• 23:45
  you can double check this and if I got
• 23:47
  it wrong, write me a note and I'll make
• 23:48
  a correction, but there was a polling
• 23:51
  and I believe his polling, now this part
• 23:52
  I'm not 100% sure about, but I'm it's
• 23:54
  pretty close. I believe it may have been
• 23:57
  20 points or more in decline relative to
• 24:00
  maybe two years ago. Like a massive
• 24:03
  massive drop, a huge drop. And you can
• 24:06
  imagine all the reasons getting in bed
• 24:08
  with Trump really I think blew up in
• 24:09
  anyone's face who for the most part uh
• 24:12
  did it. But what that polling revealed
• 24:14
  was the most popular guy with young men,
• 24:16
  this is true, the most popular guy with
• 24:18
  young men, which I'm kind of surprised
• 24:20
  by, but whatever, is Barack Obama. But
• 24:22
  you know who was like top three on that
• 24:24
  list?
• 24:25
  RFK.
• 24:27
  RFK was on that. RK Jr. RFK was on that
• 24:30
  list.
• 24:32
  Uh which I don't really understand. He
• 24:34
  has been uniquely
• 24:39
  destructive in all of the various ways
• 24:42
  in which he has slashed funding,
• 24:45
  undermined scientific uh consensus,
• 24:49
  advised you know wellness over systemic
• 24:53
  uh interventions.
• 24:56
  Certainly he has retreated from
• 24:58
  positions about environmental law in
• 25:01
  terms of pesticides, glyophosate
• 25:04
  among a number of other,
• 25:06
  you know, uh, pollutants in the world.
• 25:08
  He he really had a major decline
• 25:10
  relative to that. But it it apparently
• 25:12
  for whatever reason it has not
• 25:13
  necessarily impacted his standing, at
• 25:15
  least with young men. And I think
• 25:17
  there's probably something to be said
• 25:18
  for that generally that that to certain
• 25:20
  constituents might be boosting. He might
• 25:22
  have decline in among other demos, but
• 25:24
  that particular one is boosting what he
• 25:26
  has. That seems like a very reasonable
• 25:27
  interpretation. Um, but for me, it's got
• 25:29
  to be Hex Seth. I mean, this is this is
• 25:31
  an administration that has been killing.
• 25:33
  Everyone is talking about how they
• 25:34
  wanted the the live execution of the
• 25:36
  Fort Hood shooter and then obviously
• 25:38
  Trump called it off in the end. But
• 25:42
  we've been watching live executions for
• 25:44
  months, guys. We've been watching them
• 25:48
  kill fishermen. I mean, maybe it's not a
• 25:49
  lie, but they've been sending us
• 25:51
  executions of fishermen on speedboats in
• 25:54
  the Caribbean who we now know a the
• 25:57
  murdering of these people is by a Wall
• 25:59
  Street Journal report doing nothing to
• 26:01
  stem the flow of illegal drugs into the
• 26:03
  United States. And more to the point,
• 26:06
  there are now dozens of these stories of
• 26:09
  guys being utterly innocent, having no
• 26:11
  ties to no verifiable ties to any kind
• 26:14
  of gang, any kind of cartel, any kind of
• 26:17
  narwell, nothing. They're just [ __ ]
• 26:19
  fishermen and they're being blown up to
• 26:22
  pieces. Uh most of them dying obviously,
• 26:25
  occasionally some people survive. And
• 26:27
  then that's to say nothing of
• 26:28
  doubletapping a girl school in Iran. to
• 26:30
  say nothing of the other disaster uh
• 26:33
  disastrous advice that that that this
• 26:35
  secretary of defense has given to the
• 26:36
  president. Apparently, some reporting
• 26:38
  indicates that before the war in Iran,
• 26:41
  JD Vance was like, I don't think it's a
• 26:42
  good idea. Ultimately, he relented too.
• 26:45
  But the guy who was really angling for
• 26:47
  it, I believe it was one was Steven
• 26:48
  Miller and the other one was Pete Hexth.
• 26:50
  you people forget about signalgate too
• 26:52
  and how by the way he is just
• 26:53
  stripmining
• 26:55
  um the the leadership ranks of the army
• 26:58
  but more than just the army a lot of the
• 27:00
  general corps not uh promoting people
• 27:02
  who black women in particular but not
• 27:04
  just them anyone who gets sideways with
• 27:06
  the agenda just making them forced
• 27:08
  retirements we had the secretary of the
• 27:10
  army s recently resign because he just
• 27:13
  can't [ __ ] work with someone who's so
• 27:14
  obviously incompetent this guy's a
• 27:16
  [ __ ] threat to the to world to the
• 27:18
  world peace man he is all bad news. He
• 27:22
  is all bad news. His ability to retain
• 27:25
  Trump's
• 27:27
  I still don't have a great read on which
• 27:29
  ones get sideways with Trump and which
• 27:30
  ones don't for which reasons. His
• 27:32
  inability to
• 27:35
  deliver for his boss.
• 27:37
  I can't believe it hasn't resulted in
• 27:39
  him being fired yet, but it hasn't. But
• 27:41
  dude, he he he is a
• 27:43
  destructive force for the world. There's
• 27:46
  simply no question about it. And again,
• 27:49
  part of that conversation was like, you
• 27:50
  know, for corruption investigations,
• 27:52
  they said they were going to impeach,
• 27:54
  you know, uh, Pete Hexith. And then one
• 27:56
  of the other panelists said, well, is
• 27:57
  that really a corruption investigation
• 27:59
  for him? I don't first of all, to me the
• 28:01
  I like first
• 28:04
  remember he has severed ties with all
• 28:06
  with the with the military's uh
• 28:08
  connection to any kind of elite
• 28:09
  university in favor of like Liberty
• 28:12
  University. I partied at Liberty
• 28:14
  University. Those are the biggest bunch
• 28:15
  of degenerates I'd ever partied with at
• 28:17
  any college at any point in my life. And
• 28:20
  he was part, you know, to say nothing of
• 28:22
  the rigor of their academic development
• 28:23
  relative to Harvard or even Rice
• 28:25
  University or John's Hopkins. Okay,
• 28:28
  forget all of that, too. He did all of
• 28:30
  that. I mean, all it's all bad. It's all
• 28:33
  bad. It's all bad. putting up, you know,
• 28:35
  reintroducing Confederate war names and
• 28:37
  and and iconography onto bases,
• 28:42
  putting rules in place that
• 28:43
  disadvantage. I didn't really know what
• 28:45
  razor bumps were cuz I had never
• 28:47
  experienced them. And then I saw in boot
• 28:49
  camp like a lot of the black guys tended
• 28:51
  to suffer from it. Not all of them, but
• 28:53
  there were it wasn't uncommon to see
• 28:55
  some of them struggle. And then he's
• 28:56
  changed the rules where you know it
• 28:58
  affects people just of a particular for
• 29:01
  the most part of a particular not
• 29:02
  entirely obviously but in general it
• 29:04
  affects one racial group more than
• 29:06
  another. And he's putting in these rules
• 29:07
  like dude just destroying the things
• 29:10
  that have been pillars of American
• 29:12
  military might and greatness in terms of
• 29:14
  the ingredients the raw ingredients
• 29:17
  and to say nothing of the hell he has
• 29:19
  unleashed on the rest of the world. Uh,
• 29:23
  I don't have any doubt that personally
• 29:25
  if they dig, who only knows what kind of
• 29:28
  contracts he's awarded, you know, no bid
• 29:30
  that may have been done under some kind
• 29:32
  of illegal procurement. But putting that
• 29:33
  to the side, that's still got nothing to
• 29:35
  do with like, dude, they're murdering
• 29:37
  people. The Secretary of Defense is
• 29:39
  murdering people on video or allowing
• 29:42
  that to be happened and then sharing it
• 29:44
  with the world. This is in violation of
• 29:46
  any number of first of all international
• 29:48
  statutes to say nothing of I I believe
• 29:50
  our own military law in terms of what
• 29:51
  this does and doesn't allow. This is not
• 29:54
  corruption per se but it's rulebreaking.
• 29:58
  It's rule violating
• 30:00
  not to say nothing of the norms. This is
• 30:02
  lawbreaking behavior. All of that has to
• 30:05
  be brought to heal. All of it.
• 30:10
  Oops.
• 30:13
  After your convo with Eli and Ian, I
• 30:15
  went and purchased Israel's Lobby, the
• 30:17
  book. Yes, looking forward to reading
• 30:18
  it. Looking forward to more
• 30:19
  conversations like that. A warning, take
• 30:23
  your time with reading it because they
• 30:25
  put a lot of richness into the text and
• 30:28
  a lot of details. I don't have the book
• 30:29
  in. Oh, yes, I do. Hang on.
• 30:32
  Uh, let's see here.
• 30:36
  Yeah, this is it. I You can see my copy.
• 30:40
  I I high I highlight like a I highlight
• 30:44
  everything but um they put a lot of
• 30:47
  richness into the details. So really
• 30:49
  take your time
• 30:51
  particularly on the history stuff.
• 30:53
  You'll get bogged down because they're
• 30:55
  so there's just the popoly of
• 30:56
  organizations that the book essentially
• 31:00
  uh covers is endless is endless. And as
• 31:02
  Ian said to me, some of them will have
• 31:05
  the word Israel in it or or or you know,
• 31:08
  Jewish potentially, but many most of
• 31:10
  them don't. You know, United Democracy
• 31:13
  Project. Why is that an Israeli or an
• 31:16
  organization that wants to back Israeli
• 31:17
  interests, right? Why is that a thing?
• 31:19
  So, in any event, uh just take your time
• 31:22
  with it.
• 31:28
  Seinfeld is a pretty reprehensible
• 31:29
  person, though I do prefer when these
• 31:32
  types flat out admit they like the
• 31:34
  genocide in Gaza. No need to play hide
• 31:36
  the ball with their true feelings. He's
• 31:38
  sick. Jerry Seinfeld is sick. He's a
• 31:40
  sick person. He has been confronted
• 31:43
  about these issues on a number of
• 31:45
  different occasions
• 31:47
  and every time it's been,
• 31:51
  oh, I think the genocide is great and
• 31:56
  some some some version of dehumanizing
• 31:59
  language around Palestinians or that the
• 32:01
  genocide isn't real or that it's real
• 32:03
  and it's like, oh yeah, it's sure real
• 32:04
  like you're being, you know, patronizing
• 32:06
  the entire way. He's done this a number
• 32:07
  of different times to protesters. I
• 32:10
  think he's obviously been a huge
• 32:11
  supporter of the various interests of
• 32:13
  the state. I mean, um,
• 32:18
  it it has like when when you I don't
• 32:20
  know how y'all felt, but when when the
• 32:21
  when Gaza really got
• 32:24
  kicked off,
• 32:28
  I was like a I was sort of like bummed
• 32:30
  out by watching how many people who I
• 32:32
  had previously admired or en who enjoyed
• 32:34
  just come out as like just straight up
• 32:36
  hardcore genocide supporters. Uh, and I
• 32:40
  guess now I'm not as
• 32:44
  I don't know, bothered is the word. I
• 32:46
  guess encumbered by it because I'm so
• 32:48
  used to it or I've, you know, how how
• 32:50
  many more could there be at this point?
• 32:51
  I mean, so the bulk of them that are
• 32:53
  gone are gone. Um, but it was so
• 32:57
  dispiriting for a while to see how many
• 32:59
  were like this. Utterly dispiriting.
• 33:02
  Um, but
• 33:06
  I don't know what to say. I don't this
• 33:08
  is to me like a big question for example
• 33:11
  for the Democratic party about like
• 33:12
  what's going to happen here. You heard
• 33:14
  Eli Clifton and Ian Lustik in this book
• 33:18
  you heard them openly discuss that you
• 33:22
  know a lot of other groups for example
• 33:24
  let's say let's talk about Hispanics
• 33:25
  Hispanics in 2024 in many ways and in
• 33:28
  many key parts of um important states
• 33:31
  including overall you know broke for
• 33:33
  Donald Trump. Now they've got buyer
• 33:36
  remorse, but they certainly did. But
• 33:38
  you're noticing a sway, right? They went
• 33:40
  to one direction and then they went
• 33:41
  another direction. Not to say that there
• 33:43
  aren't parts of that electorate that can
• 33:45
  be more consistent cycle over cycle, but
• 33:47
  it's got a little bit more movement. And
• 33:49
  their argument in this book, and I think
• 33:51
  quite rightly the data speaks to that,
• 33:53
  is that Jewish voters in America have
• 33:55
  basically not been like that. Maybe
• 33:57
  twothirds of them are Democratic, about
• 33:59
  a third of them are Republican. and the
• 34:01
  part that uh that that that breakdown
• 34:04
  between the two/3s and the 1/3, there
• 34:06
  isn't really much of a change. Certainly
• 34:07
  not much over the last 25 years. They're
• 34:09
  pretty reliable voters in that regard.
• 34:11
  Will it stay that way? I don't know. But
• 34:14
  I also just don't know what to say to
• 34:17
  people to be like, h, how are we
• 34:19
  supposed to make common cause with
• 34:20
  people who cannot see this for what it
• 34:24
  obviously is and whether they have uh
• 34:28
  fond memories of for their older
• 34:30
  generation who might have fonder
• 34:31
  memories of what they thought Israel
• 34:33
  once was or they've got a sentimental
• 34:36
  attachment to it because they may have
• 34:37
  gone on some kind of birthright trip or
• 34:38
  maybe even beyond that, you know,
• 34:40
  they've got some kind of ideological and
• 34:42
  potentially even, you know um
• 34:45
  you know identarian way of of having a
• 34:49
  relationship to that state. I can
• 34:50
  understand the difficulty in having to
• 34:52
  confront what has again lustic sort of
• 34:56
  describing this used to be if if you
• 34:58
  want to use American electoral parlance
• 35:01
  Israel 20 30 year not 20 but maybe 30
• 35:03
  years ago used to be something of a blue
• 35:06
  state then it kind of became a purple
• 35:07
  state and now it's just a straightup red
• 35:09
  state and then confronting that change
• 35:11
  the collapse of the Israeli left the
• 35:13
  collapse of any kind of civilizing force
• 35:15
  within the Israeli government as it
• 35:17
  pertains to treatment towards
• 35:19
  Palestinian ians even their own Arabs in
• 35:22
  the Knesset don't even have the same
• 35:23
  kind of rights and can't form coalitions
• 35:26
  in the way that they need to to attain
• 35:27
  power like you know to say nothing of
• 35:29
  the growing apartheid that's happening
• 35:31
  there. This book is kind of interesting
• 35:32
  because they not there's this one
• 35:34
  movement among um among the like the 90
• 35:38
  early 90s Israeli left and they argued
• 35:41
  Israel can either be Jewish, democratic
• 35:44
  or large but sorry those are the three
• 35:47
  things it could be but it can only be
• 35:49
  two of them simultaneously.
• 35:51
  Right? It can only be Jewish, democratic
• 35:53
  and large. It can't be all three. So if
• 35:55
  it wants to be democratic and large it
• 35:59
  can't really be Jewish. If it wants to
• 36:00
  be Jewish and democratic, it can't be
• 36:02
  large. It has to give the territory to
• 36:04
  the Arabs. If it, you know, I mean, you
• 36:06
  can just play the game and move it
• 36:07
  around. And that has, they have given up
• 36:09
  the democracy part. So now it is large.
• 36:11
  They have the Golan Heights. Now they
• 36:13
  have South Lebanon. They're basically
• 36:15
  going to take all of Gaza, I think, over
• 36:16
  time. And I think the West Bank as well.
• 36:18
  West Bank's on military lockdown today.
• 36:20
  That's not even their territory. They're
• 36:21
  just locking it down.
• 36:24
  Um, so it's no longer really all that
• 36:26
  democratic. I I I can imagine that
• 36:29
  confronting that
• 36:31
  is difficult. I can imagine that. But
• 36:33
  you got to come along.
• 36:36
  You just have to see reality as painful
• 36:38
  as it may be for what it is.
• 36:42
  And it this is a state that our
• 36:45
  attachment to is causing us foreign and
• 36:48
  has for many decades suboptimal foreign
• 36:51
  policy outcomes. Not putting that
• 36:54
  lightly. And now erosions of civil
• 36:57
  liberties at home. This is untenable.
• 37:00
  This is unten. This is not acceptable.
• 37:02
  There's no way this is acceptable. So
• 37:05
  how can you make common cause with
• 37:06
  people who can't let that go? Um that's
• 37:10
  sort of one argument to make. Jerry
• 37:12
  Seinfeld is worse than all of that.
• 37:14
  Jerry Seinfeld is in a place where he
• 37:16
  takes glee in the suffering. He is he is
• 37:20
  he is he the the fervor of the blowback
• 37:25
  brings a smile to his face. He revels in
• 37:28
  it.
• 37:30
  He is not getable. Right? This is not a
• 37:32
  person that can be reasoned with
• 37:35
  morally.
• 37:36
  This is a person that believes in just
• 37:38
  maximum force for an ideological project
• 37:41
  of his liking.
• 37:45
  Um he's a monster.
• 37:48
  That kind of mo that kind of moral
• 37:50
  reasoning
• 37:52
  should be drumed out of polite society.
• 37:56
  We should not accommodate people like
• 37:57
  that.
• 38:00
  And it's a pity because he's,
• 38:04
  you know, that that sitcom. I mean, I
• 38:05
  don't know what kind of attachment
• 38:06
  people have to it now, but I was in high
• 38:08
  school when Seinfeld was on and trust
• 38:10
  me, it was real popular. Um
• 38:14
  it's a pity but
• 38:18
  that is not a person that that society
• 38:21
  should embrace
• 38:23
  that that is not a person that I mean we
• 38:27
  should be encouraging the kind of people
• 38:28
  that again can do basic moral reasoning
• 38:30
  but are also like part of doing like
• 38:32
  pro-social
• 38:34
  um
• 38:37
  you know they encourage pro-social bonds
• 38:42
  And that is just so antihuman, so
• 38:46
  racist.
• 38:49
  Remember I told you before about like my
• 38:50
  frustrations with the upper class of
• 38:51
  Latin America just wanting to use the
• 38:53
  force of law to suppress. That's Jerry
• 38:55
  Seinfeld
• 38:56
  not interested in solving the problems
• 38:58
  down there. Take the baton to them or
• 39:02
  the pistol or the rifle or the drone or
• 39:05
  the gunship. Whatever it takes to just
• 39:08
  [ __ ] make it go away. That's that
• 39:10
  attitude. There is never going to be an
• 39:13
  internal reflection and a reckoning
• 39:16
  more. He is incapable of moral
• 39:18
  reckoning. I don't think that many
• 39:20
  people are quite to that gone to that
• 39:21
  degree, but he is. He is. I think Bill
• 39:24
  Maher might be the same, too.
• 39:28
  I'm not a prepper, but the midterms has
• 39:31
  me concerned about the future. Should I
• 39:33
  be gathering basic essentials for my
• 39:35
  family? I don't know about that. Are my
• 39:38
  concerns overblown? I don't know. I
• 39:39
  mean, you could be right in the end. I
• 39:41
  don't know. What type of readiness do
• 39:42
  you practice for your family? Dude, I
• 39:44
  don't have anything like this. I I don't
• 39:46
  mean to suggest that you're not
• 39:49
  that your urgency being greater than
• 39:51
  mine makes mine calmer and ser mine's
• 39:55
  more out of touch. I don't know, dude. I
• 39:57
  I I can't live a life where I have to
• 40:00
  prep. I live in the capital of the
• 40:01
  United States. Like, where am I going to
• 40:04
  go?
• 40:05
  like, "Oh, I'm gonna go to my basement
• 40:08
  in the city." You know what I mean?
• 40:09
  Like, they'll get you there, too.
• 40:12
  Whatever happens, you know? Um,
• 40:15
  you know, I'm just kind of in this one
• 40:16
  for how it goes. To be honest with you,
• 40:18
  I don't have a great answer for you.
• 40:22
  I urge you to read on the history of
• 40:24
  Russians and Ukrainians by Putin in
• 40:26
  2021. To me, this essay betrays clear
• 40:29
  genocidal intent directed at UA people.
• 40:32
  Yeah, I need to read that. You're right.
• 40:36
  I do need to read that.
• 40:41
  I need to reread um I know it sounds
• 40:43
  crazy because obviously he was a crazy
• 40:46
  person or you know troubled as a bare
• 40:48
  minimum.
• 40:50
  The Uni Bombers manifesto. I haven't
• 40:52
  read it since it was printed. I'd be
• 40:54
  curious to reread it and see if I get
• 40:55
  what you know not not like oh
• 40:57
  inspiration but I just to revisit the
• 40:59
  arguments you know
• 41:01
  is there literally no limit to the
• 41:03
  number of pardons he can grift I mean
• 41:05
  gift what value is this to average
• 41:07
  Americans I don't know that there's a
• 41:08
  numeric my understanding is that's not
• 41:10
  the case he can there's there's no limit
• 41:14
  of pardons I mean
• 41:17
  could you limit could you could you make
• 41:19
  so many that mathematically
• 41:26
  You know, it makes the law uninforcable
• 41:28
  in certain ways. I suppose there's some
• 41:30
  kind of mathematical quandry in that
• 41:32
  way, but no, I don't I don't believe
• 41:34
  there's any kind of limit. LT, do you
• 41:37
  think we actually have a chance of a
• 41:39
  mega tsunami sea change wave take both
• 41:42
  House and Senate with huge majorities? I
• 41:44
  am trying to not get my hopes up, but it
• 41:46
  feels like the data polls early voting
• 41:48
  are all trending down. I would manage
• 41:50
  your expectations.
• 41:52
  Here's my feeling. Okay, this will
• 41:55
  change between now and election day, but
• 41:56
  you're asking me on the 23rd of October,
• 42:01
  the Dems will retake the house at a bare
• 42:03
  minimum with a Dem plus 7
• 42:06
  uh number, higher than that potentially
• 42:09
  could be D8, D9, could even be more. If
• 42:10
  it starts getting to D10, D12,
• 42:14
  that's a different scenario. But I
• 42:16
  certainly expect D7 or so from what I'm
• 42:18
  seeing. The Senate, I don't really know.
• 42:21
  Uh I think that they're going to win
• 42:22
  potentially in North Carolina. Maine is
• 42:24
  very hard to call. Iowa with Turk and um
• 42:28
  who was the one begging for gas money?
• 42:30
  Henson. Um that that is a nailbiter.
• 42:34
  That's really really hard to say. I
• 42:36
  don't know how that's going to go.
• 42:37
  Kansas, I'm not a believer that they're
• 42:39
  going to get one from Kansas. The Tal
• 42:41
  Rico one I think is a tossup. I people
• 42:43
  being like, "Oh, it's a guarantee he's
• 42:45
  going to get in."
• 42:49
  I'd like to believe that, but I'm really
• 42:51
  not going to believe that until I see
• 42:53
  it, to be honest with you. Uh I I think
• 42:56
  it's more likely than not that Elsed
• 42:58
  gets in, but God only knows how that
• 43:01
  could go as well. and to say nothing of
• 43:03
  if he wins. By the way, again, what kind
• 43:05
  of intervention by the federal
• 43:07
  government that will be to stop that
• 43:09
  election results from being certified.
• 43:12
  Um, but you've got basically the six
• 43:14
  there's like six states here that you
• 43:16
  would need to capture four of, you know,
• 43:18
  will they capture four?
• 43:21
  I think they've got a fighting chance at
• 43:22
  it. I'm not a believer that this is
• 43:25
  going to be some kind of a tsunami. The
• 43:27
  thing you really have to I think
• 43:29
  remember is those of us watching this
• 43:31
  live chat, you and I might be horrified
• 43:33
  at the idea of what Trump has done with
• 43:37
  to the rule of law. You and I might be
• 43:39
  horrified at what he's done with mass
• 43:40
  deportations. And to the extent that
• 43:42
  mass deportations have depressed various
• 43:44
  local communities, let's say South
• 43:46
  Texas, let's say parts of North
• 43:48
  Carolina, well then yes, it'll get to my
• 43:50
  point here in a minute, but there is
• 43:54
  people don't like ICE and they're
• 43:56
  generally pro-immigrant. That is
• 43:57
  actually true, but I don't think there'd
• 44:00
  be like a blue wave over that. These are
• 44:03
  secondary considerations. Unfortunately,
• 44:06
  the real considerations for a lot of
• 44:08
  these voters is pocketbook. What about
• 44:09
  my money? And yes, of course, they're
• 44:12
  being hit by the tariffs, particularly
• 44:13
  in these places like Iowa, like Maine,
• 44:15
  right? Like Michigan,
• 44:18
  um, and the ga high gas prices for all
• 44:20
  other kinds of reasons. All of that is
• 44:22
  true. All of that is true, but those are
• 44:24
  going to be the driving forces by a
• 44:26
  million miles over the things that have
• 44:28
  horrified us. I just mentioned Pete
• 44:30
  Hexth murdering fishermen in the
• 44:32
  Caribbean. This is to me like top of
• 44:34
  murdering 120 plus school girls in Iran.
• 44:38
  This to me is one of the things among
• 44:39
  many others certainly that are top of
• 44:41
  mind. I don't think that that's top of
• 44:43
  mind to the same degree for a lot of the
• 44:46
  electorate that even might be fatigued
• 44:48
  with Trump be unhappy with prices at the
• 44:50
  pump and otherwise with their like
• 44:52
  electricity or their access to
• 44:54
  healthcare or things like that. In other
• 44:55
  words, like the things that we are all
• 44:57
  looking at in like this cumulative sense
• 45:00
  that has nothing to do let's say with
• 45:02
  prices per se and cost of living per se
• 45:04
  and kitchen table per se. All of that
• 45:07
  matters to us, but in these other
• 45:08
  places, I don't really know how much
• 45:10
  that registers. And if that doesn't
• 45:12
  register, then what is then how great
• 45:14
  actually is the urgency to have
• 45:17
  leadership change in Kansas or
• 45:20
  Mississippi, for example? Crom's trying
• 45:21
  to win over there.
• 45:24
  Um,
• 45:28
  I'm skeptical to a degree. So, I'm not
• 45:31
  saying that they won't take the Senate.
• 45:32
  I I think that there's a a decent chance
• 45:36
  that they could, but just sort of
• 45:39
  recognizing what's top of mind and then
• 45:41
  how much that pushes an electorate to
• 45:45
  get out there.
• 45:50
  I guess we'll see. I guess we'll see.
• 46:01
  Do you think the 2024 election is the
• 46:03
  low point for our electorate? Oh,
• 46:05
  brother. I would not say that. I think
• 46:07
  it's even worse than Bush's re-election.
• 46:09
  That was a bad one. That was a bad one.
• 46:11
  Or Trump's first victory in 2016. I'm
• 46:14
  trying to remember. Those are the ones
• 46:16
  that I felt the worst about. I did not
• 46:18
  feel as bad about Bush in 2000. Even
• 46:21
  though the Bush vGore was like an insane
• 46:23
  battle, I didn't feel as bad about it.
• 46:26
  Um, I think I was more right-wing at the
• 46:28
  time. Anyway,
• 46:31
  watching Bush
• 46:34
  [ __ ] up the response to 9/11 by going
• 46:37
  into Iraq was like the deal breaker of
• 46:40
  all deal breakers for me. Not that I
• 46:42
  supported him as much before, but I'm
• 46:44
  just saying I didn't his his he he he
• 46:47
  was obviously an idiot and uh I didn't
• 46:49
  want him to win, but I didn't find I
• 46:51
  didn't you know I didn't think it would
• 46:52
  end the world was going to end at the
• 46:54
  time. Um, and then to to to then also
• 46:57
  have like you guys might might remember
• 46:59
  do you remember like the John Ky
• 47:00
  Swiftboat stuff? Basically, there was a
• 47:02
  group of Vietnam vets, Vietnam vets who
• 47:04
  tried to make John Kerry look like a
• 47:07
  Vietnam war loser. Whereas like during
• 47:10
  that time, even though he was highly
• 47:12
  decorated for his military service
• 47:14
  during that time and then after the fact
• 47:16
  or not after the fact, but during that
• 47:18
  time, George Bush was in like the Texas
• 47:20
  Air National Guard. Like he didn't even
• 47:22
  go. And yet all of the service by John
• 47:25
  Kerry gets called into question and he
• 47:28
  loses. He loses. He loses with his
• 47:30
  running mate was uh who was that corn
• 47:32
  pone [ __ ] lawyer from where was he
• 47:34
  from? Arkansas. He was having affairs
• 47:36
  and getting like $500 haircuts back in
• 47:38
  20 2004. What the [ __ ] was his name?
• 47:41
  There's two Americas. What was his name?
• 47:43
  I cannot remember his name. But in any
• 47:45
  case,
• 47:47
  um that was a that was a tough that was
• 47:49
  a bitter pill to swallow on election
• 47:51
  night. I can tell you that. Um,
• 47:56
  Trump was real bad,
• 47:59
  but I hated Hillary Clinton.
• 48:02
  Um, 2024 was really bad because I just
• 48:05
  knew it was going to be
• 48:09
  I knew they were going to come in guns
• 48:11
  blazing. You had to know. Yeah. You knew
• 48:14
  it was going to be a [ __ ]
• 48:16
  assault. And it was. And it has been.
• 48:20
  Um, I would very much caution against
• 48:23
  that being the low point. I absolutely
• 48:27
  think he could get much worse.
• 48:33
  I'm anxious about all the efforts Trump
• 48:35
  will try to steal the election. They
• 48:37
  tried suing to block Alaska Senate
• 48:39
  results. We talked about that at the top
• 48:40
  of the podcast. If Republicans lose,
• 48:43
  what do you think are the most likely
• 48:44
  ways they'll try and how do we combat
• 48:46
  it? Um,
• 48:50
  I should talk to an election expert to
• 48:52
  get a full survey of all the things that
• 48:54
  they'll try. But I mean, there's just
• 48:56
  you just have to ask yourself, what are
• 48:57
  all the levers in the election mechanism
• 49:01
  that can be pulled? Here's what I mean.
• 49:04
  When he tried to get the presidential
• 49:06
  election in 2020 overturned, what did he
• 49:08
  do? Well, basically a lot of stuff. He
• 49:11
  tried to get a fake elector scheme,
• 49:14
  right? He tried to get a fake uh slate
• 49:16
  of electors to be introduced um that
• 49:19
  could interrupt that process. That's one
• 49:21
  thing he tried to do. He tried to get
• 49:23
  Mike Pence to do a thing he wasn't able
• 49:26
  to, which of course Mike Pence purposely
• 49:27
  said he wasn't even going to bother
• 49:29
  trying, but that was the thing he tried
• 49:31
  to do because he at least theorized,
• 49:33
  yeah, it's not necessarily enumerated,
• 49:34
  but we're going to just make it work if
• 49:36
  the vice president assumes a set of
• 49:38
  powers he does not have.
• 49:40
  He tried to call up the Secretary of
• 49:42
  State of Georgia to have him find votes.
• 49:45
  They launched a million lawsuits
• 49:47
  particularly in Pennsylvania about vote
• 49:49
  integrity, vote counting, vote, you
• 49:51
  know, harvesting, all kinds of stuff.
• 49:53
  Um, they called they had calls with the
• 49:57
  uh the the various assemblies of state
• 49:59
  legislators beyond Georgia and tried to
• 50:02
  pressure them not to certify. In other
• 50:04
  words, like there's just all these parts
• 50:06
  in these processes in the election
• 50:08
  machine from when you have turn in your
• 50:10
  ballot to the results getting certified
• 50:13
  and they tried to throw sand in the
• 50:14
  gears or overturn every single part of
• 50:17
  that. You're asking like what can they
• 50:19
  do? They can do litigation. They can
• 50:21
  have people not certify results. They
• 50:23
  can have you know again fraud as any
• 50:27
  anything is possible here. um you know
• 50:30
  in terms of specific a action items that
• 50:32
  they might go for. We would have to talk
• 50:33
  to an election expert, but just again
• 50:36
  use what they've already done as a road
• 50:38
  map. There's nothing that they won't
• 50:40
  try. There's no rock they're not going
• 50:43
  to turn over.
• 50:45
  I mean, unless it like they they
• 50:46
  determine that it won't do anything for
• 50:47
  them, but to the extent they feel like
• 50:49
  that can be useful in stopping a
• 50:51
  process, that's a rock they'll turn
• 50:53
  over.
• 50:57
  Uh appreciate your work, Luke. Do you
• 50:58
  have a PO box so fans can send you
• 51:00
  things? I do not. Have you thought of
• 51:02
  doing a cameo messages? New kid rock
• 51:04
  out. New kid rock music with Eminem. I'd
• 51:07
  rather eat glass than listen to that.
• 51:11
  I'd rather eat [ __ ] glass than listen
• 51:14
  to that.
• 51:17
  But no, I don't have a PO box yet. You
• 51:19
  want to just support me? You want to
• 51:20
  send me things? A super chat, even for
• 51:23
  just a dollar, I'll take. Uh, when MAGA
• 51:26
  is truly dead and gone, when the Epstein
• 51:27
  files come out and the 4K seam becomes
• 51:31
  public, what do you think the Rogans,
• 51:33
  Bill Morris, and Steven A. Smiths, and
• 51:35
  all the other cucks will do when Trump
• 51:36
  is truly radioactive? One day they will
• 51:39
  all have been against it.
• 51:43
  The
• 51:45
  gang, I just mentioned this. The Iraq
• 51:48
  war is so instructive
• 51:51
  because you can't imagine if you weren't
• 51:54
  around, for example, for Secretary of
• 51:57
  Defense Donald Rumsfeld's press
• 51:59
  briefings
• 52:01
  where, you know, he's talking about
• 52:02
  known unknowns and lecturing people
• 52:06
  about, well, we go with the military
• 52:07
  that we have, not the one that we
• 52:08
  imagine for ourselves, right? This
• 52:10
  insanely arrogant piece of [ __ ] And
• 52:12
  then to watch all of their minations and
• 52:15
  ideas and dreams get completely
• 52:18
  shattered against the reality of how
• 52:20
  [ __ ] stupid they were and then for
• 52:23
  nothing in polite society to happen to
• 52:26
  them. And in fact and in fact Obama
• 52:30
  going out of his way to put his arm
• 52:32
  around the bushes as you know you're
• 52:34
  still part of this great American
• 52:36
  tradition
• 52:38
  and what that meant for Yeah. I mean,
• 52:39
  some people were so utterly discredited
• 52:41
  that they have had a much quieter life
• 52:43
  since the ending of the Iraq war, ending
• 52:45
  of the Bush administration, namely like
• 52:46
  a Paul Wolfowitz. You don't hear as much
• 52:48
  about him, but plenty of other ones are
• 52:51
  had still had careers long after that.
• 52:54
  Nothing ever happened to them. Nothing's
• 52:56
  going to happen to any of these people
• 52:58
  now. They might have an issue
• 52:59
  maintaining popularity given the
• 53:01
  association, but like the idea that
• 53:04
  there's going to be
• 53:07
  there's going to be so much being like I
• 53:09
  was against this part and I've always
• 53:10
  said that part, right? They're going to
• 53:12
  try to find some lane to say that they
• 53:14
  had kept their courage. You know,
• 53:16
  they'll find ways to talk about it to
• 53:18
  put blame on others. They'll invite as
• 53:21
  many popular people to be around them as
• 53:22
  a way to like boost their appeal. And
• 53:24
  much of this will work. Not all of it,
• 53:26
  but a lot of it will work. You know how
• 53:28
  I know? Because this is what happened
• 53:30
  after the war in Iraq. Biden's team is
• 53:33
  trying this now. Brett McGherk has been
• 53:35
  trying this on a press tour forever.
• 53:36
  Jake um what's his name? The National
• 53:40
  Security Adviser, I forget his name, uh
• 53:41
  has a podcast with Vox. They're all
• 53:43
  trying it. They're all trying it right
• 53:45
  now. There's a playbook already out
• 53:47
  there. It's it's what they all did after
• 53:50
  after the war in Iraq. I watched them do
• 53:53
  it. You thought I thought these people
• 53:55
  will be bounced from society. They will
• 53:58
  be bounced from politics. They will have
• 54:00
  no future and in a little bit of cases
• 54:03
  that was true. Not not really. Not
• 54:05
  really. The ones that were the frontline
• 54:07
  faces of it maybe like Paul Bremer,
• 54:10
  right? That kind of a thing. But in
• 54:11
  general, no. And he had a long career in
• 54:13
  the State Department before that anyway.
• 54:16
  They will all pretend that they weren't
• 54:19
  as culpable as they were, that they were
• 54:21
  much more in favor of the opposite than
• 54:23
  they were. They will pretend that they
• 54:25
  made the switch much faster than they
• 54:27
  did. They will attach themselves to some
• 54:29
  form of collective wisdom, right? They
• 54:32
  will just try and obfuscate everything
• 54:34
  that they got wrong. And I want to say
• 54:36
  one more time, I've been wrong about
• 54:37
  People always ask me, "Oh, aren't you
• 54:38
  wrong about this? Aren't you wrong about
• 54:39
  that?" I've been wrong about a million
• 54:41
  things. This was the second [ __ ]
• 54:44
  crack at this with Trump. This is the
• 54:47
  second crack.
• 54:50
  You already saw everything from the
• 54:52
  first one.
• 54:54
  And people were like, I want more of
• 54:56
  that. Only only more of that.
• 55:00
  This is unforgivable judgment.
• 55:06
  Did you already discuss the Vivic ad?
• 55:08
  No. I would love to. I would love to.
• 55:13
  I would love to discuss the Vivic ad.
• 55:15
  Can we discuss the Vivic ad, please?
• 55:18
  I'm actually hesitant to compare it to
• 55:21
  the Willie Horton ad.
• 55:24
  You might recall there was an old ad. Um
• 55:27
  I saw it recently. Who was showing it? I
• 55:30
  may have seen it on YouTube. I forget,
• 55:33
  but it's sort of like considered to be
• 55:35
  one of the most unethical ads. Um uh
• 55:38
  George Bush ran it
• 55:41
  uh I believe against Michael Dukakus and
• 55:44
  it's one of these things where like oh
• 55:45
  Michael Dukakus believes in you know
• 55:47
  letting people out of jail who then go
• 55:49
  on to do great murdering and this is a
• 55:51
  thing that he would love and it you know
• 55:53
  showed this guy Willie Horton who you
• 55:55
  know was accused of uh or essentially
• 55:58
  the poster I should say the poster child
• 56:00
  for this kind of like you know
• 56:02
  degeneracy and crime.
• 56:04
  But that that ad worked. It worked. So I
• 56:08
  hesitate to make a comparison to this
• 56:09
  because I actually don't think it's
• 56:10
  working for Vivic. But Vivic Ramaswami's
• 56:13
  ad against Amy Actton, he's running in
• 56:15
  the for the Republican uh party to be uh
• 56:19
  governor of Ohio. He's from Ohio for
• 56:22
  whatever that's worth. And he puts out
• 56:26
  an ad where he talks to Amy Actton's
• 56:28
  mother. Amy Actton's mother lost custody
• 56:30
  of Amy when she was 12. The reason why
• 56:33
  is because uh the authorities eventually
• 56:36
  charged the stepfather, her second
• 56:38
  husband, for sexually abusing Amy. I
• 56:42
  mean, there's actually more charges than
• 56:43
  that, but let's just leave it to that.
• 56:45
  And this is a guy who, in order to
• 56:47
  escape the long arm of justice, fled the
• 56:49
  state and never returned. The mother
• 56:51
  took the side of the stepfather or her
• 56:54
  husband uh the entire time. And Rob
• 56:58
  Swami puts a camera in her face to get
• 57:00
  her to say that Amy's a liar. Why would
• 57:01
  Amy be a liar? Why would Amy's mother
• 57:03
  say that she's a liar? The reason why
• 57:05
  she would say that is because in in her
• 57:07
  mind um she took the side of the second
• 57:10
  husband over the side of her child. So
• 57:13
  understand she abandoned her child for
• 57:16
  her husband who was raping her. Not her,
• 57:20
  but her daughter. So she abandons her
• 57:23
  daughter for the person raping her.
• 57:27
  You can't get more.
• 57:34
  It's not. Yeah. I mean, evil, of course,
• 57:36
  is the thing.
• 57:38
  This is a uh
• 57:41
  this is what like a the term loser is
• 57:44
  often given to someone who's like sort
• 57:46
  of like doesn't have their [ __ ]
• 57:48
  together, but maybe isn't necessarily
• 57:50
  evil. But I mean it more in the the pro
• 57:52
  more profound sense. This is somebody
• 57:54
  who
• 57:56
  who is
• 57:58
  so rotten inside. They have nothing.
• 58:02
  They have nothing.
• 58:04
  They are nothing. Their death will be an
• 58:08
  improvement to the world. I'm not
• 58:10
  calling for it, but but of old age,
• 58:12
  their departure from the world, whenever
• 58:14
  that may be, it will only make it
• 58:15
  better.
• 58:17
  They are a cancer to life itself.
• 58:21
  and to abandon your child for the
• 58:25
  malignant force violating them. I can I
• 58:28
  cannot think of greater surrender and
• 58:30
  betrayal than this.
• 58:36
  It is the worst of the worst. And so her
• 58:38
  claim that act in Godzilla's home, her
• 58:42
  claim that her daughter was a liar about
• 58:45
  the second husband, that's what
• 58:47
  Ramaswami made an ad about. And then he
• 58:49
  is asked about it. He doubles down on
• 58:51
  it, triples down on it. JD Vance doubles
• 58:53
  down on it. But then JD Vance was like,
• 58:55
  you know, listen, these things are
• 58:56
  tough. What does that even mean, JD? God
• 58:58
  only knows. The president doubled and
• 59:00
  tripled down. And apparently the
• 59:01
  president, according to reporting by CNN
• 59:03
  was miffed, was upset that enough
• 59:07
  Republicans was to say that the the push
• 59:10
  back was bipartisan. It bothered him. It
• 59:12
  bothered him. Understand this is the
• 59:14
  party of protecting child rapists.
• 59:17
  I mean, I could have made this argument
• 59:20
  before all of this with the Epstein
• 59:22
  files,
• 59:24
  even before we got here. Should also be
• 59:27
  noted recent articles on the Free Press,
• 59:29
  Wall Street Journal, Fox News about how
• 59:31
  many conservative parents and
• 59:33
  grandparents uh lose contact with their
• 59:36
  kids or grandkids because they get cut
• 59:38
  off.
• 59:42
  And now you have a case where a woman
• 59:44
  who is
• 59:46
  a
• 59:48
  I mean morally heinous. I it just it
• 59:50
  just seems almost too clinical to
• 59:52
  describe her and her claims
• 59:55
  so
• 59:57
  grotesque.
• 1:00:01
  And they want to they believe that the
• 1:00:05
  family
• 1:00:07
  damage
• 1:00:09
  done by a mother betraying her daughter
• 1:00:12
  who was raped,
• 1:00:15
  this is usable political material.
• 1:00:20
  You need to understand this idea. It's
• 1:00:23
  measured in a variety of different ways,
• 1:00:25
  but one of the ways you can see that the
• 1:00:26
  Republican party is completely unable to
• 1:00:31
  function as a party. I mean, the idea
• 1:00:34
  that a party is supposed to act in some
• 1:00:36
  kind of a way as to, you know, keep out
• 1:00:38
  lowquality candidates to improve its own
• 1:00:41
  interests in various races and holding
• 1:00:43
  office over time. It no longer serves
• 1:00:45
  that function very well. The slate of
• 1:00:48
  candidates you see this election cycle
• 1:00:50
  are outrageously bad. I mean, you're
• 1:00:53
  getting competitive seats in Mississippi
• 1:00:55
  because a lot of these incumbents just
• 1:00:57
  don't know really. They they they've not
• 1:00:59
  had any kind of a stern challenge in a
• 1:01:00
  long time. But Trump has made things so
• 1:01:02
  bad that they're now getting these
• 1:01:04
  upstart people who are, you know,
• 1:01:06
  tapping into upstart political forces
• 1:01:09
  and the incumbents have no idea how to
• 1:01:11
  deal with it. They're very running. to
• 1:01:12
  say nothing of Ken Paxton. The best
• 1:01:14
  thing Donald Trump can say about Ken
• 1:01:16
  Paxton is, "Yeah, listen, he might be a
• 1:01:18
  fat oaf with a lazy eye, but he's our
• 1:01:20
  fat oaf with a lazy eye." I mean, a guy
• 1:01:24
  who partied allegedly overseas with
• 1:01:26
  criminals who are now on the run from
• 1:01:28
  the Department of Justice,
• 1:01:31
  to say nothing of what he's done to his
• 1:01:34
  ex-wife, to say nothing of what he's
• 1:01:36
  done to
• 1:01:38
  um in releasing taking it easy on
• 1:01:42
  pedophiles.
• 1:01:44
  Look at the slate of candidates they
• 1:01:46
  run. that party no longer has the
• 1:01:48
  ability to function in keeping out its
• 1:01:51
  more malignant forces that would have,
• 1:01:54
  you know, I think more communally just
• 1:01:55
  not made this an acceptable thing to be
• 1:01:58
  able to do. But there's another part of
• 1:02:00
  the story here to say nothing of like
• 1:02:02
  what it means for our democracy that
• 1:02:03
  that a major political party can operate
• 1:02:05
  this way. But they're making a
• 1:02:07
  miscalculation. I saw someone else make
• 1:02:08
  this point. This is not my point, but I
• 1:02:10
  would like to share it because I thought
• 1:02:11
  it was right on the money,
• 1:02:13
  which is these idiots, Trump, Vance,
• 1:02:17
  Ramaswami,
• 1:02:19
  they believe it's still the vibe the the
• 1:02:22
  the the vibe shift from 2024 where they
• 1:02:25
  could lean into maximum racism. they
• 1:02:28
  could lean into. Not just that, maximum
• 1:02:30
  meanness, maximum maximum bullyingness,
• 1:02:34
  maximum, you know, just kind of what
• 1:02:37
  they've the their cancerous version of
• 1:02:40
  peacocking where you could just be mean
• 1:02:42
  and difficult and shitty and force it
• 1:02:44
  for sport because the vibe shift had
• 1:02:47
  happened in a way that the world was now
• 1:02:49
  going to be accommodating of that.
• 1:02:50
  [ __ ] Those days are not here
• 1:02:54
  anymore
• 1:02:56
  and they don't have another gear.
• 1:02:59
  I mean, Trump
• 1:03:01
  definitely doesn't have another gear.
• 1:03:03
  Ramaswami and Vance are so slimy that
• 1:03:05
  they might try a different tap dance if
• 1:03:07
  they're able to at a different time, but
• 1:03:09
  basically as it stands for the present
• 1:03:11
  moment, they don't have another gear.
• 1:03:14
  This is who they are.
• 1:03:16
  They believe that we are still living in
• 1:03:18
  a moment where what people want is
• 1:03:20
  maximum malignancy
• 1:03:26
  and that's why you see them doubling and
• 1:03:28
  tripling down. Now there's some
• 1:03:30
  equivocation I saw Rama Swami say today
• 1:03:32
  it's not about child abuse my guy it has
• 1:03:34
  no context but for child abuse
• 1:03:38
  like that's the way that's the reason
• 1:03:39
  why she's saying this.
• 1:03:43
  I'm not one of these people that's like,
• 1:03:44
  "Oh, well, you can't talk to their
• 1:03:45
  relatives." I mean, the the Dems do this
• 1:03:48
  all the time. The Dems talk to RFK's
• 1:03:51
  family members or, you know, Steven
• 1:03:54
  Miller's family. Like, oh, Stephen
• 1:03:56
  Miller's family is ashamed of him. The
• 1:03:58
  the right was fixated on this idea that
• 1:04:00
  the left was saying, "Oh, you can't talk
• 1:04:02
  to people's families." Dude, you can
• 1:04:04
  talk to people's families. I don't care
• 1:04:06
  about that. But I feel like if you get
• 1:04:08
  to a point where you're taking the side
• 1:04:11
  of the woman who abandoned her daughter
• 1:04:13
  for the rapist who raped her.
• 1:04:21
  I don't think you're doing okay. I don't
• 1:04:23
  think you're doing okay. I think that
• 1:04:25
  this makes to me I can't wait to see the
• 1:04:29
  exit polling on and ultimately the
• 1:04:31
  results anyway of how many women voted
• 1:04:34
  for Actton especially after this. I
• 1:04:36
  would imagine there's going to be a big
• 1:04:38
  surge. Uh I would imagine women are
• 1:04:40
  going to see this and be absolutely
• 1:04:41
  horrified that a bunch of dudes are
• 1:04:43
  doubling down on the rape of a
• 1:04:44
  12-year-old girl by by her stepfather at
• 1:04:48
  her mother's pleasure.
• 1:04:50
  I don't think women are going to like
• 1:04:52
  that too much. And honestly, I think
• 1:04:53
  there are going to be people on the
• 1:04:54
  right of conscience who are going to be
• 1:04:55
  like, "Holy [ __ ] this is bad. You can't
• 1:04:57
  trust this [ __ ] guy." Now, how did
• 1:05:00
  you not come to that conclusion when you
• 1:05:02
  realized he became a billionaire by
• 1:05:03
  scamming everyone about fake medicine?
• 1:05:05
  That's another kind of conversation. But
• 1:05:08
  sure enough, dude, his o I've never seen
• 1:05:10
  someone October surprise themselves.
• 1:05:13
  But he did it. He found a way, didn't
• 1:05:14
  he?
• 1:05:21
  What is your message or how should the
• 1:05:22
  progressive wing deal with the intern
• 1:05:24
  battle with the centrist establishment
• 1:05:26
  corporate dems nera longwell Carville
• 1:05:28
  Schumer or Jeffre we should be doing
• 1:05:31
  exactly what we're doing now we have to
• 1:05:33
  fight it with them if there is one thing
• 1:05:37
  that this party doesn't have it is a
• 1:05:40
  commitment to battle part of that reason
• 1:05:43
  that they don't have a commitment to
• 1:05:44
  battle is they don't have a vision of
• 1:05:46
  what to fight for in the first place. We
• 1:05:48
  must win that battle. We must win this
• 1:05:51
  battle. At a bare minimum, the party
• 1:05:53
  must coalesce around ideas. And once it
• 1:05:56
  does, it must fight for them.
• 1:05:59
  It has to. And what do I mean by this? I
• 1:06:02
  mean fullcourt presses with earned
• 1:06:04
  media. I mean strict messaging. I mean
• 1:06:08
  door knockocking campaigns. I mean
• 1:06:11
  finding all the different ways in which
• 1:06:14
  municipal, federal, state, democratic
• 1:06:16
  politics can be affected and organized
• 1:06:19
  around to affect the the kind of change
• 1:06:22
  necessary that we want to see and
• 1:06:24
  building the kind of uh uh coalition and
• 1:06:28
  the kind of electorate that's ready for
• 1:06:29
  that sort of a thing.
• 1:06:32
  but but upon attacks from the right. And
• 1:06:35
  when when I say commitment to battle, I
• 1:06:36
  also mean doing the kinds of things
• 1:06:38
  necessary to make our legislative agenda
• 1:06:40
  possible, which is Supreme Court
• 1:06:42
  packing,
• 1:06:44
  commitment to battle.
• 1:06:46
  This is this is it. This is it. And you
• 1:06:50
  have to do the big things to get the big
• 1:06:52
  results. This is it. And this is why you
• 1:06:55
  cannot let the Nerra Tandins and the
• 1:06:56
  Matthew Glaciiuses, who did you else did
• 1:06:58
  you put here? Sarah Longwells, uh, James
• 1:07:01
  Carville's, Chuck Schumers, and Hakeem
• 1:07:03
  Jeff of the world. It's why you can't
• 1:07:04
  let them get away with defining it
• 1:07:07
  because they do not have appetite for
• 1:07:08
  this. These two idiots, Schumer and
• 1:07:11
  Jeff, are sitting there looking around
• 1:07:12
  being like, "Well, Democratic Party is
• 1:07:14
  looking pretty good. It's looking pretty
• 1:07:15
  good right now. It's looking pretty
• 1:07:16
  good." Yeah. Well, sort of. Sort of.
• 1:07:19
  Certainly, the GOP looks terrible.
• 1:07:22
  There's no question. But like this idea
• 1:07:25
  that these people who are really upset,
• 1:07:27
  these big swings you see, we're talking
• 1:07:30
  about people who just swung away from
• 1:07:32
  us, Latinos for example, now coming
• 1:07:34
  back. Now, these ICE raids aren't going
• 1:07:36
  to go anywhere. Maybe their political
• 1:07:38
  allegiance will be more durable through
• 1:07:40
  the rest of Trump's term. I don't know.
• 1:07:42
  But they can be moved again.
• 1:07:45
  They can be moved again.
• 1:07:48
  It is time to fight for the things.
• 1:07:51
  It is time to call your congressman. It
• 1:07:53
  is time to vote for progressive
• 1:07:55
  candidates. It's time, if you can, if
• 1:07:56
  you have the ability, to canvas for your
• 1:07:59
  progressive candidates. It's time to
• 1:08:00
  donate for your progressive candidates.
• 1:08:02
  It's time to buy progressive books. It's
• 1:08:04
  time to listen to their shows. It's time
• 1:08:05
  to promote aggressive uh progressive
• 1:08:07
  media. It's time to push that world. It
• 1:08:11
  is time. It is time. This is it. I have
• 1:08:15
  seen enough of this goround through what
• 1:08:18
  the rest of these parties what these
• 1:08:20
  parties the rest of what they will offer
• 1:08:22
  and it is insufficient for any kind of
• 1:08:24
  future. There is no security in what we
• 1:08:27
  want to do if we do not deliver the kind
• 1:08:29
  of meaningful change that people who
• 1:08:32
  want to vote for Mike Rogers because
• 1:08:34
  Abdul Asied's middle name is Muhammad.
• 1:08:36
  There was a clip that came out of a
• 1:08:37
  19-year-old girl saying as much.
• 1:08:41
  Unless you can affect meaningful change
• 1:08:42
  and get people like that to back off,
• 1:08:44
  you have nothing.
• 1:08:46
  You have nothing.
• 1:08:50
  I am ready for the fight. I am ready for
• 1:08:53
  the fight. I'm honestly I'm not more
• 1:08:55
  interested in fighting the left than I
• 1:08:57
  am the right. Like the right is the
• 1:08:58
  bigger threat, but I'm more keenly aware
• 1:09:00
  of how important right at this moment
• 1:09:03
  fighting it out with the left, the the
• 1:09:05
  the the center left is to affect the
• 1:09:08
  kind of change that we want to see. It's
• 1:09:10
  the most important battle right now.
• 1:09:12
  Well, no, the it's the most urgent,
• 1:09:14
  let's say. Well, even that's not quite
• 1:09:16
  right. Um,
• 1:09:19
  if we don't get that right, we won't be
• 1:09:20
  able to fight the real big battle. It's
• 1:09:22
  kind of like contingent, maybe is a
• 1:09:24
  better way to put it. Get a PO box
• 1:09:26
  already. Here's $2 towards it. What
• 1:09:29
  happens if elections become obviously
• 1:09:30
  stolen? Well, then we're through the
• 1:09:32
  looking glass. I don't know. I don't
• 1:09:35
  know. Are people going to riot in the
• 1:09:36
  street? I don't know. Are people going
• 1:09:38
  to just go about their business? Are
• 1:09:43
  I don't I don't know. I don't know what
• 1:09:46
  the literature says about what happens
• 1:09:48
  in democracies where elections get
• 1:09:50
  obviously stolen. There might be six
• 1:09:51
  months of riots and then it just goes
• 1:09:53
  away. Or maybe there's six days of
• 1:09:55
  riots. Or maybe there's not even six
• 1:09:56
  hours of riots. I don't know. I honestly
• 1:09:58
  don't know. How did the Dems lose?
• 1:10:01
  Seemed like a free win.
• 1:10:04
  Uh inflation was bad. Uh, and here's one
• 1:10:07
  thing that I will say. I have talked to
• 1:10:09
  a couple of immigration scholars who've
• 1:10:11
  done some pretty important work. And the
• 1:10:13
  one thing that they're pretty unanimous
• 1:10:14
  on, and these are not like hardcore MAGA
• 1:10:16
  people at all, is that Biden's handling
• 1:10:20
  of the border because it was so chaotic
• 1:10:22
  and because it put so much pressure on a
• 1:10:25
  lot of those towns where the population
• 1:10:28
  was coming into and that you saw Greg
• 1:10:31
  Abbott, for example, just busting people
• 1:10:33
  to DC, busting people to Martha's
• 1:10:35
  Vineyard, busting people to, you know,
• 1:10:38
  New York. Uh, and this created a big
• 1:10:40
  firestorm as well. like it just laid the
• 1:10:42
  groundwork to be defeated on those
• 1:10:44
  terms. Although now Trump is underwater
• 1:10:46
  even on immigration.
• 1:10:49
  Consider that.
• 1:10:52
  But uh that made a big difference. A
• 1:10:54
  really big difference. They just they
• 1:10:57
  created I mean you can still factor in
• 1:10:59
  oh whatever racist motivations they have
• 1:11:02
  for making that southern border some
• 1:11:03
  kind of issue that people in West
• 1:11:05
  Virginia would care about and that's
• 1:11:07
  fine but they did a bad job at it. like
• 1:11:09
  that that that is not really in dispute.
• 1:11:12
  And then of course you add in things
• 1:11:13
  like Gaza and being a part of genocide
• 1:11:15
  and supporting Israel. I mean it was a
• 1:11:17
  pretty tough situation.
• 1:11:21
  Thoughts on for stag in Montana the fire
• 1:11:24
  jumper? I have not paid attention to the
• 1:11:25
  Montana race. I hear good things. Um
• 1:11:30
  I've just not paid attention. There's so
• 1:11:33
  many. There's You would You would
• 1:11:34
  certainly grant me
• 1:11:39
  You would certainly grant me
• 1:11:42
  that there are a lot of really
• 1:11:46
  interesting races this time around.
• 1:11:49
  Florida's got a few of them. North
• 1:11:51
  Carolina, well, North Carolina's a
• 1:11:52
  little less interesting, but Maine's got
• 1:11:54
  them. Virginia is You want You want to
• 1:11:56
  see a blue tsunami? Virginia.
• 1:12:00
  Woo! Virginia is going to [ __ ]
• 1:12:05
  I mean Virginia. Yeah, Virginia. Um
• 1:12:11
  but that those are not the races people
• 1:12:13
  care about. Um but no, I've not paid
• 1:12:16
  attention to Forstag. No.
• 1:12:21
  Half MMA politics. Bo Nickel campaigned
• 1:12:23
  with Vivic and Penn State wrestling
• 1:12:25
  visited the White House randomly this
• 1:12:26
  off season. Do you think this
• 1:12:28
  association with Trump could hurt Penn
• 1:12:29
  State in the long run? You know what's
• 1:12:31
  kind of funny? Someone asked me about
• 1:12:32
  this. Someone asked me, "Do you think
• 1:12:33
  MMA media will ask um
• 1:12:38
  will ask Bo Nickel that he stomped for
• 1:12:41
  Vivic about the ad?" And I was like,
• 1:12:42
  "No, no one's going to ask him or or
• 1:12:46
  highly unlikely at a bare minimum." You
• 1:12:49
  but no, I would bet no. I don't think
• 1:12:51
  there'll be any association with that at
• 1:12:52
  all. Yet more MMA dude MMA fighters
• 1:12:55
  recently were promoting Alberta
• 1:12:57
  separatist movements and Vivic Rama
• 1:12:59
  Swami and people are like why are you so
• 1:13:01
  concerned about the political culture in
• 1:13:03
  MMA? I'm like I don't know but they keep
• 1:13:05
  helping the worst political element
• 1:13:07
  elements that I see in the modern world.
• 1:13:09
  Oh they're in favor of Ger Bolsinaro and
• 1:13:11
  now Flavio. Oh wonderful great. Like are
• 1:13:14
  they going to be part of any kind of
• 1:13:16
  political movements that aren't [ __ ]
• 1:13:19
  horrendous in every possible way?
• 1:13:22
  Because until that day, I don't know
• 1:13:23
  that I could shut up about it.
• 1:13:27
  Have you noticed the uptick in teenagers
• 1:13:29
  around the world romanticizing fascists
• 1:13:31
  like Franco? Learned mostly through
• 1:13:33
  revisionist history on TikTok. I will
• 1:13:35
  unfortunately admit to you I was not
• 1:13:37
  aware that teenagers are romanticizing
• 1:13:39
  Franco Franco. I don't know.
• 1:13:50
  Someone asks, "Reckon that once Trump
• 1:13:52
  goes, there will be less content." Oh,
• 1:13:53
  my friend.
• 1:13:55
  No, there will not. Watching what
• 1:13:58
  happens to that party after he goes is
• 1:14:01
  going to be it's going to be a
• 1:14:05
  bloodbath.
• 1:14:07
  Oh, brother. What happened when Escobar
• 1:14:10
  died? I mean, the cartels were all out
• 1:14:12
  for each other. It's going to be that.
• 1:14:15
  It's going to be that. It's going to be
• 1:14:17
  insane for someone to because he is the
• 1:14:20
  party. Like he is the heart, he is the
• 1:14:23
  blood, he is all parts of it. So he goes
• 1:14:26
  and like the whole [ __ ] goes.
• 1:14:29
  So it is going to be ninja swords. You
• 1:14:33
  see that remember that lady in the raid
• 1:14:34
  too who had the two hammers? It's going
• 1:14:36
  to be that on every train car on that
• 1:14:38
  thing.
• 1:14:40
  I mean eventually it's going to settle
• 1:14:41
  down but like Yes, I know what you mean.
• 1:14:44
  Like hey if
• 1:14:46
  Trump goes, it's like everyone's Trump
• 1:14:48
  obsessed,
• 1:14:50
  there'll be less to talk about. I know
• 1:14:51
  what you mean in that sense. But because
• 1:14:52
  it's not like him receding into the lime
• 1:14:54
  at the less of the limelight like he did
• 1:14:57
  recently and then come back and it's him
• 1:14:59
  just being gone. That's that's
• 1:15:02
  different. That's different. On CNN,
• 1:15:04
  speaking up in favor of the masculinity
• 1:15:06
  strong language with Abdul would have
• 1:15:08
  supported your battle thoughts. Let that
• 1:15:10
  drunk lady like that drunk lady. Oh,
• 1:15:13
  Jamie West.
• 1:15:15
  I I'll let me just make an argument to
• 1:15:17
  here. We were we were talking today on
• 1:15:19
  CNN about you guys seen the video of
• 1:15:22
  Abdul Elsa lifting weights with Vic
• 1:15:24
  Mensah. And this is, you know, this is
• 1:15:26
  not like the most important thing to
• 1:15:27
  consider in a week like this week or
• 1:15:28
  really any week, but you know, what is
• 1:15:30
  the value of him pumping weights with
• 1:15:32
  Vic Mensah? And my view is pretty
• 1:15:34
  simple. Like
• 1:15:37
  a lot of Democrats are just working out
• 1:15:39
  on camera this election cycle. I don't
• 1:15:40
  know if you all have noticed that.
• 1:15:41
  There's like a lot of them just working
• 1:15:43
  out now because they kind of want you to
• 1:15:44
  be like, "No, I'm a tough guy. I'm a
• 1:15:46
  [ __ ] man." I'm like, "Dude, just
• 1:15:48
  because you go to the weight room
• 1:15:50
  doesn't make you a tough guy." I want to
• 1:15:52
  be very clear about that. I've been
• 1:15:53
  around a lot of tough guys. Some of them
• 1:15:55
  were in the weight room, some of them
• 1:15:57
  weren't. Just number one, straight up.
• 1:15:59
  I'll let you know like that. But more to
• 1:16:02
  the point, like I don't think that
• 1:16:03
  there's no value in leveraging like he
• 1:16:06
  and and and Abdul is strong. He can
• 1:16:08
  bench like 315. He's very strong. like
• 1:16:11
  what's the value of that? Well, if
• 1:16:13
  you're a politician, it's pretty clear
• 1:16:15
  he's been invited on other podcasts
• 1:16:19
  through through weightlifting to reach
• 1:16:20
  audiences that he would never be able to
• 1:16:22
  reach. In that sense, it's like very
• 1:16:24
  useful. And if you like it, and of
• 1:16:26
  course, it's obviously very good for
• 1:16:27
  you. By all means, you should promote
• 1:16:29
  it. If it's part of your life,
• 1:16:30
  absolutely. And it appears to be very
• 1:16:32
  sincerely like you can't just rock up
• 1:16:34
  and then bench 315 in most
• 1:16:36
  circumstances, especially when you're
• 1:16:37
  5'8, 5'9, whatever he is. So clearly
• 1:16:40
  it's a part of his life like that. I
• 1:16:41
  don't have any issue with that. Nor do I
• 1:16:43
  nor do I misunderstand the electoral
• 1:16:45
  value. But one thing I have realized
• 1:16:47
  after 20 years more than that. I've been
• 1:16:49
  in the Marine Corps since I was 18 or I
• 1:16:52
  was in the Marine Corp. I I've been I've
• 1:16:54
  been I was in the Marine Corps since I
• 1:16:55
  was 18. I got out in 2004, but all that
• 1:16:57
  rest of that time I've been in around
• 1:16:58
  MMA culture. I've been around tough
• 1:16:59
  dudes for a long long time. For a long
• 1:17:03
  time. And what I have realized in those
• 1:17:05
  worlds is yes, if you can travel in them
• 1:17:08
  by their own versions of what they
• 1:17:10
  consider to be masculine ideals, you
• 1:17:13
  know, um you can you might be able to
• 1:17:15
  make some cross connections that can be
• 1:17:18
  valuable, but I caution everyone to stop
• 1:17:20
  for a moment and realize a lot of what
• 1:17:23
  that is is you performing masculinity on
• 1:17:26
  the right's terms because you're trying
• 1:17:28
  to say, "Aha, the right sets up these
• 1:17:30
  masculinity tests. I'm going to show you
• 1:17:32
  that even as a leftist, I can pass them.
• 1:17:35
  But here's the scam to the whole thing.
• 1:17:37
  You might be able to get into certain
• 1:17:38
  doors uh more more easily if you have
• 1:17:41
  some shared culture with another person.
• 1:17:43
  Of course, I recognize. But if they
• 1:17:46
  don't want to see you another way,
• 1:17:48
  there's nothing you can do. There's
• 1:17:51
  nothing you can do.
• 1:17:53
  I have seen Navy Seals get called cucks
• 1:17:56
  by people on Twitter for like advocating
• 1:17:58
  for like basic human decency in certain
• 1:18:00
  cases.
• 1:18:01
  like you can't actually fix it. You are
• 1:18:04
  who you are to them in many many many
• 1:18:06
  many
• 1:18:08
  cases.
• 1:18:10
  Um particularly the the more hardened
• 1:18:12
  ones.
• 1:18:14
  This idea that like oh if I beat the
• 1:18:16
  test that they put in front of me
• 1:18:18
  they'll have no choice but to say I'm
• 1:18:20
  also a tough guy in the way that they
• 1:18:22
  see tough guys. But dude they see Trump
• 1:18:24
  as a [ __ ] tough guy. And more to the
• 1:18:26
  point, they see Trump as a tough guy.
• 1:18:28
  And they'll put when they do AI art of
• 1:18:30
  him, they'll put him in like a super
• 1:18:31
  muscular body. They're telling you how
• 1:18:33
  they see him, not how he actually is,
• 1:18:36
  how they see him. This is all you need
• 1:18:38
  to know. You can't beat them. If those
• 1:18:41
  things, if doing those things that are
• 1:18:44
  considered to be traditionally
• 1:18:45
  masculine, if those things appeal to
• 1:18:47
  you, and they appeal to me, I I spent my
• 1:18:50
  whole life doing them, I get it. Go do
• 1:18:54
  it. But that isn't necessarily the kind
• 1:18:56
  of tough guy you need for leadership.
• 1:18:58
  Like that kind of a world doesn't
• 1:19:00
  necessarily produce the toughest leaders
• 1:19:02
  by any stretch of the imagination.
• 1:19:03
  Produces a lot of [ __ ] idiots to
• 1:19:05
  begin with. And there's a range of
• 1:19:08
  masculine possibilities that produce
• 1:19:11
  great leaders. We should let people just
• 1:19:12
  pick whichever one of those they are if
• 1:19:14
  that's who they authentically are.
• 1:19:17
  More to the point, I don't care if my
• 1:19:20
  leader is masculine for the most part. I
• 1:19:22
  got to be honest with you. Like I I if I
• 1:19:25
  have a female leader, is she not allowed
• 1:19:27
  to be affeminite?
• 1:19:28
  If I have a male leader, what if he is a
• 1:19:31
  feminite, but he's incredibly good at
• 1:19:32
  his job? Why do I care? Why do I care?
• 1:19:36
  Why do I care? Oh, well, Democrats are
• 1:19:38
  trying to overcome, you know, how
• 1:19:39
  they're viewed and blah blah blah. Dude,
• 1:19:40
  you're you're not going to win these
• 1:19:42
  battles. You're not going to out tough
• 1:19:44
  guy the right when they don't want to
• 1:19:46
  see you that way.
• 1:19:49
  Your job is to do the best you can with
• 1:19:52
  the tools that you have and live as
• 1:19:53
  authentically as you can. And I'll pick
• 1:19:55
  that 10 times out of 10.
• 1:20:02
  I am mad we didn't get George Santos as
• 1:20:05
  press secretary. I got to wrap this up.
• 1:20:07
  If the world must suck, let me have a
• 1:20:09
  bit of funny nonsense and I'll send that
• 1:20:12
  [ __ ] to jail. Fact. MS in play is bad.
• 1:20:15
  Oh yeah, Mississippi. I don't really
• 1:20:17
  believe they're going to take
• 1:20:18
  Mississippi. But the fact that they have
• 1:20:20
  to spend Mississippi in money they could
• 1:20:21
  be spending in other places tells you
• 1:20:24
  that their internal polling must be
• 1:20:26
  having their hair set on fire. They must
• 1:20:29
  be like, you know, I'm Aussie, but Abdul
• 1:20:32
  seems like a great leader. I have a lot
• 1:20:34
  of there's been a few parts of his
• 1:20:36
  campaign that I've not loved, but Abdul
• 1:20:39
  Elsa is the most all-American guy in
• 1:20:42
  this race.
• 1:20:44
  And I'll make that argument to anybody
• 1:20:48
  went to public high school, went to
• 1:20:50
  public college, uh is the immigrant
• 1:20:53
  dream, this the whole idea of the
• 1:20:55
  American dream is not just for people to
• 1:20:57
  who natives who can grow, but for as a
• 1:21:00
  beacon to the best of the world to bring
• 1:21:01
  your talents to us and make it ours. And
• 1:21:04
  that is what his his dad did with him
• 1:21:07
  and what he has done for himself.
• 1:21:11
  And then, you know, he wrestled, captain
• 1:21:13
  of the wrestling team, captain of the
• 1:21:14
  football team, played hockey,
• 1:21:19
  wants to make universal healthcare
• 1:21:21
  essentially, doesn't support the abuses
• 1:21:24
  of Israel, calls a genocide a genocide.
• 1:21:26
  Like, dude, this is this is way better
• 1:21:29
  than what we've got. This is wait. And
• 1:21:32
  that is why they want to [ __ ]
• 1:21:35
  bury him because he forces a reckoning
• 1:21:40
  onto the Israel lobby and the role that
• 1:21:43
  our politics and and the the
• 1:21:45
  relationship to that country that we
• 1:21:47
  have. But more than that, he's a
• 1:21:48
  reckoning for centrist libs. And they
• 1:21:51
  know it and they know it. He's got
• 1:21:54
  ideas. He's got vision. And if he can
• 1:21:58
  get in the door electorally,
• 1:22:01
  it's going to be a much tougher fight
• 1:22:03
  for them.
• 1:22:06
  Join late. Apologies. I got to get going
• 1:22:07
  here, but uh apologies have already
• 1:22:09
  covered. Genuinely, what the [ __ ] do we
• 1:22:10
  do if the midterms go in Dems's favor,
• 1:22:13
  but these corrupt [ __ ] refuse to
• 1:22:14
  certify? I don't know what the game plan
• 1:22:16
  is, gang. I don't know. I I don't know.
• 1:22:20
  I have not I have not I'm not a
• 1:22:22
  revolutionary, you know. I don't know. I
• 1:22:24
  don't have an idea for I should talk to
• 1:22:25
  someone who does. Um,
• 1:22:29
  I don't want to give you bad advice. I
• 1:22:30
  don't want to say something that's I
• 1:22:32
  don't know the answer to this. This
• 1:22:34
  isn't a You know what?
• 1:22:36
  I'm going to talk to someone about this
• 1:22:38
  actually because it's a really good
• 1:22:39
  question. What do you do if they steal?
• 1:22:40
  Now, what now? Where are we? Um, I don't
• 1:22:43
  know the answer to that. I don't know
• 1:22:45
  the answer to that. It's a really
• 1:22:46
  important one. I will I will try to get
• 1:22:48
  you an answer that's worthy of your
• 1:22:50
  participation and your money next week.
• 1:22:52
  Okay. I hope that works for everybody.
• 1:22:54
  All right. I'm going to call it a day
• 1:22:56
  here. Thank you so much for watching. I
• 1:22:57
  really appreciate it. Um, back next
• 1:23:00
  week. I've got more CNN clips to share
• 1:23:03
  and um, yeah, we'll have plenty of
• 1:23:05
  politics coverage for you guys. Oh, by
• 1:23:07
  the way, I don't know if you saw this,
• 1:23:08
  the NAZA review I did is uh, at over
• 1:23:12
  300,000 views. That's the biggest video
• 1:23:15
  I've done, MMA or politics in years. So,
• 1:23:20
  uh, I'm really very happy about that.
• 1:23:22
  So, thank you to everybody who watched.
• 1:23:23
  Please share it with someone who hasn't
• 1:23:25
  seen it yet. Okay. Oh, one more.
• 1:23:28
  Can you expound on what parts of Abdul's
• 1:23:30
  campaign you don't like? I realize that
• 1:23:32
  glazing and being a stand for these
• 1:23:33
  politicians will only lead to
• 1:23:34
  disappointment. Just curious. Much love,
• 1:23:36
  my brother. Okay. I will end on this and
• 1:23:37
  then I really do have to go. This part
• 1:23:40
  is simple. I understand like dude, the
• 1:23:42
  like a Muslim guy from Michigan is going
• 1:23:45
  to need all the electoral help he can
• 1:23:48
  get and help I should say. What am I
• 1:23:50
  saying? Help. Uh or hope. He should get
• 1:23:52
  all the electoral help. So campaigning
• 1:23:55
  with Kla Harris, particularly when he's
• 1:23:57
  been smeared as angry towards women, u
• 1:24:00
  and you know doesn't have a connection
• 1:24:01
  to black folks. Uh campaigning with uh
• 1:24:04
  President Obama.
• 1:24:06
  I get it, dude. Like that he's the most
• 1:24:08
  popular politician and male figure in
• 1:24:11
  the country. Like
• 1:24:14
  you want to get elected in Michigan and
• 1:24:15
  you're going to just say no to a guy
• 1:24:17
  like that? It's just he's dealing with
• 1:24:18
  political realities that you or I cannot
• 1:24:21
  possibly fathom. But what worries me,
• 1:24:22
  what truly worries me is I've been
• 1:24:24
  mentioning this battle that we need to
• 1:24:26
  have. And I think no matter what, if he
• 1:24:27
  does get in there, even even if he has
• 1:24:29
  to make some political reality
• 1:24:31
  accommodations that we're still going to
• 1:24:33
  be in a better place no matter what, but
• 1:24:36
  the whole point is for a guy like Abdul
• 1:24:38
  Elsed to pull the Dems to the left, not
• 1:24:41
  for the not for the Dems to pull him to
• 1:24:43
  the middle. And I feel like they're
• 1:24:46
  trying to pull him to the middle.
• 1:24:48
  um they're trying to pull him in a
• 1:24:50
  centrist failed direction
• 1:24:53
  and it's I don't know I don't know if
• 1:24:55
  it'll work. I don't know if I don't
• 1:24:57
  know. So when I see him with Kla Harris,
• 1:24:59
  he's called it a genocide and then
• 1:25:01
  you're there with the vice president who
• 1:25:02
  didn't want to put any daylight between
• 1:25:03
  herself and the person who helped make
• 1:25:05
  the genocide. This gives me problems. He
• 1:25:07
  he wrote a lot previously about the
• 1:25:09
  failures of Obama and then he's
• 1:25:10
  campaigning with him. So you can hear me
• 1:25:12
  say I like why would you not campaign
• 1:25:14
  with the most popular politician you
• 1:25:17
  know uh or the the most popular uh you
• 1:25:19
  know sort of celebrated male figure in
• 1:25:21
  America when you you're a guy whose name
• 1:25:23
  is Abdul Fahman Muhammad als like you
• 1:25:26
  need the help but at the same time like
• 1:25:29
  those critiques were real and they were
• 1:25:30
  good at the time. I I agree with the
• 1:25:32
  vast majority of them. we have to bring
• 1:25:35
  that. And so he's kind of dependent to a
• 1:25:37
  degree on the establishment to help
• 1:25:40
  shepherd his candidacy across. And I
• 1:25:42
  fear that they're going to try and make
• 1:25:44
  concessions out of him. I don't know
• 1:25:46
  that they will. Uh but I am concerned
• 1:25:49
  about that. And then the closeness to
• 1:25:50
  the people who clearly want to water him
• 1:25:52
  down.
• 1:25:54
  Let's see what happens. Let's see what
• 1:25:56
  happens. All right. Love you guys. I'll
• 1:26:00
  see you next week. Stay tuned. And until
• 1:26:03
  then, um, go read some books. I love
• 1:26:06
  you. Bye.