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Aug. 17, 2023 - On Brand

02:04:59

OB #14 - Trump Cover

A Brand follower told Al that Russell doesn't like Trump; let's find out if there's any truth to it. Support us on Patreon! - patreon.com/onbrand

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	This is On Brand, a podcast where we discuss the ideas and antics of one Russell Brand.
	I'm Al Worth, and each week I go through an episode of Brand's Show with my co-host Lauren B. Hi, I'm Lauren B., and I have no idea what I'm about to be put through today.
	But let's find out.
	Yeah, it's a good one.
	But first, Lauren, what is your bright spot this week?
	Oh, I didn't think about this literally at all.
	Yes, yes please, what's your price spot?
	Yeah, right.
	I know!
	So the subtext for anyone wondering is I've had a colossally shit week.
	You know, life-alteringly shit week.
	However, one of the silver linings to these particular dark clouds was that I got to spend some time with some family I don't see very often, who I get along with tremendously, and a car ride down to Bedfordshire.
	And back I was in the same car with my brother and my sister-in-law and we were playing a game where like you each kind of have to pick songs based on like a category of some kind.
	Everyone has kind of games like this.
	Um, you know, and, and it was just very good fun and very, very, very, uh, very nice distraction.
	Um, uh, our first topic was time.
	Got to think about songs that, that, that are related to the subject of time.
	Um, you know, I've got a few.
	Five just hit me.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	That's really fun.
	I like that.
	And then you add them to the playlist, you know, you each take it in turns, etc.
	You got to try and get enough to do the whole journey, you know, because it was a few hours.
	And yeah, we got some good ones.
	And on the way back, it was Conflict.
	And yeah, that's an easy one, especially as someone into rock and metal.
	I'm like, well, every song is about conflict.
	Yeah, you go so many ways with it.
	There's also like war protest songs.
	That's like a whole decade.
	That's what we started with.
	That's what we started with.
	We started with Blackstone Cherry's cover of Wah!
	What is it good?
	You know, that was great.
	And yeah, kind of progressed from there.
	But you know, there was a challenge in trying to keep variety in there.
	That was the challenge there.
	Oh, and for the time one, my brother picked Simon and Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair because of Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme.
	All right, jokes.
	Oh, I was like, I was like, as you were saying it, I was like standing there.
	Yeah, no, but my thinking was, well, at least there can't be too many of these.
	Like, I can't think of any other songs that have the herb in them, other than possibly the theme tune to the 80s claymation series, The Herbs.
	But that's an aside.
	Anyway.
	Well, that's really fun.
	I like that.
	Thank you, thank you.
	What is your bright spot?
	Yeah.
	Well, I did just think of, I guess I can't have an old one because I, so I, I did get, I got to see a bunch of people too this weekend that I haven't seen in a long time and, you know, there's been some contentious moments in, you know, my career paths, all that kind of, you know.
	Right.
	There's some ugliness and so like seeing somebody that kind of came out of it and is going through a lot right now but Uh, you know, gal that I worked with, um, she's the counter girl for me and so I took her on a lot of trips, you know, like working and showed her a lot of stuff and then she ended up becoming a tattooer herself and finding out that you have a positive impact even in like some pretty ugly circumstances is always really nice.
	Oh, that's nice.
	And, uh, even if literally your whole life falls apart and everything's miserable in the moment, if you like, if you just kind of just do the right thing, like having a good old, like, right thing baseline inside of you is a, you may not find out for Chex Watch seven years, uh, that something worked for another person that you helped out.
	But, um, Better than never.
	So that was cool.
	You never can tell the impact that you're going to have, can you?
	Right.
	I think about my life and I think about like teachers and music teachers and stuff,
	and I'm willing to bet at least half of them have no idea of the impact that they had on me personally.
	So, you know, it's, yeah.
	Well, if you're not in a formal setting where it's like a mentor, mentee, you know,
	like if it's not a formal like learning, teaching setting, I think it's even easier for people that are maybe in like
	higher in a pecking order, but certainly not in charge of everything.
	Um, it's- It's easy to tell yourself that you're not making a difference and no one gives a shit about what you do or how you live your values.
	It's easy to explain away, so it's nice to hear different.
	And I got to see my mom!
	Never get to see my mom, so.
	Oh, awesome.
	Yeah!
	So dinner and like silly... I get to hear the same stories that she tells every time.
	Every single time.
	That she's tickled by.
	Yeah, like that she thinks they're funny and that's adorable, so.
	That is adorable.
	That is also why it's a blessing to not have to see the same people that often because, you know.
	Because I used to hear the same thing every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
	Or like every week or every day in some cases.
	Oh my god, I'm going insane.
	Yeah, definitely.
	That was a funny weekend when I was eight.
	You're right.
	I'm not eight.
	Maybe we could focus a little more attention on the last 25 years of my life.
	I bet you got some of that with the family too!
	Not too much.
	Not too much, because everyone was kind of focused elsewhere.
	Distracted, yeah.
	Yeah, exactly.
	So, you know, less of a focus on me, which I like.
	I like it.
	Especially right now.
	Yeah, and you know, a little bit of the black sheep of the family.
	Oh, I would have no idea what that's about.
	Not always in a bad sense, but you know, it takes its toll, doesn't it?
	It can be a little rough, but you reminded me of like these, I've had hilarious moments and like pretty, to distract yourself from like pretty ugly times.
	And one in particular that I'll mention, I think, cause I think there's even a video in Off-Brand.
	Cause if you want to have a real fun, dark humor time, which maybe is appropriate this week, I've got a real good one.
	But yeah, there's like, it's kind of crazy how, You know, when you have moments that are, have like a cute kind of emotional moments to distract yourself it can be that much funnier and like everyone's really invested in like keeping it either like light or distracted or funny and like it can sound terrible in hindsight but like
	Yeah, to not have to deal with reality for even a couple of minutes is a blessing.
	Right, exactly.
	Yeah, I'm highly invested in those moments of like... Yeah, I had a good three or four hours of just drinking whiskey with my dad and my brother and that kind of, you know.
	That took a very similar kind of thing.
	Anyway, we have a show to do, but first we should thank some of our new patrons, because we do have some new patrons, which is always exciting.
	So, first up, Florence B, you are now an awakening wonder.
	You are indeed an awakening wonder.
	There we go.
	Oh, you're in the club!
	Hello, thank you!
	That's weird, the video didn't move.
	Okay, that's really strange.
	It's just a still frame, I don't understand why.
	Anyway, thank you Florence, the audio worked fine.
	Someone you used to know, you are now an awakening wonder.
	You are indeed an awakening wonder.
	Thank you very much.
	Thank you!
	So mysterious.
	Yeah, mysterious, you're like, it's not quite somebody that you used to know, is it?
	But every time I read that I'm like, oh well that's in my head now, great.
	It's a great song.
	It is a great song.
	An ex once sent that to me.
	It came out not long after we broke up and she sent it to me and was like, this reminds me of you.
	I was like, oh, thanks.
	Thanks, thanks.
	Appreciate it.
	Cheers.
	Coulda not known that!
	Mulcave!
	Yeah, I woulda been fine.
	I woulda been fine.
	Drunken Tree Ant, you are now an awakening wonder.
	You are indeed an awakening wonder.
	Thank you, Drunken Tree Ant.
	I'm not sure if it's like, tree, like an ant of trees, or treant?
	Treant?
	Is that a word?
	Treant?
	I was already picturing a drunk tree ant.
	Yeah, I might have pronounced that incorrectly.
	Tree ants being drunk, already great.
	You are correct.
	Tree-ant.
	Tree-ant.
	I'm going to look that up off-brand, because that's going to annoy me now.
	Philip Dorr, you are now an Awakening wonder.
	You are indeed an Awakening wonder.
	Thank you very much, Philip.
	Thank you so much!
	We also have someone who's upped their donation.
	So Mika Nissinen, you are still an awakening wonder.
	Thank you.
	You are indeed an awakening wonder.
	Thank you very much.
	Hell yeah, thank you.
	And finally, hey, we know this person.
	We're going through our members of the Invisible Hand.
	So next up we have Lauren Leslie.
	You are now the Invisible Hand.
	Let me tell you that we love you.
	There is a sort of an invisible hand guiding these events.
	You are fundamentally beautiful.
	Not others, you.
	I believe you are fundamentally beautiful.
	I'm right wing.
	Now get me some shit fuck ice cream, you pig dick.
	You big sexy despot baby.
	I'm right wing.
	I only suggest how to think and how to vote.
	Another big subject over here with us right-wing fascists.
	How do you feel about past you at this point?
	I don't even recognise that idiot anymore.
	I'm right-wing!
	Oh God!
	I just had a poo and a bit of my bum fell out!
	God, it's propaganda.
	Did you guess it?
	Did you guess it?
	I'm right-wing!
	Hey, thank you, Lauren.
	Thank you so much!
	I'm starting to get really attached to that drop now, like I... Oh, good, good.
	It's having its moment.
	It's like sinking into my brain.
	Good.
	Well, Big Sexy Despot Baby is like pretty funny.
	Yeah, Big Sexy Despot Baby.
	I hope we get more members of the Invisible Hand so I can play it more because I absolutely will.
	I do also want to give a special shout out to Juan Jalapeña, who was our very first highest tier patron at $50 per month.
	We've not figured out an appropriate title for this level of support yet, nor have I arranged a drop yet, But both will come, and in the meantime, thank you.
	That's amazing.
	You're the best, man!
	Good egg!
	The most significant perk of this tier, of course, is that you get to pick a date or topic of Russell's show for us to tackle.
	So drop us an email and let us know what you'd like to get into, and we absolutely will.
	I get the feeling it's either going to be fun or horrifying.
	Those seem to be the two kinds of episodes that we do, so there we go.
	Well, if I know anything, it'll probably be extra terrible because I've had a political conversation with this person.
	It can be very alienating for everyone around really quickly.
	Right.
	Shocking, I know.
	So I feel like they're switched on enough to find a real ugly rock to look under, I think.
	Good, good.
	That's exactly what we need.
	If anyone wants to support us and what we do, become an Awakening Wanderer, join the Invisible Hand, or donate on an elevated tier much like Juan Jalapeno, head to patreon.com slash onbrand and you will have our eternal gratitude.
	As a patron, you'll also get a shoutout on the show and access to our patron-only show Offbrand, where we talk about pretty much anything but Russell Brand.
	And we've got like, there must be like 10 to 12 hours of that there now, because every week it's a good couple of hours usually.
	And please note that while you can easily listen to our audio version anywhere you can find podcasts, you can also watch us on YouTube, or if you listen in this Spotify app, the video should come up there too.
	Now, we have a show to get to, but first we have a small correction from last week.
	I have a correction from last week.
	I misspoke when I said Montessori.
	I'm at the Waldorf School.
	And it just, my brain wasn't giving me that word to correct in the moment.
	I was getting Montrose.
	I was getting other M words.
	And then, and then my brain stopped after a cursory search, completely stopped giving me anything useful.
	And all I could think of was like maybe Funke's report card from Arrested Development.
	Or the Franklin School.
	Just only schools from that TV show.
	That's normal.
	We don't get to choose how our brain acts when we're on mic.
	I would love it if I did.
	And I will say, anybody that wants to look into what I was actually talking about and thinking of, there's a teacher that Interesting.
	interesting, depressing interview on conspirituality in 2020 because she worked at a specific,
	I was thinking of a specific Waldorf school that I, you know, I had to do some Googling
	around like, what does my brain think?
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	I get that.
	And for reference, from my perspective, I know several people have said like, hey, they had really great experiences at Montessori schools.
	And more power to you, I'm really glad about that.
	I was more referencing the ones specifically near me.
	That's my limited experience of them are fucking bananas.
	I had a memory too!
	I'm glad that's not the case elsewhere.
	Really, I am.
	Yeah, from back home.
	There was a Montessori school by, like, that coffee shop I worked at when I was right out of college.
	We're gonna have to make another correction if we carry on down this road.
	No, no, no, no!
	Here's the thing.
	My brain was giving me, like, problems, and it was probably a dispute over, like, a parking lot.
	And it's just, it was so long ago that that's, like, yeah, we just, memory is a fascinating thing.
	Absolutely.
	That's why I even bring it up.
	Your memory just gets weird on you and you don't get to choose.
	Yeah, for sure.
	My experience is a little bit more recent, you know, just looking at shit for April, basically.
	But yeah, I'm happy to hear that that is definitely not universally the case.
	So there we go.
	Of course.
	Yeah, I misspoke.
	That was basically Yeah, and different people have different experiences in different places, and that is a wonderful thing.
	Now, I have been having an objectively terrible week, so we have something a little different for the moment to make sure I had capacity to deal with it properly.
	I'm not sure if it's actually going to be any shorter in terms of episode length, but We are going to deal directly with one of Brand's choppy editorials, just the one.
	And first up, let's let him tell us what it's all about.
	Donald Trump has been charged with three conspiracy theories related to the 2020 elections.
	So is this the end of democracy or just another distraction away from the Biden crime family?
	Tremendous.
	Charged with conspiracy theories.
	Yeah, there's no being charged with conspiracy theories.
	There's being charged with conspiracy to commit crimes, but not theories.
	I can assure you if all we had were theories, this would not be going to trial.
	Yeah.
	So here's the list of things that Trump has been charged with thus far.
	Conspiracy to defraud the United States.
	Conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.
	Conspiracy against rights.
	Obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding.
	Conspiracy to commit forgery.
	Conspiracy to obstruct justice.
	Solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer.
	Violating the Georgia RICO Act.
	Corruptly concealing a document from an official proceeding.
	Willful retention of national defense information.
	And falsifying business records.
	The list is actually longer than this, but you get the idea.
	Fair to say that in many ways this motherfucker is one of the crimiest crimers who ever crimed.
	And always has been.
	That noise has been.
	Has been!
	But Bran decides to go with, ah, is this providing cover for the Biden crime family?
	To which I say, shit'll get off the pot.
	Either provide sufficient evidence of the things you say or get fucked and shut up about a laptop stuffed with dick pics, I do not care.
	Yeah, the short answer is no.
	Pretty much.
	It's really difficult specifically to watch the amount of time and resources being devoted to the Hunter Biden thing.
	How is it still going?
	How is it still going?
	I have no idea.
	I have no idea.
	It's absurd.
	Well, but that, to me, is like, that's indicative of the problem.
	It's like, why are we still hearing about this?
	Especially when the most nepotism-ridden president in my lifetime is Donald Trump.
	Like, his whole, that's like his whole deal!
	And his fans are like, they're like excited that he stuck it to the man, except the man is us and our tax dollars!
	Weird and gross!
	Yeah, yeah, I don't feel like they've ever made that connection somehow.
	Yeah, and just...
	I don't know.
	There's just such blatant hypocrisy.
	And how they make such an enormous mountain out of what is such a tiny molehill.
	You know, it's the kind of thing that makes me think that maybe Jesus was a Republican, because I'm like, if you can, like, in order to stretch like a fish and loaves and shit to 5,000 people, a Republican could fucking do it.
	They could absolutely.
	Watch them with this laptop.
	They are stretching it over literal years.
	And there's nothing.
	According to the story, people actually got fed.
	So, no.
	Republicans wouldn't do shit about Dick if they see hungry, thirsty people.
	No, no.
	Feeding the poor?
	I don't think so.
	No.
	Isn't there currently, isn't there currently, yeah, there's a Republican effort at the moment to get rid of school lunches, isn't there?
	Paid school lunches.
	So, hey, we're topical.
	Great.
	Fantastic.
	One of the reasons I wanted to cover this is a little while back, a brand follower told me that if I actually watched Brand's show, it would be plainly obvious he doesn't like Trump.
	And from there, all I could sense was the deafening sound of just how wrong this person was.
	It was like a foghorn of wrongness at point-blank range.
	And this little editorial of Brand's serves to prove it, thankfully.
	Nice.
	So you can be wrong enough loudly enough.
	To deafen me.
	Yeah, the wrong foghorn.
	I like that.
	Next, I am going to do something a little bit different and I'm going to show you the very end of the show and illustrate a point.
	What's required now is a radical revision of these systems, a willingness to, for example, prevent people in Congress trading stocks and shares in companies that they regulate, to prevent political parties being funded by corporate institutions, to demand the maximum amount of local democracy and to ensure that regulatory bodies are accountable to people, not to the corporations that fund them.
	That's just a few policies from the top of my head, just to sow a little doubt in your minds.
	And believe me, I'm deliberately sowing that doubt.
	But that's just what I think.
	Let me know what you think in the chat.
	Until next time, if you can, stay free.
	I am at some point going to cut that little bit out for a clip.
	I am deliberately sowing doubt because I'm like, yes, you are, you mother.
	He's being facetious, which will make sense in a little bit.
	But yeah, that's that's definitely something.
	Yeah, right.
	Maybe he's just happy that for once in this entire 20 minute editorial, he gets to actually tell the truth.
	I am so in doubt.
	God, that felt good.
	So we start with Trump being charged with many, many crimes, right?
	And somehow end up with overhauling the political funding system, stricter regulations on Congress people's finances, the maximum amount of local democracy, whatever the fuck that means, and greater accountability for regulatory bodies.
	If he literally just said those things and nothing else, I would, on the surface, agree with him.
	Instead, the reason he's bringing them up is to provide cover for Donald Trump in the most blatant and obvious case of whataboutism I think I have ever seen, which is exactly what we are about to experience.
	It just doesn't seem like a thing that if Russell was Russell's as a brand.
	This does not seem like a thing he'd even talk about.
	If our claims were incorrect, if we were out of bounds, then this would not be happening.
	He would not be covering this subject.
	No, no.
	The Russell of 10 years ago would have been like, yeah, fuck that guy.
	And fuck the other guy.
	Fuck all of them!
	And that I can at least have some respect for.
	This is just complete fucking bullshit.
	So let's go back to the beginning of the editorial and see how we kick off.
	Will we ever again have an uncontested democracy?
	And while we're focusing on the intricacies and details of this case, are we not missing the bigger picture that democracy itself is corrupt?
	Furthermore, is the Biden administration using this as a kind of smoke and mirrors veil to distract us from their own corruption?
	And shouldn't we be discussing all corruption, whether it's left or right or blue and red through the same lens with the same degree of scrutiny in order to expose systemic hypocrisy and corruption?
	Firstly, apparently the bigger picture is that democracy is corrupt, so that's a good starting point for any discussion.
	And also, in order to look at any specific corruption, we must first supposedly look at inherent systemic corruption on the whole first, before we can even think about dealing with the specific, obvious cases of it.
	Basically he's saying, why should we be prosecuting Trump when the whole system is corrupt, which I have zero time for.
	Crimes!
	Specific crimes.
	Do we get into the particular crimes, or are we not going to have an opportunity because he just lies?
	A little bit.
	Yeah, yeah, we will a little bit, but you're not going to like where it goes.
	I'm sure.
	Well, but I just ask because, like, even since, and we know this about court proceedings, Mm-hmm.
	Mm-hmm.
	details actually have to be proven in court and then come out through the course of an investigation
	and through discovery because there is a legal federal like mandate to be transparent.
	There's a lot more that I learned that I didn't even understand
	when all of the stop the steal mess was happening.
	There were so many irons in the fire.
	It was really difficult to parse.
	And so, you know, and you hear snippets of this and that and but it wouldn't really make sense.
	Whereas like the Stormy Daniels thing, you know, the the hush money or whatever.
	That's like it's salacious news wants to cover and it's very simple and also stupid, like goofy.
	Incredibly dumb.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	No, I do agree.
	So in this next clip, Russell is in the midst of playing a clip from Nightline before throwing down one of his favorite current conspiracies.
	The courthouse just blocks away from where the January 6th attack on the U.S.
	Capitol unfolded.
	Now, many people think, and this is a big problem, that part of the insurrection, if you want to call it that, was instigated by deep cover agents.
	We've had Tucker on our show.
	One of the main problems with Tucker and Fox, it seems, was Tucker's willingness to say that January the 6th was at least in part Orchestrated or amplified by FBI and other deep state agencies.
	Brand has been on the Jan 6 was an inside job tip for a while now, and it's not that I've been reluctant to cover it, it's just not really come up in the course of what we've dealt with yet.
	But it has now.
	It's also profoundly stupid and based on conjecture.
	It all stems from the FBI having informants with the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, two militant fascist organizations who were instrumental in taking Jan 6 to the next step Many members of which have now been convicted of seditious conspiracy, among other things, and will be spending a long time in prison for their efforts.
	What a shame.
	Anyway, because the FBI had informants within these organizations and have previously done some shady entrapment-like shit, especially when it comes to terrorism, that must therefore mean that the crowd of Jan 6 was actually full to the brim with FBI agents who were cajoling the crowd into storming the Capitol.
	I saw one piece a little while ago saying that there were hundreds if not thousands of feds there, which is both hilarious and obviously bullshit.
	It makes me think people don't even know where feds are.
	Like, they don't know that those feds are in Virginia?
	It's almost like you can make a claim that's like, I honestly, I have such a low opinion of their understanding of civics, you know?
	They got all of the federal agents together for, like, a conference at the Jan 6th thing, and just decided, hey, we're gonna, you know, we're just gonna just poke the bear into doing a coup?
	I don't know!
	Was it highly organized, or do you think that they just came out of their office building that's down the street and decided to exploit this You know, like, since there's literally no evidence because they're lying, it's difficult to follow the narrative!
	We will get into the evidence a bit later, but my thing is, like, even if I was in a crowd and I was angry about something like that, and someone was saying to me, like, hey, Let's go commit these crimes.
	I'd be like, no, you're a fucking idiot.
	And that would be the end of that conversation.
	You know, so, so I, yeah, only even if that was true, only a certain amount of blame I think could actually be laid at the, at the FBI's feet in that situation.
	In that situation, absolutely.
	Cause it's also very different from the problematic situations that I'm well aware of.
	As far as entrapment around terrorism being completely exploitative and also useless.
	That could be the top main point.
	Didn't fix anything.
	Didn't help anybody.
	Nope.
	Yeah, so Russell is getting his specific line of nonsense from an all too familiar source who we will get into later, but in the next clip we get back to the Nightline piece which features Jack Smith, special counsel who is responsible for heading up the investigations into Trump's crimes.
	The former president pleaded not guilty to four felony counts, including conspiracy to defraud the United States.
	It was fueled by lies.
	So this is Jack Smith.
	Lies by the defendant targeted at obstructing a bedrock function of the U.S.
	government, the nation's process of collecting, counting, and certifying the results of the presidential election.
	If you are going to approach this topic with piety of that magnitude, then you better be certain of your own moral authority.
	You better be certain that there is no corruption in the way that your party is funded, the behaviour of your congress people, the way that wars are funded and continually funded without due recourse to the electorate.
	Okay.
	Oh.
	Oh, mad.
	Well, here we are.
	Didn't take long.
	Now, before we get to deal with Trump's crimes, according to Russell, we must apparently first solve the problem of money in politics, ensure congresspeople behave properly, again, whatever the fuck that means, And fix the way wars are funded by somehow making that an issue for people to vote on or something.
	We have to deal with all of those things before we can even get to Trump.
	Before we can prosecute crimes.
	So wait, is that all crimes?
	Is it a free-for-all until we sort out our military funding problem?
	I'm sorry?
	He never quite draws a line.
	I would be curious to see if he would.
	But yeah, I mean, what's a little attempted coup in the face of all of the things he's just said, eh?
	Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!
	We have talked about before, you know, off the pod, about how disappointed I am that some of my, you know, compatriots on the left are so easily distracted by what is clearly I agree with the points that you're making as far as your complaints.
	say how bad Russia's or China is because look how bad America is. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
	We're not, that's not what we're talking. I agree with the points that like you're making as far as
	your complaints. Maybe they're even responsible for something similar, but it's all a problem.
	They all need to be addressed.
	Yeah.
	You can't just ignore human rights abuses in one country because the other, they're all bad.
	They're all bad.
	All bad.
	All bad.
	Yeah, they're all bad.
	Okay.
	Okay.
	So Russell seems to think that the cover he's provided so far for Trump has been insufficient.
	So next he cements his case a little bit more.
	The problem here, if you ask me, and in a way by clicking on this video you have, is that we are focusing on merely highlighted aspects of hypocrisy and corruption.
	Did Trump know?
	Didn't he know?
	Did he amplify?
	Didn't he amplify?
	Let's look at the entire system for a moment.
	Yeah, let's not focus on Trump.
	Let's look at the entire system, which may take years or decades to fix or change in any meaningful way, and Trump will probably be dead before anything happens.
	So let's just look at that and not worry about these little crime thingies everyone keeps talking about.
	Let's just glide past it.
	Look at the big picture, yeah?
	Big picture.
	This is also typical abuser shit.
	Like, it's so typical.
	It's like typical emotional manipulation and like, you know, it's not even goalposted.
	It's just distracting in like a way that is fully intellectually dishonest.
	So, like, on its face, I can't, like, I would have already walked away.
	Completely.
	I don't know what to do.
	If you don't like intellectual dishonesty, you are not going to like the rest of this show.
	I know.
	I know.
	Because there are some serious milestones in that field.
	In this show, it's... Oh, boy.
	Remarkable.
	Oh, boy!
	Wow, wowie, wow, wow.
	All right.
	Yep.
	That's what we have on deck.
	Okay.
	Russell gets into the systemic corruption we should all apparently be focusing on instead of Trump.
	Is this working?
	Can any of us really imagine that on the morning after the election in 2024 one side is going to say, well done, let's have a traditional and cordial transfer of power now, the best party won, the best man won, because it will be a man, in spite of all this talk of progressivism, nothing's really changed has it?
	Funded in the same way, Regulated in the same way, benefits the same class of people, ignores the same people.
	Apart from all the Sturm and Drang and rhetoric and racket, nothing is really changing.
	We're like cats following the laser of the latest corruption.
	Meanwhile, business as usual for Raytheon, business as usual for the FDA.
	What's that laser doing?
	I like this laser.
	This laser's got crazy hair.
	This laser's really old.
	Stop chasing those lasers like cats and focus on the systemic corruption.
	I think the FDA thing might be food.
	Or anti-vax.
	Or that.
	Who knows.
	It's just a thing that I was like, wait a second.
	That was extra weird to me?
	Yeah, yeah.
	Okay, but it's all bad.
	It's all bad.
	I'm just grasping at straws.
	No, it's okay.
	It's shit like this that still leads people to believe that Russell is left-wing.
	If taken completely on its own, while sensationalist, reductive, and woefully lacking in references, the things he's saying have an underlying point to them that could be considered left-wing.
	The problem comes when all he's doing with these tidbits is waving them about to distract and provide cover for Donald fucking Trump.
	He doesn't even need to provide references in order to do that, so he just shouts CORRUPTION at the top of his lungs until everyone's looking at him instead of the orange guy who should be shackled in front of a PSA on sexual assault for the rest of his days.
	We're all just having to focus on...
	A little O'Russell instead.
	Yeah.
	This particular misdirection makes me... and we've talked about it.
	I have a witness.
	It makes me really...
	Okay, okay, okay.
	And that's what this entire piece is.
	It is genuinely shocking the level to which Russell is willing to provide cover for this man.
	And yet supposedly he doesn't like Trump, huh?
	So now we get back into that Nightline clip and Russell's source is revealed as well.
	Special Counsel Jack Smith insists Trump knew he'd lost the election, but tried to overturn the results anyway, determined to remain in power, claiming that he spread lies about fraud, though he knew they were false.
	This is from our friend Michael Schellenberger, that advocate of free speech, on his Substack platform, Public.
	Yeah, it's Michael Schellenberger.
	Liar extraordinaire, or at the very least endless provider of baseless bullshit with the editorial standards of a toddler.
	In case anyone forgot, Schellenberger and his sub-stack journalism outfit Public overhaul right-wing conspiracy theories, tart them up as news, and fire it out to shitheads like Russell so they have a piece of paper they can wave when they need to.
	Usually with a slew of anonymous sources to go in there as well.
	It's really weird that it's like the opposite of the Drudge Report.
	Like what the Drudge Report used to do was like...
	Pick out these weird situations and sensationalize them and then Info Wars would make it weirder and worse and less grounded in reality.
	You know, like that kind of, it's weird that there's like, I mean, it's not weird, it makes more sense.
	Because we're looking at just a different, instead of like, like Alex Jones using a CD-ROM of Encyclopedia Britannica as his source for Documentaries.
	Now we've got the RFK plan.
	Microsoft and Carter, I think.
	Yeah.
	Instead, like, RFK is like, let's have a thousand sources.
	And then I make poetry, like, you would take a page of a book and black it all out to make a new poem.
	Yeah, yeah, exactly.
	You know, none of it says what they say it says.
	Yeah, the whole purpose of Michael Schellenberger and Public is to provide a veil of legitimacy to the things that people like Russell are saying, and upon even cursor examination they are always proven to be bullshit.
	So let's get into the first piece of Schellenberger's attempt at doing a journalism before Brand takes his Trump cover to a new level.
	On Tuesday, Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith charged former President Donald J. Trump with three conspiracies related to the 2020 election and its aftermath.
	Conspiracy to defraud the United States.
	In a sense, that's odd, isn't it?
	Because what is the United States at this point?
	What do we mean?
	Do we mean the United States that the Redcoats were fighting against?
	Do we mean the United States of the Vietnam War?
	Do you mean the United States of Jimi Hendrix or James Baldwin?
	At this point, the United States, if you ask me, is a veil to mask the ongoing corrupt activities of elite globalist organizations executed by a managerial class of corrupt politicians.
	What is it, the United States?
	How can you defraud the United States when the United States is a fraudulent enterprise at this point?
	How can you defraud the United States when the United States is a fraudulent enterprise, is what he just said.
	If anyone ever fucking tells you that this man doesn't like Donald Trump, show them this clip.
	This is absurd!
	A man committed acts of pretty much treason and Russell just shrugs it off with, eh, it's all corrupt innit, what does it matter?
	I also, invoking Jimi Hendrix and James Baldwin, guys that had to leave to be treated in a humane way, I don't think America gets to claim Anything on behalf of either of those men, I think maybe y'all do.
	I'd say the UK was a lot more welcoming to Jimi Hendrix.
	We were a lot more friendly to Jimi, that's for sure.
	Yeah, James Baldwin, I would say.
	France would be at the top of that list, not us.
	But like all three of those Americas are the same one, Russell.
	They're all like, it's the same country.
	It's just weird to pick out those people.
	Yeah, I don't get it.
	It's very, this is my black friend.
	Like, the US is a better friend to other black people.
	Those aren't just, okay, all right.
	But before I forget as well, I do just want to point out for the listeners who aren't watching the video, the logo that shows over the Over the image for this is just the generic Substack logo.
	It's not even the public logo, because the public have a logo for their Substack.
	That would be like using a YouTube video as a source and then showing like, YouTube!
	You know, YouTube's logo is like, hey, this is where we got it.
	It's like, what a weird, or like SoundCloud, you know?
	It's really weird.
	It's really stupid.
	It's bizarre, and to me, does not lend it any more legitimacy at all.
	I see that, and I'm like, well, yeah, that's... The opposite for me, thanks.
	Yeah.
	Exactly, exactly.
	There is every possibility this is someone... There aren't legitimate reporters on Substack.
	There are!
	That's not a product of Substack.
	That's the product of that specific reporter.
	Yeah, exactly.
	But you know, Substack is fucking full of people just making shit up.
	There are plenty, and for money.
	That's a thing that these people do.
	It might as well be a live journal.
	Like it's not, it's not, it doesn't, it's not more valid because of that.
	Also, please, if you guys share anything from us, I'm proud of that logo.
	Use our logo.
	Don't just put YouTube or Spotify or Epipodcast.
	That's so weird!
	As a reference to the on-brand podcast, Spotify.
	No, no, no, no.
	We are hosted there, but it's a different thing.
	That's strange.
	Yeah.
	So next we get into some election fraud talk.
	Conspiracy to obstruct vote certification proceedings and conspiracy to violate the civil right to vote and have one's vote counted.
	Extraordinary given the amount of debate, controversy and doubt around this election and likely for future elections.
	And remember, it's not just the Republicans and in particular Trump's supporting Republicans in 2020 that have doubted the outcome of elections.
	But the Democrats, too, in 2016, oh, it must be a Russian hoax, this is because of Russia, didn't they get peed on?
	And in other elections, in both midterms and presidentials, both sides have previously aggressively queried the outcome of elections, as we will later demonstrate.
	So, Brand doesn't actively say that the 2020 election was stolen, but boy does he walk right up to the line in order to appease his audience.
	The doubt around the 2016 election wasn't that it was a Russian hoax so much as it had very little to do with Trump getting peed on either.
	Again, who gives a fuck?
	But, in fact, it was an issue of whether Russia had interfered in a US election by way of a farm of hackers and trolls engaging in pro-Trump, anti-Hillary propaganda and cyberattacks, while the Russian government indirectly funded Trump's campaign via the NRA.
	For some unknown reason, Russia believed having Trump as president would be in their best interest.
	I wonder why.
	You might be thinking that none of these things that you've said are the same as attempting a coup of the country, Russell, and you would be right.
	But we'll get into that in a little bit, because Russell thinks he's got a point to make about it.
	There's just a bunch of different crimes.
	There's a bunch of different, like, the variety of crimes, frankly, is creative.
	It's impressive.
	He ate the whole wheel of cheese!
	I am not mad, I'm impressed.
	Really.
	Yeah, that is something I think he could do.
	If any president could eat a wheel of cheese, I'd put money on Trump.
	I think he could swing it.
	Kind of looks like he already has.
	Yeah, that's I'm not even I'm not a Cheeto man.
	You know, I'm not an orange man bad person like at all.
	I think that he has to look like that every day.
	No one needs to remind him he's he already knows.
	I mean, he's just like a bad person on the inside.
	Though I don't he doesn't strike me as the type of person to have ever felt insecure about the way he looks.
	He really doesn't.
	I think he thinks he's wonderful.
	Oh, I think there's two.
	Well, I feel like when you go through life the way that that person does, and a lot of people do, you can hold two completely different thoughts about yourself.
	The Venn diagrams don't even smooch, but you can feel... To me, that person is a profoundly insecure human being, but has to re-up this narrative in their own mind that they're a god-king.
	See, I feel like there has to be a certain degree of...
	Self-awareness and self-analysis to hold the critique that insecurity requires in your head.
	And I am not sure that Trump is capable of that self-analysis.
	I don't know.
	I don't know.
	That's where it's a grey area for me.
	Maybe you're right, maybe he does secretly hate himself.
	Well the best way to pass a lie detector test is to believe what you're saying and so if he really believes like there's a good like then it's everybody like that's all the other thing is like it's just everybody else's problem that you like your bad feelings or everyone else's fault when you're a victim which makes it it makes it impossible to have that kind of self-reflection it's just what other people think about you It's fun that you've brought up what people believe, because that becomes very important in this next clip, where Bran shows his willful lack of understanding the lore.
	These charges all rest on the idea that Trump made knowingly false claims.
	No, they don't.
	He knew!
	He knew inside his mind that these claims were false.
	At this point in history, with the state and the condition that he's in, we're talking about an ontological debate about the nature of Trump's subjective experience.
	Let's look inside Trump's mind.
	What did he think in there?
	What's he thinking in there?
	And while we're at it, look inside Biden's mind.
	Hello?
	Oh, oh, oh, Hunter, Hunter, Hunter.
	I'm gonna get real basic here, just on the off chance that Russell is watching.
	Most crimes have two components.
	Actus rea, the act of doing the crime itself, and mens rea, the intention or knowledge of said crime.
	These two are separate because it is perfectly possible to commit a crime without realizing you're doing so, in which case there would be actus rea but no mens rea, right?
	Whereas if you have just the knowledge or forethought, so just the mens rea, that falls into conspiracy to commit a crime without ever actually doing the action of the crime itself necessarily.
	Now this is a very simplistic and reductive way of putting it, by the way, for ease of understanding the broad strokes.
	Most crimes require evidence of both actus rea and mens rea before a defendant can be found guilty.
	In the old terminology, the mens rea demonstrates malice of forethought, that a person intended to commit a crime.
	Russell can take the piss all he wants, but demonstrating mens rea in a criminal trial is pretty crucial regardless of the state of the country.
	But it's important to note that not all crimes require a mens rea.
	Some are statutory crimes.
	You know, drink driving is one of them, as a for instance, especially in this country.
	Doesn't matter the circumstances, doesn't matter if you're new, doesn't matter about anything.
	In this country, your drink driving, instant driving ban for two years, etc.
	Huh.
	Well, that's the perfect example for me that I think about is like when, like if you, cause I think what is more common for most of us is like getting a speeding ticket.
	Like if you, if you are speeding on purpose or by accident, Um, it doesn't matter when you get pulled over.
	You can tell folks who, you can say, you can make any number of excuses.
	If your car was going, moving through space too quickly, you broke the law.
	It doesn't matter how you thought or felt about it, or if it was oops, or if it was on purpose.
	It's very simple.
	But also, when you are a president, All the communications that you have are so closely monitored and documented that yes, we do also know what information that you had prior to the event.
	So yeah, you can prove both.
	Yes, you can prove both.
	Well, there is that.
	And in fact, that leads us perfectly into this next clip where Schellenberger makes a grand assumption.
	But if Trump actually did believe the 2020 election was stolen, the accusation of a conspiracy to undermine democracy through illegal interference falls apart.
	Smith's indictment, notably, does not provide evidence that Trump's allegations of election fraud were knowingly false.
	Smith simply states that Trump was notified repeatedly that his claims were untrue.
	Without reading Trump's mind, it is impossible to know whether he believed his claims or not.
	It's actually quite an existential legal matter, this.
	What did you believe?
	I did believe it, though.
	No, you didn't really believe it.
	You're pretending to believe it.
	Nope, I'm sorry.
	I actually believed it.
	I believed it more than anyone's believed anything.
	No one believes anything like I believe things.
	Do you think for a second that this trial would still be going ahead if Jack Smith and the many experienced lawyers who work with him didn't believe they could provide evidence of mens rea?
	Like, what a laughably stupid thing to say.
	Oh, he hasn't provided evidence of Trump knowingly lying yet.
	Well, no, of course he hasn't, you dumb fuck.
	That happens in the trial.
	That's when that part comes.
	I mean, I'm sorry I'm making a lot of faces and it's not going to pick up anything on audio.
	Wowie wow.
	I'm so shocked.
	I'm not shocked.
	I've heard it, but it's still, having to confront it head on is always so gross and weird.
	Cause like these, I mean, he was talking about 9-11.
	We, we have already heard him talk about 9-11 conspiracy theories where there was, it was enough of an issue that there may have been Evidence of warning of 9-11 before the fact and just because that vague potential warning wasn't acted upon by the government, even though I don't know really how you would because it wasn't that specific, they use that as an example of
	Of conspiracy within the government to perpetrate 9-11.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Conspiracy of wrongdoing of some description.
	It's the opposite thing.
	Whether it's malice or negligence, you know, it's definitely still saying, ah, it's their fault.
	Right.
	I wish hypocrisy, pointing out hypocrisy, literally mattered at all.
	Oh my God.
	Even just once.
	One time ever.
	We can know and we can learn about it.
	If it did matter, then Russell would be out of a job pretty fucking quickly, that is for sure.
	And so would Michael Schellenberger.
	So would Michael Schellenberger.
	I'm so fucking loopy.
	I think he's got over 90,000 subscribers to his sub stack, which is great.
	Boo!
	Boo!
	So next Russell decides focusing on Trump and not the systemic corruption he keeps talking about is an obfuscating fog, is how he describes it, while doing whatever he can to obfuscate things and make them foggy.
	How, though, do the events of January 6th compare to the systemic corruption that we regularly discuss?
	Think just of the last three years.
	Think of the things you were told at the beginning of the pandemic compared to things you learned by the end of the pandemic when it comes to profits, For Pfizer, for example, then consider, for a moment, the Ukraine-Russia conflict and how it is funded, and the seeming bypass of ordinary electoral function there.
	In short, what I'm saying is, how can you ever corrupt or attack a system that is by its nature so corrupted, so atrophying, so obviously embodied by the cadaverous figures that govern?
	It's over.
	It doesn't function anymore.
	What we're having piped into our minds is a kind of obfuscating fog to prevent us from realizing it's the systems themselves that need to change, not the actors on the stage that are cast by either side.
	By you!
	By you!
	You are the obfuscating fog.
	You are the obfuscating fog.
	That is you, Russell Brand.
	Maybe that should be the name of the highest tier, I don't know.
	The obfuscating fog.
	The obfuscating fog.
	Right, so.
	Pfizer making profits from vaccines means we can't prosecute Trump.
	See, I didn't know that before watching this show, and thank the stars that Russell is here to set us all straight.
	I was about to go down a whole road of putting people who commit crimes in prison, but he sorted me out, so now I can do nothing except shout about corruption.
	I can shout corruption.
	Seems productive.
	I've said my piece.
	Yes.
	He's doing a good job.
	He's doing a good job.
	This is dumb.
	This is so stupid it's your fault.
	It's really dumb.
	It is really... It just...
	Almost every clip is just so obvious.
	Normally, Russell has a degree of subtlety to the things that he's doing somewhere.
	There'll be some misdirect, some kind of thing.
	Whereas this is just obvious, don't look at this thing, look at this thing over here!
	And that's it.
	Well, they're obviously focusing on this one thing.
	And that's what's tough, is the narratives I've been hearing are not From a court case that has been investigated and vetted and then actually brought to potentially brought to trial or what they will be bringing to trial.
	So yeah, I've been hearing a lot of like silly kind of confusing back and forth.
	But now that we have the information that's concrete and is like folks are in charge of it, their names are on it, that's what they're proceeding with.
	Oh boy, do I understand it way more now.
	And so we should be more informed, including little sub stack man.
	We should all be more informed now that we have clearer vetted understanding and like bullet point, you know, like really clear information.
	This is still the same obfuscation they've already been playing.
	Yeah, but they don't want to be informed.
	That works against their best interests.
	So they're gonna carry on with what they're doing.
	So next we play a game of hide the crime.
	Smith's indictment cites Trump's speech on January 6th as a feature of his effort to sow doubt about the election and allegedly organize a conspiracy to overturn it.
	Sow doubt ain't like a bad crime.
	How dare you!
	How dare you sow doubt!
	Hey, have you ever considered that electoral democracy may be corrupt?
	No, I hadn't considered that.
	But now that I think about it, it doesn't matter who you vote for, the same elite globalist institutions, be they deep state or corporate, always seem to benefit.
	There you go.
	Arrest that man!
	Arrest that doubt-sowing son of a bitch!
	It's such a meaningless, shallow victory.
	That particular thing was wrong.
	Yeah, but what about everything else that's wrong?
	Never mind all that.
	We're not going to do anything about that.
	That particular thing was wrong.
	But what about the whole stinking, burning edifice of wretched corruption?
	Yeah, that's a bit much.
	This doubt was sowing.
	That's the problem.
	Don't you dare sow doubt in this doubtful thing.
	So, I'm gonna re-read that sentence Russell just used as a diving board for his hilarious sowing doubt bit.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah!
	Even that sentence would be mad at Russell.
	Yeah.
	Quote, Smith's indictment cites Trump's speech on January 6 as a feature of his effort to sow doubt about the election and allegedly organize a conspiracy to overturn it.
	In that sentence, which part do you think is the important bit?
	The sowing of doubt?
	Or the organizing a conspiracy to overturn an election part?
	The and word.
	That and word is what does it.
	My focus, personally, is on the second bit.
	Same!
	Russell just turns it into, oh, what are you doing criticizing people for sowing doubt?
	You're all crazy in order to hide the second part of the sentence.
	And I will point out as well that that's not Jack Smith's words, like the sowing doubt bit, Schellenberger wrote that.
	So even if it did have any validity, it's not even an accusation that can be accurately leveled at anyone involved except for Michael fucking Schellenberger.
	He's the one telling, you know, saying, oh, sowing doubt is a problem.
	And sowing doubt about a fire present in a crowded theater is illegal!
	There is that.
	There is that.
	So yeah!
	Yeah, dummy!
	Geez!
	That wasn't you.
	I'm not mad at you.
	I'm mad at the dirt.
	No, no, I know.
	I was saying it to Russell, who's in front of me.
	He's making a goofy face at me.
	I hate it.
	Oh, it's so dumb!
	Be mad at Russell.
	Yeah, yeah, he very much deserves it.
	This is a running of cover that I never could have expected.
	Truly.
	No, no.
	I'm shocked that this...
	I don't think I expected this when we started.
	I don't think I would have expected the extent to which Brand is willing to go to provide cover for Donald fucking Trump.
	Like Rainn Wilson?
	Is that your homie?
	Is that your friend?
	Like, who is being interviewed? Matthew McConaughey or whatever? I don't get to find out, because
	I had to stop kind of looking up Russell stuff, but I know that he's interviewed a number
	of people that like definitely don't, not perfect, don't agree, wouldn't be cool with
	this. Like.
	Yep. Yep.
	I think most of them were interviewed before... I think 2022 was the end of a lot of those big famous interviews because they were with a different kind of company.
	I think he was working with a different company for them.
	Um, and so that series has kind of ended, which was before this show, so it's possible that people had less of an awareness.
	They might have seen, like, some anti-vaxx shit, maybe, and just been like, yeah, yeah, but the rest of him's okay, maybe.
	So, you know, I'll forgive people, more or less, up to this point, pretty much, but if they've appeared on Stay Free with Russell Brand, They should fucking know better, and I'm gonna come for them.
	Is Cornel West on board with this?
	I doubt it!
	Liquid?
	You know what I mean?
	Cornel West, Dr. Cornel West, presidential candidate, said, and we haven't covered this yet, I don't know whether I want to cover the episode where he He announces his presidential candidacy on Russell's show.
	But when he does so, he says, oh, I spoke with my wife and I said, oh, you know, if I'm going to announce my candidacy, I really want to do it somewhere that somewhere that says the truth and somewhere that I watch every day.
	I watch your show religiously, Russell.
	Oh, so he lied.
	I don't think he did.
	I don't think Cornel West learned.
	I think it's easy to accept the highlights and not, cause like if you really watch it, if you watch the whole thing every day, it's not like this.
	The thing is, it's like you and I are surprised because we haven't been watching it, but every time we watch it, we find something insane.
	It stands to reason that Cornel West is smart enough.
	You think?
	I mean, he claims he watches everything.
	I don't know.
	I don't know.
	I'm going to believe the things that people tell me.
	Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure.
	content for 2018, 2019. You know what I mean? I mean, he claims he watches everything. I don't
	know. I don't know. I'm going to believe the things that people tell me. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
	sure. Until proven wrong. Like, especially when, as we've kind of, with a lot of the more kind of
	subtle content, like a lot of it does take a second to actually deconstruct what the fuck he's saying,
	So there are definitely cases where I've seen Brand's followers where they'll watch the exact same content that I will.
	Like if I make a post somewhere on fucking Reddit saying like, hey, Brand is saying this thing here.
	And then a bunch of brand followers showing up, show up saying, I watched that.
	No, he didn't.
	He didn't say that.
	He didn't.
	I'm like, well, watch it again, but with a bit more of a critical eye and just actually listen to what he's saying.
	And sometimes like it takes me two or three listens to fucking understand where he's coming from, what he's trying to get at.
	So, you know, I could absolutely see that someone like Cornel West, who has fucking fallen off in the last several years, would not be paying attention to it.
	I could definitely see that.
	Remains to be seen, however.
	Right, right, right, right, right.
	Well, and what's tough, and I was going to mention this earlier and I just want to get it out, that, like, there is an impossible purity test that's kind of imposed on the left because we're trying to, like, have real conversations.
	We are not a united front in the same way that, like, Republicans have the luxury of just agreeing to five lies and screaming about them all the time.
	It's a lot easier to do your marketing and your branding and to be cohesive and be like a phalanx when you're making shit up.
	Whereas the left is diverse and is in real legitimate conversations about policy, which is a lot uglier, which makes room For people like Russell to sound left because there is like a, there is a purity test that's kind of impossible.
	That like we all need to be better about.
	We really do.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	I, I, I do completely agree.
	We like the left is, is fragmented in the worst ways at all the wrong moments.
	Right.
	And, and that has historically fucked us over and will continue to do so as long as we carry on down this path.
	Yeah, and I'm not insisting on ignoring anything either.
	We all just need to at least pick a focus so we can do anything.
	That's the thing, I feel the things and I believe in the things that Russell uses as talking points that he doesn't mean.
	Because I don't believe all the other stuff.
	When he talks about fish and when he like give you give him a second to like explore these ideas like oh no no no no no no I'm sorry nope we are not on the same team as a matter of fact.
	Yeah no he'll he'll he'll say left-wing things like 15% of the time and then spend the other 85% of his time defending right-wing dickheads and it's like well I think I know which side of the aisle you're on here buddy.
	I think I can tell that just Oh, just on its face, let alone actually looking at the things you say.
	Good God.
	So next, we learn a little bit more about Jan 6 being full of feds.
	But as public reported, there was more going on during the January 6th riot than Trump's speech.
	Dozens of undercover agents and confidential human informants from multiple law enforcement agencies were present.
	They weren't reporting on that, were they?
	They weren't saying, as well as Trump sowing doubt, that doubt sowing son of a bitch.
	There are also hundreds of deep state agents.
	I mean, there's sowing doubt and then there's sowing insurrections.
	What relates and pertains more specifically to this specific legal matter?
	Let me know in the comments which you think had a bigger impact.
	I wonder why the mainstream media wasn't reporting that there were dozens of federal agents.
	Maybe because it's not true.
	So, the reporting linked in the article, supposedly proving that dozens of feds were at Jan 6 instigating violence, actually pertains to three former FBI agents, Marcus Allen, Garrett O'Boyle, and Stephen Friend.
	Three disgruntled former employees who tried to call themselves whistleblowers said that Jan Six was an FBI inside job.
	Their whistleblower status was never approved due to lack of evidence and Congressman Jerry Connolly said, quote, you all have employment grievances that doesn't make you whistleblowers.
	We're listening to sad tales of certain individuals.
	Oh my god.
	Which about sums it up.
	In short, Schellenberger doesn't have shit.
	Also, Friend and O'Boyle both received mysterious payments from Kash Patel, a former Trump official.
	And Friend works at the Center for Renewing America, which is run by one of Trump's toadies.
	Nothing suspicious at all there.
	Yeah, you know what I'd point to, before I talked about three hearsay merchants?
	The weapons caches that were being strategically placed around the Capitol.
	Yeah, well, you know, the Feds put them there, that's the 400th one, I'm sure.
	Yeah, exactly, right?
	No, they've got nothing.
	They have no evidence for any of this stuff.
	And in the next clip, Schellenberger makes some more baseless claims.
	Court documents indicate that there were FBI informants in two of the groups that organized the riot, the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.
	And as public documented last month, the FBI has a long history of using confidential informants to entrap people who otherwise would not have committed a crime.
	A long and ridiculous and hilarious history of literally going, hey, you guys, why don't you bomb that building?
	Yeah, why don't we?
	I'm afraid I'm going to have to arrest you.
	What for?
	That building.
	But that was your idea.
	It was my idea.
	Hey, don't you so doubt in me now.
	That's the worst crime of all.
	So I kind of love the way that the articles are written on public because they neatly hyperlink their own work when they claim they've done something, which makes it really easy for me to find what it is they're talking about.
	It's great.
	So the article they're saying documented a long history of the FBI using confidential
	informants to entrap people is quite something. I'm going to read to you from the first couple
	of paragraphs. Quote, "Last August, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that investigations
	into domestic terrorism have more than doubled and that the threat comes from those who advocate for
	the superiority of the white race as well as anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists.
	In February, the ADL reported that white supremacist ideology catalyzed 80% of extremism-related homicides in 2022.
	And in May, Biden called white supremacy the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland.
	But there's no good evidence that domestic terrorism is increasing.
	So there's some shifting of goalposts happening there.
	Speaking mostly about white supremacy and then shifting to domestic terrorism as a whole when saying it's not on the rise paints a picture of, hey, you're all just coming for the whites.
	You're just coming for those white people.
	All while ignoring several issues, chief of which is that domestic terrorism doesn't have to be on the rise.
	The problem the U.S.
	has faced over the last decade or more is not paying enough attention to the problem.
	And so not being able to prevent the various acts of domestic terrorism caused predominantly by white men which
	have occurred.
	Increasing the number of investigations into these potential domestic terror threats serves to hopefully
	mitigate that problem.
	As for Schellenberg's evidence of CIs entrapping people, if you read the article it all comes down to anonymous sources
	who they say are in a position to know these things.
	things.
	No evidence whatsoever, which is slightly hilarious when there are legitimate grievances to be made against the FBI, such as the Neuberg 4 case as a for instance that just came out the other day.
	So, yeah.
	It's harder and harder to listen to this knowing that it's like an editorial of some editorials.
	Yeah, right?
	Like every quote that comes up, I'm like, oh, you're so full of shit.
	The toilet's jealous.
	What?
	What?
	Yeah.
	Like, it's just not, and then there's like, hmm.
	Yeah, it's, it's, um, it's, you know, fucking Russian nesting dolls of, of, of lies.
	It's like you uncover one, you're like, Oh, Oh, your source is full of shit as well.
	What about yours?
	Nope.
	Nope.
	Nothing there.
	Okay.
	And then you look inside and it's just empty.
	Um, okay.
	I knew, I knew that was going to happen, but at the same time, I'm still disappointed.
	I might as well be an Encarta CD-ROM.
	That's funnier.
	Yeah.
	Do you know what?
	Much more entertaining.
	Um, Next, we get a little more inside job narrative from Schellenberger before Brand makes a bit of a big swing.
	At best, the riot was a massive security failure.
	At worst, informants may have encouraged rioters to enter the Capitol.
	Let me know in the comments where you stand.
	While it is true that Trump lied before, during and after the election, the Supreme Court has held that it is unconstitutional to prosecute politicians for lying because otherwise we wouldn't have any, right?
	One need not be a Trump supporter to recognize the dangerous precedent that Smith is setting.
	Democrats who wish to question or challenge election results in the future should be cautious, because you better believe they will unless they're able to somehow ensure that they always win elections.
	And I don't know how they would do that.
	So now, apparently the Democrats are engaging in some kind of way to rig elections forever, according to what Brand is inferring here.
	Weird that for someone who's not right-wing, he only ever attacks the Democratic Party or accuses Democrats of shady shit.
	Very strange.
	Also, Schellenberger's hilariously inept journalism there was equating lying with the myriad of things that Trump is being charged with, not least of which is basically doing a treason, and yet he has the balls to say, oh, you're setting a dangerous precedent here if you ever want to challenge an election.
	Like, fuck off, Schellenberger, you inept prick.
	You think the courts can't make a distinction between lying once or twice and this shit?
	It's just so intellectually dishonest from the jump.
	It brings me to a flying rage within seconds.
	Honestly, I was so furious just putting all this together.
	Yeah, you know what?
	For whatever reason I can't possibly imagine, I hear the Venom this week.
	Frankly, I'm here for it.
	This particular episode might come with some extra seasoning, a little bit of extra salt.
	some elevated sodium levels and I'm here for it.
	Yeah, as a friend and co-host, but really like just also to hear Russell want to bitch
	about corruption in the government, but then just like he said the thing about,
	oh, well, if politicians can't lie.
	What are they going to do?
	Like, okay.
	Do we not, do we get to breeze past that?
	Do we get to breeze past that one?
	That seems like a systemic problem.
	If you're upset about all these other systemic problems, we're going to just scooch on past that one though?
	Okay.
	Apparently, yeah.
	He's kind of picking.
	And, you know, I don't think he wants to get into the whole, like, oh, you know, people lying thing.
	Because all of the people he supports and likes do that every hour of every single day.
	Yeah.
	I would think that if I were Russell, I would avoid scrutiny from irresponsible behavior due to drug use, but he seems to be coming for Hunter.
	You know what I mean?
	Yeah, you'd think.
	Of all the stuff.
	Also, I don't think he should be coming for people for lying either.
	I think we've identified a couple of issues.
	Yeah, many, many, many.
	So I have a question.
	Who do you think has been more damaging to the US in claiming an election was stolen?
	Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton?
	Just curious.
	Who do you think?
	Surprise answer!
	Roger Stone!
	I mean... I know.
	That's... I can't... I don't even know what to say to that.
	Was that any push?
	I didn't hear it.
	It's so absurd to even consider!
	My guess prior, my thought prior to watching this show was, well, Donald Trump definitely done the most damage, but I was wrong.
	What's more, it's clear that election denial has become baked into the political process.
	It is commonplace on both sides of the political aisle to question electoral losses.
	When Hillary Clinton lost to Trump in 2016, her campaign crafted the Russiagate narrative, which fueled a vast conspiracy within the government to clamp down on freedom of expression on social media.
	We are still uncovering the extent and lasting effects that Clinton's election denial has had on the country.
	Oh my God!
	Do you remember this happening?
	Because I sure as fuck don't.
	There's rewriting history and then there's just making shit up.
	That was just me.
	That was... Schellenberger has opted for both.
	He's doing both.
	There's nothing.
	And also, Russiagate wasn't crafted from her losing.
	The Russiagate thing was already happening because it was an investigation that someone in her campaign was doing anyway.
	And then it later, because of the things that they uncovered, turned into an actual investigation by the government into those allegations.
	And I will tell you this, the Wikipedia page on Donald Trump's ties to Russia is ever-expanding and ever-growing and is now very long.
	Very long and very well-sourced.
	Highly recommend it.
	it's a good read. Yeah, it's... Wow, there was like, that's the thing is like,
	people still like the common narrative is that the Russia probe produced nothing, which is not true.
	There was a lot of stuff.
	It's just that we can't necessarily legally in this system pinpoint one Screaming, blaring problem and person or entity to pin it on.
	It was death by a thousand cuts.
	And that's the best way to sabotage anything.
	Cause then you can't figure out who's really at fault.
	Also the name of this article, they are referencing Trump charged with Stacey Abrams syndrome.
	That tells me all I need to know.
	Yeah, so I looked at this article and it does mention Stacey Abrams, and Stacey Abrams saying my election was stolen, etc., it was rigged, and basically says, oh look, the Democrats are doing the same thing, which is not true.
	Well, she didn't really say that it was rigged.
	I mean, here's the thing, is there anything you could say about like... She did say those words.
	Rigged is different than stolen, though.
	She said both of them, and she also said, I won, which, you know, I mean, perhaps a little bit more direct than she should have been, because fuckheads like this can take it out of context, but at the same time, kind of got a point.
	Yeah, she was running against the guy that was like...
	Whatever you want to think or feel about Brace, does Stacey Abrams like, and listen, again, she doesn't
	pass the leftist purity test, and she's been raked over the coals for it, but she was
	running against the guy that was in charge of the thing. Like, there's a conflict of interest that is
	being distracted from.
	She was running against the guy who wrote the voter suppression laws that he then put into
	place to ensure that he won, which is exactly what happened.
	He made it harder, particularly for people of color, to vote, and therefore he won.
	By a very small margin, 1.5% it was.
	She had a legitimate grievance, Donald Trump did not.
	And yeah, and I, she had a legitimate grievance.
	Donald Trump did not.
	And they were, they were both, and after the fact, they were both aiming for very different
	Stacey Abrams said, none of what I'm trying to achieve would change the result.
	I'm not trying to do that.
	I'm trying to point out that this thing happened and that we need to deal with it.
	That's what she was doing.
	Well, and I think that's the point that needs to be included in Yeah, it's not.
	Yeah, that's nuance that literally changes the definition of the first thing that you can come for that she said.
	Is that she wasn't looking for a different outcome.
	She said, I'm sorry that people only have the attention span to listen to a 4 second clip rather than the full 15 second clip.
	And I was like, yep, yeah, kind of a point.
	Kind of a point.
	Yeah.
	Stacey Abrams syndrome.
	That's so awful.
	I know, I know, I know.
	Yeah.
	I wonder if she was a bit whiter and maybe had a penis, maybe they would be treating her differently.
	I don't know.
	Just a consideration.
	So next we get into some outright apologism for Trump's crimes.
	People that are Clinton supporters or Democrat voters will say, you can't compare that to this January 6th insurrection.
	But you do have to consider a variety of interesting variables.
	For example, the fact that there were deep state informants and agents in the crowd on January the 6th and the fact that Previous Democrat candidates have made comparable claims.
	In the end, it becomes minutiae.
	It becomes a delicate act of brinkmanship to argue for your own party.
	What we are testifying, what we believe, is that you should start now looking at the corruption of the system itself and say, look, why are we quibbling about this?
	Here's our argument.
	We're not as bad as the other lot.
	Whichever side you're on.
	We may be bad.
	We're not arguing with that.
	We may be corrupt.
	We may be funded by corporate interests.
	We may have Congress people that benefit financially from their position through their trading.
	All of that's true.
	But if you read Trump's mind, deep down inside, you will see he is the worst doubt-sowing son of a bitch on this earth.
	And there ain't no doubt about that.
	Unless he sows some in me, and I'd kill him for that.
	Quibbling.
	Why are we quibbling about this?
	Why are we quibbling over multiple conspiracies a former president was engaged in while in office?
	Not just a former president, a former president seeking re-election.
	I'd deconstruct this bullshit if it was even a tiny bit less obvious.
	Just don't look at Trump.
	Look at the whole system.
	But also, isn't Trump great?
	And these bad, bad Democrats just being hypocrites.
	But the right wing are great.
	And I'm not right wing, by the way.
	But, you know, the right wing are pretty great, aren't they?
	Yeah.
	Just the willingness to throw the legislative branch enriching themselves through insider trading or some form therein, but not the executive.
	Yeah, it's weird.
	Not that particular example, I would think.
	Doesn't seem to take issue with any of Trump's financial non-disclosures, let's be honest.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, getting caught over and over and over.
	Like, it's just, I would, oh my God, I would love.
	Even just think of the Democrat legislators.
	Talk about that.
	Don't just say it as a headline, Russell.
	Just do a segment.
	There's plenty of great things to bitch about.
	Trump being so fucking blatantly transparent about it as well.
	From the jump, as soon as someone says, no, I'm not going to hand over my taxes, you're like, well, come on.
	Come on.
	We all know why you're not going to do that, don't we?
	His rich daddy taught him how to lie.
	If you thieve big enough, you're just a businessman.
	Yeah, taught him a lot of things.
	Took him to Klan meetings, all kinds of good shit.
	So next we learn the real threat to democracy.
	We can acknowledge that Trump did not execute a respectable and traditional transfer of power, while still maintaining that prosecuting him for spreading disinformation about the election is a grave violation of the First Amendment.
	Arguably, it is a much greater threat to democracy than Trump's false claims.
	What is the bigger threat to democracy?
	Whether or not Trump knew stuff in his own mind when he was bail-sowing, Or transgressing the First Amendment, the right to free speech, the right to free communication, which you can see is being violated and legislated against on a global scale right now.
	Ah, so what he did was free speech!
	All the crimes, apparently.
	It leads me to wonder where the line of free speech is in committing crimes.
	In fact, I'm forced to wonder, out loud, whether going to Russell's house and setting all of his pants on fire, because he is in fact a liar, would be protected by free speech.
	Like, do you think Schellenberger would write articles in my defence?
	Do you reckon?
	I mean it could be construed to be a political protest.
	It's definitely a protest of some kind.
	This is so absurd!
	I had to remind myself this is my own microphone and I can't hit my head against it because it'll sound bad for listeners.
	That was my impulse.
	Listeners would just be getting a donk, donk, donk.
	It's not constructive.
	I'm not going to hurt my head or my equipment.
	I ain't got that kind of money.
	Exactly.
	Yeah, right.
	Right.
	Subscribe to our Patreon, everybody!
	Patreon.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com.com Something.
	I don't know.
	We can figure something out.
	Don't threaten me with a soundboard.
	Oh boy.
	No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
	When I haven't soundboards, this all has to be acoustic noises.
	I'm a purist, right?
	You're going to have to attach something hard to your forehead, have a cowbell, and donk it with your forehead.
	That's what you're going to have to do.
	The new off-brand will just be Double Dare.
	I'm not totally mad at that.
	I have a room full of instruments.
	There's plenty.
	I'm fine.
	I'm fine.
	You're definitely the one in trouble here.
	So next, Russell just shifts his source without so much as a mention, which is weird.
	Suddenly he's reading from the Wall Street Journal.
	At the first available opportunity, he's abandoned Schellenberger in favor of a more reputable source that suits his narrative, which is nothing short of hilarious to me.
	So let's hear what they have to say.
	The legal case will play out in the coming months, but the political point to keep in mind is that this is exactly where Democrats want voters to focus.
	On Mr Trump all day, every day.
	That's interesting, isn't it?
	Have you considered that?
	Have you considered that this is what they want?
	At the beginning of this electoral process, at the beginning of this campaign process, DeSantis and Trump were neck and neck.
	Now Trump is soaring ahead.
	Do you think that this is an Do you think that the establishment hasn't considered the likelihood of this outcome, given what they went through in 2016 and 2020?
	Let me know in the comments.
	Is this a deliberate campaign?
	They have elsewhere employed what they call Pied Piper strategies, where they empower and amplify the message of the candidate that they would most like to face.
	They've done that in midterms and they did it previously with Trump.
	Is it possible that this is part of a grander strategy?
	Let me know in the comments.
	So the Wall Street Journal is insinuating that all of these legal issues Trump is facing, and by issues I mean criminal charges, and by facing I mean he's being taken to trial for these crimes, they're saying that the Democrats are trying to amplify Trump because they want to face him in the 2024 election, which is partly why all this is happening.
	If the Democrats do want to face Trump in 2024, then they're absolute morons in my view.
	But as ever, there's no evidence to back up what any of these people are saying, and it's all pure conjecture what the Democrats do and don't want.
	This is just the Wall Street Journal's own version of providing cover for Trump.
	That's all this is.
	Well, and if anything, the argument can be made that legacy media wants Trump all day every day because they get ratings, because he's outrageous.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	People tune in.
	I think it's very tricky and I think it's very common as we found that just the Democrats can be thrown in as totally interchangeable with legacy media, which is actually very often extremely conservative.
	Yeah, they never seem to address that conflation, but it does happen all the time, which is great.
	So next up, we of course pivot away from Trump and towards the real problem, which is Joe Biden.
	The more the press is preoccupied by Mr. Trump's courtroom dramas, the less public attention there will be to President Biden's declining capacities or to the facts emerging about Mr. Biden's promotion of the family business.
	The indictment keeps all eyes on Mr. Trump's troubles rather than on Mr. Biden's record or debates about the next four years.
	The truth is America needs to have a serious conversation about Joe Biden and the Biden family and their business dealings and Biden's capacity even to be a president.
	And that conversation is happening, but it's not happening in a bipartisan, sensible and unbiased way, is it?
	It's either slanders and attacks from people who don't like him, understandably, or it's sort of ignoring it elsewhere in the media space.
	Russell, you're one of the people doing all of the slandering and attacking Joe Biden in a biased way.
	You do it literally every week.
	If you want America to have a sit-down civil conversation about Joe Biden, shut the fuck up and fuck off somewhere that isn't in front of a camera.
	Also, it's interesting how we're calling baseless conjecture emerging facts these days.
	Stunning bit of spin from the Wall Street Journal there.
	I can use it too.
	There are emerging facts about Russell Brand being a serial sexual assaulter, for instance.
	Difference being, I actually have things to back it up.
	Something we'll cover in greater detail on the upcoming Primer, by the way.
	Thank you, Patrons.
	Yikes!
	Wow!
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Is he going to find out that there's a reason why some people that are a problem don't poke their head up to be a target?
	Maybe.
	Why maybe a lot of us noticed that Trump didn't seem super stoked when he won because he knew that would increase scrutiny.
	All of a sudden, a lot of attention, a lot of attention.
	That you don't want if you're a crimey grifterman.
	Yeah, this is it, because people like us like to play whack-a-mole with fuckheads like this.
	So you poke your head up, you bet your ass I'm gonna whack you.
	That's what's gonna happen.
	So, in the next clip we get an absolute belter of a comparison after more video clips suddenly return and make an appearance.
	Maybe that's the most significant point.
	All of this mudslinging and condemnation and fretting over the minutiae of a plainly corrupt system is not good for America as a whole.
	Yet for all of his legal troubles, the former president is dominating his rivals and remains the clear frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.
	The support that he has nationally has grown since February.
	Twelve points since February.
	Who are these people who are looking at everything that's going on, that happened on January 6th, and they're saying, okay, I'll throw my support behind Donald Trump?
	Okay, the less educated you are, the more likely you are to support Donald Trump.
	That's probably a very satisfactory analysis to offer.
	But if you consider recent electoral phenomena, you had Barack Obama winning a couple of cycles back for two terms and then Donald Trump winning.
	So I think you can almost rule out the idea that is prominently put forward of race and class as being the determining factors in American politics.
	What?
	So race and class aren't determining factors in American politics, apparently.
	Russell, were that the case, George Floyd would still be alive today, you lying piece of shit.
	Also, in his mind, apparently the same people voting for Trump are those who voted for Obama?
	Like, some of them, maybe, the ones that have been radicalized over the last decade, because that absolutely has happened, but that's definitely a minority.
	Like, hmm.
	Yeah.
	Well, and that's, that's another issue with legacy media kind of like using... Obama won, but it wasn't a fucking landslide.
	No, but like focusing on the Obama Trump voter, they found four of them and they made weeks and weeks of content about it.
	Oh, I mean, unheard of taking a nugget of a thing and just spinning weeks of content about it.
	It's the exact same thing as that black guy being at a Trump rally and Trump being like, hey, we've got a black guy over here.
	Hey, and pulling him out of the crowd and being like, see, we're not racist, we've got a black guy.
	Whoa, okay.
	Yeah, this is exactly the same.
	Next, Russell gets into what Obama and Trump have in common.
	I would offer you this, an appetite for anti-establishment candidates.
	What did Barack Obama offer?
	We've covered at length what he delivered, but what he offered was change and hope.
	What did Trump offer?
	A departure from corrupt systemic politics.
	What did Barack Obama look like?
	Different from what we'd previously had.
	What did Trump talk like?
	Different from what we previously had.
	What do people crave?
	That's a way to say it.
	Yeah, they craved different.
	So here I'll say he has a point.
	It's one of the key reasons that I'm pissed Bernie didn't go up against Trump in 2016.
	I think he could have cinched it purely on the basis that those two old white men were stood there saying, hey, this thing is fucked.
	We need to do things differently.
	While Hillary Clinton's proposal was more of the same, guys.
	Yeah, Hillary Clinton's skipping through a meadow with Henry Kissinger.
	Let's do more!
	That's the problem.
	Let's do more of the exact same.
	No, we don't want that.
	I completely agree.
	Back to Obama and Trump.
	I fundamentally can't think of two men more different in character, appearance, or speech than those two.
	And yet, according to Russell, they are the same, apparently.
	I mean, that's the thing.
	Well, if you reduce it down.
	They are American men.
	Like, that's okay.
	Not according to the Republicans.
	God, I know.
	Oh my god, right?
	One of them's Kenyan.
	Pick a lane.
	Pick a fucking lane, you people.
	But it's the same thing with the fucking January 6th.
	It's like, okay, was it this, like, violent over, like, was it violent?
	And it was at the FBI that you've made up?
	Or was it tourists?
	Or was it non-violent?
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Just pick the one.
	Just pick one.
	You don't have to?
	Oh, cool.
	Great.
	Apparently not.
	They can have both.
	They can do both.
	Great.
	You might be wondering where he's taking all of this.
	So let's find out.
	Of course people that are not benefiting from America's current institutions are likely to find an anti-establishment figure like Trump appealing because the establishment is screwing them over.
	What we should be doing is listening to the voice of RFK, listening to the voice of Cornel West, listening to independent voices in political spaces and media spaces to ensure that these systems recognize that their days are numbered.
	That it's over.
	That you can see already that these systems are beginning to decay and decline before our eyes and are being continually defibrillated by lies held up only by virtue of the fact that most of us are distracted by events such as this one.
	What we need to do is listen to RFK Jr.
	and Cornel West.
	So, an anti-vaxxer with blood on his hands who just makes up most of the things he says, or an anti-Semitic advocate of Ron DeSantis who says he watches Brand's show religiously.
	Also, people who get screwed over by the establishment regularly vote for it.
	Brand needs to read What's the Matter With Kansas.
	Or even better, simply step outside his house, or his cloistered little fucking existence, and take a look at the UK.
	We as a country have voted in Tory governments four times since 2010, and all they've ever done is fuck us up worse.
	So, here we are.
	Yeah.
	It's almost like there's a whole system that's pushing narratives to grift and make money instead of actually doing anything.
	Yeah, it feels like that.
	I think you've kind of hit the nail on the head.
	It feels a lot like that.
	Then why doesn't it feel good to be right?
	Oh yeah, being right is usually terrible.
	Have we come to that conclusion?
	I think so.
	As people inherently powerless to change it.
	Yes, yes.
	It feels bad.
	Feels bad, man.
	There we go.
	That is where we live, in a perpetual fucking meme.
	Feels bad, man.
	That's just our life.
	Awesome.
	It's fine.
	This is fine.
	It's fine.
	Yeah, I can see the flames behind you.
	This is fine, this is fine.
	Yeah, great.
	Great.
	Next we get the final theory from Russell on what this whole Trump indictment thing is all about.
	The people have come over to the GOP, they gave them the majority in 2016.
	A lot of them, maybe 15% have been voting Democrat in the past, and they were simply frustrated, fed up, they feel ignored, forgotten, even betrayed.
	And there's a level of anger there that brought them to Donald Trump because he represented and offered to be their voice and to speak for them.
	This indictment is both a strategy and a distraction.
	Plainly, the Democrat establishment would prefer to face Trump than anyone else.
	I could see that going dreadfully wrong, but that seems to be strategic.
	They must have considered things that we consider.
	Surely.
	Let me know in the comments if I'm being naive there.
	I don't think he's being naive.
	I do, however, think he's full of shit about the rest of it.
	In case it wasn't obvious enough, he's saying these charges are about a democratic strategy to want to face Trump in 2024, and as a distraction, and have nothing to do with a criminal committing crimes.
	If anyone tries to tell me that Brand isn't into Trump again, I'm going to beat them round the head with this clip like an impact from a wet fish.
	I don't know how, but I will find a way.
	I will.
	Uh, and we know from my own experience, it feels like getting hit with a wet fish.
	So yeah.
	Repeatedly.
	Repeatedly.
	This is, this is an excellent wet fish to pelt with.
	And, and yet, and yet the, the, these people can watch this shit and, and not feel that wet fish at all.
	They, they don't even know it's there.
	They, they can't even tell.
	Um, so, you know.
	Well, but that's the thing that we have talked about over and over is like how your brain fills in the gaps that, I gotta say, there's less space to film in today.
	Way less gaps in this.
	This is very obvious, very, very straightforward.
	Much less insinuation, much less, you know, nuance or anything.
	This is just...
	Trump is good.
	And he doesn't have to talk to anybody about it.
	There's not even like a, not even with like Gareth Roy or whatever, like that.
	I think that that's telling that when there's this whole, like, it's like, again, the editorial nesting doll that has been built in this also like very like one, you know, one camera staring at a thing written as an editorial also like, I think it's worth mentioning that there's less wiggle room because he's not talking to anybody.
	It's like a house of cards but they're all jokers and they're all somehow covered in grease so they will immediately fall over upon any inspection.
	Next, Russell makes a joke about Trump doing something I absolutely could see him doing.
	It's also a distraction from the obvious incapacity of Joe Biden and the plain and emergent corruption within the Biden family, alleged corruption at this stage.
	It's also an attempt more broadly to focus all of our collective attention, whether we're on the left or the right, on minutiae, on very particular and sometimes actually quite What?
	metaphysical notions like Donald Trump's subjective experience, whether or not he
	knew he was making fraudulent claims at the time he was making them and the
	impossibility of ever proving that. Unless I suppose you've got tapes of him saying
	"listen I'm about to do this fraudulent doubt sewing I'm gonna sew doubt even
	though I have no doubt. Sew doubt but no doubt. That's my new catchphrase.
	Brilliant catchphrase."
	I could a hundred percent see that happening on tape.
	It honestly wouldn't shock me if Jack Smith has reels and reels of tape being like, did you steal my presidency back yet?
	In fact, if he looks hard enough, I'm sure it's buried in Trump's tweets somewhere.
	He's probably fucking sent it out to the masses.
	Well, that's the terrible game we've all been playing.
	Trump has a tweet for every single thing.
	He must have.
	And in one of his fucking 3am bathroom tweets, he definitely fucking did something to me.
	Again, Russell, are you maligning a metaphysical notion as proof?
	That's rich!
	He does seem to be doing that a little bit.
	He is rich.
	He's definitely rich in every conceivable way.
	Thank fuck, we are down to the final clip next.
	What's more important than the ontological inner workings of Donald Trump is the fact that Donald Trump is being effective precisely because most of us are sick and tired of being offered just another reboot of the same old politics.
	Just another version of corruption.
	The very fact that anyone was willing to entertain someone who looks and sounds like Joe Biden, who's been in Congress for 40, 50 years, presenting himself as the brave, bold, new voice of emergent American progressive politics, shows you how broken, berserk, corrupted and empty the whole system is.
	So according to Brand here, and he's just said this, the fact that Trump is anti-establishment is more important than the emerging fact that he's a fucking criminal.
	This speaks absolute volumes about Russell as a person and completely lines up with everything we've learned so far.
	So long as it's expedient and they're aligned to his views, he'll support literally anyone, including active criminals who commit treason.
	Also, I don't think Biden's ever presented himself as brave and bold.
	He's just an old white guy pretty much just keeping things ticking over, which apparently is our best option these days.
	Well, I mean, you know, challenging people like a push-up, you know, or like A very, like, wanna-fight-about-it kind of attitude on the campaign trail that was pretty distasteful and, like, not cool.
	I get the feeling perhaps he's a little bit insecure about his age.
	Yeah, I'd imagine so.
	Because he probably should be and there should probably be a...
	An age limit, upper age limit on presidents.
	We've got a lower one, there should be an upper one.
	Just an observation.
	We have it for driving.
	Right, right.
	So, yeah.
	That was a challange, shall we say.
	That was challenging.
	Yeah, yeah, and that was only fucking 20 minutes of this guy.
	And there's a lot more stuff, like if we actually parse through, there's even more.
	Because of the nature of what the indictments are saying.
	Well, not the indictments.
	The actual results of what's being alleged by the prosecution is like... Because that's the thing, is like, yeah, the notion that you can indict a ham sandwich, sure.
	But you can't... The phrase is not, you can take a ham sandwich to trial.
	Yeah, no.
	No, no, no.
	It's very different.
	And I don't... This is really...
	I mean, I don't know how many of Tucker's audience have come over to him.
	Why is this here?
	You don't, I mean, you don't need to, unless you're doing a very specific,
	like unless you're trying to be a Tucker, you know what I mean?
	I mean, I don't know how many of Tucker's audience have come over to him.
	I imagine there are definitely some, you know, and it definitely also serves, you know,
	serves to appeal to his audience for sure, because he said many, many times
	that lots of his audience fucking love Trump, which is absolutely true.
	And that was definitely my experience when watching the DeSantis interview live,
	had that little reel of the live stream comments going down and-
	Good chunk of them were for Trump.
	You know, and wasn't even particularly relevant to put it there, but there we go.
	Yeah, as to why he's going so hard, why he's going to such lengths, because I would think you could appease his audience with much less effort.
	Just cover it and be like, oh, these Democrats are dickheads, aren't they?
	And you can just kind of stop it there.
	You can just take five minutes to do that.
	Yeah.
	So did he talk about the, uh, do you talk about Hunter in the actual, like,
	in the episode, did you just bring it up at the beginning and then not
	really talk about it from there?
	Yeah, he does that sometimes.
	He'll just be like, yeah, Hunter Biden's laptop, and that'll be that.
	And that's supposed to be some great reference point for everyone to collectively understand as, oh yes, this great conspiracy with the Biden crime family.
	Just threw that out there.
	That was just for color.
	Yeah, yeah.
	OK, I was I was hoping for any kind of like attempt at proof.
	Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we don't do that on this show.
	Wrong show entirely.
	Wrong show.
	You want like, I don't know, stay enclosed with with some kind of responsible journalist and maybe, you know.
	Oh, okay.
	Stay in prison with Louis Theroux, you know?
	Someone providing evidence is, yeah, it's not this guy.
	It's just not.
	What I don't get is like...
	I'm not sure what the project, the conservative project is here because I think there's like
	some Republicans that desperately want Trump out of the picture and they're excited.
	And then there's other, you know, and then there's like the Trump contingent that is like,
	do they think that they can really like stop all this prosecution for all these varied,
	way different crimes than I even understood.
	So it just feels like Russell is talking about, like, the talking points when we didn't know a lot, and now we do know a lot.
	Like, I didn't understand, because...
	I'm also kind of, I'm not going to be as tenacious about finding out when it's like conjecture, but whenever there's like concrete information, like, okay, I'm very interested in this.
	And the fraudulent electors, I didn't really get the nuts and bolts of that story.
	Oh, right.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
	About him just trying to find a slate of new people who would decide differently.
	Like an average of 15, like people that just weren't actually like legitimate, like oh fraudulent as in they weren't electors in the electoral college and they would just Like, straight up, straight up fraud.
	Like, guy shows up who's not in the job and tries to do the job and lie to count it wrong.
	That's the most basic, like, I don't think it has to be complicated to explain what the problem is!
	And I'm not even talking about Georgia, that was national!
	That was in several states and like I had no idea because it hadn't been spelled out necessarily for me in that in those terms also again like this is all very like amorphous that's a such a real tangible fraud with like witnesses because those people knew they were supposed to lie like they were getting inside like Enlisting a bunch of people in your fraud is a conspiracy!
	Yep, that's why he's being charged with many conspiracies.
	Yeah, yeah, exactly.
	It's not a wish or a notion!
	And it's sure as hell not a theory.
	It was exciting!
	It happened!
	I have been kind of enjoying watching this unfold.
	I'm like, wow!
	Holy Moses!
	This is so much more fucked up than I even knew!
	Yeah, this editorial that we're watching is from like a week ago, I think?
	Like seven days, maybe?
	No, no, no, we knew everything at that point.
	He had access to all this information.
	That's what I'm saying.
	This is not old.
	This is very recent.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Just cause I've watched the third video, you know, like the third video on my phone three days ago.
	Yeah.
	Like, right.
	I digress.
	I mean, like, it's just, it is a little fascinating.
	It's just like.
	Yeah.
	And also, also, you know, it's, it's gonna serve, um, it's gonna serve brands interests, uh, because, Assuming that Trump doesn't have any health issues or is in prison, there's a good chance that he'll be the nominee by the election next year.
	We've got a year and a bit to go.
	How do we have so long to go?
	How is so much election bullshit being covered?
	He had Vivek Ramaswamy on his bloody show the other day, the third in line to the Republican throne.
	I'm like, oh, who gives a shit about you?
	Well, but also, he is kind of doing better.
	Vivek is, I'd say, just cutting a more attractive Public profile?
	I mean, because... He's only got 6% of the polls.
	Right, right, right.
	Well, I mean, it's also like a name recognition thing of, you know, there's a lot that goes, he's also brown, so... He's also brown, but then Republicans fucking love shit where they can say, I'm not racist.
	Token, yeah.
	He can be the token brown.
	You never know.
	I've heard that he has said some spurious shit on Russell's show, so we'll see.
	Oh, or also just his Ten Commandments that he's been rolling out lately that are on banners in the list.
	Yeah, yeah.
	I have heard about this.
	Maybe we'll talk about that off-brand, because that's a bit of a digression.
	It's just crazy that I don't know if I was on the right if I was if I was at J6 and I you know I was baked Alaska like if I was a phoenix right if if I was an elder god if I were I can't I can't I can't get into the minds of these people I can't get into the mind of these people I would be so mad
	I'm dead!
	Hearing this thing I really believed in and I told the internet in no uncertain terms and recorded myself and spoken to my camera or phone saying, yeah, we're doing a revolution and we're going to shit in our hand and smear it on the walls and break all this stuff.
	And then there's that narrative that it's incitement.
	The incitement by any of the Alphabet agents is just so ludicrous.
	We watched all this shit happen!
	Well, one of my favorite things was immediately after Jan 6, Donald Trump throwing all of them under the bus, just straight away, immediately.
	It was like, oh no, no, these people are shitheads.
	No, that wasn't me.
	And they're all like, no, but we did this for you!
	You told us to!
	And he's like, no, no!
	And Mike Pence is still running!
	Why the fuck is he still running?
	He thinks he can pick up some points later on?
	I don't know.
	Who would vote for him to be president?
	Let's be honest.
	They wanted to hang you, dude!
	They wanted to braveheart you!
	Had they managed to get in on that day, Mike Pence would be dead.
	That is the situation that we're in.
	Mike Pence would be dead, Pelosi would be dead, lots of people would be dead.
	Like, why are you volunteering?
	If it were me, again, if I were a herd of elephants, if I were a pack of bubblegum, right, not relatable, I would get as far away from politics and Donald Trump and the whole party as fast as I possibly could.
	I mean, he's rich.
	He can do what he wants.
	He can leave the country and never come back if he wants to.
	Or he can go back to living with his mother in some kind of weird Bates Motel-style fucking situation.
	I don't know.
	I mean, yeah, I guess you do need to get away from your terrible family when you're a hyper-Christian person.
	It's already awful.
	Whittle animals out of wood in Costa Rica?
	Like, why would there be anyone near this?
	He's old, why would you not just retire after people wanted to hang you?
	Take up the banjo!
	What are you doing?
	That, to me, seems like a good time to get the fuck out of Dodge.
	That's what I'm saying!
	When you see the lynch mob are coming, that's when you go.
	That's the rule.
	Regardless of quality.
	When they construct the gallows and they're chanting about you, beat it!
	Like, regardless of the circumstance!
	When they're literally chanting, hang Mike Pence, that's the time to leave when your name is Mike Pence.
	What are you thinking?
	Yeah, I don't know.
	I don't understand what appeal he thinks he has.
	I know he's got name recognition.
	I was thinking about this yesterday, and I think that he wants the Republicans to work like the Democrats were like, well,
	I was there, so it's my turn now.
	Because they love their head in the sand to some degree, every single one of them.
	Like they have to put on some pretty massive blinders, but all the blinders
	seem to be pointing a different direction. And his are like, well, if...
	Um, yes.
	If, uh, you know, like, oh, well, Joe Biden sucks and he gets to be president because he was vice president.
	That means I get to do the same thing.
	And like, no.
	Y'all agreed to throw the rulebook out!
	Yeah, that was on you, that was on you.
	I don't think he'll be Trump's running mate this time, let's put it that way.
	If it ever gets to that point, I don't think he'll be the one that's tapped for that.
	Any of the evidence, even if it's the fake evidence, right?
	Because they make up fake evidence all the time.
	One of the people, the proof that has been, I think it's been on Fox, I don't remember exactly, but it's been on TV, maybe News Nation or something, or OAN maybe, but Walter Masterson, the content creator, who's this leftist content creator, was at the Capitol with a lot of other reporters on January 6th.
	And they're like, Making this huge kerfuffle that he's one of the people like, oh, we have evidence.
	This is the guy who was getting, was dressing up in costume and pretending to be something else.
	And he was at the Capitol.
	So that's our proof that there were inciting, you know, that it was a false flag.
	When, no.
	I follow him on Instagram.
	I watched all the stuff.
	That's the thing, it's all there, and it's just so hard to stomach.
	It's the inanity of it all, of the obfuscation, and just the telling me, trying to tell me the opposite of the stuff that we all saw go down.
	Yeah, pretty much.
	With yet another incredibly low standard of proof for said claims.
	And that's just where we continually land with these people.
	Yeah, there is no proof.
	99 times out of 100, actually, I will happily go there.
	There is no proof for the things that they're saying.
	It's just a lot.
	Yep.
	All right, so that's our show, and we're going to move off-brand now to talk about other things.
	I do not know what, but we will talk about many things, probably for an hour or two.
	Well, I do have plugs before we go, just as a reminder for everybody.
	Cool, cool, cool.
	Let's hear it.
	Yeah, so, new website.
	Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
	More stressed every time I'm mentioning it, but I'm doing it!
	Website, so I will have my, like a big drop of art and stuff.
	Cool.
	In addition to, because we're going to, you know, we're going to dual purpose it because this is just us making a thing.
	So we'll also have, I've been updating links and stuff.
	It's everything is updated from all of the references that we make off brand.
	And so also if you want to, Listen to the music that we have recommended, or movies or whatever, or even just historical articles or that kind of thing that we've mentioned.
	They're definitely all on Twitter and I'm trying to get them everywhere else that we can, like in the subreddit and all that kind of stuff.
	But when we have a website, I can just put them all in one place.
	Yes, and I'm excited about that, but also stressed.
	Big undertaking, yeah.
	Yeah, but we're doing that.
	And if you want to get Art, see me, meet me, I would love to meet listeners in person.
	Hell yeah!
	Saturday, September 23rd, I will be at the Made Artisan Collective in Beverly, but it's a whole thing downtown.
	The Beverly Art Walk.
	Ooh, let's try that again.
	Beverly Art Walk.
	In Chicago, presumably.
	Yes.
	Yeah, Beverly Art Walk.
	It's on the south side of Chicago from 12 to 5.
	And then if you are in Texas, UFOs over Lubbock.
	It's gonna be super fun on October 6th.
	So it's the first Friday that's in Lubbock and we will be at the Charles Adams Projects.
	And I will still take recommendations for Roswell because we will be Taking a little jaunt after that to go visit Roswell, New Mexico.
	So those are the plugs.
	If you want to see me, that would be amazing.
	And I would love to meet you.
	Absolutely.
	Awakening Wonders.
	Assemble.
	If you want to support us and what we do, go to patreon.com on brand.
	That'd be awesome.
	If you want to drop us an email because we always love to hear from you people.
	It's theonbrandpod at gmail.com and on most socials we are at theonbrandpod.
	We also have an unaffiliated but very cool subreddit which is onbrand underscore pod and our personal socials on most things I'm at alworthofficial and Lauren is at made.by.lauren.b.
	That is our show.
	And our socials are also usually the OnBrandPod.
	All of the socials, for the most part.
	I think Twitter's a little weird, but you can find us.
	Look for the blue icon.
	That's us.
	Yeah.
	Thank you so much.
	Don't forget to say that.
	You know what?
	Well, I don't know.
	I don't know.
	Again, again, it's it's it's been a lot this last week.
	So my my my my entire short term and long term memory has gone to about three seconds.
	So so there we are.
	Sorry.
	That's cool.
	It's cool.
	OK.
	We love you all very much.
	Thank you all for listening.
	And absolutely.
	We'll see you off brand as well, and otherwise we'll see you next week.
	Okay!
	Bye!
	Bye bye bye!

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