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Aug. 24, 2023 - On Brand

02:32:17

OB #15 - Space Lasers & Wildfires

We get into Russell's despicable coverage of the Hawaii wildfires, and there's a bit of a twist ending to the show. 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 Show with my co-host Lauren B. Hi, I'm Lauren B., and I haven't got a clue what we're about to go through.
	Mm-hmm.
	Yeah, we've got a good one for you.
	But first, Lauren, what is your bright spot this week?
	The Righteous Gemstones!
	Oh my god.
	Why?
	Okay.
	And I didn't realize that I had a week free trial on my Hulu account so I don't even have to fucking pay anybody for it.
	Nice.
	Because we also killed it in two days.
	Yeah, I was gonna say you can binge that shit, right?
	It's only nine episodes.
	Awesome.
	And it's like the best show.
	And there was a moment that I really, it's just like, mwah!
	Because that show and the shows from that team really remind me what a hillbilly I am and how my hillbilliness There was this moment because like the cousins make like the poor cousins make an appearance on season three.
	And there was a scene.
	Oh, man, where the like the the main characters, the well-to-do cousins were driving.
	The poor cousins around on the back, to which Adam Devine refers to them as diarrhea people.
	So like, poor.
	Okay.
	And they're like on the back of a golf cart howling at the moon like an animal.
	And I was like, oh, we used to do that!
	Oh, I'm the diary of people.
	Yeah, I was like there, there was a poor side of the family.
	So like, and our, like the rich side was like, I mean, they weren't like rich, they like successful construction company.
	They were really generous in the summers and would just take us on their, you know, I would have never touched a jet ski, you know, or, or a golf cart without them.
	But it was certainly a moment that I was like, Oh, I'm the, I'm like the poor cousin from the poor cousin side too.
	We're the diarrhea people!
	But it's really fun!
	Yeah, me too.
	It is what it is.
	I've not seen that show, but I keep meaning to start watching it, especially as I fucking love John Goodman.
	He's one of my favorite actors.
	Almost made me cry in two points.
	He's good.
	I had to take myself and be like, fuck!
	He's so good!
	Ow, my feelings!
	I had to like take myself like, "Fuck! He's so good! My feelings! Ow! My heart!"
	Ow!
	Outrageous. Outrageous. I will- Really great.
	He's one of those actors where I'll watch pretty much anything with him in it.
	And he's from St.
	Louis, too.
	He's from the same area that I'm from.
	All the strippers on the East Side knew him well, and knew him to be a very generous person, so I love that.
	Very generous tipper, I imagine.
	Yeah!
	I mean, you know, if you've got it, flaunt it, baby!
	I know!
	And be known as a generous person!
	Like, that's fantastic!
	Like, truly, in most things, trust your local strippers.
	Like, they understand inflation.
	Like, there's a whole lot.
	They finally got coverage lately.
	It's very cool.
	You know, you just gotta be a little open-minded.
	So, dare I ask, what's your bright spot?
	So yeah, I'm still in... I'd call it hell week, but it's just hell existence at the moment.
	But, you know, I'm finding joy where I can.
	So I guess my bright spot is that I finished Rootin' Tootin' Cowboy Shootin' 2, Red Dead Redemption 2.
	That was, I think, my first bright spot.
	I finally got around to finishing the fucking thing, because like I mentioned, it is long.
	I'm glad you spent time playing a video game.
	That makes me very happy.
	I'm glad.
	I'm glad.
	That's a good thing.
	Yeah, no, fucking brilliant game.
	And so it's a prequel to the first Red Dead Redemption, which I, you know, I realized, but what I didn't realize is that it takes you up to the point of starting the first game, which is quite cool.
	Oh, okay.
	I see.
	That's good.
	I like that.
	Yeah, which then made me realize that I never actually finished the first one.
	I only ever... I would get to a halfway point.
	There's a halfway point, for anyone who knows it, where you go to Mexico and basically kind of have to start again in a lot of ways.
	And I'm just like, oh, God.
	Every time I get to that point, I just get a little bit bored and peter out.
	But as it happened, I had a save file that was from that exact moment on my Xbox.
	So what I did was I just went over and picked up from where I left off.
	Because I'd played the first half of the plot like five or six times, just trying to get through the game.
	I was like, well, I can remember what happens.
	I'm just going to pick up exactly where I left off.
	And yeah, I've pretty much finished that now too, which is great because it's a fairly short game compared to the other one.
	Yeah, so I'm getting there.
	It's great.
	I'm just kind of in the like epilogue kind of section of it where you're like roaming around doing farming and shit.
	Low stakes.
	Sounds like low stakes.
	Yeah, no, pretty much.
	Pretty much.
	Which, after a lot of immensely high stakes, I'm fine with, you know.
	Exactly that, yes.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	So, yeah, yeah.
	I'm cool with it.
	I'm cool with it.
	No, it's been good.
	Great games.
	Great games.
	Especially, yeah, Red Dead Redemption 2.
	Holy shit.
	Yeah.
	I've heard.
	It made me cry.
	It made me cry.
	There was a moment.
	See?
	So, the closest we've gotten is Mike has been watching playthroughs.
	Yeah.
	Because he was curious about The Last of Us.
	And because, of course, we watched it.
	Loved it.
	It was wonderful.
	I fucking love those games.
	Those games are so good.
	And yeah, the show is brilliant.
	Well, the show is so good.
	Yeah, yeah.
	So, like, that's like as close as we've gotten.
	Right, right, yeah.
	Because we're really old and poor.
	I could talk a lot about The Last of Us games, because they're among my favourites of all time.
	The Last of Us 2 is a work of fucking art.
	I'm just constantly blown away by how good those games are.
	Yeah, I mean, just hearing what people were bitching about on the internet that wasn't in the show, I'm like, what do you mean wasn't in the show?
	Like, it's a video game.
	But, I mean, Earthworm Jim was my favorite cartoon when I was a kid, so I understand worldbuilding.
	Yeah, no, exactly.
	I mean, I don't have too many complaints about the adaptation, to be honest.
	I think they did a really good job and, you know, took it in a couple of unexpected directions, which was cool.
	Yeah, yeah.
	And, you know, I'm excited to see where it goes in the upcoming seasons.
	I mean, the zombies seem impossible.
	Like, does it feel impossible in the game?
	To fight them?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	In moments, yeah, definitely.
	Like, there comes a point where you feel like more of a badass eventually, but generally speaking, yeah, like, particularly when you're dealing with, like, the clickers, they're fucking horrible.
	And I know a good few people, a good few people, as soon as the clickers are introduced, they nope out of the game.
	They're just like, nope, not doing it, not doing it, these are scary.
	Oh yeah, yeah.
	And I completely get it.
	They're scary, very difficult to kill, and if they catch you, you die.
	And that's it.
	So I, yeah, completely.
	Less frustrating, more terrifying.
	And it creates for some incredible moments of tension where you're like, I don't know, in a kind of environment with like six of them.
	And the only way you can kill them is like a makeshift knife that are really difficult to craft.
	And you're like, Oh god, okay.
	So yeah, you kind of have to... You have to shank them?
	Yeah.
	You have to shank the clickers?
	Yeah, that's the only way to kill them.
	I'm not playing the video game.
	That's too hard.
	And you have to craft these things every time, and they only last like...
	They last like a couple of strikes I think, something like that.
	In the second one it's made easier because you play as Ellie and she's given a knife and you're like, well that just makes more sense doesn't it?
	But there we go!
	That seems like too much.
	I tell a lie a little bit.
	It's not just shanking them.
	You can shoot them in the head, but the problem is that then attracts the rest of the clickers and all of the other zombies around you, and you just don't want to go down that road.
	You can't get swarmed.
	Yeah, that's how you die.
	So yeah, yeah.
	Lots of stealth sections where you're going very quietly because if you make a noise, obviously they can hear you.
	So yeah.
	Yeah.
	Scary.
	Good shit.
	Great.
	Great games.
	Great games.
	Yeah.
	Well, thank God for horror sometimes, you know?
	Yeah.
	When you're going through it, like...
	Yeah, if you want an adrenaline rush, that shit's great.
	I can only cope with a certain amount of horror, to be honest, especially with games.
	With films, I'm not too bad, because the onus is taken off you.
	You're not the one doing the thing, right?
	Whereas playing it, you feel almost paralyzed, like, oh god, if I move, something bad is going to happen.
	And there's only so much of that I can cope with.
	Right.
	Yeah, you can't really zone out either because you're not just watching something.
	No, no, no.
	I'm I'm I am a sucker for the Resident Evil games, though.
	I do like those particularly.
	I was thinking of.
	Yeah.
	No.
	Fantastic.
	And like Silent Hill.
	Oh, so scary at the time.
	Oh, it was it was the biggest fucking deal.
	Yeah.
	No, no, I know.
	I know.
	I know.
	I'm I'm not disputing that.
	I'm more just.
	No, no.
	Yeah.
	It's like legit.
	Like playing a horror movie.
	It gets too creepy for me, it really does.
	Yeah.
	And I always feel more powerless in Silent Hill compared to Resident Evil, because I'm
	like, Resident Evil, I've got unlimited ammunition, but some big guns.
	I at least feel like I can defend myself if I have to, in most cases.
	But Silent Hill, I just feel like, oh god, horrible things are going to happen to me at any waking moment.
	And they're not just going to be horrible, they're going to creep me out psychologically.
	Yeah, it's the dread.
	The creeping dread.
	Yeah, the longer held note of dread.
	Yes, exactly that.
	A little Pete Show reference there for anyone.
	Okay, okay, okay.
	Anyway, video games are good.
	So we have a show to get to, but first we should thank some of our new patrons, because we have some of those, and that is great.
	So, first up, Brannigan, you are now an Awakening wonder.
	You are indeed an Awakening wonder.
	Thank you, Brannigan.
	Thank you, Brannigan.
	I'm hoping Zap Brannigan.
	I was assuming.
	Yeah, yeah, I hope, but, you know, it could actually just be... For the clan of Zap, you know, I don't discriminate.
	I feel like it's a...
	Fortuitous name, either way.
	Thank you, Brennigan.
	Chris Keith, you are now an Awakening... You are indeed an Awakening wonder.
	Thank you, Chris.
	We know this person, do we?
	I hope it's CK.
	I hope it's Chris Keefe.
	Thank you!
	Thank you, yay!
	Thank you, Chris.
	We are very grateful.
	And Stephen Edwards, you are now an awakening wonder.
	You are indeed an awakening wonder.
	Thank you, Stephen.
	Stephen, I'm also excited about you.
	Thank you.
	Yes, yes.
	That is tremendous.
	Thank you.
	And we also have someone who has upped their donations.
	So George Kovats, you are still an awakening wonder.
	You are indeed an awakening wonder.
	Thank you, George.
	Thank you.
	Very much appreciated.
	If anyone wants to support us and what we do become an awakening wonder join the invisible hand or donate on an elevated tier head to patreon.com slash on brand and you will have our eternal gratitude.
	As a patron you will also get a shout out on the show and access to our patron only show off brand where we talk about pretty much anything but Russell Brand.
	Um, the last edition was, was an edition of music is nice.
	And we got into a lot of musical stuff, which is cool.
	And if you're curious about what we have been going into to get a little teaser, I have been posting links on our Twitter.
	Um, and I'm going to try to start putting them other places that blue sky doesn't really have the same thread ability as Twitter, but just putting links to things that we are talking about, which kind of is, Really points out how random we get whenever I look at the links.
	Just like the group, like, what were we talking about?
	I have a hard time writing the descriptions of them, but for that exact reason, I'm like, well, what the fuck did we Okay.
	So, you know, it's a couple of hours of us talking shit usually, and there's a lot we get through.
	So yeah, come and check it out.
	There are also previews up on the Patreon page as well, like a couple of minutes of previews if you feel a quick little nosy about.
	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 the Spotify app, the video should come up there.
	Two.
	Now, this week has still been pretty shit for me, but we do have a little bit more content in this week's show, which isn't revolving around one particular guest, but we do instead get back to Russell and Gareth in the studio doing what they do best, which is talking shit, telling lies, and making money off it.
	As always, let's let Brand introduce the show.
	Hello there you Awakening Wonders!
	Thanks for joining me with Gareth Roy for Stay Free with Russell Brand.
	First 15 minutes we're going to be on YouTube but after that we're going to slink away into the shadowy world of free speech, truth, beauty, glory and revolution that we call our home.
	There's a weird trend I'm noticing that's especially prevalent in this episode, but it seems like they're doing everything they can not to mention the word Rumble.
	I get the sense there's a feeling among their camp that if they do mention Rumble, perhaps their video's reach will be limited, or they'll get taken down, or whatever.
	I can find nothing meaningful within YouTube's Terms of Service or Community Guidelines to suggest this is accurate, but it seems to be what they're going with.
	Interestingly, there is a guideline where you're not allowed to provide a link to misinformation that contradicts the WHO on medical matters, a subject we'll get into a bit later actually, but what this does mean is that if Russell is linking videos of himself saying nonsensical bullshit around COVID, he is actually breaking YouTube's guidelines and should be receiving strikes for the many instances of him doing so, because obviously he does that pretty much every day.
	Because the link to the Rumble video is always there in the YouTube description of him saying spurious shit.
	So, I don't know.
	That's kind of fucked up.
	Well, there's also been news about Twitter, Zitter, whatever you like to call it.
	Well, the Chinese pronunciation would be shitter, but there we go.
	Yeah, the site formerly known as Twitter, right?
	Yeah, so apparently Elon Musk has been either threatening to or has, oh no, they have been limiting, um, limiting certain sites, basically like adding like a five second delay if you click on a link to certain sites.
	So, I mean, who knows what they're messing with in the algorithm to keep people from leaving the site.
	Especially like, YouTube kinda is built to keep you on YouTube.
	Like, and they make no bones about it.
	Yeah, no, and I mean, it would be perfectly within their rights to restrict people from going to other platforms that do the same thing that they do.
	It would be a bit of a dick move, but you know, it's their platform, they can do what they want.
	Well, and algorithms can find things a lot more easily than they've ever been able to, as I found out this week.
	And this was almost my bright spot, and I need to share, I just do.
	So I, uh, so I'm doing all this preparations for the new site that we're going to have.
	Um, it's gonna be partially, you know, like a chunk of a new website that I'm putting together and I'm not good at it.
	So it takes forever and it's incredibly tedious.
	Um, but.
	I've been posting, you know, like new shrines so that people can see them.
	And I have a quote that's kind of obscure for a Patti Smith shrine.
	And I posted a video where she is Singing and performing the song horses and says the word horses.
	And so auto, um, auto commenting bots are kind of like a fun thing that we joke about in my house.
	And this one has taken, taken the cake.
	Uh, cause usually we'll get like art or, you know, like share this on beach art.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	We get them for this podcast, don't we?
	Like, oh, promote this on blah, blah, blah.
	Absolutely.
	And they're usually tangentially related.
	I had three from horse community underscore.
	Which, like, gets your life, horse girls.
	I love technology.
	And there were three in a row.
	It's so funny.
	So I do think people kind of misunderstand how the algorithm is exploiting you.
	Oh, at all times.
	At all times.
	And in ways that you maybe wouldn't expect.
	I didn't say anything about... And it was the second video in a carousel.
	You had to swipe to even see it.
	And then just because the word horses was said in the video, The algorithm found it.
	For sure.
	What I wonder with this specifically is whether Russell is getting fewer views than he would expect and whether he's attributing that to being censored.
	Potentially, right.
	Much like Jordan Peterson saying, hey, I haven't had any new followers, Elon.
	You need to look into this.
	You know, and it's like, well, maybe there's a reason for that, but it isn't to do with Elon.
	I think it's worth mentioning and keeping an eye on, honestly, as far as just, like, observing, you know?
	Yeah, yeah.
	But anyway, that's the side that they are taking in this.
	I'll be keeping an eye anyway.
	I've tried looking into this and I can't find anything that verifies it whatsoever, but, you know, You never know, and that's definitely the way that they're going with it.
	And they can be guessing, and that's also entertaining.
	Oh, they're 100%.
	There's no way that they could know for sure.
	If I can't find out, there's no fucking way that they can find it out.
	Like, just not a chance.
	They're also less likely to actually research anything.
	They're just like, it's so vibes based.
	They have, well, they have research stuff on this show.
	There are people who are paid researchers on this show, and I wonder what the fuck it is they do day to day.
	They get paid for it.
	You know, I just, I don't understand.
	Anyway, next we learn that there was a visitor to Russell's studio.
	Here at Stay Free HQ, pilgrims arrive demanding to be part of our family, demanding that we give them the very manner that we have received, that you have given us, hope that the world can be changed.
	Is this because that lad arrived?
	Because of the lad, yeah.
	You're placing all this on the lad, he might have got lost, you don't know why he's here.
	He did say that this used to be a pub and he asked for a pint of snakebite.
	Nevertheless, I see him as a harbinger of a glorious new revolution.
	You let me know what you think in the comments in the chat.
	So apparently some lad showed up to the studio.
	It's unclear what for, but this clip did clarify something else for me.
	Remember Stay Free Media's address is listed at a pub?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Well, initially when he bought the pub, there were vague notions of turning it into some kind of recording studio as well as a vegan restaurant.
	The locals were less than pleased and media reported on the local outrage of brand taking over but didn't follow up once anything actually happened.
	So it was quite difficult for me to track exactly what went down.
	So it would appear this studio that they're in is actually within the grounds of the pub itself.
	I would guess purpose-built and on the land.
	I think there might be a garage rather than within the pub building itself because that's like a A thatch roof kind of situation.
	I'm not sure they'd be able to do what they wanted to do in there.
	And it might even be a listed building, I'm not sure.
	We have that kind of thing here.
	So there we go!
	Stay Free Media operates out of the back of a pub in Piss Hill.
	So there we are.
	Sounds like a real professional operation.
	And no one is a pry.
	Okay, yep, yep, no one's a pry.
	Exactly, exactly.
	So next up, we begin to get into a story I most definitely did not want to cover, but first we learn something else new about Bran's show.
	We've got some extraordinary stories.
	Let's have a look at this Orban-haired Appalachian figure.
	The Appalachian region has always been a place of fracture and troglodyte pugilism.
	They're a powerful people, did you know that?
	Oh yeah, yeah.
	Because they descend from the Celts and the Scots and stuff.
	Oh, I see.
	That's what I've read in a book before.
	So let's have a look at him because I've not heard this song but I recognize that it's pretty popular.
	Good, it's pretty powerful.
	Will we be able to get clearance on it?
	We'll give it a go.
	Do you know we can't even play our own theme tune on YouTube?
	So they can't play the theme tune to their show on YouTube because it gets immediately copyright struck in the upload process.
	Which is hilarious!
	The track itself that they use is from 1995 by a British musician called Tricky, and it's called Black Steel.
	He did some work with Massive Attack at some point.
	Yeah!
	Buy it!
	You have money!
	Well, I think it's something that automatically happens within the upload, because there are copyright checks as part of the upload process, and I think it happens then.
	What I'm curious about is whether they have permission, right?
	I'd imagine they don't!
	Well, this is it, right?
	So if you go to Brand's YouTube videos, the theme music is instead replaced by cheesy synth music, which has nowhere near the same effect.
	I have tried reaching out to Tricky or his management to find out whether Brand is using the song with permission or not.
	But it's been tough going, tracking down an email address, and I'm yet to hear back from
	my various inquiries.
	But I'll keep you posted if I manage to come up with something.
	Yeah, it is interesting because everything that Tricky stands for is directly opposed
	to everything that Russell Brand is doing.
	Because Tricky has been a victim of economic inequality, racial inequality.
	He grew up in one of the toughest areas of the country, and his personal circumstances throughout his life have been rough, and I would think he would take issue with Russell.
	Yeah, I'll see if I can get to the bottom of it.
	He's generally not on social media, and he's changed management a few times in the last couple of years, which means I don't have a current management email address, but I've tried messaging his label anyway, because he has a record label.
	So, try that, see if it works.
	Fingers crossed we might get to the bottom of it.
	It would be really funny if they don't have permission, because that's a legal case.
	Yeah!
	Like, just pay for a thing!
	Like, that's dumb!
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Yeah, there is that.
	So as for the story I didn't want to cover, for any listener who hasn't guessed it yet, we're discussing Oliver Anthony's North of Richmond song, which Let's see what he's saying.
	People like you wish I could just wake up and it not be true.
	But it is.
	Oh, it is.
	Living in the new world.
	we hear a little bit of it and we get Russell's immediate take.
	Let's see what he's saying.
	People like you wish I could just wake up and it not be true, but it is.
	Oh, it is. Living in the new world.
	With an old soul.
	There's rich men north of Richmond, lord knows it all.
	Just wanna have total control.
	My moonshine and cook me a rattlesnake.
	I like this guy.
	If this is the future of pop, I'm in baby.
	I'd like this.
	You thought you didn't understand pop anymore, but look.
	I do understand it.
	Merging your political interests and your musical tastes.
	Wonderful.
	So firstly, real quick, I want to say that I studied music, specifically creative musicianship, with voice as my principal instrument.
	I spent three years getting vocal techniques training from some of the best vocalists and best vocal tutors in the literal world.
	So please believe me when I say this man's vocal technique hurts me.
	it makes me want to clutch at my vocal cords to protect them. In essence, when he's pushing,
	instead of engaging his diaphragm or his core, he's blowing as much air as possible out,
	which not only sounds pretty grating, but it'll be causing his vocal cords harm as he does it.
	Long term, he'll probably end up with a voice that sounds like a cheese grater in a decade or so.
	But it makes him sound more country. - Jesus Christ.
	Yeah, just learn how to do a falsetto flip, man.
	It's not hard.
	Yeah, so he'll probably end up sounding something between Tom Waits and Gilbert Gottfried, I imagine.
	I mean, those are two successful careers.
	Very different careers.
	I don't think this guy has the chops of Tom Waits either.
	Or Gilbert Gottfried for that matter!
	Or kill the Godfrey, no.
	Honestly.
	No. That'll be interesting to keep an eye on anyway.
	Just awful.
	Awful technique.
	You're vicious.
	Yeah.
	That aside, I find it important to note that the clip they just played was one of the fairly innocuous parts of the song, primarily the chorus.
	It was, wasn't it?
	Gareth and Russell are about to go on a how-is-this-right-wing-jag about this song, saying, oh, it's just anti-establishment.
	And so I'd like to read some of the lyrics from Rich Men North of Richmond to illustrate why perhaps the left are taking a bit of an issue with it.
	Quote, I wish politicians would look out for minors and not just minors on an island somewhere.
	Lord, we got folks in the street ain't got nothing to eat and the obese milking welfare.
	Well, God, if you're 5'3 and you're £300, taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds.
	Young men are putting themselves six feet in the ground because all this damn country does is keep on kicking them down.
	He then goes into a bridge which is, Lord, it's a damn shame what the world's gotten to for people like me and people like you.
	And all I can think is, this guy is singing to a very specific audience, isn't he?
	People like him are straight, white, working-class, right-wing men, specifically.
	Yeah, so yeah, they're at least working class or higher.
	They're cosplayers.
	Yes, yes, some of them.
	So some of them.
	I mean, he is legitimately working class, you know, having worked in factories and shit like that.
	That is that is part of his personal experience.
	But the people the people advocating for this song are in most cases quite a bit wealthier than him.
	Yeah, I've been kind of trying to avoid, I mean, everybody's been dunking on it, so that's like all I need to really weigh in, but they've also been like debunking his personal story too.
	Yeah, I've seen a bit of that.
	I wanted to avoid it completely, to be honest.
	I didn't want to have to listen to it at all, because I just, I saw the picture and I was like, no, that was, that was, that was my, I, yeah, I see, I see a Guy looking like that with a resonator guitar.
	I'm like, no, I'm not interested.
	I'm not interested.
	I got a lot of homies that look identical to that person.
	Their attitude is quite different.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Well, that's it.
	I guess when that picture is coming up in combination with a right wing sensation.
	Oh, no, no, buddy.
	No, I just I just have I have zero interest.
	It's like he Jason Aldean'd but harder.
	Basically, and I keep up to date with a few music industry insiders, and all of their perspective is, oh, it's Jason Aldean, it's the next one, basically.
	You'll hear nothing of him in a week and then it'll be BAM onto the next fucking, you know, capitalization on right-wing nonsense.
	What a turd.
	Pretty much.
	I'm a real diarrhea.
	I mean, he's probably real diarrhea people, too.
	But like the diarrhea people I grew up with.
	I mean, he's full of shit.
	Right.
	Yeah.
	Like took care of each other and cared about their communities like that.
	Yeah, so there's a lot to get pissed off about in terms of the lyrics I just read.
	The one thing that has been pointed out to me over and over that's kind of the only thing like because everybody's like yeah of course it's bad but then the takes that people actually care to make are like this uniquely like this chunk of American exceptionalism and the divide is like where a man can wear his belt upon his person is like well there's always like a fatter guy that a dude will take a shot at Yeah, yeah, that's true.
	It's like Trump calling Chris Christie fat is like... It seems like you're really splitting hairs, sir.
	People in glass houses, huh?
	There's a saying about that somewhere.
	Right.
	Kinda seems unfair and a little messed up!
	Maybe everybody could just not do that.
	Maybe, maybe.
	The suggestion that fat people shouldn't have welfare I think is a bit of a problem.
	Anyway, but let's see where Gareth and Russell land specifically, as Russell makes a comparison that deserves a slap in the face.
	It's interesting isn't it how everything's become sort of radicalized and politicized that just sounds like ordinary country music with the kind of anti-establishment sort of sentiment that would be typical to the genre.
	Yeah exactly he's talking about the rich inhabitants of Washington D.C.
	and how they call all the shots and leave the poor person kind of, or the everyman behind and you could argue he's pretty right about that.
	Woody Guthrie who you might see as the kind of ground zero of type of music. He was by his nature anti-establishment,
	singing about hobos, challenging the bankers, saying that sometimes criminals
	and gangsters were folkloric heroes because they were by their nature anti-establishment
	figures.
	He was a darling of the left, like a British folk singer like Billy Bragg would
	call him a darling. Bob Dylan, who's hardly right-wing, would cite him as a
	kind of mentor and as the sort of the imperature of that musical
	genre. But now when someone sort of sings a bit like that, the assumption is that
	he's popped off his Ku Klux Klan hat and started singing straight away.
	Woody Guthrie.
	Woody Guthrie.
	I'm out.
	Bye.
	I can't.
	He just compared this motherfucker to Woody Guthrie.
	I fucking can't.
	I can tell you now without a shadow of doubt in my mind that were Woody Guthrie here and in his prime, he'd bitch slap this guy back to somewhere south of Richmond.
	He'd set that building on fire.
	And I will say, so I've been to, I went out of my way, I was driving through Oklahoma
	and I went to Woody Guthrie's hometown and there's a really beautiful little,
	I mean, there's a couple of nice memorials in the town and Billy Bragg, I think was,
	you could buy bricks in this little kind of courtyard and Billy Bragg has two.
	And I don't remember what, I used to know off the top of my head,
	there's some hilarious, very shady, pinko commie moments in that little memorial.
	100%.
	100%!
	100%!
	Woody Guthrie was a Kami!
	Yeah!
	Comparing this ginger child to Woody Guthrie...
	It.
	Is.
	Out.
	Rageous!
	Honestly, comparing this guy to, you know, someone with This Machine Kills Fascists on his guitar, you know, I mean, come on!
	Come on!
	Yeah.
	Anyway, yeah, that enraged me and I got the sense it would do the same to you.
	But next!
	See, these Little Music Is Nice segments off-brand are filling in a lot of gaps.
	Yeah, you know, I do have an editorial position on this show, so I get to pick these clips, and that was when I was like, oh yeah, we've got to see this.
	We've got to see Lauren's reaction to this.
	Especially after, like, the Jimi Hendrix and James Baldwin Comment from last episode!
	Like, Russ!
	You need to quit believing- Just stop talking about people!
	Just stop!
	Don't mention anyone!
	Just stop it!
	Yeah!
	Just quit!
	We know who they were, we know what they said, and you're a fucking bowl of shit!
	Yeah, yeah.
	So next, Gareth whitewashes, well, everything about this song, as if it needed to get any whiter.
	I think he's described his politics as being like center anyway I think he said neither left nor right and I think it's like it's been embraced by people saying people on the right but I think you could also just call them fans or people with certain musical tastes to kind of call it a viral right-wing anthem now when all he's doing is basically saying there's too much control for rich people in Washington feels like a step too far.
	That's the most left-wing message there could be, or at least the most anti-authoritarian message.
	As we discussed with Glenn Greenwald recently, and you should watch his show on Rumble, he's absolutely fantastic.
	No, he's not.
	Don't go and watch Glenn Greenwald.
	Definitely don't do that.
	Anyway, he was recently interviewed on Russell's show, actually.
	I did watch it.
	It was crap.
	It was shit.
	So anyway, this guy, he self describes as being neither left nor right wing, but has lyrics like what I've already read out and says things like, quote, If we continue on the path that we're going down now, culturally, we won't have a country in very long.
	Oh my god!
	Yeah, right?
	Oh, okay.
	That's a little bit spicy.
	Oh my god!
	Yeah, he's neither left nor right.
	So yeah, unless given a reason to think otherwise, I am for now going to call a spade a spade and say this guy is a right winger whether he says as much or not.
	Yeah, he'd certainly call a spade a spade if given the opportunity.
	Meanwhile, Russell is describing the song as the most left-wing thing that could be, and Gareth is knowingly lying about the lyrical content of the song.
	I'd be on board to believe that Russell hasn't heard anything but the 15 seconds or so they just played, but I don't believe for a second that Gareth Roy, series editor for this show, doesn't know who Oliver Anthony is and what this song is about.
	As for, these people could just be fans, it's nothing to do with right-wing stuff.
	The thing that propelled this guy into momentary stardom was right-wing influencers like Matt Walsh and Jack Basobic sharing the song on Twitter at damn near the exact same time, which illustrates something of a concerted effort of the right to put this song on the map.
	Yeah, also, when your cultural output is so sparse and abysmal, it's really easy to climb to the top of that heap.
	What I enjoy about this song, hitting the cultural zeitgeist, is my algorithms have been giving me very angry, upset Appalachian hillbillies that are trying to set the record straight, and I've found so many far left creators that are in them thar hills and in the holler, and I live for it.
	One thing I will say, Russell, has gotten right is that you don't fuck with the Appalachians.
	They're serious people.
	These are mountain people.
	And part of the reason we have any labour protections in this country at all.
	We owe a lot.
	Oh yeah, they're tremendous.
	Tremendous.
	That's like a history that I...
	Listeners, if you need some lore and history corners, guess what's on the top of the list?
	Yeah, Miners vs Pinkertons.
	Yeah, yeah.
	I take it very seriously and I'm, that's like, there's not a lot- Fucking Pinkertons, man.
	Fucking Pinkertons, right?
	That's one of the main things that you have to fight in Red Dead Redemption, right?
	Red Dead Redemption 2, you're up against the Pinkertons non-stop.
	Shut up!
	Well, you're in a criminal gang and they're chasing you down, so like, you have to, you're constantly against these fucking nefarious Pinkertons who are technically- It's almost like it's just one gang versus another gang.
	I mean, I mean, yeah.
	Who's to say?
	Right?
	So regardless of what Russell does and doesn't know, in this next clip he uses the obfuscation
	of the situation to better serve his interests.
	The terms left and right have become redundant.
	If a folk singer saying that you can't trust Washington DC fat cat politicians who are
	in bed with Wall Street and care more about corporate interests than they care about you
	and your family, if that's regarded as right wing now, then I would imagine that it means
	that all the metrics and criteria have shifted to a bewildering degree.
	And I think this sense that there is no static set of criteria that we can rely on is part
	of the breaking down of our culture.
	Ah yes, there's no static sense of what left and right wing are anymore.
	Which must be why people get confused and call Russell right wing, right?
	It can't possibly be that he spouts right wing narratives while platforming and promoting exclusively right wing guests and only ever attacking the left wing, can it?
	I know we've covered Russell doing this before, but I just wanted to remind everyone just how often it happens, which is on a daily basis.
	And I know with absolute certainty that the lady doth protest too much.
	Wow.
	Yeah.
	Like, it's crazy.
	The song is like, no, he didn't call the fat cats fat.
	He called poor people fat, sir.
	He's punching down, not punching up.
	Yeah, he's sucking the dick of conservative austerity measures that have done nothing but rip this country apart.
	Yeah, he's so misinformed that he'll suck the dick of the austerity measures and then complain about his wages being low.
	It's like, well... Buddy!
	Yeah, and being disenfranchised by government!
	One thing leads to the other!
	Right?!
	Anyway, while this has already gone in a shitty direction, Gareth Roy decides to make it worse.
	I also think, you know, we know from the news at the moment the situation with the $25 billion extra that's now been appropriated for Ukraine again, over $100 billion spent in terms of sending weapons to Ukraine, with the $12 billion that's been spent on the, you know, Hawaii situation.
	And you can kind of see a situation there whereby you could very easily argue that the priority is not going to American citizens.
	And so someone who's saying the fat cats in Washington are prioritizing people elsewhere or themselves over their own citizens, again, it's kind of justified.
	What's wrong with that message?
	Let us know in the comments.
	If you're one of our Awakening Wonders over on YouTube, perhaps join us in the other place.
	Consider coming to the Sweet Home of Freedom.
	Still refusing to say rumble.
	I'll say the Hawaii wildfire situation has received, you know, $12 billion in relief funding so far.
	That is not to say that that will be the end of the funding, and I dare say things like food and shelter are inordinately cheaper than missiles and bullets.
	If you really take issue with it, Gareth, maybe tell Putin to back the fuck down and get his army out of a sovereign country, yeah?
	Yeah, also isn't like, oh, all right.
	Isn't a significant portion of our aid, like the U.S.
	is sending extant resources like, like the guns and bullets and missiles, like we already have them.
	I've heard that it inflates the number, and I haven't... I looked into this whenever the Ukraine thing was fresher in the news cycle, so my memory is not serving me well, but it's not just like they're sending pallets of cash.
	Not that our government doesn't do that.
	Or doesn't have it.
	Um, yeah, yeah, no, no, I, um, as far as I'm aware that that is the case, I've not looked into it too much.
	It inflates the aid numbers because it's like crap we already have.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Like you say, it's not sending just money, because they don't need money, they need weapons.
	And I'd like to keep those out of our local police departments, if we could.
	That'd be fine.
	Yeah, I'd rather the tanks be in Ukraine than in local towns, that's for sure.
	Yeah, than in Cleveland?
	People are insane.
	Yeah, so in the next clip, we return to an all too familiar source for this show and return to our lovely demonization of the WHO.
	So here's Michael Schellenberger.
	YouTube's new policy is that it will censor you if you disagree with the World Health Organization.
	What about you?
	Do you disagree with the World Health Organization?
	YouTube recognizes that the WHO's guidance might change, but if it does, it won't be because of debate on YouTube.
	Yeah, YouTube isn't a social media platform, it's a propaganda platform.
	Can that be true, guys?
	What do you think?
	Let me know in the comments, let me know in the chat.
	If you're not a member of our locals community yet, become a member of our locals community.
	God, he's really pushing the locals on in this show, isn't he?
	So yeah, the balls of these people calling YouTube a propaganda platform while evangelizing from... That's you!
	That's you!
	I hear about you!
	Absolutely.
	So what this all comes down to is YouTube changing their community guidelines around medical misinformation to move from just COVID-19 to encompass medicine as a whole, meaning that if some medical grifter in the depths of YouTube is trying to hawk their shit but the WHO have proven their product to be nonsense, they won't be able to make wild claims anymore and consequently won't be able to make money.
	I'd be curious to know what the WHO have to say about Wim Hoff, just throwing that out there.
	Oh man!
	In essence, it seems like a fairly sensible decision to me in trying to cut down on the amount of dangerous misinformation out there.
	It sounds incredibly fine.
	Like it just sounds so okay.
	That makes complete sense to me.
	Naturally, Russell and his crew have a different perspective.
	This is the new policy.
	They've essentially shifted from the, you know, the guidelines that we know all too well over the last few years.
	Which you're going to say that we know and love?
	That we have tiptoed around for the last two or three years around COVID-19 and that's now just applied to WHO across the board.
	So that's anything, WHO, anything now.
	Give us an example.
	Aspirin?
	Well, if... Band-Aid plasters?
	No, what I'm saying is, if the WHO have a policy on that, that you're not allowed to say aspirin, for example, could be used for these things, then you will, you know, you'll either be removed or demonetised on YouTube.
	What is this marked or centralised globalist authoritarianism?
	That's what it is.
	It's centralized globalist authoritarianism.
	That's what it is.
	I mean, YouTube are a global platform, so it does make sense for them to get their information from a global organization.
	Also, Fellows, they're a private company and can do as they please.
	Yet again, if you want to have a conversation about platforms like YouTube being a public utility, I'm here for it, but I don't think that's the direction you want things to go.
	Gareth is also muddying the waters here somewhat, in that he's saying anything the WHO says is basically law on YouTube, while YouTube's guidelines read specifically, and I quote, YouTube doesn't allow content that poses a serious risk of egregious harm by spreading medical misinformation that contradicts local health authorities or the World Health Organization's guidance about specific health conditions or substances.
	This policy includes the following categories, prevention misinformation, treatment misinformation, and denial misinformation.
	So it's medical stuff specifically, Like, the WHO can't just be like, oh, Russell Brand's a cunt and no one should listen to him and suddenly he gets deplatformed, though.
	Also, notice they're not railing on local health authorities the same way they are the WHO, despite the two things having equal power in this situation.
	They're not like, oh, those local health authorities, those globalist bastards.
	But I'm sure they cite articles that do, and I'm sure that they would pile on.
	If one of those local health authorities, I'm expecting my state to start getting flack again because COVID numbers are going up dramatically in the states again.
	And we've had some people close to us that have gotten sick that really don't need to be sick.
	So it's already kind of creeping into our lives again.
	Um, and it's terrifying.
	I'm aware of this because Russell is making videos about it.
	Um, so, so naturally, um, the pandemic part, part two, the full diapers on all these codes that are like, you're already causing harm, already causing harm.
	And it's just going to get worse.
	They've never stopped.
	This sucks!
	To preface the next clip, they had previously been discussing Michael Schellenberger appearing to shore himself up for a political run at some point in the near future.
	For safety isn't it?
	Like when they're talking about this they'll say we just can't have people saying that these medicines or medical practices are not healthy or helpful.
	But how will they ever be advanced?
	I mean do you know what they should do?
	Is they should look at what would have happened to the pursuit of new and emergent science if these rules had been applied to intrepid scientific research decades and perhaps even up to centuries ago.
	That is exactly the point Michael Schellenberger made also.
	Like the amount of Exactly that, Russell.
	Yeah.
	You're on the same track as Schellenberger now.
	Maybe... Oh!
	Two politicians!
	Two politicians!
	Hang on!
	I don't know, Gareth.
	Only if the people demand it, Gareth.
	It couldn't be for my own vanity and ego, Gareth.
	It'd have to be... The people would simply have to demand it.
	If the people demand... If the pilgrims keep it coming... If the people demand it, I will sacrifice myself unto them.
	If that's what's required.
	Not in a religious way.
	In a, you know, just devote yourself to stuff way.
	You know me.
	I've got no...
	It's not something I've ever fallen into.
	I could never be labelled that.
	Perish the fucking thought.
	Russell Brand, the political candidate, would be enormous trouble for the UK, though in many ways I feel like the laser focus of the media in digging up dirt about him would be beneficial to our society, so there is that.
	It does sound funny.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Laughing at, not with.
	I feel like it wouldn't go the way that he thinks it would go.
	That's what I say.
	That's just my inkling.
	That's what I say.
	It's troubling that he's open to the idea either way, to be honest.
	I do just want to circle back briefly to the idea that, oh, what would have happened to emerging science and medicine if we had these rules back then?
	And I'll say firstly, many fewer people would have died from doctors just fucking around.
	There's that.
	And, you know, the more obvious point is that we're no longer within a space of emerging medicine like that.
	We have thousands upon thousands of people in labs doing excellent work to create new and wonderful medicines that will treat us for horrible shit.
	All of it is possible to be done in a controlled, safe environment.
	Well, safe to humans.
	Less so to rats and mice, which actually does upset me, but that's kind of a separate issue.
	Yeah.
	Safe to humans, anyway.
	Just a fucking stupid thing to say.
	Yeah, that's like a thought that I heard come out of his mouth and I'm like, I don't even know what to do with it.
	Because it's so just wrong!
	It's incredibly dumb!
	He just tumbled off the turnip truck yesterday!
	I love the fact that he sat there feeling triumphant that he had the same thought as Michael Schellenberger.
	I'm like, well, you're both fucking morons!
	What are you doing?
	Speaking of, now that I've been more active on our Twitter posting stuff, our Twitter has been showing me more Michael Schellenberger thoughts and feelings, and I'm angry about it!
	I'm just like, man, this guy is full of it!
	Yeah, no, complete garbage monster.
	The confidence!
	Oh yes, oh yes!
	Incredible!
	Yeah, no, that's something that only white men can deliver.
	No shit!
	White men, I swear!
	The confidence in saying bullshit, just white men specifically, good God!
	Now in the next clip, Russell introduces what will be the main segment of today's show.
	Listen, Gal, I've got to talk about these deadly wildfires in Hawaii.
	Some are saying that the conspiracy theories that surround them are disgusting.
	I don't know, is it disgusting to ponder a conspiracy theory?
	Does that necessarily mean you don't revere and respect the dead?
	Is it not possible to simultaneously respect and care for the lives lost and to acknowledge the depth and breadth of this obvious and evident tragedy and still ask questions about how it might benefit existing powerful interests?
	And even if a theory- Shut up, Russell!
	Would you be allowed to ask those questions?
	And who has the authority to stop you?
	Well, on YouTube, it's the WHO if it's medical matters, and elsewhere in the mainstream media,
	it's seemingly an elite class of intellectuals that are able to determine which areas of
	ponderance and pontification are allowed and which should be censored and fenced off.
	That's right.
	We're getting into space laser territory this week.
	Oh, no!
	Oh, no!
	Yeah, but I do get the feeling it is going to go in a direction you might not expect.
	I saw an analysis of the cover photo for a video of his.
	Yes, yeah, yeah.
	I did see that.
	I had mixed feelings on the coverage of that, actually, because I feel like it didn't wholly represent what Russell is representing, what Russell is standing for in terms of this specific issue.
	But you'll see what I mean.
	Are we going to talk?
	I feel like I need to explain.
	I've just referenced something that we are not talking about.
	Should I explain it or are we going to get there?
	Yeah, we'll get there, don't worry.
	I don't want to leave folks hanging and just wondering.
	No, no, no, we won't, we won't.
	Don't worry, we've got plenty of this shit.
	Apparently it's an elite class of intellectuals that are calling conspiracy theorists disgusting for their various speculations around the Maui wildfires.
	Not in my feeds!
	Yeah, I would say it's less an elite class of intellectuals and more anyone with a moral compass.
	That's just...
	Native Hawaiians that are really upset.
	Really pissed.
	Really pissed.
	That's who my algorithm has been showing me.
	It's crazy that, like, to even claim that.
	I mean, I get that people have different avenues to get information, but like... This isn't information.
	No, I know.
	To hear sentences come out of people's mouths about on subjects.
	Hear people say stuff.
	Yeah yeah and and like what I've heard and also like what again what my algorithm is showing me are like independent on like boots on the ground reporting like I'm I'm I'm I yeah it's uh I think PBS but that's like the PBS affiliate for that.
	Well well I mean those like the biggest Those are the elite class of intellectuals, PBS.
	People like Russell fucking hate PBS, let's be honest.
	So next we get into the editorial proper and you get an immediate sense of where we're going.
	Is there any basis though, we're asking you and ourselves, which is weird, during this inquiry and whether or not these conspiracy theories are true, is there definitely an elite land grab occurring independently of this disaster?
	Here's the news.
	End it on your dog's bed.
	Here's the effing news.
	Shit.
	[Multiple voices]
	No.
	Here's the fucking news!
	The tragic and deadly Hawaiian wildfires are claiming lives and fueling conspiracy theories
	around land grabs and even a Bill Gates laser starting it.
	But as with many conspiracy theories, is there some basis in truth or is it, as it is apparently seeming to be, already potentially Joe Biden's Katrina?
	A mishandled catastrophe where the government is shown to be out of touch with the people.
	Why did he say Katrina?
	I'm going to hold the comments on Katrina for now because we will get into that properly in just a moment.
	But I do just want to say up top that certain things should be off the table for people like Russell.
	Yeah.
	This is only a hop, skip and a jump away from being called a false flag event by fuckheads like Alex Jones.
	And I hope to hell that these idiots are smart enough to stay away from that territory, but I am not holding my breath.
	There is, to my mind, a distinction between reporting on an event and profiting off an event.
	And Russell is very much doing the latter here.
	The thumbnail to this specific video that you mentioned before features a doctored image of a laser beam firing into a Hawaiian building.
	The title of the episode is Holy Shit, Hawaii Burns, But Are The Conspiracy Theories True?
	And Russell is about to spend a good chunk of time saying, hey, maybe they're not true, but also maybe they are.
	all while making a very real profit off the devastation of the Hawaiian Islands,
	the death of at least 115 people, and the disappearance of 815 more.
	I'm going to echo the thoughts of many others in the last week and say that this is absolutely
	fucking disgusting and reprehensible just from the start.
	If I don't hear, here's where you should donate.
	Link is in the description.
	Or, if I don't hear, hey, don't vacation in Hawaii.
	If I don't hear either of those things come out of his mouth, I'm gonna come over there and Woody Guthrie that building myself.
	I think you might need to get the Molotov cocktails ready, that's all I can say.
	Can I say that that's the position of our podcast?
	I think that's fair.
	I have several links that I can put in our description, and also please don't go scuba diving!
	Where people just died from a fire, because that happened, and it's awful!
	People are terrible, and that is pretty much the universal truth of the last week.
	So, in the next clip, we get into a news clip actually, for which a source is never given, which is infuriating, before Russell just tells an outright lie.
	Let's first of all have a broad look at how the mainstream media are reporting this story.
	This morning as new videos show the inferno that engulfed Lahaina and how residents spent hours in the ocean to survive, anger is growing.
	How did the nation's deadliest wildfire happen with no warning?
	The search for the missing and dead is just getting started.
	Canine cadaver dogs arriving over the weekend.
	Some extraordinary language already canine cadaver dogs and also some identifiable images now that we're all becoming quite accustomed to apocalyptic images of burning forests and burning towns, particularly novel are
	the images of the people in the water.
	That's an especially terrifying image, I would say. We're interested in how the media report
	this and how the state exploits it and whether or not there's any truth in some of the more
	seemingly outlandish claims that there's a land grab at play and that this is somehow
	beneficial to elite interests and indeed could these fires have been deliberately caused.
	I find when investigating peripheral issues or peripheral ideas it's very important to ensure
	you don't say anything that you can't demonstrate to be true but you also don't neglect to point
	out that powerful interests are being served because that is so often the case.
	Russell, the list of things you've said without being able to demonstrate them as true is long,
	varied and ever expanding and it's pretty much the reason this show exists.
	[BLANK_AUDIO]
	This has a very similar vibe to someone saying, I'm not racist, but... right?
	You know, like saying, now I don't want to say anything I can't demonstrate as true, but it means you're about to say some shit you can't back up, and Also, everything he's, like, trying to undermine.
	I'm sorry.
	I'm angry.
	That's hard.
	It's infuriating and gross.
	It's hard.
	It's infuriating and gross.
	Some of the news coverage was real, real
	nightmarish things that were happening.
	I couldn't handle, like there was a video, Mike's like
	"You're very upset and we can't,
	you can't handle this right."
	He had to call it. Like, nope.
	I get that.
	Keep you away from the internet for a while.
	Yeah, the news is telling you about senior care facilities that were not evacuated.
	Again, my feeds have been rife with evidence left, right, and center.
	And it's not just people talking to their phones on TikTok.
	No.
	It's all, like, people that care know how to cite now.
	The tools are more available than ever.
	And now you've got this fucking guy saying, like, ooh, aren't these images very, very apocalyptic?
	They're very scary, aren't they?
	I wonder why they're showing us scary images.
	I'm so mad at that.
	I'm so mad.
	That's like, that's also that kind of, like, keep a nice veneer on things so I don't have to think about it mentality that, like, It's probably healthier for your emotional state, but I have a serious problem with... I don't know, you're getting into fucking Huxley territory there, aren't you?
	You're getting into SOMA, you know?
	Yeah, because that's how you have to... Have some drugs and you'll feel better about it.
	There is a disconnect in popular discourse about Well, why would these guys lie about a disaster that way?
	Or why would people go along with it?
	It's because the reality is too ugly and too big and scary and bad.
	So then they retreat into conspiracy theory to protect themselves mentally in the moment as a defense mechanism.
	And nine times out of ten, the narrative that's being spun is Way simpler and way more a case of good versus evil than reality would ever allow.
	Absolutely.
	It's so complex.
	Are we going to talk about the land grabbing thing?
	Oh yeah, that's kind of the main thrust of his argument.
	As a person who has spent their entire adult lives living in basically like gutted midwestern cities, I have a problem.
	I imagine you have some feelings.
	I have about a thousand stories and they all make me mad.
	This is tough to listen to.
	Speaking of things that he can't back up, Russell is about to make a bleak comparison.
	Obviously there are official investigations into the origins of this fire, and as with any news event these days, there are ideas, theories, notions, and I think always speak to deep scepticism about mainstream narratives, deep cynicism about the The relationship between those that govern and those of us that are governed.
	One thing for sure is that these disasters often demonstrate how out of touch government are with the people that they govern.
	Whether it was the East Palestine Rail Disaster, where the Biden administration, who claimed to care a great deal about the environment, responded badly.
	Or famously, Hurricane Katrina, where George W. Bush messed up.
	And it took Kanye West to point out that often people in power don't care about the interests of ordinary people, or specifically in that case, he said black people.
	George Bush doesn't care about black people.
	But we can equate that to those without power who are affected by the behavior of powerful institutions and interests.
	Does Joe Biden's dismissal or inability to immediately comment suggest a similar lack of compassion, empathy and understanding for those affected by this tragedy?
	Can we equate inherent racism as witnessed during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to those who are without power in general?
	Because I don't fucking think we can.
	I don't think you can equate the fucking racism of what happened to, oh yeah, it's just all poor people, all people without power.
	Yeah, that's what he was really saying.
	It's like, no, George Bush didn't give a fuck about black people.
	That's what he was saying.
	And I missed that, Kanye, because he was right.
	So, also, he's just compared a train derailment in which, though admittedly problematic for the environment, no one died, to Hurricane Katrina which was the cause, indirect or otherwise, of at least 1,836 deaths.
	He then elected to equate Biden's response to the wildfires to Bush's response to Katrina For what it's worth, there are a legion of reasons why Bush's response to Katrina was so much worse than Biden's to the Hawaii wildfires.
	Not least of which being that it took Biden two days to provide funding to Hawaii, whereas Bush took a sluggish five days to provide funding to Louisiana.
	To do anything.
	without even bothering to do anything, without even bothering to cut his vacation short to
	come and deal with it. And that's without even getting into denying the many, many immediate
	offers of foreign aid for food, medicine, and search and rescue operations. Seriously,
	it's insane.
	It's a nightmare.
	It is an absolute nightmare.
	Living through it was awful.
	I mean, I didn't live through it, like physically live through it, but like everyone I know had like So, St.
	Louis is kind of in the same line, on the Mississippi River, and so a lot of, like, we were trying to find places, like, not, I didn't know anyone personally, but like, a number of people were like, Housing, friends, and family, but watching the news, I realize what I've said now, but watching the news, it was such a nightmare, and you felt so helpless.
	No, no, no, for sure, especially when you feel so close to it.
	It was so bad that it was making regular news here.
	That's how bad it was.
	It was a regular fucking feature of conversation in my life.
	When I was in fucking high school, right?
	That's when this occurred for me.
	And yeah, I remembered it being fucking horrible at the time and kind of refreshing my memory and kind of looking at all of the facts of what happened in service of doing this show.
	I was like, oh my god, this is horrendous.
	You had fucking Cheney fucking rerouting power from, I think it was Missouri, somewhere to Texas.
	To make sure that the oil and gas pipeline was shored up and that nothing would happen there.
	It's like, oh man, you people are scum.
	Jesus.
	It was ugly.
	It was really bad.
	Yeah, yeah.
	And I could not even, like, no amount of money could make me talk about it like this.
	No, no.
	No amount of money.
	It's incredible.
	And worst as well is that there are legitimate criticisms to be levelled at Joe Biden and the federal response to this tragedy, which some people are doing.
	But instead, this fuckwit makes an insane comparison and throws conspiracy theories around instead.
	Great.
	Oh, God.
	Yeah.
	It's just, it's just, it's just fucking grim.
	It's appalling.
	It's appalling to listen to.
	It's bad enough that he's talking about one fucking horrendous disaster, he has to bring another one into it just to try and make it worse.
	I'm like, buddy, just shut the fuck up!
	But also the East Palestine thing, that could not be further from a natural disaster due to climate change.
	It's such a stupid thing to bring in there.
	Deregulation is what happens Yeah, it wasn't great, but it was a train derailment.
	It wasn't fucking, you know, thousands of lives lost.
	Shut up.
	Yeah, and it also wasn't like, oh, there's nothing we could do.
	Like, it's not nature.
	No.
	No, it was not.
	Railroads cutting corners.
	It wasn't nature at all.
	Well, according to it, it's all Joe Biden's fault, apparently.
	So in the next clip, we get into some of the space laser stuff, with Bran reading a piece from the BBC, and it perhaps goes in a direction you might not expect.
	So let's look at this in more detail.
	Claims about the deadly wildfires in Hawaii, including that shadowy forces orchestrated the disaster with a laser beam, have gained traction online.
	Now, some people will say, oh, that's dangerous misinformation.
	That should be shut down.
	I think the opposite.
	Discuss it.
	Look at it.
	Investigate it.
	Either it's true or it's not true.
	We can decide for ourselves.
	Let's get excited.
	The posts come from a variety of sources and accounts, but generally imply that elites or government agencies deliberately started the fires.
	Videos and images claiming that wildfires were not a natural disaster and were instead caused by a directed energy weapon, a laser beam or explosion, have been viewed millions of times.
	But the video was originally a viral clip shared on TikTok in May showing a transformer explosion in Chile.
	So that particular video was not legitimate or authentic, it says here.
	An image of a church on fire in Hawaii has been viewed 9 million times, with people claiming it shows a laser beam rising from the church into the sky.
	However, the image has been digitally altered.
	No laser beam or ray of light can be seen in the original Associated Press photo.
	So it seems that some investigations have been done that disprove these original claims.
	But why is there this sense of exploitation, total mistrust?
	Why does the idea culturally exist?
	The elites aren't being honest with us.
	It's the picture on his video!
	Is there evidence for that elsewhere?
	Yep.
	And even in the case of Hawaii, its fires and its land, is there any evidence that elites
	might be trying to manipulate, campaign and socially reorganize the economic conditions
	of Hawaii?
	Stay tuned to the end of the video.
	It's the picture on his video.
	Yep.
	That's the picture.
	First up as well, I want to say that if people could decipher for themselves whether something
	was true or not, there wouldn't be any need for the community fact check feature.
	There wouldn't be any need for any of that shit.
	Yeah, or news or journalism in general.
	They're just, yeah, they would be obsolete if that was the case.
	Oh, so there was a lot in there.
	But space lasers might actually be too much even for Russell, I think.
	But instead he's reframing it as, ah, this stuff might not be true, probably, but why does it feel true?
	The wiggity-woo around all the lines makes my stomach hurt.
	This is like... He's talking about manipulating people with dramatic scenes from the news, and then that's the picture you put... Is that like his excuse?
	Like, oh, this is the picture that they were talking about in the article, so we had to use it.
	I don't know.
	The amount of fucking clickbait that this guy engages in is ridiculous.
	I would also like to point out that Russell, as an incredibly rich and famous white man, you are one of the elites, you fuck.
	You're talking about yourself when you say that.
	It's going to be a theme of this show.
	Anyway, it's very interesting that he's leading this piece with some debunking of the conspiracy theories, and I would be tempted to give the devil his due, except for what comes next.
	Alongside the directed energy weapon rumours, speculation spread in viral posts that some of the island's rich inhabitants and second homeowners deliberately started the wildfires to grab valuable land in La Hena.
	One viral video includes claims by a podcaster that native landowners in Maui have refused to sell land to investment management companies and rich locals.
	Well, that would be pretty easy to prove, I guess.
	The cause or causes of the fires on Maui are still unknown, but no real evidence has emerged to suggest they were deliberately started as part of a land grab.
	So there's no evidence of those claims at the moment.
	Let me know in the comments where you stand on that, but let's not forget That even with a historic conspiracy theory like the assassination of JFK, the information after all of these years is still heavily redacted and controlled.
	Let us remember that during the start of the pandemic, assurances were offered to pharmaceutical companies that they would be immune from future prosecutions and some of that legislation already looks a little dubious, doesn't it?
	And once more, we're not allowed full access to the information.
	What are we talking about?
	He's outright saying that, hey, these conspiracies might be true, we'll just never really know because we won't have full access to the information.
	Immediately after saying, there is no evidence for any of this, he's still insinuating that the conspiracy theories could be true.
	That's what he's doing.
	It's maddening.
	The feed, my feed, is packed with evidence of people filming gale force winds because they had to evacuate and the winds were getting worse and they pinpointed the Transformers Connected to electrical lines that exploded.
	People filmed it from their house or they heard the explosion and they knew where the fire started.
	This is absurd.
	absurd.
	Trying to act like the JFK assassination has anything to do with the evidence that is everywhere.
	Everywhere!
	And also, it's not from people that have a vested interest in fabricating!
	No, it's one of the best and worst things about society today is everyone has a camera.
	Everyone can film this shit, and everyone did.
	And it's timestamped!
	And we know they...
	A mess of footage, yeah.
	Yeah.
	It's just...
	This is...
	Yeah.
	The...
	Oh my...
	Ah!
	I don't know what to do with this person.
	Yes, yes.
	I agree.
	All right.
	Thank you.
	How am I the most mad now?
	I think throw him in the sea.
	That's probably our best option.
	A catapult.
	Trebuchet.
	Any of them.
	The kind of Monty Python test of seeing whether he's a witch or not.
	I'm down with that.
	Burn her!
	It turned me into a newt.
	I got better.
	I got better.
	We're distracting, okay.
	Alright.
	Yeah, because it's horrible.
	It's horrible!
	There are people's bodies that are still being discovered as he speaks.
	That is fucking disgusting.
	Trust me, we have not actually hit the most disgusting part yet.
	The first, in the next clip, I dare say Russell is unable to see the forest for the trees.
	This lack of transparency leads to suspicion.
	As always, I bet the mainstream media will say, we have to do something about this misinformation and disinformation.
	These conspiracy theories are hurtful to the real victims of this fire.
	But what they won't address is what the economic conditions in Hawaii are actually like and whether or not there is a degree of exploitation of the indigenous people.
	Let's just cast our minds back and work out why is Hawaii part of America?
	Give that a little bit of reflection and that might help you to see where we're going with this.
	He doesn't really bring that up again, but I knew that would upset you.
	The thing you're taking issue here with, Brand, is capitalism, especially when combined with colonialism and imperialism.
	Facilitated by deregulation in recent times.
	Yeah!
	But the big ol' system, Russell, that you're in the top 0.1% of, is capitalism.
	Make no mistake, Russell is amongst the wealthiest people on the planet.
	That is just a statistical fact.
	So yeah, whenever he whinges about the elites, you're fucking one of them, mate.
	Now, in the next clip, we have a change of source.
	What are these other priorities?
	While the US government, backed by the corporate media, continuously claims there is no money to build infrastructure and take measures that prevent such disasters from happening in the first place, there's an endless supply of funds for war and financial bailouts of the banks and corporations.
	Again, it's a point that's been raised before.
	Where do you want your tax dollars going?
	To support the infrastructure of states that are within the American experiment, like Hawaii?
	Or do you want your money being sent to Ukraine to perpetuate war that doesn't seem to be going very well at all?
	Oh, do fuck off, Russell.
	And fuck off World Socialist Website, which is what WSWS stands for, and is where Brand is getting this specific hot take from.
	He's once more done the thing of equating the importance and status of two different sources by shoving them next to each other without mention.
	in the same piece.
	Wuss Wuss is the website of the International Committee of the Fourth International.
	It describes itself as an online newspaper of the international Trotskyist movement.
	Interestingly, when...
	[Squeal]
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought that.
	I thought that.
	When Google in 2017 introduced their new algorithm to try and reduce the prominence of fake news in their results, WSWS called it censorship because their traffic from Google was reduced by 67%.
	Google responded by saying they hadn't specifically targeted WSWS, which is akin to saying your website pumps out 67% fake news.
	So there we go.
	Yeah, do we have like a rating?
	Are they even on the radar of news rating?
	I don't know.
	In an article for the socialist magazine New Politics, the Lebanese Trotskyist academic Gilbert Achkar described the WSWS as, quote, gutter journalism run by a Trotskyist cult which perpetuates a long worn out tradition of inter-Trotskyist sectarian quarrels in fulfilling its role as apologist for Putin, Assad and their friends, unquote.
	Fucking savage.
	That sounds like makeup community YouTube drama.
	Like there's a point where like, okay.
	Yeah, yeah.
	The infighting is silly.
	It's a lot.
	It's a lot.
	But either way, apologists for Putin, Assad and all of those people, that's where we're getting our information from here.
	Not quite the BBC by my estimation.
	No.
	Yeah.
	No.
	No.
	Oh dear.
	Clickbait Farm seems like me.
	I always have fun looking into this guy's sources because they are always fucking quick.
	They really fucking nosedive quick!
	That's a lot.
	Jesus Christ.
	And they're sandwiched in between like normal fucking newspapers so it gives the thing, you know?
	Because it just shows the logo and you're like, oh yeah, the logo looks official.
	Also, I was looking at, I was looking at WSWS and I was like, Wall Street, Wall Street?
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	I thought, I thought.
	Epoch Times trying to be a Wall Street Journal.
	I thought, I thought Wall Street something.
	I was like, oh, maybe it is something.
	Maybe it is something legit.
	And then I looked it up and I was like, no, no, no, no, it's not.
	Wuswus.org.
	Terrible, terrible site.
	So next, Russell gets a little bit facetious.
	One might think that if you have big, well-funded governments, these are the kind of disasters they should be dealing with, protecting their own populations.
	Ideally, ensuring that disasters of this nature don't take place at all, but when they do take place, that people are taken care of, rather than, curiously, having this inordinate amount of care for people over there in Ukraine.
	Odd that their care gets to be brokered by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, and this kind of care doesn't seem to have the opportunity to skim profit off the top.
	He's pissed, you can hear it.
	Again, if your position is the US shouldn't be involved in Ukraine, tell Putin to get the fuck out of a sovereign country and you'll have your wish.
	Curious how that never seems to be an option to Brand.
	Also, there is care.
	There is a Herculean effort being undertaken by the people on the ground in Hawaii right now, much of which was near immediately funded by the government.
	Was it as quick as anyone would have liked?
	Fuck no, but it was a damn sight quicker than it could have been.
	As of Sunday, August 20th, there are more than a thousand federal personnel on the ground in Maui.
	To date, the Biden-Harris administration has approved $8.2 million in assistance to over
	2,700 households, including $3.4 million in initial rental assistance. FEMA has made available
	more than 50,000 meals, 75,000 litres of water, 5,000 cots and 10,000 blankets and shelter supplies
	to the county government for distribution.
	The help is fucking there, so shut up.
	And what they need is continued support so that their land isn't swiped out from under them because of the pressures of this crisis.
	We'll get into that in a minute.
	This motherfucker buys a house.
	Oh.
	He's not that fun.
	Whatever.
	I'm like...
	He'd be tempted, he's got his house in LA, why not have one?
	Right?
	It is the kind of thing he would do.
	Pennies on the dollar!
	I mean, people are posting what real estate developers have been sending them, like letters, messages.
	We're going to get into that just in literally the next clip, so you don't worry.
	But, however, the next clip is going to upset you because... No shame!
	Yeah, well, yeah.
	But in the wake of the deadliest wildfire in US history, this is disgusting.
	A chronic housing shortage and an influx of second home buyers and wealthy transplants have been displacing residents and the wildfire has multiplied concerns that any homes rebuilt there will be targeted at affluent outsiders seeking a tropical haven.
	What was here before?
	I don't know, just an island?
	What are all these charred bodies and corpses?
	Fertile land.
	For growing palm trees.
	For you to put a hammock on.
	Oh!
	That would turbocharge what is already one of Hawaii's gravest and biggest challenges.
	The exodus and displacement of native Hawaiian and local born residents who can no longer afford to live in their homeland.
	Gentrification at an almost national scale.
	In a way the latest The laser beam becomes irrelevant.
	That's simply the literal ignition of the event.
	All of the concerns that wrap around the conspiracy theory are true.
	Oh no, are elites exploiting this situation?
	Are we going to be further impecuniated?
	Will the richest people in the world benefit from this situation?
	The focus, I sometimes think, is deliberately put on to the conspiracy theory to discredit the demonstrable reality that ordinary people are getting screwed over and rich elites are benefiting.
	Same with the coronavirus pandemic.
	Oh, it didn't start here, it started there.
	Who cares?
	Who's benefiting from this situation?
	You care!
	Yeah, right.
	You care!
	He's just not going to say climate change?
	Just not going to say it?
	No.
	Hawaii Governor Josh Green wants to introduce a moratorium on sales of damaged or destroyed properties and has warned off investors and developers who wish to, quote, steal land from our people.
	Hawaii, and in particular Maui, has been undergoing a housing crisis for some time, and I'm quite sure that they're acutely aware of dickheads coming in trying to profit off of this tragedy because of capitalism.
	Once more, Russell, you are one of the richest people in the world, regardless of you sitting there in your West Ham football club shirt shouting about globalists.
	And as one of the richest people in the world, you are benefiting off this tragedy in the making of this utterly gross content in which you joke about charred corpses lining the land of Maui, you disgusting prick.
	And obviously, like, oh, it doesn't matter what the cause was.
	Oh, I'd say it matters the most.
	I'd say it matters.
	That's the top of my it matters list.
	Number one.
	Oh, my God.
	He does not mention climate change once in this entire show.
	And that is fucking telling, isn't it?
	That tells you all you need to know about this guy who apparently loves the environment and really cares about green spaces.
	Fuck off.
	Yeah, I bet.
	I bet his fans will say that too.
	Probably.
	Probably.
	Yeah, I have little doubt.
	If I were trying to... This is the fucking news!
	Then the first thing I'd say... Shit on your dog's bed!
	This is the fucking news!
	This is the fucking news!
	Yeah, I'd point out that...
	Wind and heat made this fire.
	Big fire.
	We've known that for many thousands of years as a species.
	As far as California wildfires absolutely being the fault of PG&E, like letting their infrastructure degrade, watching the footage, it doesn't look like Any amount of infrastructure could have withstood the pressures being put on the infrastructure in that moment.
	The winds were crazy!
	There's preparation and then there's like, you know, you have to basically prep for a fucking apocalypse if you want to be prepared for this kind of thing.
	Yeah.
	There's only so far you can go with a reasonable expectation from a government, from anyone, in a situation like this, where shit is getting this unexpectedly crazy.
	Right.
	That's the thing too, it's not going to come out until there's more analysis as to whether or not they could have been prevented or there was some kind of neglect.
	The thing is, like, Hawaii and Maui, they're not strangers to wildfires.
	They're very fucking used to it at this point, to be honest, which is harrowing in of itself.
	So I would be surprised if they were, like, you know, underprepared to a kind of... What's the word I'm looking for?
	Not neglect.
	To respond.
	Well yeah, that specifically was an issue that I saw coming up, and again, I don't know, I am kind of waiting for the dust to settle to even inform myself, but there was this massive issue, it was a continuous issue where like, Negligence, that was the word, sorry.
	Sorry, I remember.
	Negligence, yeah.
	I didn't have it, I'm sorry.
	So, like, the issue is that locals, people that live there, are deprioritized for tourism.
	And so, both on the electoral grid, like, people just asked to not do stuff for several hours in the middle of the day, whatever, or, like, the water supply.
	So, being able to fight these fires, there was this massive, like, Disconnect in what the resources that would have potential.
	I mean, it's tough to say because it was such a like and it's terrible like natural, right?
	It's still early days, but having like not having the water supply to be able to fight the fire is I'd say an issue.
	That's a problem.
	That's a problem.
	Next, we get into some of Russell's feelings on taxes.
	Residents with insurance or government aid may get funds to rebuild, but those payouts could take years and recipients may find it won't be enough to pay rent or buy an alternate property in the interim.
	Oh, buh-bye!
	Good luck!
	Good luck in your tenements and project buildings!
	Hey!
	There's some land suddenly available!
	Zuckerberg!
	Bill!
	Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg doesn't work the land on his Hawaii ranch, but he and other wealthy landowners still benefit from huge agricultural tax breaks.
	The scheme allows the super-rich to hoard wealth at the expense of the general public.
	If you don't pay tax, it's a big problem.
	Do you want to fund all these wars that you're paying for?
	$900 each you're paying for the Ukraine war over there, per annum.
	Do you want to do that?
	Well, see what happens if you stop doing it.
	You'll be getting a tap, tappity, tap, tap, tap on your front door.
	Believe you me.
	So, do we live in a society where there are different rules for wealthy elite?
	Do wealthy elites benefit from situations that are disasters for ordinary people?
	Let me know in the comments.
	Okay, there's a few things there.
	Firstly, there was a change of source, again.
	Two.
	The first kind of half of that came from The Independent, another reputable news source.
	Yeah, and everything that was from The Independent.
	Because, yeah, I guess the sourcing is a lot harder to follow if you're just listening.
	Yeah, exactly.
	If you're listening to the podcast version of this, you'd assume it was all from the same fucking source.
	Yeah!
	We saw four!
	He makes no mention.
	The second source was an article from Jacobin that I've already mentioned I have problems with, and this is another one of those articles I have problems with.
	Anyway, I'll be the first person in line to say that wealthy bastards buying up land in the name of tax breaks is immensely fucked up and should be banned.
	That is a real, credible problem that needs solving.
	The issue arises- Which the government is trying to alleviate, actively!
	Yeah, kind of.
	The local government.
	Yeah, the government in Hawaii.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Um, the issue arises when- Yeah, not our government, that particular.
	Not the federal government. Federal government are very f*****g- Sorry, you're right, you're right, you're right. I misspoke.
	Um, the issue arises when people start saying that said wealthy bastards started the fires in the name of buying up
	more land with absolutely zero evidence.
	As ever, why don't we just deal with the criticisms based in reality?
	It would appear, by the way, that one of Brand's companies, Pablo Diablo's legitimate business firm, Limited, is paying its taxes.
	Though, curiously, they decided to exempt themselves from audit in their last statement to HMRC, as their turnover was less than £6 million a year.
	And apparently you can do that if you're aware of the rule, which to me is insane.
	Oh no, I didn't turn enough.
	Don't audit me.
	There we go.
	And I wasn't aware of that.
	What?
	I wasn't aware that rule existed.
	As someone who, you know, has had to turn in text statements to HMRC before, I was unaware of that.
	I would like to also not be audited.
	Thank you very much.
	You're like, fucking hell.
	It seems bad!
	The accounts of Stay Free Media will be due at the end of September, so I'll be mighty curious to read those when they arrive.
	It's always just an overview, you don't get any of the granular detail that I'd really want.
	But in any case, I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that Russell isn't taking advantage of every possible little accounting trick available to him to keep as much of his wealth as possible, because once again, he is one of the wealthy elites!
	Like, just because he's wearing a fucking West Ham shirt or because he makes dick jokes doesn't make him exempt from any of this.
	Like, the reality is he can afford to be sat there in a diamond-encrusted suit if he wanted to.
	He just chooses not to, especially as appearing as a guru like every man serves his ultimate interest, which is profit.
	Yeah, he likes wearing as little shirt as possible, from what I can tell.
	Yeah, which I'm not a fan of, mostly because it's got a betting company on the front of it.
	He's mentioned it once.
	He's kind of tacitly endorsing that by not bringing it up.
	I'm thinking of his open tops, his flowy open tops.
	Yeah, that's definitely, that's the guru look.
	That's what he's going for there.
	Must be nice.
	Yeah, right?
	Yeah, I just look like a...
	We're in open shirt guru temperatures currently, where I am, so I just look frazzled.
	I feel like I would more closely resemble James Gandolfini in The Sopranos, you know, but with an open shirt.
	Anytime it's him in his dressing gown or whatever.
	Yeah, but that's dignified.
	There was dignity there.
	I mean, I guess.
	Also, there was like hair and makeup, like in a costume department.
	Yeah.
	Very true.
	I'm not benefiting from the warmth in this room and the way that Russell seems to enjoy.
	Seems to relish in his temperature controlled studio.
	Yeah.
	So next, next brand makes a weird insertion into this discussion.
	Bill Gates began buying up tracts of land in 2013 and is now the largest owner of farmland in the country with 270,000 acres.
	Other billionaires like Bezos, Buffett and Ted Turner are in on the game as well, each controlling thousands of acres to the extent that young farmers looking to buy land are being priced out of the market.
	Part of the rationale for preferential tax treatment of agricultural land is the hope that tax savings will trickle down to leasehold farmers in the form of lower rents.
	Does this pan out?
	There is no public oversight on those decisions.
	So it's just an assumption.
	It's like the way that often government by science is government by favour and government by buddy accords.
	Just agreements between political allies.
	What's been described there, it's like a modern-day equivalent of the feudal system.
	The baron owns the land, the serfs till the lands, they'll get some benefits, or at least an occasional turnip.
	He just said that often government by science is government by favour and government by buddy accords.
	Now, we've pretty well documented Brand's hatred of secularism and science, but what a weird place to inject it.
	Government by science, as opposed to government by theocracy, which is what he actually wants.
	I don't think I would describe any government as being especially scientific.
	And I say this with my brother being scientific advisor to a government.
	Believe me, it is terrifying how little these people know.
	Yeah!
	It's awfully revealing of the world Brand actually wants to live in.
	Again, as to the larger point that these tax breaks are fucked up, I entirely agree!
	Like, they should be removed and the land put up for auction.
	Oh yeah!
	Absolutely!
	If anyone wonders if I think people should be punished for being wealthy, you bet your ass I do.
	There's no such thing as an ethical billionaire, you mark my words.
	It doesn't even have to be punishment.
	It's just your fair share.
	That's how they perceive it.
	They think of it as punishment.
	You're absolutely right.
	I'm just using that as an opportunity to address the fact that it's not punishment.
	I should have these tax breaks taken away from me.
	Why are you punishing the wealthy?
	It's like, well, you deserve it.
	Yeah, the loopholes need to be closed.
	Also, I'm going to be petty.
	Surfs didn't eat turnips.
	They did not see them as a foodstuffs and they were fed to pigs.
	I get the feeling he's probably just getting all of his information from Blackadder.
	I know.
	That's what I think is happening there.
	That was a very funny turnip, to be fair.
	Oh yes.
	Random aside here, but did you see Tony Robinson on the celebrity version of Great British Bake Off?
	No!
	He was in the last, I think it was the last season, Russell's been on that same fucking show by the way, but no, Tony Robinson went on there and he baked a cake that looked like a turnip.
	It was fantastic.
	And you know what?
	It looks really good.
	We finished Righteous Gemstones.
	So I'm freed up to go.
	Go check it out.
	Go check it out.
	It's great.
	And like he does really well.
	And he's really he's really sweet throughout the whole thing.
	And I think he tears up at one point.
	And he does his cake.
	His cake is wonderful.
	The turnip is fantastic.
	I was I was very impressed.
	Very impressed.
	Turnips actually have a very interesting history in like British Medieval agriculture.
	I'm the most boring person in the world.
	What did I just say?
	Oh my god!
	I'll climb on the catapult next!
	I didn't want to say anything, but yeah.
	Jesus Christ!
	Turnips have a really interesting history is not a sentence I was expecting from this show.
	Nonetheless, it is very clearly a history that Brand is unaware of, however interesting.
	What is wrong with me?
	Don't open that door.
	Don't open that door.
	What is wrong with me?
	No, no, no, let's...
	One of my favorite jokes from Friends is just Chandler sat there on a couch, just having an inner monologue, and he goes, well, what's wrong with me?
	And then, whoop!
	Don't open that door.
	Yep.
	Got me right in the feels.
	That's a truth stranger than fiction.
	People can't make up a lie about me dumber than the thing I just said.
	I don't think it's dumb, but I will say I don't think you could write that line.
	I don't think a sitcom writer would be able to be like, oh, you know what?
	Turnip's having a, you know.
	Oh, God.
	So, next, we, of course, go back to Ukraine.
	One of the conspiracy theories is of course that these fires were started deliberately to benefit rich elites.
	Like BlackRock.
	Now look at the Ukraine war.
	Ukraine have already done a deal with BlackRock to rebuild their nation using BlackRock investment.
	If you apply that mentality to this situation, if BlackRock end up Then the conspiracy theory is almost a redundant detail.
	Did they start it?
	Didn't they start it?
	Is it inevitable that the suffering of ordinary people leads to the benefit of rich elites and massive organizations like BlackRock and billionaires across the globe?
	And why is Bill Gates buying all this agricultural land when he's not a farmer and he's not using it in the way that these brakes were set up to be used?
	Doesn't it all feel like a kind of macro conspiracy that's so diffuse, oddly abstracted and bureaucratically opaque that sometimes
	you just want to simplify it into "they started this fire, they started it with a laser
	from space" and whether it's true or not, it not only feels true, in terms of its
	results, it IS kind of true.
	So it IS kind of true now?
	Pick a fucking lane.
	Do you know what's fun?
	He hates capitalism so much.
	Yeah, you'd think.
	That's it, that's it.
	You'd think, you'd think.
	Do you know what's fun?
	I heard a rumor that BlackRock owned the bank which provided the loan to Brand in order to buy the pub in Pittsburgh.
	Shut up!
	I haven't been able to confirm it yet.
	But according to his usual logic, that would make him a shill for BlackRock.
	I wish hypocrisy ever mattered.
	I haven't managed to confirm it yet, but I think, because BlackRock own Lloyds Bank, and I'm pretty sure if he got the loan from them, which is the rumor.
	Which I was even thinking about.
	Yeah, right.
	Then there we go.
	I was thinking about like, yeah, there's very few capital funds.
	because antitrust laws have been completely destroyed.
	Exactly.
	So he's saying that BlackRock might come in and have this agreement with Ukraine.
	Like, yeah, 'cause there's nobody left.
	Yeah, and it's like, well, also- - Consolidation has gotten to the point of impossibility.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Oh.
	I really hope it's true that his money comes from BlackRock.
	As ever, as ever, the problem is capitalism.
	That's all it is.
	So yeah, Russell, start railing against that and we'll have a fucking discussion.
	But until then...
	So, next, he still doesn't seem to quite grasp that point.
	There is a conspiracy to keep you poor and to benefit rich elites, but it's just, it's everywhere.
	It's almost like water to a fish.
	It's not a conspiracy.
	It's just the environment you live in.
	You live in corruption.
	Every time there's a disaster or fire, you bet it's going to benefit elites.
	You bet the poorest people are going to suffer more.
	Every time there's a pandemic, you bet they're going to control you more and rich interests are going to benefit from it.
	You can't find a smoking gun or a beaming laser, but you can be sure that Black Rock and the world's most powerful individuals will benefit down the line from this disaster.
	The trouble is, by then, me and you, unless we're very very careful, will be focusing on the conspiracy theory or the tragedy of 2024 or 2025.
	So for now, let's focus on those that are truly suffering.
	The people of Hawaii who have lost their lives and who have lost their homes.
	But let's not get so caught up in grief that we forget how these disasters are exploited by the powerful that benefit from a system that seems to be advantaged every time there's a disaster for ordinary people.
	Capitalism!
	Me and you.
	Link in bio for donating to Neutral Aid in Hawaii?
	No?
	Nothing.
	No?
	Nothing.
	Me and you, he says.
	Me and you will be distracted and focusing on other things.
	He really does paint himself as the average fucking Joe in this scenario, as though we're all in this together and if the ship sinks he'll be on it with the rest of us.
	Absolute fucking horse shit.
	While this country is being consumed by a wealth gap the likes of which has never been seen, food bank usage is at historic levels and people are dreading the coming winter as they won't be able to afford heating yet again.
	This multi-multi-millionaire is claiming to be one of us.
	Get fucked.
	Anyway, the biggest problem, as you've already pointed out with this whole conspiracy theory bit covering these wildfires, is it distracts and covers for the entire fucking point that they are caused and exacerbated by climate change.
	And there is not a single mention of that.
	Yeah, there aren't really any words.
	It's just such blatant fucking hypocrisy and obfuscation of the actual problem, which feeds into his right-wing audience because they don't want to hear about climate change being a problem because they don't think it's real.
	Why is that still happening?
	Because of people like Russell!
	That's why he's here!
	I'm hot!
	I'm hot right now!
	I'm literally hot as well.
	Do you know what?
	It's warmed up several degrees over here in the last few hours.
	I'm roasting.
	Yeah, but is it trying to murder all your bell peppers in the backyard?
	Because it doesn't have an amenity!
	I have bell peppers in my fridge, but not in my yard.
	So there we go.
	We had an emergency earlier.
	We had an emergency bell pepper saving.
	Bell pepper related evacuation.
	We were being murdered by the star in the sky that is closest to us.
	So in the next clip, we come out of the editorial.
	Thank fuck.
	But that's just what I think.
	Let me know what you think in the chat.
	See you in a second.
	We can't make our wonderful content or put on events like Community without our wonderful sponsors.
	Mudwater is a coffee alternative with four adaptogenic mushrooms and Ayurvedic herbs.
	Sounds fucking awful.
	Are you fucking kidding me?
	Surprise!
	Jesus, that was a hard ad pivot.
	Like, see you in a second.
	We can't do this without... Fuckin' hell.
	At least lube me up a little bit first, Russ.
	So, Mudwater is the product we're hawking this week.
	That sounds really gross!
	I'm no expert.
	I'm no expert.
	I'm no expert in marketing, but that is not the most appealing product name I've ever heard.
	So made of mushrooms.
	Like to have the moon on the back of a golf cart.
	Oh man, that's weird.
	Made of mushrooms and herbs, it's supposed to be a sort of coffee replacement.
	It did, however, get me wondering what the fuck Ayurvedic herbs are, and apparently those include ashwagandha, brahmi, shatavari, licorice, neem, mangistha, amala, and haritaki.
	Okay, fine.
	Fairly obscure herbs.
	So, what do they do?
	Well, according to the non-profit Art of Living Organization, which I'm sure is a legitimate charity, Ayurvedic herbs improve vitality, purify and detoxify the body and blood, boost mental health, aid digestion, aid weight loss, improve skin tone, oh, and reduce the side effects of cancer.
	What?!
	So, basically, fucking wonder herbs!
	Isn't it amazing that Big Pharma hasn't cottoned onto this yet?
	Uh, yeah.
	Yeah.
	So here we have a, yeah, we, we, we have a, um, cancer symptom problem solving drink.
	Great.
	Um, dandelion coffee's not bad.
	That's not bad.
	It probably is just mushrooms and fucking herbs in the cheapest and easiest quantities that they can throw in there.
	And then just be like, here, $50 a can, please.
	Right.
	You know, because that's the kind of shit that they can do and be like, oh, this is supposed to help with all of these things, according to this.
	We're not making that claims.
	They're making those claims, but they're in this.
	So maybe try it.
	Seems like quite the panacea.
	Yeah, and Russell's happy to make money off it with an affiliate marketing situation, which is great.
	Awesome.
	Awesome.
	Anyway, in the next clip, we come out of the surprise ad and back into the studio.
	To get 15% off, go to mudwater.com forward slash community.
	Use the code COMMUNITY15.
	15 delicious A conflagration
	An incendiary mess that consumes the lives of innocent people and possibly grants opportunity for profit to
	already advantaged elites
	What a world we live in, where the WHO can impose censorship and regulation on intrepid endeavour and acute conversation that could lead to new breakthroughs.
	What a terrible bureaucracy.
	Football isn't like that though.
	Football is nice.
	laughter And welcome to Football is Nice, where we talk about
	matters regarding primarily the Premier League in the United Kingdom, but also football as a global phenomena.
	It's moral connotations, it's mythic connotations, and just stuff we've seen that we're well into.
	So, usually Russell's daily videos are about an hour long, and this one was an hour and a half, so I thought going in, like, ah, we're gonna have a lot to get into this week, something to really get stuck into, great, maybe, like, there'll be, you know, an editorial or two, or an interview, only to be confronted with this.
	So we get 45 minutes of Stay Free, and 45 minutes of Football is Nice with Russell and Gareth.
	Man, I wish I got a paper phone or something like that!
	Holy shit.
	Also, talking about the, like, how football is, the global implications of the sport of football
	not having anything to do with like governments and overreach and abuse of power.
	He's saying how globalism is a problem and he's talking about a global sport.
	And the World Cup is put on in a completely ethical and transparent way.
	Oh yeah, Saudi Arabia definitely deserved it.
	I'm saying.
	What?
	That's just a lot.
	It's a lot to say.
	I mean, what would he even have to lose to bitch about Saudi Arabia?
	We're getting into Saudi Arabia in just a second.
	Shut up!
	Really?
	Yeah, I'm not kidding.
	So being that I was prepared to go the distance with more of Bran's show, I decided to give Football is Nice a watch, and I did find some interesting gems within.
	So first up we have a discussion of a players contract who has signed to a Saudi Arabian team with curiously little consideration of this one specific clause.
	Have a look at Neymar's Deal Gal.
	He could potentially break Saudi Arabia because he's going to get half a million euros for every social media post he makes saying Saudi Arabia is good.
	I hope they've put a cap on that because otherwise he could just go and Saudi Arabia nice.
	I'll tell you I like Saudi Arabia.
	Come to Saudi Arabia.
	And you could, until the end, they can't pump enough out the ground to keep Neymar going.
	Get chap GBT on that.
	Get chap GBT.
	Nice things about Saudi Arabia.
	Off you go.
	There you go.
	They'll be coming to us capping hands, the Saudi Arabians, won't they?
	In a matter of days.
	Ruined by Neymar.
	So I hear the words, incredibly famous guy offered half a million for every social media post endorsing a specific country, and my heckles are immediately raised, and I think, well, what fucked up shit is this country up to then?
	It being Saudi Arabia, plenty of fucked up shit, and once again, if you're anywhere in the LGBTQ plus universe, don't fucking go there, because they can and will imprison and or murder you for being who you are.
	Russell and Gareth, on the other hand, Curiously little consideration or debate over this clause.
	You'd think with their show being all about corruption and unveiling propaganda and subtext or whatever, they'd be right on top of this, but no.
	They've been pro-Saudi Arabia before, and by all accounts it seems they will continue to do so.
	Gross!
	Also, y'all have no idea how much money they have.
	Yes, they could pay this guy 500,000 Euros per social media post, because they are fucking loaded.
	There are joke comparisons.
	That's a line item in the budget!
	per social media posts, like, 'cause they are fucking loaded.
	Yeah!
	There are joke comparisons, you know?
	That's a line item in the budget.
	Like, that's... - Yeah, yeah.
	Get a grip! - Yeah.
	Billions upon billions upon billions, you know?
	That's alarming!
	That's a dumb thing to say!
	Okay, alright.
	Warren, why are you terrorized?
	They're not terribly bright.
	So, speaking of being pro-Saudi Arabia...
	I heard Ria Ferdinand was watching the new TNT Sports.
	Are you going to call it that?
	Are you going to call Twitter X and then you're going to call BTTNT?
	I'll try.
	TNT, Ria Ferdinand was on there talking about the, and he was asked about the Saudi stuff and obviously they, I think they, the host kind of wanted to go, yeah, you know, it's not great that everyone's moving to Saudi Arabia.
	But actually what he said was I would have done the same thing towards the end of my career.
	And then what he said was, which I thought was an interesting take, he said, no one says anything about America whatsoever.
	He goes, when Messi goes over to America, the kind of deal that Messi's had done, no one says a thing.
	It's celebrated everywhere.
	Isn't this an amazing thing that's happening?
	And he says, but, and look what's happening in Saudi Arabia.
	He said, it's so different, the response.
	And I was like, yeah, I think that's a fair point.
	If what you're saying is, it's about the politics.
	You know, that's the reason why we're coming down hard on the Saudi Arabia stuff.
	It's like, well, hang on, where's our analysis of American policy, you know?
	You can't send your footballers off to a warmongering nation that requires a constant warfare in order to prop up its model that charges its citizenry through taxation without proper or due consent.
	Hang on.
	Taxation without proper or due consent.
	Is Russell Brand a sovereign citizen, Guy?
	I have zero other real evidence of this, but it absolutely seems like something he'd be into.
	He would be all over that.
	I mean, he talks about adjacent all the time.
	Check that!
	Check his ID!
	Have the S's been replaced by dollar signs?
	Yeah, something, something.
	I don't know.
	You know, we don't have the same, obviously we don't have the same laws here.
	We do have the same system of common law, but we don't have the same like fucking, you know, maritime law is a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah kind of nonsense over here.
	I would be curious to know if that's something he's into.
	A state freeman on the land.
	Yeah, right, right.
	So the USA does have some real problems politically, but they are far, far less oppressive towards their people compared to Saudi fucking Arabia.
	Some folks are working on it!
	Well, there is that.
	But to the point where there is no real comparison to be made as the two countries are legions apart on this specific subject.
	And, as it turns out, on the topic of war.
	Russell just illustrated how little he knows about Saudi Arabia because they've barely been in any wars at all over the last century, especially not compared to the US.
	And accordingly, being warmongers is not a critique many people can level at Saudi Arabia.
	Funding wars and or terrorism, on the other hand, might be a bit of a different story, but that's for another day.
	Yeah.
	And those are different!
	Those are different!
	They are different.
	Being at war as a country is different to having the money to fund wars.
	America does both.
	He could make the valid complaint.
	There's a valid critique that we've just whiffed.
	I would question the wisdom of taking political advice from a footballer.
	That's just my take.
	Someone who kicks a ball around all day is unlikely to be much of a political scientist.
	If they're at that kind of level of the game, to be earning hundreds of millions or whatever, then they probably don't have time to be reading all of these things.
	I do, on the other hand, because I'm a poor.
	So, in the next clip, they are discussing a football manager, Roy Hodgson, who manages Crystal Palace FC.
	I lived there for a bit, actually.
	It's in London.
	He's an old fellow who doesn't take much shit, basically.
	In any case, it shows a gaping hole in Brand's knowledge of presidential candidacy requirements.
	You know and like to be and also Roy Hodgson is considerably younger and I'd say more capable than Joe Biden.
	I'd rather have Roy Hodgson.
	As president?
	As president.
	Wow, what a move that would be.
	Why do you care?
	I think, oh no listen, they'll start bloody well using those weapons responsibly or we're not going to send you another single weapon.
	Is it too late to nominate him, do you think?
	I don't think so Gareth, I think now's the time.
	I think it is.
	There could be some obstacles, he's got to get citizenship but why don't we back that?
	Yeah.
	Why don't we back this?
	Let's dedicate all that we do to that.
	Make Roy Hodgson President of the United States of America, even though he's shown no sign of wanting it, be embarrassed by the idea.
	We're almost certain of that fact.
	So in order to become the president of the United States of America, you have to have been born in the United States of America.
	Um, that should be a fairly obvious point, but apparently not to Russell.
	Uh, you can't just get citizenship, hop on a plane and run for president.
	Um, otherwise I'm quite certain we'd have already had eight years of president Schwarzenegger.
	Uh, I will.
	Yeah.
	And I, I, you know what I, I said, why do you care?
	And that isn't fair necessarily, but that was just.
	Extra weird?
	Because yeah, we should all care.
	We should care about, like, we're all interconnected.
	This is a global problem.
	Yeah, yeah.
	The leader of America does affect us a fair bit, but yeah, it's...
	It's a fucking... I don't know.
	I mean, they're just shooting the shit, I know.
	But, you know, they're just taking the piss.
	But I will also point out that Roy Hodgson is 76 and Biden is 80.
	So there's only four years of difference between them.
	It's not like, oh, he's much younger.
	No, he's fucking not.
	And all that said, though, I would love for someone like Hodgson to suddenly become president, not least of all because it would be fucking fascinating to watch.
	Like, here you go, random old British guy is now in charge of America.
	Watch what happens.
	I mean, I'm not a big fan of a Ritchie, but...
	I mean, I don't think he's particularly wealthy.
	Honestly, I'm open to any number of lottery kind of systems that have been proposed in jest at this point.
	If it would do worse, I don't know.
	I know it would turn the country into more of a game show than it already is, but you know what?
	I would be really curious to find out what happened.
	I would be really interested.
	The first thing I would ever want in a president is them not wanting to do it.
	Not wanting the job.
	Yeah, that should be a fucking prerequisite, shouldn't it?
	Having said all that...
	We're already screwed.
	Like I'm already not going to have my ideal situation because this is not how it works.
	That's not how job applications work.
	That's all it is.
	Having said all that, I don't know Roy Hodgson's political views at all.
	So don't fucking shout at me about that.
	I have no idea.
	I would just love the idea of just a random British couple.
	Put Michael Caine in charge.
	Fuck it.
	Put him in charge of the country.
	He'd be the oldest president yet and probably the best one.
	And it would be another old white guy.
	If we're going to pick a random British person, Brian Blessed is mine.
	Oh yeah, that would be a good one.
	He'd be great, you know.
	I think he'd put... He'd actually have some really great ideas, because he's a surprisingly fucking bright spot.
	That also is the State of the Union.
	I would tune in and... Oh, hang on.
	Every word... He'd be hammering the lectern guard.
	He would be... It would be incredible.
	It'd be incredible.
	Same as if you got... This is too nice.
	We can't keep talking about it.
	It's going to make me sad.
	It's true.
	It's just going to bum me out.
	No, actually, do you know, I think who I'd go for would be Dame Judi Dench.
	I think put President Dench.
	Yes.
	I'm here for that.
	President Dench would not fuck around.
	She would be...
	God, she would be vicious and yet caring, you know?
	That's exactly who we want.
	Followed by President Helen Mirren.
	That's her VP.
	Yes!
	Oh my god.
	I would be watching the news all day every day just to see what they're doing.
	We're in way too pleasant of a headspace to be recording an episode of On Brand right now.
	That's like, too fun!
	You're entirely correct, you're entirely correct.
	So, you know how Russell tends to dance around the kind of world he actually wants?
	I do indeed, yes.
	And never really gets into specifics, right?
	Well, apparently, on Football is Nice, he's quite happy to let his guard slip.
	If footballers are going to be as powerful as a country now because of, you know, what they own.
	And you know that I don't, I think that the regulation should come around ownership models.
	I think they should be re-nationalized and distributed among the community.
	And I think we're at that kind of tipping point where something as extraordinary as that, with all of its ramifications, with all of its indications for global finance, is exactly the sort of radical idea we need to be considering to galvanize communities, to recognize that communities should own their assets.
	That if you have something naturally totemic, like a football club that can bring people together, that can provide a focal point for a community, you have to
	make radical moves. And all of the problems you would discover when you said, "We are taking
	back this football club."
	When I hold on a minute, but FSG own it or bloody Saudi Arabia own it or whatever.
	All of the problems you'd encounter would be so revealing about our economic and social
	models and how private interests have usurped public good to such a degree that we can't even
	do anything we want to do anymore. And isn't it the point of politics to present people with
	alternatives and ideas that are radical, mean something and bring people together and make
	life fun and make life worth living.
	Because football does that, sport does it more broadly, but in particular for us it's a lot.
	Like football makes life beautiful and now it's becoming plain that it's just a commodity.
	It's just a commodity to them.
	Yeah.
	You know, and I think we should do something radical like re-own it.
	Don't actually disagree with his overarching point here.
	With players now earning hundreds of millions every year, nationalising football teams would be a hell of a thing to see.
	I've not a fucking clue how it would work, but it's something I would absolutely be for.
	Not least of all because it might stand a chance of reducing the pay gap between footballers and nurses, if done correctly.
	It's all pie in the sky thinking of some socialist utopia, but sure.
	My issue comes in when- We're gonna get that.
	Oh, I don't think he thinks about the middle step.
	My issue comes in when we start remembering Russell's desire for small theocratic ethnostates and then all of a sudden he loses me again.
	Do you have salary caps or anything like that?
	On footballers?
	No, no, no, no, because they're private industry.
	They can do what they want.
	I mean, in America, like a lot of, yeah, I mean, pro sports is...
	Far, far more fair, price-wise.
	Or, like, payment-wise.
	Is it?
	Yeah, yeah.
	Yeah, there's salary caps.
	There's contract negotiations.
	There's salary caps, aren't there?
	Yeah!
	Really?
	Oh, we don't have that here?
	No, no, no.
	It's just, however much you can fucking get, that's gonna be you.
	Well, I mean, and there's like a lot of, like, there's, it goes back and forth.
	Obviously, you know, When wealth is being consolidated, it's being consolidated everywhere.
	But yeah, there's a lot of... Ooh, I feel like I'm gonna be talking in my ass right now.
	It's okay.
	I'm not gonna hold you to sports talk.
	Right?
	Oh, yeah.
	I'll hold you to turnips, but I won't hold you to sports talk, all right?
	You know what?
	That's fair.
	I'm here for that.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Turnip talk, I'm on it.
	No, yeah.
	Lauren B, famous sport ball understander.
	But for real, like there's, it's, there are these, as far as just like the way that pro athletes negotiate and the way that There's all kinds of controls that are put in place for their salaries and contracts that people act like
	are impossible for workers outside of that, outside of like pro sports industries.
	And obviously like the NFL is very different from like baseball or basketball.
	NBA, it's really interesting.
	And I don't understand it enough to talk about it into a fucking microphone.
	Yeah.
	Don't worry.
	But I am bringing it up as something interesting.
	That is interesting as yet another vast difference between our two countries and the way our sports industries operate.
	Yeah, the companies that own stuff.
	That's curious.
	Especially the companies that own the buildings, or the money launderers, really.
	If I'm making a bulleted list, or a numbered list.
	You know what, though?
	I have said something.
	I've stepped my foot all the way in it, and I can't wait to be corrected in this idea, expanded upon by people that know more than me.
	Don't worry, neither of us are particularly sports-like people.
	I mean, I enjoy the rugby, I pay attention to the rugby, and that's about it.
	That's as far as I go.
	And even then, I'm union, generally speaking, not league, so there's less of the kind of industry concerns.
	And rugby players don't earn anywhere near as much as football players, anyway.
	Hockey's the thing I like to see.
	But right, that's the thing.
	Why even bring it up?
	It's interesting that both of us enjoy sports, which are essentially just men beating each other up, with some kind of moving object involved as well.
	It's so fun!
	Right, but the whole reason I even bring it up is because... Yeah, right?
	The whole reason I even bring it up is the...
	The inability for, again, America, home of the sport ball obsessed, they have no, like, and even, like, sports dudes understand this and debate this, but somehow all of these, like, regulations and protections in that industry don't translate anywhere else, which I think is insane.
	It's the only reason I mean it's even relevant and that's why we have like salary caps and stuff in in government and local government and the NHS and that kind of thing you know anything that has anything to do with the state we have those but but yeah and yeah some private businesses will have that kind of thing but it's up to them otherwise you know fucking do what they want that's that's that's the way they roll pretty much Which is less than great.
	And you know, we have better unionization over here than you do in the U.S.
	as well.
	So you know, there's that as well.
	I think that's why labor struggle struggles, labor struggles, uh, labor struggles are so,
	um, public when they do happen here at the, or when they're in any way effective here.
	Because they're such a fucking rarity.
	Yeah.
	Exactly.
	Like, holy shit, some people did something!
	Like, yeah.
	Real bummer.
	So the next clip, we see a little bit more of Russell's bullying tendencies surfacing, this time directed towards an employee of Stay Free Media, nicknamed Bad Graphics Jack.
	Bad graphics, Jack.
	That's, I'd say, your best graphic.
	I'm confused as to why you've put a fade into the reds and the yellows, why you've not done block colours.
	Can someone ask him why he did that?
	An incorrect result is red, a correct result is yellow, and an absolutely correct score is green.
	But he's used this sort of fade, and I don't know why he did it.
	What did he say?
	It's artistic.
	Make him say it out loud through a microphone.
	Because I think that would be good to have on the record.
	Is that mic working?
	It's artistic, Gareth.
	Yeah.
	It's artistic.
	I mean, who are we in a way to argue with that, you know?
	Well, I think I'm an established artist and you are sort of a credible producer and performer and writer of some renowned success.
	Yeah.
	But I do sort of think about it, I very much admire.
	This is it.
	This is it.
	This is the paradox of Jack.
	The Jack paradox.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, it's interesting.
	All right.
	On the surface of it, I think most of it, you're right, looks really bad.
	But it's one of those, it's the kind of bad that you think in like a few years time we're going to go, God it's brilliant that wasn't it?
	Is he like the Picasso of graphics?
	That's the thing.
	Like we think it's bad and like Jack's like, he's Vincent van Gogh.
	Yeah.
	Like this world were never meant for one as beautiful as my graphics.
	That's right.
	Like we don't understand how good he is.
	No.
	Because he's that good.
	That's why he just gets on with it.
	It's artistic.
	Like he doesn't, he's not affected by our criticism.
	It's artistic what I've done.
	I don't care.
	Yeah.
	One day I will end my life and you fools will miss me.
	All right let's do the predictions.
	Fucking bleak, also not what happened to Van Gogh.
	So does that feel like something of a hostile work environment to you?
	Forcing him to defend his work to hundreds of thousands of viewers?
	You're asking a person who worked in tattoo shops for 11 years.
	True.
	There's hostile and then there's hostile.
	But nonetheless, I know there's something semi-jokey about it, but it doesn't feel great.
	Yeah, the nickname's not nice!
	They bring up Bad Graphics Jack with fair regularity as well.
	I have cut clips of them talking about him before and just chosen not to include them at the last second because they seem tangential or whatever.
	And that was a digression, too.
	Yeah.
	But as we're in football is nice.
	I'm like, well, let's let's fucking let's let's get into this for once, because, yeah, they're almost on a weekly basis.
	They take the piss out of out of bad graphics, Jack.
	And I'm like this this.
	I don't know.
	I don't know.
	I'm not sure how I feel about it.
	It seemed really obvious to me that I mean, yeah, he said it was an artistic choice there.
	It was.
	So for those of you listening, there was like a chart with numbers.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
	And instead of the fields being solid colors, which honestly wouldn't look as good because you don't put like a crappy Excel spreadsheet on your TV show.
	You try to zhuzh a little and the gradient makes it easier to read.
	Exactly, that's the purpose.
	I don't think that's bad graphic nickname chiding worthy.
	Yeah, no, I know.
	I pity bad graphics, Jack.
	Then again, I'm in charge of our graphics.
	That nickname is going to stick.
	Your stuff is great.
	Well, well, I tried.
	I mean, I don't want to join the shitting on bad graphics Jack, but you're better than him.
	And this guy gets paid to do it.
	Yeah, right?
	Yeah, like for free and basically like artistically groping in the dark, I do OK.
	I do think, I remember looking for him in the credits and he's not listed as like a graphics person.
	I think he's supposed to be a researcher or something.
	Well, that wouldn't make sense.
	Yeah, right.
	That's what I thought.
	I was like, you've basically just found someone who can kind of do what you're asking.
	Yeah!
	Unwilling to pay a professional is what's happening.
	Yeah, totally.
	Unwilling to pay a professional.
	Russell is coming for Bad Graphics Jack.
	And then you have the balls to call this kid Bad Graphics Jack.
	It's like, oh, fuck off.
	I think that's the insight that I was interested in.
	I had a little whiff of it when you brought up earlier who was getting paid for what, as far as, oh, they have researchers, what are they doing?
	I think you have an answer, or at least an inclination.
	Not research!
	They're doing their creative jobs.
	Dog walker Bill!
	Yeah, right.
	I mean, what else are we doing?
	Yeah, exactly.
	Okay, we have... Dry cleaning fetching Eric.
	You know?
	Dry cleaning Eric.
	Poor Eric.
	Yeah, right?
	So we have one more clip, and it gives us a bit of a glance at Brand's general mindset.
	I'm not arguing with it.
	I'm just noticing it.
	Yeah.
	Noticing is not arguing.
	Although sometimes for me it is.
	But if I notice something, I'll argue with it.
	And all I've really done is noticed it.
	I noticed this, so therefore I'm going to cause a fucking problem.
	That's actually my mentality.
	It's best not to be noticed.
	We know.
	I noticed something, therefore I argue with it.
	I believe him when he says that, and it makes me really wonder what direction he could be taken with a different person directing him.
	Again, my working theory is still that Gareth Roy is the one pulling the information strings behind the scenes here, the one who has led Brand further down the path of radicalization than otherwise would have happened, and I wonder if Russell had someone directing him towards noticing actual injustices based in reality, whether we could have had a very different outcome, and indeed a very different show.
	I would love to know Like, I would love to see kind of a parallel universe where, you know, some decent-hearted, decent-minded person, you know, just kind of took Russell down the path of like, here are things that are a problem and you can do something about it because you have a platform and you also have a lot of money, so let's fucking solve some of these problems in the world, Russell.
	If that had actually happened, can you imagine the force for good that Russell Brand could potentially have been?
	Yeah, well, and I think about it because I'm thinking about every single time he makes up some silly bullshit, I'm like cycling through all of the news that I've taken in from a leftist perspective and thinking about like, oh, well, you could have talked about even just Hawaii.
	Oh, if you're so concerned about this land grab, Mention the governor's taking measures to mitigate this issue, like.
	Yeah.
	Oh, yeah.
	If there was any organization.
	Fairness.
	Right.
	Like, oh, are you really concerned?
	Talk about it.
	Don't just make shit up.
	It's like like the amount of like.
	Having to ignore to me, like to me, I don't know if this is the case, but like, Sometimes it feels just stupid, and sometimes it feels like he's being intentionally obtuse in a way that's just really telling me to go fuck myself.
	Yeah, that's what he's doing.
	Right.
	Several times a week, that's what he's doing.
	Right.
	On Gareth Roy specifically, I do... Did you watch... Oh, it's upsetting.
	I'm not saying you should watch it, but the documentary about Jared Fogle, the subway guy?
	No.
	Nor do I want to.
	You get the idea.
	You know, he's bad.
	But like the guy, like there was a guy behind the guy.
	Like there was a facilitating dude.
	Cause listen.
	Of course there is.
	Yeah.
	It never is just one guy.
	And so, and the guy that is involved in the Jared Fogle A co-conspirator, to me, reminds me or looks enough like Gareth Roy that that's all I think about whenever I see him.
	That's unfortunate.
	It's not!
	It's helpful!
	It really makes it harder!
	I can't confirm that Gareth Roy has any kind of similar inclinations or tendencies, but he is a real piece of shit, I'll say that.
	I'm not, my brain's not being there.
	Just in what I think is probably a different way, I hope is a different way anyway.
	He is a strange chap, I'll say that.
	You know, he's... I don't know, just...
	Having salt and pepper hair and being a white guy, maybe I'm not being fair, I don't know, but that's just what I'm reminded of.
	Having the salt and pepper hair and then a very dark beard by contrast is quite unusual.
	But no, I find him very difficult to pin down in terms of motivation.
	I find it very difficult thus far to know kind of where he's coming from and what it is he's trying to achieve because I know there's something and I know it's probably not good.
	Well, it just it does feel like Russell is Fulfilling directives.
	Do you know what I mean?
	Because like, he's got these narratives that are vague, but then it's like, he's just going to say, he's just going to say his stuff the same way all the time.
	Yeah.
	And then he can just get pointed in whatever direction.
	Yeah.
	He'll riff on the headline or, you know, comment on the 10 seconds of song that he gets shown and then turn to Gareth and be like, so what, what is the story, mate?
	You know?
	And, and, and that, that's it.
	And Gareth always Jacks it up.
	Like, always turns up the volume on whatever, or clarifies to make it sound more like, I don't know, what I heard on Fox News being reported, because I don't listen to Fox News, but I do listen to people that listen to Fox News.
	He will always make it worse.
	That's one thing I have noticed about Gareth.
	He never improves the situation.
	He's like, well, and this is why this sucks even worse than you thought, Russell!
	Well he'll also bring it more news because like I have noticed and actually Mike has pointed out more than I've noticed I don't want to take credit that there will be QAnon-y tangents that Russell can kind of hop down that bunny trail and then Gareth yanks him back and then kind of sticks him in a more like conventionally you know that conservative talking point that's more like There's definitely, there are kind of cue tangents that appear in this show.
	whereas like Russell will... Yeah, yeah. There's definitely, there are kind of
	cue tangents that appear in this show. There are definitely undertones
	here and there, just kind of weaved throughout that are problematic.
	Um, I mean, including in, in today's very show, um, you know, there are kind of QAnon fucking narratives being spun throughout.
	Um, which, you know, yeah, it's, it's, he's not kind of outright gone down that road as of yet.
	But, um, having said that, he's really into fucking, um, Sound of Freedom.
	Uh, really, he loves that movie.
	Well, he had Caviezel and the other guy on his show, whenever it came out.
	I looked into it and I was like, oh god, this is shit.
	It was a shit interview with shit people.
	Well, it's been covered.
	I was going to say, QAnon Anonymous have done that pretty fucking decisively, so if you're interested.
	Yeah, by all means, there are plenty of other places that can deal with that.
	We don't need to deal with fucking Russell's appallingly misinformed take on any of it.
	Anyway, that's our show.
	If you want to support us and what we do on Patreon, that would be wonderful.
	Go to patreon.com slash onbrand and, you know, become an Awakening wonder or join the Invisible Hand because I love playing that drop and I didn't get to this week.
	So more Invisible Hand members, please.
	Yeah.
	And we will have a website!
	Hopefully!
	At some point we'll have one!
	Well, hopefully this weekend!
	It's coming!
	Saturday!
	That's soon, that's sooner than expected.
	Well, it's been scheduled, I've been working very hard.
	Worry more about your own personal side of it than the show thing.
	We can get to the show thing.
	Focus on your stuff first, okay?
	Well, either way.
	That is absolutely happening.
	Either way, there will be a website of some description this Saturday.
	That's very exciting.
	Yeah, and I was going to show off some things and do some pluggy wugs.
	Yeah, yeah, please do.
	Please do.
	This gal is going to be I've been I've been Dolly.
	We have a silly little droplets on everything, and I've really been good at forcing tassels onto every single possible surface lately.
	Nice.
	We know she is.
	I use glitter and glue.
	Do no harm, take no shit, Dolly.
	Which they all sound completely the same if you were listening to this.
	Take my word for it, it looks great and you should buy one because they're awesome.
	I would have one.
	I would have one in my house because Dolly is Dolly, you know?
	Yeah I just looked up some more clips of her and just to like put in videos and stuff that I've been posting on Instagram and man she's just a treasure.
	She's just the best.
	Right so new website on the way and for anyone that wants to is in the area and I would love to meet We do in person, oh my god, it'd be the most fun thing in the world.
	Beverly Art Walk is on the south side of Chicago.
	It's happening at, I will be at Made Artisan Collective from 12 to 5 on Saturday, September 23rd.
	And we will be in Lubbock, Texas.
	UFOs Over Lubbock is gonna be the first Friday in October.
	So October 6th, we will be there at Charles Adams Projects.
	Downtown, I mean, the first Friday is like a whole thing and I will be there, Mike will be there, we'll be slinging prints and art and that kind of stuff.
	Nice.
	And I'm still accepting recommendations for Roswell because we'll be making our way there as well.
	And that sounds like a lot of fun.
	So yeah, come if you're in either of the areas, come visit and say hi.
	That'd be wonderful.
	Hell yeah.
	With any luck while you're doing the Beverly Art Walk, I will hopefully, depending on my situation, because things are changing at the moment.
	In flux.
	In flux.
	Depending on my situation, I will hopefully be at QED, which is occurring that very same weekend.
	So yeah, hopefully hanging out with some skeptics.
	You know, the Merseyside Skeptics who, of course, you know, organize the whole thing and run it, etc.
	You know, they'll be there.
	The Knowledge Fight guys are going to be there this year.
	That'll be cool.
	I wonder who else is going to show up.
	Usually friggin' Eli Bosnick and people like that kind of make appearances and come and watch all the stuff.
	So, hey!
	Go see Al, that'd be so fun!
	That'd be awesome!
	Hopefully some of you will be there because I'm sure there is an overlap to British listeners especially because it is in Manchester and my youngest brother is moving there very shortly actually so I'm going to go and crash on his floor because I'm not yet too old to do that so I'm going to do that and it's going to be funny.
	Because he's going to be in his first year of university and that's going to be hilarious for me to embarrass him.
	That's adorable.
	I love that.
	I won't, I won't.
	I'll prop him up.
	I'll prop him up, you know.
	Oh, your presence will be embarrassing.
	It doesn't, no, you're No, I'm the cool brother.
	I'm the cool brother because I'm the musician.
	So it's fine.
	I mean, I feel like an asterisk.
	I feel like brothers are never totally cool.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	True.
	True.
	We'll see.
	I think it'll depend whether whether he's met someone he's into or not.
	I think if If it's just friends, I think I'll be okay, but if there's a girl, then he might feel a little bit red in the face.
	We'll see, that's gonna be fun for me, anyway.
	If you would like to send us an email, it's theonbrownpod at gmail.com, and we will get back to you, honest.
	It might take a minute, depending on what week of our existences we are in, but we will get back to you, one way or another.
	On socials, we are the OnBrandPod at most places, except for Twitter, which we are something else, but find us, I guess.
	Links are in the descriptions.
	You can find us.
	Yeah, yeah.
	And the website will make it even easier.
	The links are definitely on the YouTube channels, I know that.
	Our personal socials, on most things, I am at ElworthOfficial and Lauren is at made.by.lauren.b.
	And that's us for another week.
	And we're going to head to Offbrand.
	Yes, yeah, yeah.
	Off-brand will come later this week.
	We're working it out!
	Working it out, but it will come.
	And we'll see you next week for whatever the fuck Russell is up to then.
	But in the meantime, have a great one, everyone, and thank you for listening.
	Thank you so much.
	Thank you, thank you, thank you.
	For hanging in with this one.
	Yeah, it was pretty gross.
	Yeah.
	Okay.
	We'll see you next week, everyone.
	Bye!
	Turnips.
	Bye!
	Turnips.
	Bye!
	We signed turnips.

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