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Sept. 8, 2023 - On Brand
01:18:31
OB #18 - Obama Drama - Part 2

We tackle the second half of this Obama editorial, and give our thoughts on the issues with journalism today, as well as political hero worship. Support us on Patreon! - patreon.com/OnBrand

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Time Text
Hello, everyone.
Thank you for your patience in waiting for part two.
And well, here it is part two of Obama drama.
I hope you're I hope you're enjoying it.
We go straight in here.
There's no kind of intro.
No, no good thing before the bad thing.
It's just bam.
Here we go.
More content.
So hope you enjoy and thank you for listening, everyone.
Next we hear what a truly progressive Democrat party would be doing.
The attacks on Trump simply aren't working, so what has to now be resorted to is regalvanising a Democrat base that surely now are feeling the pinch of years and years of institutional inertia.
If leaving those voters to be picked up by populists, and I don't use that word in a derogatory sense like Donald Trump or Or RFK, a figure they're unlikely ever to get the opportunity to vote for because a truly progressive Democrat party would at this point be saying, get rid of Joe Biden.
He can't handle this.
He's too old.
It's mental.
The business stuff is confusing.
Get RFK in and let's just handle the fact there are a lot of people that have got concerns because of stuff he said publicly for a long time around vaccines and medications that, in retrospect, make him seem a little more discerning.
It'd probably be easier and better to get people on board with a candidate like him.
He might be able to put up a fight against Trump.
More discerning?
More discerning?
Really?
Okay.
So I'm not quite sure what he means by institutional inertia here, as he never clarifies, but we're supposed to be feeling the pinch of something.
As far as I'm aware, what most Americans are feeling the pinch of is late-stage capitalism, privatized healthcare, and having almost no social safety net.
I'm yet to see a single candidate that Brands mentioned who would address or reform any of those issues.
Yeah, that's the problem.
None of them.
Zero.
You want to both sides it?
You want a left-right paradigm above that?
None of them want to fix anything.
That's why we're mad.
That is funny, isn't it?
And one team is ignoring it, and the other team is pouring gasoline on the fire.
And that's why we're all in a mess.
Because the availability of social media can generate a narrative so much more effectively than the 5 o'clock news ever could and whip people into a frenzy over real things or fake things, but there's no definition.
Oh my God.
Okay.
Yup.
As for Biden being too old, I agree.
80-year-olds shouldn't be running a country.
But also, Trump is 77, and RFK Jr.
is 70 in January.
I think they're all too fucking old to be running a country, and should all be retired before they Feinstein themselves into a position of elder abuse.
Yeah, well, what really sucks is we are, like, We're almost forced into a position of being ageist or sounding ageist when like- I don't give a shit.
I do not give a shit.
I know that and I agree, but like it sounds, it doesn't feel good to even say, honestly, because you don't want to be insulting.
You don't want to be shitty.
I'll be insulting.
These people shouldn't be in office.
No, you be nice.
You be nice.
I'm not willing to be nice.
These people should not be in office.
They're too fucking old.
You get to a certain point and the body starts decaying, right?
Like, the brain also starts... I'm upset.
I'm very upset about this.
But the thing is, you're also not going to reason with an 80-year-old.
Well, there's this, right?
So, age limits... But the people that are keeping this going are not 80.
The facilitators, the people that are, like, that gal that was holding Glitch McConnell up, that's the problem.
That's the problem!
The complaint should not be at these people, these old, old people.
Someone should be taking care of old people.
Our country, collectively, has decided that we don't take care of old people.
We just abuse them until we get their inheritance.
Like a bunch of little nasty, just, like the worst prince to a stupid little fiefdom.
It's gross.
It's gross to watch the behavior of people around them that are exploiting old people.
That's like seriously scamming old people is the like that's the main import in America now is just scamming the elderly and it's happening from the bottom to the top and it's gross to watch.
So, age limits on running for presidency should absolutely be a discussion we are having at the moment, but it'll never happen because it's turkeys voting for Thanksgiving, or turkeys voting for Christmas over here, because that's when we have turkey.
Having said that, the only two candidates I can really think of that would be representative of a truly progressive Democrat party are 81 and 74, being Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
It's curious that these two very left-wing socialist figures don't get a mention from Brand almost ever.
In terms of radical ideas that are in support of the people, I'd say they're top of the pile.
But unless it comes up in a source he's referencing to use as a weapon, Russell never brings them up.
In terms of policy, RFK Jr.
is way less radical than either of those.
So, curious.
Yeah, I mean, come on.
He's, like, obviously rooting for, like, his favorite players on his team.
And just making shit up.
Pretty much.
Yeah, and his team seems to be over on the right.
Right?
Next!
Yeah, but he can say it because RFK Jr.
is like, I'm a Democrat!
I'm a unicorn!
I'm a longer burger basket!
You can just say whatever you want, I guess.
Okay, fine.
Pick your own hashtags for your post.
Mm-hmm.
Pretty much.
Make it up as you go!
That's what he's doing.
He could claim he's part of any party and everyone would be like, okay.
He's the worst.
So next, let's hear what the Democrat Party actually is.
They'll never do that because the Democrat Party is a shell occupied only by the interests of the donor class, using as a distraction what are commonly referred to as woke politics, the idea that they are supportive of minority issues, which I frankly don't believe they care about either.
It seems that the Democrat Party are the party of the establishment and the party of authority.
So using Barack Obama in this way is not surprising.
And it's also not surprising to learn that Barack Obama is exactly the kind of president that his record in office would suggest.
A career politician that's looking to exploit his time in the White House economically.
Leaving office to do a bunch of Netflix deals, to buy real estate and to take highly paid speaking arrangements, rather than, for example, setting up, I don't know, orphanages and traveling around the world helping people.
I'm sure he does do stuff like that, but that doesn't seem to be what drives Barack Obama in life.
Let me know if you agree.
This is such insane whataboutism, it made my head spin.
So, the Democrat Party is a shell occupied by the interests of the donor class using woke politics as a distraction.
This is, for the most part, bullshit, providing cover for the reality that the Republican Party is an actual fucking front for billionaires to funnel their ideas through, and the Republicans use culture war propaganda to manufacture outrage on an almost daily basis.
Whether it's beer cans or drag queens, there'll be something for them to be outraged about and whinge about supposed wokeness when I'm willing to bet none of them could actually define the fucking word if they tried.
They have tried and they can't.
They have tried and they cannot.
Oh, wokeness is, oh, I guess respecting people.
Oh, I just don't want to do it.
Carl, yeah, so I will also point out, like, he claims to be neither right nor left, calls the Democrat Party the party of the establishment and authority, and says nothing about the Republican Party, leaving it entirely to interpretation.
As for charitable works of- Hold those two up next to each other.
Right.
Like, that's- Right.
Like, what are you talking- like, sure, there's a lot of valid criticism, but you're not- like, you're pretending to compare the two, and you're not.
Nope.
Establishment and authority, for me, I think right-wing.
Especially authority.
That fucking word.
I think bootstamping on my head.
I'm like, right-wing.
That's authority.
That's where that's coming from.
Extremely effective cheaters.
Extremely effective cheaters.
Honestly, to say that what Democrats are any one thing at this point, and I feel like I have an inkling that Republicans have been looking at the country for way longer than I have.
My fucking dipshit ass has stumbled upon this idea that it's Republicans and everyone else.
Everyone else!
Yeah.
And so if everyone else is a Democrat, Yeah, it's difficult to get aligned onto a very specific and targeted position.
In which case, if you have a small minority of this whole country is actually into what the Republican Party is doing right now, and it's so easy to consolidate if you have a bunch of money and a couple of lies.
Because lies will make their way around the world before the truth gets their pants on.
Have we not lived this every single day since we all had the internet?
It's frustrating because...
To compare Republicans and Democrats in this way throws away every progressive Democrat that is trying to do something positive and is working really hard to do something positive.
And they do have to work against their own party.
But it's going to be a lot more difficult if you also make up lies and if you are weaponizing, like, all of the Republicans and a good chunk of the Democrats against the few people that are trying to do something good.
So, like, then what?
Then what?
What purpose does this serve?
Money.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Money, fame?
Narcissism?
So as for charitable works of Barack Obama, so since 2014 he has helmed the Obama Foundation, which has The Leaders Program, which offers practical skill building for social change, leadership, coaching, discussion of critical issues, and small group support.
This takes place in Africa, Asia Pacific, and Europe, as well as the USA.
Or the Scholars Program, which takes young leaders and gives them skills required to help to solve complex global problems while promoting positive change in their communities.
Or the Voyager Scholarship, which gives students financial aid to help with college, as well as free travel experiences and a network of mentors to rely on.
Or the My Brother's Keeper Alliance, which leads a cross-sector national call to action focused on building safe and supportive communities for boys and young men of colour.
Or what about the Girls' Opportunity Alliance, which seeks to empower adolescent girls around the world through education, allowing them to achieve their full potential.
This includes funding STEM classes for girls with disabilities, providing scholarships and mentorship opportunities, and addressing learning loss from COVID-19 and more.
I could go on about the speeches Obama has given, the money he's donated to charities, and the general good he's done and is doing in the world, but none of it will ever be sufficient to the blinkered idiot Liza Featherston, who wrote this article, or our star grifter and bullshit artist Russell Brand.
Reality doesn't matter when you just want to hate on someone.
No, no one is.
Russell, you don't get to sit there and tell me what drives other people, what their motivations
are or why they do things. You are literally just guessing because you're not a fucking
psychic. Oh, and what Obama does, no one is. No, what Obama does after leaving his office
is literally his business, right?
I couldn't give a single shit.
He could sit in his porch getting high until the day he shuffles off this mortal coil for all I care.
As long as there aren't top secret documents stacked up in your bathroom.
Fine.
He served his country as president.
What he does after that is up to him.
You want to write more books and do some well-paid stuff with Netflix?
You go get yours.
Why the fuck not?
I wouldn't be mad if Bush did this either, for reference.
Like, it's fine and is not exploiting your time in office, as Brand puts it.
And just a comparison, but also, Russell Brand is charging $500 for an online course, because he's a sobriety influencer.
He's a sober influencer.
and I don't know I don't have $500 to spend on it and I certainly don't have
it to spend on a recovery online course that probably is built on a step program
that you can access for free and like It's his rendition of the 12-step program, that's where it is.
Yeah, and he wants to slap a gigantic price tag on it.
So don't talk to me about this!
Because it's from him!
So that makes it better.
Finally, the idea that Obama was a career politician, I think it's a bit short-sighted.
He served two terms in the Senate, so he was there for seven years before running for President and winning.
Though here we encounter another commonality between the people that Russell Brand promotes, because other than Donald Trump, None of the other people he mentioned, RFK Jr., Marianne Williamson, Cornel West, Vivek Ramaswamy, none of them have ever held elected office.
So compared to them, anyone who's ever actually won an election counts as a career politician.
Even Trump is technically more qualified on paper than these people.
I mean, he's done the job before, I guess.
That's something.
It's depressing as fuck, isn't it?
Because yeah, he also wasn't qualified at all.
No, when he took the presidency, fuck no.
No.
Zero experience whatsoever.
And we all saw how that went.
He's not any more qualified now.
I don't think he learned a thing.
Like I said, on paper.
On paper.
The reality could be very different.
Experience does not equal competence.
And that has been a universal truth throughout my life.
I've met people who have done a job for 20 years and suck.
I don't understand it, but it happens.
Very happy days.
So next we get, because those were a few clips of just brand talking shit, he spent a good four minutes on this little jag in the middle, which is kind of unlike him.
But next we get back into the article from Eliza.
And let's not forget Obama's awful museum in Chicago.
The three-memoir author is erecting a garish monument to himself on Jackson Park, which community activists argue will wreak havoc on a cherished green space and a fragile ecosystem, as well as upon legal scaffolding for the very idea of the public interest.
In addition to his appalling vineyard manse, Obama is also planning to live in an additional ecological monstrosity in Hawaii, owned by close crony Marty Nesbitt, chair of the Obama Foundation Board and developed for the Obamas.
ProPublica reported last year that the Obamas' planned beach house has a controversial seawall which protects the estate in storms but is illegal because such structures disrupt the flow of the ocean and contribute to beach loss throughout the state.
Elitism in Hawaii?
I hardly think so.
Okay, first things first.
This is in Chicago, so I'm willing to bet you have thoughts, but the Barack Obama Presidential Center is a planned museum, library, and education project in Chicago to commemorate the presidency of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States.
The Center will also include community and conference facilities and will house the non-profit Obama Foundation.
The Center's work includes digitizing the Barack Obama Presidential Library with the National Archives and Records Administration to create the first fully digitized Presidential Library, which is pretty cool.
It will be paid for by funds raised by the Obama Foundation.
In May 2018, the non-profit Friends of the Parks opposed the loss of parkland to build the center, threatening lawsuit, and the preservationist group Protect Our Parks didn't want the park to be taken from the public and given to a private entity.
Fair enough.
So on September 18th, 2018, it was announced that the center will be owned by the city of Chicago once completed, and that the Obama Foundation will not receive the tax-based operating or capital support nor the perpetual leases which the 11 other museums in the
city parks obtained.
Liza Featherstone just blatantly ignores this fact while trying to claim that this thing somehow
won't be in the public interest. And it's, would you like to know which Jackson
that park is named after? Oh, I can take a guess.
Is it Andy?
Is it Andy Jackson?
The very same paragon of moral character, Andrew Jackson.
Maybe we could balance that out a little bit.
I really hope that the Obama Foundation being based there is going to make him just spin in his grave.
I really do hope that.
What a piece of shit.
I support for spite reasons.
Emotional, selfish, spite reasons.
Yeah, yeah.
Honestly, I think there's nothing that terribly unusual about what he's doing, to be perfectly honest.
No, it's totally normal.
I am interested to see what the complaint is about the park itself, because we don't have parks that are pristine.
No, I, I, and it was like, oh, a delicate ecosystem.
And I couldn't find anything.
I really couldn't.
I do feel like she was just making shit up at this point.
I think she just assumed what she thinks parks are.
And like assumes that there's an, like a fragile ecosystem.
I'm sorry.
That's not what parks are in Chicago, friend.
No.
She's from Massachusetts, so I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know what the concept of parks is.
I'm not sure.
Now who can be smug?
Um, as for Obama buying property and building a house in Hawaii, he was born and raised in Hawaii.
He's a native Hawaiian.
He's a native Hawaiian.
Not like a native Hawaiian, No!
But like, he has absolutely every right in the world to live there.
When it comes to the seawall, a loophole allowed the sellers of the property to obtain an easement on the seawall for a one-time payment of $61,400 before it was sold in 2015.
So the previous owners kind of did this.
The easement is essentially a 55-year lease on the public land that sits under the seawall, giving the private property owner the ability to keep it.
This was a perfectly legal maneuver, albeit not one I'm overly fond of, and I believe the seawall has been expanded since using the similar kind of thing.
And the reason it's an issue is that it stops beaches from moving down the coast, and so it narrows them over time, which is a problem.
Yeah, it's not something I'm particularly fond of, and I do hope that the Obamas consider replacing the seawall with something more ecologically sound, or that they remove it entirely, but equally I don't have... Which I could see happening!
I could see happening as well.
I also don't have much of a footing to tell them to do so when the state of Hawaii is allowing the easements like that.
This is the problem.
I'm not going to blame Obama for taking advantage of the thing that's there.
I'm going to have a problem with the fucking legislators who allow it to be there.
Well, if you have all of these kind of laws, apparently, to do with whether you can have seawalls, don't allow fucking loopholes.
It's very simple.
Very, very, very simple.
Next, in a roundabout way, we get back to the wildfires.
With Joe Biden making insensitive speeches comparing his own near-fire to the very actual fires that have destroyed communities and thousands of lives, and Barack Obama turning up in Hawaii erecting giant, monstrous, ecologically unsound, remember they care a lot about the environment, seawalls, No doubt there is so much cynicism and scepticism about American establishment politics.
No wonder people are looking for radical alternatives.
Instead of supporting these alternatives, they just double down on establishment figures, ignore and demonise those that are questioning the intentions of the Democrat Party and their business dealings and their Lack of morals even in the midst of an obvious and actual disaster that has to be ascribed to climate change because if it were the fault of any individuals you'd have to make real institutional systemic change and they're never going to do that.
They're just going to keep telling you that you're wrong to think that that's the solution.
Oh!
So he's not even just mentioning climate change, like just not mentioning climate change at this point.
He's actively saying that the wildfires in Hawaii were not caused by climate change.
Oh my god.
Oh my god!
That's a development.
That is a development.
But my question to Russell would be, at the very least, why couldn't it be both?
Like, sure, radical systemic change.
That's exactly what I was thinking.
I'm on board with radical systemic change in a broad sense, without delving into tiny ethnostates like Brand here wants, but why can't it also be climate change?
Like, he's not even willing to go that far in service to reality.
Instead, appeasing his audience with, ah, it's not climate change, it's corruption that caused the fires, somehow.
Specifically!
Yes, it was both, because...
You can, there are videos that are widely available showing the gale force, terrifying gale force winds that were ripping infrastructure apart.
And that was, that's a climate change.
More and more natural disasters are multiplying exponentially.
Thems is just numbers.
And you can see specifically these power lines that are swaying back and forth, and then a transformer goes down and goes boom and catches fire.
It's like the most documented... And here's the thing, Underground power lines are probably safer in this instance so if you know that you have these gale force winds putting power lines underground but that requires investment in infrastructure and that could be a problem in and of itself plus overloading the power lines that are not being updated probably because people that live in Hawaii are being asked constantly by their local officials to reduce their own usage of power so that it can be
Yeah, and you know, there's the wider issue of funding on a fucking federal level.
to update the infrastructure. Oh my god. Okay. Yeah. And you know, there's the wider issue of
funding on a fucking federal level. I mean, for me, I realize this is partly a cultural difference,
but to me, the idea that you all build your houses out of wood is fucking madness.
Like we're.
We're a country of brick houses.
But that is a cultural thing, specifically.
It is a cultural thing.
Because that is different.
I don't think I've ever lived in a wooden house in my entire life, or since I was a kid.
Oh, and the one that burned down!
Yeah, no, cool, that was wood.
Right?
Well, but no, so St.
Louis- It's a complicated little thing.
Yeah, St.
Louis was the brick-making capital of America, so most of the bricks that made things came from my city, so a hundred years ago.
Or my hometown, a hundred years ago.
Probably a lot came from Chicago, too.
And so, really cool, inventive brick work and brick construction is way more common in my neck of the woods in the Midwest and that kind of thing.
So, I concur.
I concur wholeheartedly.
There's a good chunk of brick on the East Coast, you know?
Oh, absolutely.
History.
That's why that's there.
But to me, the fact that the lion's share of homes and everything are made of wood is just terrifying.
It's like, did you never read The Three Little Pigs as a child?
Did you at least never get that far?
It's the one with the brick house that lives, right?
That's how serious it is!
I doubt that would have fixed huge amounts here, because fire can still fuck up brick buildings in a very... not as bad fashion and not as quick, but it can still fuck them up pretty bad.
But nonetheless, it comes down to the fact that wood is cheaper.
It's infinitely cheaper.
So that's one of the many reasons that property prices are much lower in the States compared to over here.
The next clip more than anything highlights the lengths that Liza Featherstone and Brand will go to in order to level any kind of criticism they can at Obama.
Like most people with too much money, the Obamas own way too many homes for the health of the planet.
In addition to the Hawaii and vineyard estates, they have an 8.1 million nine-bedroom mansion in the Kalarama neighborhood of Washington DC.
All this real estate necessitates an unconscionable amount of flying, sometimes on Richard Branson's private jet, at a time when many middle-class Americans and even corporations are cutting down on air travel because of its climate impact.
Okay, so rich former presidents own lots of property and fly a lot and that's bad.
Okay, fine.
I agree, yes.
Yeah, sure.
I mean, that's three properties.
I'm not gonna lie, it's not crazy for someone as wealthy as Barack Obama, but still.
But fine, alright.
It is weird, however, how we didn't see an examination of Trump's many, many properties or tendency to fly literally everywhere he can.
Do you find that strange?
Because I find that strange.
Also, Particularly when it comes to climate, Russell is all about, oh sort the corporations out, they're the ones doing the damage to the environment instead of infringing upon our personal freedoms.
So surely here, if he were being true to his values, he'd say, let's not blame Obama about the environmental impact of flying, he doesn't really have much control of that.
Let's deal with the corporations themselves and why don't we have a sustainable eco-fuel for jets yet?
That's what he should be saying.
And a final point is that Russell Brand has his six-bedroom cottage in Henley-on-Thames, his pub in Piss Hill where he records this show, and his Hollywood Hills home.
How do you suppose he gets there?
Do you reckon he sails his way across in a traditional sailing boat without an engine?
Or maybe he hang glides his way across the Atlantic?
No, he fucking flies there, because of course he does.
I am picturing a Danny Dexter situation, but that's just kind of for fun.
Of all people, Russell should not be making these arguments.
Oh shit, dude.
This is the second time where someone should have taken that out.
God, I wish democracy mattered at all!
At all!
They have an editorial staff.
How did no one spot that and be like, let's take this out?
They don't care!
The hubris is crazy.
Yeah.
It is driving me crazy on a daily basis.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Great.
Cool.
Next, we get a glance at what other US presidents have done, which are better, of course, than Obama since leaving office.
Obama might be even less public spirited than any other modern ex-president.
All of them are war criminals who faithfully served the capitalist class when in power.
But Ronald Reagan at least had the decency to retreat from public life into a tasteful and sadly relatable senility.
Jimmy Carter built houses for poor people and defended democracy in Venezuela.
Granted, Bill Clinton's business and foundation dealings in Haiti were a travesty, but he has, like Obama, amassed an indecent amount of wealth since leaving office, but he has also, more than Obama, spent time on humanitarian causes like disaster relief.
Okay, I mean, Jimmy Carter, fine, the man is something of a saint, but Bill Clinton is an improvement on Barack Obama, according to this woman?
Like, I don't think that would hold up on a set of weighing scales, do you?
No, because I remember commercials for the bullshit scam that they pulled!
Yeah!
The, like, funding, quote-unquote, third world, like, oh my, the micro-lending scam?
Yeah!
Also, did you notice a glaring omission in that list of presents?
I sure did!
Barack Obama's immediate predecessor, George W. Bush, wasn't brought up at all.
I wonder why.
I mean, he was president for eight years.
That's pretty significant.
Maybe it's because post-presidency, W has given a few speeches, written the foreword to a book, and otherwise Painted.
He's done art.
Which, in of itself, perfectly fine.
Like I said before, I personally don't give a shit what the former presidents get up to after leaving office, but it seems rather deliberately excluded from the piece because it doesn't serve the idea that Obama is the least public-spirited former president.
Yeah, he was not one of the worst ex-presidents in that paragraph.
Like, that just is absurd.
The uh, it's, yeah, like I said, something of a fucking stretch, um, from dear old Liza.
Um, yeah.
It's a five star.
It's a bummer that, man, how often does this come down to some wacky-ass opinion piece?
All this, the right-wing grift, the conservative grift, all that,
just comes down to one just off-the-wall opinion piece that is just making spurious claims.
Making a fucking reach, and because it's in a semi-legitimate publication,
like, that's enough for them to fucking work with.
They're like pigs and shit over that.
They really are.
Working on this podcast, I already am like, oh, I was so wrong about Rose LeBrand, and now I'm also like, what the fuck, Jacobin?
Come on!
Also that?
Yeah, because on Jacobin's site they're like, oh, we have a mission of, you know, promoting the left and making sure the left win and socialist ideals and blah blah blah.
And all we've seen from them so far is just Russell being able to weaponize their articles because their editorial standards are fucking garbage.
Yeah, and the thing is, as a person that is a leftist, I don't want you doing that for either side!
If this was slanted in the direction towards Obama, don't lie!
Don't embellish, don't make shit up!
Deal with reality!
Get paid?
I don't know, yeah!
This is all nonsense!
It's like nonsense on nonsense!
It's incredibly frustrating.
Ask my face!
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, again, I don't know how much you can expect from an article called, Barack Obama has been one of the worst ex-presidents ever.
It sounds like an Onion article.
Like this all sounds like an Onion article.
You know what?
It really does.
It really does.
It's stretched to the point of absurdity.
So fucking cheers, Liza.
Well done, I guess.
I hope you got paid a reasonable amount.
So, in the next clip, we get what is thankfully the final part of this article.
Ex-presidents would be nothing without the trust the public once placed in them by electing them to the presidency in the first place.
After the presidency, all their earning power and cultural influence stems from the fact that people once voted for them.
Obama has not only largely opted out of using his high profile to serve the public interest, but he's also chosen, insultingly, to flout it.
It's long past time to end the cult of hero worship around this narcissistic Pluto crap.
Pluto crap.
It's long past time to end the cult of hero worship, period.
Period?
Yeah.
Period.
Yeah, that completely fine with, but Barack Obama is a Pluto crap?
So his power apparently stems from his wealth?
I have to say, what a load of shit.
His power comes from his political status and from the respect that people are willing to pay him because of his eight years of doing a pretty friggin' decent job of being President of the United States.
His power is that people are willing to and often want to listen to what he has to say, and that is undergirded by the fact that he's a lawyer who taught constitutional law for eight years and was in the United States Senate for seven years.
If you want to discuss plutocrats, I'm more than happy to.
Fuck knows, we have plenty of them these days.
But to describe Barack Obama as one does nothing short of stripping him of all of his efforts, education, and achievements.
And it strips the word of its meaning.
Like, it's just the wrong... Pick another word!
The argument is simply not based in reality, and I am so fucking glad that's the last we have to hear from Liza Featherstone today.
Thank you!
I cannot abide by these mindless, vitriolic hit pieces that go to any lengths, even tangentially possible, to attack someone.
I'm even less patient when it comes to the left eating itself, which this is very much a case of.
Like, get fucked, Liza Featherstone.
You're a detriment to left-wing politics.
I hope you know that.
Well, maybe that's not her concern at all.
Maybe not!
And these people are just spouting words that work to get them paid.
That could be a closeted fucking right winger.
Who knows?
Who gives a shit?
Just absolute trite garbage from start to finish, honestly.
Ugh.
So frustrating.
Yeah.
Man oh man.
Yeah, and I really do.
I know it's not something that is obvious, but I really do wonder whether she would be levelling the same criticisms at a white guy.
I can't help it.
I cannot help it.
Like, I have never seen someone intentionally try to erode and remove the achievements and educations of a white man in the same way that this has been done here.
I've never seen that.
Well, there are a number of tropes that are very common in racism, in veiled racism, and one of those tropes Is that if black people, black families do accumulate wealth, because they are, by dint of being black, something is shady about their accumulation of wealth.
It is a well-worn trope.
That there is something going on because we know in this country black people don't have money.
So how does this one black person have money?
So maybe even just like check your language because there's like There's a handful of super gross tropes that we had to hear over and over about the Obamas throughout that presidency, and you can go to Alex Jones to find out most of them, but this is a slightly more subtle
Almost a dog whistle, maybe?
I don't know necessarily what to call it, but like... It feels dog whistley.
Again, it's more veiled than that, but I really, really question whether she would be making the same critiques of a white person.
Who had done the same things.
It's impossible to describe, but it feels like that to me.
I would think that a responsible journalist would check that type, even if it was an editorial and even if it was full of lies.
Yeah, maybe don't fall for that trope so obviously and publicly.
And a fucking experienced editor.
Who the hell is editing Jacobin?
Because they're doing a shit job.
This is remarkably poor.
And all of the other articles that we have had to cover from this site have been shit as well.
Why are they allowed to be published?
Since we started recording, I've read at least one article from Jacobin, and I checked through all of it, and it was fine.
What is going on?
There are perfectly reasonable takes on there, and then you get this.
Just fucking stealth bullshit just coming in under the radar.
You're like, wait, hang on.
Like, I had my, like, hackles up, but I was, because I didn't want to re-article, and I was like, okay, let's entertain this.
Because, well, it's not even since we started, you know, since we have covered a few articles from Jack and I'm like, oh my god, what is going on?
It's strange.
That, in a way, is worse, because when someone becomes a trusted news source, you then look at something like this and go, eh, maybe she's got a point, instead of viewing it with enough critical analysis to go, Hey, this seems like bullshit.
Yeah, editorials in the New York Times, for me, has undermined the entire credibility of the New York Times.
So even though there's an asterisk in my brain and in my guts if I ever hear of anything reported by the New York Times, and it can be corroborated, it can be backed, it can be obviously right, and I'm still like, Because y'all like to life refund for money with a couple of pieces of shit that like to spout off for no good fucking reason.
There's a huge credibility issue there.
I don't feel like Jack Evan has faced the same level of scrutiny for the same kind of bullshit yet.
Right.
But they should.
They absolutely fucking should.
Because also this is just the shit that Russell is able to weaponize.
What the fuck else is lurking around there?
There's gonna be shi- I mean, just scrolling through Liza Featherstone's publications was not fun.
I bet.
Just taking a little cursory look at the crap that she has to say, oh my lord.
So, don't read Jacobin, everyone, I guess, if that wasn't clear already.
Or if you're a reader of Jacobin and you're upset by this, Then tell them!
The thing is, the one thing that we can do to crowdsource, kind of feel like the only thing, any kind of power we have, is to point this out Well, we... Yeah, if there was a sort of boycott among readers... I have no idea how many readers of Jacobin would be in our audience.
I really have no concept of that.
Yeah, but before we were getting into this, I would have been fine.
I would have... And not necessarily... Yeah.
The fact that you have to put an asterisk because like, well, it is a case-by-case basis.
That's not good for your reputation as a news source!
No, that's incredibly bad.
You need all of them to be trusted because the editorial staff is supposed to be maintaining a standard.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
And if that standard keeps fucking slipping, which it does, then that's it.
It's game over.
And the New York Times is going to take years, probably decades, to recover its reputation, if it ever can, among people like you and me.
We shall see.
Well, but it speaks to how compartmentalized and siloed we are in our information sphere, that there's some reporting that's still happening in the New York Times that is vital, it is It is good!
It's crucial!
It's not the whole thing, but you kind of have to view the publication as a whole, don't you?
You can't just be like, oh, you know, some of their reporting is very good and important, but also, you know, they're transphobic pricks.
Yeah.
I can't personally accept the second half of that statement.
I can't then go and read the New York Times and be like, eh, this is fine, when it's actively harmful to people.
And it sucks, but ultimately I feel like those journalists who are doing that good work really need to find somewhere else to work.
Because, yeah, leap off the sinking ship, good people, please.
Yeah, well, at least alternatives are going bankrupt left, right, and center, so that's cool.
Oh, that's awesome, yeah, yeah.
Cool, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good.
This got depressing real quick.
Again, we come back to the state of journalism in the world, and the fact that we're having to do this podcast kind of says enough.
So next we get into what Barack Obama symbolizes.
The value of Obama in campaigning for Biden is based on what he symbolises.
But what does Barack Obama symbolise?
Does he symbolise a period when the Democrat Party was better, more vital, more vibrant, with a fluent and fluid leader who was able to communicate openly and freely with people?
Or does he just represent a trick of distraction, where under the guise of progress, institutional and establishment interests were able to continue?
His time post-office seems to reveal That it's precisely this that's the problem.
The Democrat Party are constitutionally incapable of competing with Trump's populism or even his rhetoric.
Joe Biden's clumsy speeches and attempts to be relatable reveal that and so do Barack Obama's interests subsequent to his time in the presidency.
Constitutionally incapable.
What the fuck does that mean?
As a phrase, constitutionally, like, somehow the Democratic Party, like, their constitution prevents them from being able to take down Trump somehow.
I don't know.
The long and short of that is Trump is the best and is gonna win, while Biden and Obama are terrible.
It'd be crazy for anyone to call this guy right-wing, wouldn't it?
That'd be just utter madness.
Based on the things he's saying.
Do we just need more meme accounts that, like, draw our politicians with big muscles?
Is that it?
Like, is that really all?
I don't know.
Jesus.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know how anymore to kind of hammer on the point that the only things that come out of Russell Brand's mouth are right-wing.
The only things.
That's it.
I don't know how else to say that.
I don't even like using the term right-wing because of the connotation.
They're conservative.
He's conservative.
He's wildly... I'm not saying that for... I mean, I'm just saying personally, when I catch myself Like I want to be a thesaurus boy and use all the different words to not sound like an idiot but like and that's so right-wing sometimes and conservative sometimes but genuinely if you're looking at conservative versus liberal like conservatives are trying to like pull us back and impede change and pull us back and it can be it's such a useful tool to assess because like
There is an implication.
This is a vibe.
So, grain of salt vibe.
You know, like, grain of salt for vibes.
And the right wing versus left wing, you know, like, above the left-right paradigm, it's so loaded at this point.
To try to head, you know, the trolls off at the pass to say like, oh, I'm not even because obviously everyone has a bias.
And if we ignore that bias, we're just being intentionally obtuse.
Like if you're saying, well, I'm colorblind.
I don't have a bias.
What's up?
That guy's being intentionally obtuse.
I fix the wrong side of my hair every time.
But you know what I mean?
Like being intentionally obtuse.
So if you're already like, well, I don't have an opinion.
I don't have a bias.
Fuck off already.
Fuck off already!
I absolutely have a bias because I have lived in this body up until every day, including today from the time I was born, and that creates a bias!
So just work within that bias and address it!
I would be really concerned if you didn't have a bias.
No shit!
I have no values.
Oh, okay.
Okay.
That's interesting.
I don't know where to go with that.
The thing is, by definition, it's totally fine, but because of the vibe, right?
You can put a donkey or an elephant on it.
You can make it a mascot fucking team sports show.
And that is detrimental to getting things done because, like, phrases and terms have been so wildly, like, loaded off the rails where, on TV, adults can call Joe Biden a socialist with a straight face and not, like, Not be immediately thrown in the back of a van, to be taken to a padded room, like, what are you thinking?
There is a theme of this podcast, but those people have no concept of what the word means.
I do also want to point out, like, in terms of the kind of conflation between right-wing and conservatism, There is also a distinction across the pond, because obviously over here, the right-wing party, over here is the conservative party.
The Tories, as we call them.
The bunch of cunts, as I call them.
And so, kind of in my head, I'm like, okay, you've got conservatives and then you've got kind of the US, you've got the Republicans, you've got the right wing.
To me, there's almost that kind of distinction.
You've got the Tories and you've got the fucking right wing and the states.
That's just how it kind of compartmentalizes in my head.
Well, what I think is even more powerful that I wish that we had here is, y'all have a Labour Party.
That's why they're cold.
I know!
I know!
But even so, we can't come anywhere- like, that's the thing.
All of the complaints, and it's hilarious.
It's not hilarious.
It's fucking gross and bad.
Tragic.
All of the complaints.
That Russell has been making and that woman who wrote that article we're making, there is a grain of, like, I can't, I don't want to defend, like, I do want to, this is reasonable that what you and I are doing today right now in this place, right?
But... I think so.
They fucking better be.
This is a pain in the ass.
Oh my god.
It has been so hard to record for the last couple of weeks because of life.
Yeah.
Anyway, so.
Life.
Technical.
Technical.
It's rough, right?
Yeah.
But yeah, so.
And it's just so important to me that like, at least we're finding.
We're gonna have that as, like, a reaction clip.
We really need a soundboard.
Fucking Yosemite Sam-ass over here!
I know!
We need a soundboard, we really do.
Just so I can play that.
I am one!
I wish I was more consistent with my abilities.
The thing that I've learned in my life is, like, the times that I don't think I'm being funny and I don't think I'm being a soundboard are usually the funniest, and I'm just like, oh, okay.
I'll take it!
Unintentional clown.
Goddammit.
Okay.
Okay, so right back to my like angry point that I made Yosemite Sam noises about is because like I is it's so frustrating because of all of the things that I want to defend and I want to go to bat for this is not something that would normally even take my energy because it's like well yeah you know what I have that I have some of the same complaints coming from a totally different So, in the next clip, we get a taste of exactly how brand isn't right-wing.
The Democrats are now the party of elites.
I'm not claiming that the Republican Party are any better.
I don't need to make that claim because I don't believe in systemic electoral democracy anymore.
I believe in decentralisation and radical systemic change.
Every disaster appears to reveal the need for that.
And every time a former statesman is trotted out, it reveals all the more the need for a change of the system that they are part of, rather than just new inflections on the same old story.
The Democrats are shit.
Now, I'm not saying the Republicans are any better, but I don't need to say they're better because I don't believe in either party, but also the Democrats are shit.
Lies, lies, lies, lies, lies.
Trump is going to win, and Biden is shit, and Obama is shit, and I'm not right-wing, guys.
Honest.
Honest.
Okay.
Okay, buddy.
I'm right-wing!
I do, like, from the drop, I do, like, the invisible hand drop.
I'm right-wing!
I'm right wing!
I say that to myself when I'm doing dishes now.
It's so fun.
Somebody please join the invisible hand so I can play that again.
I've missed that the last couple of weeks.
Man oh man.
Well, but.
Mark Bartwin.
Yeah, it's, man, it's something.
But like, just, that is...
Like, is this written?
Come on.
I mean, okay.
Yeah!
Yeah, somebody wrote this.
This was like... Because, yeah, like, oh, the Democrats are the elites, and I'm not gonna say that, like, the Republicans are better.
Okay, so then they're all elites.
Okay, but then I shouldn't even say any of that, and I Like, I'm invalidating my own input because I don't believe in the system?
That's also, that's like a clean your room shit thing that's like, no, you can complain about what's going on because you're still living in it.
Just because you don't believe in it doesn't mean it doesn't exist and doesn't mean that you don't have to address the problems that you're living.
Like, I'm glad that you can live in a fucking fairy tale, but the rest of us have to live in reality.
It's also like, you can't say, oh, the Democrats are the thing of elites, and then, you know, I'm not saying the Republicans are any better, I'm just, I'm not going to say anything about them at all.
I'm pretty much just going to shit on the Democrats for ten minutes, and not really say anything about the Republicans at all, and that's me being fair and balanced, and above the right-left paradigm?
Okay, okay, sure.
This yokel, straight up, in the Emperor's New Clothes documentary, we vibed about hating Reagan.
How dare he!
He put a little article that gave Reagan a pass for being senile!
He just slid into senility in a relatable way, apparently.
In a RELATABLE WAY!
Okay, okay.
That's my- I am offended at that minute, right there, personally.
In the next breath, then attacking Biden for being senile, it's like, buddy.
Pick a lane.
Right!
Tell me what you're doing.
Oh my god.
So we have one more clip and it's how Brand closes out the editorial.
Will Barack Obama improve Joe Biden's electability?
Probably, because the people that care about Joe Biden and Barack Obama only care about keeping things the same.
These figures now represent elite establishment interests, not social progression, not fairness, not equality, but business as usual in America.
But that's just what I think.
Let me know what you think in the chat.
Until next time, stay free.
Stay free.
The people who care about Barack Obama and Joe Biden only care about more of the same, about propping up the establishment and about continuing a lack of social progression, fairness and equality, apparently.
Our other options include Donald, I'm a racist Trump, or maybe Ron, kidnap asylum seekers, DeSantis.
And one of those guys will obviously be the representative for social progression, fairness and equality, apparently.
Snark aside, I think putting this next to the Trump cover episode we did, we get a very clear idea how Russell feels about the former president and which way he leans politically, which is to say the Democrats and the left are bad and the right wing to him are all radicals who are going to win.
I thought Trump cover would be the nail in the coffin of his right-wingedness, but seeing the overt and just completely thoughtless criticisms of Obama versus the praise and cover of Trump really hit that home for me.
Just, ugh.
Yeah.
But also, like, no mascots here.
Yeah.
No gods, no masters, no mascots.
Yeah, no, the whole hero worship thing is completely absurd, just on its own.
And it's definitely, like I said, the myth of enlightened despotism is definitely something that Brand is on board with.
He's waiting to find his new daddy, he just hasn't quite figured out who it is yet.
He really loves RFK.
He thinks it's RFK, but obviously that's not a winning horse.
That's not a safe bet.
So I'm willing to bet there will be a transition at some point over the next year before the election.
Probably to Trump is going to be my guess, but we'll see.
I reckon he'll be Oh, I've never been pro-Trump, but, you know, I'm being convinced because he's so radical and, you know, I think that's probably something of what's coming.
I get that people said this in 2015 and 2016 about Trump and about other right-wing grifters, right?
Well, them being radical.
I bet other people said this in 2016 about other people, but what I'm saying is, like, to Russell, You're picking Trump now?
Now?
On today?
Why?
Like...
Because his base loves Trump.
He has so many fucking Trump people in his audience.
It is crazy.
And I'm not, to be honest, I'm really not sure why.
I'm not sure why there is such a significant overlap.
I know there's the anti-Covid bullshit, but then Trump was like pro-vaccine because he did the thing.
It's his vaccine!
He wanted credit.
According to him.
Right, exactly.
And he won't give it up, which is kind of awesome.
I sort of love it.
He's such a narcissist, he won't really cave on that.
He's just happy to shoot himself in the dick.
It's like, okay, fine.
Or even he just wants that glamour.
In a rational world, that would be perfectly reasonable to be like, I did this.
Fine, whatever.
Again, that path up the mountain, don't trust it.
That's a path up the mountain, but I don't trust it.
But because his kind of base are fucking insane, it doesn't work out for him that way.
But yeah, I'm not sure why that overlap kind of exists so strongly because it's outrageous.
Do you really not know why though?
I mean, yeah, yeah.
But yeah, I would love to see kind of, I would love to try and figure out when all the Trump supporters started jumping on board with Russell Brand.
I would love to be able to track when that happened, because I don't feel like Trump supporters were on board with Russell Brand in 2018-19.
I don't think that happened.
I think it was through COVID and it was once he started putting out the COVID bullshit and then started diversifying into other things, there's going to be a point in there somewhere where all of a sudden he will have excited the fucking red hat people.
If I was making money by driving people crazy, by lying to drive people nuts, I can tell you The ones that will buy coins that they think they can take to the bank, I'm gonna pick those people to target.
If I'm a thief, if I'm a popular thief, those are the ones that are easy to trick into taking their money.
I'm gonna pick those people to pander to.
A sinister grifter calm in San Diego, that kind of...
Yeah, I'm gonna go over the people that buy Trump coins and are like boohoo, I spent my savings and these are supposed to go to the bank and I can't cash them in and they're actually trash.
By the way, it'll probably take a while, but I'm excited about the date.
I'm looking forward to historians and archaeologists finding them buried in a hundred years time.
Someone's going to have buried them in the back garden and just forgot.
Or drop them.
Drop them out of your pocket.
Accidents are the best artifacts.
The humans are the best artifacts.
Yeah.
I am saying, yes, your postulation is valid and I'm interested.
And I wonder if, because it does feel like we've gotten teeny little glimpses into the chat, because we've gotten little bits and pieces.
And what we have found is that dog whistles happen on screen with Russell and Gareth, and then The dog whistles are kind of distant, I would say, as far as, like, a leap.
Like, if I saw someone say the same thing that Russell or Gareth said in the comments, you know, of a post, and then I'd be like, ooh, you're a Nazi, I'd get roasted.
It's like, how dare you make these leaps and to think that I'm a racist and blotty bleep bloop, right?
But the chat knows exactly what they're saying, and then says it.
And they say it to each other, and that echo chamber knows exactly what they're saying, and is happy to amplify that.
They seem to feel like it's a safe space.
I think because it's paid, because it's behind a paywall.
That's why we listen to music on Offbrand.
Yeah, yeah, right.
I would like to, yeah, we sometimes do a Music Is Nice segment for anyone who's wondering, but I would be very curious to somehow, I don't know, if we can find someone who has a fucking locals subscription to Russell Brand or something who is like, this guy's full of shit, but I've paid up for the year, you know, if we could find something like that.
Well, but I also, at the same time, I don't know that we need to necessarily, like, it's, I mean, it's only so much because you can't really pin that, like, you can say, well, this is evidence, but it's only one little piece of evidence that's technically hearsay.
So, because other people are just saying stuff and they, and that's the cover that they run is like, well, they're just saying stuff and it's a free country and they can say whatever they want.
I do feel though, like, kind of, The audience that something like this attracts is reflective of what the thing is.
Oh, I agree.
I'm saying as far as like plausible deniabilities.
Oh yeah, I'm not saying we would have any kind of legal case or anything kind of concrete in that way, but I do think it would be like, ah, Pretty much all of his audience are fucking racists and Nazis and, you know, if we could definitively prove that in any kind of way, that would say a lot.
Yeah, but it also could just look like gamers playing Fortnite because they're also just spewing hate depending on where you are, like, in the game!
Which is dark!
The problem with that is that someone can always argue, oh, they're just fucking around.
I'm like, well, words have meaning, suck it up.
You either said the thing or you didn't.
And I'm going to take what you have said at face value, and that's what's going to happen.
And that's kind of the way it has to be dealt with.
I've definitely... I completely agree.
I've definitely seen that happen.
Which is why I've been accused of being Chicken Little for 20 years.
Right.
But that's the way it kind of goes in workplaces, in educational institutions.
If you start saying some fucking racist or anti-Semitic shit, just kind of, oh, as a joke, or I was on this fucking social thing, I was doing this thing, oh, it was funny, they don't give a fuck.
They will kick you to the curb immediately.
Yeah, it doesn't matter.
No, because it's like, you said these things, these are the things that came out of your mouth, I don't give a fuck if you meant them, you said them.
Totally!
Done.
Done.
Finished.
Which I think is valid.
And the thing is, if you want to plead your case, fine.
If you were mistaken, the thing is, I've seen plenty of people that aren't, that are just honest, real human beings that also happen to have a platform, that are like, I was wrong.
And y'all spoke up and told me, and now I'm better informed.
Thank you.
Let's grow as human beings together.
But I guess I lost what else I was trying to say to your original point of where the Trump support was coming from, and I want to get back to that.
Because I do wonder, because his chat does respond to the underlying point, That we have kind of found a little bits and pieces of just just a little like a like a little breadcrumb trail of I do wonder if he's converting nuns you know like if he's converting people that are kind of like because his base.
Could be argued as like the don't vote base.
Like that's don't vote fans.
And then those people kind of don't have a better, like they don't have a mascot yet.
And a chaos agent like Trump.
Could appeal, because that's what happened, is like, you know?
The subreddit made a chaos agent into a meme and then he became president.
Obviously, that's grossly oversimplified, but that's part of it.
So in your mind, they could be the undecided voters kind of portion of Potentially, or just disillusioned by something that happened, whatever, like kind of a free radical in some way, you know, like just a free agent, and then Russell being the above the left-right paradigm guru boy,
Is the right kind of branding to get them on the Trump train when the branding was maybe distasteful to them previously.
And that's what is like, the veneer that Russell Brand has as a brand brand, the brand brand, is so different from what we've found that he says on the daily.
Oh yeah, for sure.
So it's potential that he could be tapping into a new vein, because listen, Trump actually killed a lot of his fans with COVID.
Yeah, that's true.
And a couple of boats, maybe.
A lot of elderly people.
Yeah, because that's what I'm thinking of, as far as an MLM, a pyramid scheme, like Trump does.
This is the same system.
Anyone that is pulling this is the same.
Technically, the only reason that we are not the same thing is because we aren't selling a lie.
We aren't selling something that is obfuscated, that is like, we're being honest.
Which kind of, you guys have to trust us, which sucks that we all have to exist in the same internet.
You do have to trust us, but also anything that we say is going to be fucking verifiable with a fairly simple Google search, to be quite honest, or by picking up one of the books that I've had to fucking read for this distance.
And we also clearly delineate our opinions!
Yeah.
And if you guys also have, yeah, and if you want to expand on your own opinions, I'm really interested in what our listeners have to say.
And so, and I don't have to, I mean, honestly, you know, my personal, like, just stress factory for the last, like, two weeks has been, like, it's been hard to not have as much time to interact And like, you know, have nice pleasant interactions, really like learn new things.
Turns out I miss it and it depresses me whenever I don't have time to read it.
Whatever.
But you know, I mean, it sucks.
But that's the thing is like, you have to think about how they're constantly trying to keep the bathtub full.
Because that's where your profit is, because that drain is always flowing out, and there's a lot of reasons that they can excuse, like, a fake election that didn't happen right, when really, people didn't vote for you and you murdered a bunch of people.
Like, murders technically, that's an alleged, I'm exaggerating, a lot of people died on your watch that would have voted for you previously.
Your negligence killed a lot of people.
I like the concept of brand being kind of a vehicle for getting people from A to B.
I do think that has occurred to a significant degree so far.
I'm not sure how much of that is going to happen in the future, whether he's kind of
reached a saturation point of bringing over unwilling kind of idiots.
I'm not sure.
But then there is also the fact that there is a crushing lack of awareness as to what this guy is up to.
So I do also think, especially for people who get their fucking information from YouTube, which please don't do that, everyone.
Please, please don't get your media diet from YouTube.
It's very, very bad.
That's hard to say!
Because PBS has all the best documentaries!
I don't care.
I do not care.
Nobody should be getting all of their news from YouTube.
I've seen it happen so many times where so many people that I know personally have been led down transphobic roads, down fucking right-wing bullshit roads.
Just misinformation abounds just purely by clicking on the next fucking thing that shows up in the screen, in the sidebar.
Just Yeah.
Don't do it, right?
What I would say, just as an asterisk that I think is entirely reasonable, is if you want to click on something else from the YouTube video that you are getting your information from, if it's a reputable source, then they will have references.
Click on the references and read the article and what it actually says.
If you want to know what their slant is, Read the article for yourself.
They should have it cited and it should be easy to find.
Just check it out.
Check out what they're claiming with a reference if you want to know if it's reliable or not.
I think our audience is probably way ahead of us in that respect.
I don't think the kind of audience to this show would have that problem particularly, I don't think.
I don't feel like they would find this kind of new channel and be like, oh yes, I'm immediately accepting what these people are saying.
Anyway, that's our show anyway.
We're going to go off-brand now because we're in a talkative mood.
If you want to support us and what we do, please hit us up on Patreon at patreon.com slash onbrand.
Become an Awakening Wanderer, any of that jazz, and you can Access Off-Brand and hear all of the many other things we talk about.
We have many, many, many hours of content up there.
Talking about all kinds of cool shit, and like we said, delving into music is nice and all that good stuff.
On socials, we are the On-Brand Pod on most things.
Our email is theonbrandpod at gmail.com.
Drop us a line, send us an email, say hi!
Yeah, absolutely.
I will eventually get back to you.
I replied to someone today from, I think, about two months ago, but you know what?
I got there.
And our personal socials are at Al Worth Official and at made.by.lauren.b.
That's at least for Insta and possibly other things.
Lauren, do you have any plugs this week?
Less than I'd like.
Well, so still coming up in the Chicago area, Beverly Art Walk.
I'm going to be at Made Artisan Collective on the south side of Chicago from 12 to 5 on Saturday, September.
23rd, and if you're in Texas, we would love to see you.
Mr. Loren B and I will both be at UFOs Over Lubbock, which is the first Friday in Lubbock, Texas, on October 6th.
And actually, the thing is, that's basically our vacation, which is just a grueling road trip, but we make it fun, and boy, it can't come soon enough.
Oh my god.
And there's a bunch of silly alien stuff this year.
Like the fun X-Files kind.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That and the website is TBA.
It is an unmitigated disaster, but madebylaurenb.com does exist, and there isn't nearly enough information, because I was going to go back and edit it, but I can't, for individual pieces of art.
But if you want them, you can buy them, and I get the information.
Outside of the show, of the site itself.
So stupid.
So I still have enough information to, um, like I get paid and you get the thing, even though the website for me is broken.
So you can buy Lauren's work at LaurenBee.com, is that correct?
Yes!
Okay, tremendous.
That is successfully operating.
Go check it out, people.
It's a dumpster fire in all other aspects, but at least you can buy the stuff.
And you know, that's kind of the most important thing in a way.
If you want to see the ugliest website in 2023, I got you.
I want it to be like early 2000s.
That'd be way more fun.
That'd be way more fun.
Please do that if you can.
It's 2023 ugly.
I would love it.
And you know, in a weird way, I feel like it would work with some of your artwork.
I feel like, you know, just that kind of... Honestly, through the previous struggle I had that just I'm bad at internet design, I'm bad at digital design because it's just like...
It's too blank for me to conceive of.
Just my head doesn't work that way.
Love me a piece of paper and a pencil.
It did kind of sink in, and also I was actually looking forward to going in and editing because I had some ideas that were kind of neat.
I thought were neat.
Because if I just do it bad on purpose, kinda, in like sort of an Angelfire Geocities way, and not necessarily- Yeah!
That is its own aesthetic that I kind of live for.
I'm here for that, yeah.
That nostalgic thing, like I still, I'm not that good.
But I know a way that I can be bad at it, but y'all at least get the point and we can be in on the joke together and have a good time.
I'm good with that.
I'm good with that.
And you can still get information.
Here in that direction, let's do it.
That's exactly where I'm going, if I can ever access the back end of a website again, and I have to wrestle the domain away, it's just a whole thing.
Boy, oh boy!
That is a small, small consideration.
Yeehaw, buddy!
That's our show, everyone.
Go and check out Lauren's website, everyone, madebylaurenb.com, and buy some shit, and go to our Patreon, patreon.com slash onbrand, and You can pay to consume lots and lots of content, and we will appreciate it dearly, and we're gonna fuck off and make some content that's gonna go up there right now, and it will be- Off-brand as a buck!
Hell yeah!
You're cordially invited.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, come join the conversation.
We get into some shit.
All right.
We love you very much.
Thank you for your time, everybody.
And thank you for hanging in with this two-parter.
I do appreciate that significantly.
So thank you, everyone.
And we will see you next week.
Bye!
Take care.
Thank you so much.
Bye!
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