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May 16, 2024 - On Brand

02:24:51

OB #56 - Tulsi Gabbard

The potential future Vice President came on Russell's show and the results were uh, mixed to say the least. Listen to The Empty Page's new album! - linktr.ee/thmptypg Support us on Patreon! - patreon.com/OnBrand Buy an On Brand magnet! - getyourreallivegoldhere

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	This is propaganda live.
	I only suggest how to take him out of the boat.
	Extraordinary cultural moment.
	Already iconic.
	Already iconic.
	We love you.
	You're welcome here.
	Where did this guy come from?
	It looks like he's been doing it for ages.
	He's very confident.
	Plainly, and this is a matter now of fact and record, I'm right wing.
	I feel that Christ may have had a better vision.
	Is this misinformation or is Vivek Ramaswamy in the lavatory?
	That's sort of like a poem.
	Is this Eminem?
	Man, if we didn't come together in that stream.
	I'm assuming it was just the Pete.
	Now these are the kind of conversations I think that the legacy media can no longer compete with.
	Win win win win win win win This is On Brand, a podcast where we discuss the ideas and antics of one Russell Brand.
	I'm Al Worth and each week I go through an episode of Brand's show with my co-host Lauren B. It's me, Lauren B., and I'm the host that has no idea what we're getting into in this particular episode, but it's usually bad.
	It's almost invariably bad, which is why we do the good thing before the bad thing.
	Lauren, what is your good thing before the bad thing this week?
	Knowing about history.
	Knowing about history.
	Learning about history.
	Because... I've been talked down to by politicians and media my whole life.
	Like, I don't know, shit from Shinola, how could I?
	Of course.
	And good ol' Hillary Clinton.
	This week.
	Saying that no one who cares about this conflict knows about history, which might be one of the most condescending things I've ever seen a politician, so public servant, say in conjunction with Joe Biden's fantastical Holocaust Remembrance Day speech?
	That was wild.
	What I know and what I, so all of this kind of autodidactic, you know, history enthusiast time I've spent growing my mind and experience has taught me that since we're in like a medieval situation, because they are, right?
	That the, That sieges, which was the most common element of efficacy in warfare for thousands of years, they tend to...
	Give out around the six to eight month mark.
	So we need to be like, that's why we need to be aware.
	No one needs to be surprised.
	And you can still be horrified, but not surprised.
	I think that's pretty common these days.
	So I understand the gravity of the situation and people like Hillary Clinton Okay, either you know the history you want to know that is not accurate, or you know the history better than anybody and you still choose to do and say the things that you do.
	And it explains to me why you want to, like, hang out with Henry Kissinger, take his advice.
	And then represent yourself in this way.
	Why are they trying so hard to lose?
	I don't know.
	Yeah, I was just thinking that.
	I was like, wow, the Democrats in chief are really kind of pulling out the big guns and trying to lose this election.
	I've like, it has changed the way I feel.
	Because it's just like, listen, if you're trying so hard to lose, I don't know what to do.
	I don't know what to do about that.
	How do we help?
	How can we fix that problem?
	I can't help you.
	I can't help you.
	I have no idea.
	And I'm not going to.
	So knowing about history, like, basic shit.
	Has shielded me from the gas lighting, which not the first time, probably the last.
	So that makes me feel like, you know.
	Silver lining, makes you feel good.
	It's empowering.
	Yeah.
	And well, and also just bringing, you know, I mean, I feel like the encampments, I brought that up past couple of weeks.
	It's just really important.
	It's really important to keep an eye on things and to understand it.
	And listen, I've also done what I can to bring this kind of information to our, you know, our listeners before this even happened.
	Had a sixth sense, I don't know.
	Yeah.
	Maybe I'm good at recognizing patterns.
	So that like, not only have I, you know, I've used my little soapbox to do what I can in a way that's like respectful and empowering in my estimation, right?
	So I'd encourage everybody else to do the same.
	So what's your good thing?
	Agreed.
	My good thing this week is, well I don't know if you know this, there's a quirk of British culture when there is even kind of a glimpse of sunlight, what will happen is kind of all of the male presenting people will throw their tops off, everyone will get beers, it will be instant barbecue bonanza, regardless of the temperature, if there is sunlight that's what is happening.
	And that has been this last week We had a week of good weather.
	I mean now it's it's constant rain again You know, but but we had a solid week of like sunshine and heat I've caught the Sun a little bit or the Sun caught me And yeah, it was just it was very pleasant after after a pretty bleak kind of winter that was going on far too long It was nice to just get a little bit of a little bit of vitamin D Just just go out in the sunshine soak it all up You know, felt good.
	Yeah, very simple.
	I don't, I don't particularly suffer with like seasonal affective disorder or anything like that.
	I'm never too affected by the seasons, but I gotta say, felt good.
	Felt good.
	So we have- It's a Portland thing too.
	That's like a Portland, Portland slash Seattle kind of trope here.
	Cause I mean, so it makes sense as like the rainiest.
	Um the like the uh stereotypically rainiest places so it's um yeah yeah yeah yeah Wales Wales is famously rain rain it's rain country um that's that's where I live um so yeah it's it's it's been pleasant to have the opposite of that even for a tiny fraction of time.
	Nice!
	Welcome to the show!
	Thank you!
	We've got a show to get to, but first we should thank some new Patrons!
	So 4One who has upgraded their tier, Hand of Yorgmoth, you are an awakening wonder!
	You are indeed an awakening wonder!
	Thank you, Hand of Nogmoth.
	Thank you so much!
	Deeply appreciated.
	And, excitingly, we have a new member of the Invisible Hand this week.
	Oh, wow.
	Yeah, it's been a minute.
	So, Richard Dodson, you are now the Invisible Hand.
	Let me tell you that we love you.
	There is a sort of an invisible hand guiding these events.
	You are fundamentally beautiful.
	Not others, you.
	I believe you are fundamentally beautiful.
	I'm right wing.
	Now get me some shit fuck ice cream, you pig dick!
	You big sexy despot baby.
	I'm right wing.
	I only suggest how to think and how to vote.
	Another big subject over here with us right wing fascists.
	How do you feel about past you at this point?
	I don't even recognize that idiot anymore.
	I'm right wing!
	God, it's propaganda.
	Did you guess it?
	Did you guess it?
	I'm right wing.
	Thank you, Richard.
	Thank you so much.
	Yeah, wow.
	Okay, cool.
	And patron or not, I'd like to ask if you do enjoy the show, please leave us a five star review wherever you're listening.
	And please do share us with your friends, loved ones or anyone you think might enjoy this project of ours.
	It would be greatly appreciated and goes to great lengths in helping us continue the show.
	And if anyone wants to support us financially in what we do, become an Awakening Wanderer, join the Invisible Hand, or donate on an elevated tier, head to patreon.com slash onbrand, and you will have our eternal gratitude.
	It is this which allows us to be editorially independent and ad-free.
	As a patron, you will also get a shout-out on the show and access to our patron-only show, Off-Brand, where we discuss anything but Russell Brand.
	And this week, I led a very special edition of Music is Nice, interviewing some friends of mine and the band, The Empty Page, who have just released their fantastic new album, Imploding.
	Highly recommend checking it out.
	And the interview up on Patreon was a lot of fun.
	We discussed misogynists, conspiracy theories, mental health, late-stage capitalism, and play a few tracks from the album as well.
	Um so uh yeah head to patreon.com on brand to check that out um oh and i'll put a link to to the album in the description as well um 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 on spotify app the video will come up there too So, this week we are mercifully back to Russell's content.
	No Galaxy Brained guest spots to speak of this week.
	But there is a guest first.
	Mercifully?
	Yeah, maybe that's generous.
	I don't know.
	Well, I find Russell's content easier to deal with than Jordan Peterson's, I think.
	Maybe that's a personal thing, but yeah, that's just my feelings.
	Sure.
	Yeah, but there is a guest for us to deal with and as ever I will let Russell introduce them.
	Hello there you awakening wonders, thanks for joining us today for Stay Free with Russell Brand where we do our level best to stream to you live across the world wherever available the truth as the best as we can understand it from what we have been shown.
	You might be watching us on Rumble right now, like The Real Mix or IbizaLiveCam.com.
	That sounds like an interesting endeavour.
	Good evening, Russell, they're saying, nevertheless.
	They're watching us on Rumble.
	And then there's our Awakened Wonders, people like Mrs. CMS.
	They're members of our community.
	They're terrific people and they get access to additional content, exclusive videos, all sorts of stuff, book clubs, stuff you love.
	You might be here today because our guest today is Tulsi Gabbard.
	She's coming on In a minute.
	And the reason I'm excited to speak to Tulsi Gabbard, tell me if you agree with this, is because you've noticed that the categories of left and right are atrophying, fading, and breaking down.
	The reason for that, of course, is because they were not undergirded by any moral principles, but by expedience.
	These political parties mutate in order to fulfill a particular agenda, backed as they are by certain financial interests, global financial interests and cultures of Dominion.
	Reminder, Russell wants us all to live in a Christian theocracy because supposedly the current governmental and democratic systems are not underpinned with enough religion.
	Great.
	So yeah, Tulsi Gabbard is the guest for the week.
	Boo indeed.
	Yeah, and we already get an immediate sense of the direction it's going to go, right?
	Oh look, the paradigm of left and right is breaking down, you know, because Tulsi Gabbard used to be left and now she hates the Democratic Party.
	Great.
	Listen, I will say, she's a compelling public figure with an interesting motivational backstory.
	I'm interested to see what she's going to be throwing out today.
	I'm pretty familiar.
	Pretty darn familiar with her.
	I don't think any of it's going to be particularly surprising.
	For anyone not in the know, Tulsi Gabbard was representing Hawaii in the House of Representatives as well as for a while being the vice chair of the DNC.
	She was in fact the first Samoan American and the first Hindu to become a member of Congress.
	Asterisk.
	Asterisk.
	Now, she's had right-wing elements to her positions for a long time.
	Anti-trans bigotry, for example, or being, in her own words, hawkish against Islamic terrorism.
	More on that later.
	But was pretty left in some other ways.
	However, since losing the Democratic primaries in 2020 to Joe Biden and then setting up her own podcast in 2021, she's taken a curious and very obvious open pivot to the right.
	She once described Representative Adam Schiff as a domestic terrorist in light of him being on the Select Committee to investigate the January 6th attack.
	So investigating domestic terrorism makes you a domestic terrorist.
	That's fun.
	She said this on Tucker Carlson's show, of course, and then in 2022 she signed a deal to be a paid contributor to Fox News, where she would occasionally go on to guest host Tucker's show.
	They're going to be making a big song and dance of Tulsi Gabbard being neither left nor right, but make no mistake, she is firmly on the side of the right wing these days, and that will be demonstrated pretty clearly in just a moment.
	This is also why you inform yourself on kind of dog whistles, because not everybody was surprised in 2020.
	A lot of folks were sounding the alarm bell before 2020, like, actually, Not good.
	Maybe listen to actually what she says.
	Listen to the whole thing.
	Put her in context.
	That kind of situation.
	Which, you know, we're watching happening again.
	Which is just, oh my god.
	Anyway, yep!
	Yeah, yeah.
	The left spent a lot of time kind of excusing her positions and views and hand-waving them away.
	And unsurprisingly, that's coming.
	Wait, the left?
	Uh, well, well, the center left, you know, the, the, the, the democratic.
	Okay.
	Yeah.
	Or obfuscating at least.
	Yes.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Um, and yeah, it's come back to bite everyone shockingly enough.
	Cause it never does that.
	Um, nonetheless, it's going to be a minute before we get to Tulsi because once again, Russell has decided to cover some news ahead of today's interview.
	Um, and honestly, I think it makes a better show, so I'm pretty happy about it.
	Before we see any of the news items, however, based on the username of the individual that he nearly accidentally read out as being a website, Russell has a nostalgic moment.
	Ask her about Gaza and censorship please.
	There's that person that's got a name that's evocative of an Ibiza webcam and for me, redolent of a time where as a young man and a hopeless drug addict, I lived on that Epicurean Isle, looking for pleasure in all the wrong places, hopelessly in love with Amanda Algarro Alejos, demented In my pursuit of hedonic enlightenment and revelry.
	First of all, let's have a little chat about what you're doing, Gal.
	Framing us up, because I'm a bit out of focus.
	Like in that Woody Allen film.
	Out of frame.
	You don't try and frame me, man.
	Don't try and hold me back.
	I can exist in a variety of contexts, like Tulsi Gabbard, who cannot exist on either the left or right.
	Sure.
	Just two weeks ago, I said I'm pretty sure he loves Woody Allen.
	What do you know?
	The universe heard me.
	If anyone's curious about seeing Russell around the time he was in Ibiza, that was when he was filming for that terrible show on MTV and we did play some footage in the Primer episode.
	So circle back and take a look.
	And if it's any solace, he was also being exploited by television.
	a hundred percent a hundred percent I think everyone was Yes, yes, that was the entire project.
	Alright, let's get into some news and I wonder what there possibly is to talk about on this show.
	Right, let's have a look at Trump.
	Tonight, former President Trump facing a new threat of jail time at his hush money trial after his 10th violation of the judge's gag order.
	He's taken away my constitutional right to speak.
	The judge directly addressing the possibility of putting Mr. Trump behind bars over future violations.
	The magnitude of such a decision is not lost on me.
	You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well.
	Adding, as much as I do not want to impose a jail sanction, I will, if necessary and appropriate.
	Because nobody is above the law.
	The law is a new deity now.
	It is the principle, omnipotently undergirded.
	It is a legislative god.
	It's extraordinary, isn't it?
	Because you have to, I suppose, question whether or not you believe Trump's trials are about the pursuit of justice, and from where is that principle derived?
	Whose moral authority?
	Whose judiciary?
	And not a potent attempt to attack political opponents.
	Now, call me crazy, but for the most part, I think the law is supposed to be the one thing that we as a society kind of agree on and abide by.
	Like, there are laws that are less moral than others.
	You know, drugs should not be illegal, for instance.
	They should very clearly be legalized and regulated in combination with treatment for addiction being robustly funded and easily available.
	By and large, I think we can all agree on laws like, don't murder people, or more relevant to this guy, don't sexually assault people.
	Curious how he seems to think laws don't matter that much.
	But he's like way into super authoritarian religion.
	Yeah, it's a confusing set of beliefs.
	It's all very sovereign citizen.
	Like it sounds very like your laws don't, like finding a way that your laws don't apply to me.
	Like that's what I'm hearing, which people stumble into.
	That's not necessarily, you don't need to know about it.
	For sure!
	Well, I mean, we've heard his positions on paying taxes before, haven't we?
	Encouraging people not to pay taxes.
	Oh, right!
	Potentially legally actionable.
	Potentially legally actionable, yeah.
	So it wouldn't surprise me if that's where these things are rooted in.
	As it is, you know, laws are made democratically by democratically elected legislators who are democratically elected by us, the people.
	So if we're asking on whose authority these laws are made, it's technically on our authority.
	It's not a perfect system, for sure, but it's definitely we the people who are responsible for most laws via who we elect to govern the country.
	There are complications there, but that's a simplistic overview.
	And, obviously, there are exceptions.
	But, by and large, that's what we're supposed to have as a system.
	And, more to the point, if we're asking whose judiciary it is...
	Donald Trump appointed three of the nine members of the Supreme Court.
	He also appointed 54 circuit judges and 177 district judges.
	In fact, here's a piece from The Guardian, quote, There are a total of 816 active federal judges comprising the Supreme Court, the 13 appellate courts and 91 district courts.
	In just one term, Trump was able to appoint 28% of those judges due to past and continuing vacancies.
	Most importantly, he appointed 33% of America's nine Supreme Court justices and 30% of the appellate judges.
	The vast majority of his appointments were white males.
	Not one of his 54 appellate judges is black.
	Federal judges have life tenure.
	Once they're appointed, they remain in office until they retire or die.
	The President appoints every federal judge, and these appointments have very long-term consequences.
	A look at Trump's record of appointments reveals a relentless commitment to cementing his peculiar and idiosyncratic ideology.
	In short, he and his sidekick, former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, did all they could to entrench an actively conservative judiciary."
	Unquote.
	So, when we ask whose judiciary it is, it's at least one-third Trump's judiciary.
	You know, when you hear those rules, like the appointed ones, the not elected officials, the appointed officials have lifetime appointments.
	It's not hard to find critique.
	You know what I mean?
	Yes.
	Yes, I do.
	It's really not difficult.
	And not in a way that's like, well, we just have to ignore it.
	No, no, no.
	We need to fix that problem.
	Because it's a fucking problem.
	Yes.
	Yes.
	It's a problem where one man with four years of power can change the next, you know, half a century, at least, of history.
	Yeah.
	So are we going to listen to more of that?
	Are there going to be more clips?
	Because, like, the clip of, like, OK.
	First clip, right?
	The judge explaining that they take the gravity of the situation very seriously should be good.
	And that should be a good thing.
	And let me tell you who is limiting Donald Trump's constitutional right to speech, and that's his fucking lawyers, because they're not that stupid.
	Yeah.
	Right?
	Please be quiet.
	Please stop saying words.
	Stop talking.
	You already owe that lady more money because you can't shut the fuck up.
	It's amazing.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Your speech is limited to give you any chance of winning.
	Yes, yeah.
	And, you know, I mean, the gag order exists, you know, because his speech can affect the outcome and potentially scupper the entire trial.
	It's to give him a better, it's to give him a chance at a fair trial.
	It has been argued and could be argued that it would be a violation of the attorney's, like, attorneys would be violating their own mandate, their legal mandate, if they let him talk, because that would definitely be, that would, like, affect his trial negatively.
	Like, they could be sued for letting him talk.
	Because it's irresponsible.
	Yeah, which is a crazy thing to think about, but that's where we are.
	The judge may have to put him in jail until the conclusion of the trial just to get him to shut up and allow for a fair trial.
	I mean, or just, you know, like, it's not like he's got the best and the brightest working for him, but like... There's that.
	Help him out, dog.
	Like, what is that?
	It's so silly.
	It's very, very silly.
	We do have one more clip from this little segment, actually.
	You know what?
	Our constitution is much more important than jail.
	It's not even close.
	I'll do that sacrifice any day.
	The judge fining Mr. Trump an additional $1,000 for complaining about the jury in deep blue
	Manhattan, saying it's 95% Democrat.
	The judge saying the former president wrongfully called into question the integrity of the
	jury.
	Oh, there you are then.
	It's interesting, isn't it, to make those kind of inquiries.
	It's illegal!
	It's illegal!
	That's full contempt of court.
	A utensil?
	You mean a tool, says Frank Vick.
	That's right.
	But that is a synonym for that.
	And I see what you're doing.
	You're making a joke, which I think is good.
	Oh, yes.
	Tool also means dick.
	Great.
	It's a good joke.
	Thanks, Russell.
	That's amazing.
	Imagine having to work so hard.
	Also, he wants to go to jail so bad.
	They had to fake a mugshot.
	The thing is, the judge is also saying, I want to do everything in my power to keep you from going to jail, not to put you in jail.
	It's the actual opposite.
	He wants to go to jail so bad.
	Yeah.
	Cause that would like skyrocket his particular mission, his MAGA mission.
	Yeah.
	And this is not like, I mean, I don't, he doesn't want to go to jail as a human being.
	He wants the idea of going to jail.
	He wants to martyr himself because then he'll be a freedom fighter and a political prisoner, which is not true, but that's the narrative that they're trying to work with.
	Because listen, you can run from jail.
	You can run for president from jail.
	Yeah.
	Go ahead.
	Yeah.
	He wants a photo shoot in behind bars.
	That's all he wants.
	And then he wants to be able to leave again.
	Yes, right.
	Obviously.
	He faked it and wants to make it.
	That's the reality, which is Bonkers to me.
	Like, this is all so bonkers.
	It's, wow.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	It's pretty nuts, you know.
	And yeah, questioning the integrity of the jury in your own trials.
	Illegal!
	Pretty serious!
	Yes, pretty seriously illegal.
	Yeah, especially The process of jury selection is not only pretty rigorous, but famously the choices are coming from both Trump's legal team and the government.
	The jury is a pretty varied bunch.
	I don't know if you've seen any of the information that's come out about them from the questionnaire, but based on what I've seen, they run all the way from far left to basically info warrior, with one juror saying he gets his news exclusively from Truth Social.
	We're going to move on to Russell discussing the anti-Semitism bill that just made its way through the House.
	He's going to read from a piece that is critical of the bill.
	I'm just going to let him talk.
	Let's see what he has to say.
	This is from antiwar.com.
	The legislation adopts the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, IHRA's definition of antisemitism, which lists drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis as an example of antisemitism.
	The IHRA also defines antisemitism as applying double standards to Israel by requiring of it a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
	I suppose an example of that would be that if you believe that the United States is a settler colony, or Australia is a settler colony, you would have to hold them to the same standards that you might hold Israel to.
	Currently, There are no actions, military or otherwise, are there by Australia or the United States of America that could be compared to, for example, Israel's actions in Gaza.
	But in a sense, you can see what this is designed to do.
	The IHRA are ensuring that we know what antisemitism is and that antisemitism should be prevented.
	But what's common and has been common in the last few years during the pandemic is under the auspices of protection, legislation has been passed That ostensibly is there to protect people from being persecuted, whether that's vulnerable people during a pandemic or ethnic, racial or religious minorities during times of an apparent rise of antisemitism.
	What we have to be aware of is the potential for this legislation to be deployed to control, persecute, imprison and shut down free speech.
	I guess that's an important aspect of this conversation.
	And also denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavor in and of itself.
	Matt Gaetz pointed to another part of the IHRA's definition that lists claims of the Jews killing Jesus as an example of antisemitism.
	The gospel itself would meet that definition under the terms of the bill, he said.
	Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk had a little online conversation about that and agreed that the whole of the New Testament potentially would become hate speech under this new definition.
	Don't accuse the House of Representatives, don't be like, oh did the House of Representatives just make the Bible illegal in this instance, Charles and Tucker, until you complain about the schools doing the same thing that you support.
	Wow!
	Wow!
	Hypocrisy!
	There's a lot in that little clip, and Russell is very much trying to walk the line, and he's trying to kind of remain in that neutral-ish stance of his.
	Yeah, obviously I disagree with the things he's bringing to the table, like pandemic legislation and that kind of stuff, all that bullshit, but the overall lens of like, hey, this is being used to stifle free speech.
	Okay, correct.
	On this specific bill, on this specific point, because the bill is a serious problem and would establish a broader definition of anti-Semitism for the Department of Education to enforce anti-discrimination laws, which obviously is the latest response from legislators slash Christian Zionists to the nationwide student protest movement over the Palestinian genocide.
	And, you know, we've made it abundantly clear many times before, but we are very seriously against anti-Semitism on this show, but criticism of Israel is not criticism of Judaism.
	Criticism of Israel is not inherently anti-Semitic and should not be treated as such.
	The very fact that the bill specifically outlines that comparing the present-day Israeli government genocide to the genocide committed by the Nazis is somehow anti-Semitic does frankly tell us almost all of what we need to know.
	Were I a lawmaker, I might be considering, why is it we need to try and force people to stop making comparisons to the Holocaust?
	What's prompting that discussion?
	But apparently that consideration is not a problem for a lot of legislators right now.
	Jesus fucking Christ.
	Yeah.
	This is like, okay.
	Okay.
	Okay.
	Cause listen, I know he's going to say things that are not wrong.
	Well, here's what really is bothersome to me is for and distasteful and gross and angering is to hear Russell use This genocide to make his little argument about vaccines.
	Yeah.
	It is so abhorrent to me to piggyback his little pet project that really has harmed a lot of people, but not him, so he doesn't care.
	Not even he doesn't care, he actively is fighting against it.
	So using this to shoehorn his Completely fabricated, unrelated issue.
	His complaint is batshit wrong.
	We've known that for a long time.
	And for him to use this as a way to worm into the conversation is especially distasteful to me.
	That is so gross.
	Um, because like, yeah, uh, the, Zionism is anti-Semitic.
	Equating all Jewish people with the actions of the Israeli government is hateful, is anti-Semitic.
	Say that.
	It's not hard.
	A lot of people are saying it and explaining it really well.
	There's so much historical precedent.
	There's so much you can learn and educate yourself.
	Wow!
	Yeah, and the main thing this has been hijacked to discuss, as we've seen from Charlie Kirk and Tucker Carlson here, is the idea that this bill is somehow banning the Bible.
	Russell's been putting up things about, oh this thing's just banning the Bible.
	No, obviously it fucking isn't.
	Well, it would, technically, because it's a bad ban.
	It's just like the book bans.
	It's a bad bill.
	They're like, oops, banned the Bible because of the content of the Bible from the library because it's a bad idea and you should have never done it.
	So the broadness of the bill means it could theoretically make parts of the Bible anti-Semitic.
	Theoretically.
	Or it would, particularly if you believe that the Jews killed Jesus, because that's what they're discussing here.
	here. And this in itself is an anti-Semitic trope that is largely baseless and relies on believing
	in a blood curse against the Jews. It stems from a reading, the biggest kind of piece is a reading
	of Matthew 27, 24 to 25, which says, "So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather
	that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, 'I am innocent
	of this man's blood.
	See to it yourselves.
	And all the people answered, His blood be on us and on our children."
	Unquote.
	In an essay regarding antisemitism, biblical scholar Amy Jill Levine argues that this passage has caused more suffering throughout Jewish history than any other passage in the New Testament.
	In 2011, Pope Ratzinger, the Nazi youth one that was responsible for moving pedophiles around before he became Pope, actually did a good thing.
	He released a book in which he was repudiating placing blame on the Jewish people, and he interprets the passage found in the Gospel of Matthew, which has the crowd saying, Let his blood be upon us and upon our children as not referring to the whole Jewish people, but only to the group of supporters of the rebel Barabbas present at the trial.
	The other group identified by Pope Ratzinger as standing behind Jesus's trial is the Temple Aristocracy, which is another clearly defined There is quite honestly a wealth of evidence against the notion that the Jews killed Jesus, but the myth persists curiously enough among those who may themselves have anti-semitic leanings.
	In short, Tucker Carlson and Chung-Li Kirk and Matt Gates might all be telling on themselves just a little bit in this whole discussion.
	Well, listen, here's my thought on engaging in this.
	Like, other people can engage on the content of the Bible.
	Which, like, also, here's the thing, we're going to talk about the content of the Bible.
	God smites the Jews all the time.
	Like, God kind of loves and hates the Jews a lot.
	So, like, in the book.
	He gets really mad at the, like, he's anti-Semitic.
	God is anti-Semitic, often, in the story, right?
	I think it is completely, like, I refuse to engage, personally, with the conversation about the Bible, because, yeah, like, within the context of religion, because it's all, like, because you can just, listen, most of religion, the history of religion, is about tricking God into doing what you want.
	That's literally what dogma is about, is finding loopholes to trap God in, which to me would be heretical in a couple of monks.
	Throughout the centuries, or like, wait a second, and would have this crisis and they'd climb a pole for 20 years or something, which is pretty funny.
	Or like, live in a cave.
	It's like, oh no!
	It's impossible not to be a heretic and go to church!
	Oops!
	We fucked up!
	So that kind of moment, you can't engage on the terms of religion and the Bible, because that's why it doesn't belong.
	Because you can make it fit whatever narrative you want, and it is a lot worse.
	You can say that about laws, you can say it about the legal system, This is way worse.
	And so using the Bible as a basis for any of these decisions is going to, it's, you're going to get fucked up.
	Um, and that's why we have a separation of church and state to begin with.
	So all of these arguments are mute to me.
	Moot.
	Like it doesn't matter because you can just fit the narrative to whatever you want, depending on this big book that you can just slap.
	Like it's, it's, I mean, like, R.F.K.
	Jr.
	gave him a run for his money as far as the amount of information that wasn't really saying anything in a book.
	He certainly gave it the old college try.
	But, like, if you put enough words in anything, you can just fit them together.
	Like, it's... It's vague legislation and vague rules.
	That's the problem.
	Like, that's the whole problem.
	Oh my god, that's ridiculous.
	Yes!
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	I don't disagree.
	And here's the kicker.
	Even if they were, even if Tucker Carlson and Charlie Kirk and Matt Gaetz were right about this, which they aren't, but even if they were, the bill still wouldn't outlaw the Bible on college campuses anyway.
	Jason Mazone, a law professor at the University of Illinois, said there's no plausible way to interpret the legislation as banning the New Testament, even in a higher education setting.
	Quote, Title VI has never been understood to require schools and other recipients of federal funding to remove or prohibit from campus books on the basis that they may contain offensive material.
	Nothing in the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act newly imposes such a requirement, and if it did, it would be a clear violation of the First Amendment.
	Unquote.
	So they're even wrong just on a technical basis.
	Well, the whole thing is a violation of the First Amendment.
	Sure, yeah, yes, yeah, the bill sucks.
	Like, the validity has no bearing on the imposition that has been happening.
	What's crazy, what's absolutely wild, is that the Bible has been a contentious issue in these library and school book bans.
	And just y'all didn't think about that?
	Because it's been happening for years at this point.
	And y'all didn't think that there's something in the Bible that's going to break these rules?
	It's fucking beyond me.
	It doesn't matter.
	They're sharks.
	They're just going to keep swimming.
	They're just going to keep saying whatever they're going to say and be incendiary about this thing.
	And hypocrisy, as long as you keep moving, doesn't fucking matter.
	To them.
	Pretty much.
	Yeah, the bill completely sucks.
	Just not necessarily for the reasons that they're all up in arms about it.
	Because they're very much, it's bad in the Bible!
	I'm like, well, there are bigger problems in this.
	Can we talk about those now?
	Okay.
	Yeah, maybe zoom out.
	Zoom out a little bit, dawg.
	Little bit.
	Alright, we're going to skip ahead to Russell introducing Tulsi Gabbard to stay free.
	Tulsi, welcome to Stay Free with Russell Brand.
	Thank you, Russell.
	It's great to see you again.
	Great to talk to you.
	I'm very excited to speak to you.
	And among the many things that you've achieved mastery in, promotion is perhaps chief among them.
	Your ability to place your book in shot is mesmerizing.
	I watched you on Joe Rogan.
	It's very good.
	It's very good.
	Yeah, Tulsi Gabbard has a new book out, which is very prominently in front of the camera anytime there's a wide shot with just her on the screen.
	It's called For Love of Country, Leave the Democrat Party Behind.
	I've got to confess, I haven't read this one, didn't quite have time to jam it in this week, but she's been on a bit of a promotional tour for her book and has made her positions within abundantly clear.
	As Russell said there, she went on Rogan just the other day, actually.
	Joy.
	In a telephone interview with the Washington Times to promote the book, she said,
	quote, "Many of those who are in great positions of power in the Democratic Party,
	whether they admit it or not or realize it or not, see themselves as God.
	They appoint themselves as the authority."
	They view themselves as the ones who get to decide how we live our lives, what we're allowed to say, who we're allowed to hear from, and how we get our information.
	They're most recently decided that things that are objectively true are not, such as the biological differences between men and women.
	Unquote.
	Okay, um, I think we may have someone who just wants to say hateful shit and not have to apologize for it.
	Like the many times she's had to apologize for being, among other things, against same-sex marriage, against gay people in general.
	In an interview in 2016, she made it clear that while her position on legislating against gay people had changed, her personal feelings about gay people had not.
	She found a place where she doesn't have to apologize anymore.
	She used to have to apologize but she didn't like it.
	She's hanging out with Tucker now.
	100%.
	Yeah, the personal feelings that she used to have about gay people, for instance, back in 2004 when she said, quote, as Democrats, we should be representing the views of the people, not a small number of homosexual extremists, unquote.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Yeah, it's shocking every time.
	I know this stuff and it's still shocking.
	Yeah, what?
	Okay, all right.
	Yes!
	And despite all this, Tulsi Gabbard was a member of the House LGBT Equality Caucus.
	She received ratings of 92%, 88%, 100% and 84% for her four congressional terms for pro-LGBT legislation from the Human Rights Campaign, a group that advocates for LGBTQ rights.
	Yeah, so here's what we need to listen for with these people.
	This is especially incredible.
	Calling their opposition a religion or a cult.
	Now, that's why...
	Entities that do explore the reality of a cult, be it research or cult podcasts, whatever.
	There's a disclaimer.
	They're like, these are our qualifications for a cult.
	Because, again, too broad a definition, and you're going to count a lot of things and a lot of people, that may or may not be really genuinely like, because people also like to hang out and do the same thing together.
	So there can be too broad a definition that is, in fact, problematic.
	But calling being a Democrat a religion, which like, okay, calling the, yeah, calling queer people, you know, like the LGBTQ rights, allyship, anything, a cult, is, first of all, Wildly common.
	It happens every day, all the time.
	It's crazy.
	And they know it's an argument tactic.
	Because they also believe in freedom of religion.
	So if you're calling these things a religion, your belief in the American governmental body of religious freedom would...
	You are stepping on your own toes in the same sentence.
	If you want religious protection and freedom, then you should be insisting on religious protection and freedom for others.
	And again, it's not a valid argument to make to a person because you're validating the claim of religiosity or cult status that is unfair.
	But at the same time, I think exposing the hypocrisy, even in their own beliefs, and it's like, very plain.
	Very, very plain.
	Yeah.
	Is that, what?
	Fucking, what are you, what?
	What?
	Yeah, having any beliefs, or even an absence of beliefs, is considered a religion to these people.
	Like, atheism is a religion according to them.
	Like, no, no, it's the, Hmm.
	It's the exact opposite.
	Y'all want to call things a religion to disregard them.
	You are showing us how you want to be treated.
	But lying about, like, you're saying how you want to be treated as a religious person and your religious beliefs, but then you want to silence and oppress other religious, like, if that's how you, like, how do you want us to act?
	How do you, what, how do you want us to handle it?
	Should we respect religious autonomy or not?
	Because y'all are saying for me and not for thee.
	Like, it's not.
	The thought itself, if you sit and think about it, is fucking wrong.
	So how do you write a whole-ass book on such a wrong-headed premise?
	Bye!
	such a wrong-headed premise. Bye! Out! Get rocked!
	It requires some serious mental gymnastics to maintain the position, that's for sure.
	You'd have to write books about it because people aren't going to get there on their own.
	Yeah, right.
	More recently, obviously, Tulsi Goward has had to be far less apologetic for her views.
	Just before leaving office in December 2020, her and Representative Mark Wayne Mullen introduced a bill titled the Protect Women's Sports Act.
	...that would seek to define Title IX protections on the basis of an individual's biological sex, making it a violation for institutions that receive federal funding to, quote, "...permit a person whose biological sex at birth is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designed for women or girls," unquote.
	If passed, that bill would effectively have banned many transgender athletes from participating in programs corresponding with their gender identity.
	Great.
	What, all six of them?
	All six?
	Right.
	Maybe.
	And then in 2022, she endorsed Ron DeSantis' Parental Rights Bill, which forbids discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in public school classrooms for Kindergarten through third grade.
	You know the bill that's actively harming LGBTQ plus kids across the entire state?
	We covered that in our Ron DeSantis episode.
	Gabbard stated that the bill, quote, bans government and government schools from indoctrinating woke sexual values in our schools to a captive audience, unquote.
	She also suggested the bill should apply to all grades.
	Delightful perspective.
	Wonderful.
	I mean, yeah, it's all in line with what she said.
	Yeah, no, it's not surprising that it's coming from her.
	And of course, she's tipped as one of the potential choices for Trump's vice presidential candidates.
	So that's good.
	You know what?
	Have at it.
	Did she kill her dog?
	I don't know.
	The bar is so low!
	The bar is very low.
	I'm not thrilled about a potential reality in which this woman is vice president.
	Oh, you know what?
	I'm not thrilled about any of it, so fucking throw it all the way.
	Yeah, that's fair.
	If you want to go hard, go all the way.
	You want to show up, Fucking fine.
	Burn it.
	Go ahead.
	Set off all the fireworks at once.
	Throw a match in the box.
	Okay.
	If that's what you want to do, well.
	Fair enough.
	I literally cannot do anything to stop it.
	You're going to do it.
	I'd love all of it to not happen.
	Yeah!
	So I have a really hard time being in any way emotionally invested in that outcome, because it's all just different psychos.
	They're all different shades of the same absolute lunatic.
	Different types of awful, yes.
	And your own team will want to hang you at the end.
	Because they love the big guy and they're gonna hate you.
	Oh man, they wanted to kill Mike Pence!
	What they're gonna do to this... woman?
	Good fucking luck.
	Yeah, you know, woman, person of color, you know, there's a recipe for disaster within that base.
	So let's get into the interview, the opening question to the show.
	Having dedicated so much of your life to the American military and having dedicated so much of your life to the Democrat Party, I mean, I suppose the title of your book gives a pretty clear indication where your alliances lie and how you have evolved, but you must love, to a degree, both of these institutions.
	And yet, one of the main reasons you've left the Democrat Party is because you say they are a party of warmongers now.
	Can you tell me how the establishments Foreign policy has become divorced from the interests of the American people, the interests of the world, and even from the interests of the American military.
	Well, thank you, first of all, just for the purpose of clarity.
	My love is for our country, and the reason why I serve in our military now for over 21 years, serving as an officer in the U.S.
	Army Reserve currently, is motivated by that love of country and wanting to be of service.
	My time over 20 years in the Democratic Party, I joined in 2002, I was 21 years old.
	I saw back then a party of Of free speech, a big tent party that welcomed people with different backgrounds, different religions, different views, that stood up for civil liberties and free speech, even for people they disagreed with.
	And it was a party that fought for the little guy.
	You fast forward to where we are today, that party has become wholly unrecognizable.
	And so just as my being part of the Democratic Party was driven by my love of country and my desire to serve, So too was my decision to leave the party because it has become a party that stands diametrically opposed to the fundamental principles of freedom that make this country the great country that it is.
	Okay, so the Democratic Party are opposed to freedom and free speech.
	Okay, I have to say there does appear to be a lack of understanding of the distinction between free speech and hate speech against protected classes of people, and even then, free speech is not freedom from consequences of speech, Tulsi, you bigoted idiot.
	But hey, here we are.
	Also, like, okay, you joined 20 years ago.
	If you are this disillusioned that you leave on those grounds, sorry you weren't paying attention before.
	Why is it my problem?
	Yeah, I've been keeping tabs on the Democratic Party and also voted Democrat for the most part, unless there's like, you know, locally, we do have better options, fortunately, sometimes, but rarely.
	If you look at it, like, sorry you couldn't see for what it was.
	Why is that my problem?
	It hasn't changed that much.
	You just weren't paying attention.
	Like, sorry, not my problem.
	That's probably accurate.
	We're gonna skip ahead a little bit because she spends a good chunk of time talking about the military and it's both Self-aggrandizing and boring and it's I love America.
	Okay, we've heard that you don't need to keep repeating it So let's get into Russell asking about Trump and RFK jr Both Bobby Kennedy and Donald Trump, in their own ways, of course, to a different degree, are enjoying extraordinary success.
	And perhaps it's reductive to say that both are regarded as anti-establishment figures.
	I know that there are detractors of both who would deny that.
	And I know that the Biden critiques of Trump would be that he's crazy.
	And so and the establishment critiques of Bobby Kennedy would be that he's a crazy pro-vaxxer and all of that kind of stuff.
	But does not the rise of both of these figures suggest that there is a steep yearning for significant change in American cultural and political life?
	No question about it.
	I know that both of these parties are at least purported to have courted you, your support and your membership, maybe even as vice president in both cases.
	I wonder if you believe that either one of those purviews could represent the kind of change that America requires on the basis of your analysis of deterioration during the time that you've been involved in particular with the institution of the Democrat Party.
	Yeah, you know, it's very telling.
	There was a Gallup poll that was done a couple of weeks ago that showed 43% of Americans don't identify with either party.
	We've seen how that number is growing over time.
	And really, so it shows the minority of Americans identify With the Democrat Party or identify with the Republican Party and even those who still identify with those parties.
	I meet people all the time talk to people almost every day who are disenfranchised Republicans who are disenfranchised Democrats.
	Most Americans very frustrated because we see too often a system and currently the party that's in power again who is not looking after the interests of the American people.
	So how this election season shakes out, we will see.
	But I agree with your analysis that more Americans recognize how deeply rooted the corruption and the rot is within our government, both in elected officials as well as those who've either been appointed Or bureaucrats who are acting for their own self-interest instead of the interest of the people.
	And so while that is a very bad thing, the fact that more and more people are waking up to it because they're seeing the consequences impacting their everyday lives, their families, their communities, my hope is that this is an election where we can actually bring about serious change.
	So, the short version of the question that Russell was asking there was, you know, do Trump or RFK Jr.
	represent the kind of change the country requires?
	She seems pretty on board with that concept.
	She then later went on to describe the rot and corruption in government, within the present government particularly.
	Even if I were to accept that the Biden-Harris administration is representative of rot and corruption, Donald Trump is currently on trial for, essentially, corruption, with pretty overwhelming evidence against him.
	How would that be a change?
	I would love to hear her answer to that, but... I mean, but your thing, both of them are like re-elect, both Both candidates are like, re-elect me.
	Look what I've accomplished.
	I'll do more.
	And a resounding no.
	A cacophonous resounding no is happening and they're just ignoring it.
	So yeah, why?
	It's really difficult.
	Given what is going on, and what is like, what is top of mind in the news for me, to give a single solitary shit about this kind of like, mealy mouth bullshit.
	The thing is, is like, what we do, right?
	If you're listening to a pundit with an agenda.
	Okay, let's get through the nice stuff first because you're going to say the nice thing because you know to say the nice thing.
	That's what you're hired to do.
	Okay, let's get to the meat and potatoes.
	What do you actually mean?
	What is your context?
	What are you talking about?
	What's your plan?
	And so I'm like, sitting through this is like mind numbing to me.
	Lady, fucking get to the goddamn point.
	Because this could mean anything.
	This could mean fucking anything.
	Exactly.
	Yeah, that's entirely valid because she's giving some very slippery answers, very political answers, right?
	She's being pretty careful because her name is still up there for VP candidate, blah, blah, blah.
	Plainly, you'd prefer either of those candidates to the current incumbent of the White House.
	is a struggle to get direct answers.
	And actually in the next clip, Russell asks a very direct question.
	Plainly, you'd prefer either of those candidates to the current incumbent of the White House,
	which would you vote for?
	I'm focused on in my book in delivering the message of my experience within the Democratic Party,
	the danger that the Biden-Harris administration pose to our fundamental rights and freedoms
	and how they are undermining our democracy.
	Once we get a little bit closer to election day, I'll share my plans.
	Oh really?
	Yeah, that's something you have to be careful about because it's still divisive.
	Shocking that we didn't get a direct answer to a direct question.
	Especially if you want to be VP for that person.
	Yeah, right?
	Yeah, I mean, how much would it cost you?
	Yeah, she really does hate Joe Biden these days, which is curious because when she dropped out of the 2020 presidential race after her longshot attempt, she endorsed Joe Biden and said, quote, although I may not agree with the vice president on every issue, I know that he has a good heart and he's motivated by his love for our country and the American people.
	I'm confident that he will lead our country guided by the spirit of Aloha, Respect and Compassion, and thus help heal the divisiveness that has been tearing our country apart."
	Wonder what changed?
	I mean, okay.
	I would just love it if they're like, I'm playing a game and this is the game I want to play.
	Okay.
	What a fucking waste of time to listen to the play attitudes.
	I'm so done with it.
	I'm so fucking over it.
	Y'all are wasting my time.
	I'm gonna sue for fucking civil damages.
	Yeah, just say the things that you mean, you know, and save everyone a lot of time.
	It would be deeply appreciated.
	It would save me a hell of a lot of time, that's for sure.
	We do get something from an answer from her as to what has changed here.
	And do you suppose that even between Trump and RFK now there will be more hostility rather than a kind of alliance based on the idea that in spite of in each instance indicators that in some regards they are supporters of establishment edicts such as Trump vote in for that 95 or being supportive, excuse me, of that
	$95 billion aid bill and Bobby Kennedy's position, perhaps on Middle Eastern conflict,
	that ultimately they will turn on one another. I don't know much about how your politics
	works, particularly when it heads into the sort of white heat of November. Is it for you a
	difficult thing to get involved in? Did Russell agree with me a little bit? For me, it's
	more so about where I feel that I can make the most positive impact.
	I left the Democratic Party.
	I have a message that I can deliver that shares my experiences, that talks about the very, in detail, the very real consequences.
	Not of saying, well, you know, the Democrat approach to education versus the Republican approach to education.
	For example, I tackle these issues like freedom of speech, like the rule of law, how increasingly the Democratic leader fomenting Racism in our country and tearing us apart, looking at each of these issues in detail so that voters can recognize the problem.
	First of all, in order to be able to find a solution, we have to first correctly diagnose the problem.
	And I left the Democratic Party because they are the party that is undermining freedom and willing to sacrifice the rule of law, our democracy and so forth in their pursuit of power.
	So, she talks quite a lot about the rule of law, and often she's not overly specific what she means, which is kind of annoying.
	But on her sub stack, she wrote, quote, "Today's Democratic Party rejects the rule of law.
	The people's trust in the rule of law is the foundation for democracy. By weaponizing the
	security state and federal law enforcement for their own partisan political ambitions,
	Democrat leaders are undermining the rule of law and turning our democracy into a banana republic."
	click.
	Across the country, Democrat politicians call for defunding the police, enacting laws that favor criminals' rights over those of everyday Americans, and so-called progressive DAs let violent criminals out of jail, refusing to charge them when they have been arrested 30, 40, or even 50 times.
	Sorry.
	[Laughter]
	Uh, it should come as no surprise that crime and murder rates are rapidly increasing.
	People don't feel safe walking down the street in their own neighborhoods,
	and firearm purchases for self-defense have drastically increased.
	Under the Obama administration, the IRS was used to target conservative groups.
	Biden's DOJ recently indicted 11 pro-life activists for organizing an event blockading an abortion clinic.
	They didn't use physical force, they weren't dangerous, but seven of them are facing 11 years in prison and fines of $250,000.
	The Biden DOJ... Charges.
	Yeah.
	What are the charges?
	The Biden DOJ and Department of Homeland Security has focused their newly formed domestic terror unit to target parents who are vocally standing in opposition to radical curriculums and explicit sexual content being taught to young children in our public schools, labelling parents as terrorists for showing up at school board meetings and demanding change.
	Unquote.
	Oh boy.
	Okay, wow.
	Citation needed.
	Many times over.
	After every sentence, citation needed, yes.
	Arrested 50 times and nobody's charging these people.
	Yeah, and this lady says she's neither left nor right.
	Okay.
	Okay.
	She can say whatever she wants!
	Like, okay, like, uh, yeah, because you're so, like, because your stance is so incoherent.
	Yeah, I agree.
	Fine.
	Like, yeah, sure.
	Yeah, because your thoughts and your, like, your, your, you have, it's like, it's indecipherable what you're even trying to accomplish because you're contradicting yourself.
	Yeah, yeah.
	And about the Democratic Party as fomenting racism, apparently it's not the racist white supremacists who are overwhelmingly Trumpers that are fomenting racism, it's the Democratic Party being mostly against racism that is the problem, because we've never heard that argument made before.
	And to this point, you know, I do have to ask, Tulsi, when they're done with the blacks and the gays, who do you think they're coming for next?
	You know?
	I don't think it's going to, it's not an optimistic outlook, you know?
	Hang my pants.
	Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
	She's not going to end well.
	Like, that's the thing.
	If you get what you want, you'll make your own problem.
	And this is, wow.
	Okay.
	I mean, we don't need to wait.
	Like, we don't need to wait for, like, women are already second-class citizens, period.
	Yeah.
	She doesn't need to wait to be, like, she's, she is, she's gonna pull the ladder up behind her as hard as she possibly can if she gets anywhere that she wants, like, if she gets where she wants to be.
	The thing is, okay, so her, all right, are we gonna get to her background at some point?
	Is that a thing that we're gonna do?
	There are a few more bits, but by all means bring up what you want to talk about.
	I'll save it.
	You know what?
	I want to hear everything she has to say.
	I'll have my kind of unifying thesis at the end, I think.
	I'd really love to hear all of it.
	Let's party.
	Let's go.
	We finally get something more of an answer to the Trump RFK Jr.
	question, just in case we were ever in any doubt.
	You know, there's been some back and forth between President Trump and Bobby Kennedy.
	I know both of them.
	We'll see how things shake out, but it's clear that President Trump, as the presumptive Republican nominee, is in a far better position and a far stronger position to defeat Joe Biden than Bobby Kennedy.
	Okay.
	Trump is more powerful.
	I'm gonna side with power.
	Thank you very much.
	At least it's clear.
	Yeah, that's gonna contribute to my thesis.
	But also, if a person is brought up in conversation, and the person being brought up to says, yes, I know them, that's not a compliment.
	Like, that's wild to say.
	That's shady as fuck on its own.
	It's like, I know them.
	Okay.
	That's one step above, I don't know her.
	Good, I guess.
	Or not.
	I don't know her implies that you haven't made an estimation about how they are.
	Like, I know both of them.
	Okay.
	Okay.
	It's the most, like, banal slash, like, insulting thing to say.
	That's incredible.
	That's good.
	That's good.
	We have another question here from Russell.
	We're continually invited to regard the haunting and ghoulish figure of Donald Trump as a kind of reincarnation of the militaristic despotism that blighted the 20th century, but it's my belief, Tulsi, that what we're Sliding into is a new kind of technological dictatorship, a despotism that is kind of that bears the aesthetic of bureaucracy that owes more to Kafka and to Huxley and Orwell than Hitler or Stalin.
	Through the increasing power of the censorship industrial complex, through the ability to shut down protests, through the ability to shut down free speech, smear political dissidents and opponents, use the judiciary as a tool of weaponry, shut down the campaigns of active political opponents, whether it's through censorship or lawfare, Seems to me that the thing that we are being instructed to fear in the form of Donald Trump is already upon us in the form of this technocratic yet technological dictatorship.
	It's already arrived.
	Do you feel that?
	Yes.
	Yes, it's more than a feeling.
	It's fact.
	The evidence backs it up, and it's a very intentional, strategic move for the Democrat elite's narrative to be warning the American people, saying crazy things like, if you vote for Donald Trump, if he is allowed to win this election, it'll be the last election the United States ever has.
	That he will be the dictator-in-chief, painting this dark, bleak picture that you've just outlined, when the facts and the evidence show that they have already created this.
	And this is exactly the problem.
	They are weaponizing our public institutions.
	They're using the Department of Justice and law enforcement to go after their major political opponent in Donald Trump, but also going after our fellow Americans.
	You know, when President Biden said, you know, over half the country I think he said 76 million voters in America are MAGA extremists and they pose this greatest threat, domestic threat to our democracy.
	He painted a target on the backs of tens of millions of Americans who voted against him and for the other guy, voted for Donald Trump.
	And President Biden spoke to the country saying they are the greatest threat we face.
	Yeah, this may surprise you, but that's not what Biden said.
	I'm going to quote directly from his remarks in September of 2023 during an event to honour, of all people, John McCain.
	Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our Republic.
	Now, I want to be very clear, very clear up front, not every Republican, not even the majority of Republicans, are MAGA Republicans.
	Not every Republican embraces their extreme ideology.
	I know, because I've been able to work with these mainstream Republicans.
	But there is no question that the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans, and that is a threat to this country.
	And here, in my view, is what is true.
	MAGA Republicans do not respect the Constitution.
	They do not believe in the rule of law.
	They do not recognize the will of the people.
	They refuse to accept the results of a free election, and they're working right now, as I speak, in state after state, to give power to decide elections in America to partisans and cronies, empowering election deniers to undermine democracy itself.
	MAGA forces are determined to take this country backwards.
	Backwards to an America where there is no right to choose, no right to privacy, no right to contraception, no right to marry who you love.
	They promote authoritarian leaders and they fan the flames of political violence that are a threat to our personal rights, to the pursuit of justice, to the rule of law, to the very soul of this country.
	They look at the mob that stormed the United States Capitol on January 6th, brutally attacking law enforcement, not as insurrectionists who placed a dagger to the throat of our democracy, but they look at them as patriots.
	And they see their MAGA failure to stop a peaceful transfer of power after the 2020 election As preparation for the 2022 and 2024 elections, unquote.
	And he said a couple of days later, quote, I don't consider any Trump supporter to be a threat to the country.
	I do think anyone who calls for the use of violence fails to condemn violence when it's used.
	Would be nice to have some of that from you now, Joe.
	Refuses to acknowledge that an election has been won.
	Insists on changing the way in which you count the votes.
	That is a threat to democracy, unquote.
	I agree with the sentiments.
	This was obviously at a time where we could all feel a little bit better about Joe Biden before he embarked on becoming Genocide Joe.
	Nonetheless, Tulsi Gabbard is very intentionally misrepresenting what he said here because she's fallen into the alt-right circus and it benefits her to do so.
	So there we go.
	Well, and she's not gonna be held to account either.
	No, no, not even a little bit.
	Yeah, no notes, no notes on that particular statement.
	Okay, it's just like the full on opposite, okay.
	Yes, yeah.
	At least it's just totally wrong, okay.
	Yeah, yeah, it's great.
	And speaking of misrepresenting things to fit her narrative, Telsey engages in a bit more of that in the next clip
	with a far more harmful example.
	When you look at the kind of implications that has on our society,
	and you look at the reality that, you know, parents are getting arrested
	for going to board of education meetings and standing and very passionately speaking
	about their child's education or their fear and anger around the fact that their,
	you know, gentleman in Loudoun County in Virginia, where I happen to be today,
	he stood up and his daughter was sexually assaulted by a boy who claimed to be a girl in the girl's bathroom.
	And instead of the school and the Board of Education actually doing something about it and holding this kid and his family responsible for this, they quietly transferred him to another school without saying anything, without telling the parents of this girl who was sexually assaulted.
	And guess what?
	Within a very short period of time, this boy went on to sexually assault another girl in the girl's bathroom, even as he claimed to be now a girl.
	There are so many examples of how Donald Trump is the face of this figure who is being targeted.
	They are throwing everything but the kitchen sink, trying to tie him up in court, drain him of time and money and resources, smear his character, put out this narrative that they hope will cause voters to turn away from him and throw up their hands and say, well, I guess Joe Biden's the only option.
	But it's also happening.
	It's also happening to Americans who you will likely never know the names of the consequences of this and the precedent that it sets.
	And you're exactly right.
	It is the elected leaders.
	It is the bureaucrats.
	It is the administrative state.
	Many layers down who are executing this.
	That's obviously not true.
	That's obviously not true.
	Like, saying that people are getting arrested for speaking at Board of Education meetings is a huge claim.
	As far as these people, like, they can say whatever the fuck they want and they do it all the time.
	Yeah, they do.
	That's not, like, way to... I was hoping at least her lie about the situation would be...
	I would include an arrest, like if you're gonna lie.
	Support your own argument.
	But like, that's a huge claim.
	And she's like, and to breeze past it is a problem in and of itself.
	It's like, no, no, no, no.
	What?
	Yeah, the Loudoun County situation, you know, that was pretty big.
	That was kind of everywhere.
	It happened back in 2021, but there have been ongoing legal battles since.
	So, to give the reality of what happened, a teenager at the age of 15 committed sexual assault in a female bathroom at a high school in Loudoun County.
	The attacker was supposedly wearing a skirt or kilt at the time, and at trial, prosecutors presented evidence that the boy in part blamed the assault on the fact that he accidentally caught his knee-length skirt on his watch while locked in a bathroom stall with the girl, according to news reports.
	A law firm's investigation requested by the school board found no evidence that the perpetrator identified as female or that he wore a skirt or kilt in an effort to gain access to the girls bathrooms.
	Yeah, teachers say he preferred and requested male pronouns.
	In fact, the attacker and his victim had agreed to meet in the Stonebridge High School bathroom before the assault occurred, according to an investigation conducted by the Loudoun County Grand Jury.
	So they were already like, you know, in a relationship.
	They already had a pre-existing sexual relationship.
	From here, following the May assault, the attacker was charged and barred by court order from returning to Stonebridge.
	But obviously, he's legally required to be in education, so administrators then transferred him to nearby Broad Run High School while he was awaiting trial.
	The attacker then perpetrated another sexual assault on a female student in a classroom, not a bathroom, at that high school.
	A girl he had befriended, no less, so there's something of a pattern there.
	He has been tried and convicted as a juvenile for both crimes and sent to a residential treatment facility until he turns 18 and he has also been put on the sex offender registry.
	Um, there then was a lawsuit filed by the family of victim one, um, that because Loudoun County Public Schools had been considering a new bathroom policy for transgender students when the assault took place, the superintendent lied to the public to cover up what occurred.
	That's the accusation.
	Yeah.
	Wow, there's layers.
	There's many layers.
	It's more confusing.
	It's also way more, like, it's so unrelated to what she said.
	Completely.
	It's fucking completely.
	Whole cloth.
	Completely unrelated to what she said and okay, all right.
	Yeah, yeah.
	So the report accused the school system superintendent Scott Ziegler of lying about the May assault at a school board meeting in June 2021.
	I can't do that.
	No.
	As the school board debated policies governing transgender students and whether they can use the restroom of their preference, a school board member asked Ziegler if the schools had a problem with sexual assaults occurring in bathrooms.
	Ziegler responded that, quote, to my knowledge we don't have any record of assaults in our restrooms, unquote.
	But emails show that Ziegler had been informed of the Stonebridge assault and sent an email to board members about it.
	Ziegler later said he misunderstood the question and was later fired and is currently facing trial on a misdemeanor charge of false publication for his comments at that school board meeting.
	The school administration, I think, handled the situation poorly and apparently with little care to victim one.
	Apparently they didn't do a good job.
	But what we have here is a case of a sexual predator using his relationships to inflict sexual violence on women.
	It's really got pretty much nothing to do with the bathroom debate or trans people in general.
	And this information has all been widely available for quite some time and yet Tulsi Gabbard is very intentionally misrepresenting what
	happened in order to further her bigotry.
	And that's where we are.
	[C
	it's impossible to check them. If you're like, you know, if you're a casual,
	like, listener or, you know, if you're engaging casually with this content and you do actually go
	try to look it up, it seems like it'd be very difficult to even make this connection unless
	Unless you were looking for something like, like, oh, well that's an unrelated story.
	She must be talking about something else.
	Because she just lied.
	Like, she just lied.
	I mean and again at that point do you know at the point where like I can't even find the story do without what you will you know as a casual listener but still like it could go either way because okay dang yeah yeah it's it's it's got almost nothing to do with what she's saying um like it's just yeah it's pretty remarkable um next uh she has some feelings on the whole Trump ballots issue And the dangerous thing is they're doing this in the name of democracy.
	They're telling us we have to do this to save democracy.
	They are so terrified of free people in a free society getting the information wherever we want to get it, discerning that information and making up our own decisions, particularly as it relates to this upcoming election, that they're trying to get Donald Trump off the ballot.
	That over 32 states tried to unilaterally remove Donald Trump from the ballot, so we wouldn't even have the choice to vote for him.
	And their excuse for that is essentially, well, we are trying to save our democracy.
	We are too afraid of voters making the quote-unquote wrong choice in this election that we have to undermine and destroy our democracy in order to save it.
	Save it from who?
	Save it from the American people from actually exercising our freedom.
	That's how twisted Their mindset is, and it paints that picture of exactly where we will go as a country if they're allowed to do this and get away with it.
	And it creates that certainty for me and for others paying attention.
	If they're allowed to stay in power, this country that I love, that we love, will be gone.
	It'll be unrecognizable.
	Okay, drama.
	She keeps saying like, oh, they're making these crazy claims that Donald Trump will destroy the country, and then goes and says things like this.
	I'm like, why does hypocrisy not matter?
	Why?
	We know why.
	It works.
	It does.
	And yeah, the state's, you know, quote-unquote excuse was not about people making the wrong choice.
	It's about Donald Trump being a criminal who attempted treason by a reasonable perspective.
	And as it is, states' rights were overturned by the Supreme Court who ruled that only Congress has the power to remove people from ballots for insurrection, not states themselves.
	So, not sure why she's even talking about this at this point.
	Yeah, honestly, Well, which case is she even talking about?
	You know what I mean?
	That's not what he's on trail for right now.
	It's a corruption charge.
	Yeah, that as well.
	That as well.
	There's a lot of conflation.
	Make that complaint later.
	When you get to that one, then you can make that complaint.
	I mean, she's not going to engage with reality?
	God forbid.
	Honestly, she keeps making a big deal out of all this stuff and there is nothing to back her up.
	It's like I'm fighting a balloon.
	There's nothing but hot air and bluster inside the shiny veneer of bullshit.
	It's almost like it's not a fight.
	It just floats away.
	I wish she'd float away.
	Another point to note is that Tulsi Gabbard supposedly really likes the Founding Fathers, which is terribly unusual, and the Federalist Papers, which she talks about a little bit in this next clip.
	Do you feel that federalism and decentralization may at least in part hold the solution to what seem to be pretty seismic problems in your country?
	Yes.
	Yes, I do.
	And it's something that I've seen throughout my time serving in Congress and have understood how destructive it has been and counterproductive
	at best it's been when you have this big brother, big government overreach
	into our lives, into our schools, and into our communities.
	And going back again and looking at the Federalist Papers, looking at the thoughts and the intent behind our country's founders' vision as they crafted our founding documents, it really was.
	Our Constitution speaks to the very real limitations of government, federal government, And it's intent that power be decentralized really to the lowest level possible where people know their communities.
	My home state of Hawaii is vastly different from California or New York or Montana or Texas or Florida.
	Every state has its own unique culture, has its own unique constituency.
	Our communities are best served and best able to impact decisions that are made important policy decisions that are made when they're made at the lowest level.
	Um, yeah.
	So, the Federalist Papers, um, you know, primarily written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, with a few essays by John Jay thrown in there.
	Obviously, in my researching Hamilton, the man for the off-brand piece I did about the musical, I became pretty well acquainted with the Federalist Papers, and there's a lot to them, but two significant points are made within that that are relevant to this discussion.
	One is that the entire purpose of the Federalist Papers was a propaganda effort to get all of the states to sign on to, agree on, and ratify the U.S.
	Constitution.
	The purpose was to centralize the government, not decentralize it, like she's saying.
	Because the belief was if the country didn't centralize it would fall apart in pretty short order through infighting or foreign powers or whatever else, right?
	They're called the Federalist Papers.
	They're called the Federalist Papers.
	Done.
	End.
	What?
	The second point is that both Hamilton and Madison made the point that there was never an expectation
	of the systems of government and the laws that they came up with to last forever.
	Hamilton specifically was acutely aware that times change and so must the laws and systems that govern us to reflect that.
	I dare say most of the Founding Fathers would probably be a little bit surprised to see how their works have been deified in the US.
	the person be embarrassed by how bad they are at lying now almost certainly like they're like
	he's like y'all are fucking god awful at rationalization for maintaining your power
	y'all ain't even paying attention like we gave you the tools and you fuck them up like it's really
	you're bad at this Yeah, y'all suck at this.
	Listen, we have framework that you should just follow.
	Also, everybody, not that you're allowed, I recommend you listen to this episode at 1.25 speed at least.
	Jesus Christ!
	Jesus Christ!
	I'm not thrilled at how slow my brain works sometimes in a little bit today.
	I'll sound like a micromachines guy.
	That's okay.
	I'm willing to make that sacrifice so that y'all can get through what this woman is trying to say!
	Not only do I have to listen to bullshit, it takes such a long time!
	Yeah, yeah, and it's, you know, a lot of that's owing to the slippery dancing around everything.
	It's not a punchy interview.
	It's not a punchy interview at all.
	Roseanne, it is not.
	Roseanne should be here fucking giving notes.
	That's, that's, that's...
	She just picked a different one!
	I would say that she's most drawing from here is probably Thomas Jefferson, who was vehemently
	opposed to key tenants of centralized government. He wanted to be left alone with his slaves in
	Virginia and not to have to pay taxes to a central government, basically. Nonetheless,
	her veneration- She just picked a different one!
	Yeah.
	Her veneration of the Founding Fathers is a bit ironic, as even Thomas Jefferson warned us not to regard the Constitution as sacred.
	And yet here we are.
	Oh, listening to him never works.
	Nope, you can't.
	They don't do that.
	No, no, no.
	Nope, nope, that's a problem.
	I want to speak to my idea of Thomas Jefferson, not what he actually said.
	Okay.
	Ah, once again, hit the balloon and poof.
	Nothing but air.
	So next Russell asks a question about lobbyists and lobbying and mercifully I would say this appears to be a subject we'll largely agree with Tulsi Gabbard on.
	Though there is something curious at the end of this clip.
	What have you experienced of that?
	Are there like points where you feel like, well, I know this, that this bill's likely to be passed.
	I should buy some stocks in Lockheed Martin.
	Or are there like, what's lobbying like on the ground?
	What's it like to get lobbied?
	Is it true there are two lobbyists for every member of Congress?
	And where does the lobbying take place?
	And how does one, what is the prophylactic against lobbying?
	OK, this is a huge one.
	There's a lot of questions there.
	There are far more than two lobbyists per member of Congress.
	Many, many, many more.
	Many more.
	I couldn't even begin to count.
	They count.
	One of the first things that happened is every member of Congress, you get elected, you go through what they call orientation briefings.
	And first they happen in a bipartisan sense where you have Democrats and Republicans, you go and sit in a room and you get a brief on ethics, the ethics rules, you get a brief on here's how the process works, you get briefs on here's the big issues of the day.
	That you should be somewhat educated on, kind of a 101 introduction.
	And then they break us off into two different places and rooms and buses.
	Democrats go one way, the Republicans go the other way.
	And the briefings that I got as a new Democrat in Congress at the end of 2012, sworn in early 2013, were very much the same as those that my Republican colleagues got in a few distinct ways.
	Number one is I remember they had a PowerPoint slide up showing how your average day would look.
	And it was shocking to me.
	I got to find that image because I remember capturing a picture with my phone.
	But the predominant amount of time, hours in the day, spent lobbying or spent at fundraisers with lobbyists or on the phone calling lobbyists and asking for money was the majority of the day.
	Really, so the amount of time you spent in your committees doing policy work or on the House floor for votes, on average, let's say it's four or five hours a day.
	The rest of the day you are spending Fundraising.
	Four or five is the majority of an eight-hour day.
	I'm sorry.
	So, I mean, this is nothing new to anyone who's ever... My own metric that she's saying right now.
	Don't say the number or you're gonna lie!
	Yeah, this is nothing new to anyone who's ever learned about what legislators actually get up to.
	In fact, you know, one of the chief complaints in the US I've heard from politicians across the aisle is the amount of time they have to spend on the phone asking people for money.
	It is a huge chunk of their day.
	Oh, they can complain a lot more, I think.
	I think they could really let more of a stink about it, maybe oppose it a little bit.
	I agree!
	I'm not sure all of the people that they speak to would necessarily qualify as lobbyists like Tulsi Gabbard is trying to claim here but certainly it's a big problem.
	One might think a solution could be to, you know, remove money from the equation and set campaign limits on how much can be spent like we have here in the UK and maybe also set campaign time limits like we have over here as well so you're not caught in an insufferable cycle of constant campaigning.
	It's just a thought, just a suggestion.
	That's also what's funny about saying that there's never going to be elections if Trump wins.
	That's like his favorite part.
	What they'll look like is, I mean, in question, but it's like he loves it.
	Yeah, that's true.
	And he's also using all the Republican money to fight these legal battles.
	So, like, he's into it.
	That's like his favorite part.
	That's definitely, he gets to stand on a stage and say things into a microphone.
	That's his, that's the best part of his day and it is most days that he's doing it.
	Yeah, people get to pretend that he's important.
	They like have to listen to him.
	Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Yeah, 100%.
	Oh dear.
	Yeah, Tulsi has more to say on the subject.
	So let's hear, let's hear her kind of response to being affronted by this lobbying.
	I saw this, I experienced it when I first got there and I was just like, man, this is wrong.
	I don't like this at all.
	And so I stopped taking any lobbyist contributions and political action committee contributions.
	And I loved it because I saw how my day was completely freed up.
	I was able to focus on my policy work and substantive work in Congress, talking to my constituents in Hawaii, but I saw the contrast.
	And one of my friends who was a lobbyist for renewable energy, She told me, she said, oh wow, you're not taking any more money from lobbyists?
	I said no.
	She's like, well, you're obviously never running for any higher office ever again.
	Your political career is done.
	You are where you are and that's it.
	I talked to some grassroots organizers who were working on different issues who came and visited me and they said, oh my gosh, Tulsi, you stopped taking lobbyist money and PAC money.
	You must obviously be running for president.
	And it was just a funny contrast that happened in the course of a couple of days between the Washington insider perception, which is you will never go anywhere in politics unless you take our money.
	And the opposite coming from people who were like, you know, the $5, $10 donations, the small dollar donations to support the candidate that they like, going out and knocking on doors and making phone calls, joining the cause of actually bringing about grassroots change.
	And their perception was exactly the opposite.
	Like, oh, thank God you don't have anything to do with those corrupt Washington insiders.
	It is the power of the people who will prevail.
	What grown adult with a working brain would think, you aren't taking lobbyist and PAC money anymore, you must be running for president.
	What?
	That didn't happen.
	Sorry, that did not happen.
	That's not a real story.
	That's a pastor story.
	That didn't happen.
	Almost certainly.
	I mean, I would be more interested in a candidate who was denying donations from lobbyists.
	Which happens.
	Yeah, which happens.
	But that's the thing, it's like, what?
	Say what they said to you.
	If they were complimentary, Give us a compliment, or what got them to that point?
	Because you're saying, oh, you must be running for president if you're not taking large... Okay, then where is your money coming from if you're gonna be running it?
	Tell me where the money's going to come from, not just that people that make $5 and $10 donations complimented you kind of once.
	Is it their money instead?
	Because we have numbers for all that, right?
	It's documentation for all these things that she's saying.
	Yeah, we do, we do, and you know, it is interesting to me that she was like, oh yeah, and I'm not going to be taking money from PACs anymore.
	She later set up a PAC, though it was mostly to, um, she had a failed lawsuit against Hillary Clinton for calling her a Russian asset, which she then had to drop, and she wanted to pay the legal bills, so she was trying to get people to donate to her PAC for that.
	This is wild.
	You can fundraise for that.
	That's fucking wild.
	That's insane, isn't it?
	Um my favorite part about that clip though was the audible sigh from Russell towards the end which I I think we are all feeling at this time.
	I'm a human shaped sigh.
	I'm a human shaped exasperated sigh.
	Yeah yeah um the the lobbyist who was uh Yeah, you're not wrong.
	The lobbyists who are saying your political career is done, as in, like, you can never run for higher office, um, may have had a point, though, because, like, unless you have immense personal wealth, in the current system, running for president successfully without lobbying money would be fucking impossible!
	It requires so much money!
	It's insane!
	Also, who has won?
	Who has won with only their personal wealth?
	Well, so far, they've...
	Like, that doesn't mean you win, either.
	Like, a coalition is kind of the point, even if the way that we do it is fucking god-awful.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, the part- she also- even just- she took so long to get to...
	We learned our schedule.
	We did ethics first day, and then when we learned our schedule, ma'am, why do you disrespect my time and attention so much?
	Who is excited about this and who is listening to her?
	This is- there's- I can't believe that, like, MAGA is going to be- this is a bad audition for Price MAGA.
	Straight up.
	This is a shitty fucking audition.
	You are not wrong.
	The video was quite popular, um, in terms of Russell's content, um, but I question how popular the next one would be, if you know what I mean.
	You know, they might have come in with higher expectations for Tulsi, um, than are being delivered.
	Yeah, what does popularity mean after the first five minutes?
	You know what I mean?
	Yeah, yeah.
	What are we doing?
	Exactly.
	How many people stuck to the end?
	That's what I want to know.
	Nonetheless, Tarsy goes on to speak of a piece of legislation she introduced to do with lobbying.
	I introduced legislation when I was in Congress that would have prohibited a member of Congress, their spouse, or their senior staff, their chief of staff from trading in any stocks because you have access to information that the public does not have whether you're acting on it or not.
	Uh, perception is reality and, um, it's just wrong.
	It's just wrong.
	Both sides are doing it.
	They're making a lot of money.
	I've seen those, those memes that people put out that show different members of like what their net worth was when they started and obviously the longer they're there, the more wealthy they become.
	And they're no longer really truly representing the interests of the people.
	How did that legislation go?
	What do you think?
	What do you think?
	They're still doing it, if that answers your question.
	Yeah, in a way, that's an indication of the kind of systemic problems that need to be addressed, obviously.
	Yeah, yeah, I dare say, in a vacuum.
	I agree with this.
	Not terribly shocked that the bill went nowhere.
	It kind of blows my gourd whenever we're on Russell's side because the guest is so bad.
	This is hilarious to me.
	It's like, yeah, what the fuck are you talking about?
	Okay, do you have a statement or are you just reading the back of a shampoo bottle to me?
	Because that's basically what she's doing.
	Get to the point, Tulsi.
	Oh my god.
	For Russell?
	I know, I know, from all, yeah, of all people.
	Yeah, I'm not terribly surprised that her thing didn't go anywhere.
	I will say, it wouldn't necessarily fix the problem.
	We have much more robust legislation against that kind of thing over here, and it just gets transferred in different ways.
	It's like, oh, you get made a member of a board of something.
	There are different ways to approach it that will occur.
	But yeah, I would say probably restricting campaign funds to a certain amount would at least be a good start to what she wanted to achieve that could possibly lead to them getting rid of lobbying.
	But it does feel like an impossible kind of battle a little bit.
	Well, it's absolutely not impossible necessarily.
	There just has to be enough energy behind it and also a cohesive attack plan.
	Because yeah, like, you know, to actually accomplish it, because that's the thing.
	That's what's... Here's what's especially sucky about a politically aware American who has been watching 40 cents of every dollar I've ever paid in taxes go to murdering people in a war.
	Is the...
	We even need to fix the issue of fixing the issues at this point.
	It's such a, like a Matryoshka doll of problems.
	But we can't even get, as an American, I can't even get enthusiastic or excited about legislation that would be awesome, that would be great, that would be really important.
	Because people like her can posture and perform their With no actual consequences, because they know that the legislation is not going to pass.
	So they could make whatever, like they could say whatever they want, they could make whatever, they could put forth any bill they want, and if they don't have, it's just like, you know.
	It's virtue signaling.
	It's a kid calling for a general strike in a week.
	Okay!
	I bet you love that.
	There's a procedure to actually accomplish these goals, and we can't even start the procedure to accomplish the goals, so figure out where you need to put your attention.
	But also, we need to be proportionally upset as a society and as a citizenry, which is not impossible.
	It's just so it's been so obfuscated.
	Yeah, the onion has a lot of layers and get peeled back.
	Certainly.
	Man, oh, man, it's just so she can say this.
	That's the thing is, even if this is a case like, yeah, it's a problem and she can say it until people that are doing the thing start Having consequences for the thing they're doing.
	That's the thing, we have to make it uncomfortable for them so they'll actually have motivation to stop.
	And in history, if the people get ignored enough, the discomfort will be more tangible than I think it is.
	Yes, yes.
	Something usually occurs when that happens.
	Something aggressive.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, I can't help but feel her introducing this bill was just an act of virtue signaling.
	It's hollow.
	It's like, unless you are actually very genuinely campaigning for it and, you know, making a concerted effort with other people and, you know, trying to really get, you know, other people on board.
	Yeah, I don't think that's what happened.
	Oh boy.
	Now we get to the subject of war.
	I know that you have said, for example, that you are anti all war, except for when it involves, I think you may be said Islamic terrorism.
	I know that you'll correct me if I'm wrong.
	And someone mentioned it in the chat.
	I feel like it's a pretty important point.
	But when it seems now that the powerful are able to designate as terrorists their opponents, when we are increasingly seeing in my country and in yours, elite deep state units that were set up To oppose terrorism, inverted commas, abroad, deployed domestically to target the threat ultimately of free speech and the kind of unified personal power that you represent and are advocating for in your book.
	Do we have to look even at the categorisation of terror and what we mean by that as well as perhaps, you know, considering the origins even of specific forms of terrorism such as that which you oppose?
	Yes.
	Briefly on my foreign policy views, I see the world for what it is, not the fantasy land that too many of our politicians view, the lens that they view the world through and how they make decisions that ultimately so often end up being counter to the interests of the American people.
	It should be the last result.
	I'm not a pacifist or an isolationist.
	I just believe that we should exhaust all diplomatic measures, means, outreach before
	we look at the potential of war.
	It should be the last result.
	Sometimes it is necessary.
	The adversary may change in different situations, but we the people, as well as those who wear
	the uniform, must be able to trust that our elected leaders are going to do all that they
	possibly can to prevent war and know that if we are sent into harm's way, it is for
	a mission that is necessary, that is unavoidable, and that serves the safety, security, and
	freedom of the American people.
	Now, Tulsi Gabbard is anti-intervention in the Ukraine war, meaning she's supporting Russia in that situation, and she is very much a vocal proponent of Israel, stating that, quote, you cannot achieve peace without the defeat of Hamas, unquote, and that Hamas is using the Palestinian people, so hey, I guess we should just slaughter them all.
	None of this is terribly surprising from her, given that she's a famous Islamophobe.
	There are dozens of examples of this littered throughout her career, and one of them was fairly recently on the 20th anniversary of 9-11.
	She said this quote, "Let us never forget that it was the Islamist ideology
	which inspired the terrorist attacks and declaration of war against America on 9/11
	and it is this Islamist ideology that continues to fuel terrorist attacks around the world and is the foundation
	for so-called Islamic countries like Pakistan, Turkey, Iran and Saudi
	Arabia's discriminatory policies against Christians, Hindus, Buddhists,
	atheists, etc."
	unquote Do I have problems with the governments of many of these countries?
	Sure!
	Is it the fault of Islam?
	No, it's fucking not.
	It's bigoted men wanting power.
	The same problem affecting the rest of- Yes, that too.
	It's fundamentalism using religion as a cudgel and a cover, which is also what we have been talking about all episode to some degree.
	Yeah.
	Exactly.
	Like, she's pretty okay with the bigoted man in America wanting power because he's the right kind of bigot, according to her.
	You know, I, yeah, it's a lot.
	It's a lot.
	Yeah.
	Well, and to, I mean, OK, so she does publicly identify.
	And I'll explain asterisk at the end.
	And it's really difficult because this is especially fraught.
	I don't know.
	It's a fraught accusation.
	It's a fraught kind of claim because it's around religion.
	But there is a huge problem in India right now and it's fundamentalist Hindu religion is being used again just like just like fundamentalist Christianity right is being used as a cudgel and like there's a ton of of terrorism and and being committed and like really Atrocious like lynchings and stuff being committed against Muslim Indians and it's so to hear this as like you know this groundbreaking quote-unquote Hindu representative in our Congress to hear this come out of her mouth is like that's that's the thing that before you know like that that should give you pause
	Period.
	That's the thing is what people are saying way before 2020 is like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
	Nope.
	Hey, what are we talking about?
	And she's also putting forth another like over simple idea of like, well, no war.
	And listen, I put the phrase no war but class war on my art and shit.
	I support that and believe that.
	I also understand the implications of accomplishing that.
	Like, it's just as simple as I put this bill forth.
	Like, you can say, like, I made a no war bill.
	No war ever again.
	Again, asterisk, except for, except for, except for, which is even if you want to say I'd ever, no war, boo, I don't like it.
	Bill, you know, like, HB 435.
	No war, boo, makes me sad.
	Okay, wha- This process of no longer having military conflicts and war, there's a lot of steps you have to put in place and achieve before you get there.
	And what's really disappointing, and I have heard more voices kind of like, no, it's not new.
	It's always been.
	People that are students of history and students of historical activism, and also professors and lecturers, that kind of thing, are constantly calling out how the activists you know like anti-war activists in the 60s and 70s were kind of like way better informed and and actually had a much more like fleshed out concept of and you know like from an anti-capitalist anti-patriarchal kind of like understanding how the systems need to be dismantled in order to to accomplish any kind of actual like
	growth as a society towards a less violent, you know, like a less militaristic
	government and foreign policy and domestic as we've seen.
	So it's really difficult to listen to this. It's just it's difficult to listen. It's difficult as
	a person having time to get to talk on the internet about this stuff.
	You're eating up so much time saying nothing, and it is all posturing.
	But it's also what Russell does.
	It's valuable for me to say this here.
	It doesn't just apply to her.
	Take this and apply it to the whole show.
	Not just her.
	This is the problem is these simplistic kind of baby brain notions of like, why don't we like, why don't we just stop?
	Well, no, there's a lot of messes that you have to clean up before you even start.
	Now we need to have the conversation.
	And I think that there is an, like, there are Glimmers of hope as far as how exciting it is that people are finally seeing not just, like, the difference, like, you can't just take it as read what the United States government calls, you know, like, one person's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.
	Boy, that means that these stories are complicated.
	And that means that imperialism has to stop and colonialism has to stop and patriarchal, like, kind of, like, oppression has to stop.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	It's all very complicated and messy.
	Yeah, for sure.
	But understandable.
	Truly.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Everyone who's listening to me, you can understand it.
	You absolutely can.
	And you don't need to be working alone eight hours a day in your house like me to listen to it.
	It's like, it's not that difficult.
	You are smarter than you think when you are thinking critically about these situations.
	Truly.
	For sure.
	Truly.
	Tell you what, we've got one last clip and it's a joyous clip because it's Tulsi leaving the show.
	Tulsi, thank you so much for coming on our show.
	Thank you.
	If only we had some image of your book's cover that we could anchor in our consciousness to help us to purchase it.
	The book For Love of Country Leave the Democrat Party Behind is available now.
	We'll post the link and you should follow Tulsi at Tulsi Gabbard across all social media platforms.
	Tulsi, thank you so much for joining us.
	So good to see you, Russell.
	It's been a tremendous pleasure.
	Thank you for what you do.
	Thank you.
	Yeah, thanks, man.
	Yeah, thanks man.
	Good lord.
	I felt this one was particularly frustrating and insufferable as you've been picking up online.
	Boring!
	BORING!
	Holy shit!
	Am I going to die of cringe or boredom?
	That's the game for recording this podcast.
	That's my role, is to survive.
	It's my insurgency.
	Every week.
	I don't have to win.
	I just have to not lose, not cringe, or bore myself to death.
	It's amazing.
	Well, she's so milked.
	OK, there's several levels I wish to engage with Tulsi Gabbard, right?
	As a politician herself, as a pundit, what is her angle?
	And if she's getting in with Tucker Carlson, I don't see why she would want to run for office again.
	Practically.
	As a practical application, right?
	Like, if she's hitching her wagon, and like, if the wagon is hitched securely, And stays hitched to Tucker Carlson.
	She has to do way less work.
	And why would you run for anything?
	If this is a bid to be Trump's VP, it's abysmal.
	this is if this is a bid to be Trump's VP it's abysmal it's abysmal in this case yeah for sure
	I didn't watch the Rogan interview.
	Maybe she did better there.
	I don't know.
	Why would you do that?
	There's no evidence that would suggest that she is more interesting.
	I mean, he's maybe better at being interesting.
	I mean, well, we know that.
	That's true.
	That's why he has a big podcast.
	But, jeezy Pete, that's so fucking boring.
	So fucking Boring dude.
	Yeah.
	Oh my god.
	Um and but I and even like why like Russell has her on because she's doing a book thing and that's just what you do.
	I get that but I think that the there can be an underlying subtext that we identified a long time ago is like this is the this is the tuck or suck up hour.
	Yep.
	Like stay free with Russell Brand is the tuck or suck up hour because like he wants to either either We hitch that same wagon, or usurp.
	Because this isn't a community.
	That's not what they're actually doing.
	That's what they say they're doing, and they're actually constantly crabs in a bucket fighting for supremacy of the market share.
	They're all struggling for market share.
	So to understand that Russell wants to be a Tucker figure, or maybe he thinks that he can be a British one, which if you're focusing on the United States, what are we going to do?
	I don't know.
	There's a lot of question marks in the middle of the underpants gnomes kind of equation that aren't readily apparent.
	And also knowing about her kind of background.
	Her background informs kind of where I think she's going.
	None of it makes a lot of obvious sense, right?
	So what do you know about Tulsi Gabbard before we even started this?
	Or before you looked into it?
	What's your UK perspective?
	Yeah, I'd heard the name several times associated with bad things being said.
	That was kind of my broad experience of Tulsi Gabbard prior to this.
	I knew that she'd been in Congress.
	um and and and had some some troubling beliefs i didn't know that much else about it um other than that really because it's never been that relevant but the the media circles that i kind of listened to i'd never heard her presented in a positive light um and i can see why i but yeah I mean, we certainly, I think as the, you know, kind of legacy media gave us a mixed bag.
	It was, I think it was harder several years ago to kind of parse where she's coming from.
	Because also, if you're not getting as much coverage, if you're not talking as much, then you don't really get the nuance.
	And if we're just hearing soundbites, it's just what's benefits Russell, it benefits Tucker, it benefits Joe Rogan, it benefits all of those, these kind of like media figures is to take it out of context.
	Especially like she's got a not particularly compelling or interesting but like she's got enough like cover like you know it's kind of this like a performative you know virtue signaling cover.
	To make all the excuses you could possibly want for her kind of position, right?
	And it's heavily political, almost exclusively.
	She's such a political creature.
	Yeah.
	That's why she's boring.
	Yeah.
	That's why she's a boros noros news fest, is because people are excited by someone who actually has a point of view.
	I'd be interested to hear her actual process of disillusionment with the Democratic Party.
	True.
	If she were honest.
	But I know she's not gonna be.
	So... Like, I wanna know the truth.
	Yeah.
	I know I'm not gonna get it, so I'm not gonna drill for truth.
	Right?
	So, like, she's not very... And so... So you also haven't necessarily been exposed to any kind of, like, deep dives on her, right?
	No, no, not particularly.
	No.
	This is kind of just the person that you got, right?
	Yep.
	Okay.
	So I can't, I can't do a deep dive.
	It's also been a while since I've listened.
	I've, I've, I have been, I've listened to several, several that either Are about her or involve the group she is a part of.
	So take all of that, listener, take all of that with a grain of salt.
	And I know a number of you probably are already yelling at me the things that you're like, yes, I listen!
	Maybe it's behind the bastards.
	It might have been worse for everyone.
	And I was like, yeah, I listen to it too, right?
	So I am not coming, obviously, also I'm the person that walks in not knowing anything technically, like quote unquote, which.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Not great at that job, know a lot of stuff.
	It's a mixed bag.
	Basically, all of this is very complicated because she is a person of color and she is a woman, so she has these kind of marginalization intersections.
	That make her a little more, like she can be a little more indignant and a little more kind of, not Teflon necessarily, but it can insulate her from accusations because, especially with your religious, taking someone's religion into question is extremely fraught, regardless of how valid it is.
	But so all that being said, that's kind of my like disclaimer of like, listen, I'm I am coming into this just knowing what I know.
	And which is honestly pretty is a lot.
	But, um.
	So she grew up in a cult and not like a, is it?
	No, like they worshipped at the feet, her and her family, worshipped at the feet of like a surfer named Chris.
	Like he's, and he's an awful human being.
	Like standard, like a cult leader that like succeeds for a while is going to degenerate and kind of the same, like it's almost, it's not like boring, it's like very kind of like, The status quo for successful cult leaders?
	There's a pattern.
	People that get into it.
	So calling her a Hindu-American, that's why I said asterisk.
	That's why it's fraught, because when you are a sect that... I don't know that...
	Big Hindu would claim her.
	You know what I mean?
	Right, yeah, yeah.
	And again, that's extremely, like, I know I can feel the wind on my dick, because it's swinging in the wind right now.
	I know that, because I'm not coming from a whole, like, OK, here's the whole story in this podcast, and that's the purpose.
	But guess what?
	That's the headline.
	And also like her, her particular breed of cult upbringing is not particularly special for the time that it occurred in.
	So, um, you know, I mean, there is, there's always some kind of compelling weird story, but to say that she is a Hindu American, like people that knew her background from the jump are like, whoa, no, no, no, this is like, Straight up, like, kind of, you know, any other problematic group that you would think of that's causing a problem, not necessarily Scientology, but like Sea Org, because they're even in kind of the same regions of the world, like Pacific Rim, you know, kind of like finding places in Australia, like Australia was a real hotbed for this type of cult activity, not just Scientology, a lot of different, you know.
	pretty terrible groups got to and a lot of them Christian and and so there is
	also Christianity mixed in there too. It's very like to say that she's
	Hindu-American is like is a bit of an affront. With the Christianity like she
	says she she does rely spiritually on the Bible quite often as well if that
	informs the discussion at all.
	Which is true, because of Chris, because of Big Daddy Chris.
	So, why I was kind of like listening for her motive, or like maybe lack of one, right?
	The reason that she is so, okay, Hi, Chicago.
	That one's close.
	All right.
	So her actual motive.
	And again, you can't... I'm not speaking to reading your mind.
	There is a lot of proof and documentation because when you... Basically, her family, her father and mother were higher-ups in this cult, this kind of fundamentalist cult.
	But it's also very wooey.
	She's a Hindu-American in the way that Katy Perry and Russell had a Hindu ceremony for their wedding.
	It's tourist, right?
	It's tourism.
	And so, see?
	My memory is weird, fucked up, mostly only causing problems.
	Anyway, um, I remember all this crap.
	So, uh, her motives, because, and so parallel efforts are made by Mormon Church, IBLP, a lot of other like Christian fundamentalist sects.
	So I'm not coming just for Wuyi New Age.
	There's a lot of religious fundamentalist efforts that happened probably on the heels of the televangelism kind of explosion in the 80s.
	Because you've got like Jesus Freak 70s right kind of coming in and that's a whole section of cult and then you've got like a whole other like evangelical Christian vibe that can kind of get mixed in and also obfuscated because new agey wee-woo looks a lot nicer to people that are kind of already off the beaten path than fundamentalist like Pentecostal Christianity.
	Right yeah yeah.
	So being able to even like ramp you know we're talking about like Ramtha we're talking about you know like all these other Kind of like this cultic milieu.
	And when that cultic milieu is serious, they want to breed...
	And Mormons, there's a lot of fundamentalist Christian sects that are doing kind of the same, were doing the same thing, 80s and 90s, being an army for God and proselytizing all this stuff, basically breeding a generation to enter into politics and public life.
	So as a very concerted effort to affect politics.
	It's why Mormons are so over-represented in our government.
	It's why there's other religions that are over-represented compared to like Our actual population.
	Right.
	Um, and religious affiliation is one of those, like, kind of loopholes that you can't really come for because how dare you speak about my relationship with the larva, right?
	It's, it's a cute loophole.
	So, um, by cute I mean terrible.
	So, um, she was basically groomed as the child of a higher up in the cult to She was groomed for politics.
	So her motive is not to, like, does not come from a place, because the point is to grow, or is to install their kind of point of view, like their members, as high as they possibly can in government.
	That, and that's, that's, I'm not, I know it sounds conspiratorial, it's an express purpose that a lot of these groups make.
	Conspiracies do actually exist.
	They are a thing, you know.
	It's not a, yeah, so it's not a theory.
	It just sounds, it sounds crazy.
	I'm, and again, I've said this before, I'm fucking thrilled that, like, people are finally taking some of this, like, radical fundamentalist, like, psychopathy that's been brewing in this country seriously, fucking finally.
	Jesus Christ.
	It's interesting that she was raised that way.
	That does track because, you know, I saw that she first entered Hawaii's state government at 21.
	And I was like, that's very young.
	That's very young.
	How does that happen, you know?
	Because you have a system behind you that is pushing you into these positions.
	And she also, she talked real slick.
	Here's what's crazy, is I have heard her speak before in a way that's very dynamic and not literally melting my eyeballs with boredom.
	Eyeballs intact, right?
	And so she has the ability.
	So that's what I can't necessarily discern is like, have you just lost the mojo?
	Why are you not even delivering?
	She used to be able to stand and deliver, and now she can't even do that.
	Maybe it's an off day.
	I don't know.
	You're right.
	You are right, but maybe Rogan was good.
	I have no idea.
	Or it's just arbitrary.
	If Tucker says that he likes her, then she wins.
	I don't know.
	That's not sustainable.
	You've got to have Riz.
	You've got to have the juice.
	That was not a particularly juicy interview.
	So, but that's the thing is like where she's coming from and what got her into a position in Hawaii is she like the point of getting into position the that that is the goal is to get into the highest possible position of power not To not even necessarily to represent I mean like technically I think they are kind of I'm representing the views of my people, but not her constituents, where she's coming from and also like.
	This is the type of politician who will say whatever they need to say.
	Yes.
	Not be consistent.
	And I mean, it's difficult because that's also just like politicians, but specifically these kind of like, you know, like they're young.
	What they were doing with Josh Duggar and the Duggar family was they were like pushing him into political office.
	Oh, the rapist, just to be clear.
	If you're not familiar with horrible religious slash extremely popular reality show drama, that's me.
	That's on me.
	I don't want to make that assumption.
	Google it or don't.
	It's terrible.
	But there's a lot of instances where, and some have succeeded to get into office, and so whenever people sound really off the wall, There might be a reason, because they're just saying whatever they need to say to keep and maintain power.
	And it would behoove anybody, I think, to go for, like, MAGA sounds easier.
	You can get it.
	Like, it's nice work if you can get it.
	Yeah, I think, you know, that speaks very much to her supposed record on LGBTQ plus rights, you know, while she was in office.
	It's like, yeah, she knew not to fucking talk about it.
	Because she was in the wrong party for that.
	Now, obviously, mask off to say whatever you want.
	Also speaks to the pervasiveness of Islamophobia on both sides, all sides of the aisle.
	That's always been fucking fine to say.
	That's an indictment on America.
	I think.
	And what the American Governmental Project has been.
	So she is coming from a place of getting where she needs to be.
	Not even necessarily to represent her constituents or to be a public servant necessarily is to be installed.
	And so I think I think if we were all well-informed, critical analyzers of media with a lot of extra time on our hands, then it would be an issue that she is so hypocritical and so kind of wishy-washy and flippy-floppy.
	But we aren't.
	People that are like, oh, well, she represents Hindu Americans.
	And like, it takes a minute.
	And also it's weird to say publicly into a microphone.
	No, she doesn't.
	And to say like, oh, well, she's a woman of color.
	Like she.
	Lesson to be taken that I have heard many times over, and it applies here, is not all skinfolk are kinfolk.
	And that's how I feel as, you know, like, that's how I feel as, you know, a fab, Political entity is I'm getting treated like a woman and that's, you know, that's how the world treats me.
	That's how I'm going to engage with it as a political kind of entity.
	And that's also like it's insulting to all those groups that she's using.
	She's weaponizing her intersectionality because she's being fundamentally dishonest about where she's coming from.
	And they took great pains to separate her From the group that she's a part of.
	I mean, Synanon did the same thing.
	There's a lot of connections to be made with lawmakers and with government.
	And I think that there's a number of groups that kind of found how How those those relationships could be compromised.
	And that's why they want to install, you know, like children of cult members into like those positions, because then you have, there's an implication of kind of like a loyalty, right?
	Because usually, when kids are in a high pressure, high pressure group is also a word I should have been using, right?
	A high pressure group.
	Because usually kids are either going to be like, All in or completely out.
	And you don't always have control.
	You can't actually make a Manchurian candidate.
	You can't actually make a puppet.
	You can try really hard.
	So it's also, I mean, I think there's something to be said for, you know, she has been apart from this group for a long time.
	So just using that as an assumption, that's why I'm like, I'm not going to make a call until the end of the show because I'm not going to, I want to hear what she has to say.
	Or lack thereof.
	Very little, yes.
	Yeah, not just.
	And so that's the thing.
	I think maybe that she hasn't adapted to new politics.
	Politics have fucking changed since 2016.
	That's true.
	Better or worse, we know.
	Worse.
	But things have changed and she's not adapting.
	She kind of had the formula for the Democratic Party for that to work.
	And that only took her so far because politics changed and I don't think that she's necessarily adapted in that way.
	But if she's adapting to the right-wing conservative InfoSphere and the kind of political pundit class, that's her mode.
	I just can't see like I mean I can't see her being VP like it's just yeah yeah
	Though, I mean, Mike Pence had the personality of wallpaper paste, so, you know, it's tough to say.
	But it had nothing to do with him.
	He had, like, he was the evangelical vote.
	The thing is, now that Trump has already accomplished that, then what, like, that's the thing is, what's the angle?
	Like, what is the best...
	There's a lot of dogs in this race, you know?
	Potentially the intersectionality is the thing, you know, that they can then use as a defense for all of the bigotry.
	Potentially, I don't know, I'm guessing, but... Yeah, but like, I don't like listening to them.
	Like, Vivek is still swinging for the fences.
	He's doing well.
	He's doing well.
	Regardless of the reasonable, uh, like regardless of how reasonable that effort should be.
	And I, you know, honestly, like the thing that like, I say I'm bored and it's true.
	Out of my fucking mind.
	But what exacerbates that feeling is the frustration that there's just a low-level frustration of um talking about any like this sounds so fucking trivial as a conversation like it's already kind of trivial but like compared to what any important conversation on the news and in the world right now is this is just like
	It's not even fluff.
	It's dust.
	It's just detritus.
	And so spending time talking about it, it's just... it compounds the miserable waste of time.
	Like, it's really...
	It just cranks up my resentment level, I think, listening to this shit.
	Yeah, it would be one thing if she showed up and had something to say.
	Right.
	But apparently not.
	And yeah, while there are much more serious things going on in the world, it's like, well, why are you here?
	Just go away.
	Just go away like the deflated balloon you are.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Especially as like, if you're, you know, if you're representing Hawaiian people, if you're representing, you know, like any of the intersections that like... And this is what's frustrating with politics across the board, both, all, whatever, is the representation is not enough.
	The representation, you know, like that's the thing is like having all these intersectional kind of like elements to who you are.
	Yeah.
	If you're not going if you're just going to ignore all of them, it's not the fuck enough.
	Yeah.
	And and so you have to also live your values and live your truth and like, well, no, she should live her truth.
	She's not.
	I'm very curious about her truth that she has lived.
	I would be far more interested if she was doing that.
	Yeah.
	Don't just say your values, live your values.
	Period.
	And so it's funny that even Russell was just as eyeball meltingly bored.
	I laughed so hard when he audibly sighed down the microphone while she was talking.
	I was like, this is fantastic.
	This is exactly how I feel.
	Thank you.
	I think it's a lot more obvious like on the on video you know than it is so like so you know listeners trust us right like but also yeah it's like it's well there's a lot that you just you can't hear him just kind of like struggling to keep the thread and I mean and and yeah when Russell's coming for your bramble then like what are you doing?
	And I just, it's really interesting.
	I mean, it would make sense to me that, well, and also maybe that's like, that's the thing, is if she's half-heartedly trying to get a VP slot, you know, whatever, like, it doesn't, I don't know.
	I don't really see, like, if she's not gonna go full force for either, as far as, like, if she wants to be, like, anybody wants to be girl Tucker, be girl Tucker.
	Um, or if you want to be a politician, like, I don't think, like, it's usually a pipeline, certainly, or it can be a pipeline for like, a politician to a lucrative pundit career or writing books
	or, you know, being a commentator, which is also bad and wrong. And like, you know, between
	that and then also like private versus public sector kind of like contamination. Those are
	all issues. But like, if she's just trying, if this is all about, you know, kind of the tuck or
	suck up hour, that's one thing.
	I don't see a person trying to be vice president here.
	And so, I mean, again, I don't necessarily have I don't have a dog in this particular fight because it's all bad.
	Just pick your flavor of shit.
	Yeah, I don't.
	You know what?
	Doesn't matter.
	But she does.
	She's extremely entrenched in in the discourse and the fact that she has a place performing like this.
	Yeah, it's not a great sign.
	It will be interesting to see, regardless what happens, it will be interesting to see where she lands in the next couple of years, I think.
	Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
	There's no like, there's no sign here.
	But if she's waiting, so waiting for the election, right, to make a decision saying that, like not saying Trump.
	Yeah.
	That says a lot to me.
	And maybe she's waiting for some, she could be just like, Putting herself on the back burner, because she's not ideological, right?
	So she's only coming from a place of strategy.
	Yeah.
	From everything that I have learned and understood, obviously.
	Very cynical.
	Yeah, very cynical.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Extremely cynical.
	So what she's driving towards, it would make sense if she's hanging back to see if a couple other candidates get knocked out before and then also learn from their mistakes and climb over their corpses to get where she needs to be.
	I'm interested to see if she, because I know that she can be a dynamic speaker and she can say the right thing.
	Unless she doesn't, she has not adapted to the way politics work in America anymore.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is an interesting thing to consider.
	Either way, what a massive waste of time.
	As a human being.
	Spectacularly, yes, absolutely.
	Good lord.
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