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May 25, 2023 - Stay Free - Russel Brand
01:08:38
Rogan & Musk ATTACKED By The Liberal Media - #137 - Stay Free With Russell Brand
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In this video, we're going to be talking about the difference between a real and a fake gun.
In this video, we're going to be talking about the difference between a real and a fake gun.
Rock you by fire.
Rock you by fire.
In this video, we're going to...
In this video, you're going to see the future.
This is my time.
This is my time.
You've had your time.
This is my time.
Is that a bit my time?
No, you don't get that.
This is my time.
This is my time.
Hello, you Awakening Wonders.
Thanks for joining us on Stay Free with Russell Brand.
We're gonna stay free together, aren't we?
We've got a lot to talk about.
What do you reckon is the worst type of apocalypse?
What's the worst type of apocalypse?
One where some people are saying things that you don't agree with, or one where there could be weapons that are so dangerous, if they actually do go off, everyone's gonna die?
Is that a question for me?
It's for the viewers. Let me know in the chat in the comments. If you're watching this on Rumble,
join us on Locals. If you're watching this on YouTube, for the first 15 minutes we're going
to be talking about Joe Biden, we're going to be talking about Elon Musk, we're going to be
talking about Joe Rogan, we're going to be talking about those accusations. We're going to be talking
about our former Prime Minister Boris Johnson lobbying for prolonging the Ukraine conflict.
We're going to be looking at the story that Republicans are looking to revoke the last
remaining nuclear treaty. And then we're going to ask you with straight face, what's more apocalyptic?
Joe Rogan and Elon Musk having views, or the establishment really Provoking a nuclear power, and we'll talk you through it in a way so that you know it's not conspiracy theories and you don't have a little freak-out, even though I know you can handle the truth.
I know you can handle the truth.
When we're on Rumble exclusively, and there's a link in the description that you should click on, when we're on Rumble exclusively, we'll be talking about Biden being accused of censoring vaccine injury stuff.
Allegedly!
Gotta be careful, you cannot- that's just alleged.
I think you were- I don't think you needed it, but well done anyway.
I like to be careful.
We need to be in the habit.
I call it, this is like the prophylactic of censorship and surveillance.
That's simply like unrolling a prophylactic.
Sure.
Yes, we know what you do with it.
You unroll that.
Yes.
Over the... Oh yeah, we know.
Allegedly!
No, there's nothing alleged about it.
That's just the description.
That's what happens in school, you get taught how to do that.
Did they teach you that in your school?
I'm not sure they taught me how to do it.
Certainly there weren't one-on-one lessons.
That's a risk.
On an unrelated note, there are further revelations around Bill Gates' relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, who I'm beginning to think is not a great guy.
No.
For a start, there's sex offences that he's been convicted of.
Then some of his charity organisations look like they've got secondary motivations.
I'm starting another charity.
Another one.
Why don't you shut down that island, first of all?
Stop flying everywhere around the world on nonce jets.
Allegedly.
Although, that was a conviction.
That's the bit, you still say that word, but you put allegedly.
That's fine.
We'll get round the guidelines.
It's a... No problem.
I sometimes think that slangs that are quite regional will be alright.
You can, if you want, we'll post in the chat a thing there telling you, like, we can have you as a little translator.
Yeah, nice, yeah.
For slogans and slang.
For your mucky words.
It's not that bad.
Well, it is bad, but the word's not the problem.
Ah!
A word!
But also the thing it describes, which seems to be being enjoyed at an extraordinary level.
Time now for Phreach.
What happens when you combine freedom and speech to make free speech?
This is what happens.
It's Phreach.
Show the last title sequence, free.
Look how offensive that font is that he's used.
Yeah, it's as basic as they come, isn't it?
It's blocky and awful.
It's so bad, isn't it?
It's, like, offensively bad on sort of every single level.
You cannot use... ...snatches of dialogue... ...as the... ...grams bed.
He's using yourself against you.
It's... I don't like it.
Right.
It's, uh... It's, uh... It's an... You're a boorish.
It's a serpent eating its own tail.
I think I mention it quite a lot.
You do, yeah.
I mention it quite a lot.
I like it.
I like saying it.
I like that it sounds like Boris Johnson.
I like saying it.
Look, here is some free speech right out of your mouth, Primal Colin.
When you're not busy checking your phone for Elon messages, has Zuckerberg responded to your jiu-jitsu challenge yet?
No.
He hasn't, but of the famous jiu-jitsu-ers, they are Ashton Kutcher, Tom Hardy, Zuckerberg, I... I... Zuckerberg, I've chosen.
Like, of course, once I had to play that werewolf game with Ashton Kutcher.
You know that werewolf game?
No.
Oh, it's a game.
Someone's a werewolf.
I don't know.
It was around his house.
I went there once.
That sounds brilliant.
It was alright.
Like, someone's a werewolf, he's around Ashton Kutcher's house.
Yeah.
Ashton Kutcher's quite confident when you actually meet him.
Of course he is.
Right.
He's extremely attractive.
Right, that's where he's got his confidence from, that and his millions.
And his investments in Airbnb.
Aww, is he invested in that?
I think he owns most of it.
Oh, you're joking!
No, I'm not joking.
It should just be that he's Ashton Kutcher and that's it.
No, it isn't that.
Well, he won that werewolf game as well, another accolade.
Of course he did.
And I was trying my hardest.
It was the first time I played it.
Anyway, look... He's laughing at you, Brand.
He might be a black belt, I think.
And Tom Hardy, even though Tom Hardy's a blue belt and I'm a purple belt, which is a progression, he is also Bane.
Yeah.
And I feel that that will be of some use.
He'd only have to talk to you for you to...
And he's Reggie and Ronnie Kray.
Right, oh my word.
I'm a very sensitive person.
Like, if he starts doing all that stuff to me, I don't know.
Game over already, innit?
I'm getting nervous.
I don't know what I'm going to respond with.
Like, what am I going to do, like, rap it out of hop?
Oh, hello, I'm the Easter Rabbit, I'm Hop.
I actually ain't seen that.
I didn't watch Hop!
It was a minor holiday hit!
No, don't talk it down.
No, it's a good film.
A lot of people like that film.
And also, I'm one of the Minions.
Right.
So... You're not the Minions, are you?
I'm one of them.
So, the last one I'm fighting is Tom Hardy.
Yeah.
Okay.
Even though he actually went and won, I could have actually gone to a BJJ contest.
Wow.
He went, he was at one, I think, in like Milton Keynes.
He's winning them all now.
Of course he is, he's Bane!
Yeah.
That's Bane!
You've seen him when he's Bane.
He's too much, hasn't he?
He's all puts on weight, loses weight.
Let's see why you missed out on the role.
What do you mean?
And action.
I've been, Batman, in a lot of trouble now.
Listen, what are you doing?
I've come to... Sorry, I can't... Anyway, basically, I'm going to take this off because, let's face it, it's impeding my speech.
Batman, you're in a lot of trouble, actually, because I'm sick and tired of you.
You're a vigilante, you're acting... In fact, Batman would be nicked in no time.
They explore that in some of the films, don't they?
Look, um, also, why was young Putin, says Rogue Han, uh, so happy?
Hasn't he got a war to fight?
So, there you go.
I don't know why he's like that.
It's not actually young Putin, that's the... It's not actually him.
No.
He looks like him.
He looks like him.
Just think of it as, uh, like a deepfake.
Yep.
It's like a deepfake.
Shall we, uh, shall we do the, well, shall we do the news?
Let's do some news.
Uh, some people are asking if you get depressed or disheartened by what's happening in the... Yes, oh, right.
But what's happening in the news and then just generally... Yeah, that's it.
Inspire the news, not the girls.
Of course he does.
He doesn't even like it when this happens.
Even that's too much to deal with.
That reminds me of my youth.
That's in itself quite troubling.
So what's worse, a fake apocalypse or a true apocalypse?
Let's have a look.
Rogan and Elon Musk have been attacked as apocalyptics.
Apocalyptics?
That's not bad.
That's not their fault.
No, it's Apocalyptic Conspiracy Theorists.
Apocalyptic Conspiracy Theorists.
I don't know that that's what the issue is, is it?
That's like, that's from a piece in The Beast.
And I suppose what it's saying is that they are peddling misinformation and that what they're doing is nefarious.
But the truth is, as we were telling you yesterday, we have Ron DeSantis doing the announcement
of his candidacy on Twitter, with Tucker affiliated with Twitter.
The truth is now that around Elon Musk there is a significant movement.
Daily Wire, Twitter, there's so much power, you can't ignore the power of that narrative.
And I feel like the liberal establishment and offshoots of the liberal establishment
are committed to attacking narratives that contradict their preferred version of reality.
Is it apocalyptic, let me know in the chat and the comments, to have a variety of potentially
opposing views, whether that's people like, I would say, relatively conventional conservative
politicians, like Ron DeSantis, more demagogic figures like Trump, billionaires with opinions
like Musk, and people like Joe Rogan, who I guess is an unprecedented figure, I mostly
consider it'd be like a male Oprah Winfrey to tell you the truth.
Essentially, it seems like anyone who don't toe the line, they want to shut down.
What is available to you as a perspective?
It's one of the questions we asked you yesterday, and what we're essentially offering you is, what is more dangerous?
Having people on the internet with a variety of opinions, or is it It's more worrying that Republican senators have introduced a bill to scrap the one remaining nuclear arms treaty with Russia.
It seems to me that that could lead to an actual apocalypse.
I mean, what was the point of that treaty?
Presumably that treaty was, oh, do you know what?
This will make it less likely that we have a nuclear war.
Yeah, that's exactly it.
Yeah, it's obviously about nuclear armaments that are going on at the moment.
Really interestingly as well, looked into this, in the decades leading up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S.
unilaterally withdrew from several arms control treaties with Russia, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, you would think that might be quite important, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, and Open Skies.
So this is something that the U.S.
have been doing.
Do we really need this Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and this Mid-Range Missile Treaty?
All these treaties are...
Get rid of those!
What were they really doing?
They played this as very much like Moscow has suspended their participation in what they call the New START Treaty, which sounds a bit mental.
Obviously, when it was evolved, the New START Treaty, it was like, we're not going to use nuclear, you know, missiles on each other.
But now, so Russia have said they'll suspend participation, although they will comply with the limits set by the treaty.
So what Republicans are now saying is, We're going to go out of it as well, as well as all those other ones that we've gone out of, you know?
So it's looking increasingly like this is going in the wrong direction.
Seems to me that that lack of treaties is more likely to lead to an apocalypse than Joe Rogan Inquiring as to whether there might be alternative medicines that could be applied in a pandemic.
Obviously we can't go into that while we're still on YouTube.
We'll be talking about Bill Gates and Epstein when we're on Rumble.
And in fact what we're talking about more broadly is what is called a conspiracy theory these days.
What is called right-wing these days.
What What are the new mechanics via which alternative narratives
and independent media are being shut down?
We're looking at that in some detail.
Before that though, Boris Johnson, who used to be the Prime Minister of our country, which
seems sort of absurd already, has gone to Texas to lobby Republicans to keep arming
Ukraine.
Now we're talking about what's more likely to cause an apocalypse.
Is it Elon Musk saying that Twitter should be a true free speech platform like Rumble,
where people can openly discuss varying and opposing political opinions, or is it...
Continuing to provoke Russia by arming Ukraine.
Of course Ukraine has the right to defend itself.
Of course we should be looking for a solution to this problem that doesn't mean the shelling and annihilation of Ukrainian people, their cities and their population.
But who benefits from this ongoing arming of Ukraine?
Privately many people are saying that it's impossible for Ukraine to win this war and yet Boris Johnson is saying, we've gotta win!
We're gonna win!
Oh, we're so close!
We can almost touch it!
But that is not what people are privately saying.
In fact, Buddy Boy Texera's revelations were precisely of that nature.
The poor sap was revealing in chat rooms across the USA that...
There are boots on the ground, Tootsie Boots, down on the floor, in Ukraine, contrary to what we're being told, and in private, people are deeply concerned.
And when the news report on Buddy Boy takes air, or what they say, oh, he was a, he was a gun nut, you know, well, he's in the army, what do you want him to be, like a pacifist, who faints at the sight of a gun?
Okay, you little maggots, here's a gun!
I didn't join the army to be presented with an arm!
That's a ridiculous expectation to have.
Now, Gareth, what else can you tell me about this lobbying?
Well, I think this relates back to that Joe Rogan article.
We were just looking at the Daily Beast.
So Boris Johnson went over there.
So this was a meeting by pro-Ukrainian think tankers.
Now, we know about think tanks.
That they're often funded in slightly nefarious ways, or certainly lack of transparency about the ways they're funded.
It included leading conservative figures, politicians, donors and captains of industry.
We don't know what industry that is.
One of the things he said was, it will pay off massively in the long run, if you stick with this war.
You're backing the right horse.
Ukraine is going to win.
They are going to defeat Putin.
Now exactly with what you just said, One of the things that came out of Teixeira's revelations was that this war won't be over in 2023 and at most only modest gains would be made by Ukraine.
Now what's the biggest disinformation in there?
Is it Boris Johnson telling lawmakers that Ukraine is going to win this war?
Or Joe Rogan doing a podcast?
Well, it seems that what's more influential and more likely to have an impact, and one would say a negative impact on people's lives, primarily the lives of Ukrainian people, is the latter.
It seems that that is dangerous misinformation.
Misinformation, malinformation, disinformation, in spite of attempts to normalise these ideas, is going to remain subjective and remain open to the accusation that what they mean is information that we don't like.
OK, so listen, we're going to talk about a subject that's too contentious for us to discuss on the WHO.
You know that the WHO's biggest funder, the country of Germany.
The second biggest funder? The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
A apparent charity, able to give donations second only to the biggest donation available.
So we're going to leave YouTube now, we'll be exclusively broadcasting on Rumble,
not because we want to convey misinformation or peddle conspiracy theories,
but because we want to have an honest, open, inclusive conversation about information
that might be detrimental to the ongoing onslaught of establishment power, censorship,
surveillance, protest laws, militarized police.
These are the things we're interested in.
These are the things you're interested in.
Click on the link in the description.
Join us over there.
We're going to first of all talk about a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of pressuring platforms to censor The vaccine injured.
Calling them, ironically, Gareth, anti-vax.
One thing you are not, if you've got a vaccine injury, is anti-vax, because you got that injury through a vaccine.
I mean, unless these people were anti-vaccine, I don't want a vaccine and inadvertently tripped over in some sort of laboratory, possibly in Wuhan, where a lot of clownish antics appear to go on, a lot of mishaps and a lot of blunders.
A Frank Spencer-like environment, I'd call it.
Look it up.
So what's happening there?
Are platforms being pressured to censor vaccine injury reports?
This is what this lawsuit is about.
challenging the government basically who as we know a lot through the revelations of the twitter
files push social media platforms to censor content by people who have claimed that they've
been injured by covid19 vaccines so then as you said the lawsuit notes that the plaintiffs are
not anti-vaxxers but this is people who had relations who were affected by the vaccine.
So Breanne Dressen was reportedly injured by AstraZeneca vaccine while voluntarily participating
in the trial. Another plaintiff wasn't affected by the Moderna vaccine but said their 16 year
old son died from cardiac arrest and believes it was induced by the vaccine after five days.
Now I guess what they're saying is their conversations on twitter and on social media
were censored and repressed and called misinformation but often what they were looking for was
Sharing personal experiences, exchanging advice, medical research and support with others who were medically harmed by taking the vaccine.
That doesn't sound to me at this stage like misinformation.
Now we know in this country, now if you were coming from a position of there have been no vaccine injuries, but we know that this is now a business that is starting of people, you know, receiving money for vaccine injuries.
So the UK government has paid out four million pounds in the COVID-19 vaccine damages according to official data.
31 people have successfully made claims by being severely disabled by the vaccine on behalf of someone who died from the vaccine as of December 2022.
So the Office of National Statistics reports 52 deaths caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.
So I guess what they're saying is These things have occurred.
It doesn't matter at this point how small these statistics are.
They are people who have died or been injured.
If when people go on to social media to share advice and to share stories, those people are then censored, that doesn't feel right and that's why there's this lawsuit.
Seems like there is an overreach when it comes to censorship.
Do you agree?
Let me know in the chat and the comments.
Seems like there's an attempt, almost globally, to create the category of conspiracy theorists, or the category of far-right rhetoric.
No doubt there are things that are called conspiracy theories and there is such a thing as far-right rhetoric, but what appears to be happening if the various new bills and legislation around the world that seems to be predicated upon shutting down conversation, whether it's in New Zealand or Australia or the United Kingdom or America, it appears to be about being able to exert control over what can be said and what can't be said.
And this is just another example of things that should be able to be discussed being shut down.
We know that throughout the pandemic expert voices were silenced because they were at odds with the dominant mainstream narrative of that time.
Now when we're talking about conspiracy theories it was becoming clear to me that what it is is a way of making you suspicious of or even dismissive of a story without listening to what's being said.
Jeffrey Epstein is, in a sense, a great avatar of this issue, because many people believe that Jeffrey Epstein didn't end his own life in custody, but that his life was ended in custody, particularly and specifically because he has information about powerful people that he could use against them.
That is regarded as a conspiracy theory.
But now the mainstream media are reporting that Jeffrey Epstein had threatened to blackmail Bill Gates.
Now, note that when Bill Gates has spoken about his connection to Jeffrey Epstein, he said, oh, I've just met him a couple of times for dinner or whatever.
He's not telling the absolute truth, is he?
He's going, oh, Jeffrey Epstein?
I hate that guy!
He tried to blackmail me for no reason at all recently.
Now this is not a story about the salacious aspects of the Jeffrey Epstein case or even the criminal sex offences that he has been convicted of.
And it's certainly not an allegation that Bill Gates has done anything other than being threatened with blackmail.
We don't know what Bill Gates has done or what he hasn't done.
We know though that Bill Gates has incredible power, influence and wealth
and now it seems that Jeffrey Epstein threatened to blackmail him.
Why is that?
Here's the news.
No.
Here's the effing news.
Thanks for watching Zipfuckzine.
The news.
No, here's the fucking news.
Did Jeffrey Epstein try to blackmail Bill Gates?
And does the censorship of stories like this and continually hearing them dubbed as conspiracy theories make you think they're more or less likely to be true?
Let's have a look at today's story about Jeffrey Epstein's apparent attempt to blackmail Bill Gates.
Now, if anything, that shows that Jeffrey Epstein was, this just in, not a good guy.
As well as being a convicted sex criminal, he was involved in all manner of nefarious criminal activity, primarily financial corruption, I suppose is a broad way of describing it.
But what Jeffrey Epstein seems to have become a lightning rod for is the idea that he had information about some very, very powerful people, and many people believe that his death in custody was not self-inflicted, but was brought about by people who potentially wanted him dead, perhaps because he had all of this information.
My personal opinion is when a story like this breaks, there's usually something beneath the surface that's worth investigating.
Let's have a look at how the mainstream media are reporting on this story and the increasing tendency to legitimize censorship and to condemn independent media as being either right-wing, far-right-wing or conspiratorial, when in fact it seems like many of the stories have legitimacy and weight to them And they are being called conspiratorial in order to essentially censor them.
Let's have a look.
I think about Jeffrey Epstein, I straight away think philanthropy.
I've got to get some philanthropy done.
tells the Wall Street Journal disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein tried to squeeze money out
of the tech giant by threatening to expose an alleged affair.
Epstein and Gates reportedly met a half dozen times.
Gates says it was only to talk about philanthropy.
I think about Jeffrey Epstein, I straight away think, philanthropy.
I've got to get some philanthropy done.
Why not call that convicted pervert?
They say that Epstein found out that the Microsoft co-founder had an alleged affair with a young
Russian bridge player named Mila Antonova, who reportedly met Gates in 2010 when she
was in her 20s.
The two sharing a passion for the card game.
In a way you could say this is as innocent as Bill Gates potentially was involved with someone while he was married.
This is within the remit of ordinary human behavior.
I suppose the complexity only comes because if Epstein was trying to extort money from him and Epstein is a convicted sex criminal and Epstein does have financial ties to some pretty powerful people and the list of people that have been on his jet and been to his island does include some pretty powerful players in the CIA, former presidents.
It kind of just suggests that that world intersects meaningfully and significantly with a lot of murky Stuff.
For those of us that broadly believe that many of our central organisations are corrupt, a story like this one feels like an indication that that sense that we can't trust the government, we can't trust the media, can't trust the deep state, can't trust globalist tyrants, is verified by a story like this.
Even though at this point we're still very much in the area of gossip and rumour.
Epstein met Antonova three years later and reportedly paid for her to attend software coding school.
Then in 2017, the Wall Street Journal reports that Epstein emailed Gates asking to be reimbursed for those costs.
Now this came, writes the paper, after Epstein failed to persuade the billionaire to contribute to a charitable fund that Epstein had tried to create with JPMorgan Chase.
Very gangster situation.
Epstein asks Gates to contribute.
Gates refuses.
Epstein pays for a young woman's education and then says to Gates, hey, you might want to reimburse me for this education I pay for.
Pretty gangster.
Seems to me that there's some nefariousness that goes on.
Again, people are human.
People fall in love.
People have affairs.
People try to make money.
All of these things, I say, are in the remit of ordinary human behavior.
When it becomes a problem, I think, is when there are enormous resources that are pulled together.
When there are incredible amounts of power pulled together.
When you have an individual like Bill Gates who's able to influence through significant
donations, the second biggest donations, an organization like the WHO that are able to
suggest measures during a pandemic and simultaneously invest in vaccines and medicines and speaks
continually publicly about the course of action that entire nations, continents, the planet
itself should take.
That's not the first time that Bill Gates has done stuff like that.
Agriculture on the continent of Africa, across the nation of India.
Bill Gates, incredible influence that many people, activists, farmers, intellectuals,
philosophers, politicians that are outside of the centralized power unit think has been
incredibly dangerous.
When someone has as much power and influence as Bill Gates plainly does, then an ordinary
thing like an extra marital affair, albeit illicit and morally dubious, becomes something
that has more significance if Jeffrey Epstein is able to use it to blackmail Bill Gates.
Now all of this becomes a little more intriguing when we appreciate that Jeffrey Epstein died under very unusual circumstances and suddenly it seems plausible to at least consider the possibility that he died as a result of having information about powerful people that powerful people didn't want to have revealed.
Now, the Wall Street Journal points out that this gives us some insight into how Epstein operated, writing, when the relationship soured, he could turn against people.
We're trying to report on this in a sensible and responsible way.
The conspiracy theory around Jeffrey Epstein and his death is this.
Oh, Jeffrey Epstein, he had lots of information on very powerful people, so they had him murdered while he was in prison.
That's the conspiracy theory.
Whereas the non-conspiracy theory, the best call it the mainstream version of events is Jeffrey Epstein was a convicted criminal who for some weird reason had relationships with a bunch of powerful people and then one day he took his own life while in jail full stop the end.
Well now it's been revealed that he was blackmailing very powerful people.
In this instance it seems blackmailing Bill Gates who has incredible influence even beyond his wealth because of the donations he makes to media groups and health organizations like the WHO but it goes goes beyond that. So the conspiracy theory version, Jeffrey
Epstein was killed because he was blackmailing powerful people, seems a bit less
conspiratorial by the second, doesn't it?
Gates has done his best to minimise his connections to Mr Epstein. I didn't have any business
relationship or friendship with him, he told the Wall Street Journal. In fact, beginning
in 2011, Mr Gates met with Epstein on numerous occasions.
Starting in 2011, Gates had more than half a dozen meetings scheduled with Epstein, including dinners at Epstein's New York townhouse.
Documents show.
Gates flew on Epstein's private plane from New Jersey to Florida in March 2013, according to flight records.
That same month, the two men met in France with an official on the Nobel Peace Prize Committee.
Sex Island, I got my charities, now does anybody need a Nobel Peace Prize?
Oh, I'd like one.
Well, I'm gonna need those school fees.
You want a Nobel Peace Prize, right?
Dean told one former Gates Foundation employee that he knew the Norwegians and could help
Gates win the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to eradicate polio.
You want a Nobel Peace Prize, right?
Yeah, because I've been doing my best to get rid of polio.
I'm your man, baby!
Also, I got a private jet if you fancy a visit to... No, no, no, no.
Just the peace prize.
Jesus, Jeff.
Bill Gates has always led us to believe that he does these things for the sheer love of it.
Oh, God, it's so kind of you to try and cure polio.
Do you want anything?
No, no, no.
And thanks for all the help around coronavirus.
Do you want anything?
No, no, no.
Oh, I say nothing, but I wouldn't mind a noble peace prize, and I'm gonna buy some shares in that vaccine.
Just in case.
The list of Jeffrey Epstein's possible connections now includes America's spy chief, a college president, and a former Obama White House counsel, according to a collection of previously unreported documents that included the convicted sex offender's schedules.
The trove of papers obtained by the Wall Street Journal shows meetings between Epstein and several prominent people, including three with William Burns, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency when he was Deputy Secretary of State in 2014.
Now the reason we're talking about this, of course, is not Not simply to sensationalize the possible significance of a powerful person that had connections to bankers and people in the deep state and powerful billionaires who he was trying to blackmail as well as being a convicted sex offender, all of these things.
I'm interested actually in the way that this is reported on and what constitutes a conspiracy theory.
Once again, the conspiracy theory is that Jeffrey Epstein lost his life as a result of the information he had on powerful people that he could leverage against them, therefore he was in some way dispatched with.
That's the conspiracy theory.
The truth is, oh yeah, there's just this guy, just a businessman and sex offender who's friends with some really, really powerful people who one day it all got a bit too much and he took his own life.
And there's weird stuff, like you can't get the camera footage.
One time where you can't get surveillance footage of every single moment of everything everyone's doing all the time is when Jeffrey Epstein's being nutted off.
Allegedly.
I think it's important because the way that the news and information is handled is increasingly changing to some degree because of independent media such as stay free media.
All around the world new bills are being introduced to control, censor and shut down information and established media organizations are starting things called like verification units and disinformation and misinformation units.
All ostensibly about getting rid of bad information that could hurt you because you're so vulnerable and foolish evidently.
But I think it's actually about preventing You having access to a range of information and deciding for yourself what you believe in.
Whether this is war, the pandemic, or stories such as this.
When you say something's a conspiracy theory, I think what that has to mean is it's completely unfounded and there's no evidence to the contrary.
Not the powerful would prefer it if you believed this alternative version.
Let me know in the chat what you think.
This is just a handful of new censorship bills that are being pushed for in countries around the world.
All of them have basically the same agenda, to control the information that you have access to.
In the UK, where I am from, the online safety bill enforced through fines of up to £80 million or 10% of annual global turnover.
This is an attempt to make platforms responsible for the content that people who use their
platform put up, incentivising them to censor.
EU Digital Service Act.
Violations carry the threat of a fine of 6% of global turnover.
It's finding a way to assert control over these platforms and make them ultimately more
compliant.
Canada, the Online Streaming Act.
Up to a $25,000 fine for the first violation made by an individual.
Up to a $10 million fine for the first offence by a corporation.
In the USA, the Restrict Act.
People that violate the proposed rules can be fined up to a million dollars and imprisoned
for up to 20 years.
In Australia, the Online Safety Act, the penalty for non-compliance is $110,000 for individuals and $550,000 for companies.
Of course, new technology of any kind might require regulation and legislation.
As we evolve, as society changes, of course new measures need to take place.
But what's It's always worth scrutinizing is who is most likely to be affected by these measures?
Who's most likely to benefit?
Who's most likely to be penalized?
When you ask yourself those kind of questions, you can see that they are usually beneficial to powerful and established interests and have a negative impact on ordinary people or people trying to present diverse or opposing or dissenting views.
And in our country, the BBC have launched its own verification unit and are presenting it as if it's just like a new form of entertainment, like sports or weather or the Teletubbies.
Have a look.
Welcome to BBC Verify.
Like you said, we are a team of investigative journalists here at the BBC.
We are also a new brand and we are a physical location above the newsroom in London.
Above the newsroom, just making sure.
Ooh, that story's good, but not that one, actually.
Jeffrey Epstein?
No!
No, you didn't!
Ukraine war?
I didn't think so!
Pandemic measures?
You'd better not!
And the point of the team, as you said, is to verify video, to fact-check, to counter disinformation, and to analyse really complex stories so we can get to the truth of what's going on.
Because if you analyse really complex stories, you will discover that that complexity means ranging and occasionally opposing perspectives.
It doesn't mean eliminating and combing out information that is detrimental to the interests of the powerful.
Elon Musk recently spoke about state-funded media.
BBC is state-funded media.
It's funded through A tax called the license fee.
Everybody in the UK is obliged to pay it at the moment.
And they recently received £4.1 million additionally to help them cover the Ukraine-Russia conflict more responsibly and to stop the spread of misinformation and disinformation.
Now, if you watch this channel, you'll be aware that we talk frequently about how NATO threatened the former borders of the Soviet Union, which contravenes an agreement, if not a treaty, between the former Soviet Union and the United States.
state. We talk often about CIA involvement in a coup in 2014 in Ukraine. We talk about
the complex factions within the Ukrainian army. We talk about the military industrial
complexes profits. These things are all complex. Now will they be talking about those aspects
of the story or will they be looking to eliminate them? So as long as anything that's about
verification is objective, that's fine.
But how can it be objective when it's funded by the government?
How can it be objective when the truth is often contradictory to the aims of the powerful?
How can it ever be implemented when so few of us trust the government or trust the mainstream media at all?
How can it be objective when what they tell us are conspiracy theories with just a little bit of analysis appear to be ideas that require a little bit of scrutiny and balanced reporting?
So there you go, the Jeffrey Epstein-Bill Gates connection is an example of a story that on the surface looks and sounds like a conspiracy theory, but for me it's It's a story that requires looking at.
And if you prevent people analysing that story, or looking at that story, or smear people that talk about that, or concoct reasons why people shouldn't be able to talk about it, then that's not censorship in order to protect society.
That's censorship in order to protect the interests of the powerful.
Whatever went on between Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein increasingly looked like it was not nothing.
Jeffrey Epstein, based on his actions and his convictions, was plainly a pretty nefarious character.
The idea that his death has nothing to do with the fact that he has information on very powerful people is starting to look less and less like a conspiracy theory and more and more like something that's worth looking at.
But that's just what I think.
Let me know what you think in the chat.
See you in a second.
Thank you for choosing Fox News.
Good day.
No.
Here's the fucking news.
Sometimes it feel like the world ain't very nice.
But football is nice.
Welcome to Football is Nice with me, Russell Brand and Gareth Roy where we talk about top
flight European football and the cultural phenomena that surround it, recognising that
world sport provides a framing in which we can discuss relationships, power, tribalism,
unity, duty and honour, victory and loss, as well as Erling Haaland and potential
hues of the tip of his reproductive organ.
Nothing is excluded here.
You might be an American thinking, I don't know what colour Erling Haaland's reproductive organs summit is.
And the truth is that neither do we.
Neither does anyone but him.
We can speculate.
No one can stop us speculating.
Can they?
He's beautiful, isn't he?
There he is.
If you're watching this now, which you can do if you are a member of our locals community, or if you're watching us on Rumble, he's in his Silken City gym jams now.
Who's that clasping at him with a long finger like that?
That's a hell of a long finger that person's got.
Who's he out with?
E.T.?
I've never seen that finger's almost up to his elbow.
He's been clasped at the wrist, but the finger's halfway up to his armpit.
When people wear outfits like that, it's because they're really good at what they do.
Usually, isn't it?
It's when they're so good at what they do that they can just wear anything.
Have you noticed, Gal, the very conventional shirt you've got on today?
Come on!
I've got a dog lead on!
I'm crackers!
Look at me!
Titty poops!
Spearing down on dead planet!
We've got a lot of things to talk about this week because, of course, the season is at...
It's conclusion or some would say it's arse end.
There will be some relegations.
Everton, Leicester or Leeds still might get relegated from the top flight.
What's that 84%?
What's that 90%?
Is that the percentage or the chance of it?
I think the chance.
That don't mean nothing, does it?
Because, like, what can happen is, is that if Everton don't win and Leicester and Leeds win, well, in fact, Leicester and Leeds, one, they can win and still go down.
Yeah, of course, if Everton win, then that's it.
If Everton win, they're out.
Leicester and Leeds could win and still be out.
Because one of those two, well two of those three have to go down.
That's the simple beauty of our sport.
Sometimes I think American sports are amazing with their drafts and that.
You're too good.
Like early in Ireland, in a draft system, we'd be playing where?
Southampton, probably.
He'd be playing at Southampton, and that would really mix stuff up down at the Saints, but in our system, he goes to Manchester City, the best club with the most money.
And they keep winning.
Backed by a state.
Forever.
Let's have another one, and another one, and another one, and another one.
I mean, like, this is, I suppose, yeah, the challenges, and I don't begrudge Man City fans their... No, of course.
Actually, I begrudge them a bit.
I begrudge Man City fans their happiness.
Because I'd like to feel happy one day, and they currently do.
But the fact is that, at the moment, they're an unstoppable footballing force.
Well, they're happy now.
Imagine how happy they could be in a couple of weeks' time, if they get the treble.
I mean, that's something that, actually, I was going to ask you.
Did you think you would see the treble happening again?
I think after United did it, I kind of thought, we're not going to see that.
I'm always expecting a treble.
When Liverpool done the double in, I think, was it 1986 when West Ham should have won the league, I used to, I was thinking, people should do things like that.
They should.
That's what I thought they should be doing.
I thought that's what we're trying to do.
In fact, I remember thinking, like, that people shouldn't, like, say, right, look, this is what I think.
I love this item.
I remember thinking.
I remember thinking this.
In a World Cup, like, say Argentina won the World Cup, but then they lose to, like, Japan or someone at some point.
Yeah, it was that, wasn't it?
I think they should be struck off.
I think.
Strike them off!
And if you are Argentinian, like Nick Orton, my friend, what can you say to... How do you... How can you ever counter my argument that you are not the best football team in the world if you lost to Japan?
Got it.
You're not.
Japan beat you.
Sure.
11 a side, 90 minutes.
They won.
Yeah, I can see this warped logic of yours, but... It's not warped, it's brutal, blunt, and lacking in nuance.
But then they won everything else, though.
I guess it's a bit like the way Man City, when they drew 1-1 with Forest earlier in the season... Shrike them off!
And then they changed their tactics completely and put John Stones into the midfield, and then they just won forever after that.
I don't agree either, if I may say, with moving people's position around.
It's unbelievable what's going on now.
John Stones, he's a centre back, he's good looking.
Ever so good looking.
Remember there was a bit where Everton didn't sell him.
Money can't buy you Stones, sang the Everton fans.
Money can't buy you Stones, but it can.
And did buy you stones.
It also bought you Calvin Phillips, it's bought you Erling Haaland.
Look, we've got friends that are City fans, of course we have, and them City fans have endured long years of humiliation and wilderness outside the top flight.
In fact, when Coventry last got relegated, they were relegated alongside Man City.
And Coventry could be back in the top flight, Coventry or Luton.
I'm hoping for Luton as you know, because Luton are such a, no disrespect Luton fans,
such a bastard club.
Like if Luton, it's like Luton, it's too mental to have Luton.
What that is, is Man City is the apple line, it is the sun god, best exemplified by the
mighty Nordic, red-hued, cocked Erling Haaland.
Sure.
Luton, that is Dionysian.
That's berserker energy.
Like, letting that loose in the top flight.
I'm not talking about crowd trouble and those kind of things, which are very serious issues.
Except for Knowlsey!
Except for Knowlsey!
The West Ham fan!
Knowlsey!
Yes he can!
Protect the West Ham families from AZD!
Aardvark, or whatever they're called.
That's right.
He can protect them!
Oh, nosy!
He stood at the top because West Ham, of course, won their semi-final against AZ Alkmaar.
The team that had to be made up as a result of only getting A's in a game of Scrabble.
And I don't think they're in Amsterdam and they play against A-Axis.
Too many A's to have.
Like, when the...
AZ Akhmar fans breached the friends and family section in the semi-final of the Europa Conference
League where West Ham of course triumphed. Nolzi, a West Ham fan, stood between the black hooded
Akhmar fans and the families of West Ham players and the West Ham players also got stuck in as
well. This is a complex thing. Look, I'm going to say this.
Everyone, you know, everyone condemns violence of all types.
Violence is bad.
As you know from my brilliant item, Brandy on Gandhi, I love non-violence.
I love it, I love it, I love non-violence.
But people, when they talk about football violence, I think they overcompensate and don't include that it is a bit exciting when something happens.
As long as no one gets hurt.
I'm not talking about people getting hurt, people dying.
People getting hurt and dying, that's its own category.
It's bad if that happens as a result of a peanut allergy or any reason.
People dying is He's bad.
Not so many of those in football matches.
Could happen, though, if you were to sprinkle... Instead of, like, doing a, like, pulling a thing, like, oh, we sack the board on an aeroplane thing, like they do sometimes, you know?
Right.
Like, people do a process.
They really think that's effective.
Right, get a plane, put it up there, sack... We've exhausted all other possibilities.
Glazers out.
Like, oh, like, like, it's... Now let's fly across the stadium.
Yeah.
Glazers out.
All right, let's just sit back and wait for those glazers to give up the billions of pounds of debt that they've shraddled Man United with.
It's not going to make any difference at all.
If instead of doing that, though, they just sort of sprinkle peanuts down.
It would eventually have an impact.
That's terrorism, isn't it?
Yeah.
Against people that have got peanut allergies or strawberries, they're the two things to go for, in terms of allergies, anyway.
Nolzi, though, he would punch those peanuts straight back into the sky.
Let's have a look at Nolzi doing what he does best.
If you're listening to this as a podcast, well done.
If you want to see it in full, watch it on Rumble or indeed Locals.
Let's check out Nolsi.
Crowd cheering.
That looks like hooliganism, but it's hooliganism for good, because Nolsi is a geeky...
He's like Gandalf!
Thou shall not pass, or whatever it is.
Yeah.
Mm.
No, it's really impressive.
I mean... He's good at fighting.
He's swinging them haymakers.
It's one of those moments where, because I was watching the game, we were texting each other watching it, it was obviously amazing.
I thought West Ham did brilliantly, defensively, they were brilliant, and that goal at the end was just the icing on the cake.
It was such an amazing... Captured it all for Nolzi's brilliant goal.
It was fantastic.
And then obviously like the jubilation, the elation of the West Ham players.
I love listening to the Coles, both of them doing the punditry.
They're so brilliant together.
Joe Cole and Colton Cole, both former West Ham players.
Joe Cole, a brilliant, brilliant play out.
Alex Ferguson famously would always ask the incumbent manager of West Ham, whoever it was over that period, Harry Redknapp, most likely, oh how's young Joe Cole getting along?
Joe Cole of course went to Chelsea and I get the sense that he prefers Chelsea because like you know when you see him on other stuff, You can tell the players that have played for numerous clubs have one that's their special club.
Many people that I know that Everton fans don't like Gary Lineker on match of the day because he don't mention Everton enough.
He never mentions them.
He only mentions Leicester and Spurs a bit.
Don't mention Everton!
That's when he got that great goal haul that led to him going to Barcelona.
Don't mention Everton.
And I get the idea that Joe Cole might like Chelsea.
But, like, Colt Cole went the other way.
He came from Chelsea to West Ham.
Beloved by the West Ham fans.
Been a guest on Football is Nice.
It was great when he came here.
We love Colton.
Oh, love him so much.
And, like, their chat afterwards was amazing.
They both called each other Coley.
Yep, both Coley.
Like, nothing is Coley!
What?
I don't know about that, Coley!
It's nice, isn't it?
So nice.
That is nice.
Because some people are going, hang on, you can't both be.
They're going, why not?
I'm Coley, he's Coley!
What's wrong with that?
We're just a couple of Coleys!
What, you can't take too many Coleys?
Whoever bought those two for the first time deserves a pay rise.
It's brilliant.
And Coley, I'm talking about Colton Cole, he still works at West End, doesn't he?
I think he's part of it.
Yeah, that's right.
You said something he was telling us.
Yeah.
What I really liked in this analysis, three, three, three, the Lord is with us, what I really liked in this analysis is that, er, like that joke, like that, the joke I was going, it's disgusting, it's pathetic, this violence is disgusting, it's pathetic, it's disgusting, because you've got to condemn violence.
Of course.
You've got to really go overboard with it, condemning the violence and everything.
And then Carlton Cole, trying to describe his own emotional state.
Yes.
He's so amazing.
I don't know what to feel!
At one point he goes, I'm elated!
I'm angry!
I just want to feel normal again!
He says something like he wants to feel normal.
Like someone who's just took too many drugs and scared himself a bit.
Yeah.
Like, which I have done.
Yeah, and then had to go onto the television to describe how they were feeling rather than being in a bedroom on
their own.
Here you go, do this LSD.
Do this MDMA.
You're live in front of millions!
All right, I can dem all the violence!
West Ham just won!
I wanna go home!
I just want to go to bed!
He's so authentic, isn't he?
I think that's what's so beautiful about it.
You watch them both, and Joe Cole obviously has always had that about him.
He's obviously a brilliant pundit.
And then Carlton Cole, he just says exactly what he thinks.
It's wonderful to Yeah, when he came on our show, and let us know in the chat, in the comments, who your cult heroes are.
He qualifies as a West Ham cult hero, definitely.
Like, that means to say, it's obvious to admire players that have scored great many goals, or they're sort of recorded and registered heroes of your club or sports team.
But a cult hero is someone who has this sort of odd, you have this odd affinity with.
Carlton Cole, when we told, like, the West Ham anthem for him was, Carlton, Cole, Cole!
Always believe in your soul, you're indestructible.
Like, when we told you about it, guys, I liked it when they sang that, because, like, it says that I've got to believe in me soul, and I am indestructible.
Like, he's actually took it to his heart, didn't he, that?
And you can see this in this little bit of, uh, coverage.
Joe, I know how pleased you are for your former club to see them in a major European final, but distasteful scenes at the full-time whistle.
People at home haven't seen what happened.
Can you describe what you... They won't show it.
Like when someone comes on naked.
Another thing they won't show.
They should show that!
That's when I got worried, actually, watching this.
Uh-oh, is this serious?
That's exactly that.
Because you knew something was happening, like you do with, as you say, when someone strips.
But when they weren't showing, I was like, oh no, this is going to turn from, like, elation to tragedy.
Isn't it mad that, like, they've obviously gone, don't show streakers or pitch invaders, because it encourages them, and we've got more.
Point is, like, a mass murder at a school.
Yeah.
Show that, though.
As much of the details of the- Glorify that!
As much as we can.
Make them sound like they're someone from the Matrix.
Yeah, so that people will copy them.
Yeah, like, that's much worse.
As is an actual thing.
Crowd violence is obviously bad.
All forms of violence is bad.
You don't need a separate category for it.
Violence.
Bad.
Right, but like... Yeah, as we've said before, streaking... That's good!
Well, it's not like thousands of people lined up to streak if they see someone do it.
It's good!
Like, like, I see it in a category of, like, when a dog comes on, or a balloon, like a balloon too near the ball, like, oh no, he's gonna be a bit confused!
Which one's he gonna kick?
Like Edison, or somebody who's very serious, and then they have to sort of, well, they're gonna have to deal with this balloon, maybe someone will pop it or something.
That's probably the only way Man City are ever gonna lose again.
A balloon beat...
It confused him.
He saw it as too weak and gaseous, filled with the wrong sort of fuel.
He likes things that are backed by oil!
Mighty oil!
Yeah, like, God knows what it's going to take to disrupt that juggernaut.
I see it as just gin or chaos, a streak.
Let's condemn violence again.
But nudity, someone runs on in the nud, well done you!
Right.
Chilly.
And they can never think of what to say, as well, when it happens.
They don't know what to do.
Oh, no, that's... That's just stupid!
That's pathetic!
Oh, dear.
That's... Oh, that's worse than... For God's sake!
No, it's Joe Cole.
I love Joe Cole.
He's a brilliant player.
He's a brilliant bloke.
I think he's in my phone somewhere.
Love him.
But, like... Name drop.
He's not living in there.
He's got his own life outside of it.
He's in there with old Jay-Z and the guys.
I live in the Vida Loco.
And him.
He's in there.
Ricky Martin.
I love the lot of them.
Um, like, so, but let's see what, uh, let's see what he says, but Carlton's is well funny.
It's absurd, Jules, you know, you know.
Absurd?
Ridiculous grown men, you know, turn out, azed out my fans, attacking the West Ham fans where the families were sitting and our friends and colleagues were sitting.
Families.
He says families.
The players know they're there.
The players were trying to get involved to break up.
I've seen a little bit of it.
They were doing all right.
Mikael Antonio, I don't want to mess with that dude.
Even during a football match, he looks like he's going to snap someone's spine in half from a corner.
He's massive.
He asses goalkeepers in the midriff to their detriment, Mikael Antonio.
And then I see Benrahma getting involved.
I'm surprised by that.
There's some footballers... What, because he dyes his hair?
Yeah, and he's quite thin.
Those are, like, there's some footballers... No, but it's their families, Ross.
That's the thing, like, you would, if any of us would do this, that's the thing, they rush across.
Right, this isn't about, like, oh, Uzada, Razor, Radical, Robbie Savage or Vinnie Jones.
No, no, no.
Like the old school, self-styled hard men, Paul Ince, Keane, Vieira.
This is more like, my family!
Yeah, of course.
My family are under attack!
You've got to have a look at UA for things like that, you know, and AZ out more, to a certain degree, because...
Coley though, West Ham through and through.
You've got to look at AZ Alkmaar and FIFA.
It's like really, it's not West Ham.
Yeah, good on him.
We had the same incidents at Frankfurt last year.
And Frankfurt, they're bastards.
It gets a slap on the wrist.
You know, you've got to be more than a slap on the wrist!
You get AZ Alkmaar fans turning up with balaclavas, going there, throwing punches and throwing hands.
You know, football's for family.
We should be inclusive for everybody.
It was just ridiculous.
And the players, rightfully so, concerned.
Families over there.
Families?
Rightfully.
You know, friends, maybe kids over there.
Absolutely ridiculous in the modern game, and the men that do it and turn up at it, completely pathetic.
Football is an emotional game, Carlton, but you do not want to see these types...
Carlton's having to get his head together for this.
Serious face.
He actually conveys it quite brilliantly in retrospect.
Because, like, there's been too many things have happened in a short period of time.
West Ham have reached the European final, there's been crowd disturbances, players have got stuck in to protect their families, and now they're on the television.
It is too much, isn't it?
I wouldn't know what to say.
Well, let's see how Coley handles it.
The scenes at full time and also it seemed quite unexpected considering it was a game that didn't have much needle in it.
There was no need for it.
West Ham have come here, done their job, they've not disrespected them in any shape or form.
Families are over there.
Obviously when the last goal like that goes in from four nil, everyone's elated, everyone's happy.
You can't suppress your feelings.
It's good.
You can't suppress your feelings, because that's a broad analogy.
What do you think goes in the earpiece there?
I've no idea.
I mean, I guess the hard thing about this, for me, is that they were commenting on this as it was happening.
It's still sort of going on.
So it doesn't... I think this is the thing.
It's like a director's commentary of a crowd disturbance.
Potentially really quite serious violence.
So you can't have the coolness Right.
Well, the thing is they're expected to still do that.
It's still the same, like, post-match analysis set-up.
You know, that's what we're doing.
But some chaos is happening.
Whereas the actual natural reaction, if you weren't on telly, would be to drop your mics, go over, try and help, give a helping hand or something, or make sure people are alright.
So it must be really strange for them to be doing post-match analysis when all this chaos is going on.
In a sense, it's like a Stanford experiment, where you're sort of forced to have an unnatural reaction to suffering.
And in a way, that starts to expose how much our culture imposes upon us behaviours and norms that are at odds.
In fact, civilisation, broadly, is the repression of instincts, which Colton Cole just told us we should not be doing.
You can't suppress your emotions.
Colton Cole's been clear about that.
The families are over there.
The families are not going to be over there in the crowd with the other families.
Badass, serious West Ham away support.
You know, you're family with him.
And sometimes, you've just got to understand that.
Sometimes, Coley, emotions do take hold of you.
And we get that, but Coley... Coley!
Emotions do take hold of you, Coley.
When there's grown men turning up with balaclavas.
Joe Cole settled on that.
Hold on a minute.
That's premeditated.
That's good imagery though, isn't it?
You've bought a balaclava to a football match.
That's not right.
You don't need that.
What circumstances?
You've got your rattle.
You've got your program.
You're probably not even allowed the rattle these days.
That's a weapon.
There's a lot of emotions going on.
That's just ridiculous.
What are you doing?
You're outside a hotel.
You're in a black balaclava setting off fireworks.
You're a grown man.
Chill out.
What are they doing? Just chill out!
Ha ha ha ha! Just chill out!
What are you doing? You're outside a hotel, you're in a black balaclava, sitting on fireworks, you're a grown man.
Chill out!
I love Carlton Cullen.
And I'm sorry, but you wait for after, you know, they have to nail down.
out more.
You know, for so long, English football's been in the doldrums.
People talk about being hooliganism and things like that, but when they come, we don't see things like that in England.
We haven't done for a long time in the stadium, you know, and it's other countries in Europe.
You know, we get a bad reputation for it, but all I saw there was, was, it was absolutely perfect.
So what's funny, I'll tell you about it, is that suddenly, like, your appointed role is to comment, the reason, what did all these people used to do for a living?
They're footballers.
So what is their area of expertise?
Football.
What are they discussing now?
Social dynamics, the behaviour of crowds, mass psychosis.
They're discussing stuff that not many people have anything other than an opinion on.
Because it's a complex issue that, as you have alluded to, Gareth, is resourced from social and economic tensions, the ceremonial power of sport.
In fact, in a sense, the underlying idea and animating thesis of our podcast is that football,
in creating a liminal space, provides the possibility of a type of discourse and analysis
that's too broad and complex elsewhere.
Once you establish a set of rules, you can start to see things more clearly.
Across a culture, there are so many variables.
Why is this happening?
Why is that happening?
Did they do that?
And what's the influence of that?
It becomes baffling.
Disorienting.
In football, you can say, right, in this ceremonial space, you've got 11 players, we've got 11 players, and then suddenly there's some order.
You know, you can't just pick up the ball and run and throw it in the net.
That's not allowed.
That's why things that appear like brinkmanship, like...
Inequality.
And again, at various times you could argue that Man United or Liverpool... Again, the argument is well-worn that you go ad infinitum, but in a sense into the resources of football clubs historically.
But I suppose we're at a new point and potentially a tipping point with states backing football clubs.
The other thing is that in that ceremonial space is that you get to see David Moyes Like, I think, purge and address repressed feelings of failing right the way back to being appointed Man United manager, brought on by the encounter with Robin Van Persie, who of course played for Moyes there, having been signed by Ferguson and being sort of like the tail end of the Ferguson era.
And it made me realise what a part of the ceremonial power is of the sport, and indeed perhaps sport more broadly, that Even though the argument can certainly be made that the Europa Conference League is a third tier European tournament that only has the teams that aren't in the Champions League, aren't in the Europa League, are in that.
So what is that?
What level are you competing at, really?
But nevertheless, because the ceremony ...is all there.
Semi-finals, two legs, trophy at the end of it.
It works its magic.
It works its emotional magic.
The point of ceremony is to induce certain states of mind.
And so there's been the liturgy at a church, the attendance of a wedding.
And because we have so few rituals and ceremonies, it's like we're bereft of even that process.
And when you see David Moyes or some of the scenes of elation and celebration in the dressing room after, What you're witnessing is people have accessed a new state, and I think there's something important in that.
There's a sort of something in the Torah, or some piece of Judaic literature, that says that in the old times, it was known that you would go down to the woods and you would find the sacred tree, and you would do your ceremony.
Then time passed and people died, and they couldn't find the tree anymore.
So they just went into the woods and did the ceremony, and it was still okay.
Then time passed and people died, and they couldn't remember whether or not you were meant to go to the woods, so they just did the ceremony best they could, but it worked anyway.
It's not the particularities of the ceremony, it's ceremony itself that's effective.
And I think we live in a culture that is stripping back ceremony itself, stripping back even the concept of belief, the concept of faith.
Maybe the powerful institutions, Gareth, that we spend all of our time criticizing, somehow benefit Even from being condemned and criticised in that manner because it contributes to a sort of a nihilistic state of unbelief and sort of diffuse despair.
And when you see the impact of ceremony and belief, like if David Moyes believes that that's important, if West Ham fans believe that that's important, if we believe it's important, then it is important, it becomes important and David Moyes is therefore sort of going, you know, I did my best at Man United and we actually got three goals in that quarterfinal.
You see him sort of processing stuff He's not doing that when he's walking his dog.
I mean, maybe he is, I don't know.
Yeah, absolutely right.
I mean, what are competitions in general?
I mean, you know, obviously it's amazing what Man City have done and five titles in six seasons, but Man City are competing within a limited strata of quality and wealth.
So, what you could say is, West Ham's ability to maybe win this final, because of the amount of money that they have compared to, say, Man City, means that it's a greater achievement.
I don't know, you know, if you look at Man City, you go, well, how many competitors do they actually have?
One, two, three, max?
So, they're essentially competing in a competition of four to win the Premier League, and with the Champions League, with maybe, what, six or something.
Whereas West Ham with the resources that they have, admittedly more resources than other Premier League teams and certainly European teams, but it's a great achievement.
So I guess it's, you can't really see it in kind of the terms of, oh it's not as good as the Champions League or it's not as good as the Europa League.
I think you have to re-contextualise it.
I suppose otherwise you wouldn't have under 11s football, or different categories of football, you wouldn't have sports for people with different levels of ability, Yeah, I loved seeing Moyes' reaction.
Actually, I think Moyes is someone who normally comes out and... I think he's great at doing personality interviews, actually.
He's very kind of matter-of-fact.
He's pretty honest with his, you know, with his kind of analysis, usually.
But I saw a really human side to him after that.
It was really beautiful and obviously him and Van Persie had a nice connection and then seeing like Declan Rice comes in and every time I see more of Declan Rice I think what he seems like such a great guy and see the scenes in the dressing room.
I loved it for West Ham.
I'm definitely I can't you know I really hope that they win it.
Shall we have a look at Gary Neville failing to understand the concept of a holiday?
Gary Neville is perhaps a head and shoulders above all else, perhaps other than Simon Jordan when it comes to the world of punditry and commentary and offering opinions not only on football but life in general.
Do I do this?
Sometimes I think I've invented something, but actually that thing's already there and we've all been doing it for ages.
Well, not if it's the weekend.
Weekend?
I was just saying, well, I actually have a different view on that.
That doesn't exist, it's just a made-up thing, it's just some words for God's sake.
There'll be no retirement!
Come on, carry on working!
Well, I think we could use AI to keep Gary's body twitching for another couple of months, rattle a couple more aero videos out of him.
Let's have a look at Gary Neville, not understanding the concept of a weekend or a holiday.
But what you can have is mini retirements during the year, and that's what I try to do.
I don't do it very well.
So for instance, this weekend...
Yeah, that's it.
No.
Saturday, watch football...
Yeah, sort of like that.
But they did get there, yeah.
That's right, yeah.
Saturday, Sunday, it's like the other days, but you're at home with your wife and your kids and that, alright?
And then maybe go to Benidorm, Barbados, something like that for a week, go down to the beach.
You know, it's gonna be alright, Gary.
I'm going to Spain, Friday till Monday morning.
morning.
That is a weekend!
It's an actual weekend!
Who invented that?
I call that a mini-retirement.
Mini-retirement?
Hang on, mate, I'll tell you what I'm doing now.
I'm doing a fucking mini-retirement here.
Started Friday, it's gone on Monday though, back to work, so it's like a mini-retirement, but it's like the circle, circle of life, like fucking Lion King.
I'm gonna write this down for Elton John.
So, that's a weekend.
It's a weekend.
It's a mini-retirement.
It's where I basically can say... Ignored it!
Some of the blokes just told him, that's a weekend, mate.
That's called a weekend.
Yeah, no, mini-retirement.
Three days, I'm there, and I'm basically taking it, you know, I don't think about work, you know, I will, but... That's a weekend!
I won't think about work.
Oh, shit, I better get that done Monday, though.
Thinking about it.
Oh, I wonder what I should probably pull that for.
If I text him now... That's a weekend!
Maybe he's... I think Gary... Gary Neville is lining up a new, uh, vacation business called Neville's Mini Retirement Plans.
Mini Retirements.
Right, what we got is Mini Retirements.
Like when he had them homeless people staying... He has got a hotel.
Yeah.
He's got a hotel.
Oh!
I was angry about that.
I know you were.
Because I stayed at his hotel.
And he wasn't there.
Because I was in the car driving there.
My wife goes, what are you thinking about now?
Because she said I looked unusually wistful.
And she goes, what are you thinking about?
I'm just imagining that when we get to the hotel, Gary Neville will be there to meet us.
And that he's going to go, alright mate.
And I was actually imagining all the things that he was going to say.
And these were those things.
Go on.
Hi mate, I'm so glad you've come to my hotel to enjoy a mini-retirement with us and our mini-retirement team here at Neville Hotels.
I love what you're doing for society, by the way.
You've really put your neck out, put your neck on the line, mate, and you're saying a lot of things that really need to be said.
It'd be my honour to have you down at the Southford.
In fact, you can have the box.
We've got a box there.
Bex is coming, actually.
Everyone's gonna really make much of you and celebrate.
And that's what I was thinking to myself as I was driving out to Manchester, and when I got there, there was no-one there.
It's just people that worked at the hotel that had to be there, mandated by the economic necessity of taking those jobs, and nothing.
Didn't see Gary Neville.
Were they working on their mini-retirements?
They were always, yeah.
Mind you, who'd been on the top floor?
Who's the Divock Origi that's been up on the top floor?
That's why I couldn't have it.
Because Divock Origi's been up there.
Super Sub Divock Origi.
Something like you to take that.
I weren't happy about it, to tell the truth.
I go, when's Divock Origi going to go?
He's going to Milan in a couple of months.
He's a cult hero apparently.
We'll get rid of him.
He's a good example of a cult hero.
Very good example.
Tell us your cult heroes and we'll... I don't know what we'll do.
We might ignore it.
No, we won't ignore it.
We'll celebrate it if you give us a good reason why they're a cult hero and all that kind of thing.
We don't mean David Koresh!
From Waco, my cult hero is David Koresh.
He started a Christian sect based on the branch Davidians.
Sadly, it ended in a massacre, including the deaths of, well, a lot of people died.
76 people died.
Oh, that's ridiculous.
That's pathetic.
I mean, what I've done, Coley, right, is the FBI, they've started off by playing, like, high-pitched siren noises, then they've rolled tanks in, Coley, and it's nice, Why did they need that amount of ammunition, Coley?
What do you think?
Well, I don't know, mate.
It seems like they could have, like, solved that problem through diplomacy.
You know, what they're trying to do, really, is establish a precedent for, like, if anyone tries to stand up against state authority, it's legitimate to use violence against them.
What's the brunt of it?
Is it really a fortress, Coley?
What do you think?
Or do you think it was normally just a house?
It's just actually a house.
I mean, like, you can use the word, like, fortress to make something seem like a legitimate military target, when in fact it's just a house.
I mean, it didn't have any fortifications or munitions.
I mean, in fact, all it had was a few rifles that were there legally, because guns aren't legal in this country, Coley.
Thanks, Carly.
Alright.
Okay, Coley and Coley will be back next week, where they'll be discussing, uh, maybe that Exxon or something like that, you know, the oil spill.
Would be good, wouldn't it?
Something like that.
Let's just finish up.
Gary Neville, in this still, if you're watching this on Rumble or Locals, he looks a bit agitated and that bloke said, that's a weekend.
Sometimes my best ideas come when I'm on these types of trips, but then in six weeks... Types of trips!
Still not accepting these words.
Weekend!
Holiday.
These types of trips that I do, like, between Friday and Monday, or sometimes, like, a week off.
Over the Christmas period, I have one of these mini-retirements, where, like, sort of, during the mini-retirement period, we celebrate the birth of, like, this, uh, lad.
There's this little lad coming.
Apparently, he was the incarnation of a divine spirit, and we, just in my family, this... He's like, are you talking about Christmas?
No!
No, I don't think so.
And over Easter, like, with an odd amalgamation of pagan ideas built around the emergence of nature, like the egg and chicks and rabbits have nothing to do with Christianity, but also the rebirth of Christ.
We eat eggs and stuff like that, and I maybe watch the brilliant Russell Brand film, Hop.
I've always thought he would win a fight against Tom Hardy.
BJJ, bare knuckle, cock wallops, any type of fight, really.
Or another mini retirement for five days or four days.
Rather than thinking you're gonna stop for six months and No.
No, you're not like 70, Gary.
That's not all I did, that's a mental breakdown.
No, you're not like 70 Gary, we do recognise that you are in your working life.
It's the same age as us, isn't it?
I'm not going to go off for six months or like, just stop working forever,
and go and move to Florida, stay down there in La Boca Vista like Seinfeld's parents,
and get that Cadillac off me son, Jerry.
Have a sabbatical.
That's not probably going to happen with people like you or I, because we just basically don't work that way.
So to have lots of mini-retirements during the year is what I've tried to do in the last few years.
Ha ha ha ha! Mini-retirements!
That's really funny!
Like people like you or I. What do you mean like all of us of a particular age group?
That's basically what you mean.
It's amazing.
I feel that Simon Jordan and him have a sort of a tension of like, who's the pundit who does most moves outside punditry.
It's because they can both talk about business as well, isn't it?
We like that, don't we?
It's a new type of football pundit who can do football and the business side.
Yeah, football and business.
That's all we've got time for here on Rumble, but we're going to carry on with Football is Nice over on Locals.
Click the red button to join us there.
And of course, you can listen to the whole conversation on the podcast.
We'll carry on in Locals in a minute.
We'll talk about Big Sam's AI fears.
The desire to make sure that football is nice remains connected to the broader cultural and political issues of our time.
On tomorrow's show, we've got a special guest, author Laura Doddsworth, talking about how governments weaponised fear during the COVID-19 pandemic, back in familiar territory there.
Join us tomorrow, not for more of the same, but for more of the different.
Until then, come on you irons, stay free.
Switch on.
Switch off.
Man, he's switching.
Switch on.
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