Faiz Shakir, senior advisor to Bernie Sanders, who ran his 2020 presidential campaign, and Executive Director of ‘More Perfect Union’, a nonprofit media organization that “elevates the voices of workers” joins Russell to talk about the current state of politics, especially within the Democrat party and supporting workers rights'.To find out more about Faiz' work, go to: https://perfectunion.us/Join us at ‘Community 2024' https://www.russellbrand.com/community/For a bit more from us join our Stay Free Community here: https://russellbrand.locals.com/See my LIVE NEW SHOW: https://www.russellbrand.com/live-dates/ NEW MERCH! https://stuff.russellbrand.com/
It would be impossible for me to love you any more than I do right now.
You are the very vision of perfection, if you ask me.
We're going to be talking about Trump ignoring the Republican debates.
He's going to talk to Tucker instead, and we've got some exclusive news about Rumble.
But first of all, let's have a look at that moment where Trump got so hot and sweaty on the telly that he knew that it will be picked up by mainstream media.
And before we show you that, if you're watching us on YouTube right now,
we will be exclusively on Rumble in just 15 minutes, because we're going to speak so freely about Moderna and
all manner of other matters.
Tell me first, is he sweating profusely?
And does he correctly predict what the mainstream media's reaction will be?
Let's go with this clip.
And by the way, I want to say officially for the press, it's about 110 degrees in this room.
Nice job with the air conditioning, whoever.
But you know what the press will say?
You know what they'll say?
Trump didn't look well.
He was extremely wet.
It's 104 or 5 degrees in this room, but we're okay with it, right?
There's the prediction.
We've got some fantastic guests coming up on the show today.
Faz Shakir.
You might not know about Faz Shakir because you've not been paying attention to the mainstream.
He was one of the people that advised Bernie Sanders in his 2020 campaign.
Now, what I want to ask him about is, will the Democrat Party respond to the obvious interest in populist outsiders?
And would you describe RFK as a populist outsider, my on-screen assistant and friend, Gareth Roy?
Yeah, I would.
He's also head of More Perfect Union, i.e.
very pro-union, so it'll be very interesting to hear what he's got to say about Joe Biden.
You will never find, I'll tell you this now, you will never find a more pro-union president than Joe Biden.
That's not my words, that's Joe Biden's own words.
Tell that to rail workers.
I will.
Get one.
Get one in here if they can get to work on time.
Get me a rail worker in here and I will tell them.
Well, they're not allowed to because they don't have any sick days.
That's a shame.
But you've got to be healthy if you're driving a train.
I'll tell you this.
This is why I backed Biden.
That's why I backed Biden in 2024.
You do not want someone wheezing, coughing, driving a bloody train.
You're going to love this story a little bit later as well.
Joe Biden, do you know about all of his aliases?
Do you know about, did you know about all of this?
I did, yeah.
He's got so many, I know you know, because actually it was you that told me.
He's got so many aliases, this guy.
Do you want to know them?
Hold on, I think I've memorised them.
There's J.R.B.
Peters.
J.R.B.
where?
J.R.B.
where?
That's beware, because guess when he was using these aliases?
When he was talking to his son about certain little energy dealings?
Am I allowed to say this on YouTube?
I think so.
So when he was dealing with his son's energy business interest, business energy interest was Ukraine and China, where Trump said, as a matter of fact, on a live debate, your family's been paid millions.
Joe Biden said, that's absolutely not true.
Do we even have that footage today?
Are we going to cover that today?
We do.
Well, first of all, there's so much to tell you.
Can you see I'm excited?
I mean, we haven't even gotten to Jordan Peterson.
Just sweating as much.
I am.
I am sweating like Trump.
But I'll tell you what, one of the reasons he's probably sweating is he's sweating because he doesn't want to debate the other primary candidates.
And do you even care about that?
Because Trump ain't debating his primary candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy, guest on the show.
Ron DeSantis, guest on the show.
Joe Biden, he won't debate his bloody other candidates, will he?
Like RFK, guest on the show.
Are you seeing a theme developing?
In short, if you want to run Meraki, you better come on this show.
Isn't it?
That's the only way you can be sure of doing it.
JP, Jordan Peterson says that Trump should be debating.
We asked you what you thought.
Here is his tweet or X or whatever you have to call it now.
There's no excuse for this.
Biden's doing it.
Trump's doing it.
Cowardly.
Face the people.
And then there's him saying Trump's going to talk to Tucker.
That's definitely going to get more, what do you want to say, eyeballs?
I guess so.
Eye sockets.
Right.
Skull holes.
Yes.
Irises.
Jelly balls.
That's right.
That'll do.
Because in a minute I'll start saying weird stuff, won't I?
Body porridge.
Right.
Yeah.
Not that.
No one needs to hear that.
It doesn't make sense.
Not out of the world.
Oh?
Come on.
Can it?
So, we've got a lot to talk about because I tell you what, the mainstream media has taken one hell of a beating.
Even the presidential primary debates are going to be held not on CNN.
Not even on Foxy Lady News.
Oh, they are on Fox as well.
Also Fox.
But also though, and perhaps more significantly, and I'm going to undo my zip a couple of inches for this one.
Oh my word.
Rumble, but you won't be seeing those guys again.
Don't pull to the wide.
I see you pull to the wide.
These guys, these are the money makers.
Dems to money makers.
How do you think we got this deal?
We got a...
Cos itchy and scratchy!
He's prostituted himself!
I went up there, all over Canada and Florida, to get Ernest and Honest Bob off Chris Pavlovsky and the guys over there at Rumble HQ.
And you're not grateful, are you?
Not one bit.
How about you just say thank you?
He had to do that in every meeting!
To Vivek and De Santis!
This one, this is my rapping boobie.
I'm like a hit trip to listen to because I'm only lactating when I need to.
And then this one, a bit more statesmanly, but you know, it doesn't seem to be going well in the old post.
Like a member of the royal family, that one, isn't it?
Let's have a look at whether or not, now we saw Trump predict that he would be condemned for perspiring that way, and sure enough he was.
This is MSNBC talking about Trump's bodily functions.
You think he's unhealthy?
I mean, Marco Rubio didn't sweat that much.
Correct.
Ron DeSantis doesn't sweat that much.
Anyhow.
That was a lot of sweat.
Don't talk about the amounts of people sweat.
I suppose when Trump continually preempts and predicts things that will happen on the mainstream, or is able to declare publicly that Hunter Biden's business dealings are shady, or at least lead to millions of dollars in revenue, they've not been proven to be shady yet.
Perhaps because the person that's investigating them is Pal of Moderna.
David Weiss.
Let's have a look.
That's true.
That's what David Weiss was doing before he was investigating.
Let's call it investigating Hunter Biden.
He was exculpating Moderna.
Now, some people, we had a little vote.
Should Trump be made to debate?
38% of you said he should be made to.
How would you do that, though?
19% said don't make him.
And 42% of you, you mad giddy nihilists, say it doesn't matter anyway, you wild children of the Lord.
Hey, if you're watching this on Rumble right now, why don't you press the red button and join us over on Locals?
It's a fantastic place to watch.
There's a beautiful community in there like Blessed Old Bird and Jim Earth.
We're C137 chatting away.
Purple Revolution says, I deeply respect Jordan Peterson on many things, but he does not seem to be able to wrap his mind around the 100 year What do you think?
Why don't you get involved in that conversation?
And I would suggest, in a loving way, because free speech is being attacked, curtailed, and closed down in myriad new ways.
Whether it's the WHO's rules there over on YouTube, their community guidelines will be expanded to include all medical matters.
And if you're one of our 6.5 million Awakening Wonders over there, in order to maintain free speech, after just a few more minutes, we're going to slink off into rumble.
Stay free with Russell Brand.
See it first on Rumble.
OK, listen, one of the things that's becoming plain is that the world is demanding alternative political
candidates.
And even though Bobby Kennedy comes from a legacy family, his rhetoric is anything but.
Being aware of the Bernie Sanders campaign the last time and how it was, I would say, shut down by the Democrat
Party establishment is, I would say, a serious obstacle
to their ongoing electability.
And even if they are elected, what does it mean for ordinary people who care about America?
Seems to me that you get an institutionalized, donor-led political establishment that can't respond to the will of the very Americans that apparently elected it.
We've got Faz Shakir on the line.
He is the advisor to Bernie Sanders and head of non-profit More Perfect Union, an organization that champions workers' rights and their voices, which is obviously extremely important.
Thanks for joining us, Faz.
It's a pleasure to have you.
All right, Russell, I'll try to match your energy.
I'm not sure I can, but good to see you.
I'm actually exhausted just from watching Bobby doing those fingertip pull-ups.
What do you feel about the state of the party that I assume you align with?
Of course, because of their attitude to unions, the way they reneged on their commitment during the East Palestine crisis, the way that Joe Biden publicly claims to be the friend of the unions, while in practice does very little to help ordinary working Americans.
And more broadly, how do you feel about a Democrat party that seems married to legacy politicians, from the Clinton dynasty in particular, and unwilling to respond to what seems to me to be a huge appetite for real change?
How do you feel about that?
Frustrated, but I'm involved in this effort to stay invested in the system, Russell.
Like, I'm here to try to make it better.
Like, if you get cynical and you get depressed and you just start to say, oh, everything's bullshit, we're done with this, it leaves you in a place of anarchy.
And so we've got a two-party system in America.
Bernie Sanders ran in the Democratic Party to try to change What he saw as the best vessel to care about working people in America.
You could debate them and argue with them that the Democratic Party is better than Republican one.
I still believe that that is the case.
That's why I'm invested in it.
But yeah, you got to be realistic that is it what we want?
No, but I'm invested in trying to make it better.
I understand that, and I actually deeply respect it as a matter of fact.
But Bernie, of course, was independent for the longest of times.
Do you feel that what's happened to Bernie ever since he's become a member of the Democrat Party demonstrates the efficacy of bipartisan politics, or exactly the opposite?
Russell, isn't that what happens anytime you get involved in trying to transact power?
You make a decision that you have to engage in the institutions as they are, and they do by their nature.
A lot of the status quo is corrupting of a kind.
You have people who take money from big donors.
You have people willing to cater to corporate lobbyists.
And then here comes Bernie as an iconoclast saying, I don't give a shit about any of that stuff,
but I got to work with these bastards who do.
I got to work a way to transact a paid sick days or minimum wage increase or whatever it might be.
I have to transact within a system.
So I get that for anybody who wants to jump in and say, I got to play within the sandbox.
It's dirty in here.
It's messy in here, but you can't stay outside of it and assume you're gonna get anything done.
To my views, people have to get it into the sandbox and try to fix the damn thing.
Whilst Bernie was willing to confront publicly Moderna on the basis of their profits, and I'd be fascinated to learn what his views are on this $400 million NIH payout, Bernie has been willing to vote alongside Joe Biden, broadly speaking.
And in a sense, hasn't he been not just, I would say, sort of compromising with the Democrat pie, but entirely subsumed into his agenda?
What good is Bernie able to do when he votes alongside Biden when it comes to funding this war in the manner that it has been?
And where are you seeing meaningful change brought about by the compromises you're describing?
That's the question right there.
For all of your disagreements that you posited, has there been anything of value?
Has there been any progress to be made for working people?
And you say, okay, well, here's an administration that puts $2,000 checks into people's pockets in the midst of COVID.
They negotiate drug prices on Medicare for the first time ever.
They increase the corporate tax rate.
They institute a stock buyback tax.
They start to figure out, OK, we're going to stand with some working people and go to a picket line, send the Secretary of Labor there.
We're going to stand with Amazon organizing workers.
Some of those things, in my mind, are worth it.
They are worth investing in that direction as opposed to a different one that says, I don't give a damn about any of that stuff.
The whole system is for shit.
And I think you do have generally a Republican Party that doesn't believe that we want to invest in government doing these kinds of things.
I mean, if you take, like, Medicare price negotiation right now, you've got four drug makers and Chamber of Commerce and Pharma all filing lawsuits saying it's unconstitutional.
You can't lower prescription drug prices.
And you're like, okay, well, there's a choice there.
Which side are you on?
And I'm very much on the side of, yeah, we're going to negotiate drug prices down.
You mentioned Moderna, and Bernie hauled the CEO of Moderna into that committee hearing, said, you know, they jacked up the price of COVID vaccine by 400%, charged American taxpayers billions of dollars to create the vaccine, screwed basically public investments, said, we don't give a damn about you.
The question of this day and age is, are you willing to stand up to corporate power?
That's the fundamental question.
The role of government is to be a bulwark for people against profiteers.
And if you don't serve in government to give a damn, About standing up.
You have to have that courage.
You have to have some degree of spine.
I think Bernie has it.
I want more of those types of Bernies.
Unfortunately, there aren't many of them.
From our chat now Faz, Purple Revolution says Bernie Sanders is largely seen as a sellout these days and I think that's someone that would broadly speaking being a fan of 2016 Bernie.
Miles Driver says anarchy has a bad rap.
I think that's because of the sort of constant correlation of anarchy with disorder rather than a truly democratic and decentralized model.
And Pride Folks says the system Why do you think prominent progressives like AOC and Bernie won't endorse Cornel West despite his obvious emphasis on progressive ideals?
Russell, you know the answer to that.
I think for all of the concern that they have about a Democratic Party that they don't find is standing up against corporate power and standing up for workers enough, it's a better choice than one in which you have a two-party system, so the choice is this Democratic Party or Trump-led Republican Party.
If a third party like Cornel West or anybody else enters the fold, In my view, and people can feel free to disagree with it, it just facilitates one or the other.
And I think you've got, in that case, Trump having a very hardcore base of people who I don't think leave him.
So then you're, I think, pulling votes from a Democratic Party and enabling Donald Trump.
When you, I know loads of people in here just absolutely adore Donald Trump because they precisely believe that he is the anti-establishment voice and with every rolling indictment they just see that as a sort of a further medallion on his credentials as an anti-establishment figure and I feel like when a democrat party plainly operates at the end of a string pulled by a donor class when Joe Biden says to a room full of donors nothing's gonna fundamentally change if you elect me In a sense, they're right to opt for a berserker candidate,
whilst I strongly believe what's required is systemic change and I don't think there's
anyone in the political landscape except - you know, I love RFK, I love Cornel West, I was
inspired by Bernie in 2016, and I recognise, Faz, that you know a lot more about this stuff
than I do, but what's required is a kind of marriage between the radicalism of independent
media and political spaces like this one, and meaningful change within the system.
Now one area, Faz, where you are plainly committed, based on that Unions for All banner or t-shirt
that's in frame, is rights for workers.
How do you advocate for unionism and unions to our audience here?
Can you tell us about some of the successes?
We had Christian Smalls on the show.
He did very well as a guest and it's an inspiring story.
Someone who was an Amazon worker starting a union and having this kind of success that he did against Amazon and their malpractices.
What else can we do?
What else should we do to support the union movement?
See, you know, this time, massive income inequality, the only way in which people get their fair share of workers, they have to organize in solidarity and fight for it.
And we've got class warfare in this damn country.
It has been the rich class dominating and controlling a working class.
And unfortunately, the elites have driven the working class to a place where the only way in which you can get anything is with a damn fight.
And so unionization in this country, although it could be more amicable and peaceful, I wish it were, that you could have peaceful labor-management relations right now, we've gotten the middle finger from most corporate CEOs towards the working class, the working class saying, hey, take a look at UPS workers, right?
They just say, we have to threaten to strike.
United Auto Workers right now, they're right in the midst of a contract, they're threatening to strike.
Hollywood workers right now, actors, writers, all On strike because they know, I mean, we all felt it during the pandemic.
You saw rich getting richer, you felt contempt towards working people, contempt towards essential work, contempt, dishonor, disrespected for the fact that you were putting yourself out there.
And now the only way in which you can do anything to improve your lot in life is take matters into your own hands.
Don't rely on politicians.
Say, hey, in this damn Starbucks here, in this damn Staten Island warehouse here, in this Apple warehouse, we are going to Talk to our colleagues and demand more.
Demand better, demand respect.
And thankfully, in this last two years, we've seen a rise of that.
You get Trader Joe's, you have, as I mentioned, Apple and Starbucks, Amazon.
But they're not getting first contracts because the domination of the corporate sphere is unbelievable.
It's not only of the economy, it's of the political class.
So there is not a fight and people just don't talk about these damn things.
You know, the whole purpose of a union and worker solidarity, Russell is like, What is the purpose of life?
Is life just to generate profit or is it to have a sense of meaning and accomplishment, to feel respected, to feel like I do something purposeful and then I get paid for it?
And we've lost that thread in civic society.
Yeah, we really have.
And I agree with you that decentralised and democratic models and control over workspaces and a life of meaning that goes way beyond what you have to do just to survive in the face of a nihilistic and increasingly amoral cultural environment is an important part of that.
If you're watching us on Rumble right now, give us a rumble!
But for God's sake, subscribe to our channel.
Join us over on Locals and you can ask whatever questions you want And I'll do my best to get through as many as I can.
What do you think, Faz, about the alleged corruption between Hunter and Joe Biden when it comes to his business dealings with Burisma?
What do you think about the way the Democrat establishment kept those things off of social media?
And how can we restore any faith when there's, you know, in particular, just relating to this story?
What do you think is going on?
And how can we support a president that won't even debate progressive candidates, truly progressive candidates like RFK?
Russell, it's not complicated what's going on.
You've got a guy who made tens of millions of dollars in Hunter Biden off of the fact that his last name is Biden.
And it's like, the scandal is that the corruption is always there.
A rich class, an elite class, a well-connected class, their sons, their daughters, take the Bush family sons.
You take, obviously, the Trump family son, Jared Kushner's got a $2 billion deal with the Society of Royal Prince.
This kind of access to capital, to money, is always there for people who who are in the well-connected political elite class.
That's what should be angering to everybody that they don't have an access to this
and people are taking advantage of them.
So it's obviously Hunter Biden is just one case, Jared Kushner is another, there's a lot of them.
And so like to my mind, this is where maybe you and I disagree,
is that Joe Biden's own ethics, I think are better than his son's.
I think when he was in Congress from 73 to 2008, right?
Never traded a stock in that whole period of time.
Think of how rich he could have gotten off of trading Lockheed or owning Amazon.
Never traded stock.
Why?
Because he's like, no, my service is to be for the public and I can't, I won't be compromised by owning stocks and making money off of that.
So you end up becoming one of the poorer senators.
But his values are not reflected in the way Hunter goes about his, And so, you know, it's a travesty, but I also think there's a little bit of a both sides-erism there, Russell, to be honest with you.
It's like, you know, is Hunter making tens of millions of dollars as bad as, you know, X, Y, and Z?
And you see these kinds of like apples and apples types of comparisons that don't really line up, but it's bad, right?
It's a corrupt damn system.
Baz, I really admire your determination to do something positive within the system, and I strongly support the work you're doing to get workers to organise and unionise and take power back into their own hands, because I agree with you, the establishment elites aren't going to do anything about it.
I obviously don't agree with you about Joe Biden, you know, because I just, I've been sort of blown away by the level of corruption that I've witnessed, but I completely obviously respect your perspective.
Can we still disagree?
I mean, I appreciate everything you just said, Russ.
They won't come on our channels.
And so, you know, by the association, we just end up drifting more into sort of libertarian
spaces and it starts to seem like the democratic establishment doesn't want to talk to ordinary
working Americans.
That's what it starts to feel like, you know, so put a word in for us if you will.
Can we still disagree?
I mean, I appreciate everything you just said, Russ, the way you framed it and the way I
firmly believe you.
If you said something, you know, talking about somebody's bumhole or whatever, I don't know
what you're talking about.
that you know talking about somebody's bum hole or or whatever, and that might not be my cup of tea.
I'm saying, I can respect disagreement.
Who gives a damn?
We're in a civil society.
If you're gonna live with real people out in the world, they're gonna have different viewpoints.
And my view has always been persuasion.
There's somebody with whom you disagree.
Talk to them, and maybe share the way in which you think, and respectfully say, hey, maybe we just disagree about this.
You go on your merry way, you go on mine.
But I bet you and I can find areas of common agreement a lot of the times, and then reserve, OK, well, we disagree on this.
That's fine.
We can continue to have a decent debate.
But I think that is being lost in these alternative channels like yourself.
We're trying to do it.
Can we just have honest disagreement?
That's fine.
Bullshit, like, rancorous, partisan disagreements that are nonsense, but just, like, honestly, having an honest conversation is so hard to have now.
I agree with you, Faz, on so much, and thank you very much for taking the time, unlike many people that are part of the establishment that you are, you know, whilst being critical of, you are being optimistic about.
I respect that very much and I appreciate you coming on Many Switches Switch On Switch Off (x4)
