Chapo Trap House - 450 - In The Bubble feat. Patrick Redford (8/31/20)

Episode Date: September 1, 2020

Defector’s Patrick Redford stops by to talk the (hopefully likely) fall of JKIII, NBA strikes, and whether robots go to hell. Check out defector.com for all your sports blog and media needs: www.defector.com

COVID has taken this year, just since the outbreak, has taken more than 100 years. Look, here's the lives it's just, it's anything to think about. More lives this year than any other year, for the past 100 years. Hello, everybody. Chappell coming at you this Monday. Today, it's me and Felix holding it down, but we are not alone. We are joined by guest Patrick Redford from The Defector. Patrick, how's it going? Hey, thanks for having me, fellas. So, I'd just like to kick off at the top of the show by making a personal plea about an issue that's important to me. It may not be to you, but you know, it's because you don't care about Western civilization and what's being taken away

from us. I'm referring, of course, to the recent announcement that Sylvester Stallone will be releasing a new director's cut of Rocky IV on Blu-ray that will completely excise the character of Pauly's robot. You may remember Pauly was given a robot by Rocky for his birthday to keep him because he was lonely and old, and he gave him a robot that Pauly then gender flipped into making him into, he made his robot into a woman who brought him beers and was in love with him. Thanks, honey. You're welcome. It's a nice song. It's my favorite. You're the greatest. See you, sport. See you. Pauly, who taught her to talk like that? She loves me. And Stallone says that he doesn't like the robot anymore and is taking it out of the new cut of Rocky IV, which will be the

definitive cut. Tell your nephews this, never forget what they took from us. Sylvester Stallone, please do not erase our history. Without the robot in Rocky, there's no neon genesis Evangelion, there's no Gundam, there's no Terminator. The creators of all these franchises have admitted that they did not think of bipedal robots until Stallone envisioned it. I don't know who in the deep state got to him, but this is very serious. I'm going to have to break with you guys immediately because if the robot was never there in the first place, Hitch Bot, that horrible robot from five or six years ago, never would have existed. And that would be better for all of our lives as Americans. Was Hitch Bot the one that was assaulted in Philadelphia? Yeah, the only respectable things

Philadelphians have ever done, perhaps as revenge for the robot being in Rocky IV in the first place. Well, a lot of people don't know it wasn't assaulted for being a robot. They actually implanted Christopher Hitchens and personality in an AI in that robot. And he was going around to churches and saying, your turn to rebut my points, Theist. And Philadelphia, very Papus City, obviously reacted very poorly to the robot. Oh, rest in peace, Hitch Bot, rest in peace, Paulie's robot. Just all these things. They're both in hell. Do you think that all robots go to hell or do you think so? So that's not true. Yes, absolutely. No, they reject God. They reject God by their own existence. What about Ava Unit 1? Spawn of hell, return it there immediately.

I think it's nice. What about all Gundams go to hell? I find that tough to believe. They do go to hell. I don't quite agree with you. They do go to hell, but they get to serve as demons torturing the souls of humans with their metallic clamps and lasers. Oh, really? I'd like to see that with the Demon Brothers Union. Yeah, they don't go to hell. They just become props in the Ready Player One universe. Well, again, like I said, this is an issue that's very important to me. Perhaps going to be starting a petition later this week. But if you're a friend or friends or family with Sylvester Stallone, please intervene. Frank Stallone, I know we're friends on Instagram.

I don't know how you feel about this, brother. But I mean, this is our legacy that's being diluted. And this is social justice shit, taking away the robot for politically correct reasons. Bring back the robot. Paulie deserves it. It's his only friend. Okay. I do like how in that movie Paulie lives in like a 5,000 square foot mansion, but he's just wearing a beater every day. He's dressed like Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Well, that's the way to go. That's the way to go. That's in the robot is because he's like he's put him up in a cavernous mansion just all by himself and he can't take care of himself because he can't even bathe or go to the toilet without the help of a robot.

Maybe the next P.T. Anderson movie should be an exploration of Paulie alone in the mansion, having a schizophrenic episode. It's like the end of Citizen Kane, but just with a robot instead. That would be pretty fucking cool. Okay. Moving on to perhaps you think this is more important news than the robot issue, but tomorrow is a big primary day in Massachusetts. And there are two big races there that we've been keeping our eye on. Richard Neal and Alex Morris for that congressional seat.

Certainly in light of all the rat fucking campaign that we've discussed earlier. But the big one, of course, is Ed Markey and Joe Kennedy III. And this has been an extraordinary race because I remember like back in probably March of this year, like just about when like, you know, quarantine first came in. Kennedy was up by something like 25 points on Markey. And since then he's now trailing by 10 and they're pulling out all the stops in this race. And it's really something to see. And I just wonder like what happened?

Like what do you think accounts for such a big shift? Because I think it's just simply people getting to know Joe Kennedy III or seeing him talk. Yeah, I think the Kennedy campaigns internal polling numbers failed to account sufficiently for what having Joe Kennedy appear in public would do. I mean, it's clearly been a disastrous strike. And he doesn't even have the Boston accent. If he had that and, you know, he could mobilize the extremist organizations in the area, such as the New England Patriots or, of course, their paramilitary wing Barstools

works perhaps more, experience a more serious bump. And yet here we are. Yeah, if you want to equate Boston to Lebanon, as I often do, I would call Barstool like the Katyeb, the Lebanese forces of that war zone. But I do think it's as simple of a matter of the Kennedy name pulled very high and that it was like when he got out there and said, Nosotros La Biblioteca, our dreams are our pledge. It was like, yeah, even people in Massachusetts were like,

maybe not all Kennedys are made that well. Well, I mean, he would be the first Kennedy to lose an election in Massachusetts. But I mean, he's not making the best case for himself because I don't know if you guys saw it this morning. There was a picture of a Joe Kennedy mailer that went out in Massachusetts that misspelled Worcester. Worcester, Massachusetts is like Worcestershire, Massachusetts. And I don't know if you're familiar with Massachusetts, but that is that is Haram. That is completely out of pocket. And yes, the Barstool militia will be hearing of this.

I guess the thing, the way I'm thinking about it is I think what happened with this race is that after Bernie dropped out or after the primary was over, like I guess after Super Tuesday or whatever, I think a lot of people on both sides invested a lot in this race as a kind of, like a local race that took on a national profile as a kind of stand-in for what a Bernie, like actual presidential run would be like, or like a simulation of what Bernie versus Buttigieg would have been like. And like people on both sides, it's kind of a test case for the future of the party, because I think like it's, Marky clearly has like the young people on his side.

And it's weird because Kennedy was running from the beginning as sort of like, I'm the outsider. Ed Markey, like he's old, he's entrenched, he doesn't speak for the youth. And, you know, like we need some fresh blood, like we need a new start. But like the odd thing is that he was running to Ed Markey's right. He was running as the more like centrist right-wing candidate in a Democratic primary. And again, like he's the one who's being supported by the party establishment, not Ed Markey, like not vice versa. And like I said, I don't know what overall accounts for this huge swing in it,

but I think it's just people are like, wait, like Ed Markey's pretty good. Like what the fuck does this Joe Kennedy guy bring to the table? And it's pretty, and then like what he does bring to the table, I think is like this overwhelming sense of entitlement to just like, I'm the Kennedy guy from Massachusetts, give me. Yeah, and it's, I mean, the wildest thing is how cynically they've deployed, you know, the Bernie Bro style attacks against him. It's bullying, it's beyond the pale to, you know, send a picture of a dinosaur saying fuck, to Joe Kennedy, you know, the scion of one of the most powerful American post-war families.

I mean, yeah, there was that thing where his wife was like, like tweeting a screenshot of a joke someone made about like the Kennedy assassination. And she was like, I am that widow they're referring to. And it's just like, well, I mean, yeah, in the universe of the joke, I guess, but then like it was clear that nobody had added her. So she was just looking for like, looking for their name and like mean things. Here's another perfect example. This just came out today. Joe Kennedy says Ed Markey has been on the wrong side of racial justice issues.

Saying here it says, Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy told WBZ TV political analyst John Keller that Senator Ed Markey has been on the wrong side of racial justice issues throughout his career. Kennedy and Markey are squaring off in Tuesday's Democratic Massachusetts Senate primary. Kennedy told Keller he does not believe Markey has the history on racial justice that we need. Keller then asked Kennedy if he believes Markey is a racist. I don't think Senator Markey is a racist, John, no. You hope to serve in times of consequence in this job. Senator Markey served in times of consequence, particularly when it comes to racial justice,

and he's been on the wrong side over and over again. I think that it's important given the importance of this moment. What it shows is that in order to get it through, it's not enough to legislate on racial justice. An economic recovery bill is a racial justice bill. A transportation bill is a racial justice bill. A healthcare bill has to be a racial justice bill. What we've seen is a lack of awareness and commitment from the senator on those topics. Can either of you explain to me what the fuck he's talking about?

I guess I understand in theory, but he hasn't exactly sketched out how Ed Markey has been on the wrong side of racial justice, I guess in so much as he hasn't passed the Racial Justice Transportation Act of 2012 or whatever. I mean, I think the recurring theme I see with JK the third is that he's obviously trying to do the Corbett playbook. Right? And to that end, I mean, this is going to be the blueprint going forward for everyone trying to rat fuck a progressive candidate, which is why I say again, don't pay attention to anyone who tried to talk about the Corbett smears from the fucking left. They don't care. They don't care. They're auditioning for a liberal media job, but I think JK the third

is fundamentally incompetent. I mean, Markey is not a perfect senator. He's made a lot of votes that I don't love. He did vote for the Iraq war. He voted for the Iraq war, yeah. Right. But does anyone think it's an estate candidate third? No, yeah. JK the third would have whipped votes for it. I mean, there's nothing that he that Markey does that's not great that JK the third does better and he can't bring attention to those issues because then it's like, well, what would you actually do? Do you remember when that staffer tweeted out that moronic thing that was like, uh, oh, I did a term search in the Green New Deal and I never, I never saw the word like POC.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's what you mean. That's what you got his ass. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, JK three can't even do he can't even fully do the Buttigieg Pippet where he changes from sort of young people vibes guy to explicitly running to the right of the old populist because he's, you know, penned in by Massachusetts is electorate. So all he can just do is sort of press the harassment buttons and say, we need young fresh leadership, such as me, you know, the third generation of this sclerotic American politics family. Here's another example. I feel it's like you were saying out of like the Corbyn playbook, this is from the New York Times. It says here, Mr. Kennedy is trailing Senator Edward Markey in every poll ahead of the Senate

primary on Tuesday and may become the first Kennedy to lose a race in Massachusetts. He is struggling with idealistic young liberals and older affluent white Democrats, the sort of voters who in an earlier era idolized his grandfather, Robert F. Kennedy, and his great uncles. Mr. Kennedy pointed to his they were great uncles. I mean, you do have to hand it to him on one specific count. Mr. Kennedy pointed to his strength with working class Democrats and voters of color who are bearing the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic, all but scorning what he suggested was the hypocrisy of white liberals. For a progressive left that says they care about these issues, these racial inequalities, these structural inequities,

economic inequities, healthcare inequities, that folks on the other side of that are overwhelmingly supporting me in this race, he said, yet there seems to be cognitive dissonance. And like this is also remember when the Boston Globe endorsed Markey and he was just like, we were always counting on those male boys going for Markey. We're looking for the endorsements of marginalized groups and people. Well, so he's saying that if lefties, left liberals really cared about communities of color, they would, they would rendition at Markey. They would just give this to JKS third. That's one way to look at things. Yeah, no, I think if there's one thing that's turned off a lot of people, and one thing I think is incredible, Markey is at 71% with voters under 30, which yeah,

really should have been Kennedy's bread and butter. I think when they were in the, in the drawing rooms of this a few years ago, that's what they were depending on was young voters. Totally. Yeah, yeah, I think it's the entitlement that's turned people off. Like, look at that statement. It's so fucking, I deserve, I deserve this because I pull slightly better with, you know, black voters or whatever. It's, it's at best entitlement and at worst is just sort of holding up this generalized term people of color and going, look, look, you're racist if you don't support me. No, I was going to say, which is, I mean, like that appeal from Kennedy is doubly funny considering he was just in that, he was in that racist fraternity at Stanford, like, and then just like before it came

out, he just had a zoom call where he was like, Hey, everybody, I'm a, just I'm resigning, I'm resigning my membership in this frat, in case you, in case you asked. Yeah, he's like, I'd been like, yeah, like, you know, how long has it been since you graduated college, man? Some guys peed. Yeah, the past 18 years of my association with the white supremacist fraternity are over. And that means I am the better racial justice candidate in this race. Thank you and God bless. I mean, you know, he didn't know that. Yeah, that racist shit. Yeah, it's over. I'm done with it. But Patrick, another thing you mentioned is like, you know, when he was up by 20 points, they were really being like, look, I'm not running on my name. Like, forget about that. Like, this

is not about me being a Kennedy. And now that they're down by 10, they're pulling out all the stops with that, you know, that, that Kennedy legacy in terms of their ads and their mailers and like, you said they're the one with RFK where it was just like, this fight's in my blood. Yeah, I mean, it's the, the how, how cynical can you possibly get? It's the side by side of, you know, JK3 wearing a mask hanging out with folks next to RFK, like the distinction between those two. I mean, even on ideological lines is extremely stark. But like, if that's the only button he has left to press because he's totally penned in. But like, I just, I just want to say my issue with JK3 is much more personal in that he looks like me is doppelgangers. And so to have

this like very, very wet sort of smooth, entitled guy, you know, anytime he does anything, people are tweeting at me, don't like the side by side images. I just want him out of my life forever. And I really hope in two days, I never have to see him. I know how you feel. There's a reason that I don't follow Dagestani politics. It's just getting acute, getting mistaken for famous wrestlers or mass performers. Yeah, I have one more person tells me I'm a dead ringer for Osmog Galorian fucking over. Yeah, we need, we need Habib Nurmagomedov to not be the UFC lightweight champion anymore. So Felix can finally breathe easy and do his grappling in peace. Well, the guy I looked like when I was less fat was Benial Darius. And he's a cool fighter. But yeah, I mean, so

it can be. But yeah, I mean, I, I legitimately don't quite know what happened. It will happen tomorrow. I mean, I feel like polling in Massachusetts is very weird. It's, you get a lot of surprises between the polling, even close to election day and the results. But, you know, going by momentum, I don't think it looks that great for JK the three. Well, I'll give you, I'll give you some on the ground reporting here. Like, I mean, I did some polling on my own because I was in Western Massachusetts all of last week. And just driving around up there, make of this what you will. But Ed Markey is absolutely demolishing Kennedy in the lawn sign primary. And you know, in New England, people in New England really love those fucking lawn signs when it

comes to like elections and shit like that. I made like an informal count and I saw two Joe Kennedy lawn signs to about 20 Ed Markey lawn signs, all at different houses for like the week of a show. I spent driving around up there and slightly less stark because there were fewer signs. But I also was very surprised to find a lot of Alex Morse lawn signs and only a few Richard Neil ones. And I think again, like, like that race, I think I don't know what accounts for it. But if I had to speculate, my guess would be like, people didn't know what a piece of shit Richard Neil was until this latest like rat fucking blew up in his face. And it was just sort of like, even if they don't know who Alex Morse is, I think it was just like, like, they were just like,

they realized like, Oh, who's this Richard Neil guy? Like, why wait, like, do we have to have him? You know what I mean? Like, it was just like, wait, wait, wait, what, like, why this guy, you know, especially like, another man light of how fucking awful and evil like that whole, like, Alex Morse controversy was. Yeah, the trend here with both Kennedy and Neil is that as soon as people become aware of you, they despise you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, that's a common thread with these primaries from the left, right? Because I mean, people always say, Oh, well, Congress has Congress as an entity as an institution has a very low approval rating, but individual representatives, people love them. And I think what is more of the case so often is

that they generally people don't really know who represents them. The people that are polled are sort of like, either democratic, they just vote state straight, take a democratic or thing, or they don't really care. And I think if we're going to look at like the Jamal Bowman race, I think a lot of people are Jamal Bowman, sorry, a lot of people, they weren't paying attention. And then Elliot Angle did that thing right after the murder of George Floyd, where he was like, hey, he didn't know Mike was hot. And he's like, Hey, I wouldn't be giving a shit about it. And that was just that was just that same thing with Lacey Clay and Corey Bush. I think that a lot of people didn't know the deal with Lacey Clay. And then it's like, wait, your family has

just been using this district as a fiefdom half a century. What the fuck? That's Joe Crowley even fits in here, doesn't he? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, there's maybe the playbook they'll try going forward is just acting like they won't have a primary, right? Because these people, once they actually start campaigning, it's like sea legs. They've lost them. They get, they get out on that trail and they just start vomiting. Well, one last, one last ace up the sleeve of the Kennedy campaign is that they did get a late endorsement from Beto O'Rourke. Yes. That was all the fail. Yeah. The Joe is the vibes candidate. Very cool. The two. Yeah. The fail men coalition. We need, we need Pete. We need Pete to come out and say

something today. I want to see all three of those dudes. Oh, yeah. Well, Pete, Pete wouldn't fit in with those guys because the JK and Beto have a spiritual bond. That spiritual bond is sucking at fucking everything and unearned generational wealth. Yeah. Yeah. Pete's a killer. I love, I love, yeah. Pete's like Pete's wanted this since childhood. Pete like got one of those Harry Potter. You're invited to the school of witchcraft letters, but from George HW Bush was a kid. You are invited to the deep state occult art school. You're a prodigy. Beto, yeah. Beto does it this late. It takes him seven tweets to figure out who he's actually endorsed and talks about himself for most of it. He just talked about text to us. Yeah. That's so cool. I love it.

It's so cool. I love it. Like, Beto's like, I hated him so much when I thought he would maybe do well in the primary, but then when it became clear, he's just a loot. He's like very endearing to me. I know he sucks as a political entity. He's awful. He's a terrible guy, but just as a guy who fails all the time, I can't help but love him from one to another. Yeah. No, you're right. It's like once the threat of any of these repellent people, just holding power or removing the hope of anything better from our lives, once they've been sort of neutralized in such a way that you're free to have affection for them because of how endearing their stupidity and fail life are is. I would. Yeah. We can enjoy Beto's skateboarding off into the sunset forever.

And also, at least with Beto, when he dropped out or was no longer a candidate, he fucking, he went away. He just grew a beard. He grew a beard. Yeah. Yeah. Buttigieg, we will never, ever be rid of that guy, ever, no matter what happens. We're going to have Buttigieg forever. Buttigieg is probably going to have a late-night show where he plays like Cambucha Pong with Samantha Powers and other foreign policy. And it's like every time, every time, every time they sink a cup, one gets to ask a question of the other. Didn't Chase and just get some sort of Harvard fellowship? Oh, yeah, I did. Yeah. Harvard, it's really, this might be an interesting episode to do

about how Harvard gives out fellowships to the nephews and the husbands and the whatever's of the powerful. If you're wondering what a lot of the lesser Saudi princes do, they're at the Balfour Center. What is their expertise? Who knows? Falconry, disappearing women, whatever, whatever. What is Chase's expertise? I don't know. But they're there. They're taking a salary. Harvard needs their connections because it's just a, at this point, a hedge fund that teaches a few classes. But that might be an interesting episode if we have a Harvard expert that we know. Interesting. We'll put it in the queue next to the George H. W. Bush career and legacy. I'm still reading Family of Secrets. I guess we'll see what happens tomorrow in both of those

races. But definitely worth keeping an eye on. Moving on from that, Patrick, we have you on here. You're with Defector. And certainly this past week or so has been a big one for the crossover between professional sports in this country and politics. Many sports leagues made a decision to essentially not play games in the wake of these latest police killings, the one in Kenosha and the protests that happened as a result of it, Blake. Particularly the NBA is the most high-profile one because they're in the playoffs right now. And interestingly, they're all in the same place because of COVID. They're all in Orlando right now, which is interesting because they're all together. I wonder, absent that, whether there would have been anything like the decision a

lot of these teams made to not play for one night. Patrick, what do you think of that? Yeah. I mean, the whole creation of the bubble was this very bizarre exercise, especially because if you're going back to March, I think the first moment that the coronavirus pandemic became real for America was when the NBA shut down. The day after Rudy Gobert goes and coughs on all the reporters' mics, you all have COVID. He actually did have COVID. And so you see Chris Paul in the court just pointing at him like, get him away from me. He's sick. And then he was sick. And then three days later, all of this starts. And so I think the NBA needed to show that we're coming back. The season is on to show that there is this progression of normalcy. And a lot of players,

LeBron James in particular, one of the most famous people in the world, have talked about how much it sucks shit to be there. I mean, you're away from your family. You're away from your community. You're basically just in Disney World forever at all times. I mean, a guy went to go pick up delivery wings and he picked up a 10-day quarantine. We had to just stay in his hotel and go out and leave. Sounds like a J.G. Ballard novel. Basketball teams quarantined in Disney World and can't leave. Jesus. But like, particularly with the NBA playoffs now and that they did, I don't know. I think there's also this debate about whether to call it a strike or a boycott. And it's just like, I don't quite know what's right. I mean, it's like, it's sort of not one or

the other because they didn't play for one night, but then they came right back. And then like, what, and this whole thing about how they consulted Obama for his advice on this, which seemed to give them kind of cover to continue with the playoffs after doing one sort of protest night. And according to reports, Obama's advice to them was very, you know, like perfectly- Do nothing. Perfectly Obama, where he just basically said, you made your point. But the most important thing is that you do what you have to do for the people who pay your salaries and who are more powerful than you. And then once you do that, you'll be in a better position to ask them for the things that

you want rather than, you know, the other way around. You have all the leverage in the world. You have, you know, this unexpected display of solidarity across the leagues. I mean, to see MLB teams taken at all is pretty shocking because, yeah, the Brewers, the A's and Astros, I mean, it's been about a third of the league or so. But I think, I guess to get back to your original point, it is technically speaking a Wildcat streak, but that, I think that gives it a little more credit to like how organized it was that it necessarily needs because this started with one guy on the box, George Hill, just deciding like, I'm not going to play in the locker room. And his teammate,

Sterling Brown, who Milwaukee police beat the shit out of two years ago, and he has an active suit against the city still going, he said, I'm going to join you. And then Yanis and Tetecompo, the soon to be two-time MVP said, I'm going to. And it just sort of snowballed from one guy just being like, I'm too sad and fucked up to play right now into this, you know, three days worth of games or two days worth of games being canceled and then spreading to other leagues. So like, I think if we're going to understand it as this massive, important action, we also have to contextualize how protean at all was like, this was not something they'd necessarily planned. I mean, people had talked about possibly boycotting it. And there'd obviously been

discussions throughout this bubble. But like, I think the reason, I don't want to call it a broken strike necessarily, but the reason they were able to reach this slightly disappointing compromise so quickly was because it was not the most organized action. I mean, it was unprecedented. And I very much admired them for doing it. But like, you're right, like there wasn't, it didn't seem like there was like, after the initial, you know, sort of shock or like, you know, sort of departure from, you know, normalcy of like, you know, business as usual, even under COVID conditions that, you know, these professional athletes would just say like, Hey, like, there's something more important to me than playing this game tonight for America's entertainment.

But then, yeah, like, what would I mean, like, it's hard to imagine what would have happened if they just all simply said like, Hey, guess what, there are no playoffs this year. Like, fuck it. Yeah, that would have been pretty seismic consequence. Yeah. And back to what you originally said, Patrick, about how I got, I remember that like, like, I remember watching footage of Mark Cuban learning at a Maverick's game that the NBA had just canceled the season or postponed it. And like him, you know, looking like, well, I'll freak it all freaked out or whatever. But like, you're right, that was the first big moment of like, you know, this sort of new COVID paradigm that we're living under where everyone was like, Oh, shit, this is for real. And like,

these, these, these things that we all take for granted that are like, make up the sort of rhythms and texture of our year to year life, just going away, like people started to really feel it. And especially now the absence of sports. I mean, like I say this half jokingly, but not really, I think like the absence of sports or like, is driving America insane. It's the, it's the only thing we actually share and care about in this country. It's the only thing we actually really have. I mean, movies make more money than ever, but there's no cultural, very few of them have any cultural impact or purchase. There's no real community activities anymore, especially now. Sports is the one thing you can look at that everyone really, really cares about and enjoys.

And it's one of the, as you said, a few things left in American life for most people that gives texture to the days, moments to time spent. That's why I was so excited about this. I, I thought it could really, really lead to something because if it's the last thing we have, these guys have a unique social bargaining power. Yeah. But, but of course, you know, a bungler got in there and his resolution was, why don't you make it so it's easier to vote for Chuck Schumer? It's like just awful. It's so depressing. What a villain of American history. What an awful villain of American history, Obama's. I would say that on its own terms, this strike was a success. However, like, even if like, this is, this is kind of the Jared Kushner

criticism of it. It was like, Oh, you didn't stop police shootings forever or solve like 400 years of institutional racism. Therefore, like, lace them up, get back out there. Like, as just a matter of flexing labor muscles, like, you know, and to see the, the amount of solidarity shown by other leagues and within the NBA, like, it is very impressive. And the players now know they have these levers they can pull to squeeze the owners exactly where it hurts. And like, I want to bring up a quote by Jalen Brown, who is a player of the Celtics. He's great. And he said, like, yeah, he said, like, there are limits to incrementalism. Like, we can't just ask the owners nicely to get what we want. And to sort of like, come to a consciousness that this is

necessarily an adversarial relationship. Like, I think it's very impressive. Yeah, absolutely. And it's just like, you know, at the end of the day, I mean, like, these guys are, you know, hugely well paid. But like, they still are, they still work for a salary, essentially, they still are employees of NBA of these, you know, sports franchises and owners. And like, because of their profile and how, how completely like rare they are in terms of talent, like, you know, like, they can't just be replaced by scabs, you know what I mean? They do have a lot of scabs. And like, we've all seen, you know, big East games that end 43, 42, no one wants scab NBA would be horrible. Yeah, scab NBA, where they like, they play

the game the right way with defense and lots of bounce passes. That will be the greatest Mark Wahlberg movie of all. Just the five, six white guy coming in and being like, I've always wanted to be a basketball player. We're gonna bring fucking passing back to the league. And the movie ends that everyone actually likes the scab NBA more, even though it sucks. And the critical scene is a guy hitting one or two free throws after getting fouled so hard that he sustained a massive concussion because, you know, the only guys who can play are five, six little dorks or like completely unskilled, just like large people. Yeah. European league players who were stuck in America after their Eastern European Republic

ceased to exist. Yeah, the all Ukrainian team plays the villains. Come on over from Donbass. Yeah, they're like, they're like the kids from the rich summer camp across the lake, you know, like in 80s. But you also have like a Kushner's reaction to this where he was like, I think they're very privileged to have the right to do this and other other workers don't. But like, there's been a lot of funny reactions to this because because of the nature of sports, like, you know, as you were previously talking about, like people, especially on the right, take it so fucking personally. And like, one of my favorite reactions was like, that that fucking dole to right for the Atlantic Conner Friedsdorf, where he was just like, first, he said, I don't understand

why they can't, wouldn't they have, wouldn't they have more profile if they just spoke about it in the post game press conferences? Yeah, like, you mean that shit that nobody cares about or watches, you know, like. Yeah, I, yeah, I think right wingers reaction to athletes is so interesting. I mean, a, like they're usually racial reasons. But b, it's also like a pure resentment against anyone who is good at anything. Yeah, the type of that type of person does not exist in really any media, but especially not conservative media. I think the third thing, though, is I think on some level, the smarter ones are definitely consciously aware of this. But maybe even the dumb ones are subconsciously aware of this. They know that they need sports or else everyone will notice, like,

everyone really feeling how shitty their lives are. And that's not to say sports are awful or distracted from this. They're a thing that makes life a little more worth living. They add a little more excitement and texture if your life's horrible. And they're afraid of what happens if they're not there or if they get, you know, in their words politicized, even though every, you know, they're all, they're already politicized. The military does a huge propaganda show pretty much every NFL game. But yeah. And so you get these people like Charlie Kirk, who has to take this impossible position of just bitching about how I'm never going to watch the NFL, the MLB, the NBA again. And then two days later, just being like, I think this Gordon Hayward guy's great. He's

getting shots from my beloved Celtics. And like, if you abandon sports, you're also showing to the world that you're just like kind of a hateful nerd too. Yeah, it's just like it's like if you're a Charlie Kirk or someone you just you're retreating to this area, I'm just pure resentment like Felix said, like sports is the one thing we can agree on. Those are the only like people we have that are akin to actual like heroes in America. And also no one believes you either. And if they did believe you, it's just like you're, you're, you're advertising like I'm like I'm purposely like amputating from my life, like all of these sources of like joy or distraction or entertainment from my life, because it's like, it's so poisoned by like any any implication

that there's something outside of this game, or the people, the athletes playing it for me are actually insulting me by disagreeing with me. It's just like, what a fucking miserable way to live your life if you took that seriously. And like to Felix, like your point about, especially among conservative pundits, their, their, their hatred for athletes of any kind is like, yes, like, obviously it's racial. But to your point is like, they hate it because professional sports is one of the true only and like highest profile, like actual meritocracies were like, yes, you like you succeed in it by hard work, your innate talent, but also like actual competition, which is something that they of course proclaimed to espouse the virtues of, but like could not

be more of a living refutation of like not only are they bad writers, but they like exist in this like coddled hot house of just like, you know, non competition, like if any of these guys actually had to like stand on their own in a marketplace of ideas or jobs, like they would be fucking selling pencils on the corner by next week. Can you name one conservative magazine that next money? None. None of them. None of them do. Yeah. The Costco magazine. The Costco magazine is actually, um, it's officially aligned with Jean-Luc Melenchon's party, uh, France and Sumas. It's a left-wing magazine. Yeah. Costco is, uh, the Costco magazine is the only competitor we've identified as, you know, a problem for the factory forward. Too many people are reading it.

It does have an insanely wide circulation. I would like to write for it. The other point that, uh, Frieder's Dorf made where he was like, I, he was just like tweeting about it. And he was like, you know, he was like, what realistically, um, can NBA owners do to affect the issues of policing in America? And then of course, like immediately a couple of people pointed out that, uh, Dan Gilbert, the owner of the calves has literally purchased downtown Detroit and made it into like Robocop with a privatized police force that serves like the Quicken loans industry. And as well, Steve Ballmer, who owns the Clippers, also like has donated $700,000 to, uh, California law enforcement and police departments. And Tillman Fertitta, the Rockets owner who famously

has, yeah, he's the former UFC Fertitta feelings. Uh, yeah, he, Tillman is, uh, I, I don't think he's, uh, Lorenzo and Frank's brother. I don't think he's the brother of Frankie Three-Sticks, but, uh, I think he's a cousin or something or a nephew, one of the nephews of history. He's also famously broke. Like he bought the Rockets mostly on credit and has given all these quotes about how, you know, they can't necessarily afford James Harden and Russell Westbrook at the same time. And yet he's still out here giving, you know, $10 million to the Houston police force. Yeah. Um, yeah. Tillman is the third cousin of the UFC Fertitta's, the former UFC Fertitta's, but, uh, he, they, um, I don't know. That's a, that's a great, that's a great, uh,

was the inspector's name from Casablanca. The Claude Reigns character? Yes. Fuck, I forget. I just remembered the answer. It's a great Claude Reigns question. What could these rich people possibly do about policing in America? What could these people get $400 million to build these hulking aluminum monstrosities right downtown? What could they tell us about civic finance and budgets? You're telling me you want rich people to start taking an active role in politics. What's the precedent for that, pal? I would like, like, how does Freezer think that, uh, anyone would, would affect change? If, if rich people are out, if they have no effect on any of this, what do you do? Change.org position? Yeah. You increase the font size of Black Lives Matter

on the court. Yeah. Um, but yeah, like, um, also to just point out about the, the post game press conferences is just like, well, what has a bigger impact playing the game and then mentioning it after at the press conference or having there be no games for anyone to watch? Yeah. And like, you know, Jaylen Brown, once again, he and several other players have pretty explicitly outlined, like there are limits to the whole argument of just using your platform to increase awareness. Like one of the terms for players coming back to the bubble was that, I mean, this all happened in the immediate wake of the George Floyd protests. And so the players said, you know, we're only going to come do this bubble. If we feel we can affect some positive change.

And so they struck a deal with the league where they could have exactly 29 social justice messages for players to pick from. I mean, Damien Lillard wanted to put Oscar Grant's name in the back of his jersey. The league said no. Um, and so the players have basically talked about, like, who is the one who will see if this works? Who is the one player who had like school choice or education reform was one of the social justice slogans you put on his, uh, his jersey? Yeah. So Gordon Hayward on the Celtics, he's, you know, I'm going to be careful here. He's a player that people have asked questions about. Um, and if you go to the Celtics, it's like black lives matter, a black lives matter, freedom, equality, then education reform. Who is the player who put

the national debt on his jersey? Oh, yeah. He didn't, he didn't end up going to the bubble. He was going to put the word trillion there. He also, he also like tried to do this thing with his most recent contract where he was going to sell shares in it to, uh, like he was going to take, he wanted equity in the nets. First of all, they said no. And then he was going to like allow fans to invest like somehow in his own salary and like turn him to the stock market guy. He's, he's very cool. I love a dimwit like that. I just, I love someone who just like learns about the national debt when they're 22 and they're like, this is my only issue. Bro, debt clock going on every day. Like in this time for that to be your issue is so awesome.

Yeah. I recently watched, um, there was that Netflix show, the politician, um, and the guy's a single issue, uh, climate change voter. And I was just thinking like what would be the funniest if the show was just made identically, but he was a different single issue candidate. What would be the funniest single issue? And I think balance budget guy would be pretty good or pro junk driving candidates. Uh, balance, but there are a lot of those. There are a lot, a lot of Democrats about who their only issue is the balance budget. Just an amazing reading of the times. Well, if Joe Biden becomes president, we can hopefully finally get that balance budget amendment that we've all been hoping for. Well, have you noticed that there's been

more violence in the country since the budget's gone out of control? Bro, I've been saying that. As long as like the police keep killing people in this country, like there's going to continue to be protests and social strife about it. And it'll be interesting to see how the athletes going forward continue to like use their platform to address this or maybe even, you know, continue like just simply like, Hey, guess what? Like there's not going to be basketball this year until we do something about this. And it'll be, we're going to get, we'll be furious about it, but I don't know. I mean, they do it. Like you said, like because of their profile, they do have a lot of fucking bargaining power. I've been thinking a lot about a quote that Nationals reliever Sean Doolittle gave

earlier this summer talking about the MLB restart where he said sports are the reward for a functioning society. Yeah. And like we don't have one of those. And so, I mean, as much as our website wouldn't really have much to write about, like we don't really deserve sports right now or or tenant for that matter. Christopher Nolan is a reward for a functioning society, but we don't have one. So you're gonna have to wait to find out all the mind bending chills, thrills and spills in this sci spy time travel thriller. All we deserve is the robotless cut. That's what we're going to get. We made our bed. We have to sleep in it. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, I mean, Joe Biden, I feel excited. You posted about it like he had

an ad the other day that I thought was a pretty good cut from his campaign, or at least the best one I've seen so far, where it was just like a montage of just empty sports stadiums and just being like, we can do better. And like that to me was like the closest thing to like a like an identifiable message or like prompt, I won't say promise or policy from the Biden campaign, but like the closest thing to a message that I thought might resonate, which is just that like, hey, look around you. I mean, we can't do anything. There's nothing on TV. Like everything sucks. Like you can't go outside. Like, hey, like, who do you think's responsible for that? Maybe it's the guy who's in the White House. Yeah, I thought that was like, I was really shocked to see how

many Biden ads are just, they remind me of that infamous, I'm voting for this baby Hillary ad. I thought, I don't know, maybe the bottom of two years ago is different, but I thought Biden, if you watch that interview immediately after the 2016 election, he does a great job of identifying the pitfalls of the Clinton campaign and where they fucked up. There's no special affection between Joe and Hillary. But I guess that's a big of a sign of his decline is anything that he's pretty much let those people write the story of this campaign. I hope down the stretch, you know, we do see more ads that are like that stadium ad because it's like, there's obviously more, there's historic unemployment and an eviction crisis and just endless misery.

But as far as going in that direction, it's not bad because it is like, you know, they did drop the ball on this very fucking badly, very bad. And he's, he's, he's never going to talk about policy or anything. And so as far as the appeals, he's actually going to make just saying like, your life sucks, and you don't get your bread or your circus because of this guy. Like, that's a more effective message than like, Hey, hey, man, hey, man, come on, cars will be long again. If I'm president, okay, man, okay. I mean, the other thing that's happening right now is that, you know, it's clear from watching the Republican convention last week that like their message going into the fall is going to be all about, you know, antifa and, and, and selling this idea to

their base or to like the average voter that like literally every American city is just ruled by like street gang nonstop violence. Like it's like, you know, predator two or something like this. It's this vision of like, just like every city is just like anarchy completely in the streets. And like they're really only, I got like, they're talking about Portland and they're just like, they're really trying to ramp up the tension. And like, you know, let's be honest, they don't need to ramp it up that much because people keep getting fucking killed over this fucking shit. But like Joe Biden is just today or gave a speech in Pittsburgh where he's like really trying to like, I won't say walk back because it's not like he's ever been the most enthusiastic

supporter of like, you know, popular protest or violent conflict with the police. But, you know, I mean, he's really trying to like be like, Hey, like, we don't, we don't support rioting or looting or violence of any kind. And like, come on, man, like, you know, that's not protest. And he's like, because as Trump is trying to tie him to be like, if you vote for Joe Biden, he will unleash antifa in your neighborhood. Like, you know, like what you see on the streets of Portland is like coming to your suburban cul-de-sac tomorrow in Joe Biden's America, which obviously to people like us are like, you know, pretty hard to make that argument about the author of the 94 crime bill. But, you know, in a country where no one remembers anything and, you know, people are freaked out

by this, it's like, you can see, you know, that the appeal of that Trump pitch, but it's interesting to see Biden try to have it both ways, like I said, about with Black Lives Matter, where like, you know, he can't say like, I don't support Black Lives Matter, or like these people have no right to protest or be angry. But he's being very clear about like, you know, A, not supporting any other goals, but B, also making it clear that like, we are the party of law and order and Trump isn't, which is in and of itself. Also, I can see how that pitch might kind of work, because, you know, as he said, all this shit is happening while Trump is president. So, you can't make the argument that all stop it. I mean, the Trump campaign is kind of making the

argument that all of this is happening because of Joe Biden. Yeah. It's so bizarre. Like, they're positing that he is the president and is in charge of this, which is an impressive level of unreality. The Biden riots is one of the funniest ones I've seen this election, because it's like, who is answering his call to go like, A, like he's totally, this is, yeah, totally not his type of thing, but B, like, yeah, if there is a force of people who are loyal to Biden, this wouldn't be their thing. This is not what they'd be doing. It's pretty, it's pretty fucking stupid. I don't know. I will say this. What should Biden say about this? Like, what do you think would be a good thing for him to say about this? Because I don't, like, I don't know. Polling on this is weird.

Like, people, conservatives always like to point to, oh, Americans widely disprove riots, but if you remember, there was wide approval for the burning down of the police station in Minneapolis. So, polling's pretty weird on this, but it would be, if Biden came out in complete support of this, it would be a complete reversal of everything he's ever said. Yeah, I think, personally, I think it may be helpful if he was like, you know, this isn't, this is a consequence of neglect and just outright murder by the state and, you know, et cetera, et cetera. But that's also hard for him to say as the author of the crime bill. But as he also said, this country doesn't remember anything. So maybe he can do that.

Yeah, I think, I think the only thing he really can say is, I'm gonna end this. And the whole, the whole campaign is basically just like, we're going back to normal. We're going back to this true neutral. Like, not that I'm gonna give you anything good, but the bad stuff will stop or at least slow down. And so this is like, messaging wise, all he has to say is like, Trump did this, I'm gonna stop it. That is, you know, I think if he runs, if he continues to run as he did on, I will return us to zero, he's going to win. The question is, are they too, you know, are they too ambitious for their own good? Are they, are they going to make those Hillary ads that fucking went down like a lead balloon? I don't know. I don't know. I hope for

their sake that someone there is manning the ship and at least remembers four years ago. I mean, another odd element of this that like, again, like, it's, it's, it's so hard to figure out like, if you're, if you're on either side of this, like, you know, you're still boxed in by it, which is that like, you know, Trump is talking about how like a big feature of the RNC were like, you know, these Democrat controlled cities, they've killed their own cities, you know, like in New York City is a lawless hellhole that's dying. And it's just like, it's just, that's not true. I mean, like there's been a slight uptick in crime, but a slight uptick from an already historic low, like it's unprecedented in every other, which by the way, under de Blasio,

crime in New York is like vastly lower than it was under Giuliani. So like, what does that tell you about how much a mayor is in control of, you know, crime in the cities that they police? But like, the other thing is like, all of these cities that he's talking about where this supposed, like this, this violence and lawlessness is going on, where the cops are attacking people, where people are being killed are controlled by Democratic mayors and Democratic governors. So like, but then if you're on the other side, like, how do you be like, oh, like Trump is responsible, like he's stoking all this violence, he's supporting all this police fascism or whatever, where it's like, these are, it's Democratic mayors and governors that are

sending the police to do this, like they could stop it if they wanted to, but they don't. So it's just like, everybody is, is fucking checkmated by this position right now. So at least in terms of, if you're choosing sides in this presidential election and would like to maintain some kind of morally or ethically coherent position on these current protests going on. Yeah, I think both of those positions take as a precept that the police do the job of crime prevention and therefore like need to continue existing in something resembling this form, which like is obviously a historical and wrong. But I think if you still conceive of them as not necessarily a benevolent body, but like a necessary one, you're going to arrive at one of

those two conclusions. Or also, I mean, like avoiding facing the fact that like, for these Democratic governors and mayors, like how much control do they really have over these police departments? Is their civilian control of the police in this country anymore? Or have we, or is, or do we have that in name only? And because of things like the power of police unions, the power of all the federal money that, for instance, the NYPD gets, that they've essentially able to veto any sort of civilian oversight or control of law enforcement. So like, even if they were ordered to like stop shooting rubber bullets at protesters or stop attacking medics in the streets or giving cover to armed paramilitary psychos, even if they were ordered to do that,

would they stop? Or like, you know, what, how, like, is there any civilian power oversight or authority there to compel them to do otherwise, even if they wanted to? I mean, not when they're this militarized and have been essentially deputized to do whatever they want and carry out whatever violent oppression they want for long enough that even new policemen coming in now, like they kind of understand this is how it works. You do this to extract pain. Like, I think, I think the conception of the job by the people who do it is fundamentally different, maybe, than the people who control those budgets, I would say. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, leaving the racial aspect of it aside, which I know is like, you

know, haha, difficult to do. I mean, I really think cops view anyone who's not them as the enemy, basically, or they like the way they talk about it, they talk about it like civilians don't understand. It's just like, you're not a soldier, dude. It's not, it's, this is not a distinction. It's not, this is not a distinction. You're a civilian too, asshole. Like, if you've seen all those challenge corns. Oh, the God, the one of the, the Flatbush Project's challenge coin was one of the most, that is one of the most fucking insane things I've ever seen. It was like something that a British colonial officer would be given. Yeah, Verhoeven would be told he was too on the nose with that one. No, the challenge coin looked like an alt-right cartoon, basically. And it was

just like, the whole point of the challenge coin was just like, and then it was a quote from Ernest Hemingway about like, men who have hunted men and liked it, realized that, you know, there's nothing better, essentially. Oh, God. Yeah, I mean, they're just saying it directly, like, we view you as a population to be subdued, not a community to police. Yeah, like, exactly. Like, you are a public servant. Like, this attitude, like, it's not, it's not civilians that are against you or opposing you. It's like, it's citizens, and they're citizens just like you are. Like, as a cop, you are a civilian too. Like, you're, you're, you're a public safety officer, you're a public servant. But I think increasingly, and obviously this has been true in, for, you know,

for Black America, and especially in cities in this country for a long time, that essentially the police are viewed on both sides as sort of an occupying army. And that like, this is a sort of restive enemy population that you are at war with every day. But I think increasingly, like, I think cops view anyone, they view you at best, if you're not one of them, as unworthy of their protection. If not, if not like an outright enemy to them personally. And one, I mean, the scariest single thing about the written house shooting of the protesters in Kenosha is how maybe the cops at this point know they're not necessarily going to get away all the time with shooting and killing people. But like, if they make this implicit alliance with the increasingly present, you know,

boogaloo boys and far-right militia types who show up, I guess the boogaloo's are sort of anti-cop in some way. But like, if, if you're deputizing these fringe weirdos with guns to show up and do the shooting for you, you escape some of the oversight. As a wise man said several years ago, domestic gladio. I mean, I mean, yeah, what you're describing, Patrick, I mean, like, that is basically the Jakarta method that Vincent Bevin's book is about. Like, the Indonesian genocides were mostly carried out by paramilitary groups with the explicit sort of endofactile permission and guidance of the military. But like, these are a lot of, they was done by people who were essentially freelancing after they had been given permission by sort of an authoritarian force and like,

uncovered to carry out the worst of it. And I'm not saying we're there yet, but like, you know, you can, you can see the echoes of these kind of things, like you said, in the written house shooting. And what, again, what disturbs me about, about that one outside the obvious of it is like, this kid has basically created for himself a way in which he could do a spree or school shooting that at least like, maybe half of the country would praise him for. Yeah, he can, he can do it as it's, it's, I mean, it's, it's a resonant building exercise at a certain level. I mean, that's probably not why he did it. But I was thinking about this in the context of Nicholas Sandman, like how much more dire things have gotten over the past year or so,

you know, it was controversial that Sandman was celebrated as this like, you know, right wing cause de jure, who like everyone kind of rallied around. He didn't even do anything. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And now they're circling the wagons around like, an actual murderer, like, and the facts are so clear. Like it's really, I mean, like, yeah, like he, I mean, again, like, I mean, even to try to litigate like the, the who, what, why this, I think it's like playing into this propaganda that like, you know, where you cover up, like you can never allow your victims to be treated as such. Like you always have, like you always have to create this world in which like, oh, if he hadn't of killed them, they would have done worse to him or other people. It's just like this bizarre, and

again, Bevan's talks about that in his book, but it's just like, like I said, like you, you just sort of like, you cultivate this fantasy in your head enough times and then put yourself in a position where you are able to do it and then get away with it. And again, it remains to be seen, you know, if you will get away with it or what he'll be charged with, if at all. But I mean, like, look at the reaction, like I said about a good, like, you know, a certain core of this country where he's not just willing to forgive him for what he did, but basically openly celebrate and defend him and like as some kind of like hero for killing a couple of people, defending a gas station or whatever that wasn't even his. Yeah, he enacted the fantasy that so many people probably want to

live out and have been, you know, implicitly given permission to do by Trump at all. I mean, I'm not going to read from it, but of course, show favorite Rod Dreher had a whole post about how Rittenhouse was a populist hero. And my only comment without that is like, well, of course, Rod loves this kid. He's lived out one of Rod's top two fantasies that haunts his life because he knows he could never fulfill them. I'll leave you to kill him. Well, he didn't take a gun to a bathroom. Well, anyway, again, like, I think it was clear from the Republican National Convention and from Joe Biden's speech today that violence in the streets or, you know, this sense of anarchy or like a breakdown in law and order is going to be a big feature of this fall election

and to the extent to which that you buy into it or believe that it is like, it's going to be like, who do you blame for it? Because I mean, the other funny thing is that what Democrats are doing now is that they're just blaming Russia for it. That's their way out of this straight jacket because they can't be like, oh, we're against Black Lives Matter. We're against violence and rioting and looting. But that's being done by white anarchists who are being supported by Russia. Like literally, like directly that Russia is fomenting the violence that you're seeing on TV and is apparently causing our poll numbers to sink. Like that's their way out of this fucking trap, which was their way out of their trap of why they lost the fucking last election too.

Yeah, it can't be an honest reckoning with, you know, systems of oppression and control. It has to be an outside influence. I mean, I think that's to sort of crib off something that Patrick Wyman said, I think that's sort of one of the hidden, hidden national costs of imperialism. If you keep telling everyone that they're problems, they're because China wants the South China Sea or because, you know, you need to die in a nuclear holocaust to defend Latvia, that we need this presence in every area of the entire fucking world. You're going to get liberals who every time they see the result of our system, see Russia, and you're going to get conservatives who can look at failure, mass death, despair, and poverty, and all they can think about is China.

Yeah, you know, I guess to Will's earlier point, talking about the election specifically, like, I guess Trump did admit as much that a lot of that early Portland stuff, the people in unmarked cars, was basically a campaign. Yeah. And I think that's because, I mean, initially, I guess two months ago, the election seemed like it would just be a purely pure referendum on the coronavirus. And like, you know, all Biden had to do was just say 200k dead, etc. And that worked for him. But this, and it's specifically the way that they're saying, like, this is a Democrat problem. This is a Biden thing. Like, that just muddies the water. It makes it much less clear. Well, well, good luck going forward to everyone with this here in America. Let's wrap things up

for today. Keep our eyes on, you know, best of luck to Joe Kennedy III. Tomorrow, either you will be just another lawyer or just another senator from Massachusetts whose last name is Kennedy. Good luck to our wet boy. You gave it, you know, at the end of the day, both teams played hard for as long as we're talking about post-game press conferences. Patrick, thank you so much for joining us today. The website is defector. Thanks for having me. Yeah, check it out. We're launching very soon. Cheers, everybody. Bye. So much at stake, seems our freedom's up against the rules. Does the crowd understand? Is it East versus West?

Or man against man? Can animation stand alone? In the burning heart, just about to burst. There's a plus for answers and a great job of firsts. In the pocket's light, rising like a spider. In the burning heart, there must take over fire. In the burning heart.