Chapo Trap House - 913 - Only the Lonely feat. Julian Feeld (3/3/25)

Episode Date: February 28, 2025

QAA’s Julian Feeld joins us today to give us his report from last week’s CPAC convention. We look at the usual carnival of cruelty on display at the Gaylord Convention Center, with an added layer of vindictiveness in the second Trump era. We also discuss at how QAnon has been fully metabolized into political discourse, and check in on some classic characters like Mike Lindell and JFK. Jr. Finally, a rather grim reading series looking at the lonely political life of Senator Fetterman. Find QAA wherever you get podcasts, and subscribe here: https://www.patreon.com/qanonanonymous Check out Julian’s recent Jacobin pieces On the current state of QAnon: https://jacobin.com/2025/02/qanon-legacy-conspiracy-trump-patel And his report from CPAC: https://jacobin.com/2025/03/cpac-trump-bannon-far-right Finally, go see Eephus when it comes to your town: https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/eephus/

Hello, everybody. It's Monday, March 3rd, and we've got some chopo coming at you. Joining Felix and I on the program today is Julian Field from the QAnon Anonymous program, who will be sharing some of his dispatches from the Gaylord Convention Center, CPAC, the happiest place on Earth. Julian, welcome. My pleasure. I just do want to mention at the beginning of the show, I want to say thank you to everyone who came out last night to Nightclub 101 to support Zoran Mandani for mayor. It was a night for the movies and a night for New York City. Thanks to Hesse, we had a good time watching the Oscars.

And I guess just before, before we get into CPAC and the current state of Q&ON and the MAGA right wing, I just did want to cover a couple things from the Oscars last night. And Felix, I'm going to begin with this. Did you see the DJ academics post? Do you mean, did I see the greatest act of Civil Rights advocacy ever? ever. We are indeed talking about the same post. This is courtesy

of Academics TV. I didn't know DJ Academics had a TV network, but I mean, it's mostly, I think, just a platform too, for gambling, but... I have to say, that's like putting TV in your like Twitter name or your email or anything.

That's sort of unk identity politics. That's kind of letting everyone know you're a fallennial. I'm just on the cutoff where I don't do that. This is like an all-time Oscars post because I'll just, at the set to scene here. I'm scrolling and I see a split, like an image,

a split between Emmett Till and Conan O'Brien. And the post reads, 14-year-old Emmett Till was dragged from his house and was kidnapped, tortured, and lynched by a mob of white people after being falsely accused. Conan O'Brien today accused drape of raping a minor at the Oscars. and the culture celebrated and laughed LOL. Is this what the culture feeling, lying on an innocent black man?

And what I look about this is... Just a short aside, I love just putting LOL in there. That's the greatest convention of online stuff when people are like, really? Well, because I think I found you in my backyard going through my garbage and you're trying to clone my wife to. who raised her from birth and put a bomb in her pussy and come to my house and kill me, L.

L. A. Oh. Like people do the most insane stuff ever, but they're like, but at the end of the day, it's pretty funny. Yeah, we're all kind of laughing. We're always laughing no matter how fucking awful or weird our shit is. It's like, ha ha ha ha, I'm actually smiling. You have the same personality as Adolf Hitler.

And if I was, if I was a doctor that will deliver you out of your mother's womb, I would spike you through the fucking window. L.O.L. Are we sure he didn't mean, like, lynching out loud? I should point out that in addition to the superfluous L.O.L., they also misspelled Emmett Till's name. But I bring this up because it's just like the split image between Emmett Till and Conan O'Brien. I'm so conditioned by all of DJ Academics'O. Other posts that, like, I was expecting a copy to read, Conan O'Brien or Emmett Till, who you're all rocking with?

So, well, that's the new citizen test. If you're coming from South Africa after they, you know, after the economic freedom fighters took your farm. You have to, you have to say Conan, if you want. Well, he's got red hair, you know? Yeah. That was just but one of, I have to mention another amazing Oscars night meltdown. And this is, I have to give a shout out to, like. like a long time friend of the show.

He's been off my radar for a long time. But like he just, he announced himself with just perfect clarity once again. An old friend, a warm embrace. It's like he never left. I'm speaking, of course,

about John Pod Horitz's fucking snippers choking meltdown about no other land winning best documentary. Now, this is like a perfect night of J-Pod posting because like the first 40 minutes of the broadcast, he posted, this is the best Oscars I've ever seen.

and I've been watching since 1971. And then no other land won best documentary. And he was like, subhuman anti-Israel filth must be purged from Hollywood. Fuck you, chew, hating scum, though. The actual post I want to read here, he says, once you won minor movie awards for making Holocaust things,

now it's for anti-Israel things. Thank God the movies are dying. And like, minor movie award? Fucking Oscar? A minor movie award. But I just love me. says for making Holocaust things.

But now, but not, you can really tell how seriously. Yeah, he did a Holocaust thing. Just Holocaust things. I, well, I love this whole exchange. Obviously,

because it's just like, I mean, if you needed any more confirmation that you could just like tune out when people start screaming about this stuff, the fact that he, like, 30 posts before that,

you know, I'm afraid to refill my popcorn because I'm going to, to miss another great monologue joke. And then, you know, all this shit. Like all of the, all of this shit, you know, Zoe Saldana, you know, who dressed her tonight? And then I, I, I just barricaded my doors.

I killed my wife because it's you hating mob is going to kill us. I love this whole, I love this whole thing with, um, this movie in particular because it's, you know, ever since that Zach Bocamp article, like a week after October 7th, that was like liberal that liberal zionism you like is coming back in style liberal zionists including the makers of this movie uh have been trying like pushing with both hands putting their entire body into trying to try to make people uh believe that you know there's still you can still be a zionist and not be like a fucking crazy person who's screaming all the time and you know taking your shirt off on southwest flights because the guy is a palestine pin on and and calling everyone a jew hater and

you know, all of this stuff. They're like, we're normal, we're liberals. Everyone could get along in Israel. Everyone's like Obama over there. And the reward they get from the other Zionists is just this. Like, you want to nuke Tel Aviv. You're in ISIS. The Oscars are a great night for posting.

But I do want to, before we get into talking about CPAC, I did want to talk about probably the biggest news story that we didn't get a chance to cover last week, which was the Trump Zelensky Oval Office press conference and buck-breaking humiliation ritual. I mean, I know you guys saw that. So, I mean, what did you make of this spectacle? I mean, that was one of the most brutal drawing downs I've seen yet. But I love that Trump was just talking like a casino guy. You know, he's like, you don't got the cards, okay?

You don't have a full house, okay? You're hoping to draw an ace on the river, but it's not going to happen. And Zeletsky's like, I'm not playing cards, okay? This is fucking real. I'm going to be honest. I didn't see the whole thing. I just saw the highlights. Apparently, like, it was going, it was like, I don't even know why I'm saying this.

This is just like third hand. I'm describing a post describing another post of a guy who allegedly watched all of it. But apparently it was going like fine, but a little tense. And then there was like a flare up over like Zell Disney asking J.D. Vance if he's ever been to war. And J.D. Vance was like, I've read about it. Wasn't he in the Marines, though? You can. There are a lot of fucking pussy.

He was like, like a PR guy for the Marines. Yeah, I see Marines all the time on Twitter who've only ever worked for think tanks. I think you can be, I think it's like the, you know, like the Rotary Club. Like there are a lot of levels of participation. It's not like the old days where, you know, they definitely killed someone and they have a high-interest car and they take 700 percissettes a day. You could be a Marine and be a real pussy now. I think like among two TV personalities, because obviously Zelensky used to be an actor, like he was just coming and he was doing the NATO script. He was like, well, you don't feel the heat right now, but you will eventually somehow in the United States, like, feel the long arm of Russia.

And Trump was like, don't fucking tell me what I feel and what I am. And that really, that really pissed him off. So he turned it into like a punked. But I want to say Zelensky should have learned from the Kurds. Like do not ally with the United States. Yeah. Cannot be trusted. Yeah.

No, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think that that is the lesson to be taken away from this. Because like, you know, when you have like what seems like unlimited U.S. backing, you can take a very hard line and, you know, you can like reject neutrality and want to join NATO. but like the the wick on that's going to run out and then you're going to be completely left in the cold. And like honestly, like I have to feel bad for Zelensky because like yes to go home now to a country where like half of the people in his government and military like absolutely will kill him if he tries to like end this war and negotiate a ceasefire.

Yeah, this was all this was all like, I mean, exactly the course of like the last couple months here was very predictable back in 2022 for anyone who's paid attention to any, you know, U.S. ally that doesn't have favored, uh, favored, uh, favorite customer status or, you know, a, um, a really annoying lobby. Actually, Ukraine has an annoying lobby, but not as annoying as the one that I'm referencing. Um, yeah, no, you would get screamed at if you pointed that out then. But yeah, no, it really, it's like, you know, I, I, I think you're heartless. If you don't feel like a little fucking bad for them at least like shit. Yeah, it's horrible.

It sucks. It fucking sucks. And like, yeah, you know, this is sadly like a predictable path for US allies without favored status. But it's like, you know, they got rid of their fucking nukes. That's the real thing. You just never get rid of your nukes. I mean, I think the real, the real star of this TV spectacle was, of course, Marine Jughead J.D. Vance. And like, I saw a lot of people being like, he he showed what American masculinity was. is like. He looks like he was ALS. He was like every time I see his legs. Don't talk like that to dad. And like, you know, like there's a lot of,

there's a lot of horny posting about JD Vance. And you know what? You can make fun of it. But given how many people have compared me, my looks to J.D. Vance, I say keep the horny posting coming. This is the new look that we're all very hot for.

But I got to say, he sounded like, I mean, speaking of relationships, he sounded like a girlfriend when you forget her birthday. You know? It was like, if you ever thought,

you ever thought to say thank you? Have you said thank you once? This entire meeting? No, in this entire meeting, have you said thank you? You went to Pennsylvania and campaign for the opposition in October, offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who's trying to save your country. Yeah, that's the same tone of voice when, like, your girlfriend's friend gets you

the, like, most passive aggressive gift of all time, when she gets you, like, a book on how to quit vaping. You're like, oh, thanks. I'm already having so much fun at my birthday party where it's only your friends. Well, like I said, it was a, you know, it was quite a quite a TV moment. But like, once again, with Trump, it's just like, it all seems so grotesque. But like, really, he's just laying bare what U.S. policy has basically always. Yeah.

Yeah. Like, I mean, it's just like the fact that it's happening to Ukraine and not a government in South America or Africa, I guess makes it feel different this time. But like, this is just like he's just. putting it all out there. I mean, I guess you can call them a lot of things, but I suppose, you know,

a dishonest on this account is not one of them. No, he's showing, like, you will be prey to my personal whims. It's whatever the fuck I say and not otherwise. And that might change from one day to the next. And, uh,

Zelensky like was just going in there like, okay, well, let's, you know, let's keep this thing going. But it's, yeah,

Trump is, is just, everything is very personal for him. So it's, it's just weird, though because it's like there is all this posture about like yeah how he didn't say thank you and he he like did a bad job at ukraine and it's all you know it's all his fall he fucked everything up but then like trump will say and i'm all i was the first guy to send them javelins and if he doesn't

like get his act together i won't let them fight the war anymore and it'll be a new guy fighting the war so like after all this he's after the mineral deal after everything he's like no i I'm still going to, like, do the Biden policy, but we're just, we're just going to have this weird, weird thing where J.D. Vance makes him say thank you to Donald Tusk. And also I got to say a special shot at the Lindsay Graham, uh, who was like doing selfies with Zelensky five minutes before this fucking, uh, Oval Office encounter. And then like, as soon as it was over, he was just like, Zelensky is a disgrace. He didn't even wear a suit to the White House. And I got to say, like, it is such a stupid complaint. But like, if I was in Zelensky's position, I would probably put

on a suit. Yeah, that, yeah. Like, I have to, like, if you're meeting fucking Donald Trump, if I, like, if I was being brought to the White House because they're executing me, you know, like I, you know, I, you know, I did something really bad. I, I gave a cartel some uranium, you know. I, I blew up one of the most beloved Trump grandkids, you know. I was playing with my gun and I shot a red barrel and Kai Trump exploded. I and they're like we're going to behead him and everyone everyone's cheering for me you know for my death I would spend my last I wouldn't get a lawyer I would spend my last money on a bryoni suit

so when Trump saw me you know on the news he's like now that's a you know sharp looking guy and then you know I'm all the way I'm all the way on my way to a pardon Trump hit his kid for like dressing in the baseball outfit instead of a suit stadium, yeah. So it's like, yeah, saw this one coming. I have to say, it's like, I have always kind of dislike that about Zelensky, because it's like, okay, if your, if your country's invaded, sure. But when it's like, okay, I'm going to Israel to ask them for some Israel stuff, it's like, you know, you're, you're staying in an embassy hotel. You don't need to wear your war sweatshirt. Yeah, people used to dress in like cool

uniforms with like a bunch of metals that they didn't earn, you know? And this is like the kind of like every man war general look. I don't know. Well, yeah, it's like the new style of operator where they all had their own coffee brand.

And they like, yeah, it really, this is operator shit. This like crew neck and like cargo sweatpants shit. Death Squad coffee. Yeah. This coffee will have you filling a mass grave in no time. Cold press game.

Very good. I am become meme. Yeah, pretty much. I'm just living the meme. It's like there's living the dream and there's living the meme and it's pretty much what's happening, you know. Julian, before we get too far into the news, I do want to talk about your trip to CPAC the other week. Now, I'm glad someone was there covering it. I feel like CPAC this year just crept up on me and I had no idea it was going on.

But I was very glad that someone was there in. as I've mentioned it before, the happiest place on earth, the Gaylord Convention Center in Maryland. Julian, from your writing on CPAC, and I want to talk about the current state of Q&N as well, but like the thing that came across to me was that as compared to the last Trump administration, when Felix, Matt and I, when we visited CPAC, it seemed like the first Trump administration CPAC, it was a happier affair. And even though like they're sitting on top of the world right now, like, impression I got from your coverage of the second Trump term CPAC is that they're all really angry.

And like, even though they've got like, they fulfilled their grandest wishes, politically speaking, they seem very, I don't know, uneasy and upset and angry. Am I correct in thinking that? A lot of revenge seeking. And I feel like that is the difference between who Trump appointed this time around. Last time it was like a bunch of useless people that he kind of fired. But this time, it's like anybody out for blood. You know, the ice guy was talking about how they're bringing back some of the good old boys, like people who were fired for being too fucking wild even for ice.

So they're deliberalizing all of these empire kind of tools. And I think that is that is the main thing. It's like it's an internal argument over whether we need the carrot in the carrot and stick configuration of the American Empire. Do we even need the carrot? Fuck the carrot. Why don't we just like, you know, get rid of it. US aid and, you know, use the money for force. And I know, I know, like, certain fissures have arisen between the MAGA right, which is

like totally dominant and more traditional conservative Republicans over a number of things, like, you know, more traditionally neoconservative hawkish, Reagan Republicans don't like his appeasement of Russia. And I guess more like, you know, morally traditional people don't like his, you know, a carnival of porn stars and pimps and sex traffickers that he keeps, parading around the White House. But like, Julian, can you detect any tensions or fissures within the MAGA movement itself? No, actually. I mean, there are so many inherent contradictions, but I feel like that is what we're just getting better at, uh, at kind of shoving aside because everybody has essentially a fictional, um, subtext to whatever they're

experiencing, right? So there's what's being said on stage. And then for like someone who's super into Q and on is like, oh, well, yeah, they're talking about. the storm. And then for someone who's a bit more of a Reaganite, it's like, oh, yeah, that that's good. They're, they're asserting, you know, American geopolitical dominance. So everyone's filling in the blanks. I think that's, that's one of like the main things is that everybody's yes ending now. And currently, I think the fissures are not, they're not going to show up until revenge has been taken. That's the main thing. It's like, fuck these liberals. We put it up, we put up with it for four years. We're going to, you know, get Comey. Uh, that's,

The J-6ers were there and they were talking about that. I mean, one of one of the women said the hunters have become the hunted. And there's this, there's this idea of like, well, now it's our turn to use, you know, the guns and the power and the judiciary system. And we're going to, we're going to use it against you guys now. In general, you know, just with presidential politics, it does seem like the fractures are much more evident. The, uh, the thinner their margin of victory. is.

Yeah. Because, you know, then individual factions of the coalition that could command larger swaths of votes can extract more out of the president and, uh, his sub factions. And we did, we did see that a lot with Trump one, that, um, there was this push and poll between both the more traditional Republicans, the Jared and Navanka people, the evangelicals. And then like the, you know, the Bannonites. But yeah, this time, well, you know, when you win the popular vote and there's a clear majority, then there's a lot more breathing room for everyone, even if those, you know, special interest groups or pressure groups can't extract the same things out of the president. Bannon followed Musk and like he had, he had, he had, I guess, commented that Musk was an illegal alien and that what he was doing was, you know, shit.

and then what he called them on stage was like, oh, it's going to be hard to follow like this genius, this Superman, you know? So even if he's kind of, I think, being a bit bitterly false about it. But, you know, it's like I feel like they've all agreed now is the time

to assert power and not argue about how we feel about each other, even though Bannon can't help but being a catty bitch. I do kind of wonder just because, I mean, I don't know if people have seen those. Fed projection, but it's it's already one point shittier than it was yesterday, like a 2.9% contraction quarter one. If, you know, the logical conclusion to austerity happens and there, the economy really takes

a shit, I anticipate that it's going to be like a Bush 2 type thing where it's like, you know, everyone is just going to be stepping all over each other to say, well, I knew it was bad pretty early on. Yeah, it's not looking great. I mean, the, the, the president was pumping some of the shittier, uh, crypto coins over the weekend, like Cardano and XRP. Cardano? Yes.

What the fuck is Cardano? Exactly. Exactly. It's, uh, let's just put it this way. David Sacks has a bag. This strategic crypto reserve is one of the most insane. Like, and I, I really, I'm, I'm looking forward to this. I'm really looking forward to this.

I'm really looking forward to this. I'm really looking forward to a world in which social security is a Ponzi scheme that cannot be relied upon, even though it's paid out for 90 years without fail. But meme coins are now a strategic asset, strategic economic asset of this country. Like, how would a strategic crypto reserve even work? Like, you know, usually like, what were they going to tap into it if a doge coin collapses? What if the government needs to buy Molly on the dark net? there's currently no mechanism for them to do that um yeah i it's like the only plan besides you know

just like looting the treasury for fucking david sacks and every other member of the all in podcast is like just looking at argentina and going how about that but worse how about we become super argentina julian did you get to see milay at all i did he he had a really poor performance as far as his speech went. He had his reading glasses on, kind of tilted down over his nose, and he was just reading his speech the entire time. And even then, it was in Spanish,

and they did the live translation. People loved it, but they mostly loved it because he handed a big chainsaw to Elon Musk that he had, I guess, like custom engraved for him. Miele, he's interesting to be because he really wants to get in good with Trump, obviously. but the first sort of communication with Trump, it was like a video conference thing,

I think at another CPAC, and Miele was like weeping during it. And I think it really grossed Trump out. Like he does not like that. But it doesn't surprise me the crowd liked him because Miley, someone pointed this out that, you know, his speech is very,

you know, you see the translations or like, you can't give leftards anything. They're shit. we have to kill them. And that sounds so good in like Rio Plot in Spanish, like a language where you trill your ours. Yeah.

You know, we open a bit, going back to Zelensky and everyone shitting on him for not wearing a suit to the Oval Office, how come Miele doesn't get dinged for like not cutting his fucking hair, like as a world leader? Like,

how can you be a world leader like in good standing with the United States government and have a fucking mop of hair that looks that stupid? Miley looks like every like, you know, the type of kid that's like clearly autistic but the mom is like he's just quiet I mean he's bitten he's bitten every teacher he is that he's ever had it was all their fault like Melissa george's kid in the slap put him next to musk though must comes out with like a fucking toy gold chain and like

sunglasses and a t-shirt um and backstage that my my favorite like little detail was that they in the green room, Milay did like a kind of gifting to him of the chainsaw, which they then recreated on stage for effect. But there was this point where like the camera crew that wanted to film the moment that was probably with Malay walked in with him. And you just see Elon Musk like he's at the craft table. And as he turns around, he's slipping on the glasses. I really have a feeling that he didn't want anyone to see his pupils.

Yeah. I did Someone did like get a shot of his eyes peeking through his His big glasses and they look insane I don't even think he's taking Molly Like I like when you he's not acting like a guy on Molly I think it's like like he's taking like super riddle it He's giving something they give to the worst kids ever

Yeah it was it was like interesting because he clearly could not speak coherently It was outrageous. And the interview was so obsequious. The guy was like, oh, what's it like to be in the brain of like a genius? You know, what's it like to like do so many things all at once? That was very literally a question. And he ended up mumbling after like, I don't know how many seconds of uming and owing. He was like, oh, it's a storm.

But while he was trying to get that answer out, there was like an older woman in the audience next to me. And she turned to her friend and she's like, he's such a genius. like he can't even speak. Yeah. Which again, that's perfect. You know, it's like there's so much yes ending. There's so much like generosity of interpretation. I love it.

Why didn't they ever try that with Biden? Like his thoughts are too brilliant to reach his lips. He's concocting this amazing theory on world systems. But what it actually comes out of his mouth is presidental trunk. Julian, I mean, I love that you describe it as like everyone is yes ending right now because like, you know, when QAnon became a thing and like, you know, through your coverage of it, I think like the most interesting thing about it was that it was like this collective auto fiction project in which it was telling a story, but each person reading the story could contribute to the story and like the story would become part of their lives and that they could create the narrative as they were reading it. Like they could you could like decide what happens next because it's. all this like meta self-referential, like, hodgepodge. But like in second term Trump CPAC, I mean, like, what has happened to QAnon? Is it a matter of Q&?

Like, because you said like there's way less explicitly Q-branded things. But isn't this just a reflection of the fact that Q&N has just succeeded? Like, I mean, the storm is here. It's arrived. The Great Awakening has happened. So what utility is it? Like, how do you describe this evolution? and like these like the people now that they have power.

I will say that there was absolutely no Q& on T-shirts, not even a sticker. So the label is gone. But I was talking to some J-Sixers that were in the back of the room because they started basically interacting with the press back there when Trump was speaking. And I spoke to one guy who had written down his information on the back of his prison federal ID, but he had written it in ink on plastic. So it was kind of smudged. But I could see that his username was crumb with a cue.

So I was like, hey, why do you spell crumb with a cue? And he was like, oh, yeah, I'm a follower of Q. So I kind of asked him a couple of things. And one of my questions was, like, do you think that the storm, like, has come true? And he just pointed to the stage and he said, he's right there. So it's like this idea of, yeah, obviously it didn't happen exactly like we thought. We didn't get the executions. We didn't get the military tribunals.

the very first Q post was Hillary Clinton will be arrested within 48 hours. Obviously, that did not happen. But they're kind of, since they can do this yes ending or this creation of a kind of fictional subtext, almost like adding a folklore story to whatever's being said on stage, they can interpret it however they want, right? So the person on stage will say one thing and what they're hearing is, yeah, the storm is here. And I think to a certain extent, everybody is doing that now. right it's like we're all yeah becoming very very good at cope creative writing yeah cue is yeah it's

like they're writing lost together in the in the final season that's exactly it nobody knows where the fuck it's going or how to end it yeah yeah but you are you are you you're right also though that like to a certain extent that is all understanding of politics like a pure wishcasting like on the democratic side i think a lot of that like oh when the you know, when the Musk-Trump Rift comes in a week you know, a year ago. I think people also ignore the fact that

Russia Gate was born at the same time as QAnon and was basically a mirror narrative. It just had like tonal differences, you know, instead of like military tribunals and executions. It's like the FBI will do a great job and this person will serve their time in jail. You know, it was like a more

fair liberalized version. But we've been fucking splitting off into like these creative writing exercises more. more and more. And I feel like liberals also recently, you know, with the assassination attempt, the amount of people that still think that was staged, and then the amount of people that turned on the mainstream media and said, we actually have to like start listening to podcasters and like independent outlets because these people have it in for Biden. You know, everybody is is as paranoid and as like, you know, you got to do your own research as,

as QAnon, I think, like, presaged. Essentially, it was just like, a kind of freak strand that was like a good shot across the bow of like, this is going to be how we all deal with the fact that none of what we want is coming true. Because Q&RN was created as like, Trump is not doing what I need him to. Oh, what does that mean? Well, he's fucking doing 5D chess. Same way as that fucking tweet where it was like Biden talking about like the Finlandization

of NATO or the NATOization of Finland. I can't remember, but that guy who tweeted like, oh, this guy doesn't have a PhD. and like foreign, you know, it's like just, it's just like you see what you want to see, you know, and we need to think that these people are not just up there melting and bumbling. They actually have a secret plan. Well, you know where the 5D chess meme comes from, the tenure of the Obongler. Yes.

It was a way for, you know, Obama bots to deal with the kind of first term that Obongler had where it's like, you know, a stimulus bill that's just like all tax credits for like Exxon mobile and shit. And, you know, and it was another kind of proto Q thing. Oh, just wait for second term Obama. That was a huge fucking thing on like box and all those places. And then it was like, wait, wait till lame duck Obama. Then when he's really unleashed, you know, he got, he has no fucks to give at this point. Remember that, that key and peel sketch?

Yeah, yeah. That was the sort of like hinge point of the fuck. What was his name? The time for a game theory guy. Eric Garland. Oh, man. Eric Garland. That was what that entire thread was hinged on.

Was the, oh, people think Obama is doing nothing after Russiagate happened. Well, Trump is going to be executed on January 19th right before inauguration. I mean, Steve Bannon, remember he was supposed to be executed for treason? Oh, yeah. It gives me no pleasure to say. Yeah, it gives me no pleasure to report this. I'm probably, bless man. Yeah. But Julian, what I'm interested in is like now that that Q&N has at least like, at least the branding has receded in, you know, and like has been washed away by like just the politics of just, you know, being in the White House, what has happened to like that first generation of like Q influencers?

Like people like the praying medic, Liz Crunkin, and even General Michael Flynn. Like, have they been also displaced by like a new brand of influencers? but like how are they metabolizing this evolution? I feel like they were always about the brand, right? They were like Q and on is what we're pushing. Whereas I think the people who've kind of like Marjorie Taylor Green or even actually Flynn, even though he didn't get a spot in the current administration, probably mostly because he was yelling at Trump to put in martial law, I think, like at the end of his last term when he lost the election.

But he must have pissed off Trump somewhere in some backroom, I'm sure. But Cash Patel appeared on like, more than 50, like, episodes of podcasts from some of the most bizarre, like, Q&on, independent media outlet things. And he knows what it's for. He knows that it's just a mechanism to, to kind of encourage people to write the fictional aspect that will allow them to continue supporting you. And he knows that these are some of the best soldiers.

But, like, the digital soldier thing, which was coined by Michael Flynn, everyone now, is a digital soldier, and I feel like everyone's in an information war. Like, Alex Jones has won. Like, we are just fighting over narrative now. And even if I'm wrong, like, there's no point pointing that out because you're giving a point to the other team. Like, you're letting the other team win, right? It's not at all like, you know, there was that whole liberal phase of, like, fact checking and shit like that. Now it's just like, no, like we need to get our word. It's like Coney 2012, like awareness campaign stuff. We need to win the hearts and minds. Because everyone has resorted to like, well, if there's no material change, like, the best we can do is win the sciop, right?

Like, the best we can do is win like the, yeah, the hearts and minds of our own population now. Do you want to be the person humiliated by the ritual or do you want to be the person running the humiliation ritual? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Who side are you on anyways? Like, that is a universal feeling now when there's an argument online. It's no longer like, well, is that true or does that make any sense?

It's just pointing fingers and, and I think that is the true legacy. It's like both this creative writing, like fictionalizing, like folk storytelling that we're all able to contend or all able to participate in. But also it's like posting for the hearts and minds. Like we are information warriors online and this matters. The discourse matters because otherwise what does matter because we, I think we do feel even worse than like during O Bungler that we're just like further and further from the lever. of power. Another one of the lasting legacies of Q and none I think is

our widespread cultural obsession with and hysteria over pedophilia and human trafficking. And like, I'm wondering like the thing we started talking about the show, the Conan O'Brien joke about Kendrick calling Drake a pedophile.

Like, this current moment of like the Drake Kendrick beef, which is like the soon popular culture for the last year, is all over accusations of pedophilia. Would that have even been a thing, were it not for QAnon? And, like, the other thing that, like, you make clear in one of your pieces about this is that, like, the net result of this has made, like, actually prosecuting people who

abuse children, like, a great deal harder in many cases? Oh, yeah, absolutely, of course, because the real way that people are trafficked is just so far from anything that is shown even in, like, the most kind of sterilized version, which is like the sound of freedom movie, that kind of stuff. But definitely the Q&on vision of like how children are trafficked is insane, you know.

But Felix, I wanted to ask you because I felt a bit like, damn, you know, I predicted it in my piece or something because Meek Mill, I think a few days ago, posted, I have a new song coming out called Pizza Gate.

He's got his finger on the pulse, I see. Oh, man, he's just, always coming in at the wrong time. Just unconditionally. That's it. You look at the Kendrick and like, you know, you're like, well,

he's making it work. He had a fucking Grammy. He was fucking Super Bowl. I guess I'll just go full Q and on. You know, that's like the dumb guys logic. But I do feel like, yeah,

the fact that now the debate is like, you know, was this or wasn't this a demonic ritual anytime anything appears on television? Yeah. That is, that is an, incredibly like normalized thing now.

We're just doing 80 satanic panic constantly. And also like as like part and parcel of like this folk storytelling and everything now is an info war and a sciop. If you don't like someone or disagree with them, just call them a pedophile or a rumor. You can do it. Absolutely. What are they going to do? Yeah.

I mean, that's also, I mean, Donald Trump really pioneered that. It's like, just say the thing. Just fucking say it. What are they going to do? You know? And once you realize that there's no bumpers, it's like, bucket. Just go for that. And like, who would ever defend a pedophile, you know?

Like, I mean, like, one of the things that, like, your, your piece about this current C-PAC makes clear is that this is, I mean, it was true when we went, but it seems like even more in your face now that this is just a carnival of jubilant cruelty, I think, is the phrase you used. And, like, I can't help but think about this, you know, this, like, obsession with rape and pedophilia and human trafficking. Like, there's a distinct flavor. of like wish for film and fantasy

in like the people most obsessed of this. Like I do get the impression that they're like, we have to stop illegal immigrants from like raping and kidnapping women because there are women and that's what like we're allowed to do to them now. Yeah, I mean obviously like we've been doing cope about like America

because if we keep telling ourselves that the United States is a good country and that we want a fairer, better world, whether you're conservative or liberal, there's got to be on some. level, like a subconscious thing of like, what about like the fact that, you know, we founded it on genocide? What about all these horrifying things we've been doing abroad? And, you know, the fact that we allied, you know, in Afghanistan with like boy rapists and, and we ran all these black sites.

I think that we're just kind of seeing, we're seeing like the fruit of empire, the mental toll that it eventually takes, where, you know, you start to fantasize, uh, because, you're seeing, like, the fruit of empire, the mental toll that it eventually takes, where, you know, you start to fantasize because you can't, you're looking at like a beautiful, I don't know, Walmart or something, but underneath that, like, we can sense that something rotten is a foot and that maybe this is not right. Like, whatever this is, maybe it actually isn't good. And so it's like, yeah, I mean, my neighbor's probably a pedophile, you know, like, I think it is like a way of coping with the fact that, like, are we the baddies, you know, kind of uh i don't know i mean like i i think i think like in a lot of cases people do definitely

like underestimate how much culture is downstream from politics and there are a lot of like very direct and sometimes very indirect weird knock on effects of like you know having an empire that isn't explicitly called as such um but i do i don't know like how many like local news pages have you ever followed on like Facebook a few years ago because it's I do wonder if this is just like the natural state for a lot of people

yeah just the kind of this is just what like this is just what you do when you're bored that you're like you work yourself into a frenzy like I bring up local news pages because like I have a distinct memory of like going on Facebook in 2012 and seeing people like you know

there are pictures of them with like their family, their kids, their workplace, their full names where they live. And there would be like a new story about like, you know, someone who committed like not even like a felony robbery, just like shoplifting. And they'd be like, we should hang this piece of shit. Yeah. We should like, oh, I can't wait until he goes to jail and gets raped. Yeah. And yeah, I don't like I, you know, maybe that is because of, uh, you know, the underlying horrors. Or, or. In a lot of cases, I do just think that's what you do when you're bored. Well, I mean, it gets back to this like auto fiction quality to all of this because I think

like the truth of the matter is for like the American Western middle classes, life has never been like safer or less dangerous. And I think that kind of drives people insane. And I think they need to like create a sense of like, of invigoration in their lives by creating all these fantasy contexts for like violence and immiseration and human degradation. and torture. Like, it's just you have to sort of goose yourself to keep getting out of bed every morning

in your safe, boring life. Yeah, it was Sebastian Gorka during his speech that, like, played footage of a bombing in Somalia of, like, jihadists. And his whole kind of talk around this was like, President Trump is now in office. And, you know, we told him,

we've been observing this Somali jihadist camp. And, you know, it's like, well, why don't we kill them? well, Joe Biden has been observing them because he actually loves them, of course. He loves these beautiful jihadis, Somalians. And then it's like, you know, his like punchline was Trump going, kill them, you know? And then he showed the footage of like a guy crawling a mountainside just disappearing into a big fucking plume of smoke. And people were cheering like crazy. But even for him, I don't think it felt real because the way he compared being in the situation room under the

under the West Wing was it was like being on an episode of 24 or in a Jason Bourne movie. So even the people doing the kind of horrifying violence, I think feel completely removed and also even understand their relationship to it through fiction,

through movies, through TV. It would be so fucked up to be like killed partly by Sebastian Gorka. I mean, like, The American Empire is a lot of things, but chiefly among them ignominious. Just like a horribly undignified way, like author of your death. Even like the incarceration aspect was interesting because, you know, there's this whole Salvadoran mega jail that like Naibuquele has set up and said, hey, you can send your people over here. And apparently the plan is and we'll see how this goes.

but even like some American citizens technically would end up there. And what's interesting about that jail once you look into it is that there's no rehabilitation program at all and there's no release date for anybody. It is you are thrown in here and you will never see the light of day. They don't try to rehabilitate you. They don't try to like make you exercise or there's none of that. It's just, you know, put them in jail, throw away the key. and the exporting of of prison, that's, that would be a new, kind of a new low.

Well, yeah, and they actually, the, that prison that, you know, they started ostensibly because of like the gang problem there where they're just like, you know, doing these drag nets where they pick up like tens of thousands of people and just, you know, declare that they're in a gang either because of like tattoos or whatever. It's, you know, they wanted to build it. but Bukeley said, well, it costs a lot of money. The only way we could get a deal is if we let an American private prison do it and like, you know, skim some off the top. And it's, yeah, it's, I mean, kind of the logical endpoint of this entire system. Well, I mean, I think about whether it's the prospect of incarcerating American citizens in the Salvadoran super jail or, I mean, I'm just saying here just like something I saw before I started recording. this is just marking that Iowa Republicans have just ended civil rights protections for transgender Americans. And this was like after they had passed laws like, you know, banning discrimination and housing, employment, and education if you're trans.

So this would be like markedly removing the civil rights of people after you've already, you know, recognized those civil rights in a very short amount of time. And I think when I think about like you said, this carnival of sort of, you know, gleeful sadism is that I think for these people, freedom. is something that's experienced by their ability to take away the freedom of other people. Because I think it's just like when you don't have freedom or authority or power over your own life, and you know, chances are you probably never will, then like this is the next best thing. And I think like when people on the right talk about freedom and liberty, I think it should always be understood in that proper context of like my individual freedom to oppress and take away the freedoms of other people I don't like.

Yeah, I mean, you know, the whole Matt thing of like free real estate. And if we run out of it, we're going to have to find some way to assert and take. And yeah, I don't know. I mean, it does feel like the logical next step, but it is, it's pretty fucking weird. Julian, and your time spent at CPEC, who are among your favorite characters? Like, are people just flogging their merchandise or these weird groups? I mean, my personal favorite was the Japanese right winger. who's the founder of something called

the Happiness Realization Party, which I think is my favorite name for a political party. I love Japanese far right parties. Because it's all, like, it's the opposite of Israel, where like all the most insane parties

are called like the Life Rejuvenation Center. They're all like founded by like the survivors of Unit 731 and they're like, the happiness project. Yeah. There's like a kind of layers to this one because originally it's a cult called, Happy Science.

And it does... So this guy, Jay Abeba, like, he is obviously below the cult leader who is like, you know, a bit like the Moonies, you know, a kind of god figure. And then Happy Science created

the political party. And then the political party created another sub-organization. And then it ends with CPAC Japan. And it's kind of the same thing as like CPAC Korea. It feels like The Republicans love an Asian cult, whether it's the Mooney's, Falun Gong, or in this case, Happy Science, which I did not know even existed until I started looking into J. Iaba because the, oh, that's right, the organization in between Happiness Realization Party and CPAC, Japan is called the Japanese Conservative Union or something like that.

So it's like, yeah, obviously it's kind of been stripped of all its weird, like, culty origins, but it's the same. It's the same shit. I personally love JFK Jr. It was really nice to run into him. You met the man himself. I love this guy because he's everywhere. I have never been at any event without him kind of popping up like a leprechaun. And I could not get away from him. Like he seemed to have a magical ability to be in every corridor around every corner at CPAC. And he always had like middle age women coming up to him. And he always had like middle age women coming up to him. him. And his old shit is like crazy. I mean, that's why he shows up to all these events. He is getting more clown than Barnum and Bailey. Yeah. He is.

He is incredible. And in his old like wink wink nudge, nudge was like I'm J.FK Jr. But his new one is based on the fact that he was, I don't know if you guys have seen like the assassination footage or the assassination attempt footage of that Donald Trump rally. But he's the one standing behind Donald Trump. He's the only one who doesn't duck. and react properly to the shot.

Oh, family history, you know. He just looks around. He looks around confused. And now... First time. Yeah. And so, exactly. And he now is like really milking that.

Like, he made t-shirts that were his own design that say Trump's guardian angel. And if you ask him, like, so are you Trump's guardian angel? He goes, well, I don't know, you know, I don't know. Kind of like the same act that he does with JFK Jr. And I asked him, I was like, so is Trump's guardian angel a guy who's definitely not you, JFK Jr. And he got the biggest smile and he was like, you know too much. And that's it. His whole thing is like a circus act of like he keeps his new line is like those three seconds when Trump was shot at.

They're like three hours. I've had so many thoughts about this. So many. But I can't talk to you about them right now because it would take too much time. We'd be standing here all day. So he's always pushing it to the next time. And then I was trying to buy the t-shirt off him, which he was reticent to sell me because he wanted to get it to Nigel Farage. He was convinced he was going to give Nigel Farage's t-shirt.

Julian, what I love about JFK Jr. slash Vincent F is, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong here. But, like, I mean, he's obviously at all these right-wing events. He's sort of like become a mascot for all of these, you know, various causes and politicians. and political movements. But has he ever said anything overtly political about any of this other than like, I love Trump? Yeah, no, that's it. He's really way more of like the carnival aspect, right?

Like I've never heard him talk hard policy. He's, he's a bit, he's halfway between like a huckster and a mystic, I guess. Yeah, he's kind of a perfect person for the moment because he even seemed to know Matt Schlapp somehow. He was like, oh yeah, I was talking to Matt about this. Like, he was legitimately seemed tapped into everybody. So he would be talking intimately with everybody involved. And yet, like you said.

So match slap is not tapped into him. Yeah, he grabbed him by the crotch and looked at him in the eyes. Did you guys follow a little bit that match slap story? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, if it's in the news, we're covering it. My favorite thing about that is that when he got kicked out of that bar for grabbing the guy's dick, he left his card and his tab unclosed.

So at the end of the night, yeah, at the end of the night, the bar guy was just calling out his name over and over. Matt, Schlapp. Matt, Slap.

It's like the Simpson's phone call gag. I'm looking for a slap. A mad slap. That was fun to run into. I mean, I don't know. I guess I got to take photos with people that for me were just like cartoon characters we've covered.

Like I took a picture with Corka. I took a picture with Lindel. definitely JFK Jr. I love the photo of Lindell's book, from Crackhead to CEO. Yes. And it's like one of those holographic things where you turn it

and it changes his face. Like, base head to pillow entrepreneur. Oh, hell yeah. Oh, my God. That is horrifying. Holy shit. Yeah. I mean, I don't know which picture of him

looks worse to be honest. That's what I'm saying is like, I don't know. You kind of look similar. Oh, my God. That is brilliant. That is. so cool. Yeah. Yeah. So I got that. I got a

G.I. Joe logo. Let's go Brandon T-shirt. I see, I don't think he should be selling the conversion. I think he should just be like, I'm the crackhead CEO. How smoking crack can help your business and productivity. It was great to run into Liz Truss. It was strange to just be standing in a room with her and Bannon. And Bannon was a delight. You know, he did like the Nazi salute thing, which was really fun. And then the French, one of the two French far-right party leaders dropped out because of that. And I was there with a French reporter called Antoine Monti-Mansui, who works for this, like, print-only outlet called Society. And he actually kind of got to sit down with Sainte Nafou, who's like the head of the other far-right French party.

And she was talking shit about Bardella for dropping out. And like Bannon later called him, I think, a pussy. He said he's like even bigger of a pussy than Macron. But anyways, Knafo was like, he asked her like, well, what do you make of like the Nazi salute that Bannon did? And she's like, well, yes, I will say that that was a Nazi gesture. But like, it doesn't define what CPAC is. And she turned to the door and she was like, for example, do you think that he would be here if this was like an anti-Semitic Nazi rally? and she was pointing to Amichai Shikli,

who's like a representative of Israel. He's like the minister of diaspora. And right as she said that, he walked over and sat down with the far right party of Austria that was founded by literal Nazis. Well, I mean, like, that guy's job is to empower Nazi-based parties in Europe to make it as unsafe as possible for any Jews still left in Europe.

I mean, also just like the beginning of that where it's like, oh, if this is a fascist rally, would one of the participants of the world's worst ongoing genocide be here? Oh, so you think this is a racist party, huh? Well, let's see what my friend

Hitler too thinks about that. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, he said on stage, like, he was on the expo floor, so it wasn't part of, like, the big recorded speeches, but he was talking about how he felt like Israel was teaching the West how to win a war. That that's like...

Really? fact. Yeah. Okay. Which is like maybe Europe, maybe Europe, maybe the West should do more genocides, I guess. We should be sniping children. Well, I mean, they still haven't actually won the war. Yeah, no, yeah. They failed to

take over a place the size of Hyde Park, Chicago. Yeah, I mean, that was grim. There were guys with Kippa's everywhere and like everybody had to suck Israel's dick like in every speech. It was just relentless. I mean, I think at one point you said that they're like, they identified

who they regard their enemies to be. And it's like a long list of like, you know, subversives, degenerates, communists. And then they include jihadists. And then they include anti-Semites in there, which I think is really funny for like the historical, like the historical, I don't know, lineage of the far right in this country. They're like, yeah, our enemies, anyone who hates Jewish people. Yeah. Amichikli said to the Hungarian far right, a party representative, that he thought that Budapest was the safest European capital to be a Jew in due to their like immigration policy. So that's, that's where Israel is, like telling, telling Hungarians that they're doing a great job. Okay. So moving on from

CPEC, I do want to get to a reading series this week because this was, there's my favorite article that I read. And it is a profile of everyone's favorite senator, John Federman, in the Wall Street Journal. And I don't want to give anything away here, but the headline is, John Federman on being the loneliest Democrat in Washington. Every day is like your son's birthday. The portrait of Federman that emerges in this piece is about as depressing as watching a Mike Lee movie. I mean, I don't know. I've been watching them recently, and that's what's on my mind here. And it says, the tenor is set early on. Walking into Senator John Federman's reception office in the

Russell Senate office building, I first noticed the walls. They are covered with eight and a half by 11 images of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Atop each is a red banner reading kidnapped. On one wall are images of those who remain in captivity. On the other are those who have been rescued or returned alive or otherwise. I knew it. of Mr. Federman's unequivocal support for Israel after the Hamas attack, what I hadn't appreciated was the degree to which that support is now central to his political identity. He is an outlier in his party, only about 33% of which view Israel favorably as compared with 83% of Republicans. Come on in, he says, in monotone, gazing downward. I take a seat on the sofa across from him.

As I sit and adjust my phone to record the conversation, he says nothing. Eager to fill the silence, I mentioned something about the walls of the adjoining room. Yeah, he says, still not looking at me, and begins to a minor harangue on the outrages perpetrated by, he doesn't say Hamas, the Palestinians. I've seen that video, he says, meaning the video reporting is compiled by the Israeli government of the October 7 murders, and I can't believe it.

He stops, where is that kind of depravity that, hey, where does it come from? Even the Nazis with all their depravity and their evil, they tried to kind of hide those atrocities. These people filmed it with their gopros, And they cheered like it was, they scored a goal. In the videos, they call their parents and they're like, hey, I just killed some Jews. Where does that kind of hatred come from? Could you imagine, like being in a room with this guy,

journalist is there, do a profile of you. And he starts being like, have you seen this enough film? I haven't my phone. Yeah. He's like evil rocky. I just don't understand why all this footage is shot from a helicopter. Yeah. Who gave these sick people?

people anti-h vehicle rounds. It's so not right. They say they can eat food but they have Apaches and they know Hebrew. It says here, he isn't done. It wasn't just Hamas either, he says. Now he's looking at me.

Let's not forget the majority of Palis students support what happened. Referring to the lurid ceremonies of the Shammas soldiers released hostages. Mr. Federman says, whoa, you're so tough terrorizing a woman you've kept in a tunnel

for over a year. Like you're so tough with your shitty rifles parading around. That's why I'm always going to be on the Israeli side, all right? I nod, wondering if there's more. Yeah, he says, print that.

Oh, you heard it here first. I'm not afraid to be a U.S. senator who supports Israel. The most dangerous position in the world. God. He's such a fucking oaf. I feel like his version of like jacking off to the Victoria's Secret catalog is like the underwear being held up

by the soldiers. Yeah. Did you see that, uh, When a journalist asked him about how he said a year ago, he would never vote against anything that, like, endangered the legal status of dreamers. And he voted for that fucking horrible immigration. Yeah. And he, he went, uh, he just like looked at his shoes and went, I don't see what people care so much about what I wear. The only two things he can remember are that he like Schwartz and Israel.

Yeah, it says here, 12 Democrats voted for the Lake and Riley Act, requiring federal authorities to detain illegal aliens charge with crimes. But Mr. Fetterman was one of the only two Democratic co-sponsors, and he enjoys dwelling on the subject. I was always very and still in very pro-immigration, he says. But he asked what a jury of 100 people in a Walmart parking lot would think if he told them he favored letting criminals stay in the country illegally. They're going to be like, oh, no, that's crazy. Other data points, Mr. Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote for the imposition of sanctions

on the international criminal court for charging Israeli officials with war crimes. Democrats and media commentators insisted that Vice President J.D. Vance had triggered a constitutional crisis when he observed that judges can't control the executive's legitimate power. Mr. Federman dismissed the claim is hysterical. And when the president suggested the U.S. could evacuate, rebuild and repopulate Gaza, Mr. Federman, virtually alone among congressional Democrats, declined to express outrage. The journalist asked him about when he was like anti-Trump, and he says, at last he says, I regret some of the dumb shit I said on Twitter at times. On Groundhog Day in 2017, when he was mayor of Braddock Pennsylvania, he joked that Mr. Trump saw his shadow four more years of fascism.

Other similarly unkind remarks litter his old post. As he explains his answer, though, becomes clear that Mr. Federman has more in his mind than stupid tweets. Okay. Okay. I don't think that's a physical possibility. Well, his response to that is, everyone near death thing, I kind of lost my appetite for all that. he says, I don't doubt his acuity, but the effects of his stroke are detectable and his halting speech

and his occasional struggle to pronounce words. Yet when he lost in fluency, he gained in equanimity. Mr. Federman mentioned some of Mr. Trump's cabinet appointees who have appeared on Fox News. They've all said negative things that it was about.

It's like, just doesn't bother me anymore. We could all say dumb things, and at the end of the day, it's just cheap heat. It's the stuff of the world that would probably be better without. He sums it up. It all feels different after facing mortality. I almost died.

Is the reporter pulling the fucking string that comes out of his back? Holy shit. This fucking idiot has nothing going on. You talked to him for five minutes and he's like, you know, the first five minutes, I just watch footage at them eating a baby. Can you believe it? They say they invented Oshawa, but I know they invented. eating baby. And they still do it.

Minute six. You know, I don't know why people care that I spilled this cheese on my shirt. Everyone, the worst guy in the world can wear a suit and the nicest guy can wear a tattoo. Minute seven. I nearly met Santa in hell. It changed my life. I relate a lot to Trump. I also narrowly was missed by the bullet that nicked my ear. I was holding the gun. I put the gun in my mouth, but I got hungry.

I used to do this bad shit. I would post-gritty and say he's going to get a teen capitalism. Then I realized that everyone's a person at the end of the day, and we all go home to our wife, Jazeo. We all married to our mom. How is he not third Mike on Red Scare? Like, it's the exact same arc. he says here

he has the blowback from his own side has the blowback from his own side been hard to endure defending Israel after October 7th has had a significant impact on my small donor base Mr. Federman allows so the Democratic basis against him

he offers a curious formulation I'm no much of a you should I'm more of a I'm doing that is he would rather do his job than dilate on why he's not doing it that is he would rather do his job then dilate on why and how he's doing it. But I also know that for the base

and for a small donor, small dollar donors, that's really not what's selling right now. I think they want more of the performative stuff, the yelling and the explosive things. But I've lost my taste for that. And that's why I say it feels lonely right now. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. What he says, I'm not a you shirt. I'm an idea. Like, I love that because it's like, yeah, I'm not about all that stuff. off where you say what an issue is or what you think about it.

I just go to my job and I breathe in and out. Is that so, John, you don't like the part where you articulate what's wrong or what's good about something? You know, why people always ask me what senators are doing? I just, I do, I do what I do. CEO at me. Yeah. I go to the bathroom one leg at a time like anyone else.

I sit down and do you and all and I read my thoughts. I just try to put the square piece in the round hole over and over, okay? I don't think about why I do it. I'm no different than a plumber. I'll go to my job every day and I put the poop in the sink.

I'm no different than a plumber and my crack is always showing. As we get to the end of this article, it says here, Mr. Federman no longer slumps in his chair. He sits up straight and seems exercise. So I ask the question I doubt he'll answer. Are you going to remain in your? your party? I feel lonely and I'm struggling to find what the true North Star is as a committed

Democrat. I'm not changing my party, but what's the way forward? Look, I can't follow every example. Literally, what's forward? Which direction is it? I can follow every example of performance art because I try to be honest. I don't ever want to lie. But I'm trying to explain to people, America has made us sit in the corner. Republicans don't need our votes and now that's where we are. I just love when he's just saying like, I feel lonely and I'm struggling to find my true. North Star. Like, to hear this from a fucking senator is just so insulting. It is so insulting to think about a U.S.

Senator being like, I'm lonely. I don't know all around me are familiar faces. Yeah, are you fucking Meadow Sopranos first roommate? Shut the fuck up. You're 57. You live in a house that your dad bought you.

You got your first job when you were 49. You became mayor of a town with one basketball who. And that's all you talked about for 15 years. And now for the next 30 years, you're going to talk about the time that I almost went down the tunnel. I don't get it. He's got no energy except when it comes to Israel. Like, it is insane how that's the only thing animating him. He's like a fucking zombie.

And then when you say Israel, his eyes like light up again. I collect videos of sort of like, you know, when like angry constituents or like activists confront him. because like him on his feet is just fucking hysterical. I don't know if you saw that video of him in the airport where like the guy's confronting him about Gaza. And Federman just sort of like he stares at a moving walkway trying to remember if all sidewalks are like this or if it's just his lucky day. And then after like seven minutes he goes, you know, this guy's like it's a genocide. They're like shooting fucking children. Like this is all.

How do you support this? Seven minutes of this. And Federman goes, is devastating. You're just devastating. He's like, I mean, he talks about like, well, would this look to a hundred people in Walmart? They should have your job.

The dumbest fucking person I've met is capable of more abstract thought than you. I, like, this is the most sub-mental man ever. Activists should stop protesting him and just start gluing quarters near him.

For different surfaces. Like a crosswalk that he's trying to stumble across. You could keep him so many votes by training him like a hitman NBC. Just throw coins like within 20 feet of him. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute. Are they changing how I get paid? He's got a question mark over his head constantly. He's looking at the nearby bushers like, I can't see anything. He picks up the quarter. Wait, are they?

paying me every two minutes or once a month. If I miss this quarter, they might not give me another. I better pick it up. I mean, look, depression is no laughing matter, people.

Yeah. It's just, you know, but you're like, you know, it's just, you got to get out of bed every day. You got like, you know, clean up. Do something active with your life. You know,

like, fight against this passivity that's like ruining your life. You got to, you got to be an active participant in your own life as a U.S. Senator. At no fucking point in my passion caused me to become like a fucking disgusting Zionist who doesn't think

Palestinian people like there's no excuse for this you know you can't just be like well you know he's been through a lot that's why the only thing that animates him is like you know the thoracic cage of a fucking child being crumpled something something that um you know to give the to to give the normals little insight into the mind of the entertainer um Many clowns are crying inside. Yeah. You may see us rock a microphone, but the real rock is our brains.

I'm like Federman. No, one of my, you know, my hard and fast rules was that, and I think like everyone on the show has always been like great about this. and I've never even brought it up. But I've always hated like, you know, when someone who has a podcast or is like a streamer or just generally someone who can make the same income as like a medium good lawyer by doing content every week, like complaints about like how fucking shitty it is or, you know, complains about how mean people are to them. Because it's just like, you know, no one wants to fucking hear it. It sucks out there. It sucks to answer to people and to, you know, have all these responsibilities. No one wants to hear any of us complain about it or complain about people being mean to us.

And, uh, you know, we, we try to never do it. The only people that I think have even less of a right are fucking senators. Yeah. Work like two days every three years. And he's doing, he's doing all these interviews about like, I just feel all alone. Okay, then fucking end it. It's your son's birthday. Yeah.

Jump off you. Jump off the roof of your house then. Remember to go down the street, not across next time. Do I even deserve this free health care? All right. Well, yeah, I'll leave you with that with that rather banal and unbearably bleak slice of life inside the emotional and psychological well-being of a U.S. senator. Sorry, sorry, one more thing. Do you think it's just a coincidence that his wife wasn't around to answer any questions for this big profile?

I mean, he does say that he's lonely. I mean, he's lost like almost all his staff, too. I mean, they've all hit the exits real like over the last year or so. Yeah. Crucially, none of these staff left over ideological reasons. Like all of his staff are like fucking assholes who agree with him on all of this dumb shit, which means that like in addition to being dullard's duller. he has to be like shittier to work for than clobishar i mean felix there was there was a there was a

part about his departing his departed staff in which one of them anonymously said that when they would like in a car with him he would just be constantly showing them snuff films on his phone of like russians being killed in ukraine or palestinians getting blown up like he is a like a really rotten person like he's so depressed that the only thing that can like yeah like uh get his get his get his heart beating a little faster, feeling a little joy is just seeing like murder footage. What a fucking idiot. I feel sad all the time.

I wonder if it's these mur videos that I'm mainlining into my weak psyche. I just want to that. I only have such a weak spirit that, you know, when my son got a PS5, I walked into the middle of the road and said, I'm about to be the senator from heaven. I better watch a million fucking videos of murders every day.

That'll cheer me up. That won't that won't obliterate me. You can't, Senator Federman, you can't make it through Bluey. Why are you watching LiveLeak? I just wanted to give the mouse a hug. Now it's not moving. All right. Let's wrap it up there for today.

Julian, thanks for your time. Thanks for joining us today. please check out QAnon Anonymous. And we'll link to both of your pieces about CPAC in the show description. But before we go, I'd like to have another little plug for you that I'm quite excited about. So as many of you may already know, we, Chopo Trap House and our production company, are the producers of a feature film that premiered at Cannes last year. It was also featured at the New York Film Festival.

It's called Ephes, the feature directing debut of Carson. and Lund, which is co-written and co-starring friend of the show, Nate Fisher. It's a movie about baseball and the lovable schlubs who play it, about two New England Beer League baseball teams playing the last game at their local field before it's decommissioned and turned into a school, those bastards.

All of them are coming to terms with probably never hang out with each other again. It's funny and bittersweet and beautifully shot and directed, and it's great getting some great reviews, and it is absolutely movie mindset approved. It is going to be screening all across the country starting this month, starting in New York City this Friday at the IFC Center and Lincoln Center, and then at a theater near you in the coming weeks.

You can find out when it's screening and where at www. www.muxfilms.com slash film slash Ephes. We'll be promoting this movie more throughout the month, but please, especially if you're in New York City, in New York City, go check it out at IFC Center or Lincoln Center this weekend. It is perhaps the only sports movie to feature cameos from legendary documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman and yours truly Will Menaker.

Wiseman's in it? Holy shit, guys. That's amazing. We, Wiseman and I have a voice acting cameos in it. We are sort of disembodied voices on the radio that are played at various moments throughout the film. But seriously, like, I know I'm a co-producer of this picture, but if you like movies about sports,

if you like baseball especially, this is a really special movie. It's a really unique, warm, funny and contemplative movie about the passage of time and male friendships and just kind of like how baseball is this weird this weird mental fixation that men have as a way of kind of like coping with and categorizing our passage through time and space leading ultimately to only one destination but you got to fill the time so with something in between there and one of those things is baseball and this is a great this is a movie that really captures that feeling beautifully so

I'm just like to give you my pitch. Yes, I am a producer and I am in the movie slightly, but I would like to give you my pitch for seeing Ephis. It's a great movie, and I hope you all go out and see it and support it because we are also the producers, one of the producers of the movie. So, Ephis, March 7th, opening in New York City, throughout the rest of the month, like I said, like, hopefully it'll be coming to a city near you. Hell yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And even, like, look, even if you're one of these guys who's like, I don't care about sports, how am I going to watch, how am I going to watch the movie? I don't know if you've heard, but Jewish people have to take over entertainment to be safe after what happened at the Oscars. I'm a producer on this movie. I'm trying to break into the industry.

I'm trying to be the first. I'm trying to do good trouble but becoming the first Jewish movie producer. So, like, help us out here. All right. Till next time, everybody. Thank you so much once again to Julian Field for joining us today. But until next time, everybody, talk to you soon.

Bye bye. Bye bye. I'd be so low.