Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay - A Future Political Star’s Favorite Wu-Tang Song and the Problem With Politics

Episode Date: May 11, 2021

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay go down a Reddit rabbit hole and answer the important question: what % of a misogynist is Van? (3:57). Then military vet, community organizer and Congressional candidate Brittany Ramos DeBarros joins the pod for a deep dive into the military-industrial complex, defunding the police, and the Wu-Tang Clan (27:01). Finally, Democrats punt on qualified immunity (55:14), Bennifer’s back (1:14:45) and Lakeith Stanfield apologizes (1:21:51). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yo, yo, yo, thought warriors, what is up? Higher learning is on. Is Ivan Lathan? And it's me, Rachel Lindsay. Rach, how are you feeling? Well, you know, I've been suffering a bit these last couple of days. I got the second. And I hate telling this because I don't want people to feel discouraged about getting the vaccine.

I had my second shot Saturday. I had some symptoms. But I'm recovering. What were the symptoms? Fever But low grade fever Body aches chills Couldn't sleep

Because the pain of my arm But it lasted a little bit over a day I took today off But I'm recovering You know what I mean I just have a day of rest But everybody should still go get vaccinated Go get vaccinated

No because people will take down They'll be like see That's why but I mean But who knows how COVID would have affected me You've been controversial on the podcast about vaccinations. No, I haven't. No, I haven't.

For those who are listening first time to higher learning, I have never been on any side but this side when it comes to the vaccine. A higher learning audience, I know that you guys are hearing that. And I want you to go back

into the cortex of your memory. Please. And honestly ask yourself if Rachel hasn't been a little bit wishy-washy on the vaccine. You definitely have it. Did I say?

Did I say I was nervous? I'm sure I did. But I've never said, don't get it. You've never said, and I never said I wasn't getting it. It seemed a little, look. See, I think you're starting to believe the things that you try to project on me.

That's not true. Yeah, yeah, I think you're believing it. I've gotten actually DMs from people that have been very upset about you and your promotion of vaccine hesitancy on the podcast that we should. No, I think what we always promote on this podcast is honesty. And so if I have been,

if I feel a sense, like that I'm a little hesitant, I'm going to be honest with you and talk about it. But I've always promoted taking the vaccine, getting the vaccine. Anyways, who cares? I got my second shot. I was a little down.

Now I'm up. I made it for this podcast. I'm good. And I feel good. I'm glad I got vaccinated. And let it be known. This is what you do not do before. I had a hangover when I got the vaccine.

I took a leave. these are things that you're not supposed to do before. Okay? So that's part of the reason I'm probably suffering. Yeah, yo, because we all had dinner on Saturday night, me, you, Kalika, Brian, Jackson, and his lady. We all had dinner at Granville on Saturday night, and you had a gigantic pork chop. You ate a big pork chop. ate the whole thing.

The whole, just a big slab of pork. You just ate it. Love it. It's just so crazy to me. me. Why? Why do you give me shit every single time I talk about a pork shop? I don't know, man. It's just like a, it's a chop. It's a chop of pork. That's kind of crazy, no. No, that's not. Do you eat any pork? I like a sliver. See, bacon is like a sliver of pork. It's like a little sliver. How many slivers are you eating? Well, I don't eat that much bacon. I haven't eaten bacon in a long

time. Okay. See, I eat turkey bacon. It's probably been, I'd say, probably like six months. since I've had any bacon. Okay. Well, I eat turkey bacon. So how do I get my fix a pork chop? Which I don't get to have that often. It's a big ass chop. And I'd order two of them.

You know some places get that double-decker, that two-bong? That's me. She was in y'all, she had seen her. She cut the pork chops up in the little piece of her. I didn't talk for 15 minutes. Just eating that. She was just her and her chop. Her and her chop.

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Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramfaya today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. want to say something to all the listeners of higher learning

because I've been going to the Reddit room a lot. Everybody go to the higher learning Reddit. To the higher learning Reddit? Yeah. As a matter of fact, I'll go there now. I'm going to go to the higher learning Reddit right now because we have a vibrant little community there. It's not a ton of people, but it's getting bigger.

So I went to the Reddit and, you know, people sometimes take opinions that we might have to heart. you know they they hold on let me let's go to the higher learning reddit right now okay the podcast so I have it are you a member did you join the higher learning Reddit I'm not I'm not a member of anything you're not a member of the hire why why didn't you join it um I'm not I don't get on Reddit I created an account just to do the AMA that we did and then you then you stopped you didn't you don't go back to Reddit anymore ready is a very useful place so thought

Warriors. There's four people. What is it, what is it called higher learning? Higher learning. It's called R slash thought warriors. Oh, thought warriors. Okay. R slash thought warriors.

These people are so amazing. They've posted about so many, look, they posted about your upcoming book, gave you some love about your book. They're having all of these different talks and things, you know, things of that nature. But there were some people there who were upset. upset. But people are always upset about what? Vance comments about Melinda Gates were nearing problematic slash sexes.

Why is he reducing her role to something so low? And then there was another one that talked about the fact that it was hard to listen to us, talk about the Drake thing because of the amount of percentage that I gave to Drake, right? And say me giving Drake 10 percentage is too little. Okay. It was. That's how I look at it. Had the situation been reversed?

Had the situation been reversed? I give you an example. I bet people don't know this, but Russell Crow was rumored to have ruined Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan's relationship. I knew that. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So it's rumored that Russell Crow had an affair

with Meg Ryan and that made her break up with Dennis Quaid. Mm-hmm. Sure. Russell Crowe is a dick for doing that. But the person that ruined the relationship is Meg Ryan.

She ruined the relationship. She's going to double down. Yes, I'm doubling down. I am doubling down. And by the way, in other situations, where it is the man who cheats. Okay.

Question. I mean, I'll be a question. I ask you like this. I watched the Tiger Woods documentary. Right. Okay. I watched the Tiger Woods documentary on the plane.

Did Rachel, you could tell, ruin Tiger Woods' marriage? No. She didn't. Tiger Woods is married. It is Tiger. WUD's his responsibility to look after the health of his relationship.

It is simply not her responsibility. Would it be nice in a in a completely perfect world if people wouldn't do things that would have unintended consequences on other people like Elyon or Dennis Quay or the woman's fiance in a drag situation? Sure. Sure they would. It would be great. But the reality is that some people look at it like, yo, I'm single. I'm going to get into the relationship with the person.

I don't care about the other side. Everybody, people should be better than that. But whose responsibility is it to look after your relationship? What are we talking about? I stand on it. Correct. And that's the responsibility that that person has. But then the other person who's the third party in the situation has responsibility as well.

if they know the person is in a committed relationship. I don't agree with that. I know you don't. And we don't have to rehash it. But if you were telling me, if you were telling me that Meg Ryan was looking at porn, and you consider that cheating. But the porn star has no idea that this person is cheating on.

It's not working. It's not working. Some people consider porn cheating, watching porn cheating. There are people that consider that. I know that, but there are people that, there are people that consider that a form of cheating.

So, but I'm saying that's not the same thing as that that porn star has no idea that this person is watching them and cheating on their significant other. This is a situation where the person knows that this person's in a committed relationship and still embarks on.

Wait, wait, wait, we're getting things confused. This is what we're getting things. This is why we're getting things confused. No. We're not, I'm not talking about right or wrong. I'm talking about responsible for the relationship. No one outside of your relationship. You guys, I'm sorry.

No one outside of your relationship is responsible for the sanctity of your relationship. No one outside of, is it wrong? Yes. But when we talk about blame for a relationship, it doesn't matter male, female, whatever. No one outside of your relationship is responsible for the sanctity and integrity of your relationship. That's given the outside world too much responsibility over what's going on in your house. If you're talking about responsibility in a general sense, then sure. But when it comes to if that person, that outside person knows you're in a relationship.

And like there's a lot of things to assume assuming that person pursues you knowing that you're in a committed relationship Assuming that person knows that they have some sort of power over you or something like they can give you something and they pursue you there's little levels to it and that's what I was saying with the Drake situation he has a level of power over her So she's so she's just not a person. No, I'm not saying this. No, I'm not saying she's not responsible. I said 50 50. There are certain things that she's responsible for. there's certain things that she's responsible for and there's certain things that that other person's responsible for. I'm not saying they have the same responsibility, but there is a level of it and I think that level is 50-50.

So let me tell you what this really is about for me. When I say that I view women as equals, like I mean that. I don't mean that in a sense of I view women and men as equals in every single single way besides things that a societal power matrix has perverted. So a societal power

matrix has made certain double standards for men and women actually not double standards. They actually are the standard. And that makes sense, right? But to me, in a situation like this, you are teetering on the edge of treating that woman like a toddler who is powerless to say no to Drake or to not enter into a relationship with Drake or to not cheat on her fiance. There gets a point to where like she gets denied agency. She gets denied all of those things because we're looking. to give her an out because she can't if the situation were reversed wait if the situation were reversed there is absolutely zero we would not be having this conversation if if the situation were reversed and riana called some dude out there right

like some some young hot guy and they want and she wanted to work with him right and called him out to london barbadoes whatever and he had a fiancee and he slept with with Rihanna, you guys are living in a fantasy world. If you're telling me right now that we will be having the same conversation. I totally think if that fiancee then blasted Rihanna, Brianna being who she is, we absolutely would have the same conversation. And this is what I will tell you what you're doing.

No, no, people would, people, in that situation, people in that situation, no doubt about the fact that there would be chauvinist and men out there who would make Rihanna look back. No, for sure. But the reality is that in this situation, women, by and large, the women that I know, would not be taken up for the man saying that she had so much power over him that he had no choice but to sleep with Rihanna. My answer would still be the same. I would say it's 50-50.

And I think that you're turning it into a gender-specific thing. So with you, like going back to the original thing that we were talking about, people, it sounds like in the thought lawyers community, we're making it seem like you aren't for women. I never took it that way because I think that if the situation were reversed you would have the same opinion. Just like I think if the situation were reverse,

I would have the same opinion. So it's just what was done. It's not who's doing it. That's what I stand by. So to me, to me, I'll tell you guys this. It really, in terms of a relationship, I get it. everybody should respect all of the relationships.

Everyone should respect everybody that's in a relationship from the outside of relationship. But the question you should ask yourself about your spouse or whoever you're dating is what happens when they don't? Like what happens when they don't when they say, I don't care? When they say, I don't care, your spouse, whoever you're with still has to make a decision. about how they're going to view your relationship. And that decision about whether or not to respect that relationship is 100% on who you're in bed with.

It's 100% on them. It's 100% their responsibility to not go outside of the relationship. And it doesn't matter. Like it doesn't matter who it is. Now, if we, if not, If we get information that Drake said, hey, by the way, just let you know, like, you, I got to have sex with people who I'm working with, you know, so I got to do this or whatever. Like, we're assuming that he used his power.

We're assuming that he used to. We're assuming a lot of things. Yes. But my point is, if that's the case, then Drake can't have sex with anybody because everybody he fucks, he's still Drake. Everybody. Everybody he fucks he's Drake. And whoever's fucking Drake, there's some, there's some gain in it. It might be.

Is there? Yeah. You think there's some. So it. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not saying that they think that there's some gain in it, but there is some gain in it. Having sex with Drake, there's gain in that. Bragging rights.

What is the gain? Access. You're going to be able to go to play. You're going to be able to go places you weren't able to go. So you think everybody that Drake messes with gets access to things? Are you kidding me? Well, I would say that, well, first of all, there are certain things that I think,

and then there are certain things that I know. Okay, I get that. All right. But everybody. No, no, no. I'm not saying everyone. Okay. Okay.

I'm sure there's some. I'm sure there's some. What I'm saying is I would, I would imagine that the majority of them at least get to kick it with the crew, at least get to come on the bus, at least get to. Sure. They're down.

They're down for whatever. But, but, and some of them, they're different. And by the way, good on them. Like, if you want to have sex with you. If that's what they want. Right. If that's what they want to do. If you want to have sex with the crew and just whatever, that's completely okay.

This is how, this is how conversations turn. I'm not saying it's not. Because like the way you just responded to that makes it seem like I'm, I'm judging them for doing that. I, the only thing, the first thing I said was not everybody gets access. This isn't turning. to good for them. Good for them. Who cares?

My response is to not all of them are getting some type of better access just because they had sex with Drake. They're not. But even if the access is just access to him. I don't even think they get that. Not all of them. Not all of them.

I'm sorry, not all of them. Let me specify. Even if it's just, I mean, he's not fucking him in the alleys. So they're at least coming to a hotel. But there's access to a part of him. or even anybody that Sure.

What I'm saying is if even if you're friends with Drake even if you know Drake there's going to be something just with how big his star is to where you feel like that's better than not being the other way for a lot of people or even in the whole LA scene.

And so I'm saying is that like it's hard for him to have a normal interaction with anyone at any time when you're that big of a star. when you're that big of a star it's difficult to have any type of a normal reaction I'm sure it's difficult but if you're also putting yourself in situations

with people who are messing with you just to gain some sort of access or you're putting yourself in a situation where being with somebody who has a fiancé I'm sure you're making things a lot more difficult for yourself than they already are well I don't think he looks at it as being difficult I just put it to you like this we can get off this

Look, you guys, I love y'all. I really do love you guys. But the reality is, is that there are certain things that I just actually believe. And one of them is, it's just not anybody's responsibility outside of your relationship to take care of your relationship. It's not. That responsibility, yes, lands on the person that's in it. I will give you that. My definition was different.

There are different levels of there's different types of responsibility is what I said. Okay. All right. It's whatever. Hey, love you guys over at the higher learning. So you're sexist. And by the way, maybe I am. And by the way, but I think though that I will say this though about that.

There is something to be if you sometimes men do cloak sexism in this. everything has to be equal mantra, right? Because they'll, because, like this, because sometimes they use that to overlook obvious differences in society. They'll say, hey, uh, the men and women are completely equal. So if a woman slaps a man,

he should be able to turn around and punch her dead in her shit. I mean, seriously. I know they do. They'll say stuff like that and you'll be like, come on, dog. Like, come on, dog. Like, seriously. But the way I look at this is like in decision making,

situations, I really, really believing in equality, and is a weird way, believing in equality to me is not how you treat somebody like when you first meet them. It's how you treat them when you view them as fucked up. So to me, equality is, okay, I'm now, it's in the application of consequence. Because all the other things looking at somebody and not judging them when you see them, that's bullshit. Like everybody's going to make a judgment about somebody when they see them. Your brain processes so many things about a, about a, I remember I was on a train one time, and I saw this white dude on the train. And he had his, you know, he had his head shaved, and he had a tattoo around his neck of a slit and then blitz.

and then blood running down the neck. And on the top of the tattoo, it said, lifer. I don't know how I'm not supposed to judge that guy. I really don't want to judge him, but I remember I was playing so calm on my, my PS, the little place, the handheld PlayStation, I forget what you can call it.

I was playing so calm on it. And I saw his two coming. And my brain went, get ready, because you might have to fuck this guy up. Here he comes. It's the guy with the lifer tattoo. I ended up talking to him and he was cool as shit. Right?

It was cool as shit. I was like, what is the, I asked him about the tattoo and he was like, yeah, man. I'm actually going out to California. We were on the train to get the tattoo covered. Right? Right. To get it covered or removed or whatever.

He's going to some guy in Beverly Hills. He had spent all of his money on the actual procedure so he couldn't afford a plane ticket to get out there. Oh, my God. It's a great story. Great story. I actually wrote about it. Great story. But I'm going to judge him.

I'm going to judge that guy. The question is, like, how do you treat someone actually after they've done something fucked up? Or after they've showed you they're human. If you treat people equally after that, that's true equality. So my thing is, women can fuck up in relationships. Men can fuck up in relationships. Men have no responsibilities and relationships that women don't have. And women have no responsibilities and relationships that men don't have.

men can be fucked up in shit and so can women. And so can women. And if you fly up to Toronto and you fuck Drake, when you've been in a relationship for eight years, you're all fucked up. And the thing is, and that's what, it's just a lot of assuming. We don't know what the status of their relationship.

That's him saying that they were engaged. We don't even know if they really were, if they were on the ends, if they had some type of arrangement, who knows? Listen, Van is in Texas. And he's not a misogynist. Next topic. Every man is a little bit, though.

Great. So he is, y'all. So he is. So he is. Every man is a little bit. You can lower the percentage. We're just trying to get to, because we start off on the wrong side of it.

What percentage are you? Since you love to throw out percentages. What percentage are you? What percentage? What percentage? Misogynist am I? I would say six and and 60 six not 60 I would say six I would say six that's a random number I'll tell you why it's six because 94% it's a low a okay it's a my goal a my goal is to continue to learn until I get to like 97. I don't think you can be more than 97.

Because to be more than 97 to be a man, I would be honest with you, the society is too sexist. It's patriarchy. The whole thing. And they teach you as a kid that you can go out conquer the whole world and some woman's going to be behind you washing your dishes. It takes a long time to unlearn that. Anyway. Anyway. Well, okay, 6%. So sometimes that 6% comes out, you guys. Sometimes it does. Sometimes. Sometimes. Sometimes it comes out. And look, to be honest with you, white people listening to this, if you could get to 6% racist,

I'm fucking with you. I'll be honest with you. I'm okay with that. If you could get to 6% racist, I'm cool with it. But a lot of y'all think y'all at 6%. A lot of y'all, if you're, I'll tell you right now,

if you think that you're zero, you're 25. I can tell you right now. If you say, if someone asked you a question, if someone, I have this game that I play with employees at the ringer where I'll ask them, I'll be like, I played this game with Steve in one of the podcast producers. And I'm sure that Bill and Juliet will be fucking thrilled to hear that I do this to the co-workers.

I go, yo, how many times have you said the N-word in your life? And then some people will be like, I can't remember actually ever saying it. And I'd be like, you've set the N-word a minimum of 6,000 times in your life if you're going to tell me it's zero. If you're going to tell me it's zero, then you're like a fucking Tarantino movie. Because if you look and you say, huh, I'd say probably like 500 to a thousand. I'm like, okay, that means it's probably 3,000 because it's like, you know, the same thing. They're bringing it down.

It's probably nigger, nigger, nigger. But if you say zero, you're hiding something. You can't. You're white and you like rap. I'll agree with the zero. I'll agree. You can't say zero. It's like saying I don't see color.

It's the same people. You're racist. You see the tattoo on that. You see the tattoo on that dude's neck. You see it. And it's scary. It's okay. The question, it's okay to be scared by the tattoo.

It's okay. Why have we done majority of the podcast already talking about last week? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. All right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

This is the podcast. This is it. Oh, okay. So here, so this is a deal. We're going to get into the actual podcast. I'm sorry. I love you,

higher learning Reddit. Love you guys. Can't even believe that there's a Reddit based on this podcast. You guys are so amazing. We're going to now talk to Brittany Ramos de Baros, who is running for a Republican. She's running for a Senate,

a Congress seat in New York. She's running against the Republican. One of the more fascinating young political figures right there on the landscape. We're going to talk to her. After this break. So stick around with us. This episode is brought to by WeatherTech. Everyone knows winter is the MVP and making a mess.

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All over smooth, all-day comfort, vanity fair lingerie. Find yours at Target today. All right. higher learning we're about to introduce you to one of the future political stars of the united states of america okay uh where look look look you gotta you gotta lean into that brittany brittany you got to stop like giggling when people say that and just be like yeah of course i am yes yes uh she is running for congress in new york's only republican held district District 11, which is Staten Island and South Brooklyn,

which you wouldn't think would be Republican, but I guess, you know, it still is. Her name is Brittany Ramos DeBarros, and we are happy to have her on higher learning today. Brittany, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me. You are only 32, yet you decided to jump into the arena of politics. I'm looking at your bio here, and like I said before,

it makes me, you know, you feel like I haven't done enough. Like you've been in war. You've been, so many different things and now you're running for Congress. What made you decide at this point in your life that you had to be a politician? Well, you know, I mean,

the political types keep telling me that I'm supposed to say like a fancier answer than this, but the truth is is because people ask me too. I did not plan to run for office. I was doing I'm an organizer. I organized that and we, you know, we speak out about the wars and in service of social justice issues. And that's kind of where my sights were set. And that's the work I've been doing for the last several years. But, you know, last go around, we had a Democrat. And I think a lot of movement, were really hopeful about how that would go.

And he felt that he needed to swing to the right really hard when he got elected and made, you know, alienated a lot of people and really disappointed a lot of communities. And then we ended up with this person who is still running. I stand with Trump ads. She voted against the election results. Our district is the hardest hit by COVID. And she voted against COVID really. Like not even not politically complicated, right?

COVID relief. And so folks came to me and were like, look, we want to prove that someone like you, a woman of color, an organizer, a vet is not just the better strategy is the strategy to be unapologetic about fighting for our communities and really energize our base. And I talk to a lot of folks. And I was surprised by how many people were like, yeah, let's do it. And so here we are. You said you were asked to run. But my question then is, why you then? Why do you think they chose you? Because there are other activists.

There are other people who are outspoken. But the community believes you'd be the best one to run for this seat. Why are you? Yeah. I think that there were a few reasons. I mean, I've been asking myself the same question. But I think it's because of the way that I show. up. I've been told a lot that I show up as very accountable, very, you know, kind of collaborative

in the way that I approach leadership. And even, you know, in this campaign, I've repeated over and over, even in just the two months that we've been live. I've said, you know, I'm so honored to hold the torch, but this is really about building a campaign that is about our collective agenda for our communities, you know, and that's what I want this to be is I want me, you know, I want this campaign to be something that people see themselves in, you know, and I think that there are a lot of things about me that allow a lot of different types of folks to see themselves in me and in my journey, you know, between being biracial and my military experience, but also being involved in movement and, you know, growing up struggling and, you know,

all of those things. I think that there's a lot of those kinds of things, but I think that that's one of the reasons. The other thing is because we have a growing chorus of folks who are really working class champions, but there's not an explicitly anti-war vet that is elected to office right now that is really unapologetic about saying, yes, I'm a veteran, yes, I had this experience. And the most American values, aligned thing that we could do is end these wars and challenge the logic that has left us spending trillions and trillions of dollars on violence at the extent while people are dying because they can't afford health care.

Let's talk about that a little bit because it, I happen to believe that the biggest embezzlement in the history of the world is the money that is essentially embezzled through the military industrial complex. The fact that everybody is getting fat off the hog through the military industrial complex. And the reality of it is, if we're being honest, we need endless wars to make sure that those people

continue to have a reason to spend money and make each other rich. I had a friend tell me about the program that the Navy has to train dolphins to find bombs. Look, I'm sure that's important. But I'm going to be honest with you. It's just probably far less important than making sure some of these kids have food and we have nice roles and functioning schools

and things like that. You rarely see a veteran who's willing to come out and talk about the fact that we're overspending in the military. I guess what I would want you to do is take us quickly to what you thought the armed forces were when you joined them and what they actually are. Yeah. Yeah.

So my mom was an army officer. I grew up in a conservative military family. And, you know, I mentioned, you know, struggling growing up. And so wanted to figure out a way where I wouldn't feel like I was a burden to my family. And I wanted to serve. And I was start, you know, I was a competitive debater. And so my horizons were starting to experience. spanned politically already by the time I was graduating high school. But at the time, they were

debating kind of women in combat and don't ask, don't tell on the news. And I thought, okay, so the real problems are just leadership problems, right? We need different types of leaders who are willing to join, and then we can really fix the problems. And so that's kind of how I rationalized it to myself. That and believing, you know, the Laura Bush's and the others of the world that said that we were there to help save Afghan women and protect the Afghan people, right? And so I signed a contract at 18 that I wouldn't be free of until I was 30. And I say that really intentionally because most folks don't know that that's how that works, that one of our only federal, like kind of pay for college or scholarship job programs

requires kids, kids, right? Your brain's not even fully formed. to agree to kill for the government in order to pay for college. Like, we should name that, right? We should say that that's what it is instead of cloaking it in all of this flashy, you know, kind of euphemisms. So even by the time I graduated in 2011, I, you know, I had the wars had become more and more unpopular. Obama had run on ending the wars. So by the time I deployed, I graduated, I became a platoon leader at 20,

responsible for 40 lives and already had deployment orders before I graduated. And so I knew I was going straight to war. But again, I believed Obama and Biden when they said, okay, we're doing this just transition. You know, we're going to leave. And I thought that, okay, I'm a part of the transition process to make sure that we do right by the Afghan people. And so when I went there, I really thought that I was going to like help protect people. And I think that we really play up this idea of people who want to serve and protect and fight for freedom.

And yet when I got there, it was impossible to deny that we were doing so much more harm than good. Why? What did you see? Yeah. There's a lot of time with Afghan families. And just, I mean, but I think a lot of what I saw was on our side of things, right? It was like I, on one hand, I would be in briefings with other officers. and kind of a true believer, right, in this mission of we're supposed to be handing things off. We're supposed to be, you know, winning hearts and minds, minimizing violence.

And you would have commanders like, all right, tomorrow we're going to do a night raid on this village. And I would just be like, wait, what? That's not our mission. Why? You know? And they were like, well, they're not cooperating. And I was like, again, regardless, not our mission. And second, if they're not cooperating, it's because they're terrified.

how would raiding their village arm to the teeth and terrorizing people solve that problem? Like, how does that even address the problem that you're naming? It just became so clear that you had all of these people who on some level, especially officers and leaders like that that just wanted to play, like role play call of duty. Basically, they wanted to get their stripes. They wanted to, you know, be able to put on their resume that they were some kind of war hero and paint themselves that way. and that they saw the real shit, you know. And then on the other hand, I looked around and you have contractors all over the country

making hundreds of thousands of dollars to kind of be positioned. You have troops guarding opium fields. You have, you know, and so it just raised a lot of questions of what are we really doing here. And the other thing was that because I spent a lot of time with Afghan civilians, I realized in hindsight how racist our cultural awareness training had been. We had gotten like check the box army like cultural awareness class before we went. But even at the end of that class, the guy was like, but at the end of the day, come home. And it just really promoted this culture of kind of violence.

And I think I came home really confused about what was going on at a bigger level than what I could see. But I knew that things didn't add up. And I knew that, you know, I think the first take. way I had was like even if this is the right mission, you cannot take an institution that is fundamentally designed to maximize violence and use it to create safe, healthy communities. Can't do that. You gave a very, very powerful speech back in 2018 at a rally. And you said this quote, you said a bunch of great things, but you said this. There can be no true economic, racial, or gender justice without addressing the militarism that is strangling the empathy and morality out of our society.

Can you speak more to that? Yeah, sure. Yeah. So when I talk about militarism, I'm not, I'm talking about a system of logic is really what I'm talking about. And currently in our society, we don't even notice it because it's the air we breathe. So especially if you've never been exposed to anything else, you don't have any contrast to see that that's something pretty particular to our society.

is that we assume all strength, all safety, all security, everything is achieved through the projection of force and only through the projection of force. And one example that I gave, that I give sometimes when I'm trying to break it down is like, think about it. If I walked up to someone and was like, like, let's say it was like a beefy, like man, right? And I was like, hey, I'm stronger than you. The assumption in most people's minds in that dialogue would be that I'm saying that I'm physically stronger than that person. And that's understandable, but what we don't realize is that's very specific to our

cultural context, is that we literally have such blinders that we only see strength through the ability to project physical force. And so when I say that, I say that everything from our policing to our approach to immigration to our approach to trying to create peace and safety globally is through the attempt to project force endlessly, which is why it's like, I mean, we have 800 military bases around the world, right? The entire rest of the world combined has about 70, right? And there's so many ways to just break it down, like how far ahead we are, right, by our own kind of understanding. And yet we still have this culture where it's never enough. There's a threat around every corner because

that's the way that we're conditioned to think. And, you know, my point is that as long as that's the way that we're thinking, we'll continue to operate in this kind of scarcity threat around every corner mindset instead of thinking about the ways that we can invest proactively in the things that we know by the evidence actually cultivate safe, healthy communities, which are investments in education, healthcare, protecting the environment, and economic stability. All things that war destroys, by the way. Why were American troops guarding opium fields in Afghanistan? Question.

You should ask the military industrial complex, I guess, but all of us should be asking. But, you know, not to be sarcastic, but I just think that there's a lot of these things that, you know, I don't have any concrete. answer, evidence-based answer, but what I can tell you is that the United States strategy was, okay, we have to create like an economic, it was sold to people under the guise of like, we're trying to help Afghanistan get on its feet economically. So they were like, oh, so what we're going to do is support you in the cultivation of poppy, right, in the ingredients that go into pharmaceuticals, opioid pharmaceuticals. And it's a heroin.

Right. Which, but the, but the deal was that there was infrastructure created for a, for a supply pipeline for then U.S. pharmaceutical companies, which then turned around and overprescribed and pumped those into our communities and veterans who were suffering from PTSD and all kinds of, you know, what I really try more and more to describe as moral injury that comes from believing that you were going to, you know, fight for something just and good and realizing you were kind of a pawn in someone's profits. And it's non-controversial. Like anybody that had been to Afghanistan would say that they saw American troops guarding opium fields in Afghanistan.

I mean, I could probably give you like three references at least of people who did the guarding themselves. Yeah. Who I didn't know in my military service. I only met after the fact. Wow. So Andrew Yang is running for mayor of New York City. This is a sharp turn. Oh, like, woo, that was a sharp turn.

That's what happens. Sometimes you, sometimes my turns are so sharp that you hear the, I'm with you. I had a little bit of whip-breddie. I've never heard it. I got to be honest with you. I had to play that heroin thing feel to the end because you're going to get my, my coofy wears

a shout out to all my coofy wearing homies out there when they hear that their eyes going to glow that's going to give a lot a lot of people are going to be into that anyway Andrew Yang says that New York City can't afford to defund the police your thoughts well

it's just I mean I know that a lot of people haven't heard this that much but I feel like I'm just like I don't know how many more ways I or other people can say this Like we literally magically find money for anything that has to do with surveillance. I mean, New York City just like rolled out their first pilot of like robo police dogs in the Bronx or some shit like that. And I was like, are you kidding me? And then I had we had to like advocate because our local DA here in Staten Island got facial recognition software.

and they were, you know, supposedly preparing this, you know, super high-tech roll-up. I mean, you know, like these are just two of the multi-million dollar projects, potentially approaching billion-dollar projects that we magically have money for. But, you know, I think that the other thing that folks like that don't take into consideration is that we're talking about proactive investment up front. And so it's not that we're just saying, you know, this. this sudden suddenly there will be no police and no any you know no infrastructure but what we're saying is right now police are are honestly i mean i'm gonna i'm gonna get in trouble with some of my

friends for this but this is what i really think i really think that what we don't talk about enough is that police are set up to fail to the same way that troops are in a lot of ways and that doesn't excuse the violence and all the fucked up things that happen right and and there are serious needs for real accountability and reform. But what we don't talk about enough is, you know, you take these folks and you train them like a military and then you go tell them, respond to mental health crises, respond to domestic violence. You're right.

Respond to these things that are ultimately low, like economically charged issues, right? Public health issues, overdoses, right? All of these things. And it's just that's not what their job is. Like legally, that's not even. right like the courts literally ruled that the job of police is not actually to keep people safe and they have no responsibility to intervene legally in a situation to keep people safe and so what we're saying is that in order to actually cultivate safety we have to confront

that act and we have to be willing to invest in the things that actually address those things from a place of care and public health so I feel like with every going on in our society. A lot of people look at politics and they're completely disenchanted and they don't have faith. They believe in something someone says and then that that politician will go back and say something different. We're going to talk about this later on the podcast about Clyburn.

For the people who are disenchanted, how do we have faith in this broken system of politics? You're running for Congress. You obviously have some forewomen. form of hope to be running and wanting to make a difference on the things that the issues that you stand on and what you believe in. How do we believe in it? Yeah. I mean, I think my answer to most folks is we don't. We don't, we don't try to believe in this broken system. I think that what we really need is to strategize and build momentum in our communities that is about us and our power as working class people coming together and saying that this political structure that we have

was never designed to serve people like us. And it does everything that it can to lock people like me and other, you know, like I said, working class champions that are in the Congress now from being able to access that power, marginalizes them, right, even when they're in those seats of power. And so, you know, the place that I come from is just leveling with people that, yes, this system is broken. And so when we, you know, that's partly why I also said yes to running is because I believe that more and more our movements, our communities should be drafting people who we already have a relationship, who we know are not, this isn't their career aspiration.

It's not something that they're doing because they're trying to climb or become famous or something like that. But they're part of a strategy that is bigger than that one campaign or that one election or that one seat. And I think that that's really what it's about is about stepping into our power instead of playing into and depending on those who hold the power now. Because the kind of Democratic Party establishment has been loyal to corporations and is as guilty as their ties to the military industrial complex speaking of, right, as the Republican Party. And there are really important differences that, you know, especially that we've seen in Trump era that we shouldn't

wash over. But we still need to understand the power, right? Like, I don't want a more polite version of white supremacy. I want to dismantle a system of white supremacy. My last question for you is maybe the most important question, because you're trying to represent Staten Island. Okay. And there's a lot of people that are going to be listening from Staten Island right now that are going to want to know your answer to this. In your opinion, what is the single greatest

Uttain clan song of all time? I knew that's where you were going with this. So first of all, Shaolin represent for all that that island is out there. Oh man. See, this is probably one of the most loaded political questions I could be asked. Like people care more about this than my like policy.

I do. Shalyn. Rest and peace, ODB. I'm going to go with a better tomorrow because it's inspirational and I feel like it goes along with our hopes and dreams for the future, but while keeping it real

about where we're at now. It's not bad, not bad. I mean, next time somebody asks you, let me keep it gangster with you. Next time when somebody asks you, just say cream. Just say what? Just say,

cream. Right. And you could even spin cream into a political answer. You can say, look, cash rules everything around me. That's why I'm trying to take the cash and put it in the hands of the American people and not in the hands of the military industrial complex. Before we get, before we get off, do you want to say anything negative about your opponent? I know, you're a politician and that's what you guys do. You get out there, say something negative.

Say, you know. Oh, yeah. There have been, I am all about, we have to build a vision, but look, I'm also like, this is a fight, baby. We don't have time for, you know, for kid gloves. So I'm here to say that my opponent has literally never held a job other than a political job. And it shows that she vote, helped, she helped inspire. I just know that there's going to come a day where someone's like, Britney spoke out about the military. Like, he's un-American.

And I'm just going to be like, well, only one of us help. inspire an insurrection about against the U.S. government and it wasn't made. But by the way, got cop killed, you know, if folks are coming from that angle. She just, she takes all this money from developers who are just gentrifying Staten Island like crazy. He voted against the Equality Act. Like, how are you going to vote against the Equality Act? That's the most like vanilla of all the words like equity justice equality is the most like accessible right at the bottom

you know like the minimum the bare minimum and she's like one of people that booze amazing grace at the talent show I'm saying how are you going to boo Jesus like how you go like at least let the girl sing yeah right Brittany I got to be honest with you I'm gonna tell you something

you're going to be a political star and I'll tell you why. I'm serious. I'm serious about this because this wasn't born. And one of my main problems with politicians right now is no one speaks to Americans with authority and plain speak and charisma.

It's where people feel like they're talking to a human being and not a political ottomond or you know what I mean? Just like a lack of machine. So I am watching your career with great interest. That's what Emperor Palpatine told Anakin Skywalker. I'll tell you that now.

And that's what you told them. Remember that? I'm watching your career with great interest. Brittany, we are excited about you. We are happy that you came on our show. How can we support you? Where can people find you and follow everything that you're doing?

Thank you. Well, one is just we're starting early because we really want to build momentum and really organize folks that do feel disenfranchised and checked out of the system, you know, and build excitement. And so in order to do that and in order, you know, like I said, this system is not built for people like me to run, right? I'm still working a full-time job.

It's crazy. So, but, you know, but the more that folks help with, you know, fundraising, volunteering, all of those different things, spreading the word. The more time I get to spend actually where I want to be with people in the community, kind of building our agenda together and that momentum to not just. flip this district, but finally hold it. We've had a new rep here every two years for over a decade. And so we're looking to change that. And we need folks help getting the word out, chip in. Even if it's $5, $10 a month, you can do that goes a long way. It builds a grassroots base of support for us. We're not taking any corporate PAC money. So that goes a long way. And the last thing is just, you know, get involved with campaigns like mine, whether they're at the

city council level. You know, New York has city council and mayoral races coming up. So folks should make sure to vote. Make sure you're registered. And get involved because this system, as it's currently, you know, Bill isn't going to save us, but it impacts our lives every single day. And so we have to be drafting and running and really supporting candidates that actually have skin in the game and come out of our communities. And so if folks are curious about ways to do any of those things. Our website is Brittany. My name, B-R-I-T-A-N-Y for Congress.org. All spelled out normally.

Thank you so much for joining us today on higher learning. Yes. Thank you so much for having me, y'all. Of course. Be most great work. Take care. You too. That was dope. She's great.

Great. Didn't know much about her before. Now I want to know everything about her. Isn't that how you feel? Opium. That's all I'm going to say. Okay. Okay.

I'm telling you. Fucking opium. They got opium going on out there. Opium and we're protecting it. Mm-hmm. All right. So, fuck the Democrats.

I've, I'm officially, it's officially fuck the Democrats. It's officially fuck the Democrats. I want to say, do I have a camera? Where does it say? Hey,

fuck the Democrats. I'm right there Sorry. The Democrats are the Democratic Party. There's a difference. We're playing with the Democrats too much. We're playing with them. I am as left as you can possibly get.

I'm a couple of stops before socialist, right? I am a dyed in the wool liberal. I am. But as a structure and a party, I have got to say Fuck the Democrats The Democrats are not learning They're not reading the tea leaves in American society

They're not A couple of weeks ago Maybe it was last week We had Kamala Harris Say that America is not a racist country Okay Now we talked about that here on the podcast And why that type of framing

And saying that right Something like that Actually gives cover to white supremacy. That was one thing. This, what I read, is actually much more egregious. Okay. House Majority Whip James E. Clyburn, Jim Clyburn, you know who he is. Jim Clyburn, in my opinion, is single-handedly responsible for Joe Biden being the president. Right. He's from down there in South Carolina. Joe Biden was on the ropes. He was on the ropes. And what did whip Clyburn? he whipped up the black people in South Carolina, which then cascaded into black people all over

America getting behind Joe Biden. All the rest of the party fell in line and Joe Biden was able to go and capture the White House. Now, there's a nationwide conversation over police reform. You guys know we've talked about it here on Higher Learning. The George Floyd Policing Act has a part in it that addresses qualified immunity. Rachel, would you like to explain to people what qualified immunity is? Qualified immunity, it's something that largely shields

government officials, including police officers from liability for conduct on the job unless they violate a clearly established constitutional right. It is extremely hard to prove the burden. It's an affirmative defense. The Supreme Court has ruled

in several cases and has continually narrowed the review of it and made it harder and harder, almost more so becoming absolute immunity from any conduct, which is why it's such an issue. Okay, so brilliant. So qualified immunity is what Tim Scott of South Carolina,

same state as Whitclybren has said, is the poison pill of this. This is literally the most important thing in the bill. It's literally the most important thing. It allows us as citizens to hold police officers personally liable for the things that they do. And it is something that could hit directly at the heart of police departments and individual officers. Now, even with that being said, most of the time that these police departments are sued, it's not even the officers themselves that end up paying this stuff.

Correct. So if you're thinking that qualified immunity means you're going to go out and bankrupt a bunch of old Joe's walking a beat in your neighborhood, that's probably not even true. But the reality of it is, it would drop the cloth of us being able to get to police officers and hold them personally responsible for these things. They might run the costs up on some of these suits so much to where the police, the police departments change the way they cover their officers and the indemnification that goes on. Okay. It is incredibly important. It's the whole point.

I read the headline where Jim Clyburn says that qualified immunity is not the whole ball of wax. I'll tell you what it says right here. Rep Clyburn says qualifying immunity doesn't have to be a part of policing reform bill. Fuck if it doesn't. I actually, you guys think that Van and in his anxiety and in his entire warped mind has made this a big deal. I hit some people up. Some very smart people, some people that you know who they are. They talk this shit all day long on television. And I asked them, I'm going to read you verbatim, the back and forth. I had this guy, if I told you who he was, I won't do that. But this guy,

if I told you who he was, you guys would live and die by his opinion on this. Does the bill have any teeth without qualified immunity. No was the answer. It's performative. Must have the database, lower criminal standard, and qualified immunity. Has to have all three of those things. My question is,

how long are we going to do this with the Democrats? And I'm not just talking about black people. I'm talking about anyone who considers themselves to be a liberal. How long are we going to do this, same old, show and tell preceditation with the Democrats.

How long are we going to do this magic trick with this? I will tell you, there are not many things that shock me when it comes, like, even when we talked about Kamala last week or whenever that was, I said, I'm not surprised that she said it. She's going in a roundabout way of saying it,

but she won't say it. I did not expect to hear him say that there would be no qualified immunity. and then to add to it when he was being interviewed, said, I don't want to sacrifice the good for something to try to get something to be perfect. I will never sacrifice good on the altar of perfect. I just won't do that. Getting the bill isn't even perfection.

Let's just be clear right there. Passing those things, that's not perfection. That's just fighting for what's right. It's not perfection, right? Because if we had perfection, we didn't even have to do any of this. But what came after that is what he said. He said, we won't get, we might not get it this go around, but we'll fight for it later. I'm paraphrasing.

We can't do that. I could. It's never going to happen. We can't do that. That's the worst part. The fact that you said we'll fight for it later, why not now? If we don't get caught. The fact that you push this off, you know it's never happening and you know you won't even probably

be a Congress or a part of it to have to fight for it again. The fact that you are saying this will happen later lets me know. you don't care about getting this done. We stood so strongly just a few months ago talking about how necessary it is to have qualified immunity. That's what makes this bill so different than anything that's been put forward before. The fact that the one thing, the one thing the Republicans don't want is the qualified immunity because of what it represents, because of how powerful that would be to have that

stripped from police departments or government officials. You have to hit them where it hurts. It has to make a difference. The system is so messed up in regards to the grand jury system and the prosecutors that fight within it and they work hand in hand with the police officers. What could take that power away is qualified immunity. You guys, I don't want you to take this from me.

I swear, I want you to go out and do your own research on this. I don't want you guys to take this from us. This bill has got to have qualified immunity in it. The reason why this frustration is so palpable is because we're asking you for one thing. I understand Tim Scott. I get who Tim Scott is. I know Tim Scott is a cog in the will of the Republican and conservative machine. I get that.

I know a lot of people who know Tim Scott say Tim Scott's a good guy. all right Tim Scott and Jim Clyburn and the rest of them I need them to be niggas first right here and I'm using that word

in a real way because everything else the classy route is not fucking getting through to these guys all right maybe we don't need a black person to go in there and get something

for black people maybe we need a couple a couple niggas to come get it. A couple of people that don't care about how they're perceived. A couple of people that's willing to go in there and grab a situation by the nuts and get to it for the people. A couple of people that's on the ground in these communities enough to know how they feel about things.

Maybe we got too many Negroes in these positions. And I'm being serious. I'm, I am livid that we would be having this conversation after what we've been been through. Yep. I'm livid that he would say something like this. I'm livid. Well, because he didn't have to, Van.

There's no reason for him to do this. Rachel, there's a reason why he's doing it. He's fattening us up for the fact that they're going to take it out. That the only reason why this would be, this kind of statement will be made this publicly is he's fattening us up for the fact that they're taking it out. that they're taking it out. But let me, and I understand that. But why not continue fighting for this bill for everything that has?

Because it has nothing to do with us. It has to do with politics, right? No, that's what I want you to say. They don't think that they can get Manchin, who's an abomination in West Virginia and some of the other guys they need to get on board to actually get it passed. But they still forget about wanting people safe in the streets.

They want points on the board. And because they want points on the board, they wanted, as my homeboy said, something performative. Well, what we need is for the cops to stop blowing people's heads off. That's what we need and choking them to death. And so what we need is actual change.

And the Democrats, who we keep lining up to support, once again, are getting to the precipice and are demonstrating to us in an outward way that they're not willing to fight for actual change. Correct. That they're not willing to go to the mattresses for us. So I got to say fuck them. Yeah.

Go out, as Van said, go out and look for it yourself. Let me tell you something. It's very simple. All you're asking for is for people to be responsible for their actions. That's it. And if you take that away, that allows you to these police officers that continue to attack people of color this is asking them to be responsible for exactly what it is that they're doing stop protecting

them that's it that to me is a very simple concept look i'll be honest with you guys mama i'm sorry for the inward usage i told you i would try to stop i'm sorry did you tell her you've been on it a lot lately you've been on it a lot lately i've been using the inward more yeah for it cursing inward Yeah, yeah. That means I just need to check in with the judge. I know. Well, I can have them. We can have a monthly check in.

Okay, you guys, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I got a little excited. I'll try to, I'll keep it clean as much as I fucking can for the rest of the podcast. But look, seriously, in a real way. This isn't about content, content. This isn't about podcast. This is about anything that has to do with how you guys are perceiving.

This is about the reality that we're living in. And that is so disrespectful. Claibran ought to be ashamed of himself. He should apologize. That is so disrespectful to the family of George Floyd. It's so disrespectful to the family of Breonna Taylor. So disrespectful to the family of Tamir Rice, to the family of all of the people. that this movement is based on.

How long are we going to let these people die for nothing, man? How long are we going to die for nothing? How long are we, I mean, it's all for nothing anyway, if you want to be honest with you. You could pass a million bills, and it won't bring George Floyd back. But at least if we can't get them back, can't the worldwide movement

that his life ended up being bad? based on? Can it have its day? Can it mean something? And do we have the fortitude for it to? Yeah. Yeah. Too much politics, not enough passion.

Y'all be about something. I'm sick of it. I'll never register Democrat ever again. Never, never. I won't caucus with the Republicans. It was the seat of white supremacy in America. But I'll never caucus with the Democrat. I'll never, I will never, ever, ever, ever registered Democrat ever again.

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18 plus trading derivatives involve significant risk and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools. Oh, it's more political news. This is political. Simone Sanders, did you see this? Yeah. Simone Sanders apparently is upset. She's hurt that Joe Biden passed her over for the press secretary job.

If you guys don't remember, Simone Sanders is the amazingly talented black lady. that was handling comms, at least in part for Joe Biden during the campaign. And when it came time, she actually tackled a heckler at a campaign stop one time. She tackled a heckler.

And when it came time to get the top job, she was passed over. And the story came out that she's hurt that she didn't get the press secretary job. Now, this doesn't mean that she will never have the press secretary job. There can be a time in the future where she does get it.

She said she doesn't want it. Well, the current press secretary, secretary, I'll say like that. The current press secretary says in about a year or so, she's not going to want this job anymore. Basically, that's what she alluded to. I think Simone was asked about that. And Simone said she doesn't want it. She doesn't want the job that she was passed over for.

So if she does become press secretary, it won't be under a Joe Biden administration. Find that interesting. I've also found it interesting. The story is just now coming out because that means that she didn't get it back in November. or maybe December, I'm not sure when that official decision was made. No, he brought Jen on in November. So November.

And we're just now hearing about this. I honestly thought it was a job she didn't want because she didn't get it. Because I would think if she wanted this job, she would have gotten it because it was well-deserved. It's not like she didn't have experience before. She worked with Bernie Sanders during his 2016 presidential campaign. This is a woman who has the experience to hold this position up. And she has been extremely loyal. to Joe Biden, even when he's done things that made the black community upset.

She has stood by him. She has fought with him. And it's interesting that he didn't choose her for this. Yeah. I shouldn't say interesting. It's wrong. You think it's wrong? You think it's wrong?

I do think it's wrong. I looked up and I keep saying Jen because I'm not quite sure how to pronounce her last name. Is it Pesaki, Pasaki, I'm sorry. I'm not quite sure how to pronounce it. But I looked up her background and Simone's just like on an experience level. and maybe Jen has more experience working with people

who are actually in actually the president because of what she did with Obama but Simone has shown her loyalty and she has experience. To me I think it's wrong he didn't pick her

if she wanted the job. Interesting. I would hope that she would get the job. Simone is incredibly talented. I got to be honest with you. Hmm? I don't care.

It's, I mean, I want, first of all, this is nothing to do with Simone Sanders. I didn't think so. Simone Sanders is just so overqualified for almost any job.

She's so good. I think that my brain, there's only a certain bandwidth of stuff. I did that my brain can like attach onto at this point. You know? And when I saw this headline, I thought, that's sad that she didn't get that. But at the same time, God damn it, there are so many big problems right now that I don't really know how much I can focus on one person and one job.

Now, if you're telling me right now that there's something deeper here, that she feels like it was discriminatory, or that people, that black and brown people and women of black women specifically can't rise up, in Joe Biden's administration, then that is a reason to rally the troops. But just the fact that she didn't get the job if she thought she was going to get the job, it's kind of like, I'm wondering why this is coming out. Because I think that people are insinuating that,

I think people are looking at it on the outside. Oh, this black woman was passed up for this white woman, this black woman who tackled a protester, a heckler, this black woman who stood up for Joe Biden in defense of things he said against, the black community, a community that she's a part of. And I assume she never wanted it.

So the fact that she wanted it and she didn't get it, I think it's causing people to say, well, come on, Joe, why would you, why would you not? Jen wasn't even working for your administration. You pulled her from CNN to be a part of the team. Simone was there. She was in the trenches. So I

think that's what people are looking at. Why would you not pick her? Kamala obviously saw something that you couldn't see and brought her a part of to be to be a part of her team. If Kamala runs for president, I'm sure she would have Simone doing that or something even greater in her administration.

I put it to you like this. I think the lesson here is be careful who you tackle for. That's it. I'm going to give you a Terry Lathen special. Well, be careful who you tackle for. Keep your head up, keep your head on the swivel. This is a, oh, hold on for a second. Wait a minute.

This is something that just jumped onto my tackle. timeline and we're making another turn. Okay. Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck are hanging out again. Did you see this? It's been hanging out for weeks. Unfortunately, I have seen it because it's the kind of stuff we pay attention. Oh!

We back? Benifer. Is it back? It's not necessarily back. It is not romantic. They are platonic friends apparently. But he has been. She has been seeking comfort from Ben since her breakup with A-Rod.

She did the same thing with Mark Anthony, right? She went back to Ben? No, with A-Rod, she went and hung out with Mark Anthony because they're close friends too. So she's been hanging out with Ben. He's been coming to see her before this Vax Live event. They both attended it, even though they didn't come in together. It's rumored that her driver picked him up and brought him to her place. and apparently they went to Montana together.

I know way more about this than I should. They went to Montana together. I know way more about this than I would like to. Who goes to Montana together? I don't know. And does it fuck? If you go to Montana, what else is not like, there's a lot of places they could have gone together.

So maybe they're friends with benefits. If you told me that they had gone to like Disneyland together, there's a lot of stuff you can do. You get on Indiana Jones, Star Tours. But if you go to Montana, Montana, there is nothing to do but ride four-wheelers and fuck. But maybe it's not romantic. Maybe they're just friends with benefits and they're keeping it moving.

Maybe they're doing it for the publicity. Maybe she's trying to make A-Ride jealous. I don't know. Can you have, I guess you can have non-romantic sex, right? Sex can be not romantic. Let me say this. I've never, it depends how many times. If it's a one-time thing, fine.

But I've never met a woman who could continue to have sex with a man and not catch feelings. And this is like, my friends. That's not true. I said that's from my experience. I've never continued a continuous amount of times. I didn't say one. So you've never met a woman that, okay, what's the amount of times then that a woman can have sex and not and then not catch feelings?

What do the feelings? What number of sexual occur? For the one person close to me. For the one person close to me that I was like. She could do it. And then I saw her catch feelings. I'd say around 10. Around 10 times of a woman having sex with a man,

she's going to catch feelings. And I'm speaking. And before y'all go and say something about me, I'm speaking from the women that I know, that I know personally, I've just never seen it. After a while, they catch feelings in some way. Maybe there's more to it than just,

maybe they're hanging out, spend a time together. What's your, I'm not sure. What's your definition of catching feelings? They want more. more than just sex. They want to actually be,

yeah, in a relationship. Yeah, they want more time from them. I know women and men who have slept together for years, years. And they have nothing. They have nothing. They're lying.

They have something. Years? They have something. What's something? Something means, okay, so if you're talking about want something more. Because I didn't say relationship. I didn't say they want a relationship. They start to want like time.

and like to hang out more outside of the bedroom or wherever it's going down. They want more from them to where it's like they're playing around. Like it's a like it's so maybe without the title. So when you say want more you mean okay, because that's interesting because when you say want more, because these people that I know that have been doing this for a long time, they do like go places together and stuff. I know they do.

I'm talking strictly sex. Strictly. They eventually want more time. from you. Not a title. I said time. But how many relationships when you are just strictly sex, though?

Think about it. How many relationships do you not watch a movie? How many relationships? How many do you not go for a ride at some time? Do you not go to Chick-Pillane? But like, okay. See, because I wouldn't consider that to be something more. I would be something more starts to be to me like exclusivity

or getting jealous, getting jealous when you have somebody else, that's something more. These two people that I know have, and I think it's remarkable and they'll know who they are when they listen to this. They have never,

they've managed to never, ever even care or be jealous of one another's situations. So it's been, I've seen it done, but I guess to your point, I guess, I guess, yeah, yeah. So something more 10 times

and it's something, and you say that's like, I hate, I hate that you make me try to, quantify things, but 10, fine, I'm picking a number 10. And you say that's 10 in the most extreme situation. With most women, it's less than 10,

you're saying. Yeah, I think, yeah. I think it's, from my experience. From the people I know. Of all the celebrity couples, is this really the one we will want to remix? I didn't care about it at the first time, the first go around.

So no. I'll tell you who I want back. Who do you want back? I got to be honest with you. I think it's pretty easy there's a lot of couples that I want back for some reason I want Chris Weber and Tyra Banks back I don't know why

Wow I forgot about that I really liked them I really liked Chris Weber and Tyra Banks together I like them both I just thought forgot about them together I was just like why don't they have a baby they have a couple of babies three seven foot tall beautiful people

like I really wanted I really wanted Chris Weber and Tower Banks to work out. I really wanted it. Chris Weber used to be all, shout out to Chris Seab. He was supposed to be coming on the podcast pretty soon too.

I really wanted Chris Weber and Tyra Banks to work out. Do you have a celebrity couple that you really wanted to work out? I'm trying to think about it now that you say it. And no. You don't care. I'm trying to think of some, that's so random that you pick Chris Weber and Tyra Banks. Brad and Jennifer?

Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anderson? No, too much has happened. No, no, no, no, no. So much is happening. Who broke up? Who famously broke up? I know a couple that we all wanted to work out. Who?

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. I think when they broke up, everybody was like, she lost all her feet and count. It was very upsetting. Nobody wanted that to work out. What the fuck I'm talking about? I'm joking.

Is there any couple that you didn't want to, that you didn't want to, I guess, I guess not, but really mine, that's mine. I like that. I like them both.

I like that. Are they together? Are they with people? I don't know. Yeah, with other people now. Oh, okay. I'm so upsetting. Okay.

Yeah, so really quickly, Lakeith Stanfield, we had Lakeith Stanfield on the podcast. We did. It was a great episode. This is a very serious topic, and I just want to, we have to take some time

and really talk to our brothers. specifically our brothers right now. Just stop with the weird Hitler shit. Now, I am not at all saying that

Lakeith Stamfield, and he's, first of all, let's talk about what happened. There was a clubhouse room and I guess the name of the room was, it had something to do with Minister Farrakhan. Okay. The room, I'm actually, I don't want to be wrong.

here. So the first room that they were a part of got shut down because there was so much talk that was anti-Semitic. Right. So the room started off. The room started off and I guess something about the room had to do

with, you know, why they're silencing minister Farrakhan or something to that degree. But some of the talk inside of this room and their audio clips are out was just viciously. viciously anti-Semitic,

just viciously anti-Semitic, right? And not in any way that needs to be deciphered. It was viciously anti-Semitic. Lakeith Stanfield was in the room from what he says for the original conversation and he was made a moderator. Typically, if you go into a clubhouse room,

being made a moderator of a conversation doesn't mean that you are intellectually in control of the conversation or that you are some way wielding the intellectual will of the conversation. A lot of times I go into a clubhouse room. I see people who know me, they make me a moderator almost as a sign of respect and you can add people and stop people or whatever. Anyway, Lakeith Stanfield was in this room and he heard this dialogue and he was there. And it made a lot of people believe that this was in some way.

endorsement of these ideas that were happening. And we're talking about the worst of the worst type of stuff. There was one part of the conversation, a clip that I heard where someone was talking about how essentially Hitler was right. And what Hitler did for his people ended up fucking insane, making for a better Germany in the future. And he was willing to make that sacrifice.

We're talking about 12 million people dead. 12 million people dead in the Holocaust, 12 million people dead and forget about 12. Okay, so let's say not forget about them, never forget about them, but like, okay, so 12 million people dead in the Holocaust, right? So I want people to understand what we're talking about when you invoke that name or when you talk about this.

So 12 million dead in the Holocaust. 20 million people dead as a result of the fighting that happened in Russia, right? Hundreds of thousands of dead GIs here in the U.S., a world war, famine, All of these things because of the tyranny of one man who was able to whip up a country, then get allies, and then set the whole world at war, at war. So when we talk about the pain inflicted on to the Jews and to the others that were killed,

during the Holocaust, that's part of the final solution. We're talking about the catastrophic, worldwide disease that Nazism has been. The father of it is Adolf Hitler. There's no way to invoke Adolf Hitler's name in anything short of evil. Yeah.

Stop with this shit. God damn. Why are we overthinking shit? Hitler, equal bad. Hitler equal evil. If you hear the name, shoot it down. When you see Hitler and you put two holes in them, put holes in the name, put holes in the legacy. It's easy work.

So he was there. He did not, like he didn't do enough. He didn't do anything. Going to most people to denounce what was going on the room and people took that as an endorsement from Lakeith Sandfield. He has responded. Yesterday I entered an online chat room on Clubhouse about the teachings of Lewis Farrakhan. When the rooms participants noticed me, I was quickly made a moderator of this room. At some point during the dialogue, the discussion took a very negative turn.

And when several users made abhorrent anti-Semitic statements, at that point, I should have either shut down the discussion or removed myself from it. I condemn hate speech and discriminatory views of every kind. I unconditionally apologize for what went on in that chat room and for allowing my presence to give a platform to hate speech. I am not to anti-Semite, nor do I condone. any of the beliefs discussed in that chat room. So, Lakeith Stansfield has apologized

and he has unequivocally condemned what was going on in that room. I don't even have much to add to that. It's just, listen, you were in the room and you didn't say anything, but you did do something. You were there.

You were present. You stayed as a moderator. Even if you were curious to hear what's being said, it is wrong. You were guilty by affiliation. You should never. I don't even know what to say to me I think what you said

lays it all out he's wrong it was disappointing to even see his name attached to any of this and you gotta do better you gotta do better you gotta do more than even apology you gotta be because there's there's

there are people that are fans of him and they're support and they're hurt they're upset by his affiliation to this even if he never said anything he's connected to it well my thing is this number one this is not his

initial response to it his initial response to it. That too. His initial response to it was they'll always try to discredit you. He said, thinking outside the box comes with a cost, they'll always try to discredit and attack you. Fute out. So this is the thing that I'm starting to glean on,

that they're starting to dawn on me in these different conversations. We've seen some of this in the past, this past summer, we saw a lot of it to particular situations. I don't think people So one thing I'll do is I'll assure And this doesn't do anything to make any excuses for anyone But I'll assure the people that are listening to this podcast right now That are Jewish

And this is in no way going to make any of this stuff Any easier to digest But I'll assure them of one thing These guys have no clue what the fuck they're talking about. Like they really don't know. All right. Now,

that ignorance is the type of ignorance that gets weaponized and then gives Nazism and anti-Semitism, racism, racism, racism, all of those things, the wills and the fuel that it needs, right? It helps it roll. It helps it fly. So the ignorance is not an excuse. But there isn't some vicious anti-Semitism that exists in the black community as I understand it.

I have not ever in my life heard this much fucking Hitler chatter. I don't know where it's in my life. Hitler was as soon hang a black man as he would a Jew. Yeah, no, I don't know where it's coming. So I've never heard this much. I think this is a function of more than anything of every single opinion on the internet being given equal oxygen. and of people thinking a bunch of smart-ass dumb shit. Well, let's think outside the box.

Hitler's in the box, my nigga. He's in the box. Yeah. There's no outside of the box with Hitler. You know where Hitler is? He's inside of the box. Yeah. I would just encourage Thought Warriors to go back and listen to one

when we had Rabbi Ari Lam on. My man. And then when you and I discuss Nick Cannon and we kind of talked about the black community and why we were continuing to see public figures that are black speak like this. Both of those episodes are really good to check out about it. But yeah, no, we got we got to stop.

It's a lot of weirdo shit happening right now. It's weird. Okay. We have time for Vans very serious questions today. Question of the day. Are you ready for it? I'm ready. Are you ready for it?

Okay. So this is the deal. Okay. Let's say tomorrow we decided we're going to give the Earth a break. Okay. All right. We're going to give the Earth a break. All right. We're going to put humanity.

We found another Earth-like place. Right? Another Earth-like planet. We found an Earth-like planet. But this Earth-like planet can only sustain us for 50 years. So what we're going to do is we're going to give the Earth a 50 year reset. Oh, wow.

We can warp there to this earth-like planet. Okay. And hang out there for 50 years and chill out, do whatever. The whole now we're going to give the earth a little bit of a break for us to replenish. We got to leave, though, five humans to look after the earth while we're gone for the 50 years. We got to leave five humans. we're leaving the earth for 50 years we're going to come back in 50 years

we've got to leave five humans in charge of the earth this is too difficult of a question for 50 years no this is your on the fly obviously if you thought about it if you thought about it you could choose on the fly

just off the top of your dome who would be the five people that you would leave in charge of the earth when we were gone for 50 years. So all humans are gone. Every human is gone. We are going to another planet.

Okay. We're going to give the Earth time to reset. We've been building up to this. We got houses on the other planet. We got all kinds of stuff on the other planet. We basically is rent a planet. We're going to come back. Five people are going to be here on Earth looking after the Earth while we're going. leave five. I, okay, I have, this is too difficult. All I'll say is, is I'm going to name people, I'm going to name types of people, right?

Because it's all about preserving the earth, right? We don't need a government. I need you to name. We don't need a government. I need you to name specific people here. No. We need an environmentalist. Okay, who though?

Who? Greta. Greta. Greta. Okay, so now we start. Greta Thumbart. Okay, cool. All right.

Go. The animals are still here, right? The animals are here. Okay. Somebody to oversee the animals. I don't know who that is. You have to say somebody. You have to say someone.

Rachel, it's all up to you. You have to say somebody. Okay. You have to say someone. I don't know. You have to say somebody. No, I don't. Somebody to see the animals.

Who, but who? Who? Who, who? Like Jack Hannah? Bindy Irwin? Who? I was going to say Bendy.

I was like she doesn't even live here. Oh wait. Oh shoot, it's not the United States. It's not the United States. It's the world. So I could name Bendy. You could name Bendy. Bendy.

Bendy. I love this. All women. Greta and Bendy. Okay, keep going. Me. You'd stay here. You're going to stay here?

Okay. There's Rachel. No, we need you. I'm going up. I'm going away. I'm going away. And by the way, and by the way, 50 years,

I'm warping. No, no, no. You're going to live the whole 50 years. Because like the special technology. But do the people in my life live the 50 years? Everybody does. So we're in a time capsule. We're in a time capsule.

Like this is every, we're going. But we're taking something and we're all, none of us are going to age. We're giving the world a break. We're going 50 years. We're coming back. Okay.

Fauci. Fauci. good answer. Oh my gosh. I got two more. I got two more. You got two more. Okay.

I want these people to have some form of entertainment. Okay. So I'm going to leave them with who's a legend that could just entertain them all the time. Who would I want it to be? Right. Let me think about it. And, uh,

Who's just going to run stuff? I don't trust anybody in government. Brittany. Britney Spears? No, Brittany DeBarros. Oh, Britney DeBarros. Okay. We like her.

I'm going to go ahead and throw her in there. So your five are Greta Thumburg, Bendy Irwin. Fauci. Fauci. I have somebody's got to entertain them, right? Like there's got to be some type of music. I cannot think of who I want that person to be. No, you have to name this person.

You have to name this person. This is the game. You have to name. You have to. And who was my last person? Brittany. Your last person was Brittany. Okay.

Who are your people? Because unfortunately, you get to, you've thought about it. No, no, no, I haven't. This might be the most, the most difficult question you've ever asked. This is, but this is, I have not thought about this. This is off the fly. I'm serious. I haven't thought about it.

Okay. So mine would be Michelle Obama. She's going to be the person that's going to walk that's going to watch over everything. Okay. All right. My environmentalist is Bill Nye's science guy. Okay. My person to watch after that because you have to have, you have to have the animal person.

Right. You got to have the animal person. person. So mine is the lady, what's her name? Gorilla's in the Miss lady. What's her name? Jane Goodall. Oh, okay.

Okay, good, good. Jane Goodall is my animal lady. All right. My entertainer. So you like the five categories that I have. I loved them. I think they're right. Thank you.

My entertainer, I've picked this person for a very specific reason. Kevin Hart. Oh, funny. And I tell you. you why it's Kevin Hart. It's Kevin Hart because not only is Kevin Hart like going to be entertaining, but he's also nonstop work ethic. It's going to be a lot of work. And by the way, these people, these people, like, you know, they're going to be sex bots for these people to kind of, you know, be around and they're going to be able to have, they're going to be able to talk to their

family all the time, but they have to take care of the earth 50 years. Five people to take care of earth while the rest of us are gone. Maybe we're sleep for 50 years. Okay. Maybe we're sleep. We're asleep for 50 years. Did you name four? You only named four.

I only named four. So I had an entertainer, an animal person, an environmentalist. Oh, I don't have an infectious disease person, which you have to have. And I'm not going to steal Fauci. And for my infectious disease person, it's going to be Kizzy Corbett. Good. So that's it. are the five people.

All right. Shout out Kevin Hart. Look, guys, I said what I said during this podcast. That was a hard, that was a hard edition of Vance very serious questions of the week. It was, but it's interesting. They're always interesting. They are. They are.

Makes me think. Makes me think. All right. Oh, Thursday, guys, we have Michael Rappaport. He has said that he's coming on. We should just surprise folks. that. He is said that he's coming on.

Take it off. Michael Rappaport. He's coming on Thursday. Is it because we shamed him? What made him change his line? I reached out. I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, what the fuck? And so he says he's coming on Thursday. Michael Rappaport on Thursday, I'm 60% sure. Y'all, you'll go to his social and say, I can't wait to see you at higher learning. Let's put it out there.

Let's make this a thing. So he shows up. I'm a, I'm going to put it on my Instagram. Yeah. On Instagram. All right. You guys, take the team caps off.

Do not stop learning. I'm Van Lathan. I'm Rachel Lindsay. We out.