IHIP News - It’s Even Worse Than We Thought...This Changes Everything for MAGA

Episode Date: October 4, 2026

Talking MAGA panic as the midterms approach with  @underthedesknews . Pre-order Jennifer’s new book Not Today, Fascists today: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcast Follow Us: I've Had It Podcast: @Ivehaditpodcast Jennifer Welch: @mizzwelch V Spehar:  @underthedesknews ​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 2006 Chevrolet Equinox awarded the most dependable compact SUV in the U.S. by J.D. Power is designed for your everyday. And with available all-wheel drive, you can handle your to-do list with total confidence. Start your build at Chevrolet.ca. Details at J.D.Power.com. I used to work for the Republicans years ago. What? Yes. I got picked to be like the caterer for Mitt Romney's 2012 RNC down in Tampa. And the things that I learned from this were, yes, it was huge and it was really great and wonderful. but Republican women are lesbians.

Okay. I knew it. Joining me, welcome to I've had it weekend. We have a digital journalist, podcaster, and creator of Under the Desk News, Under the Desk. You really do it under the desk, right? I did, yeah, for years. I was physically under the desk. Then Trump won the second time we had to come out to fight, but come November, we're going right back under.

Under the desk. It's V. Spear. A lot of you probably know, or she has a gigantic platform. and you know we like to guest independent news. I think that's where it's all at, don't you? That's where it's at. I mean, with the conglomeration of legacy or what we call trad media on my show,

it's just like you can't really trust that those people are able to freely, freely say everything that they actually want to. Independent media, lower budgets, more honesty. Bigger mouths. Bigger mouths. Yeah. That's what's up.

All right, let's do a little check in with the lesbians. Okay. It's got a big week for us. Big week for the lesbians. Let's first talk about what's going on with some bar in Massachusetts. Yes. Okay. So in Western Massachusetts, and Rachel Maddow actually had to weigh in on this because she is from this area.

Okay. This is sort of like our gathering zone. Okay. There's Peatown in the summer. There's Northwest Massachusetts. This is where we raise some of the best and most qualified lesbians. But out there, it's about radical inclusivity expression being yourself. So there was a bar called The Last Ditch, which had set itself up in the basement of a Mexican restaurant.

And they had opened in 2025 as a COVID-conscious place where there. There was mandatory masking so that immunocompromised lesbians would feel comfortable coming out, having a kiki, having fun. Unfortunately, not enough immunocompromised lesbians came out. And so this woman who runs the bar went $50,000 in debt. She was living in her truck. She's like, I have to bring in more people. So she said, how about one night a week, mask optional? If you want one, great.

And if you don't, maybe we could bring in some new people just to try and keep the space alive. And the internet went crazy. It wasn't the people in her community necessarily criticizing her. It was folks from outside. And there is this one person from Aurora, California, who ended up becoming sort of the center of the story for saying that they wanted to firebomb the bar to teach this woman a lesson about sacrificing immunocompromised people for capitalist gains. And she was like, the bar is going to close if I don't get more customers in.

And so it's been a wild week for us. Yeah. So just so I, to summarize. Yeah. The immunoconscience lesbians were fine with her opening it up one night a week. Most of the community was fine. They had a little meeting. The Boston Globe went and they filmed it.

A lot of the community was like, we totally understand. We want to be able to keep this space. We don't like that you're doing mask optional. What could we do? Could we be doing COVID tests at the door? What else can we do so that people don't feel kicked out? But there were some people in there that were like, you're a fascist for taking this away and you never care for this community at all.

So, of course, the woman who owns the bar is crying and trying to say, like, I'm living out of my car. I'm $50,000 in debt. I've done everything I can. She innocently says, maybe it's best to close the bar. I always wanted to go to clown school. Maybe I'll go to clowning school, which didn't help the story, Jen. Oh, no.

So now people are like, you're a clown. And I'm like, I hope she gets to be a clown. I hope she gets to have that whimsy in her life after all this. Yeah. And, you know, I forget that there is a clown school. Yeah. It's a very serious clowning. It's physical comedy and, like, movies.

So it's like a part of acting school, but clowning. I mean, what I want to imagine about this masked lesbian bar is that that is where the gay agenda is. Well, that's the root of the gay agenda. And that's where the physical copy of it is. So I don't want to reveal this to everyone, but you're a trusted ally. Yeah, yeah. Yes, in the lesbian bars, this is where we're starting to recruit and place stories about Republican lesbians. Like maybe you heard Erica Kirk as a lesbian, Candice Owens is lesbian, Lauren

povers do landspeen and stuff, I think it's because they're jealous of our clown school basement, immunocompromised, COVID-conscious bars, and they want to get in. Let's talk about Candace. Yes. This is a woman who has devoted her career to a project called Becoming Brigitte. Okay. Where she is laser-focused on the life of First Lady of France, Brigitte McCrone. Oh, yeah, she is.

And she has had a multi-part series in trying to say that Brigitte was originally, I believe, her brother, Jean. Yeah, she's trying to say they, like, switched bodies, like, orphan style. Yes. And so now some person on the internet has done a deep dive, and my son sent this to me. And it makes me always so happy when my son send me what's in their algorithm because it's all, like, very good left-leaning stuff. So I'm like, okay, that's good. So he's like, Mom, Candace Owens is a lesbian. I was like, source question mark.

And then he sends me this tweet that, of course, I just, you know, cangles deep in immediately, right? And oh my gosh, how do you feel about that? How do you think the committee in the lesbian committee? The lesbian committee. We're going to vote on it later this week. We're going to vote on it later this week because the thing is, I need to know that you're here for the right reasons, right? You need to be a lesbian because you actually love women, not because all the men you surround yourself with. hate women. And so now you're trying to like maybe get in with us just for a little love and

affection. Yeah. And so we got to make sure that you're here for the right reasons. I'm not sure if Erica Lauren, Lauren Bobert, maybe. Lauren Bobert strikes me as a good fun time. She could probably hang with bisexuals and lesbians. She's a good fun time. But Erica Kirk and Candace Owens, I don't know if they're here for the right reasons or if they just are in community with men who hate women. And so they're like, I need to balance this out with women who love women. Right. You know, there has been this new thing that's very popular right now. And where I'm from, Oklahoma City, the amount of women that were married in a heterosexual sense lived in kind of a white picket fence, idyllic from the outside with a husband and kids. And then there's a divorce

and then there is a girlfriend. Yeah. It's unbelievable. The late in life, lesbianism is on the rise in America. It is. You know why? Because for so long, I think heteronormativity was so pushed on people. And unfortunately, because of the AIDS epidemic, we didn't really see a lot of elder gay folks. I mean, gay men were the first ones, like, really out and in culture, per se. There's always been, like, lesbians, but we don't usually get the, like, TV shows and headlines. So as we started to turn the corner and people were aging out of, it used to be like, you really didn't see a gay man over like 30, 40 years old. And now you do. And so I think people are coming out late in life because they're like, wow, I can actually see a possibility model for myself. I see a life.

You know, gay marriage became legal. I think that was really big for a lot of people feeling like they could have a family. They could be accepted in society. There are protections for you not just being able to get fired from your job if you're gay anymore. And I think in addition, men are being taught to hate women. They're not being taught to love women forever and ever. And so if you've got a man that you've been with who you're the first wife, right, he marries somebody younger, tries to start over, whatever that case may be, maybe you're not looking for that the second time around. Maybe you're looking for more companionship, better sex, comfort, the ability to be yourself.

And now you can see this as like a possibility model, a community for yourself. What do you make of shows like hunting wives where they're, you know, these women live in Texas and they're married very MAGA, very Republican, very Christian, very gay at night, very, very gay at night. And when I watched it, I just thought, this is not that far off, at least from the world that I lived in in Oklahoma City, especially if I was around a bunch of evangelical Republicans. The duplicity in the lifestyle that these people live is really incredible. So I used to work for the Republicans years ago. What? Yes.

Were you a Republican? I was in the way that like my dad voted for John McCain, so like I did. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. I think there's a lot of people. So I was in the culinary world and I got picked to be like the caterer for Mitt Romney's 2012 RNC down in Tampa. And I was like maybe 26 or 27 at this time.

And when you're like young and you know like when I say catering, people think cater waiter at a hotel, I mean like. high-end social catering, like private chef type stuff. Bougy ass billionaire. Very bougie. A lot of money, a lot of social power, a lot of whatever. So when you get asked to do these gigs and you're young, you're sort of like, it wasn't as like political as it is now, like I would never do it for Trump, but I was like, okay,

Mitt Romney, 2012 R&C in Tampa, we're going to be going in, we're improving spaces. I get to do 250 different events. It felt like the biggest opportunity of my life. And the things that I learned from this were, yes, it was huge and it was really great and wonderful, but Republican women are lesbians because every, you know, Every, okay. I knew it. I'm telling you, every time I have been approached by a woman after way too many glasses of Kim Crawford, Sauvione Blanc, or Joshua Sellers, Chardonnay, or the Kendall Jacks and Chardonay really makes people gay, I don't know why.

They would always be like, you know, you're so cute. And I'd be like, please don't do this. Please don't do this. Because, like, I look, I guess I look enough, like, what they would imagine, like, a man should look like. And men don't dress or do their hair or care like I do now. So they're like, that's enough of a look. They get drunk, they get a little lesbian. And every time it was like a Republican woman who was married, who had some kind of power

that I had to be like, no, thank you. And they're like, you don't want a chance to be with all of this. And I'm like, no, I don't. Like, we have our own women. And like, they're great. Lesbians are a beautiful species. I want to date a lesbian. I want to date a lesbian.

I don't want to give you, you know, Republican politician's wife some sort of. sort of experience that I feel like your husband wants to maybe get in on too. It was very like, we saw you across the bar all through the time that I was in Tampa. And I just, I find that very fascinating because then they go out and they pretend like they hate gay people, they hate trans people, but they're fascinated with us as a fetish. And I think that's a lot of where the bad policy comes from, too. I agree. I think that oftentimes, this is my personal theory from being a progressive atheist in the Bible Belt. What I see in Republicans, specifically evangelical MAGA Republicans, is a desire to be punitive through legislation and systems towards the object of their

desire. If you're a straight man, then you want to slut shame women by making abortion and birth control illegal so that they are identified as somebody who had premarital sex and therefore or they're dirty and off the list of marriage. And then the same, if you take Lindsey Graham, the late Lady Graham, or others that I tend to get a gay d'A ping from that are governing us right now in the MAGA regime. That's why they're so laser-focused on the LGBTQ plus issues. But to your point about Republican women, I was in a pickleball group in Oklahoma City, quite the pickleball player, but that's another podcast for another day. And it was half lesbians, half heterosexuals. And one of the lesbians in the group, darling, lover, but more masculine presenting.

And the amount of Republican Christian women or these aren't like MAGA women, but a Mitt Romney John McCain style that would say, well, I just think she's really attractive. That really, and so I would, I mean, this is of course anecdotal, but I saw that. I thought, and I remember telling my friend, I was like, boy, these straight ladies are really like you. She goes, they have my whole life. And the more conservative they are and the more religious they are, the more they approach me. Do you know why? Because I think they think we'll keep it a secret. And they want to be sexually adventurous. A lot of these women, you know, probably got married young, had kids young, have been, like you said, from this evangelical, very strict sexual like norms place. So they think, well, if I'm with a man, my husband will find out or I could

get pregnant or I could X, Y, Z problems. But if I'm with a woman, maybe she will keep the secret for me. And I'll be able to have these sexual adventures with somebody who either won't be believed because the people that I roll with think of those people as low or less than or we'll keep it a secret. And so that's how we're- I'm glad we're talking about this because I think there's a real exploitation happening to the LGBTQ plus community where when I first heard stuff about like people being on the spectrum, whether it be gender or whether it be sexually, because I grew up in just such a binary world, but very progressive, I was like, well, that seems kind of weird. You either like boys or

you like girls, or you either are a boy or you are a girl. But really, that's been kind of like propaganda because I do think probably a lot of people are on the spectrum of these things more than they realize. And I think a lot of men, especially in the manosphere, where it's uber, over, uber toxic. I think at times, again, another personal theory. They're watching porn and they get excited when they see the penis. And then they think, oh, God, that's gay. I'm gay. And then they start this whole anti-gay stuff outwardly. And then they go back to the porn again. It was like, well, I kind of liked what that guy did. Does it mean they're gay? No, but they could have a gay excitement moment. But again, it's spectrumish. It is spectrumish. And I think with men in pornography in

particular, we did a study on this for a substack piece of while back on like, what are the trends in pornography and like what are men watching? And the two dominant categories for men are military and authoritative porn. That's number one. So like when they're searching, they're searching like hot marine fuck sailor type stuff. And that's the number one category. And it's because it has to be a man on man. Yes. Wait. So let's reverse a little bit. Yep. Men are searching up. Yeah. Permit. Yes. Man on man. Yes. Military. Yes. Bossing each other around. Yes. It's one of the top categories based on service. What was the other one? I love this shit. A lot of them are nasty, like, you know, subservient, awful, treat women terrible stuff. You know, it's sort of like, I think like rape fantasy is number two. You know what I mean? Not great. But that's because men don't see, not all men also, but many men don't see sex. as an intimate connection, they see it as a power play or a way to exhibit their masculinity or to

get something from someone because that's what they've been trained for. As women, we grew up, we were trained. This is your special gift and you can only give it to one person who's very, very special, right? One person. Men are taught, you try to get it from as many as you possibly can. And having a body count or having a number is what makes you an alpha. It makes you more masculine. So for them, it's more about like conquering in numbers. It's also about authority and power. the intimacy or the specialness of it. And I think that's a disservice to men that older men put on younger boys a lot of the time,

where they're like, well, you gotta try and do this and that and the other. And then young men are thought to think, well, that must be what big boys do. That must be what I do when I grow up. Like I don't think little boys or young men even who start having a sexual experience come into it with the violence and the hate for women that older men have.

I think they are taught that through who either their mentors are. I mean, you look at like what Andrew Tate has done a generation of people. 11-year-old, 12-year-old boys don't come into sex as a violence thing. They are taught that. I agree. And then it comes and then it follows them, unfortunately. And I also think for a lot of these evangelical politicians and just the evangelical community

at large, at least the people I grew up around, the one thing they're taught when they're really, really little is not like be good to people and take up for the marginalized person in the group or the runt in the litter. it is you have to be a virgin. Right. I mean, I remember my friends were just that were so consumed with being a virgin. And of course, they lost their virginity first. Oh, yeah.

You know, but it was, there's all this. My sister went to Catholic school, way more sexually advanced than me in public school. Way more. Her friends were way more out there. And she, I remember asking one of them, like, I'm like, oh, okay, so you had sex, like, how was it? Like, what did you do? Like, how did it go? And she was like, well, I just feel relieved that it's over with.

because now I don't have to worry about who the special person is I'm going to give it to or what I'm going to do. I feel like a sense of freedom that it's over with. And like now I can do what I want because I've already sort of gone through the idea of shame that like I had sex with one person. Well, nobody's trying to hold me to some special standard anymore. I could like be more free. And I was like, maybe I should start sleeping around. I think as a young lesbian person, I knew that I didn't like boys. I didn't quite know that I liked girls yet or that that was even a. option, really. I just was like, I think maybe I'm like asexual or I'll be like a nun or something. I just don't want to have sex with men. And when she said it was relieving, I was like, maybe I should try it.

Maybe I'd feel less stressed out. And then I did and I didn't feel any less stressed. A lot of lesbians that I know, they went from thinking, you know, they had to like boys and then to asexuality. Yep. That seems to be the bridge before the enlightenment of lesbianism. That in like just I had sex with a man because I was like, okay, well, having sex with women does seem like it's on the table for me at some point. And I should have sex with a man to figure out how to have sex with a woman because I don't know how this way. I mean, I had no idea how this work. It was not helpful. Research and development.

And thank you to my friend who helped me through this. But like it was not actually helpful because lesbian sex and straight sex are different. And even at that age, I really didn't know. And this is where I say, I don't think that young people. come to sex through any way other than innocence and trying to figure out like what we as human creatures are doing. And that's why they should figure it out with each other. And then you have these predatory people from the church or from the Republican Party or from even the Democratic Party. I mean, look what Eric Swalwell was doing. Exactly.

They know better. And they use that power dynamic to trick people out of what should be their own journey towards sexuality. I think if people had less of their sexual journey interrupted by weird adults, we would have a lot less of this upcoming young Republicans being super conservative because they wouldn't feel like, well, something bad happened to me. So now I have to do it to someone else too. No, I completely agree. That's a very beautiful way to put it, that they do approach it with curiosity and the evolution of hormones. All right, let's get on to doing what we do best, which is magabashing. Great. Okay. The midterms are less than five weeks away. Yes. And the Republican strategy is to put Trump on the ballot.

And I'm loving this. Yes. And here is Ms. Caroline Levitt this week on Fox News. Let's play the clip. And that's what we have to focus on drawing that contrast between the common sense vision of President Trump and Republicans. I was with the president today checking in with our friend and my old boss. And I will tell you, he is ready to hit the road. He's going to be on the road almost almost every single day in the month of October campaigning for Republicans.

I've heard enough. Let's lather that boy up in orange sunscreen. and send him out on the campaign trail. I think it's great for us. What do you, what do you make of them sending out the surrogates, Trump, Vance, little Moses Mike? Oh my gosh. I think they're great surrogates for us. They're great surrogates for us. I think Donald Trump, every single time he shows up on television lately, it is a greater gaffe than the time before. He's either falling asleep, orange, has the bruises on his hands or is wearing gloves or is saluting the Chinese president. This man goes out there and says constantly, we'll never be a communist country and then flies

Chinese communist flags off the White House. I think just the, the, he also has to face empty rooms a lot of the time. And I want them to face these empty rooms. Like when we look at that R&C stunt that they did a couple weeks ago, whether he wants to believe that the people are still with him or not, when he got in that space, he knows that he's not filling up these spaces anymore. And I, I feel like there's some little ego accountability that may happen there. They're liars. And they do the same moves too much. Like they're too PR trained. Even Caroline Lerner. of it in that clip. I went to theater school undergrad, so I always look for those tells. She's like, bright-eyed nodding, so you agree with her, but because she's lying, she's tripping

over her words. She can't, like, get through the sentence before she's, like, trying to correct herself. She's trying to control the information too much. Mike Johnson does this too. Yes. They don't have that calm posture that they had before the last presidential election when they were on with Theo Vaughn and the Nelfboys where they were like, we've got this. They're like, Jennifer, we're doing amazing. And the gas prices will go down. right after. And it's like, we know that that's not true. We know that you're desperate and crazy. Okay. The primaries have also highlighted a divide in the Democratic Party. And I saw this clip

online and this just kind of blew my mind. This is a panel on MS Now talking about Angie Nixon. Angie Nixon is a progressive lover. Progressive candidate in Florida and she called Chuckles for some DSCC money and Chuckles was rather, oh, we'll see, we'll see. And so they're talking about this on this MS now panel. And I thought this is pretty fascinating for us to dissect. Play the clip. Ask, do you, some of you think that there are parts of the Democratic Party that actually want someone like Angie Nixon to lose? Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Everyone that I was just referring to. You would then have to be responsive to what that candidate is advocating for, right? If they win. It's like a ground swam. That's not just that, but they would. So every single person said yes,

that there are people in the Democratic Party that want to see Angie Nixon lose because Angie Nixon represents a politician that is incorruptible. She does. And also, I think the Democratic Party is willing to give Florida away in many ways. And they have been, like when we look at how Charlie Chris ran for governor back then, we knew a couple of years ago, there was a couple of years ago. There was no chance he was going to win, but Nancy Pelosi want to put her finger on the scale for him, because that's her old buddy, pushed out a lot of down-ballot candidates that were better, and I think the same thing is happening with Angie Nixon. They're willing to not win Florida because they think it's an unwill-winnable state. They'd rather focus on Maine or New Hampshire or

something like that. And I think also Angie Nixon, she's got that pedigree. You want to find a tweet of her or a picture of her over the last decade showing up where she should have been? She's there. She's there, and she's likable. And I think young people, really gravitate towards her. And whether Chuck gives her the money or not, I think she's got a really strong chance at winning, if not this cycle, the next one. And I think that that scares what we consider to be like the corporate Democrats or the status quo Democrats who are used to holding positions of power. You get Angie Nixon or Abdul in there. And they're not going to sit on committee and be polite. They have something to say and they owe it to their constituents. And they are, they don't

owe it to the big D donors of the last 30 years. And I think that's what scares. these corporate Democrats, is that the process of how they run elections and who gets seats is being interrupted by the people putting folks like Abdul or Angie Nixon into these spaces. And I love her. I think she's great. I love her too. She's been on the pod. And I just, I think we are so lucky when there is a candidate that is as good as she is, as good a person that wants to run. Because the problem is with running for office, we don't get a lot of good people. You get a lot of exploiters. and just loons that run and people that are willing to morally bend themselves. And I think that Zoron is showing the base.

And the Democratic establishment went all chips in against Zoron. You know, they had, they trotted out Cuomo and Zoran had to beat him twice. And he- Crazy they brought out Cuomo. They brought out Cuomo. Zoran kicks his ass twice. Everybody said Zoran's going to ruin New York City. Zoron has a 69% approval rating in this city.

200,000 pothole. He's showing us. We want the potholes filled, the roads to be drivable, the kids to be educated, and to have a little bit of money. That's it. He's showing us what government can do. And also how you can ask a politician a question and they can just answer it. Yep. And it's not some word salad response that we get from Hakeem Jeffries or Chuck Schumer.

And so if, let's say in a beautiful hypothetical world that we have. have Abdul wins, she wins, Angie Nixon, and other progressive candidates across the board. Dr. Annie Andrews in South Carolina's got a good shot. Yes. And what happens to the establishment, which I feel right now they are preservationists. They feel like a conservative party. Establishment Democrats feel very conservative to me. That's a good way to put it. So I had a conversation with Joe Biden when he was deciding to run for election again and with Joe Biden's people afterwards. And the thing that they were holding on to why he was going to run again is that he felt like he still had to hold that banner. He felt like he still was the one. People hadn't

learned the ropes yet. We couldn't risk it. It was too dangerous. And I'm like, but you holding, I get it. And I appreciate what Joe Biden has done. But at this point, are you sure there's not somebody stronger and we need you around to be a mentor and a leader and a safety net for the next generation. And I think that clicked to him and I wish it would click to some of the older Democrats is like, we're not pushing you out. It's not that you have no use here or what we do, what you've done, we don't appreciate you for. It's that we need you to be a mentor now. You need to give up the position of elected official that you have to someone else, not so you could be written off, but so you could be there to help them through their next couple years of

fundraising and different stuff, but not to be in those committee meetings all the time. You're too far away from the people having worked 40 years in politics. And I say this about Bernie Sanders too, and people don't like when I say it about him too. He's been a senator for 40 years. There has to be a handing over to someone else so that you can stick around and be that guru on the hill for the next generation. And I think they're so afraid that they'll be bored. I think they're afraid of the policies they wrote that hurt people and they're going to have to be a member of the community anymore. No more Capitol Police following you around. No more. deference to you all over the place. You're just a regular citizen. And maybe they don't want to be a

regular citizen in the world that we have now. But this is the world you've given us and you have to pass that baton. I want to defend Bernie Sanders for just a second because he actually is digging into his war chest, $23 million war chest. And he's campaigning for Angie and he's campaigning for Abdul. And he's walking the walk, talking to talk, and he's paying from his own war chest. And I do feel like Bernie Sanders didn't run necessarily to win, although he would have wanted to win. He ran to teach the electorate that we don't have to accept this two-party binary system. There is another way to do things. And without Bernie Sanders priming the electorate, I don't think we would have a mayor Zoranamondani. I think that the Bernie bros and the injection of telling people, capitalism,

unregulated capitalism is failing you, and it's going to lead to oligarchy, and it's going to lead to bad things. And Bernie Sanders is the one that injected that into the electorate. And I can say this because I have a 23-year-old son who was coming of age during this time period. And when I put a Hillary Clinton sign in 2016 in our yard, he called me a moderate, the nerve. But I was really intrigued how my son, because I was like, you know, with the backdrop of the Bible belt, not one county votes blue in Oklahoma. I thought, well, everybody called me and called me and I felt like I was just so far left. But the truth was, I was more of a preservationist during that time, too. This is the way the Democratic Party is, and it has to be this way. What irks me about Jeffries and Schumer

is they, and a lot of the consultant class is they refuse to listen to what the voters want. They want to tell people, you know, stupid things. Like you can't, you need to condemn Hassan Piker. Oh, God. Which is so. Session with Husson Piper. It's so stupid. And it goes everywhere to the point that I will get asked what I think about something

that Hassan said. And I'm like, why would I police Hassan Piker? You guys have lost the plot entirely or ask Hassan about me or ask me about you or you about me. It's like, we're all doing the work to try and push progressive policies forward. and the people who benefit from that are the conservatives and the Republican. The fact that the legacy in trad media and Republicans are obsessed with Hassan hanging on his every breath has taken just so much information that could have been used in a better way

away from people because they're so obsessed and jealous of him or they're obsessed and jealous of Abdul or whoever is getting essentially like likeability from the public, which is something that they are desperate for. They are desperately liked and they can't be. as it pertains to Fox, I think they're very horny over there. They're super horny for Pike. They are always talking about underwear photo at the RN. Underwear photo.

And then Laura Ingram, who we unmarried children, we'll just leave that there. She is always talking about. She's kind of butch energy. Is she next? Is she next on the list? 100%. Yeah. But she talks about AOC being hot with her hair and a red lipstick.

And she talks about Abdul wearing these tight t-shirts. Yes. And I'm just like, they are so horny. And we have these young, exciting electorate and young, exciting politicians. And as a mother of boys that are 20 and 23, their life is lived in some silo on the internet. I hate it, but that's where we are as a society. And Hassan Piker is a place that my child would stream and, you know, play video. games and listened to Hassan in the background where he came to me and had conversations with me

when he was in high school challenging me for supporting Hillary Clinton. He thought I should go further left. He thought that I was, that wasn't the best choice. And as a feminist, I wanted to see the first female, you know, president. And I like Hillary, but the system that she promoted and that other Democrats that I love continued to promote is partly responsible. for incubating fascism because the Democrats have not delivered materially for the working class. And she's been a part of that system. And people like, even though I think she did good things, you know, two things can be true at the same time. And so people like Hassan buck that system.

And that's why I think it's always the corporatists, which when you get to Republicans and Democrats, if they're corporatists, they're that first. And then they'll have an R or D below them. That's why I think they get so riled up about Hassan because he challenges questions about propaganda we've been told about Israel, about corporations. And he really challenges people to think. He challenges people to think about do we commit acts of terror as a country? And my mother told me a long time ago, she's an 83-year-old progressive atheist in Oklahoma

when we invaded Iraq. Oh, yeah. She said, we're no better than these people. Look at what we're doing. we lied and started a war. And look at all the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dying. And Hassan says these things. And it really, for a preservationist, it really bucks the system.

And that's why I think, I also think it's a signal to people like us in the independent media. They're trying to make an example of him so that we'll back off. For sure. Do you feel that? Oh, absolutely. Because if we come for essentially like your big, strong dude, then you might not feel as comfortable. right? If it's the same thing. And they come for him because he exhibits what it is that they so wish for. I mean, he's like six three. He's built. He's very confident in himself. People listen to him.

He's likable, right? That's what the Republicans and the Democrats want. And that's what they're actually jealous and upset about taking away anything he says or if you agree with them or not. Looking at him as a product, which is how they look at all of us. They're like, that's the product we wish we had. We need to get men back. The Democrats have to get men back. And so Sassan walks in. They're like, not though. Not like that, though. Too hot. Too hot. Stop showing your armpits. Oh my God, you're killing us. But it really comes down to bodily autonomy as a whole, though.

And this is what the Republican Party is very against. And this is why attacks on trans people come constantly our way. It's because anybody who is comfortable sitting in a room of power like Hassan or like trans people and goes, you know what, I don't buy it. And I'm going to continue to be myself because I live in community that affirms me. I've been in the streets that I know what's going on. anybody who exhibits some form of radical self-acceptance, they don't like. And that's just a power versus the people dynamic. And Hassan's one part of that.

Stacey Abrams is a part of that. Trans people are a part of that. There's a lot of us that are a part of it. The thing that I'll sort of push back on is the idea that there's not a two-party system because right now there is. But what we can do with this half is what MAGA did to the Republican Party. Republicans used to be Romney McCain, right? They were very like, we're so good.

We're the family people. or this, that, the other. So good business. Okay, well, then they got maggot in there, which is violent and extreme, or very fetishy, sexually deviant. Christy Nome's husband? A big titty, Brian? Yeah, come on. So those people got in.

They took over the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is now identified by that fringe group it was at the time. The same thing can happen with the Democratic Party, where we could say progressives, which is a number of people, are pushing the party this way. and that includes AOC and sort of what you might consider a moderate progressive, without saying, well, you have to be independent, because if you identify as a Democrat at all, well, you're trash. I think there's this binary thing that is very difficult in online spaces that makes people freeze up and go, well, I don't know what to do because I don't want to vote for a Democrat, but Abdul is a Democrat.

Well, I don't like the Democratic Party because they're not giving Angie Nixon money, but she's running on the Democratic line. Many things are true at once, and so I think it takes the nuance of going, we don't like the way that the corporatist elites of the Democratic Party have run things to this point. We are very close to them aging out whether they like it or not. What comes next? What are we building a bench for that gets in when these old varsity players die or are forced to resign? And I do, I agree with what you just said there.

And I do think that there is what I am trying to build in this space here is a big tent. Yeah. And under that tent, number one is anti-fascist. Yeah. That we will unite to get these fringe freaks that have ascended to committing crimes like a mafia, an incompetent mafia family. We have to collude with moderates, moderate Republicans that are anti-Trumpers, leftists, anybody who says we cannot live the way these Republicans, these MAGA Republicans want us to live.

So then let's fast forward that we win the majority. A huge coalition. You have people, you know, depending on geography, you have moderate Democrats that win, you have full-blown leftists that win. You have DSA people that win. And it is a massive tsunami. And so then we have leadership in the House and in the Senate. And I'll tell you what I want. And then you can tell me what you have.

Okay. Okay. I want, there's this, I had Senator Chris Murphy on. my show. And he said that there's a fight club, a secret fight club in the Senate, because I asked him about this. And he didn't poo-poo Chuck per se, but he didn't endorse chuckles either. And he just said, you know, you probably heard there's a fight club. And I was like, who's in it? And he was like, I can't tell you. So obviously, I think that's a done deal. I think it will not be Chuck. Hopefully it's somebody, you know, that is more independent-minded like a Chris Murphy

or Chris Van Hollen, I would love. And Holland's great, too. He has incredible moral clarity. He just had a vote in the Senate about the Americans that Israel has killed in Palestine that nobody fights for in this country. And so I'd like to see somebody like that. So then let's get to Hakeem Jefferies. Not very popular with the progressives because I see him as like the Jared Kushner meeting pissed me off. Word salad answers pissed me off. He's just good at fundraising. That's why he has that role. That's it. Because Nancy Pelosi put her finger on the scale said this is the guy, here's my Rolodex, there you go. Where we sit right now, politicians that have been very beholden to APEC and either party are

facing massive headwinds. And they should, and not just because of APEC became the one that everybody knew because of the internet and because it's uniquely horrible, but there are so many special interest packs that are doing the exact same thing that aren't getting the heat. I wish we would use those APEC lists and cross-checked them with the oil lobby, cross-checked them with the crypto lobby, because there are other groups that do the exact same. things that these people are double-dip and taking money from across the board. I agree. I think APAC money is awful and anybody who's taken it is not getting elected in the future. It's really

become like the scarlet letter of your morals and what you're willing to do. And then have you heard that there's other groups that are forming that the money funnels upwards to APAC, but they name it. It's very, um, they say, they name it like women for democracy or women's reproductive rights or something. And so, I mean, fundamentally. all of these packs and see have to overturn citizens united until we do that it's not going to matter politicians bought and paid for yes and you see like politicians that there can be so good on certain issues and they can answer certain questions and then something comes up and you get a word salad response and then you hit the gog and it turns up oh they're taking money from that lobby that's why i got

that answer right and i just think they're it's it's going to be interesting because the one thing they wanted citizens united to do they've done but it happens so rapidly now we have so much money concentrated where you know these tech oligarchs that trump just hosted and they're spending all this money on campaigns i feel like now for a politician that has taken so much money when you see zoron beat yeah billionaires out the wazoo and not take that money i feel like now it's backfired to where if you're on the ballot and you've taken a ton of money, look at Haley Stevens. And Abdul beat her. She dreams of Israel, though.

We called Haley Stevens the Marla Hooch of politics, because she looks like that character from a league of their own. And we said that Abdul was the Benny Rodriguez, like, to do 90s movies references. And people were like, correct. Yes, she's, Haley Stevens was a uniquely horrible candidate, both in the way that she primaried and in the money that she's taken and in the lack of PR training that she has. and I think those type of candidates, she's a millennial, right? So it's not always about age, pushing people out by age,

pushing them out by where do you stand and what structure are you willing to work within? If you were a star of the old structure, you're not going to be a star of the future structure. I totally agree, yeah. But the money's got to come out of politics. It's all very shelled. It's all very strange. And this is why I want more poor people to run for office. Because as a person who grew up with limited means also, I've been poor, I'll be poor again. So I don't have to, like even with money for independent media, we had this big deal come from one of the prediction markets, life changing money. And I said no to it because it's like, I don't need to do, there's good, bad and expensive money in independent media. And so when it was a prediction market money and they want all of this and they want us to do this and I'm like, oh my God, I could do all this stuff with it. But it would cost me my whole audience. I think people who grow up with a certain level of comfort don't always understand when you have to give up comfort to be in community. Because they don't have to.

have community. Their community is the capitalist comfort givers. So yeah. Let's talk about in closing, you're a proud member of the LGBTQ plus community. Yes. And you are in a marriage. Yes. And there are 77 million people that when they vote, that is not a priority for them. Either they don't care or they want that actively overturned. Yep. And you're fortunate that you live in New York. There are so many beautiful queer or trans, gay, lesbian people in these red states. And their first bullies are their parents. Yes, mine too, even in blue state.

That's how it goes. That's how he becomes so cute and funny. Yeah. And then some people don't get the resolution. Right. They want. And the Trump regime just reversed. some Biden era protections this week. And they're throwing so much at us. But for you here,

how important is it to keep centering LGBTQ plus rights? And I firmly believe that, you know, one of my sayings that I love to borrow and it's confusing as to who said it originally, but I've seen it attributed to few people is none of us are free until all of us are free. Sure. And that if we allow the space for somebody to attack the trans community, then they move the goalpost and they move the goal post and they move the goal post. So in closing, speak about how important it is to support your community and also how you have kitchen table issues as well, despite the clandestine meeting in the Massachusetts

Bar protecting the gay agenda. It's where we are. It's where we are. So the thing, I think it's best exemplified by what happened. with Title IX this week, which is that all the mainstream in trad media, a lot of the social media, and of course the White House and the president wanted to claim Donald Trump has rolled back transgender protections for athletes at the college level, saying, and that's what they presented it as. What Donald Trump actually did with Title IX is go back to his 2020 interpretation, which is a

great departure from the 1972 interpretation, that says the basis of sex is not enough to be considered discriminated against. The discrimination or the unwelcome conduct must be so pervasive, so severe, and so obviously offensive that it warrants an investigation. Well, who gets to decide what action that takes place on a college campus is so severe and pervasive? Is it, what is it? Right? And then he took away the responsibility of the college to do an investigation. And now they're saying, okay, if something bad happens to you on a federally funded campus, you as a woman have to go to the state or local police and file a complaint. That creates major issues for victims of sexual violence and harassment, not just the students, but also the teachers. He also added a protection

for the accused, which hasn't been reported on nearly enough, saying if somebody is accused of rape on a college campus, Title IX must protect their rights to due process. The accused can request a live hearing, meaning that your school could convene one of your lecture rooms and say, we're going to have a hearing today on if what this woman says is true. And the accused gets to cross-examine the victim. Oh, my God. Now, why isn't that leading in the headline, though, Jennifer? Because trans panic sells stories. So they're like, well, they rolled back, no more men in women's sports, big win. I asked Terry Schilling, who is the Republican think tank operative, who came up with the idea that going after trans people in sports would be a winning campaign thing for Republicans.

And he was right. I was like, Terry, what happened? Perfect world. All the trans people, all seven of them are out of sports. Now what? And he's like, well, it's always about overturning Title IX, of course. And I was like, say that then. You want to overturn title nine because it gave women parity in higher education spaces. You want to overturn Title IX because you have this white male grievance that somehow women are getting more because we have to demand that you make it slightly equal. Donald Trump doesn't want to ruin a young man's life over 20 minutes of action or over allegations because women are always. lying, they're always getting drunk and lying about what happened to them on these college campuses.

So now if she wants to accuse one of the Cornell 7, imagine, of what these horrible atrocities, she will have to sit in an open live hearing and defend herself in front of her college campus before police or anybody else gets involved. That's insane. That's absurd. All that gets hidden behind, trans panic. So every time you see an attack on a trans person out there in the media or in the world, Remember, there are very few trans folks, especially at the elite athlete level, and it is always there as a shield to try and hide more nefarious policies.

And it's because most people don't know a trans person, so they're willing to take it face value. Well, they must be bad because I'm a good person. And if I don't know any trans people, well, then they must not be that good because they're not in good spaces. And that's just not true. So I think centering LGBTQ folks in policies is important. I also think the spotlight that we've gotten since the gay marriage was made official has been so bright that it has burned and blinded many of us and hurt us a lot. When you have a spotlight, it's good, but it could also be really exposing and vulnerable. And so look out for your people, you know.

Yes. And that's a really great detail about what they're doing. And they use the trans issue, Hassan, the controversial Hassan Piper, which, by the way, do you condemn him? I do not condemn Hussein Piper. But he always says on his stream, he says, okay, so now he's bullying trans people. Is your life better? Is your gas lower? What does it get you, Maga?

Being mean to trans people, what does it get you? But what it does? They're going after our bodily autonomy, though. Then it exposes women and so many other people. At AOC on a long time ago, back when Joe Biden was president. And she said all of this obsession about trans people is going to lead to, at some point, gender checks, genital checks. It's happening now. They have laws now that say that you, that a member of the school could, if there's an investigation into a girl who wants to join a team, they could go as far as genital checks. And it doesn't have to be a doctor. Who gets to decide? This is the thing. And they don't want to talk about that because they're all freaky pedophile weirdos anyway. So that doesn't really offend them that much. Trans people stand in the face of the idea that you cannot have bodily autonomy under an authoritarian or a capitalist state. And we do any. way. So going after trans people is because they say, just because I was born a certain way or

in a certain class or expected to behave a certain way doesn't mean that I will and I'm still loved and I'm still successful and I still have a future and I have optimism and I have hope and people love me and folks who are insecure with themselves and fascists cannot handle that. It's why the Nazis killed trans people and gay people too because if you stand as a possibility model against what the authority tells you is the norm that you should assimilate to, well then other people might do that too, maybe not on the same scale, but women might want to go to college. They might want their own security credit card. They might not want to have to marry a man. They might want to be able to own their own business. And it all comes back to that radical idea that you

are born with bodily autonomy and you can stand in the face of fascism and authoritarianism. And they don't want you to see trans people because then you might think, maybe I should have some bodily autonomy too. Maybe I don't have to subscribe to what the authority demands. So beautifully said, thank you so much for joining me. You're a fabulous. guest, please go follow under the desk news on all of the places. It's everywhere. Yep, we live stream every day from 10 to 1130 in the morning. You can join us with the chat on because I think what the power of independent media is is you're in your DMs and comments. You see what people say to you. You respond back to them. It's no longer us talking at people. It's us talking

with people. And I think that's the power of these spaces. Thank you so much for joining. Yes, I loved it.