Lovett or Leave It - Czech Your Privilege

Episode Date: April 14, 2018

Ryan retires, Comey speaks, Rosenstein survives, Zuckerberg testifies, Cohen is screwed (and maybe did go to Prague?), Hannity loses his mind, and, late Friday, Trump launches military strikes in Syria. Erin Gloria Ryan, comedian Tien Tran, and activist Charlene Carruthers join Jon to break down an extraordinary week, recorded live at the Chicago Theatre. Also, pizza is debated and Malort is consumed.

Oh, man. Hey, everybody. Hello, Chicago. Have you guys seen the news? Let me try to put it in terms you people understand. Even in this nightmare scenario, on a day-to-day basis, the news, it's manageable in the sense that you can kind of fold it and consume it and go about your day, you know? This week, it felt more like there was a layer of bready news at the bottom then a layer of

news cheese and then a layer of news toppings then more cheese then another layer of news and then a layer of news sauce then they put it in the news oven honestly a lot of people don't even consider it news it's more like a news casserole or a news quiche.

I don't know what you people are booing about. I'm talking about the news. Usually the foldable kind of news, traditional news. You can have it and then kind of go about your day. This kind of, I don't know, deeper dish of news. You consume it and then you need to take a nap for a year. How does anybody get anything done when you consume this kind of news?

It's enough to make a person try a spirit called, I believe it's called I would like to now read you what used to appear on the Malort bottle. Most first-time drinkers of Jepson Malort reject our liquor. Its strong, sharp taste is not for everyone. Our liquor is rugged and unrelenting, even brutal to the palate. During almost 60 years of American distribution, we found only one out of 49 men will drink Jepson Malort. I would like to let the people at Jepson Malort know that women can be disgusting too. During the lifetime of our founder, Carl Jepson, was apt to say, my Malort is produced for that unique group of drinkers who disdain light flavor or neutral spirits.

It is not possible to forget our two-fisted liquor. The taste just lingers and lasts seemingly forever. The first shot is hard to swallow. Persevere. Make it past two shock glasses and with the third you could be ours forever. Should we try it? All right. I got to say, honestly, protests too much. I don't hate it.

Love it or leave it, still on the road. We have tickets left in Pittsburgh Thursday, May 3rd, Columbus, Ohio, Friday, May 4th, Baltimore, Maryland, Saturday, May 5th, cricket.com. And I would just like to let the people of Miami know that I am in the sold-out Chicago theater. So they can think about that. You know, they can think about it. Look, we're excited to be in Chicago.

I wanted to kick off the show with something a little bit different than normal. So we thought, just to get us in the right headspace, we'd start with a spin of the rant wheel. Not sure where it's going to land. Today on the opening rant wheel, we have a few topics for you. opening rant wheel we have a few topics for you we've got Paul Ryan Paul Ryan Paul Ryan it's all Paul Ryan let's spin the wheel it is landed on Paul Ryan. So Paul Ryan announced this week that he would be stepping down from Congress.

You know, someone tweeted at me when it was announced that when Paul Ryan said that he wasn't going to be the speaker anymore. Like, oh, you must be dancing. There was a lot of that. Like, oh, you guys, this is so great. This is exciting. And I don't know about you guys, but I didn't feel that way at all.

I was just sad and angry at this person who claimed to be decent, who claimed to be doing it for the right reasons, who looks and acts like a serious adult, a reasonable person, but who turned out to be, you know what though, not a coward. Not a coward. Because a coward implies that he wanted to do something else but didn't have the courage to do it. I think he's worse than a coward. I think he did exactly what he wanted. You know, I wrote a piece on crooked.com about this, and, you know, read it if you want, who cares.

You know, I got some, some people criticize me for saying this, but this is how I felt, which is, sincerely, Paul Ryan broke my heart. And there needs to be a word for when someone you don't trust, someone you think is a total fraud, still manages to break your heart anyway. Because I never believed that Paul Ryan was the serious person he pretended to be. He was more serious than his colleagues, which is like, not that hard. I felt that he was a fraud, but I thought he was a specific kind of fraud. I thought that he believed that it was impossible to make a case for smaller government,

given the mainstream media, given the way that the elites behave, given how hard it is to take away a government benefit once it's been given to people, which meant that it took some hand-waving, it took some misdirection. You could talk about the cuts in taxes, but you couldn't talk about the cuts to entitlements that would have to come after, but that he sincerely believed that that was the best thing for the country, that reliance on government was poisonous, that he believed that and it was worth fighting for. That's a belief, a sincere belief held by many. But I had no idea that he would be willing to sell out his country

to do it. I had no idea that he'd be willing to capitulate to someone as awful as Donald Trump. Paul Ryan knows that Donald Trump is a terrible person who has no business being president. He knows it. He knows it. And he defends this guy every day, sands it with his thumbs up. He tells Sean Hannity that he's giving the country the kind of leadership the country needs right now. And I believed he was a fraud, but I thought, you know, you hear Republicans say, oh, you know, he's such a good guy, he's a decent guy, he loves his family, loves his community, cares about his country. Not once in the last year and a half did he do a thing to demonstrate that that was true. I don't care if it makes me seem naive to say I didn't know how bad a person

Paul Ryan was. I didn't know specifically how bad a person he was to say I didn't know how bad a person Paul Ryan was. I didn't know specifically how bad a person he was, and I didn't know how far the Republican Party had fallen. But what he's done in the past year and a half is irredeemable. And what, you know, Pfeiffer and Favreau talked about this on the podcast yesterday. I think it's exactly right. Paul Ryan is not a victim of this time. He is a perpetrator and that will be his legacy and I don't feel like it's time to celebrate because Paul Ryan goes and there's Kevin McCarthy waiting in the wings to behave in the exact same way or someone worse and I love that Paul Ryan is like I think I'm gonna support I want Kevin McCarthy to become

the Speaker of the House. You know what? I don't think the voters are going to give you that chance, buddy. And I only hope, I only hope that Paul Ryan does manage to keep the speakership until after the election, just so that we can say that we took that gavel from Paul Ryan's fucking hands. You guys want to get the panel out here and start the show? All right, we have got a fantastic show tonight. Tonight's panel includes Scooter Libby, the Winklevoss twins, and Rod Blagojevich. And it's like a win-win because I think technically it counts towards the remainder of his community service. All right, let's bring out our panel.

I'm very excited about our show. She's an activist and organizer whose work focuses on marginalized communities and social justice. Please welcome Chicago's own Charlene Carruthers. Happy to be here she's a stand-up comedian and a main stage performer at the second city right here in chicago please welcome tn tran and she's a senior editor at the daily beast a cnn contributor and a crooked media contributor friend of the pod, Aaron Ryan. Tien, how are you?

I'm great. How are you? Very good. Very good. A lot of news. You know, it was pretty heavy news, you know? Yeah. An amuse-bouche of news. Sure.

Yeah. Erin, how are you doing? Fine. Do you think that we are going to successfully get to Minneapolis tomorrow, given the weather? I am really hoping that we do, because my entire family is going to be there, including my real, real dad.

Not Paul Ryan, my fake, real dad. So I really, like, I was thinking about it backstage and I was like, I felt like Fievel from An American Tale. I was like, I want to see my family. Does it offer you any consolation to know that you're looking up at the same sky? It really does. Somewhere out there. Has it been hard? Look, you came from a family. You were raised by two dads, Paul Ryan and the

former governor of Illinois. That's a really interesting family, John. This must be a hard time. I mean, on the one hand, one of your dads is an Illinois criminal. The other is a disgraced speaker of the house. But I guess there's a lot of love in the home. And he did say he was leaving the speakership in part to spend more time with you. No, thanks, Dad. All right. Let's get into it.

What a week. What a week. All right, let's get into it. What a week. So right before we came out here, President Donald Trump did announce that we would be launching strikes with the UK and France in Syria. He did that at the culmination

of a week of extraordinary developments. We had Paul Ryan stepping down. We had a ton of shenanigans around Michael Cohen. Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress. Scooter Libby was pardoned today, which is a load off of my mind.

I don't know how you guys feel. It was a load off of his as well. Yeah. Nobody named Scooter has ever been fine. It's an inherently shifty name. If your name's Scooter, it's like, well, scooting away from trouble.

Scooter Libby is like the name of a sidekick dog that nobody actually likes. Like a cartoon dog that Scooter pops up, and you're like, fucking Scooter. And on top of all of this, James Comey finally ready to reveal

his queer eye transformation. You may not know this, but James Comey, former head of the FBI, was fired by Donald Trump last year, and it says here, because he treated Hillary Clinton unfairly. Now, James Comey's book is getting released. It makes a few references to the possibility that a certain tape may be real, maybe not. He goes into his decision to announce the reopening of the Hillary Clinton investigation just days before the 2016 election.

The coverage of Comey talking about the P-tape and the revelation just today from McClatchy that Michael Cohen indeed was in Prague, despite his denials, that Michael Cohen, as reported in the dossier, did go to Prague, led a lot of people to start thinking that maybe, maybe that pee tape is real. Have you ever heard of that? You know, remember the secret when everyone was using the secret to like,

I feel like we maybe secreted the pee tape, like accidentally, and it's going to end with us seeing the pee tape, and we're going to be mad that we even tried to secret in the pee tape. Like, accidentally. And it's going to end with us seeing the pee tape, and we're going to be mad that we even tried to secret in the first place. Erin, that's a really good point. I do believe in the secret, and I have been secreting the pee tape. I've seen your vision board, John. I've seen your vision board.

It just says pee tape, pee tape, pee tape. Over and over again Charlene What's up? I'm gonna get to the serious stuff in a minute But I want you to say Betting, you gotta bet, you gotta decide Okay

Is the pee tape real? You know, I don't know whether or not there's a pee tape That's in existence But I know that there there's a pee tape that's in existence, but I know that there's some nasty shit somewhere that's in existence that we may or may not ever see, you know? But it can't, you know, there's very little that surprises me. I call the dude 45. I don't even think he deserves to be called, you know what I'm saying,

by his whole name. And sort of like elevators at some point we're going to go 42, 43, 44 46 47, 48 that's what I look forward to you know there was an Olympic ceremony one year that

had I think it was an anniversary I think it might have been in Athens where they had a runner running around the track representing every year of the Olympics. And for the games that didn't happen because of World War I and World War II, do you remember this? The guy kneeled and it was like the world was at war.

That was, I found that poignant at the time. I did, it really worked on me. It's so rare that a performative run dance will move me. I don't know what the version of that is for acknowledging that Trump did happen. Colin. You just have, you just rolled tape of Colin Kaepernick taking it to me over and over again when it comes around. Yeah. over and over again when it comes around.

Yeah. So Comey also describes his decision to announce the reopening of the Hillary Clinton investigation just days before 2016. And I would just remind you that I'm somebody who believes that James Comey bats a thousand. Unassailable. So here's what he said. "'It is entirely possible that, "' because I was making decisions in an environment where Hillary Clinton was sure to be the next president,

my concern about making her an illegitimate president by concealing the restarted investigation bore greater weight than it would have if the election appeared closer or if Donald Trump were ahead in all polls, but I don't know. He then adds he hopes very much that what we did, what I did, wasn't a deciding factor in the election. I want to make two criticisms of that second piece. One is I don't like the dash dash revising the thought dash dash as if it's a stream of consciousness. In the biz, we call that an m dash

john it's called an m dash in the journalism biz uh i don't like that i pardon my french before i formulate this thought because it's because it's a very french thought um call me Comey fucked up. Trump is a fuck up. And because of these two fuckers, we might be fucked. But on another note, on a more family friendly note, if anybody ever again tells me that women are too emotional to be leaders, I will fuck them up. to be leaders, I will fuck them up. Erin, calm down.

You're hysterical. You know what? That always works. Tell a woman to calm down and it's like magic. I think James Comey is like the perfect example of why it's so hard to be a straight white man right now. Because he, you know, fucked up with the Hillary Clinton emails. He's got one side that hates him. And the left, the Democrats hate him. And the GOP and the right hates him too because of, you know, starting the Russian inquiry so he's got

like most people hate him and he's coming out with a fucking book and is having a huge tour gonna make millions and no one is telling him to go knit like on the other hand it's like so. It's so hard out there. It seems very difficult. On the other hand, though, I am really excited that James Comey is going to force Sean Hannity to read a book. I think that's too optimistic.

Charlene, what do you make of James Comey? Not much. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Sherlyn, what do you make of James Comey? Not much. Cool, cool, cool, cool. You know, he's dramatic. You wait this long to write a book, you like rev him up, rev him up, rev him up. He probably had a couple bids for his book, two million here, three million here, whatever.

I don't know. But he had information. He had information that he could have, you know, exposed earlier, and he decided to do it when it benefited him the most, right? And so I know, at least I have an idea, how much people get paid when they do speaking tours. I didn't get paid to do this, just to be clear. Right?

I know how... I'm sorry, I'm how... I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I guess we'll keep the t-shirt. I just, you know, I know he's about to make tall money from his book tour, right? And he's gonna

live off of this for a long time, you know? He has the embarrassment of failing an entire democracy. Congratulations on one hand, but he'll have a great retirement fund. Oh, yeah, that's tough to hear. Yeah. The this is to me the most important question. It's the thing I the thing that I wanted to know what he said about the most in the book. And at least what he says about if it had been closer would I have done it. I appreciate it in that it's at least conceding that this is the core of the issue. This is the crux of the issue. But he still doesn't go far enough. Because first of all

this is something that national review said friend of the pod national review uh does he realize what he's admitting here if the polls had been closer comey would not have informed congress about new developments in the email investigation as promised because he feared it would influence the election and derail clinton's victory and i think that's really important because because that should not have been a factor at all. It should not have mattered at all. The fact that you're admitting that you were doing it because you thought Clinton would win means you are admitting that you were doing it for yourself, not for the country. That's the first thing.

And further, that the apolitical nature of the FBI has been kind of stained, or it had been stained if the head of the FBI is thinking of what he's doing as something that has a political end. That shouldn't be a thing that he's considering at all. Especially because he's doing it within 60 days of an election, which is sort of the unwritten rule that you don't do. that belongs in that admission is the fact that the other candidate was under investigation at the exact same time and he didn't say a fucking word. And it's unconscionable and he still, and this idea that, oh, if it,

who can say if it changed the outcome of the election? You know, Nate Silver has written about this. It is very hard to deny that James Comey didn't choose a president. And I understand not being able to face it. I get that. I don't think I'd be able to face it myself. But that's exactly why I don't really see the value of this book

because there are a few people less well-positioned to talk about what James Comey did to this country than James Comey, because it's not possible for him to admit what he did, because for him to admit what he did is to concede that for all his claims toward honesty and integrity and righteousness, his claims toward honesty and integrity and righteousness, his ethical frame, his way of being as a person, everything led him to a decision that may have caused one of the most destructive outcomes in our politics in American history.

And if your morals lead you to that, what the fuck are your morals worth to us? Absolutely. You know, I think, like, so Mercury is in retrograde right now. I don't know if I can let that on this. I don't know. It's happening. It's a thing.

I hope nothing falls down and hits us. Things are revealed, right, during Mercury being in retrograde. Charlene. And I think that this guy, this dude with his book, it's revealing of the FBI. I know they set themselves up as being apolitical, but there's no such thing, unfortunately. I know it's like a downer, but... Charlene, you've put me in a very difficult position. I know.

And let me explain why. Why? You made a very wise point, but you started with astrology. I know. wise point, but you started with astrology. I know. And therefore

I am conflicted. Yeah. And I think the way to handle it is to just move forward and appreciate the part that I thought was exactly right. Erin. Yes. Do you think James Comey is too tall

to be reflective about what he did I like tall people but I do think I have a theory I have a separate theory of Comey that maybe makes him seem more innocent but also way lamer than if he had some political

motivation behind disclosing the Clinton probe and not the Trump probe. I think maybe he's just a prude. And the Trump probe would like pee stuff and like prostitutes. And if you look at him in the interview with Stephanopoulos in the snippets that they've aired already, he seems so uncomfortable broaching the topic of sex. I think he's a product of our puritanical culture.

So that's why he left us to get fucked? I mean, abstinence-only education for us all the way. I also have this other thing about Comey. I think he's like a successful little finger. I also have this other thing about Comey. I think he's like a successful Littlefinger. He like, I think he is like the Littlefinger of this whole political drama from Game of Thrones, Littlefinger.

He's just like so schemey and like conniving and like the fact that he ended up, after hearing what you said, that like he maybe just picked our president. The fact that he chose the name of his book to be Higher Loyalty is almost too perfect then yeah i think ultimately this book is an effort to explain to himself why he's a good person ultimately and even if what he did cause trump they were decisions that he made properly along

the way. But it's just indefensible. I will concede that, I don't know, you know, he was in this position where he felt he needed to tell the country about the Hillary Clinton investigation. And I think, you know, Clinton defenders will say that he was, went too far. Maybe, maybe not. I'm not so convinced about that. What's indefensible is coming to a decision that means at the end of all your ethics and the end of all your morals, you told us about one investigation, but not the other. And until he apologizes for that, for that mistake, and it is a mistake, it's not because he was ethical,

it's not because he was moral, it's because he made a huge fucking mistake. I really don't think we should take James Comey very seriously. On top of all this, reports that Trump is close to firing Rosenstein. Firing Rosenstein would be the first step towards getting rid of Mueller. Republicans have refused to pursue legislation to protect Mueller. I think it's now in negotiations between Grassley and Feinstein. It's not clear whether McConnell will bring it to the floor. It's not clear whether we can get something through the House.

Charlene, before we move on, there's been this strange twist, which is we have the Republican National Committee putting out opposition research on the former bipartisan respected head of the FBI, basically trying to smear him as this book comes out. We have the president and his allies trashing the FBI. He said today in a crazy tweet that the FBI is a den of thieves and lowlifes. He said it was my great honor to fire James Comey, which is hilarious. And then you have Democrats and liberals in this position of defending the Justice Department, of defending the FBI, of basically kind of taking what they say at face value. What do you make of that? Do you think that we're kind of giving up a kind of core aspect of what it means to be progressive, which is to be questioning of authority in this way?

Absolutely. The Democrats have been acting like it's the Labor Day sale, the Memorial Day sale. They're just giving, they give out things. I remember during the DACA fight, which is still ongoing, right? In one moment they're, they're, they're like, we're not gonna negotiate. Then the next thing you know they're putting the wall on the line as a negotiating tool. I don't trust them on any level. I don't trust them. Obviously, I don't trust the Republicans either.

I think the role for anybody who has a conscience in this moment is to not push for particular people but to actually push on issues, right, and what we care about. Because it's not about the candidates. It's not about the candidates because they can sway and move in any kind of way that they want to, depending on what benefits them. But we know that we have all the seats up for taking in Congress. And what are they doing? Making concessions. When they could be making, as Cardi B would say, money moves.

Cardi B, close personal friend. All right, let's leave it there. When we come back, OK Stop. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. Now for a game we call OK Stop. Here's how it works.

We'll roll a clip and the panel can say OK Stop at any point to comment. What seems like months ago now, FBI agents in Manhattan raided the office of Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen. This is huge news. Trump's lawyer, Michael Cohen. This is huge news, and so we must turn to America's most trusted newsman, Sean Hannity, to find out what's happening. Let's roll the clip. Today we're learning from reports that FBI agents during the Cohn raid, they're actually looking for information about payments made to a former Playboy playmate, Karen McDougal.

Does anyone actually believe that a porn star and a former Playboy playmate, that they're going to shed any light on potential collusion with Russia? Okay, stop. I got to tell you, politics can be tricky, it can be complicated. But when you're saying this is ridiculous these payments to these porn stars have nothing to do with the other investigation I don't think you're winning the argument

also the notion that somebody who's a sex worker wouldn't have access to information that is literally all of Rush's strategy. Russia's entire intelligence strategy is like, oh, get a guy's dick hard and he'll tell you anything. That is literally their strategy. I did not know that. Okay. Of course not. Robert Mueller is now officially gone rogue and declared war against the president. It doesn't matter, it appears, how rogue Robert Mueller is. It doesn't matter what he did with Whitey Bulger in Boston and foreigners.

Okay, stop. What the fuck? You can't compare the FBI to the opposite of the FBI. Compare the FBI to the opposite of the FBI. Hannity comparing Mueller to the mob is a testament to the fact that Hannity should not be allowed to watch mob movies. I think he's somebody who's seen The Godfather too many times, and then every time he thinks something is bad or cool, he compares it to the mob.

I think Sean Hannity saw The Untouchables and thought the guy in the white suit was really cool. I think in The Godfather he thought Sonny was even-tempered. He would be. These toll booth operators were acting in self-defense.

Jail. Two died in jail because an FBI informant in his office that was working with Mueller and his team. Oh, and then after two died, there was over $100 million paid out in that case. Don't we save rates for drug dealers and... Again, similar to the porn star issue. If you're on television running through the particulars of the downfall of whitey bulger i don't think you're winning holes and you know organized crime of potential terrorists apparently not michael cohen had his home his hotel okay stop i know i get hung up on this all the time but

these graphics are just awful. Like, what is, this is like, so we're looking at a graphic that has, like, Michael Cohen standing in front of the Milky Way Galaxy with a Back to the Future font, but also it's a Tomb Raider pun. I just, I feel like, I feel like every graphic on Sean Hannity's show has had five concussions. I think that Sean Hannity's graphic designer is trying to send us all a message. Like he is in the resistance

and he mixes colors and fonts and images as if to say, it's like a kind of SOS. It's like, help me me I hate my choices someone get me out of here I'll do pizza boxes I'll do whatever you need just help me. ...Course's office raided by the FBI over a hundred and thirty thousand dollar payment as the personal attorney of Donald Trump to Stormy Daniels. And what people are not understanding here is when the special counsel raids the offices of the president's private attorney, Mueller is now basically backdoored his way into every

scene. When you become president, you don't have privacy. It's over. There's no private attorney, no private nothing. Just he won't reveal his taxes. Who knows what else this man is like hiding, right? And so what I don't understand is how we think that once you decide to take any public office, right, particularly one where you have access to the nuclear codes,

you have the ability to call for strikes, usurp the Congress, right, the people actually we elect to represent us, that you have any privacy. But the fact that he's able to maintain privacy in the age of Facebook, that this man can still have privacy. So I have a problem. I think that Hannity is pushing this idea that it's his private attorney. Why are they rating him? And that's a problem for me. Well, it's also Donald Trump is entitled to attorney-client privilege like the rest of us until your lawyer is doing crimes for you. Then it's all over. And the fact that they're basically treating Michael Cohen like a mob lawyer is pretty instructive. The steps, to your point, I mean, the steps that you have to go to to raid a lawyer are extraordinary

because the FBI understands that that attorney-client privilege is a big deal. It's still respected even now. Absolutely. And like Cohen calls himself the fix-it guy, which I feel like if you have to self-designate yourself as the fix-it guy for your boss, your boss is fucking up a lot.

A lot. Right. You know, when this whole rigmarole started, I remember thinking, like, maybe this was just this build-up to this amazing, like, perp walk scene, you know, like in Wolf of Wall Street, where it's like this almost,

this extreme release from the movie, because it's like, we're bad, we're bad, we're bad, and then you see them all getting arrested. And I feel like I haven't gotten that really, except Manafort's perp walk a little bit. If there is footage of Michael Cohen finding out that the cops have raided his office, his hotel room, and wherever else they raided a third place,

I think that would be almost enough for me. Somebody has it. I think it would be also sweet that he would be going to jail for payments for sex that he didn't get to have. Oh. That feels like such a sweet cherry on the douche cake. It's almost like Steinbeckian. It a john steinbeck type character for 2018 trump business deal at least since michael cohen has worked with donald trump you want to take bets

on what muller and weissman are looking for because i have a pretty good idea tonight this concept on is wholly unamerican that's just a fun graphic that's a good one that's an extreme that's an extremely fun one i think mull a good one. That's an extreme help one. That's an extremely fun one, I think. Mullergate? It says Mullergate. That looks like a bad Instagram filter that he took a picture of,

like swiped over. I like that one. I like that. So this is a picture of Muller on something that says Mullergate. And despite Sean Hannity's efforts, even though it says Mullergate, don't you feel like Muller is still the hero in that image?

That's so weird. It's very dangerous to our system of justice. It's dangerous to the Constitution if you believe in the rule of law. So tonight I'm saying, okay, game on. Okay, stop. If somebody hits you. Okay, these people who are complaining about rule of law are...

This is literally law enforcement that they're complaining about. Stopping the Mueller investigation is stopping law enforcement. So are you for law and order? Are you for law enforcement? Or are you not for law enforcement? Because you can't be both. It's almost as if Sean Hannity doesn't give a shit about any of this,

and it's all just a game to him. And last night there was a Hollywood reporter party celebrating the powerful people in New York media, and there were reports that Sean Hannity and Stormy Daniels and Stormy Daniels' lawyer were taking pictures together. Sean Hannity thinks this is all a game, but it's not a game. And he can go on television and say whatever he wants

because he thinks of himself as an entertainer or I don't know what he could possibly tell himself to justify the kind of shit he pulls on that show every day. But he clearly knows it's bullshit. He knows it's not true, but he says it anyway. And it is so dangerous because Sean Hannity may think it's just a show, but the people watching don't.

I mean, our political press watches what's happening to the rest of the country, and I say that as a member of the political press, watches what happens to the rest of the country as Roman viewers in the Colosseum watch people getting eaten by lions. They're like, oh, there's a person getting eaten by a lion. That lion had a good day.

I wonder how its polling is going to do after this meanwhile there are people that are really down there that are really getting hurt by things that people like sean hannity watch and cheer on or boo or poo poo as though they don't affect real people and they do yeah and then there's also like the bots that are like i love lion usa and it's like I actually think the lion has our best interest at heart which is why the lion ate those Christians because the lion loves America close only by saying that news broke that Michael Cohn

maybe actually did go to Prague as the dossier said and seems as though we are inexorably marching towards the release of a pee tape, which means at some point, okay, stop. We'll have Sean Hannity explaining why it's not a big deal.

And actually, it's quite masculine to sit in a hotel lounge chair and watch women pee on a bed. Yeah, get ready for it. Not enough Malort in the fucking world. When we come back, we're going to play a game about Facebook. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back.

Earlier this week, human spreadsheet Mark Zuckerberg sat before Congress It's what it says on the card, I don't know. He testified about Facebook and the recent scandals surrounding Cambridge Analytica. People tuning in soon discovered that senators tend to be old and have very, very little understanding of social media or the internet or any technological developments since the Atari. It was embarrassing. The questions were pretty bad, and we don't think you'll be able to tell the difference between a real question and a fake one. Who wants to play? Did they really ask that? Hi, what's your name? My name is Nancy. Nancy, how are you? I'm doing well. Are you from Chicago?

I am. Have you had an alert? I have. And did it lead to a kind of a night you'll never forget, or it led to your children? What is your daughter's name? Kira. Are there two daughters, three daughters? Just one. Just one, Kira.

And you're saying no, no, no, but you're saying that as if you have any idea. You're saying like no, no, no. But you're saying that as if you have any idea. You're saying like no, no, no. She didn't know until now. Kira. How old are you? I'm 24. 24.

Hmm. You do know that your mom had sex to make you? Once. Just the once. That she was a sexual being like we all are and still is. I'm not, obviously, I apologize. And that one night she had malort and things took a turn and, hi Nancy. And here we are. Have you been here all your life? Yes. Cool.

Where should I have gotten pizza from today? That's the best. That's why I won't tell you where I got it from. Where would you have gotten it from? Pequod's. Pequod's. Okay. Nancy, did you follow

these Facebook hearings? A little bit. I work, so. That's... What do you do, Nancy? I'm a social worker. You're a social worker. What kind of work do you do?

I work with people with severe mental illness. What kind of work do you do? I work with people with severe mental illness. How much do we like Nancy? So, Nancy, here's how it works. I'm going to ask you a question, and you will decide whether it was a real question a senator asked Mark Zuckerberg during the hearings or a fake question we made up okay yes you ready Nancy yes why did you buy Instagram fake real is Twitter the same as what you do? Real. Those were both by Lindsey Graham.

And I've got to say, Lindsey Graham did a good job. All right? I'll admit it. Next question. Farmville. The fuck happened there? Fake. That's fake.

No, she got it. It was fake. There we go. Would you be comfortable sharing with us the name of the hotel you stayed in last night? Real. From Dick Durbin. Do hotel you stayed in last night? Real. From Dick Durbin. Do you think you're a victim? Real.

Yep, that was Dirty Dean Heller. Is it possible for me to unfollow my cousin Sheila without her knowing? Fake. Correct. Let's say I'm emailing about Black Panther within WhatsApp. Do I get a WhatsApp? Do I get a Black Panther banner ad? Real. That was real. What if they opened up Princeton, Rhode Island Analytica? Would that also be banned?

Real. Real. What if I turn the computer on and off and it's still not working and before you answer I tried unplugging it. Fake. Correct. Do social media companies hire consulting firms to help them figure out how to get more dopamine feedback loops? Real? Real. That's from Ben Sass. Why are the Facebook app and the Messenger app separate? What is this bullshit? Fake.

But a very important question. Though, if you delete them both, who cares? Facebook has initially shut down the Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day page. To a great many Americans, that appears to be a pervasive pattern of political bias. Do you agree with that assessment? Real? Real. Would you believe Ted Cruz asked that?

When you say pipes, you mean... Real? Yes. Have you ever considered a dislike button? Fake. Correct. What was face smash and is it still up and running?

Real. Real. That one is real. And finally, do you think you're too powerful? Real. Real. Nancy, you absolutely crushed it on the game. You've won the parachute gift card.

Give it up for Nancy. Give it up for the slightly embarrassed Kira. Hands in her head. That was great. When we come back, we're gonna play a Chicago-focused corruption game. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

And we're back! Now for a game we call Corruption Junction. Chicago has long been heralded as the most corrupt city in America but but there's a new kid on the block called Washington DC Trump is giving Chicago a run for its money so here's the game each of our panelists will read three different examples of corruption and you will have to guess which one is from Chicago, which one is from Trump's Washington, and which one I made up on a Xanax while flying here. I didn't take a Xanax.

It took him a lort. Would anyone out there like to play Corruption Junction? Hi, what's your name? Mike. What do you do here in Chicago? I'm a computer programmer. I get that. Are you ready to play?

I'm trying. Do you know Chicago politics? Yeah, of course. All right. Question number one. Hired a criminal for a public job that had previously been convicted of stealing $4 million from a public agency. Or B.

Found guilty on 12 counts after closing a park for construction to stop his political rival's daughter from getting married there. Or C. Awarded a contract to his wife's firm for $485,000 without a competitive bidding process. So we have a criminal for a public job. We have a park closed for a wedding. And we have a wife's firm. Chicago?

They're not all Chicago. Which is which? I'm going to go with D. DC, Chicago, Xanax. Wrong on every score. The criminal for a public job was Chicago under Richard Daly. The 12 counts of closing a park for a wedding was fake. And the $485,000 without a competitive bidding process that was Ben Carson question number two a a group of businessmen forced farmers in an area

surrounding the city to sell their land and then use connections and bribery to direct the city's water supply to that land, dramatically increasing its value. Or was it B? His office forged a document so his wife could go on a trip on the taxpayer dime. C. A group called the Gray Wolves awarded an energy contract to a fictional energy company they owned so they could force a real energy company to purchase it. So we have water redirected, we have forged documents, and we have the gray wolves.

I'm going to go Chicago, D.C. made up. Wrong on all counts. Wrong. Not a film buff. Charlene's answer was the film Chinatown. Shulkin is who forged the document so his wife could go on a trip. And the Gray Wolves were Chicago Aldermen.

I gotta say, I love this show, and I'm extremely embarrassed. That is correct. That is correct. Question number three. Again, one is Trump, one is Chicago, one is made up. A?

I, A, hired a sex worker to seduce his brother-in-law and videotaped it to blackmail his sister from turning against him. B. Campaign manager was charged in federal court with conspiracy against the United States,

conspiracy to engage in money laundering, and failure to register as a foreign agent. C. Convicted after taking bribes to fix murder trials. Hmm. Made up Trump in Chicago? I'm going to give it to you. However, A only C made up.

It is Jared Kushner's father. But, Mike, bonus question. Who said the following? The president's frequently expressed point of view was that his troubles stemmed from political enemies who wouldn't leave his past alone and a special prosecutor he never should have agreed to. Was that Paul Ryan? No.

That was Louis Freeh about Bill Clinton. Oh. Oh, surprising. Isn't that interesting? You don't know what to do with that. I don't care. I insisted on it. Final question, Mike.

Cool. A, stayed in a lobbyist apartment for $50 a night, well below the market rate. B, took multiple first class planes including one to Rome costing taxpayers $90,000. C. Hired a massive team of security guards that traveled with him to

places like Disney World costing taxpayers $30,000. Is that all Pruitt? Yes! Mike! You redeemed yourself. Sort of. Is that all Pruitt? Yes! Mike! You redeemed yourself. Sort of.

You've won the game. And the parachute gift card. When we come back, the rant wheel. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. Now for the rant wheel. Here's how it works. We spin the wheel, and where it lands, we talk about the topic.

This week we have Apu from The Simpsons, Deep Dish Pizza, Michael Cohen and his taxi medallions, gender reveal parties, Ari Fleischer, quote, retweet if you agree, end quote, Ivanka in Peru, and the Hollywood Reporter's most influential press party. Hmm. Let's spin the wheel. It has landed on Ivanka in Peru, a suggestion that comes to us from Aaron Gloria Ryan.

Yeah. Okay. Ivanka, that bitch is always on vacation. And even when she's not on vacation, she's kind of on vacation. Her vacations have happened at very key points during her father's tenure, of which she's a senior presidential advisor. What is she, a senior advisor? Some bullshit title. So she's allegedly supposed to be advising the president in a senior presidential advisor. What is she, a senior advisor? Some bullshit title.

So she's allegedly supposed to be advising the president in a senior manner. And she was in Vermont when Charlottesville happened. She was away when the ACA repeal failed. She's now in Peru touring a quinoa factory when John Bolton is ordering us to fucking strike Syria during his first week. Ivanka is a useless Barbie that does

nothing, knows nothing, and does not belong in the White House. And her time in Peru. And here's one more thing. This week contained, and I'm doing the emphatic finger, so I mean business. This week contained Equal Pay Day, which was the day to which women have to, or the day that women work, to which women work for free. This week on that day, a group sued the OMB to get records of how complicit Ivanka was in preventing an Obama era rule ensuring equal pay from going into effect. Ivanka is nobody's friend. She's not a friend to women. She's not a friend to this administration. She's not a friend to the country.

She sucks. Let's spin it again. It has landed on Apu Nahasapima Pedelan. So this week, The Simpsons finally addressed the controversy that Harry Kondabolu started with his film, where he basically said, I am somebody who was a victim of the Apu stereotype, that this Indian stereotype, this South Asian stereotype was hurtful to me, it was hurtful to a lot of people, and it may have been acceptable a long time ago, but we need to talk about what it meant for people to have this be the kind of example on television. And the Simpsons did a response and it was so disappointing and it basically said you know something that was acceptable no longer is what are you supposed to do in the context of Lisa

Simpson realizing that a old book she liked was no longer politically correct and it was in the mouth of Lisa Simpson saying you know what can you do and it was in the mouth of Lisa Simpson saying, you know, what can you do? And it was really disappointing because I love The Simpsons and I think it was really defensive. And I actually would say, listen, as much as I am in a feud with Ira and Kara and Lewis, you should listen to the Keep It conversation about this because it was really smart,

but basically saying that there are things that they can do. They could talk about it. They could introduce characters that talk about it. They could, instead of addressing the controversy, they could address the issue that he raised, which is what does this character say? We understand where it came from. The show's been on for 30 years. Things change. But can't you talk about, can't you address the concern and not the controversy? That's what I found really disappointing. And to put it in, Lisa said it, right? Like, Lisa's having this, isn't she supposed to be, like, the most thoughtful, the most progressive of the whole family?

And for her to be the one to be like, well, there's nothing we can do about it, is such, like, is so lazy. Is super duper lazy. And it also just, like, undermines who she is as a character. It was super duper lazy. And it also just like undermines who she is as a character. It was, yeah, very disappointing. Yeah, it's, because there's an answer to that question. It sort of leads to turn to the camera and says it as if they're kind of trying to

acknowledge that, yeah, you know, we wouldn't do Apu the same way now as we did back then, but it's been a long time and this is who he is. What are we supposed to do? But the thing is there are answers to that question. Why not try answering that question? And I guess there's a reluctance to be on the side. They're feeling dictated to by the outside world,

by politics for what they can and can't create. And I get the resistance to that. But also, The Simpsons at its best takes controversies like this and used to tell stories about it. And by the way, there are great episodes in which Apu is elite kind of that that explore him as a richer character as well so I don't know the whole thing was disappointing and we can't afford that shit right now frankly for people to be like I don't know I can't do anything I think this is like I think

this whole thing is a really good object lesson in If you just kind of impassively look at it, the way that the writers' room reacted is defensive, and that's the way that I think we should all avoid reacting when we feel as though we're being legitimately critiqued. I think that's an instinct that people have, especially if you're in a writers' room situation. It's very team-oriented. You're with each other all the time, and if one of you feels attacked, then you all kind of circle the wagons around each other.

But that's not the ideal way of dealing with controversy. Yeah, that's right. All right, let's spin it again. I've been waiting for this one. It has landed on gender reveal parties. Anyone can take it, but Tien did suggest it. I hate them across the board. For a variety of reasons.

First of all, I think they have become so over the top. And the production value for a gender reveal party does not match the secret that is being revealed. Okay. Like, I've seen, like, pink and blue cakes. I've also seen videos of people having targets from, like, 100 yards away, shooting a gun, and then releasing, like, pink birds. Like, just crazy, crazy shit for, like, a secret moment.

birds like just crazy crazy shit for like a secret moment um the second thing i i don't like about it is that i think it's just like an extra party for predominantly straight people to show that they've like made a thing they could take care of you know the have you ever heard the old rule like the more expensive the wedding the more likely they are to get a divorce. I feel like the more expensive the gender reveal, the dumber the kid. Yes. I think that math checks out. I also don't like it because it's not a gender reveal. It's a sex reveal party.

Because gender is a construct and gender is fluid and it changes as we grow and turn into full beings. My parents had no idea that tonight I was going to present as a gay reboot of MASH. They couldn't have predicted that.

Just for the podcast audience, she is wearing whatever that meant. But yes, that's why I hate gender reveal parties. They are a waste of money and people's time. Stop doing it. Please. My sister had one when my nephew Bennett was born.

And I have a similar discomfort with it just as an enterprise like why are we elevating gender at all like I just it's making gender too salient forget fluidity forget the rest like even if we put that aside even if it is about sex it is saying that this difference is of great importance or interest to people I don't like that but my sister got the call the head got the gender reveal cake. She shows up and she had the party. I was coming into New York, so that's a big deal when I come in. And stop it.

And she goes to the bakery to pick it up and she says, Hi, I'm Stephanie. I'm here to pick up my gender reveal cake. And the woman comes up and says, Here it is. One cake. Blue frosting in the middle. I love that baker. That's amazing. Yeah, that's amazing. Alright, let's spin it again. Can I do this one? Does somebody else have that one?

What, do you want to take deep dish? Yeah, did someone else have it? Go for it. Okay, cool. I'm sick and tired of deep dish pizza being the only pizza that Chicago's known for. I'm sick and tired of it. Especially when you New Yorkers come into town and you trash our pizza. We're not talking about that dollar corner pizza

that y'all sell in New York City. But y'all will come to Chicago and say, well, deep dish is like eating a cake. It's like eating a pie, whatever. But there's Home Run Inn pizza, right? If you from the south side or the far south side, Italian Fiesta pizza, right? Aurelio's pizza. There's all kinds of pizza in this city, and it's not just deep dish, and I'm sick of this shit.

I'm sick of it. Charlene, I so appreciate that. I so appreciate you raising the kind of, the rainbow of pizzas available here in Chicago because what I wanted to say is I am born and raised in New York. I know. Bless your heart. New York City.

New York City and Long Island. I love New York City. New York City and Long Island. I love New York pizza. I believe in New York pizza. You can fold it. You can eat it without having to take a day off from work. Which I think is cool. But my heart is big enough for Chicago pizza, too. And what I do not accept, what I reject, are people who say Chicago deep-dish pizza is not pizza.

This is America. Yes! And it's pizza if we say it's pizza. You cut it in slices, it's got sauce, cheese, and bread, it's fucking pizza. And we can argue and we can debate over thin crust versus the artery clogging dough grenades you make here in Chicago. But we can be respectful of these differences. We can see each other as opponents but not enemies. I could no sooner disown Chicago deep dish pizza

than I could my own grandmother. Whatever that means. pizza than I could my own grandmother. Whatever that means. Because all of us can open our hearts to the different shapes and thicknesses that pizza can come in until

the day that our hearts explode. And I think there's a lesson there for all of us about pizza. And we'll have to leave it there. And that's our show. I want to thank our awesome panel, Charlene Carruthers, Tien Tran, Aaron Gloria Ryan.

Thank you, Chicago, for coming out. Have a great night. Thank you, Chicago, for coming out. Have a great night.