Lovett or Leave It - Gays Against Equinox

Episode Date: August 10, 2019

Journalist Laurie Penny joins to discuss extremism and misogyny online. Then Larry Wilmore, Paul Scheer, and Alice Wetterlund are back to talk about the fight for gun control, Apple dongles, boycotting Trump funders, and whether Little Caesars is better than Domino's. (It's not.) Plus, a bonus rant from Treks and the City co-host Veronica Osorio!

Good evening, Los Angeles. So lovely to see everybody tonight. so lovely to see everybody tonight not the first time we've done a comedy show after a week of horrors we will get through it because that's what we do there's nothing to be said no jokes to be made thank you all for coming um a couple things before we get into the show. L.A., Pod Save America live show next week. The Greek Theater, August 17th. We'll do a full Pod Save show plus performances from Maggie Rogers, Amanda Seals, Best Coast, and Jim James. Proceeds from the show will be donated to organizations at the forefront of the fight to protect the vote across America. And reminder, Radio

City Music Hall, love it or leave it, September 13th. Some tickets left. They're going fast. You hear that? Syosset High School class of 2000. A couple kids from 99. A couple really

scary kids from 98. And one terror from 99. A couple really scary kids from 98. And one terror from 97. Cricket.com slash events. All right, let's get into it. What a week. We're going to talk about guns and extremism and violence. But also this week, Democrats are on the campaign trail to try to see who will be the person to represent us in the fight to remove Donald Trump from office.

That trail has led these Democrats to a place called the Iowa State Fair. And in a week of horrors, the Iowa State Fair is there to remind us, a beacon, no matter who you are or where you come from, no matter your politics, you have the capacity to eat your feelings. And you can do it on a stick. Time for a surprise lightning round game. Who would like to play where we're going? We don't need forks. Hi, what's your name?

Mallory. Mallory. So, I mean, and you're from Michigan. Still from Michigan. Still from Michigan. Still from Michigan. And what is it called when a child rides to school on something? A school bus. Bus.

Okay. All right. So only the, all right. A bus. I'm just seeing, is it a boss? A bus. So close. Okay.

I'm just seeing where our vowels are in Michigan. I'm going to read you a list of foods that may or may not be on sticks at the Iowa State Fair. If they're real, say real. If they're fake, Mallory, you say fake. Have you been to a Michigan State Fair? I have. Similar. Okay.

Are you ready? Yes. Corn dog. Real. Correct. Corn brat. Fake. Real.

Cheddar corn brat. Real. Yes. Kosher corn brat. Fake. Yeah. Spicy corn brat. Fake. Cheddar corn broth Real Yes Kosher corn broth Fake Yeah Spicy corn broth Fake Real

Haunted corn broth Real Fake Jumbo plumper footlong corn dog Real Yes Bacon wrapped deep fried Italian sausage on a stick Real

Yes Double dog deep fried meat spl sausage on a stick. Real. Yes. Double-dog deep-fried meat-splosion on a stick. Fake. Yes. Caprese salad on a stick. Real? Yes. Oh my God, we put that salad on there as a joke on a stick.

Fake. Fake, yeah. Deep-fried Twinkies on a stick. Real. Yes. Deep-fried economic anxiety on a stick. Fake. Yeah.

Foot-long corn dog wrapped in ham and dipped in maple syrup on a stick, a.k.a. the heart-stopper. Real. Yes. Deep fried economic anxiety on a stick. Fake. Yeah. Foot long corn dog wrapped in ham and dipped in maple syrup on a stick, aka the heart stopper. Real. Fake. Foot long hot dog with corn chips, chili, and cheese sauce on a stick, aka the slopper. Fake. Real. Mallory. You've won

the game. Barely. Thanks for playing, Mallory. Alright, right guys you guys ready for a transition of course if heart disease doesn't kill you we know what will guns thanks for coming everybody that's our show in the wake of two horrific shootings in america one an obvious act of domestic terrorism against the immigrants in El Paso, Republicans once again found the real cause, antidepressants and video games. That was what Kevin McCarthy directed his IR ad.

Donald Trump made a point of blaming video games. But if they think mental illness and video games cause this, wait until they hear about Crazy Taxi. Travis, on the card you wrote, wait, even if they don't laugh, it's a good joke. And I suppose the hopes that it would be one of those that after a moment, people would start laughing. You know, those jokes that are kind of a thinker?

Not one of those. Gamers in Japan spend 1.5 times more than Americans on games, but an American is roughly 300 times more likely than a Japanese person to be shot to death. Countries that play the most video games, like South Korea and the Netherlands, actually tend to have the lowest rates of violent crime, but to be fair, they do have the highest rates

of white 14-year-olds shouting racial slurs into a headset. When I used to play Call of Duty, every once in a while I would play online and you'd run into a, you know, a slur or two, particularly a faggot or two, directed at really anyone. And a couple times I would say, yes, you hit the nail on the head, sir. I am a faggot. One study looked at the violent crime rate during weeks when a best-selling video game was released to see how it compared to other weeks,

and it turned out the rate of violent crime actually goes down when there's a big-budget, popular video game released. They don't totally know why. However, crime does rise precipitously in Vice City. So, it says here, violent crime in Vice City increased by 100 billion percent. Here's a quote by Chris Ferguson, the Stetson University psychology professor who studied this. The data on bananas causing suicide is about as conclusive.

Literally, the numbers work out about the same. When the issue of violent video games was before the Supreme Court, one judge wrote, there is no proof that violent video games cause minors to act aggressively. That was from Antonin Scalia, and that quote was from the very same opinion where he also said famously, I will be murdered in 2016. Mark my words.

When they find my body, where the pillow is will be important. Alright. Mass shootings will continue to happen unless we address the root causes including access to weapons. Games have nothing to do with it. Right now, Mitch McConnell is blocking H.R. 8, which is a bipartisan

bill that requires background checks on all gun sales and transfers. He has refused to commit to bringing it up to a vote even though in the past hours he has begun to soften because of how much political pressure he's facing. We can get rid of Mitch McConnell. Go to vote...

Go to votesaveamerica.com slash getmitch to support 2020 Democratic Senate candidates and donate to our Get Mitch or Die Trying Fund. McConnell had the audacity today to say, sometimes after these mass shootings, it feels like we get bogged down in politics and nothing gets done

because of him, he's the one he's the politics we also want to talk about the role the internet plays in radicalizing young men from ISIS to white supremacy, broken, angry, hateful men have found each other online and are encouraging each other and teaching each other how to terrorize us. And here to discuss extremism and radicalization online, she's got too many bylines to list.

She's an author, screenwriter, and journalist. Please welcome Lori Penny. Hi, Lori. Hello. How are you doing? I'm all right, thanks. It's been a week. I feel like there's these three big conversations happening.

One is around access to guns. One is about this spread of white supremacy because of the rhetoric of the president and others. But the other piece of this is the fact that, you know, researchers have looked at mass shootings, and what they found is, in addition to access to guns, in addition to some kind of crisis point in the life of someone who may have faced trauma or some sort of violence in their lives earlier, that this other piece of this is seeking out examples online of other shooters and seeking validation in the ways that previous shooters have sought validation and kind of going out in this blaze of glory. How much is the internet in your mind to blame for someone like the El Paso shooters radicalization?

It's very difficult to say how much the internet as a sort of total entity is involved in any phenomenon like this because there's barely any phenomenon in our lives, for example, buying shoes, that the internet is not in some way involved. One of my favorite quotes on this is by Melvin Kranzberg, who says, technology is neither good nor bad, nor is it neutral.

You can't say of any situation the internet is bad for young men or the internet is good for young men, because the same internet where this culture of white supremacy is fostering is also the same internet where young queer and trans teenagers are able to find each other and explore their identities and find support groups this is all happening on the same forum it's not just about the technology it's about the mood but one thing that I think is important when people talk about white supremacists and Nazis what a lot of people

I know are still imagining in their heads is people with uniforms, people marching, people with one manifesto, and they say, when those people turn up, I'll be ready. But the thing is that those people are already here. And the nature of the network, the nature of the internet means that they don't need a party anymore. Why would you join a party when you can be involved in that kind of community? You can be welcomed into a story that says you're big and powerful and heroic and you can be part of this grand narrative. You don't need to join a party for that anymore. It's distributed fascism, sort of gig economy fascism. And that's the, yeah, it is.

And the real Nazis are already here. And that's what the Internet does. It allows that to be networked. So we've just seen one company refuse to work with 8chan. 8chan quickly found another home. What role does government regulation have in trying to cordon this part of the internet off or make it harder for these communities to form? Because there are, you know, speech implications, right? That's one of the great defenses that's offered. You know, people have a right to their First Amendment expression. Yeah, well, that's one of the things that's always confused me about America, to be honest.

Sorry, you're looking at me like I've just hit your baby. I don't know if you have a baby, I'm really sorry. I don't. Other than the First Amendment. And a dog, and a dog, a very sweet dog. Good. But yeah, the idea that free speech is an absolute defense to incitement to violence, I think absolutely needs to be challenged. So we have now this metastasizing, contagious idea that's spread amongst people looking for this community, right?

This idea of this glorious way of killing yourself, killing others, going out in this big way, right? This idea of this glorious way of killing yourself, killing others, going out in this big way, right? There is research that shows that there is a social contagion aspect that these happening clusters, that's something that Zeynep Tufekci writes about, that this spreading idea is hard to contain. What do you see as the ways to contain it? Obviously, in the media, it's about not sensationalizing and glorifying what these people do, not elevating their manifestos, not using their names. But what these people do, not elevating their manifestos, not using their names. But what do you do about these online communities? Well, I think it's beyond time that H can be shut down, to be honest.

I don't... Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people who make the decision to publish this sort of disgusting nonsense and to host these kind of communities ought to be held accountable. They should. Just because they're technically allowed to do it doesn't mean that it should be considered morally decent or morally good. I don't believe those sites, correct me if I'm wrong, but those sites weren't taken offline because new laws were made

or implemented. They were taken offline because the people who ran them were shamed into doing so, right? Because they don't want to be involved in that stuff. And I think that's, it's a good way forward. It's a change in ethics rather than a change in laws. It's not just about implementing laws. It's about implementing social norms. And maybe, I don't think that's a way of chickening out, to be honest. I think we should have been asking long, long ago. It shouldn't have taken three manifestos posted on 8chan for people to think, well, maybe we should really shut this down. And who runs that site anyway? Maybe we should talk to him. You know, it's a bit late. Yeah. We're in a debate that often talks about masculinity. And I think we hear a lot about toxic masculinity. We hear a lot about

the ways in which masculinity manifests itself in harmful ways. But it does seem like part of what is going on here are people who are unmoored in some way, seeking out a kind of masculinity that makes them feel strong, that makes them feel powerful. What role do you think that is playing in what's happening and what's radicalizing these boys? It has everything to do with it. It's the thing that links together white supremacists,

links together Islamic extremacists, links together Islamic extremists from the so-called Islamic State. It links together the two shooters this week. They came from different places in terms of everything politically, apart from the fact that they agreed that they hated women. And misogyny is really, it's often the gateway, it's the gateway to everything. I mean, women were raising the alarm on the internet in 2014, 2013. We were saying, we are being harassed. We're getting waves of rape and death threats. And these people are serious. It is this gamified, disgusting, commodified, objectifying, like, it's a cult, a cult of modern misogyny. And people said to us, oh, no, no, no, no, you've got to grow a thick

skin. Like, it's these young men in their parents basements they don't mean it and firstly you know i i want to stand up for the young men in their parents basements because i know a lot of young men who yeah who live in literally who live in their parents basements and play video games and rarely get laid and do not go on shooting sprees and are very gentle kind people yeah mean, some of them are just there. It's prom night and it's time to play Mario Kart. Yeah, absolutely. Because what else are they going to do? Yeah.

But play Mario Kart on prom night. Love it or leave it, Radio City, September 13th. Keep going. I'm really happy things worked out for you. So far, yeah. So far. You turned out all right, see? Exactly your point.

But the idea that men are entitled to own women and that young men are entitled to a certain kind of sex with a certain kind of woman, and if they don't get it they are entitled to take revenge on the entire world and on the female sex in particular that's universal across these little cesspools of radicalization whatever the other politics and that's often a gateway drug for the more hardcore stuff for white supremacy because you know when people are recruiting young men to become nazis they don't just wander up and say, would you like to be a Nazi today? Because everybody knows that,

well, most people now know that Nazis are the bad guys. That's why people don't like to be called Nazis still. But what they say instead is, do you ever think women whinge too much? You know, do you think they like, you know, they look at what she's wearing and don't you think like somebody like you should be having a better kind of life that's what they say and i've been to their rallies and that's what they lead with they leave with this weird you know parochial idea of um of what women are and what men are entitled to be and do to them and that violence it is not exclusive to the alt-right or the far-right. That undercurrent of misogyny is everywhere in American culture. It's everywhere in British culture. And one of the reasons people haven't taken it to task earlier

is because what these young men are saying is a more extreme version of what people are saying in non-Nazi communities. And that attitude has become normalized. And I think that's very frightening, and I think the trouble is that analyzing that current forces all of us to look at ourselves and to look at the men in our lives and the people we love, and that is very, very uncomfortable. It's also about guns. One final question.

AOC gave a speech talking about these issues and one thing she said that I thought I hadn't heard anyone else really say which is she spoke directly to those who are becoming radicalized who maybe do feel well they whether they know they feel lost or not are in some sense lost and she basically said you know we're here and we love you and you can come back do you think there is value to a kind of openness to seeing people who have been lost to these communities as retrievable and lovable

and people who need to be brought back if only to protect us from how these communities are festering? That is a really interesting and important question. I think there is value in offering people a dignified bridge. And it is very smart what AOC is doing there. But it can't be the only answer. You have to have both. You have to have the combination of somebody saying,

if you want to step back into decency and common sense, then we'll be here, we'll let you do that. But you also have to have the people saying, this behaviour is not acceptable. You get one chance. We treat all men like children, let's be honest, in terms of their emotions. We don't expect them to take any kind of emotional responsibility. And this is an entire movement founded on the basis that people are too cowardly to handle their emotions like adults. They experience their feelings as facts. I think if there's one thing we can change in terms of how we discuss the undercurrents of emotion and isolation in

society, it's to just tell these young men again and again that just because they feel that every woman in the world is out to get them doesn't mean that it's true. One of the things they say again and again is, fuck your feelings, but their feelings are inescapable. It's the most astonishing act of projection. They experience every feeling as God's honest truth, and it's very odd. Thank you. You have some full new fans right over there.

I'm just going to sit over there. Thank you so much, Lori Penny, for joining us. Fascinating and really appreciate it. Guys, one more time for Lori Penny. Thank you so much, Lori Penny, for joining us. Fascinating and really appreciate it. Guys, one more time for Lori Penny. Thank you. When we come back, we'll have our panel. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up.

And we're back. Very excited for our guest for this show. She's a stand-up comedian and improviser. You know her from Silicon Valley, People of Earth, and her podcast, Treks in the City. Please welcome back Alice Wetterlin. How you doing? Hey, good. Still alive.

Ha ha ha. That was good. He's the co-creator of Insecure, the former host of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, and the current host of the podcast Larry Wilmore, Black on the Air. Please welcome back Larry Wilmore. Hi, Larry.

How's it going, John? Good to see you. Now, I'm assuming people at home can feel it, but just in case they can't, you are wearing a Vote Save America hat. Vote Save America. Looks great. It's time to get in that spirit. I'm going early. Yeah. Vote early and often.

And you've seen him on The League, Black Monday, and Veep, and he's the host of the podcast, How Did This Get Made? And Unspooled, please welcome back Paul Scheer. Thank you. Thank you. John, you grew up in Syosset? I did. I worked at that Blockbuster.

Really? Yeah. That was my Blockbuster. Wait a second. Wait just a second. There's zero... I'm doing a little math in my head. There's zero chance we weren't there at the same exact time.

You're talking about next to Posteria? You're talking about next to Bagel Boss? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're talking about that blockbuster? Yeah, right there. This is like sliding doors. All I'm going to say is Play from Kid and Play came in there.

Natalie Portman with her real name came in there and videoed. Yeah, because Natalie Portman and her real name also went to my high school. Look at this. Look at this. Connections. I used to hide in the Dropbox

and then grab videos or DVDs from people aggressively and freak them out. All right. You know, let's get into it, I suppose. What a week. Larry, I want to start with you. Yeah, happiness. Yeah.

We've seen this cycle before with mass shootings. Some seem to come and go without having an impact. Others do manage to not necessarily change laws, but do change the political debate in some way that lasts. I think after Sandy Hook, even though in part because of Mitch McConnell, a background bill did fail. There was a movement to pass legislation. There did seem to be a shift in the politics. Same thing happened after Parkland. It feels as though Republicans right now are feeling some kind of pressure on this issue. Do you believe that there has been another shift given the scale of violence we have seen? Or do you think it is naive to believe that when Congress comes back, there's a hope of passing something? I just don't have a

lot of faith that people are going to do anything significant. I'm very pessimistic about it. I mean, Sandy Hook, it doesn't get more tragic than fucking Sandy Hook, man. I mean, President Obama, arguably the funniest president since JFK, right? I mean, he brings joy to our lives. He could recite the phone book and we're like, oh, he's fucking Jesus or whatever. He makes you feel good. He just talks and he makes you feel great. He sang Amazing Grace just off the cuff and it was amazing. Yes, he did. Al Green, for Christ's sakes, right? So Obama is that messenger for us.

When he stopped, and this person that is the perfect messenger, he's so eloquent, he couldn't speak for like 10, 15 seconds. I remember I just couldn't believe it, you know, how emotional. I mean, he almost full-on, like, bawled, cried there, you know? And the President of the United States is that emotional because he's thinking about that children were mowed down. Children, you guys.

Innocent little kids. And Congress didn't do shit after that? Fuck those motherfuckers, man. I mean, seriously. Why should I feel confident that they're going to do it now? Yeah, and it was killed in 2013. That bill was killed because of the filibuster

and because we couldn't get an up or down vote on that bill. I feel like because there were two shootings this week, it's making a difference. When the first one happened, it seemed like I was on Twitter and it was very like, meh, shooting. It seemed like it's the double nature of it for people to be like, oh, right, because it goes away so quickly.

We used to get on Twitter and shut it down and people talk about it. But just another time. Well, once the frequency amps up, the more every single community is targeted and then every single person is going, wait, I can't go outside anymore. Like the more people that say, oh, I can't go to the mall, the more often it's going to affect you. I mean, like I'm thinking it's a matter of time until everybody starts waking up and going like, it's just going to be somebody I know or me. Well, I had a friend of a friend who was in Las Vegas and was one of the people injured. And I think the thing that I always think about is she is injured. But what is injured?

She lost her eye. A bullet was lodged in her brain. And she is like it's not you think like, oh, broken bone or whatever, injured. It doesn't, it's, no, no, no, there's, like, it is catastrophic. The term injured seems so light in a way, gruesomeness and how it's described and how it's shown to us. There's a kind of understood kind of manners that says you don't show the bloodiest and most gruesome images from these events, in part out of respect for those who died. But I do wonder if we are protecting ourselves too much from what's happening every single day. I wonder what happens if the American people see dead children, see dead bodies on the streets, see the actual carnage as it unfolds. On the other side of this, you've seen people like Beto O'Rourke step up and speak, I think, to the anger that people feel. He's from El Paso. He's spending his time there and has directed his anger at the president, but also at the press for how they've been covering this. Alice, do you think Beto's anger is sort of channeling something important?

Do you think we're seeing a shift in part because politicians are sort of capturing what I think ordinary people are feeling at this moment? What do you think? Yeah, because he's from El Paso. So he, in fact, is devastated. I mean, you can't get around the fact that in the middle of his presidential candidacy, like, I do think he's in El Paso because of the fact that he himself is personally affected and can't really emotionally get around it. He himself feels it so much that

he has to go back there. I mean, it would be natural for any one of us to do that. And I think that it's happening with so much frequency that it is now disrupting. I mean, you're talking about people seeing bodies and the press almost doesn't need to cover it anymore because we are going to see it one way or another because it's going to hit us. You know, I mean, social media is another way for this to get out there, and it's just going to get out there. You're going to see the faces of people that you know crying because people that they know are dead or injured, you know, catastrophically,

one way or another. So I guess, of course it affected a presidential candidate. There's so many fucking shootings. And so many candidates. And so many candidates. There's like 75 candidates. Which is why I'm here tonight to announce that I...

I'm a little suspicious with Beto, though. Only because those people that are running for president, I feel like everything they do is kind of in the running for president. I'm sure part of him in the back of his mind, he knows that whimsical, kind of douchey Peter Pan thing isn't

going to work out. So now he's got to keep it 100% real. What the fuck do you think? No, fuck those motherfuckers. Yeah, this is working. And this is the kind of thing I see all the time from people who are suspicious of Beto because he's too hot. That's not his fault.

That is not his fault. He did not choose to be a perfect adult-y kind of Peter Pan with a perfect ass. There's people behind him. They have to shoot from behind him to show the crowds. He's Trudeau-esque. I mean, he really is Trudeau-esque. Trudeau wishes, okay?

I mean, maybe I'm just a Trudeau person living in a Beto world. I want to believe that that's too cynical. I'm being very cynical. Very cynical. It's a cynical fucking week. And it's welcome. There is gun control. It's the people who are in power,

the white people, the white men in power, get to have the guns that they want. That's the people who are in power, the white people, the white men in power get to have the guns that they want. That's the gun control that we have. I also think that there, I agree with what you just said, I also think that there might be a thing that happens, like a fracturing of the NRA. And the NRA that we know now

breaks. And then there is another faction that's like, no, we are for gun control. Because I feel like the NRA now is controlled by gun manufacturers. control. Because I feel like the NRA now is controlled by gun manufacturers. Because if you have people in the NRA who are for gun control laws, I wonder if that split that would finally break

it would maybe help make it a little bit more digestible, too. I don't know. Trump apparently told his aides, he's like, nah, the NRA's not going to be too much of a problem. They're running out of money. And his aides were like, that's unfortunately not how any of this works. All right, when we come back, OK Stop. Don't go anywhere.

This is Love It or Leave It, and there's more on the way. And we're back. Now it's time for OK Stop. We'll roll a clip. Panel could say OK Stop at any point to comment. As America began to discuss possible solutions to gun violence, the folks over at The Five were concerned about how Joaquin Castro tweeting the names of certain Trump donors

was affecting, you know, whatever. Let's watch it. They are basically normalizing doxing and intimidation tactics. OK, stop. I don't have a comment on what he said. I just want to point out how incredible douchey Jesse Waters always is. That's all I want to say. Is that Jesse Waters?

Okay, I'll stay with your stop. I'll raise you. Normalizing doxing is normal. It's already a thing. These are people in public spheres. These are not unknown people. They're rich people who give a lot of money, who go to big fundraising events. They're not hiding. They're like rich people who give a lot of money, who go to like big fundraising events.

They're not like hiding. They're not druids. Most of them are not druids. And if they are, I want to know about it. Also, I'm not a regular watcher of The Five. I'm sorry, but is that unicorn always a big part of his desk. If there was a unicorn on the five, I don't know what I would do.

As the last of my kind, I feel incredibly victimized. I want to have a gun. I love guns. I'd kill horses with these guns. You need a good rainbow bright with a gun to stop a bad rainbow bright with a gun. That's right.

It's the only thing. Will they have blood on their hands? There are people that are going to do this to you and to us at some point. Yeah. Because we will be demonized. No, I mean, look, and they're doxing contributors to the president. So it's worth just noting that that's not what happened. I actually don't think it's a 100% clean argument for what Castro did. But what he certainly did not do was dox anybody. He went into public records and said, here are the people who have, because they donated above $200, their information is publicly available for reasons that have to do with corruption and transparency in our democracy. And so this information is available to the public

so that we understand who is funding our campaigns. Here is the names of the people who did that from this area, which he didn't provide any additional information, nothing secret. He simply showed people, hey, in your community, these are the people currently funding ads that talk about an invasion, that use the racist tropes and language used by extremists, including the person that shot up El Paso. That is what Castro did. And basically they're arguing against him

Googling, right? I mean, really, that's all he did. He didn't do, like, not a deep dive, didn't break into a system. He just Googled. And it's like they're treating him like he hacked, you know, like... It's not even that deep. It's like maybe at the Ask Jeeves level, right? Yeah. You don't even have to Google that. Yeah, he went on DuckDuckGo. And that's how even that deep. It's like maybe at the Ask Jeeves level. You don't even have to Google that.

Yeah, he went on DuckDuckGo. That's how simple it is. Easy to find is what I'm saying. Yeah, no. Actually, I think he did use Ask Jeeves. Plus, their defendant motherfucker who ran for president at his rallies, he said if you hit somebody or punch them, that he'll pay for their defense. That's the president of the United States

who said that. A guy said, what do you do about these immigrants? And someone yelled, shoot them. And he said, you can only get away with that in the panhandle. And the other hand, they're saying, and by the way, disarm. So they're inciting

violence against an individual, and they say, you know what, don't be able to protect yourself when people show up outside. Okay, stop. Donna Brazile is like, why the fuck did I come to Fox News? What the fuck was I thinking? No wonder my hair turned purple. Donna Brazile is like, freeze frame.

What the fuck was I thinking? How did I get here? What choices led me to this? I ran Al Gore's campaign and now I'm sitting next to the dumbest person I have ever met in a suit. Why did I give Hillary those questions?

That is a brief glimpse into her soul. I mean, it is a comical frown. It is a comical... She's a human meme generator. The Fox building right now. There should be just... The Curb Your Enthusiasm music should be going like right there.

Like that's what she's in. Oh, Donna. Like they did to Mitch McConnell. This is dangerous and I think it's going to lead to violence because at some point someone's going to come out with a weapon when someone trespasses and threatens them in their house. They're talking about this

mob outside of Mitch McConnell's house. Didn't Mitch McConnell post a tombstone of his political opponent? That was this week too. R.I.P. the woman running against him. That's cool. When you put a tombstone, because that's not in violence. You're saying they're dead.

But if you say, I'm going to kill you, that's weird. Now you're crossing a line. But what was that? Somebody just set up a slip-inside in front of Mitch McConnell's house? There was a protest in front of Mitch McConnell's house because people are really mad about the fact that everyone's getting killed in mass shootings. And they were wearing vests, to be fair. But they were like the dorky kind of like pinstripe vests.

And there was another guy, I can't think of his name, it was Dan Pfeiffer, I'm not sure. These are people in groups who are saying that Fox News, Fox News... He was communications director for President Obama. Yeah, and these are people that are saying... Okay, stop. Dana Farina was like, motherfucker, you know who that is. That was her really nice way of saying that. What Dan said was, anyone who goes on Fox News or works at Fox News or participates in what Fox News does is contributing to white supremacy. That is true.

What Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham are doing every single night is white supremacy in the acceptable form. It is the closest you can get to what David Duke would say or what any of the avowed white supremacists say while still having some vague protection of social acceptability that allows you to still have advertisers from big companies, whether it's Nestle or that pillow guy or whatever the fuck. And the inability to confront that and accept that as true, even when it's causing violence. You know, there's a strange way in which our political culture is so much more comfortable

with someone saying that kind of rhetoric is going to get somebody killed than that rhetoric got somebody killed. Yeah. That when it goes from perspective to actually happening, we don't know how to handle it because when it actually has led to deaths, which is what white nationalist rhetoric has done again and again throughout our history and right now,

when it actually leads to death, it means you can't just ask it as a hypothetical question. You can't just ask it as a rhetorical question. Oh, this rhetoric needs to be calmed down. This is going to lead to something tragic. When the tragedy actually happens, then there's no choice when you call it out to say what's happening,

which is these people on Fox News are actually contributing to an environment that leads people to commit acts of violence. I do have to say, as someone who has railed against whitey for a long time, I wouldn't classify all has railed against whitey for a long time. I wouldn't classify all of it necessarily as white supremacy, what they're doing, so much as what I see as American separatism.

The idea is to separate their idea of America and put it in a certain category. And if you don't fit that separate idea of America, you are not the American exceptionalism of this idea, then you deserve all these other things. Because if you're black or Mexican or whatever, but you agree with them, then you're in that group. The idea of white nationalism does exist in the country and white superiority, but what Fox is promoting is this American separatism first and foremost, I think. And white national or white superiority or whatever you want

to call it, that's like the whipped cream on some of that. I like what you said about exceptionalism because it allows it to be like, no, no, no, if you want to be on this higher level. That's right. It's a really, yeah. It's a small division, but it's a huge, it makes a lot of sense. When Lindsey Graham says to somebody, he doesn't have a problem with a Somali refugee that supports him. Correct. And when Tucker Carlson talks to Ben Carson and says, Ben, I'm not a racist.

And Ben's like, not on my watch. Like that. That's basically saying you can be part of our club as long as you play along. But isn't that a form of white? Like Donald Trump picks his fights with white people who disagree with him. But he never calls their neighborhoods infested. He never says go back to where you came from. He does reserve that for people of color.

Yeah, because he's a lazy racist. It's not like, you know, he does the easiest racist trope you can do. You know, I mean, he's not a thoughtful racist. You know, he's not smart like George Wallace was, you know was or some of these racists who spent a lot of time with their racism. They put a lot of thought through that and had a lot of shit figured out. He's a reflexive racist.

Gut level racist. We know he doesn't espouse any ideology besides that he's a sociopath. He just sees the racism working for him and he's like I like it. And here's what I mean. It's not that Trump hates black people type of racism. He has an opinion that probably black people are lazy and they can't do this. But if Mike Tyson, if he wanted to hang out with Mike Tyson, he would love that.

He would want to be his boy because he wants the glory from some of that. That's what I mean by lazy racism. He has these tropes in his mind that informs his you know decision making and opinions and that sort of thing but I don't think it's that active type with the possible exception of the immigration issue which he has targeted brown people you know in that situation that is the one thing where he really is actively I think using that racist boat you know and that's okay stop when we come back we're to play a game. Hey, don't go anywhere.

There's more of Love It or Leave It coming up. And we're back. It's August. And we here at Love It or Leave It have brought you high-quality content weekly, all year long. And let me be frank, my producer, Elisa, is going to burn down our office if we don't take a week off. There will be a show with some sweet, sweet highlights next week, and then we'll be back for Radio City. But we didn't want to miss any news, so we're going to play a game right now predicting what might happen while we're off. It's time to play a game we're calling Don't Complain Online that we are taking three weeks off.

What other show does 46 episodes a year? Late night shows have a staff of like 100 people and they work less than teachers. Okay, that came out wrong, but look, there are literally three of us. We are human beings and thinking about Trump every waking moment of our lives is killing us. I love teachers. Teachers are heroes, but it must be nice to have summers off, though. And don't put that on the screen,

Travis. Would anyone out there like to play the game? There's a worldo in the front row. Let's go to this guy in a Pod Save the World shirt. Oh, God, I'm nervous. You're nervous? What a funny name. What's your name? John. Your name's John? Yes, but more boring than you. I have an H. You have an H? Yes. your name? John. Your name's John? Yes, but more boring

than you. I have an H. You have an H? Yes. Already putting yourself down. Twice. You've talked, you've only said two things into the mic, and they're both negative about yourself. It's my brand. It's your brand. Okay. Your brand is strong. Okay, John. Alright. Thank you. Here's how this is gonna

work, alright? This is our version of Match Game, but we probably can't say that because then Alec Baldwin will find us and not manage his anger at us. Here's what's going to happen. Our panelists have cards, and they have markers. I'm going to read a sentence of something that might happen and leave a blank.

The panelists will then write on cards what they think is in that blank spot, and then you're going to guess what's in the blank spot, and you're going to see if you matched what our panelists came up with. Okay, John? Got it. Question one. On August 18th, it was reported that President Trump is furious with Kellyanne Conway.

This, after she stormed into his bedroom during executive time. President Trump reportedly screamed, don't talk to me before I've had my blank. So give our panelists a moment to write an answer. John, I'm going to read it to you again. Fill it in the blank for me, okay? On August 18th, it was reported President Trump is furious with Kellyanne Conway. This, after she stormed into his bedroom during executive time.

President Trump reportedly screamed, don't talk to me before I've had my... Bacon-topped McDonald's french fries. Did my... Bacon-topped McDonald's french fries. Did you say bacon-topped McDonald's french fries? Yeah, that was a thing like earlier this summer. Cool. Wait a second, do you work for McDonald's? I'm just an avid fast food eater.

Listen, you and me both. Oh, I'm loving it. Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Andre. Let's go down the line See how you did Bacon topped french fries President Trump reportedly screamed Don't talk to me Before I've had my

Tickle time Tickle time I thought it was morning And I panicked President Trump reportedly screamed Don't talk to me Before I've had my KFC

Whoa KFC We're giving it to you. It's close. Mine. This, after she stormed into his bedroom during executive time, President Trump screamed,

don't talk to me before I've had my... Tan. Tan. But John, you got one of three. Probably the real thing. You did great, John. Next question. On August 29th,

Mitch McConnell took to Twitter to express his discontent with the names he'd been called since refusing to bring gun reform legislation to the floor, the most savage of which is when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called him blank Mitch. Oh, Moscow Mitch. Moscow Mitch. Let's start with Paul.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called him Frogman Mitch. Moscow Mitch. Let's start with Paul. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called him Frogman Mitch. I like that. Frogman Mitch. Devastating. She said that. Devastating from our incredible messaging mind, AOC, when she savaged Mitch McConnell by calling him the devastating Frogman.

Never has he received a more cruel moniker than when he was called Frogman. Never has he received a more cruel moniker than when he was called frogman. By the way, it's catchy. Frogman Mitch, I want to see it. If she said it, it would be sad. Yeah, right? Yeah. He looks like a little sad frog.

Larry, you're up. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave him the savage nickname... I have to go to my person, Mitchell Carroll, because I really hate that name. I hate the fact that you called me Moscow Man. You got it. Is that how you do it?

Plus one for Crawdaddy Man voice. Love that. I've lost control of this show. Yet again. My bad. Regain your control, young man. Regain your control. Alexander Ocasio-Cortez called him

the savage... Trina the baddest mitt. Worth the wait. Worth the wait. John, once again, you got one. Thank you. Final clue. John, once again, you got one. Final clue. You're doing so good, John. Thank you.

It's the first time I've ever been told that. John! Come on, man! You gotta fight for you! You gotta fight for you. It's on brand. Next, on August 30th, SoulCycle decides to double down on their pro-Trump policy, introducing a new slogan for their business. SoulCycle is more than a workout. It's a blank. Think about it first. Just thinking. No, no, don't, don't. Just chill. Just chill.

Just take your time. I will come to you when it is time to say the answer. Take this time to think and consider. I would like to keep asking you fast food questions. I hate myself for this, but it's a whiteout. Would be the slogan. I don't understand. What am I

doing wrong? I'm trying so hard. John, you're doing so good. What is your Domino's order? I'll tell you mine. It's a hand-tossed pan with banana peppers, spinach, and salami. Weird? Yes. Specific? Yes.

Delicious. Do I get a side of blue cheese dressing on the side because it comes with the chicken kickers? Yes. My Domino's order is I go down the street and get a $5 hot and ready from Little Caesars. Little Caesars. Little Caesars. Pizza, pizza.

John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John, John. In every way you've diminished yourself tonight. With your self-flagellation. with your self-flagellation, with your self-flagellation, none, none have I felt was more sad and dispiriting than the fact that you're choosing Little Caesars over Domino's,

which is superior. Admit it. Admit it, John. I'm going to go with Roundtable is superior to all, but, you know. I don't even know what that is. What is that? Roundtable?

It's very limited down here. It's prevalent in Northern California right now. I don't know that pizza. And it's fucking awesome. All right. It's like a family pizza place. Okay, John. You just named a place that's not even a chain.

It totally is. We get it down here. It's like 10 minutes from my house. Alright, you guys ready? Yeah. Let's get this back on track, John. Alright. On August 30th, SoulCycle decides to double down on their pro-Trump policy, introducing a new slogan for their business. SoulCycle is more than

a workout, it's a... Gun Club. Yay! Their new pro-Trump policy, Larry, SoulCycle is more than a workout, it's a... Actually, suck your soul out of you, cult. Suck that soul right out of you. Paul, you're up.

SoulCycle, it's more than a workout, it's a... It sends your fat back and builds a wall to your health. I like that. I like how it built the wall. That was very exciting. John, good news. You've won the game. Wow. Guys, everybody, give it up

to John from Concord and his God Save the World t-shirt. Thank you for playing. 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. Can I tell you guys something? I had a terrible experience at a takeout pizza hut in Culver City this weekend,

and I will not be going back. Yeah, that was a poorly run takeout pizza hut place. Are you walking out now? That's it. That's the last straw. And we're back. Are you walking out now? That's it. That's the last straw. And we're back. Was it a wing street? Wait, what were you saying?

I was like, was it a wing street? A Pizza Hut and a wing street? No, no. That's the first sign. They have to get their shit together with a combo. Now it's time for the rant wheel. You know how it works.

We spin a wheel. We rant on the topics wherever it may land. This week we have Ice Raids, SoulCycle, Pizza Hut. Oh, the topics wherever it may land. This week, we have Ice Raids, SoulCycle, Pizza Hut. Oh, forgot I put it on there. Listen, the show is

what the show is. Apple Dongles, Guns, White Opinions, Tucker Carlson, and Hobbs and Shaw. Let's spin the wheel. Yes, I agree that if it had landed on Hobbs and Shaw, it would be a much sillier rant than the one about ice raids I'm about to do. So I want to make

one point about the ice raids. I don't know if you guys saw this story, but several hundred people were rounded up in Mississippi at poultry facilities. Some left children just alone, unsure of where their parents had gone. It's a terrifying and terrible story, but I wanted to highlight one aspect of it that I think is often lost. ICE claims to be criminally prosecuting employers who knowingly hire illegal workers, but the actual prosecutions of employers for employing undocumented immigrants without proper documentation has been incredibly rare.

Between April 2018 and March 2019, only 11 individuals and no companies were prosecuted. That was seven cases. So there were seven cases. During that same period, hundreds of thousands were prosecuted or deported because of entering illegally. And many of these people rounded up

or faced criminal penalties for working in these people rounded up or faced criminal penalties for working in these places while the employers faced no consequences. Just to put those numbers in against each other, 11 employers, 125,000 immigrants in a 12-month period. We built this system, and it is a system where we all benefit. We all benefit from undocumented labor. Our products are cheaper. Businesses can run for lower costs. We built a second-class caste of people that do not have the protection of our laws but are expected to work and live, often have American children, with the constant fear and insecurity that their lives can be upended and destroyed.

In a moment, all the pain of that system, all the harm, all the consequence, is visited on the shoulders of the people who came here because we told them to come here. We told them to come here in every way possible, that they could come here and they could work and build a better life and find safety with that risk hanging over their heads. And it's worth remembering that these kinds of raids have been happening for a very, very long time. They've happened under congresses of both parties that were unable to stop it. They've happened under presidencies of both parties that allowed it to happen. And, you know, as we think about removing Trump, as we think about a culture that made someone like Trump possible, it's worth remembering, you know, people want to blame video games for the callousness of

our culture. People want to blame the internet for the callousness of our culture. And that's all part of it. But we should keep in mind that we are surrounded by incredible viciousness that is done in our names all the time. It is happening all the time, and it has been happening for a long time. The immigration law that passed in 1986, we have been trying to reform that since during the Bush administration. So for 15 years, we've admitted that the system is broken, that there are millions of people living here, and we haven't been able to solve it under Democratic presidents, Republican presidents, because of the obstinance of a minority of Republicans, but also because of a general lack of interest of all of us. There are plenty of people who know this is important, who know the kind of tragedy of this issue,

that we're surrounded by every single day. Our entire culture is sort of seeped in it, but we have not cared nearly enough for a very long time. So as we think about what we can do, let's remember that we are all benefiting from a system that these deportations are a part of every single day, that it's not something that's happening because of other people.

It really is in part happening because of us. That's all. Now let's talk about Hobbs and Shaw. And a point about Hobbs and Shaw. Two hours and 17 minute run time. What are they? Not enough. How many soliloquies are in that fucking thing?

Four more hours. Brian Oz Hamlet. Four more hours. At least Brian Oz Hamlet had an intermission. He lassos a helicopter. What else do you need? It takes a couple of minutes. These things take time.

It's going to be too much of either Hobbs or Shaw, I'm willing to bet. I also love you. It's going to be too much of one of them. I wonder what their contracts say about the equal screen time they must receive. Because I know that both of their contracts say they can't lose a fight. Which I love. I love that. I don't lose a fight. Neither do I. But we fight each other. Oh no.

The only reason why Hobbs and Shaw are in the Fast and Furious franchise is because no one could lose a fight, so they need to bring in more people to lose fights. And then they get in, and they can't lose a fight. So you just keep on packing this clown car of people. So Idris Elba

will be like, I can't lose a fight now. He'll be in the next one, and he'll send in four more people. It's great. It's over like, I can't lose a fight now. He'll be in the next one and he'll send in four more people. It's great. It's overpopulation in the Fast and Furious world. Let's spin it again. Now to the important topic. Apple dongles.

Apple dongles. Yeah, apple dongles. People, look. Fuck apple and these dongles, man. I got to carry all this shit with me to listen to my music. And you know what? I'm on an airplane. I want to listen to something. And I can't put those wireless shits in on the airplane because they don't cut out any airplane noise.

And then I get there and I'm like, oh, I need a USB-C dongle now. I need to get another. So now I have a case that has two dongles, but I know I'm an idiot, so I've got to buy like two more of those to put in my backpack just in case I don't bring that case. Fuck these dongles. I don't like it. Can we just go back to the one simple

the jack? It was so easy. Why are we reinventing the wheel? Pop it in. It's so inelegant too, which is like the whole thing about Apple is that it's supposed to be this simple, sleek system and now everybody's walking around like hackers. They've got like 25 things.

And like a gear thing or whatever. I'm in, I'm in. I'm listening to my music. It's so stupid. It's as if that there was like this division of Apple, this like long neglected dongle division of Apple

that was constantly like going up to Steve Jobs and being like, ah. I get that you like your chords, but what if the end didn't naturally connect to the things that we make? Hear us out.

It's a series of cords. And Steve Jobs was constantly being like, you skit, you get out of here, you go back, you go back. And they ran back, and they were like, one day, one day, one day, someone will be smart enough to see that we can sell them 50 different kinds of the same cord because nothing connects to anything anymore.

One day they'll see our flagship laptop and our flagship phone will have completely different holes. Steve Jobs dies and all of a sudden nothing that Apple makes connects to anything else Apple makes. That guy was amazing. We had no idea

that that was a problem we didn't have. Yeah. It was the simplest issue. He kept us away from it. And you gotta buy them? You gotta buy these things? Of course. Also, I mean, you know,

your phone's at 8%, which means it might die at any moment. You can't trust an 8%. You're living on borrowed time at 8%. And you're like, oh, thank God. This fits into my phone. That side, we're all set.

Now time to plug it into my laptop that no longer has this thing. The thing that's on every fucking airplane and every hotel because Steve Jobs told them to in 1999. Everyone's rant. I want it to be. Spin it again.

Thank you, Pi. Got taken in a reverie. It has landed on white opinions. No, it's not me. Isn't that weird? Isn't that weird? You don't want to hear mine. No, I'm Alice Wetterlin, and here's some of my white opinions.

I'm on Twitter, and I'm white, and I love my opinions. They're so great. I'm a comedian. It's my whole job to have opinions, but I'm so sick of them, honestly, even my own, which is a weird identity crisis for me so uh instead of saying some bullshit i want to throw my rant to my lovely co-host on tracks in the city uh she is a wonderful wonderful person and comedian and actress um please welcome to the stage my co-host veronica Veronica Osorio. Thank you. Hi, Veronica. Hi, how are you guys? Good? Good.

I'm not so good. I feel very anxious all the time. That's because I'm an immigrant, you know? I know that we talk about it. Like, there's so much going against us right now. Like, the raids and the camps and now the shootings. And, like, I frankly cannot deal with it because I have too much to do like I come from Venezuela and it's shit it's like here but 20 years ago and like the upside down so it was like

I really came here to chill to feel good to dress like this to be like in brain, I came to America to be like, that's what should be playing in my brain. Not like, where is there a raid? Is my passport enough? Like, it's, you know, I have to take clothes to Goodwill and like refill my water bottles and I can't occupy brain space in that shit. You know, It's horrible.

I got married in January. Yeah, it's awesome. My husband's from Venezuela as well. We're both from Venezuela, and so I worry consistently that he's not going to come back home, and that's crazy. That's what I left behind. So it makes me angry,

especially because I really don't want to deal with two cats on my own. It's so I left behind. So it makes me angry, especially because like, I really don't want to deal with two cats on my own. It's like, so much for me. They both want my attention and it's just like, I don't know how to handle it. His cat is like,

very dominant. Anyway, it's just like, tearing my life apart, my life apart, and my brain, and my just like, having personal anxiety,

which I do. I do, just like, by being a person. You know, like I have rights to just be anxious, you know? For sure, we all do. I do, just like by being a person. You know, like I have rights to just be anxious. For sure, we all do. But now I have too many reasons. Yeah, John is like, you don't seem that nervous.

And also, I don't know if you guys are chill, you know? I don't really know if you guys are chill. I feel like these are stresses I did not sign up for. So, yeah, I don't like it. I don't like it either. And I just want everyone at home to know that when I said John is stressed out as well, did not sign up for. So, yeah, I don't like it. I don't like it either. And I just want everyone at home to know that when I said John is stressed out as well, he said into no microphone all day, every day.

So, you know, look, I think one thing we're learning here is whether you're from Venezuela or Concord, California. Right there. We're all struggling. Yeah. Whether it's for over pizza or just like your husband not coming back. Right. We're all done. It's finding a good pizza place.

Little Caesar could disappear one day. He's a Roman. We don't know. He may not have the proper authority to open up a business here and he's gone. You could find out the owner is some horrible person and now there you go. That's it for your pizza. That's it.

Pizza Hut turns into Pizza Cage. You know? What are you going to do? Oh, man. Whoa. Oh, that's going too far. That doesn't even make sense, you guys. It doesn't even make sense.

You come along with Larry wherever the fuck he wants to take you. I swear to God. You show this man some goddamn respect. He wants to talk about pizza. I'm not turning on them. I'm not turning on them. You take that journey with him. Thank you.

Thank you for this bass. Give it up for Veronica Osario. Alice is back. The baton is passed back. Let's spin it again. Yeah. It has landed on guns. The fun category.

All right, it's the end of the show. I'll make it short. I don't have a lot to say. It was a fucked up week, and I thought a lot this week about what's going on. And, you know, I'm contrary by nature, but I like to look at things differently. And I think a lot of this gun shit, you guys, I think for some of it, we're going to have to start using different language, all right?

And I'll tell you what I mean. I believe in 30 seconds, if you can kill nine people and injure over 20, you don't have a gun. You have a weapon of mass destruction. Okay? So that is the language that we're going to have to use. Hey, don't come from a gun. I'm not coming from your gun, motherfucker.

I'm coming from your weapon of mass destruction. Well, is my Constitution right? Okay, I got sarin gas in my garage. You can't have that. Exactly I can't have that, motherfucker, because it's a weapon of mass destruction, just like you can't have a weapon of mass destruction. And we need to look at these things differently. We're spending a lot of capital trying to ferret out mentally ill people so they can acquire these WMDs. We need to look at this the other way around. Maybe the people that are buying these WMDs are the ones who are

mentally incapacitated. So rather than background checks, how about foreground checks? How about checking the list? Well, this motherfucker bought one of these. Let's go to his house. Hey, what's up, motherfucker? I hear you got one of these weapons. Yep. What you going to do? They shoot some geese. Fuck you, motherfucker. That's a weapon of mass destruction. There must be something wrong with you. We're going to have to take it away because you are not well. That's what we need to do. Change the language. Change the way we think about this. And seriously, some of these things, we cannot call guns.

The things that they're doing should never be in the hands of civilians for any reason. You're not shooting geese with it. You're not protecting yourself. You don't need to mow down nine people and injure 20 in 30 fucking seconds under any circumstances. Unless you're in a battlefield. Unless you're in an army. I don't have nukes in my garage

because I shouldn't have nukes. There's my thing. Let's spin it one more time. And just to be clear to the FBI, I do not have sarin gas in my garage. It was a wrench. You keep it in your trunk because it's safer.

It's on the jokes. Also, no one needs to kill geese. I'll just put that out there too. They looked at me weird. They're out to get me. No, no. Geese are fine. I went woke.

You went bespoke. I don't know what to say. By the way, if I was a Democratic presidential candidate, I would steal that right now. And I think it would take over for a long time. Listen, here's what we're going to do. You could just run. We're going to take that clip. We're going to put it on social media.

And let the marketplace of ideas take care of it. You know? Yeah. That's what I think I'll do. Let's spin it one more time. It has landed on SoulCycle, not Pizza Hut. Never has this wheel disappointed you more consistently. And that's part of it.

That's part of it. And if you think American 2019 is about not being disappointed, you're not paying attention. Let's talk about SoulCycle for a second. So, obviously earlier this week news broke that the owner of SoulCycle and Equinox and I guess part

of Momofuku, a restaurant chain-ish, and the Hudson Yards, this guy Stephen Ross is hosting a big fundraiser in the Hamptons for Donald Trump. Obviously this caused a great deal of consternation, as I don't believe you could find a group of people more primed to

be furious about this than the members of Equinox and SoulCycle, a group of very online, very liberal people who take a great deal of pride in having white opinions. And the consternation was swift. I think Equinox and SoulCycle were genuinely caught off guard. They were like, ah, this is a summer day. We were going to use one of the passes we get for working here to take a class. And of course, then they put out a statement.

SoulCycle puts out a statement saying, it's fine. This guy's just a passive investor. But he's not a passive investor. He's the guy that runs it. He's the boss. so they lied about it. I take his class. It's kind of intense. But I feel great afterwards.

Four stars. Yeah. Four stars. So there's some stuff in there that I'm like, wow, all right, sure. But so they lied about it because it because clearly a huge problem for them. And then obviously this guy, Stephen Ross, who is suddenly facing a firestorm, unlike any he's ever faced before, put out all these very interesting statements. One of which was basically, I don't support racism just because I support Donald Trump. And as everyone pointed out, like, well, you don't really get to pick and choose. And Andrew T., who's been on this show,

said we've reached the point in the discourse where people are describing themselves as purely a fiscal Nazi. And... Small government Nazi. Yeah, I'm just... Yeah, I'm a... I'm not a big government Nazi.

I'm not a racist Nazi. I'm a just... I just like their economic program. Or read it for the articles. Yeah. I think one thing that happens on social media is you see a lot of calls for boycotts all the time. You know, earlier in the week,

we saw people arguing about whether to cancel their New York Times subscription over a bad headline. I will say no more sentences about that because plenty were spilled. But I think this was a case of actually a good boycott because it was targeted for the right reasons and trying to send a message, which is a billionaire like this, he can live a life in which he can hold those contradictions without consequence. He is disconnected from enough of us and he is rich enough that he won't feel it. You can say something like, I'm not a racist. I just support Donald Trump.

I have a foundation that preaches diversity, but I support Donald Trump. It doesn't have to hurt him. But it seems like it can hurt enough of the businesses and others around him to send a really important message, which is that you don't get to participate in civic life. You don't get to pretend that you're okay, that you're good, that you're a responsible, upstanding member of society while funding Donald Trump's racist campaign. You are supporting racism. You are funding racism. You are funding the kind of ads that foment the kind of violence we've seen in the past week. And I feel like if enough people keep this pressure on, Equinox and SoulCycle,

including a lot of people who work there and who aren't part of this and don't deserve this, because it sends a message not only to this billionaire that he can't get away with this with his brand intact but it also sends a message I think to everybody around this person that says this person doesn't care about you he doesn't care about the people that work for him he doesn't care about the people that work with him he doesn't care about black people or brown people or queer people or women or marginalized people in this country he doesn't care he doesn't get to be treated as respectable anymore when you host a fundraiser for Donald Trump, you're participating

in something very, very vile. And I think that that's been a really good and important message and a good kind of boycott. So I'm really glad that a lot of people in LA are still participating in it because this is coming out on Saturday. And I actually think probably by the time you hear it, this fundraiser went off without a fucking hitch. Terrific. We should keep this pressure on. It's really important that these rich New Yorkers understand that they can't just treat Trump like normal, that this quid pro quo that says Trump gets the approval from the wealthy elite he's wanted his whole life, and you get to be a normal person while getting the tax cuts and deregulation and favors you're looking for without paying any consequence. It's so important that we send that message now that that is not the case.

So I'm really glad that in this case that this boycott is still happening. And I actually think, sadly for all the people, including, you know, liberal people that work at these institutions that don't deserve to pay a price for this, I think it's really important that this is happening. That's all I wanted to say. And that's our show. I want to thank Lori Penny, Alice Weddle, and Veronica Osario, Paul Scheer, Larry Wilmore, Taye D'Astinza, our fantastic intern, Nancy Pelosi, Jerry Nadler, Elon Omar, AOC. And John.

Let's thank all of them. Thank John. Don't forget John. And John. Thank you all. Have a great night. And check out Alice's special what network's it on

Amazon Prime August 23rd Amazon Prime August 23rd we plug it it counts it counts love it or leave it

it's love it or leave it it's love it or leave it it's love it or leave it it's love it or leave it it's love it or leave it it's love it or leave it it's love it or leave it love it or leave it is a product of Crooked Media. It is written and produced by me, John Lovett, Elisa Gutierrez, Lee Eisenberg,

plus our head writer and shabu-shabu enthusiast, Travis Hellig, and writers Jocelyn Kaufman, Alicia Carroll, and Peter Miller. Bill Lance is our editor, and Kyle Seglin is our sound engineer. Our theme song is written and performed by Sure Sure. Thanks to our designers, Jesse McClain and Jamie Skeel for creating and running all of our visuals,

which you can't see because this is a podcast. And to our digital producers, Nar Melkonian and Yale Freed for filming and editing video.