Lovett or Leave It - Prophets of Rage

Episode Date: September 2, 2017

Chuck D of Public Enemy and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine join Jon to talk about the soundtrack of the Resistance. Then Jake Fogelnest, Cord Jefferson, and Brittani Nichols break down the latest news on Houston, Mueller's investigation, and Trump's attacks on the media. And activist Rubi Martinez talks about the threat facing undocumented young people as Trump considers rescinding DACA. Other notes: Jon bleeps one Game of Thrones spoiler, so no worries there. And two sites mentioned today: houstonfoodbank.org and defendDACA.com.

Yeah. Do you guys hear me? I see a friend of the pod. I see a friend of the pod. I see a friend of the pod. Very good. Okay, I see you there. Thank you for calling my attention to the fact that you're here. How's everybody doing?

We have a very exciting show. It is great, as always, to be at the Improv. I have to remind you yet again that we'll be at the Now Hear This Festival on September 8th. NowHearThisFest.com. I want to get right to it. It's a very exciting show. I want to bring up our first two guests. One of our first guests said this about Prophets of Rage.

He said, we're not a supergroup. We're an elite task force of revolutionary musicians determined to confront this mountain of election year bullshit and confront it head on with Marshall Stacks blazing. Please welcome two of the members of Prophets of Rage, two music legends, from Rage Against the Machine, Tom Morello, and from Public Enemy, Chuck D. Thank you.

Thank you for being here. Thanks for having us. Well, all right. Thank you for catching me in post-rehearsal mode. I thought it was going to be in the other room. No, the smaller room, we don't. We normally would be there, but you guys are here. So the new album comes out on September 15th.

You guys form this group Now you started this during the election year Obviously it didn't work I'd say the jury's still out There was injustice before the Trump administration There's injustice during and there's likely going to be some afterwards There is however resistance before the Trump administration. There's injustice during, and there's likely going to be some afterwards. There is, however, resistance before the Trump administration. There's resistance during, and there will be resistance after.

And we are throwing our hats in the ring to be the soundtrack to that resistance. Yeah, and I think that's awesome. Look, you guys started this during the election because I think we all recognized that this was a special election, that there was something deeply disturbing, and maybe it played off a lot of problems and flaws that America had been dealing with a long time, but came together in sort of stark relief, and then Trump wins. What did you learn from the election, or did you learn anything from this election that you didn't know about America before? Well, we saw the ball of wax unraveling just with the parties. And the fact that it's a two-party system in the United States primarily throws you

into that little area of faux pas confusion. So what I thought the Democratic Party did with the Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton mess, really that showed a lot of people who just want change saying, well, fuck, what is going on here? And we saw it unravel when it turned into Trump versus Clinton and that even made profits of rage even more necessary because we knew a lot of people were confused about making choices.

So this man right here said, look, the situation in the world is not going to fix itself. So you got to get up and make those changes yourself. I don't know if that answered your question, but I'm tired. I think it did. One of the things you said about why you formed this band is that dangerous times demand dangerous music. What does it mean for music to be dangerous? Well, I mean, bad presidents make for great music. And also, there's never been a successful

or important social movement in our country that hasn't had a great soundtrack. Music can both reflect the times and aim to change the times. And that's what we've done throughout our entire careers. That's what we hope to do now in 2017. Yeah. So I don't know, do you guys, there's been a lot of talk in the last day or two about the woke VMAs that there's sort of, that they have the video music awards and everybody's sort of bending over backwards to be political. And I feel like a lot of people rolled their eyes because it's a bunch of artists getting up and saying, you know, this is what we're fighting for, and this is what we care about, but it

rings hollow. So what is the difference between political activism by musicians that's real and true and makes sense and makes a difference, versus kind of, I don't know. I wouldn't denigrate people who may not have had a history

of political convictions, because they feel a fear and anxiety about the times, trying to use the microphone for some good. Also, I don't think it's a responsibility. I think as an artist, you have one responsibility, and that's to be true to yourself and to your own convictions. If your convictions are about ass, then that's what you should write about. But if your convictions are about, you know, forging a narco-syndicalist society,

then you should write about that, too. Yeah, some people are just really politically passionate about ass. Just something they really care about. It's what drives them to the polls. And honestly, if we had made that the focal point of 2016,

I mean, it couldn't have turned out worse. Everybody got one. Perhaps that's the path to victory in the next election. You know, we've had a lot of conversations about the future of the Democratic Party, and this is the first time that the role of ass as an instrument of political change has come to our

attention and I think that speaks to our blind spots. You had nicknames and mascots you know, jackasses and elephants and shit like that. Well, that's funny. Ass is always funny. But I think that people not leaving their convictions behind in their vocation isn't... You all right, Chuck? Chuck just dropped the mic.

People don't leave your convictions behind in your vocation. I think that's what may have been. I didn't watch the VMAs. I wouldn't watch the VMAs. I mean, Game of Thrones finale was on. But what are you going to do? Yeah. Versus woke, you know.

I want you to know something. We're going to bleep that. That's going to be the one thing that we're going to bleep. It was speculative in case there might have been a something we're gonna bleep that that's gonna be the one thing that we're gonna bleep it was speculative in case there might have been a where were we uh so one of the things i think whether look obviously i think everybody in this room is resisting trump but i think trump speaks to a distrust and anger that I think was deeper than people realized. Do you disagree with that? Not at all. I, you know, last year we toured the United

States thoroughly and we went through the, you know, the heart of the United States of America. And I don't say America because people are not geographically inept, and so they throw America into these 50 disunited states. But we went across the United States, and we were in states and towns that totally were against what was happening as far as coastal preference and more liberal situations. And now traveling and looking at the conditions or looking at farmlands and we had a good cross section. Of course, people that came to the concert

are converted of saying, yeah, whatever you guys, let's get rageified and public enemy and Cyprus and yeah. But you also have to look outside of that. I mean, who's actually running the building? Who are the union leaders? What do they have on their bumper sticker? And there was a lot of non-Hillary bumper stickers. And we saw that.

So we saw a wave that was growing when people were surprised when the election happened and election night, we saw a brewing as early as 2015, which brought along the whole premise of this group, being able to have a voice in it. I come from Trump country, like small town Illinois,

and I just visited there a week ago, and there's Confederate flags on, you know, stickers and whatnot, and I, there are people that I knew growing up, and they're not bad people. They feel dicked over by the Republican Party, dicked over by the Democratic Party, dicked over by globalism. These towns are crumbling.

They're like these living versions of Bruce Springsteen song towns. The street where my family grew up, four of the houses have gone back to nature. You know what I mean? And so all they have, their kids either go into the army or they sell meth.

The moms are strippers or we work at Walmart. That's not the future that they hope for. And when someone comes along and says, it's the Mexicans' fault, it's the Muslims' fault, that's an easy out. And so one of the reasons why we formed this band comes along and says it's the Mexicans' fault, it's the Muslims' fault, that's an easy out. And so one of the reasons why we formed this band is to say that you are identifying the problem correctly, but Trump is not the solution to that problem. And one of the biggest impediments of that has been the Democratic Party, who has been

kissing corporate ass for so long that it's left its base behind, it's left the people of America behind, and it cleared the way for the Trump presidency. I couldn't believe fucking Mitt Romney looks so fucking good now. It's the weirdest thing. He's a shining pillar of liberalism. And I'm even thinking

finally about George W. And that guy, he's the... People showing pictures of George... That was a dick. Just, our standards have fallen so low. I mean, we just, we couldn't believe. We didn't know standards could get this low. Here's the challenge, though.

Here's the challenge for the resistance. You know, in the immediate aftermath of the election and the inauguration, there's the challenge, though. Here's the challenge for the resistance. In the immediate aftermath of the election and the inauguration, there's the women's march. There's the people occupying airports against the Muslim ban. And then the presidency devolved into this man-baby clown show that is entertaining TV. And everyone's... People who had never been politically active before

were organizing and having, like, my school, like, the moms are getting together and they're sharpening their pitchforks, right? But then they all sink back under the couch and watch the clown show on TV. And it's, the problem is that the policies are horrible, but the spectacle is engaging in a way that I think it makes it difficult to sort of corral the kind of resistance that we need to oust Trump. Not just oust him, but also create the kind of movement that's going to make a more decent and humane planet. That's your job out there in podcast land. And I like to just add to the fact, the older you get, you have perspective, which even makes you SMDH in your head you know even more so like when they say

he was trying to connect with the millennials sorry I made that shit up before texting it's called rap words but listen you shake your head with perspective because you cross over a

great swath of time called decades. And when I heard that Trump and his generals, for a quick moment, I was like, Trump, he's the owner of the USFL generals. No. His generals. The United

States. He's the president. What the fuck, man? So, you know, when United States, he's the president. What the fuck, man? So, you know, when you're old enough, you're like, wow, I can't, you know, Donald Trump. So Donald Trump rings all kinds of other bells with me. And the thing is, is that if you know exactly what seed that this situation or spectacle was born from, you cannot ever be silent. I don't care. You ain't got to be a

performing group. You don't have to be an NBA ball player. You don't have to be a comedian. If you're a damn adult sitting drinking coffee in the morning, you got to scream out your door like, this is fucking crazy. You know?

My last curse tonight. I hope not. What makes you hope? I curse well. Yeah, famously so. So, what else is there to say? What makes you hopeful right now I mean I'm hopeful because there is a welling up of resistance like I've never seen in my lifetime like when we formed

the band rage against the machine with our very very angry songs that was during the Bill Clinton administration you know and you know and now you you see you know the your Your song about NAFTA to this day resonates. Every song was about NAFTA in one way or another. But you do see young people standing up. And the willingness, I'll say the willingness in the last couple of weeks to be able to stand there in the streets and punch Nazis in the face gives me encouragement. to be able to stand there in the streets and punch Nazis in the face gives me encouragement. Okay.

We have an official nonviolent position because as a media company... I don't disagree. I don't disagree. What makes you hopeful right now? That there'll be another president my youngest daughter could mention after Trump. But we took, you know, a couple of years where she was able to understand.

She's six, my youngest daughter. She's starting to understand, oh, President Obama. So you've got to also teach your child the surroundings and, you know, the political scape or government or whatever. So who's the president? As I pick her up from school, Trump! Oh, cool, you didn't say president.

But you're hopeful that, and I've always been hopeful that people, USAers, I made've always been hopeful, that people, USAers, I made that one up too, USAers could extend beyond the borders and the waters

that the government bestows upon them and become more global and act locally. I think one of the drawbacks is that people who were born in the United States kind of hold on to it so tight in fear, in fear of the rest of the world. And propaganda kind of seeps into them very quickly. And hype and all this hysteria or hyperbole could seep into them and make them like, make these quick, impulsive decisions just so they could be less scared.

And I think when you're opening up yourself to the world, and now we've got devices in our pockets which can unite us or connect us into the worldwide web, then we should kind of figure out what's going on in the world and stop waiting for the news to tell us. Make a friend somewhere on the planet Earth, and not just the expected countries, but some of the countries where you could get the dialogue directly if they're able to also use the web in that particular country as well.

But I think I'm hopeful that people in the United States of America could unite with the planet Earth and not be alien to it. One last question on that score. I mean, fans of Rage Against the Machine, fans of Public Enemy, fans of Cypress Hill, those are different people. Do you see that when they come to the concert?

Is there kind of a meeting of people that didn't realize that they were on the same page? I don't know. It all works itself out in the mosh pit. You get in there, when you're throwing elbows down there, we're all one. No violence on the show, I guess. No, I like it. You said.

We played the 2.5 million people before our first record. And one thing, it's expected that, okay, there's people that came, like Cypress, Public Enemy, Rage Against the Machine. you know that okay there's people that came like cyprus public enemy rage against the machine but what we found especially in the last seven to eight months and especially in south america and europe and asia is that there's a 14 year old in front of you who's a fan of neither but they're a fan of prophets of rage and that is kind of boggling. And you're looking right at them. I mean, Tom sends us out to stadiums and,

go out there and do the hip-hop set. So you run like 500 yards in a stadium, and you've got to go directly with people, and they're 14 and 15, and they're part of a festival, but also in arenas, you're looking right at them, and they're like, yes, but also in arenas you're looking right at them and they're like yes we want something to speak to us now but we kind of want some knowledge and wisdom

and understanding from somebody that might have a little gray in them. We ain't taking too many of those old people but we will because y'all know how to jam on the stage and turn me out we'll accept that from you. Tell us something good.

So before we let you go, it is the nature of this show that we have to play some kind of a game. You have formed a super group, but that is a word you have disowned. And I picked it up. I like to use it. Chuck D likes supergroup, and that's good enough for me. I just don't use it around Tom. I say, we have a group. Just a group.

Superduper group. How about that? Superdupergroup. All right. Three questions on supergroups. Here we go. All right. You guys can take this. Here we go. All right. You guys can take this together.

In recent years, several super groups formed in the airline industry. These monopolistic, anti-consumer, sociopathic corporate giants formed when which of the following airlines merged into super groups? Was it A, U.S. Airways and American Airlines? B, United Airlines and Continental Airlines, C, Delta and Northwest, or D, all of the above? All of the above. I gotta tell you,

all six of them have lost my luggage, so... It's not so super. I'm gonna have to... You got it right. Number two. Many people felt this supergroup waited too long to add diversity, playing it safe and hiding behind immense popularity.

That changed when this member was added to the latest film of the Avengers. Was it... A, Storm, B, Black Panther, C, Luke Cage, or D, Barack Obama? Chuck and I are both fans of comics, but I have no idea. No, I'm not going to give him any credit to the new writers, but then again, I'm in Hollywood,

so I might get tackled by some director or something. I don't know. Maybe I'll say Barack Obama. I'm sorry. It's Black Panther. You're not going to win the parachute sheets. The 1990s saw the rise of a new super group that took the world by storm,

defeating Cuba by 79 points and then going on to win the gold medal against Venezuela at the Olympics. Name as many members of the 1992 Dream Team as you can. He knows their middle names. Do you know them or you got them on that paper?

I don't know them. So how do you know if I'm right or wrong? I have them on the card. The only reason I know them is because my father had a painting of the five starters, but they were babies. Let me... Yes, I've seen the babies.

All right. Before you say it, would anybody like to put any money on this one? Because I got Chuck. I got Chuck. No, no, I got Chuck. Anyone want to bet against Chuck on this one? So wait, is the new standard now you're going to name the mall? Can you name the mall? Or you now you're going to name the mall? Can you name the mall?

Or you think you're going to get close? Well, I'm old and senile, but I pretty much can. I'll put my head in the total recall. Okay, go, Chuck. Guards, right? Michael Jordan. You got John Stockton. Yep.

Yep. You all right? Honestly, I am not. You got Kristen Laidner. Mm-hmm. Okay, you got Charles Barkley. You got Patrick Ewing. I'm just putting my card down.

Put it down. David Robinson. Scottie Pippen. Magic Johnson. Larry Bird. You want more? Yes. Honestly, this is the most spiritual experience I've had.

Clyde Drexler. Okay, you want more? Yes. Chris Mullen. Yep. Okay, I mean... I'm just saying yes to you. You're in charge.

It's your show now. Let's go on with the show. saying yes to you. You're in charge. It's your show now. Let's go on with the show. We're gonna... Guys, I think it's fair to say that they've won the game Super Group. And I did...

And somehow, for the first time, I did lose. Thank you both so much. Now, we are going to close with a dramatic reading by Tom Morello we have put it in your hands to decide what you were going to read there was a debate upstairs it was between

Yates and Chaucer and Yates and he was going to feel you guys out I decided that a dramatic reading would be kind of a sell out move so I'd like to do a dramatic reading would be kind of a sell-out move, so I'd like to do a dramatic recitation of Geoffrey Chaucer. This is the prologue to The Canterbury Tales.

Van that April with the shore of Sota, the drogta of March hath perced to the rota, and bathed every vein in switch liqueur, of which vertu engendered is the floor. Von Zephyrus eek with his sweet abreath, inspired hath in every holt and heath, the smaller fowler making melodia,

and sleeping all night with open eye. So pricketh him nature in here corages, that longin' folk to goon on pilgrimages. That was a dramatic that longing folk to go on on pilgrimages. That was a dramatic recitation. Give it up for Tom Morello and Chuck D, Prophets of Rage.

Thank you so much for being here. When we come back, our panel. Please welcome our panel. She is a comedian and actor in Transparent, Take My Wife, and Suicide K.L. Please welcome Brittany Nichols. He is a writer for TV shows such as The Good Place and Master of None. Please welcome Cord Jefferson. And he is a writer and producer on Hulu's Difficult People and the executive producer of Corporate, coming soon to Comedy Central.

Please welcome Jake Fogelnest. Hey, bud. Hey. So three TV writers are supposed to follow Tom Morello and Chuck D? I mean, do what you can. I don't have an answer.

Just trying to lower the bar right away. I'll throw my support behind the Ask platform for 2020. Yeah, yeah. Chords on board for Ask 2020.

And I think that's great Brittany how are you? great Brittany's great says it all you know what I'm feeling very loose it's a musical legends on the stage

it's a lot now it's over I feel like I can finally breathe and start the show I mean like it's not really I don't take it personally but like I feel like I can finally breathe and start the show. It's not really... I don't take it personally, but I'm not intimidated now.

No! No! I don't take it personally. Sitting in the back, I was intimidated. I just... I just don't think you know what it's like to have Chuck D look at you with a look that says, how dare you suggest that you should check what I'm saying

on a card. And it's just something I'll think about for a while. All right. Let's get into it. What a week. So obviously it's a tragedy, but Hurricane Harvey has been what is in the news. At least 47 have died. About 42,000 Texans were in shelters.

Another 3,000 were in Louisiana. The hurricane brought more than 50 inches of rain. It's estimated that 30% of Harris County, where Houston is, is underwater. In some states, it takes years to have that much rainfall. This week, Donald Trump responded. He did tweet several times about the size of the hurricane. He announced his tax reform plan. He did not visit families.

He spent his time at Camp David. He pledged a million dollars of his own money, maybe. And then he did ask Congress for disaster relief. Look, obviously the Trump show is ongoing. No storm can contain it. By the way, also in the midst of all this, he pardoned Joe Arpaio, which was, of course, despicable.

What was it like for you guys to watch Donald Trump in the role of president during a major natural disaster? Did you take anything away from it? Did you learn anything about him? Were you surprised by anything? Well, I mean, I saw his tweets, which contained a lot of exclamation points

about the hurricane, so I just assumed, well, he's doing a good job. And then he plugged his friend's book. Yes, he did. He plugged his friend's book. Yes, he did. He plugged his friend's book in the middle of it. He did plug America's second most despicable ex-sheriff. Yeah. Which is Sheriff Clark.

No, I don't follow Donald Trump on Twitter because I'm just not a fan. I'm just not a fan. I try to curate my feed with people that I'm interested in. He's sort of unavoidable. Eventually somebody will retweet him. So it'll get to me.

But me personally, just not. I think the guy, I'll just say it, I think he's a chump and a bozo. And I'm sorry to use strong language, but that's how I feel. Look, I just, it's fine to say that. Okay. But

just remember that some kids do listen to Love It or Leave It because they find the song. So kids, if you hear that, don't repeat that at the dinner table. They like the song. Yeah. That's all there is to it. What I, you Yeah. What I did see, and I was talking to a court about this backstage, was

a lot of people coming together. you know, it was a lot of rain. It did a lot of damage. And people were stepping up, and it was kind of good to see, you know, despite this lunatic game show host who I feel directly responsible for being elected

just as a New Yorker in the 80s who laughed at him in Spy Magazine. And like, you know, just, oh, isn't this guy a blowhard? And if you were to ask me years ago, who's the blowhard that goes on David Letterman and Letterman makes fun of him that's going to end up president one day, I would have definitely said Harvey P. Carr. And instead it's Donald Trump. Deep cut. It is a deep cut.

I'm Jake Fogelness. I remain on brand. I'm Jake Fogelness. I remain on brand. I think that something that Jake pointed out is that the resilience of American people, despite all of the shit that we've gone through for the past several months and despite the past horrible few weeks

we've had in Charlottesville, to see it turn around from something that was so miserable and terrible for so many people to this week. It sucks that it took a national horrific tragedy that uprooted millions of people's lives to actually show some resilience and decency in America again. But I guess that's where we are in Trump's America. It takes an ungodly deluge to actually show people supporting one another again. Yeah.

What I took from that is that Trump has really solidified himself as a merch president. He is the merch. And honestly I respect it deeply. Yeah. No. Yeah. I don't know. The quality on that

hat is questionable. Yeah. I don't think he went through a bunch of different hats and landed on the one that he thought would meet the quality that his fans demand. Unlike some other people. I also think that this has been evidence of like,

look what happens when you appoint people who actually know how to do their fucking job, right? So this guy Brock Long actually is an emergency management expert. He's done it for years and years and that's who Trump put in the position. Like imagine if it was some shitty billionaire crony. Like imagine Betsy DeVos right now trying to run.

It's like Jared Kushner. It's like they added hurricanes to his portfolio. So he races back from Tel Aviv to run the ops center. He's like, I've never done this before. Can any of you loan me money? Because I also have a big problem

on Fifth Avenue I have to get to. I got a lot on my plate. I'm doing Mideast Peace. My company's underwater. I'm probably going to go to jail. And I don't know anything about the weather. The only thing Jared Kushner knows about the weather, he's maybe

heard the term Doppler 4000 before. And like any good Jew, he does feel a chill in the air. He is very very receptive and aware of chills. It's like if I... It's a bit much with the air conditioning.

Yeah, it's like... Can you get me a shawl? He needs a shawl. Well, no, and to Cord's point too, it's also just been a respite from the Trump show in the sense that this was a big national story that wasn't about what he's doing to divide the country. He could

distract and make a joke of it and mess it up the way he's going to do that, but at the same time, it's still a big story that doesn't center him, which I just think was sort of fascinating to remember a time in which we weren't

talking about New York's biggest asshole seven fucking days a week. But yes, just to close that out, obviously it's a terrible tragedy and we are urging people to support the Houston Food Bank. That has been my question, is

like, where do I donate? Because some people are like, oh, the Red Cross is bad. And it's like, did I accidentally give to a Kickstarter that's like a sex toy like that's a yeah both of those are in one of those is a a real problem I think they're both real problems

no so the Red Cross issue has been fascinating I think that it's very clear that you know I've sort of heard both sides of it which is which is that it does seem as though the Red Cross has some very big problems that they're not doing enough to address, that the board is not doing enough to address, but at the same time they are also

a big national organization that is better suited than virtually anyone to help besides the government in this kind of a disaster. But at the same time, so, you know, we're not denigrating the Red Cross, but a lot of people have pointed us to the Houston Food Bank. So you go to www.houstonfoodbank.org. And that's a local Houston organization that's going to, that has been helping people and then will continue to help people in the wake of this storm. So that's

what we're getting behind now. So let's, let's move on to our next topic which is russia uh what's up with those guys you remember russia it's a gdp the size of italy but very big footprint in our politics lately so the latest special counsel robert Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained a letter drafted by Trump and a top aide that he was going to use to fire James Comey that ultimately was not used.

And it was apparently written by Donald Trump and C-plus Santa Monica fascist Stephen Miller. Right. And it was apparently written at the Bedminton, Bedminton, who gives a shit? Donald Trump's golf course.

When it was raining. He literally got rained out of golf, was furious, and then obstructed justice. Which is incredible, but this is the world. So he drafts this letter that apparently was rambling and seems to have contained several crimes. It then went to McGahn, whose first name escapes me, and again, who cares, the White House counsel,

who said, you cannot send this letter. And that set in motion the events which led to rod rosenstein drafting the rationale which ultimately led to the firing of comey uh which seems to be central to whatever is going on related to the investigation of obstruction of justice. Also, news broke that Mueller is teaming up with the New York Attorney General in the Manafort probe, and the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit is now involved.

Again, we're breaking a lot of records. That is probably the first time the IRS Criminal Unit has been applauded at the improv. Which is something new that's happening. The thing that's exciting, right, is that the thing that I've read is

that the involvement of the Attorney General in New York is their attempt to, if they do bring charges, to avoid Trump being able to pardon people, right? That's very interesting. That's what I've read. Yeah, that's smart.

He can pardon federal crimes, but he can't pardon state crimes. Yeah, he can't pardon state crimes. Get him in New York. Come home, Trump. We have a room for you. So that, to me, is exciting. If they're getting their ducks in a row that way, that's incredible. So that to me is exciting.

If they're getting their ducks in a row that way, that's incredible. Because, I mean, if there's anybody who deserved to be charged with a crime and not get away with it, it's Joe Arpaio. I'm from Arizona, and that guy has been hell for that state for decades. And so he deserved everything that was coming to him. Despicable. It is reprehensible that he was pardoned. He was a criminal and guilty of sin and is still an awful human being.

At least I can live knowing that he's an awful human being, but I wish he was an awful human being who's still convicted of a crime. Maybe facing jail time. The pardoning of Joe Arpaio is so egregious, and again, it is the constant refrain of Donald Trump as president, which is it is this mix of animus, cruelty, racism, plus just brute incompetence.

Because there was no urgency to the pardoning of Joe Arpaio. He hadn't even been sentenced yet. It hadn't gone through any kind of review. It was capricious and done in the midst of a terrible storm, which he then claimed was to get ratings, which is obviously insane. But, you know, it's yet another reminder of just

how... And nobody was asking for it. Nobody wanted it. So just to finish out on the Russia stuff, we've been talking about this Russia thing for six months. Seems like every week brings some new revelation. Are we counting on it? Do we think that we can defeat Trump if this all turns to nothing? If Mueller ends up not bringing charges?

Do we feel as though we've spent too much time focusing on Russia, thinking about Russia all the time? Watergate took a couple years. It was years. The thing that keeps me going is it's insane to think that he hasn't even been in office for a year with all of the shit that we've been through.

I mean, every day is like a new trauma. It's hell. But the thing that keeps me going is realizing that Watergate took years and years. It's a slow trickle. I know we all wish that it would happen tomorrow and there would be, like, some smoking gun. smoking gun but i think what's good that something that's good about the slow trickle is that i think that means the investigative team is like getting their shit straight and like making sure that they're getting everything in order so that these fucking assholes can't weasel their way out of it on like a loophole hopefully that's what's keeping me going is like hopefully it's because there's

competent people working really hard to like make sure all sure all the I's are dotted and the T's are crossed before they lock everybody in jail. You saw Trump starting to tweet again, trying to attack James Comey about having done a draft of the letter about Hillary earlier than when he had the final interviews or whatever other bullshit. And you start to feel like they don't know, they don't, you know, going after Hillary Clinton, you know, going after Democrats, like there's access points there, right? Like Trump knows how to do that. But when it comes to like Comey,

remember he tried calling him a whack job and like Trump didn't keep, Trump is not afraid to repeat something till it sticks. And he didn't stick with that because he knows, he's got a good gut for this and he knows it doesn't work. It's like he doesn't have an access point for how to take down Robert Mueller. He doesn't – Donald Trump has this incredible innate ability to kind of find a weakness and just grab onto it. Lil Marco, low energy Jeb, crooked Hillary, whatever.

And you look at Robert Mueller, this sort of this upstanding you know it's like the 1950s like you know forged into like a suit and then a head

popped out and the head was like a World War II recruitment poster when we come back okay stop hey don't go anywhere there's more of Love It or Leave It 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 segment called OK Stop. Last week, Donald Trump once again went after the media. In this clip, Rich Lowry of the National Review talks to Fox News about how the media is serving the role of enemy for Donald Trump and his base. You know how OK Stop goes. We roll the clip. We pause it by saying OK Stop to talk about it.

Let's roll the clip. We pause it by saying, okay, stop to talk about it. Let's roll the clip. You write in Politico that the media are Trump's evil empire as in the Soviet Union days, and also in the wake of Charlottesville, his lifeline. How so? Yeah. Well, one, I just think the media has replaced the Soviet Union in effect as the common unifying enemy of every faction on the right. Okay, stop. That's true. And totally crazy.

That this is the unifying enemy that Donald Trump sort of recognized was something that brings together every facet of his base. I believe that Trump condemning the media and a lot of people on the right condemning the media is also a code word for saying you guys are a bunch of Jews. I think it's

anti-Semitism. I think it's hidden anti-Semitism. I think it's always been hidden anti-Semitism. The Jewish media is our enemy. And I think that that is something that goes unspoken a lot of the time when you hear shit like this. And so I think a lot of us sort of

I think I'll speak for myself. I was certainly lulled into thinking that Jewish people were basically white people in the United States of America. I really, I did believe that. I felt like, you know, the Judaism sort of had been so accepted. I'm Jewish and so was I. And I think that one of the more horrific things that has come about under President Trump is the fact that we see that actually anti-Semitism is alive and well in this country. And it seems like it's back and stronger than it's been in my lifetime, at least. like this that like the the media is as dangerous to us as the soviet union which is a fucking insane thing to say uh i can't help but hear like white people saying like the jews are the jews are out to get us yeah it's interesting i mean i think we also overlook uh the fact that a lot of these people don't even know what it is he's refuting. They're not actually reading the

New York Times article that he is then calling fake news. So there's no... How do you argue with someone who doesn't know what the argument is? Right. It's like a vaccine against the New York Times. No, I think that's right. Fox News did this poll this

week that asked people who's a greater threat to the United States, white supremacists or the media? That was an actual poll? Yes. What was the result? Yeah. Close. I'm afraid to ask.

No! It was close. And I think it was 75% of Trump supporters agreed that the media was more of a threat than white supremacists. Well, to them, obviously, yeah. But don't... Yeah, they're right. They're right. Do they not remember when Billy Joel went over to Russia

and played all that rock and roll music for people? Like, no? Did you stop watching things after like yes 1997 what i stopped after 97 because nothing's good basically the clintons came out they i saw them and they were singing don't stop thinking about tomorrow and i said oh we're okay and now i'm just waking up so you saw okay... Okay, I was like, what the fuck? There's Nazis in the street. I've been living in a liberal Jewish bubble

like John Travolta. Another old reference. Hold on a second. What bubble is John Travolta in the boy in the plastic bubble Jesus Jake it's an old TV movie are you joking

no look it up let's continue this clip about the media yeah yeah yeah whether it's conservative or a libertarian whether you're pro or anti-Trump, everyone considers the media, in effect, a domestic enemy. And Trump-

Does that include National Review, which is not exactly- Well, for some people, we don't- Not exactly. Okay, stop. We don't include ourselves as part of that media. Okay. But Trump has sort of a great EQ. He realized what excites people, what energizes people,

and he got onto this. Stop, stop, stop. Trump has a great EQ? Like he's got a good stereo system or something? An emotional quotient. Okay. Like IQ. I would disagree with that as well.

I don't think Trump has either a decent Sonos system in his house. Proud sponsor of Crooked Media. Or, I don't like to ever diagnose people because I'm not a medical doctor. What? Shocking, I know. But aren't we dealing with somebody with borderline personality disorder? I feel like the narcissism is bad and troubling,

but the fascism? Yes. It's like the narcissism, him begging for compliments, him constantly feeling aggrieved, him thinking the world revolves around him. That's a huge problem. Some people just give you the heebie-jeebies.

He literally turned to a group of pastors today and said, would any of you like to tell me how good a job I did on the hurricane? That happened today. That happened today. But the authoritarian impulse and that other piece of it

is the far more dangerous one. Oh, it's like, you know, if Trump had his way, it would be a dictatorship. I feel like we're constantly protected by his lack of discipline, short attention spans, and incompetence and stupidity, and slowly declining

mental state. Protected by his slowly declining mental state. I think that would make him more volatile. I think it's a high-risk scenario. I think that's a high risk scenario. I think that if he were as sharp as he were

earlier in his life, I think he could do a lot more damage. I think though, we're going to have to start talking about the fact that he's in decline and what that means. And obviously he is in charge of the most powerful and awesome military machine the world has ever assembled,

which is not ideal. Let's continue watching this clip about the media. And so I think the media is actually worse than it's ever been. And that helps Trump because it's his main foil. And clearly the more biased and hysterical it is, the easier it is for him to beat up on it. You made an observation about CNN and the tone of its coverage toward the president.

Yeah, well, CNN, they're clearly loving this, right? Trump hate-watches CNN, and CNN hate-covers Donald Trump, right? It's just, look, you know... And gooses its ratings. Yeah, in four hours and 32 minutes, tune in to hear Donald Trump, right? It's just, look, you know... And gooses its ratings. Yeah. In four hours and 32 minutes, tune in to hear Donald Trump attack us. And then for the next five hours,

we're going to say how outraged and dismayed we are that Donald Trump attacked us, and we're going to reap the benefits of higher ratings. Okay, stop. CNN doesn't exist to cover Trump, but does cover Trump because he's the president of the United States. Yeah. And also, who has time to hate watch in this era of peak TV

when there's so much good stuff to watch? Like, why doesn't Trump, like, check out something good, like Fleabag or something? You know? Like, turn off... Is that something new I don't know? That is a new show. That's new.

Fleabag is incredible. Fleabag's incredible. Fleabag's incredible. Fleabag's incredible. I'm learning a lot. I just thought it might have been something okay from 1993. No. But I will now give you a list of those things for the next 45 minutes. No.

No, but like, but I, that just, what he does is he stays up all night. He turns, he's like, what are they saying about me? And then he goes on Twitter like a high school, it's like, why does the president of the United States not have somebody saying,

like, hey, maybe it's time to put the screens down. The scariest thing that he said in that was that the media is the worst it's ever been,

which is an insane statement on its face's ever been. Which is an insane statement on its face. Why is it insane? Why? I agree, but why? Because I think that if you look at the New York Times and the Washington Post have been doing the Lord's work.

Those guys have been incredible this entire time. The thing that's frightening is this is how these assholes behave when they're under scrutiny constantly. Imagine if the journalists weren't doing their jobs. Like, what would they be doing? Imagine what would be going on if there weren't reporters on their ass every day checking in on what they're doing and hunting them down. Like, it's terrifying to imagine. checking in on what they're doing and hunting them down.

It's terrifying to imagine. And I think that anybody coming out and saying that the media is the worst it's ever been, that's crazy. Yeah, it's also a little bit like, this house is on fire, there are these people outside screaming the house is on fire, these two deserve each other. Social media is the worst that it's ever been. But that's not... That's been true of every day since its invention. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. But it's just gotten worse and worse. And, you know, I think about the internet. Like, when the internet was started, as I understand it, the internet was a way for people in the military to trade recipes with each other. And then it turned into all of this.

I think that's close. But when the internet started, it was hard to get on, and it was mostly nerds. You know, it was mostly nerds. And now we're all on it, you know? And I don't think there's a damn nerd in this room. I think you have to be,

and if there is, I'll bully you after the show. What was your name? Taylor's here. Taylor doesn't look like a nerd to me. She looks alright. He's a nuclear engineer. That's not a nerd. That's not a fucking nerd.

A nerd is like, fucking Dungeons and Dragons and let me write weird, mean shit to women online. He's a nuclear engineer. Exactly. I can't do that. I can barely do this right now.

When we come back, we're going to talk about DACA. Don't go anywhere. This is Love It or Leave It and there's more on the way. And we're back. Guys, please welcome to the stage from Dream Team LA. She's an Emmy-nominated producer for Univision and a recipient of DACA.

Please welcome Ruby Martinez. Ruby, thank you for being here. How are you doing? I'm great. Thank you so much for having me, for opening this space to come and talk about a very important issue. So before we get into sort of the politics of what's happening right now. Can you just tell us what DACA is and why it matters? Sure. So I am an undocumented immigrant. I have DACA. I'm under the DACA program. DACA program is, it's a two-year program that you apply to. It allows you to apply for a work permit and it protects you from being deported. You surrender all of your information to the government.

In exchange, you get some sort of protection, and you also get to work. And you pay to work, actually, so you pay a hefty fee, and you go through an extensive background check. And how old were you when you came to the U.S.? I was five. You were five years old? Yes. And so you've been here since you were five? Yes, correct.

And if you were to be deported, you'd be back to Mexico, is that right? That's correct. And do you have family there, home there? Do you have a life you could go there? Do you have any memories of being a child in Mexico? Rare memories. I do have family there. My immediate family is here. And I don't really know the place where I was born. I know the place where I grew up, which is Los Angeles, this is home.

So Donald Trump has said, you know, this is a hard issue. You know, I've heard for people like you who came here as children, America's the only home you've ever known. But at the same time, there have been leaks that he's going to rescind DACA, then they walk it back. How hard has it been this week to sort of have this in the balance, hanging over you? Wow.

Yeah, it's been tough emotionally, mentally. You have a person, you have leaks, you have media that says, well, he might rescind DACA, he might end it, and then, well, he probably wouldn't do it today. He'll do it tomorrow. Rumor had it that it would happen today. Now it's happening Tuesday. And people like me are just living, you know, just day by day, wondering if, you know, our livelihood is going, you know, to be cut off.

We have families that depend on us. And, you know, for us to be able to work and provide for those families. And so we don't know what the future holds, but it's a very important, you know, why DACA matters. You know, it gives us that ability to work. Like I said, families depend. Some families depend on DACA recipients to actually work and provide for their families. Some families depend on DACA recipients to actually work and provide for their families. The economy, there's billions of dollars that are generated in taxes that are generated by DACA recipients.

It would be a hit. Yeah. This is 700,000 people who came to the U.S. as children, went to school. A lot of times found out they were undocumented when they tried to apply for a job or apply for college, and whose lives hang in the balance. What would you say to somebody on the other side of this issue who says, we have laws in this country, you're here illegally, that it's sad and it's tragic, but we can't have a situation where we have open borders, and you're paying the price for the mistakes that your parents made or your family made but that's not that's not our fault we need to enforce our laws what do you say to somebody like that

first of all i say inform yourselves about the issue get to know people that are undocumented that are under the daca program a lot of people that are under d that are under the DACA program. A lot of people that are under DACA are lawyers, are doctors, teachers, former journalists that now turn to be an activist. And just get to know us. There's a negative narrative out there about immigrants and people of color. We need you to help us change the narrative,

to use your privilege, your ability to be able to vote, call your government representative. The easiest thing to do is go out and march and go to the rallies, call. I was just telling a friend that I've received so many messages, supportive messages on social media. That's

great, but if you're an ally and you care, you care about the issue, you care about your friends, your family, your colleagues, do something about it. Step forward and say, how can I help? And so I want to encourage everybody to go to defenddaca.com.

That's defenddaca.com. And you can find out more info about how to donate and how to help. This is the final push for this issue. You know, we've seen a bipartisan outcry against Trump rescinding this. It seems like this is a decision that's being made right now. We really don't know what's going to happen. So, Ruby Martinez, thank you so much for coming here. It's hard and it's brave for you to come

and step out and be an activist about an issue that affects you so personally. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Guys, give it up for Ruby Martinez. When we come back, too stupid to be true hey don't go anywhere there's more of love it or leave it coming up you know

Donald Trump has been talking about this stupid fucking wall for years and this is another reminder of like just the cruelty and incompetence of it because I don't want to build I don't want to waste money on a dumb wall also by the way we have tons of fencing and tons

of security along the southern border already but dude you want the fucking wall let these people stay make a proposal actually fucking do something like I just don't understand. Like, if you want, Donald Trump could have his wall

if he came out and said, I want border security. I want a wall. We will let the undocumented young people in this country stay because they're here by no fault of their own. And America is the only country they've ever known. And we will do humane immigration reform

that creates a path to legalization. He could have his wall. He could have his wall, and he could have a vote. And it is, again, like to what we were talking about earlier, the cruelty and incompetence of Trump. It is a mix of just knee-jerk racism plus absolutely no strategy whatsoever. So what's the end result? We're going to have this horrible DACA decision. We don't know what it's going to be

and all these lies hanging in the balance. Meanwhile, there's going to be endless fighting and maybe the government will be shut down over this stupid fucking wall. Anyway, Trump is a nightmare. That's it. I don't know what else to say. It's like...

Anyway, well, I guess we're back from break. Whatever. We do this show in a comedy club. It's so fucking cathartic, thank you. All right. Honestly, no. Because, like, and, you know,

there's a thing you hear a lot about, like, oh, oh, but isn't Trump great for comedy? You know what? Fuck, I'd rather just not have comedy. He's great for the worst comedians yeah for the worst comedians exactly just people making a whole living with just shooting arrows at the ground

yeah but to gather in a space that is about laughter and there is a tremendous amount of laughter in this room and what you do but it's also cathartic because I think for someone like me and for a lot of us, it's sort of like what the fuck do we do?

Like, what do we do now? And I do think you do need to fucking laugh about it sometimes because it's just so goddamn absurd. Yeah, gotta stay in it. You know? Can't be dispirited. Can't be happy warriors. I guess. Brittany, are be dispirited. No. Can't be happy warriors. I guess.

Brittany, are you a happy warrior? No. But you're great. Still great. Well, I mean, it's just it's always frustrating to sort of come into spaces like this and to see a majority of white people

feel like this has just become so insurmountable and something that is like drains on them every day and to like have that be like you know well you all were our fucking Trump like white people have been like Trump my entire life you know what I mean to be

like to say that like even just this like low bar of expectation for that we're now saying oh well conservatives are now clearing this bar and that's all they have to do to be a person of color in this country that is the bar like just if you don't call me the n-word was the bar that white people had to like clear to be fine in everyone's eyes for my entire life and so to sit here and to just like finally like be surrounded and like have i don't know white people just like wake the fuck up is is nice but it's also like sort of annoying to like, oh, God, we're still doing this? Like, yes, motherfucker, you are still doing this.

Yeah, there's no... It's like... Thank you so much for finally acknowledging your privilege. Like, there should be, like, a parade should be held or something. Like, it's ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, and I think it's, like, sort of giving people of color the right to even start to expect more of the people around them.

And that's like a weird responsibility that I think that I found is like, okay, now it might be okay to point out the 20 microaggressions that my friend just like perpetrated in the last three minutes. And so it's just, it's an interesting time to be alive. three minutes and so it's just it's an interesting time to be alone it is but look there's some value to a lot of things that were beneath the surface or in the wide open and i think a lot of people i think have come to recognize some truths about the way politics was being practiced that they didn't acknowledge or weren't being acknowledged apart because we went from having dog whistles to donald trump who just comes out and says it i mean i think you know one of the things that came out that they didn't acknowledge or weren't being acknowledged, in part because we went from having dog whistles to Donald Trump, who just comes out and says it. I mean, I think one of the things that came out after Charlottesville

was all these white supremacists being actually pretty surprised how willing Donald Trump was to say that some of them were very fine people, that they were not used to that. They were used to the more subtle kind of southern strategy. Now for a game called Too Stupid to be True. Beneath your chairs, you each have a card. Does somebody out there want to play Too Stupid to be True? Hey, Lisa, can you pick somebody and some merch?

Hey. Hi. Hi. What's your name? My name's Maddie Harris-Lowe. I. Hi. Hi. What's your name? My name's Maddie Harris-Lowe. I'm from South Carolina. So today we're going to be playing Too Stupid to Be True.

Hurricane Harvey is expected to bring 20 trillion gallons of water to Texas. Another storm, Irma, is now formed and we don't know where it's going to hit or if it'll hit at all, but it's also on its way. Obviously, even as we've been dealing with the immediate aftermath, a lot of people have been talking about climate change leading to more severe storms,

which has led to pushback by some on the right against this argument. Each of us has a quote about Harvey and climate change. Three of them are real. One of them is too stupid to be true. Maddie, it will be your job to figure out which one is the fake. Brittany, why don't you kick us off? People don't understand how vulnerable our coasts are. When you look at what happened in Florida in the 1940s, on the East Coast in the 1950s,

it's almost as if there was an atmospheric apocalypse going on with the way hurricanes were just running the coast. And they fell away for a while. They're coming back now. And of course now we have to counter this agenda that it's because of a magic CO2 dust fairy that's throwing stuff in the air that's making it all happen.

It's pretty stupid. It's very stupid. But is it too stupid to be true? Maddie, hold that thought. I'm holding. I'm holding. Cord, you're up. Here comes the Democrat blame game.

Good folks send blankets and cans, not politics. Global warming this, global warming that, while we've got people on roofs. Weather isn't about politics. Nobody cares if the fella in front of the map has a D or an R next to his name, except for liberals looking to score points when we've got folks on roofs. It's written roofs, by the way, not roofs.

I don't know the provenance of that quote. You know what you guys in the house are going to learn? That sometimes when you listen to the show, you'll hear people laugh and you won't know why. It's because I said something dumb and then fixed it. I was going to say, if somebody's listening at home and they're like, I got a big laugh? That's weird. It is weird sometimes. Rob it. All right.

All right. So we have people on roofs. We have the 1940s coming back. Jake, you're up. In the bizarro world of the climate change cultists, Harvey will be creatively spun to prove there are dire effects linked to

man-created climate change, a theory that is not proven by the available science. Facts do not get in the way of climate change alarmism, and we will continue to fight for the truth in the months and years to come. Fairly stupid.

Pretty stupid, but feels pretty real. Let's be honest about that one. Yeah. All right, last one from me. I don't believe Hurricane Harvey is God's punishment for Houston electing a lesbian mayor. Well, that part's smart.

But that is more credible than climate change. That part's not. I know yours is true, because I know that it came from the devilish mouth of Ann Coulter. Maddie's on the news. Okay, so you have three to choose from. You have facts don't stand in the way of climate. You have cords.

There are people on roofs. You have we've always had bad weather. You don't know how bad way of climate. You have cords. There are people on roofs. We've always had bad weather. You don't know how bad the hurricanes were in the 1940s. Which one do you believe is too stupid to be true? And I also want you to know that for the first time, I have a personal bet of $5, but you will be wrong

because people at the office felt that I needed some incentive to do a better job writing fake quotes because nobody had lost in quite some time. of the office felt that I needed some incentive to do a better job writing fake quotes. Because nobody had lost in quite some time. Well, I just really lucked out then. Oh, no. No, you lucked out. What do you think?

I'm going to go out on a very long limb and say that it's roofs. Maddie, you've won the game. You have won a gift card to Parachute Sheets. We talk about them all the time. People love them. They go crazy for them. And now you've won

them and you did a wonderful job. Thank you, Maddie. Thank you so much. Thank you to our panel for reading the quotes. When we come back, The Rant Wheel. And we're back. Now, for The Rant Wheel, you know how it works. We spin the wheel

and we just rant about the topics. That's it. This week on the wheel we have people describing themselves in their bios as foodies. We have the Lord of the Flies remake. We have the woke VMAs. We have Harriet Tubman on money

which has been put at risk this week. We have Secretary of Defense Mattis' speech about inspiration to troops. We have Joel Osteenis' speech about inspiration to troops. We have Joel Osteen, who's been in the news. We have Burning Man, and we have the pronunciation of LaCroix. Let's spin the wheel.

Wish you guys could see the face Court just gave me about that. It has landed on Burning Man. But it's pronounced LaCroix. Honestly, seeing how disappointed you were I'll tell you why. Hold on. I'll tell you why. Hold on. I'll tell you why. Hold on, hold on.

Do you want to do a Burning Man or LaCroix? LaCroix. Okay, we're going to... You know what? It's my show. By the power of... It landed on the pronunciation of LaCroix. So here is...

I drink a lot of sparkling water. I drink a lot of LaCroix. And I have had too many conversations in my life where I said, Hey, when you go to the fridge, could you give me a LaCroix? And some asshole goes, You mean LaCroix? And I go, No. Fucking name names right now. It is not.

It's not LaCroix. I am sick of everybody who took three years of French in high school or studied abroad in Montpellier and like trying to be snooty and like give me your... It's Lacroix. I can't believe you didn't know. If you go to the Lacroix website, lacroixwater.com,

it says specifically... Wait a second. In the FAQ section... Is this this paid thing? What are we dropping the website? Because I'm giving as much evidence as possible. I can back him up If you go to the FAQs on LaCroixWater.com

Which is always a cool thing to do It says LaCroix rhymes with enjoy Simple as that It's over There's no more debate about it If you ever hear somebody say LaCroix You can tell them they're being a snob

And that they're wrong Wrong snobs are the worst snobs. They are the worst. I will tell you, and Taylor knows what I'm talking about because he's a nuclear engineer. One of the stars of Star Trek The Next Generation was a man named Jonathan, and his last name was F-R-A-K-E-S.

And I thought his name was Jonathan Frakes, and I thought that for years. My friend Sam and I had a vigorous debate as to whether it was pronounced Jonathan Frakes or some other way. And this was a while ago, and it was actually hard to find somebody saying it on the Internet. It was hard to find the pronunciation.

But I was doomed by a very unfortunate fact, which is that Jonathan Frakes had a nickname whenever he directed, and his nickname was Two-Tackus Frakes. Because his name is Jonathan Frakes. Yes, yes.

That one was a little bit of a thinker. Let's spin it again. It has landed on the Lord of the Flies remake. I don't know if you saw this, but they announced that they're going to make Lord of the Flies, but and I don't know if you saw this, but they announced that they're going to make Lord of the Flies, but with an all-female cast, and I believe it's going to be written by men?

Yes, of course it is. So that seems like everything's good. Brittany, care to comment? Bad idea. Cord? Yeah, I mean, I think that it's, you you know I've been going to court for just cogent when I just just drop the ball and it's worked it's uh to me it seems that there is a problem in Hollywood of I think that if you are going to do an

all-girl Lord of the Fly remake that it makes sense to hire women to write that project. I think that it's pretty clear that that's what you should do. I think that Hollywood has a lot of problems, and I think that it is slowly getting better. I've worked with a lot of people who work

very hard to make sure that it's not getting better. I've worked with a lot of people. I will say that. I've worked with a lot of people. I will say that I personally have worked with a lot of people who have worked very hard to put diversity into writers' rooms and to hire diverse people. I'm not saying that it's across the board perfect, but I do think that this shit happens too much.

It happens too often that we say, yeah, we're going to do a woman's movie, and men are going to write it and direct it and produce it and everything, but it'll be pretty accurate. It's not surprising to me why projects, I'm not going to say this is going to be a failure, but why projects like this turn out poorly. I don't know if I'm remembering this correctly, because I did read this book a long time ago, but isn't the climax that they rape a pig?

I don't know. But I heard some people say yes. There are several literate people back there that were very enthusiastic about Tom Morello's Chaucer, so I trust them. Yeah, okay. I just feel like that's the moment where all of the toxic feel like that's like the the moment where you like all of the toxic masculinity

yeah that's like the big thing is like oh they're fucked they're like just doing the same shit regular society does so I'm not really sure how the most important point is going to then be translated how about a movie where people just talk to each other about stuff

you know what I mean and it's like got like a three million dollar budget How about a movie where people just talk to each other about stuff? You know what I mean? And it's got like a $3 million budget, and there's no superheroes in it, and it's just people having conversations. And they can play it at the Angelica Film Center. Is that still open? You know what I would like? I would like a movie about two gay guys who fall in love,

but the problem isn't 1950s homophobia or the Israeli-Palestine divide, but the problem is he owns an ice cream parlor. Right, right, yeah. He's from Baskin-Robbins, and that's the issue. Yeah. He's in Baskin-Robbins. One guy's ride or die Ben and Jerry's.

Yes. And it's just like, I don't like your hippie friends. Why is every, I just would like to see two gay people lead a movie where it's not homework. Is that so much to ask? Every time it's like, you know what I'm saying? I mean, this is a very opportune time for me to plug my movie, Suicide Kale, which is now on Amazon. Suicide Kale fulfills exactly what I'm talking about. He thinks he hasn't seen it.

I haven't seen it. But I have high hopes. Because I really like the vibe between me and Brittany on this stage. And so I'm pretty excited to watch it. Where is it? Vimeo Amazon and iTunes sweet Corey do you have

anything to plug? other than LaCroix.com the Good Place season 2 premieres I would probably be in trouble with my boss

if I didn't say the Good Place season 2 premieres I love the Good Place in September on NBC check it out and Master of None

season 2 is on Netflix right now. Court's crushing it. Jake. Oh, plug? You want to plug Season 1 of The Single Guy coming to NBC in 1995. The famous Teddy Z starring John Cryer and Alex Rocco is coming to CBS. John Cryer and Alex Rocco is coming to CBS.

No, Difficult People is on Hulu right now. And this week, very special guest star. No one's more relevant than, from the monkeys himself, Mr. Mickey Dolenz. Let's do one more. And then we'll call it Loose Night. I don't care. It has landed on foodie.

And I would like to talk about that. You want to talk about Joel Osteen? I can't believe that Joel Osteen, a mega church pastor who teaches the gospel of believe in your dreams and give me money. Did you see Tyler Perry? He gave him a quarter of a million dollars.

What? I don't understand that. I don't want to get to the bottom of that. They're old friends. I don't want to get to the bottom of that. They're old friends. I don't want to get to the bottom of it. I just remember Joel Osteen coming on after cartoons and feeling like I was getting sucked into the TV like in Poltergeist. It's effective.

I donated to the Lakewood Church. I still do. I'll tell you what my rant is. You people got to lay off my man Joel Osteen. I'm just kidding. But it landed on foodie, and I do wanna talk about that, which is, yeah, it is all right.

It is all right. It is all right that I'll talk about what the fuck I wanna talk about. You know who I hear is quite a foodie? Joel Osteen. The only reason I wanted to put foodie on there is it kills me when someone has a Twitter bio and they are limited to the number of things

that they can use to describe themselves and one of the key features they want to know, they want you to know about them as human beings is they enjoy the consuming of food. Something that 100% of us do to stay alive. You know, look, I love Breaking Bad, inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. I think it's dumb as hell.

I mean, I think it's a code word, because if someone says foodie, then you know they got disposable income. They got free time. They got friends to go eat with. Holy shit. Maybe it's just effective communication. You just blew this whole thing wide open.

Yeah. Brittany, are you a foodie? She's not. I'm not a foodie, but I do like food. As we all do. I want to thank our panel. Give it up for Brittany Nichols, Cord Jefferson, Jake Vogelness.

I want to thank Ruby Martinez, and I want to thank Tom Morello and Chuck D from Prophets of Rage. What a great show. Thank you for coming out. Good night. Good night. Respect it on all sides Love it or leave it It's love it or leave it Straight, straight, tight

Love it or leave it It's love it or leave it