Some More News - Even More News: Democrats Would Rather Criticize Hasan Piker Than Win

Episode Date: August 28, 2026

Hi. On today's episode, Daniel O'Brien joins Katy, Cody, and Jonathan to talk about the Democrats' obsession with condemning Hasan Piker despite most Democrats not knowing who he is. Plus, Mark Ruffalo, Darline Graham, the Dans Sullivan, and saying goodbye to Dolly Parton and Tim Curry.PATREON: https://patreon.com/somemorenewsMERCH: https://shop.somemorenews.comYOUTUBE MEMBERSHIP: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvlj0IzjSnNoduQF0l3VGng/join#HasanPiker #markruffalo #DanielObrienChapters:0:00 - Introduction/Hasan Piker Discourse18:02 - Mark Ruffalo Discourse31:54 - Election News43:34- Mourning the GOOD 80-Year-Olds.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hi, on today's episode, we talk about the Democrats' obsession with Hassan Piker, plus Mark Ruffalo, Darlene Graham, and saying goodbye to Dolly Parton and Tim Curry. Hi, hello, and welcome back to Even More News, the first and only news podcast. My name is Katie Stoll. Hello, Katie Stoll. I'm Cody Johnston, and that's the... end to that. Cody's back for everybody that was freaking out in the comments on Monday. Somehow Cody has returned.

Very excited for today's guest, friend of the show, senior writer for last week tonight, host of the podcast, quick question with Soren and Daniel. That's right, it is our friend, Daniel O'Brien. Hello, thank you so much for having me.

This is great. It's my favorite thing to do. I love to see my friends. And this is the only way we do it. Unfortunately, there's another thing that goes along with this. Yeah. It's not just seeing your friends. I'm so sorry. It is nice to see friends in our preferred way of hanging out via the internet in the Zoom room.

Don't worry, Jonathan's also here. That's true. Hi. My favorite voice in podcasting. I'm just at ease. I'm like Harry Lyme and the third man. You have to wait a little while and people are always talking. about me and then I show up and it's a great entrance.

Everyone knows what I'm talking about. Or a guy in the white suit in that Simpson's episode. Yeah. Waiting to do something and you know it's going to be good. Yes. And you know it's going to be cool when he says hi. Let's get started. Well, because Democrats have spent the whole week on this, I guess we should, too.

They're obsessed instead of attacking Donald Trump and all the awful stuff he's doing. they're condemning streamer Hassan Piker. Never stopped. They never stopped. Yeah, they're condemning his rhetoric as anti-Semitic and saying they're saying that he said that American Jews are bringing violence upon themselves because of Israel's actions, which is not what he's saying. If you listen to the clip or read what he said.

Not even a little bit what he said. He said, look, the anti-Zionist Jews in my community, you have a very tough job ahead of you, where you have to go back to your communities and try to get your elderly relatives to understand that this connection between Israel and Zionism that has expressed over and over again through a lot of these Jewish institutions is teaching people the idea that Jews are monolithic. And this is a dangerous, a very, look, it's a very dangerous mode of propaganda. And you want to know why? Because people don't fuck with Israel any longer. And if Jews in America keep putting this idea out there that they are singularly invested in Israel, eventually someone's going to come around and take action, not against the state of Israel, mind you, but against American Jews.

First thing I want to say, and look, I've said this the last time we felt compelled to talk about, we had to talk about this bullshit narrative, is that I do take issue with the way that Hassan Piker phrases a lot of things, not my cup of tea, person. can be crass. But where's the lie in the room here? You know? And so now we're in a position to defend. Obviously, people are misrepresenting what he has said in this.

So many times over and over again. Every fucking day. Every fucking day. Especially when some of the people banging the drums about how anti-Semitic he is have said the exact same thing or versions of it, which it is that conflating anti-Zionism. with anti-Semitism creates more anti-Semitism creates more violence

it's not that hard of a concept to wrap your mind around but I do think there's just a willful they don't want they don't want to be good faith about it they are just piling on and it and it's infuriating because you could ignore him what you have done is raise his profile even more

but they don't care that's what they want they want they would rather lose they would rather give the talk points to the conservatives and and let it lose. They don't want any element of the left, the real left, involved in the policy. Republicans would love to only talk about this person for the next months. Like, that's what they, that's what they've been doing. And just Democrats seem so good at just like letting them dictate the narrative and letting them dictate who they need to condemn and what they need to say in response to this.

But to your point, Katie, I'll just say some of the names of these people who have said, again, not as crassly. But the same thing who agree with Hassan about this. Neera Tanton, Dana Bash, James Carville, Ezra Klein, Destiny, the streamer. Like, all of these people agree with that sentiment. And Destiny, the concept. The concept of it. So it's just, it's just so obvious, like, you know, and there are things with many streamers, actually, that you can probably go like, well, don't say it like that or don't say that that's fucked up this that they are making this issue about

is not one of them this is a lie it's almost remarkable in um how delicate the language is in fact because i don't think i had seen the full statement until jonathan read it out and it's it's almost like it was focused group in a room to make sure it's like are we absolutely being 100% clear in a way that this can't be misconstrued it was like tamer language than he normally

uses as far as I know honestly yeah they're not even like ripping apart the statement as much as ripping apart their bad faith interpretation of the statement which again is nothing new yeah I think like if if he's not speaking extemporaneously

on a stream for seven hours you know, maybe he would have said, and if American Zionist groups in America keep putting this idea out there instead of saying, and if Jews in America keep putting this idea out there. Fair enough, fine. But like, we know what he meant.

The point that he's making is pretty clear that we are like increasing the likelihood of hate crimes against Jews in this country by doing the thing that the pro-Israel groups want, which is to say Israel equals American Jews. Right. And like, hey, you have a problem with what they're doing. Blame these people over here. And he said it. He's even said it more clearly and eloquently in the past before.

Like, it's not like a new, the first time he's talked about this. It's not the first time many of these other people have talked about it. Literally, Dana Bash made this point to Netanyahu's face. Here's Dan Abash who has been criticizing Hassan Piker all week. And a lying about him in other ways, which we, man. American Jews in Congress who support Israel and support what you just said. say that a lot of the actions by you and your government are making Jews in the United States unsafe. Congresswoman Haley Stevens, she's running for Senate in Michigan, said Benjamin Netanyahu

has made us less safe. He has frankly put Jews in an uncomfortable position across the country. Have you? Well, it's made. I don't need to hear this fucking prick talk. I don't give him shit about this fucking guy's answer. But good point, Dana Bash. and good point, Haley Stevens.

Like, who's like the other, like, the whole, it's all swirling around. It's just very clear what's going on. This sort of attempt to conflate these things and create these enemies that you can, like, condemn and tie, you know, Abdul Sayed to all these ideas that he's never said out loud. He's never said them. He doesn't think them. He's out there trying to talk about important issues. And everyone was like, well, how much do you condemn this? How much do you condemn this thing that nobody actually says?

said. And it's that. And it's also tying all of this to like DSA and trying to make it seem like, well, actually, MAGA and the DSA are the same thing. Actually, socialists and democratic socialists in America are as bad as Nazis. And that's absurd. Oh, he's like the Nick Fuentes of the left. Nick Fuentes is a Nazi. And also, we don't need to play the clip yesterday, I think, on Fuentes' his stream, he did a little rant about like how anti-Semitic Hassan is being and like, oh, it's so disgusting how he's comedic he is. And it's like if the

lying Nazi is participating in this, maybe there's a little bad faith going on in this entire conversation. Like maybe there are

other goals and intentions behind this entire project. And it's just really, really frustrating that we have to fucking talk about it. There's also one

side thing that as a dopey, liberal, lefty, I find very humiliating. is like Piker Piker is

the target that the right found because they needed someone to pin all of their fears and their anger on and they got this guy who is not running for anything. Right. And it's not like they loved when they had Obama

as their boogeyman. And they love they really made so much hay out of AOC. to get people riled up. And now they're going to Piker with like the tenuous connection of who he's campaigning with so they could say like, this is the guy who is speaking for DSA, who is speaking for the left. And like, isn't this a dangerous, like horrible liberal monster? And it's like, man, they need to go pretty.

I know he's very popular. But in terms of impact on the electorate, they need to go pretty. deep down the list to find someone to be the boogeyman because Democrats just don't have anyone with any juice and it's so humiliating that they can't get anyone, it's like, all right, we can't

people aren't scared of AOC anymore and everyone learned that Mamdani is fucking cool and hot so we can't use him. Who else do we, like, who is the most popular Democratic politician that we can like use as our as our big scary guys? Like, flip through the page, like, nope, skip, skip, skip.

Yeah, they landed on a guy that 60% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters had never heard of him. But you know what? They have no. That's what's also so wild, just a refusal to learn any lessons. We just watch it happen. You don't, first off, canceling someone or whatever you think you're trying to do by raise. It doesn't work. It tends to not work.

It strengthens them and raises their profile. Or gets them a job at the daily wire. The more we scream about him and we have to, we can't just ignore it, the more oxygen you get. Joe Rogan, how did that work when you were trying to get Joe Rogan polar, you know? It just doesn't fucking work, but they know that. It doesn't matter. Raise, elevate his profile, let him be the boogeyman. Again, because they want to lose.

They don't want leftists to win. they would be fine with the Democrats winning the Senate. I'm sure that's what they want, but they would rather defeat the left flank of the party than take the Senate because they're like, we'll get the house and it'll be fine. And we'd rather have El Sayed lose and be able to defeat this groundswell that's happening in the Democratic Party. Yeah, they need to tamp down on what is happening. There's a poll, I think, I forget who showed. Maybe it was Karnacki.

I don't know. But like 30 to 40 percent of Democrats are. are now like identifying as like democratic socialists. Obviously it skews young, younger, but like it's not only younger people. And it's very clear that like they feel like they have lost a bit of control over this, all these narratives that they want. And obviously Israel, Gaza is like a part of that too. But, you know, Fox News goes out every week and it's like, this is what the Democrats want.

And it's like free daycare, free health care. Like it's all this amazing stuff. And so they need somebody. usually a non-white person to target, to tie all of their boogeymen together into one figure that they can make Democrats talk about for a week and a half now. It's so absurd. I know that we keep saying a week and a half because it has been a week and a half of constant. That's the trending topic.

But it has been months and months and months of this. This isn't fun for us. We'd rather talk about how the jackass is naming Lake America. and he doesn't care about people's groceries or whatever. And he's like, and the beef, and the beef, my God, the beef. The beef. Like, come on. Where's the beef?

It's in Argentina. It got sent back. 30,000 tons of it or whatever. Where are the horses, though? Where are the horses? Got to watch Merivistown to find out. I real quick want to make the point that I think it's real cynical and evil to use American Jews as like.

you're like holding everyone hostage right you're you're saying like oh i'm i'm this like big defender but you have to like they're using the discomfort that a lot of american jews you know especially jews who have supported israel for decades are going through this cognitive dissonance right now they're like is what i have always like practiced and believed supporting this right it's using that discomfort that they should be experiencing against them to be like, no, no, no, no, no. These guys are wrong and you don't have to worry about it because they're anti-Semitic, right?

Like, you don't have to think about what they're saying anymore. You don't have to engage with it because it's just anti-Semitic. It's the same bit that, like, Jerry Seinfeld did 30 years ago. The pasta is al dente or the hamburger's overcooked. The chef's an anti-Semite, you know? Yeah, but that's not how he sounds. Do the voice. Do the voice.

Do the voice. Dead silence. but like so so senator corey booker said suggesting that jewish americans bear responsibility for hatred or violence directed against them is wrong dangerous and anti-semitic i agree it's not what he said that's the thing like all these condemnations all of them are like i disagree with this thing that nobody said so take that the person who didn't say it it's just absurd um every single one of these statements like all of these statements are saying a thing that's like yeah that of course is true.

Hakeem Jeffries, the malicious claim that American Jews are inviting violence against themselves is dangerous and anti-Semitic. Correct. Not what he said.

He said that that is bad. He said it's bad. He said that that's bad. And the latest, of course, we spent some time on Monday, Jonathan and I, talking about John Ossif. And then today,

we wake up to the news, John Ossif has now joined in the chorus of people to a degree. To a degree. So here's the thing about the Asoff thing, too. And like, you know, it's apparently 2028 already.

So we got to talk about all this sort of stuff. But Asov's statement doesn't even specify Hassan. He's, yeah, that's true. It's the vague statement that nobody said, that he's condemning. But a lot of these other ones, like, I know like Bookers and all these other ones are like,

I condemn this person for saying this. And it's, it reads to me as like a calculation of like, want to talk about this either, although there are some people who are actually out there being like, stop asking me about this. Stop asking me about this thing. It does not matter. It doesn't matter. Stop asking.

Like, we're talking about how to afford stuff. We're talking about, like, ending this fucking war that on day one we blew up a fucking school full of girls. Like, what are we talking about this? And we know why, but. The thing is nobody, like, it's not like Hassan wanted the tree of life mass shooting to happen. Like, are you kidding?

No one actually believes that. like of course I think some I think Fred Gutenberg does hate crimes against like Jewish groups synagogues

it's like a real thing it's bad we don't want it to happen and what is the thing that's going to encourage it more that's like the discussion we're having and we can disagree about what

encourages that kind of thing more I would argue the white supremacist conspiracy theories spread by like Elon Musk and the mass shooters what they write that's like the most responsible. So like Democrats can have this debate, but we're not even having that debate because

we're just playing along with it. You didn't just playing along. You didn't see what he said. This is what he said. I don't know. It's like so frustrating to talk about this stuff with anybody because it's so bad faith. And like I'm not saying like everybody who agrees with me is operating a good faith or whatever. But it's just like what do you like how do you not see what's going on? AOC is a is a DSA member. Mom Dani is a DSA member. Are these your fucking enemies? Are they as bad as Donald Trump, what are you talking about? Or are they the most popular Democrats in the country? Exactly.

The most popular. Yeah, that's what makes them their enemy more than Donald Trump, I guess. Mark Ruffalo is also a raging anti-Semite. I just want to make sure we're all clear. Hassan Piker, not. Mark Ruffalo, fuck that guy. Yeah, I'm glad we're transitioning to that. I don't mean it.

He's a real cute too. It's just like, it's just this same pattern of, of, he made the state. and then everyone's like, look at this anti-Semite, Mark Ruffalo, and it's like, that's not what he fucking said. Let me read what he said, I guess, real quick. So he shared a clip from a couple of years ago with this woman, Safra Katz, who is an executive vice chair of Oracle and a Paramount board member, right? Ellison's own all this stuff now.

And in that, she's asked about, like, hey, how is Oracle supporting Israel post-October 7th? and she's like, I can't really go into detail, but she highlights profoundly scary technology that Oracle had shared with the Israeli military, like highlighting the connection there. So Mark Ruffalo writes, this is the company that Larry Ellison is using to fund his son David's Warner Brothers acquisition.

These really profoundly scary technologies, quoting her, will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you. Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle.

And then Paramount put together a chat GPT statement. Wait, hang on. Sorry, you didn't get to the part where he said the super anti-Semitic things. Oh. That's right. He didn't because he was like, the money ghouls who own me and he did a little goblin dancing. He showed the bank scene from Harry Potter.

Yeah, that the whole really showed up. He showed all the Jewish gods. Robblins from Harry Potter, which is still in there. You can go watch it on HBO Max. Still available, yeah. Those are still there. Wild, if you go, don't go watch it. Don't help.

It is, yeah. Wild. Something else. Let's talk about it. Okay. So then Paramount puts together this chat GPT statement that says, in part, words like genocide and apartheid applied to a corporate transaction aren't just wrong. They're a bridge too far.

And they cheapen very real suffering those words are meant to describe. That's not what he said. He didn't say the Warner Brothers acquisition is the genocide and that it's the Jews. What? He didn't say any of that. It's such a bummer. I mean, like, the, the obviousness of it is, is the bummer. But it just, it feels it's a rerun of the Piker thing.

And it's a rerun of, I know you guys talked about with Natalie in the last episode. But it's when you see people going on TV and saying, like even, even Democrats, saying, I disagree with what Asaf said. I think it was too far. I disagree with what Mark Ruffalo said or Piker said, whatever it is. They will often, they condemn it, and then they pivot to, but it's not as bad as what Donald Trump said. Here's X, Y, Z, here's his list of things.

I think that's the wrong thing to say. I do feel like, especially with the With Natalie thing, I wanted one of those dopes to get on TV and say, like, what did he say? I can't like, because right now, the people on the right are saying it's, it's atrocious, it's disgusting, it's grotesque, it's repulsive. And the people on the left are saying, yeah, it is, but it's not as bad as what Trump said. They're like, no, no, no, no, no. Make Newt Gingrich say what Assoff said that was so repulsive.

Make fucking David Axelrod say what Asaf said that was a bridge too far for him. Get someone on TV to say, like, what is the, what is the, instead of like dancing around it, Why don't you say what is the part of Mark Ruffalo's statement that you thought was too far? What is the part that scans as anti-Semitic to you? And then we can talk about it. But it seems like it's a conversation, it's a, not even a conversation, a debate being held by a bunch of people who either didn't read the statement or read it and don't care about it and would rather have this different argument. and I just want one moderator in one of these fucking clown shows to be like, here's what he said literally.

That's the only, those are the only tools you're allowed to use. Those are the only toys you can play with in this debate. And I think the reason that we don't do that is obvious because if we did that, then there would be no room to play. There'd be nothing. There'd be no scary. There's no show. Forts to build.

Yeah, there's no show. Because what he said is, you know, I'm an actor and I don't really want. want this version to go through. Yeah. But like, yeah, but you get Scott Jennings to talk about it and he's going to make stuff up

and he's going to like make all these implications without actually reading the quote and explaining what's wrong with it because it's his job to not do that. And there are so many people around those kinds of people that are also like, their job is to let them do that. Yeah. And it's just like, it's just such a grotesque display. I think they should,

um, when asked about it, say, I haven't seen that I haven't heard the statement I'm very busy I have because then you are you're doing two things at once

and it doesn't matter and nobody cares and we'll move on to the next thing and it's like why do I have to deal with this I haven't seen it I'm you know I got a lot going on I don't read everything

that the president the Mark Ruffalo says yeah what did Mark Ruffalo say where did he give a speech at a campaign event no no no no no sorry this wasn't Mark Ruffalo didn't give a speech campaign event he posted on Instagram oh yeah no I didn't see that I'm a senator of like a state I

I can't I'm trying to bring prices down and help out the American people young people can't buy homes I'm not going through Mark Ruffalo's Instagram I don't follow him on Instagram I stopped after end game I don't really you know I'm sorry I mean like I wanted to give she Hulk attorney at law a chance and I know Ruffalo was in there but it was like I don't know this is like too much like I don't know the tone didn't quite fit with what I was expecting even Marvel doesn't want to doesn't want to acknowledge that that happened. And I was Taddyana. Yeah, done.

He has a son. Daddy Guggenheim did a great turn on them. She-Hulk. Oh, she's so great. Yeah, great people in it. I love mom. My friend wrote that episode. It's a weird move.

Shout out Melissa. Hey, I don't want anyone to feel bad about anything. I saw the whole show. I'm just doing an extended bit. Everyone. Because like what you were talking about, like the sort of method of like, I don't know what you're talking about. That like that is the

Obviously that's the Republican move With anything Donald Trump says But and like Not enough journalists do this Because the move is if you're a journalist To say what do you think about this And then a Republican says I don't know I didn't see it

And then you have it and you show it And you read it to them And it's abhorrent Because he's a fucking disgusting monster But the reverse of that Is a journalist going Do you condemn what John Offsuff said? What did he say?

Well I mean it wasn't so bad So actually I can't actually read it to you because I know it's not bad. Like it just that dynamic is different. It is so true they go to Mike Johnson and they're like, hey, did you hear the president said the N word at church today? And he's like, I didn't really see that. I'm very busy. And no one's like, you didn't see what the president said. No matter how busy you are, he's the president. All right, Mike, I guess you're busy. I mean, I do. But meanwhile, no one is allowed to say they didn't see Mark Ruffalo's Instagram. Yeah, it's gone. I tried to find it to show it, but it's like it expires, I guess.

It expires. You can't. Oh, right, because it's a story, yeah. Shout out to our queen, Mercer Tomei for defending him today as well. Oh, really? I just want to say a lot of people are, yeah, Mercer Tomey. A lot of people are not. And it's like pretty disappointing to see, like, nobody be like, what are you talking about? Mark, you're awesome. But Marcia Tomei came out today in his defense. John Cusack, Jane Fonda and Hannah Eindner, Binder, Binder. I expect all Those are all unsurprising names

She's so fucking cool She is so fucking cool And I just got to acknowledge That Ben Shapiro tried to Say that She's less Jewish or not really Jewish And I will venture to say That is really anti-Semitic

It's just like that's the thing he does And it's fascinating that people are still Like fine with like I'm Ben Shapiro And I've got a list of the good Jews And I've got a list of the bad Jews Not a list I wouldn't make a list

but like I have said the names and labeled them so if one were to want to make a list that one list was good the list in the movie's good but all the other lists made were bad I really because we gotta move on and I feel bad but this Ben thing this Ben thing

because you know Judaism is like it's a religion and like if you're Christian and then you're like I don't believe in this stuff anymore you're like not a Christian anymore but Judaism's also like you know you look at my 23 and me unmistakable It's like this guy is Jewish.

As Jewish as it gets, sorry, he's like in, he's in this. So, and, you know, Ben Shapiro, like, agrees with that, right? Like, he's on the level there. But you kind of can't have it both ways if you're saying that if you disagree with me on this thing, you're not Jewish anymore. Because, okay, fine. Like, I don't practice the religion, so I'm not Jewish. I don't, you can't do that, Ben. You don't get to decide Ben.

He can and does because of his feelings. No. Facts don't care about your feelings, but they do care about his feelings. I know we don't want to talk about Mark Ruffalo anymore, but again, sifting through all the noise and all like the stupid clownery of it all, it is like, it's a really, really rich, I think pretty nice, but like really rich actor. who's like, hey, I don't want this giant media merger to happen. I think it would be bad for the industry, which is like a thing that a lot of people are saying right now. It's such a, it's a pretty milk toast thing to say.

It really is. It's also like personally think it's going to have a massive impact on my industry, on our industry, on media in the country. But it's like such a. Such a bird's eye kind of thing, you know, like, like when it enters the news cycle, it becomes Mark Ruffalo, marvels Mark Ruffalo did an anti-Semitic thing. When is Captain America going to condemn the Hulk for being an anti-Semit? It's like, let's just like strip that away and just remind ourselves that it's like a guy talking

about a media merger that he doesn't want to happen. He's not doing anything on a college campus. He's not doing anything in a school or at a synagogue or at a church. he is just like, uh, I think this merger would be bad for the entertainment industry as do a lot of workers

and experts. And, uh, if that doesn't convince enough people, also here's this other weird fucking scary thing that the, this crazy family has been involved in. Just another like, here's another,

a list of, another tick for the, the cons side of the pros and cons list of the media merger. He's not saying like, well, here we go again. More Jews running media conglomerates. Didn't say that. He's like, this company is directly supporting the genocide.

He's talking about material facts that are real in the world. And it's just so, and then the company and this family is able to be like, well, you're just anti-Semitic. And therefore we have to do the merger because the Hulk is anti-Semitic. So stupid. Tweet, tweet, tweet, chirp, chirp, my little chickadee's. We've got a bird. nest full of movie worms to feed you beak to beak, courtesy of the old sap suckers down at Pluto TV. It's all free. Save your quarters for the slot machines because we've got hot TV shows and movies taking flight,

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We're going to get all of them. We're going to get all of them. We're going to get all of them. A Federman. All of them. Federman proof majority in the Senate. It's going to be great. All of them.

Florida, Angie Nixon, all the way. She's going all the way. It's going to be great. The clip, we don't need to watch it. This is old now. This is while we are still on vacation. But the clip of her at the debate last week. I think it rules.

I think it's fucking awesome. Let's watch it on. Just in case people haven't seen it. But it is a treat. Senator, our top. Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States? If so, why? I'm sorry, could you repeat the question?

Are Taiwan and the South China Sea national security issues for the United States, and if so, why or how? I'm just going to be honest here. I'm not on national security. I'm not that informed on national security, but I do support the military. My brother was in the Air Force for 30. years. So I will do

everything I can to support the military. My dad was in the army. I'm not a polished politician up here. National security is not my thing. Not my area of expertise. But I do support the military. God. I love a good. The fucking landing so hard.

It's so... The three second silence there where she's like, now what? I already did the hard part. I don't know. Shit about shit. I am a current US senator. You can almost hear... I'm going to do whatever my brother ghosts tells me to do. Her debate team prep which is like, and if you, if no matter what,

if you, like, really, I don't want you to pull this rip cord, but if you have to, I love the troops. It's, everyone's going to see through it. It's so corny and so fucking stupid. If you have nothing to say, I love the troops is always the way to end a sentence. That's beautiful, remarkable. But she won.

Good for her. despite or because of that stellar performance. Trump said vote for her. That was the primary. She is going up against. Who is she going up against Annie Andrews? She's a Democrat running. She's already lost.

Annie Andrews has already lost once to Nancy Mace. So I don't know that we can hope for Annie to pull this one through South Carolina. Is this a D plus 40 environment? Maybe. All of them. all of them all of them call my shot

all of them all of them you gotta have optimism you gotta have a heart um you gotta have heart Alaska primary I just want to mention it because I really didn't know much about it

but I giggled the multiple Dan Sullivan there's three Dan Sullivan seven this up really when the third one comes into the bin you're like I didn't expect that yeah I was like this is

It's a freaking joke. So in there, it's a nonpartisan primary. So the top four vote getters in the Senate primary go on to the general. We already knew the top two Democrat Mary Peltola got like 49%. So she's already like the front runner in Alaska. And then the incumbent, this guy, Dan Sullivan, got 42% of the vote. And then we just found out yesterday that the guy who's going to get third place and be in the general is another guy named Dan Sullivan. and they list him as Dan J. Sullivan or Daniel Sullivan Jr.

They've got to figure this out. Well, he's a former U.S. Forest Service worker. He's like a Republican but has like criticized Trump and the incumbent and there's been this suspicion like so is this intentional you're trying to screw us by just getting people with the same as many Dan Sullivan as possible because he got like three percent like enough to like if there's two Dan Sullivan's on the ballot. in November, is that going to be enough to throw it to Peltolla? But he's like, nope, I care about this.

And then there's a third Dan Sullivan, the former mayor of Anchorage, Alaska. It's like what your name has to be to be a politician. In Alaska. In Alaska, post-Palin. And he's like, I encourage people to vote for Dan Sullivan, the incumbent, not the other one. And they've just done a bad job, I guess. This is such a clown show. It's so awesome.

Daniel. I love it so much. I love. And like, you dispensed the information in the way that I feel like most of us received it as news consumers, where it was like, there's a Dan Sullivan and he's bad and he's running. And then there's a, at the 11 o'clock hour, another Dan Sullivan. And there's all these fun conspiracy theories like, is he there to spoil the ticket with too many Dan Sullivan's? And then when Mayor of Anchorage, Dan Sullivan comes in, it's like, okay, the picture is getting clearer. Alaska has a Dan Sullivan problem. Tell me Dan Sullivan's, are there?

This is an issue that we should address in a proposition on the ballot. Maybe they should put that on their platform. And we're going to, when one of the Dan Sullivan's gets in, we will deal with the Dan Sullivan. Well, everyone else has to change their name after that. But there has to have been a conversation. But I guess it's insulting. Like, I don't want to all of a sudden have to go by Kathleen because there's another Katie stole on the show. But that's said.

On this show? No, just insane. Like, let's say we brought in another. KDS, K-D-S, K-A-Sol, and then another K-E-Sol, and this one just spelled at K-A-T-I-E, not K-A-T-Y, still effectively the same name. We'd have to deal with that. We would. But nobody wants to touch it.

Nobody wants to be the one like, yeah, call me Dan Boy. Or, yeah, I'm Danny now. Sully. I know that you would hate it. Yeah, they're all like, he's the one who sucks. Why should I have to change my name? Exactly. He's the one who sucks.

You know what? There's so many people named Daniel or Dan just in Alaska. There should be an attempt. by political party to find multiple people in the state that have the same name of whoever your opponent is and convince them to run. It's like, oh, we got to go against Senator Kyle Bransky. We're calling all the Kyle Branskys in Ohio.

You're running now. Have you ever been interested in politics? And then one of them becomes an internet sensation. Hilarity ensues. Ow, I feel good. Warrant writes itself. There's that voice we all. Maybe they can just sort of like one week on, one week off.

Like each Dan gets a week and then the fourth is like a wild card week or like everybody gets a week off. I don't know. There's something. There's something that can be done because I feel like there's going to be so many people who thought they were voting for a different Dan Sullivan. They absolutely are voting for like how, how will, how is it possible that some people are going to, some people are going to do that. And then some people are like, I already voted for that guy for mayor. What? Like Florida was an.

issue in 2000, this is going to be an issue. Some people will have trouble with this. Honestly, this is an argument for running Donald Trump Jr. in 2028, even though it would seem like he had the worst chance. Like, he's got a name. People get in there would be like, oh, he is great. He's back. Oh, great. I guess they changed it.

He died in that satellite on the way to the moon or whatever. He got all excited about going to the moon. Remember that? That was a wild week where he's like, I'm going, I'm naming it after me. I feel like he would hate or he would like reject that I feel like Trump would be like he's not he's not

he would not he says stupid like yeah he disrespects Elon so much and like he's just think it's all stupid and just like deeply and curious right he's like hey Mr. President you want to go to space there's only like six people who are allowed to go to space and he's like nah fuck it what's up there but he does talk about how grass is alive

like people sure he does say that a lot right so maybe I don't know No. What a interesting guy? It gets very like connected to nature sometimes where he's just like grasses just like us and we're all flowing around and we'll become stardust and that'll become the grass at one point. You know what that is though? Lion King?

The dying. Oh yeah. The dying. That's the dying talking. It might be. It is the lion. He watched the Lion King. That is the quiet introspection post Lion King.

I, I, it's interesting. I do, I think the dying is a big part of it. A lot of this, I feel like we heard a lot more from him after his COVID scare a few years ago where he was like really if the if the reports are that he believed he was really like I'm gonna die today and I and I and what if hell is real? What if hell is real? Yeah like Stan Chera of all people. Since then there's been a lot more from him in the direction of like legacy and what comes

after but he he he did some some playboy interview a hundred years ago or Howard Stern or something like some when he was slal. less guarded in his talks. I remember the interview stuck with me because it was about like favorite foods and favorite movies and favorite songs and like the idea of of this Trump having favorite anything. Like it's like a piece of media that he connects to. And it's like I like this. I think it was really good. That seems so foreign, the idea that he would like enjoy something. And and you know, some of it like, oh, you'll hear Donald Trump loves bloodsport where it's like sure. I don't think he loves

Bloodsport. I think that's like a thing that he'll say to own people. But at the time he was saying his favorite movie was West Side Story and how he loved that so much. And his favorite his favorite song was that Is That All There Is Song? Is That All There Is That All There Is Like

The song that for a long time I thought was fake And made up for The Simpsons And eventually found out that it was real. Yeah. I mean I Yes, that song I can't know that Cody. I can't know if that's what. The one. And it was just a song about, like, it's the most fucking Scroogey and thing you've ever come across where the rich guy is like, and then I heard this song about how you can get a whole

lot of stuff and then still be sad. And for reasons I'll never investigate, that song seemed to resonate with me. It was just like, like an unguarded, very real Trump moment. Forgive me, I forgot how I started on this. Oh, just about him like. He likes it stuff. Nearing death and, like, wanting to go to the moon

or perhaps, yeah, feeling a kinship with grass for whatever reason. There's that old clip of him talking about Citizen Kane and he like got it. He gets it. He's like talking about Citizen Kane

the way you don't think he would talk about it today. We'd be like, he loved the sled and, you know, he likes this because he loved the snow or whatever. Yeah, it's like actually his childhood and actually

it's like a representation. Spoiler alert for Citizen Kane. It's lost. But he seems to be. but he seemed to get it. He has this, like, lucidity about existence that he just decides to shove down every time he says a word or takes an action.

It's really funny that he knows he's old, and he's going to die, and he's lived a bad life, and there's nothing afterwards, and, like, you can't buy happiness. And he's still just like, well, the train's not going to change direction. And you're just going to keep doing it. The lake is named America. That's it. Yeah.

That's what I'm choosing it's been today. It's been decided. This is how I am and who I am. We, and I do mean we all collectively, lost a very real one. A couple real ones this week. Dolly Parton and Tim Curry. I feel bad for Tim in that he is being a bit overshadowed by Dolly.

But Dolly is just... Like Farah Fawcett. Farah Fawcett died of him. few hours before Michael Jackson. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. You're 100% right.

I'll be honest, I thought she was still alive. I thought you were telling me she died today. And I was like, you're right. I did not. I did not know that. Poor Farah. Years, years and years. People have heard the last couple days all of the, you know,

tons of stories about Dolly Parton, everyone is out there sharing their stories. But what an incredible person who has been a lifelong advocate. of goodness. I'll just say goodness, but an ally of the LJETQ community. Always giving out free books? 300 million books. I mean, just such a simple

and also not simple, but profound way to help shape children's lives to help offer support such a fundamental thing, especially with the backdrop of what we've been seeing with book bands across this country. And it is just a profound loss. Everyone is feeling it. But you can also just see how good she was in all the interviews that are surfacing all of her funny quips.

Even so Eminem shared a letter that she sent him on the Internet today, which was really touching. She's like, we haven't met, but I just want to say, I respect you. I respect you. I don't know much about rap, but I know that you're real good at it. and I just see your heart and you're moving people. I wanted to say, keep going. Dolly Parton is who you would use as a hack comedy writer if you needed to present a person that everyone would love.

If your joke required solve for X, and X is someone uncontroversially, indisputably beloved for the purposes of a joke, Dolly Parton is the person who goes in there. Because you could say like maybe Beyonce fills that, but there are some people who don't like Beyonce for some less than surprising reasons. But Dolly Parton is like, if you're doing a run of jokes where it's like, it's one of those things that everyone agrees on, like puppies are good and water is nice. And Dolly Parton should be blah, blah, blah, you know, president or whatever the thing is. That was just like across, I think the comedy writing industry.

Henry Winkler, I also consider in that bucket of two beloved to hate. But there are very few. And fewer and fewer these days. I mean, obviously many people have been pointing out the irony that both Dolly and Tim Curry were 80 years old. There's someone else who's 80 years old that we don't like as much. Who is obviously contemplating his own death lately. Right.

Another 80-year-old who was in Home Alone 2 that we don't like as much. And, you know, obviously these things are completely random. And Dolly Parton and Tim Curry's lives had nothing to do with. this other person's life, but it does feel like a kind of cosmic gut punch. Also, Peter Cullen today. I also died today. Mr. President did, I believe, tweet that she really liked him? He was on with American hero Glenn Beck talking about, I don't know, talking to an AI, George Washington or something. And Trump said to Glenn Beck that Dolly Parton loved. Oh, perfect.

She liked me. Excellent. Let's listen to him live about stuff. We all knew her so well. I knew a little bit. She wasn't a very political person. Sorry, wait, posit. I'm sorry. Sorry. We all knew her so well.

That's true. Everyone of us. I knew her a little bit. I knew her a little bit. Yeah. And she wasn't a very political person. I guess maybe you could make that argument in that she's not weighing in into the bullshit on Twitter. Yeah.

She never publicly said that he sucks. But she absolutely is a political person, just given the things we've already stated. I just like, I can't handle sometimes his like, like, there's the way he's just always like the most exaggerated thing you could possibly say coupled with the least exaggerated thing you could possibly say. And here's obviously in this one, this is one of the ones where he's on the phone because he doesn't have Zoom or something. So he just calls into shows that aren't calling shows. We all knew her so well. I knew a little bit. she wasn't a very political person.

She really liked me, I will tell you, but she also wanted to say very, you know, she was of the opinion, you know, the 50% who needs to lose? I don't think it's 50. I think it's probably 20% of the fans, okay, not 50, but she was a great person and she was just

a nice person. I like her a lot. And I thought it was a natural thing to lower the flags. What's he talking about? He's saying that that Dolly would say, guess he's putting words in her mouth that like well 50% of my fans are democrats and 50% of my fans are Republicans. I don't want to offend them. And he's like no, no, no, 80% were Republicans,

20% are Democrats. They wouldn't like, Dolly. Whatever. It's so tough. You get to be, Jonathan, you're so good at quickly decoding what he's saying because you just have to understand even if the assignment is a tribute to Dolly Parton, you still have to account for the fact that he's going to make it about himself and that he is going to to boost his own numbers artificially in the process. It's so many extra steps when he wants to say that he wants to say the Michael Jordan thing about Dolly Parton that Republicans buy shoes too. He wants to say that Dolly Parton didn't want to alienate half her audience, half the country, but he can't, he can't admit that half of the country might like, might not like him. It has to be that that idea is wrong,

that is flawed. And all of it needs to come out of his mouth at kind of the same time. And you still need to be able to see through. It's like, okay, this is, I think what he's trying to say. But all the words are rushing out at once. It's such a short clip too. Like he does it so fast. I know.

I cut it off at like 20 seconds and it goes on for 27 seconds. And it's like, well, he said so much in there. Well, because he also cuts himself off at one point. Because he says like, oh, she's also such a wonderful perp and then he stops himself. He's like, I can't quite say that. Yeah. And then he'll be like, why, you know, he's talking about like he lowered the flags and he's making up that some people didn't expect him to lower the flags. But he goes like, well, I lower.

They didn't think I'd lower. I go, why not? Of course. It's what you do. Like, he just goes through it so quickly. You have to know so much information in advance to be like, I know what he's talking about. Glenn might. His listeners might.

I did like that Glenn laughed at him saying, she liked me a lot. She liked me. They all know. I will tell you. Republicans did cut funding to her program. Yes, that is an important thing to note. Like this week. So Brett Stays don't want kids to get books.

No, they don't. I do, I will, my own biases. And like, I love Jolly Parton. My brothers and I in our band used to play 9 to 5 just because it's a song that fucking rocks and it's really fun to play. You learn about yourself in moments like this when you see that Dali Parton dies. And there's a lot of people on Blue Sky and in my group. chats who are like, no, how could this happen? And I'm, I'm sad too, but I'm also like, she's 80 years old. That's how this happens. And then Tim Curry dies and I'm like,

how does this happen? Well, it is weird that it happens. It's like one after the other. Back to back. It is time to wrap this program up. I wanted to at least briefly mention mail and ballots, but I think we will be talking about that more probably next week. This is moving. It's got to move quickly, right? We don't have time, folks. For now, you're going to get them, but tomorrow, that's where we are. I just didn't want to pretend like that wasn't. There's so much going on at any moment in time.

But, yeah, we're aware of this. We're watching this. I'm sure this will be a conversation very soon. Next, we'll be talking about more real news that we should be talked about instead of, like, the Secret Service thing. I am very curious to tug on the thread of that. story because that seems like stuff stuff is starting to trickle out that there's like some high profile um either suspensions or resignations the secret service misconduct stuff yeah and and

i don't think we were we were hearing about that until it happened there wasn't like that there's a lot of stuff that happens in this in this administration where it's like yeah i saw that coming we kind of knew that it was only matter time but then this secret service thing seemed like it came out of nowhere and happened very quickly, and I'm very invested and very curious. But I'm not going to be here on the show to talk about it. We're live streaming again next week, folks. Next Tuesday, September 1st. That's right.

We are barreling down hard on September, just a few months shy of the end of the year. Bear down for September. I don't understand how this happens. But I do know how live streams happen, and I'm going to make sure it has. happens next Tuesday, September 1st. Put it in your calendar now because for some reason it seems hard to get reminders on the YouTube. At 9 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Pacific.

So either stay up late or eat dinner with us. Us. Eat your late dinner with us. Your late East Coast dinner on Newsday. Newsday Tuesday, Tuesday. See you on Newsday Tuesday. Daniel, such a treat hanging out with our old friend. that's such a blast

I'm glad I got the Mark Ruffalo stuff and not the mail-in voting stuff I think I got a fun end Well that's a better fit for this vibe this group Tell our listeners and viewers Where they can find you Or anything you want to plug specifically The podcast, quick question with Soren and Daniel

We are on YouTube as well as everywhere That you get podcasts. It's a lot of fun We hardly ever talk about the news Although we did today in today's episode That we just recorded You can find me on Blue Sky I post there every once in a while Under my name Daniel O'Brien I have a substack that you can Google substack Daniel O'Brien

I once a month send book recommendations And that's it that's the whole substack So if you like books That's where you can get them I like books and I want more people to read And I'm on substack because I haven't Looked into it as a platform yet So I don't know all the stuff that you're mad at me about

And I won't I never will. He refuses, folks. It's just for books. Check out. All of that stuff. They have anti-AI detectors on there so people aren't doing scammy stuff. That's good.

Like and subscribe. If you haven't already, leave a comment. It helps the algorithm. I hate saying this all the time, but it seems to be helpful because sometimes people just say, comment for algorithm. Yeah, they do. And again, next Tuesday. We should stop saving it for the end. One of these days, it's going to be at the very beginning.

It's going to be at the very beginning and it'll be so effective. Whatever. And, yeah, again, next Tuesday, September 1st. We're going to be partying. No, we're not. We'll be talking news. Maybe a little bit of partying. All right, that's it.

Get out of here. Except for this one. We love you very much. Us, much, much, much, much. Thank you.