Some More News - Revolution in Iran, Midterm Motivations, and EVEN MORE Prime Ministers Resigning

Episode Date: October 21, 2022

Hi. Actor and comedian Payam Banifaz (@pbani on Instagram) joins Katy and Cody to talk about the ongoing movement in Iran and why people outside of Iran should continue to pay attention and show their support. They also talk about the arrests of voters by Ron DeSantis' election police, where we're at less than three weeks from the midterms, and the resignation of U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss. Check out Payam's video about Iran on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CjRRfk_pnT7/ Support us on our PATREON: http://patreon.com/somemorenews Check out our MERCH STORE: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/somemorenews?ref_id=9949 SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh Please fill out our SURVEY: https://kastmedia.com/survey/ Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here - Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA?si=5keGjCe5SxejFN1XkQlZ3w&dl_branch=1 Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/even-more-news  Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews  Try the sheets that will make fall the coziest season of the year. Get 15% off your first set of sheets and free shipping when you use promo code MORENEWS at https://www.bollandbranch.com/?utm_so... Get to the root of stress with the Stress See Bee Dee Complex from NextEvo Naturals. For up to 25% off subscription orders of $40 or more, use promo code MORENEWS at NextEvo.com. Protect yourself with the VPN that we use and trust. Use our link https://EXPRESSVPN.com/MORENEWS today and get an extra three months free on a one-year package. Support the show!: http://patreon.com.com/somemorenewsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello and welcome back to even more news, the first and only news podcast. My name is Katie Stoll. My name is Cody Johnston. And everything you just said, Everything I just said is true and more. Joining us today is actor and comedian Payam Banifaz. Hi. Hi. How are you?

Hi. Thank you for having me, folks. We're thrilled to have you. First things first on this show, we got to shout out some holidays uh today october 20th this is a fun one get to know your customers day everybody just okay let us know what you like i reject the idea that they are our customers they are not our customers I do not approve of that viewpoint of the relationship between our audience. Between someone who listens to a podcast or watches a YouTube channel. I don't know.

I mean, I know what you mean, but I reject it. I'm just making a stretch here. But yeah, let us know. We've got a complaint box. However, if you're listening to this after today,'s closed oh yeah this is the day for it yeah you had your chance we won't get to know you anymore we've had it we've had it for years you just gotta save it till next october 20th and wait it's also national youth confidence day i thought that said at first national Youth Conference Day, which sounded a little like

Nazi-ish to me, but like, you know, not the youth. It's not. I was going to say like, yeah, very Turning Point USA type of like, like they paid for that day. Yeah, it did. But it's not. It's youth confidence. And I think that's, I got no jokes about that.

Yeah. Go out there. Live your life. Be confident in whatever it is. Unless it's bad. Don't do that. So. Yeah, don't do that. I wonder who like sets these up.

Like, is there like some agency that's just basically like, okay, today's going to be this day. I'm so glad you asked. I do it. I do it for the show. Nice. I make them up so we got something to start the show with. Hey, there are National Today calendars. There seems to be people that work for this website.

And there's multiple websites that aggregate the holidays. I don't know what it takes to make a holiday. I don't know why it keeps happening. I don't know who pays for the website. What's the purpose? Google AdSense probably, right? Google AdSense pays for it? I don't know who pays for the website what's the purpose google adsense probably right google adsense pays for it i don't know who's commissioned it if any of you listeners know the answer to this we would love to hear it i feel like it's probably just like a like a website registration type of situation like yeah i want to pay 10 bucks and now i got this day

like for example but people put work on sunday on sunday october 23rd that's slap your annoying co-worker day which i will not participate in but like that's nothing that's not a day nobody can't slap your annoying co-worker on a sunday exactly i mean it's a it's considered uh assault any day of the week yeah that's that's a really good point. And I don't have any annoying co-workers. And none of us are in person, so you can't slap your annoying co-workers any day. Okay. Or you could do one of these

things where I put a little hand up on Zoom. I forgot how to do that. There we go. Oh, there we go. That's a clap. Yeah, you're slapping. I always thought that was a double-handed clap yeah you're slapping i always thought that was a double-handed uh slap you're just slapping your other hand yeah oh boy hi um thank you so much

for joining us today um i discovered you you're welcome no i on instagram i, we're going to talk about the specific video that you posted about what's going on in Iran and it was shared everywhere. But first we're going to, we're going to get to know you a little bit. I saw that video and then I saw other videos and you're very funny and talented. And then happily Jonathan also knew who you were. So way back way back to where to UCB oh yeah the other a long time when we kind of came up in the whole indie improv comedy scene and just yeah that's cool was once a once a flirt I mean maybe still is a flourishing indie improv scene. Oh, is it? But it has changed and evolved over time. It certainly has changed. I think pandemic had a huge part in that.

But it's still kind of flourishing because I noticed post-pandemic, especially in L.A., I heard in New York is a little bit like this, too, where it's like people really want to see live comedy. Yeah, yeah. And are like walking to even the smallest theaters for like the smallest shows and we never saw that be pandemic pandemic so hard to sell out improv shows um didn't they close the second ucb location they did they sold it i believe yeah also because before the pandemic there were issues with like paying performers and stuff too right where like that you do you're doing all these you're paying for all these classes and you're

doing all these free shows yeah i mean i think it was more like a symbolic thing like i don't think anyone was trying to make money off improv but it was kind of like makes no sense that like we're technically the products and you're not paying us so like now that the theaters all these theaters are paying people it's very small amount but it's more i think symbolic of like hey here is exactly yeah we value what you do and everything you've put so much work into exactly and you're i mean honestly by the time you're regularly performing high quality performers entertain entertainers, you know, there's a service that that's not just art, it's work. So it is important. But I mentioned your Instagram. And I just want to shout out your very funny Persian dad series. It's wonderful. I did wonder, how does your dad

feel about depiction? He loves it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah yeah my whole family loves it I think that like my dad never took it personal I don't think he ever took it as like oh that's how I am exactly and it's not that character is just like a very heightened version of a lot of different Iranian dads that I've known in my life uh some of it is my dad some of it isn't but definitely it's very highly exaggerated yeah for comedic purposes yeah sure sure i think though there is enough truth in it where it's like a lot of especially iranian americans and iranians that are like in the diaspora certainly relate to it because i think uh if you're i think anybody who's from a different country and like lives in a western country where they had to learn how to speak english and stuff

can relate to that kind of things because it's there's always like the duality of having two cultures like in my home we had two cultures there's the iranian culture and the american culture that we live in and so a lot of things start after a while blending into each other. Yeah. I feel like that's what you, when we call it, when we say something's Americanized, that's really what I think we're talking about where it's like your native culture and your new native culture where, where you're living become entwined. And I think in the beginning, it's a little hard to like balance that but the longer you live in the country and get used to it the more you just sort of take what you want and leave what you don't want culturally speaking yeah

it's very beautiful actually that i'm not trying to think of a big word and i'm not finding it sometimes i surprise myself and i'm able to fill in the big word not right now you're like on your way to like yeah but it's it's gone and now i've made it weird but i i have to imagine that this is i mean it's obviously funny and it's a great outlet for you as a performer but i'm sure that you get a lot of other iranian american people saying like this is me this is my family yeah yeah and people it's iranian americans have been incredibly supportive to me. I started doing these videos during the pandemic because there, you know, there was no shows, there was no auditions, there was no way of like having any kind of like creative outlet.

So I just kind of started doing them during the pandemic, just because for that reason, and also like being an Iranian and like, I always complained about how there's no there's very little uh Middle Eastern representation in the entertainment industry as a whole so I was like well let me make these like little videos so that like it's mainly for like non-Iranians to see it and whatnot but I didn't think that I guess I just didn't foresee Iranians I I don't know for some reason I didn't think that they would sort of be as attracted to it as people have and like be, you know, and support it to the level. Yeah.

So it was a really nice, cool surprise. The internet can be cool and surprising sometimes in a very different way. I feel that with our show, we were like, oh, people find this found a home, but there's a sincerity to it. People since like, even in the, you're making something funny, but there's a sincere love of being seen and seeing your values or how you were raised, you know, reflected. I guess that's kind of how it is these days. It's like you can't plan something to become successful online. You just have to kind of do this thing you like and you believe in. And like, after a while, people will find it if it's if you're consistent with it. And you're like, it's from your own truth. And you're being yourself. But I imagine the same thing with you all. It's like you're just doing your thing. You're not trying to impress anybody. And then people find that. And I think they gravitate towards that. I'm desperate to impress everyone here. Just so you know, it doesn't apply to me. Well, you nailed it. I wanted to talk to you about that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, that comes off. Everyone can everyone can sense that. This guy is so funny, so talented, so charismatic. But why is he trying so fast i was impressed and then i realized how much you wanted and then i felt bad and i was like well i'm less impressed now this is getting actually two reels yeah none of it's true jonathan at all this is a great time for an ad break probably thank goodnessoll here. Boy, I just love the fall.

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or just to relax. Ears need to relax. I mean, look at them. They look ridiculous. So get to the root of stress with the Stress CBD Complex from NextEvo Naturals. For up to 25% off subscription orders of $50 or more, use promo code MORENEWS at NextEvo.com. That's N-E-X-T-E-V-O dot com, promo code MORENEWS. Ears. So, I already mentioned that a few weeks ago you posted a video to Instagram talking about the protest movement in Iran and asking people in the comedy community and entertainment industry to speak up, to stand up in solidarity and it went viral i would assume i mean it did it was everywhere what was the yeah like how was that response i'll start

response to that video how was that people were overwhelmingly supportive and nice and um you know the main reason i just wanted to make that video was because I wanted to basically just reach out. And my whole goal is like ever since the about it's been about like five weeks now that these these these revolutions started in Iran. I call it a revolution. At first we're calling protests, but now it's really like a full blown revolution. It's really happening right under our nose. it's really like a full-blown revolution it's really happening right under our nose and uh so my goal was to is i wanted non-iranians to start finding out about it because very few people were speaking out and i for me i i knew that it wasn't about people not caring it was about people didn't know enough about it when people aren't comfortable speaking out about something,

especially in another country that they're not knowledgeable about. So my goal with the video was like, hey, let me make this video. So for my non-Iranian friends, peers, associates, constituents, whoever, to like, just to see what's going on. And then once they see what's going on, I knew that people would start supporting. I think the Middle East in general, especially Iran is a kind of a mystery to people in the West. Americans just don't understand enough about it.

The media hasn't done a great job of sort of giving details about the culture of the country, the politics and whatnot. So I think that's kind of what the issue was, really, was people just didn't have enough knowledge about it and I made the video because I wanted you know my hope was that a lot of my friends in comedy would see it whoever platform and share it and then someone else will see then share and whatnot it was a really emotional video my intention really wasn't that I think it I was just so tired and emotionally burnt out by the time I made that video so the thing is I constantly have people in Iran reach out to me and they're telling me firsthand, like, what's happening.

They're sending me pictures. They're sending me voice notes and whatnot. So I know in great detail what is happening. And I'm seeing a lot of pictures, a lot of images that, like, I wouldn't be able to share because they were getting taken down because it's extremely violent. And I think just sort of seeing all those pictures and then just being just tired,

not having slept in days kind of properly because it was all on my mind. I kind of just, I would say had kind of a breakdown in that video. And it really wasn't my intention because I don't like to bear myself like that on social media. It's just not my style. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just not my style. There's nothing wrong with it. It's just not my style.

But I couldn't help it. And then once I did that video, I talked to some other people, like other Iranian American performers who I trust their judgment. They felt like I should definitely post that even though I wasn't, even though I was a little uncomfortable

with sort of like bearing myself out in that way. But then I felt like, you know, hopefully that will make people realize that this is why this is that important that I would, you know. Yeah. So it was definitely me stepping out of my comfort zone for sure. Yeah. And, you know, so far, attention has remained on the revolution movement. And that is really incredible. Like, not even incredible. It's like the bare minimum. But you know, we had a guest on a couple weeks ago, we talked about this briefly. And the real fear being is like, well, when the eyes stop watching because it's like it is about keeping that focus attention and not leaving them alone with this not i mean it's about

so much more than that but on our end we do have to keep paying attention and this isn't going to be a quick resolution no it's a long-term game yeah so when you say you you've talked you talk to people that are on the ground there, what are some of the things that have been shared with you, if you don't mind me asking? No, not at all. You know, I mean, there's a lot of really, really, really crazy things happening there. I mean, so here's the thing, just to give a background to your, to your listeners and whatnot. This all started, obviously, when a young Kurdish Iranian woman, her name was Mahsa Amini. Her real name was Zina Amini. But in Iran, the government's very racist

against other sort of cultures in Iran. And there are multiple cultures and ethnicities in Iran. And so they force these different ethnicities to have iranian names rather than like their own um like she's a kurd kurd iranian but the name that everyone knows her as internationalized massimini she was so a little bit of her head scarf the laws in iran is that all women have to cover their hair at all times when they're in public a little of their hair was was was showing and then so the police the the islamic morality police, quote unquote, took her, they beat her so bad that she went into a coma and then she died.

And this was pretty much, I think, the last straw for a lot of the women in the country. And then they started to rebel. What's unique about this revolution is it's completely started by young women. And when I say young women, some of them as young as like 10. What people are telling me started by young women and when I say young women some of them as as young as like 10. what people

are telling me is that the brutality of the regime knows no bounds like the other day I found out that they shot and killed a seven-year-old oh my God and they shot her in the face there was a 16 year old boy they shot 24 times in the stomach they are a lot of these women that they're capturing they're raping them and this isn't this doesn't like this is information I'm getting from people directly there and because there's no internet the government they're shut down the internet so that people can't send videos around the world some of these people are still able to contact me and their main thing is like please keep posting these things because we don't have access to the internet you're our you and all the other iranians in the diaspora and non-iranians who are willing to join the fight

like basically we are all they have the way i look at it is like the people in iran they're in the front line and us on the out on outside of iran we'reOS. The only thing we can really do is ask for help internationally and sort of garner attention to it. So that's pretty much what people in Iran are consistently telling me. It's just like, please just keep being our voice because it's really all we have. You know, during the George Floyd situation, there was a lot of people, and rightfully so, that were accused of sort of doing lip service and just being uh like sort of like how do you put it performative in their support online but people don't have to worry about that in this situation in Iran because

specifically the Iranian people are just all they really want from people outside of Iran is just talk about it post about it share it that already is causing a huge stare not only in iran but it's globally so it's well it's keeping the attention there so that things are at least at least people are seeing what's happening exactly so a lot of times people on non-iranians hit me up like look you know i shared and stuff but what else can I do? Can I donate this time? It's really because of the sanctions. No financial entity here in North America or Western Europe is allowed to wire any type of funds into Iran. So there's no money.

There's no one in Iran that can donate money to none of that. The only thing we can do is what we're doing is sharing on social media and talking to people about it and trying to contact the media to talk about it more. That's pretty much the only thing we can do. So it's really frustrating, especially for Iranians like me. I was born in Iran. I left when I was six. I came to this country when I was eight. I lived in England for six. I came to this country when I was eight. I lived in England

for two years and I came here. My family personally has been affected by the Islamic Republic, the authoritarian regime there. My grandfather was a general under the army of the Shah. When the revolution happened and the Islamic Republic came and took over the country, the revolution happened and the islamic republic came and took over the country they executed him and that's something that's affected my family for over 40 years now you know so my family's directly very been very affected by the regime as many many iranians have uh i would say most iranians at for the most part have either been something, the government's done something to them, or they know somebody who the government's done something to. And again, this is not, these people are the worst of the worst. Like the members of the Islamic Republic are the worst of the worst.

Like I would say probably the only other country I can compare it to is like maybe like North Korea or something like that. And again, it's like, yeah, I mean, there's no other way to put it than they're the worst of the worst. One thing I want to make really clear is that we talk about the Islamic Republic. Islamic Republic is the name of the government in Iran. This issue is not about Islam. I know there's some I've talked to non-Iranians that were afraid to post things because they were afraid they would come off Islamophobic.

But I'm here to tell anyone who's listening that this issue is not about Islam. It's about the people of Iran don't want an Islamic government. They don't want to be forced into the Islamic religion. In Iran, if somebody wants to practice Islam, they should be more than welcome to, and they should have the freedom to do that. They should also have the freedom to not practice

Islam. The same issues we have here in this country, where it's like you see Christianity, Christian politicians trying to take over government. There's nothing wrong with Christianity. It's only wrong when it's used as a tool to negatively affect people. It's the same thing there. People aren't saying we're against Islam. They're saying we are against an Islamic Republic. We're against a theocratic government. We're against a government that is based on religion. That's a really important point and distinction. Absolutely. Because Iran is not an Islamic country. There are Jews, Muslimss muslims bahais christians all types of exhortations so all those religions count same thing with this country when people say there's

a christian company i'm like no it's not here we have christians we have catholics we have jewish folks we have buddhists everything how is it we have muslims yeah we have everything and that's the beauty of this country we have all that stuff so for it to be ruled by one blanket religion that basically tells government what to do and the government tells you what to do that's wrong and that's the same thing in iran so again i want to say it is not anti-islamic to be against the islamic regime it's nobody's talking down on the. They're talking about the religion forcing people to practice that religion. And that's really what the whole thing is about. In terms of keeping attention focused there, it's been remarkable to see this movement persist for weeks and weeks. It's been more than five weeks. I think we're in week six now.

Yeah. It's been more than five weeks. I think we're in week six now. Yeah. But it is very unfortunate the regime has been successful in keeping those images out. As you said, the Internet's from tehran and especially cities outside you know cities uh and other areas throughout the country where these demonstrations are happening and people are risking their lives i mean we have something in the realm of 200 or so confirmed deaths but i think it's probably much much more than that and i think that just kind of speaks to what we're up against in terms of keeping international attention on

here on iran for the long term yeah i i think that what's going on in iran with the people is at this point they've reached a point where they understand that there's going to be a lot of people that they're going to die. And a lot of these people are ready because they can feel that this is now the moment, the moment that the 43 years that they've been waiting for is now. And again, this government will stop at nothing. They'll kill kids. They don't care because their idea is to scare people enough to go back into their homes. But so far, it hasn't been working.

They've done everything they have in the past that worked. This time it doesn't, because I think this time there's a lot of people who like- Use nothing to lose. Yeah, we have nothing to lose. You mentioned sanctions when you were talking. And I think that that important context, this is happening amidst a bunch of other stuff. It's not good there right now. And people don't have resources to just, let's say leave. Or, you know, when we say that not have having anything left to lose, it's like, well, financial opportunities aren't really there right now. There's, you know, you're being oppressed, you're being murdered. I don't really know how you take a step back from this moment in time. Right. You know, when we talk about oppression, it's like we're talking about

women. The government looks at women as third class citizens, pretty much like women aren't allowed to divorce their husband without their husband's approval. Women aren't allowed to go to the beach. When they go to the beach, they have to be completely covered up. But the guy could be in a freaking Speedo, pretty much. Doesn't make a difference. Women basically are really... Okay. A woman can't walk down the street with a man unless he's her husband or family, direct family member. A woman can't technically walk down the street without their hijab. You can't sing or play music in public.

And when I say you can't, you don't get a ticket or something for doing it. They take you to jail, they torture you, and they whip you, or they'll kill you. If you're gay and the government even suspects you're gay, they're going to hang you. This is a level of repression that very few places in this earth right now are currently seeing. So this is what the Iranian people are up against. And none of that stuff is part of our culture. This is like a foreign entity that came into Iran. All these mullahs, most of them weren't even born in Iran.

They're born in outside places. Their culture isn't even an Iranian culture. So you look at those pictures, those pictures of before that they share. And it's like, my God, this is a metropolitan country, like cutting edge of fashion. And yeah, I'm sorry, because they used to refer to iran as the paris of the middle east that was sort of like the name and people took a lot of pride in that and um people were vacationing iran vogue i remember did a huge like photo shoot in iran things were really getting to a point where the whole Western world was realizing, wow, this place is awesome.

Tourism was really thriving there. People from all over the world and whatnot. And then the Islamic Republic came and took them back literally like 1,500 years. And people asked, well, why did the Iranian people allow that to happen? The Shah was there before. And the Shah created a great environment and people were happy but you still didn't have freedom of speech you couldn't speak down against the shah so a lot of people didn't like this they're like we want better than this we want more freedom than this

so the mullahs basically came who were all in exile because the shah knew these people all scum they were in exile and the shah basically started saying that that he was giving the West issues with oil because the West wanted him for oil and he didn't want to be their puppet. So he was basically sort of like playing hardball with them. They're like, okay, so we're going to get rid of him because we know a lot of the people in the country aren't happy with him. And the CIA helped the Mullahs come into power. When the Mullahs came into power, they're like, hey, all we want to do is overthrow the Shah, and then you guys are going to get free democratic elections

and stuff like that. People were like, okay. Second they came, they reversed that. Said, no, this is all going to be Islamic law. It's everything. You all got to be covered up, women, everything. And if you don't do what we say, we're going to kill you. Simple as that.

So that's how it happened the the uk and the us helped bring this like pretty much foreign government people government i do not believe that the us and the uk their intention was for what happened i think they thought that oh we're going to bring this puppet government who's cool with us but what happened is the second islamic public came in they said you to the us yeah that's what happened played hard the us always has really good intentions when it imposes a puppet government place best of intentions and uh so that's that's where we are now also people got to realize shah though he was significantly better than the regime now he was a he was a dictator too the iranian people have almost never had a democracy and that's what they want right now they don't want a king they don't want a queen they don't want

an islamic republic they just want a regular democracy a good functioning democracy like ours yeah i mean i'm kidding, but yeah. I know that they look up to what we have in this country. I think, you know, and people don't, people got to realize, like I know, I think most Americans,

they care about what is going to directly affect them. And I mean, I got to say, don't think this shit can't happen here. Right. Don't think this shit can't, don't think that the government can't completely take over and take away all your rights.

And the difference between here and Iran is here people have guns. In Iran, people aren't allowed to have guns because the regime was smart. They outlawed all guns because they knew the first thing that's going to happen, people are going to revolt. So here, well, okay, then what's going to happen?

Like another civil war? People shouldn't be foolish to think that shit. They're trying to do it. They're literally trying to, the Republicans are ready to steal the election in the next month, and they're ready to steal the election in 2024. Speaking of that,

that's our next topic actually today. But first we needed to take a really quick ad break. But then we're going to be back for even more of this news. Let's do it. Oh, hello. Have you heard of the internet? It's like a library but on your personal computer. A lot of wires involved and you can talk to people like on the telephone except with a keyboard to type words.

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No, no. It can happen here. We want to talk about this video of DeSantis with his voter fraud arrests in a moment but i mean it goes along with exactly yes all of this stuff can happen but yes to your point of like like we're foolish if we think that this kind of stuff can't be can't happen in different ways here or the exact same way but yeah yeah well yeah so to speak to that with these these videos that the tampa bay times published they acquired some videos of voters in

florida being arrested from as part of desantis's office of election crimes and security which sounds out of a sci-fi book these are individuals who uh were prior felons who thought they had the right to vote because of a 2018 constitutional amendment in Florida that restored voting rights for Floridians with felony convictions after they completed all terms of their sentence. However, some people who are convicted of murder or sex offender status did not get their voting rights reestablished. But they didn't know that. So when they registered to vote and they were sent a voter ID card, they were told that everything was going to be just fine. And now there's footage of them being arrested. I was reading people legitimately were asking, should I am I able to am I specifically allowed?

And they'll say, just try try if you don't get a card then you were denied that's like multiple stories of that being a person's some of these individuals experiences they were like really should i and they were encouraged to register i mean i think a shit ton of um lot civil rights lawsuits are going to start coming at desantis i think he's i think he's one of those guys that's so stupid that he thinks he's smart kind of like trump but i do think he's smarter than trump i think trump yes is dumb on a level where it feels like maybe physiologically there's something wrong with him but But DeSantis is just a bum. And I think he doesn't understand that, like, he's going to get major lawsuits from this

whole thing with him shipping migrants out of other states because none of those migrants were even illegal. They were all here through legal means. So he doesn't understand. He's going to get all he's violated the civil rights of all these people. They're all going to sue him. You know, so like that's coming for him. There's no doubt about that. I just don't know that that does anything for him politically or not like like

all these lawsuits well right he thinks those lawsuits will usher him into office right like lawsuits he can say ah see the libs are trying to but also like trump is able to do that and because he's spent his entire career like getting away with stuff and like he's there's so many lawsuits that he's been involved in whereas i feel like this just doesn't yeah he doesn't have like that same thing it's just oh so it might just might be more impactful it won't i mean it's not i don't think it'll make a difference in like what republicans think but i think it makes a difference and it just makes his life harder. And anything that makes his life harder, I'm fully supportive.

Yeah. Yeah, no, that's true. He'll drag these locked suits out and maybe nothing will ever happen of him, but at least it's stress on him and at least he has to spend a lot of money on attorneys. And, you know, the more stress on him, the better. Yeah, extra thing he has to think about

all the time it's heartbreaking these videos are heartbreaking to watch though to watch these people that have you know have served time well it's like the utter confusion and the utter confusion but then you're getting handcuffed in front of your home or wherever in front of your neighbors in your neighborhood and you're being taken off to jail and even the police officers are like we're sorry we know we're gonna get you out of there right away then why the fuck are you putting me in cuffs i know have you ever seen police officers be apologetic before that was wild that was when i was that's the part made me go like hmm like probably all these cases are going to get

dropped in court and because the cops were like even quick yeah like you said they couldn't figure out exactly what the law of the violation was but they're doing as they're told i guess and like i get it it's a felony yeah but i don't know i don't know i mean no i'm agreeing with you it's just but they're saying like this is but what this all is and the timing of it all of us is because of midterms and there are it's interesting this interesting horrifying you know we're all like we're gonna lose the midterms and then they started doing all this terrible abortion stuff and all of a sudden it's like oh maybe not maybe we're gonna fire up this democratic base but now i even at the time i was like we'll see if that good will last to november and sure enough um you know there are other things people care about uh that are being pretty manufactured we voter fraud being one of them

you know you see these videos happening now or Or as you mentioned, the whole stunt, the Martha's Vineyard stunt saying like, but, you know, the Republicans, you know, care about crime and immigration. And so they're just laying into it right now. Here's my thing on this, and I hope I'm right. I love being right. Yeah, it's great, isn't it?

It's the greatest, but no, but, um, is that politics is so polarized now that you really, I don't think anyone's stupid. I don't think his Republicans are stupid enough to think that they're going to get any Democrat voters. But I think what they're not realizing is that what you're doing is you're pushing moderates away because moderates are going, okay, you guys are all kind of now just fully right wing unhinged people.

I guess we're going to vote for the Democrats because even if we don't agree with all of that, they're not unhinged like you all, but then they have their 25% base. That doesn't matter if what the person does doesn't do, they're going to vote no matter what, because they're the people who are like, this is a white Christian country, and I don't care who I have to vote for, how much of a scumbag they are, as long as they agree that this is a white Christian country, I'm going to vote for them. And I think that's why they have such.

Yeah. Well, it's interesting what you're saying. And also, this is the cycle of leading up to an election, you know, because who's to say what polling actually if it's actually reflecting the will of the people or the sea, the winds of change or not? We don't know. We really don't know. You know, a few months ago, I would have said yes to what you're saying right there. Yes to what you're saying right there. Full stop. But I think that in the wake of inflation and gas prices rising and certain messaging about crime, I think a lot of those those independent voters are waffling a bit more than you would expect. But I don't know. I don't know. What do you guys think? does these endless interviews with like ordinary Americans who are voting and stuff. And there's so little ideological consistency. And so many people are treating this as if it's a normal time, normal midterms, normal elections. I'm going to read this quote. I'm shifting more towards Republican because I feel like they're more geared towards business, said Robert, Robin Ackerman, 37-year-old Democrat and mortgage loan officer. She said she disagreed 1000% with the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade

and erase the national right to an abortion. But that doesn't really have a lot to do with my decision, she said of her fall vote. I'm more worried about other things. And that stands out so much to me because with like what we've just been talking about, of Republicans are going to try to do whatever they can to win. They're going to like trump up false election fraud lies. The idea that Republicans are better on business and are going to fix the inflation and gas prices and that that's the one issue you have to care about right now after the Supreme Court just overturned Roe v. Wade is baffling to me. Well, I think you actually said it earlier. It's like people tend to vote for what affects them. Right. So, you know, it's hard to be a person with reproductive organs and see

what's happening in the world. you know, you would think that. But now that's past. So maybe they're mad about that. But what really affects this person's bottom line is the fact that their bottom line isn't doing well. And, you know, and and that's what they care about, even though inflation actually doesn't have very much to do with the Democrats at all or President Biden. It has to do with I mean, there could be sure. I'm sure that the debt stuff affects things somehow drop in the bucket. Inflation's happening. It's happening, baby, everywhere. That's not something you're going to vote out of office, you know.

Right. Also, if inflation is just Biden and the Democrats' fault, why is it happening in every country? And why do we have significantly less inflation here than they have in Europe? There's no Democrats. Biden's not in Europe. Democrats, you know what I mean? comes down to ignorance too if you believe that gas prices and prices of goods is specifically related to some type of political scheme and you really don't know anything about economics it's basic economics demand was high supply became low because of the supply chain disruptions due to covet and that's why it went up globally so it's not because of

any one decision one country made also if you still worry about inflation and and sort of like the budget why did you vote for like a one point was it 1.3 1.7 trillion dollar tax cut where do you think it comes from yeah a lot of these companies are doing it as well they know people are going to pay the higher prices so they make the decision to raise them even more and they see people still buying stuff so you can get away with that kind of thing it's like there's a lot of manufactured part opportunistic you know there there isn't one answer as to what is causing inflation. COVID is a big one. The war is a big one.

You know. Wokeness. What's wokeness in general. But I wanted to say this because it's wild. And I heard this on some podcasts too. Something along the lines. You walk through L.A. And it is very, very expensive in L.A. on a good day, but it is very, very, very, very expensive to eat a meal out in Los Angeles right now. And yet all the restaurants are full.

And I heard somebody say, and I wish I could remember where, but it was like, yeah, they're going to keep raising the prices because people keep paying him. People keep spending the money. Like we, the rich people are keeping this going by, by saying, yes, I will spend $50 for my burger or whatever the fuck you decide. Yeah. The demand is still there.

So yeah. Why change it? Anyway, they don't business owner. Like it's one thing, the corporations are one thing, but business owners are, they're just kind of dealing with the same thing too.

Like, yeah. So goods for them are higher so now they have to charge higher to be able to meet their uh bottom line but i think the people that are really playing the game are the corporations i think bernie sanders posted something really interesting about how basically in 2000, I forgot what date it was, but it was some date where gas prices per barrel were the same as it is now. Gas prices were a dollar less back then. No, you're completely correct. I don't mean to mistake my example of everybody dining out in Los Angeles to be like boycott small restaurants. That's not what I mean, although they do charge a lot there. But it is 100% about the major corporations

and all the different things that drive it in any way. Maybe that's why James Corden was yelling at the busboy at Little Dom's. It wasn't because they weren't open. It's because the prices were too high. So maybe Corden. Yeah, James Corden couldn't afford the high prices. Everyone should leave Jamesames corden alone he's a wonderful wonderful hilarious amazing actor uh and i get so angry when people talk about james corden no obviously the guy's a gigantic douche hole but also though

i i definitely wasn't uh i wasn't disputing what you said i completely agree with what you said like people as long as people still pay for high prices oh yeah yeah go anywhere really because well i just didn't want people to go out into their hometowns and like be an absolute dick to your coffee shop because you know it's more expensive but it's just in general it's like maybe maybe it's more true in bigger cities but there just is more wealth it's the pro a problem right now that i see is that i mean it's more true in bigger cities but there just is more wealth it's the problem a problem right now that i see is that i mean it's just to continue the people that have a lot have plenty and the people that have nothing have now less and they can get by and weather a year or two of this because they're fine and it doesn't matter to them that they're paying a 50% extra or whatever the fuck it is.

And it's a systemic problem and you shouldn't vote for the fascists because of the problem. Like that's what we're saying is like don't vote for the fascists because you think they're gonna fix this problem. This like cyclical

kind of economic problem. Well of course not you know we should touch on liz trust just because that happened this morning i mean we sure should we sure it sure did you're the one who's lived in uh england albeit briefly but yeah yeah when you were eight did you have a lot of like political awareness i was i was very highly involved in the political aspect of society there in england and i was working under the uh i i would have if this bit was funny i would have kept going with it but no i think it could have sustained the next 10 minutes that never stops us i just couldn't think of any specifics about no um uh it honestly it feels like ever since they voted for brexit

it's just a mess over that i don't think anyone knows what's going on i i was surprised it feels like a monty python sketch yes sometimes i mean so do we so do we for sure but you're like well there are more there are clownery is more of this sort of like stalemate deadlock clownery and theirs is just seems to be just like constant chaos like they just like get rid of people all the time and then there's like a new person you're like wait what and then like a month later it's like no no no no they ruined everything so we're gonna get rid of them we just don't do that we it's like we're like we're like okay we're having a third president if we were to have like a third one in this year right like mitch mcconnell has been in congress for 130 years like there's no getting rid of people here

right unless they're al franken i guess i didn't know that you could just like switch prime ministers three times in a couple i'm like are we allowed to do that here can we just be like let's try buddha judge okay now it's gonna be right like the that's gonna be mitch mcconnell now we're gonna you know really did shake me a little not really i was like wait a minute there's that i guess you can do that but also how does this work again i hope it's boris johnson again i know i was like like funniest johnson like i'm back everybody and what is this did i read it this had to have been from your notes that you gave us jonathan but this would be the only time a prime minister returns no i must have read this this would be the only time since winston

churchill who is uh a hero of boris johnson's i'm sure he would love that i'm i think churchill also sucked in many various ways but it's just you know oh no it was boris johnson's hero hero to boris johnson boris johnson's here i'm saying that to be, I'm sure. Yeah, I was like, wait, Katie, where are you going with this? I'm sure that Boris Johnson. Yeah, no, no, no. He was a hero to Boris Johnson, and he's the only one that's served twice after being ousted. I'm sure that Boris would love that, is my point.

I don't like saying his name. Yeah, it's like the. Well, it's like that cartoon, I guess. Boris and Natasha. name yeah it's like well it's like that cartoon i guess boris and natasha well so it leaves a bad taste in your mouth because of the rocky and bullwinkle villains specifically i just that's why you can't watch rocky or rocky two or rocky three or rocky four or rocky five people come here for the for cutting political commentary uh this is the the shortest tenure of a prime minister hell yeah of all time the history of the uk yeah and by by a lot i think the previous one was like 115 days and this was 40 40 some days wait so how many days was this total 45 days

as okay this day uh william henry harrison stays winning oh in terms of if you're just yeah isolating by the u.s and england but i'm sure there's lists of monarchs who lasted merely hours sure sure sure sure sure i'm sure there's a wikipedia page that's being heavily curated right now yeah i think it's like what was shocking to me is just like in looking into this because I was only vaguely aware that there was this like chaos going on in the UK this week. And then all of a sudden I woke up this morning and I'm like, oh, this was a bigger deal than I thought. these broad unfunded tax cuts, which just that's what sent the markets into a tailspin. That's what sent the pound down to parity with the dollar. And there was this, I guess, earlier this week, what precipitated the chaos this week is that Jeremy Hunt, who's the chancellor of the ex checker, which is the top finance guy, said that the government was just going to undo all those proposals. And that's kind of what initiates this like no confidence in a prime minister.

But I wish that's kind of what we had here, where if the president does something that's just uniformly seen to be a huge failure, you can get rid of them right then and there. I mean, I would love that. I feel like it would create so much. Like, yes. It would be terrible. But, like, what a chaotic thing to do to America specifically. Yeah, we can't handle that.

Maybe one day. Yeah, I don't think we have the energy, like, every two weeks to be like, well, here on the podcast, we're talking again about, you know, now, now the secretary, now a former secretary of labor, Robert Reich, is the president we gotta dig into this now we wouldn't be able to like i mean i guess that would be better to talk about than just like fascism climate disaster yeah i'm down with right yeah new president i think we did it i think we've done it guys i think we made it all the way to the end of the news and

i also think we made the world a better place. I feel like it. I was going to say. I'm not positive, but I feel it's a little better. Everything's okay now? I feel like we made the world a little bit. Guys, listeners, our customers, let us know what you think. But only if you can get that feedback in today.

Today, by which we mean yesterday when we recorded this sorry sorry hi m thank you so much for joining us this was really awesome tell our listeners where they can find you plug your things plug my thing um find me at on instagram at p benny pba and i am also on uh tiktok uh if you are in los angeles and want to see live uh comedy improv and all that fun stuff i'm at the ucb upright citizens brigade check out their shows check out their schedule calendar online uh and come to some shows and then uh you know thank you so much for having me thank Thank you for giving me the opportunity to sort of come and talk about Iran and everything. I truly appreciate it.

I just want to say, like, for people to know and your listeners to know and you all, like, for us Iranians, when non-Iranians share this situation, talk about it, and show support for it, I can't tell you how much it means to us collectively as a people. So I can't tell you how thankful I am that you all gave me this opportunity. So thank you so much. Well, we're really, really grateful for you to take your, take time to come here and talk to us about it because you did a much better job than we ever could have. Well, you all did a great job. So I appreciate it. We all did great jobs and you know what listeners at home,

you did a great job too. You did. We will be back next week. But in the meantime, just remember that we love you very much. Much, much, much, much.