Trillbilly Worker's Party - Episode 353: Scaring The Joes

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

Joe's out, Kamala's in; Netanyahu is given a standing ovation in Congress for killing over 100,000 people; the attempt on Trump's life has been virtually forgotten (lmao) Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/trillbillyworkersparty

Did you guys see this investigative piece in the Washington Post from Jeff Stein about the rise of sanctions? Like the rise of US using sanctions? Yeah, I saw you posted it. Yeah, something about economic warfare. Like a third of the countries of the world are under sanctions by the United States. Something like that, right? Yeah. One third of all nations on Earth

now face some form of US sanctions. So hold up, hold up. When you say one third, so there's almost 200 countries, right? Or I guess recognized countries, right, in the world. So I know the big ones, right? Like, you know, Cuba and I'm sure there are some Latin American countries

and probably Russia, but like, is Micronesia somehow on that list? Like a small nation, you know and like Oceania or some shit like countries are under sanctions Yeah, it's like Mali, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe Somalia the DRC China Burma Sudan Belarus I mean wonder what all these countries most of these countries seem to have in common. You know what I mean? Is it their population?

Is it the fact that most of these people are black or brown? Who knows? They have a history of electing Democrats. Who can say, really? Yeah, who can say, you know? It's kind of fascinating. As they point out, this has spawned a multi-billion dollar lobbying and influence industry in DC because it creates all this like paperwork and

like intermediary third parties that can Basically like give the government advice on who to sanction and I think in some cases It's even been used against competitors, corporate competitors, to US businesses. So you can sanction- Like if you wanna operate here, you have to pay a bribe, basically.

Pretty much, yeah. You can sanction individuals, and then groups and businesses within countries, not just the country itself Dude, I just want to say it's so insane that like this stage of imperialism has been so Bureaucratized and made so banal you know what I mean where it's just a bunch of like pencil pushers You know and like you know typhus like like you know what I'm saying like a lanyard wearing motherfuckers who are like you know what I'm saying like exercising or orchestrating like

You know us imperialism. You know I mean That's that's insane. It is wild. It's like so like they point out that um Biden has unleashed an unprecedented Precedent volley of six thousand sanctions in two years. That's higher than the even previously unprecedented rate of Trump. And like, one, so like, a lot of these sanctions come from within the Treasury Department. Like, the specific office within the Treasury Department.

It's called like OFAC, it's like the Office of Foreign Assets Control, I think. One of the most evil government agencies probably on Earth that I didn't even know about. Yeah. And right, it's an interesting thing, the rise of the Treasury Department as an instrument of imperial control,

rather than the War Department. Right, exactly. Or something. as an instrument of imperial control rather than like the war department right exactly or something um This says at in 2011 at a holiday party in the hotel Harrington in downtown, Washington Adam Subin then director of OFAC Sing a song titled every little thing we do is sanctions to the tune of every little thing She does his magic by the police. Yeah, we need to put these people to death, bro. That's insane But awesome more than that it just doesn't even work

It really doesn't it really doesn't you know? Yeah, that's like that's I mean when McCain did bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran that was satanic, but at least it You have to know you're a sick motherfucker when you try to inject your own aggressive omnicidal You know what I'm saying into like a song and a rhythm that doesn't even work, you know And it's it's interesting like this article seems to It doesn't really get so much into like the theoretical or structural reasons for this but it kind of points out that this practice really

exploded and took off after 9-eleven and It's an interesting thing to think about that over time We would come to depend on this type of economic warfare as the instrument with which we control the global economy. And I think it's got a lot of like economists worried that it would eventually in the long run start harming the dollar. Because if you put so many sanctions on economies around the world, basically what you're doing

is you are finding them for not engaging with the US economy. And, right? I think, right? But I mean, I think I see where you're going because the world is so interconnected, especially with finance, you know, and you cannot political economy rather,

that like, I mean, I don't know, I can't speak with any like certainty, but I just feel like certain markets in countries or even just people themselves, right? When you're sanctioning these countries, but also drawing upon like offshore labor, you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know, these people like, people like literally you don't even have that surplus, right? Or that vibrant like, like healthy surplus even, you know? Or engaged rather, you know? You're not even, you're even, or engaged rather. You're not even, go ahead Tom. No, well I would just say the government even does that to us if you think about the tax

penalties for not opting into Obamacare's little bullshit plans. You know what I mean? If they do it to their own citizens, surely they don't give a shit what they do to Djibouti. And I mean, it just has to have some sort of blowback. I know what you mean Terrence, I just feel like it has to have some sort of blowback. I see I know what you mean Terrence I just feel like it has to have some kind of blowback like you're strangling these countries in a global economy You know what I mean? Well, it's Another thing that they point out is like what it's done to Venezuela

and it's really wild because like Venezuela is having an election right now and I mean, I don't know how many fucking times I've seen some iteration of the headline like authoritarian Venezuela like authoritarian Maduro You know clamps down on on challengers and on democracy in Venezuela And it's like as they point out here in Venezuela the sanctions have contributed to a financial collapse Three times greater than the US Great Depression Jesus Christ, I mean like the it's a it's astonishing that the Venezuelan economy is even still afloat

Right you know what I'm saying and hasn't been picked apart by vultures right man Yeah, it's it's almost like if they had come quads instead of something else that probably wouldn't be happening It's honestly really astonishing that Maduro is still in power If they've been able to decimate the economy that extensively What don't you do don't think that that like that engenders some sort of resolve among the people you know and the backing of a Leader that is like obviously like you know anti American or anti imperialist, anti imperialist, you know, Well, what they've done in Cuba is like, is like created basically two economies, you know what I mean? There's like a front-facing economy that has to interact with empire and then there's just their economy that they participate basically in an isolationist way

It's like even if you're just a tourist there you have like Cuban pesos, which you can't spend versus seusas Which is the tourist economy which is conveniently equal to the US dollar. So it's kind of a fuck You know, so there's places that have figured out, you know Some work runs with so I mean with you know having to you know, make some definitely some modifications You know that are that you know, maybe that maybe us in the Western world, I don't want to say the Western world, but who have relative creature comforts might find tricky, but people find a way. Well I think the thing, you're right, I think it's like, the thing about sanctions is that

like you can, to answer your question, Aaron, like you would think that it would maybe read down to like whatever leader is in power at the time, but like generally, sanctions unravel economies in societies because by imposing sanctions on nations and then specific actors within those nations you can basically break up

political blocks and coalitions which then fragments Either like working-class power or like whatever coalitional You know governance exists And then that kind of creates like a state of chaos Which is kind of like oh, I guess it's always been the the West's or that's always been the USA's

approach to imperialism right a tactic which is which is how they get the people who they want installed in right yeah like I favorable to the United States right I right I went and saw the third man last night didn't Graham Greenrip write that The third man I didn't even hear about that. Is that a new move? Is that no? It's from like the 40s I thought Graham. Yeah, Graham Green wrote the screenplay because and I was thinking about like his book the quiet American and How like the whole star said the American he wrote the American president he wrote the American president in the 90s That one of these titles the quiet American the American president is an American president the one with George Clooney where he's a president The sleeping American I think it's Michael Douglas, right or is that wag the tail?

Wag the dog rather the quiet American was a book from the 50s. They made a movie about it with Brendan Fraser and Michael Caine, which is really good. But it's just, it's about this like, sort of like seasoned British war reporter like meeting this guy in Vietnam. The decline of the French colonial control of Vietnam. And this guy's not sure what this American's doing,

but everywhere he goes, there seems to be assassinations and bombings. And it's just kind of this interesting exploration of the American method of control and hegemony, which is like, you know, hold off on mass invasions to the last possible moment. Instead, just go around the world,

like sowing chaos and disorder and violence, like behind the scenes. Like it used to be with bombs in the 50s and 60s, and now it's with like economic imposition. Well, I was just thinking Terrence, you mentioned that like, you know, I read this account of, in Vietnam, of Vietnamese who were

like planting traps for Americans, you know? And this person talked about like this sort of like double approach, you know, that the United States would use where they would come and they would provide like aid, you know, they would distribute food and water and you know, they would help even I guess like, you know build things But then you know in the same breath they would bomb the shit out of these villages, right? You know their soldiers would you know, um, just just completely decimate entire villages, you know So it's sort of like, you know this I don't know

I guess but now it's morphed as you said into this kind of like I don't want to call it soft power You know because it actually does have material effects upon people, but it's no longer just simply invading a country You know right and I don't even know if we have the reason we have the resources and wherewithal to do that But maybe it's just more Convenient for them you know to maintain stability You know it's just it's just been on the back of my mind with Netanyahu coming to the United States this week because the way that whole thing was framed,

and it's really been an astonishing week in American politics, unprecedented obviously, for all kinds of different reasons. But to me, the thing that stands out more than anything, more than Biden dropping out, more than Trump getting almost assassinated Which is completely been memory hold up with yet No one even talks about it in the only history the only vestige of that event is him We're still having to wear that cloth over his ear that band-aid or whatever like that, which I know he fucking hates but yeah

Yeah, I think that I think all of those things are overshadowed by Netanyahu's visit to Congress which is like just I mean You know I preach it into the choir here, but like astonishing for how absolutely repulsive Repugnant disgusting it was it was a Hitler It was it was basically like no different than that Hitler rally And I think Times Square in the 1930s like the American boon. I think it was you know yeah You know what I mean like it's an it's a they're they're clapping like seals for Hitler man Well, and it's insane. It's kind of a part and parcel of the whole sanctions approach where

To me the United States is doing this genocide right they're using Israel to do it But they it's like the class. It's the quiet American thing It's like just sort of like doing the puppeteering behind the scenes like I'm not trying to like deprive any Agency from Israel or like let them off the hook because they all deserve death, like genuinely. Like they, the nation deserves to be stamped out and have it's filled salted and erased from history. But like, I mean, genuinely though, the United States has no problem with what Israel is doing

and wants them to do it because it clears up a lot of confusion and and and Open questions as to the new Middle East and it resolves the contradictions It resolves that yeah, that's favorable to them and also is a harbinger of what's to come, right? It's almost like we've talked about on the show with a Alexander of India It's almost like sort of like, you know, this laboratory, this playground, right? This, I guess like this scrimmage, I guess, you know, for what's to come for them, you know?

Well, and I think that the thing is, as I was reading all the headlines about Netanyahu coming here and all the stories about it, which by the way, I don't know if y'all saw this, but apparently Netanyahu is the only, like when the United States invites foreign dignitaries to the United States it gives them you know I guess like it would anybody it like hosts them and does their laundry and like feeds them and everything and like

Apparently like none of these foreign dignitaries ever actually like use any of these services with one exception Benjamin Netanyahu who brings with him like 2,000 pounds of laundry every fucking day. So this motherfucker is bringing dirt, he bringing his skin marked fucking drawers. Doodoo ass underwear and having the White House staff clean them I guess. Dog, just the fact that the speech, that he was, what did he say about the Gaza protesters? I forgot what he said about them. They should be ashamed or something chicken Do it KFT? He did the whole like gays for Gaza's like chickens for KFC line

Which is like which is like dude he could shit on this country as much as he wants Israel right can hate this country As much as it wants even in the act of bringing dirty laundry. You know what I'm saying so that it's Symbolic it's a symbolic you know what I mean people get onto all the time for using Bible references But it is honest to God like When the rich young rulers in hell and he asked his servant Lazarus to bring him a drop of water to touch to his tongue Mm-hmm. It's like that level of audacity Yeah, yeah, it's like You're exactly right like the fucking audacity of this motherfucker

Yeah, it's like, you're exactly right. Like the fucking audacity of this motherfucker. How many pounds of dirty laundry? I don't, I said like 2,000 pounds. That's just the number that sticks out of my head. But it was like a- Just, just, suitcase, imagine being the guy that works at the airport, bro, and like just handling the luggage,

and being like, yo, this shit stinks. What the fuck is this, man? It's just like 60 suitcases of dirty laundry. Yeah, it really is. It's like a college kid coming home from college and he hasn't done his laundry in like six months and he only does it when he comes home so his mom can do it for him.

Like truly Israel is our child. Like they bring home their dirty laundry and then we wash it for them and fold it for them. And make dinner for them, but maybe you don't give them a few bobs shit to go back with you know what I mean exactly But I have bombs in their wallet for them to go back And it's a little something tied you over till you come home It's I don't know as I was reading the headlines of all this though

It's just like it really was just so reminiscent of like all of the stories you see from like Roman times of like You know the the consuls are calling in their You know Imperial administrators To give a report on how the quelling of the native population is going Because there was I was genuine because I mean I was genuinely like what is this even for like it's not like we know who it's for right but yeah go ahead go ahead right it's not like they were asked it's that wasn't it wasn't like a congressional inquiry it's not like they were asking

him questions like holding his feet to the fire it was literally like a Nuremberg rally it was a fucking clan Klan rally. It really was, dog. And man, to see, I just gotta say, man, like Rashida Tlaib, I mean, all these motherfuckers, man, are just awful fucking people, man. But I mean, Rashida Tlaib, imagine being like, and I think Justin Amash actually is also a Palestinian American, right?

I think he was the first elected before Rashida Tlaib, but of course, right, I think he was the first elected before Rashida Tlaib, but of course, right, I think when his members of his own family had gotten murdered, right, he still holds this line against like we need to destroy Hamas, right? But Rashida Tlaib, imagine being her, you know, and standing there and all of your colleagues, you know, are clapping for this fucking ghoul who is like killing your fucking people. I mean, I don't know man, just again the audacity, you know? The audacity of that man, for all of them to clap and cheer for Hitler like that. It's just fucking, it's just insane man.

Yeah, were there a couple of holdouts? I saw Jerry Nadler was a holdout, and there's maybe a couple others that were. I think Nancy Pelosi also said something about, you know, like something disapproving of his speech, you know, which was surprising to me, but you know, what does that even mean? I mean, there's also too, like the line about, like I know Bernie was like, who's a war criminal and he's this and he's that, he's done this and that, and the Israelis want him out. And I think Felix had pointed out like, yeah, they want him out so bad that they keep voting for

When they polled the average Israeli or their or his competition they don't hold a Markedly different view on the subject. Right, right Right and also to mention too that all these people that are even speaking out, right? They've all endorsed Joe Biden to the fucking hilt until he had to fucking crawl out of the fucking race. You know, the guy that's that's that's facilitating the genocide, you know. So, you know, it's just it's just all these people full of shit, man. I was telling Terence, I don't know if I mentioned on the show or not, but I was in

a work meeting meeting not long ago. And the icebreaker question was this is before Biden dropped out obviously was should Joe stay or go and I had floated in this and it's probably not the time to make a stand I probably should have just said I he should go blah blah blah but I was like you know there's things that are disqualifying but Joe Biden have nothing to do with his cognitive abilities and then you know brought up the genocide. And the guy that floated the question of Joe Shostaragosha

goes, well, I don't know if, you know, if I thought that the president himself had anything to do with the genocide or if he actually was one of that, like I'd take him to task, but really all we're doing is providing the weapons and money. Man, the cognitive dissonance. I was astonished at the dissonance, honestly.

Honestly. I mean, it takes two things to do a genocide, weapons and money. Exactly. You need no resources. Exactly. It's the quiet American shit, man. It's like, it's, I don't know, there's something that's so disgusting about a guy at a holiday party. Every little thing we do is sanctions

like there are people on the other side of that like the Capability and like the ability of the average American bureaucrat to distance himself from his own actions Whether that's fucking genocide or or immiseration, is fucking astonishing. Well dude, it's because like, you know, I mean this is the obvious point, is that they don't see them as people, right? What they are is that they're digits, right? They're numbers on a spreadsheet, you know?

That can just be moved from one column to the other, you know what I mean? Yeah. It's like, honestly, that's a very American mentality, because I was thinking of, not to sound like one of these libs that brings up, you know, makes movie references all the time, but like, you think of De Niro's character, King Hell and Killers of the Flower Moon, you know what I mean? Where he's like making money hand over fist, you know, on the Osage people while he's also systematically like murdering all these key Osage people. And then like he still has, at the end,

he still has this image in his head of I'm friends with these people. Like he's still writing letters to them and stuff, like even though he's been in prison for like all these murders and conspiracies and all this stuff. And that's a very American thing, I think, that like we can separate, you know, we do this in church, you know, you separate the sin from the sin or whatever, you know, and

like we have this thing where we can just, somehow we can compartmentalize the evil things we do with just like the better angels of our nature, you know? Right, right, right. And it's totally incompatible with any sort of morality, but on we trudge, you know? Well, it's just this complete like kind of like subsuming of reality to this mythology of America, you know what I mean? That's sort of just ingrained within everyone. I mean, it's also the same dynamic where you see people that can be incredibly racist, but they have black friends, you know?

I mean, they might even have a black partner, you know what I mean? And they can even be outwardly racist, but it's, oh, they're one of the good ones, you know? Just like you said again, like that schism and that separation that they're able to do, Tom, it's just the dissonance is just astounding, you know? Yes, I've seen you see that all the time growing up where I grew up. I'll never forget working on this guy's water line, and time growing up where I grew up. I'll never forget working on this guy's water line and this was the Obama, the run up to the Obama Romney election and he'd made a racist joke about the Obama thing and two seconds later his black grandchild runs out and jumps in his arms and he says, and he says this is my little buddy here and I was just, I was just blown away.

I was like literally two minutes ago, he made just this racist joke and then like now. Like it pulled out an 18th century slur or some shit like that or just gave you an imagery that was like, my God, I didn't even know we did this kind of racism anymore. And then the granddaughter jumps into his arms. That's insane, dog. That's wild, man.

It was just a weird day for me because I was at the mechanic and like all afternoon fucking like fucking three hours and I was I had brought black reconstruction with me to read because I knew I was gonna be there for fucking ever and so I was reading that and like getting super fucking into it like you know I'm at the part where like Johnson has taken over after Lincoln's been assassinated, and he's like trying to fuck up reconstruction and Like Thaddeus Stevens and and Charles Sumner are like just wait till fucking Congress comes back in session motherfucker

We're gonna get your ass that even played by Tommy Lee Jones by the way Yeah, play by Tommy Lee Jones and and it's just like and so it's like I've got these like juxtaposing images like Stadia Stevens giving these fucking insane like speeches in Congress just Or he was a fiery orator bed he was badass He's basically like we have to break up the southern oligarchy we have to literally drive them to it has to die We have to confiscate their property. We have to fucking like you know. He's just saying all this stuff and And I'm like reading in like you know he's got it. He's like surrounded by a caucus of like 30 to 50 other

He's got it. He's like surrounded by a caucus of like 30 to 50 other Socialistic let's just call it what it is like Republicans We're all calling for like the reorganization of the US government entirely basically on a parliamentary basis the like I said like the destruction of the fucking Southern like oligarchy of the agrarian system entirely and like the rearranging of labor relations in the u.s And like and I'm seeing this I'm like reading all this in like this moment That's like so pregnant with potential and like possibility and like using government and like the Freedman's Bureau for example to like Actually like make people's lives better and like transform Not even not even material conditions, but like the meaning of life itself.

And then it's just- Can I just say, truly a lost future, man? I just want to add, truly a lost future, man. Yeah, and then I just like go over to fucking Twitter and just open it and just like, yeah, the first thing I see is just this like, blood dripping from his fangs, like fucking war criminal,

just like getting a standing ovation in the same goddamn hall that like Daddy of Stevens was like you know what I'm saying It's just like what what the fuck? like We this country and I don't mean everyday people but Jenner genuinely like this country fucking loves Israel It is Nazi fucking country man. It is just I don't know man It's just like I just Fetterman wearing a fucking suit for like the first time in his life.

This motherfucker, oh my God, I wanted to drown him in a fucking porta potty, dude. Yeah, fucking slovenly prick. God damn it. This motherfucker, man, this motherfucker can't even wear a suit, you know, to meet with his constituents. You know, not that I'm, not that this,

you know, this conspicuous, like kind of the way you dress or whatever that confers I guess some sense of status but even just to look like a decent well put together guy But you could do that for daddy Daddy BB right you could go there and dress dress to the fucking tease for this fucking genocidal murderer dog Jesus fucking Christ. I wasn't even fucking showered to go see fucking What do you wash my balls, bro. Principally because I would kill him and they would just promptly put one in my fucking dome.

You know what I'm saying, you don't need to look good when you go to your death. You don't, you don't. You'll look good in the casket, that's what it is. At least you got that to look forward to. Yeah, I don't know, man, just a really wild, a really wild scene from top to bottom. I mean, I mean just really disgusting and You know, I don't know but like on on you know on the whole

Political scene on developments and everything like obviously like we talked about it on Obviously like we talked about it on Our patreon episode this past weekend like sort of you know an hour after we found out Biden would be dropping out Which seems like ancient history now? It feels like this it feels like this thing that you know everybody was It's like it's like having to get a tooth pulled and you dread it and you put it off for as long as possible And then afterwards you like why didn't I do that sooner? You know exactly exactly and I mean yeah, everyone knew that it was gonna happen and also I think that you know there was his speech last night Which didn't even he didn't even mention why he had dropped out

I mean, I guess he didn't have to everyone knew but I thought that it would have you know kind of Restarted I guess some discourse or just coverage right of him dropping out But I mean guess immediately, you know, old Kamala Harris drops a campaign video this morning, and now everyone's focused on her you know Right exactly what it's what was what was the substance of her? Like campaign speech. I didn't catch that the job I Did I didn't watch it? I mean I didn't watch it, and I'll tell you why I didn't watch it. I mean, I didn't watch it and I'll tell you why There's not a single thing that she could do or say that would get me to vote for her I don't care if she says well in the genocide the day after

The blood is already on your hands. We know you won't do that anyways and and plenty of people will vote for they don't need my vote it doesn't fucking matter. Can I just mention something too, man? Just real quick. I'm not gonna chastise anyone for voting for her. Do whatever you want. But I just think it's funny that like, everyone is so sure, right?

And they should be, that the Republicans, you know, give in power, you know, they'll do some heinous, you know, medieval shit, you know. Curtail everyone's rights. Just make this country awful for a lot of people, right? But for some reason, those same people believe that the Democrats will oppose that and do good, and there's nothing that she could, nothing that they have done that would guarantee me to vote for them, you know what I mean? Like people are all basing this on wishes and hopes and

dreams and pushing her left and using this as an opportunity, right, to kind of throw around some leverage. And I just, I don't think that they care about you and they will never listen to you. They do not give a shit. I mean, it thinks, you know what, go ahead. Do you remember when a protester approached her coming out of some bougie restaurant and said,

Madam Vice President, what do you have to say about the dead children in Gaza and all that stuff? And she just started sashaying saying, shrimp and grits, shrimp and grits, and then hopped in her fucking limbs or whatever it was she did. That was one of the most odd, absurd things I'd ever seen because she didn't even give like a flippant sort of

or aggressive, Fetterman sort of answer, you know? Or even Fetterman is a denial, right? He's like, just turns his head, doesn't say anything. She just said something nonsensical You know And I mean if that's who you would have vote for a dog you could do that you know what I mean I'm not telling you what to do. Yeah, I don't give a shit. I don't like it's batter It does not fucking matter one and I think the thing is and I said this on Sunday

And I think it's still true is and I said this on Sunday and I think it's still true. Well first of all, I want to kind of put to bed the notion that they did this because of any pressure from the left or from any pressure from anyone anywhere. They did it for two reasons. One was because they finally, this all hinged on Joe Biden. He had to literally drop out himself for this to happen. And the way that they did that was, from what I understand,

like reading this article in Politico and a few other things, like I think Nancy Pelosi finally brought him some paper printouts of some very not good polls. She brought him the blocks, the multicolored blocks. She brought him some, the Legos. Yeah, she brought him to the Legos Yes, she brought him some like drawings of clocks. He is really funny like edge sketch Yeah, like it was memento basically like the movie memento. She was like Joe you're running out of memories

And so I think like that's the only way they forced them to do that why they did it is Very simple. It's because Democrats love Voting they love it. It's their bread and butter there was no fucking way They were gonna go into this election with morale that low They need people to go out and vote for those down ballots obviously But also just to fucking get the cash register going man Can you it is it is such a good point here is because it's like Both of these parties don't even campaign on anything anymore

Democrats just try to drive people to the polls and Republicans try to drive people away from the polls Because that's how they does how both parties win elections anymore. They don't win it on issues They don't win it on trying to change hearts and minds, persuade voters, anything like that. It's just a raw numbers thing. You're so right, man, you're so right, especially because the Republicans kind of use minoritarian rule, you know?

Like they use these like undemocratic or illiberal means to gain power, whereas the Democrats, I mean, it's like Marvel making you want to see the new Deadpool and Wolverine movie. You know what I'm saying? They just want your ass in that seat. You know what I'm saying? They don't care if you like the movie or not.

They don't give a shit what you think about it, the quality or anything. They want you to go there and buy some goddamn popcorn and a $17 Coke, and they want you to sit there and enjoy the experience or whatever. And that's true Biden and excuse me Trump and Vance weren't high They weren't like they they weren't riding high on this wave of ideas and getting new voters or anything like that They were riding high on the idea on just one thing Biden was tanking in every goddamn poll and that voted well for them Yeah, okay, and now they're they're freaking out and all this.

You got these like, you know, JD fighting the couch fucker accusations and everything, every other ridiculous thing that's been said out there and now and now they're on the ropes because more people are going to vote for Kamala Harris than would have voted for Joe Biden. And that's what it is. It's just a raw numbers game. Who can get if you can get a bunch of people to the polls

You're the Democrats are gonna win if voter turnout sucks. The Republicans are gonna win. That's it There's no there's no you can't you can't make assumptions on what what ideology is ascendant based on On like who votes right right, right? It's just electioneering really The weird thing is that I've been seeing stuff lately that, or I've been hearing people say lately that like, and I'm not saying that either party is right or wrong to believe this. I'm saying that they may all know it deep down,

but it's all just a cynical ploy one way or the other. But like, I'm saying that they may all know it deep down, but it's all just a cynical ploy one way or the other. But like, I've heard that higher voter turnout actually helps Republicans, which is funny because- Interesting. Yeah, because it's funny because- Is that a new development, relatively new? I think it's relatively new, like maybe in the past like six to eight years.

Like higher voter turnout read downs to Republicans now Can I say because voter turnout was like hiding by the Trump and Trump almost beat him? Right, right, you know what? You know what? I'm just thinking about man I don't know if this is too far of an implication to draw from that But it reminds me of that tweet, you know Like turning the racism dial up and looking back at the audience, right? It worries me that if voter turnout is high, then people are more galvanized by reactionary

and often like white identity politics, right, to run to the polls. You are seeing this, that the big issue this election, more than any other issue, and we've not really covered it in this way on the show because I don't think a lot of media has but if you look at all The polls over and over and over again The main issue is immigration and this is even true on the Democrat side That like the Democrat like if you pull like your average fucking median dim voter apparently like the issue that they care about

more than any other fucking issue is immigration. And they want, and I guess this kind of redounds to Kamala. She is the one after all who went to fucking Guatemala or whatever. It was like, don't come. Don't come. I want people to remember that. She said, don't come.

Yeah, I mean, it's weird, man. It's like, again, it's this weird juxtaposition because once again, I was reading black reconstruction and these these huge debates in like structural arguments for granting suffrage to the freedmen After the Civil War like a big reason that they wanted to grant suffrage to black men after the Civil War, freed slaves, was because you needed the alliance of Northern industry and business to be able to hold off a revival of the Southern oligarchy and a fucking militant insurrection.

Which is a basic economic and political competition for them, right? Exactly. insurrection which is a basic economic and political competition for them right exactly and like and it's in the reason why it was because The granting of political and civil rights was a process of proletarian ization This is what distinguishes slaves from proletariat right obviously like as a slave you have no mobility You have no rights your chat. I mean your chattel. Literally your property, your literal property, your real estate. A proletarian does have geographic mobility if he can afford it. He's not owned by somebody. You know, he's not literal property.

Any serious barriers to upward mobility. Right. And there's serious barriers to upper mobility. And he does have civil and political rights because the process of proletarianization Necessitated that it required it. But now we were in this we're in this weird place We're like we have these rights But it doesn't really matter because you can't exercise them in any way that brings bear like any pressure to bear on the institutions or or or any pressure to bear on the institutions or avenues of power or anything.

So that's why it's like, it's literally, it has nothing to do with like, because if that was true, then something would have been done about the genocide. And I guess you could say that there is, something has been done because of Biden's tanking goals. I mean, you could say there have been rhetorical moves, I guess, but like also too, I just want to say that, like that's sort of having those rights, those political rights, but then being so neutered, right? That they have no actual effect upon the system on which you are protesting. I mean, just look at all these Congress people clapping for Netanyahu when he's denouncing

the protesters, right? You know what I mean? Like look at just the way that, I mean, of course the protesters have been treated, right? By media, by people that they work with, by groups like Stop Anti-Semitism. So it's like, I mean not, I don't know man, it's just, it's again like, you know, you have the right to protest against this, but if you do that, we will either shoot you, kill you, or ostracize you, right? I mean, the basic premise in and of itself is so fucking wild a Foreign leader who's doing a genocide came to this country and said to a room of standing ovation

That this country needs to get its student protester situation under control and That's that's that's like that's like your friend's mom You know what I'm saying you go to your friend's mom's house, and you didn't even do anything, bro Maybe you did something, but she don't fucking like you you know what I'm saying? You go to your friend's mom's house, and you didn't even do anything, bro Maybe you did something but she don't fucking like you You know what I'm saying, or she doesn't like your family, you know, or maybe like she fucked your dad You know and it's like an unknown kind of Trist that they have, you know So she just wants to come back to the house and march over and tell your parents that you're a little piece of shit Cuz you broke like Bobby's fucking toy or some shit like that

You know what I'm saying? Yeah Get your kids under control is what I'm saying that they're telling us To do these people that we give fucking money to to slaughter hundreds of thousands man And by the way it's been one of the bloodiest weeks in Gaza since this began, and it's basically been completely buried under Essentially what you would call a sort of like rehabilitation of the Democrats position I mean it that's really how low the bar is. Like Tom alluded to it earlier,

but like Kamala is doing well in the polls right now, I think pretty much exclusively because some of these polls that I saw are like, Trump is, he went overnight from being relatively young to relatively really fucking old. Oh, yeah, because when you have two, yo, it's true, because when you have two, yo it's true, because when you have two old guys running,

you know what I'm saying? But now you got Kamala Harris, and then you got this dude, and now it's gonna kinda lead back to like, oh Trump is C-dial too. And of course, we all knew that all the time, you know? But imagine that there was an even less C-dial maybe, oh a seemingly so guy in the race

You know now he is that he's the old white guy, you know when By the way, did you all see that like there was an astrologer? Ken Lane mentioned this on his show there was an astrologer who like correctly called the day And I think even like the time that Biden would resign this astrologer, for whatever it's worth, said Trump would win, so I don't know. Wait, was this the same? And also said Kamala Harris would run for president in 2024.

Oh, right, right. That's what I was gonna say. Yeah, well, you know what, man, I was actually talking to a friend about astrology, and I was like, well, you know, I could imagine that the movement, I grant that the movement of celestial bodies is more real than fucking money

or any of this spectacle, You know what I'm saying? So to all you astrologers, I'm not hating, man. Furthermore, if we're going to curb inflation and get this economy back right for the working, man, we need to bring back some of the old trades. I mean like soothsayer and fortune teller. Prognosticators. I know we've sworn that off, but you're terribly sworn off. I'll tell you this.

If you're into the dark arts That's just as legitimate as a fake email job in my opinion Honestly, at least it produces something Yeah, being a wicked is more real than being a banker I say that as a haver of a fake email job I'm not Casting spurs well, you know David Graber talks about bullshit jobs. I think being a wiccan, you know, I don't think it should be included in that category,

you know, being a soothsayer, you know. No, I mean, it's, you are doing work. I mean, you call it a spiritual, intellectual, emotional. It's work. It's work. Spiritual work, you know. Right. But yeah, I don't know like I Yeah, I'm like

Prognosticating like I have no fucking idea who would win I don't really even like I saw an article in Politico the day that Or that maybe the evening of the morning after Kamala entered the race which by the way she hasn't really I mean I know she's campaigning now, but that doesn't mean she's a nominee like they have to, which by the way, she hasn't really, I mean, I know she's campaigning now, but that doesn't mean she's the nominee. They have to literally make her the nominee. Wait, I think she didn't, well, they're projecting that she's the nominee, but I don't think she got all the delegates yet, but they're basically saying she is.

Did y'all hear this? Did y'all hear this? That there is some friction in the Biden-Obama camp You know, he dropped out he made his little post or whatever and then he endorsed Kamala Harris to fuck over Obama who wanted Gabby Giffords. Yeah husband to what's his name? Mark Kelly the astronaut. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, cuz he thought that Mark Kelly had the best chance to which in my opinion is like Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because he thought that Mark Kelly had the best chance to, which in my opinion is like bat shit insane. It proves that maybe, it may still be Obama's party,

but he does not have his fastball. I just have to add that this country is so demonic that the coolest person that could be president and astronaut is also a piece of shit. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, it's also a. Standing up clapping like a seal for this fucking. Like you went to space nigga, you know what I'm saying?

I'm sure you underwent the overview effect, right? Which astronauts go through where they realize that like kind of like Carl Sagan's pale blue dot, everyone that ever lived, anything that ever happened is going to be here and that we have, it's a fragile kind of ecosystem we have to protect. And this guy's still a piece of shit clapping like this. Yes, but not in this but genocide is having this sort of cosmic experience and then coming back say like no, but keep doing your thing Israel Jesus I just find the Democrats so utterly repellent I think I just like

For me going, you know for many months now I have been under the assumption that Biden would not drop out. It's a plain as day to me now. Like of course he was going to because like I said earlier like Pelosi's smart. Like you know what I mean? Like and honestly this only happened because they have her. If Pelosi, for some reason, when Pelosi's gone they're fucked. Because she's like she is a smart and shrewd tactician Okay, like say what you want about her ideology that isn't necessarily that doesn't preclude her being a smart tactician But when she's part of Mitch McConnell basically man, you know in the way I guess like they were heard to tactical moves, you know as I said as a tactician. Yeah. Yeah But like for many months though, I was under the assumption that like there this is a sign of like deep ideological

Exhaustion and rot within the Democratic Party and I still do I still do think that I don't think I don't think that like Kamala is gonna be much of a difference like I do What I was saying a second ago There was a story like obviously planted by Kamala's people in Politico the day after she entered the race, where it was like, Kamala would be slightly better on Israel and Gaza. And it's-

Slightly better. Yeah, and I just, I saw people, and I mean, this sucks, man, I hate elections so much, because people get the voting brain, and then, you know what I mean? Because I saw friends and people whose opinions I very much value and look up to reposting this stuff. And it's just like, this is obviously planted by Kamala.

Like, this is not like, it's in the same way that the brat meme and stuff is just like a co-optation. It's just like, this is all cynical. Discussing. Politico's basically page six for politics. Again, like like I said it's just that they're so readily like they're readily accepting the fact that Kamala sure could she do these things but will she no and we fucking know that you know but I don't I don't see any sign that she will I mean I would love to be wrong and I love to be wrong I

probably will be wrong I mean who even fucking knows the point I'm trying to make is that these people are fucking disgusting And I saw the Minnesota governor Tim waltz getting out there being like These people are talking about like JD Vance and the Republicans like they're weird. They're going out for cat people and parentless childless parents all this and it's like Fair they are weird, but you're fucking weird too. Your entire fucking party is weird. You just greenlit a fucking Klansman at Congress. And people in my comments were like,

but what's the governor of Minnesota gonna do about it? It's like, dude, if you put the D on your name, you're fucking cosigning it. You're party to this, yo. I'm fucking sorry. Dude, if you haven't come out and said anything or attended a protest or fucking like made any sort of overtures at all because at The end of the day you're not the president of the United States But none of these people have anything to say other than fucking praise, right? And that this can continue to happen from the fucking from the federal level to the local level fuck all these people, dude

That's so insane. You think I was thinking, you know, like, in terms of electoral viability, you know, in this VP race, you know, all these names floated around, including our governor here and everything. And it's like, hmm, Michigan's a state you need to win. The head, the head queen in charge probably has hundreds of thousands of votes that she personally controls why not run Rashida to live. That makes all the sense in the world in a state you have to win to fucking win, but

of course they're never going to do that because then, you know, that's going to wrinkle some other feathers. Right, right. I mean, because like she is also, again, just the fact that she could be in that chamber, man, and colleagues and even the fact that how does the fucking, how does she even look at the squad, you know what I mean, and these so-called progressives, right, that have betrayed this fucking movement, you know what I'm saying? It's just disgusting and grotesque man, the dissonance is just astounding.

I'm just reading this article right now, I just fucking pulled this up. Gavin Newsom has issued an executive order for the removal of homeless encampments in the state That's pretty weird I would say that's pretty that's pretty off-putting and un-Christian and weird for you people who fucking care so much about Christian values and like you know being nice to people and like oh You're gonna make fun of people without children. That's weird. These Republicans are weird. You're fucking weird You want to fucking kill homeless people. I mean dude is this not like what in effect in practice what Trump was talking about

that he was gonna do you know I'm saying rounding homeless people up. You can't do the same shit the Republicans want to do but a little nicer and then just claim oh moral superiority and suddenly we're not the weird ones and I know that Tim Walz is like apparently like a pretty Progressive governor like he seems kind of like squad adjacent, but I'm just so weary man. I'm just so fucking weary of it It's just like I don't give a fuck if you're FDR in Reincarnated or whatever you this party has to die. I hate them so much And you know I want to bring up one more thing man man. A lot of people I've seen and respect online have talked about, well, domestic policies,

right? Well, she might not be great on Gaza or foreign policy, but look at, she's like abortion, right? And labor and stuff like that. And I'm like, dude, I just want to say, man, if the most vulnerable people, if they don't give a shit, not even, I don't give a shit, if they actively if the most vulnerable people if they don't give a shit not even I don't give a shit if they actively want The most vulnerable people in the world on the planet right now to fucking die Why the fuck don't you think they would do the same shit to you?

What gives you any guarantee? Nothing else matters if you could just systematically terminate a group of people Based on what you're calling these ancient precepts about who owns what? Based on what you're calling these ancient precepts about who owns what. Like, like it's the flimsiest shit man, nothing else fucking matters after that. No dude, no. Not labor, not anything. No man. Nothing matters after that.

It's a question of fucking human dignity, which runs through all these fucking issues that you supposedly care about, yo. You know? Yeah, the only, the only, the only, like, uh, reproductive health, rights, labor, all these things that we care dearly about only matter in the context of people's dignity and humanity. Right, 100%. You know what I mean? Like, when it became okay to murder children and all that stuff, like, everything else is secondary after that point.

I mean, I'm sorry, it's just peak American chauvinism, dog, you know? And I'm seeing this shit among people on the left and progressives. And again, do whatever you want to fucking do, man. I don't I'm sorry. It's just peak American chauvinism dog You know and I'm seeing this shit among people on the left and progressives and again do whatever you want to fucking do man I don't think it matters, but I'm just saying that's fucking shitty man. That's what yeah I'm just saying I just have to point here. You're right like I don't care what I mean I Saw people on Twitter saying oh Obviously you've all shown your true colors, like as soon as Kamala enters the race you don't care about Palestinian people and the line is broken. And it's like, I agree with that 100%, that is true.

But there is no mechanism with which to actually enforce that. We're all fucking alienated, siloed morons on this fucking deteriorating website that like this asshole that owns it was able to like I don't know if y'all saw this like run a fucking like code program that Program yes This is fucking pathetic You want to get on this fucking website and say like oh people aren't holding the line of course They're not holding the fucking line. We're all sitting in our fucking underwear in our living rooms

Just talking about how bad this is It's just it's just I don't Of course I don't have any answers, and I couldn't tell you what to do instead But like at the same time like I have I'm not gonna get on here and say you have to do this or don't Do this or whatever everybody has to make their own fucking choice to make so they can fucking look you know face God I that's the choice I have to make though because I cannot face God Knowing that I fucking supported someone who was fucking An accessory to a change don't change that moment my

Dog dog I feel like visceral disgust when I think of walking in the booth and punching one of coconut, you know what I'm saying? I'm not fucking doing it. You people are out of your goddamn fucking minds if you think I'm gonna fucking do that shit. And you can do, again, whatever you want. You know what I'm saying?

Whatever makes you sleep at night, dog. I'm sure it'll probably, I don't think it'll even matter anyways because there are so many liberals in this country that love voting and they just love it because Like Tom has mentioned a That his Democratic Party is a fundraising apparatus, and that's how they booked them make their bread They know that's how they make their bread and butter but B They also are a part of this whole same like you know blue team rah rah like that's there's nothing more to it than that and and that's

There's enough people that they when Biden was still in it those people were like oh, I don't know man I don't feel like so my team is not doing so good now, and I don't really feel like supporting them They're all fucking you know basically like fairweather fans Which really shows you how like absolutely Immortally like absolutely vacated of any moral compass they have that like even in the fucking moment They like when their team was losing they couldn't even support their dying fucking Emperor But like now that they've inch they've injected a little bit of new blood into it. They're like okay Well now the team is doing right right right right you know what actually all of the all of the criticisms that they might have made of biden that then they began to see

reproduced throughout the democratic party and maybe made them lose a little faith in the democratic party now because they've rejected new blood you know what i'm saying like the young blood now it's just like oh and especially dude i just have to say like as incredibly racist as this country is democrats liberals love nothing more right than a black person or woman like Kamala Harris, someone that has like kind of, I guess, with their whole belief of, what is it, opportunity, outcome of opportunity, right? The fact that like equality of opportunity rather, right? That everyone should have the same opportunity and that the system works because look at Barack Obama, now look at Kamala Harris. They love nothing more than these these empty gestures in identity politics man, and they will run to the polls for the black woman

You know they really fucking will do as much as the Republicans can be racist and misogynistic right yeah It's a weird state of affairs truly weird. I mean like I remember the 2016 convention RNC and afterwards myself included Everybody was very very disturbed by what we saw at the 2016 RNC it was like literally like a You know it was a fucking Nazi or March a Nazi rally and then it's like fast forward to like the 2024 RNC And it's like it is still that but it's also like gay and campy now. Like they're weirdly like so obsessed with themselves and so obsessed with a spectacle that like.

It's just drag, man. It's just become drag, right. And then the Democrats on the other side like similarly don't have anything ideological really at the basis of what their thing is. It seems like both parties are in agreement that like millions and millions of Refugees and immigrants must be deported through the most violent means possible. It seems like both of those

Parties agree on that issue and we like bombing the shit out of Gazans, right? Exactly But other than that, yes those two issues, but other than that it's like, okay campy drag but self-hating LGBT thing on this side and then like proud and out open LGBT thing on this side, but it doesn't mean anything because they're not actually trying to improve Anything literally for anyone yes It's just two sides of a very weird identity crisis That's like working itself out in real time in front of all of us

It's just like you guys are all weird as fuck. You don't believe in anything. You just want blood Dude, I mean that they're not believing anything man, especially as key because it's just like again You can like hope for all of these things right that Kamala Harris might do the Democrats might do But if they're letting, not even letting, facilitating and cheering on the deaths, the slaughter of hundreds of thousands, what makes you think again, that they'll do any of those things for you?

What makes you think that they'll fight for you? Exactly, I mean, you're exactly right. The fact that they're going in and clearing out homeless encampments. You know how many Americans are this close to being homeless at any given time? That means or how many Americans are this close to being disabled at any given time or whatever? That's all of us. I mean truly on a long enough timeline. That's all of us which means that's you Which means the Democrats do not give a fuck about you

As long as you have a certain if you present a certain way in public They see you as fucking cannon fodder basically they see you as fucking grist for the mill 100% 100% so I don't know what else to say about it other than that like I guess there are all these calculations And again, I mean how many fucking times have we made them all in our lives about? lesser of two evils and and They'll protect these rights and protect those rights and everything I mean um There's probably And we still get back to this place every time where we have to yet again make that triangulation

It's almost as if nothing ever changes. No, it's exactly the same. Yeah, and when you're a fundraising effort. I mean to that point too, if you think that you're going to change, you're going to push Kamala or this is an opportunity to use some leverage, first of all you have no leverage. They're not going to listen to you. You don't have money and you don't have a sniper rifle. There's nothing that you can do that would affect Tage. To me, Thomas Matthew Crooks has more leverage than you did. He did. Again, again, like I was saying about Shinzo Abe's fucking up. And I'm not saying

that there's an organ, but there's no or there's no mass There's none of those no apparatus like that right? There's no dual power. You know what I'm saying so either you become the fulcrum upon which history turns right even that shows that like the fact that Him almost getting his top blown off his memory holds so rapidly shows that not even that changes anything Unless you're unless you're successful, but the Fucking odds and statistics that happening are very fucking slim and so it just shows that like it doesn't matter it quite Literally once again it fucking comes back to I guess I hate to say mass politics because I don't even agree that

That's it because that can easily become populist Which is right devoid of any kind of class? Analysis, but it becomes it redounds to like a structural if you're talking about like leverage It has to be a structural leverage It has to be like the unions working with like various kids to tenants and other constituencies that can actually bring Material leverage on the system rather than just like me on Twitter saying I know I think Kamala sucks, or I think Kamala is great none of that matters, and you know you know how you don't even exercise or person that's for me You know how you don't you know how exactly how you don't exercise we can precipitate the exercising of leverage by immediately fucking

Acquiescing right to this, by immediately giving them your blessing, right? That's why at least I can say something about Rashida Tlaiborite, who has withheld her endorsement because certain demands have to be met for her. It's just insane that all these people talk about like talking truth to power and challenging politicians and using them as tools are so ready to submit, you know? Just because this is shinier and prettier and younger and browner, you know I think part of I think part of it too is just like Everybody is I mean me and Terrence to talk for this of last several days even my sister who is like

He was conservative brought it up. It's just like when Trump got shot. She said man. It's always something with this guy It's just there's like show fatigue. Like you get COVID, he getting shot, he getting indicted. Like it's always something with this guy. It's just show fatigue. You know, it's like, and that's what I figured out that I, and this is just a hunch, but it doesn't seem like Trumpism is ascendant as we might've thought it was, you know, in the immediate aftermath of that shooting and all that kind of stuff

Like like I think a lot of people I think a lot of people are not Are like buying the coconut thing Principally because that like what they crave is and I understand the attraction too But I think you still have to consider guys You have to consider all these things that she is aided and abetted at least tacitly is that you know, like I think people just like They just they have show fatigue. It's just been two old fucking kooks in a pissing contest for eight goddamn years and

It's uh or eight goddamn years. You see just a little sliver of that not being the case anymore, everybody just runs to it. But you gotta take a beat and be like, okay, well what has this person rotten the world to? You know what I mean? And I'm not even a purist. On this, it's pretty much a red line. But in the sense that like political coalitions and

the exercise of power require you to make compromises and Do things that you wouldn't normally like to do Generally that has to be done within the system of like a parliamentary thing even within our bicameral civic system whatever it I hate the recent development really created by social media of turning every single human individual into their own one stop like policy shop where like you then have to give your personal endorsement and here's a press release Why and I'm releasing my one single ducking voting delegate for this person and it's like That's not the way this works Necessarily like you you have to exercise that within either like I said a union

or within a political party that actually cares about you and with and actually wants to leverage your Individual power as a worker or a tenant or whatever to then achieve certain goals The Democratic Party does not want that neither does the Republican Party obviously neither of these parties want those things Which was what was so embarrassing about fucking? Sean O'Brien speaking at the RNC. Like just horrible instincts on his part. Right, right. Also too Terrence, you got me thinking this about, it's about the way we individualize or responsible-ize like climate change with recycling, right? That each individual is responsible for this, right? Like you as a consumer, right? You as a person who, like you

said, you should be a one-stop shop for policy you are in control right of not just your own decisions right but then that can affect and trickle out to politics economy or even maybe saving the planet instead of looking at it like a collective effort that has to be made within like an apparatus that exercises power based on collective action right exactly it doesn't fucking matter whether you are Saying you're gonna vote for Kamala or not it doesn't matter if you're are going to do it or not you are an Individual as an individual you change nothing that's the whole point furthermore your Your social relation under capitalism puts you in competition with every other individual

That's the way this works That's that's why it's even a fucking miracle any of us ever get married or even have friends because we're all incentivized to hate each other Level isn't it's an I guess a constant atomized civil war almost you know I'm saying Where everybody's wills and leaves and whatever they hopes and desires they have are always in contention with other people so you know Yeah, I mean the Democratic Party like their way of trying to like resolve some of this is You know just these sort of empty gestures towards what we would call identity Which are like they feel so antiquated now, and I'm not railing against it. I've never done that on the show I've tried not to anyways

But like it's really the only thing that they've got left and I mean, I don't really I saw this thing from Kamala yesterday Where they said that they were going to? What was it erase medical debt dot dot dot? Considerations on your taxes not a race medical debt actually But like just that you would be or maybe it was student debt It was one I think it was student that I think about it It was like I think it was that they were going to make it to our student debt doesn't have to be Counted on your taxes or something like something bro Isn't it when she said something like is it was it her when she said that like tax cuts or something like that?

for people like 17 a small business. For like 17% of like Samoan third generation descendants who did small businesses. If you started a small business in a town with anywhere between 300 to 6,075 people, and the climate during the summer just happened to be mild, like you know what I'm saying, all these means testing shit.

Did this makes sense though How if you're if you're think about it think about it from the opposite direction if you're a party like the Democratic Party How do you build constituencies? That shit you fucking you carve out these little tiny these Infantesimally tiny fucking constituencies and then give them something tiny fucking constituencies and then give them something even if it's like a fucking rhetorical gesture or the most like bottom of the barrel fucking material support and that's how you create a constituency that then you can then there's nothing universal about it that was the promise of Bernie and

whether that was right or wrong doesn't matter because that's in the matter now yeah the way that this Democratic Party does it is they'll carve out these little tiny Consituencies to where like before long you have like three people on Twitter saying well I paid off my student debts So why shouldn't the rest of you have to do that and those people are gonna be fucking Democratic voters for life? Because they got a fucking tax break on fucking paying some student debt. That's what I'm saying. There is no organic base for the creation

of constituencies anymore that could link up with a larger political party. We do it all the time, either through unions or tenant unions or whatever, but linking that up to a large scale movement that can swing its weight around at the national scale, that can like swing its weight around at the national scale, that's not being done. Well, Terrence, I think you should have a little more hope because especially your comment

regarding Bernie, you know, and see sort of even Bernie being maybe a bridge toward that, right, or something which all those different coalitions can organize under. Well, I mean, you know, if you've read the latest Jacobin article about how Bernie Sanders should be Vice Kamala's president, written by one Ben Burgess, I think that you should have a little more faith, brother, because it could be Andy Beshear, it could be Mark Kelly, the weird astronaut guy

who should be awesome maybe, but is not. He's a Democrat. It could be any one of these people But it could also be Bernie Sanders. I would say something it is less embarrassing to be Aaron Sorkin Asking for Mitt Romney to be put at the top of the Democratic Party ticket then that Brother that is fucking pathetic Get off your knees brother Have some self-respect

your knees brother that is fucking have some self-respect with Aaron Sorkin like I don't expect that guy to have any self-respect you should have some fucking self-respect. You know the thing about this you know I I hold a certain nostalgia for the Bernie era I've got Bernie shirts that I won't throw away not because that I've think that Bernie is you know this brave truth-teller or anything necessarily You know or whatever. I think he's obviously been disappointing on a lot of things since I'll that But I still have you know like I have a soft spot It's over. It's over man. It's it's over. It's over We lost he's 83

And we lost right we with that that that that think it proved that not fair and square And I know no no no they knifed him whatever whatever, but we still are on the outside looking in as long as that man Everybody is obsessed so much with the past you know like whether it's Conservatives or liberals or even people on the left right and it's like all of these kind of movements and past revolutions, right? This sort of like like this this revering of that, you know, and trying to kind of Grasp this moment again, you know this one moment brother like, you know, the tables have turned things have changed things are in flux We have to adapt man, you know, yeah It's it's weird. I mean I swore off

Prognosticating and I and I'm still sticking to it But like the thing is is it goes the other direction too Genuinely like just because Biden is out and Kamala is in means nothing. I saw people on Twitter saying oh, this is a Call anybody out here cuz he pisses me off half the time but the other half of the time he does have some really astute observations but um he was like oh this is definitely like you know this is sinking a missile into the nothing ever happens crowd and it's like is it I mean I don't know I mean we don't know. I mean, we don't know that

I'll tell you this as an inveterate gambler. I'll give you I Would give you fucking the the best odds in the world on Kamala is not meaningfully different from Biden on anything that we really care about. Alright, I'll take that. I will, I will, I would wager my last fucking red penny on that being the outcome of this. And you know it and I know it and everything. We got to have something to talk about. But ultimately, and that's not nihilism, that's just the reality because I just, forgive me if I can't like just sink my teeth into somebody that

Shrimp and grit shrimp and gridded away through a fucking genocide. Yeah Yeah, I think I think that like what we would might start to call Harrisonian ism Good God, man. It is gonna get real bleak here But I I've just noticed with the way that they treated the economy the last two years basically Gaslighting everybody who said that they weren't doing so hot Like you've got articles in the fucking New York Times about people who make 8090 K a year in Seattle and can't afford to even rent and so they live out of their car Tenured professor money CLA that can't that can't afford to live in Los Angeles right exactly and and and

And I think that like That may change Economic stuff always changes it because it depends on all these other variables that like sometimes Do fall into alignment with what you can control at the political level? But then sometimes don't because of other global contingencies It's a fucking really hard thing to control and wrangle. But I do know that like for the future to head off any kind of universal or sort of like broad reaching national political movement, the Democrats will probably still keep, they'll probably take Bidenism or Bidenomics to an even more insane degree and

Like basically what we were saying earlier Yeah like the 17 percent of flake ancestors of small business holders in like the 1870s get like $1,300 on their next tax taxes or whatever like they'll do that because they can carve out these like fucking die-hard like dead-ender loyalist constituencies that like will then prevent the formation of any kind of like larger assembly of whatever and like that'll probably would be what Harris Harris's legacy is if she's even president I'm not even fucking saying that for a fact or not but I do know this

I saw an op-ed in the New York Times that was like, right after when Biden dropped out and Kamala entered the race, it was like, well, what's that? Like, is that the sound of stability finally coming back? And it's like, I read that, it's like Catherine Miller who wrote it. And the whole thing was basically like,

we've just seen increasingly destabilization and chaos in the world system and even especially at home in the political system since Trump took office Are we finally getting back to Nate stable and normal and I have to tell you I don't think even in my rosiest of Prognosticating scenarios even with me not prognosticating at all You can't deny what's going on in front of your face, which is that like so obviously the empires Obviously the u.s. Sees its Empire slipping away otherwise Why would it be like in circling the globe with like this fucking?

autocratic authoritarian economic regime That if you even deviate slightly outside of like a third of your population dies from fucking cholera or something Yo, dude, I saw that I saw that you posted about that sister. I'm telling you what like to the woman I wrote that it's like if you think if you think when it's like like over a hundred degrees in some states You know exactly I have a friend in The climate just all of a sudden better because now Biden's not what are you talking about dude? I mean just wildfires right it cater to right out like I'm afraid he's a who's been dealing with that

It's just like what are you talking about stability, right? I mean it just then again just goes to show you how like vacuous these people are in terms of their ideology You know because if you actually considered those things and thought about them, you know, it would be it would be Terrifying still for you to even walk one in and punch one for coconuts You know I'm saying I would actually try to like organ to like try I don't know like like I'm gonna participate or develop or advocate for some sort of mass politics Right to actually have power and leverage to make sure that I mean, I don't know. We still fucking have a planet You know, I don't fucking know dude. Yeah, I these people there. It's just it's all just aesthetics to them

I guess is what I'm saying, you know I don't fucking know dude yeah I these people there it's just it's all just aesthetics to them I guess is what I'm saying you know that's aesthetics and I think that like we you can't discredit the liberal imperative to always mystify the like material circumstances you know I mean and what you say Tom and voting well and you can't you can't deny that too though it's I think that like the the paradigms of liberalism have not changed just because Biden is dropped out and because Kamala is in. The paradigms do not change. In fact, they may even become heightened and even more cynically deployed against people.

Well, my worry is this. Even if you cast aside moral, your moral stance on Gaza or whatever, right? Like if you thought there was some generic benefit to punching one in to Kamala Harris, right? If you could just set all those things aside for a second. Yeah, it's like you say, Terrence, it's like there's also a world,

and it's not also a world, I think this is the virtual certainty, that you get on the other side of Kamala and what begins to happen is just like, they take that as a sign of their, of the way, their current way of doing business as like, oh, we just had the wrong figurehead in place, right? We just needed a better messenger.

You know what I mean? And that's my hunch is what their move is with this because nothing these people do is on accident. You know what I mean? They are, like you said, Nancy Pelosi's very good at this. And like three weeks ago, we thought they were going the way of the Whig party Like you said, Nancy Pelosi is very good at this. Three weeks ago, we thought they were going the way of the Whig party, out after the Trump assassination.

Now, it feels like, oh God, now it feels like the Republicans are on the ropes. The Democrats always learn all the wrong lessons from all these things. I would bank on that changing, regardless of whether you think you can hold your nose and vote for Kamala or not. Yeah. Also too, I was thinking about Biden's speech yesterday when he talked about passing the torch to a new generation. So it does seem like, you know, that I talk often of like, use this phrase, like reupholstering

the past, you know, they just want you to kind of just forget about Biden's like kind of just milktose mediocre administration All the things that Obama didn't do could have done but didn't do you know all the ineffectualness of the Democratic Party and They're just like kind of just slapping on a new model, you know, like paint on new paint onto a new model I guess, you know almost literally, you know, we have a new model, like paint onto a new model, I guess, almost literally. We have a black woman. That's the complete opposite of the thing that she were rallying against us for. So obviously, since she's a black woman,

that means that all the things that you care about are engendered within this one figure, as if that's the case. Well, I don't know if you guys have noticed this, but the appeal of every person they've tried it out for VP, and this is even true for Kamala herself, they talk about these people like you would talk about the stats of a defensive linebacker or a safety. And by that I mean that is their whole game.

I mean, I'm serious. That is the Democrats are a defensive Party they are a party a posture in a party of defense And that's why like they are talking about these people like who's gonna be best at like holding this at bay and and whatever Because they have still surrendered again. I do I this has not changed the imperative of liberalism or the material circumstances They've surrendered The future to the Republican vision and they and as such their whole posture is Defensive and like and I think it's the thing is is like I don't think that there's even such a thing as a mass politics

Even possible like I just I don't even think that like that's ever really been possible except for like maybe a few moments in in like Western or American history or like maybe the Chinese Communist revolution but like for the most part I feel like mass politics is really Really like a moving target and like something that like if you pursue it You'll always be pursuing it because you'll never have enough mass and you know what I'm saying it becomes a black hole that starts to eventually suck you into it yeah but like I've just been thinking about this a lot lately in reference to like what class is I think the left if it's really going to like figure out how to deal

with the short-term things but also to deal with the short term things, but also obviously deal with the long term things, the left really needs to understand class and needs to have a thorough theoretical understanding of it. This is not the left's fault. Karl Marx himself in the entire three volumes of Capital never defines class it never

touches it apparently he meant to at some point this is my whole thing we'll get to the finer points later do you think maybe a new Jacobin article that redefines class like another yearly one baby maybe they could do a bi-weekly well I think that like the liberals don't the liberals do not like to talk about class Conservatives talk about it in the most bizarre off-putting way Possible we talked about that last week with like JD Vance to them classes representations of pictures and images, right? Yeah, or just tropes You know, yeah, it's a cultural understanding of class There have been times in history where you can attach cultural

Markers on to class, but now in the 21st century with like mass consumption mass production or mass consumerism the homogenization of cultures You have fucking middle managers or even just small Millionaires in like rural towns driving business tyrants Yeah, f-450s and wearing cowboy boots and they see that say that that's makes them work in class and so like there is no like universal cultural experience of class there is no like universal cultural experience of class there is no universal like even way to use class as a politic in America

I think this is partially because I think people's understanding of class and this is goes to the JD Vance thing I think they think that the white working class or that class in general is literally just a group of people. I think in their minds when they see- They all work at the same factory? Yeah, or multiple factories, or they go down to the docks- Or they check a couple of identity markers

and salary ranges, yeah. Exactly. That is not, and this is my own opinion, people will disagree with this vehemently. The left has never had a really thorough understanding of what class is, but in my opinion, class is not a group of literal individuals. It's like the working class, for example.

It's not a group of literal individuals standing around being like, I'm the working class because I think this way and I buy these things and I do these jobs. Class is a relation. And if this was a video game, I would even go so far as to say that like in your character build, you can have multiple classes. For example, if you're an actor in Hollywood, you can be both working class

because you are selling your labor to a production system. You can be a landlord because you get paid millions of dollars to sell your labor to a production system. And you can be a capitalist because with those millions of dollars, you can then start your own business. Your own production studio, essentially whatever you want to do.

The revolution, building politics or whatever, it has nothing to do with like literally putting in a specific group of people into Government it has entirely to do with Reorienting the prerogatives of government towards the working class as a social relation So that by that I mean literally instantiating in government the prerogatives of the working class and that means Distribute equal distribution of resources Nobody goes hungry. Nobody's homeless. Nobody fucking goes for want or need And that means education being a big thing, too

Yes, it's a stymie the reproduction of capital It's an individualistic kind of modes of thinking you know it is It is an objective fact that this is what the working class needs It's not it's not a fucking thing where you just sit down and say well I'm working class and I disagree I think the working class should be conservative and Homophobic and transphobic and all this other stuff. You know, who uses slurs? The working class. Right, right, right. Certain individuals do. Maybe the working class at large does.

That does not change the fact that the historical imperative for the working class is to move beyond those things so that we can actually enjoy the resources of the planet without destroying it to ruin, treating each other kindly, expressing yourself creatively, sexually, romantically, all these other ways. That is what it means. It's not just because a certain individual or a group of individuals think this thing. It is an objective scientific historical fact. I am sorry, maybe you can, I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with that, but that's

just the way I see it. And I think that's, if you look at it from this specific cultural understanding of it or even identitarian understanding of it, then I think that it will it will lead you back into either The way Vance sees class or the way the liberal see class which is not at all you know what I mean is something Is it they their purpose is to mystify class exactly? Yeah, I it's just something I've just been thinking about recently because it's obviously And I think obviously people will disagree with that there's all kinds of different ways you can conceptualize this but People just need to have start having the conversation period because I Just how collectively how many years we have left in all of us collectively I

Don't know so anyways I Any final thoughts this week before we start wrapping things up here? Nah man, it's just, yeah, just like I said, people, you can do whatever you want man. You can do whatever you want. I'm not trying to dissuade anyone from voting for Kamala Harris. I understand if there are issues to you that seem more pertinent, but um You know I can't do that shit man, and don't don't go around scolding people because at the end of the day it doesn't matter

Right I'm not gonna. I've been scolding a lot of I'm not gonna lie. I feel like I've been scolding a lot of people Well, I think that's what we do we scold people. That's what we do. You know we do scold people Yeah, well, I've been all about scolding it is that is true That is true Well if you want to support the program you go to patreon You can hear our first ever call-in show from this past Weekend with one caller Aaron Thorpe you might recognize his voice You might yeah, you might recognize his voice. Yeah, you might recognize his voice

and also pick up the mantle from the old Street Fight show and start doing the That was fun man, I Did I did feel like it added an AM radio sort of effect to the to the to the program? I enjoyed it very Well, yeah, you can go to patreon here our first reactions to the news And you got a lot of you get 316 something episodes over there. So all kinds of stuff to listen to while you're bored Alright, thanks for listening this week everybody. We'll see you on the patreon in a few days. I wish you all the best

Talk to you later. Peace