 This is the Humanist Report with Mike Figueredo. The Humanist Report podcast is funded by viewers like you, through Patreon and PayPal. To support the show, visit patreon.com forward slash humanist report or become a member at humanistreport.com. Now enjoy the show. Welcome to the Humanist Report podcast. My name is Mike Figueredo and this is episode 313 of the program. Today is Friday, November 5th. Can you believe that the 2020 election took place a year ago, basically, as of today? That is just insane. But regardless, we've got a great show for you today, but before we get into that, I want to take some time to thank all of the people who make this show possible. All of our newest Patreon, PayPal and YouTube members, all of which either signed up for the very first time to support us this week or increase the monthly pledge that they were already giving us, and that includes Beacon23, Bruce Allen Ross, Joan Courtney, Codrimble and Lokesh Pandya. Thank you so much to all of these kind individuals. If you'd also like to support the show, you can do so by going to humanistreport.com slash support patreon.com forward slash humanist report or by clicking join underneath any one of our YouTube videos. We've got another jam-packed episode for you. We'll talk about what will likely be a disappointing end to the Build Back Better negotiations with Progressive's Caving and Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema, getting everything that they wanted, and we'll also discuss Bernie Sanders' last-ditch effort to try to make a difference with regard to Build Back Better. Also, Kirsten Sinema taunted activists that showed up to protest a wedding that she was officiating. Bill Maher declares that the pandemic is over. Mark Zuckerberg larps as a normal human being, but fails. Fox News's segment on critical race theory doesn't quite go as planned. Lauren Boebert broadcasts her stupidity to the world yet again, and QAnon cultists showed up in droves to welcome JFK Jr. back to society, even though he's been dead for decades. The fight to restore net neutrality might be stifled by, you guessed it, Manchin and Sinema, a new poll spells doom for American democracy. And we'll discuss the outcome of COP 26, because that might spell doom for the planet. And we'll close out the program by talking to 2022 congressional candidate Imani Oakley. So that's what we've got on the agenda for today's episode. It's going to be another very long episode, but hopefully you enjoy what I have in store for you. Let's get to it. Well, Joe Manchin held a press conference, and he essentially initiated a game of chicken with progressives. And it's very clear that they're backing down. Joe Manchin won. Progressives at this point have lost. And now it's a matter of how embarrassed they'll be in the end of this, which is still yet to be determined. Now, to give you some background before I show you what Joe Manchin said, progressives have to their credit remained committed to not supporting the bipartisan infrastructure deal unless they also vote on the Build Back Better Act, because they know that if they vote on the bipartisan infrastructure deal, which is a corporate handout that Joe Manchin and other Republicans want, then they have no leverage. They're not going to get the Build Back Better Act. So it's important that they remain committed and they have. And Democratic Party leadership is getting increasingly impatient because they're going back on their promise to progressives. And now they're saying, let's just vote on the bipartisan infrastructure, give the corporatists what they want, and then we'll revisit the Build Back Better Act later. In fact, over the weekend, Nancy Pelosi actually told members not to embarrass the president while he's overseas by voting against his bipartisan infrastructure deal because she's receiving pressure from the corporatists and they want to vote. And she now wants to give it to them because she thinks that they mean business. Progressives have absolutely no reason whatsoever to support the bipartisan infrastructure deal because it's it's useless. It's garbage. In fact, that alone does more harm to the planet overall. And AOC broke this down in a really insightful thread. And she says, passing BIF without Build Back Better makes our emissions and climate crisis worse. Sure, some BIF investments do good, but not enough. So it keeps us in the emissions red. So if progressives don't get a lot of concessions in Build Back Better enough to offset the damage caused by BIF, bipartisan infrastructure, then they have no reason to support it, vote it down. Now, the problem is that progressives aren't threatening to vote down the bipartisan infrastructure and they're still kind of towing the same line, which was important to a point, but now it's not as valuable. So for example, Jamal Bowman said, look, I'm a yes on both bills, but at the same time, he tweeted out, we passed what we ran on. I'm a yes to building back better for all. Both bills must pass. Now, I responded to that, saying Build Back Better is busted. Torpedo everything you got played. Don't give their corporate donors what they want. The crumbs you got in Build Back Better aren't worth voting on bipartisan infrastructure for. Don't be weak, vote no, tank it. Now, even though Jamal Bowman is in one way standing up to Nancy Pelosi by saying, no, I'm not going to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure yet. I want to vote on both bills. He's still caving by saying he's going to vote for BIF at all because it's it's a bad bill. And on top of that, Build Back Better got gutted. We talked about this last week. Paid leave was even even removed and you're still going to give them what they want. The bipartisan infrastructure proposal, which is a giveaway to their corporate donors. Fuck that. Vote it down. Don't give them what they want. You have no incentive now. There's not enough in Build Back Better. And by saying, no, voting down both bills, you actually are showing the Democratic Party that you mean business. Why do you think Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer listen to these corporate Democrats? Why do you think they're encouraging you to vote on infrastructure? Because they know that these corporate Democrats, they mean business. They will vote down reconciliation. So to get both bills through, Nancy Pelosi is trying to appease the corporatists. But they're not trying to appease you. They kind of shut you out of negotiations on both BIF and Build Back Better because they know that at the end of the day, whatever they come up with, you're going to go along with it as long as there's a little bit of crumbs in it. So it doesn't matter how humiliated you look. So Joe Manchin, he held a press conference and he called their bluff. And he basically said, look, if we don't get a vote on bipartisan infrastructure, then I'm not going to support reconciliation. Here's what he had to say. Last week, the Speaker urged Speaker Pelosi urged the importance of voting and passing the BIF bill before the president took the world stage overseas and still no action. In my view, this is not how the United States Congress should operate or, in my view, has operated in the past. The political games have to stop. Twice now, the House has balked at the opportunity to send the BIF legislation to the president. As you've heard, there are some House Democrats who say they can't support this infrastructure package until they get my commitment on the reconciliation legislation. It is time to vote on the BIF bill up or down and then go home and explain to your constituents the decision you made. And I've always said, if I can't go home and explain it, I can't vote for it. And if I can, I will. I've worked in good faith for three months, for the past three months with President Biden, Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi and my colleagues on the reconciliation bill, and I will continue to do so for the sake of the country. I urge the House to vote and pass the bipartisan infrastructure bill. Holding this bill hostage is not going to work in getting my support for the reconciliation bill. Throughout the last three months, I've been straightforward about my concerns that I will not support a reconciliation package that expands social programs and irresponsibly adds to our twenty nine trillion dollars in national debt that no one seems to really care about or even talk about. Nor will I support a package that risks hurting American families suffering from historic inflation. Simply put, I will not support a bill that is this consequential without thoroughly understanding the impact that it will have on our national debt, our economy, and most importantly, all of our American people. Every elected representative needs to know what they are voting for and the impact it has not only on their constituents, but the entire country. So before I get to the response from the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Pramila Jayapal, I just want to go over some things that he said here. He said, I've worked in good faith for three months. Laughable, absolutely laughable. On top of that, he says that he will not support a package that risks hurting American families suffering from historic inflation. He would never be able to get away with that if we had a capable mainstream media that was doing its job, because he doesn't care about the American people. He doesn't care about what people in West Virginia want. If you look at the polls, these policies are incredibly popular. He's doing the bidding of his corporate overlords. And on top of that, he says, this bill will irresponsibly add to our twenty nine trillion dollar national debt that no one seems to really care about or even talk about. Yeah, that's because we shouldn't care about that. I don't give a fuck about the national debt and nobody who's serious should. I care about people in this country who are suffering because dipshits like you are holding your entire party back. Even when Democrats want to do the bare minimum, we can't even get that. Can't even get a billionaire tax. Can't even get four weeks paid leave. Can't even join the rest of the world in offering the bare minimum to American workers. So look, if I'm a progressive and I see that if I see that, he's very obviously trying to call my bluff. I'm saying, OK, keep your vote on reconciliation, Joe Manchin. We're voting no on your corporate handout disguised as bipartisan infrastructure. Fuck you. We don't need you. We're done with everything. We got nothing that we wanted. So we're going to deny you what you want so desperately for your donors, too. But that's not what happened because Joe Manchin called the bluff of progressives in Congress and the leader of progressives back down. She basically said, well, look, we we really want to vote on both bills at the same time. But we're willing to vote for this bipartisan infrastructure corporate giveaway. So long as the president pinky promises that we're going to get a vote on reconciliation. Take a look at what she had to say. This is just embarrassingly pathetic. You endorsed the White House framework last week, you as a group, of course. Are you confident that those two senators will be for it? Because they have been less than definitive in what they've said so far publicly. Yes, Andrea, it's good to see you. And we did endorse the framework. And in fact, we also had a very, very good meeting yesterday of the full CPC after the text was released, which is something that we were asking for for the Build Back Better Act. And I'm very happy to say that we are now awaiting negotiations among senators on prescription drug pricing and child care and some details on immigration. But the Progressive Caucus, assuming good resolution of those issues from the Senate side, that we will be excited to vote for both bills. We now feel like we have what we need. We are taking the president's word at the fact that he believes he can get 50 votes in the Senate. And you know, I hope that the two senators that we've been waiting on these months who have come to the table in good faith and negotiated that they understand that this is a leap of faith. But, you know, assuming we get these these final negotiations done, we're ready to pass both bills. And I think the caucus feels very good about the fact that we've been able to do what we said from the beginning, which is pass both bills at the same time, get the entirety of the president's agenda to his desk for signature and ultimately deliver transformative change for people across this country. That was absolutely pathetic. And this is why progressives don't get what they want. This is why they're not taken seriously during negotiations because of things like that. She said, we are taking the president's word at the fact that he believes he can get 50 votes in the Senate. And, you know, she really hopes that these two senators, Kirsten, Sonoma and Joe Manchin, know that they're taking a leap of faith. That's assuming that Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sonoma are good faith negotiators when Pramila Jayapal knows they are not. But what she's doing is she's buckling. And I'm going to play another clip for you in a moment where she talks about how, OK, even if the Build Back Better Act was gutted, what's in it is still good. But here's the problem with that. You're voting for what they want. So at that point, once you vote for their corporate giveaway, you no longer have leverage. So that $550 billion that's being made into climate change investments. Well, what's stopping Joe Manchin after you've given him infrastructure from saying, you know what, let's cut that in half. Let's also take out the universal pre-K. Let's take that out too. If he does that, what are you going to say? No, you better not. You already gave him what he wants. You gave away your leverage so he can do anything he wants at this point. And you've enabled that. That's why, at a minimum, you can't vote for infrastructure unless you get a vote in the Senate on Build Back Better. And also, there was a little line in there where she said she was waiting to see what happens in the Senate with regard to prescription drugs. Oh, you're just waiting and crossing your fingers that everything is going to go as you plan. You fight, Representative Jaipal, you fucking fight. It's not going to go your way if you just sit back and crush fingers and and hope and pray that things are going to go your way. You're working against an entire industry that is trying to tank this. And it's clear that you've just decided to get steamrolled. What you said there is basically give us whatever and we'll just go along with it because we have no fucking spines. Now, I do want to show you this second clip here where she made it very clear that she's she's happy with what's left of the Build Back Better Act. And yeah, they really hope that, you know, the prescription drug clause is included in Build Back Better. But if it's not, I mean, we'll still vote for it. But there's a big if there if you don't get Senate agreement on child care, immigration, prescription drugs. Does that mean that you won't go forward? Well, I think that we are very, very close is my understanding. And it isn't just the two senators at this point. You know, you have to get 50 votes in the Senate. So there are different senators who are who are pushing very hard for different pieces of this bill, including the prescription drug pricing piece. And on child care actually is really not about the overall. It's really about the implementation details. There are some differences between the language and what the Biden framework said. So we are trying to iron out those differences. But my my hope is that that will happen very quickly. And as I said, you know, look, I think we're we're in the very end zone here. We are we are just about to get this done. And we're feeling very good about both bills. And you know, and the president, frankly, being able to say once we deliver the Build Back Better Act, what a crucial time this is. You know, Boris Johnson talking about how important climate is. There's a five hundred and fifty five billion dollar investment in climate. And we spent the weekend looking at whether it would really lead to significant reductions, meaningful reductions in climate emissions. And our belief, given the detailed look that we have had and the briefings we've had from the White House, that, yes, we will get there with that. And so that is a huge victory. And that's why we think, you know, that we should pass these two bills together as soon as possible. And let's wrap up these negotiations. Let's get these last things done and let's pass them through. I think we're ready. All right. So she claims that the reason why the main reason why progressives in Congress are still enthusiastic about Build Back Better is because of the five hundred fifty billion still in that bill for climate change investment. She says that we spent the weekend looking at whether it would lead to significant reductions, meaningful reductions in climate emissions. And our belief, given the detailed look, is that, yes, we will get there. The problem is that, Pramila, even if you are excited about that provision again, if you vote for infrastructure, Joe Manchin can say, I don't like that number. Let's make it one hundred billion. And there's nothing that you can do once you've given away your leverage. And furthermore, I don't believe that that's actually going to be sufficient. I mean, of course, I have to see the details of the bill. I'm sure it's positive. But when we're talking about global anthropogenic climate change, if you think that five hundred fifty billion is going to be sufficient, I just feel like that is incredibly naive and not bad for the New York Times. Abram Luss Gordon eloquently explains why, even if Progressive got the full three point five trillion dollar investments that they wanted, which I mean, that's still the compromise. But even if they got that, that would still be not enough given the scale of the destruction that climate change will inevitably cause. He writes the current price tag of nearly one point nine trillion for climate and other social spending might seem enormous, though less so than the original three point five trillion plan. But over the long term, either would be a pittance. By zeroing in on those numbers, the public debate seems to have skipped over the economic ramifications of climate change, which promised to be historically disruptive and enormously expensive. What we don't spend now will cost us much more later. The compromise plan calls for half a trillion dollars directed largely toward tax incentives for low emission energy sources. But it omits other provisions, which will make it hard for Mr. Biden to reach his climate goals. Some economists and climate scientists have calculated that climate change could cost the United States the equivalent of nearly four percent of its gross domestic product a year by 2100. Four percent is likely a conservative estimate. It leaves out consequential costs like damages from drought and climate migration. It assumes the United States and other nations eventually move away from energy generated by oil, coal and natural gas, though not as immediately as many say is needed. In this scenario, the planet will still warm by around three degrees Celsius by the end of the century from pre-industrial levels, a change that would be disastrous. Four percent of American GDP comes out to about 840 billion each year. It figured on last year's economic output, measured over a decade. The way the Build Back Better Act is framed, it's nearly 8.4 trillion. But the actual cost of climate change to the economy could easily be far greater. So we know that half a trillion isn't enough to tackle climate change. But I guess if it meets Joe Biden's meager goals, then Pramila Jayapal, as the leader of the congressional progressive caucus, is satisfied. And it's just it's incredibly disappointing to see how easily they will roll over for the corporate wing of the party. And you could even take things further. OK, Build Back Better is gutted and they still really want you to vote for their infrastructure proposal, right? Because they want that gift to their corporate donors. There's a reason why over a dozen Republicans are supporting it in the Senate as well. So if they want that, make more demands from Joe Biden and say, look, you're clearly not going to get the votes. But if you assure us that you're going to be signing an executive order where you cancel 50,000 in student debt from each debt holder, if there's more executive orders that we can get from you before we vote on this, maybe we'll change our minds because what we're getting here is fucked over. We're getting crumbs and we don't accept it. But give us some more executive orders, these five executive orders. And sure, we'll we'll consider a change of heart. We'll consider voting on your corporate giveaway if we get the crumbs and Build Back Better, but they're not doing anything. They're they're just rolling over and they're dying. And this is why they will never be taken seriously in Congress because at the end of the day, even when they do a good job and they hold strong for a really long time, you can always expect them to buckle. And this is why change never happens in the United States. It's really, really frustrating and it's disappointing. And honestly, if Pramila Jayapal doesn't think she can handle all the pressure that leadership is putting on her, maybe she shouldn't be the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus because what we saw is weakness. And you just broadcasted to everyone in the country that you're willing to go back on the bare minimum that you were holding strong on. So that's incredibly embarrassing. Congressional Progressives look weak. And if progressives don't vote down everything, Torpedo Build Back Better and bipartisan infrastructure, I mean, they're they're going to leave lots of young people who are hopeful that they'd get the job done feeling disillusioned and that's going to hurt progressives in 2022. So if they let us down, they're going to be the ones to blame. I mean, Joe Manchin is clearly trying to play you and you're giving him exactly what he wants. You walked right into his trap and that's really unfortunate. Make some demands fight, but they're not willing to fight. And unfortunately, I'm not that surprised. I kind of expected this to be the ultimate outcome. You know, when we were talking about all of these wonderful things in Build Back Better, I was pretty skeptical that they would be accomplished. And my cynicism, unfortunately, was correct. So this is not really the surprising outcome so far, assuming it's going to head in this direction. It's just, you know, another day where progressives get fucked because they are absolutely spineless. And yeah, so Joe Manchin wins. Corporate America wins. All right, folks, so I have content that is both food for the soul, but it's also going to simultaneously crush your soul as well because what you're going to see is perhaps the most based protest of Kyrsten Sinema yet where protesters showed up to a wedding that she was officiating and they're going to protest it. And that part is really, really cool. Her response, however, towards the end, might send you into another doomer spiral. So you've been warned. Nonetheless, take a look at what is an incredible protest. It's the Queen Uncinema. Corp Red Shell. Corp Red Shell. Corp Red Shell. Sinema, stop. Sinema, drop. Sinema, drop. Sinema, drop. Sinema, drop. It's a wedding. I don't think Sinema is ruining my wedding. They really appreciate it. You know what? She's ruining our wedding. I know. I really wish I could enjoy my wedding without you ruining it. I know you do. Could you just go down to Nalala? For an hour? How about my daughter's wedding? Just for an hour. Just better get married, please. This person is not my daughter. My daughter's getting married. Will you tell her that? Did you invite Sinema? I don't know. We're out here. Doing to our country. You know what? Tell her. Tell her. I don't disagree with any of your people when you're going to be in your rights. It's my daughter's wedding. So we're out. Please just go down to the corner for one hour. Please. It's my daughter's wedding. Shame, shame, shame. Leave Sinema. Leave Sinema. She's not my friend. She's not my guest. We'll leave. Can I just make a compromise? We're protesting Sinema. We're not protesting this crime. Let's just shut our mouths now. Let the ceremony begin. We can walk quietly with our sign. I know. We'll be quiet. They have a right to protest. Stop talking to them. Don't let her go back in and play with our millionaires. I fought for your fucking right to protest. Thank you. So you go back inside. Thank your millionaires, buddy. Come on now. Our future's at stake. Everything's on the line. And you're letting this woman get away with it. Hee-ho. Look at this shit. Taking corporate money. Total corruption of our government. Total sell-out. Totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable for you to support it. Yeah, keep laughing. Keep laughing. I'm a League educated white old man. And I've been destroyed by this economy. And that corruption stems from corporate power. And Sinema is taking corporate money to destroy us all. And climate will do it without her. So wake up. Woo. Why don't you get married and sell a little trough? Yeah. Okay. Everything about that was incredible. These protesters are absolutely just amazing. I really respect them for doing this. But at the end when they got footage of her inside the wedding when she noticed them she spotted the camera and she was taunting the protesters looking at the camera as she was singing. That right there, it just made me lose so much more hope because it's clear that even if these direct action oriented efforts to influence her are important they're not working. And she's kind of throwing that in your face that there's nothing you can do. I don't care. Protest me everywhere I go. It doesn't matter. Not going to change my opinion. Eat shit peasants. It's just what do you do in that point? What do you do? Electoralism is this slow process and she might not even in a primary directly protesting her isn't having an impact so people they see this and they want to check out of the system and honestly if it were taking place virtually if that wedding were occurring in say roblox I don't think that those protesters would have been out of line to just straight up fling dog shit over the fence and try to hit Kirsten Sinema with it. Of course in a video game, not in real life I would never condone that or endorse that in roblox. I think just throwing shit at these elites that would have been the best course of action. I mean what do you do? What else do you do? We're suffering. We lost. We get nothing that we want so at least we can get the satisfaction of making sure that we irritate these elitist pricks as much as we want and the bride here who approached these protesters if she were a reasonable person and wasn't an elitist prick she would try to level with the protesters she would say look I understand how this looks there's a bunch of people getting married and we have this senator who's blocking things that would save lives in America. I get the way that this looks here's what I'll do. If you stop protesting I'll ask her to leave. We'll find a different efficient I mean she could have done that but what did she do? She condescendingly walks up to these people and she says hi thanks for winning my wedding I really appreciate it. She also says I wish I could enjoy my wedding without you ruining it so someone like this someone who is getting curious in cinema to officiate their wedding I don't know much about this bride she's not the person who I'm angry with here but I just have to assume that if you want someone like curious in cinema or really any politician to officiate your wedding you're just the shitty person in general and you kind of deserve your wedding to be ruined now the mom walked out and was begging and pleading with the protesters so clearly it was affecting them and you know rather than asking curious in cinema to leave because you could just find a new fucking efficient well they actually complied they listened we'll shut up and afterwards after the protesters were respectful enough to be quiet as the ceremony proceeded what do they do later they're dancing and acting all high and mighty and condescendingly just taunting the protesters it's despicable and the people who are conversing with the mother they ask some really important questions why would you invite this woman she's ruining our whole country kick her out kick her the fuck out why would you want curious in cinema here I mean this is an elitist wedding it's a circle jerk with powerful people I'm assuming you have a senator there to officiate the wedding it's just everything about this it really is discouraging and I'm gonna make you even more doomer because Fox News picked up on the story and of course they portrayed these protesters negatively they clutched their pearls and the protesters would dare to ruin this wedding and Fox News then linked to the video so if you go to the video and you see this on YouTube well Fox News viewers ratioed these protesters who did a public service but yet they were ratioed so here's what I want you to do I want you to go to that videos page I will link to it down below if you're watching this on YouTube and I want you to out ratio Fox News's audience and give these protesters a like if you've uploaded this footage because what they did was a public service and I feel bad that they had to turn off the comments because they got bombarded by Fox News boomers who were clutching their pearls at these protesters who dared to protest a wedding where this elitist prick is the aficion but look here's the thing it may not be working right these protests where people go up to Kyrsten Sinema and they confront her in public to get her to change her opinion having said that though it's still really important because at a minimum you know that it's inconvenient at a minimum you know even if she's not letting it on it's getting under her skin so if these politicians aren't going to listen to you regardless of what you do the best thing you can do is take satisfaction knowing that you're irritating them that's honestly sad it's a pretty grim takeaway this is bleak shit I know but still Kyrsten Sinema with what she's been doing to the extent to which she's sold out she should never be able to show her disgustingly pathetic face in public again everywhere she goes she should be protested nobody should want her to officiate their wedding nobody should want her to be around because they know that that's gonna come with protesters full time Kyrsten Sinema leaves her house she should expect protestors and it might not face her she might become desensitized to it don't care so long as we can at least minorly inconvenience her I think it's the bare minimum that we can do to make these elites pay if they're not gonna listen to us then at least give them hell they don't listen oh well at least we're making their lives a little bit miserable not as miserable as they're making our lives right so fuck Kyrsten Sinema fuck this wedding fuck these elites fuck the mom who was crying fuck the bride fuck the groom fuck all of these people I hate all of these people this is a shitty country with shitty politicians who are ruining our lives I mean don't clutch your pearls at the wedding clutch your pearls at the people who are suffering because of corporate sellouts like Kyrsten Sinema so when it comes to daily COVID-19 cases we're thankfully in a much better place now than we were a couple of months ago but we still aren't out of the woods yet we don't know how bad it's gonna get over the holidays and as it gets more colder people are going to congregate indoors yes we do have more people vaccinated this year but also we have the Delta variant which wasn't a thing during the last holiday season so it's not over yet and we're still averaging more than 70,000 new cases per day and I think that a lot of us acknowledge this probably isn't going to go away anytime soon in fact epidemiologists are predicting that COVID-19 isn't really just going to go away it's not like we're going to declare the pandemic over and then all of a sudden we get back to normal this is most likely going to become something that's endemic which means we have like COVID seasons every year but I mean we can't really predict that but what we do know with certainty is that it's not all good yet but somebody who apparently knows more than all of us, Bill Maher is going to share some good news with all of us the pandemic is over and it's over not necessarily because we're at a better place but because Bill Maher non-expert is unilaterally declaring the pandemic is over I don't know that the virus got the message but nonetheless Bill Maher is very confident that things should return to normal and that Republicans who haven't done anything to try to mitigate the spread of the virus they're actually the ones who are handling this the best so I don't have a clip and I do have an article from Mediaite where they share his idiotic remarks Caleb Howe writes during Friday's real-time Bill Maher stated more than once that the pandemic is over insisting that masks are no longer necessary and arguing that red states are better on COVID policy at one point Maher told Senator Chris Coons that it's the Democrats who are to blame for pandemic measures that lasted longer than necessary just to resume living Maher said as they began the panel discussion saying that he hopes Dr. Anthony Fauci told everyone to go ahead with Halloween Maher and Coons were joined by Atlantic writer Caitlin Flanagan who generally agreed with Maher's take on the pandemic measures I mean come on, 15 of 100,000 that's where we are cases in California, 15 cases per 100,000 people I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic but you know what, it's over there's always going to be a variant you shouldn't have to wear masks, said Maher I had a meeting with my staff since March of 2020 why? but really, I mean also, vaccine mask pick one, you gotta pick you can't make me mask if I've had the vaccine he said to a big applause from the audience he asked Coons whether he's down with that because it's the Democrats who are mostly keeping these rules in place I mean I travel in every state now back I'm back on the road and the red states are a joy and the blue states are a pain in the ass for no reason he said Coons answered that everybody should get vaccines even though people are tired of strict controls on their lives the world isn't safe until the world is vaccinated now what Chris Coons said there as much as I disagree with him on everything else is correct we have to make sure that these other countries have the vaccine and until they get the vaccine this isn't going to be over anytime soon so that's priority number one but in terms of what Bill Marr says I'm going to be extra kind to him in one way and in another way I'm going to make fun of him because you don't get to just declare that the pandemic is over because you're frustrated we're all fucking frustrated with the pandemic I get it but facts don't care about your feelings even if we're feeling frustrated you don't just get to say I'm done with it no more rules I mean okay that would be lovely in theory but it's still very much going on a thousand people are dying every single day in fact on the day after Bill Marr made this comments or the day before Bill Marr made these comments rather 2000 Americans died we're having almost the 9-11 every single day so to just say it's over let's get back to normal that's pretty irresponsible and callous for the people who are still suffering but I will say that to his point that look I've been vaccinated for people who have done everything that they've needed to do yeah I do think that there should be more freedoms for them right if you've done everything you've gotten the vaccine that your life should be somewhat normal I think that indoor spaces should cater to people who have done their part so if you want to feel safe and go to a movie theater by being around vaccinated people and you can show proof of that I think that's permissible I think that's acceptable but the problem is that in America you can't really do anything at least effectively without anti-vax babies for everyone so back in what was it? May when the CDC kind of got rid of the mask mandates and they went off of the honor system well if you're vaccinated you don't have to wear a mask well obviously people who were not vaccinated they also just stopped wearing masks too and then the Delta variant hit and then our cases were skyrocketing so you can't just do that there has to be some protocols and I think that you can make more vaccinated easier by allowing them to download some app on their phone and say look I've been vaccinated I think I should be allowed to go indoors without wearing a mask I think that that's fine because there are studies that show that even if vaccinated people still do spread COVID if they are infected they spread it at a much lower rate than unvaccinated people and that's if vaccinated people even get the virus so I do agree with him vaccinated people people who have done what they need to do who are responsible citizens they should have more freedoms but to just overall go back to normal I mean that would be catastrophic at this point in time at least wait and see where we're at in February after the holidays but look I don't want to be too down on him because I do get the frustration I'm extremely frustrated this is never going to end and sure COVID-19 might not go away it might just become something different it might be endemic but at the same time it doesn't have to be this bad if we weren't such a terrible country and we actually did the bare minimum to try to mitigate the spread and if we paid people to stay home and if Americans weren't dumber than other citizens in other countries then it wouldn't be this bad but it is bad because in America we're entitled little pricks and if you tell us to mask up we throw temper tantrums if you tell us that we need to get vaccinated we throw temper tantrums there were conversations that our parents were probably having and grandparents were having when it comes to seatbelt laws oh why I'm not going to wear a seatbelt this is authoritarianism I'm going to avoid all the states that require me to wear a seatbelt well every state has seatbelt laws and it's no longer viewed as authoritarianism same thing with smoking like racism now but for people who smoke this is disgusting what I can't smoke on a plane yeah now you can't smoke indoors everyone just widely accepts that that's a thing and all of a sudden it's not authoritarianism and I think that the vaccine mandates will be viewed in that way in the future but it's just every single thing that we could be doing we're not we're not doing it I mean when other countries go into lockdown they really go into lockdown they don't do it in a half-assed way so in the United States we've made this situation worse for ourselves because we're so stupid and also because we have a government that is just fundamentally broken and incapable of doing anything to be effective but you know in terms of the pandemic being over I wish that were the case but it's not the case and we don't just get to go back to normal unfortunately if Bill Maher is tired of this you have a gigantic mansion that probably has like 25 bedrooms go play in it go in your personal bowling alley or swimming pool and shut the fuck up it's the real people who have to work with people during a pandemic who have to work with the public they're the ones who are suffering so spare me your frustration I get it we're all frustrated but it's not over yet and I want it to be over but that's not the way that it works we don't get to just throw temper tantrums and get our way when we're adults we should learn this by now but that's where we're at this is the American mentality and Bill Maher isn't an exception to the rule he's just kind of saying what everyone else is saying but I mean yeah we're all fucking frustrated Bill but it's still a thing it's not over yet unfortunately I want it to be over but me wanting it doesn't make it a reality I also would like to be six foot five inches tall I also would like to fucking have I don't know Elden Ring now I would also like to have a fucking flying car but we don't get what we want simply by throwing a temper tantrum that's not the way that the world works so I'll leave that there I mean it's Bill Maher so nobody should be that surprised with him again like I understand the frustration on a human level but at the same time shut the fuck up Bill Maher I mean Jesus Christ he's so insufferable and I can't take it okay so I have to apologize to my viewers in advance this is incredibly petty perhaps the most petty video that I've ever released but I have to comment on this so Mark Zuckerberg he just changed the name of Facebook's parent company to META and they did this really cringe-worthy press conference but one moment really stood out to me where he had a conversation with someone who I believe is a developer for virtual reality applications and video games and the conversation that they have is so I don't know how to explain it it's so fucking weird that I don't think it's hyperbole to say that Mark Zuckerberg has never had a conversation with a normal human being and this is evident in the way that he talks the way that they use hand gestures and this overly exaggerated really excited way there's too many points this is fucking strange I don't know what to say so I'm going to mute myself and we're going to watch it together and I'll put the good audio over this here so we can kind of see but just take a look pay attention to the hand gestures this is so fucking weird keep creating now Deb from our studios team is joining me Deb do you want to take us through some of the exciting games and the pipeline for Quest? absolutely over the years we've had the opportunity to work with incredible developers like Vertigo Games the studio behind fan favorite Arizona Sunshine I love Arizona Sunshine that game basically got me and my friends through the first few months of the pandemic absolutely like what? I love Arizona Sunshine that game basically got me and my friends through the first couple of months of the pandemic who talks like this who has conversations like this this is not how normal people talk this is so fucking weird that's awesome that's awesome if you enjoyed that Mark I think you'll be excited that we're partnering with Vertigo on five more great games from Deep Silver and others we'll share more about this lineup very soon nice what else is coming? well the metaverse is constantly evolving so one of the most important aspects will be live service games that launch updates and new downloadable content regularly like Echo VR Beat Saber Onward Histol Whip and more we're focused on this a lot right now making sure games can build out active communities Beat Saber has a passionate community I love Beat Saber so do I and Beat Saber just passed $100 million in lifetime revenue on Quest alone it's a great example of a game that keeps releasing fresh content they've actually been working on evolving the way that you interact with the tracks and feel the music also the team has been working on something really cool check this out wow I can't wait to play this and they keep partnering with incredible artists to release new music packs all the time did you play the Billie Eilish music pack last month? a little more than I should have I probably should have been working more on this metaverse presentation well they have a great lineup of artists for 2022 and there's one more epic surprise before the end of the year so stay tuned okay have you played population one? I mean yeah I love the game so much for those who haven't population one is a thrilling battle royale that is only pop- I can't do anymore I don't know what it is about this clip in particular but it really makes me want to kill myself that's awesome in Roblox of course and I just love how he's like oh I played the Billie Eilish beat saber upgrade I love his music Billie is a good guy I actually know Billie myself I mean this is so strange and the way that she's like well there's five new tracks everyone this is this is why America is so fucked up absolutely because these corporate dumb fucks they're the ones who control everything they control politics they control every fucking aspect of our lives we are living in a late stage capitalist dystopian hell and these are our overlords these absolute fucking clown dipshits who don't even talk to normal people well let me tell you about beat saber and this all new really hip track raise the roof I just this shit honestly it makes me root for climate change like it makes me want human beings to go extinct at some point like I think this shit honestly I don't know what the fuck it is about this it puts me in such a dark place because and look I'm overreacting I'm being way too dramatic but this is so fucking weird and it just these are the people who have control in American society these weirdos these fucking androids I mean look I told you that this wasn't going to be substantive but I I don't know what to fuck to say that is just this is too weird anyone who sees this if you don't get nauseated from watching that you're not a real person you're weird I think you're the one with the problem not me for overreacting to this I think that if you see that and you think everything is perfectly copacetic it's all normal I think that you're the one with the problem because normal people don't talk like that I love beat saber I love Arizona sunshine it's what helped me and my friends get through the pandemic motherfucker you probably have never played any video game a day in your life during the pandemic you and your friends were like I don't know swimming in your indoor pool in your mansion you were doing weird shit probably drinking the blood of children I don't want to like dog whistle to conspiracy theorists I'm being facetious here but I just feel like these people are so detached and they try to hype up this product that they're selling but they're fake enthusiasm and it's just it's so disingenuous it's so scripted you can have a conversation with someone and just it doesn't have to be scripted not everything has to be manufactured and scripted but this is the dystopian society that we're living in again I'm just rambling at this point but I just I want you to see this video and I hope it makes you suffer as much as it makes me suffer because I can't unsee this and there's something about this video that broke me yeah that's it I've said this once I'll say it again the Build Back Better Act is busted but there are people like Bernie Sanders who actually genuinely care about working people in this country and he's making one last-ditch effort to try and convince his colleagues to support the one thing that lots of people really want and that is an expansion of Medicare to include dental and vision now Bernie Sanders knows that these corporate ghouls they don't care about anything but delivering for their corporate overlords but if he can get them to at least think about this in terms of their own re-election campaigns if you deliver a policy that's extremely popular at least out of self-interest consider supporting it and that's what he tried to do that's the appeal that he made and as HuffPost reporter Igor Bobrik tweeted out overheard on the floor Bernie Sanders showing colleagues a morning console poll on his phone of the most popular provisions falling out of Build Back Better so we drop what's most popular he asks referencing the Medicare expansion now to him this is what he cares the most about this has kind of been something that he views as a red line you can't take this out he knows that we're not gonna get Medicare for all in the near future but if we can expand Medicare that is a really important step because if you don't get Medicare for all past all at once then you just keep further expanding and expanding you get the ball rolling you expand benefits the more people include more things in it and eventually perhaps we arrive at a situation where actually going the full distance giving everyone healthcare is a little bit easier so this is his pet project and he's trying to convince these imbeciles that look it's not about anything but you the American people want this so imagine taking this back to your constituents look how popular this is and he's right about that I mean if you look at that poll from morning console well it's obvious they report Democrats dropped Medicare dental and vision coverage from their social spending bill voters say it's their top priority healthcare measures are the most popular among 18 provisions that were considered for the build back better plan so let's look at this poll here not only is the Medicare expansion to include dental and vision popular but it's the most popular provision so voters said the following measures were among their top 5 priorities and build back better and as you can see adding dental and vision to Medicare is one of the top priorities with 41% of voters saying that this is one of the most important issues and then you have Medicare adding hearing as the fourth most popular with 25% of people saying this is one of their top 5 priorities you also see this trend of healthcare related policies as top priorities for Americans funding elder care allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drugs I mean this is a trend now if you look at this poll what's interesting is that even more Republicans want the Medicare expansion than Democrats at least as it relates to dental and vision so this whole excuse that you have to be a moderate in purple states like Arizona or red states like West Virginia it's just not true because Republican voters want this more than Democratic party voters according to this poll so it's to the point where Bernie Sanders is basically begging and pleading with them out of your self-interest deliver this is popular and it seems unlikely that they're going to budge it just seems like the Democratic party is a black hole that is collapsing in on itself and it's thanks to corporate ghouls like Joe Manchin Kyrsten Sinema and also other corporate Democrats like Mark Warner and Joe Biden himself now Bernie Sanders tweeted out the same poll that we just looked at and he said more than 41% of the American people tell us that their top priority is for us to expand Medicare to include dental and vision benefits one of the most popular items in the Build Back Better agenda what should we do we should listen to the people let's get this done and look as frustrated as I am with these negotiations I've got to give Bernie Sanders credit he is trying really hard and ultimately I don't know what he's going to do I don't know if he's going to end up caving but at least you see that effort from him you see him trying to do the best that he can to include as much as he possibly can with his limited amount of votes that he says so it's it's frustrating and even when Democrats try to do something good it's always a watered down half measure that's usually just intended to play cave voters so an example of that is Chuck Schumer announced that they've reached an agreement when it comes to Medicare negotiating prescription drug prices the problem is that it is woefully inadequate predictably so the agreement will allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices in limited instances prevent drug companies from raising prices faster than inflation and cap out of pocket costs for seniors on Medicare at $2,000 per year also Medicare could negotiate up to 10 drugs in 2025 and up to 20 drugs in 2028 and beyond according to the summary which the hill obtained that's just embarrassing now the good thing is that insulin copays would be capped at $35 per month and that sounds great I mean I prefer it to be $0 but $35 is preferable to $400 but what's what's the catch is this going to take effect in 5 years 10 years I mean allowing Medicare to negotiate 10 drugs by 2025 that's just bad politics because by then there may be a completely different administration or a public might be in power and when people finally feel the effects of this policy the Republican can then take credit for it and it's not like there's a lot 10 drugs out of the thousands of drugs you're only going to allow them to negotiate 10 by 2025 it's just it's so frustrating and pathetic and on top of that so Medicare won't be able to negotiate drugs until they no longer have exclusivity gotta make sure that these pharmaceutical giants can make as much money as possible most negotiations will be allowed for many drugs I don't know what many means after 9 years and then more drugs will be negotiated in 12 years so it's like they take a half measure they water that down cut that in half by the time you get the actual product it's a 10th of what it was it's just it's laughable and what we see here is Bernie Sanders is trying to appeal to their self-interest but also maybe appeal to their humanity but the thing is that these ghouls they have no humanity these are soulless clowns who care about one thing and that is appeasing their donors so I just don't know what to say I really am thankful that Bernie Sanders is fighting but unfortunately it's not enough we don't have enough Bernie minded people in power and as a result the Kirsten Kirsten Sonomas and Joe Manchin's of the world they get what they want whereas progressives get left in the dust and sometimes these are self-imposed wounds like I've talked about how progressives under the leadership of Pramila Jayapal they're so feckless, so ineffectual, so weak even when they have victories they end up caving all it takes is one demand from a corporate democrat so it's just the situation is really it's helpless and I can't not think about how bad it's gonna be in 2022 when democrats are absolutely obliterated and then what? you didn't get anything meaningfully accomplished you didn't do voting rights reform you didn't end gerrymandering you didn't even try to fix our democracy the supreme court wasn't even touched they have a super majority for conservatives how bad is it going to get before democrats actually do what's needed to do to fix this country and the answer is there is no bottom it's just gonna keep getting worse and worse you just don't give a shit and I don't know what to say about that I wish I could offer you some rosy take away from this but the situation is just it's really depressing and at least we have Bernie there fighting for us but Bernie Sanders in his 80s he should be retiring by now but he's all we have at least in the senate who's fighting this hard we have some people who from time to time do the right thing in the senate but overall things aren't changing fast enough and we're circling the drain as a country and I think that most people can see that that's apparent I haven't talked about the Virginia gubernatorial race on this program but it's really fascinating how somehow critical race theory was one of the key issues that was a deciding factor in this race and even though the chud republican Glen Yonkin who was running against the corporate democrat Terry McAuliffe ran a substance free campaign he still managed to win all by working Virginia voters up into a frenzy over just nonsensical things so it's really sad that there's all these issues in America that need to be fixed and I'm sure there's many issues specific to Virginia that need to be addressed but yet what it came down to was nonsense like critical race theory and how it's bad and that's depressing to me because I see that voters by and large they do side of a progressives they agree with us on the policy substance but they can very easily be manipulated by individuals who get them to think that these culture war issues are more salient than the issues that affect them directly and it's not even like they have good reason to be against critical race theory because a lot of them don't even know what it is case in point what's the most important issue in the governor's race here in Virginia getting back to the basics of teaching children not teaching them critical race theory and what is critical race theory well I'm not gonna get into the specifics of it because I don't understand it that much but it's something that I don't what little bit that I know I don't care for and what have you heard that you don't I'm not gonna you know I don't have that much knowledge on it but it's something that I'm not that I don't care for now I get it that's anecdotal evidence but I think that that man represents a broader issue here Republican voters they don't necessarily know what critical race theory is they just know it's really bad because Republicans told them it's bad so the way that Republican media and Republican politicians are able to whip their voters into a frenzy I mean it's soul-crushing right and that's not to say that Terry McAuliffe throughout the course of the campaign was promising voters anything because I mean this is someone who was already the governor I was rooting for Lee Carter during the Democratic Party primary and Terry McAuliffe offers voters nothing but still I mean to just say critical race theory bad and this is a bit reductionist right that's not the totality of Glenn Youngkin's campaign but Republicans by and large they're not offering any response to the problems they're creating problems they're manufacturing issues that don't exist and they're actually effectively getting voters to focus on that more now the good news however is that sometimes fear mongering about critical race theory doesn't always go as planned and I do want to share a clip from Fox News to two voters on the day of the election one McAuliffe voter one Youngkin voter and the issue of critical race theory came up and what you're going to see is a voter just easily dismantle it effortlessly dismantle an entire narrative and the Fox News host very clearly didn't know how to respond to that so enjoy because this was a really great clip within a short period of time we started hearing more about this thing called critical race theory which I had never heard about and after some investigation some FOIA requests that I've started seeing on the news a lot of taxpayer money my taxpayer money our taxpayer money had been invested in some teacher training and that would be enrolled or rolled into the student curriculum that I didn't agree with a lot of it not only off but it looked like it bothered me it was controversial there's aspects of it that looked down right racist and so I had hard time with that and the other aspect is I know Glenn Youngkin has campaigned all along to push the VDOE or the Department of Education to keep the higher standards because I mentioned when we were we saw the window into the children's education when they were home for so long we did notice we started seeing do your kids want a pass-fail option as opposed to a letter grade your child can't fail now this year because of COVID and I did not see a lot of learning going on and that greatly concerned me I think there was a lot of learning loss over the past year and a half and I also saw with the kids at home and a lot of these options that you can get through the class with just a pass or a fail and some of the measures that have sort of watered down the standards not just in Virginia, many places but Mara and Brooke, thank you very much can I say one thing about I don't think people necessarily truly understand what critical race theory is younger children are not being taught critical race theory is being taught history so when somebody here in Loudoun County I understand was upset that his second grade child was taught that Christopher Columbus killed many Indigenous people that's part of history that is what Christopher Columbus did so I have a hard time I think kids have to learn history the good, the bad, the ugly so they can become critical I don't think anybody is against that I think we have to do a fact check critical race theory I think sometimes is a little bit of a misnomer because what's happening is that there's sort of a reformed thinking and approach to history that teaches that the country was founded in racism you can say critical race theory is like a legal theory that is found more in colleges so maybe giving it that label has thrown some people off but it doesn't mean that there's not things being taught that are teaching kids that they're sort of inherently victims or oppressors different thoughts and feelings so you heard that right the Fox News host actually said I think we have to do a fact check on the Christopher Columbus story as well well I'll do that for you I'll save you the time it's true, Christopher Columbus slaughtered Indigenous people the fact that you need to fact check that shows how stupid you are but this clip kind of gives me hope amid the that I'm feeling because it's not very difficult to dismantle that right-wing narrative now they are more effective at broadcasting their message because they have money on their side but when they're actually challenged even minimally by average voters they don't know what to do they have to fact check whether or not it's true that Christopher Columbus slaughtered Indigenous people so these people are not bright they're good at one thing and that's marketing so we're good at convincing people that the policies that we want them to support are ones that they should support the issue that we are losing with regard to voters is we can't effectively change the salience of these issues so while we might get voters to agree with us that Medicare for all is good and expanding the social safety that is good they may they might agree with us but they don't rank that very high on their list of priorities Republicans can come in with some bogus narrative critical race theory cancel culture and automatically they view that as more important so I don't know what it is that we have to do maybe we need a more effective left-wing media machine maybe we need to be more bombastic and hysterical in the way that we talk about politics but at least we know what we're lacking and it's at getting people to agree with us that the issues we care about are more salient is a more salient issue than fucking critical race theory or Mr. Potato Head getting cancelled or becoming gender neutral I don't know what the argument even is anymore it's been too long but that's what we have to work on but having said that though at times when we see these propagandists fail and their propaganda fails they don't know how to defend their point of view and we have to use that to our advantage and I'll leave that there I think that most reasonable people acknowledge that things right now in the United States are really really bad things are bad because everyone knows that we have a government that is corrupt to its core and is fundamentally incapable of delivering even the bare minimum for its citizens so things are bad and as a result people are losing faith in the American system they're losing faith in democracy because they feel as if democracy itself is no longer an effective way to affect political change so sentiment towards democracy logically is going to shift support for democracy will break down as people feel as if it's not working for them because at the end of the day people care about putting food on the table they care about themselves more so than the political system that has failed them now I knew that this was the case but I didn't know how bad it was until I saw it quantified so a new poll that just came out it really does a temperature check of where Americans are at with regard to their support for democracy and wow is this a wake up call or should this be a wake up call because we know that when things are bad, when times are tough people are going to be desperate and that desperation leads them to be susceptible to radicalization and to be prone to think in conspiratorial ways but to see how bad it's gotten and how the poll conveys it's honestly just it's shocking and it really spells doom for American democracy and if this holds and things don't change soon American democracy is not long for this world and that's not hyperbole so as Reid Wilson of The Hill explains the poll found about 3 in 10 Americans 31% believed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump including 2 thirds of Republicans and a whopping 82% of those trust Fox News more than any other media outlet among those who trust far-right outlets like One America News Network and Newsmax 97% say they believe the election which even Trump's own cyber security and election security officials agreed was the safest and most secure ever conducted in the United States was stolen 1 in 5 Americans believe in the core tenant of the QAnon conspiracy that there was a storm coming soon while 1 in 6 believe the United States government is controlled of Satan worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking ring the same share 18% say they agree with the statement that America has gotten so far off track that true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country the poll found 30% of Republicans agree that violence might be warranted compared with 17% of independents and 11% of Democrats those who buy into the farthest right media outlets are even more likely to contemplate violence among those people 40% agree quote I'm not an alarmist by nature but I'm deeply disturbed by these numbers I think that we really have to take them seriously as a threat to democracy said Robert Jones the founder and chief executive of the Public Religion Research Institute now the PRRI the Public Religion Research Institute they're the company that conducted this poll and like I suspected the numbers to be pretty startling but to see how many people are contemplating violence how many people believe absurd conspiracy theories how many people believe that the last election was stolen it's just we're getting really close to the point of no return where faith and democracy can't be restored and you have an entire group of people in America a substantial portion of the population saying we don't support democracy we support a military coup we want regime change literally not just a turnover between administrations we want regime change and that's incredibly incredibly horrifying so this is depressing but I do want to give you a little bit of hope because we were here before where Americans were very desperate and they started to become fascistic literally they supported Nazis and things were turned around and the way that that happened was the government restored trust in American democracy and American institutions by delivering to these people if you deliver and improve the lives of these people materially that's not going to solve all of the problems they're not just going to suddenly stop thinking conspiratorily like that but it is the bare minimum that we can do to address the situation but really we have evidence that if we deliver the problem is that Democrats aren't using this limited window that they have to deliver and actually turn things around now in an article for the Daily Poster David Zurota explains how the last time things actually were turned around for the better when American democracy was experiencing a legitimacy crisis so this is what he writes the first democratic parabola began almost 90 years ago when America's economy was ravaged by rampant speculation and then a stock market crash throwing tens of millions of people into abject poverty as fascism rose in America through the growth of local Nazi groups Father Coughlin and other conservative media voices ranked in Roosevelt cast his progressive economic initiatives as both a weapon to fight the economic crisis and a shield against right wing authoritarianism the year before a fulminating Nazi rally in a packed Madison Square Garden in New York FDR warned that the global rise of fascism was the result of democratic governments doing the opposite of the New Deal and protecting an established quo enriching a tiny handful at the expense of everyone else democracy has disappeared in several other great nations not because the people of those nations disliked democracy but because they had grown tired of unemployment and insecurity of seeing their children hungry while they sat helpless in the face of government confusion and government weakness through lack of leadership he said in a 1938 radio address finally in desperation they chose to sacrifice liberty in the hope of getting something to eat now to be honest the reforms that FDR implemented were not perfect in fact far from it they excluded black and brown people they didn't go nearly far enough but they were enough to save democracy to literally restore faith back in democracy and on top of that it saved capitalism from collapsing in on itself now I think that Joe Biden understands the gravity of the situation he knows we're in a similar situation where the weird puff piece is talking about how Joe Biden wants to be the next FDR but the problem is that he's not and he's very clearly not even trying to deliver to the extent that FDR delivered the answer is to go further than FDR complete his vision and include everyone in these new deal reforms but that's not happening and the result will be catastrophic in fact if things aren't turned around that's the outcome of the Democratic Party's failures if Americans keep using Democratic institutions to try to fix the country and those institutions keep ignoring them and prioritizing big donors many voters may simply stop believing in democracy at minimum protecting democracy might not be much of a motivating force compelling people to turn out at the polls so what we're seeing right now is a breakdown of American democracy and Democrats aren't doing what they need to do to address that threat and the scary part is that they're not going to likely have another opportunity to fix the failures and the deficiencies in our democracy for a really long time they haven't passed voting rights reform they haven't done electoral reform and at a minimum stop gerrymandering allow nonpartisan groups to draw district lines they haven't done that and so the result is possibly catastrophic we're heading off of a cliff and we desperately need intervention and Democrats aren't doing that and yes it's Republicans who are working their voters into a frenzy and they're the ones that have disproportionately lost faith in American democracy because they've been led astray by you know a charlatans like Donald Trump and a right wing media but young people they're also going to start losing faith in democracy if they don't think their government is going to address the needs that will give them a future climate change is not being addressed in a meaningful way young people I mean it's hard enough to get them to pay attention to politics and get them to vote so they may be another group that checks out and here's the thing you hear me talk about this and it sounds like I'm catastrophizing and I am catastrophizing I think this is important but some people might think you know what I actually think this is a good thing I believe in this accelerationist theory that out of the rubble of the American empire something new and possibly better can emerge and sure maybe that's possible but given the population in America knowing how manipulated we are as a society what do you think is more likely to happen if American democracy collapses and we actually have a regime change in the United States do you think we're going to have this compassionate social society where we finally take care of people or do you think that we're going to become a reactionary fascistic authoritarian society I think the latter is much more probable than the former unfortunately so what we have to do is save democracy and it seems like Democrats aren't up for the challenge things might just be too bad to fix and we see the result of that so I don't really have a rosy takeaway here but things have got to change and if they don't people will continue to lose faith in American democracy and the situation will get even worse than it is right now well folks we had some really important elections take place tonight and I wanted to get to the results I think that you already know if you're watching this video that it wasn't a great night for Democrats or progressives and the race that I was watching the closest was the mayoral race in Buffalo New York between India Walton and Byron Brown which in theory should have been over when she defeated him in a Democratic party primary but as you all know he launched a sore loser writing campaign so we learned the results of that race tonight but first I want to get to the gubernatorial race in Virginia because the ramifications for that are pretty broad it sends a huge message about the Democratic party and how it's looking come 2022 and not good because in the race between Terry McAuliffe the Democrat and Glenn Youngkin the Trump Republican well it's been called for Glenn Youngkin who narrowly defeated Terry McAuliffe and he did not run a substantive campaign it was all culture war nonsense critical race theory this cancer culture that and it was enough he elevated the salience of those non issues in voters minds because the Democrat didn't run a substantive campaign this is a corporate Democrat who's an ally with the Clintons Terry McAuliffe was a governor of Virginia before and I guess that Democrats didn't have anyone else to put up and the Democrat lost because not enough people were inspired perhaps in that race or just nationally by Democrats because look at what's going on right now but you're not going to be surprised to learn that it's the left who's being blamed for Terry McAuliffe's loss Heather Cagle tweets out dem members are already texting me blaming progressives for debacle in Virginia and Blake Houndshell tweets out some in Biden land are already asking themselves if the president has allowed himself to be tugged too far to the left while in office and those voices are likely to get louder now so of course when all else fails blame the left it's their fault not the fault of the corporate Democrat now it's not just the left who's getting blamed because on Amazon BC according to Chip Gibbons they are blaming increasing likely Democratic loss in Virginia on Biden with drawing from Afghanistan so I mean you see so many weird rationalizations here none of them are based on policy substance whatsoever I do want to get to demographics here because as crystal ball says the wine mom give it and the wine mom take it away because as Sahil Kippur tweets out Virginia in 2020 white women 50% voted for Biden 49% for Trump but in 2021 white women went for Yonkin 57% to 43% that's a 15 point swing to the GOP in this group so that's just a small hint of what we can expect in 2022 if there's already this big of a swing in at least this one state I am expecting a blood bath for Democrats in 2022 so they should use this time very wisely make sure they do electoral reform in the form of banning partisan gerrymandering make sure you do it's reform they're not going to do that and as a result they're going to get wiped out and Trump is likely going to win again in 2024 but before I get to ahead of myself I do want to get to the race in Buffalo so when it comes to third party candidates and right in campaigns they usually don't win because we have a first past the post winner take all majoritarian electoral system and once you win a primary if the district leans in your party's direction you're going to win so I think that it was reasonable to assume that India Walton was the favorite to win the problem is that in the sore loser right in campaign that Byron Brown ran his campaign was funded by Republican donors he had big money on his side and guess what even if he was running a right in campaign it paid off because it looks as if Byron Brown is going to defeat India Walton 59 to 41 percent now at the time that I record this the race has yet to be cold there's still less than 70 percent of precincts reporting so I'll post the final results if I have it by the time this video goes up but this proves that this notion of Democratic party unity is a fucking sham it goes one way and that's not in progressive's favor unity means if a progressive loses in a Democratic primary you shut the fuck up fall in line and endorse the progressive or endorse the person who beat the progressive but when the corporate Democrat loses it's fine you don't have to try to unify everyone you don't have to rally support for the opponent who beat you you can run a sore loser campaign and take Republican money and win somehow it's sad because this isn't just about Buffalo in my view I think we desperately need a leader a national leader to emerge on the left and India Walton was someone who I viewed with potential but now it appears as if it's over I don't know what happens next I hope that she stays engaged and maybe she runs for Congress or something but Byron Brown ran a right in campaign and he defeated India Walton it goes to show you that with big money anything is possible even overcoming our electoral system which is a two-party slanted system so I can't pretend as if I'm surprised because I knew that the deck was stacked against India Walton even if this is a right in campaign he had a catchy slogan write down Brown and he had money most importantly but on top of that to see the way that corporate Democrats and Democratic Party loyalists will deflect when it comes to the gubernatorial race in Virginia I mean I'm not going to pretend to be super exasperated and flustered because I knew that this would be the case whenever it's convenient they're going to blame us and they're going to come to the wrong conclusion even if they don't blame us they're going to assume that maybe they moved too far to the left or wasn't a corporatist enough or didn't lean into the culture war issues and also condemn critical race theory in our schools either way this is really bleak shit but it's kind of predictable we live in a system that is fundamentally broken to its core and things just continue to get worse and even when we have a small opportunity to fix some of the issues Democrats completely bungle it and this shows that voters aren't enthusiastic about what they're doing I think that this in a way is a temperature check for how you know voters more broadly speaking feel about the Democratic Party nationally and Joe Biden should see this as a wake up call but odds are he probably won't so either way I'm going to try to not let this get me too down even though I think it's inevitable the more that I think about it but I'm going to try to distract myself and I encourage you to do the same as well because you know it's America right so you can always expect the dumbest thing the likely outcome and that was the case here in both of these races last week we got really positive news when it comes to the fight to restore net neutrality at the FCC but this week unfortunately and I'm so sorry that I have to do this I'm going to have to wait on your parade because it seems likely that things might take a turn for the worse not only because Republicans are going to fight to stop Jessica Rosenworstle and Gigi Sohn from getting confirmed but because they might have some likely allies in Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema because of course so for the breakdown here we go to Politico's John Handel who explains Republicans are lining up against one of President Joe Biden's long-awaited picks for the Federal Communications Commission which means the outcome of this White House priority could come down once again to Senators Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema at stake are Democrats' hopes for a majority on the five-member FCC which has been mired in a 2-2 partisan split for all of Biden's term that in turn will determine whether the agency can get to work on Progressive's telecom priorities including a revival of the agency's Obama era net neutrality rules if the Senate fails to act by the end of the year Republicans will end up holding the FCC's majority in January even if Democrats nominally remain in charge it's yet another example of the endless roadblocks Democrats are encountering despite their control of the White House in Congress in addition to their struggles in passing an infrastructure bill or meeting their promises on climate change taxes paid leave in healthcare Biden ended months of suspense last week by announcing two Democratic picks for the FCC nominating chair Jessica Rosenwarsle for a new five-year term on the commission and net neutrality activist Gigi Sohn to fill its open seat Republican Senators largely said they can live with Rosenwarsle and they're drawing the line at Sohn and her perceived regulatory bent and they're not on board with the Democrats push to rush the confirmations through so they're willing to give Biden Jessica Rosenwarsle who is great but when you compare Jessica Rosenwarsle to Gigi Sohn Gigi Sohn very clearly has much bigger ambition she's much more open and firebrand about her support for a free and open internet regulate data restrictions she wants to do a lot and these Republicans who are bankrolled by the telecom industry they don't want that to happen now it's possible that Biden can still get both of these appointments through before the end of the year but that would require zero defections and when you consider the facts that you have Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema who has denounced net neutrality it seems unlikely while the two West Virginia and Arizona Democrats are on record as backing Rosenwarsle neither has said a word yet on Sohn a former top adviser at the Obama era FCC and co-founder of Advocacy Group Public Knowledge said Sinema has historically joined Republicans in fights over FCC policies including opposing net neutrality so to reiterate what the article is saying you know we have a unique opportunity to restore the FCC the rules that were pro-net neutrality back to what they were before the shill Ajit Pai got in and dismantled it all at the behest of his former employer Verizon and now that's all kind of up in limbo because once again Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin Republicans have made it very clear they're not going to support GG Sohn so will Kirsten Sinema an opponent to net neutrality and Joe Manchin support GG Sohn it depends it depends on whether or not their donors at Verizon, Comcast and AT&T got into their ear and I'm going to go ahead and guess that that is the case because they're lobbying hard against both Jessica Rosenwarsle and GG Sohn but when it comes to GG Sohn they're sounding the alarms so Ajit Pai's legacy might actually be preserved after all even having a Democratic administration because of corporate Democrats like Kirsten Sinema and Joe Manchin it's just it's truly frustrating right if Joe Manchin or excuse me Joe Biden had a spine he would actually be trying to hold these two accountable now we don't know yet so this is all speculation but assuming that they fight GG Sohn's confirmation this is the fault of Joe Biden he supports net neutrality so if he wants it he has to fight for it and we've seen time and again Joe Biden just he can't not be weak right anything that Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema says anything that they demand they get it he capitulates and I think that he really enjoys them being the rotating villain he enjoys that they're out there to take the brunt of the backlash from progressives but the book stops with Biden he is the president of the United States if he wants something from his party he should be able to get it at least more than more often than not but that hasn't been the case so I don't know how this is going to turn out but just a quick update it's a little bit bleak right now but we'll have to wait and see but certainly there needs to be grassroots effort and enthusiasm around getting GG Sohn confirmed because it seems like Jessica Wilson-Warsall is a possibility but that still doesn't matter at the end of the day the FCC is deadlocked 2-2 and they can't restore net neutrality so we have to get GG Sohn confirmed and we'll just have to wait and see for now but this is kind of a little bit of a roadblock and that's extremely disappointing my friends if we're to recognize that a better more hopeful future of every nation has to do its part with ambitious targets to keep 1.5 degrees in reach and specific plans of how to get there especially the major economies it's imperative we support developing nations so they can be our partners in this effort right now we're still falling short there's no more time to hang back or sit in the fence or argue amongst ourselves this is the challenge of our collective lifetimes the existential threat threat to human existence as we know it and every day we delay the cost of inaction increases so let this be the moment that we answer history's call here in Glasgow let this be the start of a decade of transformative action that preserves our planet and raises the quality of life for people everywhere we can do this we just have to make a choice to do it that was President Joe Biden speaking at the UN climate change conference otherwise known as COP26 which is indeed taking place this week and his speech was fine I guess I just can't help but feel a little bit deflated because no matter what these world leaders say they're not taking climate change seriously they say the right thing but then they don't do the right thing they don't address this crisis with the severity that is needed and so it just feels like all of their speeches is intended to placate climate change activists just make it seem as if they're trying to do what is needed when they're not and that's not to say that there haven't been good things that have come out of this at this point in time I think that there's a really solid commitment from the Biden administration he joined the High Ambition Coalition which is an alliance of countries that are committed to keeping warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius which is very ambitious that's what's needed to stop catastrophic levels of climate change as unlikely as that goal may be but while we have countries like the United States do more this time around in comparison to when Donald Trump was president you have other countries like Australia under the leadership of the Morrison government refused to cut methane emissions and even host a fossil fuel company at its pavilion so it just it feels like this time the US might be on point while Australia is fumbling in the last couple of years when there's changes in leadership we'll have a Republican administration and then they're the ones fumbling and Australia does better I mean regardless it's very clear to me that global capitalism has led to all of these world leaders and world powers dragging their feet and even if they continue to say the right thing it's to the point where we have to see real action otherwise we're all gonna die I mean that's to be frank, to be blunt I don't know what the world is gonna look like when I'm the age of these world leaders am I going to anticipate or should I anticipate wars over water should I anticipate increased global fascism because of the refugee crises that is going to inevitably result when areas of the globe are uninhabitable and we see mass movement of people I don't know what the fuck to expect it's my future that I want them to care about and they say that they do but it feels like they don't and apparently me feeling ambivalent I'm not alone because there were a lot of activists that were heckling these world leaders and that was honestly really refreshing to see because they're not treating it like the crisis that it is and you know maybe it's the case that I'm being a little bit too cynical but apparently a lot of climate activists feel the same way and here's some videos of them protesting these world leaders not necessarily protesting but trying to get the word out that what they're doing is not sufficient and there's a message from an activist there that says exactly what I think that these world leaders need to hear Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame on you! Shame! We're best to raise awareness of the need for urgent action on the climate ecological emergency mostly because with our political processes we're left with almost no other routes to make a difference like what do I do as an individual to try to make sure that our world leaders choose to save our own lives we're going down an utterly absurd route of letting us a species to kill ourselves and we have to step up and say no that's completely absurd let's choose a route that saves ourselves and protesting seems to be the only effective way to do that so I'm here doing my best to make my voice heard. I guess I'm here because I think it's important that the decision makers know that people care so you need to make some noise make sure they know that we're watching we're listening we're holding into account the decisions that they're making so that we're working towards global justice, climate justice and not just making the decisions that only benefit a few people but rather to make decisions that benefit everyone. That video gave me hope because when I think about the ramifications of climate change often times I kind of get in my own head and it feels like I'm the only one who's dealing with it but it reminded me that we're all dealing with this together. This isn't something that we're facing that's a unique issue we're all as a species dealing with it and young people are going to be particularly frustrated and something that that guy said it's that to me said we're going down the utterly absurd route of deciding as a species to kill ourselves and that's just it. I mean we as a species are insane we're suicidal. The reluctance of world leaders to address this meaningfully it speaks to a defect in our species as human beings that we just we don't we don't care about the species we think about the short term and in particular short term profits of the fossil fuel industry who funds a lot of these world governments or governments who are world leaders and it's just it's frustrating. Now as distraught as young people may be nobody is going to experience climate change quite like island countries and so the president of Palau had a really really powerful speech that I think everyone needs to see where he talked about what world leaders what developed countries are doing to island nations like Palau. The Palau legend of Wab illustrates our state of emergency Wab was a boy who grew into a giant that wouldn't stop growing due to his unruly appetite the whole island community was forced to feed him Wab's feeding depleted all the natural resources and finally threatened he threatened to eat his people to save themselves the villagers banded together took bold action and set fire to him. This is eerily reminiscent of today's world as large farmers with their insatiable appetite for advancement are continuing to abuse our environment threatening our very survival cop 26 must light the fire we the islands that are devastated most demand that your commitments of 100 billion annually be increased to meet the 4 billion dollars the world bank reports is needed we see the scorching sun is giving us intolerable heat the warming sea is invading us the strong winds are blowing us every which way our resources are disappearing before our eyes and our future is being robbed from us frankly speaking there is no dignity to a slow and painful death you might as well bomb our islands suffer only to witness our slow and fateful demise leaders of the G-20 we are drowning and our only hope is the life ring you are holding you must act now we must act together as we say in our Palawan chant it was a malasso young a little bit of them make it at the top of our in all in the other one it says when traveling in one canoe the score among the sailors will gap size the boat the chant reminds us that we need to deliver on our commitments and we must move in unison toward 1.5 to stay alive the villagers burned the giant and as he fell to his death he created over 300 islands of our islands a unified action led to transformation we must act together we owe this to each other and we owe this to our children I mean it doesn't get anymore blunt and bleak to be clear than that you might as well bomb our islands instead of making us suffer only to witness our slow demise so you know I see this and I'm hopeful people are not taking you know these mere concessions from politicians anymore they're standing up and demanding action on climate change now and that's something that is relatively new there's always been environmental activism there's always been a lot of people who speak up with regard to climate change and climate catastrophe but now more people than ever are waking up to the fact that we might not have a future we might not have a habitable planet if we don't take action right now in this decade we have a limited window to act and world leaders just aren't doing enough and the fact that people acknowledge that and are putting pressure on these world leaders as they gather that does mean something to me so as doomer as I may feel when I watch these speeches and again Joe Biden's speech wasn't bad I mean it's better than a Trump speech on climate change where he just denies the existence of anthropogenic climate change I don't want more than words in fact I need more than words as a species we need more than words because you can say the right thing but at the end of the day if you don't do what's needed to save the planet you're no different than the climate change deniers at least substantively so I'll leave that there COP26 took place I just thought you should know wanted to provide you with some highlights so I didn't know about this story I'm a little bit late to the party on this I mean I don't really even know what to say there are no words to describe how absurd this story is so for those of you who don't know QAnon is indeed still a thing it doesn't matter that countless prophecies from Q have not come to fruition there's still a lot of people thousands of people across the country and even people internationally who buy into QAnon but they believed that or there's a portion of QAnon believers that subscribe to this idea that JFK Jr is still alive even though he's been dead since 1999 and he's not only alive but he's going to reveal himself to the public again and he will announce a joint presidential run with Donald Trump in 2024 and he will be Donald Trump's running mate that's what lots of people believe literally thousands of people believe and you're going to get a sense of how many people believed it with the story because the reporter showed up and the crowd here waiting for JFK Jr to reveal himself it really makes me lose hope not just in American society but in humanity more broadly speaking so reporter Stephen Manasselli reported on this event and he says there is currently a large crowd of what appears to be QAnon believers at the AT&T Discovery Plaza in downtown Dallas and QAnon theory recently is that JFK Jr of the Kennedy family will be making a big announcement at Dealey Plaza by the grass you know sometime tomorrow now if you expand both of these photos you can see that this is a fairly large crowd considering how absurd this conspiracy theory is and you can see sure enough multiple people have on Trump Kennedy 2024 shirts now I have this morbid curiosity here I want to pick their brain but also I don't want to do that because I'm horrified at what might lie in the depths of their fucking psychs it just to think that Trump and JFK Jr are going to run together in 2024 it's so delusional that I think that it's as delusional if you thought that Trump and the Tooth Fairy were going to run together he's been dead for decades and you think that he's going to make himself known again now if you're curious they're not thinking that he's going to reveal himself in ghost form they think that his death was a false flag so they think he's still alive and maybe he's chilling on an island somewhere with Tupac I don't know but here's some additional details from Steven Monticelli so he later showed up to the main event and writes update I just got to Dealey Plaza will be contributing to an article about the gathering for the Daily Beast keep an eye out for it today crowd is now significantly larger as we get closer to the time when JFK Jr will ostensibly make his announcement having some great conversations out here oh boy 12 minutes until the big reveal and you see that crowd right now spoiler alert JFK Jr never showed up because guess what he's dead he's been dead for a very long time look at that photo of the crowd that you saw it's just a really tiny snapshot of the overall picture so I'm going to play some video clips that Steven shared and he kind of pans back and forth and you can see how big this crowd is and this is a lot of people that believe this batshit fucking insane thing all these people showed up to see a dead man announce a presidential run with Donald Trump take a look let's go Brandon it is almost 12 29 any minute now the big reveal crowd is big ready to go let's go bang this let's go bang this that is a massive crowd of people considering what they were there for they expected a dead man to announce that he's been alive all this time and he's running for president with Donald Trump now this idea that JFK Jr's death was a false flag it's been circulated in conspiracy in QAnon groups since 2018 I believe but there's also a portion of QAnon followers that believe that JFK Jr is actually Q he's the one who's been giving them all of these prophecies none of which have out but this is what they believe I mean look part of me wants to laugh because when people believe something so absurd so ridiculous you can't not just think that they're goofy think that they're unserious but it's also really depressing and really sad if this is where we're at how do we ever progress as a society we have a portion of the population who thinks the 2020 election was stolen we have a portion of the population who believes that JFK Jr is still alive and he's running in 2024 with Donald Trump and it doesn't matter how many times Q's prophecies are disproven they still follow this shit how do we go forward as a society like this really should force us to be introspective because these people are lost I don't know if we can save them from themselves I don't know if we can ever bring them out of this conspiracy whole that they've dug for themselves I just I don't know what to do seeing this makes me feel like we're just so fucking lost beyond and broken beyond repair in America that many fucking people hundreds of people traveled there traveled to Dallas to see a dead man take an announcement about the 2024 election that is insanity that is fucking insane and at this point we are so beyond what the stupidity level was in the movie Idiocracy that I wouldn't be surprised if you told me that there were a portion of QAnon followers that thought that Santa Claus was going to run for election in 2028 I just I wouldn't be faced by it throw anything at me and I'm not going to be faced you can tell me that fucking QAnon believers think that eating shit eating dog shit is literally a cure for COVID and I think okay yeah that's probably not the craziest thing that I've heard it's just I don't I don't know where the the bottom is right my expectations are to the floor and they keep getting lowered below the floor so I just we're reaching the earth's core at this point with regards to my expectations I don't know what to say it's sad and I laughed initially at this story but upon further reflection I feel genuinely depressed by this because these people are so fucking stupid and I mean sure you can blame institutions blame socioeconomic status blame them blame you know the media for not educating people blame the American education system for not teaching people just basic critical thinking and logic at the end of the day if you are an adult you have to bear some responsibility for what you believe in what you choose to consume and it's clear that these people are consuming media that is rotting their fucking brains and the prevalence of this you know I don't know how many people overall believe in this but if they don't believe in this conspiracy theory they believe in another conspiracy theory about the vaccines or about the moon landing as was shown or it's just really sad to see we are a broken society and I just I feel like the thought of repairing this society is is impossible I don't know but yeah that many people think that JFK Jr. is going to be running with Trump in 2024 okay Lauren Boebert is probably one of if not the dumbest members of the Congress and I say that well the fact that people like Louis Gohmert exist then I know that they exist but even compared to Louis Gohmert I mean she's giving him a run for his money and this is someone who I genuinely think is stupid and you might view that as an ad hominem but I genuinely think that she has a low IQ and that she's unintelligent and if you're not convinced I mean let me to give you a couple more facts she is a member of QAnon at least at some point to the QAnon conspiracy theory on top of that she conspired with January 6th insurrectionists so this person is is very stupid and it seems like she's almost in a competition with her colleagues to be viewed nationally as the dumbest member of Congress and I'm sure that when you ask her she thinks she's smarter than everyone else but I just got to give you a couple of examples that demonstrate how dense this person is from lately so she tweeted about climate activist Greta Thunberg and she tries to attack Greta by saying tell me you have absolutely no idea why you're protesting without telling me you have absolutely no idea what you're protesting now it's a really quick clip that we're gonna play but let's see if we can try to decode this very cryptic message from climate activist Greta Thunberg no more exploitation of people and nature and the planets, no more exploitation no more blah blah blah no more whatever the fuck they're doing inside there if you have an issue understanding what she was saying there even without the context that says more about you than it does about her Lauren I think it's clear that she is calling on leaders at the UN climate change conference to take action stop using flowery words stop trying to placate climate activists and actually do what is needed to save the planet if you don't get that that's what she's trying to say I mean I can't help you there maybe this issue is just too big for your comprehension but there's another issue that she decided to weigh in on and that is the paternity leave debate that's all of a sudden being turned into a cultural issue by the right either way she weighed in and undoubtedly after everyone has already spoken about this, Tekker Carlson, Joe Rogan she came through with the dumbest take imaginable I mean this is a hot take and it's laughably stupid Mayor Pete was on a two month maternity paternity whatever the heck you want to call it leave the guy was gone the guy was not working because why? he was trying to figure out how to chest feed maybe someone should tell him please so he can get back to work listen I'm a mother of four I delivered one of my children and that was the weight of my truck because as a mama four we got things to do and nobody got time for two and a half months of maternity leave we have a world to save here you've got a world to save from climate change what? of course communism that's what we're saving the world from I'd assume communism that was just embarrassing that was really embarrassing I'm a mother of four I delivered one of my children in the front seat of my truck now you'd think upon hearing that story man that's really tragic did you not have medical insurance were you not able to make it to the hospital in time what's the back story well it's because as a mama four we've got things to do ain't nobody got time for two and a half months of maternity leave so because you're busy you decided to just pop the child out in the front seat of your truck I don't understand what are you even trying to get at here lots of people have things to do but if you're literally delivering a child and you purposefully delivered your baby in the front seat of your truck because quote unquote ain't nobody got time to take time off you're a fucking moron and I don't believe that she delivered the baby short on time I just don't believe that and if you think that people delivering their babies in the fronts of trucks and getting quickly back to work is like some virtuous thing that we should celebrate as a society no it actually speaks to the barbarity of America aren't you supposed to be a pro-life person by the way I mean isn't paternity and maternity leave a pro-life policy don't you think that if you are a pro-family you would encourage parents to take the time to take care of their babies and get to know their babies this is so stupid people are busy so they're just like popping those fucking babies out they're flying out literally and somebody's catching it and then they're getting right back to work that's the way it works and I love how that's their counter to pro-family policies this is the family values party but yet their response to a policy that's extremely popular is to counter by saying ain't nobody got time for that they'll recite a meme from 2013 before they actually put up a legitimate counter argument to paternity and maternity leave and for her I mean of course she had to throw in homophobia maybe Peabody Judge is taking all that time off because he's trying to figure out how to chest feed we get it because you're gay and you can't have babies lol okay point taken except I think that you know why he's taking time off because it's important that you spend this time bonding with your children I just, look I hate Peabody Judge and I don't like the story because it's making me have to in a roundabout way defend Peabody Judge even though I'm really defending paternity leave itself but they can't not show their true colors the homophobia, the stupidity then promoting barbarity in our system but this is just the way it is we don't have time for maternity leave I don't have time to take time off because I'm busy you know serving the capitalist overlords and she's like a business owner right so she was getting back to work at her own restaurant that she owns and runs but for the average working person taking time off is actually very valuable and necessary especially when you have a fucking child but if you're Lauren Boebert pop that fucker out this is a rising star in one of two major parties in the United States long story short folks we are fucking doomed because dipshits like this are going to continue to get elevated to positions of power and influence and you heard it here folks she thinks that ain't nobody got time from maternity leave what a fucking imbecile it's almost funny she's so insufferable hi folks I'm here with Imani Oakley running in New Jersey's 10th congressional district and she is here to talk about her campaign Imani welcome to the show thank you so much for having me I'm really excited to talk to you it's been a difficult week for leftists and hopefully you can help us cope with everything that's going on and everything that is seemingly going wrong you're running a fantastic campaign your platform is just incredible I'm going to run for congress because there's seemingly infinite things that need to be fixed so it seems like a really hard task if you were to even get elected what made you want to run yeah so I mean anybody that knows me knows that for the longest pretty much throughout my entire adult career I have always fought against unjust systems whether that's unjust systems of bad drug policy laws unjust systems of racism sexism you name it that's what I've dedicated my adult career to and when I first started working in Jersey politics I actually worked under what is known as the machine and I got in I was wet behind the ears and I was ready to make some transformative change that's why I got into it and the more I stuck around the more and more I realized how absolutely corrupt they were how they have actually manipulated the democracy in New Jersey via New Jersey's corrupt ballot design in order to make sure that their machine bat candidates constantly win I saw how they used our neighborhoods as essentially financial and political playgrounds for Democratic party bosses New Jersey actually has a Tammany Hall machine style of politics where there are actual party bosses that people have to go to and get permission to run for office get permission to do pretty much anything politically Wow and I saw how all of that was playing out and I was very much against very much against my values and so I decided to run against the machine and I certainly plan on beating them come June 2022 so I like that you you saw how bad it was and rather than leaning into it because you are a moral person with principles you decided you want to fight this now knowing how the machine crushes candidates like you who are grassroots you know non corporate funded what do you think is the best insight that you have for politicians everywhere going up against the machine knowing the way that it works because once you've seen how the sausage is made you're grossed out by it but a lot of people kind of get a lord and sometimes co-opted so what's your advice to other people and what do you think is the main thing that helps you be effective at the machine yeah yeah so number one I would say do not get into public service if you don't have a strong foundation of values from what I've noticed that people who kind of get swept up in the machine life are folks who come in they think politics is kind of cool but they're more in love with the power and kind of the the clout that they get from being involved in politics more than they are in love with the actual work so if you want to stick to your values or you want to like continue to be a good corrupt person do not go into public life until you have a firm set of values I think that's ultimately what saved me it's like I was like these are values that I'm not deviating from we should have a good democracy lack of brown community should not be used as financial and political playground like these were things that were solidly part of my foundation of morals and so I wasn't corrupted but I've seen other people kind of get shaken because they're in love with the power more than they are but the actual good work that can be done through governments and you know that's the advice I would have I would also say each state is unique each machine is unique like New Jersey has unique pressure points that I'm very familiar with because I used to work for them I both work for them and I've worked against them so I am very familiar with all the pressure points which allowed me to really succeed in a lot of ways and I think anybody can do that no matter where they are in the country you have to learn the power players you have to learn what makes them tick and then you have to apply pressure to those pressure points and we can break this thing we can really break machines and that's why I really respect you as a candidate because so many people would acknowledge that even if they don't like what they see once they kind of are part of that club for lack of a better word they know that it's easier to go along to get along so even if you might not like it it's easier to just kind of shut up and let them do their thing but you fighting against it it really gives me hope because I don't think a lot of people have that moral character and that's kind of the problem with DC politics some people who are elected even if they have the right policies they don't necessarily have the correct diagnosis of the system and one way to kind of demonstrate that is the ongoing negotiations with Build Back Better and the bipartisan infrastructure which I'm sure that all my viewers and you're tired of hearing about at this point but I think that one thing that's really missing is the way that corruption comes into play you know you see people talking about the hypocrisy of Joe Manchin holding up the entire Democratic Party's agenda he said he wants four trillion in January and now he wants less than two trillion but I think that the core thing that's missing is this conversation about corruption you know the way that he takes money from the fossil fuel industry the way that Kyrsten Sinema takes money from big pharmaceutical companies so in DC assuming you're elected what would you do to really shine a spotlight on that because I think that a lot of Americans have a sense of the way that politicians get corrupted by big money but they don't necessarily know and I think it's a matter of connecting dots I'm not sure if you agree with that so how would you bring this to the forefront as a representative and as someone who's going to be calling out your colleagues how do you think you would deal with that knowing that they might kind of try to push you aside once you're in DC yeah so for one you know I haven't been taking money from corporate PACs we actually out raise my opponent two to one last financial quarter only on low dollar individual donations and that's not going to change once I get to Congress once I get to Congress I'm not going to all of a sudden well I'm here going to take some PAC money so corporate PAC money you know that's not going to happen so that's one way to avoid getting corrupted is making sure that run on those values and then stick to those values of not taking corporate PAC money once you are actually elected as far as pushing colleagues you know I think that it takes kind of a twofold thing going on here it one making sure that I maintain my relationships with those outside organizers and organizations that really are pushing they aren't working from the inside of Congress but actually pushing Congress to do things making sure that I'm still working with them still helping them get a platform still you know showing up to their rallies and making sure that their voices are still amplified via the power of my office but then it's also when this is going to be really really critical we have to get our numbers up in 2022 because you can really you know do all the right things when it comes to keeping contacts with orgs you can do all the right things with in Congress as far as showing up to committee and you know testifying the right way but we need the numbers we absolutely need the numbers and I know folks are tired I know especially in Jersey we've just it just been seemingly like back to back to back elections but we really need to come out and making sure we're doing all that we can for progressive candidates this time so we can have build our numbers up and we can really do some damage and have actual power once we're in Congress yeah I'm glad that you brought that up because a lot of people are feeling beat down especially after this week we just had the catastrophic loss in Buffalo New York with India Walton some someone that you know I was really rooting for and following on this program we had the loss in Virginia which I don't necessarily feel to invest it in but you know we see how the left is getting blamed at a time where I think a lot of people especially seeing the way that the build back better negotiations have gone feel kind of like they're ready to check out of politics and knowing that grassroots candidates such as yourself really rely on enthusiasm and what you lack in corporate donations you make up for in grassroots support how do you keep people engaged like what's your advice to people who are usually enthusiastic but they just feel beat down by the system and feel like there's never going to be changed like what would you tell that person because this is something that I kind of struggle with myself in terms of trying to keep people motivated yeah well I mean as doctors is about to sound you know the way we're looking at things here in New Jersey is that we spell blood in the water essentially what happened here in Jersey is a bunch of machine Democrats took some serious losses or very very close to possibly taking a loss and everything that we can point to shows that it's their own fault it's their own fault in the way they structured our corrupt design it's their own fault in the way they've actually chosen candidates in the past and chosen more people who are lackluster and not actually start candidates because they can be what they call loyal which means they're just a yes person and it's coming back because what's happening is Republicans are putting up their quote unquote best people meaning they're like not best values wise but best politicians against some very lackluster talent and it's showing in New Jersey and you know all the progressive folks in New Jersey are seeing it and so I think you know even though we've taken this loss now is the time to really hunker down in our values to shine that light on the things that establishment and machine Democrats have done that have absolutely screwed us over and really drive that point home and show them that we're not going to continue to lose to conservatives and Republicans simply because they have an agenda for their own personal power so that's what we're doing here in Jersey and so far like folks are ready I can I can already feel the energy folks are gearing up for June 7th 2022 that's great that's really really great to hear I wanted to ask you because we don't necessarily know what the landscape will be be like next year if you're elected you'll be sworn in in 2023 so we don't know if Democrats will still hang on to control the House but hypothetically speaking if you were in Congress right now what would be your take would you do anything differently than congressional progressives members of the squad what do you think they're doing right and what do you think they're doing wrong with regard to the build back better act negotiations yeah so I mean I think they're doing the best they can again it's all about numbers and I think they've actually done a good job and actually proving a point here and what we've been seeing is that progressives have actually legitimately you know been trying to work with Biden and I know that you know that kind of puts progressive policies back a little bit because you know we are more to the left of Biden but essentially they've done a great job of proving the point that the problem isn't progressive the problem are these centrists like mansion cinema gotheimer those are the folks that are actually obstructing change and actually blocking people from getting real things done and helping real people in this country so I actually think they've done a great job at proving that point I think though the one thing that you know and again maybe this is just my bias as a candidate but I also think that you know progresses need to support progressives and not to say that they're not doing that but you know we're reaching out to folks looking for endorsements I'm hoping that you know the star progresses that are in there can start endorsing a lot more because that helps to build momentum and again not saying that anyone's not doing this necessarily but I'm just saying if I were there that's kind of what I would be pushing for is to like making sure I'm getting out those endorsements and help just kind of corralling folks for these elections and again there's a difference between what you do politically and then what you do like actually in Congress and when you're doing policy but I think right now it's time to really turn on the the burners switch gears a little bit and really really push to get that progressive way because we've only got like a few months before a lot of these races start getting down to the wire and getting down to election day and we need the numbers like I cannot emphasize how much of a difference it would make if we boosted our numbers yeah I think you're bringing up really important points I think that one if I could critique members of the squad I do think that they capitulate too much to leadership but one thing that's also missing is this connection between the organizations that help them get elected and to an extent they still do work with leaders of organizations like Sunrise and whatnot but you still kind of feel that connection in a way was severed and also on top of that I feel like they need to do more to endorse so it's nice to know that if you were elected you would endorse up-and-comers because you know whether it's a matter of them not doing enough to fight Democratic Party leadership and caving too soon everyone admits and knows that it would be so much better if there were more progressives in Congress and I think that they really could do more to endorse people such as yourself who are very truly like galvanizing people in your districts and I think that's so important one thing that I wanted to ask you is where you'd stand on the Build Back Better Act so we don't necessarily know what it's going to look like in the end but there is the infrastructure bill and the Build Back Better Act so as a member of the House congressional progressive caucus which I'd assume you would be what would happen in the event the Senate didn't vote on the Build Back Better Act but they expected you to vote on the bipartisan infrastructure deal first now knowing this you'd kind of give away your leverage at least temporarily maybe you secure a promise from Joe Biden what would you do in that situation because knowing that if you vote for this Manchin holds all the cards but yet Joe Biden is saying do it Pramila Jayapal is saying I have the votes vote for it what are you as an individual lawmaker doing that instance yeah so in that instance I would make a kind of calculation you know how many more folks get damaged if I don't vote for it versus if I hold back and say I'm going to hold the line a bit here and fight this out a little bit more I think it would really depend on what the situation is on the ground and how dire people need even just the smallest amount of help because a lot of times these bills when progressives are pushing them they can help tons and tons of people then the centrists get it and it gets whittled down to significantly less people but it still ends up being thousands of people end up making a calculation of like alright how many people actually need something to be delivered today like we just actually need to get this done today versus like can I hold the line a bit more and in holding the line can I also push members because it's not about just like holding the line and like there's no kind of push or demand there because that doesn't really help anyone but is there a way to say like get people in somebody who is a centrist getting folks to call their office are they in an election year can I get their constituents to bombard their office with phone calls saying we will absolutely not vote for you unless you give us something good right so they're a little tactless and I think it depends on really what the situation is at the time when I'm in there but broadly speaking that would be my calculation so how many people need it like right now versus like can I hold the line a little bit longer and then also like what are my avenues to apply pressure to those who are really trying to make the bill essentially worth this okay okay I want to ask you another hypothetical question because I think that these are really useful for kind of gauging how candidates would legislate and govern because you're inevitably going to be put in really difficult predicaments as a lawmaker and as a progressive you know they're going to try to test your patience and your moral fortitude I think it's basically inevitable so one thing that you mentioned that I love is that you would endorse outside candidates who are running these insurgent primary campaigns so let's say that you have this really really key issue for you a bill that you've introduced and it's starting to actually gain momentum you have committee hearings forward and you're missing some really key co-sponsors here now one member noticed that you might be endorsing their primary opponent but yet this is also someone who could potentially co-sponsor your legislation and that predicament in the event they said hi Imani I really want to support your bill but I don't know that I can work with you if you're going to be endorsing my primary opponent I just don't know that there's this long-term relationship maybe I'll change my mind if you withhold your endorsement what do you do in that situation because this is a really tough thing that I think that a lot of members of congress who are progressive are going to have to deal with I feel like this is what happened with AOC and Cori Bush back in 2020 when she kind of withheld her endorsement for Cori Bush because Lacey Clay Cori Bush's opponent at the time was co-sponsoring her Green New Deal resolution so what would you do in this instance I just kind of want to see the way that you would like make this calculation and think it through I promise I am not trying to avoid your question but what I will say is I would not be in that predicament because I would keep it very close to vest on who I'm endorsing and I'm really not trying to avoid your question but like essentially the other members would not know I keep it very very close to vest my team has been very good at keeping things close to vest generally throughout this campaign and I don't see that changing anytime soon so I would keep it close to vest and people wouldn't be able to tell until I did it so that's number one then also just being strategic and smart about like who tolerate being around because they will sign on to certain bills versus like who has got to go like tomorrow for example my opponent has to go like tomorrow he has the third lowest attendance rate out of all of democrat so like even if you wanted him to sign on to something he's not there so best of luck I would also be very very strategic and like making sure that whoever I'm endorsing it's like you know you kind of got to go for us to get anything done but I would also keep it close to vest really wouldn't know until the time came interesting interesting okay so you kind of touched on this tell me more about your opponent because I think that this is really important to draw these contrasts you are a million times better than your opponent and I think that when we talk about corporate democrats people kind of get a sense but really explain like put it into perspective for us why is your opponent so bad why do you feel like your opponent needs to go right now and why this is so important absolutely so my opponent is one of those members of congress who inherited the seat from their dad a local dynasty going on which of course we want to get rid of all of those he's been in the seat for 10 years like I said he has the third lowest attendance rate among all that democrats and one of the lowest attendance rates amongst all members of congress so he's not even going to work for the people of the district on top of that he has taken money from some of the worst actors out there he's taken thousands of dollars from ExxonMobil he has taken thousands of dollars from several oil pipeline packs including Enbridge which is responsible for mine 3 oil pipeline he's taken thousands of dollars from Amazon who right now as we speak is trying to build a secret hub in this district in New Jersey's 10th district that will add significant amount of pollutants to the air in Nork where there are considerable black and brown citizens who already have some of the highest rates of childhood asthma in the nation and this guy is taking tens of thousands of dollars from those folks he's taking tens of thousands of dollars from the realtors pack that is currently fighting right now to stop Elizabeth Warren and Cory Bush's eviction moratorium bill and this is also a district that has some really big issues with housing stability as of 2019 we were number one for closures still even after the housing we have constantly rising rent that is pushing gentrification pushing homelessness housing is a real issue here and for him to be taking money from those folks it's just a slap in the face to the constituents of this district on top of that there are currently around 15 bills right now that are sitting in Congress that focus on LGBTQ rights and a lot of these bills are really important like one of them bans the use of the really torturous fracture of conversion therapy and nearly every single member of the New Jersey delegation is signed on to at least two or three of these bills including Trump Republican Jeff Van Drew my opponent is not signed on to one of those 15 bills and in fact it was that he wasn't signed on to 16 of them he criticized him both in the papers here in New Jersey and on social media and then all of a sudden he found it in his heart to sign on to one of the 15 so again this is a guy that I like to call someone who aids and abets the Republican agenda so the fact that you're not signing on to legislation that is this simple protecting LGBTQ plus rights very simple very easy to do especially in your deep blue district you know that's a guy that needs to go he is not working for the people of this district he's somebody who frankly I think aids and abets the Republican agenda yeah I mean it's like with Democrats like this who needs Republicans right it's so infuriating I mean we're talking about the bare minimum and you know the one thing that I think about with Democrats is that usually at least rhetorically speaking they're better on social issues LGBTQ plus issues so if you can't even do that if you're not willing to be economically progressive then you better really deliver when it comes to social issues and if you can't even do that I just feel like what is the point of you even being there but as you said I mean this is a dynasty he's there because you know it's it's a it comes down to privilege what I wanted to ask you about this is kind of a different subject is it feels like the difference between progressives like yourself and corporate Democrats the differences are so wide now it feels weird that we're all having to share this party like it's this unholy alliance but because we have this really antiquated two-party duopoly system it's like you have to run in one of the two major parties in order to win if you're elected would you be open to cosponsoring legislation like HR 4000 it hasn't been reintroduced yet but what this would do is it would move us towards a multi-party system it's not a guarantee that this legislation would create multiple parties that are viable but it would end gerrymandering it would make us more proportional would you support something like that because I feel like the way that our current government is structured even though money is the core issue that's kind of corrupting everything I think that having more parties would also help so would you be open to something like that yeah I'm open for anything that gives us more democracy anything that gives us a better and improved democracy I am for again coming up in a state where democracy is really quite manipulated yeah with regards to our ballot design which is literally the most corrupt ballot design in the entire country we are literally the only state that uses it and there have been studies by nonprofits as well as professors that have talked about why our ballot design is so screwed up and there's also a court case going on right now where and it's actually suing over this ballot design stating that's unconstitutional and so coming up in a state like that where we have real problems with democracy democracy is something that is very important to me no matter where I'm landing as far as my party affiliation I do believe that people should have the choice in a democracy to choose what party they want to run as choose what party they want to vote for and that should be open and free to every one of us so I am open to anything that gives us more democracy that's great yeah that's perfect and with your perspective like from your state that definitely makes sense I've seen the ballots from New Jersey and it is mind boggling to me I don't know how like how people deal with that because it's so confusing you know it's stressful enough filling out a ballot I live in Oregon so we get our ballots mailed to us and that is a very long like two-hour process where I look at each ballot initiative and so to make the ballot itself more complicated I feel like that is a form of voter suppression so it's I'm glad that you know you're shining a light on this and people from New Jersey leftist are shining a light on this so I feel like at this point in time all of my viewers they're already sold on you it's just a matter of how do we help you get elected so what is it that you need from us do you need donations do you need canvassers, phone bankers we want you in Congress how do we make this happen yes so there are two ways so the first way of course are those small dollar donations if you can please go to Oakley F-O-R Congress so that's Oakley4Congress.com you're gonna see a pop up please please donate 25 100 if you can spare 250 or more because we are not taking money from corporate past and my opponent certainly is right now the the momentum is in our direction we outrace him two to one but we can't do it just once we got to keep doing it all the way through election day so please go to Oakley4Congress.com and drop us a donation the second way is if you can't give a donation right now just a little bit out of your purview at the moment please go to again Oakley4Congress.com look at the top navigation bar you're gonna see a button that says volunteer click that button sign up to volunteer because we definitely folks to help us phone back if you're in Jersey we help canvassing so we do need those volunteers and those boots on the ground and ears on the phone so again that's Oakley F-O-R Congress.com please donate sign up to volunteer would love to have your help well I'm on a I'm absolutely rooting for you I'm sure we will follow your campaign and bring you back on at some point hopefully when you actually win but either way thank you so much for just staying engaged I know it's really difficult right now to even think about politics but the fact that you're running and making this self-sacrifice I really appreciate it I know that my viewers do too so thank you so much thank you so much for having me this was great alright folks that is everything thank you all so much for watching if you've made it this far in the program as usual we're not going to go anywhere without the people who make the show possible all of our newest patreon, paypal and youtube members for helping us not just to survive but thrive as well I truly appreciate all of you I know that sometimes politics can get really draining and depressing and you know if you if you check out I think that that's acceptable allowing yourself time to recover from this absolutely depressing cycle of news is natural and healthy at times so don't feel bad if you check out I sometimes have to check out and force myself to not pay attention to politics over the weekend but you know regardless I will be here when you decide to come back because the stories just aren't getting any rosier but you know what it is what it is and uh we'll just keep pushing through it anyways I'll see you all next week my name is Mike Figueredo I don't even know how the fuck to pronounce my own name my name is Mike Figueredo I'll see you all next week take care everyone