Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to okay F Daily with
Speaker 1: me your girl Danielle Moody recording back again in the
Speaker 1: Brooklyn Bunker, Folks. Coming up in the show today, Um,
Speaker 1: we did a little switcheroo. Is my conversation with our
Speaker 1: in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel. Jonathan and I, as
Speaker 1: you all have known if you've been listening to okay
Speaker 1: F for the last two years, in the pandemic, I
Speaker 1: have been talking every single week, and every single week
Speaker 1: we get on and we try and work through ideas
Speaker 1: and solutions and you know, try and have some levity
Speaker 1: on issues that are just becoming so heavy to carry.
Speaker 1: In the conversation this week, however, Jonathan and I have
Speaker 1: nothing good to offer. I say that upfront. I almost
Speaker 1: feel like I want to apologize because I'm exhausted, and
Speaker 1: I know that you all are too. What we are
Speaker 1: living through is not normal. It's not normal. It's not
Speaker 1: normal to be living with this level of fear and
Speaker 1: anxiety and frustration and the anger and disappointment and grief
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. I had the great honor earlier
Speaker 1: in the week to host the Miss Foundation for Women's Gala.
Speaker 1: The Future is feminist and it was the first gala
Speaker 1: since the pandemic. And if you don't know about the
Speaker 1: Missfoundation for Women, they are the largest philanthropic women led
Speaker 1: organization in the country, founded one of the most famous
Speaker 1: founding mothers being Glorious And I've been on the board
Speaker 1: of the Miss Foundation for several years. And when I
Speaker 1: opened up my speech, you know, I had a really
Speaker 1: difficult task, which is people have come together to gather
Speaker 1: for the first time, many people, this is their first
Speaker 1: major event, and they're taking a risk. Right as we
Speaker 1: are seeing COVID numbers back on the rise, as you've
Speaker 1: seen now that the White House has begun once again
Speaker 1: doing their COVID briefings that they had stopped doing for
Speaker 1: the last six weeks, and I've once again started. And
Speaker 1: so this comes on the heels after the leak draft
Speaker 1: of the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and open
Speaker 1: up a whole other bag of cases that were never
Speaker 1: meant to be understood by way of the founding fathers.
Speaker 1: And so I guess everything now into justice. Alito and
Speaker 1: his Federalist Society buddies that everything is on the table.
Speaker 1: Everything that America has gained in terms of rights for
Speaker 1: marginalized communities and communities that weren't even seen as human,
Speaker 1: like the black community. Everything is on the fucking table.
Speaker 1: And so at the gala, I had a difficult task
Speaker 1: to both bring in a sense of optimism and hopefulness,
Speaker 1: which you all know I'm not great at, and then
Speaker 1: also tell people the truth. And here's the thing that
Speaker 1: I said. I you know, I recounted a tweet that
Speaker 1: I read earlier in the week, you know, by a
Speaker 1: journalist who said, you know, good morning, Twitter, what fresh
Speaker 1: hell do you have for me today? That's literally how
Speaker 1: I feel every morning. Nothing has gotten better. And so
Speaker 1: I find myself some days where I am crying in
Speaker 1: the middle of the day and I'm like, what is
Speaker 1: going on? Because the stress that we are all carrying
Speaker 1: and expected still to fucking work, to fucking live right,
Speaker 1: we are not safe anywhere. You heard in my conversation
Speaker 1: with doctor Basilsmichael when he said, inside of this black skin,
Speaker 1: this black body, for the first time in my entire life,
Speaker 1: I do not feel safe in this country. And that
Speaker 1: says a lot, knowing what this country has done historically
Speaker 1: and in present day two black people. But I have
Speaker 1: to echo what he said, for the first time in
Speaker 1: my life as a black queer woman, child of immigrants
Speaker 1: that lives inside of this black female body, I do
Speaker 1: not feel safe. That begins to wear on you emotionally
Speaker 1: and physically. What did I say to you all the
Speaker 1: time on this show that if we don't find ways,
Speaker 1: healthy ways of creating ease, then what we set ourselves
Speaker 1: up for is disease, right, disease? And I feel right
Speaker 1: now so sick because I'm tired. I'm tired of having
Speaker 1: the same conversations with really brilliant people who aren't the
Speaker 1: ones that are actually in charge of getting shit done. No,
Speaker 1: that still falls in the hands of the Chuck Schumers
Speaker 1: and the Nancy Pelosi's and the Joe Bidens of the
Speaker 1: world that are eighty something year old, fucking white people
Speaker 1: who have no idea what it is like to exist
Speaker 1: in the reality that the rest of us are living
Speaker 1: in because they have been, as I said earlier in
Speaker 1: the week, institutionalized. These are people that have been a
Speaker 1: part of the upper echelons of society and our politics
Speaker 1: for their entire lives. They don't know what it's like
Speaker 1: to go to the fucking grocery store. They don't know
Speaker 1: what it's like to have a car not pick you
Speaker 1: up because you are a person of color. They don't
Speaker 1: know what it's going to be like to have to
Speaker 1: figure out your patchwork of reproductive care. So they can
Speaker 1: sit around and pray about it and wag their fingers
Speaker 1: and think that they're actually doing something when they're not
Speaker 1: doing dick. And then when you realize, when you realize
Speaker 1: that the people that are actually responsible for ensuring your
Speaker 1: safety and well being in this country are so completely
Speaker 1: and totally fucking out of touch with the fascism that
Speaker 1: is so steadily on the rise and have no strategy,
Speaker 1: no policies in which to combat it, except for Hakim
Speaker 1: Jefferies to tweet earlier in the week that, oh, the
Speaker 1: House is going to pass an anti white extremism bill. Great,
Speaker 1: And my retweet was, and what is it going to
Speaker 1: do in the fucking Senate? Not a goddamn thing. So
Speaker 1: do not tweet to me and tweet out to the
Speaker 1: world about what the House is doing if it's not
Speaker 1: lock and step with the Senate, because what you are
Speaker 1: doing is just moving the chairs around on the fucking Titanic.
Speaker 1: That's what I feel like. The House is doing. I
Speaker 1: don't care how many bills Nancy Pelosi wants to say
Speaker 1: that the House puts out. It doesn't mean anything. Action
Speaker 1: means something. The President of the United States going a
Speaker 1: buffalo to go mourn with a community that was tragically
Speaker 1: hit by white domestic terrorism is not action. They can
Speaker 1: go to their church for that. They're moss for that,
Speaker 1: they're synagogues for that. They don't need the President of
Speaker 1: the United States to come for that. They need the
Speaker 1: President of the United States to get up on his
Speaker 1: bully pulpit and tell the fucking world that the Republican
Speaker 1: Party is a white extremist, fucking cult and is dangerous
Speaker 1: and if we do not hold on to power, we
Speaker 1: are going the way of Hungry, going the way of Brazil,
Speaker 1: going the way of these countries that have had right
Speaker 1: wing fascist leaders who believe in democracy, but the people's
Speaker 1: votes no longer matter, and somehow the people that are
Speaker 1: most marginalized just happen to disappear around the country, never
Speaker 1: to be heard from again. You think that that type
Speaker 1: of shit can't happen in the United States of America,
Speaker 1: you're not paying attention. And also you don't know anything
Speaker 1: about history. It is so troubling to exist inside of
Speaker 1: this weird bubble right now, where you have some people
Speaker 1: that care so much and are absolutely paralyzed by fear.
Speaker 1: Then you have those that are in power that don't
Speaker 1: care enough and are not really grasping the urgency of
Speaker 1: the moment that we're living in. They're talking about elections,
Speaker 1: like this last election cycle isn't literally the last election cycle.
Speaker 1: You see all of these right wing people that won,
Speaker 1: particularly the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania, who was at
Speaker 1: the insurrection, who believes in the big lie, and who
Speaker 1: already said that Pennsylvania is a battleground state and he's
Speaker 1: going to ensure it to be Republican. Well, how can
Speaker 1: you ensure it to be Republican unless you were throwing
Speaker 1: out people's fucking votes. But you see, he didn't want
Speaker 1: to call foul on the results of the mid term election,
Speaker 1: the results of the primary. Just now he's waiting in. Oh, no,
Speaker 1: that election seemed to have been all good and fine
Speaker 1: because he fucking won. But do you see Democrats using
Speaker 1: these people's own words, Oh, you don't believe in elections,
Speaker 1: and the elections are clearly corrupt, But only corrupt when
Speaker 1: you lose got it. I'm just tired. I'm just tired.
Speaker 1: That's it. I'm just I'm tired. And so you will
Speaker 1: hear in the conversation that I have today with Jonathan.
Speaker 1: You know that he even says that the end you know,
Speaker 1: will be better, you know, next week, because we literally
Speaker 1: just don't have it in us. And you know, there
Speaker 1: are days, and I apologize, there are days when I
Speaker 1: have the energy and the fight to go all day,
Speaker 1: and then there are days like today when I am
Speaker 1: struggling to make it through the recording of this show
Speaker 1: without bursting into tears because I do not have solutions,
Speaker 1: and that is what is killing me, that I don't
Speaker 1: have solutions to offer you all. All I have to
Speaker 1: say is that some days are harder than others, and
Speaker 1: on those days we give ourselves and each other the
Speaker 1: grace that we need to be able to re energize,
Speaker 1: recharge and head back out. And so today I'm asking
Speaker 1: for you all as I did not do Woke Wednesday yesterday,
Speaker 1: because I'm just out of steam. I'm out of steam
Speaker 1: this week, and so I just asked for your grace
Speaker 1: and understanding. We will get through this. I will get
Speaker 1: through this. We will get through this together. Coming up next,
Speaker 1: my conversation with our friend doctor Jonathan Metzel. The Damage
Speaker 1: Report with John Idarola is one of the most popular
Speaker 1: shows on the TYT network that serves as your daily
Speaker 1: breakdown of the genuine threats and challenges facing our country
Speaker 1: and world. These days, we're confronted with an overwhelming sea
Speaker 1: of shocking, confounding, and devastating news stories. The Damage Report
Speaker 1: is your life raft, helping you navigate the day's news
Speaker 1: and understand the damage caused by the corrupt establishment, politicians, corporations,
Speaker 1: and everything in between. Join the Damage Reports notorious fan club,
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Speaker 1: be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
Speaker 1: Hey there, I want to tell you about another podcast
Speaker 1: I think you'll love. The Brown Girl's Guide to Politics,
Speaker 1: hosted by a Shanty Gohler, the president of Emerge BGG,
Speaker 1: is the one stop shop for women of color who
Speaker 1: want to hear and talk about the world of politics.
Speaker 1: Join a Shanty this season as she talks to incredible
Speaker 1: women of color who are changing the face of politics
Speaker 1: and tackling some of the most important issues basing the
Speaker 1: United States, from reproductive justice to voting rights, to climate
Speaker 1: change and more. Tune in every Tuesday wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. Folks, you know that when it is Wednesday,
Speaker 1: we have the good fortune of being joined by our
Speaker 1: friend in house, doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, author of the
Speaker 1: book Dying of Whiteness. Jonathan, this is the start to
Speaker 1: another crazy in America where we're all living on edge.
Speaker 1: And why are we living on edge? Because we have
Speaker 1: a political party that is morphed into a fascist, white
Speaker 1: supremacist breeding ground and is so entwined and invested in
Speaker 1: death that people can't go to the grocery store, can't
Speaker 1: walk down the street, can't go to a movie theater,
Speaker 1: can't shop, can't live right in this supposed land of
Speaker 1: the Three. I watched yesterday as a CNN reporter who
Speaker 1: is on the ground in Buffalo black Man, I can't
Speaker 1: remember his name at this time, and he's a reporter,
Speaker 1: so he's supposed to be neutral. He started crying because
Speaker 1: he said, I don't know how we are supposed to
Speaker 1: live like this. How many more times I'm gonna have
Speaker 1: to sit with families? How many more times the Democrats
Speaker 1: are going to say it's about guns, Republicans are going
Speaker 1: to say it's about mental health. And he said, and
Speaker 1: you know what, nothing is going to happen. Where do
Speaker 1: we go, Jonathan, Like, what do you make of this
Speaker 1: frightening place that we are in. It's a terrifying moment,
Speaker 1: just to be honest, I mean, it's funny, but I
Speaker 1: had a very similar reaction myself, both because of just
Speaker 1: the violence of daily life. I mean, the fact that
Speaker 1: there's so much fear about just living right. I mean
Speaker 1: when people can't go to the supermarket, or can't go
Speaker 1: to church, or can't whatever without looking over their shoulder.
Speaker 1: And the version of the reality is for people who
Speaker 1: I mean, I know a lot of people on the
Speaker 1: very very pro gun side of this, and their answer
Speaker 1: is always, well, people should carry a gun, and therefore
Speaker 1: they would have the right to protect themselves. But like,
Speaker 1: I don't know I don't think, what's the world going
Speaker 1: to look like if everybody can carry again, like when
Speaker 1: when you go jogging, or when you go to the supermarket,
Speaker 1: or every time you go to worship. It's just a
Speaker 1: it's a it's a very depressing world to think that
Speaker 1: we're on guard for violence all the time. And and so,
Speaker 1: but and so I guess, I guess when I have
Speaker 1: to think constructively, I mean, let me just talk about
Speaker 1: Groundhog Day for a second. I went back to interview
Speaker 1: questions because I've been doing interviews pretty much night and
Speaker 1: day since since the shooting, and and and I try
Speaker 1: to give every interview my best shot, right, like, here's
Speaker 1: where we can go. But I look back at the
Speaker 1: interviews I did after Sandy Hook and after El Paso,
Speaker 1: just for the heck of it, and I'm getting asked
Speaker 1: like the exact same questions I was getting asked ten
Speaker 1: years ago. Um Like, it's the sense of like repetition
Speaker 1: as things keep getting worse is so deep, it's so profound.
Speaker 1: And so I guess the most important point I think
Speaker 1: people should take away from what's happening right now is
Speaker 1: that the reason nothing's happening is because of elections. Which
Speaker 1: lead to people put in power who then seek judges
Speaker 1: who then don't do anything except for make this happen.
Speaker 1: And so the answer at this moment, I mean, maybe
Speaker 1: that won't be an option going forward, but it really is.
Speaker 1: If you're in Pennsylvania, you should be spending even eight
Speaker 1: hours waiting in line to vote, if you are in wherever,
Speaker 1: wherever's voting right now, because so much of this issue
Speaker 1: of violence and particularly about gun policy is set by judges.
Speaker 1: And the reason we're in this hole, I mean there's
Speaker 1: a lot of reasons, right you know, we Merrick Garland
Speaker 1: blocking and RBG dying two weeks too soon and all
Speaker 1: these kind of factors, but ultimately it's a question of
Speaker 1: the judiciary. And so if we want things to change,
Speaker 1: we actually have to win elections and see judges and
Speaker 1: overturn some of this stuff. And to me, that's like,
Speaker 1: honestly the only answer. And so I don't I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know where we go from here except to say, like,
Speaker 1: this thing is such a literalizing of everything we've been
Speaker 1: going through. I mean, we started with Sandy Hook in
Speaker 1: this space and said how can we when I mean
Speaker 1: just there's no mystery. Right now, we have one hundred
Speaker 1: eighty page manifesto laying out for us what the stakes
Speaker 1: are and so but you know, here's the thing to
Speaker 1: me too, about the conversations that are being had, because
Speaker 1: once again, you know, I understand news, right, I do news,
Speaker 1: and I see these reporters, you know, putting together these
Speaker 1: segments that are talking about gun violence as a whole,
Speaker 1: that are talking about how many shootings took place, you know,
Speaker 1: over last weekend. And I'm saying to myself, to me,
Speaker 1: that's not the conversation, and that's just me as a
Speaker 1: black person that is now becoming increasingly fearful of my
Speaker 1: movements right, increasingly concerned about if I'm in New York,
Speaker 1: I'm taking the subway, people are being pushed off of
Speaker 1: subway platforms and beaten and stabbed and robbed. Right. This
Speaker 1: is not the same thing as a white terrorist driving
Speaker 1: two hundred miles doing reconnaissance on a black neighborhood for
Speaker 1: a day and a half before opening fire and shooting
Speaker 1: an eighty six year old black woman in the fucking head.
Speaker 1: Like there is a difference between what happened in Buffalo
Speaker 1: at Tops Grocery and what happens on a regular basis
Speaker 1: in this gun happy culture that we live in. And
Speaker 1: so why do you think that there is a consistent
Speaker 1: melding that happens because barring one hundred and eighty page manifesto,
Speaker 1: which pretty much reads like any segment on Fox News,
Speaker 1: any like any of the candidates, Republican candidates that are
Speaker 1: running for office, they say the same goddamn thing. So
Speaker 1: if the Republican Party wants to come out and talk
Speaker 1: about mental health, then what they are saying is that
Speaker 1: they are all unfucking well right, because this is not
Speaker 1: fringe the ideas that were in this manifesto. It's birthrates,
Speaker 1: it's replacement theory, it's you know, women belong in this place,
Speaker 1: Black people are replacing us. It is all of these
Speaker 1: things that is a steady diet of this party. And
Speaker 1: so why do you think, then, when everything is laid
Speaker 1: out very clear that this the danger here is white
Speaker 1: extremism and it's unabated rise in this country, and then
Speaker 1: coupling that with toxic masculinity and our gun culture, why
Speaker 1: aren't we having that conversation? You know, the issue with it?
Speaker 1: I agree completely. I mean, anti black hate crimes are
Speaker 1: rising we've seen rise of even justifiable quote unquote, I mean,
Speaker 1: let's think about the cal Rittenhouse trial for example, and
Speaker 1: things like that. Like the idea of basically the idea
Speaker 1: of this kind of militancy is it's I mean, in
Speaker 1: this case, obviously it's mass murder, but yeah, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's it's really Danielle, where do we go from the
Speaker 1: conversation right what happens next? What are your alternatives right now?
Speaker 1: And so? Does this mean that we all need to
Speaker 1: run out and buy guns that would be great for
Speaker 1: the gun manufacturers. Does it mean that we should try
Speaker 1: to take back over the judiciaries, that mean we should
Speaker 1: stop showing up and participating, Like I guess the question
Speaker 1: for me is like when it's so gratuitous, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's so it's so gratuitous, it's so obvious, it's so clear,
Speaker 1: and right wing media is working overtime to turn this
Speaker 1: into a white victim narrative, neighbor narrative, which Tucker Carlson
Speaker 1: is now doing, saying they're coming for our guns and
Speaker 1: you can't express yourself and all this kind of stuff,
Speaker 1: you know, so you can express so his idea of
Speaker 1: expressing yourself is through murder. You want to he wanted
Speaker 1: Peyton to be able to express himself through through murder
Speaker 1: like that. And again, like I say that flippantly because
Speaker 1: I'm so fucking tired of mainstream media not saying the
Speaker 1: truth right Like I'm I said this yesterday, I say
Speaker 1: it all the time. Tucker Carlson and Fox News are
Speaker 1: a threat to national security. If you don't get that,
Speaker 1: then you are not paying attention to what these violent
Speaker 1: people are writing, are saying, are posting in chat rooms,
Speaker 1: are creating manifestos around like they're getting this from one
Speaker 1: from one place. I guess the important thing to know
Speaker 1: is that it's a great time to be them right
Speaker 1: in other words, like even with stuff like this, like
Speaker 1: they're seizing power at every level possible. I mean, and
Speaker 1: so in a way, I don't know, there's just imagine
Speaker 1: the other side has no shame about this, you know.
Speaker 1: That's kind of I think about it like it's it's
Speaker 1: in a way, it's a it's a model of power,
Speaker 1: and so what's our response to a model of power?
Speaker 1: We talked about this a couple of months ago. Um,
Speaker 1: and uh, I don't know, it's it's just like it's
Speaker 1: literally a takeover, an invasion, and so what what's what's
Speaker 1: the response at this at this moment? And so I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's you can hear the purtation in my
Speaker 1: voice right now, um, because I still want to believe
Speaker 1: that we can overturn this in through legal, peaceful means
Speaker 1: in terms of elections and things like that. But it's
Speaker 1: just when when there's not a coming together um or
Speaker 1: something like this where it's so obvious, it's kind of like,
Speaker 1: what what do you do next? And so yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a it's a hard moment. It's a hard moment. But
Speaker 1: you know, my problem too is that we can we
Speaker 1: continue to have hard moments. I don't know when the
Speaker 1: last time we had when we had an easy moment
Speaker 1: was right like okay, So it's like it's been one
Speaker 1: hard moment after one hard moment, one shooting after one shooting,
Speaker 1: one police killing after one police killing. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: they have the audacity on the right to refer to
Speaker 1: anybody that believes in LGBTQ equality as a groomer or
Speaker 1: a pedophile. And I said yesterday, why do we not
Speaker 1: talk about the Republican Party as groomors for white supremacs.
Speaker 1: They are literally creating fertile ground for the birth of
Speaker 1: Kyle rittenhouses and Peyton gendrons and all a Dylan roofs like,
Speaker 1: they are creating the fertile ground for that. So how
Speaker 1: do we not say you are grooming white supremas, You
Speaker 1: are grooming violent domestic terrorists right like? And again it's
Speaker 1: Democrats that also have us here? Am I wrong? Because
Speaker 1: it isn't just saying to the people you need to vote,
Speaker 1: because we do vote, we vote at historic levels. But
Speaker 1: Democrats betray us every single time? Am i? Am? I?
Speaker 1: Am I wrong? Here? Is it just Republicans that have
Speaker 1: been blocking our ability to live free and safe? No? No, no,
Speaker 1: you're not wrong. I mean them. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: Tell me what to do and I'll do it, and
Speaker 1: you tell me where we go from here? Like, what's
Speaker 1: the answer for where where do we go from here?
Speaker 1: I mean? The honest thing for me is that I
Speaker 1: don't see a lawful voting path to get this country
Speaker 1: back on track. I do not that only a lawful
Speaker 1: voting path requires two political parties to adhere to the
Speaker 1: same set of rules and laws. That's how functional societies work.
Speaker 1: When you have one of the two political parties that
Speaker 1: no longer adhere to the constitution, that no longer adhere
Speaker 1: to the rule of law, or appointing judges so that
Speaker 1: they can drastically reshape and reimagine what law, what is
Speaker 1: lawful in this country, which is the subjugation of marginalized
Speaker 1: communities and forcing them to live in a state of apartheid.
Speaker 1: Jim Crow, you fascist regime. I don't see an easy, viable,
Speaker 1: lawful path here. And I say that, and let me
Speaker 1: tell you something. I have yet to be wrong. And
Speaker 1: I'm not patting myself on the back because I wish
Speaker 1: that America would prove me wrong. I wish that I
Speaker 1: would be wrong about the fact that after Newtown, I
Speaker 1: said that if you're not going to do anything for
Speaker 1: a classroom of first graders that were mowed down with
Speaker 1: an assault, ifel and you can't come up with legislation,
Speaker 1: then then no one else matters. Because if a group
Speaker 1: of white children in an affluent, fucking area get gunned
Speaker 1: down in their classroom while coloring, and you do nothing
Speaker 1: as government officials, then no one else matters. So I
Speaker 1: you know, where do we go? Where do we go
Speaker 1: from here? I'm worried. I'm really really worried and fearful
Speaker 1: because I do believe that people are going to begin
Speaker 1: to arm up. Those of us who did not believe
Speaker 1: in guns, who did not want those you know, automations
Speaker 1: of death and violence in our homes, are going to
Speaker 1: feel like we have no choice. Yeah, I mean in
Speaker 1: that space, there are I mean, not in any way
Speaker 1: to get away from this story. I mean, after we talk.
Speaker 1: As I was saying before, I have seventeen more interviews
Speaker 1: about the shooting. It's it's just on feedback loop in
Speaker 1: a certain kind of way, trying to get the word
Speaker 1: out in a particular way today and tomorrow and Friday.
Speaker 1: But I would also say that there are a couple
Speaker 1: of big stories that I think people should be following
Speaker 1: in relation to this that are not in any way
Speaker 1: moving away from the story of Buffalo, which I think
Speaker 1: we need to hold on to. But as we've talked
Speaker 1: about here, the Supreme Court is risking overturning New York's
Speaker 1: gun laws. That ruling is going to come down pretty
Speaker 1: soon here, I think. And so there's a Supreme Court
Speaker 1: ruling that is going to lead to many more guns
Speaker 1: coming to a place like New York. And so the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court decision is going to just enable this to
Speaker 1: happen more, I think. And so partially there's the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court ruling that's going to overturn the modern gun control movement,
Speaker 1: I think. And then something big also happened yesterday. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you saw this, but the New York
Speaker 1: New York redivided the congressional maps across New York State
Speaker 1: to make all the districts much more competitive. In other words,
Speaker 1: while red states or jeremandering and getting squeezing out as
Speaker 1: many House seats as they possibly can, the New York
Speaker 1: State is basically making like Kim Jeffreies, for example, his
Speaker 1: seat is not going to be safe anymore. And some
Speaker 1: of the big leaders and stuff like that. And so
Speaker 1: I don't know, the whole system just feels tilted against
Speaker 1: Democrats and against any of these issues right now. And
Speaker 1: so I agree with you. I don't know voting is
Speaker 1: the issue, but I don't I don't know what else happens.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's a it's a bad time. It's a
Speaker 1: really bad time. It's a really bad time. And I just,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess that I have reached a new
Speaker 1: level that I didn't even think that I could have,
Speaker 1: of frustration, of disgust, and frankly, again, I'm not surprised
Speaker 1: at Republicans. We've all known who these people are. We
Speaker 1: have known they have told us, you know, how they
Speaker 1: are moving, what they believe in, what their vision is,
Speaker 1: and they are actualizing it one election, one local election
Speaker 1: at a time. And again Democrats are looking around like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, we're gonna lose Row, having had no
Speaker 1: plan for the thing that your political opponents have been
Speaker 1: using as a battering ram for fifty years. Right Like,
Speaker 1: So again I can't just look at Republicans because I
Speaker 1: don't expect them to be better than they are. I
Speaker 1: don't expect them to come to the table and give
Speaker 1: a shit about the people of this country who are
Speaker 1: not white insists and headero and Christian. I do not
Speaker 1: believe that they could give a damn right. So it's like,
Speaker 1: if you know that, then what is the opposition doing?
Speaker 1: And also, you know, as we've been talking about, and
Speaker 1: we'll be back on our a game next week. I mean,
Speaker 1: I feel like we're both so desponded right now. M
Speaker 1: But but I feel like, what's our theory of power, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're marching, we're protesting, But what's our theory
Speaker 1: of power? I don't know. I feel like that so
Speaker 1: much goes back to that, like what is our? What
Speaker 1: is our? Like the Republicans suck, but they have a
Speaker 1: theory of power. That's how they got here, or it's
Speaker 1: a fifty year plan, like I don't know. Protest is
Speaker 1: not a theory of power. It's a theory of protests.
Speaker 1: And so I don't know. There's anger about this, there's
Speaker 1: anger about abortion, there's anger about these things. But what's
Speaker 1: the strategy of using that anger to take power in
Speaker 1: a zero sum political system? And I honestly don't know
Speaker 1: the answer to that. That's kind of what my frustration is,
Speaker 1: what's what's the bigger strategy? I don't And I think
Speaker 1: you know, it's funny because you and I talked about
Speaker 1: it months ago, Like what's the strategy beyond just voicing dissent?
Speaker 1: And don't I don't know what it is. I honestly
Speaker 1: don't know what it is, but that you know, we
Speaker 1: will leave it here today. But that's where I'd like
Speaker 1: to pick up next week is thinking about what is
Speaker 1: the theory of power? Right? Because marching, protesting, wagging fingers,
Speaker 1: it is not it right. That is that that is momentary.
Speaker 1: And as I will argue till the end of time,
Speaker 1: arming democrats is not a theory of power either. That's
Speaker 1: playing right into the other side's theory of power. Right,
Speaker 1: Arming democrats is not going to lead to equality. It's
Speaker 1: you know, it's going to lead to the other side
Speaker 1: than getting more and better guns. And so I just
Speaker 1: don't think that that is a viable strategy either. That
Speaker 1: plays right into some of their bad stuff. And I
Speaker 1: have a lot of data to show that. So, Jonathan,
Speaker 1: all I can say is be well, yeah, hang in there,
Speaker 1: stay safe, hang in there, good luck with all of
Speaker 1: your reviews and trying to do the Lord's work of
Speaker 1: spreading some type of truth alarm, wake up call. I
Speaker 1: don't know, but this country needs something and I don't
Speaker 1: know what that something is. Yeah, as always, we appreciate you. Okay,
Speaker 1: take care. It's no secret that the news is horsepill
Speaker 1: hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's the Bituation Room podcast, hosted
Speaker 1: by comedian and commentator Francesca free Erntini for a lighter
Speaker 1: take on the heavy staff. Each week, the Bituation Room
Speaker 1: brings you progressive comedians, experts, and activists to break down
Speaker 1: the issues in a way that won't just leave you
Speaker 1: crying under a weighted blanket. Get the Bituation Room on
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Speaker 1: That is it for me today here, friends on Woke
Speaker 1: f as always, Power to the people and to all
Speaker 1: the people power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.
Speaker 1: Appreciate you, true