Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Establishment media sucks August lighting, so good luck. Bullshit. We can't afford why he's commenting this Watch and see as his jack golf the medium speeds and jumps the medium and hits him head on. It's the Jimmy Door Show.

Russell Dobular

Hello, this is Russell Dobular filling in for Jimmy Dore, who's going to be on the road very shortly. We have an amazing guest lineup today, starting off with Syed Mohammed Morandi. He's a professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran and he's a political analyst known for his critiques of Western media and culture and has appeared as a commentator on international news networks such as al Jazeera and BBC. Born in the US he returned to Iran at the age of 13 and later fought in the Iran Iraq War. Let's give a very warm welcome to Professor Morandi. Professor Morandi, welcome.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Hi Russell. Thank you for inviting me.

Russell Dobular

Thank you very much for making it during what I'm sure is a very trying time in your country. The. Indeed, the, the IRGC just released a video today of kind of rocket launches. Want to take a look at that? Get your thoughts on.

Interjecting Commentator

It.

Russell Dobular

All right now, personally I like the Lego videos better, but that was very impressive. Now, does Iran believe that it can defeat the US militarily? And why is Iran the only country in the region that is willing to confront the United States and Israel? I, I think that's very confusing for people. Why none of the other countries will do this. Why Iran stands alone.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Yes, I think the Iranians believe that they can defeat the United States or outlast the United States. The Iranians have been preparing themselves for this war for decades. They always believe that at some point the United States will invade the country.

Joe Vance (referenced) / Analyst

And

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

since the end of the Iraq Iran War where Saddam Hussein invaded Iran with US encouragement, the Iranians had been preparing. But after 9 11, the Iranians were quite confident that the United States at some point would attack. So after 911 the they've been working much harder and more swiftly to develop underground missile bases, underground drone bases, to develop Iranian indigenous technology for missiles, drones and other weapon systems. And that's why they were able to effectively defeat the Israeli regime in the 12 Day War. Of course, the Americans were supporting the Israeli in the 40 day war, the Ramadan war that we had four months ago. I think it's fair to say that Iran definitely won the war. It doesn't mean that the United States didn't hurt Iran or, or damage Iran's critical infrastructure. In fact, just a couple of hours ago, apparently the Americans struck a hospital, a children's cancer hospital in the city of. And so, you know, damage is being done every day. But the Iran, for the Iranians, this is a war for survival. For the Americans, it's a war of choice.

Russell Dobular

Right.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

And therefore the incentive for the Iranians to. To fight is much higher. And you've seen the funerals in Iran for Ayatollah Khamenei, and they were in the millions. Some of our mutual friends were in Tehran and perhaps in other cities. I don't know if they went. If they went there and in Iraq as well. So it's clear where public opinion stands. And the armed forces have, of course, been, during the last few nights, been hitting back hard. And during the day, no one wants war, but it's been imposed upon the country. We were, as you know, and I know your viewers are very politically aware, but before the twelfth Day War, we were negotiating. And then it turned out that the whole negotiation process was just a deception. Trump and Netanyahu were planning a war. And before this war, four and a half months ago or so, we were negotiating with the United States in Oman, and there was progress. The foreign Minister of Oman went to the United States and then they launched the war. So it's not as if the Iranians are seeking war or they love war, but they have to fight this war because they know that the. The objective is the destruction of Iran, to turn Iran into another Syria or another Libya. And why is it that no one else is willing to stand up to the United States and the Israeli regime? There are many of these countries are just proxies. They are leaders. They have been installed and controlled by the United States for many decades. They spend much of their time in the United States. Their families spend much of their time in the United States. That's where they keep their money. That's where they have their mansions. That's where they spend their vacations. The Americans have a lot of dirt on these people. We see. We've seen quite a few of these people and their names in the Epstein files. Senior Emirati leaders, for example, but others, too. Turkey, unfortunately, despite the fact that its population is very supportive of the Palestinian cause. But throughout this genocide, the Turkish government has been transporting oil to Netanyahu and has been very. Trump calls Mr. Erdogan very faithful to himself. So. But public opinion in across the region is with Iran, despite the fact that for years, the Saudis, the Emiratis, Erdogan and others have been trying to create religious divide, sectarian divide, racial divide between Iran and, and everyone else, but public opinion is with Iran. People now see through all that propaganda and views of Iran have evolved a lot. I mean, in the past, when I would be on shows like yours or shows of Other Friends, the. The general skepticism towards Iran back then was much greater because of the propaganda. But a lot of people are now seeing through the propaganda. They don't see Iran as this evil, backward medieval land where you have mad mullahs running around and gays being thrown off the top of buildings and women being beaten in the afternoon and children being, I don't know, beaten in the evenings. And it's a house of cards that's about to fall. I think the war did a lot to dispel the propaganda about Iran being a house of cards. The funerals did a lot to show that Iran is very different from what is depicted in what it's being depicted as being in the West. And I think a lot of people across the world have been asking themselves, well, if Iran is really that bad and that evil, why is it that the Iranians and their allies are opposing genocide in Gaza and everyone else is either indifferent or complicit? And I think a lot of people are actually learning about. Well, and thanks to some of our friends, to a degree, they're learning about the fact that Iran has Jews, Iran has synagogues. In fact, the Israelis bombed the synagogue in Tehran. A couple of our mus have visited that synagogue. And so the views have evolved. And I think that despite the hardship of war, I don't want to say good has come out of it, but there have been positive developments too, and that is that I think awareness across the region and across the world has increased.

Russell Dobular

So JD Vance went on Joe Rogan. Let me set this up. Actually. There's Russell Dobular Phil again for Jimmy Dore here with Professor Morandi, our friend of the show. We're very glad to see safe sound looking very well. JD Vance went on Joe Rogan and laid out his version of why this war seemingly keeps stopping and starting and stopping and starting. So this was his version of events going on with Iran where it seems like the President keeps saying that a deal's reached, negotiations have been successful, and then it all falls apart and we start bombing them again.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Yeah.

Joe Vance (referenced) / Analyst

So how long do we have here? Because this is as much time as you need. So I have to explain a couple of things in the background so you sort of fully appreciate people fully appreciate what's going on here. So, number one, it's a bit of a simplification but you have two elements within the Iranian system. You have, and you sometimes hear hawkish Americans say this, that they're all crazy people. They want to bring about, you know, the, the 12th Imam and the Apocalypse and all that stuff. There are people in Iran who believe that they're also pragmatists. You've got the crazy people, you've got the pragmatists. Okay, so when we struck this mou, and really what the MOU says and I, it was misrepresented more than almost anything that I've ever worked on in public life. What it says is Iran is going to open the Strait of Hormuz, the violence is going to stop, and then we're going to negotiate to see if we can come to a broader deal on the long term nuclear issue. That's what we wanted. And what the Iranians wanted, of course, was long term economic and sanctions relief. Now, here's the problem with where we are right now. And I guess my summary view, Joe, is that I, of course can't predict the future. I don't know exactly where this is going to go, but I think fundamentally we are on the right trajectory. It's just going to be really messy and there's going to be a lot of stuff starts. So what happens the first week after we signed the MoU, yet 20 million barrels a day of oil out of the Strait of Hormuz? That's what it was before the war. The price of oil comes way down. And there are elements, the hardliners in the Iranian system kind of freak out a little bit. They're like, oh shit, did we just give away our major leverage point? Screw nuclear weapons, we just gave away the so in this MoU. And so there was this kind of freak out in their system. So they shot at the couple, we responded. And I think that's entirely appropriate. Of course, if they're going to shoot at ships, we're going to shoot at the people who are shooting at the ships or the facilities that they're using to shoot at ships. So that happens, okay? And then the Iranians are like, oh, no, no, fine, you're right, we shouldn't have been shooting at ships. So then they come back to the table and there's a few more days of negotiation. And then the phase they're in right now is the hardliners have really, really reacted strongly to all the oil that's coming out of the Strait of Hormuz. And they've basically said, we're going to try to shut this thing down. We're scared about losing our leverage. Now the pragmatists in their system are saying this was a mistake, let's keep on talking. And again, ultimately going to shake out. Of course, I don't. But what we're doing is a delicate diplomatic dance where we're using economic leverage points, we're using carrots and sticks, trying to talk to the pragmatists. And then of course, when they commit acts of violence, we're responding to it. And all those things are happening simultaneously to get us on a better trajectory. Now that said, yes, right now they're shooting right now. Last night they shot at some ships, but with all that said, is their nuclear program still destroyed? Yes. Are the straits not necessarily fully pre war traffic, but are we getting enough oil and gas out of the Strait of Hormuz to prevent a worldwide energy crisis? Yes. And all of these things are happening in the context of the broader negotiation over the nuclear program. You never know where this is ultimately going to end up, but that's where we are.

Russell Dobular

Okay. I could see you holding back laughter a couple times during that. So do you have a response to that? I know there's a lot there. Take your time.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Well, there are a few things. One is that this whole pragmatic crazy divide and one group does something and another, another group does something else. I mean, if Iran is so chaotic and everyone does their own thing, I, it's, it's amazing how they won the war and they won the siege warfare and they got the mou, the negotiated deal with all that chaos. I mean, no country can survive where you have different factions doing different things. And one says, know this is wrong, but the other is firing missiles. That, that's nonsense. What happened basically was that first of all, we haven't had negotiations with Americans. I mean, that's, that hasn't existed. And I think Vance and I, I don't, I can't say with confidence. But Vance, of course, he's the vice president. He can't say that Trump is talking nonsense. Vance has his own worldview. I assume that it, that because of what I've heard from Tucker Carlson on his show that he, the relationship between him and Tucker Carlson is different from that of Trump with Tucker Carlson. So Vance, on the, on the other hand, therefore has, probably has a different worldview than that of Trump and, and some of the people around Trump. So he wants to have, but he wants to have his cake and eat it too. On the one hand, he wants to say that I'm with Trump and you know, what we're doing is right, but when he tries to describe it, it doesn't make sense. You have this faction firing missiles and this other faction says we shouldn't be firing these missiles. And sorry. And that's just nonsense. But he wants, I think, the process to continue because probably he understands that the war is not going to get the United States to a good place. So he's trying to say, you know, let's find a negotiated solution. The fact is that the United States engaged in this war with Israeli regime. It was unprovoked and all that. Then after the ceasefire, the siege war warfare began, basically because the United States refused to implement the ceasefire deal, which included Lebanon. And Netanyahu refused. He carpet bombed Beirut. So we had a two month, I don't know, I guess two months or so, more than two months of siege warfare. Then we had the MOU and there were some differences between the two sides. We weren't getting to the deal. And then Netanyahu bombed Beirut. Iran was about to fire missiles at Israel. My understanding, this is my interpretation. Trump was afraid that if Iran and the Israeli regime got into a warfare that the deal would be set back. So he gave the concessions that the Iranians wanted and the deal was signed. But he had no intention of carrying out the deal. This is my opinion. And in Iran, no, the, the leaders and the leads and the analysts, I don't know anyone who believed that the United States was going to carry out the deal. And why, but why was Trump insistent on having the deal? Because he himself admitted that we only had 4 of reserves left. Oil reserves, energy reserves. And he, he, he, he spoke of Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression and he doesn't want to see that happen. And so we are where we are. But since Trump did not want to implement the deal, everyone was attacking him for it. He began to undermine it step by step. He effectively refused to carry out any of his obligations except for one, and that was the siege. Why? Because, as Van said, he wanted the oil to come out. Right? So he wanted the oil to come out. He removed the siege. But everything else he violated. He was supposed to hand over Iran's stolen assets. He refused. He was supposed to force the Israeli regime to leave Lebanon and to stop the killing. He refused. He was supposed to remove sanctions on Iran's energy exports. He lifted them and then restated them after just a few days. He, according to the deal, is not allowed to threaten Iranian leaders or the Iranian people. He did that repeatedly. And he expanded the sanctions regime, a violation of the deal. And then, and this is where we get to what Vance was saying. He during the two month period of the MoU, Iran was supposed to control the strait of hormones and facilitate the normalization of the trade or the shipping that goes through the strait. So what did the Americans do? And there's Nothing in Article 5 which has to do with this, about Americans intruding and getting involved in this trade. So the Americans come in and they set up their own corridor for ships, which goes against Article 5. And people can see it, it's online. They set up this corridor. The Iranians tell the Americans this is a violation. We're supposed to be the, the side that's in charge. The Americans ignore them. And then those countries that helped Americans launch the war against Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar, they started sending their ships through the American corridor. Iran for a number of days said, complained, but did nothing serious about it. Then finally the Iranians said enough is enough. They hit three ships and then the Americans started, well, they hit ships and then, you know, the Americans started hitting Iran, which was not another violation, attacking Iran. So basically what Trump did was that he was violating all of his commitments and then he wanted to control the straight of hormones too and undermine Iran's authority. And Iran was not going to have that because Iran knew that, well, he doesn't abide by his commitment and then he takes control of the Strait of Hormuz and he affected, he effectively wins. So the Iranians began to hit back and now the Americans are engaging in this war. But the Americans had been preparing for this because ever since the ceasefire, they brought in a lot of equipment for ground warfare and they've kept all their planes, almost all of their planes in place. I don't know if every single one is here, but all of their assets are in the region. But the Iranians also, they, they were preparing themselves since ceasefire, but. And also the Iranians did something that I think was very important and that was that as soon as the MoU was signed, as I said, the Iranians knew that Trump would not abide by his commitments. But they immediately began to export large quantities of oil because Iran had a lot of tankers in the Persian Gulf which were full of oil but couldn't leave because of the siege. So they sent a lot of oil quickly, imported essential goods so that if, when, when the Americans reimpose the siege, which is illegal because it's directed at ordinary people, they would be prepared. So Iran is more prepared now than it was before. The MoU, because of its Exports and because of its importance. And now we're back to war.

Russell Dobular

Do you think Trump actually has freedom of action? Because you get the sense he talks about being Herbert Hoover. You get the sense that he wants to end this desperately, but it seems like the Israelis simply will not allow him, now that he put his foot in this trap, to get it out. Now that he's in, he can't get out. They're going to continue conditions like what they're doing in Lebanon that are just going to make peace impossible. Of course, you mentioned Epstein. A lot of people think there's compromat. We don't know. But his behavior is so inconsistent in regards to how he deals with Israel versus everybody else. It suggests there might be something to it. But even without that, the Israelis continue to do things that the Iranians simply cannot accept. Do you think that in the end, Trump has the freedom to end this war? Can he?

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

I don't, I don't know the answer to that question, obviously. And I, I would like to ask you. But the way I see it is that going back to before the war when Tucker Carlson met Trump and he said, spoke with him and told him why this was a big mistake. And Trump, he said Trump agreed with him. And so it was clear that Trump knew that this was not a good idea.

Russell Dobular

Right.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

But he did it anyway. So that means that it was imposed upon him. Now, whether it's because he's done terrible things and they have footage of him doing it, I don't know. Whether he's so deeply indebted to the oligarchy, the Zionist oligarchy, the Epstein class, I don't know. But it's very difficult to, to, to believe that someone who says this is a bad idea would just do it anyway. It doesn't make sense. Now, here's where for me, it begins. It becomes a bit more complicated more recently. And also, and also if we go back to Joe Kent's resignation letter, which was submitted right after the war started in, in that letter, he said Iran is not developing a nuclear weapon. Iran's not a threat to the United States. And he basically said that this war is because of the Zionist lobbying, Israeli machine. So that is the reason. I mean, he, you can't go much higher than Joe Kent at that time in, in intelligence. So obviously that was the reason. And today there's no reason to think that, that the reason behind the war suddenly disappeared. So it's, I would imagine that it is the Israeli regime of the Zionist lobby. Now, what becomes, I think, a Bit question. What, what. The question that comes up for me is that why is it that Trump and Netanyahu have. I mean, Trump has been criticizing Netanyahu so severely then. And some would say, well, this is good cop, bad cop. I don't think so. Because the way which Trump has attacked Netanyahu on a number of occ were not good for Netanyahu because he, he humiliated him and weakened his position. I think so. I think that there are a number of things happening probably, and correct me if you think I'm wrong. One is that I think that perhaps even in the Zionist lobby there are differing factions. Some of them believe that this war is not going well and if United States goes into a Great Depression, that, or a major recession, that this will not be good for them. The Israeli First Service in the United States. And so it's best to find a, a solution. And so I think some would, some of them say, no, let's just, we need to continue this war with Iranians. Who cares what happens to the United States? Who, who cares what happens to the global economy? And they're, I think, like firmly behind war, firmly behind Netanyahu. And then another faction, probably, as I said, the ones who are worried about where this is going to take the economy, they are probably becoming anti Netanyahu and they probably want him to lose the election. The, the election that's coming up, which is close, just like the midterms in the United States. And that's why Trump is attacking Netanyahu. So Trump could be compromised, but at the same time in some sort of conflict with Netanyahu, the individual, at the same time. I don't know if that makes sense.

Russell Dobular

I, I think when we see Trump have these outbursts, I think it's, it's a reflection of an animal in a trap thrashing around. I, I think sometimes it just comes out because look at how Trump deals with everybody else. It doesn't, it's, it's got a chafe to have to be this subservient when Netanyahu keeps putting him in a position that is so damaging to his political project and to his legacy and to his reputation. In terms of some of the Zionists not liking Netanyahu. Yeah, I think some of them realize this is very bad for pr. He's, he's the worst thing to have happened to our project in a long time. Not that they don't share his goals, but he's making those goals more difficult to attain because he's destroying the reputation of Israelis. Destroy. I could Tell you, Professor, I have never in my life seen the Israeli state questioned in America like it is now. Never, never. When I was growing up, nobody would question Israel in any way. It was taken as gospel that Israel was this heroic triumph of an oppressed people and that the Arab states around them were savages. That they were savages, they were Nazis, they were barbaric. And you see the Zionists try to push that even now and with increasing frustration because it's not working the way that it used to. So, yes, there, I think there are some Zionists who realize, you know, we had a good thing going and they've just reveal too much now and it's going to be very difficult, impossible really, to ever go back to that narrative. Nobody really questioned that narrative after October 7th. They can't really sell it anymore. But here's an explanation that came from drop site. There's Russell Dobular filling in for Jimmy Dore with our friend Professor Morandi, who is very heroically in the middle of the night appearing on this show. What time is it over there?

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

It is 207AM207.

Russell Dobular

Wow. Well, we appreciate you being here. All right, so this just came from drop site. There's a possible explanation for some of what we've been talking about. During the US Iran talks in Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, in late June, Iranian negotiator sent a private message to Vice President J.D. vance. Through an intermediary, the Iranians warned Vance that the continued presence of President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff and son in law Jared Kushner would undermine the chance of turning the June 17 framework into an enduring deal. A senior Iranian official told Dropsite in the private message. According to the Iranian official, Iran conveyed to Vance that the pair were more interested in exploiting insider knowledge of the negotiations to profit in financial markets than they were in reaching a deal. Iranian negotiators also expressed concern about repeated leaks from Kushner to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A US Official told Axios that since the negotiations began, Witkoff and Kushner talk almost every day to Netanyahu and the head of Mossad. So could this be the reason Trump is being controlled and ill advised by his own son in law and friend who he's put in this position of envoy? There's been some reporting that the leadership in Iran predicts what Trump's going to do based on the opening and closing of the financial markets. Is that some of what's going on here?

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Well, I, I think it's the Iranians know that Kushner, Witkoff and Trump's kids are making a lot of money in the Persian Gulf and they have been milking these Arab regimes since Trump returned to power. And we know that there's insider trading and we know that Trump has been making huge amounts of money himself since he became president. So this does make sense. And you're right, I mean, I think it's pretty well known by now that a lot of the things that Trump says and does coincides with the opening of markets or right before markets open and right before markets close. And we've seen a lot of insider trading, especially using Axios. So on a number of occasions, Axios, you completely fabricate, put out completely fabricated stories and then the price of oil would just suddenly drop and someone whose people would make huge amounts of money and then the story would, after a few days, go away. So Axios is a complete tool. And actually one of the reasons why I thought maybe the, the conflict between Trump and Netanyahu, and I'm not saying what you're saying is wrong, I agree with everything that you say. But one reason why I think maybe some within the Zionist elites, maybe with this idea of attacking Netanyahu, is that Axios itself published one of the hardest hitting and perhaps the first hard hitting critique that Trump had of Netanyahu when he published the conversation between Trump and Netanyahu on the phone when Trump said everyone hates Israel, everyone hates you and crazy or whatever. I don't remember exactly right. Was it's, yeah, 2:11am so but in any case, fair enough. So I, again, I don't know, but

Russell Dobular

I agree some profanity, called him crazy, something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

So I think, I think that makes a lot of sense.

Russell Dobular

All right, now you mentioned, you mentioned the funeral that our friend. There's Russell Dobular filling in for Jimmy Dore with Professor Morandi. Now you mentioned the funeral which Max Blumenthal attended and they kindly seized his devices when he got back here to the United States, treated to the hospitality of the state when he got back. So here, here's a little bit of that funeral which I think shocked a lot of Americans because it's so completely contradicted what we're told about Iran and the relationship between the people and the government. Now, I, I was fortunate enough to just spend five weeks in China, which is also a place where we're told the people absolutely hate the government. And there's a show in Chongqing called 1949 that packs multiple performances a day and it's A performance about the triumph of the revolution. And I saw that and I said, you can't force people to go buy tickets to a show. They're choosing to go to this show multiple times a day. It's been running for years. So you're not going to get people who hate the government to keep going to see a show that celebrates the revolution that put this government in power. I thought something similar watching this funeral. You can't. Nobody made millions of people go to this funeral. I think the question a lot of people in the west might have, is that support for the government or is it defiance of the US that would bring all these people out, or is it both?

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Yeah, sure. Well, one thing about China, the city that you visited, I think itself is reflective of why people participated in the show. And if you compare Chongqing, which is, I think, a city of 31 million people in central China, it's not one of the cities that you normally hear about. It's not Beijing or Shanghai or Guangzhou.

Russell Dobular

But, you know, you know who it's very popular with? Younger people who see images online.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Right.

Russell Dobular

It's not in that usual tourist circuit.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Right, Right, yes. Like the, the rooftop, which. Yeah, right.

Russell Dobular

With the train going through and.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Exactly, exactly. So this, that city is really beautiful and very developed and very clean, and it is what the United States was 50 years ago. Yes. You know, when I was there as a child, and I remember when I went through, I went for the first time, like Maybe I was 10 years old, 11 years old, I don't remember exactly, but I went and through the London, the Lincoln Tunnel. And back then, you know, it was supposed to be like the highest technology, the newest technology.

Russell Dobular

Right.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

China is today what the United States was 45, 50 years ago.

Russell Dobular

Exactly.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

And, and so when you can live a much better life in China than in the United States, when you go to a good restaurant in the United States and in China, it costs like, a fraction of what costs in the United States and the list. Go on. Well, there's a reason why people will. Would be interested in going to a show and to pay for it and to sit there. And despite it being very different from what pundits in Washington would like people in China to think, or what they would like the world to think about China.

Russell Dobular

Right.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

So in Iran, it's. It's, I think, even more different. You know, I've always said, and I. You and I have spoke about Iran and, and the United States before. Iran has always had the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran has always had a high degree of public legitimacy. The state and the polls show that polls carried out by like there's a university in the United States that, that carries out regular polls in Iran. I forgot what. Anyway, it's two in the morning, I apologize. And they're, they're poll polling companies in Iran that do regular polls, both, both privately owned and publicly public owned pollitzers work on this and on other issues, private sector businesses, but also on public opinion with regards to issues of the day. There's always been a high Maryland, the University of Maryland. There's always been a high degree of legitimacy in the eyes of Iranians with regards to the state. And although that doesn't mean people are not critical of the state, the very same people in that footage that you saw and that's just a small fraction of the crowd in, I mean they, they fly with helicopters over it. It's just extraordinary. It goes on for many miles. And those same people, if you speak to them like he's at the one, they're taxi drivers, they are hospital staff, they are street cleaners, they are business people, they're bus drivers. If you ask them are you happy? Probably most of them will say no. The economy is not doing well. I'm, you know, I'm struggling, I'm unhappy. Doesn't mean that their unhappiness means that they see the state as illegitimate.

Russell Dobular

Right.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

And so when America, whenever. And Iranians are in general very,

Joe Vance (referenced) / Analyst

I

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

mean when I was in the UK I sort of felt that the British were a bit like us and that the Iranians, we complain a lot. For example, we'll never, I would never sitting with friends. Let's say we're having lunch together, we're just sitting together. I, if one of us said, you know, I went to the, I used the Metro yesterday. Wow, the metro is so good. And you were like, why is he talking like that? If you know you. We usually criticize. It doesn't matter. We'll just criticize like if I'm on campus, we'll criticize the management. If we'll criticize the Ministry of Education, we'll criticize the university. No one's going to, none of my colleagues will ever say, wow, everything. Things are good at the university. We have this new, you know, we have this budget, we're have these new high tech capabilities. At the University of Tehran, no one talks like that. It's you. It's almost always criticism. And, and, and if you go in a taxi in Iran, if you go on a bus, if you go to Metro, that's what you're going to hear. And they'll attack, they'll attack the government, they'll attack the leader. They'll, they'll attack. God, they'll do, you know, they'll, they'll attack whoever they want. So it's very different from the perceptions in, in the West. And so often when these Western mainstream journalists come to Iran and they get in a taxi, they think that this is the North Korea stereotype. I've never been to North Korea. I'm just saying, you know, I don't want to make it. I'm just saying this. They think this is the, you know, everyone here has to praise the great leader or whatever. And so when they hear people criticizing, they think, ah, so the regime, as they love to call it, is falling apart. People hate it. You get in this taxi, they're attacking it. You get in that bus, they're attacking it. And people in Iran like talking. I mean, we're very, you know, it's sort of like going to Latin America. We, you know, you sit beside an Iranian in the public space and you talk, they'll talk. It's not like they'll say, leave me alone. They're, it's the opposite. They're very nice people. I mean, people should definitely visit Iran. Even now, I mean, even now in Tehran, by the way, if, right now, in Tehran, if a woman walks down the street at 11 or 12pm at night alone, she's safe. I'm not saying 100% safe, but she is 99.99 safe. And, but in any case, the point I'm trying to make is that after the war started, they thought Iran would collapse. And then they said, oh, well, you know, there's this rally around the flag effect that is to a degree true, but like 15 million people in Tehran attending a funeral, or 60 million, I don't know exactly the number that's not rallying around the flag. You saw people weeping. You saw people. And, you know, one of the things that was, and it was so difficult just getting there. I mean, it's not as if, oh, well, I'll just go and see what, what's going on there. It took me three hours to get there in 35 or 36 degrees Celsius. And we, almost everyone was wearing black, which is terrible in such weather. And, and then I would, you're in the crowd for hours and it's packed. I mean, you, you just have to pray that nothing bad happens where there'd be some, you know, people crushed. They were in the Government and the. And the security were asking old people not to attend, people with infants not to attend, because they were afraid of the. Of the sheer size of the crowd. So I was walking for. For hours in the funeral, and then it took me a couple of hours to get home after the funeral. And I just went and slept because I was just so exhausted. I mean, it was. It was. It was not just like you go to the local, I don't know, stadium and sit down and drink some Coke and have some, I don't know, popcorn and then go back. It was. You had to spend your whole day. And among these 6, 15, 16 million people in Tehran alone. I'm not talking about the funeral in the city of bomb, millions in Mashad, millions in Iraq, millions. Many people are working class. I mean, you know, they may have lost their jobs. Americans bombed their factories or because of the siege on the ports, they've lost their jobs or because of the inflation due to the war. Life has become much more difficult. These people. You know, it's different when I go from when someone who's struggling spends an entire day going to this funeral. So this is not rallying around the flag. This is, you know, this shows a deep bond that exists between the. The Islamic Republic of Iran, however we want to define it, and the public. And again, it's in. So in the west, they say, well, you know, people like this, you know, crazy regime. Well, perhaps it's not all that crazy as it's presented to people there. And I've said this, I think maybe on Jimmy Dore, when I spoke with Jimmy Dore last and I made. And I know some of your viewers who have heard me before may get irritated, but there are a couple of good books that I think people should read on Iran. One is called Going to Tehran by Flint and Hillary Man Leverett. Both worked in the White House, both academics, both views on Iran evolved over the years. It's a very good book, not published by the Iranians. Two Americans, one Catholic, Flint, Hillary, Jewish. Both very principled and decent people. Flint resigned from his position in the White House over the Iraq war, which says a lot. Another good book is by Alice or Crook called Resistance the Essence of the Islamist Revolution. These two books are good to read. And with regards to the nuclear program and Iran wanting to blow up the world. There are a couple of good books, too. One is by Peter Oborn called the Dangerous Delusion. He's British, a conservative author. And the other is by Gareth Porter, who you may know of, or you may know he Wrote a book called Manufactured Crisis. These four books I think people should read. And I think if they read these books, I think they'll have a better understanding of why this does make sense, that people feel so attached to the state. But that doesn't mean, when I say they feel it very much attached to the state, that doesn't mean that people say it's. Life in Iran is wonderful, and this is a fantastic place and there's no corruption and everything that the government does is just wonderful, and we're all so happy. No, most people are dissatisfied. Most people are dissatisfied in both.

Joe Vance (referenced) / Analyst

Always.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

I mean, effort. You know, when you look at the polls that take place in Iran, it. The majority of Iranians are dissatisfied, but that's a different thing than the legitimacy of the state.

Russell Dobular

See, now, even you saying this, we're given the impression that you would disappear after, after you said that on an American show. In fact, we were told my handlers

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

are asleep right now.

Russell Dobular

Yeah. Ah, so they, they're gonna miss the.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

This.

Russell Dobular

We were told, I think, 10,000 protesters killed, then it turned into 20,000, then it turned into 50,000. Were protesters killed? And if so, under what circumstances and what kinds of numbers and, and who were they?

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Right, you, you're, you're going back a few months ago, and this was before.

Russell Dobular

This was before. Well, this, they used this as a pretext, and I, I think they used it to convince Trump that just like with Iraq, we're going to be greeted as liberators. Right? They, they convinced them that, no, no, the people are going to rise up as soon as we come.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

That's right. So what happened? And I, I just. In case you're, You, I, I don't remember the dates because the Persian calendar is different from your calendar. And. But this was over two days, about a few months before the war began. We had. What happened was that there was a sudden drop in the Iranian currency and people came to the streets, not in huge numbers, but in like a couple of thousand, I guess. Tehran, at least. And they were mostly business people. It was in the city center, where the businesses are and the marketplaces, and no one was arrested. Later on, like, for two days, they came to the streets and no one was arrested. They protested the government, meaning the current administration in power, the President Pezishkian, apologized and said, you know, you're right, you have. Agreements are legitimate, we are trying to fix the situation. And. And so on. Later on, the U.S. treasury Secretary,

Interjecting Commentator

the

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

current treasury secretary, he, he himself took credit for manipulating the Iranian currency and crashing The.

Russell Dobular

Well, well, that's his specialty. He did to Britain.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Yeah, exactly. And so he took credit for it and he, and he said I brought people to the streets. Okay, so that's a. You have people on the streets. Then after a couple of days we saw this, a new, different type of crowd enter and join the protesters, but then overtake them. Very violent. They started burning hospital clinics, buses, taxis, fire engines and so on, and, and beating police. Then in, in a two day period, you had extreme violence. On day one, they started killing a large number of police officers. And, and then, so here I have to go to footnote number two, and that is that Channel 14 of Israel, which is close to Netanyahu, they put out a report saying that, you know, the Israelis effectively intelligence, they, and they said foreign, but it meant Israel or Israel in the United States. They were the ones who brought to, who smuggled in large amounts of weapons which led to the killing of hundreds of police officers. The tweet is still there. I mean the tweet for the program is, is, it's in English. Simultaneously, the Mossad, in their Persian language media, they said that we are on the ground with the, the protesters or the rioters to be more precise. And then Pompeo too said that the Mossad is on the ground. Later on he expanded further on this. Trump also later on said this. So then the next, so then that first night there was heavy, there were heavy battles. The second night there were even heavier battles on the streets. And in all 3,117 people were killed. And the government gave all their names and their ID numbers. Many of them were police officers, many of them were volunteers, many of them were ordinary people who were killed in the crossfire. And many, it is believed, were people who were targeted by the, the, the, the, these people who were carrying out the insurrection. They had weapons. And there's a lot of footage showing them killing people and burning buildings. Like in one clinic, they burned the clinic and a nurse was inside, she burned to death. Or they burned a mosque and there were like two young men inside. They burned to death. And there were lots of such instances. So the Iranians have put out those numbers of all the people. And from. I don't know the numbers anymore, I mean, I don't remember exactly, but I think probably like the police officers and officers of the law combined, probably 300, 350 of them were killed, if not like 400 or so. And then among the, the, those people who were carrying out, who had guns and who were carrying out the insurrection about 800 or 900 of them were killed. I'm just. What do you say? You say ballpark numbers. Just. I don't remember very well. And I. I can look this up. And then the rest were just people who were on the streets or walking, and they just. They were being killed and attacked. But I have a physician, a friend who's a physician, and he said, like, a lot. A lot of the people who were brought to his hospital, like 10 or 15. And he's an expert in English, I think you'd call it, trauma or. Anyway, you know, people who are badly wounded, some incident. And he said they were. A lot of them were shot from very close up or. And from behind, like 2 meters away, 5 meters away, 10 meters away, and with the weapons that the police do not use. So in any case, the point is that the Mossad took credit for it. Trump tried to take credit for it. The numbers were inflated. But in reality, those who sent in the weapons and. And then what the government did was that they. During these two days of riots, they cut off the Internet. And when they cut off the Internet, things died down immediately. Why? Because these groups. Because these were not. Because they were saying, like, these are spontaneous protesters. Right, Spontaneous protesters. I'm not in communication with you. Let's say I'm protesting in this city and you're protesting in that sitting. I don't know who you are. You don't know who I'm protesting in my side street, burning tires or breaking a few windows. And you're doing the same thing somewhere else, but there's no coordination. But if there is coordination, and then you and I suddenly lose the means to coordinate, then the whole thing begins to fall apart. And these people were all in coordination both with outside the country and with one another. And so as soon as they cut off the Internet, suddenly the whole thing began to fall apart and it fizzled out. And on day three, nothing happened. Literally on day three, I think it was a Thursday and a Friday. Again, I may be wrong, but this is how I remember it. It was a Thursday and a Friday. I think it was, like, January 8th or 9th, and the. In your calendar, but I may be wrong. Really sorry. But literally the day after, like, Saturday, if it was, like, Thursday and Friday, the day after Saturday, you go out on the streets at 10pm Nothing's happening any.

Russell Dobular

And finally, Professor Morandi, how are things for people on the ground in Iran? Very early in the. This second round of strikes, we know there was oil raining from the sky there in Iran, something That could have very severe health impacts on civilians on the ground. Of course there was the girls, school tragically hit, killing 168. How are the people in Iran right now after having what most people I think who are fair minded would call war crimes committed against them, how is the day to day life there for people?

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Well, I'll just add one final point and that is that if this really is a regime, as they love to call it, that is killing protesters, people, peaceful protesters walking down the street, why would so many millions of people go to these, to this funeral? Well, of course, and you know, Iran is one of the most highly educated societies in the world. The standard of education in Iran is very high and literacy is universal and there are many universities. The percentage of people who graduate from universities in Iran are very high. So Iranians are not a stupid people or an ignorant people or illiterate people that the numbers clearly show otherwise. Although there are no such thing as a stupid people. But you get what I'm saying. Sure. And also the Iranians, they, you know, there are hundreds of Persian media outlets outside the country, funded by the west in Persian that are day and night attacking Iran with misinformation, with disinformation. There's nothing like it in the world. The Chinese don't have it, the Russians don't have it. And so the Iranians are constantly hearing all sorts of negative things about the country. So it's not as if they're not, they're only hearing about the greatness of the leader and the greatness of the government and how everything here is perfect and all that. That's, that's the, actually the opposite is true. They outgun the media that is in Iran because they're much better funded. The, the oil issue that you mentioned, this, this happened during the 30, the 40 day war, the, that four months ago and the sky was indeed black. They bombed the right finery in Tehran, but also oil depot to the north west of the city. I live in the east of the city and you know, sort of like, you know, like the Lord of the Rings where the sky goes black. In the, in the movie it was like that, like darkness.

Russell Dobular

Right.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

We were very, very fortunate that we had rain at a time when it usually doesn't rain anymore the day after. And so, but that created a huge mess because like everywhere was a mess. Your car, the, you know, if you touch the doors, the doorknobs, everywhere, it's like oily and, but still that didn't clean the whole thing. And it, and the Wind took it. There was wind, fortunately, but still, it was, it was, it was horrific. They destroyed the, all the.

Russell Dobular

Infrastructure. Yeah, the refinery.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Yeah. But they focus on the oil itself to create this environmental disaster. The school in Minab 168 were slaughtered there. Trump, just a few hours ago, I think, said that, you know, this may have been AI or something.

Russell Dobular

Right.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

And it reminds me, by the way, about those, those, the insurrection, I think January 8th and 9th, I may be wrong, which I was discussing.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, January.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Afterwards, people came to. Okay, yeah, whatever the date was, people came to the streets in protest against the insurrection, against the rioters. And they were huge in number. And then in the west, they were calling it AI. So everything, you know, when it's. If you bomb Iran, it's AI. If the people in Iran are protesting against Western interference in Iran's internal affairs, it's all AI. This time the crowd was so huge. And of course, there were quite a few alternative media people, including Max Putin here, as you pointed out, but quite a few others that they, they just had to accept that, look, this is, this was huge. But in any case, the atrocities have been ongoing. Just as, as I said at the beginning of the program, a couple of hours before the show, a children's cancer hospital was what hit. Was hit in the city of Ahaz. It says it's at the capital of the province of Khuzestan, which borders Iraq and the Persian Gulf. This is what we're dealing with. I mean, you know, very close to where I am. People would gather at nights and rally in favor of the, of the armed forces and the government and so on. They fired a missile at that rally, literally a 15 minute walk from where I'm sitting right now, and they killed a woman. And then there was another rally that I attended on a Friday. It's called the Good Stay Rally. It's like every last Friday of the month of Ramazan for, like, since the beginning of the revolution, people would gather on to support the Palestinian people. They fired a missile at us and a woman was killed there, too. And there's footage of it. I mean, people, you know, on the streets. And then a missile strikes, right. And the woman is killed. I mean, bombing gatherings, bombing schools, bombing hospitals, bombing apartment blocks. They want to take out a person, they kill everyone in the building. I mean, after Gaza and after Lebanon,

Russell Dobular

I think everyone's very much like Israel. Yeah, yeah.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

But I mean, what the Americans are doing is, is very much what, like what is. And they don't even take responsibility them. I mean, Trump Tried to say that the Iranians killed the kids in the school.

Russell Dobular

Professor Morandi, thank you very much for joining us. I know it is very, very late for you. Where can people find you?

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Well, I'm here right now, So if

Russell Dobular

people want to come to Tehran.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Yeah, I can give you my address and you can, you know, you can give them directions.

Russell Dobular

Don't do that.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

I. I've been removed from Twitter. I've been removed, sorry, from Instagram and Facebook a long, long time ago. I have my Twitter account, but that's all I have.

Russell Dobular

All right, so follow Professor Morandi on Twitter. Watches Many appearances. I don't know when you sleep, but we appreciate you coming here.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Thank you very much for having me. It's always a great pleasure being on your show, both here and on your own show.

Russell Dobular

Thank you. It's a great honor having you. All right, let's. Let's go to an ad and then we will be meeting up with our friend Katie Halpert. All right, this is Russell Dabular filling in for the Jimmy Door. Let me. I gotta pull up Katie's bio, actually, I was busy looking at my exhibits. All right, just give me one second, folks. All right, here we go. All right, let's set it up again. This is Russell Dobular filling in for Jimmy Dore. We have Katie Halper joining us next. She's an American writer, filmmaker, comedian, political commentator who hosts the Katie Halper show and co host the Useful Idiots podcast. She directed the documentary Commie Camp while her writings have appeared in major outlets including the New York Times, the Nation and the Guardian. She's also a co founder of the political comedy ensemble Laughing Liberally and a national director of Living Liberal, Living Liberally, using satire and journalism to critique establishment politics. Please welcome our friend, Katie Halper. What's up, Katie? I think you're muted.

Katie Halper

Hi, everyone. I'm going to get canceled. That is a little bit. No criticism of you, but I have to somehow make sure that that bio doesn't pop up anywhere. It's very out of date.

Russell Dobular

That's what they. That's what they handed to me.

Katie Halper

I know. I no longer identify as a liberal. Thank God. That was a different time. That's when Bush was in office and there was a lot of liberal lefty crossover. But yeah, and I haven't done comedy in a while either, so I don't usually mention that. And my latest documentary that I'm working on now is about Holocaust survivors protesting the Gaza genocide. But besides that. Perfect.

Russell Dobular

Malcolm.

Katie Halper

No, it's not. It's My fault. I should have sent you something. And. Yes.

Russell Dobular

Yes. Are you back in New York?

Katie Halper

It looks like my. I'm upstate.

Russell Dobular

Oh, you're still upstate?

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

All right, cool. Thank you for having me.

Katie Halper

I don't mean to sound like a spoiled brat. I just. I'm. I mean, I just can see my enemies further to the left than me, you know, mocking me now as a lib. I'm a reformed lib. I was an undercover liberal because I came from a leftist family that I kind of collaborated.

Russell Dobular

You're like a. You're like a red diaper baby, right?

Katie Halper

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But I was willing to work with the libs.

Russell Dobular

Well, this is. This is part of what I wanted to talk to you about. They're going to call you a lib no matter what. So in the. In the wake of the Sanders campaign, a lot of people kind of Dem exited, and the Dem exit thing kind of evolved into a post duopoly thing. I'm not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat. I only support independence. In this election cycle, I think for the first time, you've had enough of a momentum shift and enough of a generational shift that you're starting to see candidates who, at least by appearances, represent a lot of what the people who were committed to the Bernie Sanders project believed it. There had never been any candidates like Avia Chavier up in my district or like Valdez getting through Democratic primaries. It had never happened. And you never had anybody like Graham Platner who could plausibly become a senator. I think that has been extremely confusing for a lot of people, because I think rightly so, a lot of people walked away from the Bernie Sanders campaign, myself included, saying, well, you really can't work with Democrats, even if you like the candidate. They run a rigged game. And I think those concerns are still valid with Platner. You kind of saw all these threads come together in one thing, in one place, right? You had a lot of people absolutely insisting because he had a military history, that you can't support him. He went on to be a merc. How can you support this guy at the same time he's given you yes for an answer. Right. Gaza is a genocide. We've got to stop weapons to Israel and so on. All this came together until finally when you had the breaking story, the infamous, now infamous glute massage. It just became the proverbial circular firing squad with very unlikely alignment. The people who would consider themselves, I think, the most radical kind of aligned more with the majority report.

Kirk the Derp

More.

Russell Dobular

More. The More the PMC commentators of, like, yeah, Platner, he's terrible. Get him out. And you had more people like Jeanine Yunus, Glenn Greenwald were more like, you know, you're setting a very dangerous precedent because the Democrats are always going to use this once they see that it works. And we're gonna, we're gonna get into the Michigan race where, sure enough, that's where they're going. Now, when I, When I saw this happen, it's funny because you mentioned not wanting to be branded a lib.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

It seems like no matter what flavor of left people are, there is a very strong cancel culture contingent, whether it's the radical left, whether it's the lib left, they like to cancel. They like that whole thing. So Glenn actually, when he was commenting on what his thoughts were about Platner, this was just part of what he said.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

It's hard to explain this, but if you.

Russell Dobular

Unless you've ever been associated with the left.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

But the thing about the left is they. What they crave more than anything else is not advancing their ideology, not changing society. Obviously, I'm talking generally here, there are exceptions, but in general, what they crave most is the ability to denounce and accuse because that makes them feel good.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, I thought we saw a lot of that coming from very unlikely directions, and a lot of people who had been allies came to cross purposes. What were your thoughts about the Platner thing? Did you feel that he needed to be out of the race? Did you feel, as Glenn seemed to and a lot of people did, it set a dangerous precedent that if you make that kind of accusation, no trial, nothing, they're. They're out because we know the DNC will always use that once they know it works. Indeed, they've already moved on to using it again in the Michigan race. What are your thoughts about that? And what are your thoughts about working with Democrats in general? Because I think even before this fell apart, there was a lot of consternation like, well, hang on. Well, do you support a Democrat now? If they're saying yes, it never. It literally never really came up before.

Katie Halper

Yeah. So I do think that what the things that you're bringing up is the kind of bittersweet news that is now, Israel in some circles is toxic and APAC is toxic, which is great, but it also is going to mean that people are faking it and like, you know, paying lip service.

Interjecting Commentator

So.

Katie Halper

So in a way, it's a real sign of progress that Israel has become something that people want to run on but we have to be also very vigilant. Now, I'm not talking about Platner because I don't actually think he was at all like, disingenuous when it came to Israel. When it comes to the cancellation thing, I do find it interesting because you had libs who were canceling him beforehand who hated him. Right. And then you had leftists who I agree with on lots of things, who were, you know, a lot of people when he was finally kind of kicked out were saying stuff like some people, you know, who we agree with more politically obviously than the libs were saying stuff like, oh, it wasn't enough for him to have been in Blackwater. Like, this is what it takes. It takes an accusation from a white woman. Now, I actually don't. To me, it's not about. This sounds so corny, but it's not really about what you've done as much as, like, where you come from there. Which is why, I mean, I always, I've said this before and I had Greg Stoker on my show last week and you know, I do like, there is incredible power and organizing power and narrative power in having former veterans who are anti war, like they are probably are the left most like the best secret weapon or overt weapon, I guess. So I don't, and I don't think. And in fact, I remember I don't work for Greg's campaign. It's going to sound like I'm like getting, because he's running for, for, for Congress, but I remember having him on and in the comments people were criticizing him and he said because he has, he did like four tours. I'm sorry, I'm not getting that. May not get all the details, but multiple tours in, in, in the Middle East. And he was like, okay, well, good luck, like, you know, good luck turning your back on everyone who's ever served as like a, as a someone running for office. So I do think it wasn't so much Platner's past as much as how far he had come. I would have liked to have seen a stronger condemnation from him. Not in an ultra radical discourse way that would have been alienating, but I think more of a, like a lot of the stuff he said, I was listening to it afterwards. He talked about how like they were useless wars and that's not enough. Like, it's not just that it's useless. That's almost reminds me of like the, oh, Vietnam was a blunder. You know, that was a big mistake. Like there should be a moral indictment. And he did do that in some cases.

Joe Vance (referenced) / Analyst

But.

Katie Halper

But the truth is I actually kind of stayed away from the platinum thing because I didn't have. There are a lot of politicians and candidates who really excite me. Like Abdul Al Sayed, I really like him. And I was just like that Nazi tattoo. I don't. Here's what I knew. All I knew is that I hated the people who hated Platner. That was like my biggest. That was kind of the most, the clearest thing for me now. Not the people on the left who, who hated him because of his Blackwater past. I don't hate those people. Like I may have a strategic or political disagreement with them. But I just realized I, I can, I can really brag about this because I was. No, I was willing to forgive the Nazi tattoo and the, and the potentially the Nazi tattoo and the Blackwater stuff. So totally equal egalitarian treatment as a Jew. I, I was fine. You know, I wasn't gonna, I wasn't gonna object to the Nazi tattoo and not the black water, if that makes sense.

Russell Dobular

Right.

Katie Halper

But I do think that, you know, I think there's a difference between left and libs and leftists and libs cancel over different things.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Sure.

Katie Halper

So I'd love to like talk, but

Russell Dobular

they behave the same way, more or less.

Katie Halper

Yeah, there is a self righteousness. But a lot of our people, like our friends do that too. And I find a little. Yes, I actually, you know where I really. This is going to get me canceled. But I find the, I sometimes find the people who are the most critical of electoral politics and present themselves as the most radical and like clear eyed and they see through everything. I find that those people sometimes are the ones who fetishize electoral politics because honestly, if you get what electoral politics are, you get that it's one part of something and someone's going to be in power or not.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Right.

Katie Halper

And I'm not suggesting people like rally around Joe Biden, but someone is going to be in power or not. And I don't think it's a bad thing to want Zoran Mamdani in power and yeah, push him, push him and say that there are certain systemic things that no one will ever escape within electoral politics. But to me that's actually more realist than and less naive than the people who I think can obsess over party politics and like third parties because again, I'm not opposed to them. I've had lots of Greens on my show. But I also think that you kind of have to judge case by case basis yes, the duopoly is limiting, but are there cases where someone's going to be able to get into office and make concrete differences? Yeah, and there's no. The thing about this argument is, like, there's no real audience for this because you're so uncool on the left if you say this stuff. And of course, the libs don't like it either because we're inherently kind of critiquing electoralism as inherently flawed. Not just like, flawed at this moment because there's money in politics.

Russell Dobular

Yeah. That's what's always funny when you get the accusation that, that this take is a sellout take. Oh, my God. Sell out take. I mean, the real money in this business is to go full Gunther Eagleman. Like, if you just have no morals, like, that's where you want to go. That's where the money is.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Right.

Russell Dobular

Or go on the other side. Go full, like, pod save.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

Just. Just that. That's it. But this lane. Yeah. You got to be like, allergic to money.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

To. To go this way. You mentioned Mamdani, and this is an argument I. I've been making for people who are, you know, radical and want more radical reforms. As do I. You know, most people are not aware even of the conversation you guys are having.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Right.

Russell Dobular

When they think of socialism and leftism, they look at Mamdani.

Katie Halper

Right.

Russell Dobular

Good luck convincing them to listen to what you have to say about your more radical political project. If their perception is that this guy is a failure.

Katie Halper

Right.

Kirk the Derp

You.

Russell Dobular

You should hope this guy succeeds.

Katie Halper

Exactly. That's a good point.

Russell Dobular

And promotes the brand of socialism. So then you could say, well, you like what he did?

Katie Halper

Exactly.

Russell Dobular

This is what I'm about. But I think it became for a lot of people a political identity to be in opposition specifically to Democrats. Because you could do. You could say something positive about Thomas Massie, and you will. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Yeah, say something.

Katie Halper

Tucker Carlson.

Russell Dobular

Right, Tucker Carlson.

Katie Halper

Not a politician, but same principle. Yeah, sure. Right. No one will call you a sellout, even though, you know, pretty preppy guy. I mean, he said some great stuff about, about Israel, but.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, sure, sure. Well, and with Tucker Carlson, you have, you know, a lot more that you would disagree with politically. Right. Than a Mamdani, But. But you say something positive about Mamdani, it's a meltdown. You know, go. Going to China, going to Vietnam. It definitely gave me some perspective on what it takes to build a revolution. And you're. We're so not there. So at that, at that point, nobody wants to say the word accelerationist. But that's what it's about. Like, that's why you don't want anyone who's going to make things a little better, because, hey, well, that's going to make the system more palatable. But you're not in a position to take advantage of a social collapse, so what are you trying to do? You know who's in a position to take advantage of it? Peter Thiel.

Katie Halper

Right. Yeah, that's a really good point. Which is that, I mean, again, some of my best friends have the positions that I'm criticizing right now. Really. And I think what's interesting is that I often, like, okay, just say you're an accelerationist. Just like, own it. That's like, then we can talk about what we're really talking about. But it's, it's often, it's like, what it. It's like grievance politics, which I get because I have them also. But the question is, what are we going to do? And so, you know, sometimes I remember talking to someone who I really respect, and, you know, I was saying, like, okay, obviously, can we just admit that Trump is a lot worse than the Dems domestically. Domestically, Right. And I would say, not better foreign policy wise either, but that's another story. This was early on and he was like, well, no, because look at, look what Joe Biden did with the railway workers. And yes, that's true. The point is like, of course there are too many similarities. And of course it's pathetic that Biden, the big labor guy, like, you know, kneecapped striking railway workers, but that does not make them equivalent. And that is because, and I bring this up because this is a really smart person and I know he's an accelerationist, but he won't say that out loud.

Russell Dobular

They never will.

Katie Halper

Yeah, closet, closeted accelerationists. Yeah.

Russell Dobular

Like, hey, I understand why you'd feel that way. Make the case.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Right.

Katie Halper

Yeah, that's it. Make the case. Yeah. Yeah. And it's. And it's not enough to just tell me about how bad the Dems are, because I know, I know that, you know, it's not like I'm someone who thinks that we really have a good and evil.

Russell Dobular

Right. Well, I, I voted for Jill Stein. And we openly, you know, said in advance where we're going to vote for Jill Stein. And my personal, My main rationale for that or for withholding a vote is to get leverage. I felt if they know you'll vote for them when they're endorsing genocide, what leverage do you have? Like why even, why even vote? And that's where it raises the question, okay, so if your leverage bears fruit, like now you showed you won't vote for that and you start to get politicians who are legitimately anti genocide, now are you just in the habit of attacking Democrats? So like, even when, like, why did, what did you want leverage for if you, and why would anybody come around to your point of view if you're only going to attack them? Like, why not just at that point, align with the Zionists? They'll give you whatever you want if you align with them. Why, why go the other way if you're not going to support them?

Katie Halper

Yeah. Which isn't to say you don't critique, but I, I agree. Yeah, I agree. You can.

Russell Dobular

Well, well, of course.

Katie Halper

And I know that I don't sell you that. Yeah.

Russell Dobular

What, what do you think about Shama's campaign out there?

Katie Halper

I honestly haven't been following it that much this time around. I've had her on in the past, but I haven't been. What about you?

Russell Dobular

I'm sorry, you cut out a little bit.

Katie Halper

I, I've had her on in the past, but I haven't this round. What, what are your thoughts on it?

Russell Dobular

I think that is a good and a rare example of an independent campaign that's not quixotic, where she. Because it's a jungle primary, it's unique circumstances, she could actually win. So yeah, I think that's an, I think that's an important campaign. I find, you know, just like as you get older, you sound like your parents. I find the longer you're in the activist space, the more you sound like that 70 year old activist you met when you started. Like eventually they evolve into. Yes. They're not really members of political parties, they support causes and they take candidates on a case by case basis. That's where you end up because it's, it's the only thing you can really, you can really do. And I don't argue against trying to build a more radical political project. The perspective I got out of going to Vietnam, going to China is that's a generational project. Like, you got to be down for that. You got to, you got to be willing to commit to something you're probably not going to live to see. And if you can't do that, I don't even know what you're talking about because that's what it's going to take. And I must say, as Americans, we're probably uniquely unqualified to build that kind of a movement. Because we want, we want things now. We want instant gratification telling American, oh, yeah, well, this is probably going to take, you know, 50 years, 100 years. What do you mean? Right. So we have seen, I think, the fruit of, of their work on Platner. Born bearing out in Michigan now. So Abdul El said this is what he had to say on Gaza. As soon as you hear what he had to say, you'll know why they're pulling out all the stops to take them down. Like identify the systematic murder of tens of thousands of kids as a genocide. And then you want to say that you're a fighter for human rights and dignity. That's just hypocrisy. So I just. If you can't call the most heinous violation of human rights what it is, it's hard for me to believe that you're going to go and fight the Trump administration or fight the pharma CEOs or fight the health insurance CEOs who are making my life unlivable.

Kirk the Derp

Mm.

Russell Dobular

Well, so here's his opponent. There's his opponent in a now infamous kind of scary mid summer moment.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

Talking about how Israel comes to her in her dreams and in the United States Congress. I will continue to fight for the people of Israel. I will continue. There you go.

Katie Halper

For Israel.

Russell Dobular

Mo money. Mo money. Israel comes to me dreams. I see Israel's future and I know that Israel will continue to exist for the Jewish people.

Katie Halper

All right, so we talked about this a little bit on my show. But like, do you realize how much of a nut you have to be to say stuff like that if you're neither Jewish nor Christian Zionist? Like, that's not like, is she, I guess, is she just going to stake out the, the, the territory of being a Christian Zionist? I mean, that is like some like evangelical born again discourse or, or interestingly enough, and I know you understand this like, it, it is also the, the discourse of a religious or totally secular Jew.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

I.

Russell Dobular

Well, it's, it's the discourse of somebody who got over $5 million from APAC.

Katie Halper

Right. But that's, that's, I mean, it comes to me in my dreams, but they're night. It's nightmares.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, they're nightmares. And she just comes off as a crazy person. Like, this looks like a documentary of a cult.

Katie Halper

Yeah. Right.

Russell Dobular

Where you see somebody making that kind of an announcement and then she's, she's also, I mean, as if, you know, that's kind of terrifying. Then this is going around now this is just kind of clownish. Be working on our behalf. I am going to be telling the stories on our behalf.

Katie Halper

Better believe I'm gonna be doing it

Russell Dobular

with a little bit of joy, a

Katie Halper

little bit of enthusiasm, a little bit

Russell Dobular

of energy and a little bit of

Katie Halper

stick it to them because that's the Michigan way.

Russell Dobular

A little bit of second to him.

Katie Halper

I mean, I almost love her. I love her as a bit.

Russell Dobular

Yeah. Right, right.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

There's like some classic snl.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

Sketch character. Well, a lot of people are comparing it to the Chris Farley Van down by the river character.

Katie Halper

Oh. Yeah.

Russell Dobular

So Ryan Graham, according to Neera Tanden, this is the safe, obvious pick for the general. Yeah. But as. As we all learned long ago, they would always rather lose to a Republican than win with anyone to the left of Francisco Franco.

Kirk the Derp

Right.

Russell Dobular

And on top of that, that's not even a real accent. She's doing a Corey Bush here.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Yeah.

Katie Halper

Sharing in the profession with those who

Russell Dobular

have not come before you.

Katie Halper

Similar times of trying medical needs, pores and flus pass.

Russell Dobular

You will see darkness. You will be pushed. And our society. Yeah. You see, she doesn't. She doesn't have to talk like she just climbed off the back of an ice truck in 1934.

Katie Halper

Right, right.

Russell Dobular

If she doesn't want to. Somebody told her that was going to work for her.

Katie Halper

Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Don't sound like the guy who has a scary name.

Russell Dobular

Exactly.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

So now look, Graham Platner, he obviously had a complicated past. That was something he was open about. Not so with her opponent. That's. That's not going to stop them, though. So Abdul El Said has been getting ads like this run against him.

Katie Halper

Democratic groups call Abdul El Sayed acts on Haley Stevens sexist and the same

Russell Dobular

tired playbook used against women.

Katie Halper

That's what else he does. Else called Michelle Obama's uninspired and ineffectual.

Russell Dobular

He claimed Gretchen and an employee said they were. Were offered payment to keep silent after

Katie Halper

El Sayed disparaging women. Let's reject Abdul El Sayed sexist attacks.

Russell Dobular

UDP is responsible for the content of. And there's nothing gendered in any of that.

Katie Halper

No. What. That's the irony is like, sometimes people will say stuff and you're kind of like, you know, you cringe a little bit. You're. You don't disagree with them even on their attack. But you're like. I don't use that word even sometimes it's something that. It's like you like, play. You want to play devil's advocate to kind of immunize them. And you're like, please don't use any possible word ineffective. Like, what is that? Is that something that I don't know about? That's gendered? And right here it's like, so this is an APAC funded cutout, right, that released this.

Russell Dobular

This Emily's List? Yes.

Katie Halper

Oh, this was an Emily's List. Okay.

Kirk the Derp

Well.

Russell Dobular

Well, they're quoted in there.

Katie Halper

Well, they quote. Yeah, they quote Shannon Watts and Emily's List. Emily's List has like, never found a, A conservative, centrist, corporate Democrat that they don't love. And they will always go with that person over the actual progressive and over the actual feminist. And Emily's List, I just want to say a little thing. I mean, this is a lot of. This is the Hillary Bernie dichotomy that we saw.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Sure.

Katie Halper

And you know, regardless. Has nothing to do with whether or not you think Bernie was a sellout. I mean, you know, going back to kind of our conversation, here's the deal. Hillary Clinton is a woman. That's true. She likes to talk about being a woman. Bernie Sanders is not a woman. And his record was much better when it comes to women's issues. Not only the direct, obvious ones like abortion, but stuff like. And if you are an intersectional feminist, which all these women claim to be, you would understand this, that when Bernie Sanders supports raising the minimum wage and Hillary Clinton doesn't, that is Bernie Sanders doing a policy better for, for women and women of color in particular. When you are a someone like Abdul Al said, and you oppose a genocide, guess who that's good for? I know that for people like Emily's List, Palestinian women don't count. But if I'm being charitable, if they care to, to examine their fervid nationalism, maybe they would care about the fact that women and girls are being tortured, blown to bits, you know, like, deprived of, like menstrual pads in jails. Right. They were being sexually humiliated. Maybe these people have seen the IDF wearing the lingerie of Palestinian women. I mean, this is, this is such personal identity politics. And it has nothing to do with women's rights. It has everything to do with how much someone resonates with the story. Right. This is the same thing with Hillary Clinton. Like, they saw themselves in Hillary Clinton because they worked hard. And look, I'm sure we all deal like a lot of people deal with sexism in a casual way, not the way that the women of Gaza deal with it. But I just think that we're, we're, we should be very wary of this. And here's a hint about the fact that here's a good way of, of realizing that that Abdullah said is not sexist. One is they have nothing except for establishment Democrats saying that he's bad. Like, they don't have anything from anyone who worked with him. They literally, like, cut to a DNC op. Who's going to tell you why he's bad? Oh, wow. I'm really convinced. I thought he was a good guy, but now that I know that Emily's List and Shannon Watts don't like him, now I'm convinced because they're very honest, you know, brokers and judges of character. Oh, yeah, Here. Here it is. And also note that they don't bring up a single piece of policy because there is nothing that he is worth. There's nothing she's better on. In fact, if you go to their websites, he is much more vocal about Roe v. Wade than she is. And Medicare for All is something he cares about. And that is something that disproportionately helps women, too.

Russell Dobular

Now, this is, this is just disgusting. And, you know, going back to. We kind of have a theme going here, like, what do you do with a problem like the Democratic Party? Now, I started off kind of with the positive. Talking about a mom, Donnie, that kind of thing. Hey, use it to promote something more radical. This is great that you got a guy identifying as a socialist who's popular and competent. And then you have this other side. Like, how do you work with people like this? How do you work with people like that? This, this. Watching this gives me flashbacks.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

Dealing with the Democrats. Because now I think a lot of us are just checked out on the Democrats. We don't usually pay that kind of close attention to their shenanigans, but here are their shenanigans. Here's a reminder.

Katie Halper

Endorsed Haley Stevens in Michigan. And I'm, you know, I'm getting so

Russell Dobular

much grief over that.

Katie Halper

Again, I think it's a great example of a show horse versus a workhorse. It's not easy to stand up as a woman for other women.

Russell Dobular

Especially online.

Katie Halper

Like, the blowback is swift and furious. And I, you know, that's obviously sexism. Like, how do we, how do we do this online? Push back on these narratives that aren't true about who we are and what we should advocate for.

Russell Dobular

And in real life, like, how do we make this shift when women only hold 25% of the 500,000 elected positions in this country?

Katie Halper

Like, every time we can demonstrate that a woman can win in a place that someone told us that we couldn't. We are carrying that forward. But I also think, you know, it's why even though anytime you say even just a simple positive thing in some of these races, you could end up being eviscerated online for it. That we keep showing up and doing it.

Kirk the Derp

Right.

Katie Halper

And we need to keep showing up and doing it because that is so critically important to our ability to push past this. Otherwise, we're just handing it over to them. Right. We're kind of like, here's the cesspool of the manosphere, and you can take it. We have to be willing to stand up and say, no. These attacks on Haley Stevens are, Are sexist, and we're not going to let that stand, even when it is really painful. And then, you know, carrying that over to these lessons that we're seeing in Maine, all of those months of people eviscerating us for kind of speaking the truth about who this man was. And today we're living those very real consequences. Yeah. Can we have a moment of silence for these women for being eviscerated online?

Russell Dobular

Oh, yeah, they are.

Katie Halper

So this is the thing I'm saying. Everything for them is direct biography and personal experience, and they feel like they've been attacked. Okay. First of all, it's like they're. They make it sound like they're speaking for the voiceless, and they have the guts to come out and defend a sitting member of Congress who is running for Senate. Like, who gets money from aipac? This woman is not a, a, a disenfranchised person. She's a member of the elite, and they happen to want her to become senator because they like having more women in powerful positions so they can also advocate for the status quo. That's basically what they want. And by the way, both of those women. Jessica.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, Let me, let me, Let me throw this up. I didn't set it up. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's between Zionist Shannon Watts and APAC funded Emily's List. Jessica Mackler.

Katie Halper

Yes. And they're both cited. And they're both cited in that video that we just watched before they quote Shannon Watts and Jessica Mackie.

Russell Dobular

Oh, right.

Katie Halper

So Shannon is the one who says sexist and then the tired talking points or whatever, the tire game. But, like, honestly, first of all, they must have been so pissed with Daria, Lisa and Claire Valdez and all the other people who are winning their primaries. They must be like, every time a woman of color wins who's in dsa, they must, like, be having a. I don't know, they call each other probably and get like a mani pedi and, and have like a margarita to, to, to dry drown their tears. But it's just so funny that these people. And also Shannon Watts is a Buddhist, which is hilarious. Apparently she medicated.

Russell Dobular

You're freaking kidding.

Katie Halper

Knocking. I don't think she. And, and you know, there are Jews who are Buddhist, but I don't think she's Jewish. But she. And again, this makes it even weirder. And it's not like I just, it's not, you don't get like an. I don't excuse Jewish supremacists, but it's a little bit like more expected when you're just like a liberal Jew or a pet progressive on Palestine. Like, I'm not surprised that some dumb. Like Deborah Messing though. She's really dumb. But I'm not going to be surprised that she like signs a letter thanking Joe Biden for defending Israel after October 7th. But Shannon Watts also signed a letter saying that she also talked about the sexual. The rape that happened on October 7th. The rape that actually didn't happen on October 7th. Right. And here's the, the, the litmus test. Look, do. Is it easy to fall for this mass rape hoax about October 7th? Yes. Because you only had to look at the New York Times, right. You didn't have to turn to like Al Ja minor or whatever. But here's the thing. Now we know that there have been sexual assaults. Like, I don't. You don't. First of all, I highly recommend people read the Palestinian feminist collectives report on sexual violence that they just released. I'm going to have some on to talk about that on my show next week. But like, forget that just knowing, following at all. Like, you know that there was at least one sexual assault, a, a rape, a gang rape captured on video. Right. And we know that the Israeli society protested not the rape, but protested the attempt to hold the rapist accountable. We know that a member of the Knesset said it's justifiable to insert sticks into people's rectums. So where are all these feminists who care about sexual violence? Why aren't they up in arms, the Dana bashes, the Jake Tapper? I mean, again, I guess I'm naive because I really thought they were just to cover their asses. Like, I didn't expect them to retract. I didn't expect them to say all these witnesses have been debunked. I didn't expect them to say the, the family members of the woman who was the star of the New York Times article said that it was misrepresented. No, they're not going to apologize or anything like that. But I just thought that maybe they would pretend that they care about rape even when the victims are Palestinian.

Russell Dobular

They can't. They can't because one the way that they get paid. They can't go there. They can't go there. It would. It would destroy their whole grift and also just ideologically, the world that they live in. They can't. They can't. This is why they'd be shunned. And they'd all said this is why it's so hard to change people's minds about things like this. Because if you think this way. Yeah, you're right. Their whole professional and social network is built around that. It's like leaving a cult, right?

Katie Halper

It is true. It is leaving call. And now, by the way, you know what? Shannon Watts's careers were before this. What's that was a. Hold on, where is this? She worked as vice president of communications at health insurance giant well Point and also was held a number of public relations jobs at GE Healthcare, Monsanto and Fleischman Hillard.

Russell Dobular

What a shock.

Katie Halper

I know. You never see that coming, right? And by the way, listen, just one other thing. I'm sorry. I get so angry when people weaponize sexism. I can't stand it. It's like they are. Their definition of sexism is Abdul El Sayed running against a woman and not invoking any sexist tropes. Okay. By that argument, Haley Stevens is a racist Islamophobe, right?

Russell Dobular

Sure, sure.

Katie Halper

Every time she accuses him, criticizes him, I'm going to, you know, call her that. And by the way, did you see that Dana Bash, speaking of like rape deniers, did you see Dana Bash? It was literally. I don't know if you cover this, but the night of the Michigan debate, NETanyahu came on CNN. Dana Bash said to him, the only way. Because the only way, like, like Schumer, only way that Zionists like Schumer politicians or, you know, Rahm Emanuel or Zionist in the media, like Dana Bash can ever criticize Israel is if they argue it's bad for Jews and especially the Israeli Jews, right? So Dana Bash has Netanyahu on and she says to him, you know, what do you say to these Jewish lawmakers who say that you are making Jews less safe? I'm talking about Haley St. Stevens. And Netanyahu was like, well, then she probably thinks that, you know, she does. She. He basically thought that she was like a Maybe critical of Zionism. And Dana Bash is like, no, no, no, no. She's a good one. She's not. Right. Why does she bring up Haley Stevens? She's not Jewish, Right? She mentions Jewish lawmakers. It was so transparent then. So then you get Netanyahu criticizing Haley Stevens, right? And some apparatchik from Biden, rapid response, a press guy for Biden clips that. Okay. Him criticizing her. They leave after the end where he's like, thank you, Haley, for all you do. After he learns that she is a big Israel supporter. Neera Tanden retweets this. His name is Andrew Bates, the guy who clips it. And then she, Haley brings it up twice during the debate because it is such an incestuous, gross circle jerk of corporate Zionist shills. And it sounds like a conspiracy theory, but there's no way that. What are the odds? She brings up Haley Stevens when talking about Jewish lawmakers, which she's not in an interview with Netanyahu the day of the debate. And another thing that Dana Bash did is, I don't know if you guys remember this. This is an insane story, but basically Dana Nestle, who was the Attorney General of Michigan and someone who, like Shannon Watts and everyone should be condemning because she's just bad, bad like Lib bad because she refused to prosecute the Republican governor of Michigan for his on the, on Flint. Yeah, right.

Russell Dobular

Jordan got into that a lot. Yes, Right.

Katie Halper

But she went really hard on people protesting about Gaza. Right. And Rashida Tlabe said that there was a double standard in terms of the treatment of protesters, because if you were protesting about Gaza, you were a lot more punished than you were if you're protesting about BLM or climate. Right? So Dana Nestle tweets out that Rashida Tlabe had said she couldn't do her job because of her religion. Do you remember? This is such an insane story. Do you remember Rashida Slabe was the subject of that really racist, vile cartoon that had like a, A, a pager on her desk. And she's like, oh, did someone just r ring my pager?

Russell Dobular

I, I didn't say that.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

No.

Katie Halper

So, so Dana Nestle in the most, the bitchiest past, most passive aggressive way ever, this is how she defends Rashida slavery. She cites that racist cartoon that was, that was broadly condemned and says this is Islamophobic and wrong. Just like it's wrong to imply that I can't do my job because of my religion. Okay, again, Rashid, I, I, I, now

Russell Dobular

I remember what you're talking about. Actually, I think I covered this.

Katie Halper

And then what happens next? Jake Tapper asks Gretchen Whitmer on the Sunday morning news show on his State of the Union what he has to say about the fact that Rashida Slave said she couldn't do her job because of her religion. Whitmer has no idea what he's talking about because she's not used to probably like people at CNN just literally regurgitating the tweets of Attorney General.

Russell Dobular

Right, right, right.

Katie Halper

So she kind of does this diplomatic response. Next day, Jewish Insider tweets, writes an article about how Gretchen Whitmer refuses to condemn anti Semitism. Jake Tapper does this. No. Dana Bash does a segment on it, and the segment is about how both the Democrats and the Republicans refuse to condemn anti Semitism. And her example of the Democrats refusing to condemn anti Semitism is Gretchen Whitmer not condemning Rashida Slabe. And so again, it's a cons. I mean, I'm not a conspiracy theorist. There just was obviously. Sure, sure, you know, and you sound crazy if you say that, but.

Russell Dobular

Well, while watching this now, they were kind of back on their heels for a second. And you can really see that getting Platner scalp emboldened them to go back to the identity politics playbook. Oh, no, this. This can still work. It can still work. And that's all they have. And that's why so many of us walked away from the Democratic Party. I can't. I can't imagine ever going out and saying, yeah, work with this Democrat again, because even if I believed in the candidate, I don't believe in the party. Look what just happened with Platner. Whether it's true, not true, whatever. I'm not litigating that. Clearly it was an orchestrated hit job on him. You want to say he had a past that made him particularly vulnerable to those kinds of attacks. Sure. Al said doesn't. And they're still doing it to him.

Katie Halper

Right? Yeah, right.

Russell Dobular

Like that was irrelevant.

Katie Halper

That was.

Russell Dobular

And that just made it easier for them.

Katie Halper

Right. And none of these people, by the way, I mean, I interviewed Tara Reid, and none of these people said anything about Tara Reid when she came forward. Nothing. I mean, so the rank hypocrisy. And then a lot of them later condemned her and said, you know, after, like the entire liberal media threw everything in the kitchen sink at this woman to expose, like, that she didn't pay rent sometimes or whatever. You know what I mean? It was like such a poverty. It was such poverty shaming. But there was no more corroboration for this woman than for Tara Reid. And none of these people said anything.

Russell Dobular

Yes. Way less over the years.

Katie Halper

Yeah, yeah.

Russell Dobular

No, it was the same thing when, when Hillary was running. If you brought up, if you brought up. Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. I'm having a brain fart part.

Katie Halper

Monica Lewinsky.

Russell Dobular

Monica Lewinsky.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

If you brought up Monica Lewinsky. I literally had women who would exorbate any Republican man who had done that. Who indeed had been exoriating Bill Clinton for that all of a sudden flipped to. She was old enough to know what she was doing. All of. All of a sudden it was right.

Katie Halper

Because they were obsessed with. Again, because their feminism stop. Or their solidarity as women is like trumped by their own personal identification. So they care more about what happens to Hillary Clinton because they see themselves in her. Or there. Then there's other stuff where people just had weird issues with men. Like, I mean, I, my friend went out on a date with someone who was like, I don't like Bernie because he reminds me of my grandfather. It's like, okay, well how maybe I, I hope your grandfather was yelling about like Medicare for all. That sounds like a good guy. But if it's like, it was so aesthetic. And then there's. Remember that he makes my skin crawl. That Mimi robot woman.

Russell Dobular

Yes. Which, which if they liked Bernie, she would have lost her job for being an anti semite 100%. If Bernie had been. Had been an establishment candidate. And somebody said that. What about these are anti Semitic tropes.

Katie Halper

What about when Joanne Reed. Who's, who's. I would love to ask her if she has any regrets about this, given how. I mean, we're talking about Hillary Clinton who just like gave literally wrote an op ed endorsing Trump's Gaza plan. I think Bernie Sanders is a lot, I mean, a lot of people watching, I know, think he did not go far enough and does not go far enough in Gaza. But there's no comparison between where he is on this and Hillary Clinton. In fact, no comparison between where he is on this and any single senator. But I will say, well, Hillary Clinton

Russell Dobular

just endorsed the, the Gaza.

Katie Halper

Yeah. The peace plant. Did I say. Yeah, yeah, exactly. She just wrote an op ed endorsing. Yeah. So. But remember when Joanne Reed brought in a body language expert to talk about how Bernie Sanders was turtling.

Russell Dobular

Turtling, Turtling. Yes, yes.

Katie Halper

I mean, please. If he had been establishment and people talk about the wagging finger, they would have been accused of anti Semitism, as they should be. I call that Gesticulating, but you're welcome, everyone.

Russell Dobular

But. But you know what? You know what? It's working because El Said, look who he's running against. He's at McMurraw. Dropped out. He's running against this freak. This. This. This clownish APAC freak. And now the latest poll. Up seven. She's up. She's up seven. And according to drop site, APAC super PAC is vastly outspending progressive Senate candidate Abdul El Said on the airwaves in Michigan's Democratic primary. In the final stretch, over the next seven days, the AIPAC affiliated United Democracy Project will spend 4.6 million backing Haley Stevens, Said's establishment rival, while El Said's campaign is set to spend 489,000, according to figures from the firm ADL Pact. Never heard of that. Outside groups have poured more than $41 million into the race, half of it boosting Stevens, a longtime APAC ally, or attacking El Sayed, who has made the lobby spending a centerpiece of his campaign. About 2.7 million went to support the Republican Mike Rogers.

Katie Halper

10.7 million. 10.

Russell Dobular

10.7. Yeah. David Sirota made a good point here. If APAC can succeed in buying a Senate race for a candidate this stilted and robotic, then make no mistake about it, they can buy any race anywhere in America for anyone else. I almost think they're trying to prove exactly that in order to send a message. Yeah.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

This. This has given me. It's. It's given me PTSD flashbacks.

Interjecting Commentator

Yes.

Katie Halper

Well, also, remember, like, the argument that. That I love this argument. Oh, it's. It's not that we. People said this about Bernie, too. Right. It's not that we don't like him. It's just that he's not electable. The country just isn't ready to elect a Jew, but it's ready to elect a woman, first of all. But with this case. Yeah. She's so electable that APAC needs to dump all this money into her. Like, is she so much more palatable? If she were that great a candidate, they probably wouldn't have to do that.

Joe Vance (referenced) / Analyst

But it's.

Russell Dobular

It's working on these morons. It's working on them that they. They kind of dishonestly claimed an Obama connection. And you're seeing people going out and voting on that basis. It's. Yeah. Now, you watch this at the top. You know, we talked a little bit about why you might want to, here and there, support a Democrat. This is an example of why you wouldn't. And I. Yes. Like watching this as a veteran of the whole Sanders Hillary thing, it's given me flashbacks. And it just shows you you gave them an inch and they're going to go the mile because they have no meaningful economic politics. They have no meaningful program. This is all they have. Any opportunity to go back to it. That's. And that's how they interpreted Platner.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

So now Russell Davular here filling in for Jimmy Dore with our friend Katie Halper. Rokana is somebody that has been a lot better who's been working with Thomas Massie on some important legislation on the Epstein files. And now we'll get into the ndaa. But to his credit, Jeremy Scahill went there, went to a place, I think a lot of people don't necessarily want to go with Roe. Okay. He's perceived as one of the good ones. Right.

Katie Halper

He'll disagree with you. He doesn't get, like, personal. Take it personally. Yeah. I'm saying all the things that make people want to have him, you know, be nice to him.

Russell Dobular

Oh, hang on. You know what? I gotta load that in.

Katie Halper

Okay.

Russell Dobular

Because I ran out of slots, but go on.

Katie Halper

No, I was just saying, I mean, I'm someone who. Yeah, I've had Rokhan on. I think he's very nice and he does go on. He's not afraid of going on shows with people he disagrees with. He's like one of the only people who goes on. You know, a lot of people would go on shows, leftist shows, until they get into office and then they stop. But he has not.

Russell Dobular

Right, Right. He went on. He went on with Nick on Revolutionary Blackout Network. Okay, so this, this has gone viral. And yeah, it calls out the core contradictions in supporting Israel and acknowledging what Israel is. It's kind of one or the other. And Roe wants it both ways.

Interjecting Commentator

This about apartheid, South Africa. I've heard you talk.

Russell Dobular

Well, because I think. Because I give you another example where

Interjecting Commentator

you say it's okay to continue any level of support for an openly genocidal society that has mass murdered 80,000 people, more than 300 media workers, has invaded Lebanon, has bombed Iran, and you're saying, oh, but we need to protect civilians. This isn't about protecting civilians. The greatest threat to their civilians is their policy. And so I don't understand why you have even one qualified shred of support for a sniper mass murderer masquerading as the only democracy in the Middle East.

Russell Dobular

Well, but I'm not saying that the United States should be supporting the funding for Iron Dome just to Be very clear. I'm saying that we shouldn't be restricting Israel from being able to get the Iron Dome or be able to develop the Iron Dome technology.

Interjecting Commentator

Why stop there? Everything else you're saying makes so much sense. Why do you stop there? It feels to me like you're trying to have it both ways on this issue so you can say, well, I actually support, you know, defending the Israeli civilians. You're not defending Israeli civilians with that policy. You're defending the sniper's ability to keep killing because it won't face the ultimate accountability, which is a total embargo on all support for an apartheid state.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, I, I don't think you have to put at risk. There are, you would agree there are innocent civilians in Israel, right. Including 20% being Arab Israelis. I mean, I just don't think that you have to put their lives at risk to achieve the ends of stopping the apartheid, stopping the occupation.

Interjecting Commentator

Israel puts their lives at risk, but Israel puts their lives at risk by waging genocidal wars with the support of a significant portion of its population and by enabling them by saying, well, the sniper still needs to have his cover, or, well, you know, I stop at this thing. What you're saying is that the accountability then doesn't lie on American policy toward Israel. It's sort of something abstract. Well, Israeli civilians could die. Israeli civilians are dying in these attacks because of the apartheid. You know, Palestinians. Do Palestinians have a right to kill Israeli soldiers? Congressman, on October 7th, when they attacked the military bases in the Gaza envelope, did the Qassam Brigades in Sarai Al Quds have a right to kill Israeli soldiers? Yes OR no? On October 7, did Palestinians have a right to attack Israeli military bases in the Gaza envelope? Yes or no?

Russell Dobular

I mean, I, I think October 7th attack was a terrorist attack.

Interjecting Commentator

So I don't. Was it a terrorist attack when they, the first targets that were hit on the morning of October 7th were multiple military bases. Did Palestinian forces have a right to attack those military bases?

Russell Dobular

I, I am not for violent violence again, in, in any way. I mean, I am for making sure that we. And the right to do it.

Interjecting Commentator

Congressman, do they have a right to attack Israeli soldiers?

Russell Dobular

No, I'm not, I'm not going to say that Hamas had a right to attack Israeli soldiers or is, or kill Israelis. Like, I don't, I don't think that advances peace or, or, or advances Palestinian statehood. Did.

Interjecting Commentator

Is, Does Israel have a right to drop a single bomb in Gaza in response to October 7?

Russell Dobular

I believe Israel had the right to get people who killed the civilians, but not in the way they went about it. Which is which. Which I've said is genocide.

Interjecting Commentator

But the Palestinians don't have a right to attack the very military bases that are running the killing operations on October 6, 2023, or October 5, 2023. It's a double standard. You're saying there are ways that Israel should be able to kill Palestinians, but there is never a condition under which Palestinians can attack armed uniformed soldiers of a force that is still considered an occupying force under international law. I don't make it make sense to me.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, and just put a button on that. Dave Smith commented, all Jeremy Scahill did was insist on a universal standard for the moral use of violence. The Israel Firsters are flipping out because that insistence undermines their entire worldview. Right, yeah, very well said. Very succinct. Yeah, that's exactly what it is. They're going nuts right now. If you've seen the discourse around this.

Katie Halper

Yes, they are. And you know what's interesting is that people are talking about what Jeremy said as if it's just totally radical, like, outside the parameters of acceptable discourse. Now it's outside of the parameters of acceptable corporate media discourse and acceptable political discourse. But, you know, and the only thing I would have said that, I mean, I think Jeremy was. Did a fantastic job. The only thing I would have said would have been a good reminder is that this is not just like, this is not. This is settled law. Like, this is. There's a UN resolution, UN General assembly resolution from 1982, and it affirms, quote, the legitimacy of the struggle of people for independence, territorial integrity, national unity, and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle. So the question really is now, to be clear, that does not. That does not just allow, like, morality aside, right. Just going through what this means. Like, you're not allowed to target civilians and you're not allowed to say, oh, well, these civilians, they're Israelis, so they served in the military in the past or they will in the future. That's. It also doesn't they have to be active duty? Right. But what is stunning is that, like, people don't know that. That that's a. That that is an enshrined principle in international humanitarian law. And that what the irony is that, like, I think if. If K had said Israel has no right to bomb anyone in Gaza, including, like, Hamas, maybe his. His saying that Hamas has no right to kill any Israeli soldiers would have had made more sense. I mean, I still don't think it holds up. It doesn't. It's not the law. Right. But just morally, if he was like a total pacifist, like he's kind of framing himself to be, then, yeah, you would oppose state violence or, you know, extra, extra state violence on both sides. Right. But, but the truth is it's, it's, it's actually legal what Hamas does if they are attacking soldiers. And it's not legal what Israel does.

Russell Dobular

Right. And I think that what he really blew the lid off here is the South Africa question. Do you, do you support an apartheid state?

Joe Vance (referenced) / Analyst

Right.

Russell Dobular

Like, if you're acknowledging it's an apartheid state, it's kind of the end of the conversation. Right. Like, there is no further conversation about their legitimate right to defend themselves and certainly for us to be party to supporting that defense. You can't. Roe wants to have it both ways. Now, is that how much of this is.

Katie Halper

Because, I mean, I don't even, I don't want to suggest that I'm, like, justifying it, but I wonder honestly, if, like, is it the end of someone's political career if they say that there is, even though it's in. And this is what's so funny is that the idiots who are like the Israel Firsters are. They're just outing themselves as not knowing what international humanitarian law says about this. Because, again, they're, they're just revealing that they've never looked into this at all. It's a very basic thing. Right, Right. That they are allowed to do this. You are allowed to raise up. You are allowed to raise arms and kill occupying soldiers. Now, they may not like that, but it's, it's the, it is that, that is the established convention. So when people are saying how atrocious this is or it's illegal or it's terrorism, it's like, literally, it's the op. It's not terrorism. It happens to not be terrorism. Now, we can have a whole other discussion over what is terrorism and, you know, what's justified and double standard. But I do wonder, is it like, can you not. Do you think that anyone who acknowledged the fact that it is the law IHL just would have no political career left because they would just cut the,

Russell Dobular

the ad right away at his, at, at Roana's level of the game. Yeah, I think they would probably destroy you. Which, hey, man, I get why people don't at all want to work with the Democratic Party. Because you look at Roana. Yeah, that's probably about as good as you're going to get. And it's not nearly good enough. We did just have breaking news right before we went on the air that 100 Democrats came out in support of the Massey Khanna bill to cut funding to Israel. But is that the rotating villain technique? I suspect it is. And they have enough to defeat it anyway. Go ahead.

Katie Halper

Right, right. And Khana just went, Came back from the West Bank. Right. And he was actually like detained. So he is, he does, you know, does do good stuff. I mean, part of me just thinks like, maybe if we make this, if more and more journalists bring this up, maybe it becomes a normal, it can be normalized, this idea. I'm not, you know, and again, he was, he was, he was kind of answering questions about like what he thought was better for the Palestinian peace process and for statehood. And that's not really what Jeremy was asking. He was asking if they have the right.

Russell Dobular

Right, well, yes, well, that's what, that's why this blew up the way it did because he got to the heart of the matter. He questioned the basic premise that Israel has a right to exist as an apartheid state.

Katie Halper

Right.

Russell Dobular

He went right at that.

Katie Halper

Right.

Russell Dobular

All right.

Katie Halper

And also questioned the premise of defensive versus offensive weapons.

Russell Dobular

Right.

Katie Halper

Because they were talking about the Iron Dome.

Russell Dobular

Well, well, yeah. And the entire, the, the entire standard of weapons. Well, did. If Israel has the right to do this, doesn't Hamas have the right to do that? Like the, these are third rails. They're going to come after Scill.

Katie Halper

Oh yeah, they already have. But again, they're such idiots. That's the thing. They're such idiots. Like they don't even know that they're. Again, it's kind of like when people mention, and I don't, I've not seen any evidence of this, but the, you know that the population has, has increased in Gaza or so how could it be a genocide? But like, all they're saying is I don't know the definition of genocide because genocide does not actually require a population to decrease. I mean, we need to just make a sign. I feel like every single time. I can't stand when people say it's not genocide because it's just such a. I hate like the combination of, of condescension and stu. And rank stupidity or just lying out of your like literally the idea that some random Zionist or like contrarian knows more about genocide than like the near consensus of genocide scholars. Then, you know, what is it? Is it Beth Selim, the Israeli. I don't, I'm trying not, I'm not trying to Elevate Jewish voices over non Jewish. But like by their game are they a self loathing human rights organization? This Jewish Israeli organization that says it's a genocide, you know, like.

Russell Dobular

Well I, I, I'm sure like myself you have spoken to Zionists and yes, that is what they will say. Yeah, right. They're capos.

Katie Halper

Oh yeah, yeah, that's, yeah, yeah. They call me capo Katie. They think it's very clever alliteration.

Russell Dobular

Capo Cat.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

Okay, finally, I want to get into this a little bit before I let you go. All right. Russell Dobular filling in for Jimmy Dore here with the great Katie Halper whose documentary Commie Camp is on the verge of being released. Right. You'll see it soon, I hope.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

All right, bit of good news. Don't want to leave people totally black pilled. The Senate voted against the NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act 50 to 46, denying Israel a merger with the US. Those 46 who voted in favor should face charges for treason. Yeah, absolutely. So here's the Senate Republicans trying to spin this. Democrats just blocked a defense bill that for more than 60 years has passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. They're denying our men and women in uniform the pay and tools they need to defend this country. Unprecedented and shameful. Power to the people responded. You left out the part where the bill merges the US military with Israel's military, you treasonous bastards. And I gotta say if you go into the comments section of the Senate Republican's own account, it's pretty much like that. Yeah, I'm sure this is something the right, the left, everybody can pretty much agree on now. It's not over. Thomas Massie here calling out Hakeem Jeffries who just came out to oppose the Massie Khan amendment cutting all USA to Israel. Minority Leader Jeffries opposes the Massikana amendment to cut 3 billion of aid to Israel. Believes members of his party to vote their conscience. My conscience is clear. I will be voting against using American tax dollars to fund genocide. And drop site points out Hakeem Jeffries decision to oppose an amendment to cut 3.3 billion in US military aid to Israel. Comes weeks after Apex PAC sent a record 149,300 earmarked contribution to his joint fundraising committee. Sludge reports it is the largest earmark disbursement Apex Pack has ever made and nearly 30 times the standard 5000 per election limit for a multi candidate PAC giving directly to one candidate. And gen X girl here, one of the best researchers in the biz APAC spent $810,990 lobbying the Pentagon to merge the US military with Israel. So I always, whenever I cover this, I want to share the phone number. Call your senators to vote no. This is not over. Not over by a long shot. 202, 224, 3121. Call your senators. Shut this down. So, Katie, do you think we're going to be able to successfully shut this down? And if we don't, at that point, doesn't it just become dangerous for anyone who wants to speak out to even live in this country? Like, are we looking at going, you know, 1930s people have to go into exile? Once the Israeli intelligence services are inside the American intelligence services, how are you. How are we even going to do things like this? How would you even have these shows?

Katie Halper

Right. Well, I want to give Hakeem Jeffries a shout out because a lot of people are bought by apac. What is it? Who. Charlemagne the God called him, But not everyone literally, like, channels. Segregationist. Uh, George Wallace, the fortune governor of Alabama, who famously said, segregation now, segregation tomorrow. Segregation forever. Hakeem Jeffries literally said, israel tomorrow, Israel Israel now. Israel tomorrow, Israel forever. It was like almost his subconscious was drawing the parallels between, you know, supremacy, white supremacy and Jewish supremacy. The KKK and the, you know, settlers, however you want to do it, or the actual just idf. But I guess the KKK would be the better parallel because they're not official actors of the state. But, I mean, yeah, I don't know. I think that this is scary. I'm not sure, like, you know, this should make you feel better, actually, Russ, maybe this will make you feel better. We already have a lot of, like, coordination anyway, so it is worse. And I actually.

Russell Dobular

What's the difference? Is that what you're saying?

Katie Halper

Kind of. I had. I had Dennis Kucinich on and I'm. And I asked him this question, and I'm trying to remember what the actual differ difference is, but there is a difference, but it's not. I mean, I don't. I don't want.

Russell Dobular

Well, he. He's real. He's been going around talking about this a lot. He went on Tucker and talked about.

Katie Halper

Yeah, well, before there was. Before there was a Tucker, there was the Katie Halpert.

Russell Dobular

There was Katie.

Katie Halper

He spoke to me for. Before Tucker. I'm sure he got that bump. No, no, I'm kidding. But. And hi, Dennis. If you're watching. And Dennis has been on this show a bunch. It's a bit. Apparently the big one of the big differences, the biotech issue. And it's an official legislative merger. But yeah, I mean, it is. Of course it's scary and people should be up in arms about it. And it's not that hard to sell, to oppose it. Right. Like both sides. I mean, this is one of the things where Republicans, unless they're, you know, well, okay, America Firsters. Right. Should be less than excited about this.

Interjecting Commentator

And that.

Russell Dobular

And that is, that is the bright spot. Even as I said, even on the Senate Republicans page, it was overwhelmingly negative. It's just too over.

Katie Halper

It's too overt. You know, it's like the flock. You gotta sell it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You gotta. There's an art. There's an art to like to merging with a genocidal government. And it's not by officially doing it.

Russell Dobular

Yes.

Interjecting Commentator

Yeah.

Kirk the Derp

You have to be.

Russell Dobular

A little secrets, a little subtlety.

Katie Halper

Yeah, yeah.

Russell Dobular

All right, Katie, where do people find you?

Katie Halper

Oh, okay. Thank you so much. So you can find me at YouTube.com the Katie Helpershow every Tuesday night at 7pm EST and most Fridays at 12pm I honestly, part of the reason I started doing the additional stream during the daytime was to be able to have Dr. Mohammed Morandi on. The hardest working man in.

Russell Dobular

See, that's very considerate of you.

Katie Halper

Yeah. But. Right. Because it's. He's. I'm really worried about his health because he's, he's so, he's so prolific and he's so brilliant and he's so generous with his time. So you can definitely check him out frequently. I'm actually going to have Rokhan on, I think next week. I'm not sure, but I'm gonna have him on.

Russell Dobular

You're gonna play that clip?

Katie Halper

I will, Yeah, I will. It'll be also about what? He experienced it in the west bank. But yes, I will hold his feet to the fire. I'm not always good at that. I have to admit, especially Quinn, that I like the people, but I'm getting better. And where else?

Russell Dobular

Honestly, I feel you, man. Like, there's people that I like personally.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

That I don't invite on the show.

Katie Halper

Because you don't want to.

Russell Dobular

Because.

Katie Halper

Right.

Russell Dobular

I couldn't give an honest interview without it being confrontational. And I don't have the hard.

Katie Halper

Yeah, exactly. Patreon.com the Katie helper show. I'm also the co host of Useful Idiots with Aaron. Mate, there's a substack for that, so. Yeah, definitely. Oh, we had a great. I did a great interview. You guys should all have her on with Marta Havrishko, who is a Ukrainian professor and historian who is like just such an important voice about. About the proxy war and the corruption of the Ukrainian government. She's Ukrainian. You know, she's not. So it's not that easy to call her Putin.

Russell Dobular

Oh, interesting.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

All right, Katie, thank you very much. It's been great having you on. Look forward to seeing you back in our fair city.

Katie Halper

Yes. And welcome back to this hellscape.

Russell Dobular

Enjoy your time upstate. See you, Katie. All right, so we will go to some super chats before we change over to Rumble. All right, let's see. Let's see what you guys came up with here. There we go. All right. French laundry. Props for getting you said, Mr. Morandi. I'm going to give him his honorific. Professor Morandi on the show. Russ and team T Bone, please talk about what happened to Max Blumenthal. We did. We did mention it a little bit. Love the DD and the JD show very much. T Bone. Yeah, we tried to get Max on tonight. It was. It was short notice. He's a family man. And it would have been late because I already had Professor Morandi and Katie lined up. MTN Star Studio the poker tells come from pattern recognition of the disparities between words versus actions. Plandemic scamdemic Epstein WEF game plan ZIB-BEM. I feel like I just got neuro linguistically programmed. MTN Star Studio Many poker games within the chessboards. Gambit. Yep. Roger Meadows, in regards to African labor exploitation, by no means was I making it sound as if we were better. I was merely outlining what the trade offs were. It sounds like I'm walking into the middle of a debate that I wasn't a part of.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

What?

Russell Dobular

Also, Roger Meadows, when I said, oh, last week about China encroaching on the natural environment, wasn't talking about how clean it is for humans, but wildlife habitats destroyed. Now I remember. Now I remember what you're talking about. Yeah, you know, I'm. I'm gonna do a big China special on due dissidents. I just want to do it right. So it's taken some time to put it together. But, you know, they. In. In China's history, what they will argue because they'll get a lot of this about the. About the Three Gorges Dam. China throughout its history had these horrific floods that the dam stopped. So that is an element of it now. People who were displaced from their villages. I will say that you don't see a lot of historic villages in China they weren't sentimental about it. When they did urban renewal, they literally raised a lot of those villages. Not that none of them exist, but not really where I was. As a result, they build a lot of like, ancient village themed kind of shopping areas where it's designed to look like that. But regarding environmental impacts of like the Three Gorges Dam, they would argue, yeah, and China, throughout its history for thousands of years, would have people's whole villages get wiped out by these floods that the dams put an end to. P. Walker, the USA is the one suffering from two factions. Those who have been to abstinent island and those who haven't. True that. All right, we get to the next batch. Here. Username. The status quo under this horrid regime is inherently unethical. Acceleration is the only moral stance when doing nothing results in genocide and apartheid. Yep, C. Callaway. Just came to say I could really use a glute massage. That's not an invitation, Russ. But the door is unlocked. Winky face, don't come over. Lol. Jk. Am I making myself clear? What are you suggesting, sir? Are you suggesting that story is a little dodgy? Empire we are. In the eyes of empire, you are either servant, livestock, or enemy. In 1979, Iran went from trusted servant to hated enemy almost overnight. The hatred of the United States towards Iran is structural. Yeah, well, like the hatred of Russia, Roger Meadows. Boomers died, thus loosening their grip on the party. Less hands. Gatekeeping. Well, they're doing making a pretty good run of it in Michigan. Roger Meadows. The Bernie Agenda who are now losing their hold is not really because of us, but nature. In a matter of 10 years, 10 million. Yeah, I mean, I've been saying that. Mountain Star Studio. I'm assuming MTN stands for Mountain World as Gambling casino. Most games are rigged. Yeah. Okay, let's get to the last batch here. Roger. Meadow, as we put our pat ourselves on the back for pushing Dem party toward Bernie, keep in mind boomers who acted as gatekeepers for the party to marginalize against. Yeah, well, they're showing up in Michigan. Worst skill. Katie and Russ. Avengers assemble. Thank you. No fried bologna. Baloney. As a woman, I don't identify with other women just because they happen to be women. Some of my best friends are men. That's the best way to be. Username. I judge people by how they behave and how they treat me. That's all I really care about. The status and other people. The status quo under this horrid regime is inherently unethical. Acceleration is the only moral stance of doing nothing results in genocide and apartheid. Do you pay us twice for that or did that get copied over twice? Username. Please earmark this donation for the establishment of a pro feminism, pro apartheid, DNC voting bloc. They really deserve their own lobby to elevate these brave voices. It's good one. Okay, that's it. All right. Those are all our super chats. We are going to go over to Rumble, do a couple more segments where we will be joined by the Curp man. The Curp man cometh. All right, Russell Dobular filling in for Jimmy Dore. Thanks for coming over with us to Rumble, where we are going to be joined by Kirp the derp.

Kirk the Derp

What's up? Hey. Hey.

Russell Dobular

Is this your. Is this your Captain and Tenille look.

Kirk the Derp

All right. Captain and the Drifter is our band

Russell Dobular

captain and the Drifters. All right.

Kirk the Derp

The COVID I think I sent me. Show the motion materials.

Russell Dobular

All right.

Kirk the Derp

Duncan's Band Captain and the Drifter. All right.

Russell Dobular

Very cosmic back there.

Kirk the Derp

Top 25 comedy podcast. Mystery Boys just. Just found out.

Russell Dobular

Oh, yeah.

Kirk the Derp

Oh, yeah. Oh, Better believe it.

Russell Dobular

Nice.

Kirk the Derp

Julian Dory is beating us. I didn't even know he had a comedy podcast. Julian Dory? He's 23. We're like, 20. I don't know. He's up ahead of us.

Russell Dobular

Well. Well, that. Well, that's the key, man. That's the key. These kids are cleaning up, man.

Kirk the Derp

Wait, let me make sure my mic is right. God damn it. Every time. Yeah. No, I'm using my mic.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, your mic's on, is it not?

Kirk the Derp

What does it sound? Oh, okay. Misha said. Sorry. That was Misha's fault.

Russell Dobular

All right, Kirk, we're gonna bang out, too. And we're gonna. We're gonna go home. All right.

Kirk the Derp

Everybody sails home.

Russell Dobular

We're already home. Everybody sails home. What did they sing? What was their big hit? What was their hit? Trying to remember what. What did they sing, Captain, and were you getting.

Kirk the Derp

Picking up my background noise. They have the TVs on the other room. Okay.

Russell Dobular

Ah, right. Love will keep us together. That's right. That was.

Kirk the Derp

Is that what it was?

Russell Dobular

Yeah. Love will keep a muskrat Love Everything

Kirk the Derp

was about, like, middle aged, basically.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, pretty much.

Kirk the Derp

I'm trying to fix my background. Hold on. Sorry.

Russell Dobular

But their big thing was Love will keep us together.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Yeah.

Kirk the Derp

Let's go to my tastefully appointed.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

All right.

Russell Dobular

There you go. Well, that. That works better with the yachting hat, huh? All right.

Kirk the Derp

That was my only issue with it.

Russell Dobular

No, we can see it. We can see it. Make sure he's getting well not. Not with the mic. All right, so let's bang out a couple segments and we're out of here. Russell Dobular filling in for Jimmy Dore with the great Kurt Metzger doing his Captain Antonella look today.

Kirk the Derp

Oh, it's just a captain. Look, it's not just the captain.

Russell Dobular

He doesn't have to kneel with him. Yeah, yeah.

Kirk the Derp

There's no Tenille. I got Duncan Trussell, Captain in the Drift. Our group is called.

Russell Dobular

This is the.

Kirk the Derp

Replaced with the drift.

Russell Dobular

It's like Mr. Howell on Gilligan's Island.

Kirk the Derp

If I could just be a tenth as good as that guy. That's what I have. My goal is.

Russell Dobular

All right, so we've been hearing a lot about communism these days. Lot about communism. The stuff. Specter of communism haunting us here is

Kirk the Derp

dead and it's not been alive for many years. And it's ghost is haunting us. Is that what that means?

Russell Dobular

It's. It's the ghost of communism. You know, they're worried the more the peasants starve, the better that's going to sound. So they got. They gotta. They gotta keep them inside the fence. We're seeing now. Communism is the greatest threat to our country, including I believe this. You know, when I said it, I said, boy, that's pretty severe. But I think it's true. The biggest threat to our country, including World War I, World War II, Pearl Harbor, September 11th. I think it's a bigger threat, potentially a bigger threat than that because it's like a cancer that spreads and you better stop it fast. If, if you don't stop it, useless rich kids won't be able to get millions of dollars from their daddies to go into real estate and then one day become president. And then where would we be?

Kirk the Derp

Where was this outbreak of communism? Is this just because some dsa.

Russell Dobular

Yeah.

Kirk the Derp

Phonies won some phony election? That's the. Okay. Well.

Russell Dobular

Well, you know, it's. It's history repeating itself, man. Like. Like aristocrats are always very paranoid about any threat to their power because they know, they know that if they lose control, the scaffolds are coming for them.

Kirk the Derp

Successful Captain is my. Such as myself. You'd be better believe.

Russell Dobular

That's right. You know all about it.

Kirk the Derp

My main platforms is fight communism. New ballroom, kidnapped the President of Venezuela. Three issues.

Russell Dobular

All right. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the Pentagon is requesting another $350 billion for fighting communism on our own shores.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

The question was can you list the

Russell Dobular

specifics of what the request is for the Pentagon? We've seen it's over 350 billion. As a, as a request.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

And this is some of, this is

Russell Dobular

transformational kind of funding that will help us change the dynamic of the Department of War and make it more efficient and effective. It's already the greatest fighting force on the planet. Not even close, is it. But there are some ideas, a real

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

vision on how to improve that even

Russell Dobular

further to bolster that. You've heard the president talk about how he wants to effectively double the funding for national defense. Look, we live in dangerous times. We're fighting communism on our own shores and we're fighting evil terrorists and, and tyrants around the world.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

And, and we have to be able

Russell Dobular

to protect our national security.

Joe Vance (referenced) / Analyst

So.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, well, that's a problem. Yeah, we're not. Well, hey, they defeated that last night for the time being. Yeah, no, no, that's, that's what, that, that's the greatest threat in the country. And you know what, you know what our biggest problem is? The Pentagon is underfunded. They're underfunded. They need more money.

Kirk the Derp

I was going to bring that up. I mean, are we gonna get them some money or what? I like that. This is government funded communist fighting. I think they're gonna be tagged. They're gonna use tax money program to

Russell Dobular

fight, to fight, to fight communism in America. So it's from common dreams. As he pushed for Congress to approve 350 billion in new spending requested by the Pentagon, House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested Tuesday that some of the funds were needed for fighting communism on our own shores. An ominous notion in light of President Donald Trump's threats to deploy the U. S. Military against his domestic enemies. In addition to the already record breaking 1.1 trillion military spending bill that was approved last month by the House Appropriations Committee, the Pentagon has requested a separate $350 billion package to be passed through a separate GOP led spending bill known as Reconciliation 3.0, which can pass without Democratic support. I know Johnson has faced pushback from some GOP senators, including Susan Collins and the hospitalized Senator Mitch McConnell, as he sought additional spending. In other words, from Susan Collins, who just dodged a bullet with the oyster man there because the, that bunch of Democrat cancel culture morons knocked him out of the race. And the rotting corpse of Mitch McConnell is giving.

Kirk the Derp

He's alive. You saw the photo, sure.

Russell Dobular

Called the guy a AI Mitch McConnell is giving them pushback. During a press conference on Tuesday, Johnson made his case for Republicans to back the reconciliation proposal. In the weeks following a series of Democratic primary victories by progressive and Democratic socialist candidates in New York, Colorado, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas and elsewhere. Trump and his allies in the GOP have relentlessly hammered on the idea that the nation was under siege by godless communists. Wow, they're really playing the hits.

Kirk the Derp

I was afraid they're Muslim.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, you don't want Islamo communists as

Kirk the Derp

long as they're godless.

Russell Dobular

That agrees if they're God. Dark enlightenment values who want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life. Rhetoric that echoed McCarthy era red baiting

Kirk the Derp

to many critics the way of life be.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, what would it be?

Kirk the Derp

What is that we all work overtime at a fucking Walmart until they fully automate.

Russell Dobular

Well, it's amazing that they talked people into romanticizing factory workers work. That is when, that is when you are mentally broken, man. When you, when they get you to go, yeah, you know what I want to do? I want, I want to just keep holding a lever eight hours a day and moving it up and down.

Kirk the Derp

That's what I. Yeah, well, you know, it depends how much their kids to

Russell Dobular

work in a factory. That was the whole thing. That was the whole thing. The factory paid enough to send your kids to college.

Kirk the Derp

Right.

Russell Dobular

So that they didn't have to work in the factory. Nobody actually wanted to work in the factory. It was the opportunity to be able to fund your kids out of the factory.

Kirk the Derp

Right. But the thing, you know, especially like New York, it's like rent controlled departments like they, that's like my ex girlfriend's parents were like, I don't know what kind of boomerisms they had. They were like pre boomerisms but they're always like, you got to get a job with a pension. Like what are you talking about? There's no, that's not a thing you don't have.

Russell Dobular

That's a pension. Where are you going to get that? Municipalities. If you, if you work for the city.

Kirk the Derp

There was a real midwestern thing like Cleveland. Oh, that's where that Harvey Picard guy's from. You know, it's like even if you're an artist, you work in the mail room until you collect your pension. That's all fucking gone right?

Russell Dobular

In just two weeks since those primaries on June 23, Reuters found that Trump had invoked communism at least 81 times to demonize candidates and officials like New York City Mayor Zorin Mandani and others who have promoted policies like Medicare for all, higher taxes on the wealthy, the expansion of public utilities, the abolition of U.S. immigration and customs Enforcement, cutting off aid to Israel and other policies supported by large numbers of Democratic voters.

Kirk the Derp

With the abolition of U S. Immigration. What? Or was that ice?

Russell Dobular

The abolition of ice.

Interjecting Commentator

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

Trump's recent rhetoric has indicated.

Kirk the Derp

Yeah, that's really super communist.

Russell Dobular

That was a little misprint. Trump's recent rhetoric has indicated that imposing communism goes beyond simply voting to keep these candidates out of power. He's referred to the so called communists as animals, as a cancer that needs to be cut out fast. He said during a July 3 speech outside Mount Rushmore, the Communists cannot be loyal to America and he will send them into exile. Send them quickly.

Kirk the Derp

Is he going to close down my shtetl?

Russell Dobular

He's, he's gonna. Yeah. And he's gonna send him to seacot. And, and he shared out, he shared out from Michael Savage this YouTube video. Democratic socialism must be criminalized. Leaders deported. Now, me and Keaton are both of the opinion. I don't know if you share this opinion. We might not like his views, but Michael Savage is one of the greatest talents in podcasting.

Kirk the Derp

I never heard him podcast. I've heard his name. I've been like, that's a little bit on the nose, your name.

Russell Dobular

Oh, he's, he's hilarious.

Kirk the Derp

It's like Gunther Eagleman.

Russell Dobular

I'll have, I'll have Keaton send you the clip of him talking about how the communists are going to steal your basil. That is one of the best unintentional comedy bits you will ever hear.

Kirk the Derp

Communists took my dad's basil, dude.

Russell Dobular

He's like. He did, he did a like cooking video. Yeah. When the communists come, they take your basil. You don't have any basil. So, Mike Johnson, the barbarians are inside the gate, are they? Oh, yeah.

Kirk the Derp

Oh, Mike's about to blow.

Russell Dobular

That's where they are. You know. You know what, you got some crazy income inequality for a country with barbarians in the gate club.

Kirk the Derp

He goes to.

Russell Dobular

I probably, probably. Well, now, Mike G.R. johnson, now he, now he doesn't have Lindsay to go with. We are fighting right now in Congress over whether we're going to maintain our status as a constitutional republic. Oh, I think that ship has sailed with this crew. Or trade that in, dismantle the foundations and go down this dark road of death to communism. That is the question.

Kirk the Derp

Are we getting a 50 minute city or not? Which I just thought was called a city, but it's like a new kind.

Russell Dobular

These are the people who just, I mean, not in the congressional branch, but in the executive branch just approved a slew of new carcinogenic pesticides.

Kirk the Derp

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

For America, I'd say we're going pretty far down the road to death.

Kirk the Derp

Got a fumigate the communism out.

Russell Dobular

You got that? That's what they're trying to do. Hey, man, listen, you know, I, I hate to pick on the. Regarded as. As we say, but listen, Justine Bateman Mallory is like a, A she, she has, she has middle aged into becoming a big old Pick me. She's an enormous. Pick me. And I've seen her get more and more deranged and I don't know, Kurt, we're, we're. You're a little younger than me. We're, you know, we're around the, she's

Kirk the Derp

the Latoya Jackson of the Batemans. We'll put it that way.

Russell Dobular

Well, when, when we were younger, there was like, you know, she was almost like the, the dark Winona. Right. She was like the, you know, she kind of had a darker, weirder kind of, kind of image. Post family ties, like in her 20s. She, you know, she was kind of like interesting and mysterious and she has just evolved into Teemu. Megan McCain.

Kirk the Derp

Like, it's, it's very sad, Stacy Dash. But yeah,

Russell Dobular

I am not aligned with any particular political party.

Kirk the Derp

No.

Russell Dobular

But I am aligned with being an American and defending the kind of government we have here that has made this country possible. The DSA platform is treason. Jason, you got, you gotta sit your sister down, man.

Kirk the Derp

I heard he's like going off the.

Russell Dobular

What's up?

Kirk the Derp

I heard he's kind of, it was kind of always a mean, good guy on the set. Not.

Russell Dobular

Dude, is he really?

Kirk the Derp

Well, I don't, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I heard his sister has the shittiest tweets also.

Russell Dobular

What a fruitcake, man. Like, I've seen her just get crazier and crazier and crazier since the election.

Kirk the Derp

Yeah, no, do. A lot of people are nuttier and nuttier.

Russell Dobular

It's, it's, it's like, if you're not going to acknowledge that this was the greatest bait and switch in the history of politics, even if you believed in what you thought it was at the beginning, well, well, then you just got to keep doubling and tripling down on madness.

Kirk the Derp

And that's what I do.

Russell Dobular

With these comments, Johnson was explicitly tying increased military funding to Trump's fight against communism, though it's unclear which aspect of the budget proposal would be directed toward those ends. Federal troops are generally barred from domestic law enforcement, though the President can deploy them in cases of domestic insurrection and violence that ordinary law enforcement cannot handle. Trump has deployed active duty Marines to US Cities like Los Angeles and ordered the National Guard to deploy to many others, including Portland, Memphis, and Chicago, which courts have said violated the law. He's also suggested using armed forces to target his ideological enemies. During a speech to generals last year, he said cities should be used as training grounds for our military as they fight an enemy within, which has included immigrants, the radical left, and protest movements that have mobilized in opposition to his administration.

Kirk the Derp

So this movement's going radical? Have they?

Russell Dobular

Oh, yeah, Yeah. I did a whole. I went out and did a man on the street interviews with these people. It's basic. It was exactly the same as interviewing. I interviewed the audience for a pod Save America live show. Exactly. They have absolutely. Well, no, it's not a networking event. It's. It's you. You kind of feel bad for these people because they're, they're so clearly. It's like they've been given shock treatment for a year and then been sent out on the street to offer a political opinion. There is class. It is milk. They have no real opinions. You asked them straight out. They're at a. They're at a political event. Hey, so what do you think about Medicare for All? They got nothing to say. Really? They have nothing.

Kirk the Derp

I was like, why?

Russell Dobular

I was asking people, why are you at this protest? Well, because we don't want kings. Okay, so what policy demands do you have?

Kirk the Derp

Good work.

Russell Dobular

Well, just. I'm gonna go like they, they would. You could tell. They, they thought they felt that was a gotcha to ask them.

Kirk the Derp

It's a gacha question to ask me what I think, number one, that's like doxing.

Russell Dobular

What. What are you doing at a political event if you don't have any policy?

Kirk the Derp

I'm glad you didn't see me there, because that would have been real awkward.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, well, it was. I, I, I felt bad because I knew how savagely I was gonna make fun of them when I put the video. What are you gonna do? All right.

Kirk the Derp

Because I thought it was. We were protesting against Martin Luther King.

Russell Dobular

Oh,

Kirk the Derp

Martin Luther King. And I. I didn't ask around.

Russell Dobular

Well, you, you and the corpse of John McCain.

Kirk the Derp

Yeah, I had no idea. We never talked about it at the, at the rally.

Russell Dobular

They didn't really talk about anything. No kings. That's all they had to say. All right, so what's this really about? What's this really about? America sucks. That's what it's about.

Kirk the Derp

It's turn communist.

Russell Dobular

It sucks. Now the way they try to convince you it doesn't suck is by telling you what the average wealth is. Right. So as far as the average as far as the average wealth goes, we're second. We're second in the world. So they tell Americans, like, hey, why are you complaining? You're crazy. This is one of the richest countries on Earth. Look at that. But you see, when you go with average wealth and you have 5 trillionaires, it warps the entire statistic. What you want to look at is median wealth, which is the dead middle of the population and what they make. That gives you a better idea of overall what people are making. So when it comes. When it. When it comes to that, we are at. Sorry, having a little tactical difficulty. Okay? So we are at 28 under such economic powerhouses as Slovenia, Portugal, and, hey, you know what really has insult to injury? We have lower median income than our client state, Israel. Israel, which has universal health care, unlike us. Yeah. They also have higher median wealth than we do. Look at that. So this is. This is what they're getting worried about. It's getting harder and harder to tell people that they're rich when they're not rich and they know they're not rich. You can't. You can't fool people about what's in their pocket. Right. You can't fool them about that. And there's. There's only so long you can keep them going on illegal flights to seacot. And we're gonna. We're gonna beat up some brown people for you. In the end, they can't feed their kids. Yeah, in the end, they can't feed their kids. That's not. That's not really much of a compensation for them. So power to the people here. Why is this doing this? Oh, I know why.

Kirk the Derp

All right.

Russell Dobular

Power to the people. Trump Communism is the greatest threat to our country. Five points of rebuttal. One, Communists defeated the Nazis in World War II, and the west has never forgiven them for it. It's true. It's true. You go see any of this Private saving, Private Ryan, it's. I mean, it's true that that happened, but what did The Russians lose? 22 million people.

Kirk the Derp

Okay? Not only is it. They would never in a zillion years do a mission to go rescue some mother's last son.

Russell Dobular

Oh, yeah, I don't mean that. The very idea, but yeah, I don't mean that happened, but the landing. The D Day landing happened. Sure. But the only reason the Germans were softened up enough to be defeated is because of the Russians. How about not having a false flag

Kirk the Derp

in Pearl harbor in the first place? And, you know, how about they set up the wars in the first Place every single goddamn time. Yeah, other wars were necessary. We didn't have to. They engineered them all.

Russell Dobular

2. The United States propagandizes its own people to be afraid of communism. Worker ownership of the means of production and using resources for the benefit of all. So they will obey a capitalist system that privatizes everything and concentrates the majority of the wealth in the pockets of a few billionaires. 3. If communism didn't work, the US would just let it fail on its own. The truth is it works for the working class, which is why the US has to sanction socialist nations and spend trillions of dollars on endless wars to constantly overthrow socialist nations, also prop them up. Where's. Where's the lie? Why would we spend all this money and resources to topple these nations?

Kirk the Derp

I say that all the time, Russell.

Russell Dobular

You would just let it not work. Right?

Kirk the Derp

It's. Well, because the white pill, right, that Mike Malice wrote that book, it collapses under its own weight. Does it? I thought communism has never worked anywhere, right?

Russell Dobular

So why.

Kirk the Derp

Why does it keep coming up? I didn't bring it up. And I don't even hear people saying communism ever. I hear them saying, you know, maybe dsa.

Russell Dobular

Well, they'll say, like socialism, because they know communism is a dirty word in this country.

Kirk the Derp

4.

Russell Dobular

In the past 40 years, the Communist Party of China has lifted 800 million people out of poverty. Meanwhile, in the U. S. Capitalism is turning billionaires into trillionaires while 70% of Americans can't afford basic needs like housing, health care and groceries. Get more curious about communism and start questioning the capitalist system. You've been indoctrinated to obey since birth. Yeah, well, that's what this is about, man. Because, like, look, it's getting harder and harder to convince the peasants that this system is working for them. So they're getting curious about other systems. They're getting curious about other ideas. Well, that.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

That.

Russell Dobular

There you.

Kirk the Derp

Well, yeah.

Russell Dobular

Is. Is that what's under the hat? You got the turban under there?

Kirk the Derp

Yes.

Russell Dobular

Yeah.

Katie Halper

Are you.

Russell Dobular

Are you around?

Kirk the Derp

You're gonna wish I was a commie, because guess what? I am.

Russell Dobular

I'm the most communist.

Kirk the Derp

Yeah, the con. I'm a. I'm a con. An Islamianist, I would call it.

Russell Dobular

I like that. See, now that you.

Kirk the Derp

Now that you put it.

Russell Dobular

Now that you put that out there, Patrick bet Davis is gonna pretend he made that up when he starts using

Kirk the Derp

it tomorrow is Lomunas. Really?

Russell Dobular

Yeah. He's gonna steal that from you. He's gonna steal it from you.

Kirk the Derp

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

So. Yeah, man. This system is collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions and inability to provide for its people. Let me tell you, man, my, you know, my take on going to China, you know, and signing, seeing the communism that he's talking about there, it's, it's, you know, people say that, but I think that's a misunderstanding of what communism is, you know? Yeah, no, yeah. It's not that there's no commerce. It's not that there's no trade. That's a misconception. That's not what, that's not what communism actually is.

Kirk the Derp

All it means is this. The government. So when one of their billionaires gets out of pocket, he goes away for a couple months, he keeps his trap shut. He doesn't try to interfere in the education.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, yeah. You see, you see, the corrupt official just got the death penalty.

Kirk the Derp

And that's the other thing.

Russell Dobular

I think that guy stole $325 million. Death penalty, man.

Kirk the Derp

They really do. Yeah. Don't block her up.

Russell Dobular

They're not, they're not going to let the banks run the country. They're not going to let the corporations run.

Kirk the Derp

That's all it is.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, you can have commerce, you can have trade, you can have a business, but you're not going to eat the state in our country. Yeah, the, the capitol has eaten the state. They're not going to allow you to do that. That's not going to happen. Now, when you, when you look at quality of life for the average person, I promise you, man, the Chinese, I, I went all the way to the West. I didn't just go to the superstar cities. I went all the way into the Uyghur region, man. You take most people from. I went, I went all the way over there, man. And what you heard about it is you go over to Urumchi, I promise you, most of these people living in these de. Industrialized American towns that have fallen apart, like Detroit, like Cleveland, you show them that city and you tell them you could live here, they'd be very happy to live there. Compared to the. That they're living in that flee. That is why eventually. Exactly. That is why they're screaming about communism. Because they know that it's getting harder and harder to convince people that this system is working for them. Because it's not. It's not.

Kirk the Derp

So you.

Russell Dobular

They've got to double and triple down on brainwashing them into thinking that they're temporarily embarrassed millionaires who are gonna win the big lottery ticket one day. But, you know, more and more people are Realizing they won't because the game's rigged.

Kirk the Derp

It's, it's as effective as a Marvel universe after Thanos is gone, like you, let's stop making these villains like the Thanos. It's not, it's not, it ain't coming back like that. They're just trying to, like, reboot old villains now.

Russell Dobular

Oh, yeah.

Kirk the Derp

So weak, man.

Russell Dobular

Oh, yeah. It's like a flashback hearing this. We gotta stop the scorch of communism. It's amazing. It's amazing.

Kirk the Derp

Dude, I didn't see nothing communist in China the whole time I was there. I, I, I, I barely even saw Chinese. It was mostly, like I said, almost all American food.

Russell Dobular

Pretty high quality all American food. Where the did you go?

Kirk the Derp

Shanghai? Suzhou?

Russell Dobular

I, I, I mean, I mean, I mean, Shanghai is the most western of their cities, but even so, what do you mean you mostly saw America?

Kirk the Derp

Where I stayed. I ate hot pot. Okay.

Russell Dobular

I say so what are you talking about, your hotel? Well, what are you talking about?

Kirk the Derp

I went to. It was like, yeah,

Russell Dobular

I mean, it was the most western of the cities in China, but it wasn't, but it wasn't western.

Kirk the Derp

And they do.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, the food was mostly their food, like, here and there. So they, yeah.

Kirk the Derp

So wait, there's like a delay where

Russell Dobular

I'm getting, I'm getting that too.

Kirk the Derp

I'm in China, by the way.

Russell Dobular

All right, I think that's, I think that's a wrap on that segment.

Kirk the Derp

Just cut it on me saying, you

Russell Dobular

guys cut it how you want. Okay, so we're gonna do one more segment, and then we're gonna blow this thing and go home.

Kirk the Derp

For you to make a pause, like, for like a second, it's really like,

Russell Dobular

I've been getting this all night. I've been getting this all night with Frozen Guest. I don't know why there was a thunderstorm earlier. I don't know if it's messing with the Internet. I got that with Miranda. I had it with Katie.

Kirk the Derp

I had to switch to Zoom on my other podcast yesterday because stream yard, it was up when I was talking according to.

Russell Dobular

Is it, is it stream yard?

Kirk the Derp

I think it is.

Russell Dobular

I've been getting this all night. When I had it with Morandi, I thought it was because it was coming from Iran, Ron. And then I still had it with Katie. Now it, now it's all right. Now it, like, straightened out. All right, so let's bang out the last segment, folks. Russell Dobular filling in for Jimmy Dore here with Kirk the Derp.

Kirk the Derp

Well, Captain James T. Kirk, Captain James T. Kirk. James Tiberius Kirk.

Russell Dobular

That's right. Protesters are taken to the streets of Biddleford, Maine after Biddeford, Maine after ICE murdered a 26 year old Colombian man. This is the 11th person fatally shot murdered by federal immigration officials since Trump took office.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

Yep.

Kirk the Derp

Sounds like that number's low. I expected much higher.

Russell Dobular

People don't like it when you just murder people in the street. Who knew? The Portland Press Herald has released footage from the deadly ICE shooting in Biddeford, Maine. Bystanders described the shooting as an execution. So here's that footage. And yeah, they're trying to claim that he was trying to run into him. He wasn't trying to run.

Kirk the Derp

Is this the one from before that we did last? Was it doing this. Talking about this with Keaton?

Russell Dobular

I mean, he didn't do it with me. And no, I don't think he did it with Kid.

Kirk the Derp

Oh, it must have been a different one. One just happened where the guy thought they were. Unmarked van, by the way, his mask. Guys in an unmarked van.

Russell Dobular

No, there was one that happened a couple weeks ago.

Kirk the Derp

Wow, Communist as hell.

Russell Dobular

Oh, yeah, no, they're just. They're just. They're just whacking people, man. Susan Collins. Hey, everybody who was really, really, really upset about Graham Platner having served in the military, here's your senator from Maine. Good work, guys. Good work. I spoke with DHS Secretary Mullen last night and urged him to cease all non urgent vehicle stops in the wake of yesterday's deadly Biddeford shooting. I am encouraged that the department has agreed to do so. An impartial investigation into the shooting and Biddeford needs to proceed. As the details surrounding this tragedy are important. It is extremely unfortunate that the agent involved did not have a body worn camera. In April, measures that I authored and the Homeland Security funding bill became law, including 20 million for the expanded use of body worn cameras, 2 million for de escalation training and a 17% increase in the independent Office of Inspector General's budget to investigate matters such as this shooting, the Democratic government shutdown, delayed enactment and implementation of these important safety measures. All right, here's. Here's the money shot though. While it is clear ICE needs to improve its performance, it is important to remember that the work ICE does to protect our country goes far beyond immigration enforcement. ICE's Homeland Security Investigations is tasked with combating cartels, human smuggling, child exploitation, forced labor and more. Eliminating ICE would make our country less safe and endanger the lives and welfare of countless individuals. But hey, at least she never worked for blackwater as a mercenary. Right. So. Hey, good job, guys.

Kirk the Derp

Oh, is that what that dude worked for? It was Blackwater.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, yeah, he, he worked as a merc after his time in the service. But, but, but hey, you know, man, there's a long history of veterans becoming the most anti war voices, right? You know who's definitely not going to be anti war? Susan Collins.

Kirk the Derp

How about if they just don't get to wear masks? What about this reform of it? They don't get to wear goddamn masks.

Russell Dobular

Well, that, that would be the HBO version of Watchmen. Mike Nellis. By the way, Susan Collins was the deciding vote to give ICE another 70 billion without a single reform. And that vote is coming back to Haunter right now. Yeah, now. Good thing we're not going to have Graham Platner in that seat. Boy, we dodged a bullet there. Professional dirt bag. Nick Sorter. Here just in. DHS Secretary Mark Wayne Mullen personally gave the order for ICE to suspend all non urgent vehicle stops. Susan Collins confirms this is total capitulation. To the left. ICE arrest will drop off a cliff just as leftist terrorists demanded. Illegals will now sprint to the driver's seat and run, knowing they can't be stopped. Weak. Listen, man, you want to know why so many of these people get so paranoid when you get a couple of DSA candidates win in New York? Because all these guys like Nick Sorter know they're going to face a people's tribunal if there's ever a real revolution in this country. Because if that's not an enemy of the people, I don't know what is. That is an enemy of the people, man.

Kirk the Derp

Do you understand? There's probably an IDF paid guy just like, oh, all these guys are Tommy Robinson, right?

Russell Dobular

Tommy Robinson, Gunther, Eagle. Man, all these guys are. They are all traitors to the United States.

Kirk the Derp

They're all like, they're all a hero from a canon film. You know, like an Israeli, the guy, the Israeli American ninja. So when they talk, they're giving you pure 80s Israeli mossage schlock.

Russell Dobular

Yep.

Kirk the Derp

Filter through Hollywood, that's what this is.

Russell Dobular

Yo, dude, I'm convinced. You ever see that picture of Gunther Eagleman eating the banana with the spoon? I'm convinced that guy is a, is a freaking lib. I'm convinced he's a lib that has such contempt for the people that would follow his account that he doesn't give a shit. He's getting his money. He doesn't care what, what consequences his actions have. But you look at that guy with the pink sweater Tied around with the laptop with a Starbucks. Eating a banana with a spoon. Come on, man, you can't tell me that guy actually has those politics.

Kirk the Derp

What do you mean? Eating a banana with a spoon?

Russell Dobular

You never saw that picture? No, yeah, I've never even heard of that being done. He's eating a banana with a spoon. Yeah, yeah. I'll try to find it for you before we get off, because I just.

Kirk the Derp

You.

Russell Dobular

I just used it in a segment the other day.

Kirk the Derp

Eating a banana with a. What a weirdo.

Russell Dobular

I will put. I will. He doesn't look like the most masculine fellow in the world, let's put it that way. This is Gunther Eagleman. You just froze.

Katie Halper

Yeah.

Russell Dobular

Yeah. You never saw that?

Kirk the Derp

No.

Russell Dobular

All right, now I gotta find this. All right, I just loaded this in for you. This is just for you.

Kirk the Derp

Okay?

Russell Dobular

All right, hang on. All right, it's processing. We'll go on. But I've got it in there, Scoop. ICE officers across the country have been told that they are not to do vehicle traffic stops following two recent shootings of migrants in Maine. Texas DHS sources tell Daily Wire this will massively impact ice's ability to make arrests, since officers often prefer to catch targets out of their homes where their targets could have access to weapons and where officers don't need judicial warrants. As one source put it to me, numbers are going down. We can't do shit. Well, that's terrible.

Kirk the Derp

Well, that's great. By pure numbers, that's the best way to do something like this is just make it a numbers game, and that way, something like this, delicate. That's how you want to handle it with mass cops not even grabbing the right people, some of whom are probably illegal themselves.

Russell Dobular

Without a warrant. Without a warrant. Just go after people. So, you know, Trump. Trump heard the call of the paid grifters like this guy.

Kirk the Derp

Is that Gunther Eagleman?

Russell Dobular

That's the real Gunther Eagleman. His actual name is David Freeman. Eating a banana with a spoon. With a Starbucks. With the laptop with the pink sweater. Listen, man, that guy's a lib. I'm sorry? That guy. That guy is a lib who was just taking the money. He's just taking the money to feed chum to morons.

Kirk the Derp

Are you sure this isn't AI?

Russell Dobular

No, no. This has been out there. This has been out there for a long time.

Kirk the Derp

But he has such a masculine sounding name. That's why it's such a shocker.

Russell Dobular

Well, that's not his name. His name's David Freeman. Gunther Eagleman is his trade name. Yeah. Yeah, now that. That's the real Gunther. Eagleman. David.

Kirk the Derp

David Freeman, dude.

Russell Dobular

David Freeman, who just got back from a club called the Manhole before this picture was taken. So Trump overturns ISIS pause on traffic stops after two deadly shootings. President Donald Trump overturned an order that suspended most immigration related traffic stops. One day after his administration announced a pause following the deadly shootings of two people by federal agents. A White House official confirmed the move reversed a memo issued on July 14 by ICE which ordered agents to scale back traffic stops and instead prioritize other tactics in the field, according to a White House official not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. So here's a little bit from our illustrious president. The men and women of ICE are doing a great job. One that has to be done. Crime is way down in America and cases with numbers that haven't been seen in decades. The open border policy of sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25 million people to pour into our country unchecked and unvetted. Many were criminals, and we have to get them out. In order to do this, we must be strong, tough and smart. Not anything that would be used to describe a little trust fund punk like me. But in general, that's what we have to be. And we cannot give up one of ISIS most important and effective crime fighting tools, the traffic stop. Yeah, so it's back on, baby.

Kirk the Derp

We cannot. The most effective tool of stopping you in traffic and shooting you and shooting you.

Russell Dobular

I mean, effective is one word for it. The heads of DHS and ICE ordered the temporary halt after federal officers shot and killed two people during traffic stops in a span of six days. On Monday, July 13, an ICE agent shot and killed a Colombian man in a residential area of Biddeford, Maine. And by the way, they were looking for somebody else. That guy was legal.

Kirk the Derp

They shot the wrong guy. Right.

Russell Dobular

They shot the wrong guy and he was legal to be in the country. The one you're thinking of, that you did with Keaton, I think, is July 7th. An ICE officer fatally shot a Mexican national during a stop in Houston, Texas. Yeah. So they met a week apart. Yeah, yeah. Both shootings ignited protests and raised questions over the tactics of federal agents carrying out the Trump administration's aggressive deportation campaign. In both cases, ICE agents shot a motorist who was not the target of immigration enforcement operations. Officials said none of the agents involved were bearing body cameras. Of course they weren't. In a Fox News interview, White House borders are. Tom Holman described the pause in traffic stops as a, quote, short term review to make sure ICE agents are safe and doing the right thing. It's not a policy change. It's a temporary pause.

Kirk the Derp

Get back to work.

Russell Dobular

Very temporary, as it turned out. Like a day. Speaking with Fox News, Homan said federal agents are facing a record number of vehicle ramming attacks. He also said ICE agents receive extensive training on traffic stops. Oh, sure they do. I asked ICE to give me the training curriculum for the academy and there's an extensive vehicle stop training. Homan said, I think ICE is going to continue doing record arrests, record removals. I wouldn't even call this a bump in the road. Well, that is a poor choice of words, my friend.

Kirk the Derp

Certainly not a wall to. I just love how you could turn the border off with no wall. Remember all the consternation about a wall wall?

Russell Dobular

Oh, yeah.

Kirk the Derp

The emotional capital invested in this wall. Oh yeah. People actually gave money to Bannon for a fake wall. They could just turn the border off like a goddamn switch whenever the hell they wanted. Is that interesting?

Russell Dobular

Well, and look at, look at the freaks that they recruited who are willing to do this job. Like this was the inevitable result.

Kirk the Derp

Well, I got hired by mistake. I told you, I was picking up a prescription.

Russell Dobular

Well, yeah, and I thought you're a good example.

Kirk the Derp

Wrong.

Russell Dobular

Next thing I know, it's a miracle you didn't run anybody over.

Kirk the Derp

I'm telling I'm giving lesbians a ten paces head start. I don't know.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, they literally put out ads using language that's very. You know. And I, I know that very often libs will like to claim that there's dog whistles encoding when there isn't.

Kirk the Derp

There was.

Russell Dobular

No, no, they just say these ads really had white supremacists dog whistles, that if you hang around those kinds of sites, you would speak the language. They intentionally recruited the kind of people that want to go out and murder people on the street that they see as racial inferiors. So this is what you get, man. You, you, you recruit a bunch of unemployable fat loser cracker. You give them guns, you put them out with basically the understanding that you got their back no matter what they do. And of course they're shooting people.

Kirk the Derp

Yeah. I don't think you understand how many of them are Mexicans. Listen, when Radio Shack shut down, it ended a lot of dreams.

Russell Dobular

I miss Radio Shack.

Kirk the Derp

Yeah. I promise you. Is mostly because the, the myth that like Mexicans, like immigrants and all, they know, they never have going back to Caesar Chavez, as we all know. Also there's a bunch of illegals in ice. I Can promise you that because. Go read that girl's article. She accidentally got hired by ICE while reporting on how easy it was to get into ice. She didn't think she was high when she went in. You look at the article, it's hysterical.

Russell Dobular

Maybe I should apply to ICE and go in undercover.

Kirk the Derp

Yeah, when I'm. Look, when the. When the government shut down, what am I gonna do? I lost my job Redacting Epstein.

Russell Dobular

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kirk the Derp

You know, it's a great way to make ends meet. And they paid my school loans.

Russell Dobular

And you meet interesting people.

Kirk the Derp

Well, you don't see their face. So it's almost like.

Russell Dobular

Well, that's. Well, that's great, though, because it's like the anonymity of the Internet, only in person.

Kirk the Derp

Yeah, I find we could do a lot more insane when we're hyping each other up. We got masks. It's a lot easier.

Russell Dobular

Exactly.

Kirk the Derp

Personally, that's just what I found.

Russell Dobular

I don't know who you are. You don't know who I am?

Kirk the Derp

Oh, I do stuff I would never do, Russell. It's crazy what we do.

Russell Dobular

Okay, so that. That is. That is, I think, our final segment. We got quite a few in the can. We're two over. We did a lot. We did a lot. So to speak.

Kirk the Derp

That's what she said.

Russell Dobular

So to speak. All right, Mr. Kirb, where can they

Kirk the Derp

find you new Mystery Boys tomorrow on the your mom's house network. Me and Duncan found Joe Rose's dad. I don't know if that's a big deal to anybody.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

With who?

Kirk the Derp

Me and Duncan on the Mystery Boys solved the mystery. We. We thought of who Joe Droz's real dad is.

Russell Dobular

Really?

Kirk the Derp

Yeah, we. Okay. It was pretty convoluted, but we may have discovered his dad. It's not for sure yet. Also. Okay, Ryan Long. Ryan.

Russell Dobular

Oh, Ryan.

Kirk the Derp

Okay, Ryan misunderstood. Yeah, he thought we were mysteries boys. Like that pickup guy. Like we're boys with him. And so he dressed like a pickup artist. They didn't really, but it worked out fine. It's on tomorrow, 8 o' clock central. All right.

Russell Dobular

All right, folks. So that's where you go to check them out. Thank you to Jimmy Misha Kirp.

Kirk the Derp

And, oh, new drip with Kirk too is going up.

Russell Dobular

Sorry, what's that? Go ahead.

Kirk the Derp

New derp with Kirk. I just did. With Courtney Turner. That'll be up soon.

Russell Dobular

And a new derp recur. All right, so I'm gonna read some super chats. You can stay cut out, whatever you want to do.

Kirk the Derp

I'm going go walk Whatever you want

Russell Dobular

to do, my man.

Kirk the Derp

Take care, brother.

Professor Syed Mohammed Morandi

All right.

Russell Dobular

Thank you, Kirk. All right, P.W. walker. My war is going badly. Look commies over there. Donald J. Trump. It's about the size of it. Active Guardian. Russell's glasses look like classic Clark Kent glasses. I must admit that I have never seen Russ and Superman in the same room. Yeah, well, you know, you know why I'm wearing them? Because when I'm doing the interviews, I've got to read the questions. And, yeah, I mean, I'm like, like a lot of voracious readers. I can be. I'm a little nearsighted, so I figured it would be easier V. Nettlesbaum. Russ, is this your first show with the new glasses? Yes. New look, new feel, and the voice of the big bad wolf. The better to see you with, my dear. Yeah, I mean, that's what I was just saying because, like, I've got the questions. Like, the phone will be over here with the questions. Sometimes it can be hard to read. Steve D. Bertram. This was a good show, Russ. Thank you. Not like the others. All right, so there we go. So as I was saying, thank you to Misha, Malcolm, Andrew, Jimmy, Steph, the whole crew. Thank you very much to Professor Morandi, to Katie Halper, to Kurt Metzger. It's been a very good time and thanks to all of you for coming on. Next week we are going to be interviewing someone I've wanted to talk to for a long time who I think is the perfect person to interview right now given his theories of elite overproduction leading to social instability and revolution. Peter Turchin, author of End Times, next Wednesday. So we will see you then. Thank you, folks.