October 1, 2025 • 46 mins
The Majority Report’s Sam Seder examines the government shutdown. The Onion editor Ben Collins details how fear of Trump’s retribution shut down his new mockumentary Jeffrey Epstein: Bad Pedophile.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds. And Governor Pritzker says, in any other country,
if federal agents fired upon journalists and protesters when unprovoked,
what would we call it? If federal agents march down
busy streets, harassing civilians and demanding their papers, what would
(00:24):
we say? I don't think we'd have any trouble calling
it what it is, authoritarianism. We have such a great
show for you today, The Majority Report, Sam Cedar stops
by to talk all things government Shutdown. Then we'll talk
to the CEO of the Onion, Ben Collins, about how
Trump's retribution shut down his new mockumentary Jeffrey Epstein Bad Pedophile.
(00:50):
But first the news.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So Moley, the grift is coming from inside the house.
A camera woman captured Scott Besen texting exposing the mystery
we've all been wondered about. Why the fuck are we
giving Argentina all this money?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Why are we giving Argentina all this money?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I think you should read what it's set it in
the little text message from the Agriculture Sky Secretary.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So here's the text message She's worried China has outmaneuvered
the US by buying up Argentine soybeans at the expense
of our farmers, even as the administration plans to bail
out Argentina with billions of dollars. What's nice about this
administration is that everything is so stupid.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, So Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rowins was texting and
basically saying, this is a real bad, bad, bad idea
for our ecotomy.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yes, and you'll be shocked to hear, but she's right.
She is very much right, very very much right. Look
how Scott Bessant got photographed, How this text got for
I mean, there's just so much stupid to unpack here
Scott betch than texting photographs of it. I mean, just
(02:01):
all bad and nutty. And also why and again, why
are we bailing out Argentina? Why someone explained to me
why we're bailing at Argentina.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Because what we've voted for was for these people to
be grifting as much as they would like. It's the
freedom to grift, is administration.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
The freedom to grift, that is correct. So there we
are Donald Trump grifting away because he loves freedom, and
in this case, the freedom to grift Somalia.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
You've explained to listeners before that I have this rule
that I don't like to talk about things that are
coming up when there's so much things to analyze that
have happened. But I've been waiting, like it's Christmas morning
for mister Trump and Pete Hegsath to address our military leaders.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Today. It was Christmas of stupid. I got Cole.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
All of these top military leaders from around the world,
from places like Taiwan, you know, wherever they were stationed.
Pete hegg Seth brought everyone back to Quantico, Virginia, and
he made this speech that covered a lot of stupid,
preparing for war and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising
(03:13):
in that pursuit. Not because we want war, No one
here wants war, but because we love peace. Like real
nineteen eighty four stuff, Got a war so that you
can have peace. Got his strength so you can be weak.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Don't forget the war on woke, Molly.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
He spent a lot of time complaining about woke. He
spent a lot of time complaining about people being fat.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Ironically, there was somebody there on stage with him.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
He cursed well, and then Donald Trump got up there.
I mean, what I think is interesting is like, clearly
hag Seth wanted to make a political speech. Remember there
is a low key succession war going on behind the scenes,
and it's like RFK Junior versus Pete hegg Seth versus JD.
Van's Like, this is happening because as you know, the
(04:01):
more exhausted Donald Trump is as he reads the teleprompter,
the more that that crew is all fighting behind the scenes.
So super interesting to watch heg sas decide that he's
going to get this speech and then Donald Trump to
come in and be like, and I'm speaking too, because
remember that was never the plan until pretty recently.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, but what has been the plan for quite a
while is this deploying military members to train in the
streets thing. I think this is the more worrisome statement,
even if it was poorly worded or something that gets
defeated a lot, because it really shows that they're talking
about this all the time, and it's not good.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Right, I mean, this is this thing of trying to
get the troops in cities. It's not good. It breaks
the law that passe Commentita's Act says that you can't
just send troops willing Nelly.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
It's all bad.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
It's all bad, it's all scary, it's all worrying, it's
all not what we do in this country, Somali.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
We had a lot of fun drops from the Epstein
files last week.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Three different ones, and soon we're going to have the
great Jason Leopold on to talk about all of this
data that they are all of his information about Epstein
that they are dropping. There is a ton of information
about Epstein. And what's interesting to me is you have
the House Oversight Committee that has been really well run
(05:25):
by the Great Robert Garcia, friend of the show, friend
of mine also, who's done a really good job being
out there getting the information. He got, the birthday book
he got, you know, he's subpoenaed stuff, he's gotten it.
You Know what's interesting is sometimes when Democrats are doing
really well, you don't see it because you just see
(05:47):
the information and you don't necessarily understand how you got it.
But Robert Garcia is the head of Oversight and he
has really done an excellent job, and he took over
for Jerry Connelly. As you know, this is some thing
that's gotten got me very upset because I felt that
Jerry Connolly was not the right person for the job.
So now there is a new candidate that has won
(06:09):
in Arizona. Her father was the member of Congress before
he died. She has run, she has won. Her name
is Adelita Grihava. She's a Democrat from Arizona. She will
be the two hundred and eighteen signature on the Epstein
Files discharge petition once she's sworn in. You know who
doesn't want to swear her in? Mike Johnson. Mike Johnson
(06:33):
doesn't want to swear in because Mike Johnson doesn't want
to release the Epstein files. And Representative Catherine Clark, also
friend of the show, the number two Democrat in the House.
She's going to come out swinging, which I think is
really the right thing in this Any delay in swearing
and representative elect necessarily deprives her constituents of representation and
(06:55):
calls into question if the motives behind the delay is
to further upoid the release of the Epstein files, which
why else would why else would Mike Johnson do this?
Why else? What would the other reason he would do
for not doing this?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
There's no other reason Aside from that, they play dirty,
which is what I wish there would be even a
little bit of effort on Hakeeman Schumer's side would be
just give me twenty five percent of the energy that
they give.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Please.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, but it's good that she was out there, and
it's good that she was talking about it, and it
is for sure, for sure the right thing. But yes,
that is true. Sam Cedar is the host of The
Majority Report. Sam Cedar, Welcome to Fast.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Politics, Molly, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Governments get a shut down. Everything's going great.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
I am of the opinion that the government has been
more or less inoperative for months, short of its fascist
wing that they have deployed to Chicago, in LA and
the city coming to you Tennessee.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
You know, look, there's been.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
A lot of ice activity in New York as well,
in the Bronx and bedsty and we're just going to
get more of that. But in the meantime the other
government functions. In fact, this week there's one hundred and
fifty four thousand government employees who took the buyout, which
is the highest number I think ever on record for
a year. They have not been working for months. We've
(08:32):
been paying them, they've not been working for months. I mean,
so government shutdowns are bad as a political matter. I
think the American public is going to be aware of
what is happening in a way that they haven't been
aware until now. And part of that is a failure
of political leadership from the Democrats too, in my estimation,
(08:53):
democratic leadership, I.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Should say, yeah, you know, like I spend a lot
of time thinking about how different it was in twenty
sixteen than it is now, Like how in twenty sixteen
there was a feeling that this is not who we are,
and in twenty twenty four there's a feeling this is
exactly who we are, right Like.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
Yeah, I mean I think that feeling is also a
function of like where you and I might sit in society.
I mean I had conversations I remember, explicitly, you know,
having conversations with black people, brown people who are like
not surprised at all, this is exactly who we are.
(09:34):
But yes, I think that there was a much bigger
surprise element. The other big factor, frankly, was the courts
did not have two hundred and fifty Trump appointees in
twenty sixteen, and Russell Vote had not had four years
to figure out how to do this in a way
(09:55):
that would would be more expedient, and then I would
say there was far greater unity now the Republican Party,
you know, the last vestiges of what the Republican Party
were killed off, so there was no pretending anymore.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
And they were in Bolden.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Because they were let back in. So all those things
are different. It's a very different environment, I think. On
the Democratic side, I think there is also a different
environment because there is a I think, at least amongst
like people, not so much necessarily the political class, awareness
of their political late leaders failing to meet the moment.
(10:37):
I really do think that's out there. I mean, you
see it in the polling. Democrats are a poll worse
than Republicans, you know, even.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Though it's all slightly better but still not well.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Okay, I mean slightly better. I mean, I think these
people are still going to vote for Democrats largely, but
the dissatisfaction with Democrats between the dissatisfaction Democrats in twenty
sixteen and Democrats now, it's more Democrats who are dissatisfied
with the Democratic Party, and that I think is is
(11:10):
much more pronounced.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I mean, there are a number of really bad things
happening at once. But it does feel as if there's
also a sort of tea party movement in the Democratic Party.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Yeah, but if you're saying that there is an insurgency
and there's a grassroots like a sort of dissatisfaction, I
think that's absolutely true. I think it's necessarily different because
of the way that the Democratic Party has viewed its
base and populism versus the way that Republicans did. So
it's it's, you know, it's gonna be a struggle. It
(11:43):
played out in the Harris campaign, I think too, and
I think it's you know, it's pretty clear who won
that argument. And I think a lot of what we're
seeing now is the tide is turning and it's going
to play out. It's gonna get you know, like, look
to me if you want to see how this really
plays out in.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
My mind, Graham Platner, and if Mills jumps in at Mills.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Yeah, if Mills jumps in and she will as the
as Chuck Schumer and Christian Gillier Joe Brand's candidate, You're
going to see it play out there. And I think
that's going to be really an important primary.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Do you think she jumps in, because my sense is
that at seventy nine, running for the Senate is kind
of I mean, she said she doesn't want to.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Has she I read as like as recently as a
week ago that she was leaning towards it.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Okay, so I mean maybe she does. But what I
had read lost.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
Do I think she wants it?
Speaker 5 (12:44):
I imagine she probably wants to retire, But I think she's
also getting a lot of pressure from, like I say,
the Senate Campaign Committee and Chuck Schumer. I absolutely think
it's a huge mistake to run somebody who's going to
be seventy nine when they.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
Turn into the governorship.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
But this is where I think that that dynamic is
playing out, where you have Schumer and Jillibrand pushing someone
in a desperate attempt to I think, I mean, I
don't know what. I don't know how someone a rational
person thinks this is a good idea, particularly in this environment,
particularly when we lost the last election because we had
(13:22):
a candidate who you know, originally was you know, too
old and would not concede that notion. Where we've had
we are waiting on releasing the Epstein files to seat
a Democrat because we lost three Democrats to death in
the past nine months where we watched Dianne Feinstein, and
(13:44):
by Diane Feinstein, really we have to say, like her
staff essentially keep her in office all the things that
we saw in terms of the Supreme Court and whatnot.
I don't know if it would have made a difference
we had somebody who was sort of you know, aware
of her surroundings at that time. But I mean to
not see the abject fallacy of perceiving a candidate to
(14:05):
be strong at age seventy nine as they enter into
the office, I think is just insane.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
It's repeating a mistake the party has recently made. There
are just a bunch of different sort of arguments for
and against the shutdown, which is we are which by
the time people listen to this will be either about
to go into it or have just gone into it.
There's an argument to be made. I mean, the base,
the Democratic base definitely wants a shutdown, and Jeffreys Camp
(14:33):
has wanted a shutdown since March, right, I mean, they
were for a shutdown in March. So there is an argument.
And it was Schumer who caved in March because of
the threats of you know that it will mean more
power for the Trump administration. So there's an arguments.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
Sensibly right right, public argument was yes, right.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But again so there is an argument to be made
that shutting down the government actually elevates the fight about healthcare.
But again it's a dangerous gambal because Trump is already
saying that it's about healthcare for illegals, and what is
true and not true in this post truth world doesn't
necessarily matter if enough people believe it. So do you
(15:19):
think it's good, do you think it's bad? And where
do you come down on.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
I think they should have done this. In March, Donald
Trump put out a video after Chuck Schumer had come
out and said, I think the President has finally heard us.
Which it's very nice of Chuck Schumer to say that
Donald Trump is a reasonable person and know he is listening,
and remind everybody how they were locked out of the
White House and only we're allowed in at Trump's behest.
(15:43):
I mean, it is horrible, horrible politics. It's in my estimation.
But moments after, not moments an hour after Chuck Schumer
said that, Donald Trump posted an AI version of Chuck
Schumer and Hakim Jeffries. Jakim Jeffries was in a sombrero
(16:05):
with a you know, a cartoonish mustache. There was Mexican
music playing, and Chuck Schimer was saying yes.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And not to put too fine a point on it.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
And Chuck Schumer was ai generated saying, you know, everybody
hates us, and we want illegals to come in the
country because they're going to ultimately vote for us. My
point being that we didn't need a government shutdown, We
didn't need to give a trumpet an excuse he went
and did that. That is the new reality to operate
(16:38):
at this moment because you are afraid of how the
Trump administration is going to lie about you, or the
Republicans in the House are going to rely a lie
about you, and to operate in such a way that, like,
if we power enough then maybe they won't notice we're
here is absurd. The reason why Chuck Schumer is doing this,
(17:04):
the reason why Chuck Schumer would not want to shut
down the government is because there is a belief in
democratic leadership that if we don't do anything, if we
just make people think that we don't exist, then the
midterms will be exclusively a referendum on Trump, and that's
(17:25):
what we need to win, and it is it could work, certainly,
like in a secular cycle environment, it should work. There
are headwinds in so far as like there's going to
be redistricting.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
It didn't work in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
It did not work in twenty twenty four, not at all.
And if you're relying on people to be aware of
what Donald Trump is doing and why it's bad, you
nibble around the edges, like you make the issue not
extending Obamacare like.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Really is that? Like is that really that some total
of like is that even now?
Speaker 5 (18:08):
That may be part of it, but like the idea
that the Democrats don't have to take a position on
anything is a total fallacy. It is like the the
vacuum that they leave allows the Republicans to run roughshot
over them. And the it is astonishing to me that like, Okay,
(18:32):
Donald Trump is completely lying about you. The JD Vance
is out there, He's completely lying about what you're even
holding out for. How do you walk up to those
microphones in that press conference right right? Just as a
political matter, the only time that you are guaranteed to
have the news cover what you say broadly speaking, is
(18:53):
when you walk out of that meeting with the president,
and so you get up there and you don't say, well,
we're we're about extensions on Obamacare and recision and pocket recision.
Nobody knows what that means. I mean, you and I
know what that means. But we do this professionally. You
get up there and you go. Donald Trump has been
(19:13):
cutting services for people illegally. Donald Trump wants to raise
your insurance rates. We want to stop that, and we're
not going to sign on to this unless he agrees
to it. Donald Trump is destroying farmers with tariffs.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
We want to stop that.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
You and I know that has nothing to do with
the budget, but you could restore Congress's ability to shut
down the tariffs. And you know what they're lying, Wake
up and smell the effing coffee. It is example after
example after example of the failure of democratic leadership to
(19:49):
understand this moment. They may win by pretending they don't exist.
I don't know where they go from there. Frankly, it's
probably you know, I mean, we saw what happens when
you do that. I mean, that's what Kama Harris ran on,
like no change, But I think that's leaving a lot
up to chance. Frankly, you need to have a message,
(20:14):
and I cannot tell you what the Democratic message is
because they have explicitly avoided having one. No, I mean
you can read you can read Carvel from February. Don't
do anything is what he said, and they are following
that to a t.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
So it was a really good piece in the New
York Times opinion section yesterday about the idea that there's
a class war coming to the Democratic Party that I'm
not sure did you read that piece.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
I haven't read that piece, but I that would not
surprise me.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
The story about how you either run as populous or
you basically give up. I mean, that's essentially what that.
There is a populist lane, and it's available. Almost nothing
else is available.
Speaker 7 (21:09):
Really, what I mean, what else you tell me, like
even like even as a like Kama Harris ran as,
I am republican friendly at least you know Cheney style republicanism,
which it didn't work.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
That did not work.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
No, there are not a lot of white women who
loveless Cheney who have decided they're going to vote for Democrats.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
It's it's even worse than that. What they did is
they basically said, Donald Trump is not part of the establishment,
right because we have the establisher right here. We are
the Republicans and the Democrats. He's somewhere out he's like
a third party.
Speaker 8 (21:46):
And that made him a little more like that's great.
I mean, Donald trumple's running on as a change candidate
and as an outsider. And Kamala Harris went around the
country and said he's an outsider and he's going to
bring change and we're not.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
But as a I mean, what is the other option?
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I mean, first of all, aside from the fact that
we desperately need that, because if you look at like
all the economic indicators, and this is why I think
the Biden administration got caught up the economic industry indicators
on you know, like top line paper. I think things
are going to start to look worse soon. But the
reason why they're maintaining is because we have such incredible
(22:28):
wealth and equality in this country that literally twenty percent
of the people are scaffolding all of these economic numbers.
And it does not tell us the story. These economic
indicators do not tell us the story that they used
to tell us thirty years ago or forty years ago.
Because we have such incredible wealth inequality. Now that a
(22:52):
concentrated group of people can support what looks like good
economic indications while eighty percent of the population suffers. You
need to address this. We need a popular economic populism
without a doubt. What fascinates me about the only thing
that's attempted to rival it is this sort of like
amorphous abundance agenda, which is, you know, backed by open
(23:17):
AI people. They've done the hundred wait.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Wait, wait wait, I want you to do this because
Jesse is obsessed with this. I think it needs a
little more of an explainer. So there's a lane in
the Democratic Party that's populism, and that's Mondnnie, that's AOC,
that's Bernie, that's people who actually breaks her. And then
there's this other Murphy.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
We should say, like Murphy's trying to get into this, Yes, Murphy,
you know, I think like even Van Holland is starting
to get there.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
I mean, look, that's where it's that's where it's going.
It's so right, like.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
It has to in our house. We don't say van who,
we say van Holland, right, right, But I want you
to talk about this sort of highly astro turf abundance agenda.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
There was a real concern that, you know, and I
had my problems with the Biden administration, particularly in the
context of Gaza and Israel. As it turns out, probably
the majority of the country did too. But be that
as it may, the Biden administ administration was full of
people who were pro labor and full of people who
(24:24):
were anti concentrations of wealth that manifested itself in the
you know, anti trust and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
It's like Lena Khan.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Lena Khan, Jonathan Canter at the DOJ others, you know,
sort of like Warrenites and sand to Rights. In many respects,
in those two areas there was a Kamala Harris represented
an opportunity for people who don't like those agendas to
you know who whose business is a function of weakening
(24:56):
labor standards or concentrate of wealth i e. Big tech,
largely gig economy.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
Her brother in law famously was like one of the council.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
For uber Tony.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
She had I can't remember her name now, woman who
worked with her on her debate prep was literally representing
Google in the anti trust site that the US government
was bringing.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
So lots of sense corporations are people too.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Corporations are people too. Mark Cuban's coming in as a
spokesperson say we're gonna get rid of this anti trust stuff,
but they had no sort of like movement behind it.
And simultaneously, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson were compiling essays
that they'd written over the years, some of which, as
her clients, were largely about local housing regulations to build
(25:49):
more housing. Derek's were He had a big piece about
why grants weren't given to scientists.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
And they needed to stitch it together.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
And if you've read the book, which I have, the
idea that the anti tax movement that spurred that inhibited
government research can be tied together with local housing projects
or environmental policies that inhibited growth supposedly is a big stretch,
but they needed to do it for the book, and
(26:17):
I think they thought like, Okay, this is going to
be sort of like, you know, biting around the margins
of a second Biden term. But Harris came in. It
gave an opportunity for these people to come in and
maybe get a hold of this administration. The tech people
wanted to promote the book. They put one hundred and
twenty million dollars behind an abundance thing. You can google it.
(26:41):
They decided to do it. I think it was like
a couple months ago. It was like a you know,
under the abundance rubric, and I think it became an
attempt to create a counter movement. But there's no constituency
for this movement. And the idea that like we need
to get rid of housing regulations for public housing that
(27:03):
is too precious about asthma, you know, filters when housing
is built near a highway to you know, prevent asthma.
I mean, I'm sure there are housing regulations in San
Francisco that could use reform, But to make this a
broad movement, that's been the only sort of pushback, and
it's unclear, you know. And Ezra just I think got
(27:26):
sort of taken apart a little bit by Todd and
Hasey Coats this week about saying that we should have
candidates that are anti abortion, which is also sort of
like a retread, like you can start with progressive populism,
you know, some type of economic populism, and then within
the context of like more red conservatively socialized states, you
can allow for some latitude for these people, but there
(27:51):
needs to be a fundamental why does the Democratic Party exist?
The only space for them to do that, it seems
to me, is to follow like an FDR for freedoms
type of variant, which is, you know, people should have
the freedom to live their lives without fear of a
health crisis bankrupting them. And people should be able to
(28:17):
support themselves with a high, you know, quality job and
not feel like captured by their employers. And we should
not have huge amounts of concentrated wealth, which breeds concentrated power.
We've seen this, like we just saw four people basically
financed Donald Trump's campaign.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
So I don't know what the opposite.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
I don't know what the alternative is to an economic populism,
but it is really things are not going to go
back to the way they were. Donald Trump has already
eviscerated huge swaths of our government functions, and we're going
to have to have a fundamental change in our politics,
(29:01):
both as a political matter to get elected in.
Speaker 6 (29:04):
My opinion, and as a.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
Policy matter slash political matter to get re elected. There's
going to have to there's going to have to be
real delivering of an economic justice essentially where the other
eighty percent of the country gets to participate in what
the twenty percent is participating.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
In now, Sam Cedar, thank you, Thank.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
You, Molly.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Ben Collins is the editor of The Onion and their
new movie Jeffrey Epstein Bad Pedophile, is out on October third.
Welcome to Fast Politics, Ben Collins.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Thank you for having me, Molly. It's been a very
nice time since the last seen him.
Speaker 8 (29:48):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Thanks.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Have gotten progressively better in America since I last seenis hurtainly?
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Is that true? I don't think that is true. That's
that patented onion sarcasm. So you're on to talk about something,
but I want, you know, first explain to us what
you do and how you do it, because I think
our listener's going to be super psyched. So tell us
what you do.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Yeah, I'm gonna see you of the Onion. I make
sure The Onion still exists, which is a very difficult
task considering what it is. We try to find the
sentence that kind of everybody's thinking about on a day
day basis but can't say out loud for either because
they're afraid to say it or because they don't have
the vocabulary for it. Certainly there's a lot of people
afraid to say it right now, so like business is
booming to that effect. We're very proud to expand into
(30:31):
a different realm this week, and I will talk to
you about that if possible.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, But I mean it is very cool that you
guys save The Onion from bankruptcy, created this amazing thing
that now millions of people read right, millions of people.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Yeah, The Onion in terms of scope and scale is
larger than it's ever been. We have we're growing one
hundred percent something year over year in terms of social
media perssons and stuff. And now we have a physical
newspaper again that fifty seven thousand people get mail.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Yeah, So I'm fucking believable someone who all I want
is for there to be a real, like thriving media.
This is pretty amazing. But now not just satisfied with
being one of the very few media outlets that is
still alive, you guys have branched out, so talk to
me about this.
Speaker 6 (31:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
This week we are releasing a documentary called Jeffrey Epstein,
Bad Pedophile tell us More. Yeah, I personally don't think
he's good Jeffrey Epstein, but some people can disagree. Wala,
do you want to go on a limb here?
Speaker 1 (31:32):
No?
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Okay, good, I think.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Now tell us why you decided to make this movie.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Yeah. So there's a big hairy deal about this whole
thing and how it came about and why it's in
weird independent theaters all throughout the country right now. So
about now, about eight weeks ago, the staff was sitting
around and they were talking about how they wanted to
something weird and big, big and different about Jeffrey Epstein.
This is around the time that Trump started having super
dodgy about it and like start realize that there's something
going on there. There was that probably wasn't gonna go away.
(32:03):
So we do let to turn a screw here at
the onion when we see the opportunity and this to
do it. What we decided to do was put O
and n our wonderful flagship YouTube series Union News Network
on Hiatus fer Met and have him go whole hog
on one specific topic, which is Jeffrey Epstein. So within
a couple of days they came up with a script
(32:23):
that was unbelievable, incredibly funny, and we're like, just go
at it. Do what you gotta do by whatever you
got to buy, they bought, I believe. I remember most alarming.
One day I walked in and there was a chainsaw
with fake blood all over it. So that's the kind
of thing that is in this that is in this documentary.
So it's really good, it's really funny, and anyone we
showed it to I was like, what can we do?
Speaker 5 (32:43):
How can we help?
Speaker 4 (32:44):
So we had a national theater chain that was about
to air this all throughout the country on October second,
which is Thursday, and then Charlie Kirkott shot, which is
horrible and a horrific thing to happen. But the immediate
reaction of that distributor was, oh, is Donald Trump in this?
And by the way, I never actually the pr team
around that theater never actually watched the movie. They just asked,
(33:05):
is Donald Trump in it? And we're like, yeah, Donald
Trumps in it. But I can't explain this to you.
He's in the nineteen ninety five Chicago Bulls in this movie.
I can't explain The studio wait, what, yeah, I know
you'll see and they said, okay, well we're pulling it.
So they pulled the distribution for this thing. So we
went from having national distribution for this movie to none
(33:26):
because Jeffrey Epstein is friends with Donald Trump, who was
friends with Charlie Kirk. And I just think if we're
in a situation in this country where if you can't
make fun of the world's biggest pedophile because he was
friends with a guy who was friends with the guy,
then we have gone further off the deep band in
terms of speech problems. Then you would anticipate then the
Jimmy Kimmel stuff happened as well, like that was this
(33:46):
is all precursor to that. Nowhere near that level. Obviously,
nobody made a phone call from the FCC to be like,
don't air this thing. We still decided, like, you know what,
We're not gonna can this thing. We're gonna get back
on the horse. And we called every independent theater we knew,
and within a few days and we told people, if
you want to air this thing in your theater, you
can just have it for free. And within a few
days we were in I think we're now up to
(34:07):
like thirty or forty, maybe fifty, I don't know how many,
but we're in many more theaters than we were before,
and independent theaters all throughout the country are airing this
thing on Thursday night. Most of them are sold outs.
We're airing this one from like Droplin, Missouri, to Prince
Edward Island, you know, to Manhattan and LA and in Chicago.
It's an event, and I'm very proud of everybody for
stepping up, Like indie theaters, indie media throughout the world
(34:27):
right now is stepping up when everybody else is really failing.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
So why do you think that satire matters? Because we've seen,
like we're in this moment where there's been you know,
basically a takeover of everything in a way that is
kind of shocking. Kimmel was I think meaningful because it
showed that people don't want their their freedom of expression
(34:52):
taken away, you know. But there are very few sort
of lights in the darkness, and I'm thinking about like
South Park is another one. Why do you think this
this is happening? And why do you think that you're surviving?
Speaker 4 (35:03):
First of all, I think it's happening because of a
bunch of billionaires decided it needed to happen. The guy
who just took over the did the whole CBS takeover
the Ellison family, which just took over CBS fired Stephen
Colbert is going to replace it with Barry Weis's fun
little anti woke situation. It is also attempting to buy
Warner Brothers and is buying TikTok right, one guy.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
The richest guy in the world for the second richest
guy in the world.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Yeah, the Ellison family, they're all friends and family with
Donald Trump. Right. They also own Oracle, which drives and
funnels a lot of money to a lot of people
in the tech world on the software as a service
and business and business side. There so one side, and
then you've you know, obviously of the Murdocks. The Murdocks
and the are now going to be the second largest
far rights owners of major media companies. There's really not
(35:51):
be on the other side, and the people could be
on the other side are just making deals because we're
in it, by the way, separately, by the way, we
are in an AI bubble. And this is like YouTube yesterday.
YouTube kind of deal instead of fighting a very easy
to win lawsuit with the with the administration, they kind
of deal because they're going to need to be in
line when the AI bailouts happen in a few months.
(36:14):
Maybe you know, if we're lucky, maybe a few years
so because the AI bubble is holding up the United
States colomy present. So this moment, yeah, all of these things,
you know, this is all out in the open. These
this is always George Carlin once said, it's all one
big club, and you ain't in it. The good news
is independent people and people with hearts and oolts who
(36:36):
don't want to be a part of this thing can
still fight back. But you have your podcast. That's why
a lot of people out in the world are thriving
independent media right now. That's why Jimmy Kimble, who I
know to be a very good person who does everything
you can to get up and coming comedians onto his
shows and supports people who don't have any sort of
runway into that industry. He supports those people. That's why
(36:56):
he stood up. It's because he's he has value. And
by the way, I just want to make it clear,
when you stand up against this guy, it's not just
good for the soul, it's not just good for the country.
It's good for the bottom line. I wish more people
understood this. Yeah, people won't like this shit, what is
going on right now. People don't fucking like it. They
don't want to be a part of it. And when
you stand up to this guy, when you stand for
(37:16):
this administration, people come to you. Jimmy Jimmy kmble of
the second high rated show of all time, and this
is when he started twenty years ago, Ratings across the
board were like ten times what they are now. He's
going to be the late night show that survived because
of this. We saw this as well here at the Onion.
We had a crossroads moment after the election where we
could have, you know, made slice of life jokes all
day long about how sandwiches taste funny or whatever, or
(37:39):
we could actually, you know, stand up for what this
place is. We've written things of the Supreme Court in
favor of the first Amount. In the past, we've done
all this stuff in fairs of the first Amount, because
that's what we are principled about speech. So we didn't
take a step back here and say we're not going
to fight. We took a step back here and said
we're the only people left, so we may as well
give it a shot.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Yeah, that only people laugh, so we might as well
give it a shot. I've had that dot like so
many times. Yeah, you know, like, haven't you had that
thought constantly?
Speaker 4 (38:10):
We're standing on the rubble of what our immediate ecosystem
used to be, and the only people who don't see
it that way are the people who own the rubble.
Those people are buying dead platforms, they're buying remnants, and
the real influence comes with what's next. I'm not like
giving Democrats advice here, I'm just saying, don't fight the
last war. The last war's there is a wide open
(38:33):
lane into the future to build something on top of
this rubble. You know, we've done this for the last year,
and we've had a lot of success in building a
We're like Painfleteers. We built a newspaper in twenty four
in twenty twenty five that is enormous. We're going to
be the We are the I think number eleven or
twelve based news paper in the United States right now.
(38:54):
It's because people want to support this. People want to
support people fighting back and saying funny stuff, joking around
and being on the right side here.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
People want news. And since almost all the newspapers are
gone because they were rolled up by private equity shops,
like people actually want what we do.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
Yes, there's no question. We are in an environment where,
just as in the future there will be like water wars,
we are in an information where the best information you
can get, the best way to protect your family from
all this stuff unfortunately costs money now, which is really
really right. I wish somebody would create this publication. But
if you were to have a kid right now, you
would be absolutely bombarded with complete fucking bullshit. You would
(39:38):
tell your kid, you would tell the parent not to
have tail in all for some fucking reason, you would
not get your kid vaccinated because you're trusting the government
and now and all that is wrong in what elites
do in those moments. They are getting their kids vaccinated,
they're taking time, but they have better access information because
they can pay for it. So now we're kind of
all in this mode. Have to do what we can
(40:00):
to give that information that only the elites get, the
only the really rich people get while they lie in public,
and give them the real information at the at the
lower level. And that's what independent media can and should
do here. And we have to do a service to people.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I think you're thinking about like RFK who got his
kids vacs and ate it but is anti vax right.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
Yeah, I'm thinking of all of them, got them cut
their kids back, their anti vacus exact. They don't, they
don't believe it. They're just selling you stuff.
Speaker 7 (40:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Yeah, it is kind of amazing that we got here.
I mean, I feel like you and I have been
doing this for such a long time, Like I knew
you at NBC. It does feel like, you know, we
are like in the dystopia in a way that I
never thought we would be.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
I think about this all the time, almost every night
we go to bed. Kat and I talked to talk
about this all time. Kat, my girlfriends. Kata would zale
the lady. You got fucking power bombed by ice a
couple of weeks ago. It's horrible for Congress, right for Congress,
and you should go. But we talked about all the
Times's just like why is it us? Why is it
because I'm incumbent on us? Like I'm the joky funny guy, right,
(41:03):
so kind of is she? And so kind of are you?
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (41:07):
No, all, but we're like the last people who were
just like no, I just refuse to accept that this
is how I'm going to live for the rest of
my life is under the thumb of this shit. I
don't want to be that. I want to go home
and hang on my fucking cat and I want to yeah,
like watch basketball and go to a concert once every
two weeks. That's what I wanted. But we have to
do this because otherwise you don't have the castball, you
(41:29):
don't have the cat, you don't have a concert.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
It sucks.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
Why is it just us ball?
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Well, it's funny because it's like, you know, my grandpa
was called him from McCarthy in the House of Non
American Activities and refuse to name names. He never struck
me as like such a brave guy. I mean I
knew him like twenty years later when he was like
grand standing in front of people and like this was
like the thing he had done, which was like had
faded from memory, but it happened. This is the only choice.
(41:56):
There's no other choices. I wish there.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
Were, so I when I was I grew up in
a house of the guy who was in Antifa. Sure
there was a guy. It was a despots who went
out there and the first thing he did was like,
get to ban the study of gender. We have to
put trans people out of their misery. We have to
kill all the gay people. And then he started going
after people based on their religious persuasion, what they looked like.
(42:20):
So I were rounding people off the street, people with
masks on and fatigues in the middle of the street
used to take him out. And my grandfather was called
to service in Antifa, which is called the United States
Government right to the to the Western Front, and he
ran a pow camp of Nazis and he didn't talk
about it. I grew up in a house with my
grandparents and my parents and we did all the money,
(42:42):
and he didn't really talk about it. Then he went
back home and he worked at a shoe factory and
then he retired, and my grandmother was a teacher's aid,
and neither of them talked about it because it's fucking horrible.
And I remember I had to ask him for a
school project about that stevent He's like, I'm not going
to talk about it. And many, many many years later,
a couple of years ago, Thanksgiving twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen something,
somebody found a bunch of parapherne earlia. They found like
(43:05):
maps and all these things, and they found out who's
pretty decorated war veteran, and we just didn't know until
well after he did it, because when you go into
these moments, you are entering such a difficult time that
no matter when you're on the other side of it,
all that matters is that you survived. I only knew
him as like an incredibly kind hearted guy who like
(43:26):
used to bring me bowling and stuff. And we were
about to enter this time that we don't talk about.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
We're in it.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
We're in All I can say is that, and I could, right, yeah,
that's all we can do.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
It's real dark, and you know, and we don't know
how it's gonna go. We don't know that it's gonna
I mean, this country, this is who we are, and
we've gotten through things like this before and we'll get
through it again. But it's it's real dark.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
And I don't know how to bring people out of
it other than just just like make fun of them.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
And we see this with like, you know, the way
in which Governor Newsom's Twitter has done really well because
he's able to show the absurdity of this situation. I
think that is what is missing from a lot of
this is and that's what the Onion does so well
is and that's what Southburk does was show the absurdity
(44:21):
of the situation, because when you're in it, you don't
see it.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
Yeah, I hope you guys get to go see this movie. Well,
it'll be a wider release at some point. But like,
we've normalized so much of this that even you know
the premise of Jeffrey Epstein, this guy was the world's
foremost human trafficker and he was potentially the best friend
of the President of the United States who's doing an authorit
tarrent take over the United States. And the way we
talk about it as it's as if it's just like,
(44:45):
you know, another media story, which is a clearly bananas.
What this does, I will say this is the documentary
is like, second by second the funniest thing I've seen,
like in since like Airplane and I really really mean that.
In the joke, eggs and bits like work independently, but
at the end you leave it feeling like I'm easy
because of the end of this day, I'm not going
(45:06):
to give away like the way we treat this, We
treated this like every other weird little scandal that happened,
and what it is is actually an incredible indictment of
wealth and power and how all the world's worst people
coalesce around each other to cover up their stuff. That's
what this documentary is about. But we are look, it's
(45:26):
it's also it's funny by the way, you should watch it.
But like, look, we have the tools that we have.
I hope everybody understands their role in this moment. Everybody's
got tools. Everybody can. Everybody can talk to your neighbor
and be like, look, don't you see what's happening here?
And everybody does that.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Ben Collins, thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
Molly a moment.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Jesse Cannon I junk fast.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
So a handful of states are going to end their
nutrition education programs after Trump's cuts.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
This is like the stuff of low lifes do.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
It's the only thing that comes to mind is that
when you're going to say your poor, your child, we're
no longer going to support you having nutrition. It's really
the lowest of the will.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, but you know what, this is what they're doing.
They don't want to do this. You know, they're cutting snap,
They're cutting all of these medicaid. You know, this is
what the BBB did, was cut all these programs. That's
what these Republicans signed off on. And that's what we're
going to see is just cuts and cuts and cuts.
You know, here we are. That's it for this episode
(46:36):
of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and
Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make sense
of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast, please
send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Thanks for listening.
Hi, I'm Molly John Fast and this is Fast Politics,
where we discussed the top political headlines with some of
today's best minds. And Governor Pritzker says, in any other country,
if federal agents fired upon journalists and protesters when unprovoked,
what would we call it? If federal agents march down
busy streets, harassing civilians and demanding their papers, what would
(00:24):
we say? I don't think we'd have any trouble calling
it what it is, authoritarianism. We have such a great
show for you today, The Majority Report, Sam Cedar stops
by to talk all things government Shutdown. Then we'll talk
to the CEO of the Onion, Ben Collins, about how
Trump's retribution shut down his new mockumentary Jeffrey Epstein Bad Pedophile.
(00:50):
But first the news.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
So Moley, the grift is coming from inside the house.
A camera woman captured Scott Besen texting exposing the mystery
we've all been wondered about. Why the fuck are we
giving Argentina all this money?
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Why are we giving Argentina all this money?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
I think you should read what it's set it in
the little text message from the Agriculture Sky Secretary.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
So here's the text message She's worried China has outmaneuvered
the US by buying up Argentine soybeans at the expense
of our farmers, even as the administration plans to bail
out Argentina with billions of dollars. What's nice about this
administration is that everything is so stupid.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Yeah, So Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rowins was texting and
basically saying, this is a real bad, bad, bad idea
for our ecotomy.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yes, and you'll be shocked to hear, but she's right.
She is very much right, very very much right. Look
how Scott Bessant got photographed, How this text got for
I mean, there's just so much stupid to unpack here
Scott betch than texting photographs of it. I mean, just
(02:01):
all bad and nutty. And also why and again, why
are we bailing out Argentina? Why someone explained to me
why we're bailing at Argentina.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Because what we've voted for was for these people to
be grifting as much as they would like. It's the
freedom to grift, is administration.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
The freedom to grift, that is correct. So there we
are Donald Trump grifting away because he loves freedom, and
in this case, the freedom to grift Somalia.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
You've explained to listeners before that I have this rule
that I don't like to talk about things that are
coming up when there's so much things to analyze that
have happened. But I've been waiting, like it's Christmas morning
for mister Trump and Pete Hegsath to address our military leaders.
Speaker 3 (02:47):
Today. It was Christmas of stupid. I got Cole.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
All of these top military leaders from around the world,
from places like Taiwan, you know, wherever they were stationed.
Pete hegg Seth brought everyone back to Quantico, Virginia, and
he made this speech that covered a lot of stupid,
preparing for war and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising
(03:13):
in that pursuit. Not because we want war, No one
here wants war, but because we love peace. Like real
nineteen eighty four stuff, Got a war so that you
can have peace. Got his strength so you can be weak.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
Don't forget the war on woke, Molly.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
He spent a lot of time complaining about woke. He
spent a lot of time complaining about people being fat.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
Ironically, there was somebody there on stage with him.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
He cursed well, and then Donald Trump got up there.
I mean, what I think is interesting is like, clearly
hag Seth wanted to make a political speech. Remember there
is a low key succession war going on behind the scenes,
and it's like RFK Junior versus Pete hegg Seth versus JD.
Van's Like, this is happening because as you know, the
(04:01):
more exhausted Donald Trump is as he reads the teleprompter,
the more that that crew is all fighting behind the scenes.
So super interesting to watch heg sas decide that he's
going to get this speech and then Donald Trump to
come in and be like, and I'm speaking too, because
remember that was never the plan until pretty recently.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Yeah, but what has been the plan for quite a
while is this deploying military members to train in the
streets thing. I think this is the more worrisome statement,
even if it was poorly worded or something that gets
defeated a lot, because it really shows that they're talking
about this all the time, and it's not good.
Speaker 1 (04:40):
Right, I mean, this is this thing of trying to
get the troops in cities. It's not good. It breaks
the law that passe Commentita's Act says that you can't
just send troops willing Nelly.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
It's all bad.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
It's all bad, it's all scary, it's all worrying, it's
all not what we do in this country, Somali.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
We had a lot of fun drops from the Epstein
files last week.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Three different ones, and soon we're going to have the
great Jason Leopold on to talk about all of this
data that they are all of his information about Epstein
that they are dropping. There is a ton of information
about Epstein. And what's interesting to me is you have
the House Oversight Committee that has been really well run
(05:25):
by the Great Robert Garcia, friend of the show, friend
of mine also, who's done a really good job being
out there getting the information. He got, the birthday book
he got, you know, he's subpoenaed stuff, he's gotten it.
You Know what's interesting is sometimes when Democrats are doing
really well, you don't see it because you just see
(05:47):
the information and you don't necessarily understand how you got it.
But Robert Garcia is the head of Oversight and he
has really done an excellent job, and he took over
for Jerry Connelly. As you know, this is some thing
that's gotten got me very upset because I felt that
Jerry Connolly was not the right person for the job.
So now there is a new candidate that has won
(06:09):
in Arizona. Her father was the member of Congress before
he died. She has run, she has won. Her name
is Adelita Grihava. She's a Democrat from Arizona. She will
be the two hundred and eighteen signature on the Epstein
Files discharge petition once she's sworn in. You know who
doesn't want to swear her in? Mike Johnson. Mike Johnson
(06:33):
doesn't want to swear in because Mike Johnson doesn't want
to release the Epstein files. And Representative Catherine Clark, also
friend of the show, the number two Democrat in the House.
She's going to come out swinging, which I think is
really the right thing in this Any delay in swearing
and representative elect necessarily deprives her constituents of representation and
(06:55):
calls into question if the motives behind the delay is
to further upoid the release of the Epstein files, which
why else would why else would Mike Johnson do this?
Why else? What would the other reason he would do
for not doing this?
Speaker 2 (07:13):
There's no other reason Aside from that, they play dirty,
which is what I wish there would be even a
little bit of effort on Hakeeman Schumer's side would be
just give me twenty five percent of the energy that
they give.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
Please.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
Yeah, but it's good that she was out there, and
it's good that she was talking about it, and it
is for sure, for sure the right thing. But yes,
that is true. Sam Cedar is the host of The
Majority Report. Sam Cedar, Welcome to Fast.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
Politics, Molly, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Governments get a shut down. Everything's going great.
Speaker 5 (07:51):
I am of the opinion that the government has been
more or less inoperative for months, short of its fascist
wing that they have deployed to Chicago, in LA and
the city coming to you Tennessee.
Speaker 6 (08:09):
You know, look, there's been.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
A lot of ice activity in New York as well,
in the Bronx and bedsty and we're just going to
get more of that. But in the meantime the other
government functions. In fact, this week there's one hundred and
fifty four thousand government employees who took the buyout, which
is the highest number I think ever on record for
a year. They have not been working for months. We've
(08:32):
been paying them, they've not been working for months. I mean,
so government shutdowns are bad as a political matter. I
think the American public is going to be aware of
what is happening in a way that they haven't been
aware until now. And part of that is a failure
of political leadership from the Democrats too, in my estimation,
(08:53):
democratic leadership, I.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Should say, yeah, you know, like I spend a lot
of time thinking about how different it was in twenty
sixteen than it is now, Like how in twenty sixteen
there was a feeling that this is not who we are,
and in twenty twenty four there's a feeling this is
exactly who we are, right Like.
Speaker 5 (09:14):
Yeah, I mean I think that feeling is also a
function of like where you and I might sit in society.
I mean I had conversations I remember, explicitly, you know,
having conversations with black people, brown people who are like
not surprised at all, this is exactly who we are.
(09:34):
But yes, I think that there was a much bigger
surprise element. The other big factor, frankly, was the courts
did not have two hundred and fifty Trump appointees in
twenty sixteen, and Russell Vote had not had four years
to figure out how to do this in a way
(09:55):
that would would be more expedient, and then I would
say there was far greater unity now the Republican Party,
you know, the last vestiges of what the Republican Party
were killed off, so there was no pretending anymore.
Speaker 6 (10:10):
And they were in Bolden.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Because they were let back in. So all those things
are different. It's a very different environment, I think. On
the Democratic side, I think there is also a different
environment because there is a I think, at least amongst
like people, not so much necessarily the political class, awareness
of their political late leaders failing to meet the moment.
(10:37):
I really do think that's out there. I mean, you
see it in the polling. Democrats are a poll worse
than Republicans, you know, even.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
Though it's all slightly better but still not well.
Speaker 5 (10:49):
Okay, I mean slightly better. I mean, I think these
people are still going to vote for Democrats largely, but
the dissatisfaction with Democrats between the dissatisfaction Democrats in twenty
sixteen and Democrats now, it's more Democrats who are dissatisfied
with the Democratic Party, and that I think is is
(11:10):
much more pronounced.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
I mean, there are a number of really bad things
happening at once. But it does feel as if there's
also a sort of tea party movement in the Democratic Party.
Speaker 5 (11:21):
Yeah, but if you're saying that there is an insurgency
and there's a grassroots like a sort of dissatisfaction, I
think that's absolutely true. I think it's necessarily different because
of the way that the Democratic Party has viewed its
base and populism versus the way that Republicans did. So
it's it's, you know, it's gonna be a struggle. It
(11:43):
played out in the Harris campaign, I think too, and
I think it's you know, it's pretty clear who won
that argument. And I think a lot of what we're
seeing now is the tide is turning and it's going
to play out. It's gonna get you know, like, look
to me if you want to see how this really
plays out in.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
My mind, Graham Platner, and if Mills jumps in at Mills.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
Yeah, if Mills jumps in and she will as the
as Chuck Schumer and Christian Gillier Joe Brand's candidate, You're
going to see it play out there. And I think
that's going to be really an important primary.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
Do you think she jumps in, because my sense is
that at seventy nine, running for the Senate is kind
of I mean, she said she doesn't want to.
Speaker 5 (12:33):
Has she I read as like as recently as a
week ago that she was leaning towards it.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Okay, so I mean maybe she does. But what I
had read lost.
Speaker 6 (12:43):
Do I think she wants it?
Speaker 5 (12:44):
I imagine she probably wants to retire, But I think she's
also getting a lot of pressure from, like I say,
the Senate Campaign Committee and Chuck Schumer. I absolutely think
it's a huge mistake to run somebody who's going to
be seventy nine when they.
Speaker 6 (13:00):
Turn into the governorship.
Speaker 5 (13:01):
But this is where I think that that dynamic is
playing out, where you have Schumer and Jillibrand pushing someone
in a desperate attempt to I think, I mean, I
don't know what. I don't know how someone a rational
person thinks this is a good idea, particularly in this environment,
particularly when we lost the last election because we had
(13:22):
a candidate who you know, originally was you know, too
old and would not concede that notion. Where we've had
we are waiting on releasing the Epstein files to seat
a Democrat because we lost three Democrats to death in
the past nine months where we watched Dianne Feinstein, and
(13:44):
by Diane Feinstein, really we have to say, like her
staff essentially keep her in office all the things that
we saw in terms of the Supreme Court and whatnot.
I don't know if it would have made a difference
we had somebody who was sort of you know, aware
of her surroundings at that time. But I mean to
not see the abject fallacy of perceiving a candidate to
(14:05):
be strong at age seventy nine as they enter into
the office, I think is just insane.
Speaker 1 (14:10):
It's repeating a mistake the party has recently made. There
are just a bunch of different sort of arguments for
and against the shutdown, which is we are which by
the time people listen to this will be either about
to go into it or have just gone into it.
There's an argument to be made. I mean, the base,
the Democratic base definitely wants a shutdown, and Jeffreys Camp
(14:33):
has wanted a shutdown since March, right, I mean, they
were for a shutdown in March. So there is an argument.
And it was Schumer who caved in March because of
the threats of you know that it will mean more
power for the Trump administration. So there's an arguments.
Speaker 5 (14:50):
Sensibly right right, public argument was yes, right.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
But again so there is an argument to be made
that shutting down the government actually elevates the fight about healthcare.
But again it's a dangerous gambal because Trump is already
saying that it's about healthcare for illegals, and what is
true and not true in this post truth world doesn't
necessarily matter if enough people believe it. So do you
(15:19):
think it's good, do you think it's bad? And where
do you come down on.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
I think they should have done this. In March, Donald
Trump put out a video after Chuck Schumer had come
out and said, I think the President has finally heard us.
Which it's very nice of Chuck Schumer to say that
Donald Trump is a reasonable person and know he is listening,
and remind everybody how they were locked out of the
White House and only we're allowed in at Trump's behest.
(15:43):
I mean, it is horrible, horrible politics. It's in my estimation.
But moments after, not moments an hour after Chuck Schumer
said that, Donald Trump posted an AI version of Chuck
Schumer and Hakim Jeffries. Jakim Jeffries was in a sombrero
(16:05):
with a you know, a cartoonish mustache. There was Mexican
music playing, and Chuck Schimer was saying yes.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And not to put too fine a point on it.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
And Chuck Schumer was ai generated saying, you know, everybody
hates us, and we want illegals to come in the
country because they're going to ultimately vote for us. My
point being that we didn't need a government shutdown, We
didn't need to give a trumpet an excuse he went
and did that. That is the new reality to operate
(16:38):
at this moment because you are afraid of how the
Trump administration is going to lie about you, or the
Republicans in the House are going to rely a lie
about you, and to operate in such a way that, like,
if we power enough then maybe they won't notice we're
here is absurd. The reason why Chuck Schumer is doing this,
(17:04):
the reason why Chuck Schumer would not want to shut
down the government is because there is a belief in
democratic leadership that if we don't do anything, if we
just make people think that we don't exist, then the
midterms will be exclusively a referendum on Trump, and that's
(17:25):
what we need to win, and it is it could work, certainly,
like in a secular cycle environment, it should work. There
are headwinds in so far as like there's going to
be redistricting.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
It didn't work in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
It did not work in twenty twenty four, not at all.
And if you're relying on people to be aware of
what Donald Trump is doing and why it's bad, you
nibble around the edges, like you make the issue not
extending Obamacare like.
Speaker 6 (18:03):
Really is that? Like is that really that some total
of like is that even now?
Speaker 5 (18:08):
That may be part of it, but like the idea
that the Democrats don't have to take a position on
anything is a total fallacy. It is like the the
vacuum that they leave allows the Republicans to run roughshot
over them. And the it is astonishing to me that like, Okay,
(18:32):
Donald Trump is completely lying about you. The JD Vance
is out there, He's completely lying about what you're even
holding out for. How do you walk up to those
microphones in that press conference right right? Just as a
political matter, the only time that you are guaranteed to
have the news cover what you say broadly speaking, is
(18:53):
when you walk out of that meeting with the president,
and so you get up there and you don't say, well,
we're we're about extensions on Obamacare and recision and pocket recision.
Nobody knows what that means. I mean, you and I
know what that means. But we do this professionally. You
get up there and you go. Donald Trump has been
(19:13):
cutting services for people illegally. Donald Trump wants to raise
your insurance rates. We want to stop that, and we're
not going to sign on to this unless he agrees
to it. Donald Trump is destroying farmers with tariffs.
Speaker 6 (19:27):
We want to stop that.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
You and I know that has nothing to do with
the budget, but you could restore Congress's ability to shut
down the tariffs. And you know what they're lying, Wake
up and smell the effing coffee. It is example after
example after example of the failure of democratic leadership to
(19:49):
understand this moment. They may win by pretending they don't exist.
I don't know where they go from there. Frankly, it's
probably you know, I mean, we saw what happens when
you do that. I mean, that's what Kama Harris ran on,
like no change, But I think that's leaving a lot
up to chance. Frankly, you need to have a message,
(20:14):
and I cannot tell you what the Democratic message is
because they have explicitly avoided having one. No, I mean
you can read you can read Carvel from February. Don't
do anything is what he said, and they are following
that to a t.
Speaker 1 (20:34):
So it was a really good piece in the New
York Times opinion section yesterday about the idea that there's
a class war coming to the Democratic Party that I'm
not sure did you read that piece.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
I haven't read that piece, but I that would not
surprise me.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
The story about how you either run as populous or
you basically give up. I mean, that's essentially what that.
There is a populist lane, and it's available. Almost nothing
else is available.
Speaker 7 (21:09):
Really, what I mean, what else you tell me, like
even like even as a like Kama Harris ran as,
I am republican friendly at least you know Cheney style republicanism,
which it didn't work.
Speaker 6 (21:24):
That did not work.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
No, there are not a lot of white women who
loveless Cheney who have decided they're going to vote for Democrats.
Speaker 5 (21:32):
It's it's even worse than that. What they did is
they basically said, Donald Trump is not part of the establishment,
right because we have the establisher right here. We are
the Republicans and the Democrats. He's somewhere out he's like
a third party.
Speaker 8 (21:46):
And that made him a little more like that's great.
I mean, Donald trumple's running on as a change candidate
and as an outsider. And Kamala Harris went around the
country and said he's an outsider and he's going to
bring change and we're not.
Speaker 6 (22:02):
But as a I mean, what is the other option?
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I mean, first of all, aside from the fact that
we desperately need that, because if you look at like
all the economic indicators, and this is why I think
the Biden administration got caught up the economic industry indicators
on you know, like top line paper. I think things
are going to start to look worse soon. But the
reason why they're maintaining is because we have such incredible
(22:28):
wealth and equality in this country that literally twenty percent
of the people are scaffolding all of these economic numbers.
And it does not tell us the story. These economic
indicators do not tell us the story that they used
to tell us thirty years ago or forty years ago.
Because we have such incredible wealth inequality. Now that a
(22:52):
concentrated group of people can support what looks like good
economic indications while eighty percent of the population suffers. You
need to address this. We need a popular economic populism
without a doubt. What fascinates me about the only thing
that's attempted to rival it is this sort of like
amorphous abundance agenda, which is, you know, backed by open
(23:17):
AI people. They've done the hundred wait.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Wait, wait wait, I want you to do this because
Jesse is obsessed with this. I think it needs a
little more of an explainer. So there's a lane in
the Democratic Party that's populism, and that's Mondnnie, that's AOC,
that's Bernie, that's people who actually breaks her. And then
there's this other Murphy.
Speaker 5 (23:39):
We should say, like Murphy's trying to get into this, Yes, Murphy,
you know, I think like even Van Holland is starting
to get there.
Speaker 6 (23:46):
I mean, look, that's where it's that's where it's going.
It's so right, like.
Speaker 1 (23:50):
It has to in our house. We don't say van who,
we say van Holland, right, right, But I want you
to talk about this sort of highly astro turf abundance agenda.
Speaker 5 (24:01):
There was a real concern that, you know, and I
had my problems with the Biden administration, particularly in the
context of Gaza and Israel. As it turns out, probably
the majority of the country did too. But be that
as it may, the Biden administ administration was full of
people who were pro labor and full of people who
(24:24):
were anti concentrations of wealth that manifested itself in the
you know, anti trust and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
It's like Lena Khan.
Speaker 5 (24:34):
Lena Khan, Jonathan Canter at the DOJ others, you know,
sort of like Warrenites and sand to Rights. In many respects,
in those two areas there was a Kamala Harris represented
an opportunity for people who don't like those agendas to
you know who whose business is a function of weakening
(24:56):
labor standards or concentrate of wealth i e. Big tech,
largely gig economy.
Speaker 6 (25:04):
You know.
Speaker 5 (25:05):
Her brother in law famously was like one of the council.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
For uber Tony.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
She had I can't remember her name now, woman who
worked with her on her debate prep was literally representing
Google in the anti trust site that the US government
was bringing.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
So lots of sense corporations are people too.
Speaker 5 (25:24):
Corporations are people too. Mark Cuban's coming in as a
spokesperson say we're gonna get rid of this anti trust stuff,
but they had no sort of like movement behind it.
And simultaneously, Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson were compiling essays
that they'd written over the years, some of which, as
her clients, were largely about local housing regulations to build
(25:49):
more housing. Derek's were He had a big piece about
why grants weren't given to scientists.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
And they needed to stitch it together.
Speaker 5 (25:57):
And if you've read the book, which I have, the
idea that the anti tax movement that spurred that inhibited
government research can be tied together with local housing projects
or environmental policies that inhibited growth supposedly is a big stretch,
but they needed to do it for the book, and
(26:17):
I think they thought like, Okay, this is going to
be sort of like, you know, biting around the margins
of a second Biden term. But Harris came in. It
gave an opportunity for these people to come in and
maybe get a hold of this administration. The tech people
wanted to promote the book. They put one hundred and
twenty million dollars behind an abundance thing. You can google it.
(26:41):
They decided to do it. I think it was like
a couple months ago. It was like a you know,
under the abundance rubric, and I think it became an
attempt to create a counter movement. But there's no constituency
for this movement. And the idea that like we need
to get rid of housing regulations for public housing that
(27:03):
is too precious about asthma, you know, filters when housing
is built near a highway to you know, prevent asthma.
I mean, I'm sure there are housing regulations in San
Francisco that could use reform, But to make this a
broad movement, that's been the only sort of pushback, and
it's unclear, you know. And Ezra just I think got
(27:26):
sort of taken apart a little bit by Todd and
Hasey Coats this week about saying that we should have
candidates that are anti abortion, which is also sort of
like a retread, like you can start with progressive populism,
you know, some type of economic populism, and then within
the context of like more red conservatively socialized states, you
can allow for some latitude for these people, but there
(27:51):
needs to be a fundamental why does the Democratic Party exist?
The only space for them to do that, it seems
to me, is to follow like an FDR for freedoms
type of variant, which is, you know, people should have
the freedom to live their lives without fear of a
health crisis bankrupting them. And people should be able to
(28:17):
support themselves with a high, you know, quality job and
not feel like captured by their employers. And we should
not have huge amounts of concentrated wealth, which breeds concentrated power.
We've seen this, like we just saw four people basically
financed Donald Trump's campaign.
Speaker 6 (28:39):
So I don't know what the opposite.
Speaker 5 (28:41):
I don't know what the alternative is to an economic populism,
but it is really things are not going to go
back to the way they were. Donald Trump has already
eviscerated huge swaths of our government functions, and we're going
to have to have a fundamental change in our politics,
(29:01):
both as a political matter to get elected in.
Speaker 6 (29:04):
My opinion, and as a.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
Policy matter slash political matter to get re elected. There's
going to have to there's going to have to be
real delivering of an economic justice essentially where the other
eighty percent of the country gets to participate in what
the twenty percent is participating.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
In now, Sam Cedar, thank you, Thank.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
You, Molly.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Ben Collins is the editor of The Onion and their
new movie Jeffrey Epstein Bad Pedophile, is out on October third.
Welcome to Fast Politics, Ben Collins.
Speaker 4 (29:45):
Thank you for having me, Molly. It's been a very
nice time since the last seen him.
Speaker 8 (29:48):
Thanks.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Thanks.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Have gotten progressively better in America since I last seenis hurtainly?
Speaker 1 (29:52):
Is that true? I don't think that is true. That's
that patented onion sarcasm. So you're on to talk about something,
but I want, you know, first explain to us what
you do and how you do it, because I think
our listener's going to be super psyched. So tell us
what you do.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Yeah, I'm gonna see you of the Onion. I make
sure The Onion still exists, which is a very difficult
task considering what it is. We try to find the
sentence that kind of everybody's thinking about on a day
day basis but can't say out loud for either because
they're afraid to say it or because they don't have
the vocabulary for it. Certainly there's a lot of people
afraid to say it right now, so like business is
booming to that effect. We're very proud to expand into
(30:31):
a different realm this week, and I will talk to
you about that if possible.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, But I mean it is very cool that you
guys save The Onion from bankruptcy, created this amazing thing
that now millions of people read right, millions of people.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Yeah, The Onion in terms of scope and scale is
larger than it's ever been. We have we're growing one
hundred percent something year over year in terms of social
media perssons and stuff. And now we have a physical
newspaper again that fifty seven thousand people get mail.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Yeah, So I'm fucking believable someone who all I want
is for there to be a real, like thriving media.
This is pretty amazing. But now not just satisfied with
being one of the very few media outlets that is
still alive, you guys have branched out, so talk to
me about this.
Speaker 6 (31:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:19):
This week we are releasing a documentary called Jeffrey Epstein,
Bad Pedophile tell us More. Yeah, I personally don't think
he's good Jeffrey Epstein, but some people can disagree. Wala,
do you want to go on a limb here?
Speaker 1 (31:32):
No?
Speaker 4 (31:33):
Okay, good, I think.
Speaker 1 (31:34):
Now tell us why you decided to make this movie.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Yeah. So there's a big hairy deal about this whole
thing and how it came about and why it's in
weird independent theaters all throughout the country right now. So
about now, about eight weeks ago, the staff was sitting
around and they were talking about how they wanted to
something weird and big, big and different about Jeffrey Epstein.
This is around the time that Trump started having super
dodgy about it and like start realize that there's something
going on there. There was that probably wasn't gonna go away.
(32:03):
So we do let to turn a screw here at
the onion when we see the opportunity and this to
do it. What we decided to do was put O
and n our wonderful flagship YouTube series Union News Network
on Hiatus fer Met and have him go whole hog
on one specific topic, which is Jeffrey Epstein. So within
a couple of days they came up with a script
(32:23):
that was unbelievable, incredibly funny, and we're like, just go
at it. Do what you gotta do by whatever you
got to buy, they bought, I believe. I remember most alarming.
One day I walked in and there was a chainsaw
with fake blood all over it. So that's the kind
of thing that is in this that is in this documentary.
So it's really good, it's really funny, and anyone we
showed it to I was like, what can we do?
Speaker 5 (32:43):
How can we help?
Speaker 4 (32:44):
So we had a national theater chain that was about
to air this all throughout the country on October second,
which is Thursday, and then Charlie Kirkott shot, which is
horrible and a horrific thing to happen. But the immediate
reaction of that distributor was, oh, is Donald Trump in this?
And by the way, I never actually the pr team
around that theater never actually watched the movie. They just asked,
(33:05):
is Donald Trump in it? And we're like, yeah, Donald
Trumps in it. But I can't explain this to you.
He's in the nineteen ninety five Chicago Bulls in this movie.
I can't explain The studio wait, what, yeah, I know
you'll see and they said, okay, well we're pulling it.
So they pulled the distribution for this thing. So we
went from having national distribution for this movie to none
(33:26):
because Jeffrey Epstein is friends with Donald Trump, who was
friends with Charlie Kirk. And I just think if we're
in a situation in this country where if you can't
make fun of the world's biggest pedophile because he was
friends with a guy who was friends with the guy,
then we have gone further off the deep band in
terms of speech problems. Then you would anticipate then the
Jimmy Kimmel stuff happened as well, like that was this
(33:46):
is all precursor to that. Nowhere near that level. Obviously,
nobody made a phone call from the FCC to be like,
don't air this thing. We still decided, like, you know what,
We're not gonna can this thing. We're gonna get back
on the horse. And we called every independent theater we knew,
and within a few days and we told people, if
you want to air this thing in your theater, you
can just have it for free. And within a few
days we were in I think we're now up to
(34:07):
like thirty or forty, maybe fifty, I don't know how many,
but we're in many more theaters than we were before,
and independent theaters all throughout the country are airing this
thing on Thursday night. Most of them are sold outs.
We're airing this one from like Droplin, Missouri, to Prince
Edward Island, you know, to Manhattan and LA and in Chicago.
It's an event, and I'm very proud of everybody for
stepping up, Like indie theaters, indie media throughout the world
(34:27):
right now is stepping up when everybody else is really failing.
Speaker 1 (34:31):
So why do you think that satire matters? Because we've seen,
like we're in this moment where there's been you know,
basically a takeover of everything in a way that is
kind of shocking. Kimmel was I think meaningful because it
showed that people don't want their their freedom of expression
(34:52):
taken away, you know. But there are very few sort
of lights in the darkness, and I'm thinking about like
South Park is another one. Why do you think this
this is happening? And why do you think that you're surviving?
Speaker 4 (35:03):
First of all, I think it's happening because of a
bunch of billionaires decided it needed to happen. The guy
who just took over the did the whole CBS takeover
the Ellison family, which just took over CBS fired Stephen
Colbert is going to replace it with Barry Weis's fun
little anti woke situation. It is also attempting to buy
Warner Brothers and is buying TikTok right, one guy.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
The richest guy in the world for the second richest
guy in the world.
Speaker 4 (35:30):
Yeah, the Ellison family, they're all friends and family with
Donald Trump. Right. They also own Oracle, which drives and
funnels a lot of money to a lot of people
in the tech world on the software as a service
and business and business side. There so one side, and
then you've you know, obviously of the Murdocks. The Murdocks
and the are now going to be the second largest
far rights owners of major media companies. There's really not
(35:51):
be on the other side, and the people could be
on the other side are just making deals because we're
in it, by the way, separately, by the way, we
are in an AI bubble. And this is like YouTube yesterday.
YouTube kind of deal instead of fighting a very easy
to win lawsuit with the with the administration, they kind
of deal because they're going to need to be in
line when the AI bailouts happen in a few months.
(36:14):
Maybe you know, if we're lucky, maybe a few years
so because the AI bubble is holding up the United
States colomy present. So this moment, yeah, all of these things,
you know, this is all out in the open. These
this is always George Carlin once said, it's all one
big club, and you ain't in it. The good news
is independent people and people with hearts and oolts who
(36:36):
don't want to be a part of this thing can
still fight back. But you have your podcast. That's why
a lot of people out in the world are thriving
independent media right now. That's why Jimmy Kimble, who I
know to be a very good person who does everything
you can to get up and coming comedians onto his
shows and supports people who don't have any sort of
runway into that industry. He supports those people. That's why
(36:56):
he stood up. It's because he's he has value. And
by the way, I just want to make it clear,
when you stand up against this guy, it's not just
good for the soul, it's not just good for the country.
It's good for the bottom line. I wish more people
understood this. Yeah, people won't like this shit, what is
going on right now. People don't fucking like it. They
don't want to be a part of it. And when
you stand up to this guy, when you stand for
(37:16):
this administration, people come to you. Jimmy Jimmy kmble of
the second high rated show of all time, and this
is when he started twenty years ago, Ratings across the
board were like ten times what they are now. He's
going to be the late night show that survived because
of this. We saw this as well here at the Onion.
We had a crossroads moment after the election where we
could have, you know, made slice of life jokes all
day long about how sandwiches taste funny or whatever, or
(37:39):
we could actually, you know, stand up for what this
place is. We've written things of the Supreme Court in
favor of the first Amount. In the past, we've done
all this stuff in fairs of the first Amount, because
that's what we are principled about speech. So we didn't
take a step back here and say we're not going
to fight. We took a step back here and said
we're the only people left, so we may as well
give it a shot.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
Yeah, that only people laugh, so we might as well
give it a shot. I've had that dot like so
many times. Yeah, you know, like, haven't you had that
thought constantly?
Speaker 4 (38:10):
We're standing on the rubble of what our immediate ecosystem
used to be, and the only people who don't see
it that way are the people who own the rubble.
Those people are buying dead platforms, they're buying remnants, and
the real influence comes with what's next. I'm not like
giving Democrats advice here, I'm just saying, don't fight the
last war. The last war's there is a wide open
(38:33):
lane into the future to build something on top of
this rubble. You know, we've done this for the last year,
and we've had a lot of success in building a
We're like Painfleteers. We built a newspaper in twenty four
in twenty twenty five that is enormous. We're going to
be the We are the I think number eleven or
twelve based news paper in the United States right now.
(38:54):
It's because people want to support this. People want to
support people fighting back and saying funny stuff, joking around
and being on the right side here.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
People want news. And since almost all the newspapers are
gone because they were rolled up by private equity shops,
like people actually want what we do.
Speaker 4 (39:15):
Yes, there's no question. We are in an environment where,
just as in the future there will be like water wars,
we are in an information where the best information you
can get, the best way to protect your family from
all this stuff unfortunately costs money now, which is really
really right. I wish somebody would create this publication. But
if you were to have a kid right now, you
would be absolutely bombarded with complete fucking bullshit. You would
(39:38):
tell your kid, you would tell the parent not to
have tail in all for some fucking reason, you would
not get your kid vaccinated because you're trusting the government
and now and all that is wrong in what elites
do in those moments. They are getting their kids vaccinated,
they're taking time, but they have better access information because
they can pay for it. So now we're kind of
all in this mode. Have to do what we can
(40:00):
to give that information that only the elites get, the
only the really rich people get while they lie in public,
and give them the real information at the at the
lower level. And that's what independent media can and should
do here. And we have to do a service to people.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
I think you're thinking about like RFK who got his
kids vacs and ate it but is anti vax right.
Speaker 4 (40:19):
Yeah, I'm thinking of all of them, got them cut
their kids back, their anti vacus exact. They don't, they
don't believe it. They're just selling you stuff.
Speaker 7 (40:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:25):
Yeah, it is kind of amazing that we got here.
I mean, I feel like you and I have been
doing this for such a long time, Like I knew
you at NBC. It does feel like, you know, we
are like in the dystopia in a way that I
never thought we would be.
Speaker 4 (40:43):
I think about this all the time, almost every night
we go to bed. Kat and I talked to talk
about this all time. Kat, my girlfriends. Kata would zale
the lady. You got fucking power bombed by ice a
couple of weeks ago. It's horrible for Congress, right for Congress,
and you should go. But we talked about all the
Times's just like why is it us? Why is it
because I'm incumbent on us? Like I'm the joky funny guy, right,
(41:03):
so kind of is she? And so kind of are you?
Speaker 1 (41:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (41:07):
No, all, but we're like the last people who were
just like no, I just refuse to accept that this
is how I'm going to live for the rest of
my life is under the thumb of this shit. I
don't want to be that. I want to go home
and hang on my fucking cat and I want to yeah,
like watch basketball and go to a concert once every
two weeks. That's what I wanted. But we have to
do this because otherwise you don't have the castball, you
(41:29):
don't have the cat, you don't have a concert.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
It sucks.
Speaker 4 (41:31):
Why is it just us ball?
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Well, it's funny because it's like, you know, my grandpa
was called him from McCarthy in the House of Non
American Activities and refuse to name names. He never struck
me as like such a brave guy. I mean I
knew him like twenty years later when he was like
grand standing in front of people and like this was
like the thing he had done, which was like had
faded from memory, but it happened. This is the only choice.
(41:56):
There's no other choices. I wish there.
Speaker 4 (41:58):
Were, so I when I was I grew up in
a house of the guy who was in Antifa. Sure
there was a guy. It was a despots who went
out there and the first thing he did was like,
get to ban the study of gender. We have to
put trans people out of their misery. We have to
kill all the gay people. And then he started going
after people based on their religious persuasion, what they looked like.
(42:20):
So I were rounding people off the street, people with
masks on and fatigues in the middle of the street
used to take him out. And my grandfather was called
to service in Antifa, which is called the United States
Government right to the to the Western Front, and he
ran a pow camp of Nazis and he didn't talk
about it. I grew up in a house with my
grandparents and my parents and we did all the money,
(42:42):
and he didn't really talk about it. Then he went
back home and he worked at a shoe factory and
then he retired, and my grandmother was a teacher's aid,
and neither of them talked about it because it's fucking horrible.
And I remember I had to ask him for a
school project about that stevent He's like, I'm not going
to talk about it. And many, many many years later,
a couple of years ago, Thanksgiving twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen something,
somebody found a bunch of parapherne earlia. They found like
(43:05):
maps and all these things, and they found out who's
pretty decorated war veteran, and we just didn't know until
well after he did it, because when you go into
these moments, you are entering such a difficult time that
no matter when you're on the other side of it,
all that matters is that you survived. I only knew
him as like an incredibly kind hearted guy who like
(43:26):
used to bring me bowling and stuff. And we were
about to enter this time that we don't talk about.
Speaker 1 (43:31):
We're in it.
Speaker 4 (43:32):
We're in All I can say is that, and I could, right, yeah,
that's all we can do.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
It's real dark, and you know, and we don't know
how it's gonna go. We don't know that it's gonna
I mean, this country, this is who we are, and
we've gotten through things like this before and we'll get
through it again. But it's it's real dark.
Speaker 4 (43:53):
And I don't know how to bring people out of
it other than just just like make fun of them.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
And we see this with like, you know, the way
in which Governor Newsom's Twitter has done really well because
he's able to show the absurdity of this situation. I
think that is what is missing from a lot of
this is and that's what the Onion does so well
is and that's what Southburk does was show the absurdity
(44:21):
of the situation, because when you're in it, you don't
see it.
Speaker 4 (44:24):
Yeah, I hope you guys get to go see this movie. Well,
it'll be a wider release at some point. But like,
we've normalized so much of this that even you know
the premise of Jeffrey Epstein, this guy was the world's
foremost human trafficker and he was potentially the best friend
of the President of the United States who's doing an authorit
tarrent take over the United States. And the way we
talk about it as it's as if it's just like,
(44:45):
you know, another media story, which is a clearly bananas.
What this does, I will say this is the documentary
is like, second by second the funniest thing I've seen,
like in since like Airplane and I really really mean that.
In the joke, eggs and bits like work independently, but
at the end you leave it feeling like I'm easy
because of the end of this day, I'm not going
(45:06):
to give away like the way we treat this, We
treated this like every other weird little scandal that happened,
and what it is is actually an incredible indictment of
wealth and power and how all the world's worst people
coalesce around each other to cover up their stuff. That's
what this documentary is about. But we are look, it's
(45:26):
it's also it's funny by the way, you should watch it.
But like, look, we have the tools that we have.
I hope everybody understands their role in this moment. Everybody's
got tools. Everybody can. Everybody can talk to your neighbor
and be like, look, don't you see what's happening here?
And everybody does that.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
Ben Collins, thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 4 (45:45):
Molly a moment.
Speaker 1 (45:51):
Jesse Cannon I junk fast.
Speaker 2 (45:53):
So a handful of states are going to end their
nutrition education programs after Trump's cuts.
Speaker 3 (45:59):
This is like the stuff of low lifes do.
Speaker 2 (46:02):
It's the only thing that comes to mind is that
when you're going to say your poor, your child, we're
no longer going to support you having nutrition. It's really
the lowest of the will.
Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, but you know what, this is what they're doing.
They don't want to do this. You know, they're cutting snap,
They're cutting all of these medicaid. You know, this is
what the BBB did, was cut all these programs. That's
what these Republicans signed off on. And that's what we're
going to see is just cuts and cuts and cuts.
You know, here we are. That's it for this episode
(46:36):
of Fast Politics. Tune in every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and
Saturday to hear the best minds and politics make sense
of all this chaos. If you enjoy this podcast, please
send it to a friend and keep the conversation going.
Thanks for listening.
Host
Molly Jong-Fast
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