Ain't Nothin Changed But the Weather, Part 1

This is the beginning of a two parter with conflict journalist Jake Hanrahan where we talk about all the wars besides the one in Ukraine.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know when you're gonna leave church, and your mom
would be like, all right, baby, come on, let's go.
I'm ready to leave. And then she proceeded to talk
a million extra hours with her friends and you're just
standing outside and then you with the second you go
play with your friends, she'd be like, nah, I told
you we're ready to go, right, that's us who you know,

(00:22):
been going to church our whole life and know that story.
So that's what this episode is. Uh, this was supposed
to be a one partner and then me and Jake
got to talking and got to talking for a long
time and now it's a two partner. So here go
part one this computer. There go you, Jake, thanks for

(01:03):
having me. Hey man, I'm honored, man, Jake Hanrahan, I'm like,
um fighting all urges to do any sort of like
South London, East Essex. Yeah, I'm saying it. I'm not
even from anywhere near that I know. You know what
I'm saying. That's why I like, it's even funnier like
to be honest with you guys like I started watching,

(01:25):
uh well made it even worse as I started watching
season two of Top Boy. So I'm like, I'm like
I'm in it. Like I'm like, yeah, yo, I mean,
we will have the same slang and stuff from from
but it is a little bit different accent wise, you
know what I mean. I think I think like we're
such a small island and we have so many accents

(01:47):
that when when Americans are like is it from here there,
I'm like, yeah, I get why you don't know, because
it's it is mad, Like there's so many accents. Even
where I live, like a ten minute drive down the
road that a town where they have a kind of
Scottish accent. Yeah. Yeah, because in the eighties loads of
Scottish people moved that because of the steel works that

(02:10):
are like people, I'm like, Twine is so weird, man, listen, okay,
cool because I'm like, so my first time do it?
Like first of all, what's up her politics? I got
ja con rahnd Popular Front, uh all the other like
um expose a joints, the Q clearance, the dude, the
g dude jumps into war zones on purpose. You know,

(02:31):
I'm saying, uh. But when I when you know, through music,
when I first you know I had a chance to
go toward the UK, Like that's when I finally caught on,
you know what I'm saying, Like when you went, when
we went, you know, four or five hours north to Birmingham,
and I was like, oh they Burmingham, they got the droll,
you know what I'm saying. And and I was like, oh,

(02:54):
and I couldn't the same thing. I couldn't tell the
difference until you start moving around out there then like okay, man,
I was like, yo, wait so stains and it was
like yeah, no, it's a whole different you know. It's
like yeah, that's a whole different areas. So just the
more I was around there, yo, and here's the funniest part.
So uh just so American of me, right, Like I

(03:16):
mean it's still like my Space years, so uh yeah
the best times. Right. So we get off the plane
and dudes like, hey, yeah, I look for see these brothers.
They're musicians, they're super dope. Right there, was like, yeah,
we're two Asian brothers. Like well, like you can't miss us.
Mal walked by them dudes three times because they're Indian.

(03:40):
Yeah yeah you were you were thinking of like I
was thinking like Asian, yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
Some people in Britain, Yeah, we have different ones with
different things. Yes, they were Punjabi Indian and I was like,
why do you say you Asian? There was like because
India's in Asia. Yeah. They looked at me like I
don't known the state of the question. It was like

(04:02):
you know what it sure is. You know. It's like
like we have like a really do you know what?
The one thing I will say about Britain is we
do have like a very people are very like quite
open about like talking about race, you know, yeah, but
like no, it's not like a thing to be like,
oh that Asian guy. Yeah, people are like yeah, exactly.

(04:26):
You know, maybe maybe like posh kind of people they
feel like, you know, but generally, like you know, in school,
it's like which guy that guy? And it's normally like
the race or the or the where he's from. Like
my friend who is like half Afghan, it's like, yeah,
the Afghan kid, you know, yeah he doesn't you know.
It's not really like descriptor yeah. Yeah. It's like no
one gives a ship, you know. But when you have

(04:48):
like Asian and like yeah and you would think that
in an Indian, it can be very confusing. I've heard
a few stories like that from like Americans coming here
and like our slang, like you know, like what we
can cigarettes. Yeah, must have said that. I was like, oh,
I'm gonna you know, it's smoker, you know. And and
this guy when I was voice was like what did
you just say? I was like relax, relax, yeah, hey,

(05:13):
chill hold me. Yeah yeah, like that's I I find
much joy in that, you know, and realizing like like okay,
so like we go get to the topic. But like
I knew again just from doing music, I knew like

(05:33):
London had its hoods, like it had like I knew it,
you know what I'm saying. But I used to be like, man,
I can't take y'all serious because you just because like
the British accent, at least to the American just sounds
so proper. Yeah, you know what I'm saying, and you
so you couldn't tell. Somebody was like, hey, help me
for the murder you right now, Like that's a street

(05:54):
you know what I'm saying. And then now that like
I can hear it, I'm like, and you hear the
Jamaican part of it, like which is the part that
you like really blow my mind? Where I'm like, do
walk up to you is like wan go on and
you're like what yeah, yeah, yeah, it's even it's it's
like a slang vernacular note like everybody says that, you
know what I mean, it's um it's not even yeah,

(06:17):
it's not just like the Jamaican thing either. It's fast
night and it's everywhere. But you know, Britain has its
hoods mind everywhere, even up north like Liverpool. Yeah man,
it's getting rough. Yeah, well that's dope. Man. There's the
speaking of which you know I'm saying. I think, uh,
you know, there's a there's a there's a saying among
like African Americans, and there's a lot of different ways

(06:39):
to say it, right, so, but essentially I'm a laand
on like y'o. Ain't nothing changed but the weather like
um or like you know, like yeah, same ship, different day,

(07:01):
you know what I'm saying, Like there's all these different
things about you know how this is just normal. It's
just a different place, right And I think when it
comes to like like you said, living in these hoods,
you know what I'm saying, Like me like in the
environments that we come from, it's not so much that
like violence and tragedy and crime is something you get
used to, but it's something that's a reality of your life,

(07:26):
you know what I'm saying. It's like and and you know,
coming out of the other end of it, like if
you happen to actually graduate from it, like anybody like
who's being truthful about themselves are like, yeah, I have
like PTSD from this, like I have trauma from it.
I know there are certain things to trigger me. I
know this stuff you like, if you're being honest about it,
like you may get you may get like a like

(07:48):
a thug or two here and there that might just
be on something like No, that changed me. It's like, bro,
come on homie, like yes, yes, yes it does, you know,
And which is why I think people who experience that
sort of like constant flow of violence or your your

(08:10):
safety is like always in question in my mind, can
empathize across any sort of border, you know what I'm saying,
Like you feel like, yeah, life a life affected by violence,
no matter which way it was affected by it, it's
still the same kind of reaction, right, Yeah, you just

(08:31):
you know what it is, you know what I'm saying.
So you, for some reason chose the path you chose
you know, I'm saying to talk about to put yourself
in those situations and report on it, you know, so,
which I think is like I just it makes me
stutter to be like that, because some people really gotta
go do this. So first question is like, all right,

(08:53):
so why the hell did you do that? Why would
you choose to put yourself? I tell you. As I
get older, I started to ask myself the same question.
I'm thirty two, I feel about sixty two. But honestly,
I've always been quite interested in war and conflict. I
think really going back to when I was a child. Um,

(09:15):
my granddad is Irish, and you know, I idolized my granddad.
He died last year, God rest his soul, but I
I really idolized him as a kid. As an adult,
and he was a very very smart guy and he
would always he I just remember some of the earliest
conversations him, like telling me about like, you know, the
horrors of like Nazi Germany, telling me about the revolution

(09:35):
in Ireland and why that was you know, a good thing,
for example, Whereas in school we didn't even hear anything
about it. You know, there's a big difference in obviously
the way English school teaches its history versus you know,
the diaspora or any group that was in within Britain.
So I think always there. It was always kind of

(09:55):
something that I was aware of, especially when you know,
you're when you're young, you're kind of told this guy
in the balaclava or whatever, they're the bad guys, and
then you know the other ones are the good guys.
And then I guess my granddad was like, well, no,
you know, these the rebels, not we're not talking about
the provisionals. We're talking about like nineteen sixteen. Yeah, but

(10:17):
he was like, you know, the rebels did the right thing.
You know, they had to. They were you know, it
was illegal. I don't think people realize this, but at
one point it was not only illegal to speak Irish
language in Ireland, it was illegal to speak English with
an Irish accent, or at least you could get like
punched up for it, a right like madness, mad stuff man, Yeah, absurd, yeah,

(10:38):
complete like you know, um, and so so you know
it's like I kind of grew up I think with them,
my ideas in my head, and I think that really
germinated as I got older, and I was just fascinated
by it, and as I was when I was kind
of making my journey into becoming a reporter, I looked
at what I liked, or at least what I was
most fascinated by, and it was from what I felt

(11:00):
was most important. And I always had this feeling of
if people are getting murdered, you know, and killed for
I don't know what they believe in, or that they
live on a piece of land that somebody else wants
for me, I was like, that seems really important to
kind of show the world that, you know, what I'm saying,
And not not that I was ever on a moral crusade.
I just felt like it was important work. And you know,

(11:23):
I you know, to some degree, there is some level
of excitement within conflict and war. Everyone that tells you
that there isn't is a liar, you know, there is
some level of that. But but that is just and
I don't mean the actual violence, I mean the going
on the adventure. So so that was interesting. That was appealing,

(11:44):
and just meeting all new people that I would never
normally meet, you know, before I before I got a
decent reporting job. When I started at Vice News, I
think I've been out of the country like four times,
and it was all to like Spain or like Spain,
you know, my grand it took me to Italy. Actually
as a kid that was really cool, but you know
what I mean, so I hadn't really been that far.

(12:04):
So for me it was like, yeah, I was like
I can see the world, I can talk to people
I'd never meet, and I can do something really important,
which I feel is important putting myself into these areas
to kind of contextualize it and say, hey, look at this,
this is what's happening. And as I started to do it,
I felt like I had a knack for it. You know.
I was like, you know, I understand a lot of
these people. Not I can't really say that I understand

(12:29):
fully because I never could. But there was some level
of like, you know, the people most hurt in war
are always like the poor people, the people that don't
have a lot, you know. Every time I certainly I
want to say I come from a background the same
as someone in like Syria, for example, but I grew
up you know, for Britain, you could say I grew
up poor and I grew up around you know, kind

(12:49):
of various things that you probably shouldn't see as a kid.
And I just felt like I was quite lucky in
that sense because it gave me a different perspective on people.
And when I got out to these flicks, I was
I felt I just one of the first times in
my life, I felt very comfortable in my working environment,
Like I felt completely comfortable meeting someone in a different
society and a destroyed building, and it's like, Okay, we're here.

(13:12):
You appreciate that I'm here because I want to show
the world what's happening. And I appreciate that you're taking
the time to talk to me. And I just I
just felt like this is really I feel like this
is right, you know. And that was it. Man then
and once that up, and I guess I just carried
on and on and on. And you know, when I
was younger, I was quite reckless. I would say I
was very It's almost like I didn't realize I could die,

(13:34):
you know. And then at yeah, yeah, And then at
one point as a few things happened and I was like, Okay,
calm down. And now I you know, like I said,
I'm thirty two. I've been doing this since I was
twenty four. Um, and I feel a lot more. You know,
I feel ready, I feel like everything well more than ready.
I feel like accomplished in that sense. But I also
feel like I fully understand the levels of the danger

(13:56):
blah blah, and for me now I just feel like, yeah, many,
it's all work. And you know, it's all of this
long path because I didn't do uni, I dropped out
of school. But eventually, after the end of this path,
it's starting to work, you know. M h man, that's told, dude.

(14:38):
I think, uh, one thing I latched on on that
is like the perspective of like Granddad being a part
of like the Irish stuff and like you know, um,
I know, you know, like the culture war is happening
out here around like the teachings of like critical race theory,
YadA YadA, like and just people just really honestly not

(14:58):
as a side note, having no idea what what what
it means you say it is one thing, but like secondly,
I think what you hit on is something that like
why I'm like, why this why that ship is so
important because I'm like the what the Irish went through.
I'm like, man, that's like you said, like it was
illegal to speak English with an Irish accent. You know

(15:19):
what I'm saying, Like that's white supremacy, Like it's that's
what it's. It's a fruit from the same tree, you
know what I'm saying. And I'm like, when you understand that,
like this idea is the trunk and it has all
these different branches, like because at the time they thought
y'all was a different race, you know what I'm saying.
And I'm like, you know what I'm saying when you

(15:39):
look at like because I know me, it's like, you know,
I'm a black man in America, Like I couldn't understand,
couldn't get my brain around the Holocaust, like in a
sense of like I don't understand why you think they're
different than you. You know what I'm saying, Like show me,
you know. And it's like it's because they honestly thought
the Jews were a different you know what I'm saying.
So I'm like, so this this idea of like trying

(16:01):
to suppress somebody under you, it's like that staining continues
to permeate and shows itself in different ways and then
evolves over time. But being you know, being on the
wrong end of that, like you said, developed this like, look, man,
it's suffering people everywhere, you know what I'm saying, And
like people need to people need to see these stories.

(16:23):
And like you said, like you just jumping into that
space you like, I already connect with you, you know
what I'm saying, Yeah, in a way, you know. And again,
I really hate to be like this. I don't like
the idea of acting like oh I get it, because like, no,
I don't know. My house hasn't been bummed, my whole
family isn't dead. But I don't know, I just feel
like I feel happy in like local environments, you know,

(16:45):
like when when people I'm I don't know. I think
the way I was raised was a very kind of
warm kind of you come into our house, come in
and eat dinner, have what you what you know what
I mean, And it's it's a very I like that
kind of interaction with people. I like real life. You know,
I named war. Unfortunately, um, you do actually see a

(17:05):
lot of that because there's all of the things that
people thought. Because I love it. I love it. This
is why you're perfect for this. So as you know,
as as Russia gets they debo on and is trying
to just like just bully bullying entire country into like

(17:27):
coming into their own sort of thing, and atrocities everywhere.
Refugee crisis. We have watched and I know you've watched
also the UM a lot of mainstream correspondence like essentially
say the quiet things out loud on some life. You
know what I'm saying. Yeah, like man, this this, this

(17:50):
is different. You know that. It's like it's it's not
like somewhere far away like Syria or Iraq with like Muslims.
This is relative. Like these people, this is different. This
is like like when they came out with that civilized line. Yeah,
like these people watch Netflix. It's like, what do you
think people do in the Middle East? Eat rocks for breakfast?

(18:11):
Like yeah, like it's it's exactly the same. They do
the same things exactly that honestly, Like, yeah, there's been
a lot of stupid race talk around all of this,
but when I saw that, I was like, yeah, no,
that is one completely their faces. Yeah, there's no excuse.

(18:33):
And and the fact that like they probably don't even
know it, Like that's the thing to the thing that yeah, yeah,
you know what I'm saying, But that's what I mean.
So so for us we was like, no, that's why
I was like, yo, it's there ain't nothing changed but
the weather. This is yet another conflict among the other

(18:54):
conflicts that we've been living with for the last hundred years,
you know. And and y'all shot you know what I'm saying,
Like y'all like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this happened,
you know, And then treating like kids who are in
fact heroes by being able to pack up their little
their little lunch boxes and run the borders, and then

(19:14):
getting the camera on them and poland accepting them, and
it's like, oh my god, this is beautiful where I'm like, yo,
it's happening two hours south of my house at the
Mexican border, and they put them in little camps and
they're in cages, you know what I'm saying. So I'm like,
so then when it's like, hey, you know, we really
need to care about what's happening in Ukraine. We got

(19:35):
factions in America that's on something like listen, we're not
spending no American money nobody. And I'm like, y'all, the
all lives matter, folks, you know what I'm saying, Like
y'all was that was like, you know, I'm like, well
with them, then people actually only mean only my life
matters that you mean you understand what I'm saying. Yeah,
because because and and we're the ones going nah we

(20:00):
I'm giving to them just like I'm giving to kids
in Syria, just like like fighting for freedom here, just
like here. So what I wanted to do today was
to highlight of the nine to fifty major conflicts happening
across the world right now. I wanted to zero in
on three of them, so, which is essentially on some

(20:21):
like yo, you think this you crazy situations, so crazy, Like,
let me tell you about some other stuff that's literally
happening right now that's not in our news, you know
what I'm saying. So I wanted to talk about Ethiopia,
Yemen in Venezuela. So I listened to your show a lot, uh,

(20:43):
and it's and you have a way of like tapping
in with like some of the most like interesting people
who do some of the most incredible work and are
able to like really break down sort of what's uh,
what's going on, what's happening everywhere else? You know what
I'm saying. So I think today we'd love to hear
from you about you said Venezuela something like you're pretty
pretty familiar with, So I would love to hear from

(21:06):
you about Venezuela. Then I'm gonna come in and kind
of lay out some stuff about Ethiopia, and then we
could talk about like as of as far as the
u N is concerned, the number one humanitarian crisis, which
is in Yemen. Yeah, men and men and children were
starving to death, like what two years ago and Yemen, Yo,
they said, they said, yeah, it was like, Yo, they're

(21:26):
a population of twenty nine million people and twenty four
million are relying on humanitarian aid. So like that's like
the entire population of Australia needing. Yeah, I'm saying yeah.
So anyway, so YO, tell us about Venezuela. Yeah, I'm
I would just say as all that before before I
go into that, like, I would preface it by saying,

(21:47):
like I agree with you is in like, um, it
is important to care about Ukraine. You know. It's like
you said, Russia is an imperialist country right now, you
know that this is a complete imperialist invasion totally. Um,
And I agree with what you're saying. It's like and
I do understand as well. It's like, why do people
care in Europe so much? Well, because it's in Europe.

(22:07):
How we're playing it right, But it's like, okay, but
so are the refugees that came from the other wars
that we started there in Europe as well. So I
agree with you definitely, And to be honest, as part
of Popular Front for the whole time we've started, you know,
like we say, we're we cover war and conflict in
a niche way, and we cover under reported conflict. And
I'm really glad that you you've been listening because that

(22:29):
is what we do. We've been trying to do this
for years, being like, hey, you should care about maybe
not even care, at the very least you should have
to know about this whilst you're in peace. You should
know about this group, this group, this group. So yeah, man,
I really appreciate you bring me on for this. Venezuela
is a funny one because it's you know, it's kind
of died down. Um. I think right now America trying

(22:52):
to make friendly with Madoro because of the oil situation,
because we can keep by now we know, Yeah, it's
always down to the black lifeblood of the planet, you
know what I mean. But but the the situation was
that Maduro was just getting increasingly authoritarian and the people

(23:13):
there was a popular movement of young people mostly that
we're just like, look, we're absolutely sick of this. We
we want to be able to say what we want.
And you know, it was unfortunately really dialed in and
framed into this chronically online political discourse of oh, it's
the CIA coup and it's like, no, it's not a
CIA coup. Yeah, the CIA horrible all the time. Yeah, exactly,

(23:38):
they've been they've been up to no good. But but
the problem is when you start calling everything that doesn't
agree with your political ideology a CIA coup, you're essentially
taking off agency from a whole race of people, a
whole nation. Oh they couldn't those brown people that couldn't
possibly rise up on their own, It must be the CIA.
It's like an invited racist idea. To be honest, Um,

(23:59):
we're not been invited, but right side up racist. Yeah,
yeah exactly. So that to me it was really really annoying.
But I was really focused on it at the time
and it was very fascinating. There was literally footage of
Maduro on TV. UM there's a famous video of him.
He's accidentally caught on camera like he's such a fat pig,
he couldn't go anywhere without a sandwich, so he's like

(24:20):
eating a sandwich on live TV whilst people were literally
in bins, like eating out of bins, you know, and
you know, you had these often cremling link media was saying, oh,
it's this, it's a lie, it's a Western whatever. I
had friends that went there, um and not even I'm
fairly politically, you know, I'm deeply anti authoritarian, anti fascist

(24:44):
my whole life. But other than that, I'm not. I'm
obsorticularly you know, tied to any ideology. I'm not interested
in is um schism, this and that. But I have
friends that are like you know, reporters that don't not
really you know, don't give a ship about politics. And
even they went there and we're like, yeah, no, this
is There are children like you know, have it, like
the can't starving literally like you know what I mean
in Venezuela at the same time as maduros on TV

(25:07):
eating burgers and stuff. So you know, there was this
really genuine movement and there was extremely tough clashes in
the streets. There was even a group trying to kill
Maduro with like a drone mounted bomb, so you know,
like a d g ey drone you can get from Amazon,
you know, like influences get them and that they're pretty useful. Um, people,

(25:28):
this has happened all over the world by the way,
like Isis have used it, the Kurds have used it.
Um It's been used in Ukraine right now. There's a
way to like attach a grenade to it basically, so yeah, yeah,
very yeah, yeah yeah. So so they did that at Medua,
like they tried to attack him like that. There was
this there's this guy. I think Guido was the opposition.

(25:50):
He was very comfortable with America. But again it's it's
one of these ones where and anyone annoys me. I'm
very critical of America, but it's one of these ones
where it's like if you're on the back for an
America guy, like do you want her hand? What you're
gonna do? No, sorry, some people on the internet are
gonna get really mad with me, like no, of course
you're okay, yeah, you know, like you know, it's a

(26:13):
lot of people are having to go at the Kurds
because you know, there are kind of left libertarian organization
in Java and they were like, oh, these hyper online
communists or Stalinists. Most of them were like, oh, we
hate them because they took assistance from America. Now, what
you're saying there is these Kurds should have died, perished,
and been wiped out by isis to make us happy

(26:35):
here in America because of our ideology. People are pragmatic
in war. And yes, look look the name on a gun.
Do matt as weapons? Like Ja Stuck said, a weapon
has no ideology. A weapon has no ideology. Exactly, it's like, look,

(27:17):
when you're hungry, you'll take birth, saying themselves, you know
what I'm saying. And yeah, and that's and that's I
love how you tapped on that, and especially like why
they're making nice with America because it's like, you know,
we out here complaining about these gas prices. But again,
I'm from the city, and I understand sometimes the price

(27:39):
of something is much more than what you're paying, you
know what I'm saying. So if it's like, if I'm
gonna come get this oil from Russia, you understand what
I'm saying, then that put me in a situation where
I'm like Russia, you you're gonna owe them, You owe
them mold than what you're paying them, So you better
find you a new connect, you know what I'm saying.
So it's like, so even if even if you go

(28:00):
to mess around here and pretend like like as America
you find a pretend like the president who's the president,
who ain't really the president because ain't nobody actually vote
for this, you know what I'm saying. But if you like, look,
if he got some roil, like I take it from
this mess, then I will from that mess because it's
gonna cost me less. Absolutely, And I really think people
need to understand that it's a harsh reality, but there is.

(28:23):
There is not really moral governments. Everything is a business
transaction at the end of the day. Um, And I
think that's that's not conspiratorial, it's obvious. You know. It's like,
you know, it's sorry to get America political, but I
remember when people were like, oh, Biden and Kamala are
these great But it's like whoa, no, no, no, no,
they're not great people the same as everyone else. You

(28:45):
just would rather them like, let's not get it twisted, Like, yeah,
I really I don't. There's a thing like that in
Europe as well, Like people are like NATO, it's amazing ambivalent,
like not ambivalent, like like ethical organization. And it's like, no,
they're not ethical there, there is no ethics. It's just
it's a it's a coalition of people that are in
the same group that don't want to stop war on

(29:08):
their doorstep. I get it, of course, it makes sense
and and to some degree I'm glad it exists for
my own selfish reasons totally. But that doesn't mean they
haven't done horrible things as well. You just look like
I'm like this, you just need to have a list
of people that will jump in if you're getting jumped exactly, Like,

(29:28):
doesn't matter what there you know, and I don't care.
We should talk about this briefly about Ukraine. So obviously
there's a problem with far right extremism neo Nazism in Ukraine,
of course. Of course it's in Eastern Europe. Million people
lived there, you know, Yes, of course the point the
Nazis occupied the place. Yeah, there's a real big problem
with it. However, if you're an old woman and you're

(29:49):
in some house and the Russians are trying to literally
blow you up and your kids. And the Nazi comes
to the door and says, oh, we're coming to protect you.
She's not going to go hang on, let me check
your ideology. Yeah, it's just gonna be like, you know,
save it, save us whatever. And again they are actually
you know, they're getting a lot of exposure because everybody
jumps on it, but they're actually a really small part

(30:09):
of the fighting force. You're talking about a hundred and
fifty I think thousand regular troops versus uh a neo
Nazi battalion of maybe two three thousand, which is bad.
Don't get me wor um. You know, there's also Jewish battalions.
There's a whole anti fascist battalion which I'm going to
film with soon. There's a Muslim battalion. There's a had
This battalion, you know, you had this battalion fights alongside

(30:33):
one of the Nazi battalions. Look, war is crazy. That's
I was gonna say, man, like, when the bullets fly,
you like, we'll deal with this later, you know, the exactly.
And it doesn't mean it's good. It doesn't mean it's good,
but it's happening, and deal with it, you know, and
people are dealing with it. I spoke to a Jewish
guy in a battalion the other day about the I
was like, look, come on, might be honest, there's a

(30:54):
fascist problem here. He's like, well, yeah, he was like,
but Russia is trying to bomb us. He's like, I
don't care. He's like, I don't care. That's like, we'll
deal with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's easy for me,
you know. And I have been very vocal about as if.
I've been reporting on them for eight years. You know.
I made a documentary with them, showing all of the

(31:15):
Nazi and far right imagery amongst them and what they do.
But it's very easy to be in a safe spot
on the internet and oh well they shouldn't they're bad,
And it's like, no, they are bad. But right now, um,
I think the people that you know are in the
town where they're fighting, just happy anyone is there. You
know what I'm saying the same reason that a lot
of Muslims in Syria that live in Idlib, for example,

(31:37):
don't believe in the ideology of high terrier el Sham
that run Idlib. They have a very hardline frankly far
right ideology fascist, you know, like an islam of fascist
kind of ideology. Um, and most of the the people in
Italy are lovely, you know what they're getting people, But
what they're gonna do say like no, get out, No,
they have to just deal with it, you know. It's
the same sort of thing, to be honest, that's good man. Yeah.

(31:59):
And it's it's like it's very easy to I don't know,
it's easy to be I'm sure people will listen to me,
but like, oh my god, he's an apologist. It's like, no, man,
I'm not. I've just and look at my work. I
really am not, you know, like I've done. You know,
my reporting has helped to win to do Punt Award,
my report and on far right militancy in America, I
hate them. But war is war like ones. You know,

(32:23):
you have to seen it, you have to have understood
it just to just to realize that. And it's also yeah,
it's also like being in it. Like my father, former
black panther, he was in the Vietnam War. Yeah, and
was like he was like his his like battalion chiefs.
So you know, sergeant whatever, he's like from the Deep South,
horribly racist. You know what I mean. And he was like,

(32:45):
it is what it is. The bullets are flying, like,
you know, funk that guy. But like, if the bullets
are flying, you know what I'm saying. And I'm like,
I'm a shoot into the smoke, you know, and and
like and and it is what it is, you know.
So yeah, it's complicated and war. It's real life. It's
it's real life. Everybody has been so twitterized in their

(33:06):
ideologies and their opinions, and it's like, no, it's real life.
You know what you're saying. Your dad didn't like that guy,
of course not. But what's he gonna do? Yeah, just
like sorry, I'll just get shot or yeah, bro, like
we're gonna do this, you know what I'm saying. So
authoritarian Maduro streets rise up. I know they have an election,
right right, like a few years ago. Yeah, and they

(33:27):
elect them all last other dude, right, well this again, Yeah,
so help me out. No, I'm a little rusty on it.
But yeah, so I think Guido I think he was elected,
but then he won the majority. I could be wrong
in this. I forget exactly he won something anyway, But
the thing is Maduro was not going to let him
win of you know what I'm saying, And it's like, yeah,

(33:49):
and I know a lot of Venezuelans actually through the work.
I didn't at the time. I very nearly went there
to film but it got too tricky. But you know,
a lot of the antimoduro Venice Whalens, the Ice Polkes,
you didn't really like guide though, but they were just like, well,
he's better than who else. We're gonna vote for the
option right now, you know. So that was that was

(34:09):
one thing, um, and then yeah, he basically just didn't
allow it. It's like, if you're putting people in prison
for speaking out about certain things, it's very easy for
him to just go, no, that doesn't exist. You know,
that's like an I legitimate reason for it, you know
what I mean. And it's just like right, it's it's
the one oh one. You know, these these dictator types,

(34:31):
they start off doing certain things, press freedom gets infringed on.
Then it's like, well you're okay, song as your self censor,
don't mention this. And you know, as we all know,
it's a very very slippery slope. And you know it's
it's like once that starts being allowed, um, then it
ends with like we just said an election that they
just kibosh and go na, no, that doesn't there's a

(34:52):
problem with this. You know, it was US backed, US backed.
That's the issue. I don't know about Guido he you know,
he they I think they he was on the house
arrest and stuff like that for a while. He was
quite a brave guy, to be honest with you. He
was like out in the streets kind of ignoring it.
You know, he didn't really have He did have a
lot of support, but it wasn't like overwhelming support like

(35:14):
everyone on the streets was not like for guired though,
it was for resistance to the authoritarians. Yeah, you know
what I mean. It was just like, yeah, we love
guard though. I mean there's there's a little bit of
that in um getting rid of old Trumpy. It's like, yeah,
we're not fans of like you said, we're not fans
of Biden, like like it's this is this is the

(35:36):
He's the bare minimum, like just like just like it
just I guess, I guess, you know what I mean. So, yeah,
some people they can't I find And I really think
this is a problem with the way the internet is
these days. They cannot be against one thing without finding
a side to be on, you know, like people are

(35:58):
really disingenuous. Yeah, I'm not disingenuous. I'm actually opposite. I
have kept if you checked my career, my work, what
I say, I've kept exactly the same the whole time.
It's just I'm not I don't you know. For me
to say, right, I'm completely against Putin's invasion doesn't mean
I'm then like Glonato nuke the place. You know. It's
like that's yeah, yeah, yeah, people like nuances. I say

(36:25):
nuances sacred word like and it's and it is as
so much more interesting, all right, because you can get
on with people that you don't always agree with. Yeah,
I don't know. That's good man. All right, I might
have to stop you all right here, because this mug
is getting hell along. Uh. Tune in next week from
part two. Yeah, this is your Thing was recorded by

(36:59):
Me Propaganda and East Lows, boil Heights, Los Angeles, California.
This smug was mixed, edited, mastered, and scored by Matt Osowski.
I can totally say his name, guys. It was it
was a stick. He's won by Matt now again because
he got into some legal situations with the name Headlights.
You know, common used to be called common sense. You

(37:20):
know Tip t I was tipped Sometimes it Happens. Executive
produced by the one and only Sophie Lichtman for a
Cool Zone Media and the theme music by the one
and only Gold Tips Gold Tips d J Shawn p.
So y'all just remember listen every time you check in.
If you understand city living, you understand politics. We'll see

(37:43):
how next week two