Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wok F Daily with Meet your Girl Daniel Moody recording from the Home Bunker. So the decisions have been made. Republicans have chosen a four time indicted ninety one counts rapists as their nominee for President of the United States. Oh and also he is a fraudulent businessman and not as rich as he has said. But in their opinion, voting for a woman just wasn't an option. So Nikki Hailey is out, and she did not readily endorse Donald Trump. She said that
he would have to quote earn her voters. Give me a fucking break. Also in the news Mitch McConnell, who has come out and endorsed Donald Trump as well. What I realized, not what I realize, what we've known, and it's just like so fucking gross about the Republican Party is that they have no morals, no conviction, no backbone, no desire to do right by anyone other than themselves.
They embody white privilege, toxic masculinity, patriarchy, greed, hatred. That's who this party is and to say anything otherwise is a lie. And for the media moving forward, which is going to try and jam down everyone's throat this horse race matchup between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. I just want folks to be very clear, which I know that you all are, but I want you to make the folks around you really fucking clear, because that's my goal here. It is not I don't you know. I appreciate it.
I'm so grateful for the folks that listen to this show. But your real value is in the messages you decide to share, in the people you decide to connect with in the community you decide to lift up right and open their eyes and their ears to the truth right and help them recognize their power. So, whether that is in sharing an episode, sharing a social media clip, or just sitting down and talking to folks about where their head is at for November, that's our real goal here
on WOKF. You know, it isn't for me about the clicks or the downloads or any of that. I just want those that are faithful to the truth, to democracy, to freedom, to feel empowered to share, to speak out, to commit to fighting. That's what I want, That's what we need. The next several months, we're going to be inundated by bullshit from the media. They're going to play Donald Trump's speeches and lies and hateful rhetoric NonStop, because oh,
we got to show both sides. They're going to do so without any analysis, without any critique, and they are going to give him the platform that Hitler could have only prayed for. Do you know what I'm saying as he was going from country to country and taking over. Donald Trump is a cancer. He is a virus. But he is not our ultimate problem. It is the millions of people who get on television and when asked if they want a strong man, say yes, that's what we need.
Because these are people who are don't know history right, who think strong man just means tough and not an authoritarian. That once you vote for him the first time, he don't give a fuck about you the next time, because
you've given him everything that he needs. Donald Trump is prepared to run a rough shot over our democracy to fill his coppers so that he can be a king, a Russian oligarch, right, But the American version, the people around him who swear loyalty will be you know, paid in gold bricks, while the rest of us will be
carrying bricks on our backs. So I just want folks to really be clear about the fact that, yeah, you will see me criticize Joe Biden because I fucking can, because for the next several months, we still live inside of a democracy, and I want this president to recognize the fucking stakes. I don't give a fuck about Joe Biden's age. I do give a fuck about the fact
that our tax dollars funding a genocide. But I also know that I can't fight for other people's rights when we lose every single one of ours that are left that the Supreme Court hasn't taken away. So, folks, it is it is time. The election begins now, and the election is between our freedoms and authoritarianism. And you only get to vote on this once, so I hope folks decide to make a count. Coming up next my conversation
with our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel. Folks, anytime that we have the opportunity to sit down with our friend, our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, I am always thrilled, and today, Jonathan, I may be in need of some therapy, Yes, some help. I don't know, Jonathan. The week started out fairly shitty with the Supreme Court's decision around Donald Trump.
And you know, it seems like every week, like by the time we get to Friday, we're all so grateful, but like so run over and exhausted after what the week has entailed. And I feel a lot of people, including myself, by the time we get to Friday, we're all like tapped out. And I feel like we've talked about this, this is part of the strategy, the hopelessness,
the flooding of the zone, the overwhelm. And you know, you've been out talking to people promoting you know, your book what we've become, and are people also talking about like their level of exhaustion, anxiety, just frustration that they're having as they're trying to be responsible citizens, engage citizens, et cetera.
Well, I mean, people are exhausted and they don't know what to do right now. And there's also so much internal division. I mean, I'm going to need twenty five years of therapy for some of the stuff that's happened to me in the past month, just crazy stuff. And so so yeah, I mean, people on the right are very energized, they feel very mobilized, and so we got to change this around, you know what I mean? Like, if you get energy from from taking some rest and
coming back and recommitting that you should do that. If you get energy from going to a movie theater and chasing aoc out and screaming at her, do that, whatever you need to do to get your energy back, so that we can all come together on one team. We got to do that because you know what I keep thinking is we talked about this before, but in so many elections, and you know Jason Stanley's book about how when the left is fractured, that's when fascism takes over.
We're being fractured by design. I was talking here before about Nitan Yahoo coming to power because Liberals were exhausted and they just kind of trudged to the polls. But the right was like totally mobilized because they had the He had promised them we'll take over the course forever. And so I don't know, We're following some pretty bad
trajectories right now. And honestly, we need a miracle and I'm happy to I'm happy to think about what that might be, but we need something's got to change course here. I don't want to like trudge into Did you see that thing on social media about the one hundred and one year old guy who ran one hundred meter dash like in Asia somewhere and everybody was cheering for him.
It took like four hours. But I don't want that to be like us toward the finish line here, like right, right, So we need something that makes people feel energized and mobilized, and and I just don't know what that is. And I know there are so many divisions. And I also think that like for everybody people who like seemed like they were unquestionably on our team, we were on the same team as them, and everybody's like, I'm not on your team, and it's a it's it's a total playbook
that's being done to us. Honestly, it's a total playbook that's being done to us. And so I don't know, it's it's a weird no one.
I just I want, you know, because there is this sense of stuck, right, Like I feel very stuck, very stuck in the sense of like every time that I try and find ways to defend the Biden administration, the Biden administration turns around and does some shit that I find indefensible, right, And so it is on one hand, and I just put out a video, you know, at the time of this record, I put up a video that was just like, we're not living inside of a
very of a clean binary in terms of thinking. And I need people to like move on from the good guys and the bad guys and like those being very clear distinctions as light and dark, right, They're just not We're living in a lot of shades of gray. And I don't think that we have ever really processed that as a country. America has always been set up as the good guy, right, That's what we have been fed
inside this country. That's how we've been indoctrinated. And so I also feel like, and you tell me that the sense of stock that we are into is kind of this unveiling of who America actually is in reality, and that being pushed up against what we have known or been told.
And what do you mean?
I mean? So? I mean I mean this like I'm growing up elementary school, high school. America is the good guy. Carry a strong stick you walk around. We provide democracy around the world. We do these good things, right, Like we invade countries only because like we're ousting the bad guys in these things. That's not true And it's actually
never been true. I've always said that America has had very good pr and as soon as you start to like really open up your eyes and look through other people's perspectives, whether those be other nation states or other you know, immigrant populations and groups that have come into this country, you see a clearer picture of who America is, which is not a perfect place, right it is a place that we strive to perfect, but the veil of a perfect place has really been lifted. Am I wrong?
I mean I don't. I certainly don't think you're wrong. I just think that, you know what I mean, Like, I just think that like, for example, let's say let's say that Iran gets a nuclear bomb and Israel collapses and Iran becomes the massive superpower of the Middle East, for example, or something like that, Like is that where our foreign policy doesn't matter, you know what I mean? Like or Russia invades Sweden after they take over your quane,
and they do other kinds of things like that. I just think that there are a lot of ways in which, strategically speaking, I mean, I never I've never obviously thought that our foreign policy was like perfect or ideal or
all these kind of things. But I also feel like we could be in a lot worse position than we are now if there are like massive superpowers who are very hostile to us, or who are hostile to like liberties or rights, and so the idea of like the foreign policy which I don't love in with Biden versus what I think it would look like under Trump. If you're just talking about like a vote by to vote
on one of those two things, I would take. I would take at least working with the Biden administration on fixing our foreign policy, because I know what it'll be like for Trump, and under Trump, it'll be a massive change to like my life and your life and other things like that, you know, same with a bunch of other things. Do I want there to be like a massive trade war with China, or do I want to support Taiwan? How do I feel about Russia? Things like that.
So I just for me, I just think geopolitically, it's not never it's not just about like one group of people. I mean, I certainly think we have a real ethical issue right now with like our foreign policy and things like that. But I also think that it's just hard for me to think of it out of context. And so for me, the bigger issue is do I want America to fall and Israel to fall and Russia and
Iran to become massive expansionist nuclear superpowers. I could see that being a hell of a lot worse, And so I don't know. For me, it's not like I think. I mean, again, my dad's a Holocaust survivor. I've lived in a lot of different places. I have no rose
colored glasses about foreign policy. But I could just say strategically, you know, it seems to me like the worst scenario would be that Israel tells US to fuck off and they don't need us anymore, and they go in alliance with Russia, and Russia goes in alliance with Saudi and the dollar doesn't is no longer the US currency, and they do a goldback Saudi currency and the dollar doesn't mean anything like then you're really really talking about a
really different United States than the one you have now, which is going to have like a bunch of really powerful guys like Trump, no immigration. The poor people now become the immigrants in terms of like the paid labor and stuff like that. So to me, that's just not in America. I want to live in So I guess for me, I'm just as I always do. I think long game, and I just think, you know, there's a real pretty clear choice right now.
Are we selling the clear choice? Though, Jonathan? Right? Like, if everybody is in this place of despair, and let me tell you something. The hair is that just stood up on my arm and like the chill that went down my spine when you just played out what a
reordered superpower superpowers could look like. Yeah, it's terrifying, right, but it's all It's also not something that I think that you're just making up out of thin air, right, Like, these things are these things are absolutely possible, and I'm wondering, in your opinion, then how do you talk about these possibilities?
Because whenever I bring shit up to people these days, they're telling me you're just trying to scare me into my vote, and I'm just like, well, I've tried to love you into your vote and that doesn't seem to fucking work. So I don't really know what the alternative is then to lay out the scenarios in the way that you did. So how does that how is that laid out?
Well? I mean, you know, I don't know how to lay it out. And I'm not trying to convince you and I are voting for the same guessing, so it's not like we're convincing each of their votes. But I mean, just think about it, Like if a country totally cuts off immigration like Trump, what's to do and deports all the immigrants, Who's going to do the work? You know
what I mean? Like the country still the economy depends on people working, So there's going to be a bunch of people now who are low income who are going to become it's going to be really shitty. It's going to be really shitty. And so it's just going to do the.
Work according to the governors of Red State's children, you know, because they're rolling back all of the child labor laws, so children are.
Going to do just saying like and all of a sudden, like the decision we're going to we're facing now. To me, just the decision we're making facing now is it'll pair pale in comparison to the decision that we have to make two years from now, five years from now if we don't get our shit together right now. And so you no know, for me, like my problem is when people
say the democracy is going to fall. That just sounds really abstract to people, But I think we need to do what I just did here, which is to lay it out in very very very very concrete terms, and because I think that's that's what it means. I mean healthcare. You know, we know that it's going to be the end of the Affordable Care Act if Trump wins. A lot of people are going to lose their healthcare.
Which is going to which is going to create essentially where you were talking about, which is a new level of like indentured servitude into places that will abuse right their workers because there won't be any standards right in terms of how people are treated. Because they're in Kentucky right now, there's a piece of legislation that has been rolled out to get rid of lunch breaks and rest breaks.
Yeah, and this is this is a small sample of what's coming, you know, with this kind of power. And so I just think people need to get real honestly. I mean I understand very deeply. I mean in a way on all sides, I personally feel it like I've had the weirdest shit happen where I'm like.
Some of the weird stuff that has happened.
Oh sure. I was on a book tour this last month. I was on a book tour this last week. I was sitting at the book table signing books. The person from the bookstore who brought the books, it was like the bookseller, not somebody associated with this the talk I gave or the interview, which was wonderful, amazing, I've done incredible stuff. The person was wearing a kN ninety five mask was a trans person who was great. I'm like, oh so great, you're here all this kind of stuff.
As I'm signing the books is a trans woman started telling me, you know, I just want you to know. I know you're talking about power in your book and our I'm with Democratic Socialists of America and our goal is to collapse the Democratic Party because if the Democrats fall, were going to arise in the Act says, we already have a plan. We're going to sit out this election and then and then we're going to take over all the local elections and we're gonna stop funding the Zionist
something Zionist something or other. And like I'm trying to sign books and be nice to the crowd and all this kind of stuff, but I'm just like I said, dude, you know, not in any gender way. But I'm like, who do you think is going to get whacked first? If everything falls? It's not like you're going to like have another election to like have the Democratic Socialists of America.
But it's not like I would naturally be on the same team as somebody who's like going full on anti Zionist on me, even somebody who would like have been on my team before. But I thought, like, you know, you and I have to get it to a place where like we're on the same team, we're under the same umbrella, even though like what you're telling me right now is like really upsetting for a number of reasons and telling me like the Zionist entity all this shit,
you know. But but also I have to remember that, like in a bigger strategic sense, if you and I are not on the same team, if we're fractured, to use the Jason Stanley formulation, I have much bigger problems. So I've got to imagine myself allied with you. And that's how you know. That's sure, this happened for a lot of people. It's happened around Gaza, it's happened around
climate it's happened around a bunch of stuff. But if we don't see each other on the same team, I mean, I personally think it's inappropriate for somebody to go like full on anti Zionist on me as a Jewish author out there. But you know, this is how it is right now whatever. But I would say, but I would say, I don't know. There's just like what we're up against. We have to think that we're on the same team and that will work this out in a way that
is viable. I don't But I think the scary part for me, honestly, what I was thinking about this instance was that Trump, like one thing he promises is like retribution, like I'm going to win and your enemies are going to get it. And it's not just like conservative who think that, like a lot of liberals are thinking, Man, if I win, I can knock off all these other centrists out of the Democratic Party and I can take over the party, like there's this fantasy or vice versa
or something like that. But it doesn't work that way. If Trump wins, this is the last time you're going to get that chance.
And so yeah, I mean, so how because now I'm fascinated. How did the conversation end.
Well, I had to keep signing books, and I didn't feel like getting in an argument with the bookseller while I was doing it, and so the bookseller just kept talking about democratic socialists. And then I said, well, look, I said to her what I would say to you, which is, I think ultimately you and I have to
imagine ourselves. I didn't go into my views because like, hey, by the book, you know, but I said, ultimately we need a big tent, because I think if any part of the coalition collapses, it's bad for all of us. And I also said, you know, I thinks Americans would be among yeah, at least the safe group. And so I would just urge you to like think about not thinking of this election as an opportunity to retake power, you know, something like that.
So I mean, like, look, I think that that was a valid way to have to end that conversation, but also to have that conversation, because like, the goal is not to topple the I mean, at least, like my goal is not to topple the Democratic Party, right, Like, my goal is to strengthen democracy and to strengthen people's like power and understanding, like they have power that can
be exercised. But to say that your goal is to bring down the Democratic Party, well then you've just turned the Republican Party into a super party, right because now you're citing because you all have shared values. And to your point, if like, if that is the shared value, which it is of the of the Republican Party, Like, how do you think that that benefits the most marginalized of the marginalized groups.
I just think we live in this moment. It's funny because I was sucking to my brother about this the other day because I'm like, I called him after this happened, and I'm like, holy crap, people are at each other right now, and I just think it feels very like if we see AOC as our enemy right now, we
really have big problems, you know what I mean. Like, I just think that we're being fractured and divided in a particular way that is based in reality for a lot of people, but it's also consciously being fed and manipulated in ways through There's just so much crap coming at us right now. And so I don't know, you and I have talked about this for a long time. I just feel like, you know, we need a miracle right now. Honestly, we need some kind of unifying miracle.
And I guess the question I keep wondering is like, if we had a different person than Biden, would it matter. I think it would. I think it would, yeah, because you know, but that's not the option we have. This is not the option we have. This is the choice we have. And so so I don't know. I just hope we I hope we pull our shit together. I hope there's some kind of secret plan. I hope there's
some kind of unity thing. But I mean the other thing about you know, I take it you're reference in Gaza and and you know the other part, of course is the other people who really want Trump to win are the people on the Israeli right, And so it's not like I mean, they're trying to undermine Biden also, and so they're just it's we need a unifying narrative right now. That's why having a stronger Democratic candidate who could pull everybody together right now is so needed.
But I guess the thing for me is that like in and yes, I was talking about Gaza and Israel because that is what is on my social media feed and in my timeline everywhere that I go on is what is what is on a lot of people's minds. And I'm getting a lot of pushback in my comment sections about being a prop of the Biden administration, and I'm like, you clearly don't fucking listen to me, because if you did, then you would know that that is
far the farthest thing from the truth. But I'm like, but I'm also very clear about the fact that you can't fight for democracy if you lose democracy. Like so, if your ultimate goal is to help the Palestinian people in Gaza, then I don't know how you do that if in fact, you lose your own democracy, that doesn't make sense, right and so and so trying to like reorder people's thinking of what is at stake and what
is important is like my job in media. And I'm at a point where i have days and weeks where I'm just like, very I'm very much in a place of struggle because I'm like, folks don't get it right, they don't get what is at stake. And I'm like, I don't know how many times that I have to tell you that abortion was never the goal. It was always about control, and so now IVF is on the is on the menu, and a borth control is going to be on the menu, and this thing and that.
Like so if you care right about these other siloed issues, then you have to care about the whole. And the
whole is about like your freedom. So I don't you know, So for me, that's what That's why I bring it up because I'm finding myself in a very stuck place and I'm looking at my comments section grow in terms of people saying I'm not voting for him, and then I'm just like, well, then I hope that you enjoyed this last selection in your last summer, the what I'm referring to now as like the last American summer, because like that's what that's what this is, and I don't
think that people get it for sure, So last word to you.
For sure, we have to party like the Romans this summer, no doubt about it.
Pretty much.
Yeah, that's like that's what.
I decided last That's what I last night.
Yeah, We're going to party our asses up this summer. But I would just say again, we need we need a I mean, we need a strong unifying narrative. You know what I mean, Like if Democrat, if Biden left, and then somebody was like going to overturn Israel as a Jewish home land, like I wouldn't support them, you know what I mean, Like then you'd lose my part of the coalition, and and if something else whatever, I
just I don't know, it's just funny. Memember. We talked here about polarizing crisis, where like something happens and all of a sudden people don't feel like they're on the same team, and where I urge people to read the literature on polarizing crisis because it becomes this like deep essential thing, but it's also so manipulated. I mean, I'm not trying to deny reality, but I would just say that the level of I mean, remember there was the
example of abolish ice being a totally invented thing. I mean, it was a real thing too, but like people were screaming about abolish ice, defund the police was used and amplified in ways that I mean, We've just we've had our message co opted against us a lot of times, and I just wish that we would kind of see that and again not changing the thing. I mean, I do hope.
Not changing the theme, but changing than changing the narrative.
Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, like you and I have spoken, you know what I mean, Like my urgent hope in the beginning was that Israel was not going to invade Gaza, as you know, I think actually we would have been in a great a much greater position. I mean, Israe would have been a mu stronger position if they would have rallied the world against like what
happened and stuff like that. But you know, this is the world we have right now, and it's complicated, and it's ugly, and it's messy and it's murderous, and to me, there still are some pretty clear outcomes that could be worse, better or worse. And again, people remember like Nittanyahu wants Trump to win, right, he wants them to win his holes to make Biden look bad and so because then Trump will be like wipe everybody out, you know, stuff
like that. So it's just I don't know. I just think there's a strategic sense which a lot of people don't have. But you know, Israel's goal is nothing to do with the Palestinians. They want to wipe out Iran, and so they're waiting for Trump to give them the green light to like go bonkers on Iran and stuff like that. And so there's just there's a lot of worse outcomes. This is a horrible outcome we have right now, and I can also imagine a lot of worse outcomes.
And so I just think at some point we have to imagine if we're on the same team or not. And again, I wish, as I've been saying for months, I wish our candidate was Jason Kelcey. We'd be in so much better. You know, I've been saying that for weeks. But but we need you know, we had something, you know, mobilizing.
But I also think, like what if you want your grandkids to even sniff the kind of rights you have right now, or your great care and kids, then then it's gonna it's gonna have to come down to you know, we live in an election syst that's a binary choice. And so I realized I sound like fifty eight thousand feet today, but it's just been Yeah, it's just been an interesting time.
Yeah, well we will leave it there today. My friend Jonathan Nepsel, as always, we appreciate.
You, it's my honor and I was tired from the book tour, but now I'm back, So anybody who wants to argue just let me know.
That is it for me today. Dear friends on woke a App as always, Power to the people and to all the people power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.