Footsies With Fascists

I'm saying this every week now, so forgive me, but I know the feeling of exhaustion that people have because I am literally feeling this achiness in my bones and I'm really doing my best to try and double and triple down on my self care and my routines, and I'm finding myself faltering and also trying to give myself grace for the times that I am faltering. And why

am I sharing that with you? Because I think that you know, I'm a person that when everything around me starts to feel out of control, I try my best to control everything that I can, which is not necessarily the best because you can't control everything right, like, there

is just no way to do that. And then what happens when when everything right starts to feel like you're going back to old patterns or you've you know, say you've said I'm gonna not drink or I'm gonna eat really well, or I'm gonna work out, and just everything starts to become super overwhelming and then you fall off

of that wagon. And that happens to me more times than I'd like to admit, right, And what I have learned is to rest when I'm tired, to take breaks so that I don't have breakdowns, to remove myself from places and spaces, and like go get some air and take a long walk, to really connect with friends and family if I've been kind of distant and also understanding that folks, you know, I find it really hard sometimes to articulate to those that are not necessarily in my business,

meaning in my industry, how draining it is to be in politics, and draining isn't even the word, because draining seems like, well, you just need a good night's sleep or a vacation and then like things will go back to normal. No. I feel crazy, exhausted, filled with grief, rage, pretty much every emotion except for like the ones that

are good. Every time that I turn on the news and you know, I'm trying desperately to find hopefulness and then you get you know, decisions that come down, which brings me to the first story that is on my mind today. Which is the lowering of Trump's fucking bond on the day that Tish James was getting ready to see to begin the process to seize properties. It's so fucking deflating and so aggravating. How beautifully this system, this fucking criminal justice system, is set up to work for

wealthy white men in power. And you know, we look at it and we're like, you know, we're angry, and I'm seeing the tweets and I fucking like threw up my hands that day, which was Monday, and said fuck it, like I'm over it, Like I don't want to cover these cases anymore. I don't give a fuck because I know that Donald Trump is never going to prison, He's never going to have to have any accountability for any of his actions. We would rather in this country throw

low level drug offenders in jail for thirty years. We'd rather throw poor people in jail because they can't afford bail and keep them there. We would rather use our criminal justice system to continue the harm, the torture of black and brown people, which is what it was built for, right And so every time that we think that Donald Trump is going to be held accountable, I think that the reality is that he's not right and we have

to move on. I will cover what is news, but I think that the fact is, like what the real news is, right, isn't going to be the headline that comes through and says Donald Trump's been convicted because he'll just appeal, right, Donald Trump has to pay out this money, He'll just appeal and he'll just run out the clock because his lawyers know the games to play. They know all of the loopholes inside of the system. They know, you know, how to maneuver, and the double speak and

all of this shit. Because for them, it's more money, more time, more money right that they will have. And for the rest of us, you know, we're told, well, it's normal that you know this judgment was going to be decreased. It's normal. Tell me what the fuck is normal about Donald Trump? Tell me what the fuck is normal about a Republican klu klux Klan takeover of American politics, of our judiciary. Tell me what is normal about the times that we've been living in for the last you know,

I don't know, seven eight years. Tell me what's normal nothing. So stop trying to apply normal rules and logistics to a person that has said fuck you to the system. Not only said fuck you to the system, but like actively has continued to try and burn it down from the outside in and the inside out. And so we continue to apply these arbitrary bullshit rules for the preservation or at least the perception of the preservation of some

type of legal normalcy that doesn't fucking exist. So when I saw the judge lower his bond to one hundred and seventy five million, I just said, fuck it, who gives a fuck anymore? Right, Like, the justice system is working exactly how it was designed to work for, exactly who it was designed to work for. And that's the fact, you know, and I think that what else is also true is that the other strategy is to just depress

the vote by depressing to really depressing the people. Because when you feel like everything is hopeless, it doesn't matter what you do, that you have no power, no voice, no say, you know, you become easily pliable and malleable. And that's what the Republican klu klux Klan white supremacist

counsel is working on doing. And they're doing a great job, because, like I said, I'm fucking exhausted, and I know that you all are too, you know, I honestly, I say to my friend's advent, I don't know how people listen to me all the time. This is not me advocating for you to, like, you know, not up your subscription

or not continue listening to the show. But I struggle to listen to the news, which will be my story number two, because nothing good has come of it, right, And the reality is that the only thing that is going to hold Donald Trump accountable is us is people voting in November. To keep democracy, to keep abortion in blue states at least you have some access to it, to you know, keep voting right and free and fair elections, to keep democracy, to keep some semblance of bodily autonomy.

All of that will go with a Trump two point zero regime. Right, Like they're telling us everything that they're going to do, we don't have to fucking guess. They've taken away the guessing work. So it's just like if people don't come out to vote, because by the time November rolls around, you are exhausted and depleted and just

like hopeless, then they win, then they've won. So, you know, I do want to say something somebody I posted in my comment section to a post that I said, where I said, I feel like, you know, we always learned about fallen empires in school, but we never learned about

what was happening while they were falling. And I said, well, now we know, right, because we are living inside of a falling empire and where you have this deep sense of unease where every day is something new being taken away or ruined, right, and you still trying to convince yourself like, no, no, no, America can come back, America can come back. No, actually, it's not ever going to

come back the way that we knew it. Right, What we are trying to do right now was just to hold on so that these right wing, rabid Republicans don't burn down the country in a way that makes it possible for the next fifty years for anything to grow, because that's what they're doing. And so what I say to folks, somebody in the comment section said I'm going to take a break from politics, and somebody said, right now, are you crazy, like you're gonna take a break now.

I would rather you fucking take a break now than take a break in November. I would rather, folks, tap out right for a couple of months and get right back in, you know, come August. Because if you need a break so that you don't lose your fucking mind and then don't opt out of the election, then take a fucking break. I'm never gonna be one of those people that says, no, you got to stay in it. You gotta stay miserable, you gotta cry at everything, you gotta be rageful all the time. You got to spend

all of that energy. No, I'm not gonna say that. What I'm going to say is that if you're going to take a break, then to you know, if you have the resources to be able to donate, to be able to support or independent media like myself and others who don't get paid by the mainstream but do their best to try and continue to have conversations with the

folks that are willing to support their voice. So if you have friends and family and colleagues around you that are like, I'm tapping out, then say like, look, you know, tap out of this, but tap into WOKF Daily, tap into you know, a muckraker, tap into you know, other shows and other individuals that are like doing the work right that mainstream media refuses to do. And if you need to take a break, do that, right, but find another way to support that. Doesn't, you know, harm your

mental health. That's the real work, right Because I do believe, folks, and I've been saying this for a long time, that I do think that things are going to get worse before they get better. I remember saying this way way way way back on Serious XM. You know, say saying that things are going to get bloodier before they get better. And that, folks, was in twenty seventeen, and here we are in twenty twenty four. So it's not great. It's

not great. But again, if you need to take a break, I encourage you to do that now and find other ways to support that, don't challenge your mental health. Let me now turn to fucking mainstream media and the uproar that has happened over NBC News deciding to hire Ronna Romney McDaniel. I never agree with fucking Chuck Todd, and I think that Chuck Todd has been part of the

fucking problem in journalism. And so when you have lost Chuck Todd and he is talking about the credibility of this network being challenged because of them deciding to bring in an alecching Denier a fucking January sixer so that they can have access because they think that if they play well with the devil, the devil won't burn them.

Are you dumb? So he comes out on Meet the Press and you know, says that the CEOs and you know, the folks, their bosses, oh, Christen Welker, and apology for putting her in such a horrible, you know position, with having Roni McDaniel on after they decided to pay her three hundred thousand dollars to become a contributor. And now there are rumors that because of all of the pushback and because of Rashida Jones, who's the president of MSNBC,

saying she will not be on our airwaves. But yet you approve the deal to begin with, you thought it was a good idea. Then why don't you think it's a good idea now? Oh, because all of your talent is saying that they will not have her on air, and you can't fire all of them, you know, the way that he did Mehdi Hassan, I'm just so over it, do you know what I'm saying. I'm over the fucking disgusting revolving door between the MAGA world and mainstream media.

They bash mainstream media saying it's liberal when it's totally fucking not, because there is a revolving door that comes with these administrations. And the fucking thing is we're in this position because of mainstream media and they continue to just get worse. And my co host of Democracy Ish, my friend Wajahat Ali you know, tweeted and said, you know, you'll pay Roni McDaniel, but when it comes to black

and brown talent, there is never any money. Kurt Bardella, friend of the show, also tweeted that you know why, because people like us when you see me on MSNBC, understand that I am not being paid. I go on MSNBC when I think that I have something to say and to offer that has a larger reach, Right, So I'm doing it as part of my work, but I don't get paid for it like work. I never have. For all of the years that I have been on MSNBC, which at this point is about ten years, I've never

once been approached about a contributorship. But I have watched them give contributorships to less talented white Republicans on a regular fucking basis. I have watched them ghetto wise, right the weekend shows, which is where you see all of the hosts of color except for Joy Reid, who is the only person of color in their lineup, who is

until seven pm. From Morning Joe until seven pm. There are no people of color hosting anybody that you see right that is a person of color that comes on that show unless it says MSNBC Legal Analyst, MSNBC political contributor. If it just says that person's name, they're coming on for free, which is a majority of the fucking people that are coming on. It's a continuation of a slap

in the face. I said this. You know at the end of the Trump administration that no one that had that campaign or that administration on their resume should be employable outside of Fox and Oaan and whatever other type

of right wing conspiracy fucking outlets. To legitimize them and to whitewash them through mainstream media makes them now credible, Right, These people that spent their years lying to our faces and supporting a criminal and now you want to have them on Dancing with the Stars, in NBC News and The View and other places and think that like people don't get it. And so the outrage that folks are receiving now and they're saying, oh, they're gonna NBC is

gonna rescind the offer and blah blah blah. I hope the fuck that they do, you know, but they never should have extended it in the first place. And this kind of foot seas that they want to keep playing with fascists isn't going to land them anywhere. They're not going to be liked anymore. Pick me, pick me Donald, like, oh, you know, if you were to become president, like, we'll play nice with you. No, you fucking won't. And you know why, because he's going to shut you down regardless.

So it's just, you know, the anger that I had at that announcement and the pushback. I wish that, I will say this, I wish that the people that are so adamant about Roni McDaniel not being on NBC News, I wish they were as adamant when Mehdi his son

was being wrongfully terminated. You know, I wish that a person of color, a Muslim, who is one of the best interviewers I have ever seen, was given that kind of support internally by his fellow colleagues who would have gone on air and said him being fired is absolutely outrageous. I wish that they would have done that for Tiffany Cross, right. I wish way back in the day that they would have done it for Melissa Harris Perry right. Like, It's

just it's amazing, folks. And you know, I could list off a bunch of names of people who once had shows, had platforms and were shut down. But white mainstream media will bring back, you know, Jeffrey Tuban on CNN after he's caught like fondling himself on a call, but you won't hire back Mark Lamont Hill, a scholar on Palestine and Palestine and Israel. Like it is wild, do you know what I'm saying? But you understand that mainstream media

is complicit in the fuckery. They're complicit and they perpetuate it on a regular basis, which is why I say often support independent media, support people who believe in what they say and will tell you the truth and work off of something called integrity as well as passion, because those two things don't exist in corporate media. Folks. We're in tough, tough, tough tough times, and they continue to

get worse. You know. Right now as I'm speaking, the Supreme Court is hearing the case on MiFi pristone, mif of pristone, the abortion pill that was approved by the FDA twenty three years ago and whose usage is now being challenged, which means that if they overturn the use of MEFA pristone, the FDA loses its teeth, loses its

ability to confirm medication. That you know, the Supreme Court, those those nine unelected black robes, get to decide what you put in your mouth, what you don't, what you you know, whether you have a baby, whether you don't. We're in dark times. We're in dark, dark times, and so I tell you, please find the light, Please seek it out. Please make it a regular part of your

day of your life. Please find the joy. If it's gardening right now as we enter into spring on the East coast, if it is you know, going for walks, if it's you know, cooking, baking, hanging out with your loved ones, just whatever it is, do it, and do it often so that you are connected to and reminded of and grounded in what's important. That is it for me today, dear friends on Woke app. As always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.