Pressure Drop

just being churned right. You know, you know when they tell you to stay out of the water at the beach because you know there's a rip tie, there's rip currents that are coming through. That's what I think is the perfect analogy for America right now. Seemingly the water looks good, you're at the beach, and then the next thing that you know, you're being sucked under and don't have the strength to be able to swim back to shore. I feel like we are all caught in this rip current.

New reporting has come out, came out yesterday in the Washington Post that I got to tell you. I started reading it and was just like, I just want to throw everything out. I want to throw the fucking paper out. I want to throw the country out. And I just want to start over. But new reporting comes out because of course folks are getting ready to write a book. But in the Washington Post there's an article talking about the cowardice of the Republican Party, particularly Mitch McConnell and

Kevin McCarthy following the insurrection. So let me give you

the you know, the cliff notes on this story. So as it turns out, and we all know this because if you remember a few days after the insurrection, if you even remember that the vote that took place, once they cleared those thugs and fascists and domestic terrorists out of the Capitol Building, that the vote was restored to certify Joe Biden's win, right, And at that time, Mitch McConnell, along with a handful of Republicans, gave a you know, good talking to to Donald Trump and to say that

this is not who we are, this isn't what this country is about. Blah blah blah blah blah. And much like you, I thought that the insurrection was going to be an extraordinary turning point. I thought that after four years under Donald Trump, that would culminate in the you know, destruction of our Capitol building. Officers being beaten, a woman being killed, that this was going to be a reckoning,

a collective reckoning about who we were. And what this article in the Washington Post laid out is that Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy wanted Donald Trump to resign, wanted the impeachment to happen, wanted it to make clear that Donald Trump was not going to be able to run for office again, and that they wanted to rid him

of the party, rid him from the party. But then, because these people are beholden to their racist, rabid base, and they saw that their response no thanks to Fox News, O A N Newsmax and QAnon for painting the insurrection as if it was, you know, just your regular tourists, visit, just your regular demonstration that ends up with thousands of people breaking into the Capitol Building, stealing from members of comfort of Congress, and defecating in our halls of democracy.

But because they got that intel right from media who was not covering this, their media, right wing media wasn't covering this as a gasp, as a oh my god, what have we done? Right? As we all thought that they would, well, McConnell and McCarthy do what they do best with their spinelessness, which is recognized that Donald Trump held all the cards, held all the power, and had power over the base, and that the base wanted this. They want mayhem, they want violence. Right. I look around, Um,

I gotta tell you quick quick side note. I am out in Maryland and there are Trump Trump fucking flags all over here. And one of these flags isn't just it's not enough to just have the name Trump on it. It also said like wouldn't you like to take away my gun? Fu? It's it's the arrogance, it's the obnoxiousness, it is the self aggrandizing. It's just disgusting, really what

it is. And it's just wrapped in white male fragility, right, the need to carry this big gun so that I can say that I'm a man, right, just like fucking Tucker Carlson and his tanning testicles. Like that's what masculinity looks like that in eating raw eggs, their their their idea of masculinity and of power is so fucking cartoonish. Right. Um, it is clear that these people don't know themselves. They don't care to know themselves or society or anything. Right,

It's my way or the highway. It's as if they all just stayed in in their toddler phase, right, Um,

But nonetheless, let may not insult toddlers. But the reality coming out of this reporting in the Post is basically that there was a moment, right, and it was brief, apparently maybe it lasted less than twenty four hours, where Republicans, you know, if they actually had a real leader and didn't just have a bunch of sick offense that we're going to leach onto power, regardless of if it was toxic, if it was dangerous, if it was violent, but they

want power above all else. So there was an opportunity for Kevin McCart to rally right, to have the votes whipped in the House right for Republicans, because in order to impeach Donald Trump you needed seventeen Republicans, right, there was an opportunity for that vote not to happen along party lines, for McCarthy and McConnell to say that for the longevity and the health of the Republican Party and for us not to be aligned with domestic terrorists and violence,

and for this to be the lasting impression of this administration, we need to rid ourselves of Donald Trump, and we will get on Fox News, we will call up these folks like there could have been right, the opportunity to do what was right. But Republicans don't give a fuck at the end of the day about doing anything that is right. They do what is about power. And this is what I have recognized, you know, over not just the power week, because there have just been so many

low points. And I think that that's the problem too, is that when a story like this comes out and then you see the about face that these spineless cowards took right when they could have put country ahead of party, when they could have collectively condemned they what happened, when they could have said, you know what, no, we need a one six commission to investigate this because this is not who our party is, right, But they decided not

to because they realized that Donald Trump was still powerful, that his supporters still had his back, and that they were going to go and take this stop the steal over the cliff. And as far as they were going to go, Donald Trump could continue saying that the election was stolen so that he could continue his hundred million dollar gripped from these fucking idiots right that he calls

his base. And so it's just, you know what I realize as I continue to just I don't know, folks believe that we can make it through this darkness, this ugly, ugly side of America, that we can get to the other side. I hear stories like this, and I'm just like, no, I think that the American project is done. And that's kind of where I am ending this week in the feeling that I'm having, and I'm trying really desperately not to marinate in it, not to marinate in the misery.

I'm really trying desperately to seek my own joy. Which is why I decided to leave town just for a couple of days, because I needed to shift in energy, because I realized that in order to do this work right, in order to do this work, to be a part of a movement that is about justice, that is about the expansion of that is about truth and facts right, That is about science, right, that it is about democracy and what that means right. It means, you know, government

foreigned by the people. It means the collaboration of multiple sides in order to get the best results for a country that I believe we all care about. But somehow we allowed the Republican Party to co opt patriotism, to co opt, like, you know, the belief that there isn't enough. And I say that this always comes back to this scarcity ideology, the belief that there isn't enough right, and that I need to get mine, and in order for me to get mine, that means that you have to

go without. And it's not enough for you to go without. I need you to also believe that you are unworthy. That's where we are with this iteration of the Republican Party is that it isn't enough logic right to state that most of government assistants goes to white people, because white people are still right the majority in this country. So it isn't enough to say that it isn't enough

to speak the truth right. And I've been doing, you know, having a lot of conversations with grassroots organizations, you know, across the issue spectrum from abortion to voting and so on and so forth, to the LGBTQ movement and what have you. And you know, what I keep telling people is that you all and I know that each and every single one of our issues are righteous. I know that we are on the right side of history in

each and every single one of these movements. But we need to move away from stats and figures and bullet points and bullshit because here's the thing. I think that as Democrats, we have always believed that if we hammer our stats and facts and poll numbers that eventually we will win over these people and they will come to see the light. But the reality is is that they have created their own alternative not only their own alternative facts, thanks Kelly an Conway, but they have created their own

alternative universe. Right right now, folks, right now, you have Ronda Santis. Ronda Santis has decided that he is in competition to be the worst most vile, disgusting Republican politician on the planet. Him and Abbot are just in a neck and neck race. And right now, Ronda Santis has decided that he is going to go after the happiest place on Earth, right, that he's going to turn Republicans

and conservatives against Disney because Disneys. Now, I saw a fucking tweet from some conservative nutcracker that turned the d in Disney into the sickle right like of Russia, which is funny because that's the country that they're rooting for

right now in the war of aggression in Ukraine. So it's like they're calling Disney communist for their embrace of LGBTQ plus people, and yet they cheer on Russia and putin a man who doesn't believe in equity and just And it's like they want to call people communists, but then they cheer for a communist, like they want to call people dictators but then they support dictatorships and fascism.

They don't know whether they're coming or going. And that's what I realized this week too, when I was attacked for my stance on Elon Musk and his desire to create or to try and buy Twitter to create this quote unquote free speech town hall space where everyone gets dispute their most disgusting thoughts and do so without accountability, because that's what white men sis hetero men want in general, right is I want I alone can fix everything. I

alone can do whatever the fuck I want. And dare you, dare you come to me and tell me that I can't? Dare you come to me and expect me to be accountable for my actions or my harm? I can do whatever the fuck I want. I don't have to wear a mask. I can tell women and people with uterus is when and when and how to have babies. I can do whatever the fuck I want, right, That's their attitude. And so you look at what rhnd De Santis is doing.

I'm gonna take away, you know, Disney's tax exemptions. I'm gonna do X, Y and Z because Okay, then this multibillion dollar beloved company will just pack up and go to a state that actually welcomes them. How about that? Like you can keep the fucking park, but like they'll move their headquarters and their businesses because eventually, because they can, right.

And what Ronda Santis is trying to do is make an example out of this corporation and out of Twitter and out of these places and say that like private industry has to succumb to like the will of Republicans. And I'm saying, folks, everybody need to be paying attention, right, Like these motherfuckers are out for blood. They are not just out for power for powers sake, but like I've been saying all week long, they are out for punishment, right, they are out for cruelty. This is why they love,

you know. Putin so goddamn much right, because they believe that he's a man's man. He's gonna just take Ukraine and grab it by the pussy apparently, the way that they love Donald Trump and how he takes control over women against their fucking will, because that's his right. It's you know, I honestly believe that these people. And I don't say this as to disparage mentally ill, but there is something not right with these people, and you know,

it is really indeed occult. And so I just have come to a place where I really need the media not to just care about fucking clicks, right, like, I need the media to actually recognize that they have the power to wake people up, they have the power to shift thoughts and open minds, and instead they're just choosing to go where the money is, and the money is

in fear. The money is in denial. The money apparently is inside of Hunter Biden's laptop, as opposed to Trump juniors fucking tweets, you know, as opposed to inside of Trump Junior's text messages to Mark Meadows, which, as our friend Glenn Kirshner has said on his YouTube show Justice Matters, Mark Meadows out there running like a fucking treason as hotline. First it's Jenny Thomas, then it's Don Trump Junior, like

and like McCarthy. Who else was Mark Meadows in cahoots with on January six and again paging Merritt Garland, Paging Merritt Garland, bitch you awake? Do we need to dump some cold water on you right in order to snap you out of your fucking slow like sleep right now?

It is so obvious to me that this is only ending one way, and that is badly right, that is violently, that is in I you know, folks, And I don't want to say this because I honestly believe that words have power, and I don't want to speak, you know, evil into the world. But evil is already here. And it's just amazing to me that mainstream media continues to refer to the Republican Party as a legitimate political party that is just ideologically opposed to Democrats, as opposed to

wanting them dead right. The vileness, just the acute vileness that I experienced this week over social media, for me, was just the realization that they're not going to be satisfied with just power. They want subjugation, they want the nineteen fifties when black and brown people were forced to step off the sidewalk and lower their eyes when white

people were walking by. They want women in subjugation to their husbands right, and tied to children that they do not want, tied into relationships that they do not want because they have no other choice. They want to limit the choices. They want to limit the avenues so that

they can increase the pain. And you see when you look at history and you look at these areas of the world where fascism and authoritarianism were able to take hold, you look at economic devastation, you look at lack of social safety nets, you look at you know, terrible or

no access to public education. You see these things, and we're watching them, one by one, one by one roll out in America, you know, And I just I know that it's just so much to pay attention to because the onslaught is just never ending, like it is just headline after headline. I had to stop myself yesterday my alerts with the New York Times. My phone just kept buzzing and buzzing, and finally I was just like, I'm fucking done right, and this is my job. But I

was like, I'm done for the day. So I encourage each and every one of you, like I say often, you know, you gotta unplug in order for us to be able to save ourselves and even develop right our own kitchen table strategy for how we are going to survive America's dark ages. We are going to need to be able to tap out and tap back in, because where there is no one that is going to be able to consistently stay in this toxic, fucking dump and not lose their mind. I mean, that's just the real

of it. And so you know, as story after story comes out, and come to find out, you know, another great story as to the fact that now we have learned that only one textbook is allowed in the whole state of Florida. There are multiple companies, by the way, that publish public school textbooks, but now with Florida's new ban on books and critical race theory, there is only one company that they're going to be using accelerated learning. Funny enough, someone has been doing a little bit of

a Twitter dive. Judy Levine has been doing a little bit of a Twitter dive into understanding who this company and he is that is the sole company that is allowed to distribute textbooks to public schools in Florida. Come to find out they have campaign ties to Ronda Santis. Come to find out guess who used to work there, Glenn Junkin. Glenn Junkin who is now the governor of

Virginia modeling his parental control after Florida. Come to find out they're all financially benefiting from this one textbook company right out of Houston, where most textbooks come from. And if you remember, if you've been listening to wokaf for a while, for a couple of years, there's a story that I will never forget. It was a couple of years ago where one of the Texas publishers had decided that we were no longer going to refer to slavery

as slavery. They were just going to take that out, that it was going to be unpaid labor, like as if it was as if slavery the four hundred years of oppression, right, and torture and rape and brutalization and terrorization of black people was somehow somebody's unpaid fucking internship, right, and that we were going to play up the benevolence of these slave masters incredible. But this is the type of quote unquote education that dissantists and JUNCN and the

Republican Party want. Oh, we don't know why black people are so outraged and why police murder them at the rate that they do, and there is no justice, and oh they're just asking for things, but all they ever get or handouts, and so that you can create and continue this distorted view of systemic racism that you've created and benefit from. But let's not educate people, because God forbid, we develop critical thinkers that then ask questions like why.

It's like, how do you see these things? See the criminal nature of everything that is being done, See the money that is in politics in these lies that see the punishment, see the desire to harm people? Right, and there be no credible investigations into anything, no fucking accountability anywhere, And you wonder why these people are doing what they're doing and getting emboldened by the fucking hour because nothing

is being done. It isn't enough for these reporters and folks to like unearth these things if they're unearthing them, and there's no Department of Justice to actually take any fucking action because they're too chicken shit right to go off against the Republican Party and say, no, this isn't about politics. This is about we're storing faith and integrity into the agencies that you have spoiled. But nobody's doing that.

No one is doing that. And so now we have a country that has a patchwork of abortion protections, and by the time that June runs around, they will be less than half of the country where people with uteruses are able to get an abortion. Soon, the CRT push won't just be in Florida and in Virginia. It'll be in Texas and Alabama and Mississippi and Maine and Oklahoma and everywhere. And what they really want, right, what they've always wanted, is the privatization of everything. Right, because you

let me tell you something. This is the thing that I want to see happen. Know that it can't and why can't it. But let me tell you what I'd love to see happen. I'd love to see a mass home schooling movement. I would love to see black people, brown people, progressives, queer people, everyone, right, the collective, everyone

pulling their fucking kids out of public school. But then you know what Republicans will turn around and do they will decertify the accreditations that you can get as a homeschooler, or they will change them. Right, So then all of a sudden, you can't go into you can't get a degree, you can't go to college, you can't get into certain positions, right, folks. It just some weeks are better than others. I can't really tell you the last time that there was a

good one. I'm trying to really rack my brain about it. But the reality is this, They're not going to stop and things are going to get far worse than they are right now. And you know, I heard another report that I refuse to like wade into that Bernie Sanders may want to run for office again. And I'm like, is there no one new? Is there no one knew? But then I think to myself, who the fuck wants

to be president of this shit whole nation? Because that's what we've become, right Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Like, they're not really president and vice president. They're fucking janitors right now, trying to clean up like this mess that I mean, it's spewing everywhere over everything. I don't know who wants this job to be honest, because the damage that has

been done is far worse. And I think that what is so difficult to grasp is that how can the American project that is two over two centuries old crumble in four years? Like? How does that happen? And it happens by assuming that you that we as citizens didn't need to put any work and any vigilance into our relationship with the country that we live in. Just think

about it like this. If you are coupled, right, if you're in a couple, I don't care if you're married, you know, you're living with somebody like whatever it is.

Imagine being in relationship with somebody and putting in no work at all, no conversations, no collaboration, and just assuming that everything is going to go well, that your relationship is going to be healthy, right, that there isn't going to be cheating or lying or misgivings or any of those things, when you yourself have put in no work and have no accountability for how it's going. That has been our relationship to our democracy. Sure we vote, and voting, friends,

is the bare fucking minimum. It is holding these motherfuckers accountable, right, It is paying attention to even the most minuscule details. But who can do that when you can barely keep food on the table and you've got to make choices

between food and medicine and fucking clothing. You see, the whole point that Republicans really serve up well is that if you keep people in desperate situations, if you ensure that they are unable to meet their bare minimum right food, shelter, and clothing, then you think that they're going to have the ability to pay attention to how you are robbing them fucking blind day in and to day out. You're not.

You're not because what you have to struggle through each and every day, you don't have the attention, the time, and the wherewithal to keep track of what the fuck they are doing. And that is the point. That is the point. So it's up to those of us who aren't in those situations to be the ones that are activated, right for those that are unable to activate because they have been locked into cycles of poverty. But I'm telling you, you know, the attack has been on the middle class

and squeezing and squeezing and squeezing. So that really what is the separation between the middle class right now and low income folks, because a couple of miss checks and you had fucking food lines wrapped around for miles during COVID. That just goes to show you how economically unstable a majority of this fucking country is. Because it wasn't just happening in rural areas or you know, or quote unquote

inner cities. It was happening everywhere. Suburban townships, right, which is supposed to be the American gym, where you have the house in the white picket fence in the front, in the backyard, and the two car garage. Those are the places where you saw people wrapped around for miles in food lines. So what does that say right about our country? Not fucking much. I go back to parable

of this. I go back to Octavia Butler. I go back to the fact that that woman was a soothsayer, that the confluence of just disaster crisis after crisis after crisis, that all you needed to do was have one person like Donald Trump, just pull one thread and keep yanking it until the entire project fell apart. It breaks my heart on a regular basis, and that is, you know, I realize some days that the core of my anger and rage is really grief. It is truly grief. And

when you think about it, unpack your own. Where does our anger, our righteous anger, come from. It comes from a place of reef. We wanted to believe that this country was better than it was because we were gas lit our entire lives thinking that America was exceptional. We sold American exceptionalism everywhere and anywhere. And I've said this time and time again on this show and others. America

is not exceptional. It just has better pr right. It just had a bigger megaphone and the ability to spread its lies far and wide. But anybody sitting back now who is not actually in America but looking at America, is like, how y'all are a fucking mess. And this whole time I thought that you were better than us, that you had this whole political democracy thing worked out. Come to find out you don't know shit. Come to find out one man alone could ruin this. Donald Trump said,

one man alone, I alone can fix this. No, I alone can ruin this. Who would have thought I sure as fucked didn't. Oh, dear friends, this is what I say, at the end of this week, on this Friday, is take some time, take a lot of time, you know, take take time to I don't know, connect with nature, meditate, you know, connect with friends. Just unplug from this mess and not and don't just do it over the weekend. I made the joke the other day that weekends are alive.

They're not two days. It's actually one day and a half. Right, Saturday, Saturday is the one full day that you have of rest. It isn't Sunday because part of Sunday is preparing for Monday. Right, So, and Friday you're working, and then you have Friday night, and most of us are too fucking exhausted to even enjoy Friday nights anymore. Right, so you get one day Saturday. But that can't be all that we're working towards or

all that we're hanging onto. It has to be our joy, friends, Our sanity is relying on our ability to find joy in the most minuscule things. We must grab onto those things on a daily basis. We must make joy a part of our daily practice. Otherwise we are not going to make it to the other side. And if we cannot conjure the light within us to lead us through

this darkness, we will not make it. So, you know, please, please, please, please, as these days get, you know, just feel heavier, please figure out what your joy center is and hone it. Grow it, grow your light, because I'm telling you that this darkness, if you don't hone that light inside of you right you're not going to be able to navigate through. So please take that time. That is it for me this week, dear friends. As always, power to the people and to all the people. Power. Get woke and stay

woke as fun and joyful, joyful as fuck. You deserve it by virtue of your birth, not because you have to earn it. Be well, friends, see you back here on my day