Zero Sum Reality

about the policies that they put out. Democrats are acting as if you know, free and fair elections are just assumed and not necessarily things that need to be safeguarded and are for you know, I tweeted over the weekend because I woke up in the morning to my sister sending me the Bill Mahr clip, and then I tweeted over the weekend and I said, you know, here's the thing. This is a thing that is incredibly troubling to me.

Is this Joe Biden has been so focused on being the comforter in chief, on showing that he is a statesman and can deal with the toughness on the right as well as the infighting within his own party. Joe

Biden is a president for a different time. Joe Biden is a great presidential choice for a time when we had two political parties that adhered two laws and a constitution, that believed in the oaths that they took, that came together in order to create or perfect our most imperfect union, and that we believed that the Senate was the deliberative body, not a pollssy graveyard that Mitch McConnell has turned it into. You see, Joe Biden would be a great president for

the early aughts. He would have been a really great

president for the late nineties. But now after four years of Donald Trump, after a successful coup, one that is gaining more momentum and force as the days and weeks go on, where we are still waiting on multiple hearings by the Insurrection Committee, where we are not seeing the full force of Congress's power to be able to enforce subpoenas that Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon, Cashpital and others have just shrugged at and are looking at it as if they have the choice whether to RSVP for the party

or not. You have Democrats talking about the cost of a three point five trillion dollar plan to actually build America back, but not having any of the messaging available or understanding how to message the contents of said plan. You have two Democrats who are really just Republicans in DEM's clothing that are more concerned with their own greed, their own pockets, and their own names and lights than they are about preserving our democracy. So this is the

thing that I tweeted over the weekend. What do you think would happen if at Potus began to ring the alarm on our democracy instead of telling us we can build back better? What would happen if Democrats began to talk about the constitutional crisis we are in rather than trying to negotiate with traders. You see, as I'm here on Long Island this weekend, I've been in conversation with both of my parents about the current state of affairs. And you know, my mother said to me something that

I say on air often. She goes, you know, Danielle, I'm listening to the news as we're sitting here, and this is one thing that I know to be true. And I said what, And she says, Democrats have no idea how to message. She's like, they are literally failing at something that should be very easy. Why can't they coalesce around one message in the way that Republicans do?

And I said, well, because Democrats love to be full of excuses, and one of those excuses are the fact that we have such a big tent with so many diverse views and opinions that it's very difficult to coalesce around one particular issue when each faction has its own priorities.

That's the lie that is told. There is only one priority that this administration and this Congress should have had from jump, and the insurrection days before the inauguration should have solidified what the fuck that priority was, But here we are nine months in and it isn't. The one priority should have been to preserve and strengthen our democracy

by any fucking means necessary. It should have been to paint Republicans not as their friends from across the aisle, not as in a actual political party, but as in a group of elected insurrectionists that are interested in only one thing, power for powers sake, and the ushering in of authoritarianism, and that every strategic move that was going to be made between inauguration day and the twenty twenty two midterms should have been about getting one fucking thing done,

a comprehensive and thorough piece of voting rights legislation that would not only safeguard our ability to elect our officials and have them beholden to we the people, but to also expand and make those quote unquote political norms, actual laws on the books. Everything else comes after that. Because you cannot fight climate change, you cannot build infrastructure. You can and not strengthen our public school systems, our healthcare system.

You cannot target programs to end poverty, you cannot strengthen our nation's HBCUs. You cannot do any of these things

if we the people are unable to fucking vote. But the one thing, the one thing that should have been what all Democrats, progressives and these quote unquote fucking moderates to coalesce around, was to ensure that a figure like Donald Trump A could never run for president again because he would be in an orange fucking jumpsuit, because we would have a Department of Justice that actually had a backbone and teeth that would be going after those that

were responsible and accountable for the insurrection that took place, that were responsible for the over one hundred and sixty police officers who were attacked, harmed, a few of which committed suicide, and those of which we have resigned their positions because of trauma. They would have made it their number one mission to make sure that America would never

forget this day. They would have made it the rallying cry not for just Democrats, but for Republicans and independents who believed in upholding our democracy, whether or not you liked the current occupant of the White House or not. When you look at the pieces of this memo that John Eastman put together, and I'm telling you it is actually quite significant, right, And again, we're really not having

these conversations right now. This came out why because of the book peril, because of Bob Woodward, right, and the fact that he was very privy to the inside conversations that were happening to the memos that we're going out, And the only reason why we're talking about it is because of that motherfucker's book tour, right, and the promotion of his book tour. But as soon as that has faded into the distance, we seem not to be continuing

this conversation in mainstream media. Our friend who was on the show last week, washahat Ali, tweeted over the weekend and said, it is evident that many people in mainstream media want Donald Trump to become president again, want him to actively begin running for reelection in twenty twenty four because it's good for ratings and ratings equal money, And I said, in a response to that very clear and very correct statement, that capitalism is going to be our downfall.

That it isn't going to be aliens coming in from out of space, that it isn't going to be quote unquote foreign terrorists. No, it is going to be greed coupled with racism, coupled with apathy. That will be our downfall.

Because you see, folks, when you look around right now, when you look around at all of the things, all of the ills that America is dealing with, with an unstable economy, jobless numbers that are quite high, the lie that employers got to bread within this administration that we needed to, you know, end jobless benefits because you know, people were just collecting checks at home, which was bullshit. Right.

They wanted to tell you that, oh, twelve hundred dollars, you've had an extraordinarily difficult nineteen plus months living in this global health pandemic that is never going to go away. So here's twelve hundred dollars that should do you, right? What is that giving me two three dollars a day? What are jobless benefits doing, unemployment benefits doing making sure

that you don't lose the roof over your head. But the purpose here was to force people back into the grind of a capitalist structure that would have them just be grateful for less than minimum wage. Just be grateful that they can put some food on their table. Who cares if they have healthcare benefits? Who cares if they are unable to organize and sue their employer for better working conditions. Workers should just be grateful for having a job.

That is the attitude of employers, That is the attitude of the one percent. There's a reason why, in particular in this country, we don't teach financial literacy, right, we don't teach young people in school that's not a mandatory class. Why because everybody is in on the predatory loans. Because schools receive kickbacks. These businesses receive kickbacks, and so much in the same way of healthcare and pharmaceutical companies that there is no money in a cure, There is no

money in prevention. That they need to keep you sick so that you can remain a part of the machine that is grinding you to a pulpe. So you look at these things that are happening, folks, and you think to yourself, oh, well, this is just entertainment. We are the entertainment for the rich. Our struggles are the entertainment

for them. Everything that we see is essentially Maria Antoinette telling us let them eat cake, the bottom of the band, the crumbs, because we equate worth with wealth, and if you don't have that, well, than you are not worthy of anything. You shouldn't be supported, you shouldn't have social safety nets. Your current economic state is measured by how

hard you're willing to work. We read bullshit success stories from the ultrawealthy, from the CEOs and the shareholders, from the philanthropists, who leave out of their stories of hard work and just waking up and having passion and all of those things about the loans that their families were able to give them, about the hand up that they were born into, about how they were able to build wealth because they have teams of lawyers and accountants that

help them navigate the major loopholes that were created for their success. The Pandora papers that were released that showed the ways that legally from royalty to our own politicians and celebrities are using tax shelters as a way not to pay their fair share, but they're not really breaking the law, they're using it to their advantage. And we don't have politicians that are interested in fixing those laws

because those loopholes help fund their fucking packs. And then they're not beholden to you, their constituents, they're beholden to the donors. We've been having this conversation, friends, for decades, except we're getting to the place, the moment in the story where everyone is looking around and they're like, fuck, this really is not working. We're out here campaigning for fifteen dollars an hour thinking that that's going to solve every fucking problem. How is that when gas right now

in many places is above three dollars an hour. When I just read another report in the New York Times that tells me that a majority of Americans are paying more in childcare double what their mortgages are. But right now, Republicans and Kirsten Cinema and Joe Mansion don't want a human infrastructure bill that would help level out childcare payments to be only seven percent of your income as opposed

to damn near fucking half, if not more. Those decisions that then force women, not men, in heterosexual dynamics out of the workforce. And on top of that, dear friends, while they are making sure that they do everything in their power to weaken what is left of our social safety nets, then on the other hand, they're rolling out anti choice, anti abortion policies that will all but drive women out of the workforce, creating room in their minds for the white aggrieved men who don't want women there

in the first place. And what this does it doesn't harm wealthy white women or middle class, white suburban women. Know the punishment alone will fall on the backs of the low income and the black and brown who aren't able to afford the flights and the two hundred and fifty some odd miles to drive in order to be able to create an economic future for themselves by being able to decide when and how and if they start a family. Every single thing right now is at play

in our real world, real life squid game. The decisions that are being made right now are in fact about life or death. Except it's not schoolyard games that we are playing. We are the pawns in the much bigger game that has been at play for decades. These things are not happening by accident or in silos. But you see, that's the way that we cover them. We allow mainstream media to create a false dichotomy, a false set of choices.

Oh well, it's too much money to invest in the American people, but they have no problem investing in war.

Billions of dollars spent in Afghanistan for failed attempt at the creation of a democracy in a land whose culture you don't fucking understand and whose history you don't care about, modeling after the false idea of what democracy is, in a country where women don't make equal pay, where black people are still being murdered in the street, where a majority of Americans can't afford a four hundred dollar bill that would come up, where inflation is not on pace

with income, where climate change is not oh, in our future, but in our now. It's no wonder that when people are pulled right now on what direction they think that the country is headed in, that a majority of Americans, regardless of party, are saying, yeah, we're not headed in the right direction. We can't tackle any one of these issues because we don't tell the fucking truth about the plan that is in place to keep people in their place.

We don't have an actual cast system in these United States. No, we love to uphold those that are able to break out of the confines of the economic systems that they have been born into, about the racist structures that they have been forced to abide by. But we love to hold up these people as if they've won the lottery of life, recognizing that if we were to actually build systems for the benefit of all people, there wouldn't just be a handful To point too, we are living in

a zero sum reality right now. I spend time each and every day of my career to try and ring the alarm to wake people up, recognizing that many Americans are forced into a predicament where they don't even have the time or the space to worry about anything other than their immediate needs. You see, that is also how they keep you stuck. Because this country, the wealthiest, one of the wealthiest nations in the world, has more than enough to provide for people's basic needs so that they

can grow from there. But we don't want to because how dare the working class, the low income class believe that they can aspire to be anything else? Let them blame each other, let them fight for the scrap apps, because time is a privilege. I recognize that I have time each and every day to read multiple news reports, to watch and research and interview and talk to people

about the direction that we are headed in. Well, guess what if I'm pushing out an eighty hour workweek on multiple jobs because one is not enough for me to pay for childcare as well as put food on the table, as well as pay my mortgage and my rent and my car note and my utilities and at the end of the day put food on the table. If I'm running from job to job to job, do you think I have time to see or point the real fingers

at who is bamboozling me. No, I'm going to make the assumption that they are smarter, they are better, they know what they're doing. So when they tell me instead to point the finger on my neighbor down the street as to the reason why I'm living in such despair them, I can touch and feel and hurt and put pressure points on. Not the people that are up in their ivory towers like in squid games, putting pawns on the board and moving them around for their own fucking enjoyment

and wealth building. We should be scared. We should be scared right now because those that are in power that we elected in twenty twenty are not woke, They are not conscious, they are anything. But they are trying to sing song America to sleep with a bunch of fucking nursery rhymes. But if you actually pay attention and understand where nursery rhymes actually come from, right, there's songs about despair, There's songs about the troubled times, but they lull us

because they have a soothing beat behind them. Don't worry. Joe Biden keeps saying we'll build back together as his approval numbers fall into the basement. This is not who we are, says Vice President Kamala Harris. We're better than this. When she's given a plate of issues to deal with that are not set up for her success, as is the case with most black women that are placed in power,

no one is being set up for success. But so long as you are given somebody else to point out and blame and say, if we were to just get

rid of them, then everything would be okay. If we just bury our heads in the sand and don't teach our kids about America's past or America's present, then we can continue living in this haze, living in this dreamscape, pretending that there are just a few bad actors, as opposed to the fact that this is actually who we are, that America has been built on violence and lies and bloodshed, that it is economic beneficial for a few that we

stay at each other's throats and create factions, breeding right and harboring the energy of hate that just is bubbling up.

You think that we're not being set up right now when you're seeing literal fights, fist fights break out at school board meetings, where you're seeing Republican legislators sweep in and assume control over your school boards, screaming on one hand that any talk about race or racism is indoctrinating their children to what hate themselves, when in reality, it is setting them up to be critical thinkers about the kind of world that they want to live in and how they can be a force for change in it.

The same people that try to keep black and brown people out of integrating their schools are the same people now. The children are those people that were shouting down, spitting down, and beating black people. Now they don't want you to know what their parents and their grandparents did. I watched as a Trumper said, our ware of our way of

life is slipping away. Gotald Trump is the only person that can save us, save you from what the fact that you have been under educated, the fact that you have been told a lie your entire life that you don't need an education, but somehow you'll be able to afford a house, in a car, and vacations and do all of these things on your fucking factory job, when you yourself have decided to vote to disband labor unions that would give you the protections, the healthcare benefits and

a living wage, just so you can feel really good that you're in all white spaces where you're all broken, miserable together. But you know what, at least, at least I'm better than that negro down the street. To say that America is in the danger zone would be a euphemism. To say that the upcoming midterms are consequential would be the understatement of the year. To believe even in the fact that our election right now isn't already decided is to live inside of a fairy tale. We are not

prepared for this moment. We don't have elected officials that are prepared for this moment. Our forefathers, those slaveholding, rapist, misogynist, racist pigs, could only see but so far into the future. The assumption that they had is that in each decade that we would get better, that we would get stronger. They didn't think about the rollback, the pushback. We believed, and we the people, we believed that that little grace period called the Obama era was going to be our

future instead of a glimpse. We believe that democracies just exist, that you don't actually have to work for them, or fight for them, or reinforce them. We are, dear friend, living in a dream world, and we like to stay in this place and watch these shows and tune out in lying to ourselves, well, at least we're not that bad or that's so crazy that could never happen. It is all a distraction from the fact that we are

already in that game. But whether or not we understand the rules know how to play is an entirely different story. But it helps when you're put in these life or death games to recognize that you haven't been set up for success. You are a pawn, and recognizing that and being able to plan from there is the first fucking step. But friends, my fear is we've run at a time. That is it for me today on Woke af AS always power to the people and to all the people power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.