Stay Free - Russel Brand - June 05, 2023


Dr. Cornel West (Running For President!)


Episode Stats

Length

45 minutes

Words per Minute

169.90027

Word Count

7,671

Sentence Count

590

Misogynist Sentences

9

Hate Speech Sentences

12


Summary

Cornell West joins us for an exclusive announcement, and to discuss his new presidential campaign and why he thinks Ron DeSantis should replace Donald Trump as President of the United States. We also hear from the FBI, Google and the CIA, and we hear from Tulsi Gabbard. And we're back with a brand new episode of Rumble! Subscribe to Rumble to get exclusive episodes exclusively on your favourite streaming platform, wherever you get your shows. You won't want to miss it! RUMBLE is produced by BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live. Our theme song is Come Alone by Suneaters, courtesy of Lotuspool Records. The album art for the episode was done by our super talented Ameya. We'd like to sincerely thank you for all your support, it means a lot to us and we can't wait to do more of this in the future. Thank you so much to everyone who has been listening, supporting us, supporting the show, and supporting the podcast. Love Ghost of a Podcast. Rambling on. - The Revolution is a production of Radio 4 Radio. Hosted by John Rocha and the Revolution Project. Music by PSOVOD and the Vigilante Crew. Words and Music by Zapsplat. Produced by Bobby Lord. Artwork by Ian McKinnon, Matthew Boll, and Mark Phillips. All rights reserved. If you like what you hear, please leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and we'll be sure to give you a rating and review it on iTunes. Thank you, John Roperating on the next episode of You Awakening Wonders, too! - Thank you for listening to this podcast! Please take a review and sharing it on Anchor.co.fm/Awakening Wonders - John R.ee/RUMBLE/Rumble/ and we're listening to you on Podchaser on Podcoin & we'll send you a review of your thoughts on the podcast on it on the Podcoin. And we'll post it on Insta? Thanks for listening and reviewing it on insta or Insta/tweet me on Instapaper, . etc etc. & other links to the podcast and other places you can be reached on Instagrand/instagrasmatic in the podcast? &


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, you Awakening Wonders.
00:00:01.000 Look, we're back.
00:00:02.000 We're back with you live on Rumble and on YouTube.
00:00:06.000 We're live across the world.
00:00:08.000 There's nowhere you can be on this planet where you cannot access this content if you want to, and why wouldn't you?
00:00:12.000 Why don't you join us as a member of our locals community, like SensitiveHearts25 sending... Actually, she's not sending me love.
00:00:18.000 They're sending love to one another, Gareth, my on-screen assistant.
00:00:22.000 Oh.
00:00:23.000 You look better than ever.
00:00:24.000 Thank you so much.
00:00:25.000 You're wearing a lemon top.
00:00:26.000 That's right.
00:00:27.000 You look like you're getting younger and more efficient.
00:00:29.000 That's exactly what's happening.
00:00:31.000 Unlike the dear and forever tumbling President of the United States who requires naught but love and support, if you ask me, but perhaps more urgently, replacement by an intellectual giant.
00:00:42.000 We've had RFK on the show talking about his candidacy and the vision for America that he'd like to bring to the world.
00:00:48.000 Today we have Cornel West, Dr Cornel West, joining us for an exclusive announcement.
00:00:55.000 We love Cornel West.
00:00:56.000 He's one of the most Credible, radical, philosophical voices in American politics who's able to effortlessly infuse emotion, vision, spirit, and pragmatism.
00:01:08.000 I'm very excited they've joined us.
00:01:09.000 I'm just feeding a dog under the table.
00:01:11.000 That is not a euphemism.
00:01:12.000 Not a euphemism.
00:01:13.000 That is not a euphemism.
00:01:14.000 Just feeding a dog under the table.
00:01:15.000 Imagine if it was a euphemism.
00:01:17.000 What a disgusting euphemism.
00:01:19.000 And I had to just go along with it.
00:01:21.000 This is the thing that he does when he puts porridge in his underpants.
00:01:24.000 Oatmeal in his briefs.
00:01:26.000 Yeah.
00:01:27.000 I suppose is what you'd say.
00:01:28.000 Yeah, there's my dog just to legitimize that.
00:01:31.000 We're talking about a new bill that's being passed to remove any potential limitations to expenditure in the Ukraine.
00:01:38.000 We're talking about that not because we don't support the efforts, the humanitarian effort to help Ukrainian people, but because we're a little bit worried that all that money ends up in the hands of the military-industrial complex on a basis of Research!
00:01:51.000 We're going to be going exclusively on Rumble.
00:01:53.000 If you're watching us on YouTube right now, God we love you and we welcome you, but you know that the WHO regulate the content that you watch there, or at least are able to offer sensory advice.
00:02:05.000 YouTube take their guidance and establish their guidelines based on the WHO's principles.
00:02:09.000 So we've got a few things to talk about.
00:02:11.000 Google renewing their partnership with the WHO and new research that Reveals what the impact of certain medications are on transmission.
00:02:20.000 Whether or not the medications were beneficial or... Actually worse!
00:02:24.000 Worse!
00:02:25.000 Actually worse, Gareth!
00:02:26.000 The big if.
00:02:26.000 If.
00:02:27.000 I'm just saying if that.
00:02:28.000 You're saying if.
00:02:29.000 It's been a while.
00:02:30.000 Allegedly!
00:02:31.000 We've had a week off, so just let us warm back into what we're doing for a living.
00:02:36.000 Do I look like I've got a bit of a tan?
00:02:38.000 You do?
00:02:38.000 Yeah, sorry, I didn't mention your glorious tan.
00:02:41.000 I mean, you're looking so well.
00:02:42.000 We've got a fantastic week coming back.
00:02:45.000 We've got brilliant guests over the course of the week.
00:02:47.000 We're coming back with a bang.
00:02:48.000 We've improved the sound.
00:02:49.000 Let us know in the chat and the comments if you think the sound's better.
00:02:51.000 We've got them FBI whistleblowers.
00:02:54.000 We'll be able to hear their whistles so beautifully in here, even the upper notes.
00:02:58.000 Who else we got?
00:02:59.000 Tulsi Gabbard's coming on.
00:03:01.000 I forgot to ring Elon, you know, like that night.
00:03:01.000 Elon!
00:03:04.000 I think it's probably a good idea.
00:03:05.000 He is coming on.
00:03:06.000 Leave him at home for a night.
00:03:07.000 I'm gonna get back there.
00:03:09.000 Because Elon, he done Ron DeSantis the day like, we had a date in the diary, I swear to you, I'm not lying about Elon, let us know if you believe me, right?
00:03:16.000 We had Elon locked down, but then he done... DeSantis.
00:03:20.000 Who's gonna be the...
00:03:22.000 Well, potential.
00:03:23.000 President of America.
00:03:24.000 And then tonight he's doing... RFK.
00:03:26.000 In a bit.
00:03:27.000 Do you want me to finish all the sentences?
00:03:29.000 Right.
00:03:30.000 I can do a few of them.
00:03:31.000 Listen, do you know that one in eight men have the absolute nerve to take a prophylactic to a funeral?
00:03:39.000 What kind of pervert turns up at a funeral, potentially of a loved one, with a condom?
00:03:45.000 Well, I read this in two ways, and one is not a nice way.
00:03:49.000 One was with a condom.
00:03:50.000 One was, did you take a necrophiliac?
00:03:52.000 I did.
00:03:53.000 Unfortunately, I did.
00:03:54.000 Thank you so much.
00:03:54.000 Yes.
00:03:55.000 We shouldn't be talking about necrophilia.
00:03:56.000 I'm pretty sure the WHO... They won't like that one bit.
00:03:59.000 Although, ironically, you cannot convey disease to someone in that condition.
00:04:03.000 And if you do, it matters not a jot.
00:04:05.000 We're going to be looking at the mainstream media's attitude to Joe Biden taking the tumble.
00:04:10.000 I don't take any pleasure from the elderly tumbling.
00:04:14.000 Do you?
00:04:15.000 No, no.
00:04:15.000 No, I don't.
00:04:16.000 You mustn't.
00:04:16.000 I really don't.
00:04:17.000 You mustn't.
00:04:18.000 Think of your Nan, your Grandad.
00:04:19.000 No, I wouldn't like that.
00:04:20.000 No, awful.
00:04:20.000 Taking a tumble.
00:04:21.000 I wouldn't like that at all.
00:04:22.000 You don't like it?
00:04:22.000 No, it's just I guess my Nan and Grandad are not and never have been the President of the United States.
00:04:28.000 Do you expect me to believe that?
00:04:30.000 Do you expect me?
00:04:31.000 You've not got one grandparent as the Commander-in-Chief.
00:04:33.000 Let's have a look.
00:04:35.000 Do we need to see it happening?
00:04:36.000 We've seen it happen loads of times.
00:04:37.000 I want to see like the mainstream media Yeah, this is kind of that.
00:04:42.000 They're offering up reasons why it might have happened.
00:04:44.000 Barry John Fox says you look tanned.
00:04:46.000 That's over on Locals.
00:04:47.000 Press the red button on your screen.
00:04:48.000 You can join us on Locals right now.
00:04:49.000 Let's have a look at the mainstream media talking about Joe Biden taking the tumble.
00:04:53.000 I feel, if I was there, I'd have shot out of that audience and I'd have helped him right up, like the Good Samaritan out of the Bible.
00:04:59.000 What good are those cadets if they're not going to help the President up?
00:05:03.000 They should be on their feet.
00:05:04.000 That's the kind of thing.
00:05:05.000 Man down!
00:05:06.000 They're not alert enough.
00:05:07.000 They're just breezy.
00:05:08.000 Come out of college, haven't they?
00:05:10.000 Yeah, they're high as kites.
00:05:12.000 Not cadet school.
00:05:13.000 Well, remember, I used to be in the Marines that day.
00:05:13.000 No.
00:05:15.000 Well, of course, yeah.
00:05:16.000 We were very much, don't ask, don't tell.
00:05:18.000 Right.
00:05:19.000 You'd put the time in.
00:05:19.000 No wacky do backy.
00:05:21.000 You'd put the time in by then.
00:05:22.000 Yeah, by then I'd learned the culture.
00:05:23.000 All right, let's have a look at Joe Biden's tumble in the mainstream mitigation.
00:05:27.000 The president had been standing for about two hours handing out diplomas to all.
00:05:32.000 It's done really well.
00:05:34.000 Standing for two hours.
00:05:35.000 What do you expect?
00:05:37.000 That's almost nearly all of Godfather.
00:05:40.000 It's just around the scene where Sonny's getting shot.
00:05:44.000 Spoiler alert.
00:05:44.000 When Sonny goes to the toll booth.
00:05:46.000 Around that bit, Joe Biden's like, enough's enough.
00:05:48.000 I'm going over.
00:05:50.000 Santino should never have been Don anyway!
00:05:53.000 He's a hothead!
00:05:54.000 Right, you're absolutely right.
00:05:55.000 Won't listen to Robert Duvall!
00:05:57.000 You're mixing narratives here a little bit.
00:05:59.000 900 or so graduates there.
00:06:01.000 At the end of the remarks, President Biden fell as you see.
00:06:04.000 Oh, he took a real tumble, I don't like that.
00:06:06.000 It's weird that she said 900 or so graduates, like that makes a difference.
00:06:10.000 I guess maybe, I think the fact is he apparently shook all of their hands and they go to great lengths to tell us that he did that as well.
00:06:16.000 Before you judge Joe Biden, President of the United States, who refuses to vote, sorry, debate Marianne Williamson or RFK, won't have a debate with him.
00:06:24.000 It's a blunt refusal.
00:06:25.000 The Democrat Party want him.
00:06:27.000 Remember when it was Bernie Sanders?
00:06:28.000 Didn't want him.
00:06:29.000 Bernie Sanders, who our man Dr. Cornel West supported.
00:06:32.000 Now I know a lot of you are Bernie Sanders.
00:06:33.000 You think he's a bit of a globalist and you don't trust him.
00:06:36.000 But we were interested in Bernie Sanders' willingness to regulate corporations.
00:06:40.000 We don't think it matters left or right anymore.
00:06:42.000 Discard those old taxonomies, those old categories.
00:06:45.000 Who is interested in representing the people against institutional power?
00:06:50.000 And the revolving door between, say, Washington and Wall Street and big tech and... You know what's going on, guys.
00:06:55.000 You don't need me to tell you.
00:06:56.000 And I think Dr. Cornel West cares about people and bringing people together.
00:07:00.000 That's why we're excited to talk to him about his... Have we even announced what the secret is yet?
00:07:03.000 No, we haven't.
00:07:04.000 We haven't done that.
00:07:06.000 Big old secret.
00:07:07.000 It's a big secret.
00:07:07.000 We don't want to tell you.
00:07:08.000 Let us know in the chat if you think you know what the secret is.
00:07:10.000 And remember, you can join us on Locals by pressing that red button.
00:07:14.000 Stay free with Russell Brand.
00:07:16.000 See it first on Rumble.
00:07:18.000 All right, joining me now is Dr. Cornel West, philosopher, political activist, civil rights leader and free thinker.
00:07:25.000 Thank you for joining us, Dr. Cornel West.
00:07:27.000 It's a pleasure to have you with us.
00:07:29.000 My brother, you know, I want to salute you, your brilliance, the fact that you are such a genuine force for good and have the courage to be yourself.
00:07:38.000 But I want to salute Brother Garth.
00:07:39.000 Garth got it going on.
00:07:41.000 He's wonderful.
00:07:42.000 And Brother James.
00:07:43.000 And Brother James, you all make a magnificent team.
00:07:47.000 And there's no doubt that when I decided to make my announcement and talked it over with my beloved wife, Anahita, I said, if I have a choice, I want to say it on a show that I watch regularly, religiously.
00:08:06.000 Why?
00:08:07.000 Because you're a truth teller and you are a justice seeker, my brother.
00:08:13.000 Dr Cornel West, thank you very much for that flattery and praise, although in the case of Gareth and James, it was misjudged and misdirected.
00:08:20.000 They are both borderline psychopaths.
00:08:22.000 Dr Cornel West, you have a very important announcement.
00:08:25.000 We are honoured that you've chosen our platform to make this announcement.
00:08:28.000 Please, tell us why you are here talking to us today.
00:08:33.000 Well, you know, my dear brother, that I have been fighting for truth and justice for 55 years, beginning when I was 15 years old there in the chocolate side of Sacramento, Shiloh Baptist Church, and working with the Black Panther Party.
00:08:47.000 Never joined the party.
00:08:48.000 Was deeply, deeply committed to their fundamental concern for poor and working people.
00:08:54.000 And now, 55 years later, I've decided to continue that fight for truth and justice by running for the president of the USA on the People's Party.
00:09:08.000 To ensure that we can reintroduce to America the best of itself, and the best of America is Martin Luther King Jr., Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, it's Edward Zaid, it's Grace Lee Boggs, it's Chief Joseph, It's Louisa Moreno.
00:09:31.000 All of these different peoples of different colors and genders and sexual orientations of James Bond and Audre Lorde doing what?
00:09:38.000 Telling America the truth about itself and the condition of truth is always to allow the suffering of precious, poor, and priceless working people to be And yes, you're right, it is about love, because justice is what love looks like in public.
00:09:52.000 But by love, what we're talking about is looking at the world through the lens of those Frantz Fanon called the wretched of the earth, of poor and working people, not just in America, in the American empire, and this very fragile democratic experiment in the midst of that empire, but around the world.
00:10:09.000 That was another reason why I wanted to be on your show.
00:10:11.000 I wanted to be international.
00:10:14.000 I wanted to be Concerned about human beings no matter where they are, no matter what color, no matter what gender, no matter what sexual orientation, no matter what national identity.
00:10:25.000 And that's why we're calling for a paradigm shift, brother.
00:10:28.000 We need a spiritual awakening and a moral reckoning in the face of institutionalized greed.
00:10:36.000 That greed can be in Wall Street, it can be in Silicon Valley, it can be in the Pentagon.
00:10:40.000 Greed at the top, especially.
00:10:42.000 And I believe, of course, we've got greed inside of all of us.
00:10:45.000 But I'm talking about institutionalized greed with predatory capitalist tendencies that tend to suck everything up for money and for profit.
00:10:55.000 And then we've got the neo-fascism escalating, especially in the Republican Party.
00:10:59.000 And what is that?
00:11:00.000 That's institutionalized hatred.
00:11:01.000 It plays on the fear of people.
00:11:03.000 And see, Trump speaks to a number of white brothers and sisters who are catching hell, who are, in fact, in deep trouble.
00:11:12.000 Who deserve an attention in terms of having their basic needs met.
00:11:17.000 That's precisely why I want Medicare for all.
00:11:20.000 That's precisely why I want free education.
00:11:23.000 That's precisely why I want access to living wages.
00:11:28.000 That's precisely why I want to make sure people have access to quality housing.
00:11:33.000 And so the question is, you cannot defeat neofascism by milquetoast neoliberalism.
00:11:40.000 There's no way you can do it.
00:11:41.000 You got to get at the roots of it.
00:11:42.000 You got to bring vision and passion to convince person, not people, not to follow neo-fascist pied pipers, but actually let them know that there are persons on the so-called left, which is simply say persons of integrity, honesty, and decency, looking at the world through the lens of poor and working people.
00:12:03.000 That's really what it is.
00:12:04.000 So I don't want to get into the labels.
00:12:05.000 I'm talking about the substance.
00:12:07.000 I'm talking about those who really have a deep care and concern about suffering people, no matter where they are.
00:12:15.000 And in that way, you cut against a lot of the truncated public conversation.
00:12:21.000 You get a realignment of not just perceptions, but of people.
00:12:26.000 People finding themselves in coalitions they had not planned on being there with.
00:12:31.000 That's crucial.
00:12:33.000 That's exactly what we need.
00:12:34.000 And what's at stake, my brother?
00:12:35.000 You know better than I. You talk about it every day.
00:12:37.000 The destruction of the species.
00:12:41.000 The destruction of democracy, not just in the American empire, everywhere.
00:12:48.000 And most importantly, it's the destruction of our capacity to love, though, brother.
00:12:55.000 See, that's a spiritual emptiness.
00:12:58.000 So I run as a jazz man of politics.
00:13:03.000 Because jazz is about three elements.
00:13:05.000 It's about the blues, and the blues is about catastrophe.
00:13:09.000 Catastrophe lyrically expressed.
00:13:11.000 Catastrophe genuinely engaged.
00:13:13.000 Catastrophe transfigured by compassion and community.
00:13:18.000 I come from a blues people, the catastrophe of slavery, of Jim Crow, of Jane Crow, of mass incarceration, of being taught to hate ourselves, and yet here comes Ma Rainey, here come Bessie Smith, here come Muddy Waters.
00:13:31.000 What are they doing?
00:13:32.000 They're telling the truth!
00:13:34.000 You're telling the truth about America.
00:13:36.000 We're not talking about America's race problems or class problems or gender problems or sexual orientational problems.
00:13:41.000 No, we're talking about catastrophes visited on indigenous peoples, visited on black peoples, visited on women.
00:13:50.000 You're talking about U.S.
00:13:50.000 foreign policy.
00:13:52.000 It could be in Iran.
00:13:55.000 1953.
00:13:55.000 It could be in Guatemala in 1953.
00:13:59.000 It could be in Panama.
00:14:00.000 It could be in Iraq.
00:14:02.000 It could be in Afghanistan.
00:14:03.000 Those are not problems.
00:14:04.000 Those are catastrophes visited upon precious human beings in every life in Iran, in Tel Aviv, In West Bank, in Gaza, in Afghanistan, in Lithuania, in Ethiopia, each precious life there has the same value as a life in London or a life in California.
00:14:26.000 That's the best of America.
00:14:28.000 That's what Martin King was talking about.
00:14:31.000 That's what I am running on.
00:14:33.000 That's the tradition that runs through my veins.
00:14:36.000 That's the tradition that runs through my heart, mind, and soul.
00:14:39.000 And that's what I'm trying to present.
00:14:42.000 To the American people as the presidential candidate for the People's Party, my brother.
00:14:48.000 Blues on the one hand, swing is the second element.
00:14:51.000 You have a different conception of time, so you don't feel closed in, bound to a two-party system.
00:14:58.000 We know the two-party system in America is a major obstacle for the empowerment of poor and working people.
00:15:05.000 Both parties are in the back pocket of Wall Street, in the back pocket of the Pentagon, in the back pocket of big money.
00:15:12.000 So you need a different conception of time.
00:15:14.000 Well, here comes Duke Ellington.
00:15:16.000 It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing.
00:15:18.000 You got a different conception of temporality that opens up possibilities, opens up new potentialities.
00:15:24.000 So you thought that court was closed, but here comes Monk.
00:15:28.000 He got a new note.
00:15:29.000 He got a new way of doing it.
00:15:30.000 Here comes Mary Lou Williams.
00:15:32.000 And we haven't even got the John Coltrane love supreme yet.
00:15:35.000 Blues on the one hand, swing on the other, and then improvisation.
00:15:39.000 And this is what I love about you and your show, my brother.
00:15:42.000 You are improvisational.
00:15:44.000 You're flexible.
00:15:45.000 You're fluid.
00:15:46.000 You're protein.
00:15:47.000 You don't get locked in the dogma.
00:15:49.000 You don't get locked in the ossified, petrified ways of looking at the world.
00:15:53.000 You got to be new.
00:15:54.000 You got to be novel.
00:15:55.000 You got to be open.
00:15:56.000 You listen to others.
00:15:58.000 You can't be a jazz musician.
00:15:59.000 You can't be a blues woman unless you learn how to listen to others.
00:16:03.000 Jazz is the highest level of democracy in symbolic expression.
00:16:10.000 What is the anthem of my black people?
00:16:12.000 Lift every voice.
00:16:13.000 It's not lift every echo, no.
00:16:15.000 What we have for the most part of public discourse in America?
00:16:18.000 Echoes of silos.
00:16:21.000 Echoes of silos.
00:16:23.000 Expressions of very polarized spaces where no one wants to listen and lift their own voices, think critically for themselves in such a way that you can improvise.
00:16:35.000 Improvisation is not Simply an artistic skill.
00:16:38.000 It's a species of phronesis, what the Greeks call practical wisdom.
00:16:42.000 You have to be able to judge, to get your timing right.
00:16:45.000 So you tell the truth about catastrophe on the one hand, you authorize a different future in light of a different conception of time in the present, and then you improvise.
00:16:55.000 And you improvise based on what?
00:16:57.000 Because you love something bigger than yourself.
00:17:01.000 Oh, what a great people I come from.
00:17:03.000 Yes, indeed.
00:17:05.000 And it's not a function of skin pigmentation, because there's a whole lot of black gangsters and black thugs.
00:17:10.000 I got a lot of gangster and thug in me.
00:17:13.000 But it's people who choose to be creative, people who choose dignity, people who choose defiance, people who are willing to live and die for something bigger than them.
00:17:28.000 And that's very much what we're talking about.
00:17:30.000 And that's why we're going to run this campaign in such a way.
00:17:34.000 It's going to be so unique and singular and different and distinctive from what America is used to.
00:17:39.000 They better get ready.
00:17:43.000 That is a beautiful, incredible and inspiring soliloquy.
00:17:48.000 How I enjoyed the litany of great heroes that you shared with us and precisely this spirit is the spirit that we need to have unleashed on ossifying American politics right now.
00:18:02.000 Why I feel that your voice is so important Is because many of the radical critiques that are attacking institutional corruption at this time appear at least to be coming from conventionally regarded as right-wing places, right-wing spaces.
00:18:19.000 I believe deeply in unity and revolution and a need for a different type of discourse and for
00:18:26.000 new ideas to be introduced into a very restrictive and suffocated political space.
00:18:32.000 I recognize too that you can't achieve anything with hate.
00:18:37.000 Love needs to be reintroduced into the conversation around American politics and American
00:18:42.000 power. Indeed, the period of American isolationism and American imperialism must be brought to an
00:18:49.000 end.
00:18:50.000 That America needs to come to the world with open arms and an open heart if we're to ever change this current economic dynamic that appears to be predicated on perpetual war.
00:19:01.000 It's one of the things we're reporting on today.
00:19:03.000 One of the things we're repeatedly, continually reporting on.
00:19:06.000 The use of humanitarianism to underwrite yet more exploitation and ongoing war.
00:19:13.000 And I feel that even the timbre of your speech, the references of jazz, of which Gareth will be most grateful, for he himself is a jazz musician, a French horn player, and a blue note slayer.
00:19:28.000 He'll be overjoyed to hear that kind of rhetoric.
00:19:33.000 I want to ask you, Doctor, you've been Although I can't begin to contemplate the amount of prejudice you must have endured to get to where you are as a much admired and decorated philosophical figure teaching at some of the most respected institutions in the world.
00:19:51.000 I recognize that must have been a very difficult journey.
00:19:54.000 Latterly, though, you are held in high esteem by the establishment.
00:19:59.000 I'm speaking, for example, of the fact that you speak on that sort of high-profile mentorship course, you know, that online place.
00:20:08.000 You're kind of adored and a darling of the legacy media.
00:20:12.000 How do you feel that even beginning to have these kind of conversations attacking institutional power, which have oddly now are issues that have migrated to the right, how do you think it's going to affect your standing?
00:20:23.000 And how do you think you're going to make a significant impact in a political and media landscape that is locked up in financial interest and is most intransigent and unwilling to allow genuinely radical voices into the space?
00:20:38.000 You saw what happened to Bernie.
00:20:39.000 I know you campaigned for Bernie.
00:20:41.000 And this is much more radical than that.
00:20:42.000 So what kind of attacks do you anticipate?
00:20:46.000 Oh, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised at a variety of different kinds of attacks and assaults coming at one, but I'm not preoccupied with those attacks and assaults at all.
00:20:55.000 Anytime you embark on a fallible pursuit of truth and justice, you focus on what you can do, how you can cultivate your own gifts and work with others in community in order to be a force for good.
00:21:10.000 That you're always going to be misunderstood, misconstrued.
00:21:13.000 You're always going to be attacked.
00:21:15.000 There'll be character assassination, may even be a literal assassination.
00:21:18.000 You just don't know.
00:21:19.000 You're willing to take that risk.
00:21:20.000 You're willing to bear witness.
00:21:22.000 It's not so much about what's coming at you.
00:21:24.000 It's how you respond to what is coming at you.
00:21:27.000 And most importantly, you recognize, at least for me, you see, as a black man in America for 70 years now, That I've been on borrowed time for a good while.
00:21:37.000 I probably should have been dead a long time ago in terms of the vicious kind of attacks I've had to deal with.
00:21:42.000 So that for me, it's a matter of being true to myself, being true to my calling, and not being surprised by evil or paralyzed by despair.
00:21:51.000 And at the same time, I'll never allow anybody to drag me so low that I will hate them.
00:21:58.000 And completely foreclose their possibilities.
00:22:01.000 Everyone can change.
00:22:03.000 Everyone can be transformed.
00:22:06.000 Everyone can choose to go another way.
00:22:08.000 Everyone can be better than they are.
00:22:11.000 They choose to be gangsters, they choose to be gangsters.
00:22:13.000 If they were gangsters and choose to overcome gangster activity in terms of egoism and narcissism and cruelty and manipulation and subjugation of others, they can change.
00:22:23.000 And that's a beautiful thing about we human beings.
00:22:25.000 We're so wretched On the one hand, and yet we're wonderful on the other, that we can change.
00:22:31.000 And so, the future's open-ended, my brother.
00:22:34.000 You just don't know.
00:22:35.000 You don't know.
00:22:35.000 You know, the whole planet might go under.
00:22:38.000 America could easily go neo-fascist in the next few years.
00:22:40.000 We'll be fighting against it.
00:22:42.000 So, you can't foretell the future in that way, but you have to be committed to your call, and you have to attempt to live a life of integrity.
00:22:51.000 And integrity is not about popularity.
00:22:54.000 And anytime you challenge establishment or status quo, you're going to get strong backlash.
00:23:00.000 Dr. Cornel West, here at least, you're receiving a great deal of love over on Locals.
00:23:04.000 Press the red button, you can join us on Locals.
00:23:06.000 People are very excited by your announcement.
00:23:09.000 What a beautiful man says it's being, and lots of people are excited to just hear this kind of language and these kind of ideas being introduced to the political space.
00:23:18.000 What are the key pledges, doctor, that you'll be running under?
00:23:22.000 In fact, we have them to put on the screen now, but if you could talk us through them in some detail, it would be helpful.
00:23:29.000 Well, one, I am a thoroughgoing abolitionist when it comes to poverty and homelessness.
00:23:36.000 In fact, I told my beloved wife that when I win, and I intend to win, my attitude is I don't want to even go into the White House until every fellow citizen has a house.
00:23:48.000 She said, oh, that might not be too practical.
00:23:50.000 Well, that's the spirit that I proceed.
00:23:54.000 That is the attitude that I have.
00:23:57.000 That office is simply a vehicle to pursue truth and justice that begins with abolishing, completely eliminating poverty and homelessness.
00:24:09.000 It has to do with a commitment to a strong support of trade unions.
00:24:13.000 So that living wages becomes a reality for every worker, no matter what color, no matter what gender, no matter what sexual orientation, no matter what region.
00:24:22.000 It has to do with access to health care, Medicare for all, the very thing that my dear brother Bernie Sanders made so much of, and rightly so.
00:24:30.000 It has to do with a tremendous indictment of the greed of the 1% at the top in ways in which we can get some accountability.
00:24:40.000 I love your talk, Brother Russell, about decentralization.
00:24:44.000 I think you're absolutely right that the state has become captured by corporate power.
00:24:50.000 And I know my dear brother RF Kennedy talks about that, Junior, and he's right as well.
00:24:55.000 We resonate with the ways in which the state has been captured by corporate wealth.
00:25:00.000 But the question becomes, how do you empower everyday people and working people in such a way that it doesn't reproduce centralization that tends to reproduce domination?
00:25:11.000 And here we need to bring together some of the best minds.
00:25:14.000 I'm not in any way suggesting that I have definitive answers.
00:25:18.000 As a jazz man in politics, I know, just like Mary Lou Williams or Duke Ellington or Count Basie, I need a band.
00:25:26.000 I got to have a variety of different voices and they come in all colors.
00:25:31.000 They come in all genders.
00:25:34.000 They come from all nations in a certain sense, because it's an international conversation that we're having.
00:25:39.000 I'm calling for end of mass incarceration.
00:25:42.000 Very important.
00:25:43.000 It is part of the legacy or part of the afterlife of slavery in the United States.
00:25:48.000 I've taught in prison for 41 years.
00:25:50.000 And my dear brother, who I love so much, Chris Hedges.
00:25:54.000 My God, that brother, he wrote a piece this morning that was just extraordinary.
00:26:00.000 We've been working together now for many, many, many decades.
00:26:03.000 We taught in prisons together, and he talks about that as well.
00:26:07.000 But I carry with me my experiences, and so I'll never forget the brothers and sisters who I met on the reservations.
00:26:16.000 I'll never forget those in the mass incarceration.
00:26:19.000 I'll never forget those in the hood.
00:26:21.000 I'll never forget those fighting for the attempt to mistreat our new immigrants, my brown brothers and sisters.
00:26:28.000 We had to march against Obama even to get DACA way back then.
00:26:32.000 Well, that's still part and parcel of one's commitment.
00:26:36.000 And the same is true around the world.
00:26:38.000 My brothers and sisters in Chile, the others, 9-11.
00:26:42.000 We'll never forget that toppling.
00:26:45.000 Of those precious democratic possibilities there.
00:26:48.000 Foreign policy, domestic policy intertwine.
00:26:53.000 The bombs that are dropped in various parts of the world land in white, poor communities in Appalachia.
00:27:02.000 They land in Harlem.
00:27:04.000 They land in East Los Angeles, which is brown.
00:27:07.000 They land in Little Korea.
00:27:09.000 They land on In any poor and working class community, all that money for guns, where's the money for butter?
00:27:16.000 Where's the money for social programs?
00:27:19.000 That's the kind of calling for a fundamental transformation of priorities, given the warped priorities in which we live.
00:27:29.000 Same would be true in education.
00:27:30.000 We're calling for the cancellation.
00:27:32.000 The kind of things, again, Brother Bernie talked about now we're following through in a much more substantive way.
00:27:40.000 And because we're free of the corruption of the neofascist Republican Party and the neoliberal Democratic Party, we're able to fundamentally speak the truth.
00:27:53.000 It's like being a jazz man.
00:27:54.000 You don't have to play in the military band no more.
00:27:56.000 Go on to Birdland.
00:27:57.000 Go on to the Apollo.
00:27:59.000 Blow your horn.
00:28:01.000 Sing your song, Sarah.
00:28:03.000 Sing your song, Billie Holiday.
00:28:05.000 You don't have to fit into the narrowness.
00:28:10.000 Of a mainstream that tells you you've got to somehow contain yourself.
00:28:14.000 That's what it is to be a part of the People's Party.
00:28:16.000 That's what it is to be a part of the people's movement.
00:28:19.000 That's why we are going to not just constitute a major challenge and threat to the status quo.
00:28:27.000 We want to give concrete, fleshified hope in action to people who are losing hope.
00:28:35.000 The people who are feeling helpless, people feeling as if there's no way out of this corporate duopoly.
00:28:44.000 And I think in the end, it's still very much about style and the smile, though, man.
00:28:50.000 We're going to preserve our style no matter what.
00:28:53.000 And we're going to have a smile because we're coming together.
00:28:56.000 Solidarity is about sustaining that kind of strong spine where you straighten your back up.
00:29:05.000 And you speak what's on your mind and you fight for poor and working people wherever they are.
00:29:11.000 Dr. Cornel West, I feel that it's possible to detect in the political conversation over the last 20 years and perhaps even beyond that an appetite for real change.
00:29:22.000 Indeed, that's perhaps the word that defined Obama's campaign and eventual election.
00:29:29.000 In the disdain that became apparent through Trump's candidature and eventual election for institutional corruption and perhaps best embodied in the easy maxim, drain the swamp, which we've already brought up today.
00:29:44.000 The kind of despair that I feel people are beginning to feel around the presidency of Joe Biden.
00:29:51.000 So many of the pledges made during his candidacy reneged on now and the sense that in his atrophy and visible decay he somehow is the perfect avatar for a system in decline, an unwillingness for a fragile, aging career
00:30:11.000 politician to wield power well or yield it when necessary. To hear your vivacity, your
00:30:22.000 passion, your intensity, your integrity and easy wisdom, I think is exciting for a lot of people. I
00:30:28.000 feel for a long time there's been a real appetite and need for significant change.
00:30:35.000 The figures that I've just listed all in their way representing it.
00:30:38.000 You worked with Bernie Sanders, who I know a lot of people feel was sold out having voted along with militaristic policies since the election of Biden.
00:30:48.000 And perhaps Bernie would have been better off remaining an independent.
00:30:53.000 Do you feel that with the media operating in the way that it does, you will be given the sufficient opportunity to convey these points and indeed to build the band and make the alliances necessary for an undertaking like this?
00:31:07.000 For if institutional or centralist politics means anything at all, it is the ability for these systems to represent the needs of those who most need it And to regard as important the individuality and freedom of people from across the cultural spectrum of America.
00:31:23.000 People that have traditional perspectives around their religion and the way they want to organise their individual societies.
00:31:29.000 People that have very progressive views.
00:31:31.000 All of these voices have to be heard.
00:31:33.000 And indeed, for those kind of policies to be implemented, it seems, as you've just alluded to, that decentralisation would have to be a significant part of it.
00:31:42.000 Are you willing to be the voice and carriage of an ideology that to a degree would be dismantling many of the corrupt deep state institutions that have bought America low, to break down some of the relationships between corporate interests and the democratic institutions that have meant that it's almost impossible for the voice of ordinary people to be heard?
00:32:06.000 It seems like, like you said in your answer earlier, these are the kind of ideas and words that get people killed and that require, I think, a great deal of support.
00:32:19.000 Well, one, I mean, the good news is that we have shows like your own.
00:32:24.000 We got Sister Amy Goodman.
00:32:26.000 Yeah, we got Sister Sabby.
00:32:28.000 You got Sister Brianna.
00:32:31.000 You got Brother Tavish, you got Brother Roland, you got a whole, you got a network of people that are trying to allow certain voices to have impact without being completely devoured by the corporate media.
00:32:48.000 And the corporate media now is experiencing a level of legitimation crises, very much like the Republican Party's establishment that went under as neofascist Trump moved in, and the establishment of the Democratic Party that we almost pulled off with Brother Bernie.
00:33:06.000 We almost pulled it off.
00:33:07.000 And then they all came together, the call from Obama, Pete drops out.
00:33:11.000 Amy drops out.
00:33:12.000 Next thing you know, they say anybody but Bernie.
00:33:16.000 Why?
00:33:17.000 Those corporate interests were being challenged.
00:33:19.000 Why?
00:33:20.000 Those militaristic policies were being at least examined.
00:33:25.000 I mean, I wish Bernie was even more radical when it comes to militarism.
00:33:28.000 That's all right.
00:33:29.000 He's always my brother.
00:33:30.000 I can disagree with him and still acknowledge that I have my own calling and I go my own way.
00:33:36.000 He played a very historic role.
00:33:37.000 It just didn't go far enough.
00:33:40.000 He missed that moment, and that's just my own view about this thing, but he still plays a very important role.
00:33:45.000 So, I always like to begin with the good news, though, brother.
00:33:49.000 The fact that you've got all of these men and people around the world listening to your powerful voice and vision and calling for the enabling virtue, which is courage.
00:33:59.000 Because without courage, all the other virtues are empty.
00:34:03.000 In my courage, we're not talking about self-righteousness.
00:34:05.000 This is not a self-righteous campaign.
00:34:08.000 You can't be a self-righteous jazz person.
00:34:10.000 You have to be humble.
00:34:12.000 You got to learn from people.
00:34:14.000 You got to listen to other voices, listen to other arguments, no matter where they are.
00:34:21.000 The neo-fascists don't remain neo-fascists forever, just like we know a whole lot of leftists who become right-wing.
00:34:27.000 People change, and you have to be open to their change, but We don't put up for one moment with forms of xenophobia against the most vulnerable trans precious folk, gay brothers, lesbian sisters, Arabs, Muslims, Jews, Palestinians, Uyghurs in China, the Dalit in India, the Roma in Europe.
00:34:55.000 Landless peasants in Brazil, my own black folk catching so much indescribable hell in the American empire for 200 and some years up to this very moment.
00:35:09.000 Police murder.
00:35:10.000 We can go on and on and on.
00:35:14.000 Corrupt criminal justice system and so forth.
00:35:16.000 So we don't have any patience with that, but we still recognize that people can change.
00:35:23.000 And that to me is a wonderful thing.
00:35:26.000 It's like Brother Malcolm.
00:35:28.000 You know, Malcolm Little was a gangster before the Honorable Elijah Muhammad loved him.
00:35:32.000 And the next thing you know, he becomes one of the greatest voices of the 20th century, such that he even has to call into question the Honorable Elijah Muhammad himself.
00:35:40.000 He's growing, but there's still no Malcolm without Elijah.
00:35:43.000 So that sense of acknowledging we're all in process.
00:35:48.000 And that's true for empires as well, as well as people.
00:35:51.000 Doctor, I think I've got a good question for you from our chat.
00:35:53.000 You can join us on Locals by pressing the red button.
00:35:55.000 This is from Bucky's Gal, who I'm guessing would be a kind of a person that would vote
00:36:00.000 for Trump, I'm guessing.
00:36:01.000 You tell me, if you're still there, Bucky's Gal.
00:36:05.000 She says, or he says, "Doctor West, everything you're saying sounds nice in theory, but how
00:36:10.000 can we care for other nations where we can't take care of our own?"
00:36:13.000 When the government gets money from taxing the people, how do you plan to fund your endeavors without it coming out of our paychecks?
00:36:20.000 Now I think Bucky's Gal there speaks for a lot of people who have concerns that Ideas that are supportive of people that are dispossessed.
00:36:28.000 We've got an interesting statistic about inequality in American politics.
00:36:32.000 You can flash that up when you get a chance, guys.
00:36:35.000 That it somehow is going to be punitive on ordinary Americans.
00:36:38.000 I feel like that the emerging libertarian movement gets a lot of juice from these kind of arguments.
00:36:45.000 Doctor, how would you answer that question?
00:36:48.000 Well, one, I appreciate the question, because we're here for conversation and dialogue.
00:36:53.000 There is no doubt that what I'm talking about, in terms of satisfying the basic needs of the masses of folk in the country, and I'm concerned about the masses in the world, but poor and working people, requires a massive redistribution of wealth downward.
00:37:09.000 In the last 40 years, we've seen a massive redistribution of wealth upwards.
00:37:16.000 Upwards.
00:37:17.000 Working people making roughly the same wages 30 years later, but CEOs, those part of the well-to-do, moneyed elite, heading to the bank daily with millions of dollars.
00:37:34.000 See, people don't like to raise that question.
00:37:36.000 There has been a redistribution of wealth.
00:37:38.000 It's just been upward.
00:37:40.000 This is one downward.
00:37:42.000 What form does that take?
00:37:43.000 Well, first, It has to do with a serious cutback in the millions and millions of dollars tied to the military-industrial complex.
00:37:56.000 Secondly, it has to do with subsidies for corporate America.
00:38:00.000 There has been, and this is where Brother Ralph Nader is absolutely right, there's been corporate welfare.
00:38:06.000 For the last 45 years of free money, if one slice of that could have gone to poor people for education and housing, we'd have a different situation.
00:38:16.000 If one slice of that had gone to dealing with our precious homeless brothers and sisters on the block, on the corner, in our cities.
00:38:24.000 So you got, and then you got taxes.
00:38:27.000 Now, of course, taxes is a difficult thing because the well-to-do have clever lawyers.
00:38:34.000 They have tax evasions.
00:38:35.000 They've got tax shelters and so forth.
00:38:39.000 So, yes, we must have significant taxation, but it's very difficult to get at it.
00:38:45.000 Very difficult to get at it.
00:38:46.000 But believe me, you know, when we went to war in Afghanistan, how much money did we spend?
00:38:51.000 Still counting.
00:38:52.000 Trillion some.
00:38:53.000 When we went to Iraq, oh, there was no serious talk about austerity.
00:38:58.000 Not at all.
00:38:59.000 When it comes to military as a whole, look at the recent agreement in the last couple of days.
00:39:04.000 What is distinctive about the Democratic Party and the Republican Party when it comes to military expansion?
00:39:10.000 They are exactly the same.
00:39:15.000 Consensus in that regard.
00:39:17.000 Same is true in terms of our precious Palestinian brothers on the West Bank.
00:39:21.000 What does the West Bank look like from the vantage point of Democrats and Republicans?
00:39:26.000 It is exactly the same.
00:39:29.000 And to my Jewish brothers and sisters who would immediately come at me and say, oh, Brother West, you seem to be so preoccupied with the Palestinian brothers and sisters.
00:39:38.000 You must be an anti-Semite.
00:39:40.000 Let me tell you directly.
00:39:43.000 And if there was a Palestinian occupation of Jewish brothers and sisters, I would be saying exactly the same thing in solidarity with Jewish brothers and sisters that I'm saying of a vicious Israeli occupation of Palestinians for Palestinian brothers and sisters, because A Jewish baby has exactly the same value as a Palestinian baby, and a Palestinian baby has the same value as a Jewish baby.
00:40:09.000 I learned that in Shiloh Baptist Church on the chocolate side of Sacramento, California, and I will be faithful unto death to have that kind of moral and spiritual stance.
00:40:21.000 So you can call me anti-Semitic, call me any name you want, but I'm not selling out.
00:40:28.000 Oppress people no matter what color they are, no matter where they are.
00:40:34.000 Dr. Cornel West, you're taking some incredibly important risks and explaining some really complex issues in beautiful languages.
00:40:42.000 A lot of people already asking in the chat how they can contribute to your campaign.
00:40:46.000 Go to cornellwest24.com to support Dr. West's campaign to become President of the United States of America.
00:40:53.000 And I guess you're going to need a lot of grassroots support as well as all of the independent media support that you can muster.
00:41:00.000 Right.
00:41:01.000 That's exactly right though, brother.
00:41:02.000 Very much so.
00:41:05.000 I feel like by bringing these complex issues to the forefront you do give us an opportunity to look differently at the divisive issue of race, the divisive issue of class.
00:41:15.000 It seems that we're living in a very divisive time where ordinary people, and in a sense we're all ordinary, magnificent though we may be, are We are unable to address where power is centralising and how power is operating because we are focusing instead on other vulnerable people just like us, give or take a few superficial differences, the kind of differences that ought not be points of conflict but points of mutual learning and opportunity for new unity.
00:41:48.000 Doctor, thank you so much for joining us.
00:41:49.000 We'll do everything we can to support your campaign, Spread your message to facilitate conversations between you and Marianne Williamson and Robert F. Kennedy and voices that emerge elsewhere on the political spectrum, because I think what is important is the ability for people to have intelligent conversations about the nature of power, the nature of corruption and how meaningful change will be brought about.
00:42:10.000 And I think no one has contributed more to that in recent years.
00:42:14.000 In fact, in the last 25 minutes than you.
00:42:16.000 So thank you so much, doctor.
00:42:18.000 Thank you for joining us.
00:42:19.000 Love you, love you, love you, my brother.
00:42:21.000 You stay strong, though, man.
00:42:22.000 God bless your loved ones, too, though, man.
00:42:24.000 Thank you so much.
00:42:24.000 We're here to serve.
00:42:25.000 I love you, Dr. Cornel West.
00:42:26.000 Thanks for coming on.
00:42:27.000 Thank you.
00:42:28.000 Thank you very much.
00:42:29.000 Hey, thanks to all of you in the chat as well for your fantastic questions and observations.
00:42:34.000 I think we're doing... Are you all right, Gareth?
00:42:36.000 How are you feeling?
00:42:37.000 I think you enjoyed the jazz bit.
00:42:38.000 I love the jazz bit.
00:42:39.000 That was a good bit for you wasn't it?
00:42:42.000 Dropping those names didn't he?
00:42:44.000 Some of them I don't know because I don't know enough about jazz.
00:42:47.000 I know the main ones.
00:42:48.000 I know the best ones.
00:42:50.000 It's lovely to have Dr. Cornel West on.
00:42:51.000 When I was listening to him what I felt was It's amazing that he's entered the conversation and he sees as the target the same people that are regularly identified on our show and our channel because Dr. Cornel West in common with Vandana Shiva cannot be written off in the way that many people would be of like, oh, you're a right-wing fascist.
00:43:11.000 You're a conspiracy theorist, you're a racist, the kind of things that are normally levelled
00:43:17.000 at people that are really interested in attacking establishment power.
00:43:20.000 Of course there's such things as racism, of course there's such things as conspiracy theorists,
00:43:24.000 but what's really important is that there are centralised, corrupt, authoritarian institutions
00:43:30.000 that we are not able to openly discuss anywhere other than on Rumble.
00:43:34.000 That's why we're grateful to you for joining us.
00:43:36.000 And I think the radical and powerful voices such as his and the names that you've mentioned in RFK recently are kind of growing in numbers and mentioning the same things over and over again.
00:43:47.000 The things that we talk about, I mean it's fascinating how much he mentioned the military-industrial complex there.
00:43:53.000 Things that across the board we're talking about and also these other people are talking about.
00:43:59.000 You know, literally we just spoke about it earlier today.
00:44:01.000 He's talking about censorship, he's talking about surveillance, he's talking about wealth transfers.
00:44:07.000 All these things that we talk about and consistently get bundled in with your, you know, conspiracy theorists and this.
00:44:14.000 And it's feeling to me much more like, as I say, the kind of voices are growing in these areas that we've been talking about for a while.
00:44:22.000 I think we're on it!
00:44:22.000 I think we're talking about the right stuff and if you look at the various censorship laws that are being passed around the world we talked about it before on the show we've done a video on it and we were talking about it earlier today then you you have to question are all No.
00:44:36.000 centralised authoritarian structures preparing to shut down this type of
00:44:41.000 discourse wherever it's coming from. If it's coming from an avowedly and
00:44:45.000 identifiably right-wing figure or a pretty plainly left-wing figure like
00:44:49.000 Cornel West, they don't want people saying "hey the deep states corrupt, it's
00:44:53.000 been totally corporatised but the bi-party system can't be relied on". I've had enough!
00:44:58.000 Okay, so we'll be back tomorrow with Sir Dickie Dawkins himself, Richard Dawkins, talking about atheism and the light of the Lord in studio, in this very studio.
00:45:06.000 I hope you'll stay.
00:45:07.000 Of course I will.
00:45:08.000 Bring your French horn.
00:45:09.000 See you tomorrow.