Stay Free - Russel Brand - Krystal Ball (Protests, Power & Politics)

Russell Brand is back with a brand new episode of Stay Free with Russell Brand. This week, he's talking about the protests in France, Hillary Clinton's Broadway debut, and the TikTok trial. Plus, Joe Biden accidentally calls Canada a "neo-utopia" and we take a look at why he's no longer appropriate for modern democracy. Stay Free With Russell Brand is on all of the social medias, if you search for it, you'll find us. Stay Free, wherever you get your news and information, and don't forget to Like, Share and Subscribe to stay up to date with what's going on in the world and what's happening in your local community. Stay free, and spread the word to your friends about this show! It's going to be a fantastic show, you're not going to want to miss it. - The Awakening Wanderers And stay tuned for Part 2 of the Tik Tok trial, where we'll be talking about TikTok and TikTok, and why it's a good thing we're not allowed to be on YouTube. If you don't have a TikTok device, you can watch the whole thing on TikTok video on YouTube here. And if you do have one, use the hashtag and tag in the comments below to get a free copy of the entire thing. . Thanks for listening and sharing it on Insta-tweet us your thoughts about it! and your favourite TikTok videos! Thank you for listening! - Your support is so appreciated, we really helps us make this podcast a good listen to the podcast and it helps us grow. Love ya. Timestamps: - 5:00 - Thank you so much, it really does get better than the rest of the world does it? 6:30 - 7:40 - What's better than that? 8:15 - What do you think it's good? 9:00 11:30 12:10 - What does TikTok? 13:40 15:10 16: Is TikTok really? 17:20 - Is it possible to be better? 18:00? 19:00 Is there a global awakening possible? 21:20 22:30 Is there any such thing that could be better than this? 26:30 Does it really matter? 27:40 Does it matter? 27:30 What are we supposed to be the next level of humanity?

00:00:00.000 Hello, you Awakening Wanderers.

00:00:01.000 Thank you for watching Stay Free with Russell Brand.

00:00:04.000 It's going to be a fantastic show today.

00:00:06.000 We're talking about France.

00:00:07.000 France is burning.

00:00:09.000 The people are revolting.

00:00:11.000 Infamy, infamy.

00:00:13.000 They've all got it, infamy.

00:00:14.000 We're going to be talking to Crystal Ball on the show about a variety of topics.

00:00:18.000 And when we flip over to being exclusively on Rumble, we'll be talking about aspects of the TikTok trial that we wouldn't be able to speak about on YouTube.

00:00:26.000 But first, did you know That Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton went to a Broadway show, and next to them in the aisle were a couple of stools.

00:00:35.000 And I mean with the double O spelling.

00:00:37.000 Have a look at that.

00:00:38.000 Do we don't know if those faecal deposits were as a result of their attendance, or if it's just a coincidence, do we, Gareth?

00:00:47.000 No, we don't know if it was them who did it.

00:00:50.000 It seems odd that it would be one each and look at them.

00:00:54.000 They've been to see Some Like It Hot and they seem pretty pleased about something.

00:00:58.000 I would say that's the kind of euphoria that often infects a face after a deposit, Gareth, because you can let me know in the chat in the comments, have you ever known bliss like it?

00:01:07.000 Sometimes when I'm talking like this, you know what I remember is that people tune into this in parts of the mainstream media with the specific agenda of attacking our show.

00:01:16.000 And they'll say things like, Brand did a poo joke at the beginning.

00:01:20.000 Oh, how rebellious.

00:01:22.000 Well, it's going to get pretty rebellious later because we're going to be talking about the French protest and how it relates to a new emergent globally populist movement where people en masse across the world are becoming so incensed by Institutional corruption and hypocrisy that they are taking to the streets.

00:01:41.000 I wonder how these protests are going to play out.

00:01:44.000 I wonder how they're going to affect leaders in your nation.

00:01:49.000 Let's take a second to look at Joe Biden inadvertently tagging neoliberal utopia Canada as the place that it actually is.

00:01:58.000 A sort of little brother, an emulator of the Chinese state.

00:02:03.000 Get ready for a Freudian slip from dear Joe Biden.

00:02:06.000 Have a look.

00:02:07.000 Today, I applaud China for stepping up, excuse me, I applaud Canada.

00:02:14.000 You can tell what I'm thinking.

00:02:16.000 It's interesting that he did that in Canada and it's also odd that Joe Biden's slips and errors have now become almost soundtracked with canned laughter.

00:02:27.000 It's become the sitcom presidency.

00:02:29.000 We've long argued on this channel that almost unconsciously Joe Biden epitomises the problems with contemporary democracy. 0.99

00:02:37.000 He is aged and inept. 0.98

00:02:40.000 He is no longer appropriate for you. 0.98

00:02:42.000 So I'm only talking about Joe Biden as a symbol because when I say stuff like that, I feel mean because I know he's a human being and I know like he lost children and all that kind of stuff.

00:02:51.000 So I'm not attacking him as a human being.

00:02:52.000 I'm just talking about as a symbol of the level of corruption and ineptitude.

00:02:57.000 How these models are out of date now.

00:02:59.000 Don't you think that sometimes when you just learn about more wars, more corruption, like aren't we supposed to be wearing aluminum foil suits by now?

00:03:07.000 Aren't we meant to be evolving towards the next level of humanity by now?

00:03:11.000 I get why you feel sorry for someone who's old, I understand that, but when you talk about wars and you talk about the situation in Yemen or Syria at the moment, there are a lot of other children dying, just to kind of sew up that point.

00:03:22.000 Thanks, Gal, because I don't like to be mean to people, but you're right.

00:03:25.000 Due to the ongoing involvement of the US military-industrial complex in the war in Yemen, children probably have been killed today.

00:03:34.000 They probably died today, whose names we will never know due to a geographical quirk.

00:03:39.000 One of the things though that encourages me that global change is possible, that there is a global awakening, that new systems could be brought into being that allow us to bypass the entrenchment corruption that all of us live within, even if we're people that are doing okay or if we're people that Suffering terribly is this conflagration in Paris.

00:03:59.000 Now, we are English, so we've got a long-standing antipathy towards France.

00:04:05.000 It's just sort of casual xenophobia.

00:04:07.000 We've had wars with them for a long time, and my dogs still fly outside really angry.

00:04:11.000 They've not been allowed in.

00:04:12.000 There is the beast at the periphery right there.

00:04:15.000 That's why it'd be good to have that camera.

00:04:17.000 I'd love that from now on.

00:04:18.000 Maybe one of these days.

00:04:19.000 Maybe one of these days.

00:04:20.000 Little Dan, who works here, operating a handheld gal.

00:04:23.000 The shots we get.

00:04:24.000 I hope he doesn't do an angry protest out there.

00:04:26.000 Like Hilary Clinton. 0.74

00:04:27.000 Even now I'll be making a Chelsea Clinton style package to let you know that some may like it hot. 1.00

00:04:34.000 Others like it lukewarm, others like it almost semi-liquid.

00:04:38.000 One of the things before we get into the details, such as they are about these protests across France, which are essentially the French people are protesting against having to work an additional two years for no extra return.

00:04:50.000 A bill that was passed in the National Assembly, that's their equivalent of Congress or Parliament, without being put to a vote.

00:04:56.000 And it caused amazing scenes of disruption in France and leads me to believe that generally speaking, French politics, like French everything, is a little bit sexier.

00:05:06.000 One of the things though, on the ground, on the streets, in the restaurants, that's fascinating, is just how French people have immediately adjusted to living in the middle of a riot.

00:05:16.000 It's like it's not bothering them anymore.

00:05:19.000 Like me, if I was in a restaurant and outside was on fire, I feel like I would, like that, I wouldn't be able to just go and say, oh please, excuse me, I'll have the soup.

00:05:28.000 I think I'll skip dessert.

00:05:29.000 I might go home now because it looks like society is coming to an immediate cataclysmic end.

00:05:34.000 Have a look at this first clip.

00:05:36.000 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:05:39.000 It seems obvious that blase is a French word, because that is the most blase thing I've seen.

00:05:52.000 France is burning down and no one cares.

00:05:55.000 It's the same with people eating outdoors, which looks even more dramatic.

00:05:59.000 Have you seen this one?

00:06:00.000 have a look.

00:06:07.000 I like that the server thinks that the problem is the organisation of the chairs.

00:06:12.000 Oh, monsieur!

00:06:13.000 My apologies.

00:06:15.000 That chair is a little crooked.

00:06:17.000 It's the angles that are the problem.

00:06:20.000 If we can just get this in proper relationship to the table, everything will be okay.

00:06:24.000 The streets are on fire!

00:06:26.000 [crowd noise]

00:06:33.000 ...put in the car, I mean it's just everything's perfectly normal.

00:06:35.000 Actually, I'm not sure if she works there or she's dining there.

00:06:38.000 I can't tell what's happening.

00:06:39.000 This is like performance art, this final one, because of the sort of musical choices.

00:06:39.000 Look at this one.

00:06:45.000 Let us know in the chat and the comments how quickly you work out what song this is.

00:06:50.000 It's a little quiz.

00:06:51.000 If you get it right, you can come and see me in a live show.

00:06:54.000 Yeah, what about that?

00:06:56.000 If you want to come, you might not want to.

00:06:57.000 You might be a sort of a radical French person, happy to bring down the state because you're not being pensioned properly and democracy is being ignored like everywhere because your country is being led by a neoliberal stooge that went to the right school, made the right connections, organizes the right tax breaks for the powerful, attends Davos conferences, may pretend to care about cultural issues, may pretend to care about inequality, as they would call it in France, but actually cares It's about, I don't know, corruption.

00:07:27.000 Yeah, I reckon.

00:07:27.000 Yeah?

00:07:27.000 Is that enough?

00:07:28.000 Just say stuff in a French accent?

00:07:30.000 Will that do?

00:07:30.000 Yeah.

00:07:31.000 Is that enough for you?

00:07:32.000 Have a look at this.

00:07:32.000 I would say this is surreal and bizarre.

00:07:36.000 Not only because people are carrying on as normal, but there's something macabre and extraordinary.

00:07:41.000 And note that the keyboard player is still wearing a mask.

00:07:44.000 It's a weird visual oxymoron.

00:07:47.000 [Music]

00:07:58.000 Danny S says I wouldn't be able to enjoy a glass of wine with burning trash in the background.

00:08:03.000 That's a very good point.

00:08:05.000 If you're watching us on Rumble right now, you'll have to, because we're only going to be on YouTube for a few more minutes.

00:08:11.000 You should click the red button and join our, well, I don't know what to call our club.

00:08:16.000 We'll work out a name for that by the end of this week, shall we?

00:08:18.000 You should join our Affinity, our affiliation, our group, our crew.

00:08:23.000 And then it's your comments.

00:08:24.000 Oh, people are saying Eternal Flame.

00:08:26.000 Becker D, Eternal Flame.

00:08:28.000 Yeah, people recognise it as Eternal Flame.

00:08:30.000 Do you think that's been ironically rendered by that street musician?

00:08:33.000 I think so.

00:08:34.000 Can't be a coincidence.

00:08:35.000 Eternal Flame, by the bangles.

00:08:37.000 That's how he's scoring this disruption.

00:08:44.000 Gunshot gal, the gunshot, or whatever that was.

00:08:46.000 whatever that was.

00:08:48.000 [Music]

00:09:08.000 [Music]

00:09:24.000 The world has become sort of performance art.

00:09:28.000 Yeah, I guess it's interesting.

00:09:30.000 As a metaphor, you could argue that maybe we all have to get on with life and ignore all the awful atrocities that are going on just because here it's literally happening right next to them.

00:09:39.000 We're ignoring something that's happening not that far away in foreign countries.

00:09:44.000 Stay free with Russell Brand.

00:09:46.000 See it first on Rumble.

00:09:47.000 Ah, and on that final expletive from my four-year-old daughter, We'll read some of your comments.

00:09:55.000 Alex Overton.

00:09:56.000 Locals works fine in France.

00:09:57.000 It's nice, isn't it, to know that it's working perfectly well.

00:10:02.000 Killuminati369.

00:10:03.000 Deploy the next variant.

00:10:05.000 These are the kind of comments that allow us to seamlessly move into a conversation with a very important voice in our cultural space of independent media and free thinking.

00:10:17.000 Friend of the show.

00:10:20.000 Personal, deity is too strong of a word, but a reporter that I very much admire.

00:10:26.000 Crystal Bull from Breaking Point is joining us.

00:10:29.000 All right, Crystal, thanks for coming, mate. 0.56

00:10:31.000 Thanks for having me.

00:10:32.000 You're setting the bar a little high, though.

00:10:33.000 I'm getting nervous now.

00:10:34.000 Don't get nervous.

00:10:35.000 You look like you could be a mid-ranking officer in Star Trek in that fantastic outfit.

00:10:43.000 Well, thank you.

00:10:44.000 Thank you very much.

00:10:45.000 We wanted to start by talking about the French protests and what can be drawn when talking about the, I don't know, is it the downfall, the demise of neoliberalism?

00:10:45.000 Thank you.

00:10:57.000 And we wanted to look at whether or not you personally feel that it's too late to reform centre-left Parties, but to accept that with the ongoing militarization of the police force, this tendency for centralizing authority and crushing dissent, whether change from outside of the system is going to be required.

00:11:16.000 In fact, isn't that what protests and riots ultimately are?

00:11:19.000 So I just wanted you to see, to contextualize the protests in France alongside what's happening in your country for us.

00:11:29.000 Thank you.

00:11:30.000 Well, I think of neoliberalism as a sort of zombie ideology, which has clearly failed and been rejected by all sorts of people all around the world as failing to really serve the interests of the people.

00:11:45.000 So you end up with governments and economies which should be there to serve society, to serve the people, and instead are serving a group of elites and, you know, sort of corporate, multinational corporations.

00:11:59.000 But I call it a zombie ideology because even as the failings of it have been exposed and rejected, it still holds a lot of power, as we see, obviously, in the U.K., as we see in the U.S.

00:12:11.000 with Joe Biden, as we see in France with Macron.

00:12:14.000 Being able to win re-election with, you know, he had like a 30% approval rating when he won re-election.

00:12:20.000 And by the way, Joe Biden's chief of staff pointed that out as a model for how Joe Biden himself could get re-elected, even as he is tremendously unpopular.

00:12:30.000 So that's how I sort of see the ideology of neoliberalism.

00:12:35.000 As far as whether it can be reformed within the system or what sort of tactics might work, I think you need a whole of body politic approach.

00:12:45.000 So the sort of protest movement that you see right now in France, and incidentally, that's being very successful right now in Israel as well, that's not just people marching the street with placards, but is people shutting down airports, shutting down commerce, shutting down transit and really hurting neoliberalism in the capital where it really hurts.

00:13:04.000 That is tremendously powerful.

00:13:06.000 That's one essential piece.

00:13:08.000 I think another essential piece, and all of these are about basically, you know, small d democratic weapons.

00:13:15.000 Another piece is in building out the power of labor and labor unions.

00:13:19.000 That's obviously an instrumental part in having power when you go to protest and when you go to have a general strike, that you have people who are working together in solidarity to have that kind of an impact.

00:13:29.000 But then I think another piece is electoral politics.

00:13:33.000 You know, in the American context, we take for granted that the Democratic Party is what it is and the Republican Party is what it is.

00:13:39.000 But these parties are just collections of people.

00:13:42.000 And the Democratic Party of the past, when it was the FDR New Deal party, meant something very different and stood for things that are very different from what the party does today.

00:13:54.000 So, you know, I think the people who run the DNC are a bunch of posers who could, you know, be supplanted by a real movement of the people and sort of hijack that party to restore it to its roots of serving the interests of the people rather than the interests of the donor class.

00:14:11.000 That's an exciting proposition.

00:14:13.000 But in recent, even in recent electoral cycles, we've seen that party.

00:14:21.000 It feels like from within SCAPA, the attempt of a more populist leader in the form of Bernie Sanders, who I figure you were well into.

00:14:30.000 And it makes me feel like that, in a sense, the part of the function of these institutions is their ongoing preservation and the ability to stymie any serious reform.

00:14:42.000 So I recognize what you're saying is that without populist uprising outside of political systems such as we are seeing in France, and as you added, Israel, Well, I'll give you a perfect example of that.

00:14:57.000 And I think your point is spot on.

00:14:59.000 Like in recent, you know, the Clinton Sanders stuff is a good demonstration of that, would

00:15:05.000 you say?

00:15:06.000 Well, I'll give you a perfect example of that.

00:15:08.000 And I think your point is spot on.

00:15:11.000 So right now, Joe Biden, he hasn't officially announced for re-election, but he's likely

00:15:15.000 to.

00:15:16.000 And he has a progressive primary opponent who was announced in Marianne Williamson.

00:15:21.000 And Democrats, for all their talk about democracy during January 6th, et cetera.

00:15:27.000 Now that it's time to actually put to a vote among Democratic primary voters, OK, who do you want to be your nominee?

00:15:33.000 And we know from the polls that an overwhelming majority would like Joe Biden to step aside and they would like to have options in this primary.

00:15:40.000 They've already switched around the order of the states to try to rig the primary election for Biden.

00:15:46.000 And they're also already saying, we're not even going to have a debate.

00:15:49.000 So you don't even get to hear on a stage what the various platforms are.

00:15:54.000 So there is no doubt that when it comes down to it, they have zero commitment to democracy.

00:15:58.000 They will use any authoritarian tactics, just as Macron did in France.

00:16:02.000 To try to maintain their power.

00:16:04.000 The only thing that can shift them from that stance is a populist uprising that forces their hand, that demands a debate, that demands a real primary, that demands a real democracy.

00:16:15.000 And I think those are the only sort of choices.

00:16:17.000 You know, neoliberalism, it's no accident that it's being forced.

00:16:21.000 leaders like Macron and Biden are being forced to use increasingly

00:16:24.000 authoritarian tactics in service of maintaining their power because it has sort of been revealed as this rotten

00:16:32.000 ideology that doesn't deliver on its promises.

00:16:35.000 The only response to that is a truly populist response, which really means

00:16:40.000 handing power and people reclaiming power both in their workplace, through

00:16:44.000 labor unions, both in the streets, through protest, and also by taking back

00:16:48.000 electoral politics. So you have to have all three of those pieces, in my opinion.

00:16:52.000 Cool.

00:16:53.000 I feel like the professional neoliberal centre-left kind of hates working people and that kind of contempt comes through continually in their rhetoric.

00:17:03.000 Marianne Williamson's coming on this show next week.

00:17:06.000 I love what you said there about the institutional and centralised authoritarianism that would corruptly rejig the order of those sort of state elections in order to prevent any momentum or even Debate and that makes me feel like why would I grant any airtime to that kind of political body with that kind of mechanic?

00:17:28.000 A slightly more trivial question before moving on to things that are a bit more intense.

00:17:31.000 It just occurred to me then, Crystal, like, do you see now when Joe Biden

00:17:37.000 makes one of those errors where he sort of accidentally says,

00:17:39.000 you know, that's why I love China when he's in Canada or whatever,

00:17:43.000 that people laugh straight away with that and do not product placement that drink.

00:17:48.000 You should be drinking kombucha or something healthy rather than that evil brew, stinking Coca-Cola.

00:17:55.000 Oh no, I'm sure it's a fine brew.

00:17:56.000 It's delicious though.

00:17:57.000 Oh no, don't, don't do--

00:17:58.000 It might be evil, but it's delicious though.

00:18:00.000 Don't give him a pack shot. 0.97

00:18:01.000 You maniac right next to your electrifying white smile. 1.00

00:18:05.000 You lunatic, that's worth thousands. 1.00

00:18:07.000 Get me, get your agent on the phone. 1.00

00:18:09.000 I'll do that deal.

00:18:10.000 When Joe Biden does that, when Joe Biden does that stuff and he makes a mistake, have you noticed they started laughing now?

00:18:16.000 Do you think that that's something that's happened as a result of a spontaneous cultural movement or do you think someone goes out and briefs before Joe Biden appears on stage and goes, if he makes one of those errors, just chuckle along with beloved old Uncle Joe to sort of soften the evident ineptitude and the horrible metaphor that that ineptitude represents Yeah, true, true.

00:18:44.000 He's like the sort of living embodiment, semi-living embodiment of exactly that.

00:18:51.000 Look, I think when people are uncomfortable, they tend to laugh because they don't know what else to do.

00:18:57.000 And so when you have incidents like, you know, I don't know if you remember the one where there was a congresswoman who died in a car accident and he had sent out a letter of condolences to the family and then he's at this event and he's calling for her, Jackie, Jackie, where are you?

00:19:13.000 In any case, there are clear signs that he's not the politician that he used to be.

00:19:21.000 Now, listen, if people are able to see him on a debate stage and hear his ideas for the country and defend the areas where he's made clear promises and completely failed on and in a completely open democratic fashion, that's what the American people decide to go in the direction of?

00:19:36.000 Okay, that's democracy.

00:19:38.000 But what they are trying to do, because they know that he's in an incredibly precarious and fragile position, is they're trying to shut down any ability for people to hear an alternative whatsoever.

00:19:50.000 So, you know, it really reveals their hand of how weak they think that he is.

00:19:55.000 And then they also have the issue of Kamala Harris as vice president.

00:19:59.000 She's even less popular than Joe Biden is.

00:20:02.000 And not only is she a heartbeat away from the presidency, she's the heartbeat away from a president who, you know, would end the next term at 86 years old.

00:20:11.000 So this is a series of really compounding problems for them that they don't quite know how to deal with other than through authoritarian, anti-democratic tactics.

00:20:20.000 The only choice is for us to reject them and say, listen, whatever you think about the issues, whatever you think about Marianne Williamson or Joe Biden, The American people at least deserve to have an open forum and an open debate because we're at a critical juncture in our nation's history and in world history where it's incredible.

00:20:36.000 It's never been more important to have that open discussion and debate of ideas and visions for the future.

00:20:42.000 I am really encouraged by what you say, Crystal, about how populism can advance existing political structures, because I tend, sometimes out of despair, to feel like, oh, there's no point, there's no point, it's so corrupt, it's so broken, the only thing it's worth doing is protest, the only thing it's worth doing is establish alternative systems.

00:21:06.000 I see how, as you describe, it could influence existing political structures.

00:21:11.000 Were we to be more vocal and aggressive, and I don't mean that obviously in a violent sense, in our protest and opposition and non-compliance to the corruption within these systems.

00:21:20.000 And I wanted to ask you... Well, if I could just insert in that, you know, I'm talking a lot about the Democratic Party, but there's a similar process that's playing out in the Republican Party right now.

00:21:29.000 I mean, there are some real schisms that have emerged in the Republican Party that are a real, you know, potential source of democracy and reform as well.

00:21:39.000 So, you know, I don't see this as a sort of one-sided opportunity to change the tenor of our country or the world or change the landscape.

00:21:48.000 But it's not going to come without a fight.

00:21:50.000 There's no doubt about it.

00:21:51.000 I mean, the people who have power are not going to just willingly give it up to a group of renegades, whether it's operating within this party system or within a third party.

00:22:00.000 With the mechanics of the U.S.

00:22:02.000 political system, you know, as much as Bernie Sanders was shut out in 2016 and again in 2020, he still came a lot closer than a third party is able to come just because of the, you know, fundamental structure of first-past-the-post voting and how this ultimately works.

00:22:18.000 So I just think from a pragmatic standpoint, you're likely to have a better shot of success going for hijacking one of the existing political parties than coming from the outside.

00:22:29.000 Thanks, Christel.

00:22:30.000 You're quite right that that pressure should be bipartisan.

00:22:32.000 I wanted to ask you, do the current TikTok congressional hearings demonstrate the evident and ongoing hypocrisy that exists in American politics, in so much as almost every facet of attack that's being explored, whether it's the surveillance, the data capture, the apparent collaboration with the state, could be levelled at American.

00:22:58.000 Social media companies or global social media companies.

00:23:01.000 And I want to tie this to the subject we were just discussing, meaningful change within the system or even beyond the system.

00:23:09.000 Do you feel that if either the Republican Party or the Democrat Party or an independent

00:23:14.000 party stood on a platform that included banning politicians from having a second job, banning

00:23:19.000 politicians to trade in stocks and shares full stop or having any dependent child or

00:23:24.000 spouse own stocks and shares and making it illegal for either party to receive corporate

00:23:30.000 donations, only individual funders and even then in a very regulated way, do you think

00:23:34.000 that that, you know, essentially get in money out of politics, ending lobbying, ending congressional

00:23:39.000 stock trading, ending the sort of funding of the parties by finance and big business?

00:23:44.000 Would all the landscape of American politics so radically that, you know, that it would

00:23:50.000 actually bloody well work and be meaningful?

00:23:51.000 And what kind of opposition would those kind of ideas face and how would they stop it happening and sort of loophole their way out of it?

00:23:59.000 Well, I think it'd be dramatically popular with the American people.

00:24:02.000 And you see this from time to time.

00:24:05.000 You know, leaders, congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle were sort of forced to pretend like they cared about banning stock trading in Congress.

00:24:14.000 And both Nancy Pelosi, back when she was Speaker, and also Kevin McCarthy, when he was running to be Speaker of the House, pretended like they wanted to take action on this issue because they knew it was so popular and so politically powerful.

00:24:26.000 And then now that Kevin McCarthy is actually Speaker of the House, you haven't heard anything about it anymore.

00:24:30.000 That just sort of died.

00:24:31.000 Even the renegades that challenged him in terms of a speakership, that was not one of the concessions that they extracted.

00:24:37.000 And Nancy Pelosi found a way to effectively kill some real, genuine bipartisan efforts that might have had some teeth in that direction. 1.00

00:24:44.000 So they use it as a political cudgel as it serves them, but then make sure that there is no actual change that happens.

00:24:51.000 Do I think that getting money out of American politics would make a difference?

00:24:54.000 Absolutely.

00:24:55.000 I think it would absolutely, you know, transform the landscape of American politics because we ask ourselves so many times, why when you have things that are so incredibly popular, you know, things like making sure people have paid sick leave or that union membership is available to people or that people have a living wage?

00:25:13.000 I mean, these are massively popular issues.

00:25:16.000 Why is there never any action?

00:25:18.000 And frequently, corruption is a core part of the story.

00:25:22.000 And if we go even one level deeper than that, this is really going back to France, this really is the core of the rot of neoliberalism, which says profits and money above all else.

00:25:33.000 So of course, if that is your system, and that's the altar that you worship at, then you're going to end up with a system that is rife with corruption.

00:25:43.000 So I think that you know, kind of the root of the problem and they'll do

00:25:47.000 everything they can to protect the status quo that exists because the people in power, they

00:25:51.000 got there because things work well for them the way that they stand right now. It means to me

00:25:56.000 that that's an interesting edifice to focus attack on because it exposes the areas in which

00:26:04.000 both parties plainly agree and will use rhetoric around it but won't implement legislation around

00:26:11.000 it and it exposes that as Chomsky says where both parties agree you have no choice at all and to

00:26:16.000 sort of introduce that and popularize those ideas I feel like it'll be a really interesting way

00:26:21.000 of radicalizing political debate in a meaningful way. Crystal, thank you so much for

00:26:26.000 joining us, thank you for endorsing that soft drink which I think has links to Alzheimer's, I don't

00:26:32.000 know that's allegedly... allegedly!

00:26:35.000 Listen, we have to exist in society as it is, Russell, until we can revolutionise in it.

00:26:41.000 So I'm just here existing in society with my Diet Coke.

00:26:44.000 You, like Gareth Roy, are a positive influence.

00:26:47.000 You are the voice of reason and the taste of Diet Coke simultaneously.

00:26:53.000 Crystal Ball, thank you so much for joining us.

00:26:56.000 You can catch Breaking Point every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday on YouTube, surely on Rumble soon.

00:27:00.000 That's midday Eastern time.

00:27:02.000 Thanks again, Crystal.

00:27:03.000 Thanks for joining us, mate.

00:27:04.000 Thank you, Russell.

00:27:05.000 It was fun.

00:27:05.000 Lovely to speak to you.

00:27:06.000 Thank you very much.

00:27:07.000 And there we go.

00:27:09.000 A wonderful conversation.

00:27:10.000 Perfectly enjoyable.

00:27:12.000 I think we advanced the debate somewhat, didn't we?

00:27:14.000 And we also promoted a deadly soft drink.

00:27:18.000 No, I think I mean, I think, you know, all the points about Biden.

00:27:20.000 I mean, I wasn't aware of what Crystal was talking about in terms of ways in which the Democrat Party are going about making ensuring that, you know, Biden gets reelected over, for example, someone like Marianne Williamson, who we'll speak to.

00:27:32.000 But it's We can ask her that.

00:27:35.000 We'll also say, are you aware they're shifting the order of the states?

00:27:37.000 I'm sure she is.

00:27:39.000 I've been paying attention to that.

00:27:40.000 Amazing.

00:27:41.000 I like Marianne Williamson.

00:27:42.000 She's spiritual.

00:27:44.000 She's cool.

00:27:45.000 I've interviewed her a couple of times.

00:27:47.000 She's all right.

00:27:48.000 Hey, she's a good person.

00:27:50.000 Listen, when I went over to Rumble and met this, I already knew the CEO, Chris Pavlovsky, but like I went over there and sort of there was, you know, I met Donald J. Trump.

00:28:01.000 Lovely, of course.

00:28:02.000 His wife, that little girlfriend, that lady, Kim, off of Fox. 0.99

00:28:05.000 box who really aggressively attacked me saying I was like a scumbag and a 0.99

00:28:10.000 stinkhole and a scuzz bucket and then she was an absolute joy to me and like 0.99

00:28:15.000 just laughed away through all of those things it sort of felt like it didn't 0.71

00:28:18.000 matter at all to me we had like our photo done me and Chris Pavlovsky over

00:28:22.000 by the Rumble logo right and I just as we were taking our photo like he sort of

00:28:28.000 intuitively put his hands clasped his hands across his midriff right like or

00:28:32.000 lower midriff your torso let's call it and I just went at the moment in that 0.97

00:28:37.000 moment I went don't cover your genitals like as if I was an expert in body 0.96

00:28:40.000 language or something like that and like it was the person that took a photo that

00:28:44.000 works with us Lauren I think she had a photo a camera on live so it's got the

00:28:49.000 audio of it and with you know to celebrate Rumble's recent controversies being banned in France, or at least taking themselves off of the French system.

00:28:59.000 Here is me and Chris Pavlovsky, and me advising him to not cover his genitals, which I'd say is an entertaining moment.

00:29:06.000 Have a look. 0.99

00:29:07.000 Don't cover your genitals! 1.00

00:29:10.000 He actually did it! 0.98

00:29:11.000 Like, as if I know about stuff like that.

00:29:14.000 Never cover your genitals, unless you're nude, in which case... From one CEO to another. 0.85

00:29:19.000 These are my tips. 0.89

00:29:21.000 Do not cover your genies in a photo.

00:29:24.000 It says a lot though, doesn't it?

00:29:25.000 The fact that you're stood there with your hands so far away, about as far away from your gentles as it's possible for them to be. 0.90

00:29:31.000 I don't want them anywhere near them.

00:29:33.000 That's when the problems start.

00:29:35.000 Well, thank you for joining us for another fantastic show.

00:29:39.000 I hope you learned something about the connection between the protests in France and your own corrupt systems.

00:29:44.000 I like Crystal's point about it's a sort of a zombie ideology lumbering on, but zombies are Pretty deadly.

00:29:50.000 And they put up a fight.

00:29:51.000 And then sort of the observation that perhaps in Biden, we have the perfect zombie president, a cadaverous undead figure lurching his way forwards into new conflicts in Syria, weaponizing and mobilizing and monetizing the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

00:30:07.000 Or is it ideologically sound?

00:30:08.000 Let me know In the comments.

00:30:10.000 We've got a fantastic week coming up tomorrow.

00:30:12.000 We'll be speaking to Vandana Shiva, the great mother of our show.

00:30:16.000 We'll be talking about the various agricultural revolts, in particular the one in the Netherlands currently.

00:30:21.000 And again, how a new populist movement that transcends cultural differences is emerging.

00:30:26.000 That's what's happening in France.

00:30:28.000 We'll be looking at that in even more depth, if such a thing were possible, in our Here's the News tomorrow.

00:30:32.000 And if you sign up to Locals, you'll get my stand-up special Brandemic available As part of your package, or you can buy it for a one-off price of $20, you get access to Stay Connected, me and Gareth's little show, where we're really intimate with one another, and we respond directly to your questions, as well as weekly meditations, and the opportunity to attend live podcast recordings, like the latest one with Graham Hancock.

00:30:54.000 That's up on Rumble now.

00:30:55.000 You could have come.

00:30:56.000 We gave away tickets to people.

00:30:57.000 There's people in the locals community, like... What's his name?

00:31:01.000 The man that looked like a man on another man's shoulders.

00:31:03.000 What was his name again?

00:31:04.000 Michael Collins.

00:31:05.000 Primal Colin, you, like Primal Colin, shout out to you, could come here and meet Graham Hancock and loom above him like a Muppet Man.

00:31:13.000 Join us!

00:31:14.000 Join us on our adventure.

00:31:15.000 We're getting more and more serious by the day.

00:31:17.000 We're on the very precipice of starting communities.

00:31:19.000 Are we, Gal?

00:31:20.000 Oh, of course we are.

00:31:21.000 Let's start those communities. 0.71

00:31:22.000 Join us tomorrow, not for more of the same, but for more of the different.

00:31:25.000 Until then, stay free.

00:31:37.000 Switch on, switch on.

00:31:38.000 Man, he switchin'.

Stay Free - Russel Brand - March 27, 2023

Krystal Ball (Protests, Power & Politics)

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