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The world's most exciting podcast. Home of borders, language, culture. And here he is, New York Times bestselling author and National Radio Hall of Fame inductee, Michael Savage. I'm Michael Savage.
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All right, we are joined by a very special guest at a very important moment.
Stella Assange is an international lawyer and human rights activist. She has a degree in law and politics from S.O.A.S. University in London, a master's of science in refugee law from Oxford and a master's in public international law from the Comp.
Sorry about that. Complutense University of Madrid. Since 2011, she has been a member of Julian Assange's legal defense team. And in March 2022, the two were married in a ceremony at Belmarsh Prison. Stella, thank you very much for joining us. I know you're busy and it's very late right now where you are. Oh, thank you for having me. So we are going to go to Keaton for our first question.
Sure. Yeah. I mean, as Russell just mentioned in the introduction, you married Julian at Belmarsh Prison in March of 2022. What was that day like and what state is he in now physically, psychologically? How hopeful is he, if at all, for his eventual release and freedom?
Well, Julian has been in this high security prison in the U.K. for almost five years. It will be five years in April. And when he went in in 2019, April 2019, we had already talked about, obviously, we were engaged, but there hadn't been the moment to get married. We had tried inside the embassy in Ecuador, but for legal reasons at the time, that wasn't possible.
And so eventually we decided, well, let's just get married in the prison because we don't know when the ideal moment will be. And predictably, it became quite a battle with the prison because this is kind of the dynamic that we have always had to deal with.
with Belmarsh. So it took us about a year and a half to actually manage to get married. We got married in March 2022. It was a very special day in the sense that we felt like we had won a battle.
After a lot of back and forth with prison, we had threatened to sue them. They came... They obstructed right till the end. We had wanted two of Julian's and my friends to be the witnesses. Those witnesses were turned down on the basis they were journalists, which is the natural thing, Julian being a journalist and...
being the editor of a publication and his friends are also journalists and that was not permitted on the basis that what they were journalists also the photographer that was going to take pictures inside applied for authorization was turned down also on the basis that he also freelances as a journalist for for a major
wire service. So in spite of all this, we finally managed to get married. There were six people in the room plus two guards. That was my mom and my brother and Julian's father and his brother and the children. And we weren't allowed to have any more guests to our wedding.
And it was very, I mean, it was a wonderful day. We felt like we had, that we owned the moment. And how is he doing? Well, I mean, this question, it comes up constantly and I'm very grateful that people ask it, but it's a very difficult one to answer because it really varies from day to day, from week to week.
The Christmas period was very tough. It's tough every Christmas. This was his fifth Christmas inside Belmarsh prison. And tough because there are less visits, there's less staff, which means increased isolation. And he got ill.
He was quite ill with fever and so on. He's recovered from that, still coughing a bit, but there was a period where he wasn't able to see a doctor. We had to call the Australian embassy to intervene to get him to be able to be seen by a doctor. It took a few days. So these things, you know, it's kind of tedious.
But it's a bit of the day-to-day battle that he has to deal with. And on top of all of this, then on the 29th of December, I think it was, John Pilger, who was a dear friend of ours, passed away. And this was a really big blow at a low moment.
And well, Julian knew that John was very poorly and was able to get a message to him. And John was able to respond to that message about a week before he passed away. So I'm thankful that they had some chance to say goodbye. But it's really heartbreaking because they were very close. And when you're in
Prison in a kind of indefinite situation like this an indefinite imprisonment you you think about
what you will do when you get out and inevitably it's you know going back to well I would love to sit around the table with my old friends and and do the things I enjoy doing and obviously over time five years since he was abducted basically from the embassy the seven years before that that he was inside the embassy all these possibilities start following falling away over time
And it's really heartbreaking. You've now you've said that the U.S. U.K. extradition treaty does not allow for imprisonment for political offenses, of which what he's being charged with is clearly a political offense. He was originally imprisoned on the premise of bail jumping. He's long since served the 50 month sentence for that.
Is his detention at this point illegal? Is he simply a political prisoner now? He is simply a political prisoner and he always was. I mean, look, he was the moment he was arrested from the embassy. And this this detail of the chronology is often lost.
the moment he was arrested it was announced that he was arrested in relation to a minor bail violation for which there's very rarely any prison time, let alone a fine. I mean, especially when the failure to surrender concerns someone who was seeking political asylum and obtained it for seven years in relation to US extradition. So
From the moment he was arrested, it was announced that there was an extradition request from the United States and that, in fact, a warrant had been sealed in the UK courts since December 2017. So the UK system had been...
It had been in cahoots with the U.S. to get Julian long before his arrest, even before there was any formal charge by the Trump administration. The formal charge came in March 2018. So over a year before his arrest, the U.K. already knew that they were holding him, in fact, for the U.S. extradition. And the bail, the
The bail act violations, alleged bail act violation, was a complete anomaly. And he served it, he had finished serving it by September 2019, because you only serve 50% of a custodial sentence of that type here in the UK. So...
Since September 2019, the sole justification or claim justification for his imprisonment is that there is an outstanding extradition request for the U.S. And I think this is kind of a game that is played between the U.S. and the U.K. The U.S. says, oh, well, you know, we've just put in an extradition request. The U.K. is holding him and we don't actually have to.
We can pretend like this is not really our problem unless he's on our soil. And then the UK goes, well, we're just holding him on behalf of the United States. We're not even charging him here. They want to extradite him. They don't want him to have bail. And therefore, we're just, you know,
complying with the wishes of the United States. So he kind of falls between the cracks and the US and the UK throw the ball to each other. And there's a degree of complexity in the process, but the process is really irrelevant. The point is that Julian is a political prisoner. He is charged with political crimes under the Espionage Act. The nature of the...
alleged crime is publishing true information that indicts the United States, the same country that's trying to extradite him and put him in prison. You couldn't have a clearer case of political persecution of a journalist. And if this were any other country, you know, any of the bogeymen that usually pop up in, you know, in speeches, then it would be
obvious and he would be used as a case, a cause to labor for the West, but it so happens to be the case that it is the West that has made him the most consequential, the most important political prisoner of our times. And of course, the rest of the world is very happy to call the US and the UK and the West out for this
uh, for this travesty again and again and again. Um, yeah, well, it's do as, do as we say, not as we do. We, we recently spoke to, uh, Glenn Greenwald and, uh, we were talking about the Steven Donziger case, um, where this lawyer just had his entire life destroyed for winning a settlement for native peoples that had been abused by Chevron. And, um,
I asked him, are you afraid they're going to do that to you eventually? And he said, any dissident that is really effective, they will destroy you. They will come for you. So in relation to what you just described, where really he's being held as a political prisoner illegally in Belmarsh, are you concerned that the final hearing coming up in February is
is not going to be a fair hearing, but a political one. There's no question that there is no possibility of a fair hearing, not in the U.K., not in the U.S. They've taken over a decade of Julian's life because he did nothing wrong.
Nothing wrong, nothing different to any other publisher, any other journalist. The only difference is that they decided to make an example of him and threw him to set a precedent that could be used against the rest of the press. In the United States, the nature of the prosecution is that he cannot mount a public interest defense.
The proposition here is that he should be extradited to a trial where he cannot mount a defense. The potential sentence is 175 years. It is literally for receiving, possessing, and communicating true information of the highest public interest to the public. There's no whole espionage process.
The term espionage is a real misnomer, because there's no allegation that he was acting on behalf of another state or anything like that. This concerns the Chelsea Manning publications, which revealed the true face of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the torture system under the Bush wars and Guantanamo Bay and so on.
Even the US doesn't allege that it was in relation to a different state or that the purpose was anything other than to publish. So it really is criminalizing journalism. And what are we even talking about facing a fair trial for publishing the truth?
Then there's the fact that it's in Virginia, you know, it's a national security court effectively. The jury pool of that area is people who are either related to very closely or working with or are working for the intelligence and security sector, which of course is extremely hostile to Julian. And
you probably would be... Anyway, career-wise, who would want to be seen to let that guy, let Julian walk? It's just impossible for Julian to get a fair trial. And we shouldn't even be talking about the trial, let alone charges here. And then there's the very...
obvious point that there is um there are reports that Pompeo was planning to assassinate you win right when he was CIA director that this was a conversation that was had in the White House that um there was a request at Langley for plans to be drawn up about how to go about it to kidnap him to rendition him and to assassinate him uh it just is simply mind-blowing that we're
that the courts in the UK are even entertaining this case. And the fact that they're entertaining it simply shows the lack of robustness when it comes to a case like this. And it's frankly really shocking.
But I think there's also another element, which in the US you have a very strong First Amendment. You have the gold standard worldwide. And I think there's perhaps a projection from your perspective that the rest of the Western world is similar. And in fact, that's not the case. There are no strong protections for free speech in the UK. Not constitutionally, at least. There's certain cultural...
There's a culture around free speech and, you know, freedom of the press and so on. But it doesn't have it in a in a written constitution, for example. And they have the official secret act. And there's, in fact, in the UK, a very strong...
reverence for the security services. I mean, James Bond is... No, seriously, I think in the US you have films about the CIA and often they're kind of bad guys. There are a lot of bad guys there. In the UK it's very rare that the intelligence services are
Seem to be evil or incompetent or anything like that. There's a much there's a very different culture around it and so I think at the beginning when the extradition request came through and the actual Allegations came through there were some legal commentary by the u.s. By us
pundits, legal pundits, who said, well, this is simply, you know, the UK will never go along with it. These are political offenses. The Espionage Act that's prohibited under the extradition treaty. Technically, this will, you know, on technical grounds, can't go through. And this is just for show.
But what I think they didn't take into account is the, well, A, the deference that the UK always shows the US. It's the little poodle. And secondly, that there is a much weaker legal and political politically as well culture around free speech. So, in fact, it's it's easy for the UK to extradite you in and put this.
this case which is a calamity for the First Amendment.
in the lap of the Virginia courts. And, you know, I'm sure you have seen all the letters to the Attorney General, to the President, and so on, saying this case should never reach a U.S. courtroom because the First Amendment is in jeopardy, if it does, because it basically attempts to blow a hole through First Amendment protections. So... I'm sorry, Russell. Go ahead, Kate.
I was just going to say, so Day X, which is the sort of final hearing set for February 20th and the 21st, is Julian's last chance at avoiding extradition here to the U.S. So you went over in the last question that –
you are not expecting a fair trial, but what has to happen outside of the courtroom? And by outside of the courtroom, I'm referencing the need to flood the streets with protesters outside the courthouse. I know there have been calls to action for that day. What are you trying to put
Together in terms of a mass demonstration and how can people get involved with that if they're in the UK? Obviously, we want them there. Are there going to be sister demonstrations around the world? How can people get involved on those two key days, February 20th and 21st?
Well, absolutely. There are two, there are basically two essential actions for people in the United States. I'd say the first one, and these are not do one, not the other, please do both, is to call your Congress, congressional representatives and ask them to sign on to House Resolution 934.
which is a resolution to drop the case against Julian because of the First Amendment implications, because it criminalizes journalism, because it is such an important case. And that is currently accepting signatures. And we have to try to get people from both sides of politics, all sides of politics, to sign on to that.
House Resolution 934. And then there is Day X. And we have been announcing Day X for some time now, but now we have a date. So basically, because it's a legal proceeding in the UK, it's been quite a drawn-out affair. And
We don't control the diary, but now the courts have announced what day X will be, and that is the 20th and 21st of February. This is a two-day public hearing in which there will be a final consideration by the High Court.
about whether to reopen the case. Technically, that's what it is. Julian tried to appeal the decision to extradite him, and they didn't even allow him. They refused him permission to appeal. So they haven't even allowed Julian to appeal beyond the lowest court decision, which is, you know, another travesty when you have all the
all the free press organizations of the world, in the US, in the UK, everywhere, and all the human rights organizations saying this case is the most important case of our time in terms of press freedom and free speech. So anyway, that appeal has been refused, but there is this final attempt to reopen that decision
and it will be a public hearing two days and there will be demonstrations around the world and so I will be announcing on my Twitter or X I
a map with all the planned protests. And these protests can be big or small. I mean, just because if you live in a small location and it's just one person, that's great. That still counts. In Europe, Europe is absolutely...
astounding. I mean, there's there's small villages in Austria with one person who's done a chalk outline of the cell of the size of Julian cell on the in the town center in the town square. And, you know, just to raise awareness and just holding up a free Assange. And then you have things like the city of Rome, Rome, the City Council of Rome and the City Council of Naples
have made Julian an honorary citizen of Naples and of the city of Rome. So these are demonstrations, big and small, that are the...
really the lifeblood of a grassroots movement. And that is what needs to happen all over the world so that the signal is loud and clear that this is an illegitimate travesty and that Julian needs to be freed. And the reality is this: when it's a political case,
The persecuted individual needs political capital, and that's why he was maligned, that's why he was attacked. There was an orchestrated attack. Stories were deliberately planted in the press. The Guardian published a front page completely...
concocted story and that was because the journalistic standards had completely collapsed when it came to Julien. Anything goes was the message in order to attack Julien and that was of course the preamble for his arrest. He was arrested at the point where there had been so many stories that were completely unfounded and libelous
in order to undermine his political support. So any action, and it's not just one, but the accumulative effect of the support is really...
effective in a political case. And I'd also say talk to your friends and co-workers and family about this case, because that's really how opinion is moved over time. And anyone that comes into contact with this case
who is a, you know, a kind of a bystander, immediately gets interested because it's A, it's so interesting, B, it's so unjust and the consequences are so great that they're immediately interested. So do talk to people. There are lots of very good materials at this stage, books about the case.
by Kevin Gostola, by Stefania Mariti, by Niels Meltzer. Julian's books are also published by Verso. And, you know, I just say, get involved. But above all, ask your representatives to sign on to House Resolution 934 and also on Day X, 20th and 21st, and beyond, whatever happens on those days, to commit to...
help free Julian because this is it's about him and you know I think we shouldn't lose sight of of the fact that you win is suffering and that that is enough that should be enough for people to get involved but also there are consequences for everyone and for the future of a free and open society so everyone has a stake in this as well okay so
You heard that. We get a lot of questions. What can people do?
Call your congressperson, support Resolution 934, follow Stella Assange on X. She will be posting different protests and the sites for them. Even if you can't, if you can get to London, get out into the streets for February 20th and 21st for Day X demonstrations. And even if you can't, you can do it where you are. You have somebody in a town.
demonstrating on their own and hopefully they'll get other people to join them. Uh, anything else you want people to know Stella? Well, in the United States, Assange defense is, uh, you should follow Assange defense, um, as well as myself. And, um,
And yes, and help, also help the campaign because obviously the US government and Julien's enemies have put enormous resources into persecuting him and imprisoning him and it takes resources to get him free and we all, you know, everyone can help in whatever way they can but this is an important way for those who can.
This is wherever you are on the political spectrum. This impacts all of us. If Julian is successfully prosecuted, none of our speech is safe. That's something everyone has to understand. This is one of the great battles of our time. Stella, thank you very, very much for joining us, for your courage, for everything you're doing. And we all wish you well and best wishes for February.
Thank you. Hey, you know, here's another great way you can help support the show is you become a premium member. We give you a couple of hours of premium bonus content every week, and it's a great way to help support the show. You can do it by going to JimmyDoreComedy.com, clicking on Join Premium.
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This is a labor story that I think is flying under the radar, but I thought it tied in very well with a lot of what's going on right now. We have Davos promoting its idea of a carbon neutral future. And you've got the German farmers and French farmers protesting in solidarity with them against new policies that are really designed to
to make the kind of farming they do less profitable. And anyone who speaks out against it is going to be called a right winger. Right. They're going to be called a fascist Nazi adjacent. But let's see why really a lot of working people wind up having issues with these policies. Let's see how, let's see how this plays out on the ground. So here we go from Rishi Sunak.
A big day for UK steel. We've agreed a joint $1 billion investment with Tata Steel to save thousands of British jobs and secure the future of the steel industry in Wales.
This follows the four billion pound investment we secured from Tata companies in July to create 4000 jobs. Now, this is not that long ago. This is September 15th, 2023. This is about five months ago. Oh, oh, Tata Steel to shut down Port Talbot blast furnaces, putting 3000 jobs at risk. Yeah.
The owners. Wait, you see that? UK is the only country. We'll get to that. The owners of Port Talbot Steelworks have rejected a trade union plan designed to keep its blast furnaces running, putting nearly 3000 jobs at risk and leaving the UK on course to become the only major economy unable to make steel from scratch. Rather, rather ironic from the country once known for British steel.
In what one union said would be a crushing blow to workers in UK steelmaking, Port Talbot's parent company, the Indian-owned Tata Steel, told workers' representatives that it could no longer afford to continue production at the loss-making plant in South Wales while it completed a four-year transition plan to greener production. The company, which is getting 500 million pounds from the government...
To help with that plan, broke the news during a summit at the five-star St. James Court Hotel in London, which is owned by the Tata Group. I guess the hotels are doing better.
The shadow business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, lashed out at the government for providing Tata with funds to pay for its green transition plans without securing a guarantee on jobs. He said the government's strategy was, quote, 500 million pounds for 3000 job losses.
Under the Tata plan, which is expected to be announced formally on Friday, Port Talbot's blast furnaces will shut down while the company builds electric arc furnaces, which makes steel from recycled scrap a greener and cheaper process.
The Guardian understands that about 200 jobs could be saved under a proposal to keep some of the site's mills open to roll steel slab. But the decision is a huge blow for a town where the local economy is so heavily dependent on a single factory.
The community and GMB unions had put forward a staggered transition plan designed to provide immediate protection for workers. Under their proposals, the blast furnaces would have remained open during the transition with at least one continuing to operate until 2032.
But at a meeting in London on Thursday, Tata Steel is understood to have told union representatives that the proposal was unaffordable given Port Talbot's losses estimated at one million pounds a day. The UK's only other blast furnaces at Scunthorpe
are also slated for shutdown during a similar, potentially lengthy transition process to electric arc furnaces. That would leave the UK as the only G20 country that cannot make steel from raw materials.
Shutting down Port Talbot's two blast furnaces would mark the latest grim milestone in a decades-long decline that has seen production fall from 25 million tons in 1971 to 6 million tons, while employment in the sector has slumped from 250,000 to just under 34,000.
The industry trade body UK Steel said earlier this year that 2024 was a crossroads for the British steel industry at which it could either enjoy a renaissance or continue in managed decline. Once up and running, this is the best part.
Once up and running, new electric arc furnaces will be capable of replicating some of the higher quality grades produced by blast furnaces, typically for use in the automotive industry and industrial processes such as food and drink scanning. But making higher grades of steel that way is more difficult. Meaning...
Meaning the UK could also lose out on the ability to make some products relying instead on imports. This is to make them brinter from there. Yeah, this this sounds like a great deal for the British people. So they're going to be dependent on their country. They can't do their Brexit thing that they never did, I guess.
A government spokesperson said, quote, we are determined to secure a sustainable and competitive future for the UK steel sector, which is why we have committed 500 million pounds of UK government support that will transform the site and protect thousands of jobs, both in Port Talbot and throughout the supply chain.
So this is from David Osland. Tata Steel Bosses asked for and got a 500 million pound state subsidy to make 3,000 workers redundant. That's the superior efficiency of the private sector for you. Yeah, Rick Overton just texted me that Tata means goodbye. So anyways, Tata Steel. Yeah, Tata.
Tata Jobs, John Jones. In Britain, no group has been more savagely betrayed than the manufacturing industrial working class. Same in America, buddy. Since 1979, UK governments of both parties have let that capacity be either closed or sold off to foreign owners who care little for Britain.
From Simru Wales, Tata Steel doesn't care about Walsh steelworkers. If Tory Thatcher hadn't privatized steel, it would be publicly owned. Time to buy out Port Talbot Steelworks for public ownership to protect steelmaking in Wales. If Wales were independent, it would never have been privatized.
Freedom. They need Mel Gibson and blue face paint. Just in. Tata Steel are set to shut their blast furnaces in Port Talbot with 3,000 jobs gone across the UK. And is this what net zero looks like? No.
Net zero jobs. Back to the EU. But everybody who's against these changes is an ist and a phobe. And you'll hear all of that lecturing coming from coastal elites who don't have jobs like this. They don't know anybody with jobs like this. They don't give a shit about people with jobs like this. I have a buddy who's a real rich guy. He got rich selling domain names back in the day, like real estate. I don't know.
A lot of people made a lot of money off that. - I know. - He goes, "I don't think I'm worried about America." Then he transitioned into sending American jobs to other countries. Americans are lazy. He goes, "I don't care about that. "I'm a global citizen."
That's it. That's how these people think. Or think globally. When you have money, I'm a citizen of the world. I don't care. Nationalism is kind of racist, really, when you think about it. Well, I mean, they want to impose that ethos on the world population, even though it doesn't.
prove any material benefit to most of the world population. And that's why it becomes a very difficult sell when the rubber hits the road. You know, all of this priming, you know, in the, you know, 70s, 80s and 90s about the green movement and anti-pollution and conservation. Right. I mean, you know, certain people bought it, certain people didn't, but it was all well and good until it came time to actually make the transition, which is going to cost a lot of people their livelihoods. And now you're at that
sort of breaking point. I mean, we've actually been here for quite a while. This is exactly how Brexit happened. It's exactly how a guy like Trump won here. When you just see the just open disregard for the consequences of these decisions,
on the working class populations of your state. And yeah, obviously their move is to brand anyone who has a problem with this as sort of retrograde or unscientific or, you know, Luddite, right? Racist. That's just not going to hold. Right, right. And it just, it can't hold. And at the end of the day, they're,
Case was not made strongly to the point where it can sustain this, quote unquote, transition because there are too many people who fall through the cracks. And, you know, once too many people fall through the cracks, the center can no longer hold. And, you know, they got a mulligan with.
COVID. That's how Biden was able to barely eke out a victory, but that wouldn't have happened absent a once-in-a-century victory.
And unless this disease X is coming sooner than later, they're not going to have that to to save their ass this time, which is why Biden's prospects are looking increasingly dim. But, yeah, it's all about just priming people for their own demise. Right. You're basically training people to accept their own sort of.
That's largely what Davos is there for.
Right. It's there to explain to people how this, quote, transition into a lower quality of life is actually virtuous and for your own good. Well, you're guilty. You're born. It's an old religious trick of you're guilty of things that before you were even born and you got to atone for it. Yeah. I mean, I don't think it's a coincidence that so many of these ideas have gained currency at a moment when you have record high numbers of people who are atheists.
It's a substitute. It's a substitute for religion. People feel a need to have rules and precepts and moral guidance. And if you don't get it in one form, they'll create it in another form. And the religion of coastal elites in this, let's face it, that's mostly who we're talking about, is to signal virtue around climate and
And this is the way they avoid talking about the economic consequences of the decisions that they're making. It's not set aside. I know we have people who litigate climate change and the human causing. Set that aside. Um,
You can, as you see here, they took 500 million pounds and gave it to this company and the union had a proposal for how you would do this. If I'm understanding correctly, they didn't argue not to do this transition. They presented a way to do it that would not throw all these people out of work and they chose to do it the other way.
And it's always going to fall on the workers. Why aren't they saying, you know what? We have people running around with the personal wealth of a country. Why don't we tax these people and put that money into these workers and their communities? They're not going to do that. And as Keaton often points out,
A lot of people like to talk about the failures of communism. And hey, I talk about that. Anyone who watches our show knows I'm not very supportive of that for other reasons. But...
They never want to talk about the failures of capitalism. Isn't this a failure of capitalism? Yeah. Are we in success right now? Is that what this is? Right. Net zero. That's Bill Gates. Net zero made up by Bill Gates. Right. Well, as with many other things, Marx, who I believe got a lot of things wrong. He got one thing right. That late stage capitalism. Yeah.
you would see capital eat the state. That with nothing left to loot in the society would loot the treasury of the government. So that's what you're seeing with the government paying a steelworks to throw these people out of work. They're taking the people's tax money to take away their jobs. Now, this is what Marx would say, right? Exactly. This is what Mark said would happen in the late stages of capitalism.
And here we are. And this is in a country that relative to us has some elements of democratic socialism and their state is still being devoured by capital.
Well, there's no self-regulating mechanism within capitalism to actually stop that. Any measure you take to counter that is by definition anti-capitalist because you are pulling back on a system that is built on exponential multiplication. Right. There is no check. There is no there is no emergency exit switch within that system.
capitalism is built on exponential growth it only gets faster as it goes along uh there's nothing in it to slow it down except a democratic check on it which some call socialism i don't really care what you call it uh but it clearly needs a democratic check and as for the um sort of
green religion, that's sort of a false religion pushed by the wealthy because their actual only religion is money. There are ways to help the environment. There are ways to make earth a more habitable place for human beings. But many of those would cost rich people money.
Perfect example. OK, we don't have to talk about all this innovation and, you know, we're going to do hybrid cars and, you know, EVs and reusable bags. How about just a four day work week? How about a four day work week? Anybody who lives in or around a major city will tell you if you had one fewer day of rush hour in New York or Los Angeles, you would see air quality increase dramatically. We know that it is one of.
The fact of the COVID lockdowns is you saw massive levels of environmental healing just very quickly left the fuck alone for seven weeks, seven weeks. We saw vegetation and, and fish returned to Venice,
We saw the ozone actually start to heal. We saw stunning crystal clear views of the Manhattan skyline from miles away. People who could never see it before all of a sudden could see it. Now, I'm not saying we all locked down again for that reason, but I'm saying what about a four-day work week? How about working from home? That would help the world out quite a bit, but you know what? That would cost –
the oligarch something. It would cost the 1% something because they wouldn't have their hands hustling to make them money that fifth day. And so they won't do that. So instead they'll impose these bullshit, you know, uh, you,
You know, reusable bags, five cents for a paper bag, no handles on the fucking bags, EV, you know, cars. And we were OK. Tax breaks for, you know, stores that make a parking spot for an EV. You know, it's all just masturbation. Right. If they really wanted to help the environment, there are ways to do that. There are that are less imposing on people's.
lives, but that would cost not the average person money. It would cost the bosses money. Exactly. Exactly. We were talking about that the other day when Jimmy was in the studio. Most of this recycling is bullshit. Also, all this stuff you're sorting out, which apparently here, I'm shocked they don't find you. Like in New York, this is a big part of a super's job. On garbage day, they got to separate the plastics and the cardboard and they'll give you a ticket for that. LA is particularly well run. And most...
I guess they can't even manage that. But yeah, no, they'll give you a big fine. And most plastic is not recyclable because it's not compatible. Like one kind of plastic is not like another kind of plastic. It's a different composition. It's not cost effective is what it is. I mean, yeah, you'd have to hire people to really figure out the chemical composition. So it's busy work.
It's a waste of time. Like, how do you not see this? These Davos initiatives, which never go after the consumption of the rich, which is the majority of the consumption. How do you see it as anything other than convincing people that it's their religious duty to accept a lower standard of living while theirs remains the same? Right.
All right. And I think on that cheery note, we're going to wish you a happy weekend. I am going to be, I'm going to be, we'll get to it. I'm going to be leaving for a few days. I will be back for the live show on the 27th. Then I will be in the studio, sometimes hosting, sometimes sitting in until February 9th. Kurt, where are you going to be? Nashville Zanies, 26th through 28th. I'm going back.
Weren't you just there? Now I'm going to Nashville Zanies. All right. What dates? 26th through 28th. We'll go to Kurt Metzger Comedy on Instagram and my dates are up there and get a ticket and come out. All right. Hear that? Go to Kurt Metzger Comedy. He'll be in Nashville 26th, 28th, cutting his country album, Zanies. I'll be doing my country album finally. Finally. Hey, man, it's never too late. Keaton, where can they find you?
Do dissidents YouTube and rumble and tomorrow night I'll be in the parking lot of the SBN you arena in Manchester, New Hampshire mixing it up with the deplorable so be Shit-talking the Trumpers on their way into the rally as part of our election coverage So come on out and hang out in eight-degree weather with me All the MAGA faithful
While I'm down in NOLA eating some king cake. I will be in NOLA this week. I will not be appearing at a comedy club, though. Everyone, I just want to say thank you. The Jimmy audience has been so welcoming and supportive. And I look forward to seeing you all again. All right. So let's see what's going on with those wacky Republicans. So...
Mike Johnson says, what, me worry? Rushes off Marjorie Taylor Greene's ouster threat. She's a spicy meatball, that one. House Speaker Mike Johnson dismissed threats by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on Wednesday after she claimed she'd moved to oust him from the Speaker's chair if he supports additional aid for Ukraine.
Johnson weighed in after Green told Fox News on Sunday that she'd bring a motion to vacate the chair if the speaker supported a bipartisan deal, including funding for Ukraine and U.S. border security. So.
So let's see what. No, I said that if he made that border deal where if he if he passes that Senate border deal or so-called border deal, it's really an amnesty deal where Democrats are going to bring in millions and millions of illegals and turn them into Democrat voters. That's their plan is to replace Americans with millions and millions of illegal aliens and
And it upset me so much that this is the deal that Republicans and the Senate are making. And they want to do this in exchange for 60 billion more dollars for Ukraine. Maria, our country's broke. We're like a corporation on the verge of bankruptcy with with thirty four trillion dollars in debt. The border crisis is a national security crisis that has Americans everywhere. It doesn't matter how they vote. Americans everywhere are suffering.
sick and tired and fed up with it. And we can talk about the numbers and we can talk about all the things that produce daily outrage. But the real situation here is that the Republican speaker of the House and any Republican or really anyone elected to serve in the United States Congress should be
supporting, protecting America's national security interests, and they would never vote for that deal. And that's why I told Speaker Johnson if he made that deal in exchange for $60 billion for Ukraine, I would vacate the chair and I still stand by those words. All right.
If there's anything we know, she does not make idle threats. So, but Johnson went on CNN to dismiss those concerns and reassure everyone how close he and Sopatico he is with Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The White House's proposal on Ukraine funding, of course, paired with also funding for Israel. But I do wonder about that because a member of your conference said today that if you pass Ukraine funding, she will personally make the motion to oust you from your role as House Speaker. That's Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Are you worried about threats to your job like that?
No, I have a job to do. We all have to do our jobs. Marjorie Taylor Greene is very upset about the lack of oversight over the funding and the lack of articulation of a plan, as am I. All of us. Many House Republicans feel that way. But she doesn't care about a plan. She doesn't want any Ukraine funding, period, no matter what the White House says the plan is.
I understand that. I've talked with her about it personally at great length, and she's made her position very clear. We have to do our job. We have to continue to ensure that we're covering all these bases, and we'll see how all this shakes out. I'm not worried about that. I've got a job to do here, and we have to make sure that we get the answers that we've demanded. I don't think these are unreasonable answers and questions, by the way. These are very reasonable things we've asked the White House for, and they just haven't produced it.
All right. She's getting better at pretending to be human, that one. Who, the CNN lady? Yeah. Because usually her whole humanity is in her eyebrows. Yeah. Just kind of moves her eyebrows. This one, I don't know. I think she's learning to shift her facial.
muscles a little bit it stuck out how genuinely she's like an ai that's gathering more and more information to learn about how to behave like a human being which but you see her go but she doesn't want to give anything to ukraine yeah yeah there was emotion in her voice it wasn't just just the eyebrows moving up and down that's usually all she's like that if that girl from the movie orphan had like a sudden growth spurt you know right that's what she looked like
So Green argued last week that it would be a failing, losing strategy if a deal involved trading billions for Ukraine, quote, for our own country's border security. Her threat comes after she previously criticized House Freedom Caucus Chair Chip Roy for not ruling out support. She came in on his blind side for not ruling out supporting a motion to boot Johnson from his post.
calling it the dumbest thing that could happen. So they had a vote on this spending bill. More Democrats voted for Mike's spending bill than Republicans. 207 Democrats versus 107 Republicans. So McCarthy, if you remember, was also not concerned about losing his speakership amid conservative backlash to debt limit deal. I think, I've said this for a while,
They booted McCarthy over Ukraine funding. There will not be a bill with Ukraine funding that comes out of this Republican house. I don't think so. Keaton.
Yeah, no, this is this is fuck around and find out volume two. And I don't know where Mike Johnson comes off talking like that, because from the looks of it, I don't think he lays nearly as good pipe as Kevin McCarthy. And that's the quickest way to Marjorie Taylor Greene's heart. So if she got rid of Kevin McCarthy, if the Freedom Caucus got rid of Kevin McCarthy, she will definitely avenge his honor.
by filing a motion to vacate against Mike Johnson. I think you're right. I think they're going to have a hell of a time getting another Ukraine bill out of the House.
Zelensky just went to Davos and made a pitch for a peace plan, which of course was ridiculous given the contents of his pitch relative to where his country stands in that war. But there just doesn't seem to be the momentum for it. And there is this check.
coming out of the Republican caucus, that is definitely a cudgel to be wielded against any speaker who does sign off on Ukraine aid. And we have no reason to believe that they will not use that. I mean, they've used it before. They've proven themselves once already. This is the power of a force to vote type of tactic, right? It's not only effective in the moment, but it sets an example.
And so if this does go through, I have no reason to doubt that Marjorie Taylor Greene will file that motion to vacate. Yeah, basically, that's like when you curb a guy in the mob, you know, it's a warning to everybody else. That's when you open up his mouth and you put the teeth on the curb and you kick him in the back of the head, knock all the teeth out. That's basically what they did to McCarthy. So Johnson should take note. It seems like they're not worried about relational harm.
These guys are playing for keeps. They're not worried about the relational harm. So, yeah, no bill is good. They tried to get cute. Apparently, the Democrats give them border security. It's not working. It seems like that's just a red line. They whacked a House speaker over it. They can't give in.
on that principle hey could I just why would they given given the popularity of support for Ukraine like what's in it for them to fold on this now right um can I just use the wisdom of Solomon right now to solve the whole situation all the military age men flooding through the border you put them on a ship send them to Ukraine to replenish their dwindling infantry
Well, but the you know, how are they going to vote Democrat then? Which honestly, that family, that is that is the one thing I'm looking at is is is Marjorie Taylor Greene reading polls?
Like Latin culture tends to be culturally conservative. They are tipping in waves towards the Republicans. Is it? Is it? Is it? Well, she's talking about their the plan is they come over the border and they become Democrats. I mean, even if that was the plan, it doesn't seem to be working. Aren't isn't Trump winning with with Latinos now? Keaton, is he is he winning or it's like even?
We need to bring more in. I'm telling you. I had it all wrong. We need to bring much more. Bring your relatives. Bring your friends. Have you heard of... So I wonder where sanctuary city came from, that term. That's a Republican thing from the 80s around Nicaragua. A bunch of church groups...
They came up with that because we were getting so many immigrants from the places we were doing, you know, all our help. Yeah, where the CIA was helping them. And so Republicans established that a long time ago. That's where the term came from. It was those kind of, you know, Reagan churches that spread that around, the sanctuary city term. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Yeah.
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Do not freak out.
