Vivek's October Surprise: Being Disgusting

What's up Los Angeles, welcome to Love It or Leave It Live from Hollywood, I'm John Love It and we've got a great show for you tonight, but first, let's get into it. What a week. A new Washington Post poll found that just 33% of Americans approve of the job Trump is doing while 66% disapprove, 52% now disapprove strongly. Of course, Trump isn't just taking this news lying down, at least not without his CPAP machine. He's already lined up a series of rallies with the 33% who approve to cheer himself up. Additionally, the Washington Post poll found that two-thirds of Americans now believe Trump is using the presidency to enrich himself. I know. There are remaining one-third of Americans are what pollsters describe as, yes, the wool has fallen from American's eyes, which is good because Americans are going to need that wool to stay warm this winter. Americans are not only furious about the state of the country, but also the ways in which the president is using his office to profit, which has not stopped JD Vance from offering this ridiculous defense. "It's laughable to me the idea that Donald Trump has somehow been enriched by political office. He nearly had his life destroyed by his quest to become president. I don't think there's evidence that the Trump family has become enriched by politics." He's like a Westworld robot, you know, it doesn't look like anything to him. Trump has made billions of dollars through crypto, as his administration has deregulated cryptocurrency. His family got at least $75 million from a crypto executive fighting an SEC fraud suit, which the SEC later dropped among the many, many, many donations and payments tied to pardons and dropped investigations for wealthy Trump allies. Trump got a $400 million Boeing 747 from Qatar, which as of now is still being given to his foundation after he leaves office. Melania Trump got $40 million from Amazon for a fake documentary, not to mention the massive settlements, bribes all from ABC, Paramount and Metta, and none of this scratches the service of the corrupt international dealings of Trump's sons and son-in-law, and the real estate projects in Qatar and the UAE, Vietnam and India, not to mention the reports of insider trading and the Trump-themed amusement park being built and do by as a joint project of the Emirates and the Ellison family, which I just made up. But you believed. Vance's plan. You guessed, Vance's plan for 2028 is to pretend that Donald Trump never existed, like how kids today think Helen Keller was made up, which kind of makes sense because, like Trump, Helen Keller was also a messy eater who was afraid of stairs. But for the midterms, facing terrible polling and even worse facts, Republicans have turned to their old friend, the Manga of fear. For example, this week, Trump weighed in on the ongoing protests in France, claiming immigrants for recent anti-government riots. We never rioted until the immigrants got here. We think it was their idea, said a French person, fetching their great-grandfather's heirloom pry bar to rip a cobblestone out of the ground. Young people across France have clashed with police during protests against deteriorating school conditions with others demonstrating against the high cost of living. The French economy has been hit hard by rising fuel prices and the fact that American tourists on olympic are eating way less from us. JD Vance also chimed in, posting a video of buildings on fire in Lemoge, and warned that this is the future Democrats want, which is ridiculous. In the future Democrats want, the Burning Town Hall has a pride flag in front. Vance tweeted alongside the video, "Western liberals imported the third world into France and other countries in the name of diversity and compassion. They were told it would lead to this, and they didn't listen." Again, this is France. Are you familiar at all with France? Saying the French imported rioting is like blaming immigrants in America for mass shootings and type two diabetes. That's homegrown, baby. There is America as the apple pie our doctors say could kill us. It's continued, "I pray that France will stop this madness before more of its landmarks burn, and I hope Americans are paying attention. This is the future congressional Democrat's seek for your country, sure. Right now it's just French landmarks, but one day it could be happening right here in our own country to the Kennedy Center, or the White House East Wing, or the Reflecting Pool, or the National Parks. And then there's this, French couple sitting at a cafe while the fire rages beyond them. That's France, baby. That was still a less smoky option than sitting indoors. Meanwhile, during a Michigan town hall on Saturday, Senate candidate Abdul-El-Sayed was heckled by a man who asked whether he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood. Sure, yeah, absolutely, but I want to ask the question that you're asking. Why are you asking the question? Well, because they're a terrorist group. Okay, no, no, but what are you implying? Do you assume that I wouldn't? Yes. Why not? Because I have not heard you disavow them yet. Have you disavow them? I haven't heard you disavow them yet. Sharia Lawfant says what? Of course this is all ridiculous. Abdul-El-Sayed has been very clear he has repeatedly disavowed the Muslim Brotherhood for not being sufficiently protranced. El-Sayed continued. I'm going to swear I'm going to go to the Constitution in 2006. And that Constitution guarantees us all, but like the times, whatever we want, don't make it up. Honestly, a huge fumble by the Muslim Brotherhood to lose this guy is very compelling. Also, this week, in advance, when after Abdul-El-Wal visiting Minnesota, calling him a little weasel who should shut his mouth and show a little gratitude, a sentiment he echoed in interview this week. With the lack of gratitude, he shows for the United States of America the fact that he was raised by a couple of white step-grandparents, but seems to have a real sense of revulsion towards Native-born Americans. I don't get it. I don't know where it comes from, and it makes me think that there's something very dark all along. So Abdul is a Native-born American, and Abdul and JD Vance were actually both born at roughly the same time. One stayed apart from each other in the Midwest, both raised by grandparents to very smart, very ambitious men seeking big lives in the public eye. And I say this because what is useful about JD Vance is that his inability to hide the space between who he actually is and who he wants to be is revealing. We all get to see his therapy. In the same way you get to see my therapy, JD Vance is talking about his own revulsion. You can find it in his book where he talks about how people spend their way into the poor house and cast blame anywhere but on themselves. You can find it in his changing politics where he went from decrying politicians, relieving people of their own agency by offering easy scapegoats to becoming exactly that kind of politician. He goes from being an honest appraiser of Trump to a complete embrace of Trump, and you can also see it in his natural state, which is total condescension, like this moment at the CBS Town Hall. I will say Tony, you did me a huge disservice by reminding a crowd of Michiganders that I'm from Ohio, but hopefully they won't hold against me. Not only that, we've got a medallion back there for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Oh, wow. It might be stolen before the night is over. We just lost the crowd behind us. That laugh. You hear that? That is a laugh of pure contempt. Of seeing the people in that room as objects of his own ambition. Like how I see you. You know this guy gets it. Now clap. Stop it. And now like Vance once said to Usha, sorry, but I have to take you to Ohio. In the governor's race. In the governor's race between physician Amy Acton and tech slime Vivek Ramaswamy, Republicans began sharing an attack ad in which you hear from Amy Acton's own mother. I made me act in smother. I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent, it's not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar. And look, your reaction to a semi coherent woman attacking her own daughter on a political ad is probably not, wow. This mother must be great and I'm sure there's nothing more to the story. But the truth is actually far more horrible than you could imagine. Amy Acton has not seen or spoken with her mother since they last saw each other in court in 1978 when Amy was legally removed from the home, a home in which she disclosed being sexually abused from age 9 to age 12. Amy Acton's stepfather was charged with rape and was indicted by a grand jury before he fled the state. Acton's campaign quickly responded to the ad on Tuesday morning with a statement from her brother, Philip, it reads, quote, "It's not surprising that the vague Ramaswami has stoop to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the section The actual abuse Amy endured at 12 years old from our birth mother's husband into a political talking point after he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody. Our birth mother stayed married to Amy's rapist until he died. This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core, a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as he gets him what he wants, which is the most honest campaign slogan of this election cycle. Vivek Ramaswamy, a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as he gets him what he wants. While it's still unclear who exactly is behind the ad, the Ramaswamy campaign refused to deny involvement and released a statement doubling down claiming, quote, "we don't know what happened between Amy and her mother, but they do know that Amy is a fabulous. It's hard to shock me these days, but are a Republican politician siding with a sexual predator who isn't rich?" Don Jr. also reposed to the ad writing, "Yikes, Ohio watch this and think about what it means. And for once I agree with Don Jr. Yikes, Ohio watch this and think about what it means." Later on Tuesday, Amy acted responded directly in an interview. "I won't normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is something I'm just complaining about, who today just released an ad using my birth mother who I was removed from at the age of 12 for severe abuse and neglect and sexual abuse. My brother and I were removed." On the other hand, congrats to Vivek on locking down the incestuous hill people caucus. The hills have eyes and they vote. As of this recording, it's not clear who made this ad though the Ramaswamy campaign embraced it rather than denounce it. It certainly suggests that they were either responsible or at the very least on board. And I cannot think of a more vile political ad in my entire life, James here. We were talking earlier today. I can't think of one. I mean, people are saying, "Is this one of the worst?" This is the worst ad we have ever seen. And obviously, it means that Vivek Ramaswamy isn't worthy of being governor of Ohio, he isn't really worthy of being part of a civil society. But it also reveals a weakness. That spokesperson for the Ramaswamy campaign, who put her name to that statement, endorsing the attack and using childhood sexual abuse in this way, I looked up her bio out of curiosity. She says that she's a proud member of a church, presumably one that worships Jesus and not the devil, though it doesn't specify. But all of these people haven't just lost their moral compass. They've lost their political judgment. Of course, this is going to bag fire because not everyone is so sadistic or cruel or impressed by winning at all costs. That's the bubble that they're in. Just before we came out here, Vivek was confronted by a protester at one of his events by someone shouting angrily about this ad and the fact that he'd be willing to exploit this childhood sexual abuse in this way. These people cannot, like, I don't know what world they live in, but I also think part of this is, maybe they can't imagine being in the shoes of someone who's been a victim of abuse, maybe they can't see the world in that way, that they don't realize that all around them, everywhere are people that have experienced abuse in their own lives and it is a fracture in a wound they carry with them and they will see this and be infuriated and raged by this, that in embracing Trump, it means they can no longer count themselves as righteous. They have to seek external validation, which is why you try to win at all costs. If you don't see yourself as a good person anymore, at least having integrity clearly isn't as important to you as you imagine. There's only external validation left, so you better win, you better do anything you can to win, but you start to see the world that way and you assume others do too. And then you're shocked that people are offended by your conduct or that whatever concerns people have about trans athletes or the border or immigration, they don't want communities terrorized, they don't want there to be discrimination, right? They want to live in a place that respects difference even if they have concerns that can be exploited in a campaign. So it's our job to pop this bubble that these conservatives are in, that this mega world is in, not just by making sure of evade loses, but making sure that everyone who has embraced Trump in this kind of politics loses too. And if not, well, maybe we'll have to learn from the French after all. By smoking, by picking up smoking. In Canadian city council news, a Canadian man won a Canadian man won a city council seat after running a campaign with slogans like, I barely want to do this, fine, I'll do it and how hard can it be? It's actually not that hard, responded LA city council before passing an ordinance to improve equity and city infrastructure by adding more potholes in richer neighborhoods. And finally, Elon Musk debuted a prototype for Tesla's flying car roadster, complete with rocket thrusters, a car that practically screams, can your ex-wife's new boyfriend do this? Let's take a look. Tonight, Elon Musk's Tesla failing what it calls a flying car. Wow. It used to be the only way to see a car fly like that was to let Tiger Woods drive. All right, we've got a great Joe Feeder night and we'll be right back with Council Member Nithia Robin. Hey, don't go anywhere, there's more of Love It Or Leave It coming up. Love It Or Leave It is brought to you by Smileset. Given that someone's smile is often the first thing people notice, it's easy to feel self-conscious if your teeth aren't where you want them to be. 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We'll be Governor JB Pritzker, Senator Chris Murphy, Representative Robert Garcia, Representative Ilan Omar, and many, many more. Get a front row seat to the discussions that will shape the future of our pro-democracy movement. Did we win the midterms? Either way, we're going to figure it out together. God, I hope we won. And get our full lineup and tickets right now at CricketCon.com. We will see you very soon. Please welcome to the show, the next mayor of Los Angeles. It's Nithia Rahman. Welcome. It's nice to see you. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. This is great. Yeah. It's pretty cool. Yeah. So I should start by disclosing, since I last interviewed you on Ponce, America, I've become a donor and supporter. Are you who married me? Works for you. Correct. So I think it's fair to say I'm in the tank, but also not a journalist. So that's fine. But I do want to ask the questions that I think are the biggest questions at the close of this race and the ones I think you should answer. Okay. All right. I'm looking forward to it. Now, first off, you're not a politician by training you're an urban planner. And I will say just having watched you over the course of this campaign, being a politician doesn't seem to be your natural mode, right? There have been times where I feel like even the idea of saying like in a debate, like having to deliver an attack, right? Like it just doesn't seem like it's your instinct. Is that right? Yes. I mean, I would say that part of the challenge here is that I, I'm, I hate being mean to people. And I've been mean to people during the course of this campaign and that has caused me great pain, personal pain. And yes, like it takes me, I really worry about, about going out there and on the attack. I worry about, I worry about hurting people. feelings like I want to talk about my vision for Los Angeles and I want Mayor Bass to talk about her vision for Los Angeles and I want people to compare them on a scale and see whether which one they like better and we can all be very respectful but that's not how campaigns are run. It turns out. Yeah. And so it's just a little harder and I will say like after we had a debate the other night and I walked off the debate stage and this reporter came up to me and was like, tell us where you felt you were the strongest tonight and where you really felt like you were the weakest and I had just gotten off this kind of stressful thing and so I was like, I don't know, I was in a fugue state and then the California post is like mayoral candidate confirms she has brain disease. Well, the bass camp you were attacked for like, oh, she didn't even know she was out of debate. I just was like, I don't know how to answer this question like right this second. Maybe like after an hour I could like chill out and have a glass of wine and we could talk about this but like not right now, you know. But yeah, I don't know like a more traditional politician maybe would have been like, yeah, here's where I really made the point and. But what have you learned about yourself as a, because you are now a politician. I'm, yeah, and I have been for six years. Well, yeah, but like you, I, but I feel like you, you, you like the policy making part of the job. That campaigning part of the job is something that you have to do to get to the governing part. Yes, but also the campaigning part is like the most special part of the job. The campaigning part is where everyone steps up and also tells you that they like you. When you're governing, you only get complaints. Being a local government official is a customer service profession. People only call you and something is broken. So 100% of the time people are telling you that everything is broken. And so the campaigning is nice because people are actually out there being like, oh, yeah, you know what, I agree with your vision. And then the rest of the four years, you try and hold on to that as you get mean email after mean email in the council office. Yeah, that's a little bit like hosting this show. So there are a lot of undecided people in LA if you look at these polls and I think polls are very unreliable. Local level, but you know, take them directly. Sure. Something like right now, there are people that would say something like they're either unsure about their choices. Maybe they think they don't like their choices. In part because they're extremely unhappy with the leadership of Mayor Bass, but they have deep concerns about voting for someone who's affiliated with the DSA. Yes. What is your message to those voters who I think would probably be primarily concerned about homelessness, about disorder and crime, and about just the city's inability to do basic things like heat to streets clean and bright? You know, I'm here. Like I'm a mom from Silver Lake. I have 10 year old twins. I really care about the city. I really care about cities working for people. And I feel like my political ideology is really, I have a progressive political ideology, but I really want to get shit done. I want people to be able to trust their local government because I believe in it so wholeheartedly. And so for anyone who has quams about the DSA or quams about, you know, oh, she's, I don't know, to the left of me, like there is no right or left way to fix a broken street light. And under Mayor Bass, the time it has taken to fix a broken street light has gone from one month to over one year on average in the wealthiest country in the world. It takes a year to fix a broken street light in this city. And to me, that feels unacceptable. I don't know what side of the political ideology that's on or whether that's a DSA position, but really what I would say is that's unacceptable to me. And I want people to feel like they can get their street lights fixed. And they can get their potholes repaired. And they can call in about a person who's experiencing homelessness on their street and know that the city is going to respond quickly and with the best solution for that person to be able to get indoors. Like that's what I want for the city of Los Angeles. That's what I've tried to deliver for my district. And I think we have done it. We've had incredible results on homelessness, gotten so many people indoors during that time. And I want that for every block of this city. So if I were to make the best case for Karen Bass, it would be something like she inherited a mass across a variety of fronts. There's been a failure to prove housing for years. There's a legacy of fiscal mismanagement that required budget cuts for basic services. There was complacency around the film industry as jobs left for Atlanta, New York, and Vancouver, and London. And by the way, just a ton of mismanagement of the departments permitting, building all the rest. And that is a morass that, of course, will take years to clean up. And we've begun to clean it up. And that you are cynically exploiting the space between acknowledging the crisis and the hard work of fixing it because no one could possibly have fixed it in these four years. What is your response to that? So I am grateful that she is acknowledging the crises that we have in Los Angeles. And I supported her in her first election because she ran towards the issue of homelessness rather than running away from it. I remember I talked to a politician, an old time politician here in the city of Los Angeles who told me homelessness is an issue that everyone should stay away from because nobody ever wins. And Maribas ran towards it. And she had courage, and I give her real credit for that. But I feel like the real test of a mayoralty is, did you take actions to try and resolve those crises? And I feel like if you look across the issues that we're facing, whether it's our housing crisis, whether it's our homelessness crisis, whether it's Hollywood jobs, whether it's just jobs overall, and our economic activity here in Los Angeles, the city has not done what it needs to do to solve those problems under her leadership. And I would say so many of the decisions that she has made in City Hall have actually fallen in line with the same political system that led us to this moment of crisis in the first place where you essentially make decisions with billions of taxpayer dollars and exchange that for political support in your next election, not for what matters for the residents of Los Angeles. And I think the biggest example of that is the convention center. Another big example of that is how we've done contracting for our police union. But this is not the way that we can make decisions anymore. We cannot make decisions that way and function as a city. We cannot make decisions that way with so little money in our city and in our city budget. We cannot make decisions that way and continue to lose the trust of Angelina's. Sure. Now, one of the reasons that we've seen, so there was eight months last year where they weren't really repairing roads at all. There's the street light issue, the pothole issue, a lot of this is because she did this deal that increased the police funding and then made cuts all around it. Right. You're inheriting that deal, right? 100%. And then I'm inheriting the convention center deal after that. Can that be stopped? Can the convention center be stopped? No. And it's actually going to get worse because so this was a deal for people who may not know after the city dealt with a billion dollar budget deficit that was the result of contracts. We couldn't afford for Mayor Bass exchange that contract for the support of the police union, which is spending millions to re-elect her in this election. They opposed her last time. Just a few months after that, the city is broke. The city has a billion dollar budget deficit. We are thinking about cutting 1,600 staff. We barely stave off those layoffs, but we've cut every single city service down to the bone. We're not paving roads. We're not filling potholes. We're not addressing graffiti. We're not picking up trash. It is bad out there. And I'm sure you can feel it when you're walking around this city. We then approve a six billion dollars with debt service, six billion dollar convention center expansion that I've been walking around this city for a long time, talking to a lot of constituents. I have never heard anyone say what my priority is to expand the convention center right now. Like literally that has never been mentioned. But that convention center expansion was approved. It's going to take 100 million dollars in the rosiest financial projections out of our budget for the next 30 years. And we're going back to voters and asking them to approve higher taxes to get street lights fixed, to get essential infrastructure funded here. And so for me, it was like one of those decisions which just blew my mind. How can we justify this at this time? And it was one of those things that really undermined my faith in this mayor's leadership. But then, and by the way, she did it because the downtown business interests and the vested interests that wanted that to happen are now supporting her to the tune of millions of dollars in her re-elect. But so when you're married, you will have to deal with it. Right. So you're making promises about getting those times down on street light, on street light repair, fixing the roads, planting a hundred thousand trees, I said I would hit that. Are you going to be able to do that within these constraints? How much of this is going to be about, how much of this is management and how much of this is going to be about having to reorganize the budget? So some of it is definitely management. and I think a lot of times on this campaign trail, I've been actually critiqued for not having more of an expansive vision for how I think the city could change. Like I'm not saying, making all these promises for people that I don't think the city can deliver on. What I have been saying is that we can do better at delivering the essentials. We can do better at actually managing our city and cutting red tape, making it easier for you to deal with the bureaucracy, making sure that the things that you expect us to do that we're gonna deliver on. And to me, a lot of that is management and some of that is budget. And we will not be able to solve these problems in overnight or in four years. But what I think Angelino's expect is a plan and honesty. What can we expect in these streets over the next four years? What can we invest in? How are we gonna identify the places that are gonna give us the biggest liabilities and make sure that we're tackling those first so that we're not paying out hundreds of millions or dollars annually for liability payouts? That requires management, that requires communication with the public and I wanna do all of that as your mayor. I don't feel like I get that right now from our mayor. - So one other part of this is like road repair. I've seen people talking about this. I see this myself, even the repairs that happen in the city of LA when they happen, they're just bad. They just don't do that great at you. No, they're not, but you know what I mean? They're ugly, right? Like they're not, there's no pride in the work, right? They're not, like we're so behind and say fixing us. Like if you go to like other parts of other cities that are other municipalities that are connected part of the county, but not in the city, like they're not just sort of paving a puddle, they're gonna, or just filling around about like they're gonna put bushes there. They're gonna make it a nice and beautiful place to live and I guess like, is this about leadership within these institutions? Is it about institutions that take a long time because they get overtime for doing projects? Like what, what do you think is actually happening when you say management? - So part of it, so what you're talking about and the feeling that you're getting that other cities look better than ours is partly a budgetary issue, right? We are just not investing in holistic street improvements in the way that other cities are. When they're doing road repaving, they're also gonna do some other things which are gonna make this street easier to move on or better to travel through. We're actually supposed to do that. The voters passed a measure called HLA, which actually mandates that every time we do a street repaving, we're actually supposed to make it safer for people to use, potentially safer for bicyclists, safer for pedestrians depending on what road it is. And so there is actually a bunch of mandates that we're supposed to meet. The city of Los Angeles hasn't just ignored the HLA rules. They've also ignored ADA compliance that they were supposed to do for a very long time. So every single mile of street that we repave now is gonna cost us so much more than what it would have cost us if we'd done it when we were actually supposed to. So yes, there is going to be a backlog, but I really believe in the city of LA. Like I believe in our workforce, I believe that, you know, a lot of times now when people think about LA City, they shrug, and they're like, oh, it's LA City, it's gonna be a pain in the butt. I want you to raise your expectations. I want you to believe in City Hall again. I want you to think of this city as the city that created its own municipal utility because it believed that it could, you know, make sure that power and water were being provided to residents at affordable rates, a city that brought water from another place because it wanted to exist. A city that did big things and is full of people who come here and dream big dreams. Like that takes a change in culture and I think we just have to figure out a way to match our existing budgets with that change in culture that says believe in the city again, believe in what City Hall can do. (audience applauding) - Yeah, I am thinking of one example and on the list of things that a mayor would have to deal with in Los Angeles, I'm saying I agree this is, it was just a small example to me, which is they fixed. So the on, I'm gonna just be, let's get specific, you're my council member as well. They fixed, the sidewalks have been horrible. It's a big problem in Los Angeles. Part of this is related to this compliance also then we pay a lot of money to people who sue because they fell, we pay more for the slip-in falls than we do to fix the sidewalks. That seems done, seems like we should fix the sidewalks. (audience laughing) - I agree. - But they replaced at the corner of like, I think it's Vermont and Los Files Boulevard. They finally fixed it. And then at the, where the button is for the sidewalk, they just used a pipe, just a metal pipe and then the button's on the pipe. It is as if there's no aesthetics in the world. It's a crosswalk that tons of people, they go to the Greek that way, tons of people cross and it's just a fucking pipe. And to cross the street, it's just an ugly pipe popping out of the fucking ground. What are we doing here? - I feel personally attacked by this. (audience laughing) - I don't think you picked out the pipe. - No. - I'm glad it got fixed. - Yes, this is in my district, so I'll take a look at it. I'll take a look. - All right, making some progress, all right. Now if you are going to be the mayor of Los Angeles, it's important that you know the city's lore, it's myths, it's fables, the alligators and it's toilets. Let's see how well you know the legends of Los Angeles in a segment we're calling Nith Busters. (bell dings) (audience applauding) I'm gonna read a legend about Los Angeles. You'll tell us if it's a myth or a true story. First up, Walt Disney's head is cryogenically frozen and stored underneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland. - I think that's a myth. - Yeah. - Okay. - Yeah. Yes, it is a myth. (bell dings) (laughs) It was started in January of 1967 by a reporter for the National Spotlight who claimed he snuck into Burbank St. Joseph's Hospital following Disney's death and saw Disney's body suspended in a cryogenic cylinder. In reality, he's buried in Farrsland. - Oh, okay, interesting. - Right there. - Yeah. - There are a lot of weird things that happen in LA, so I wouldn't be like totally. - No, I think it's totally possible about that. - Yeah. - Anyway. - Well, maybe this is just the official story. Maybe the head's really there. Next myth or supposed myth, Los Angeles has 91 abandoned tunnels under the city, which were used as speakers these during prohibition. - There were speakers used during prohibition. I don't know about these abandoned tunnels. Myth. - It's true. - Oh my God. - LA apparently maintained 200 pedestrian tunnels built in the 20s and 30s, most of which were decommissioned and abandoned upon the rise of the American automobile, but not before people had a lot of great times down there. Now there is a myth. - I knew about the tunnels. I just didn't know they were used for drinking. - Yeah, well, you know. What isn't, you know, a hole on the ground. - Yes, all right. - But there is the myth that there are secret tunnels beneath Los Angeles that the celebrities drive around on. - Right. - Which I don't think are real. I don't think. - Yes, no. - Maybe the show will get bigger and then I'll find out. - I've actually, yes. I've actually shut down a tunnel, a pedestrian tunnel that is unused in my district, so I know very well about the tunnels. And then I have watched a lot of Bosch. I don't know if people watch Bosch. - Huh, a Bosch head. Wouldn't have thought of it. (laughing) And I just really like to reward shows that are shot in L.A. - Oh yeah. - And a lot of murders happen in these pedestrian tunnels on the show Bosch. (audience laughing) - Thank you for sharing that. (audience laughing) Next up, LA invented J-Walking. (laughing) - I don't know any of these. Like we did it in style. - Or we invented the term J-Walking. (laughing) - True? - Yes. - Okay. - Lawmakers passed the first major anti-J-Walking law in 1925 using legislation drafted by automakers attending to shift blame for pedestrian deaths from the new booming car industry to J-Walkers, J-Beings slang for a fool or a drunk. We did that. Hey, a question that was asked was about what we'd about kind of repairing roads for pedestrian safety and bike lanes and kind of repairing some of the, like for example, we don't repaint our crosswalks in Los Angeles like we used to. - No, we don't. But it's a lot of that has to do with budgetary decisions. So I talked a little bit about fiscal mismanagement and we have actually defunded almost every non-police salary function payment from the city and everything is invested in less than what we used to before. And so a big part of the reason why we don't pay as many streets as we used to, why we don't trim as many trees as we used to, why we don't fix as many sidewalks as we used to is because of the fiscal mismanagement of this mayor and I will over time push that if I become the mayor. - Next up, president of NBC Entertainment Bob Greenblatt had 1600 pen canceled because he was jealous of my success. - I think this is true. - Yes, it is true. It is true. Thank you, Nithya Rahman. - Hi, goodness. Election day is November 3rd. If you're in Los Angeles, I would suggest voting. And we'll be right back. - Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of Love It Or Leave It coming up. - Love It Or Leave It is brought to you by Zazzle. 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This lovely face is all these beautiful people here tonight. It's great. Hi. Nice to meet you. We're meeting in this moment. In this very moment because you got here, but I'm so glad you did. Skin of my teeth. I came here. Everyone can blame Sam Rice for the game changer of shooting right now. And so I'm here from that. It was his devilry. That's the reason I'm late. So I love that show game changer. The dropouts. It's amazing kind of little kind of it's its own little universe like this alternate reality that exists in its own play. How's it going over there? It's great. I mean, talk about independent, cool, progressive, comedy, media, little empire. And also Sam Rice's dad, former labor secretary, Robert Reich. Right. There you go. Well, some of them made a really polite, oh, yeah, boy, to that Thanksgiving. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. No, it's great. But dropout is a really wonderful place for anyone who doesn't know dropout is an independent streaming platform that emerged like a phoenix from the ashes of college humor, the old YouTube channel. And we do a lot of awesome improv and sketch comedy. We have improv game shows and I run a show there called Dimension 20 where comedians play Dungeons and Dragons. And we do it to tell funny stories with wacky characters. So I want to talk about Dungeons and Dragons because people assume I am familiar. They just all the time. It's just like, like, often. It's just like, oh, and of course, you must play Dungeons and Dragons. I do not. OK. And there's nothing. I just say something about my energy that would suggest I would. But I don't. It could be that you have a swath, a dashing demeanor because of course, because of course, Dungeons and Dragons is extremely cool these days. Yes. It was not when I was a kid. But the whole, if you wait long enough, the whole world I've found will move glacially towards your hobby. Yeah. Which is really delightful. Hmm. Yeah. Hope so. I hope so. But is there some part of you? Like, I love cooking. And every once in a while, I'll think, oh, you know what? I should film a fun video of myself cooking. And sometimes I've done that. And I think, oh, no, I'm a little bit mining the thing I love and turning it into content. Do you ever feel that that you've turned this thing you love into content? I mean, a million percent. And that's a great question because I think that like the internet really encourages us to perform our lives. And I think that that is part of what's so funny about it is especially people will ask that question of me because I do it professionally. But the reality is, even a lot of people I know find a way to turn into a profession. They're hobbies and things they love doing. You know, if you do anything with any level of skill or proficiency, probably a friend or loved one will remark, you could do this as a channel, you could do this as a -- it's not even like a mean-spirited thing. It's just part of what our culture is doing right now. But to your point, I now only have time to play D&D professionally. I -- my home game that I've been running one game of D&D with my close friends for 14 years. And it ended a couple months before I became a dad. I said, "The time has come to put away all forms of hobby." You almost said, "Put away childish things." Put away childish things. I just said, "Put away childish things." Put away childish things. Were you thinking of that? I was saying, "Put away childish things in my head." Were you? I was. I was. You were thinking of the Bible, but you didn't want to call a childish. I'm often thinking of Christ. Yes, yes, yes. No, but I totally -- it was a -- so now I do exclusively play for work, but it's only just because life has become -- any downtime is spent with family and with little kids. Huge mistake. You're going to regret that at the end. I'm going to get to the end and say, "I wish I'd spent more time at the office." Yeah, of course. And monetizing. And monetizing. Could have been monetizing more of your time. So here's my thing. So when you ended that D&D game after 14 years, did you -- did it end in universe? Yeah. Did everyone die? No. Miraculously, it ended. So the 14-year home game was a group of wonderful heroic adventurers who were opposing an evil empire and a wicked, the god of death and winter, who was also up in the mix, classic fantasy stuff. And at -- at the end of 14 years, they were all 20th level, they were all as powerful as the game lets you get. And we had this shift towards the end, you know, we've been playing for many years and we sort of had this thing of, "Oh, God, imagine if this ever ends, it would be heartbreaking." And we got to a point where we said, "Oh, imagine if it doesn't. Imagine if we don't get to end our story and give it the ending it deserves." And we all kind of shifted our mentality and we spent a week in a little cabin in upstate New York and we played for a week straight and we ended the story. And they won. It was beautiful. They beat the bad guys, which is great. Hooray! So I might ask this in a slightly important way. Yeah. Well, this is the thing that has kept me away from D&D, which is -- so I like competition. Yeah. And I like knowing the rules. And I like knowing how the game works and trying to win within the structures of the game. My friend, Guy Branneman, I did a David Kwong show and he had us on. It's a very fun, charming, no-stakes competition show. I became insane with the devil of competition. Yes. Just sitting in a studio for no purpose, no money at stake, no stakes whatsoever. And I started sputtering about how I had hit the buzzer first. That's my nature. That's fixed it, but I don't want to. Yeah. Because that's the drive in me. Because the second you try to fix it, they're going to snake you and get the points. Yeah, I get you. I don't want to be a guy that's happy and losing. Yeah. Totally. Because then -- because I'm me now seeing the idea of myself losing. Yeah. I hear you. I mean, the -- I -- I fully agree. But so my -- the reason I say all that is, aren't the rules being made up as you go? So the rules are written down in anywhere from five to 40 books. They are not made up at all. I'm not saying -- I'm sorry. That is unfair, and I'm sorry the way I phrase that. I'm not saying that the rules are made up, but the bounds and what happens is using those rules are shaped by a dungeon master who can make determinations about who succeeds and who fails. Sure. In other words, there is this weird thing where the rules exist, but the rules exist within a shared story. So like, I might not as a dungeon master be really faithfully following the rules if I say you're fighting a dragon and it's invincible and you can't hit it. But nothing's stopping me from going -- yeah, you can hit the dragon, but he's here with 30 other dragons. Right. There's always another dragon behind the dragon. Behind the dragon. You could have as many dragons as you like. It does a really good job, I think, of combining competitive play with cooperative play. And I think that you have to embrace both halves of the brain there, so to speak. When I'm playing as the dungeon master, I get to be this harsh arbiter of consequence if a mistake is made, but then also I'm often rooting for them to succeed. And that's a fun dichotomy to play either side of. But to your point, yeah, it's not hard competition in that you do have to have some good faith with each other. But I argue that the same is probably true for sports. Like I could go on a soccer field and be like, surprise, I've got a chainsaw, I'm about to win at soccer. Right. Like you could do something that was poor faith and be like, wow, everyone's fled the field and now I can score as many goals as I can. I like. So you bring political people into your into your dungeon. Sure. Yeah. What's an example of incorporating a political person? I've played Dungeons and Dragons with the incredible Estuardo Masariegos, who is a DSA endorse candidate running here in a wonderful Los Angeles. I've played with DSA endorsed Nithia Ramen, who was here earlier this evening. She's incredible at D&D. She's an amazing D&D player. I've played with Marissa Roy and a bunch of other DSA Ugo and Unissees. I've played with a shocking amount of politicians this year in a taped capacity in front of an audience as fundraisers. And it was really fun and good. It's amazing how big of a following D20 has. I mean, you've been at the Hollywood Bowl. Hollywood Bowl? That's incredible. We did the MGM grand in Las Vegas. We sold out Madison Square Garden. I think it was wrong when they got rid of those lions. What happened to the lions? They didn't let them live it. They don't let them live in that little cage anymore. And I think that's wrong. I liked that they were there. I liked seeing them and I think it's wrong. And bring back the lions to Las Vegas that you go. Exactly. But nobody agrees because of woke. So you're the child of a comedian and a comic book writer. Were they a source of advice when you were growing up or is it the kind of thing where you don't talk that way? No, totally. My mom is an incredible author and science fiction writer. She wrote a graphic novel series called Starstruck. Brilliant, brilliant writer and author who worked in speculative fiction. My dad was a standup comedian for many, many years and had a highly improvisational style. He would bring a guitar on stage and make up songs about people in the audience. He was, you know, 20 years ahead of the crowd work. Surge, you know, he was way ahead of the curve. So they're brilliant. And I ended up doing it. It's very funny because my, my folks, I'm doing such a weird midpoint of the Venn diagram of the two of them. I had a comedian father and a science fiction author mom and I do funny, improvised fantasy sci-fi stories. Wow. That's so interesting. Again, a awesome noise from the audience. Oh, it's good. Really good. Thank you for that. Is what I'm doing half of a box factory? I don't think so. What are your folks working a box factory? Yeah. That's cool. What did your mom or dad do at a box factory? Uh, it was a family business and it was folding boxes for shirts and hats and pizzas when we had, it was before the corrugated way. So the raw cardboard comes and they make it into the boxes. Remember, before there was a time, I remember, do you remember when the corrugated pizza boxes came along? I can't support it. Unnecessary. It was better when it was like, oh, no, what's going to happen? Remember when those pizza boxes were like, oh, no, what's going to happen? That's, that, that set me to college. I think that's awesome. Yeah, that's pretty good. Hey, you're in a new show created by Mike Sure called Dig. Yeah. Isn't that cool? And Amy Polar's in it. That's cool. I got to meet Mike Sure and Amy Polar and it was nuts. I love seeing fellow podcasters make it. Finally, a break for Amy Polar to get out of the podcasting games. Did you have you seen digger? Oh, the Tom Cruise movie. Yeah. I have seen nothing other than every episode of Bluey every day. Wow. That is, I am a new dad and so we must understand that my media consumption habits are me haunted eating one chicken nugget in a dark corner looking at Bluey. What kind of chicken nuggets? Do you like McDonald's? Well, we just got, we just got fish sticks online. And anybody out here who has kids knows that that's a brain, fish is a brain food. And if they give it in a little panko-crusted format and getting any new food to a toddler, huge, huge win. If you told me right now, bigger achievement, Madison Square Garden, or kid now eating fish sticks. It's fish sticks by a mile every day. You think you could blend the fish sticks and turn it into a sauce for chicken nuggets? Blending stuff into smoothies is how this child has consumed every vegetable in her life. Yeah, I'm a big believer in the blending. The smoothie is our friend. Strawberries are doing some heavy lifting for kale every day. And you haven't seen digger. I have not seen digger. What you're on a show called dig? I'm on a show called dig. It's hysterically funny. Amy Polar is unreal funny in it. And there's incredible Geraldine Viswanathan is in it. I mean, the Strassa in 20th Thomas has been it. It's really incredible cast. And Mike sure, amazing writers. Cassia Miller, my old, a herald teammate is one of the writers on it. And it's great. It was a dream come true. And I play a real muppet in it. It's going to be a delight. I can't wait for it to come out. That's awesome. I'm excited about that. Now, speaking of digger, in the, oh, dig dammit. In the spirit of Dungeons and Dragons, we love your help sorting some big names in the news on the alignment grid in a game we're calling grid fellows. Man, look at that. Look at that. That's pretty good. You got a real canville wizard back there. Yeah. We uh, we uh, lifted the moratorium on using my face in these graphics. So you'll decide which category each person is in. And for listeners at home, those categories are lawful good lawful neutral lawful evil neutral good true neutral neutral evil and chaotic good chaotic neutral chaotic evil. I love that. Uh, first up, we have Pete Hegseth. Uh, Pete Hegseth is your classic lawful evil classic lawful evil. Someone. Does that mean I got it right? Wait, who's the moral authority? Is God judging this right now? Always. You nailed it. That is how I have weighed his immortal soul. Uh, next up, JD Vance. JD Vance. Uh, uh, neutral evil true opportunist. Yeah. Definitely wants to advocate for harm, but has no real ideological pin down anywhere else on that ethical spectrum. I think that's right. Next up Chuck Schumer. Chuck Schumer. Uh, I would say at the which which alignment is is has been if there was an alignment for has been here for a very, very, very long time. Yeah. That would be the alignment. I would choose for Chuck Schumer. It does seem true neutral. Like that to me is where I feel like true neutral. Maybe lawful. Yeah. There's a I would say for me that the the time the timeline on Chuck is true neutral at best. But again, I would say that like the the it just feels all over the place. It's it's you know, it's one of those things that as people age, they or or their political relevancy moves on. It's just not this moment. And I think that uh, this answer is quickly becoming not so funny. Uh, I just want to say I disagree. I think he's only getting better with age. And that's the official position of lover. Leave it Chuck Schumer. Agent like a fine one. Next up, Nathan Fielder. Nathan Fielder. Okay, I think neutral. Absolutely chaotic neutral. chaotic neutral. I look at I look at Nathan Fielder and I feel as the my conception of reality is unraveling. Yeah. I look at Nathan Fielder and I'm like, Oh, I don't have a beat on what's going on at all, right? Like that's what he feels like to me. Sam Reich. Sam Reich. Sam Reich is the architect of every moment of my life's misery. Ah, Sam Reich is a constant thorn in my side. He has visited more woe upon me than any other individual. I hate to hear visiting woes happen. He's this motherfucker visits well constantly. Wow. Wow. It's also like, hey, vote stop visiting. Stay while. Take your coat off. Uh, and I would say I would say that was a sleeper. I got you a little bit later with that one. Um, uh, I would say for Sam Reich, uh, I would say for Sam Reich with all of that said, uh, neutral good neutral good neutral good. I thought maybe you could get him into chaotic good. He, he gave me, he gave me my first shot in his business, my life in this industry would not be what it is without him believing in me when few else did. So as much as he has tormented me, I love him very, very much. Wow. It's so interesting. The different way people talk on Mike versus off mic. Thank you, Sam. Thank you, Brennan. Check out dig on peacock on November 23rd. Check out the dropout and we'll be right back. Hey, don't go anywhere. There's more of love. It or leave it coming up. Love or leave it is brought to you by Willie's remedy. If you want to de-stress after a long day but don't love the idea of a hangover, now you can have fun and relax without the regrets. Thanks to Willie's THC infuse social tonic. Willie's is an alcohol alternative that actually works to living an uplifting euphoric buzz. You can really feel with no negative side effects. Willie's is a premium THC infuse social tonic crafted by the legendary Willie Nelson, who is, as we all know, an expert in the cannabis space. Very few people could credibly call themselves a name you can trust in THC, but yeah, Willie is one of them. And I love Willie's. I think it's awesome. It's my favorite. It really is. It delivers. I truly sincerely highly recommend it with only 15 calories and just three grams of sugar. This tonic gives you all the fun and relaxation. None of the regret comes in 5MG and 10MG doses. I do the five. I'm a little lightweight. The delicious blend of passion fruit [BLANK_AUDIO] an in line, enjoys a shot over ice or mixed into your favorite mocktail. Willie's is the number one THC infused beverage in the US with over 350,000 happy customers in one million bottles sold order now at drinkwillies.com and use code lowly for 20% up your first order plus free shipping on orders over $95 that's code [email protected] or use the store located to find willies on shelves near you like your local total wine specs ABC or local liquor store. Longplay our docu series exploring the people and forces shaping the south is back. Newslash the south is the new political epicenter of the country. Democrats are way on their heels in this region but republicans are going through their own reckoning in the south too. We're in the final stretch of the midterms and the political map has only gotten more competitive with new states and districts emerging as potential flips. So we thought it was time to get back out on the road and take a closer look at what's actually happening on the ground. I'm Aaron Haynes, journalist and expert on all things Southern politics and I'm Jennifer Paul Mary, former White House communications director. Tune in on Mondays to Longplay series on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back for once again joined by council member Nithya Rahman. Round and round the rant wheel we go where will we stop only our producers now that's right time for the rant wheel. We'll spin wherever lands you get 60 seconds let's spin the wheel. That's me. It's legend. Brennan what do you got 60 seconds 60 seconds to rant about anything at all that I like. That's right putting people on the spot is rude. I got out of a I got out of a van. I want to say 90 seconds ago. Okay. I have no control over my own life. I wake up in the morning and Sam Rice tells me where to go and who to be. I have no control over what's happening. So to put me here on the spot and make me rant about something I don't know about that even a prompt is the height of impropriety. I'm looking at numbers. The numbers are different colors. What's that supposed to do for our neurodiversion guests? I'm feeling distracted on a level I never have before and here I am coming from the heart about something that is genuinely panic inducing folks. You got to get out there and vote for Nithya Rahman for Merib Los Angeles. I could not be more excited for our next mayor here and I'm very, very excited too is Los Angeles. Because I'm raising a family here and there's so many great plans for our neighbors, both those that are trying to make a family work here and trying to make the city all that it can be and it's a very exciting future. And once again, how dare you put me in this position next time just a cue card or anything I would love and I'll take it. We'll take that under advisement. No. Let's spin it again. What if it's him again? Here's the thing. The thing is the wheel is what function does it really serve? We'll each get to go and it lands in just basically an order. It's also digital so there's no accountability. Could it all be pre-programmed? Is the wheel rigged? Yes. It's the wheel serves no function. It doesn't even make sense. It originally was conceived of having topics on it and then it would land on a topic and you'd have to rant about that topic. That's at least a logic to it. Now it just has our fucking faces on it and every guest goes once. So what are we doing here? And yet, without it, something is missing. We've tried it without it. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. You have 60 seconds. Okay. So there are mosquitoes in Los Angeles now and I really hate mosquitoes. I really hate them, but the thing that I really want to rant about as someone who comes, I'm from Carola, Rainforest Climate, a lot of mosquitoes. People do not know mosquito etiquette here. They just don't understand it. My husband just opens the door and leaves the door open for long periods of time. Mosquitoes fly in and they wake me up at night with their bloodthirsty greed. It is so frustrating. I hate it so much. We can do something about these mosquitoes. It involves releasing a lot of sterile mosquitoes, millions of them. They then copulate with the existing mosquitoes and then they have babies, eggs that don't form new mosquitoes and that's how we get rid of the mosquitoes. But if you're living in Los Angeles and there's mosquitoes, close the goddamn door. Wow. Oh my god. That's incredible. Oh my god. I also recently discovered that mosquitoes are actually the deadliest animal in the world. I had to memorize a list of the deadliest animals in the world. What's the second most deadly? I want to guess. Humans go and that's the bummer. But 13th is hippos. They're so mad. I'm actually really surprised that humans are less deadly than mosquitoes. It's kind of, I didn't want to share it, but I was heartened by it. I was like, because I would have said, of course, the most dangerous animal, the least conscientious man, and mosquitoes are like, what the hell, dude, I'm right here. I'm so deadly. We killed so many people said the mosquitoes. Yeah, look at the board. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Yeah, you think you think you're tough. Scoreboard. Scoreboard. Mosquitoes. I wonder who it's going to be. It's landed on me. Here's my topic. It's a very specific topic. It is the phrase for those of you who don't know me. And it is because having gone to many, many weddings over the years, and as someone who is a former speechwriter, I take issue with the phrase for those of you who don't know me. First of all, it is always said in the exact same way. For those of you who don't know me, and the fact that it is unnecessary, by definition, everyone who knows you, knows they know you, everyone who doesn't know you, knows they don't know you. The introduction takes care of all who don't know you, and is of no consequence to those who do know you. But then I think, why does it bother me? And it bothers me because it's unoriginal, and I associate being unoriginal with not being genuine, which is my aesthetic bias towards requiring originality from people who just want to express their love at an event in which they're not normally comfortable, which is speaking in front of groups, right? And so maybe they are genuinely unoriginal, and unoriginal genuine. And I ought to respect that. This is really a rant about my judgment. For those of you who don't know me, you know that phrase, we'll be right back. And we're back! Are evening together is drawing to a close, but we still have just enough time for my producers to open up a can of whoop ass. On me, in our final segment, "Second Thoughts," Nithia Brennan, here's how it works. Our team of intrepid producers have written down everything they think I did wrong this episode. And I'm going to read them to you, and you'll tell me if I should regret what I've done. If you have anything you regret from the show, this is also your time to share it. Let's see what they've got. From the monologue I, Helen Keller, "Catching Strays," I could have committed harder to a French accent on "We We." I think that regret is healthy and positive, so I would say regret it. Yeah, regret it. Okay. Wow. Let's see, I also told the audience I see them as objects. I think honesty is wonderful. No regrets. Thank you. Okay, great. Oh, wow. This is, I said, I didn't say I love you to R.E. when R.E. arrived per R.E. I think I did. No, regret that. I think. So no, do you also regret it? I said, hello. I know that you're doing right now, or is that? No, no, that's cord of our relationship. I said, I said, and I quote, do you agree with this? Tell me, we're going to have a moment. Did I not say hello, my love? Oh, Tessa, hello, my love. Ha ha. Ha ha. The key is winning. Nithia, I compared hosting this show twice a week to a career in public service. Don't regret that. And I may have gotten too heated about that ugly pipe. Regret that. Okay, great. Do you have any final thoughts or regrets before we hit the road? For myself, you know, I think I, my only regret is we did not get more time to talk. I'm leaving a short interaction with Councilman Nithia already excited for my new sterile mosquito neighbors. And I wish we'd had more time to talk about more amazing plans for Los Angeles. And I think that regret is positive and good. And everybody that I've ever heard say, interpersonally, I live my life without regrets, always has personally wronged me at least one time. Yes. That's a beautiful place to leave it. I have only one regret that the show must end. And that's our show. So thank you so much to Nithia, Robin and Brennerley Mulligan. There are 13 days until the midterms will be back Friday with Punky Johnson and David Kwong. Have a great night. Love it or leave it. It's a crooked media production. Our show is produced by Kendra James, Bill McGrath, Kelsa Gante, and me John Love. Our production team includes Halle Keifer, Sarah Lazarus, Rahman Borcellino, Peter Miller, David Toll's Claudio Shang, Jay Banks, Rahul Calderon, Gavin Purcell, and Matt DeGrobe. And our production staff is proudly unionized with the writers' guild of America East. Longplay, our docu-series exploring the people and forces shaping the South is back. Newsflash, the South, is the new political epicenter of the country. Democrats are way on their heels in this region, but Republicans are going through their own reckoning in the South too. We're in the final stretch of the midterms, and the political map has only got more competitive with new states and districts emerging as potential flips. I'm Erin Haines, journalist and expert on all things Southern politics. And I'm Jennifer Paul Mary, former White House communications director. 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