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Speaker 1: Hey, guys, thanks for listening to Breaking Points with Crystal

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Speaker 1: and Sager. We're gonna be totally upfront with you. We

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Speaker 1: took a big risk going independent to make this work.

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Speaker 1: We need your support to beat the corporate media CNN, Fox, MSNBC.

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Speaker 1: They are ripping this country apart. They are making millions

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Speaker 1: of dollars doing it to help support our mission of

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Speaker 1: making all of us hate each other, less hate the

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Speaker 1: corrupt ruling class more support the show. Become a Breaking

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Speaker 1: listen to the entire show ad free and uncut, an

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Speaker 1: hour early before everyone else. You get to hear our

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Speaker 1: reactions to each other's monologues. You get to participate and

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Speaker 1: weekly ask me any things, and you don't need to

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Speaker 1: hear our annoying voices pitching you like I am right now,

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Speaker 1: So what are you waiting for? Go to Breakingpoints dot

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Speaker 1: com become a Premium member today, which is available in

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Speaker 1: the show notes. Enjoy the show, guys, Good morning, everybody,

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Speaker 1: Happy Monday. We have an amazing show for everybody today.

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Speaker 1: What do we have, Crystal? Indeed, we do lots of

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Speaker 1: interesting stories to get to so you all know we've

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Speaker 1: been tracking that drone strike in Afghanistan that the government

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Speaker 1: was claiming took out a very important isis K target.

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Speaker 1: They are now even admitting that they killed a family, civilians, children,

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Speaker 1: and an AID worker for the US working for a

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Speaker 1: nonprofit out in California. So we're going to bring it

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Speaker 1: up to speed on all of that. Also, there's a

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Speaker 1: potential new entrant into the Texas scubernatorial race, one Beta O'Rourke.

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Speaker 1: Lots to say about that. Also some polling to show

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Speaker 1: you whether or not he might have a chance. Also,

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Speaker 1: they pulled on Matthew McConaughey. I don't know if he's

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Speaker 1: still thinking about it or not, but we'll get into that.

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Speaker 1: I know you are always very excited about all the

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Speaker 1: McConaughey news. Some updates on a key advisory panel basically

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Speaker 1: telling the Biden administration we don't think the general population

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Speaker 1: does need booster shots. And a big update that just

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Speaker 1: came across this morning about vaccines and children. An incredible

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Speaker 1: up ed in Bloombergh. Just I don't know what to

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Speaker 1: say about it with regards to Amazon, so we'll bringing

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Speaker 1: the details there. We've also got Glenn Greenwold on to

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Speaker 1: talk Russiagate, latest updates on that, But we wanted to

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Speaker 1: start with this big rally that was supposed to be

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Speaker 1: having in the city this weekend, Justice for j six

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Speaker 1: This is a group of right wing Trump supporters who

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Speaker 1: are wanted to protest in support of those who had

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Speaker 1: been arrested with regards to January sixth riot. So the

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Speaker 1: media was really hyping this thing up. They were trying

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Speaker 1: to freak everybody out that this was going to be

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Speaker 1: January sixth all over again. Capital basically militarized. They put

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Speaker 1: back up the fencing around the Capital Complex. Here's a

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Speaker 1: little taste of how the media was hyping this thing up.

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Speaker 1: This is from CNN. They say, revote five fears of

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Speaker 1: political violence, grip Capitol Hill ahead of right wing rally.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's funny if you actually read through this article, Sager,

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Speaker 1: which unfortunately I did, they mentioned within the very article

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Speaker 1: an intelligence memo that says a whole three hundred people.

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Speaker 1: Oh wow, whoa lock down the whole city for that

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Speaker 1: one guys. Here's a little taste of how MSNBC was

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Speaker 1: covering this big right wing rally with up to three

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Speaker 1: hundred people attending. Let's throw this tweet from Drew Holden.

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Speaker 1: Up on the screen, you can see Mattow there on

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Speaker 1: the left. She says Capital looks down ahead of rally

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Speaker 1: for jailed Trump riders. Trump voices support. I think later

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Speaker 1: on Trump actually told people that it was a setup

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Speaker 1: and was discouraging them from attending, as were other prominent

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Speaker 1: right wing figures. Ari Melbourn is similar. DC on alert

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Speaker 1: as Maga fans, plot whatever, so general freak out. I mean,

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Speaker 1: basically sager. They were praying for something to happen because

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Speaker 1: Janury six is the only thing that anyone has paid

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Speaker 1: attention to from these cable news outlets this year. Their

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Speaker 1: ratings have fallen off a cliff. They haven't been able

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Speaker 1: to get anything going post January sixth, So they were

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Speaker 1: really really hoping that something crazy and terrible would happen here.

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Speaker 1: But it didn't really work out as plan didn't work

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Speaker 1: out at all, and they were hyping this thing up

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Speaker 1: so much that the Capitol Police actually requested the National

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Speaker 1: Guard ahead of time. They brought in and mobilized their

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Speaker 1: entire force. DC was on a state of lockdown. The

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Speaker 1: deputized state and local officitions where they could add to

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Speaker 1: their ranks and you know I brought you guys this news.

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Speaker 1: Even on Thursday morning, when I was walking the dog

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Speaker 1: before the show, I saw this line of dump trucks

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Speaker 1: that were coming in. They were all going to be

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Speaker 1: ringed around the Capitol, Oh, in order to protect from

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Speaker 1: like suicide bombs or whatever. This is what they do

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Speaker 1: only in very rare circumstances like the inauguration or when

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Speaker 1: like these really Prime minister or somebody comes to town.

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Speaker 1: So the absolute biggest guns. What happened exactly. Well, we've

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Speaker 1: got some photos and footage from that rally. Let's put

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Speaker 1: this up there on the screen. Perhaps no photo best

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Speaker 1: encompasses the day more than this one for our people

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Speaker 1: who are just listening. It shows how attendance at the

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Speaker 1: January sixth rally is almost all press. There are very

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Speaker 1: few actual attendees. On the screen ahead of you, you

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Speaker 1: see people in press jackets, cameras, the backpacks, all of

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Speaker 1: the different paraphernalia, the press badges, the cops. The only

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Speaker 1: people you don't see are any actual protesters. And that

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Speaker 1: was pretty much typical for the entire day. Let's put

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Speaker 1: this next one up there, which shows the exact same thing.

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Speaker 1: It shows a single protester there with an American flag

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Speaker 1: who is surrounded by I don't know, maybe a dozen

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Speaker 1: or so press. The headline on the story police and

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Speaker 1: media outnumber protesters marching in support of January six riders

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Speaker 1: in Washington, DC. It is just one of the most

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Speaker 1: hilarious outcomes for this entire thing because they needed this.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is another one which has been making

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Speaker 1: the rounds. I'll preface it by I don't know who

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Speaker 1: these gentlemen are, but for again for our listeners, these

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Speaker 1: were some attendees who were there. It's about five different

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Speaker 1: gentlemen with like high cropped hair who look like they

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Speaker 1: might be redish. They look they have some fed vibes,

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Speaker 1: if you might say, for the people who are watching,

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Speaker 1: you can see exactly what I'm talking about, like the

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Speaker 1: same sort of hair cut, sunglasses. It very much is

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Speaker 1: one of those like the meme, it's like, how do

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Speaker 1: you do fellow kids, like fellow protesters and dudes hanging

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Speaker 1: out who are totally not working. There was even crystal.

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Speaker 1: There was an instance in which a cop came up

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Speaker 1: to a protester and they found a gun on him,

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Speaker 1: and he was like, I'm a cop, I'm a copy

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Speaker 1: a gun and they're like, it's a cop, It's he's

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Speaker 1: a cop. That's actually what's happening here. So yeah, that's

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Speaker 1: the undercover. I saw them everywhere, unmarked vehicles and everybody

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Speaker 1: all around town. And this is what they got. We

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Speaker 1: got more feds, more cops, and more protest more media

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Speaker 1: than we did actual protesters. And it's a fitting end really.

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Speaker 1: I mean, we were under semi military occupation here even

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Speaker 1: actually exactly where we're standing, for what three months. They

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Speaker 1: spent over five hundred billion dollars at least five hundred

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Speaker 1: billion on the sorry five hundred million. I keep making billion,

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Speaker 1: five hundred million dollars on that deployment of all of

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Speaker 1: those thousands of National guardsmen with the fencing, and it

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Speaker 1: was a semi militarized zone like Baghdad for several months

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Speaker 1: again for no reason except for some fake QAnon rally

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Speaker 1: in March. Then that disbanded. But the moment that some

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Speaker 1: cranks are going to go and organize a protest, are

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Speaker 1: we both supposed to go on lockdown? Every single time, Crystal,

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Speaker 1: I have seen I've lived here for eleven years or so.

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Speaker 1: I have seen protests, bigger protests outside the Burmese embassy

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Speaker 1: than what happened here? Are we supposed to, like, how

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Speaker 1: can we live this way? And that's really the issue here.

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Speaker 1: And we've got some video you can watch of the

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Speaker 1: Capitol police leaving the scene, just so you can really

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Speaker 1: get a feel. They are all suited up, they've got

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Speaker 1: the riot shields, they are in full militarized riot gear

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Speaker 1: marching away from this scene. And what you're pointing to is, look,

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Speaker 1: it's sort of hilarious because the media got so excited

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Speaker 1: about this and that it was just such a complete

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Speaker 1: dead I do want to say, organizers claim there are

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Speaker 1: a few hundred people there. Pictures didn't really look like it.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if those few hundred included all the

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Speaker 1: press that was there anyway, Certainly not even thousands of people.

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Speaker 1: Certainly nothing to really be concerned about here. Why is

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Speaker 1: this an issue other than that it's sort of funny,

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Speaker 1: how hilariously wrong the media got after overhyping this thing

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Speaker 1: as much as they possibly could. It's exactly what you're saying, like,

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Speaker 1: if even a few dozen protesters is enough to justify

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Speaker 1: calling in the National Guard and locking down the cap

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Speaker 1: erecting a whole fence around it. Who knows how much

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Speaker 1: this thing, whole thing costs. This level of militarized police

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Speaker 1: that we're going to deputize, deputize all these people as

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Speaker 1: federal agent. We're gonna get the FBI and undercover cops

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Speaker 1: on the ground. I mean, if a few dozen protesters

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Speaker 1: justify that type of militarized response, and this very scary precedent,

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Speaker 1: because that just means they can basically do whatever they

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Speaker 1: want in the name of security anytime. And this really

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Speaker 1: it shouldn't be like a partisan right left thing. Obviously

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Speaker 1: I'm not big on the cause that they were out

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Speaker 1: supporting here, but we saw the same tactics used in

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Speaker 1: the War on terror. The deep state wants to terrorize

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Speaker 1: you for their own ends and purposes. It allows them

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Speaker 1: to keep control, it allows them to gain more power.

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Speaker 1: Democrat many Democrats, people like Adam Schiff, have been very supportive,

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Speaker 1: a we need new domestic extremism laws, we need to

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Speaker 1: give them more power, more resources. And then the other

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Speaker 1: piece of this is like, where was any of this

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Speaker 1: seriousness on actual January sixth, when it would have mattered,

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Speaker 1: when there were all kinds of indications that there was

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Speaker 1: a potential for a breach of the capital. People were

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Speaker 1: talking about it openly. You didn't even need like secret

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Speaker 1: classified intelligence to see what was being discussed on open

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Speaker 1: social media channels. So that's the other piece of this

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Speaker 1: is all of this extreme militarized response and lockdown at

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Speaker 1: this point is also just like a cya to try

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Speaker 1: to like cover themselves for their failures of the past,

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Speaker 1: failures which they are now using to justify more money,

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Speaker 1: more resources, more power. And it remains a question. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we already know from that single indictment that came out

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Speaker 1: in the court documents that there was at least one

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Speaker 1: police officer who was undercover and was observing people on

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Speaker 1: January six. I'm not saying it was organized. But here's

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Speaker 1: the thing I mean we've seen in Glenn Greenwald as

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Speaker 1: talked a lot about this, which is that a lot

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Speaker 1: of the you know, high level, you know, unnamed conspirators

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Speaker 1: have still yet to come out and have yet to

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Speaker 1: be charged in terms of what was happening with the rally.

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Speaker 1: So you put all of that together, zera media curiosity

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Speaker 1: about any of that natal Yeah, the New York Times

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Speaker 1: Justice Department nowhere to be found when it's whenever Russia

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Speaker 1: Gate charges go against like Hillary Clinton person, or whenever

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Speaker 1: whenever we're talking about this. They could find that out

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Speaker 1: in a day if they wanted to. That's actually the

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Speaker 1: biggest problem that we really have within all of this inquiry.

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Speaker 1: You can both say like, that was terrible, that was

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Speaker 1: one of the worst. I mean, it was a horrific image.

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Speaker 1: It was a bad day for the country. Obviously, you

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Speaker 1: know it was Trump inciting these people to try and

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Speaker 1: go and you know, decertify the election. All of that

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Speaker 1: can be true. It can it can be literally crazy

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Speaker 1: and also not be like the single worst day on

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Speaker 1: earth or justify this whole new domestic war on terror,

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Speaker 1: which is exactly what all of this is really in

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Speaker 1: the service of doing, and you're pointing to it correctly,

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Speaker 1: which is, Look, once you have normalized this level of

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Speaker 1: response to the most minor of protests, what does that

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Speaker 1: mean whenever it's time to really protest, what about a

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Speaker 1: new war, a new anti war movement? Would that be

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Speaker 1: branded as domestic? Like absolutely, they would have now the ability,

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Speaker 1: the precedent and more for the Capitol police and for

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Speaker 1: all of these people in order to come out and

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Speaker 1: completely surveil. You remember also that the Capitol Police is

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Speaker 1: opening offices in San Francisco or sorry, in California and

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Speaker 1: across the country. Why in order to monitor, you know,

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Speaker 1: threats to the people who are their members. Well, how

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Speaker 1: does that actually manifest itself? Like that lefty podcast guy,

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Speaker 1: what did he do? He liked a tweet which said

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Speaker 1: something about confronting AOC and he was visited by California's

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Speaker 1: sheriff deputies at his house who were saying that he

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Speaker 1: was threatening the life of AOC. Now, look, she didn't

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Speaker 1: necessarily have anything to do with it, but how many

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Speaker 1: of those have repeated itself across the last couple of months.

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Speaker 1: The Capitol Police also, as I would remind everybody, is

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Speaker 1: not subject to FOYA to the Freedom of Information Act

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Speaker 1: because Congress has exempted itself from that. And that is

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Speaker 1: why they're going to bury a lot of intelligence product

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Speaker 1: inside of that organization, because they don't want any of

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Speaker 1: us to ever let it see the light of day.

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Speaker 1: This is exactly the type of behind the scenes stuff

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Speaker 1: that you should be really worried about. And so the

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Speaker 1: last part of the stories, of course, you know, after

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Speaker 1: this incredibly embarrassing turnout, did the media fess up like, okay, guys,

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Speaker 1: didn't turn up to be out to be all that

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Speaker 1: we thought, and sorry for freaking you out and over

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Speaker 1: hyping this thing. No, no, no, of course not. They

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Speaker 1: somehow found a way to still justify how their coverage

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Speaker 1: was really important and really needed. Here's a Rolling Stone piece.

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Speaker 1: This is amazing. The justice for JA six's rally wasn't

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Speaker 1: a joke. It was a warning. And I don't even

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Speaker 1: I mean, I actually read this article and tried to

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Speaker 1: follow the logic, and it's impossible to follow. It's like, sure,

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Speaker 1: there weren't many people there, but there were a few

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Speaker 1: random candidates for Congress who showed up. And sure no

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Speaker 1: Republican elected officials showed up, but they didn't need to

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Speaker 1: because this is already baked into the Republican Party. This

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Speaker 1: is a warning of whatever anyway, So a lot of

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Speaker 1: tortured logic to try to justify like, no, guys, it

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Speaker 1: really was as scary as we said it was going

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Speaker 1: to be. And then this is amazing. Brian Stelter tweeted out,

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Speaker 1: great friend of the show. I would say, even though

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Speaker 1: it wasn't dead, small crowd at Capital protest is still

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Speaker 1: the lead story on Sunday's WAPO front page. Why because,

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Speaker 1: as the story's lead says, it was quote the most

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Speaker 1: anticipated visit by right wing activists in the nation's capital

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Speaker 1: since a mob storm the US Capitol on one to six.

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Speaker 1: So you see what they did there. They were the

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Speaker 1: ones anticipating it, and then they use that as a

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Speaker 1: justification to be like, see, we still have to cover

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Speaker 1: it was still really really important, So they generated their

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Speaker 1: own like self fulfilling news cycle. Here you create the threat,

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Speaker 1: and you were spawn to the threat, and then you

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Speaker 1: say that the threat itself is why it's so important. Amazing.

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Speaker 1: It's just accuratete manufactured consent in terms of trying to

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Speaker 1: frame this as some sort of world historical event, which

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Speaker 1: then justifies a world historical response. That's exactly what they want,

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Speaker 1: and that's actually why it really pisses me off, because

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Speaker 1: they want the January sixth is the best thing that

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Speaker 1: ever happened to these people, and they want violence like

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Speaker 1: they want it to be some sort of like horrific brawl.

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Speaker 1: They wanted the same thing in Afghanistan. It's all they

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Speaker 1: want is to return to the high These are the

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Speaker 1: highest ratings these people had seen in ten years was

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Speaker 1: January sixth, the election. All of that a COVID. It

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Speaker 1: was the best thing that ever happened to them. And

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Speaker 1: don't ever let them tell you otherwise. And all they

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Speaker 1: want is a return exactly to that. And that's exactly

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Speaker 1: what's wrong with the news business in the first place. Indeed,

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Speaker 1: all right, more things that are wrong with the news business. Actually,

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Speaker 1: we should give credits to New York Times journalism here

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Speaker 1: because they forced the government to have to acknowledge that

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Speaker 1: this drone strike was just murdering innocent civilian. Right. So well,

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Speaker 1: you guys will recall we brought you that New York

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Speaker 1: Times investigation where they actually went and got the security

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Speaker 1: camera video of the person who was the target of

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Speaker 1: the drone strike, who was a past USAID worker who

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Speaker 1: had applied actually for a US visa. His family, small children.

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Speaker 1: They were killed actually in that strike because the drone

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Speaker 1: came almost exactly at the time when he rocked out

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Speaker 1: of the car and they were running towards it. Now,

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Speaker 1: General Mackenzie, the head of US Central Command, came out

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Speaker 1: and openly acknowledged that this strike was a quote mistake.

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Speaker 1: Don't worry, though, there won't be any consequences. Let's take

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Speaker 1: a listen to what he said. Having thoroughly reviewed the

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Speaker 1: findings of the investigation and the supporting analysis by interagency partners,

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Speaker 1: I am now convinced that as many as ten civilians,

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Speaker 1: including up to seven children, were tragically killed in that strike. Moreover,

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Speaker 1: we now assess that it is unlikely that the vehicle

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Speaker 1: and those who died were associated with isis K or

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Speaker 1: a direct threat to US forces. I offer my profound

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Speaker 1: condolences to the family and friends of those who were killed.

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Speaker 1: This strike was taken in the earnest belief that it

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Speaker 1: would prevent an imminent threat to our forces and the

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Speaker 1: evacuees at the airport. But it was a mistake, and

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Speaker 1: I offer my sincere apology. As the combatant commander, I

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Speaker 1: am fully responsible for this strike and this tragic outcome. Well,

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Speaker 1: I've begun with the most important findings of our investigation

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Speaker 1: and Crystal, just so you know, a further statement from

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Speaker 1: the Pentagon made it absolutely certain. This is what they said.

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Speaker 1: Let's put this up there on the screen, which is

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Speaker 1: that there will be no disciplinary action expected in the

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Speaker 1: drone strike that killed ten children. Ten civilians, including seven

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Speaker 1: children in Afghanistan. There's a lot to be said here. First.

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Speaker 1: Number one, it basically took the bulletproof investigation from the

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Speaker 1: Times in order to show that this was a complete

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Speaker 1: lie from the beginning. Number two, think about the conditions

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Speaker 1: of this strike. We had people on the ground. We'd

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Speaker 1: been in that country for twenty years. We knew the

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Speaker 1: grid of Kabble because we used to occupy it. In

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Speaker 1: terms of what the government has told us for years

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Speaker 1: about drone strike, we'll probably never have as much visibility

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Speaker 1: into an on the ground situation as what we did

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Speaker 1: as what was happening at that time, and it still

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Speaker 1: was a total and complete disaster in terms of who

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Speaker 1: we hit, why we hit, etc. Now, think about the

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Speaker 1: thousands more in Yemen, tribal regions of Pakistan, Somalia, Maali, Niger.

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Speaker 1: Shall I go on? Now we start to understand that

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Speaker 1: when these people tell us something, it ain't always sometimes

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Speaker 1: on the level. And maybe, maybe, just maybe, if we

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Speaker 1: had been paying attention to this for the last I

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Speaker 1: don't know, twenty years, the righteous anger of the American

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Speaker 1: people at this strike, which I fully support, what also

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Speaker 1: have maybe got us out of these wars in the

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Speaker 1: first place. Yeah, Well, there is a lot to that.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it's almost like, is it I guess his

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Speaker 1: progress that at least they're admitting it. Because for years

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Speaker 1: and years I went and looked at the numbers, there

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Speaker 1: have been over thirteen thousand drone strikes in Afghanistan that

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Speaker 1: we know about. How much transparency do we have into

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Speaker 1: who was actually killed in those drone strikes? Next to nothing?

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Speaker 1: Next to nothing. This was a rare instance where because

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Speaker 1: it was in cobble, and because the media was very

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Speaker 1: interested in that moment in painting the Biden administration in

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Speaker 1: a bad light, which they deserve to be in this instance,

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Speaker 1: they actually did the digging to figure out what happened,

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Speaker 1: and it truly was a superb piece of journalism. Going

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Speaker 1: back viewing the security cameras as this aid worker went

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Speaker 1: about the day his day, pressing the government and the

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Speaker 1: military about Okay, what did you think was going on?

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Speaker 1: Who did you think this person actually was, and ultimately

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Speaker 1: tracking it down to the courtyard of his house whereas

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Speaker 1: he pulls his white Toyota into the courtyard and his

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Speaker 1: kids there sort of daily ritual was to run out

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Speaker 1: and jump into the car to greet daddy. That's when

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Speaker 1: the drone strike hits, and then I just have to

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Speaker 1: remind you the way that they lied about this too,

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Speaker 1: because in order to convince people, they would never say

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Speaker 1: from the beginning what isis target they hit? And by

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Speaker 1: the way, there was another drone strike that they still

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Speaker 1: have not said what isis target they hit in that

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Speaker 1: one either, so have some skepticism there as well. But

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Speaker 1: from the beginning they wouldn't say who they hit, so

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Speaker 1: instantly you're going, hm, I've got some major questions about this. Also,

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Speaker 1: why are you doing drone strikes in the middle of

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Speaker 1: a busy residential area in Kabble that you know is

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Speaker 1: a busy residential area in Cobble. And part of how

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Speaker 1: they justified this and tried to snow people is by saying, oh,

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Speaker 1: there were secondary explosions, meaning there were explosives in the car,

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Speaker 1: so we know we got the right, total, complete lie.

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Speaker 1: The only thing in that car other than this man

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Speaker 1: and his babies were canisters of water. That's what it

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Speaker 1: was in the back of this car. So it is

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Speaker 1: so revealing of the way that we operated in Afghanistan

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Speaker 1: and the entire region now for literally decades. And here's

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Speaker 1: the other thing as well, there are other instances where

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Speaker 1: we know civilians were massacred and murdered. We know the

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Speaker 1: wedding party that was drone strikes killed thirty seven civilians.

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Speaker 1: We know we bombed a hospital that was run by

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Speaker 1: doctors without borders, killing forty two. We gave their family members,

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Speaker 1: their surviving family members, six thousand dollars in reparations for that.

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Speaker 1: But has there been any accountability for any of these

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Speaker 1: horrific atrocities. No, and that's what he said, no disciplinary action.

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Speaker 1: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, this

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Speaker 1: was a quote righteous strike. The President defended it, the

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Speaker 1: White House touted it. It was supposed to make them

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Speaker 1: look strong, and this like, like I said, this is

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Speaker 1: just one out of many. I'm not minimizing it whatsoever.

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Speaker 1: But it is very fitting that this would be the

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Speaker 1: very last act of the US military in Afghanistan, at

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Speaker 1: least for the time being, that it would be a

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Speaker 1: complete and total lie. And the Pentagon, the highest levels

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Speaker 1: of the Pentagon, General McKenzie and the Chairman lied to us.

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Speaker 1: They put out that BS statement. They also they need

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Speaker 1: to fully account and explain. I know this will never happen,

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Speaker 1: but they need to come out and say, what was

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Speaker 1: the intel? Why exactly did you strike this person? What? So,

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Speaker 1: what they've said so far is that he was in

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Speaker 1: the car and he went to a bunch of places

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Speaker 1: and saw an unusual amount of male activity that was detected.

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Speaker 1: So that's the bar. That's what's enough in order to

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Speaker 1: you know, you can also you know, I hear from

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Speaker 1: these places people all the time. ISR. You know R

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Speaker 1: ISR capabilities. You wouldn't believe it. So you're not able

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Speaker 1: to distinguish bomb making materials from water jugs, which were

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Speaker 1: what was in his trunk. That seems pretty troubling to

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Speaker 1: me and actually makes me question a lot of the

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Speaker 1: stuff that was happening back in Iraq during the anti

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Speaker 1: Isis campaign whenever people would push, hey, what's the proof,

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Speaker 1: what do you have? Oh we got this, we got

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Speaker 1: this on camera, and you look at this apparently you

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Speaker 1: know it's twenty twenty one, it's been five years since

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Speaker 1: that war. I assume the technology is supposed to have

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Speaker 1: gotten better. And they completely and totally flubbed this one

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Speaker 1: and flubbed erases the people who actually died. But even worse, look,

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Speaker 1: thirteen of our people were killed as suicide bob. As

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Speaker 1: a result of this, we actually should go get the

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Speaker 1: people who are responsible. And so by killing in a

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Speaker 1: US back to civilian in his family, that's not justice

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Speaker 1: for the actual soul of service members who were killed

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Speaker 1: in this strike. So it's just a total It dishonors

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Speaker 1: their memory, it kills these people. It's just a complete

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Speaker 1: It makes me so mad at the entire military and

430
00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:03,320
Speaker 1: chain of command. Well, and we all know why they

431
00:24:03,920 --> 00:24:07,720
Speaker 1: went on such flimsy intelligence just to kill someone, anyone

432
00:24:07,800 --> 00:24:09,480
Speaker 1: so that they could say we got a nicest k

433
00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:12,960
Speaker 1: target they were. They didn't want the bad news cycle.

434
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:15,399
Speaker 1: I mean they just we just lost servicemen and women,

435
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:20,600
Speaker 1: dozens of Afghan civilians murdered by suicide bomber and the

436
00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:24,840
Speaker 1: resulting firefight, and so they wanted a positive news cycle

437
00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:27,479
Speaker 1: of this righteous straight we took out the bad guys.

438
00:24:27,920 --> 00:24:33,199
Speaker 1: So they went on extraordinarily flimsy intelligence obviously and just

439
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:38,160
Speaker 1: murdered someone so that they could satisfy the news media's bloodlust.

440
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:41,120
Speaker 1: And it was the only positive news cycle that they

441
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:45,239
Speaker 1: got out of Afghanistan. It's also no accident that you know,

442
00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:50,680
Speaker 1: most of these drone strikes go unreported. Uninvestigated this one.

443
00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:53,560
Speaker 1: They happened to look into in part because they were

444
00:24:53,720 --> 00:24:57,439
Speaker 1: invested in making the Biden administration look bad at this point.

445
00:24:57,800 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean it's very clear they did it.

446
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:02,480
Speaker 1: They did it because they wanted to get any good

447
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,560
Speaker 1: news cycle. I mean, imagine how disgusting and psychopathic that

448
00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,520
Speaker 1: ultimately is. It's really horrendous. And then the other piece

449
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:11,679
Speaker 1: of this and why it's such a tragic and fitting

450
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:14,520
Speaker 1: end to this entire war is no one wants to

451
00:25:14,560 --> 00:25:17,280
Speaker 1: say this, but the Taliban had a lot of popular support,

452
00:25:17,640 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 1: and the Afghan Army and the US lost a lot

453
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:24,119
Speaker 1: of popular support exactly because of these types of actions.

454
00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:26,320
Speaker 1: I mean, if you know someone who got murdered at

455
00:25:26,359 --> 00:25:28,800
Speaker 1: a wedding by an American bomb, how do you think

456
00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:31,720
Speaker 1: you're going to feel about your occupiers. So the fact

457
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:36,840
Speaker 1: that we had so many civilian casualties quote unquote collateral

458
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:39,879
Speaker 1: damage throughout this war is a big part of what

459
00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:43,120
Speaker 1: ultimately hobbled our effort there overall. Now, look, I mean,

460
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:45,560
Speaker 1: I think we shouldn't have been there for war than

461
00:25:45,640 --> 00:25:48,119
Speaker 1: a very short period to start with. I don't think

462
00:25:48,200 --> 00:25:52,040
Speaker 1: we ever should have been occupiers in that country that

463
00:25:52,200 --> 00:25:55,520
Speaker 1: was never the stated goal going in. We were never like,

464
00:25:55,840 --> 00:25:58,399
Speaker 1: let's go in and nation build and build democracy. It

465
00:25:58,480 --> 00:26:01,439
Speaker 1: was after we failed to get at the beginning we

466
00:26:01,520 --> 00:26:03,920
Speaker 1: turned down the Taliban on their offer to turn him over.

467
00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:06,320
Speaker 1: Then we're sort of stuck there in the country, like

468
00:26:06,400 --> 00:26:08,560
Speaker 1: having to figure out some way to claim that it's

469
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:11,879
Speaker 1: a win even after bin Lan is killed. Then in Pakistan,

470
00:26:11,960 --> 00:26:14,639
Speaker 1: we still have to continue to justify all this expenditure

471
00:26:14,640 --> 00:26:17,199
Speaker 1: and all this money and grip that's ultimately here. But

472
00:26:17,640 --> 00:26:20,600
Speaker 1: this is the reality of what this war was effectively

473
00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,080
Speaker 1: from day one. Yeah it was. And look, and this

474
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:25,440
Speaker 1: is the one thing on Biden. Buck stops with him

475
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:29,040
Speaker 1: because he absolutely green lit that strike, and White House

476
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 1: needs to answer to questions. The chairman needs to answer

477
00:26:31,600 --> 00:26:34,439
Speaker 1: a question. The fact that there's no disciplinary action is

478
00:26:34,480 --> 00:26:37,919
Speaker 1: completely shameful insane. Hey, so remember how we told you

479
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:41,080
Speaker 1: how awesome premium membership was. Well, here we are again

480
00:26:41,160 --> 00:26:43,679
Speaker 1: to remind you that becoming a premium member means you

481
00:26:43,800 --> 00:26:46,359
Speaker 1: don't have to listen to our constant please for you

482
00:26:46,480 --> 00:26:49,080
Speaker 1: to subscribe. So what are you waiting for? Become a

483
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:52,120
Speaker 1: premium member today by going to Breakingpoints dot com, which

484
00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:54,840
Speaker 1: you can click on in the show notes. All right,

485
00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: let's switch gears here to my home state of Texas,

486
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 1: where there's been some troubling news. One, Beto O'Rourke is

487
00:27:02,640 --> 00:27:05,479
Speaker 1: making his comeback to the stage. Let's put this up

488
00:27:05,480 --> 00:27:09,720
Speaker 1: there on the sperience. I knew he would run. Sources

489
00:27:09,720 --> 00:27:13,800
Speaker 1: say Beto plans Texas comeback in the governor's race. Texas

490
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:18,160
Speaker 1: political operators tell Axio. So what does that mean? Number One,

491
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:22,760
Speaker 1: Beto was, to my memory, in twenty eighteen, he was

492
00:27:22,800 --> 00:27:29,960
Speaker 1: the highest, the biggest fundraising Senate candidate in modern American history,

493
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:35,880
Speaker 1: raised absolute tens of millions of dollars, came within two

494
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,360
Speaker 1: percent of actually beating Ted Cruz. Now there's a lot

495
00:27:39,440 --> 00:27:42,600
Speaker 1: going on there. Ted Cruz is a uniquely unpopular political figure,

496
00:27:43,119 --> 00:27:45,960
Speaker 1: to say the least within the state of Texas, disliked

497
00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:48,399
Speaker 1: in Texas and around the world, far more disliked than

498
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:51,840
Speaker 1: Governor Greg Abbott. Currently. That being said, there's COVID going

499
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:54,960
Speaker 1: on right now. There's actually a lot of consternation. Also,

500
00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:58,639
Speaker 1: even since twenty eighteen, Texas has changed dramatically. I mean

501
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:00,959
Speaker 1: the hundreds of thousands of people who have moved there

502
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:04,240
Speaker 1: from California and in New York, I mean, the influx

503
00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,560
Speaker 1: into Austin alone could easily make it and change the

504
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:10,919
Speaker 1: demographics of the state. You also saw though that Latinos

505
00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,400
Speaker 1: who are voting, you know, voted at a different rate

506
00:28:13,480 --> 00:28:16,080
Speaker 1: for Donald Trump. A lot of that seems to be

507
00:28:16,160 --> 00:28:18,119
Speaker 1: holding if you look at some of the polling data

508
00:28:18,400 --> 00:28:22,199
Speaker 1: in terms of Hispanic support, specifically within Texas for the

509
00:28:22,200 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 1: Trump administration or as a corollary against Biden. Also, Beto

510
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:29,840
Speaker 1: is the guy who wants to literally take people's guns away.

511
00:28:30,080 --> 00:28:33,879
Speaker 1: So that was a position that he took after his

512
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:38,000
Speaker 1: failed Senate bid. Good Luck in my home state went

513
00:28:38,040 --> 00:28:39,840
Speaker 1: on that it's like, we're going to send people door

514
00:28:39,880 --> 00:28:41,320
Speaker 1: to door to get your gun. Yeah, he was the one.

515
00:28:41,360 --> 00:28:43,360
Speaker 1: He's like, damn right, we're gonna come take your guns.

516
00:28:43,400 --> 00:28:45,440
Speaker 1: I remember being like, good luck man, you'll never get

517
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:47,040
Speaker 1: a light that time. I'm sure that's not going to

518
00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,600
Speaker 1: come up during this race whatsoever. But you guys happen

519
00:28:49,680 --> 00:28:52,160
Speaker 1: to remember that the media love this guy even though

520
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:55,520
Speaker 1: he was full of nothing, had no substance whatsoever. He

521
00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:58,640
Speaker 1: was completely in experience at best. He's like a child

522
00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:02,040
Speaker 1: who curses for affect in order to make his case.

523
00:29:03,040 --> 00:29:05,640
Speaker 1: He's literally forty eight year oldlock also happens to be

524
00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:07,600
Speaker 1: married to somebody's worth one hundreds of millions of dollars.

525
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:10,080
Speaker 1: But you know whatever, So you put that all together

526
00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:12,480
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be fun because the media is gonna

527
00:29:12,560 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 1: do what it always does. Now, I actually do think

528
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 1: a Democrat, well, I'll get to this could possibly come

529
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:24,240
Speaker 1: close in the state of Texas. But Beto is somebody

530
00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:29,400
Speaker 1: who is just a completely poll tested, almost San Francisco,

531
00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:33,280
Speaker 1: New York vision of what a Texas Liberal should be

532
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: as opposed to what an actual Texas Democrat who could

533
00:29:37,680 --> 00:29:40,360
Speaker 1: win the state would look like. Now people seem to

534
00:29:40,480 --> 00:29:43,880
Speaker 1: forget this, but our last Democratic governor, her name was

535
00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:46,120
Speaker 1: Anne Richards, and she was like one of those like

536
00:29:46,240 --> 00:29:49,280
Speaker 1: ranch girls, you know, like and yet she was actually

537
00:29:49,360 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: kind of cool. I particularly like her, but I mean,

538
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 1: her affect and all of that was something we shall

539
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:58,760
Speaker 1: not see her like again. But take a look exactly

540
00:29:58,920 --> 00:30:01,480
Speaker 1: at the polling of what this looks like, and you'll

541
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 1: see exactly the only person who really seems to have

542
00:30:04,960 --> 00:30:07,960
Speaker 1: a shot here. So this is a recent Dallas Morning

543
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:11,120
Speaker 1: News poll from the University of Texas Tyler as well.

544
00:30:11,560 --> 00:30:15,840
Speaker 1: It shows actually Matthew McConaughey as the only candidate who

545
00:30:15,960 --> 00:30:18,800
Speaker 1: might be able to best Governor Abbot forty four to

546
00:30:18,800 --> 00:30:21,960
Speaker 1: thirty five for Matthew McConaughey, thirty five for Abbot, but

547
00:30:22,120 --> 00:30:25,840
Speaker 1: then for Beto. It actually shows Abbot at forty two

548
00:30:26,200 --> 00:30:29,240
Speaker 1: and Beto at thirty seven. Add in some of the

549
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:32,320
Speaker 1: other ones. It shows Abbot at seventy half, Fins at fifteen,

550
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:35,160
Speaker 1: Abbot at sixty five, Alan West, who is the chairman

551
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:39,360
Speaker 1: of the Republican Party of Texas at twenty, Ken Paxson

552
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:42,120
Speaker 1: actually forty three, Bush twenty eight, Gustman at five. That

553
00:30:42,120 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: would be the Republican primary potential contenders. Exactly seems safe

554
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:50,680
Speaker 1: against all of them, right, Beto has such like angsty

555
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:54,280
Speaker 1: gen x five. Oh god, yes, you know he's It's

556
00:30:54,320 --> 00:30:59,040
Speaker 1: interesting because he was sort of at the leading edge

557
00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:02,960
Speaker 1: of unders standing the shift in the base of the

558
00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:06,640
Speaker 1: Democratic Party. Part of why he was able to perform

559
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:10,120
Speaker 1: so well in that race against Ted Cruz is that

560
00:31:10,280 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 1: he really excited white liberals. That worked out extraordinarily well

561
00:31:17,040 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 1: for him nationally in terms of fundraising, in terms of media,

562
00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:23,920
Speaker 1: worked out pretty well for him in the state of Texas, which,

563
00:31:23,920 --> 00:31:27,840
Speaker 1: as you always point out, is increasingly becoming a suburban state,

564
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:31,960
Speaker 1: so he leaned into that, and those people were really

565
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:35,920
Speaker 1: really excited about him. Now you have to look at

566
00:31:35,960 --> 00:31:39,280
Speaker 1: these poll numbers and say, look, this is before not

567
00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:41,440
Speaker 1: that Beto has like an amazing image right now at

568
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:43,680
Speaker 1: this point, but this is before any attack ads are

569
00:31:43,760 --> 00:31:47,200
Speaker 1: run reminding people as comments about guns or anything else.

570
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:52,280
Speaker 1: So it's pretty hard to move up from where he

571
00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:54,360
Speaker 1: is right now. The other thing that was interesting to

572
00:31:54,400 --> 00:31:58,640
Speaker 1: me though, was just how large of a swing vote

573
00:31:58,880 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 1: there seems to be in Tech exist because, I mean

574
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:05,640
Speaker 1: just the difference between McConaughey and Beto versus you know,

575
00:32:05,680 --> 00:32:07,680
Speaker 1: I think if you pulled another Democrat they'd be even

576
00:32:07,760 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 1: lower than Beto at this point, just because of his

577
00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 1: name recognition, how much he does have support among a

578
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 1: certain segment of the public. There there's an electorate that

579
00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:18,120
Speaker 1: is actually up for grabs, And so it goes against

580
00:32:18,160 --> 00:32:21,200
Speaker 1: this idea that everything's completely hardened and it just is

581
00:32:21,240 --> 00:32:24,480
Speaker 1: what it is and no campaigning, no can and nothing matters,

582
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:27,520
Speaker 1: no issue set matters, et cetera, et cetera. I think,

583
00:32:27,640 --> 00:32:32,440
Speaker 1: especially at the state level, if Abbott has a bad year,

584
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:36,560
Speaker 1: if COVID, you know, continues to spike and they're having

585
00:32:36,640 --> 00:32:39,960
Speaker 1: problems there, schools have you know, issues Like if you

586
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,560
Speaker 1: have situations like that, or remember what happened last winter.

587
00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:46,880
Speaker 1: There was a big freeze and the Texas power gridge

588
00:32:46,960 --> 00:32:50,920
Speaker 1: just like completely shit the bed, and you had people

589
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,800
Speaker 1: literally freezing to death in their homes, and he was,

590
00:32:53,920 --> 00:32:57,400
Speaker 1: you know, very ineffective in terms of dealing with that crisis,

591
00:32:57,400 --> 00:33:00,280
Speaker 1: and they have not done anything to my knowledge, to

592
00:33:01,120 --> 00:33:03,680
Speaker 1: winterize the grid or make sure that doesn't happen again.

593
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:06,800
Speaker 1: So if you have a situation like that, and then

594
00:33:06,840 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 1: you have a Democrat, not necessarily like Beto, but maybe

595
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:15,200
Speaker 1: like Matthew McConaughey or somebody else who is inoffensive to

596
00:33:15,320 --> 00:33:18,400
Speaker 1: a large swath of voters, are kind of undefined politically,

597
00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:20,200
Speaker 1: and doesn't have a big record that you can use

598
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:23,120
Speaker 1: against them, then I think you ultimately have a shot.

599
00:33:23,360 --> 00:33:27,520
Speaker 1: Even with McConaughey, though I'm skeptical because these early numbers

600
00:33:27,520 --> 00:33:30,560
Speaker 1: are good for him, But that's again, before he's defined,

601
00:33:30,640 --> 00:33:33,120
Speaker 1: before he's asked any questions, before he's in a debate,

602
00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 1: before he says anything that can really be used against

603
00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:38,400
Speaker 1: him in a negative ad in this sort of situation,

604
00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 1: So I think it's still I think it's still tough

605
00:33:41,960 --> 00:33:45,520
Speaker 1: slutting for Democrats at this point in Texas, especially since,

606
00:33:45,560 --> 00:33:48,360
Speaker 1: as you point out, part of what they were banking

607
00:33:48,400 --> 00:33:51,360
Speaker 1: on in terms of moving Texas into the blue column

608
00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:54,000
Speaker 1: was that the Latino vote would continue to show up

609
00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:55,960
Speaker 1: for them and not just stay at the level that

610
00:33:56,000 --> 00:33:58,360
Speaker 1: it was, but it would continue to move into their column,

611
00:33:58,520 --> 00:34:00,720
Speaker 1: that they would get more new voters registered, that they

612
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:02,680
Speaker 1: would be able to really bank on that, and the

613
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:05,800
Speaker 1: Latino population Texas very young, so as they come of

614
00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:07,400
Speaker 1: age and be able to vote, they thought, oh, this

615
00:34:07,440 --> 00:34:11,400
Speaker 1: is a great growing demographic on our side. Not working

616
00:34:11,400 --> 00:34:13,719
Speaker 1: out quite the way, or at least not quite at

617
00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:15,799
Speaker 1: the pace that they thought it ultimately would, right. I

618
00:34:15,840 --> 00:34:18,319
Speaker 1: will say one thing that layers on top of all this,

619
00:34:18,560 --> 00:34:21,720
Speaker 1: it's that recent abortion law. So that actually is something

620
00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:25,279
Speaker 1: that could mobilize some Democratic turnout, and that's the one

621
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:28,319
Speaker 1: thing that could possibly change the game. I mean, I've

622
00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:30,640
Speaker 1: been talking with people who know the state better than

623
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:33,000
Speaker 1: obviously I haven't lived there in a while. But what

624
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:35,920
Speaker 1: it is is that there are enough of those people

625
00:34:36,040 --> 00:34:39,359
Speaker 1: who registered Democrat back in twenty eighteen for Beto. We're

626
00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:42,840
Speaker 1: kind of activated within the Texas Democratic Party at in

627
00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:46,080
Speaker 1: the hundreds of thousands from California and from New York

628
00:34:46,360 --> 00:34:49,480
Speaker 1: who are actually one of those the rare case of

629
00:34:49,560 --> 00:34:53,120
Speaker 1: the actual like socially liberal but kind of fiscally conservative voter,

630
00:34:53,480 --> 00:34:56,360
Speaker 1: as in they've moved from California New York because of

631
00:34:56,400 --> 00:34:59,240
Speaker 1: the taxes. Let's all be honest about what was exactly

632
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:03,080
Speaker 1: going on. Plus you know, cheaper land, cheaper houses, et cetera.

633
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:07,560
Speaker 1: But socially they remain pretty rock hard liberal, which means

634
00:35:07,680 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 1: that this taxes abortion law could be something again I

635
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 1: want to say, could that could mobilize Democratic turnout at

636
00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:17,920
Speaker 1: a higher level. At the same time, a lot of

637
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:20,520
Speaker 1: evangelicals I grew up with a lot of them who

638
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 1: this is the crowning Jewel achievement, right, so they might

639
00:35:24,239 --> 00:35:27,080
Speaker 1: come out in support of Governor Abbott. And I think

640
00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:29,600
Speaker 1: one thing that does overlay all of this. People don't

641
00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:31,719
Speaker 1: seem to realize governor of Texas is one of the

642
00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:35,040
Speaker 1: most powerless positions in theation. I always try to tell

643
00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:38,000
Speaker 1: people this during the race. The people who created our

644
00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:40,520
Speaker 1: state made it so the legislature can't meet more than

645
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:43,040
Speaker 1: once every two years because they don't want more laws

646
00:35:43,040 --> 00:35:46,319
Speaker 1: to be passed, and they specifically did not invest very

647
00:35:46,360 --> 00:35:49,080
Speaker 1: much power in the governor and the executive himself because

648
00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:50,720
Speaker 1: they didn't want him to be able to do anything.

649
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:54,200
Speaker 1: It's literally baked into the Constitution, and it happens to

650
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:55,960
Speaker 1: be one of the reasons George W. Bush was so

651
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,439
Speaker 1: ill prepared for the presidency because it was the only

652
00:35:58,560 --> 00:36:01,040
Speaker 1: job that he held before. The tenant governor's race is

653
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:02,960
Speaker 1: actually a lot more important if you care about the

654
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:05,759
Speaker 1: day to day running. But that's my own personal diatribe.

655
00:36:05,760 --> 00:36:09,280
Speaker 1: Good political springboard. Though Beto was able to become governor

656
00:36:09,320 --> 00:36:12,279
Speaker 1: of Texas' run for president, Yeah, then he'd run for

657
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:15,960
Speaker 1: president again and maybe this time possibly would have a

658
00:36:16,000 --> 00:36:18,759
Speaker 1: better shot at it. It is incredible to think back

659
00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:23,799
Speaker 1: about his trajectory. I mean, this guy was failed congressman. Yeah,

660
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:26,879
Speaker 1: but he was so sought after. Remember when he went

661
00:36:26,920 --> 00:36:30,239
Speaker 1: to Iowa and he's standing on the media's freaking out

662
00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:33,920
Speaker 1: he had at the beginning for him. They did, That's right,

663
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:36,360
Speaker 1: General Melly Dillan who ends up with Biden on the

664
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:39,520
Speaker 1: winning kiss, she started with Beto. They bet on I

665
00:36:39,560 --> 00:36:42,600
Speaker 1: mean Obama sort of tacitly was betting on this guy.

666
00:36:42,640 --> 00:36:44,800
Speaker 1: That's what you can tell by where the staff was going. Truly,

667
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:46,920
Speaker 1: I go. And he is also one of these few

668
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:49,040
Speaker 1: us that annoying like he sort of like patterned his

669
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:51,799
Speaker 1: speech after Obama too, which I find to be the

670
00:36:51,800 --> 00:36:54,239
Speaker 1: most irritating thing in the entire world. But he had

671
00:36:54,280 --> 00:36:57,719
Speaker 1: a massive flood of donations at the beginning. Remember who

672
00:36:57,800 --> 00:36:59,839
Speaker 1: was it that was making the case that was like, oh,

673
00:37:00,080 --> 00:37:02,360
Speaker 1: or he's got to be worried about young people flocking

674
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:05,640
Speaker 1: to Beta arou Oh I forget about that instead, right,

675
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:07,800
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, the hottest take of all time.

676
00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:11,080
Speaker 1: And then he just people actually listened to him on

677
00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:14,080
Speaker 1: a debate stage and they're like, m nah, no, I

678
00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:15,600
Speaker 1: don't think so. Yeah. I don't think he ever got

679
00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:17,480
Speaker 1: more than a couple points in the polls. Remember also,

680
00:37:17,520 --> 00:37:20,120
Speaker 1: whenever he was standing up on everything on the gap right,

681
00:37:20,280 --> 00:37:23,719
Speaker 1: since he was constantly standing was getting his disgusting, his

682
00:37:23,880 --> 00:37:27,440
Speaker 1: vanity fair while born to be in it. His Oprah

683
00:37:27,520 --> 00:37:32,359
Speaker 1: Winfrey Times Square Interview some of the greatest hits where

684
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:35,520
Speaker 1: we're living there, incredible times, incredible times. All right, let's

685
00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:37,640
Speaker 1: get to another piece of very important news, which is

686
00:37:37,719 --> 00:37:40,080
Speaker 1: on the booster shot. This is something we've been covering

687
00:37:40,440 --> 00:37:43,239
Speaker 1: very closely. There's been a lot of bureaucratic warfare here

688
00:37:43,280 --> 00:37:46,680
Speaker 1: in Washington. So recall a couple of weeks ago Biden administration.

689
00:37:46,800 --> 00:37:50,400
Speaker 1: President Biden himself comes out and says, we are recommending

690
00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:55,160
Speaker 1: booster shots for every American six months after they've been

691
00:37:55,200 --> 00:37:59,879
Speaker 1: fully vaccinated. Huge policy change. Immediately, we begin to see

692
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,920
Speaker 1: push back within the FDA itself. There's ranker, there's clear

693
00:38:03,960 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 1: and leaked stories in the New York Times saying actually,

694
00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:10,360
Speaker 1: some people within the administration and the FDA specifically reject

695
00:38:10,400 --> 00:38:14,239
Speaker 1: that claim. Then two high level FDA officials themselves put

696
00:38:14,239 --> 00:38:16,680
Speaker 1: in their resignations. They say they're leaving in a couple

697
00:38:16,760 --> 00:38:20,480
Speaker 1: of months. Then Crystal, they sign on to a public

698
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:25,400
Speaker 1: letter in a medical journal coming out against the administration's

699
00:38:25,719 --> 00:38:29,759
Speaker 1: own booster policy. Now the FDA panel, let's put this

700
00:38:29,840 --> 00:38:32,320
Speaker 1: up there on the screen, has gone ahead and recommended

701
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:35,439
Speaker 1: Pfizer's COVID booster doses for people who are sixty five

702
00:38:35,520 --> 00:38:40,560
Speaker 1: and older, but rejected third shots for the general population.

703
00:38:41,080 --> 00:38:44,040
Speaker 1: I think this is an incredibly important story because it

704
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:47,520
Speaker 1: shows to you the fact that getting ahead of your

705
00:38:47,560 --> 00:38:50,680
Speaker 1: skis on public messaging and then having to pull back

706
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:55,560
Speaker 1: just creates more confusion, more questions. It actually probably does

707
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:58,120
Speaker 1: more in order to boost people's fears that they're never

708
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:00,520
Speaker 1: going to have to knock get a booster or or whatever.

709
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,920
Speaker 1: An it just projects a general level of complete and

710
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,960
Speaker 1: total incompetence whenever it comes to this. And that really

711
00:39:07,000 --> 00:39:10,080
Speaker 1: is beginning to seem what it looks like, because we

712
00:39:10,120 --> 00:39:13,680
Speaker 1: don't even have the full evidence that we necessarily need

713
00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:16,799
Speaker 1: on the booster that we even see. This is from

714
00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:18,680
Speaker 1: the New York Times. Let's put this up there, and

715
00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:23,280
Speaker 1: I think they meant this as some sort of affirming thing. Quote.

716
00:39:23,400 --> 00:39:25,680
Speaker 1: Research is in Israel reported that a third dose of

717
00:39:25,719 --> 00:39:29,120
Speaker 1: the Pfiser biotech COVID vaccine can enhance protection in adults

718
00:39:29,160 --> 00:39:33,480
Speaker 1: older than sixty four at least twelve days, a result

719
00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:37,200
Speaker 1: that is unsurprising and does not indicate long term benefit.

720
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:41,359
Speaker 1: Twelve days bas only for adults sixty and older. That's

721
00:39:41,400 --> 00:39:45,640
Speaker 1: not even for the general population. A why and remember

722
00:39:45,680 --> 00:39:48,440
Speaker 1: these are free and you know Pfiser has been pushing

723
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:51,760
Speaker 1: for boosters for the entire general population for a long time.

724
00:39:52,120 --> 00:39:55,600
Speaker 1: I can't help but wonder what's going on there, But

725
00:39:56,160 --> 00:39:58,239
Speaker 1: to have it so starkly laid out and again, I

726
00:39:58,239 --> 00:39:59,880
Speaker 1: think the New York Times meant it like see like

727
00:40:00,080 --> 00:40:04,120
Speaker 1: get twelve Hold, I'm like twelve days. Oh that's all

728
00:40:04,160 --> 00:40:07,439
Speaker 1: you're getting here? Twelve days? Does that really worth it

729
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:09,480
Speaker 1: in terms of the body. I mean, look, I just

730
00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:11,239
Speaker 1: think again, and I think I'm gonna do something on

731
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:14,040
Speaker 1: use tomorrow. Just the whole way that we have had

732
00:40:14,200 --> 00:40:17,360
Speaker 1: our discussion about this, about the future, the indemnity of

733
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:19,480
Speaker 1: COVID and more is just a total disaster. And I

734
00:40:19,520 --> 00:40:22,160
Speaker 1: think this just again goes to show that these public

735
00:40:22,200 --> 00:40:26,640
Speaker 1: health people, they are always trying to project themselves onto

736
00:40:26,719 --> 00:40:28,640
Speaker 1: the public, be like, where's the public, Let's try and

737
00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:30,960
Speaker 1: message this. Oh we got to scare them. Oh we

738
00:40:31,040 --> 00:40:32,920
Speaker 1: got to get ahead of this and talk about boosters

739
00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:35,760
Speaker 1: when the science doesn't necessarily even back up the booster

740
00:40:35,840 --> 00:40:39,360
Speaker 1: shot that we even see. So you put it all together,

741
00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:41,320
Speaker 1: I do think it's a big, big disaster, and a

742
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:42,680
Speaker 1: lot of people have a lot of questions. You know,

743
00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:44,960
Speaker 1: some people don't know should I take it? Should I not?

744
00:40:45,160 --> 00:40:46,920
Speaker 1: What am I supposed to do coming up on that

745
00:40:46,960 --> 00:40:49,920
Speaker 1: six month mark? What exactly is going on? Yeah, and

746
00:40:50,160 --> 00:40:52,600
Speaker 1: it's not that this is that having a third booster

747
00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:55,920
Speaker 1: shot is like a high risk for you, Right, it

748
00:40:56,120 --> 00:40:59,640
Speaker 1: just seems like, based on the data, which is limited

749
00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:01,960
Speaker 1: at this point, by the way, it's just not really

750
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:06,960
Speaker 1: worth it. There are concerns about fueling vaccine hesitancy because

751
00:41:07,160 --> 00:41:09,600
Speaker 1: it plays into this narrative that like this is really

752
00:41:09,640 --> 00:41:11,880
Speaker 1: just about making these companies a bunch of money. And

753
00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:15,759
Speaker 1: in fact, the CNBC article was kind of incredible to

754
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:19,080
Speaker 1: read because they include in there this line after it's

755
00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:22,160
Speaker 1: like the panel voted down giving the booster shots to everyone.

756
00:41:22,200 --> 00:41:25,239
Speaker 1: They said pfizerstock closed down one point three percent, while

757
00:41:25,280 --> 00:41:28,719
Speaker 1: shares a biointech fell three point six percent. Very revealing,

758
00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:32,560
Speaker 1: very revealing about what some of the real motivations were here.

759
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:35,239
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I think you had this dynamic where

760
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:38,319
Speaker 1: the political people, and I include Fauci is effectively a

761
00:41:38,360 --> 00:41:42,440
Speaker 1: politician at this point, the political people thought this will

762
00:41:42,480 --> 00:41:44,640
Speaker 1: be a way to give people even more comfort, make

763
00:41:44,680 --> 00:41:47,920
Speaker 1: them feel even better. And there's some data on a

764
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:50,320
Speaker 1: Israel that says it might be a good thing. Who knows,

765
00:41:50,400 --> 00:41:53,400
Speaker 1: but let's just go for it. And then the actual

766
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:56,799
Speaker 1: scientists and the two that resigned at the FDA, they

767
00:41:56,800 --> 00:42:01,440
Speaker 1: were high level in the vaccine division, the relevant division.

768
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 1: They were like this is really not a good look

769
00:42:04,120 --> 00:42:06,880
Speaker 1: and we don't feel comfortable staying here, which would have

770
00:42:06,880 --> 00:42:09,640
Speaker 1: been a huge story under the Trump administration. So when

771
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:13,840
Speaker 1: they all get together and this advisory panel votes about

772
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:18,960
Speaker 1: requiring boosters or pushing boosters to the general population, it

773
00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:22,319
Speaker 1: wasn't close. They voted against it sixteen to two. So

774
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:26,040
Speaker 1: it really does show you that the Biden administration thought

775
00:42:26,120 --> 00:42:30,279
Speaker 1: this was the right move politically, but clearly the scientific

776
00:42:30,320 --> 00:42:33,960
Speaker 1: community did not agree and did not ultimately back them up,

777
00:42:34,200 --> 00:42:37,719
Speaker 1: which is significant for administration that's constantly said we're going

778
00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:39,600
Speaker 1: to follow the science. We're going to follow the science.

779
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:41,799
Speaker 1: And you know that their base is very interested in

780
00:42:41,800 --> 00:42:44,600
Speaker 1: following the science. They are literally like yard signs out

781
00:42:44,640 --> 00:42:48,320
Speaker 1: across Washington, d C. Saying we trust the science, follow

782
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 1: the science, we love doctor Fauci, all of that. So

783
00:42:51,920 --> 00:42:55,480
Speaker 1: it is a pretty revealing and significant moment. There was

784
00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:58,799
Speaker 1: another piece of news, highly significant that came across this

785
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:00,480
Speaker 1: morning that I wanted to bring to you guys, and

786
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:02,200
Speaker 1: I'm just reading for the New York Times right now.

787
00:43:03,480 --> 00:43:06,760
Speaker 1: COVID vaccine prompts a strong immune response in younger children.

788
00:43:06,840 --> 00:43:09,800
Speaker 1: Pizer says, so vaccinated kids age five to eleven showed

789
00:43:09,800 --> 00:43:13,040
Speaker 1: evidence of protection against the virus. Now that data is

790
00:43:13,040 --> 00:43:15,680
Speaker 1: going to be reviewed by the FDA before children can

791
00:43:15,719 --> 00:43:19,000
Speaker 1: be inoculated. This to me is a much more important

792
00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:23,200
Speaker 1: direction to go in because yes, kids have much lower

793
00:43:23,320 --> 00:43:27,880
Speaker 1: likelihood of severe disease from coronavirus and much lower likelihood

794
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,359
Speaker 1: of death from coronavirus, But you still have a lot

795
00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:32,239
Speaker 1: of parents I can say, I include myself in this,

796
00:43:32,280 --> 00:43:35,439
Speaker 1: who are anxious to see their kids protected against this thing.

797
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:39,640
Speaker 1: Having that population also inoculated is also going to do

798
00:43:39,719 --> 00:43:43,560
Speaker 1: a huge service in terms of limiting the spread to

799
00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:48,319
Speaker 1: other unvaccinated populations. So this is encouraging news based on

800
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:51,520
Speaker 1: what we know. What they've found so far is that

801
00:43:51,560 --> 00:43:55,239
Speaker 1: it's been shown to be safe and highly effective. That

802
00:43:55,320 --> 00:43:58,320
Speaker 1: news should help ease anxiety and effectively, what they found

803
00:43:58,480 --> 00:44:02,080
Speaker 1: is that there are are very low risks in terms

804
00:44:02,080 --> 00:44:05,520
Speaker 1: of like negative health consequences four young children five and older,

805
00:44:06,080 --> 00:44:09,080
Speaker 1: and that that immune response that you expect to see

806
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:12,200
Speaker 1: from the vaccine is triggered. They haven't actually done the

807
00:44:12,280 --> 00:44:15,280
Speaker 1: research to show how effective it's going to be against

808
00:44:15,320 --> 00:44:19,839
Speaker 1: protecting against any infection, severe disease, and ultimately death, but

809
00:44:20,040 --> 00:44:22,200
Speaker 1: it shows it's safe it shows it seems to be

810
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:25,440
Speaker 1: doing what it's indicated to do, and so now that

811
00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:27,400
Speaker 1: will go to the FDA, and the FDA will evaluate it,

812
00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:30,400
Speaker 1: which is very encouraging. It's been weird to me that

813
00:44:30,480 --> 00:44:34,279
Speaker 1: they've been really pushing the booster direction, which seems like

814
00:44:34,320 --> 00:44:36,719
Speaker 1: it's not going to do anything, and being sort of

815
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:40,840
Speaker 1: lasadaisical and slow on getting this approved so that children

816
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:44,239
Speaker 1: can be protected here as well. So encouraging news on

817
00:44:44,239 --> 00:44:46,120
Speaker 1: that front. Yeah. And then once you get to that point,

818
00:44:46,239 --> 00:44:48,319
Speaker 1: children who want their parents or parents who want their

819
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:51,200
Speaker 1: children to be vaccinated can probably millions will do so,

820
00:44:51,280 --> 00:44:54,200
Speaker 1: and that will only increase our own our herd immunity exactly,

821
00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:56,279
Speaker 1: which will make it what so that we can all

822
00:44:56,520 --> 00:44:58,680
Speaker 1: go back to normal. And so I think that that

823
00:44:58,960 --> 00:45:00,800
Speaker 1: is really you know, I mean personally, I think we

824
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:02,360
Speaker 1: should have been doing that for a long time. But

825
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 1: what it is is that all of this comes together.

826
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:08,960
Speaker 1: I think the Biden administration got way over their skis

827
00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:12,000
Speaker 1: on the booster. Now they're having to roll it back.

828
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:18,320
Speaker 1: The unclarity of their position feeds into this narrative of chaos.

829
00:45:18,640 --> 00:45:20,840
Speaker 1: They tried to get ahead of that with their vaccine

830
00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:25,080
Speaker 1: mandate in terms of large employers, we'll still see. But

831
00:45:25,280 --> 00:45:27,719
Speaker 1: as we continue to see in the polling, he is

832
00:45:27,880 --> 00:45:31,080
Speaker 1: underwater on COVID. Now, as you point to, people are

833
00:45:31,080 --> 00:45:34,040
Speaker 1: not going to remember now in twenty twenty two, They're

834
00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:37,480
Speaker 1: going to remember what exactly the situation is then, And

835
00:45:37,520 --> 00:45:39,600
Speaker 1: if it were him, what he needs to do is

836
00:45:39,640 --> 00:45:42,600
Speaker 1: try to make sure not to embrace necessarily a COVID

837
00:45:42,719 --> 00:45:45,200
Speaker 1: zero policy, but to try and make it so that

838
00:45:45,440 --> 00:45:48,960
Speaker 1: a you reach vaccine or herd immunity, well, you know

839
00:45:49,040 --> 00:45:52,279
Speaker 1: it's possible anyway in terms of he wants to burst

840
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:55,680
Speaker 1: the overall number of immunity number one and number two

841
00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:58,560
Speaker 1: needs clarity from the public on what the overall end

842
00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:01,280
Speaker 1: goal is. So that I think is his most important

843
00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:03,719
Speaker 1: thing that he needs to do. If people feel more

844
00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:07,640
Speaker 1: comfortable next year, yes, they feel safer, if they feel

845
00:46:07,680 --> 00:46:09,239
Speaker 1: like my kid's going to be able to go to

846
00:46:09,280 --> 00:46:11,080
Speaker 1: school and they're not going to get pulled out for

847
00:46:11,200 --> 00:46:14,120
Speaker 1: quarantine every other week, which I can tell you as

848
00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:17,960
Speaker 1: an all in soccer mom, that's all that parents are

849
00:46:17,960 --> 00:46:20,359
Speaker 1: talking about. It's like, has your kid been quarantine yet?

850
00:46:20,360 --> 00:46:21,920
Speaker 1: And how long are they out? And where'd you go

851
00:46:21,960 --> 00:46:24,520
Speaker 1: to get the test? In my little town in King

852
00:46:24,520 --> 00:46:27,680
Speaker 1: George County. They just had to do a free clinic

853
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:30,040
Speaker 1: for parents to get their kids tested so they could

854
00:46:30,080 --> 00:46:33,160
Speaker 1: go back to school. That's another thing that's really irritating

855
00:46:33,160 --> 00:46:35,120
Speaker 1: to me is that the tests you have to use

856
00:46:35,560 --> 00:46:37,600
Speaker 1: to prove to the school that your kid is safe

857
00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:40,200
Speaker 1: to go back after they've had a positive COVID exposure.

858
00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:44,520
Speaker 1: That sucker costs like a hunter bus. Yeah, so anyway,

859
00:46:44,680 --> 00:46:48,080
Speaker 1: there's even if you aren't worried about your kids getting

860
00:46:48,160 --> 00:46:51,399
Speaker 1: really really sick, there are major life disruptions that are

861
00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:54,440
Speaker 1: happening right now that are deeply unsettling to people. And

862
00:46:54,480 --> 00:46:57,360
Speaker 1: in the same way, I have compassion for people who

863
00:46:57,560 --> 00:47:00,840
Speaker 1: you feel like they've been screwed over by reinstitution that

864
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:03,960
Speaker 1: they've ever even thought to trust. I also have compassion

865
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:06,160
Speaker 1: for people who are like one in five hundred Americans

866
00:47:06,200 --> 00:47:08,600
Speaker 1: have died of COVID and I'm freaked out and I'm

867
00:47:08,600 --> 00:47:10,600
Speaker 1: wearing the double mask, and i want everybody I know

868
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 1: to be vaccinated, and sure I'll go in on the

869
00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:17,640
Speaker 1: booster shots. So anyway, that's the latest booster shots look

870
00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:19,960
Speaker 1: like they for the general population don't make a lot

871
00:47:19,960 --> 00:47:22,680
Speaker 1: of sense. It's looking like they're moving forward with vaccines

872
00:47:22,760 --> 00:47:26,440
Speaker 1: for children five and up. And that's where we are. There,

873
00:47:26,440 --> 00:47:29,239
Speaker 1: we are all right. Another we could not let this

874
00:47:29,280 --> 00:47:33,760
Speaker 1: one go. Bloomberg guy named Connerson, who is an opinion

875
00:47:33,800 --> 00:47:38,040
Speaker 1: writer at Bloomberg and founder of something called Peachtree Creek Investments,

876
00:47:38,040 --> 00:47:42,080
Speaker 1: which I'm sure does wonderful things, wrote this incredible op

877
00:47:42,239 --> 00:47:46,799
Speaker 1: ed that says Amazon's new factory towns will lift the

878
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:50,760
Speaker 1: working class plentiful new jobs at higher wages in places

879
00:47:50,800 --> 00:47:55,319
Speaker 1: with cheaper housing. Sounds like a solution to inequality saga.

880
00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:57,840
Speaker 1: I mean, I saw someone on Twitter like, did Jeff

881
00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:02,040
Speaker 1: Bezos actually write this or I mean it certainly sounds

882
00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:06,520
Speaker 1: or maybe Jay Carney, the one that's been your neoliberal brain.

883
00:48:06,840 --> 00:48:08,960
Speaker 1: By the way, they said the same thing about Walmart,

884
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:10,840
Speaker 1: just so people know that Walmart's going to come in

885
00:48:10,880 --> 00:48:12,520
Speaker 1: and they're going to drive prices low, and that's going

886
00:48:12,560 --> 00:48:14,480
Speaker 1: to make it so that everybody in small town America

887
00:48:14,680 --> 00:48:17,840
Speaker 1: can actually follow their dream of opening a small business

888
00:48:17,920 --> 00:48:20,040
Speaker 1: which doesn't compete with Walmart. I went and looked at

889
00:48:20,040 --> 00:48:23,240
Speaker 1: this guy's Twitter feed. He's still making my case about Walmart.

890
00:48:23,640 --> 00:48:26,319
Speaker 1: We go, see how has Walmart been for your town.

891
00:48:26,400 --> 00:48:30,280
Speaker 1: It's decimated every other opportunity. It's meant so that worker's

892
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:34,279
Speaker 1: only option is to work at the giant monopolist. I mean,

893
00:48:34,400 --> 00:48:37,120
Speaker 1: this is the sort of thinking of like a coal

894
00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:40,239
Speaker 1: baron in the nineteen twenties, like let's just give them

895
00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:42,640
Speaker 1: script and get it over with. And this is the problem,

896
00:48:42,680 --> 00:48:45,640
Speaker 1: which is that you know on the actual like if

897
00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:48,680
Speaker 1: you look at the actual GDP in the very short term,

898
00:48:48,880 --> 00:48:51,759
Speaker 1: he could be right. Well, but what does we know

899
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:55,120
Speaker 1: about Amazon's practice of hiring people? So if Amazon's the

900
00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:58,480
Speaker 1: only game in town all across rural America, and rural

901
00:48:58,480 --> 00:49:03,680
Speaker 1: America's only economic value becomes its proximity to other places,

902
00:49:04,000 --> 00:49:06,800
Speaker 1: as in, the only economic value that the town has

903
00:49:07,080 --> 00:49:10,160
Speaker 1: is that it's in between two different big cities, meaning

904
00:49:10,160 --> 00:49:13,840
Speaker 1: it's a decent distribution hub or whatever. Well, then Amazon

905
00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:15,560
Speaker 1: is the only game in town, and they have a

906
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:18,279
Speaker 1: lot of power over your life. Now, if you're not

907
00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:21,319
Speaker 1: in a union and you have no discernible ability to

908
00:49:21,320 --> 00:49:24,400
Speaker 1: push back, you are one hundred percent at the mercy

909
00:49:24,600 --> 00:49:27,080
Speaker 1: of Amazon. And what did we learn in that New

910
00:49:27,160 --> 00:49:30,280
Speaker 1: York Times story about how Amazon treats its warehouse employees.

911
00:49:30,400 --> 00:49:32,560
Speaker 1: They specifically do not see them as on track for

912
00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:35,640
Speaker 1: upper management. They specifically want to force them out of

913
00:49:35,680 --> 00:49:38,520
Speaker 1: the company. They have policies which kind of turn and

914
00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:42,439
Speaker 1: burn through people in terms of advancement. So yeah, maybe

915
00:49:42,480 --> 00:49:45,640
Speaker 1: it work fifteen eighteen hours an hour. Maybe you'll have

916
00:49:45,719 --> 00:49:47,600
Speaker 1: that for a couple of years. What about whenever you

917
00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:49,200
Speaker 1: come to the end of that cycle, Now, what are

918
00:49:49,200 --> 00:49:51,440
Speaker 1: you supposed to do? There's nothing else in town. So

919
00:49:51,480 --> 00:49:55,280
Speaker 1: that's supposed to lift the working class. There's no stability here. Yeah,

920
00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:57,359
Speaker 1: and no watch that movie Go Ahead. The way people

921
00:49:57,400 --> 00:49:59,719
Speaker 1: are treated, I mean, they're just they're not treated like

922
00:49:59,760 --> 00:50:03,160
Speaker 1: human beings. You're literally put on like a three year

923
00:50:03,239 --> 00:50:06,200
Speaker 1: time clock. When you get a job as a warehouse

924
00:50:06,200 --> 00:50:09,480
Speaker 1: worker at one of these Amazon fulfillment centers, you are

925
00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:13,600
Speaker 1: never seen as like potential manager material, which is actually

926
00:50:13,640 --> 00:50:17,319
Speaker 1: Walmart is even better in that the private associates on

927
00:50:17,400 --> 00:50:20,920
Speaker 1: promoting associates into management, and some even make it all

928
00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:24,360
Speaker 1: the way to you know, executive levels. Down in Bentonville.

929
00:50:24,400 --> 00:50:29,560
Speaker 1: Amazon polar opposite philosophy. They view their workers as disposable commodities.

930
00:50:29,640 --> 00:50:32,960
Speaker 1: In fact, there's been some handwringing at the executive year

931
00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:37,919
Speaker 1: levels recently because they recognize they're basically burning through the

932
00:50:38,160 --> 00:50:43,120
Speaker 1: entire eligible American workforce and are worried about having enough

933
00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:47,160
Speaker 1: people with enough like bodily fitness to be able to

934
00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:52,319
Speaker 1: do these jobs which are extraordinarily demanding a hard on

935
00:50:52,400 --> 00:50:55,240
Speaker 1: your body, and they just push people and push people

936
00:50:55,239 --> 00:50:59,359
Speaker 1: and push people track their every single movement with these

937
00:50:59,360 --> 00:51:02,719
Speaker 1: little wear devices that, by the way, can we'll tell

938
00:51:02,719 --> 00:51:04,960
Speaker 1: you when you're off task, and also might just send

939
00:51:04,960 --> 00:51:07,160
Speaker 1: you a notice that you're fired because you didn't get

940
00:51:07,200 --> 00:51:11,839
Speaker 1: that device or whatever loaded up quickly enough. So that's

941
00:51:11,960 --> 00:51:15,680
Speaker 1: reality for the working class at Amazon, not to mention

942
00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:19,160
Speaker 1: the sort of reporting that has come out about you know,

943
00:51:19,280 --> 00:51:21,960
Speaker 1: not being able to take bathroom breaks, having to pee

944
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:27,160
Speaker 1: in bottles, just the total dehumanizing aspect of work at Amazon.

945
00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:29,759
Speaker 1: So yeah, and this is the other piece. Yeah, you

946
00:51:29,800 --> 00:51:32,880
Speaker 1: might be making fifteen bucks an hour, that's actually lower

947
00:51:33,320 --> 00:51:36,560
Speaker 1: than the industry standard for warehouse workers. So you're talking

948
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:39,680
Speaker 1: about people getting paid less for the same job being

949
00:51:39,719 --> 00:51:42,440
Speaker 1: done other places, talking about a place that you know

950
00:51:42,640 --> 00:51:45,600
Speaker 1: is as hostile to unions and any sort of worker

951
00:51:45,680 --> 00:51:48,560
Speaker 1: powers you could possibly be. And then if you care

952
00:51:48,640 --> 00:51:52,120
Speaker 1: about small town vitality, that's the other piece of this

953
00:51:52,280 --> 00:51:55,600
Speaker 1: even zooming out from the individual worker. If these towns

954
00:51:55,600 --> 00:51:59,440
Speaker 1: are wholly depending dependent on Amazon. First of all, again

955
00:51:59,480 --> 00:52:02,040
Speaker 1: we've seen the way this works around history. The entire

956
00:52:02,080 --> 00:52:06,000
Speaker 1: government becomes captured by Amazon. Every politician lives or dies

957
00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:07,880
Speaker 1: by how close they are to Amazon and how much

958
00:52:07,920 --> 00:52:10,759
Speaker 1: money they're getting for their campaigns from Amazon. They will

959
00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:14,720
Speaker 1: give away everything that Amazon wants to you know this,

960
00:52:14,719 --> 00:52:19,160
Speaker 1: this giant corporation. And then when Amazon decides like, oh, well,

961
00:52:19,280 --> 00:52:21,800
Speaker 1: this workforce maybe is getting a little too many ideas

962
00:52:21,840 --> 00:52:23,839
Speaker 1: in their head, they might unionize, or they decide, oh,

963
00:52:23,840 --> 00:52:28,120
Speaker 1: there's a slightly more efficient logistics hub ten miles over.

964
00:52:28,520 --> 00:52:32,080
Speaker 1: Then your town is completely close. And we've seen we

965
00:52:32,080 --> 00:52:34,200
Speaker 1: saw the way this worked with the Amazon HQ two

966
00:52:35,440 --> 00:52:40,000
Speaker 1: competition too, the way these states and cities through billions

967
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:43,600
Speaker 1: of dollars at this very wealthy corporation to try to

968
00:52:43,680 --> 00:52:47,360
Speaker 1: lure them to their town. When you have giant monopolies

969
00:52:47,400 --> 00:52:51,160
Speaker 1: controlling everything like this, that is the end game. Is

970
00:52:51,239 --> 00:52:55,399
Speaker 1: everybody's fighting for the privilege of having this you know,

971
00:52:56,120 --> 00:52:59,760
Speaker 1: this giant in their town where they can then exploit

972
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:03,440
Speaker 1: their own people, because the other alternative is basically you

973
00:53:03,480 --> 00:53:06,279
Speaker 1: have nothing. That's the problem, right, which is that if

974
00:53:06,320 --> 00:53:08,879
Speaker 1: you have this giant Behemoth, which is already the second

975
00:53:08,960 --> 00:53:11,759
Speaker 1: largest employer in the United States, and then they become Look,

976
00:53:11,760 --> 00:53:13,359
Speaker 1: it's already the future. I can see it. I mean,

977
00:53:13,400 --> 00:53:15,840
Speaker 1: in my neighborhood we have one of those new grocery

978
00:53:15,880 --> 00:53:18,000
Speaker 1: stores where you just scan your Amazon app and you

979
00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:20,000
Speaker 1: can go and pick up off the shelf and you

980
00:53:20,040 --> 00:53:21,719
Speaker 1: just walk right out. I mean, this is what they

981
00:53:21,719 --> 00:53:25,040
Speaker 1: want to do. They want to monopolize and control the

982
00:53:25,080 --> 00:53:29,560
Speaker 1: grocery distribution market, the actual shopping experience. We read recently

983
00:53:29,600 --> 00:53:33,439
Speaker 1: that Amazon is thinking about moving into shopping malls because

984
00:53:33,440 --> 00:53:36,360
Speaker 1: they're like, well, some people still want the tactile experience.

985
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:39,960
Speaker 1: So by going they've already destroyed the mall. Essentially, now

986
00:53:40,000 --> 00:53:41,680
Speaker 1: they're going to go move back into that mall at

987
00:53:41,719 --> 00:53:44,719
Speaker 1: dirt cheap prices and put whatever they need. And a

988
00:53:44,719 --> 00:53:46,040
Speaker 1: lot of what they want to put in the malls

989
00:53:46,120 --> 00:53:51,200
Speaker 1: isn't even customer facing. It's fulfillment center. There is a cheap, big,

990
00:53:52,239 --> 00:53:54,600
Speaker 1: empty that have been destroyed by them that they can

991
00:53:54,640 --> 00:53:57,360
Speaker 1: now take advantage of for their logistics hubs. Some of

992
00:53:57,400 --> 00:54:01,160
Speaker 1: it is disruption, that's fine, but really again, it has

993
00:54:01,200 --> 00:54:03,880
Speaker 1: to come down to the fact that whenever you become

994
00:54:03,920 --> 00:54:06,200
Speaker 1: the second largest employer of people in the United States,

995
00:54:06,200 --> 00:54:08,799
Speaker 1: and you have control over millions of lives, and then

996
00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:12,000
Speaker 1: you have people like this pushing for it many even

997
00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:14,000
Speaker 1: tens of millions of people to make it the de

998
00:54:14,080 --> 00:54:17,480
Speaker 1: facto employer maybe of working class people in America. Then

999
00:54:17,560 --> 00:54:20,160
Speaker 1: it becomes a bit of a matter for the public.

1000
00:54:20,200 --> 00:54:23,000
Speaker 1: And that is what those people are the most virulently

1001
00:54:23,360 --> 00:54:26,800
Speaker 1: anti union. They want total and one hundred percent control

1002
00:54:27,000 --> 00:54:29,680
Speaker 1: over their entire workforce. And if that's going to be

1003
00:54:29,719 --> 00:54:31,600
Speaker 1: the case, then it has to be the public that

1004
00:54:31,719 --> 00:54:35,239
Speaker 1: has to protect them. That's what worker protection really is

1005
00:54:35,280 --> 00:54:37,600
Speaker 1: all about. And we have this in the context of

1006
00:54:37,640 --> 00:54:41,480
Speaker 1: a couple of interesting updates there on the unionization front.

1007
00:54:41,640 --> 00:54:43,640
Speaker 1: Let's go ahead and put this one up there on

1008
00:54:43,680 --> 00:54:48,160
Speaker 1: the screen. After weeks of strikes and protests, Nabisco workers

1009
00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:51,320
Speaker 1: voted to ratify that new contract and end their strike.

1010
00:54:51,400 --> 00:54:53,760
Speaker 1: You'll recall that we brought one of those striking workers

1011
00:54:53,760 --> 00:54:56,520
Speaker 1: here on the show, and that new agreement calls for

1012
00:54:56,600 --> 00:55:01,719
Speaker 1: a sixty cents per hour wage increase each year for

1013
00:55:01,840 --> 00:55:04,800
Speaker 1: four years, a five k bonus for employees, and it

1014
00:55:04,960 --> 00:55:08,520
Speaker 1: blocks their planned healthcare cuts. So that's what these people get.

1015
00:55:08,600 --> 00:55:11,480
Speaker 1: Even when you fight now imagine, you know, this is

1016
00:55:11,960 --> 00:55:14,680
Speaker 1: think about how Amazon would have handled this situation, and

1017
00:55:14,719 --> 00:55:16,799
Speaker 1: it's what you've fired everybody. You get a preview of

1018
00:55:16,840 --> 00:55:19,319
Speaker 1: what is coming to a town near you. Yeah, no,

1019
00:55:19,400 --> 00:55:22,680
Speaker 1: that's exactly right. When you have a union, you have

1020
00:55:22,760 --> 00:55:25,000
Speaker 1: the ability to at least fight for a shot to

1021
00:55:25,160 --> 00:55:27,759
Speaker 1: relieve the health care cuts, to get some kind of

1022
00:55:27,800 --> 00:55:31,120
Speaker 1: a guaranteed salary in place. That's what you're really talking

1023
00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:35,040
Speaker 1: about here, because if these Nabisco workers weren't unionized, there's

1024
00:55:35,080 --> 00:55:38,799
Speaker 1: no chance at even these modest gains. So congratulations to them.

1025
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:43,200
Speaker 1: Solidarity they showed across the country was incredible. I also

1026
00:55:43,239 --> 00:55:46,239
Speaker 1: want to really praise more Perfect Union that's been doing

1027
00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:49,879
Speaker 1: phenomenal work in highlighting some of these struggles. Our next

1028
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:52,520
Speaker 1: update comes from them as well, about a group of

1029
00:55:53,320 --> 00:55:58,080
Speaker 1: Starbucks workers in Buffalo who are trying to unionize right now.

1030
00:55:58,120 --> 00:56:00,960
Speaker 1: And of course Starbucks, it's pretty increds. You know, you

1031
00:56:01,120 --> 00:56:03,280
Speaker 1: think that this wouldn't be that big of a deal.

1032
00:56:03,400 --> 00:56:07,920
Speaker 1: It's like twenty stores in Buffalo that they're trying to unionize.

1033
00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:12,120
Speaker 1: They have gone so far as to fly into town.

1034
00:56:12,680 --> 00:56:17,880
Speaker 1: Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and also North American Executive vice president,

1035
00:56:18,280 --> 00:56:21,319
Speaker 1: They've come into Buffalo and like just hanging out at

1036
00:56:21,320 --> 00:56:23,719
Speaker 1: the stores, like, we just want to hear from you

1037
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:26,880
Speaker 1: guys about how things are going. Let's have a meeting

1038
00:56:26,920 --> 00:56:30,799
Speaker 1: and hear your concerns. That's how serious they're taking it is.

1039
00:56:30,840 --> 00:56:34,480
Speaker 1: They are bringing in their very highest level, their CEO,

1040
00:56:35,280 --> 00:56:38,200
Speaker 1: to come and be like, we're just worried about you guys.

1041
00:56:38,239 --> 00:56:40,720
Speaker 1: We want to hear from you all. So that's part

1042
00:56:40,840 --> 00:56:43,680
Speaker 1: of their sort of anti union push here, because what

1043
00:56:43,760 --> 00:56:46,120
Speaker 1: the workers are telling more perfect union is that, of

1044
00:56:46,160 --> 00:56:48,960
Speaker 1: course this is very intimidating, Like the CEO of the

1045
00:56:49,040 --> 00:56:51,759
Speaker 1: company is, they're looking over your shoulder about what you're

1046
00:56:51,800 --> 00:56:55,960
Speaker 1: doing and what you're up to. That's extraordinarily intimidating. Another

1047
00:56:56,040 --> 00:56:59,840
Speaker 1: piece of their plan is they have applied to the NLRB,

1048
00:57:00,120 --> 00:57:02,760
Speaker 1: the National Labor Relations Board, which is the governing body

1049
00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:06,680
Speaker 1: that sort of oversees these union elections. They want to

1050
00:57:06,920 --> 00:57:12,120
Speaker 1: expand the bargaining unit, so the unit, the number of

1051
00:57:12,120 --> 00:57:14,440
Speaker 1: stores that would be unionized, to include all of the

1052
00:57:14,480 --> 00:57:17,920
Speaker 1: stores in Buffalo. This would do a couple of things.

1053
00:57:18,160 --> 00:57:21,560
Speaker 1: First of all, because organizers have been working with those stores,

1054
00:57:21,600 --> 00:57:23,880
Speaker 1: they have more to do to convince those employees and

1055
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:25,640
Speaker 1: talk to them and communicate with them, and just to

1056
00:57:25,640 --> 00:57:27,800
Speaker 1: be able to organize. Second of all, and this is

1057
00:57:27,800 --> 00:57:31,960
Speaker 1: really important. This is a delaying tactic to push these

1058
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:35,560
Speaker 1: elections off down the road. Now, in the service industry,

1059
00:57:35,680 --> 00:57:38,440
Speaker 1: turnover is really high. So the more that you can

1060
00:57:38,520 --> 00:57:41,400
Speaker 1: delay and push things off, the harder it is for

1061
00:57:41,600 --> 00:57:44,200
Speaker 1: organizers because you have workers who are leaving, who are quitting,

1062
00:57:44,240 --> 00:57:48,280
Speaker 1: who are coming in, so you're constantly having to all, right,

1063
00:57:48,320 --> 00:57:50,120
Speaker 1: this one who was a supporter has gone. Now we've

1064
00:57:50,160 --> 00:57:52,520
Speaker 1: got this new person. Let's talk to them, let's educate them,

1065
00:57:52,600 --> 00:57:55,360
Speaker 1: let's get them bought in on this concept of solidarity

1066
00:57:55,520 --> 00:57:59,360
Speaker 1: so very common and understood in the sort of union

1067
00:57:59,400 --> 00:58:03,080
Speaker 1: busting world that one very effective tactic is to basically

1068
00:58:03,200 --> 00:58:07,200
Speaker 1: pushing these things off entirely. And then, of course they're

1069
00:58:07,240 --> 00:58:10,560
Speaker 1: doing what Amazon and all these companies do, which would

1070
00:58:10,560 --> 00:58:12,960
Speaker 1: be illegal, by the way, if the Proact were to

1071
00:58:13,000 --> 00:58:17,880
Speaker 1: be passed, which is having these mandatory anti union quote

1072
00:58:17,920 --> 00:58:21,760
Speaker 1: unquote listening sessions that workers have to go to and

1073
00:58:21,880 --> 00:58:27,000
Speaker 1: hear their sort of corporate arguments against unionization. Those are

1074
00:58:27,040 --> 00:58:31,200
Speaker 1: being run by a classic, well known union busting law firm.

1075
00:58:31,360 --> 00:58:35,800
Speaker 1: So they are going all out to make sure that

1076
00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:40,280
Speaker 1: this unionization effort does not take hold in Buffalo. And

1077
00:58:40,320 --> 00:58:42,360
Speaker 1: it's interesting to see. I don't know if it's just

1078
00:58:42,440 --> 00:58:45,600
Speaker 1: because more Perfect Union and some other outlets are doing

1079
00:58:45,640 --> 00:58:49,120
Speaker 1: a little bit more journalism around these labor struggles across

1080
00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:51,440
Speaker 1: the country and efforts to unionize, but it does seem

1081
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:54,200
Speaker 1: like there's an uptick right now and that workers are

1082
00:58:54,240 --> 00:58:57,400
Speaker 1: asserting themselves more, especially within the service industry. Well, the

1083
00:58:57,440 --> 00:58:59,600
Speaker 1: reason why is because there's a labor shortage. And look,

1084
00:59:00,080 --> 00:59:02,400
Speaker 1: you know, I've heard a lot of conservative criticism about

1085
00:59:02,440 --> 00:59:05,200
Speaker 1: how that's has to do with unemployment benefits, but we've

1086
00:59:05,200 --> 00:59:07,600
Speaker 1: actually seen from all of the data that a lot

1087
00:59:07,640 --> 00:59:12,360
Speaker 1: of the places which preemptively cut extra unemployment off actually

1088
00:59:12,440 --> 00:59:16,080
Speaker 1: had no impact whatsoever in boosting the services. They did worse, exactly,

1089
00:59:16,160 --> 00:59:18,080
Speaker 1: they did worse than the states that didn't cut off

1090
00:59:18,120 --> 00:59:21,600
Speaker 1: the benefit. I maintain that the number one reason is

1091
00:59:21,640 --> 00:59:23,520
Speaker 1: that a lot of people who had to work in

1092
00:59:23,520 --> 00:59:26,000
Speaker 1: the service industry or uber drivers were like, after a

1093
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:28,120
Speaker 1: year and a half, we're like, yeah, you know, that sucked,

1094
00:59:28,320 --> 00:59:31,080
Speaker 1: that just wasn't fuss. Yeah, I don't want to go back,

1095
00:59:31,320 --> 00:59:32,800
Speaker 1: and a lot of people, I mean, you've played that

1096
00:59:32,800 --> 00:59:35,360
Speaker 1: thing about Laura Ingram basically wanting to like force them

1097
00:59:35,640 --> 00:59:38,280
Speaker 1: back into a job so you can eat, right. I'm

1098
00:59:38,280 --> 00:59:40,640
Speaker 1: personally against that. Yeah, no, no, what it is just

1099
00:59:40,680 --> 00:59:44,520
Speaker 1: as like the start of them like dogs. Yeah yeah,

1100
00:59:44,760 --> 00:59:47,160
Speaker 1: I give you that little mask off there, guys would

1101
00:59:47,160 --> 00:59:48,640
Speaker 1: turn it down a little bit. I think it's just

1102
00:59:48,680 --> 00:59:52,360
Speaker 1: incredibly revealing that the previous system is just something that

1103
00:59:52,480 --> 00:59:54,320
Speaker 1: isn't going to work for people, and that has just

1104
00:59:54,320 --> 00:59:56,320
Speaker 1: happened in a lot of people's lives where you work

1105
00:59:56,400 --> 00:59:58,240
Speaker 1: or you fall into a habit or something, and once

1106
00:59:58,240 --> 00:59:59,960
Speaker 1: you get disconnected from it, you're like, yeah, you know,

1107
01:00:00,160 --> 01:00:02,680
Speaker 1: I don't want to do it anymore. And just because

1108
01:00:02,760 --> 01:00:05,840
Speaker 1: that isn't good for the people who get served by

1109
01:00:05,880 --> 01:00:08,560
Speaker 1: the servant class doesn't mean that it's not good for

1110
01:00:08,600 --> 01:00:10,640
Speaker 1: all of us. So I actually think that's part of

1111
01:00:10,680 --> 01:00:13,680
Speaker 1: what's behind some of this unionization drive is that we

1112
01:00:13,760 --> 01:00:17,600
Speaker 1: probably have the best situation in a long time for

1113
01:00:17,960 --> 01:00:22,400
Speaker 1: more individual workers themselves for bargaining power at the very

1114
01:00:22,400 --> 01:00:25,360
Speaker 1: individual level over what the wages they can demand, the

1115
01:00:25,400 --> 01:00:27,800
Speaker 1: hours they're willing to work from that, So that gives

1116
01:00:27,800 --> 01:00:30,160
Speaker 1: me a little bit of hope. Yeah, indeed, Wow, you

1117
01:00:30,160 --> 01:00:32,200
Speaker 1: guys must really like listening to our voices. Well, I

1118
01:00:32,240 --> 01:00:34,240
Speaker 1: know this is annoying, instead of making you listen to

1119
01:00:34,280 --> 01:00:36,880
Speaker 1: a Viagra commercial. When you're done, check out the other

1120
01:00:36,920 --> 01:00:39,560
Speaker 1: podcast I do with Marshal Costsoff called The Realignment. We

1121
01:00:39,600 --> 01:00:41,920
Speaker 1: talk a lot about the deeper issues that are changing,

1122
01:00:42,040 --> 01:00:45,080
Speaker 1: realigning in American society. You always need more Crystal and

1123
01:00:45,120 --> 01:00:48,560
Speaker 1: Zagur in your daily lives. Take care, guys, Crystal, what

1124
01:00:48,600 --> 01:00:51,400
Speaker 1: are you taking a look at? Well? This morning, we

1125
01:00:51,480 --> 01:00:54,600
Speaker 1: are seeing shocking images at the southern border as thousands

1126
01:00:54,600 --> 01:00:58,480
Speaker 1: of Haitian migrants weight in squalid conditions underneath of a bridge,

1127
01:00:59,000 --> 01:01:01,120
Speaker 1: hoping to be granted this asylum status so that they

1128
01:01:01,160 --> 01:01:04,120
Speaker 1: can remain in the US. Now, this is obviously an

1129
01:01:04,120 --> 01:01:07,160
Speaker 1: emotional issue and it's about as politically charged as they come.

1130
01:01:07,600 --> 01:01:09,240
Speaker 1: I'm going to try to just purely stick to the

1131
01:01:09,240 --> 01:01:11,360
Speaker 1: facts here to set up what is going on and

1132
01:01:11,480 --> 01:01:14,680
Speaker 1: why it is happening. So the images of this crisis

1133
01:01:14,760 --> 01:01:17,920
Speaker 1: are truly terrible, and the conditions are reportedly even worse.

1134
01:01:18,040 --> 01:01:21,560
Speaker 1: You've got about fourteen thousand plus migrants. They've all crowded

1135
01:01:21,680 --> 01:01:24,640
Speaker 1: under this bridge in Del Rio, Texas. They're awaiting processing.

1136
01:01:25,160 --> 01:01:28,040
Speaker 1: There's no running water here. Some have actually been rushed

1137
01:01:28,040 --> 01:01:31,240
Speaker 1: to the hospital for dehydration after passing out in the dusty,

1138
01:01:31,280 --> 01:01:34,800
Speaker 1: triple digit heat. A few scattered porta potties don't come

1139
01:01:34,840 --> 01:01:37,600
Speaker 1: close to meeting the sanitation needs of the thousands who

1140
01:01:37,640 --> 01:01:41,520
Speaker 1: have gathered, young children, babies, pregnant mothers. They are all

1141
01:01:41,560 --> 01:01:45,160
Speaker 1: sleeping there on the trash strewn ground now. Some of

1142
01:01:45,160 --> 01:01:47,440
Speaker 1: the thousands who are arriving are coming more or less

1143
01:01:47,480 --> 01:01:51,120
Speaker 1: directly from Haiti via Mexico. A majority, however, fled to

1144
01:01:51,120 --> 01:01:54,000
Speaker 1: countries like Chili or Brazil years ago and are arriving

1145
01:01:54,040 --> 01:01:56,480
Speaker 1: at our borders now, in part because COVID has made

1146
01:01:56,520 --> 01:02:00,400
Speaker 1: opportunities limited in those countries, and in part because they're

1147
01:02:00,440 --> 01:02:03,680
Speaker 1: counting on Biden's compassion. Now, those betting on a soft

1148
01:02:03,720 --> 01:02:07,480
Speaker 1: hearted Biden are pretty likely to be disappointed. His administration

1149
01:02:07,560 --> 01:02:10,760
Speaker 1: has maintained and defended some of the tough Trump era

1150
01:02:10,880 --> 01:02:14,800
Speaker 1: provisions which were put in place back under his administration. Now,

1151
01:02:14,800 --> 01:02:16,680
Speaker 1: in some ways, Biden has created a sort of worst

1152
01:02:16,720 --> 01:02:19,680
Speaker 1: of all worlds. His softer rhetoric has encouraged hope for

1153
01:02:19,840 --> 01:02:22,600
Speaker 1: migrants who make the long trek, only to face the

1154
01:02:22,640 --> 01:02:25,440
Speaker 1: same hardline policies that they would have met under Trump.

1155
01:02:25,800 --> 01:02:30,280
Speaker 1: In particular, the Biden administration continued mass rapid expulsions of

1156
01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:34,040
Speaker 1: immigrants under Title forty two. That is, a Trump era

1157
01:02:34,160 --> 01:02:38,560
Speaker 1: regulation that permitted mass deportations of migrants due to COVID concerns.

1158
01:02:39,040 --> 01:02:42,200
Speaker 1: Under that provision, migrants could be kicked out before having

1159
01:02:42,240 --> 01:02:45,240
Speaker 1: a chance to apply for asylum. Now this provision is

1160
01:02:45,280 --> 01:02:48,520
Speaker 1: highly controversial and it's potentially illegal. A judge just days

1161
01:02:48,520 --> 01:02:51,440
Speaker 1: ago barred the Biden administration from continuing to use it.

1162
01:02:51,960 --> 01:02:55,720
Speaker 1: That injunction, however, will not go into effect for fourteen days.

1163
01:02:56,120 --> 01:02:59,560
Speaker 1: In the meantime, Biden's DHS is using Title forty two

1164
01:02:59,560 --> 01:03:04,400
Speaker 1: too xecute mass deportations of these Haitian refugees. DHS is

1165
01:03:04,480 --> 01:03:06,880
Speaker 1: running four flights per day, although the number of migrants

1166
01:03:06,960 --> 01:03:10,600
Speaker 1: on those flights is unknown. This represents a major reversal

1167
01:03:10,640 --> 01:03:13,840
Speaker 1: of previous policy. Removal flights to Haiti had actually been

1168
01:03:13,920 --> 01:03:18,120
Speaker 1: suspended following that nation's most recent earthquake, or a recognition

1169
01:03:18,280 --> 01:03:21,320
Speaker 1: of the utterly desperate circumstances on the ground in that

1170
01:03:21,440 --> 01:03:24,360
Speaker 1: island nation. We covered, of course, the fallout from the

1171
01:03:24,360 --> 01:03:27,960
Speaker 1: assassination of Haitian President jov now Moze even prior to

1172
01:03:28,000 --> 01:03:31,760
Speaker 1: Moiz's murder. Haiti was racked with violence as criminal drug gangs,

1173
01:03:31,760 --> 01:03:33,960
Speaker 1: fueled by our own war on drugs, ruled the streets

1174
01:03:33,960 --> 01:03:36,440
Speaker 1: of Port of Prince and other cities. Haiti is the

1175
01:03:36,480 --> 01:03:39,720
Speaker 1: most impoverished nation in the Western Hemisphere. The US has,

1176
01:03:39,760 --> 01:03:42,280
Speaker 1: of course, exploited Haiti since its birth. We've screwed up

1177
01:03:42,280 --> 01:03:45,320
Speaker 1: their political system too. We propped up brutal, murdering dictators

1178
01:03:45,360 --> 01:03:49,160
Speaker 1: because they were anti communists. We overthrew popular reformists because

1179
01:03:49,200 --> 01:03:52,320
Speaker 1: they had a few too many leftist ideas. This poverty

1180
01:03:52,360 --> 01:03:55,920
Speaker 1: and violence has been exacerbated even further by a massive

1181
01:03:55,960 --> 01:03:59,520
Speaker 1: earthquake which just struck that country. Of course, that nation

1182
01:03:59,560 --> 01:04:02,560
Speaker 1: also were fully recovered from the devastating earthquake that hit

1183
01:04:02,640 --> 01:04:06,280
Speaker 1: it back in twenty ten. And on top of everything else,

1184
01:04:06,560 --> 01:04:10,360
Speaker 1: climate change has brought repeated droughts and deadly storms, devastating

1185
01:04:10,400 --> 01:04:13,240
Speaker 1: farmers and making it nearly impossible to get by. So

1186
01:04:13,280 --> 01:04:18,640
Speaker 1: that is the reality here. Crime, violence, poverty, political chaos, hopelessness,

1187
01:04:18,760 --> 01:04:23,520
Speaker 1: complete desperation. The Biden administration did have compassion for Haitians

1188
01:04:23,600 --> 01:04:27,000
Speaker 1: and what they've suffered until I guess it was politically inconvenient.

1189
01:04:27,520 --> 01:04:31,520
Speaker 1: Now this crisis has revealed basically everyone's hypocrisy in blind spots.

1190
01:04:31,560 --> 01:04:34,520
Speaker 1: Republicans have certainly not given by any credit for continuing

1191
01:04:34,520 --> 01:04:39,880
Speaker 1: Trump's border wall construction or defending pandemic based mass expulsions.

1192
01:04:40,280 --> 01:04:42,560
Speaker 1: That's to say nothing of the hypocrisy resulting from the

1193
01:04:42,560 --> 01:04:44,880
Speaker 1: fact that if these refugees were fleeing an island nation

1194
01:04:45,000 --> 01:04:48,560
Speaker 1: located just a few hundred miles from Haiti, Republicans would

1195
01:04:48,560 --> 01:04:51,400
Speaker 1: be celebrating those migrants as heroes and welcoming them with

1196
01:04:51,440 --> 01:04:54,000
Speaker 1: open arms. I'm talking, of course, about the way Cubans

1197
01:04:54,040 --> 01:04:57,360
Speaker 1: are treated as actual human beings by Republican leaders as

1198
01:04:57,360 --> 01:05:01,000
Speaker 1: opposed to virtually all other immigrants. On the other hand,

1199
01:05:01,280 --> 01:05:04,640
Speaker 1: Democrats trash Trump for his border policies, but they have

1200
01:05:04,760 --> 01:05:08,920
Speaker 1: been largely and conspicuously silent as Biden has embraced some

1201
01:05:09,040 --> 01:05:12,480
Speaker 1: of the same cruelty, dysfunction, and yes, kids in cages

1202
01:05:12,520 --> 01:05:16,720
Speaker 1: policies as Trump. Have you heard any elected leaders calling

1203
01:05:16,800 --> 01:05:20,920
Speaker 1: Biden a fascist or calling out Biden's concentration camps. Biden

1204
01:05:21,000 --> 01:05:25,800
Speaker 1: himself pledged to be different, and Kamala Harris specifically pledged

1205
01:05:25,840 --> 01:05:28,919
Speaker 1: to eliminate the title forty two pandemic policies now being

1206
01:05:29,000 --> 01:05:33,120
Speaker 1: used to justify these mass expulsions. She actually signed onto

1207
01:05:33,200 --> 01:05:37,320
Speaker 1: a blistering letter to Trump's DHS secretary stating that quote,

1208
01:05:37,560 --> 01:05:40,640
Speaker 1: a public health crisis does not give the executive branch

1209
01:05:40,680 --> 01:05:44,000
Speaker 1: a free pass to violate constitutional rights, nor does it

1210
01:05:44,040 --> 01:05:47,640
Speaker 1: give the executive branch permission to operate outside of the law.

1211
01:05:48,320 --> 01:05:50,640
Speaker 1: No word from Vice President Harris on whether or not

1212
01:05:50,680 --> 01:05:54,640
Speaker 1: she believes her own administration to be violating constitutional rights

1213
01:05:54,680 --> 01:05:58,400
Speaker 1: and operating outside of the law today. Now, look, it's

1214
01:05:58,440 --> 01:06:00,680
Speaker 1: not an accident that Biden has chose and continue some

1215
01:06:00,720 --> 01:06:03,240
Speaker 1: of the same policies as Trump. As long as we

1216
01:06:03,280 --> 01:06:06,680
Speaker 1: fail to marshal the resources and the political will to

1217
01:06:06,840 --> 01:06:10,800
Speaker 1: actually create an orderly and humane immigration system, these constant

1218
01:06:10,840 --> 01:06:13,600
Speaker 1: crises will keep erupting to the benefit of the most

1219
01:06:13,640 --> 01:06:16,640
Speaker 1: reactionary forces. You can just look at Fox News's by

1220
01:06:16,720 --> 01:06:19,280
Speaker 1: and air programming choices if you want to see what

1221
01:06:19,320 --> 01:06:21,840
Speaker 1: that looks at. At the core of the dysfunction is

1222
01:06:21,840 --> 01:06:25,280
Speaker 1: a court system overwhelmed a backlog of one point four

1223
01:06:25,320 --> 01:06:28,920
Speaker 1: million cases. That is a record high. That means if

1224
01:06:28,920 --> 01:06:31,600
Speaker 1: you let people enter the US before their asylum cases

1225
01:06:31,600 --> 01:06:34,960
Speaker 1: have been adjudicated, they might be waiting years in this

1226
01:06:35,040 --> 01:06:37,960
Speaker 1: country before they ever have a court date. In that time,

1227
01:06:38,400 --> 01:06:41,320
Speaker 1: lives are established, children are born, local ties are created,

1228
01:06:41,320 --> 01:06:44,280
Speaker 1: and it then becomes very very hard to deport people

1229
01:06:44,320 --> 01:06:47,240
Speaker 1: who have established those sorts of community ties. If you

1230
01:06:47,280 --> 01:06:49,800
Speaker 1: take the other tactic of holding people in detention centers,

1231
01:06:49,800 --> 01:06:52,240
Speaker 1: you enrich a bunch of private prison companies and you

1232
01:06:52,360 --> 01:06:56,040
Speaker 1: end up incarcerating people indefinitely who might be legitimate refugees.

1233
01:06:56,360 --> 01:06:59,280
Speaker 1: Trump's remain in Mexico policy had political benefits in an

1234
01:06:59,280 --> 01:07:01,200
Speaker 1: out of sight, out of mind sort of way, but

1235
01:07:01,360 --> 01:07:03,960
Speaker 1: was also very cruel. Migrants live by the thousands in

1236
01:07:04,000 --> 01:07:06,600
Speaker 1: squalid and dangerous tent camps with no ability to work,

1237
01:07:06,840 --> 01:07:09,920
Speaker 1: preyed upon by criminals and by gangs. Now look for

1238
01:07:10,000 --> 01:07:13,240
Speaker 1: me personally, I believe in a generous but not limitless

1239
01:07:13,360 --> 01:07:17,320
Speaker 1: immigration policy with clear rules and clear timelines. We are

1240
01:07:17,320 --> 01:07:19,560
Speaker 1: complicit and screwing up the world, and as a wealthy nation,

1241
01:07:19,640 --> 01:07:22,040
Speaker 1: we also have a high moral obligation. But we are

1242
01:07:22,080 --> 01:07:24,439
Speaker 1: also a nation state with a right to determine who

1243
01:07:24,560 --> 01:07:28,520
Speaker 1: enters our borders clearly, and this should be nonpartisan. We

1244
01:07:28,600 --> 01:07:31,600
Speaker 1: need to massively ramp up our judicial capacity to handle

1245
01:07:31,640 --> 01:07:35,080
Speaker 1: the current and incoming influx so that migrants can't exploit

1246
01:07:35,400 --> 01:07:37,720
Speaker 1: that long multi year lag time that is now the

1247
01:07:37,800 --> 01:07:40,120
Speaker 1: norm now. As you know, I also believe it's critical

1248
01:07:40,120 --> 01:07:42,200
Speaker 1: to make sure the Native born working class has living

1249
01:07:42,200 --> 01:07:44,880
Speaker 1: wages in healthcare and a basic floor of dignity underneath

1250
01:07:44,880 --> 01:07:47,000
Speaker 1: of them, so we can avoid the sort of zero

1251
01:07:47,040 --> 01:07:50,320
Speaker 1: sum thinking and reality that can pit our Indigenous working

1252
01:07:50,320 --> 01:07:53,640
Speaker 1: class against these new immigrants. Look, one thing I know

1253
01:07:53,720 --> 01:07:57,040
Speaker 1: here for sure is that hoping conditions improve or that

1254
01:07:57,080 --> 01:07:59,840
Speaker 1: the media doesn't pay attention, that is a fool's Errand

1255
01:08:00,040 --> 01:08:03,680
Speaker 1: with climate change crushing livelihoods and fueling resource wars, our

1256
01:08:03,720 --> 01:08:07,040
Speaker 1: borders will continue to be inundated, with desperate people clinging

1257
01:08:07,040 --> 01:08:09,680
Speaker 1: to whatever hopeful rumors that they happen to see on WhatsApp.

1258
01:08:10,120 --> 01:08:14,160
Speaker 1: Fifteen thousand Haitians under a bridge is nothing compared to

1259
01:08:14,160 --> 01:08:17,360
Speaker 1: what future years are very likely to bring. If this

1260
01:08:17,640 --> 01:08:20,080
Speaker 1: is a test of the inevitable future to come, we

1261
01:08:20,200 --> 01:08:22,439
Speaker 1: have failed our own people and we have failed these

1262
01:08:22,479 --> 01:08:26,360
Speaker 1: migrants in every possible way, and it is incredible. Saga,

1263
01:08:26,920 --> 01:08:30,360
Speaker 1: how little you hear Kama Harris said this was unconstitutional

1264
01:08:30,560 --> 01:08:33,679
Speaker 1: what's happening now? And that was at the hybrid. One

1265
01:08:33,680 --> 01:08:36,040
Speaker 1: more thing, I promise, just wanted to make sure you

1266
01:08:36,120 --> 01:08:39,160
Speaker 1: knew about my podcast with Kyle Kolinski. It's called Crystal,

1267
01:08:39,200 --> 01:08:41,680
Speaker 1: Kyle and Friends, where we do long form interviews with

1268
01:08:41,720 --> 01:08:45,200
Speaker 1: people like Noam Chomsky, Cornell West, and Glenn Greenwald. You

1269
01:08:45,240 --> 01:08:48,640
Speaker 1: can listen on any podcast platform, or you can subscribe

1270
01:08:48,680 --> 01:08:50,920
Speaker 1: over on substack to get the video a day early.

1271
01:08:51,160 --> 01:08:54,880
Speaker 1: We're going to stop bugging you now enjoy all right, saga,

1272
01:08:54,880 --> 01:08:56,680
Speaker 1: what are you looking at? Once upon a time, you

1273
01:08:56,680 --> 01:09:00,160
Speaker 1: guys might remember this entire country's political establishment and media

1274
01:09:00,240 --> 01:09:03,719
Speaker 1: and politics were driven by a central question. Did Donald Trump,

1275
01:09:03,840 --> 01:09:07,320
Speaker 1: our newly elected president, conspire with the Russian government to

1276
01:09:07,439 --> 01:09:11,320
Speaker 1: win the twenty sixteen presidential election. Hours of cable news

1277
01:09:11,320 --> 01:09:16,080
Speaker 1: appearances and special councils and impeachment wasted potential. Later, the

1278
01:09:16,160 --> 01:09:19,200
Speaker 1: answer to that question was definitely no, And as the

1279
01:09:19,240 --> 01:09:22,759
Speaker 1: dust settled, it actually became clear that instead a massive

1280
01:09:22,840 --> 01:09:26,000
Speaker 1: fraud had been perpetrated on the American people, that their

1281
01:09:26,040 --> 01:09:30,960
Speaker 1: intelligence services, their political class, their media had wasted two

1282
01:09:31,439 --> 01:09:34,920
Speaker 1: entire years of their lives. I, like many of you,

1283
01:09:35,120 --> 01:09:38,559
Speaker 1: thought there would never be any accountability. Recall, many of

1284
01:09:38,560 --> 01:09:41,559
Speaker 1: the actors involved were pushed the Iraq War and a

1285
01:09:41,600 --> 01:09:44,600
Speaker 1: small taste of justice, though came Friday, which reminded me

1286
01:09:44,680 --> 01:09:47,639
Speaker 1: of just how completely insane the last five years were

1287
01:09:47,960 --> 01:09:51,920
Speaker 1: and how unhinged Washington became in those years. As with

1288
01:09:52,000 --> 01:09:55,200
Speaker 1: all things Russiagate, the details are tedious, but if you

1289
01:09:55,240 --> 01:09:57,519
Speaker 1: stick with me, there is a bigger point to be made.

1290
01:09:58,240 --> 01:10:01,719
Speaker 1: Special Counsel Robert Durham, he was appointed by Bill Barr

1291
01:10:01,840 --> 01:10:05,639
Speaker 1: to investigate the origins of the Russian investigation. He indicted

1292
01:10:05,840 --> 01:10:10,200
Speaker 1: Democratic cybersecurity lawyer Michael Sussman with making false statements to

1293
01:10:10,240 --> 01:10:13,520
Speaker 1: the FBI about his role as a Clinton campaign operative

1294
01:10:13,680 --> 01:10:16,479
Speaker 1: in feeding the media a story about a connection between

1295
01:10:16,520 --> 01:10:20,439
Speaker 1: the Trump organization and a corrupt Russian bank. Now, this

1296
01:10:20,560 --> 01:10:24,200
Speaker 1: false statement was made in September twenty sixteen when Sussman

1297
01:10:24,479 --> 01:10:28,080
Speaker 1: met with the then FBI General Counsel James Baker. Sussman

1298
01:10:28,160 --> 01:10:31,439
Speaker 1: portrayed himself as a well meaning citizen concerned about Trump

1299
01:10:31,520 --> 01:10:34,479
Speaker 1: and his connections to Russia, when in reality he was

1300
01:10:34,520 --> 01:10:38,799
Speaker 1: being paid by the Clinton campaign. Furthermore, the investigation revealed

1301
01:10:38,840 --> 01:10:41,479
Speaker 1: that whenever he presented those claims to the FBI, they

1302
01:10:41,520 --> 01:10:45,080
Speaker 1: didn't even believe the allegations at the time themselves, and

1303
01:10:45,120 --> 01:10:48,200
Speaker 1: they were working with the tech executives to potentially falsefy

1304
01:10:48,240 --> 01:10:51,719
Speaker 1: evidence pointing to a Russian connection. Andy McCarthy of National

1305
01:10:51,760 --> 01:10:54,799
Speaker 1: Review described it this way, quote in a nutshell, people

1306
01:10:54,840 --> 01:10:57,880
Speaker 1: closely connected to the Clinton campaign used privileged access to

1307
01:10:57,960 --> 01:11:01,360
Speaker 1: non public information for political purposes. They concoct it into

1308
01:11:01,400 --> 01:11:03,880
Speaker 1: a political narrative they know is baseless but can be

1309
01:11:03,960 --> 01:11:07,240
Speaker 1: convincingly spun to suggest Trump is and cohodes with Putin.

1310
01:11:07,600 --> 01:11:11,080
Speaker 1: They then simultaneously pedal that storyline to the media and

1311
01:11:11,120 --> 01:11:14,400
Speaker 1: the FBI, the latter of which opens an investigation of

1312
01:11:14,439 --> 01:11:18,520
Speaker 1: Trump because the Clinton team, in this instance Susman misrepresents

1313
01:11:18,600 --> 01:11:22,080
Speaker 1: its intentions. The key part is not only was the

1314
01:11:22,160 --> 01:11:25,800
Speaker 1: Clinton op to start an FBI investigation just revealed, but

1315
01:11:25,840 --> 01:11:29,240
Speaker 1: that the media liars who pedaled these theories are finally

1316
01:11:29,280 --> 01:11:33,160
Speaker 1: revealed too. Franklin for Who's a longtime Washington journalist. He

1317
01:11:33,200 --> 01:11:35,400
Speaker 1: was the first to publish this in a question headline

1318
01:11:35,560 --> 01:11:39,519
Speaker 1: outlining the so called evidence the new indictment, though, reveals

1319
01:11:39,520 --> 01:11:42,839
Speaker 1: that before four Hit published on that story, he literally

1320
01:11:42,920 --> 01:11:45,880
Speaker 1: sent it for review to Fusion GPS, which was the

1321
01:11:45,880 --> 01:11:49,000
Speaker 1: firm which was pushing the Steele dossier and who invented

1322
01:11:49,040 --> 01:11:51,800
Speaker 1: many of the Russia allegations in the first place. Here's

1323
01:11:51,840 --> 01:11:54,879
Speaker 1: how it all comes full circle. Right after four publishes

1324
01:11:54,920 --> 01:11:58,040
Speaker 1: that article, which was essentially written for Hillary for him

1325
01:11:58,040 --> 01:12:00,760
Speaker 1: by the Clinton folks, what does Clinton do? She then

1326
01:12:00,840 --> 01:12:04,920
Speaker 1: releases a statement saying that computer scientists have apparently uncovered

1327
01:12:05,120 --> 01:12:08,519
Speaker 1: a covert server linking the Trump organization to a Russian

1328
01:12:08,560 --> 01:12:12,200
Speaker 1: based bank. Invent a story, plant the story, call attention

1329
01:12:12,240 --> 01:12:15,040
Speaker 1: to the story. It's a time honored tradition in Washington.

1330
01:12:15,280 --> 01:12:18,000
Speaker 1: You might also remember it from the war in Iraq. Now,

1331
01:12:18,160 --> 01:12:21,439
Speaker 1: even though Clinton lost, the story still wouldn't die. It

1332
01:12:21,560 --> 01:12:23,920
Speaker 1: laid dormant, and the diehards would never let it go.

1333
01:12:24,280 --> 01:12:27,000
Speaker 1: Two years later, after it saw some life breathed into

1334
01:12:27,040 --> 01:12:29,680
Speaker 1: it after the New York Times revealed that they'd investigated

1335
01:12:29,680 --> 01:12:31,360
Speaker 1: at the time and couldn't find any evidence, so they

1336
01:12:31,360 --> 01:12:34,960
Speaker 1: didn't publish. Diehard russiagators saw that as evidence of a

1337
01:12:35,000 --> 01:12:37,800
Speaker 1: cover up, and they used it to talk about once

1338
01:12:37,840 --> 01:12:41,000
Speaker 1: again on cable news. Here's our old friend, Rachel Maddow

1339
01:12:41,479 --> 01:12:45,439
Speaker 1: citing that story credulously to day two years later, Russian

1340
01:12:45,479 --> 01:12:48,240
Speaker 1: interference in our election. There have been specific questions raised

1341
01:12:48,280 --> 01:12:50,200
Speaker 1: as to whether Alpha Bank might have been involved in

1342
01:12:50,280 --> 01:12:55,000
Speaker 1: surreptitious contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia while the

1343
01:12:55,040 --> 01:12:58,439
Speaker 1: attack was underwing. You might remember that ultimately sort of

1344
01:12:58,520 --> 01:13:05,839
Speaker 1: baffling reporting about unexplained communications during the election between computer

1345
01:13:05,960 --> 01:13:09,080
Speaker 1: servers in Russia linked to Alpha Bank and a computer

1346
01:13:09,160 --> 01:13:13,240
Speaker 1: server in Trump Tower linked to the Trump organization. Very

1347
01:13:13,280 --> 01:13:16,360
Speaker 1: interesting reporting. Ultimately, it's open ended. We don't have any

1348
01:13:17,760 --> 01:13:21,080
Speaker 1: Around the same time, MSNBC's Chris Hayes had Franklin Foer,

1349
01:13:21,160 --> 01:13:25,320
Speaker 1: who was the author himself of that article, and Natasha Bertrand,

1350
01:13:25,400 --> 01:13:28,240
Speaker 1: who her self built her career on peddling bs russigate

1351
01:13:28,280 --> 01:13:32,160
Speaker 1: allegations on Natasha says, what else do you need in

1352
01:13:32,240 --> 01:13:35,040
Speaker 1: terms of evidence? Take a listen, remember the hysteria at

1353
01:13:35,040 --> 01:13:38,960
Speaker 1: the time. I mean, what more evidence do you need?

1354
01:13:39,120 --> 01:13:43,000
Speaker 1: It's very very obvious, and it's really Awkham's razor here.

1355
01:13:43,520 --> 01:13:45,760
Speaker 1: The fact that we still have not been able to

1356
01:13:46,320 --> 01:13:49,320
Speaker 1: rule out the idea that this was a covert communication

1357
01:13:49,439 --> 01:13:51,760
Speaker 1: channel two years after the fact. The fact that no

1358
01:13:51,800 --> 01:13:54,880
Speaker 1: one has come forth with a plausible explanation for why

1359
01:13:54,960 --> 01:13:57,720
Speaker 1: this was happening, for why Alpha Bank was one of

1360
01:13:58,000 --> 01:14:01,320
Speaker 1: three organizations communicating with the true Trump server in those

1361
01:14:01,400 --> 01:14:04,440
Speaker 1: months leading up to the election, is just completely remarkable

1362
01:14:04,439 --> 01:14:08,680
Speaker 1: and I think the fact that Frank's story got overlooked

1363
01:14:08,960 --> 01:14:12,040
Speaker 1: or criticized as much as it did, and the fact

1364
01:14:12,080 --> 01:14:14,320
Speaker 1: that now it's being revisited and you have the editor

1365
01:14:14,520 --> 01:14:17,080
Speaker 1: of the New York Times saying that there was a

1366
01:14:17,120 --> 01:14:22,520
Speaker 1: story there just shows the lack of imagination. Look. Personally,

1367
01:14:22,680 --> 01:14:24,479
Speaker 1: I would die happy I never had to use the

1368
01:14:24,520 --> 01:14:28,120
Speaker 1: words Steele dossier or Russia Gate ever. Again, the entire thing,

1369
01:14:28,240 --> 01:14:31,439
Speaker 1: even at the time, was a colossal bore. But I

1370
01:14:31,520 --> 01:14:33,360
Speaker 1: learned the details in the same way I had to

1371
01:14:33,439 --> 01:14:36,360
Speaker 1: learn the details of yellow cake uranium and the country

1372
01:14:36,360 --> 01:14:40,320
Speaker 1: of Niger during the Iraq War. Because understanding the precise

1373
01:14:40,400 --> 01:14:43,800
Speaker 1: mechanisms that were used to manipulate the media and the

1374
01:14:43,840 --> 01:14:46,160
Speaker 1: public in order to launch one of the most outlandish

1375
01:14:46,200 --> 01:14:50,200
Speaker 1: public conspiracies in modern memory is in fact very important.

1376
01:14:50,520 --> 01:14:53,559
Speaker 1: The hallmarks for nearly every past and future scandal are

1377
01:14:53,600 --> 01:14:56,559
Speaker 1: evident here. And yes, it seems we have some measure

1378
01:14:56,560 --> 01:14:59,240
Speaker 1: of justice in this case, but the real criminals are

1379
01:14:59,240 --> 01:15:01,920
Speaker 1: the media themselves, elves who elevated all of this to

1380
01:15:01,960 --> 01:15:04,960
Speaker 1: such a level of public consciousness and for wasting two

1381
01:15:05,040 --> 01:15:08,160
Speaker 1: years of our lives. The tragedy is even today, there

1382
01:15:08,160 --> 01:15:10,799
Speaker 1: are probably millions of people who believe that this story

1383
01:15:10,880 --> 01:15:14,479
Speaker 1: is true, true to form. Maddow dismissed the entire recent

1384
01:15:14,520 --> 01:15:17,679
Speaker 1: indictment on her show and stood by her coverage after

1385
01:15:17,720 --> 01:15:21,360
Speaker 1: it came to light. These people will never apologize and

1386
01:15:21,400 --> 01:15:23,840
Speaker 1: the only real justice that we will ever have is

1387
01:15:23,840 --> 01:15:27,000
Speaker 1: to never trust any of them again. It's amazing, Crystal.

1388
01:15:27,240 --> 01:15:29,280
Speaker 1: You see all of this stuff come out, You see

1389
01:15:29,280 --> 01:15:32,040
Speaker 1: the actual indictment, You see how all of these people

1390
01:15:32,040 --> 01:15:35,000
Speaker 1: were working with all of these life join us. Now

1391
01:15:35,040 --> 01:15:40,160
Speaker 1: we have Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and substacker, extraordinary friend

1392
01:15:40,160 --> 01:15:42,040
Speaker 1: of the show, Glenn Greenwold to see Glenn. Good to

1393
01:15:42,040 --> 01:15:45,920
Speaker 1: see Glenn. Thank you guys, thanks for inviting me. Of course.

1394
01:15:46,520 --> 01:15:50,360
Speaker 1: Soccer actually just delivered a monologue about the Durham indictment

1395
01:15:50,600 --> 01:15:54,599
Speaker 1: of this Democratic lawyer assessment over at Perkins Kooy. Just

1396
01:15:54,760 --> 01:15:56,920
Speaker 1: explain to the audience what you think is so significant

1397
01:15:56,920 --> 01:16:00,439
Speaker 1: about this. I think there are two aspects to it.

1398
01:16:00,479 --> 01:16:04,600
Speaker 1: One is the fact that this is not a Republican

1399
01:16:04,960 --> 01:16:08,920
Speaker 1: justice department, but a justice department supervised by Joe Biden's

1400
01:16:08,960 --> 01:16:13,320
Speaker 1: Attorney General Merrick Garland, who approved of this indictment, specifically

1401
01:16:14,600 --> 01:16:18,559
Speaker 1: and explicitly stating that the Trump Alpha Bank story that

1402
01:16:18,560 --> 01:16:21,759
Speaker 1: the media spread so aggressively in the middle of twenty

1403
01:16:21,800 --> 01:16:25,639
Speaker 1: sixteen and even beyond is a fraud that the FBI

1404
01:16:25,760 --> 01:16:28,559
Speaker 1: concluded very early on that there was no evidence to

1405
01:16:28,600 --> 01:16:31,919
Speaker 1: suggest this was some kind of nefarious or clandestine connection.

1406
01:16:32,800 --> 01:16:36,640
Speaker 1: And yet you have the reporters responsible for having spread it,

1407
01:16:36,720 --> 01:16:39,760
Speaker 1: like Franklin Fohr and Natasha Bertrand and Rachel Maddow and

1408
01:16:39,840 --> 01:16:43,599
Speaker 1: Chris Hayes, who not only have thrived in the wake

1409
01:16:43,680 --> 01:16:49,080
Speaker 1: of doing that, but also who haven't bothered at all.

1410
01:16:49,320 --> 01:16:52,280
Speaker 1: We even addressed this indictment. Rachel Maddow did one segment

1411
01:16:52,320 --> 01:16:54,880
Speaker 1: about it before the indictment even came out, when nobody

1412
01:16:54,920 --> 01:16:57,840
Speaker 1: knew what it said, where she kind of maligned the

1413
01:16:57,840 --> 01:17:01,000
Speaker 1: indictment and dismissed it as insignificant. But the parts of

1414
01:17:01,040 --> 01:17:05,040
Speaker 1: it that debunked their reporting is something that they've just

1415
01:17:05,080 --> 01:17:07,400
Speaker 1: completely ignored. They have any big acknowledge that the story

1416
01:17:07,439 --> 01:17:11,799
Speaker 1: they pushed, according to the Biden administration, is completely false.

1417
01:17:11,840 --> 01:17:13,760
Speaker 1: But I think the much more important part of the

1418
01:17:13,800 --> 01:17:18,600
Speaker 1: story is the window it provides into how Clinton operatives

1419
01:17:18,680 --> 01:17:21,640
Speaker 1: worked hand in hand with friendly media outlets. It was,

1420
01:17:21,720 --> 01:17:26,599
Speaker 1: according to the indictment, this Clinton lawyer Michael Sussman, who

1421
01:17:27,160 --> 01:17:30,160
Speaker 1: worked with these researchers and was told by them that

1422
01:17:30,160 --> 01:17:33,519
Speaker 1: the data wasn't good enough to disseminate the story, and

1423
01:17:33,600 --> 01:17:35,559
Speaker 1: yet he did it anyway. He fed it to Frank

1424
01:17:35,560 --> 01:17:38,760
Speaker 1: four at Slate who's now at The Atlantic. And then

1425
01:17:38,840 --> 01:17:41,800
Speaker 1: Hillary Clinton is the one who elevated it by pretending

1426
01:17:42,400 --> 01:17:45,080
Speaker 1: that she learned about it for the first time in Slate,

1427
01:17:45,160 --> 01:17:48,280
Speaker 1: when in fact it was her lawyers working with Fusion

1428
01:17:48,320 --> 01:17:52,400
Speaker 1: GPS who worked for Hillary Clinton, who contracted Christopher Steele,

1429
01:17:52,920 --> 01:17:55,639
Speaker 1: responsible for concockying the whole story. And the worst part

1430
01:17:55,760 --> 01:17:57,800
Speaker 1: might be that we learned for the first time that

1431
01:17:57,840 --> 01:18:01,439
Speaker 1: Franklin four took his marching orders from Fusion GPS. They

1432
01:18:01,439 --> 01:18:03,240
Speaker 1: were the one who said, Okay, frank, it's time to

1433
01:18:03,280 --> 01:18:06,519
Speaker 1: get moving, like kind of snapping their fingers, and then

1434
01:18:06,760 --> 01:18:08,760
Speaker 1: not only did he obey, but he sent them the

1435
01:18:08,880 --> 01:18:12,719
Speaker 1: draft of his story to get approval from the Clinton

1436
01:18:12,760 --> 01:18:15,880
Speaker 1: operatives who are manufacturing and engineering the entire things. You

1437
01:18:16,000 --> 01:18:19,840
Speaker 1: get a view into how this journalistic corruption drove the

1438
01:18:20,200 --> 01:18:23,720
Speaker 1: scammier parts of Russia Gate for so long. Yeah, it's

1439
01:18:24,280 --> 01:18:26,679
Speaker 1: completely insane when you look at the details and Glenn,

1440
01:18:26,680 --> 01:18:29,599
Speaker 1: as you point out, the indictments so far in terms

1441
01:18:29,600 --> 01:18:32,280
Speaker 1: of what we have been revealed, both on Sussman, on

1442
01:18:32,400 --> 01:18:37,799
Speaker 1: the carter Page FAISO warrant as well, reveal actually, frankly,

1443
01:18:38,080 --> 01:18:41,320
Speaker 1: in our view, like more corruption on that view or

1444
01:18:41,560 --> 01:18:44,400
Speaker 1: that on the origins of the investigation than really in

1445
01:18:44,479 --> 01:18:47,400
Speaker 1: what they built up as this grand conspiracy. Can you

1446
01:18:47,439 --> 01:18:51,160
Speaker 1: speak to the carter Page situation as well. Yeah, so

1447
01:18:51,280 --> 01:18:56,040
Speaker 1: this is the second I mean, technically the FBI lawyer

1448
01:18:56,120 --> 01:19:00,559
Speaker 1: who pled guilty in January was an indict It wasn't

1449
01:19:00,600 --> 01:19:03,000
Speaker 1: necessary because he pled guilty, but he pled guilty to

1450
01:19:03,080 --> 01:19:05,960
Speaker 1: a very serious crime, which was as you may recall,

1451
01:19:06,560 --> 01:19:09,559
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen, after carter Page had worked with the

1452
01:19:09,560 --> 01:19:14,920
Speaker 1: Trump campaign, the FBI convinced the pis accord to issue

1453
01:19:14,920 --> 01:19:17,639
Speaker 1: warrants to allow them to spy in the most invasive

1454
01:19:17,680 --> 01:19:21,240
Speaker 1: way possible in this American citizen carter Page, by claiming

1455
01:19:21,240 --> 01:19:23,439
Speaker 1: there was evidence to believe he was an agent of

1456
01:19:23,479 --> 01:19:26,280
Speaker 1: the Russian government. They read his emails, they listened to

1457
01:19:26,320 --> 01:19:28,720
Speaker 1: his phone calls pursuing to these warrants, and as it

1458
01:19:28,760 --> 01:19:32,120
Speaker 1: turned out, according to Robert Mueller, there was no evidence

1459
01:19:32,240 --> 01:19:36,880
Speaker 1: to establish that carter Page was ever an agent of

1460
01:19:36,880 --> 01:19:41,839
Speaker 1: the Russian government, and beyond that, you know, the FBI

1461
01:19:42,120 --> 01:19:44,760
Speaker 1: altered documents and lied to the phis A court in

1462
01:19:44,880 --> 01:19:47,560
Speaker 1: order to get it. So, as you say, Sagar, the

1463
01:19:48,000 --> 01:19:51,320
Speaker 1: most important thing here, in my view, is that there

1464
01:19:51,360 --> 01:19:53,920
Speaker 1: were indictments obviously on the other side of the equation

1465
01:19:54,040 --> 01:19:56,719
Speaker 1: from Robert Mueller, but almost all of those were crimes

1466
01:19:56,720 --> 01:20:01,440
Speaker 1: committed during the investigation. The accusation that spawned the investigation

1467
01:20:02,320 --> 01:20:05,519
Speaker 1: was that American citizens had criminally conspired with Russia to

1468
01:20:05,560 --> 01:20:08,240
Speaker 1: interfere in the twenty sixteen election, and the grand total

1469
01:20:08,280 --> 01:20:12,120
Speaker 1: of Americans indicted for that crime, the one that started

1470
01:20:12,160 --> 01:20:16,120
Speaker 1: all of Russiagate that spawn Moller, is zero. So I

1471
01:20:16,120 --> 01:20:18,519
Speaker 1: think what you're seeing is that the real criminality and

1472
01:20:18,560 --> 01:20:21,840
Speaker 1: the real corruption was not on the side of those

1473
01:20:21,880 --> 01:20:24,719
Speaker 1: who supposedly conspired with Russia, because Muller said he couldn't

1474
01:20:24,720 --> 01:20:27,720
Speaker 1: find evidence to establish that conspiracy. It was on the

1475
01:20:27,760 --> 01:20:31,040
Speaker 1: side of those who in secret propagated this conspiracy theory

1476
01:20:31,080 --> 01:20:33,800
Speaker 1: and drowned our politics in it for the next four years.

1477
01:20:34,360 --> 01:20:37,360
Speaker 1: And Glenn, I think it's really important to drill down

1478
01:20:37,520 --> 01:20:41,040
Speaker 1: on this media piece that you highlighted that was so

1479
01:20:41,240 --> 01:20:46,080
Speaker 1: revealing with Frank FOORR who's effectively through fusion GPS taking

1480
01:20:46,120 --> 01:20:49,920
Speaker 1: his marching orders directly from the Hillary Clinton campaign. And

1481
01:20:49,960 --> 01:20:53,280
Speaker 1: by the way, this is not like only Democrats do this,

1482
01:20:53,280 --> 01:20:58,400
Speaker 1: This is routinely How what is now effectively partisan media operates?

1483
01:20:58,720 --> 01:21:01,760
Speaker 1: Can you lay out for people what are the incentives

1484
01:21:01,840 --> 01:21:05,760
Speaker 1: for quote unquote journalists to operate in this sort of

1485
01:21:05,840 --> 01:21:10,840
Speaker 1: manner as effectively stenographers, either of politicians, political campaigns, or

1486
01:21:10,880 --> 01:21:14,519
Speaker 1: deep state actors. Well, I mean, look, on the one hand,

1487
01:21:14,640 --> 01:21:18,200
Speaker 1: you know it is true that as a journalist you

1488
01:21:18,240 --> 01:21:23,200
Speaker 1: need to get your information from somewhere, and oftentimes you

1489
01:21:23,240 --> 01:21:26,839
Speaker 1: need to rely on sources you have kind of shady

1490
01:21:27,120 --> 01:21:31,200
Speaker 1: or partisan or less than benevolent motives, and that might

1491
01:21:31,240 --> 01:21:35,200
Speaker 1: even be part as an operative. Sometimes people doing partisan

1492
01:21:35,400 --> 01:21:38,719
Speaker 1: research or opposition research for a political party or candidate

1493
01:21:39,280 --> 01:21:42,880
Speaker 1: actually does obtain information in the public interest and wants

1494
01:21:42,880 --> 01:21:44,479
Speaker 1: to feed it to you as a journalist, even if

1495
01:21:44,520 --> 01:21:48,000
Speaker 1: it's for their own end, it still helps you do reporting.

1496
01:21:48,520 --> 01:21:51,160
Speaker 1: But you have to be very careful that when you're

1497
01:21:51,560 --> 01:21:54,360
Speaker 1: dealing with people like that, that you don't end up

1498
01:21:54,400 --> 01:21:57,479
Speaker 1: as their ponds. That you can use them as your

1499
01:21:57,600 --> 01:22:01,680
Speaker 1: source and you can get information from them that you know,

1500
01:22:01,760 --> 01:22:05,320
Speaker 1: you think is necessary to enable your reporting. But what

1501
01:22:05,400 --> 01:22:08,680
Speaker 1: you never want to do is turn into their servants

1502
01:22:08,720 --> 01:22:10,600
Speaker 1: with the hope that they're going to keep feeding you,

1503
01:22:10,680 --> 01:22:13,360
Speaker 1: and that instead of doing your job as a journalist,

1504
01:22:13,640 --> 01:22:15,880
Speaker 1: you end up carrying out their agenda as a part

1505
01:22:15,920 --> 01:22:19,360
Speaker 1: as an operative. And clearly, you know, the Clinton world

1506
01:22:19,600 --> 01:22:24,920
Speaker 1: is extremely experienced. They've dominated liberal politics for you know,

1507
01:22:25,000 --> 01:22:27,920
Speaker 1: two or three decades, from the early nineteen nineties through

1508
01:22:28,000 --> 01:22:31,080
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen when Hillary Clinton ran, that's almost three decades,

1509
01:22:31,600 --> 01:22:35,200
Speaker 1: and they're very adept at cultivating these journalists who are

1510
01:22:35,280 --> 01:22:37,439
Speaker 1: very subservient to them because they know there are so

1511
01:22:37,479 --> 01:22:40,920
Speaker 1: many rewards for doing the bidding of the Clintons. And that,

1512
01:22:41,040 --> 01:22:42,840
Speaker 1: combined with the fact that there were just so many

1513
01:22:42,880 --> 01:22:46,479
Speaker 1: true believers who thought their role as journalists wasn't to

1514
01:22:46,560 --> 01:22:50,640
Speaker 1: do reporting but defeat Donald Trump, completely corrupted the profession

1515
01:22:50,680 --> 01:22:53,200
Speaker 1: in ways that I don't think it's recovered. It I

1516
01:22:53,280 --> 01:22:56,880
Speaker 1: certainly hasn't. One of the things I'd learned really from you,

1517
01:22:57,120 --> 01:22:59,840
Speaker 1: because I wasn't around at the time, was about how

1518
01:22:59,840 --> 01:23:03,280
Speaker 1: the Atlantic who is currently being headed by Jeffrey Goldberg,

1519
01:23:03,320 --> 01:23:07,080
Speaker 1: who himself was one of the chief architects of manufacturing

1520
01:23:07,160 --> 01:23:11,040
Speaker 1: consent for the Iraq War then became one of the

1521
01:23:11,080 --> 01:23:15,280
Speaker 1: hot beds of Russia Gate conspiracism at the highest level

1522
01:23:15,320 --> 01:23:19,080
Speaker 1: where Natasha Bertan who you mentioned, and Franklin for both

1523
01:23:19,400 --> 01:23:23,040
Speaker 1: worked at during the height of Russia Gate. How can

1524
01:23:23,080 --> 01:23:26,360
Speaker 1: you draw the connection between Iraq and Russia Gate because

1525
01:23:26,400 --> 01:23:28,880
Speaker 1: it does just go to show how all the mechanisms

1526
01:23:28,920 --> 01:23:32,160
Speaker 1: are still in place. Yeah, I mean, Matt Tayibi has

1527
01:23:32,160 --> 01:23:36,880
Speaker 1: said that Russiagate is the WMD of our generation from

1528
01:23:36,880 --> 01:23:40,080
Speaker 1: the perspective of media failure. Now, obviously, if you say that,

1529
01:23:40,160 --> 01:23:44,640
Speaker 1: people react and say Russia Gate didn't result in the

1530
01:23:44,680 --> 01:23:47,240
Speaker 1: destruction of a country of twenty six million people and

1531
01:23:47,280 --> 01:23:49,000
Speaker 1: a war and all of that. So no one's saying

1532
01:23:49,720 --> 01:23:52,400
Speaker 1: the impact was worse or similar. What people are saying

1533
01:23:52,400 --> 01:23:55,080
Speaker 1: when Matt Aib says that and people like me ratify it,

1534
01:23:55,160 --> 01:23:58,960
Speaker 1: is that the same media tactics of corruption, deceit and

1535
01:23:59,040 --> 01:24:02,840
Speaker 1: propaganda were so. Just begin with the fact that there's

1536
01:24:02,880 --> 01:24:07,160
Speaker 1: an enormous amount of overlap between the leading russigators and

1537
01:24:07,200 --> 01:24:10,120
Speaker 1: those who were the people who were pushing the lives

1538
01:24:10,160 --> 01:24:15,280
Speaker 1: about Sodom Hussein either than he was searching for nuclear weapons,

1539
01:24:15,439 --> 01:24:17,720
Speaker 1: had weapons of mass destruction, was in an alliance with

1540
01:24:17,760 --> 01:24:21,040
Speaker 1: al Qaeda. That's why so many of these Republicans, like

1541
01:24:21,040 --> 01:24:23,880
Speaker 1: the Lincoln Project and never Trump people Bill Crystal David Frum,

1542
01:24:24,320 --> 01:24:27,760
Speaker 1: who became the leading russigators, were also the leaders of

1543
01:24:27,800 --> 01:24:30,800
Speaker 1: the lies about the Iraq War because the tactics were

1544
01:24:30,840 --> 01:24:33,960
Speaker 1: exactly the same, the propaganda techniques were exactly the same.

1545
01:24:34,479 --> 01:24:36,800
Speaker 1: And the thing that amazes me so much is that

1546
01:24:36,880 --> 01:24:40,200
Speaker 1: if you look at who the worst offenders were for

1547
01:24:40,360 --> 01:24:44,880
Speaker 1: helping the Bush and Cheney administration deceive Americans about Sodom

1548
01:24:44,920 --> 01:24:48,080
Speaker 1: Hussein and leading Americans to war, it was the people

1549
01:24:48,120 --> 01:24:50,920
Speaker 1: who then ended up getting most rewarded. And Jeffrey Goldberg

1550
01:24:50,920 --> 01:24:53,000
Speaker 1: as the best example, because he was at the New Yorker,

1551
01:24:53,000 --> 01:24:55,880
Speaker 1: one of the most influential liberal outlets, and published two

1552
01:24:56,000 --> 01:24:58,719
Speaker 1: articles in two thousand and two claiming that Saddam Hussein

1553
01:24:58,720 --> 01:25:02,200
Speaker 1: had had wm these and more harmfully, that he was

1554
01:25:02,240 --> 01:25:05,240
Speaker 1: in an alliance with Osama bin lad who just less

1555
01:25:05,240 --> 01:25:07,840
Speaker 1: than a year earlier had attacked the United States through

1556
01:25:07,920 --> 01:25:10,360
Speaker 1: nine to eleven. So you can imagine how inflammatory that was.

1557
01:25:10,400 --> 01:25:13,439
Speaker 1: And instead of going off in disgrace and getting fired

1558
01:25:13,479 --> 01:25:16,000
Speaker 1: and shunn from journalistic circles for these profound lives that

1559
01:25:16,080 --> 01:25:18,479
Speaker 1: he told. He got promoted to one of the most

1560
01:25:18,479 --> 01:25:21,040
Speaker 1: powerful and important positions in all of journalism as a

1561
01:25:21,040 --> 01:25:23,240
Speaker 1: reward for his lies, which is being editor in chief

1562
01:25:23,280 --> 01:25:27,440
Speaker 1: of the Atlantic, and then used that position to elevate

1563
01:25:27,600 --> 01:25:32,160
Speaker 1: almost every person who led the lies that were in Russiagate.

1564
01:25:32,200 --> 01:25:34,680
Speaker 1: And we're talking about this Trump Alpa Bank story. The

1565
01:25:34,720 --> 01:25:37,360
Speaker 1: two journalists who pushed it most were Franklin Fower and

1566
01:25:37,439 --> 01:25:40,519
Speaker 1: Natasha Bertrand, and both ended up being hired by Jeffrey

1567
01:25:40,560 --> 01:25:44,360
Speaker 1: Goldberg at The Atlantic as a reward for the lies

1568
01:25:44,400 --> 01:25:47,360
Speaker 1: that they told. Obviously MSNBC or Rachel Matta, who pushed

1569
01:25:47,400 --> 01:25:49,639
Speaker 1: the Steele dossier, she just got rewarded with a thirty

1570
01:25:49,760 --> 01:25:53,000
Speaker 1: million dollars a year contract. And so what you're seeing

1571
01:25:53,080 --> 01:25:55,599
Speaker 1: is this perverse incentive scheme, both in Iraq and Rush

1572
01:25:55,680 --> 01:25:58,760
Speaker 1: to Gate, where the journalists who do the most shameless

1573
01:25:58,800 --> 01:26:02,960
Speaker 1: lying on behalf of the secure party state and the

1574
01:26:03,040 --> 01:26:05,479
Speaker 1: correct political interest of time are the ones who are

1575
01:26:05,479 --> 01:26:09,400
Speaker 1: rewarded not despite their lives, but because of them. You

1576
01:26:09,479 --> 01:26:13,080
Speaker 1: mentioned that there were a lot of journalists who share

1577
01:26:13,120 --> 01:26:15,920
Speaker 1: the career incentives were good, but they also were true believers,

1578
01:26:16,080 --> 01:26:18,160
Speaker 1: and they really came to see it as it's my

1579
01:26:18,280 --> 01:26:21,280
Speaker 1: job to help defeat Donald Trump versus just to be

1580
01:26:21,360 --> 01:26:23,760
Speaker 1: a sort of neutral actor here and portray the world

1581
01:26:23,800 --> 01:26:27,600
Speaker 1: as it actually exists. And certainly Donald Trump had some

1582
01:26:28,200 --> 01:26:32,599
Speaker 1: unique personality traits that made him a useful villain, I mean,

1583
01:26:33,040 --> 01:26:35,800
Speaker 1: and he sort of leaned into that, right. He's very

1584
01:26:35,880 --> 01:26:39,680
Speaker 1: useful for the Democratic Party and for these journalists ultimately

1585
01:26:39,760 --> 01:26:42,240
Speaker 1: to convince people that, you know, he was a unique

1586
01:26:42,280 --> 01:26:46,440
Speaker 1: evil and that effectively any sort of tactics were justified

1587
01:26:46,800 --> 01:26:50,200
Speaker 1: to try to defeat this man, both in twenty sixteen

1588
01:26:50,240 --> 01:26:53,240
Speaker 1: and twenty twenty. Do you think that they'll be able

1589
01:26:53,320 --> 01:26:55,840
Speaker 1: to repeat that if Trump doesn't run again, If we

1590
01:26:55,920 --> 01:26:58,200
Speaker 1: have whether it's Ron de Santis or aybe it'll be

1591
01:26:58,280 --> 01:27:02,320
Speaker 1: Trump Junior or who knows, if you have another Republicans

1592
01:27:02,560 --> 01:27:05,280
Speaker 1: put in that slot, do you think they'll be as

1593
01:27:05,360 --> 01:27:08,960
Speaker 1: effective at sort of demonizing them and using them in

1594
01:27:08,960 --> 01:27:11,360
Speaker 1: the way that they were able to effectively use Donald

1595
01:27:11,360 --> 01:27:13,919
Speaker 1: Trump much of their own you know, ratings and personal

1596
01:27:14,040 --> 01:27:17,519
Speaker 1: professional success. They're definitely going to try. I mean, if

1597
01:27:17,560 --> 01:27:20,599
Speaker 1: you look at what the number one priority, the number

1598
01:27:20,640 --> 01:27:24,240
Speaker 1: one media and political project of kind of the Russigate

1599
01:27:24,280 --> 01:27:28,519
Speaker 1: wing of the media and the political ecosystem is is

1600
01:27:28,520 --> 01:27:32,080
Speaker 1: to keep trump Ism alive. That's why they insist on

1601
01:27:32,120 --> 01:27:35,559
Speaker 1: calling what happened on January sixth and insurrection. It's why

1602
01:27:35,560 --> 01:27:41,080
Speaker 1: they've issued multiple homeland security warnings throughout this year claiming

1603
01:27:41,120 --> 01:27:43,519
Speaker 1: that Trump supporters are going to engage in all kinds

1604
01:27:43,560 --> 01:27:45,880
Speaker 1: of eyelince that never end up coming to fruition. You

1605
01:27:45,920 --> 01:27:50,519
Speaker 1: saw it this weekend where CNN and MSNBC never stopped

1606
01:27:50,560 --> 01:27:53,320
Speaker 1: talking about this rally that not one single MAGA person

1607
01:27:53,320 --> 01:27:55,040
Speaker 1: that I knew had even heard of. You know, they

1608
01:27:55,040 --> 01:27:56,559
Speaker 1: would go to like Jim Jordan, they'd be like, are

1609
01:27:56,560 --> 01:28:00,000
Speaker 1: you going to this justice for you know January sixth defendant?

1610
01:28:00,400 --> 01:28:02,439
Speaker 1: He was be like, what are you talking about? Like,

1611
01:28:02,520 --> 01:28:04,160
Speaker 1: no one knew what it was, but think it was

1612
01:28:04,200 --> 01:28:07,160
Speaker 1: the media that had such an interest in propping it up.

1613
01:28:07,160 --> 01:28:10,280
Speaker 1: And of course fifty people ended up showing up, probably

1614
01:28:10,280 --> 01:28:14,280
Speaker 1: most of them were like FEDS and people undercover, and

1615
01:28:14,320 --> 01:28:17,160
Speaker 1: they were wildly outnumbered just by the uniform FEDS and

1616
01:28:17,200 --> 01:28:20,360
Speaker 1: the number of journalists who are there. So keeping trump

1617
01:28:20,520 --> 01:28:24,720
Speaker 1: Ism alive is incredibly important both for media ratings but

1618
01:28:24,760 --> 01:28:27,799
Speaker 1: also to keep fear levels high so that the Democratic

1619
01:28:27,840 --> 01:28:29,800
Speaker 1: Party doesn't have to run on a positive agenda like

1620
01:28:29,840 --> 01:28:31,800
Speaker 1: they did, you know, didn't do in twenty twenty, but

1621
01:28:31,920 --> 01:28:34,720
Speaker 1: instead just saying vote for us because we're the only

1622
01:28:34,720 --> 01:28:37,000
Speaker 1: ones standing in the way between you and these scary people.

1623
01:28:37,040 --> 01:28:39,599
Speaker 1: But the question of whether if you get a kind

1624
01:28:39,600 --> 01:28:44,240
Speaker 1: of more traditionally behaved politician like Josh Holly or Ronda

1625
01:28:44,280 --> 01:28:48,280
Speaker 1: Santis or you know, any of them, whether that they'll

1626
01:28:48,320 --> 01:28:51,400
Speaker 1: be able to do that as much and as effectively

1627
01:28:51,800 --> 01:28:54,599
Speaker 1: as when you have Donald Trump, who so wildly outside

1628
01:28:54,640 --> 01:28:58,000
Speaker 1: the box comport mentally is an open question. But it's

1629
01:28:58,040 --> 01:29:01,080
Speaker 1: also an open question. Let's remember Trump was actually, despite

1630
01:29:01,080 --> 01:29:04,840
Speaker 1: all that, a successful politician. He defeated the Clinton machine

1631
01:29:04,880 --> 01:29:07,800
Speaker 1: in twenty sixteen despite everyone lined up against him, and

1632
01:29:07,880 --> 01:29:10,680
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, despite the worst possible conditions you can

1633
01:29:10,760 --> 01:29:14,840
Speaker 1: have as an incumbent of collapsing economy, job, this crisis,

1634
01:29:15,000 --> 01:29:17,760
Speaker 1: and a pandemic, he almost won in twenty twenty. So

1635
01:29:17,800 --> 01:29:19,559
Speaker 1: the other question is if you don't have Trump there

1636
01:29:19,600 --> 01:29:22,320
Speaker 1: and you have a less charismatic figure, will they have

1637
01:29:22,560 --> 01:29:26,280
Speaker 1: even more success kind of scaring and demonizing people against

1638
01:29:26,360 --> 01:29:28,880
Speaker 1: voting for them. That remains to be seen. It really does.

1639
01:29:28,920 --> 01:29:30,800
Speaker 1: You know, One of the things I've always appreciated is

1640
01:29:30,840 --> 01:29:33,439
Speaker 1: just drawing the links of what the policy like. There

1641
01:29:33,479 --> 01:29:37,040
Speaker 1: are actual implications for this madness. It's not just a

1642
01:29:37,320 --> 01:29:41,519
Speaker 1: media frenzy. We covered how the Russia is now counted

1643
01:29:41,560 --> 01:29:45,599
Speaker 1: as a number one foreign threat by Democratic primary voters

1644
01:29:45,960 --> 01:29:49,000
Speaker 1: and is a relatively recent phenomenon. Another thing that you've

1645
01:29:49,040 --> 01:29:52,160
Speaker 1: pointed to recently is about how huge swats of the

1646
01:29:52,160 --> 01:29:56,840
Speaker 1: Democratic base support not just censorship, but all out censorship

1647
01:29:57,360 --> 01:29:59,880
Speaker 1: within big tech and using it as an instrument on

1648
01:30:00,120 --> 01:30:02,160
Speaker 1: civil discourse. So I think one of the things I

1649
01:30:02,280 --> 01:30:05,480
Speaker 1: just want you to highlight is about how this coverage

1650
01:30:05,560 --> 01:30:09,360
Speaker 1: has real world consequences, both on policy but on the populace.

1651
01:30:09,479 --> 01:30:12,479
Speaker 1: Like many people, for better or worse, are shaped by

1652
01:30:12,560 --> 01:30:15,320
Speaker 1: the elite forces that control what people see and what

1653
01:30:15,400 --> 01:30:18,720
Speaker 1: they don't. You know, there's an article today in the

1654
01:30:18,720 --> 01:30:22,920
Speaker 1: Atlantic by David from who really has become a hero

1655
01:30:23,160 --> 01:30:28,040
Speaker 1: to American liberalism. He's one of the most you know,

1656
01:30:28,200 --> 01:30:30,880
Speaker 1: kind of beloved pundits. His books twice when on the

1657
01:30:30,880 --> 01:30:33,920
Speaker 1: New York Times Besteller list exclusively because the liberals bought them.

1658
01:30:33,960 --> 01:30:36,880
Speaker 1: He of course also is it the Atlantic, and he

1659
01:30:36,920 --> 01:30:39,639
Speaker 1: wrote a story today saying that the Democratic Party can't

1660
01:30:39,680 --> 01:30:42,240
Speaker 1: go too far to the left and become the party

1661
01:30:42,240 --> 01:30:44,840
Speaker 1: of Bernie AOC. It needs to make sure it appeases

1662
01:30:44,880 --> 01:30:47,240
Speaker 1: what he calls the never Trump contingent, as though that's

1663
01:30:47,280 --> 01:30:51,920
Speaker 1: the most important kind of swing voters, which is him

1664
01:30:51,920 --> 01:30:54,360
Speaker 1: and Bill Crystal and Steve Schmidt and like four other

1665
01:30:54,479 --> 01:30:57,559
Speaker 1: five people who work in media corporations, and that's it.

1666
01:30:57,640 --> 01:31:00,120
Speaker 1: But that's his project, is to make the Democratic Party

1667
01:31:00,800 --> 01:31:02,880
Speaker 1: kind of a remake it into the eyes of what

1668
01:31:02,960 --> 01:31:06,200
Speaker 1: your conservatives wanted to be. And it's working. We hope

1669
01:31:06,240 --> 01:31:07,960
Speaker 1: you guys enjoy that interview. If you want to see

1670
01:31:07,960 --> 01:31:10,280
Speaker 1: the rest of it. Our premium subscribers they get two

1671
01:31:10,479 --> 01:31:12,200
Speaker 1: long form interviews a month. You can go ahead and

1672
01:31:12,200 --> 01:31:14,719
Speaker 1: become a premium subscriber there down in the link below.

1673
01:31:14,840 --> 01:31:17,559
Speaker 1: But look, as we've been trying to emphasize here, it's

1674
01:31:17,600 --> 01:31:20,719
Speaker 1: not just about the benefits and all that. You guys

1675
01:31:20,760 --> 01:31:23,960
Speaker 1: need to know that covering controversial subjects on YouTube has

1676
01:31:24,040 --> 01:31:28,640
Speaker 1: become increasingly precarious for us, Like our videos are getting demonetized.

1677
01:31:29,040 --> 01:31:31,200
Speaker 1: If they do, you know, if our appeals work, it

1678
01:31:31,240 --> 01:31:34,439
Speaker 1: comes days later after you know, most of the views

1679
01:31:34,640 --> 01:31:37,439
Speaker 1: have already come in. The Only way that we can

1680
01:31:37,479 --> 01:31:39,920
Speaker 1: rely on making sure that we can keep the lights

1681
01:31:39,960 --> 01:31:42,800
Speaker 1: on here, keep the show going, and cover exactly what

1682
01:31:42,840 --> 01:31:46,080
Speaker 1: we want without having to worry about pressure. Whatsoever is

1683
01:31:46,120 --> 01:31:48,960
Speaker 1: through premium subscriptions. So we rely on you guys one

1684
01:31:49,080 --> 01:31:51,080
Speaker 1: hundred percent, and thank you all so much for those

1685
01:31:51,120 --> 01:31:53,880
Speaker 1: of you who are ones for having our back. Yeah,

1686
01:31:53,880 --> 01:31:56,040
Speaker 1: it really does mean the world, It truly does. I

1687
01:31:56,040 --> 01:31:57,880
Speaker 1: mean we were looking at the numbers this morning. If

1688
01:31:57,880 --> 01:32:00,439
Speaker 1: we were relying on YouTube revenue, we would be We'll

1689
01:32:00,479 --> 01:32:02,679
Speaker 1: be dead. Yeah, we'd be screwed, we'd be panicked, we'd

1690
01:32:02,680 --> 01:32:06,599
Speaker 1: be host It would not work out. So thank you guys.

1691
01:32:06,720 --> 01:32:10,160
Speaker 1: We so appreciate the support. If you're able to join

1692
01:32:10,240 --> 01:32:12,720
Speaker 1: as a premium subscriber, if you support what we're up

1693
01:32:12,760 --> 01:32:15,719
Speaker 1: to here, because it is truly the thing that enables

1694
01:32:15,800 --> 01:32:18,639
Speaker 1: us to do the show that we are doing. Love

1695
01:32:18,680 --> 01:32:20,439
Speaker 1: you guys, Have you enjoyed the show and we'll see

1696
01:32:20,439 --> 01:32:37,759
Speaker 1: you back here tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the show, guys,

1697
01:32:37,760 --> 01:32:40,320
Speaker 1: we really appreciate it. To help other people find the show,

1698
01:32:40,360 --> 01:32:42,320
Speaker 1: go ahead and leave us a five star rating on

1699
01:32:42,400 --> 01:32:45,880
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Really helps

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Speaker 1: other people find the show as always special. Thank you

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Speaker 1: to Supercast for powering our premium membership. If you want

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Speaker 1: to find out more, go to crystalansager dot com.