WEBVTT - The GOP's Personal Army 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:14.480 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to Okay f Daily with 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:17.840 Meet your Girl Danielle Moody once again recording from the 0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:21.040 Brooklyn Bunker. Why because later on in the show, with 0:00:21.079 --> 0:00:25.600 our friend doctor Jonathan Metzel joining us for our continuation 0:00:25.680 --> 0:00:27.800 of the last two years of living in a pandemic, 0:00:28.560 --> 0:00:34.599 the thoughts of del Macron and Flerona entering my system 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:38.960 keeps me wanting to, you know, self, quarantine, just be 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.480 on my own personal fucking lockdown at this point in time, 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:47.160 because I find then anytime that I start to muster 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.800 up the strength to say, yeah, I'll go out and 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.440 I'll hang out with this person, then I find out 0:00:52.720 --> 0:00:56.040 that I have been exposed in some way former shape. 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:59.600 So far, so good, But trying to avoid COVID right 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:02.600 now is like being a ball in a pinball machine 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:07.759 trying not to hit the size. Before we jump into 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:13.080 the latest with COVID, we are coming fastly, fastly approaching 0:01:13.280 --> 0:01:19.080 the anniversary of the one six insurrection, and according to 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.720 the New York Times and a couple of other outlets 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:28.520 now Politico, Axios and others, there's a new far right 0:01:28.600 --> 0:01:32.480 group that apparently all of us hadn't heard of, hadn't 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:37.240 been privy too, and as the one six Commission continues 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.000 to quietly do their investigation, as the media is saying, 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:43.000 I don't know how quiet things can be when it's 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:49.000 on national television, but I digress. A group called I 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:53.920 Believe A One, not like the steak sauce because that 0:01:53.960 --> 0:02:00.040 would provide flavor, but A one is a group of 0:02:01.880 --> 0:02:11.080 former military, former intelligence agents of former Coastguard National Guard. 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:17.400 It's essentially made up of ex military folks. They are 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:21.360 a far right wing group that has been in close contact, 0:02:21.400 --> 0:02:26.560 close community with the Trump administration, with as many are 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:30.520 referring to as MAGA celebrities. They apparently acted as their 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:36.919 own personal bodyguards, and right before the insurrection. On January fourth, 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:41.760 two days before the insurrection, tweeted out from their official 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:47.120 Twitter account that some young National Guard captains are going 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:52.480 to have to make some very tough decisions. On January sixth, 0:02:53.600 --> 0:02:56.000 I want us to sit with that for a moment, 0:02:57.000 --> 0:03:03.080 because now, of course there is more investigation into the 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:07.120 rise and the prevalence, right, but it's not even the rise, 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:11.000 because the Rise continues to assume that these groups are 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:14.520 somehow blossoming out of nowhere, when in fact, and we 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:17.760 reported on this show a bunch of times that the 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:23.000 FBI was very well aware of the spreading right, the 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:30.240 exponential spread of white supremacists, far right nationalist groups blossoming 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:34.600 with their multiple cells all across the United States for 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:37.800 roughly the last ten to twelve years. They did a 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.040 whole fucking report on it, except you know, they decided 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.280 that they were not going to put money or resources 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:48.840 into those kinds of investigations. Instead, they were going to 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:56.920 put power, intellectual power into black extremist groups, because they 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:59.800 are the ones that are rampant. Right, Because we have 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:03.920 to understand why were these agencies created in the first place, 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.920 and what was their function right as a tool of government, 0:04:08.360 --> 0:04:11.560 well throughout the history of these United States, at least 0:04:11.560 --> 0:04:14.480 in modern times. Right, and when modern times, I'm talking 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:19.120 you know about the civil rights movements, I'm talking about 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:24.039 you know, the nineteen fifties, sixties, seventies, eighties, I'm talking 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:26.680 about the crack epidemic, I'm talking about all of these 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:30.839 different things. Well, these intelligence agencies were functioning as a 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:36.240 tool of government to assassinate civil rights leaders, to intimidate, 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:41.080 to put wire taps, to figure out how they were organizing, 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:45.280 because if they could, in fact get rid of these 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:49.159 prominent voices, then you know, black people would go back 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:51.960 to keeping their heads down, saying yes ma'am and no 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:55.000 ma'am and moving off a sidewalks for white people and 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:59.800 for whiteness. So it should be of no shock to 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.320 any of us that there are a multitude of people 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.800 that exist inside of these agencies, that exist inside of 0:05:07.839 --> 0:05:12.600 the branches of the military, in large numbers, right, who 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:17.560 are proponents of white supremacy and far right ideology. What 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:23.080 is mind fucking boggling to me, though, is that with 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:27.840 this information mounting in front of us over the last 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:31.719 four to fucking five years, now, why isn't that we 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:36.520 are just still pushing paperwork instead of in guiding these groups, 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:39.800 instead of locking these people up and calling them what 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:44.159 they are, which is a group of fucking terrorists. Right, Like, 0:05:44.320 --> 0:05:48.760 this is what is getting my blood boiling is the 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:51.800 amount of oh, well, we need to be told we 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.480 need to have like all of our investigations in a row, 0:05:55.560 --> 0:05:57.279 We need to have all of our paperwork, all of 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.320 our ducks in a row, needs to be meticulous to 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:04.839 do what exactly because you didn't need any of that 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:09.400 type of note taking and paperwork and data collection. When 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:14.080 you decided to use facial recognition on Black Lives Matter protesters, 0:06:14.240 --> 0:06:16.800 you didn't need that kind of energy when you were 0:06:16.839 --> 0:06:19.320 going after the Angela davis is of the world, and 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.960 the Martin Luther Kings and the Malcolm X's at the 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:27.040 Fred Hampton's none of it right, you just went in. 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.120 You took those people out because you did not like 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:33.839 what they stood for, which was liberty and justice for 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:37.800 an oppressed people. But when it turns out that you 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:41.640 don't want to take down your neighbor and your buddy 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:45.920 and your fucking pastor and your cop and your chief, right, 0:06:47.160 --> 0:06:51.080 this is the problem. The problem that America continues to 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:55.839 want to turn its back on is white terrorism. That's it. 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:02.440 All of this stems from the eight the purposeful ignorance 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:07.400 to the fact that this country is bred and born 0:07:07.880 --> 0:07:12.600 white domestic terrorism. And not only does it breed it, right, 0:07:12.960 --> 0:07:17.920 it celebrates it. It celebrates it with fucking statues, right, 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:22.440 it celebrates it with naming these traders after schools and 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:29.160 hospitals and our own fucking FBI agency. So how is 0:07:29.200 --> 0:07:33.560 it that you can even begin right to deal with 0:07:33.600 --> 0:07:42.760 a problem that is so indistinguishable from Americanism. Americanism is 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:53.120 violence perpetuated by white, aggrieved, rage filled people. Because when 0:07:53.160 --> 0:07:57.600 you have set up a matrix and a system that 0:07:57.840 --> 0:08:00.760 tells you that the rest of the fucking world owes 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:05.040 you something, that somehow you are special just by virtue 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:10.920 of your lack of melanin, then trying to paint the 0:08:10.960 --> 0:08:14.240 picture of where all of this ship has gone wrong 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:19.360 is like trying right, but what is it? Even? Like, 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.360 I don't even know what it's like, because like, eventually 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.640 kids stop believing in Santa Claus, right, Like, eventually they 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:29.040 recognize that that is mommy, or that is Daddy or 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:32.280 whomever it is. Right Like, eventually the things that we 0:08:32.400 --> 0:08:36.720 believed right as fantasy is as children begin to dissipate 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:42.160 over time. The problem with white supremacy is that it exists, 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:47.280 right like. It isn't the boogeyman, right, It isn't this 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:52.079 fictitional figure. It is very real. It is very insidious. 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:58.280 It is a cancer, and a cancer that cannot be isolated. 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:04.319 It infects a tissue, every cell, every fiber of our being, 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:11.520 everything that we put our trust and faith in, every agency. 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:15.240 When we are pledging allegiance to this country. This is 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:19.319 why Colin Kaepernick and others were taking a knee, not 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:24.400 just for police brutality, because when you pledge allegiance to 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:30.640 this country, you are pledging allegiance to white supremacy and patriarchy. 0:09:31.040 --> 0:09:37.280 You are pledging allegiance right to their ability to oppress people. 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:43.120 And then guests like the fuck out of them. You know, 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:46.080 I remember, and this is not going to be popular, 0:09:46.400 --> 0:09:49.640 and I don't give a fuck. In twenty fifteen, and 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:53.680 I've told this story before, in twenty fifteen, I had 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:56.599 the great fortune to be able to go on a 0:09:56.720 --> 0:10:03.280 journalistic retreat to Israel and Palestine. I am not a 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:08.360 foreign correspondent. I am not somebody that has been steeped 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:13.520 in and educated in foreign affairs, let alone the complications 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:17.120 and the layers of complications in the Middle East. But 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:21.839 I was invited on this trip because I am an 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:28.079 activist and I am somebody that has fought for social justice, 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:33.400 racial justice, LGBTQ quality, women's rights, all of these things 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:39.080 for a my entire career in different capacities. And I 0:10:39.160 --> 0:10:46.320 remember talking to and head of an organization who was 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:53.640 in Israeli and he spoke about Israel and the conflict 0:10:54.800 --> 0:11:04.360 as this place that, in the minds of Americans is 0:11:04.520 --> 0:11:10.200 like a moral Disneyland, right, where the picture of Israel 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:14.680 being this democracy that is above reproach and that needs 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:18.600 to be protected at all costs because it's surrounded by 0:11:18.720 --> 0:11:25.360 these savage Middle Eastern countries. Right, And he goes, how 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:32.160 is it that your country that America provides billions of 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:37.240 dollars for us to displace brutalized and oppressed and not 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:43.640 even make into second class citizens, right, treat Palestinian people 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:47.960 like fucking animals. How do you call how do you 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:53.920 call Israel a democracy in the Middle East when half 0:11:53.920 --> 0:11:57.840 of its population have no rights and not only have 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.560 no rights, but are brutalized and placed and beaten and 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:08.720 shot and killed on a regular basis. And he referred 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:13.000 to it as moral Disneyland, this place where Jewish people 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:15.840 around the world are able to go to, right where 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:19.640 they are the majority. And I can imagine what that 0:12:19.760 --> 0:12:23.480 feels like, right to be able to go to a 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:28.160 place where everyone is like you, where you're not the 0:12:28.280 --> 0:12:32.760 only one. And how much pride that that can provide 0:12:32.760 --> 0:12:36.160 you with? Right, how much joy the feeling of safety? 0:12:36.520 --> 0:12:39.440 Right you don't have to explain things. They just are 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:48.880 Except that isn't Israel, right, just like the United States 0:12:49.200 --> 0:12:53.640 claims to be a democracy, claims to be a country 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:57.520 that is about being the home of the brave and 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.559 the land of the free. Except if you are a 0:13:01.600 --> 0:13:04.760 person of color, if you are a queer person, if 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.600 you are a person of the Muslim faith, if you 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.600 are Jewish, if you are a woman like you are 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:16.160 not free here with each and every one of those groups, 0:13:16.160 --> 0:13:20.800 and God forbid you embody multiple identities that are marginalized. 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:26.920 Your experience is not a freedom. Your experience is not 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:33.120 necessarily of thriving. It is surviving an institution, a complex 0:13:33.240 --> 0:13:40.280 system that was created for at about your subjugation. This 0:13:40.400 --> 0:13:44.880 is not like conspiracy theory. This is like, learn your 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:51.920 fucking history here, so you have the realization, once the 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:58.000 fucking gain that it wasn't just this crazy man Donald 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:00.800 Trump standing up in front of a crowd telling them 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:07.080 to go take back their country. That it was an organized, tactical, strategic, 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:16.800 almost successful strategy to overthrow the government. It wasn't just 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:21.000 And what pisces me off even more is the constant 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.600 of chattering in mainstream news as if it was about 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:29.800 overturning an election. No, it wasn't. The election is fundamental 0:14:29.960 --> 0:14:34.400 to a democracy that is about being for and by 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:42.560 the people. This was about overturning democracy right and ending 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:49.240 free and fair elections. Like language fucking matters. And I 0:14:49.280 --> 0:14:53.200 can't presume any more that mainstream media just doesn't get it. 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:57.720 I think that they absolutely do. But they are also 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:02.320 part of the fucking problem. You know, when I interviewed 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:07.320 Congressman Jamal Bowman right before the holiday break, you know, 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:11.120 we were talking about how much money is in politics, 0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:15.920 and how both groups, Democrats and Republicans both serve the 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:20.760 same fucking master, which is capitalism, which is money. Right, 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:27.200 And so when your interests right are not actually about 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:32.800 the people, when your interests are better aligned with profits, 0:15:33.720 --> 0:15:37.360 then you get really hazy and the types of things 0:15:37.360 --> 0:15:42.120 that you're willing to support and admit. Mainstream media isn't 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:45.240 going to come out and do the quote unquote right thing. 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:47.640 And I say consistently and tell I'm horse in the 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:52.160 fucking throat, like tell the truth, because where do they 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:59.800 get their money from other people that are invested monetarily, emotionally, 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:05.160 spiritually in white supremacy. So it does not behoove them 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:10.440 to tell the truth, because then they'll lose their sponsors, 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:14.080 they'll lose their ads. This is the line that they 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:21.360 tell themselves. I don't want to see more headlines about 0:16:21.400 --> 0:16:24.640 extremism unless we're gonna be honest about who the fuck 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:30.360 the extremists are. I don't care about their sob story 0:16:30.440 --> 0:16:33.000 of how they fucking got that way. They got that 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:36.960 way because America has created a public education system that 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:42.280 is more about propaganda about how great America is rather 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:44.560 than telling the fucking truth that we are able to 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:51.720 build upon. We sing hymns and songs, right, we talk 0:16:51.800 --> 0:16:55.320 about apple pie and baseball and football. We waive flats 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:58.240 on the fourth of July, without actually having any fucking 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:02.840 context as to what it means to be independent, about 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:06.960 what it means to be free. So now you're in 0:17:06.960 --> 0:17:11.040 a situation where you have these white far right extremist 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:16.359 terrorist organizations that are co opting language about patriotism and 0:17:16.560 --> 0:17:19.560 freedom and the choices about how they're going to fight 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:23.760 and show up, and they are fucking telling us in 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.400 broad daylight what they are doing. They're telling us on 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:31.160 every social media platform what their plans are, what their desires, are, 0:17:31.280 --> 0:17:34.400 and we're still sitting around going, oh, we need more information. 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:39.959 It's like we're waiting for the bullets to fly and 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:42.879 from the bombs to drop, and then in that dusk 0:17:42.960 --> 0:17:46.159 coming down much like and don't look up, it'll be like, 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:53.080 oh shit, we should have done something. Every day, every 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:57.600 day that goes by that the architects behind the attempt 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:01.600 to overthrow our democracy are not in jail, is another 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:04.879 day lost, and another day they win and gain on 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:08.040 their side. Right now, there is a court case in 0:18:08.080 --> 0:18:13.879 North Carolina about the Republican parties lying as jerrymandering that 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:17.840 they are doing to ensure that North Carolina remains a 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:22.840 Republican by adding additional seats right and taking away democratic 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:29.720 democratic seats. Three panel judges right, who are elected by 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:33.480 God knows who get to decide. We still think that 0:18:33.560 --> 0:18:37.880 we're functioning in this place where justice is actually blind, 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:42.800 where these judges are beyond reproach. When I am telling 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:47.399 you these same judges, these same people are a part 0:18:47.440 --> 0:18:56.240 of these fucking groups, y'all. I can't you know. Some 0:18:56.400 --> 0:19:03.000 days I tell you that I feel crazy, like I 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:07.880 feel like I am seeing the end, and it's like 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:12.800 you are just screaming into a black hole for people 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:16.879 to wake the fuck up before the comment actually hits, 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:22.840 and everybody is just staring at the goddamn floor. We 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:27.840 are in serious fucking trouble. We have but a handful 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:30.879 of months, and I'm listening to Joe Mansion. Talk to 0:19:30.920 --> 0:19:34.520 me about the filibuster and how he is beyond changing 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.400 the rules of the Senate. Then start calling the man 0:19:38.359 --> 0:19:44.160 the fucking grim reaper of democracy, the executioner of democracy. 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:51.280 Start using language that expresses the urgency of the moment 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:53.960 that we are in, and it presents to the public 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:59.760 exactly what this man is doing. Don't ask him questions 0:20:00.160 --> 0:20:03.920 about the childcare tax credit and build back better. Don't 0:20:04.000 --> 0:20:08.280 ask him bullshit policy questions. Ask him why he doesn't 0:20:08.320 --> 0:20:11.240 care about democracy. Ask him if he's caught a deal 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:15.520 with Republicans that when they take over with their Authoriturian regime, 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:21.960 right when they take over with their fascism and their kleptocracy, 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:26.879 was he cut into the deal. Let's just get real 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.240 about what the fuck is going on and stop pretending 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:34.400 like we don't know or that we need more information. 0:20:35.520 --> 0:20:38.600 I don't know how much more information the Department of 0:20:38.640 --> 0:20:41.879 Justice needs in order to take action, or Joe Biden 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.600 needs in order to get the fuck rid of Merritt Garland, 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:53.600 who's sitting around like doing what exactly unclear. If the 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.639 people that we elected are not going to take action, 0:20:56.880 --> 0:20:59.960 then it is time that the people start to take action. 0:21:01.200 --> 0:21:05.280 That's where we are moving. Coming up next, friends, is 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:08.919 my conversation with our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:13.240 to bring us the latest on COVID nineteen, on Omicron, 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:16.560 on Flerona, on del Macron, and whatever the fuck else 0:21:16.720 --> 0:21:23.439 is going to be coming down the pike. Folks. It 0:21:23.760 --> 0:21:26.800 is the new year, but we have some of our 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.560 favorite familiar faces. Doctor Jonathan Metzel is back with us 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:35.760 for another round of who's got COVID? Coming up in 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:39.639 the year twenty twenty two. Jonathan, Happy new year to you, 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:44.520 Happy happy New Year, and happy new year everyone out there. So, Jonathan, 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:51.320 we ended last year with talking about Omicron and you 0:21:51.480 --> 0:21:54.040 giving once again. You're very and you know, I want 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.639 to tell you this. Folks who listen to the show 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.679 woke a f audience members DM me or message and 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:03.600 they say, you know what, Jonathan hasn't been wrong in 0:22:03.640 --> 0:22:07.960 two years. They and they're like, I listened to him. 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.040 I pay attention when he says this is going to 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:13.840 take over. I pay attention when he says folks need 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:16.840 to change out their masks and wear better masks. I 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:19.240 listen to him when he tells us that we need to, 0:22:19.560 --> 0:22:22.960 you know, self test and like be a lot more 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:25.840 conscious of who we're engaging within house. So I want 0:22:25.840 --> 0:22:28.560 you to know, just as we start this new year, 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:33.240 that you have been giving some sage advice, some funny jokes, 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:38.360 and just like helping people feel a little bit more 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:41.960 sure in this very uncertain times. And I just want 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:45.639 to appreciate you for that and continuing to ride with 0:22:45.760 --> 0:22:49.119 us here on woke app So let me let me 0:22:49.119 --> 0:22:51.399 just say before you go on, well, thank you everybody. 0:22:51.440 --> 0:22:54.200 I mean, I've been getting nice messages on Twitter DM 0:22:54.200 --> 0:22:56.840 also that are just about that. But you know, it's 0:22:56.920 --> 0:22:59.320 it's we're all dealing with the same information, they all 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:01.159 same uncertain and stuff like that. So it's such a 0:23:01.200 --> 0:23:04.000 function of like our conversation, right in other words, I 0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:07.760 feel like between you and I we come up with reason, 0:23:07.920 --> 0:23:10.320 We try to make reason out of all this chaos. 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:12.360 And so right back at you, because I think it's 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:15.679 really a function of our of our conversation and the 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:17.440 way we're kind of on the same wave length about 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:19.800 just trying to make sense of all this for people. Yeah, 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:22.200 I mean, and I think that you know, as we're 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:25.159 moving on, what are we seeing that, like, things aren't 0:23:25.200 --> 0:23:28.000 really getting that much better? Right? And so the most 0:23:28.200 --> 0:23:31.239 sense that we can make to give you all that 0:23:31.240 --> 0:23:34.040 are listening a little bit more peace of mind or 0:23:34.080 --> 0:23:37.480 at least feeling like you're not alone when you're feeling crazy, 0:23:38.320 --> 0:23:41.440 I think is going to be key to our emotional, physical, 0:23:42.880 --> 0:23:46.600 and mental well being. So, Jonathan, at the end of 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:49.919 twenty twenty one, just a couple of weeks ago you 0:23:50.040 --> 0:23:53.280 came on, omicron was not in our lexicon the way 0:23:53.280 --> 0:23:57.040 it is now. It also didn't infect three hundred thousand 0:23:57.040 --> 0:23:59.640 plus people a day in the United States the way 0:23:59.680 --> 0:24:02.720 that it is now. I want to ask you first, 0:24:03.960 --> 0:24:08.800 I mean, for you, for your friends in the medical community. 0:24:09.080 --> 0:24:13.120 Are you just like dumb struck by how fast this 0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:20.560 variant has moved. It's funny. When I first saw the 0:24:20.680 --> 0:24:25.800 mutation profile of this, this one mutation, in other words, 0:24:26.040 --> 0:24:29.840 having over thirty mutations on the spike protein alone, I 0:24:30.359 --> 0:24:32.080 knew we were in trouble. Like, this is the kind 0:24:32.080 --> 0:24:34.600 of this. It's not the worst case scenario. It's the 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:37.080 next or worst case scenario that people have been worried about, 0:24:37.680 --> 0:24:40.560 which is the spike protein is kind of like where 0:24:40.560 --> 0:24:44.879 it hooks into your body, right, And so all the 0:24:44.960 --> 0:24:48.280 vaccines that we have target for the most part, the 0:24:48.320 --> 0:24:51.239 spike protein, not the body of the virus. And so 0:24:51.320 --> 0:24:55.000 when I thought, man, this spike protein is so changed 0:24:55.840 --> 0:24:59.680 that it's just, you know, we don't have a defense 0:24:59.680 --> 0:25:02.399 against this thing quite yet, right. It's it's it's almost 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:05.920 a totally different virus. And so in the very beginning 0:25:06.400 --> 0:25:09.280 when I first read about it, I thought, oh, that's 0:25:09.320 --> 0:25:12.480 not good. We're in trouble. And the other part, of course, 0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:16.600 is with that many mutations, it also it hangs in 0:25:16.640 --> 0:25:20.040 the air longer, It is much more. It just hooks 0:25:20.119 --> 0:25:24.720 on to any mucosa much more intensely, and so you 0:25:24.720 --> 0:25:26.679 don't just have mucosa in your mouth, you have it 0:25:26.720 --> 0:25:28.280 in your eyes, you have it in your nose. And 0:25:28.320 --> 0:25:31.159 so it can also kind of not to be too graphic, 0:25:31.280 --> 0:25:35.399 get in different ways. And so part of the issue 0:25:35.600 --> 0:25:42.600 is this was just like a monster mutation. Now that 0:25:43.160 --> 0:25:45.760 you know, the relatively good thing, which doesn't feel very 0:25:45.800 --> 0:25:49.639 good on a day to day level. Is it's non lethal, 0:25:49.720 --> 0:25:52.800 right because it happens to the mutations made it less 0:25:52.840 --> 0:25:55.160 likely to hook into your lungs, but it still can 0:25:55.760 --> 0:25:58.560 get into your brain, get into your heart, get into 0:25:58.560 --> 0:26:01.520 all these other areas that do make you worry about 0:26:01.560 --> 0:26:03.600 long COVID, which I think is the main issue. But 0:26:04.560 --> 0:26:06.960 it's not going to suffocate you, and so that's a 0:26:07.000 --> 0:26:10.800 good thing. But I will say, oh micron just you know, 0:26:10.840 --> 0:26:13.320 that's what I call it, still the big oh Oscar Robertson. 0:26:13.600 --> 0:26:16.960 It hangs out, it hangs in the air, it's transmissible, 0:26:17.040 --> 0:26:21.000 It takes hardly any contact to spread, and so in 0:26:21.040 --> 0:26:22.840 a way, it's kind of a perfect storm of a 0:26:22.840 --> 0:26:27.360 bunch of different things that make it just I mean, 0:26:27.680 --> 0:26:29.840 look at the infection ratio in a place like Nashville 0:26:29.920 --> 0:26:32.800 right now. It's it's we're at Bangladesh levels, We're at 0:26:32.880 --> 0:26:36.040 Measles levels. So yeah, it's it's one of the more 0:26:36.080 --> 0:26:41.080 transibissimal things we've ever seen. Really, So when we you 0:26:41.119 --> 0:26:47.520 know here in the media right that O macron is spreading, 0:26:47.680 --> 0:26:50.160 and at the rate it's spreading, it's going to burn 0:26:50.200 --> 0:26:53.000 itself out. And you and I have had this conversation 0:26:53.160 --> 0:26:58.160 offline about it burning itself out, meaning that it's spreading 0:26:58.200 --> 0:27:01.320 so fast. There's only so much any hosts, right, so 0:27:01.400 --> 0:27:03.600 many bodies that it's going to be able to enter 0:27:04.000 --> 0:27:08.760 before it has infected everything. Talk to me more about this, 0:27:08.880 --> 0:27:14.240 and also about the fact that you know what the 0:27:14.359 --> 0:27:18.120 news has been is that, well, the symptoms are mild, 0:27:18.560 --> 0:27:22.200 but the symptoms are only mild caveat if you are 0:27:22.320 --> 0:27:28.480 vaccinated and boosted. Correct. I still don't think we know 0:27:28.560 --> 0:27:30.840 what it means to have mild symptoms. We all know 0:27:30.920 --> 0:27:33.439 people who have COVID who have had a headache for 0:27:33.480 --> 0:27:35.600 three weeks and can't catch the rest quite yet, and 0:27:35.600 --> 0:27:38.400 stuff like that. So I don't think we quite know. 0:27:39.040 --> 0:27:42.080 I don't think we quite know what mild means. Certainly 0:27:42.119 --> 0:27:45.320 people are I mean I follow hospitalization rates and those 0:27:45.359 --> 0:27:48.920 are going crazy, and I want to know how many 0:27:48.920 --> 0:27:51.840 people who are hospitalized are vaccinated and boosted. I bet 0:27:51.840 --> 0:27:55.480 you it's not zero. And so I think we're still 0:27:55.480 --> 0:27:57.679 in the same calculus in a certain kind of way. 0:27:57.720 --> 0:27:59.880 I mean, it's certainly better to have than the other 0:28:00.119 --> 0:28:02.959 versions if you weren't vaccinated, but there it raises as 0:28:02.960 --> 0:28:05.800 many questions as it answers how long is the booster 0:28:05.920 --> 0:28:09.120 good for? How long has the vaccine good for? Will 0:28:09.200 --> 0:28:12.720 this thing find escape mutations, which I'm sure it will, 0:28:12.720 --> 0:28:15.840 that will get around all that, what's the rate of 0:28:15.920 --> 0:28:22.800 infection vaccinated versus non vaccinated people? And so I don't know. 0:28:22.800 --> 0:28:24.600 There's a lot, there are a lot of questions right 0:28:24.640 --> 0:28:26.240 now that I think we don't know the answer to. 0:28:26.359 --> 0:28:29.199 And I still am going to say. I mean, for me, 0:28:29.280 --> 0:28:32.679 the existential question is should people just run out and 0:28:32.680 --> 0:28:35.040 get it because it's mild and then have some body defense. 0:28:35.119 --> 0:28:37.040 That's kind of what rents through my mind all the time. 0:28:37.440 --> 0:28:39.680 And I still think, if you can help it, it's 0:28:39.720 --> 0:28:42.120 better to not get it until we know some of 0:28:42.160 --> 0:28:44.920 these answers and until some other better treatments come along 0:28:44.920 --> 0:28:48.520