WEBVTT - It Could Happen Here Weekly 85 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:02.680 Hey, everybody, Robert Evans here, and I wanted to let 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:06.400 you know this is a compilation episode. So every episode 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:09.440 of the week that just happened is here in one 0:00:09.520 --> 0:00:13.280 convenient and with somewhat less ads package for you to 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.760 listen to in a long stretch if you want. If 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:17.720 you've been listening to the episodes every day this week, 0:00:17.760 --> 0:00:19.520 there's going to be nothing new here for you, but 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:28.920 you can make your own decisions. What are we recording? 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:30.840 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah? 0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:33.839 What the episode started? 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:34.040 Now? 0:00:34.200 --> 0:00:36.320 I was, I was, I was going to say something, 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:40.400 something to do with Texas. But to be honest, you know, why, 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:42.920 why why do we do this? Why do we let ourselves, 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.520 you know, get famous for for for saying a particular 0:00:46.560 --> 0:00:49.080 bit and then just keep repeating it over and over again. 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:52.720 Are we so creatively bankrupt that there's there's nothing else 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.720 we can do but repeat our greatest hits in order 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.640 to recapture some of the some of the the excitement 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:04.200 that we felt as younger men. Anyway, my co hosts 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:09.080 on this episode, James Stout and me A Wong, welcome, 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:10.080 there could happen here. 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:14.440 Hi, Robert, I'm glad you're doing so well. 0:01:15.000 --> 0:01:17.880 We're all doing great, James. You've just been having a 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:23.080 searing emotional experience at the border. Yeah, and everyone else 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.560 is busy living in the United States, which is its 0:01:25.560 --> 0:01:27.399 own seering emotional experience. 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:28.200 Man. 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:32.080 Today, today we're going to be talking about the both 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:42.240 the most and least American state, Texas. Huzzah, Yeah, love you. Yeah. 0:01:42.360 --> 0:01:44.800 Who here has spent a lot of time in Texas. Garrison, 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:46.880 You lived in the Dallas area, right. 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:50.520 A lot that I've made my visits to Texas over 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.400 the years with you, even in the murder house. 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.400 You and I have quaffed many a shiner bock together, 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:02.160 James Many. Okay, I guess we'll move into the fucking episode. 0:02:02.240 --> 0:02:06.800 So there was a there was an email sent out 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:11.320 by Texasdemocrats dot org recently with the title Texas moves 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:16.560 from solid red to battleground. Sure, you know, like clockwork. 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:22.240 A lot of Democrats got very excited, and I made 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.040 a couple of people made posts being like, hey, this 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:28.200 is the same thing that happens every single election. They 0:02:28.240 --> 0:02:31.360 are never right. Texas is never a battleground and it 0:02:31.440 --> 0:02:33.880 always costs an insane amount of money. It is a 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:38.600 con by DC political consultants to get your money and 0:02:38.680 --> 0:02:41.959 pump it into something that will fill up their coffers 0:02:42.480 --> 0:02:45.720 and not achieve anything of value for the state of 0:02:45.760 --> 0:02:48.880 Texas or for the Democrats nationwide. And this makes people 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.000 very angry for two reasons. One, they tend to interpret 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.799 it as saying abandon Texas and the people there, which 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:57.359 is not the statement I was making or anyone else 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:00.680 was making. And number two, everyone and it kind of 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.079 obsessively starts pointing out like, look, look at how over 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:07.320 the last thirty years, you know, the things have narrowed 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:12.240 in Texas, and the proportion of like Democratic votes is 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:14.720 you know raised, This is a this is winnable. We 0:03:14.760 --> 0:03:17.600 can do it. We can do it. We're gonna talk 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.480 today about why the anyone who talks to you about 0:03:21.520 --> 0:03:24.519 flipping Texas as a political goal that you should give 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:28.320 money to is conning you, and not only conning you, 0:03:28.400 --> 0:03:32.280 but making it actually more difficult for Democrats to win, 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:35.240 both in Texas and nationwide. That's that's that's the premise 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:35.880 of the episode. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.720 Everybody, Here's here's how Bernie can still win. Though at 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:41.000 the very end, we will give you. 0:03:41.480 --> 0:03:44.520 Yeah, We're gonna let you know he's got a shot. Look, 0:03:44.880 --> 0:03:48.720 look if he if he is capable of putting another 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:53.280 three rounds of six point five into a dinner plate 0:03:53.400 --> 0:04:00.400 sized target at one hundred and fifty yards. Now that 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.200 that was anyway, he'd have to shoot a lot of 0:04:03.240 --> 0:04:03.960 people to make. 0:04:04.000 --> 0:04:13.520 He's got a deploy bought a joy into an. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:13.200 Absolutely not. 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.440 Person. So I want to talk about this because I 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.719 find it, like I think people tend to interpret this. 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.040 I've certainly gotten accused of like, oh, you're just kind 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.800 of being like a nihilist. Uh, this is you're being 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.440 you know, just an anti electoralist. You're not being practical. 0:04:31.839 --> 0:04:34.200 There was a there was one particular guy who's like 0:04:34.240 --> 0:04:38.599 a local Democratic candidate who responded seven times to my 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:42.840 tweet being like with variations, and his obsession was like, 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.760 if we win Texas, it's impossible for the GOP to 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:49.039 win national elections, which is true. If theoretically the Democrats 0:04:49.279 --> 0:04:52.680 flipped Texas, the GOP would have no chance at winning 0:04:52.720 --> 0:04:53.839 a federal election ever. 0:04:53.920 --> 0:04:57.080 Again, Yeah, and so simultaneous to this, right, if the 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.880 Republican there are more Republicans in California than there are 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:02.200 any other state in the Union, and if the Republicans 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:04.600 won California, they would they would win every election forever. 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:08.320 Yeah, yeah, yeah, happen, not going to happen. I mean, 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:10.360 it's it's one of those things. I am not saying 0:05:10.560 --> 0:05:15.120 Texas will never be a blue state. You know, that 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:18.520 is something that is possible, even likely, given enough time. 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:21.360 What I am saying, the argument that I'm making here, 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:24.279 and I'll provide you with evidence, is that number one, 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:27.520 focusing on these elections from the top down. And when 0:05:27.520 --> 0:05:30.000 you're saying we want to flip Texas, that's a top 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:33.799 down approach, right. You are not focusing on we want 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.760 to fill up and win a bunch of different local elections. 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.080 We want to flip, you know, the state houses. We 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:42.800 want to flip a bunch of mayoralties and stuff. You 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:46.240 are saying what matters is how Texas votes in the 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.560 national election. And if you were to get if you 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:53.560 were to kind of eke out a bear like in Georgia, 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.920 right where you get a narrow victory in the federal election, 0:05:56.960 --> 0:05:59.599 that would be great for the Democratic Party. One of 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.200 my issues with it is that kind of focusing obsessively 0:06:02.240 --> 0:06:05.800 on flipping Texas isn't focusing on the stuff that actually 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.800 will help Texans, like Texans currently being targeted by the 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.480 state government, because flipping the state in a federal election, 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.600 but not taking the governor's seat, not taking the lieutenant 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:21.080 governor's seat, not like actually taking the state House, doesn't 0:06:21.120 --> 0:06:24.480 improve life for people in Texas. I think the kind 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:28.120 of the degree to which the federal government, Biden's administration, 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.680 has been unable to push back very effectively against kind 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:34.360 of a lot of the shit that DeSantis has been 0:06:34.360 --> 0:06:37.680 doing in Florida. You know, they have started to make 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.360 some attempts, is evidence of this, and kind of more 0:06:40.360 --> 0:06:43.719 to the point, even if you don't agree with that, fundamentally, 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.200 these strategies that the Democratic Party has embraced in Texas 0:06:47.600 --> 0:06:52.520 do not work. The Texas Democratic Party is incompetent. They 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:55.160 are bad at their job. They are worse. People bring 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:57.679 up Georgia a lot when I talk about flipping Texas, 0:06:57.680 --> 0:07:00.320 and folks are like, well, we flipped Georgia, And it's like, yeah, 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:05.240 because the state elected officials and candidates in George number one, 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.760 the state party did a much better job of kind 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.840 of harvesting is a weird way to phrase it, but 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:15.800 of incubating talent to run for election in a number 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:19.960 of local offices. Then the Texas Democratic Party has ever done, 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:23.040 and that was a big part of what allowed them 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:27.160 to be competitive and eventually to flip the state. There's 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:30.560 a lot of like kind of dollar sign information on 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:34.040 how bad the state party in Texas is at this shit, 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.440 and I guess I should go ahead and provide some 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:41.480 of that now. So in the twenty twenty two election, 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.480 the midterms famously an unusually good showing for the Democratic 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:52.760 Party nationwide for a midterm election everywhere but Texas. O'Rourke 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:57.200 ran against Greg Abbott. He lost by eleven percent. This 0:07:57.240 --> 0:07:59.520 is kind of to contrast the election that got everyone 0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:02.160 excited when he was running against Cruse. I think they 0:08:02.160 --> 0:08:06.000 were like three percent apart. And again, the only reason 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:08.800 there was this kind of mistaken belief and excitement among 0:08:08.880 --> 0:08:12.640 dims that O'Rourke, because he was so close to Cruz, 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.720 had a real shot of winning Texas. No, he got 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:19.880 kind of close to beating Cruz because Ted, even Republicans 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:22.400 hate Ted Cruz. No one has ever liked that man. 0:08:22.720 --> 0:08:24.600 His own wife can barely stand to be in a 0:08:24.680 --> 0:08:27.720 room with him. His political allies would turn the other 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:31.520 cheek if fucking somebody anyway, we shouldn't talk about political 0:08:31.520 --> 0:08:35.480 assassinations on this podcast. It wouldn't anger anybody though, right. 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.960 Lindsay Graham has said that, like Lindsay Graham's like, what 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:41.840 maybe the only good joke a Republican elected officials ever 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.560 told is that if you were to shoot Ted Cruz 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.480 on the floor of Congress and the trial was held 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:54.480 in Congress, like nobody would vote to convict the murderer. Anyway. 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:58.400 So Beto lost quite badly to Greg Abbott, and beyond that, 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.560 basically every statewide candidate that the Democrats ran lost in 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.640 that election. It was a bad election for the Democratic 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:11.440 Party and people who pay attention to Texas politics and actually, like, 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.080 aren't just trying to like grift your donation money? Know this. 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.920 Joe Montfort, a Democratic consultant in North Texas, said, quote, 0:09:18.040 --> 0:09:20.480 it's been one election after another where we ramp everybody 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:22.720 up and set these expectations that we're going to finish 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:25.000 in first and then we finish in second. I don't 0:09:25.000 --> 0:09:27.000 see any indication that we can win at state wide 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:29.440 levels or won't continue to bleed house seats to the 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:30.160 other party. 0:09:31.679 --> 0:09:33.480 I love to need to finish in second. 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:41.400 There is if there's like a podium on election libertarians. Yeah, 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:45.280 the text Democratic Party to take the l to like Gildstein. 0:09:45.720 --> 0:09:49.000 Yeah, there were some kind of site. There were some 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:51.840 wins by Democrats in Texas. They managed to hold on 0:09:51.880 --> 0:09:54.760 to two out of three seats congressional seats in the 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:59.119 battleground regions in South Texas, but they still lost one. 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:03.360 They did they you would still lose one and you know, 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:05.360 the GOP had to spend a lot of money to 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:07.200 do that. But like one of the one of the 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.400 points is that so they they held onto two of 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:11.640 those seats, and they won a contestant seat in the 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:16.440 suburbs of Dallas, and you know, like but basically in 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:20.240 all of these areas, these were like super narrow winds, 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.600 like these the big successes, and they were narrow wins 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.200 in areas that Joe Biden had carried by double digits 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:29.120 two years ago. And Joe Biden is a historically like 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:30.439 that is part of some of the some of it 0:10:30.480 --> 0:10:32.679 will show you how bad the Texas Democratic Party is. 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:35.200 Joe Biden is not a popular president. And the fact 0:10:35.240 --> 0:10:38.199 that he carried a lot of these areas by more 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:41.160 than the candidates who narrowly won in twenty twenty two 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:43.880 could is not a great sign for the way things 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:44.400 are trending. 0:10:45.200 --> 0:10:48.160 Yeah, It's probably also worth pointing out that like those 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.320 Southern Texas seats, like in the Rio Grande Valley, right, Like, yeah, 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:53.800 those people are normally Democrats, Yeah, but you have guys 0:10:53.840 --> 0:10:58.040 like hen is it Quella Quala Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah's 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:02.480 opposed to abortion rights yeah yeah, and extremely hawkish on 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.840 the border, and like, yeah, what do we gain by 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:08.600 having like yeah, blue team good? Like not really if 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:10.520 this person is going to take away your bodily autonomy 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:13.720 and brutalize people for coming to this country for one day. 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:14.280 About a life. 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:16.920 Yeah, it's it's like a lot of the some of 0:11:16.960 --> 0:11:19.760 these wins are kind of like marginal at best, given 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:22.800 the compromises or just given the kind of Democrats who 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.079 can win it. It's like a Joe Manchin kind of situation. 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:26.240 Yeah, exactly. 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:31.000 And more to the point, like it's not not only 0:11:31.120 --> 0:11:34.600 is this like evidence kind of that the Democrats' strategy 0:11:34.640 --> 0:11:37.000 isn't isn't working. It's not simply that they tried something 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:39.680 and it failed. They tried something and it was so 0:11:39.880 --> 0:11:43.400 expensive that it stopped them from trying things in other 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:46.080 areas where the money could have gone better. For example 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.319 of how fucking wasteful, particularly the bed O Wort campaign was, right, 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:52.400 he loses by eleven points to Greg Abbot. He raised 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:56.280 seventy seven million dollars to lose by that much. A 0:11:56.280 --> 0:12:00.200 few years earlier, Lupe Valdez ran against Greg Abbot. She 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:04.280 spent raised like two million dollars and lost by thirteen points. 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.320 So seventy five million dollars may have bought Beto two percent. 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:12.360 Uh you know, like if you assume that national trends 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:14.320 had nothing to do with that gap closing, buy a 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:16.559 tiny amount, like what. 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:19.280 With seventy five million dollars, I could take control of 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:20.920 a moderate at least is Texas city? 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.400 Like yeah that is like, yeah, I could buy had 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.120 my chunk of Texas specific like you could purchase a 0:12:28.200 --> 0:12:31.880 large chunk of fort Worth with that much money. No, yeah, 0:12:32.040 --> 0:12:33.600 that's how I'll go here at cools the own media. 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:37.240 Yeah, yeah, to own fort Worth. Finally my dream completed. 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:41.079 I'll be able to be I'm gonna buy those horse 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.280 statues at Los Kalitas, finally be happy. 0:12:44.720 --> 0:12:47.240 Let's get blucifer as well. It's probably a good time 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:49.319 to pivot to ads that help us pay for a 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:49.920 piece of fool. 0:12:50.080 --> 0:12:53.240 Sure, yeah, you know, who isn't a waste of money 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:58.240 these fucking ads. So overall we just talked about you know, 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:02.000 Beto raised seventy seven million. The gubernatorial race cost in 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:05.560 total something like one hundred and forty million dollars, which 0:13:05.640 --> 0:13:08.840 is a huge amount of money for something that fails 0:13:08.880 --> 0:13:12.480 that badly and doesn't there's no evidence that Beto's campaign 0:13:12.920 --> 0:13:16.320 like he was. He's obviously good at fundraising, right, And 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:18.559 there was kind of this belief among a lot of dims, 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:20.719 an errant belief that this meant that he would be 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:22.800 good for down ballot races. Right, He's going to bring 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:24.760 the entire because of how much attention he gets, He's 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:27.040 going to raise the entire Democratic Party up. The poor 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.480 showing of the Democratic Party in Texas in twenty twenty 0:13:29.480 --> 0:13:32.040 two suggests that that's not the case. And the money, 0:13:32.480 --> 0:13:35.040 like there are there are fights that could have been 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:39.199 won and probably weren't because the money wasn't being invested 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:41.440 in those fights. It was going to battle. And I'm going 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:43.560 to quote from an article by the Texas Tribune here. 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:47.000 This year the party ran Rochelle Garza, a civil rights 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.360 lawyer with little political experience against Attorney General Ken Paxton, 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:53.280 who was widely seen as the most vulnerable Republican incumbent. 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.160 But Garza struggled to raise money or gain traction in 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:59.600 auric shadow and lost by ten percentage points against Paxton, 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.840 who's been indicted on felony security fraud charges and is 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:07.000 being investigated by the FBI for abuse of office accusations. 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:09.920 And it's what, Maybe she couldn't have won no matter 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.640 what you did. But one of the rules of politics 0:14:12.760 --> 0:14:15.600 in this country is that the money you spend at 0:14:15.600 --> 0:14:18.240 a big race, like a gubernatorial race, like a like 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:21.240 a like a Senate or a congressional campaign at the 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:25.840 federal level, like a presidential campaign, goes less far per 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:29.560 dollar than the money you spend in smaller local elections. Right, 0:14:30.240 --> 0:14:34.240 ten million bucks going into that election might have done something, 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.760 you know, as opposed to seventy five million going into 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:42.240 Bedo O'Rourke and accomplishing very little. This has been not 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.240 just a problem in Texas in previous elections, throughout the 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:49.120 Trump area and a little before in particular, this was 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.280 a problem the DIMS had kind of from the middle 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:55.040 of the Obama years until the last couple of like, 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:57.360 really the last midterm at twenty eighteen is when it 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.160 started to turn around nationally, and the dims have I've 0:15:00.200 --> 0:15:04.120 learned a lot in other regions about like not spending 0:15:04.200 --> 0:15:11.000 stupid amounts of money on hopeless contests, but not like comprehensively. 0:15:11.040 --> 0:15:13.600 So for example, in twenty twenty two, the second most 0:15:13.640 --> 0:15:17.080 expensive house race was the fourteenth congressional district of Georgia, 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:21.360 where Marcus Flowers raised sixteen million dollars and lost by 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:26.479 thirty two points, not a great return on the investment. 0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:29.640 And it was like the reason why he raised so 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:32.200 much money is because he was running against Marjorie Taylor Green, 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:35.080 and nationally, dims outside of Georgia wanted to put in 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:37.040 money because they hate her. And it's a trend that 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:39.480 relies a lot on social media on kind of the 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.760 way in which like hardcore dims, the dims that do 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:47.080 a lot of the small dollar donations think about politics 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:50.720 where it's like Marjorie Taylor Green bad donate money to opponent, Well, 0:15:50.800 --> 0:15:53.200 her opponent had no chance of winning in that district, 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.640 Like no amount of money would have flipped that, and 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.520 you just wasted sixteen million dollars that could have helped 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:03.000 somewhere else. Maybe that's an insane thing, and it's not 0:16:03.040 --> 0:16:04.560 as bad as it used if you want to look 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:06.960 at like the like the kind of the dumbest it 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:12.520 ever was. In twenty twenty, so Lindsay Graham's seat was 0:16:12.600 --> 0:16:16.440 up in South Carolina and Jamie Harrison ran against Lindsay 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.120 Grant and dims again because Lindsay Graham evil, you know, 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.600 raised one hundred and thirty million dollars and he lost 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:26.640 fight ten points. Amy McGrath lost to Mitch McConnell, who 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:28.560 is another like you can always get a shitload of 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:32.040 money to fight Mitch McConnell ninety four million dollars lost 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:35.600 by twenty points, either of the like one hundred and 0:16:35.640 --> 0:16:38.680 thirty million, ninety four million, that's two state legislators you 0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:41.680 could have flipped, or at least made progress on flipping, right, 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.520 Like that amount of money could potentially do that or 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:47.280 at least help set up, you know, get a couple 0:16:47.280 --> 0:16:49.200 of people elected who have a chance at kind of 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:52.600 broadening a base of support and becoming you know, leaders 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.800 in states that are currently like dominated by red legislators. 0:16:56.840 --> 0:16:59.960 Like there's a chance at least here and that. 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:03.760 Like specifically the state legislature. Thing is this has been 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:07.320 a problem with the Democrats for fucking ages, which is 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:10.879 that they just like it is only genuinely in the 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:13.639 last two years the Democrats are started giving a ship 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:15.720 about state legislatures, like and this is this is one 0:17:15.760 --> 0:17:17.080 of the things from the Obama era, Like one of 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.400 the reasons everything sucks so much is that the Democrats 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:23.080 managed to lose like, oh god, I forget it was 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:24.960 like they I think I think the total they lost 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:29.920 like a thousand seats. It was like yeah, and and 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:31.840 and you know, on the we were seeing the product 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.360 of this, right like this like like Wisconsin was sort 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:37.760 of just a hell hole for the last decade. Uh 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:39.240 and you know, I mean like and these are like 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.520 Minnesota to like the like, there are lots of these 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:45.040 states that like that thought, not Minnesota, wor am I 0:17:45.119 --> 0:17:45.919 talking about Michigan? 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:47.240 Yeah, Michigan. 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:49.199 Yeah, Like there's a lot of these states, and you know, 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:52.159 like and both of these places were winnable, right like 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:54.400 like they're like the Democrats are winning there now, right, 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:59.000 but they just like fucking left, like you know, they 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:01.440 they they fucking left Lint to get poisoned by lead 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:03.600 because they just not like the only the only things 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:05.920 that the problem is there's there's no money for consultants 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:08.679 in in sort of like downbout like state, and like 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:11.120 local races just just jack shit, right, And the Democrat 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:14.840 the Democrat party like is not run by sort of 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:16.639 like it's it's not a party in like an actual 0:18:16.720 --> 0:18:18.960 real sense. It is a it is a collection of consultants. 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:21.840 And those consultants only care about senates, about Senate races. 0:18:21.920 --> 0:18:24.159 Sometimes they care about house races, and they care specifically 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.000 they spend all of their fucking money and presidential races. 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:29.800 And you know, it's like again, and the Republicans don't 0:18:29.800 --> 0:18:32.560 do that because they have a bunch of like people 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:34.560 they you know, because they have a bunch of like 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:37.320 part of their base, right is these like small and 0:18:37.359 --> 0:18:40.720 mid scale capitalists in you know, in cities, in rural 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:43.320 areas who have like immediate concerns about like you know, 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:46.320 there's like there there are specific workers who they want 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:48.800 like lives to be worse. And so because of that, 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.440 the Republican machine is like seize the entire fucking country. 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:55.600 And the Democrats have been sitting around like spending like 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.000 a trillion dollars on Wendy Davis losing by twenty points. 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:06.000 Yeah, yeah, And it's like you get these you get 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.960 these like cases where you know, you're looking at thirty 0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.879 million being spent, you know, failing to unseat Marjorie Taylor 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:17.120 Green or somebody thirty three million something like that. But 0:19:18.080 --> 0:19:20.639 what you don't like at the same time as like 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:23.040 that's happening, is all of these massive amounts of money 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:25.679 are being devoted to these like to the races that 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:29.000 get attention because there's famous names involved. You have, like 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:32.720 in twenty twenty I think it was you have or no, 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.600 it is twenty twenty two. You have the election between 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:39.760 Ted Budd, a Republican against the Democrat Sherry Beasley in 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:45.359 North Carolina where the Democratic Party decided not to prioritize 0:19:45.359 --> 0:19:48.800 this election because it wasn't winnable, and then Bud won 0:19:48.880 --> 0:19:51.159 up wound up winning by just four points. That's a 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:53.680 seat you could flip with money. That's that's not that's 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:56.680 not an unreasonable thing, as opposed to again, the races 0:19:56.680 --> 0:19:58.240 where it went to and people are losing by like 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:02.000 thirty something fucking percent. And if you want to know 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:05.840 who a serious candidate is who is not just trying 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:07.719 to do the sexy thing or not just trying to 0:20:07.720 --> 0:20:10.320 like again flip the state so that we can win 0:20:10.400 --> 0:20:12.600 the federal election, but actually wants to help their state. 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.400 And this is again there's very nice things about Beto O'Rourke. 0:20:16.480 --> 0:20:19.040 I was in Texas during the ice storm. He did 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:23.720 good work during the ice storm, like actual community defense 0:20:23.840 --> 0:20:26.440 kind of stuff that I do have some respect for. 0:20:26.720 --> 0:20:28.920 He is not and has never been a serious politician. 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.600 And I will tell you why he went from winning 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:35.479 an election to losing a state election against Ted Cruz, 0:20:35.960 --> 0:20:41.119 to losing a presidential race to losing the governor seat. 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.439 That is so fucking scattershot. That is not building a 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.800 base of power, That is not building from the ground up, 0:20:47.840 --> 0:20:51.000 and like encouraging the growth of other personalities. You're just 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:54.720 darting from whatever the sexiest and most like pr driven 0:20:54.840 --> 0:20:59.280 race is. That's not serious. I want to talk about 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:03.119 what Number one one, the Democratic Party, the ship that like, 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.120 as we've said, they're getting better. The National Party got 0:21:06.119 --> 0:21:08.440 a lot better at this particularly in twenty twenty two. 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.480 It was less stupid than the previous couple of elections 0:21:11.480 --> 0:21:12.040 had been. 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:14.720 Really difficult, to be more dumb than that, but you 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:18.240 know it is British British labor et cetera, et cetera. 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:21.920 Y labor actually is the big one. Oh my fuck. 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:27.720 I want to talk what has what has worked, and 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:30.800 what I think could work again. And to do that, 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:32.960 I'm going to talk about a guy named Howard Dean, 0:21:33.400 --> 0:21:38.000 who here knows who Howard Dean was. Garrison simply, yeah, 0:21:38.119 --> 0:21:38.640 a little bit. 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:39.159 Have you? 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:41.239 Have you all heard the video of him screaming that 0:21:41.280 --> 0:21:47.720 got like his career is before? Okay, well, James, would 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:49.120 you load that up for us so we could play 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:53.520 that in a second to the Deanswward, Jamie, pull it up. 0:21:54.920 --> 0:21:59.280 Howard Howard Dean ran for president and was He was 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:04.000 the first national political candidate to use the internet effectively 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.040 to raise money in the in the history of US politics. 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:10.240 He's kind of pre Obama, worked out a lot of 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:12.719 the strategies that Obama's people wound up using to very 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:15.399 successfully raise money for him. He was really good at it. 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:19.920 He was a reasonably intelligent candidate, and then he gave 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:21.919 the speech that we're about to play for you, and 0:22:21.960 --> 0:22:25.560 it completely created his ended him as a as a candidate. 0:22:26.640 --> 0:22:28.720 You know, I always say, the thing about Dean. Dean 0:22:28.840 --> 0:22:31.919 is stunningly unlucky that he ran in the time that 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:35.320 he did, because the clip you're about to hear is 0:22:35.840 --> 0:22:39.960 one thousand times less weird than anything DeSantis has ever done. 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:42.680 Like he he ran in it. I mean there was 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:45.199 there was dan Quail, right, but like he ran in 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:49.359 an era where like the seriousness and like non weirdness 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:51.000 of politicians was so much higher. 0:22:51.560 --> 0:22:55.679 I mean it's in the chat, so you can this 0:22:55.760 --> 0:22:56.480 is a good shit. 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:58.120 Straight to that beautiful scream. 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:02.119 We're going to South Carolina in Oklahoma and Arizona and 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:05.800 North Dakota and New Mexico. We're going to California and 0:23:05.920 --> 0:23:08.919 Texas and New York. We're going to South Dakota and 0:23:09.000 --> 0:23:13.479 Oregon and Washington and Michigan, and then we're going to Washington, 0:23:13.560 --> 0:23:13.760 d C. 0:23:14.000 --> 0:23:15.240 To take back the White House. 0:23:19.160 --> 0:23:23.840 That's it. That ended his career as a candidate. And 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:27.760 it's a little silly, but that doesn't that doesn't that 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:33.480 wouldn't be a twelve second news cycle today. But after 0:23:33.680 --> 0:23:36.359 kind of failing out as a presidential candidate, he became 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:40.119 chairman of the DNC, the Democratic National Committee, and he 0:23:40.240 --> 0:23:44.639 was a pretty good one. His kind of primary strategic 0:23:44.760 --> 0:23:48.399 vision was what he called the fifty state strategy, which is, 0:23:48.520 --> 0:23:51.840 don't focus just on swing states, never write a state 0:23:51.880 --> 0:23:55.359 off at unwinnable. Instead, spread the money that the DNC 0:23:55.520 --> 0:23:59.480 has around two campaign throughout the country everywhere, particularly to 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.679 fund local dncs so that they can start building a 0:24:02.720 --> 0:24:06.240 stable of candidates that can attract voters and eventually win 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:09.800 local elections. It's not like an easy, it's not a 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:12.359 sexy strategy because a lot of it is focused on 0:24:12.480 --> 0:24:15.320 like the slow kind of grueling fight to build up 0:24:15.320 --> 0:24:20.080 a base of support and unfriendly terrain. But it worked 0:24:20.359 --> 0:24:25.240 like really well. Actually in twenty or so states, those 0:24:25.280 --> 0:24:29.760 that had voted solidly Republican in private previous recent presidential races, 0:24:30.000 --> 0:24:34.639 Democratic candidates like won elections that had previously like in 0:24:34.880 --> 0:24:38.480 the like gone against them like it had. Like there 0:24:38.520 --> 0:24:41.919 were about like twenty states where it the kind of 0:24:42.000 --> 0:24:44.840 slide to red was arrested and pushed back to blue. 0:24:45.520 --> 0:24:52.160 These are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, 0:24:52.320 --> 0:24:56.879 North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, 0:24:56.920 --> 0:25:03.160 West Virginia, and Wyoming. When you do the yeah, there 0:25:03.200 --> 0:25:07.280 we go. So basically, Dean's strategy led to a net 0:25:07.320 --> 0:25:10.760 gain of thirty nine state House seats and a two 0:25:10.760 --> 0:25:14.720 percent increase of all seats in the states analyzed. They 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:18.000 lost two, you know, state Senate seats net, but it 0:25:18.080 --> 0:25:22.919 worked great in the House and like gained an attorney generalship, 0:25:23.000 --> 0:25:26.679 gained three House seats, gained a Senate seat, and in 0:25:26.760 --> 0:25:29.800 fifteen of the twenty seats the Democratic nominees on increase 0:25:29.880 --> 0:25:31.719 in vote share between two thousand and four and two 0:25:31.760 --> 0:25:34.240 thousand and eight, which was the years that so again, 0:25:34.560 --> 0:25:37.880 not super sexy. These aren't like we flipped Texas suddenly, 0:25:37.880 --> 0:25:40.440 but it's like, oh, we started to see real gains 0:25:40.520 --> 0:25:43.880 and like a lot of pretty red states. 0:25:44.680 --> 0:25:44.920 Now. 0:25:45.040 --> 0:25:48.359 It didn't work everywhere. It was not particularly successful in 0:25:48.359 --> 0:25:50.399 a large chunk of the South, like it did not 0:25:50.560 --> 0:25:53.320 arrest the slide into the red everywhere. But in a 0:25:53.359 --> 0:25:55.879 lot of the Midwest, particularly the states that were like 0:25:56.000 --> 0:25:58.760 the Hillary Clinton so called firewall that went for Trump 0:25:58.760 --> 0:26:02.480 in twenty twenty, it was extremely effective. And of course 0:26:02.520 --> 0:26:06.640 it got mixed immediately after Obama won election. And this 0:26:06.680 --> 0:26:08.840 is a big part of why in twenty ten the 0:26:08.880 --> 0:26:12.760 DIMS lost disastrously. But like the basic idea of we 0:26:12.800 --> 0:26:17.320 should be putting money into local democratic parties in order 0:26:17.400 --> 0:26:21.199 to like number one, have like a big part of 0:26:21.280 --> 0:26:25.600 winning any conflict, whether it's a war or a political election, 0:26:26.160 --> 0:26:30.000 is having the resources available reserves to take advantage of 0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:33.880 opportunities that present themselves in the moment. So you have 0:26:33.920 --> 0:26:38.240 a solidly read state house seat or judge ship or 0:26:38.280 --> 0:26:43.280 something like that, or governorship or mayor mayoralty, and a 0:26:43.320 --> 0:26:47.159 candidate has a health scare or has a scandal, you know, 0:26:47.200 --> 0:26:49.840 they get caught fucking a thirteen year old or something, 0:26:50.040 --> 0:26:53.080 and suddenly this seat that was solidly read is in play. 0:26:53.520 --> 0:26:56.800 And if you have no one who can get votes, 0:26:56.840 --> 0:26:59.360 who can get voters excited, who can run for that, well, 0:26:59.359 --> 0:27:01.320 then your probably not gonna win it. It's just going 0:27:01.400 --> 0:27:04.040 to like go to whoever the RNC you know, picks 0:27:04.080 --> 0:27:07.000 to pick up the seat next. But if you've got 0:27:07.000 --> 0:27:08.719 someone waiting in the wings, they have a chance at 0:27:08.720 --> 0:27:10.440 winning it. And a good example of this is what 0:27:10.600 --> 0:27:14.200 just happened in Jacksonville, Florida. Right you have DeSantis make 0:27:14.400 --> 0:27:18.600 go like lunge to the fucking most fascist end of 0:27:18.640 --> 0:27:21.159 the right and pass this abortion bill that's something like 0:27:21.240 --> 0:27:24.359 seventy five percent of the state doesn't like. And the 0:27:24.400 --> 0:27:27.159 Dims had a decent candidate there that was able to 0:27:27.240 --> 0:27:30.960 run against the Republican mayor of Jacksonville and win. And 0:27:31.040 --> 0:27:33.639 in that election, the dim spent two million and the 0:27:33.680 --> 0:27:36.560 Republicans spent nine million. You were not talking about the 0:27:36.640 --> 0:27:38.840 kind of resources expended that you're seeing in some of 0:27:38.840 --> 0:27:42.479 these dumb races we're talking about. So anyway, like this 0:27:42.520 --> 0:27:44.399 is most of what I wanted to get into is 0:27:44.440 --> 0:27:47.280 just like you can win and you can improve things 0:27:47.320 --> 0:27:49.440 in Texas and you can build a base from which 0:27:49.480 --> 0:27:52.720 to actually change things electorally in that state. But you 0:27:52.760 --> 0:27:55.199 can't do it by just like focusing on whoever is 0:27:55.200 --> 0:27:57.600 at the top. Like it has to be smarter. It's 0:27:57.600 --> 0:27:59.440 not just about shoveling money into a pit. 0:28:00.800 --> 0:28:02.560 Yeah, And like I think there's there's a couple of 0:28:02.600 --> 0:28:06.040 things I want to add. One was that like, oh god, okay, 0:28:06.119 --> 0:28:10.560 like so Tim Kane, Yeah, tim Kaine got put in 0:28:10.640 --> 0:28:15.520 after they ran out Dean and Jesus like Tim Kane 0:28:15.640 --> 0:28:18.280 might be is a is like a once in a 0:28:18.359 --> 0:28:23.280 generation terrible politician, like one of the worst, you know, 0:28:23.480 --> 0:28:25.280 but like like you would see ship like. 0:28:25.560 --> 0:28:28.520 He is the Winston Churchill of making me bored. 0:28:28.480 --> 0:28:31.159 Like yeah, like he like like you would see I mean, 0:28:31.200 --> 0:28:33.120 and this still happens, right, but like there are there 0:28:33.160 --> 0:28:36.439 are seats that are winnable that the Dems like just 0:28:36.800 --> 0:28:40.320 literally won't even bother finding people to run for because 0:28:40.320 --> 0:28:42.200 they're just fucking too lazy and they don't give a shit. 0:28:43.000 --> 0:28:44.920 And you know this this happens if this happens in 0:28:44.960 --> 0:28:47.440 a fucking lot of races, and you know, and part 0:28:47.480 --> 0:28:49.240 part of the other thing that that happens in this 0:28:49.280 --> 0:28:51.200 sort of period that like you know, is the reason 0:28:51.240 --> 0:28:52.880 why the top down is okay. So this is like 0:28:53.400 --> 0:28:55.520 if if we're gonna actually do this sort of like 0:28:55.880 --> 0:28:58.479 complicated electoralism, like this is why Bernie Sanders lost two 0:28:58.480 --> 0:29:03.320 elections in a row. Is that you can't actually like 0:29:03.320 --> 0:29:06.840 like actual sort of like substantive political change like doesn't 0:29:06.880 --> 0:29:10.040 happen from the top down. It's it's like it happens 0:29:10.080 --> 0:29:12.840 on bottom up organizing. And you know, the the democratic 0:29:12.880 --> 0:29:16.240 waves in like the last two years, we're basically like 0:29:16.440 --> 0:29:19.640 them eating actual social movements. It's you know, like they 0:29:19.720 --> 0:29:21.880 it's it's them basically, like they're there. There's a sort 0:29:21.920 --> 0:29:26.000 of rejuvenated anti abortion movement that they just sort of consume. Right, 0:29:26.560 --> 0:29:29.080 They've been doing a very very good job of sort 0:29:29.120 --> 0:29:31.680 of like eating like whatever sort of queer rights like 0:29:31.840 --> 0:29:35.960 movements exist alive, and they had kind of stopped doing 0:29:36.000 --> 0:29:37.800 that for a while because they chose to just like 0:29:37.840 --> 0:29:40.479 destroy Occupy Whether rather than like try to co opt it. 0:29:41.480 --> 0:29:43.320 And you know, I mean there were reasons for that, right, 0:29:43.440 --> 0:29:46.440 but like part of part of the thing like if 0:29:46.520 --> 0:29:48.560 if you if if you're a Democrat and you want 0:29:48.640 --> 0:29:51.880 to actually like win Texas, you need to have like 0:29:52.320 --> 0:29:56.160 actual you to have actual sort of social movements that 0:29:56.400 --> 0:29:58.280 you know, the Democrats can eventually take over and destroy. 0:29:58.360 --> 0:30:01.560 But in the time between they destroy them, destroying them 0:30:01.600 --> 0:30:04.720 and them, and you know, like like in the brief 0:30:04.720 --> 0:30:07.160 time while they both exist and are controled by Democratic Party, 0:30:07.200 --> 0:30:10.080 that's how you actually sort of like build the kinds 0:30:10.080 --> 0:30:11.560 of the build the kinds of coalitions to build the 0:30:11.600 --> 0:30:14.640 kinds of organization that win these races. And the Democratic 0:30:14.680 --> 0:30:17.440 Party has just no interest in doing that like almost 0:30:17.480 --> 0:30:22.160 anywhere basically outside of Minnesota, where I don't know. 0:30:22.120 --> 0:30:22.600 Those. 0:30:23.920 --> 0:30:26.720 The Minnesota Dems are fucking built different. I don't, I don't, 0:30:26.880 --> 0:30:27.120 I don't know. 0:30:27.160 --> 0:30:27.360 I don't. 0:30:27.360 --> 0:30:30.800 I don't have another explanation for that, but like, yeah, 0:30:30.920 --> 0:30:36.440 it's I don't know, it's it's. 0:30:34.600 --> 0:30:37.040 It's like one of the things that you have the 0:30:37.040 --> 0:30:40.720 opportunity to do at the local level is and this 0:30:40.800 --> 0:30:42.560 is you know, this is a big factor in like, 0:30:42.800 --> 0:30:46.160 uh politics in Georgia. You've got people who are motivated 0:30:46.280 --> 0:30:49.320 because of a specific political issue that Dems are strong on, 0:30:49.560 --> 0:30:53.960 like abortion, and you can you can get people registered, 0:30:54.040 --> 0:30:56.960 you can get people out organizing, you can get people 0:30:56.960 --> 0:30:59.400 donating money, and more most important that you can get 0:30:59.440 --> 0:31:03.880 people votevoting and voting in numbers that they haven't before 0:31:04.400 --> 0:31:07.760 and make if you're able to kind of harness that 0:31:07.800 --> 0:31:09.680 sort of thing. But being able to harness that again, 0:31:10.200 --> 0:31:12.560 part of it is this is not sexy. This is 0:31:12.560 --> 0:31:14.080 not something we can say this is going to flip 0:31:14.120 --> 0:31:16.800 a state in twenty twenty four. But putting in the 0:31:16.840 --> 0:31:20.480 money and the resources to have people who are being 0:31:20.600 --> 0:31:23.560 supported to go out and make attempts and to build 0:31:24.160 --> 0:31:27.320 like a reputation and a base of support and networks 0:31:27.400 --> 0:31:31.840 in the state, Like that's the non sexy thing that 0:31:32.440 --> 0:31:34.840 the number one the Republicans are really good at. If 0:31:34.840 --> 0:31:37.920 you're asking yourself, looking at all these horrible anti trans bills, 0:31:37.960 --> 0:31:41.800 anti gay bills, anti abortion bills, how do they do 0:31:41.840 --> 0:31:45.240 this well? Because church is organized at the local level 0:31:45.640 --> 0:31:48.840 to build up the kind of support and the kind 0:31:48.840 --> 0:31:53.040 of human infrastructure that allowed them to take advantage of 0:31:53.440 --> 0:31:56.080 the kind of broader social trends that drove some of 0:31:56.160 --> 0:31:59.200 those states more deeply read and that kind of like 0:31:59.320 --> 0:32:01.520 made may did it possible for them to do things 0:32:01.520 --> 0:32:03.480 that ten years before people had said, like there's no 0:32:03.520 --> 0:32:05.800 way to make this happen. That can work on the 0:32:05.880 --> 0:32:08.640 left side of things, but you have to have the 0:32:08.680 --> 0:32:10.760 groundwork in They started. 0:32:10.440 --> 0:32:12.720 With like school boards, Yeah, they started. They started with 0:32:12.720 --> 0:32:15.080 going for school boards, going after books. Then you get 0:32:15.120 --> 0:32:17.080 up basic people riled up that you can go after 0:32:17.440 --> 0:32:19.440 healthcare for minors and you can go after health care 0:32:19.280 --> 0:32:21.840 for adults. It was a very easy path and it 0:32:21.920 --> 0:32:25.240 started by like going to the most accessible places to 0:32:25.360 --> 0:32:28.880 have public comment on issues, which was complaining about books 0:32:28.880 --> 0:32:29.560 inside of school. 0:32:30.120 --> 0:32:31.840 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:32:31.880 --> 0:32:33.880 And another thing I'd say about the church thing is 0:32:33.920 --> 0:32:35.600 like the thing that you used to do that for 0:32:35.600 --> 0:32:38.280 the Democrats was unions, but then they destroyed them all. 0:32:38.760 --> 0:32:40.080 And but you know, but like you can actually you 0:32:40.080 --> 0:32:42.080 can actually see what this looks like like in the 0:32:42.120 --> 0:32:44.600 places where something like this. This is why the state 0:32:44.680 --> 0:32:47.000 level Midwest Dems are so much further to the left 0:32:47.120 --> 0:32:50.240 than the Dems everywhere else, because like the people in Minnesota, 0:32:50.240 --> 0:32:53.880 the people in Wisconsin are likely the only reason they're 0:32:53.920 --> 0:32:56.880 even so remotely in power is because and you know, 0:32:56.880 --> 0:32:59.240 you're seeing this, like it's at like in Chicago too, 0:32:59.360 --> 0:33:03.080 with Brandon Johnson. Is that like those those people are 0:33:03.120 --> 0:33:06.680 like functionally dependent on like that they're on their teachers 0:33:06.720 --> 0:33:09.959 unions to exist as like a political coalision. Yeah, and 0:33:10.000 --> 0:33:12.880 so you know, like like union organizing is a is 0:33:12.880 --> 0:33:14.720 a like we're just like fucking just giving money to 0:33:14.800 --> 0:33:16.960 a strike fund is even even if the thing that 0:33:16.960 --> 0:33:18.640 you want to do is win elections, that is a 0:33:18.640 --> 0:33:21.320 more effective way of winning of winning elections than fucking 0:33:21.320 --> 0:33:24.520 giving money to Beto Auroric like a seventh time. 0:33:24.880 --> 0:33:29.600 Yeah, and again when we the thing I want to 0:33:29.600 --> 0:33:32.200 get across here is the right thing to do is 0:33:32.240 --> 0:33:37.520 not say and no one is suggesting this here, fuck Texas, 0:33:37.600 --> 0:33:40.120 it can never be fixed. The right thing is saying 0:33:40.880 --> 0:33:44.840 if you're focused on one famous guy running in Texas 0:33:44.960 --> 0:33:48.080 or this like top level thing of flipping Texas, you 0:33:48.120 --> 0:33:51.360 don't actually care all that much about the problems being 0:33:51.400 --> 0:33:55.120 faced by people in Texas because that's not really going 0:33:55.160 --> 0:33:58.240 to fix them. Right, Beto's not going to win. And 0:33:58.320 --> 0:34:01.120 even if Texas flips for an election action, that doesn't 0:34:01.120 --> 0:34:04.080 mean the state legislature flips. It doesn't mean the governor flips. 0:34:04.120 --> 0:34:07.200 It doesn't mean that things get better for people doing 0:34:07.240 --> 0:34:10.640 these kind of bottom up approaches. Number one will eventually 0:34:10.680 --> 0:34:14.480 flip the fucking state. Right, there is a demographic trend happening. 0:34:15.600 --> 0:34:18.279 Part of how you flip the state, By the way, 0:34:18.320 --> 0:34:20.719 if you're actually responsible, is like proving that you can 0:34:20.760 --> 0:34:24.360 make people's lives better. If you want to flip the state, 0:34:24.600 --> 0:34:26.839 that's maybe more ethical than just being like, what if 0:34:26.880 --> 0:34:31.200 we dump one hundred and seventy million dollars to try 0:34:31.200 --> 0:34:34.320 to make this guy who goes viral on YouTube or 0:34:34.320 --> 0:34:37.520 Twitter sometimes look better? Right, maybe one of those is 0:34:37.520 --> 0:34:39.680 more ethical than the other. Anyway, I don't want to 0:34:39.760 --> 0:34:43.680 rant about electoralism anymore, but as a transplant in Texan, 0:34:44.120 --> 0:34:47.360 I get frustrated by this. So I felt like we 0:34:47.440 --> 0:34:48.320 had to say something. 0:34:48.920 --> 0:34:52.080 Yeah, I also get frustrated by Better claiming to be punk, 0:34:52.160 --> 0:34:55.479 which is the least punk thing in the fucking whether 0:34:55.480 --> 0:34:56.360 that's a no repisode. 0:34:56.480 --> 0:35:00.800 No, we have one. We have one elected who's gotten 0:35:00.840 --> 0:35:05.160 anywhere close to being punk, and it was Bernie Sanders 0:35:05.239 --> 0:35:08.600 when he when he got into that cold book depository 0:35:08.680 --> 0:35:12.239 that November morning with the man liquor carcano rifle. Extremely 0:35:12.320 --> 0:35:17.080 punk anyway, cutting the feed here. 0:35:32.520 --> 0:35:39.239 Ah, oh yeah, it could happen here a podcast where 0:35:39.239 --> 0:35:42.239 I just made my colleagues I can see them through 0:35:42.239 --> 0:35:48.080 the zoom, deeply uncomfortable by opening this podcast with with. 0:35:47.600 --> 0:35:50.239 With a sound that you shouldn't make in the workplace. 0:35:50.360 --> 0:35:54.120 I'm Robert Evans. Joining me today is Mia Wong and 0:35:54.120 --> 0:35:56.640 Garrison Davis me. I take it from here. 0:35:57.360 --> 0:36:01.879 Oh boy, So it's been a you know, this is okay, 0:36:01.920 --> 0:36:05.120 So this, I guess is now like last week's Twitter thing. 0:36:05.920 --> 0:36:08.719 But okay, so also not this is this is? This 0:36:08.760 --> 0:36:11.120 is not a Twitter thing? No, well it kind of is. 0:36:11.160 --> 0:36:13.880 It kind of is, but like let's not let's not 0:36:13.920 --> 0:36:15.000 friend this as a Twitter thing? 0:36:15.080 --> 0:36:18.279 Yeah, okay, okay, so what this is? We we are okay, 0:36:18.640 --> 0:36:21.920 we have been experiencing in the last you know, like 0:36:22.200 --> 0:36:24.479 half decade actually belonging from that cause like this seven 0:36:24.520 --> 0:36:27.680 eight years now, like the the sort of incredible rise 0:36:27.880 --> 0:36:30.600 in casual American anti semitism and the level of anti 0:36:30.600 --> 0:36:33.680 semitism that you could just do in in sort of 0:36:33.680 --> 0:36:38.279 public discourse and it's quote unquote fine. And one of 0:36:38.280 --> 0:36:41.520 the sort of biggest indicators of this is the like 0:36:41.600 --> 0:36:44.360 the the extent to which it's now socially acceptable to 0:36:44.680 --> 0:36:54.520 just do the most like absolutely like unhinged like antisemitic 0:36:54.560 --> 0:36:58.759 conspiracy theories about George Soros. And specifically the thing that 0:36:58.800 --> 0:37:00.840 specifically was like, okay, need to do this episode was 0:37:01.320 --> 0:37:06.160 last week Elon Musk like compared George Soros to Magneto 0:37:06.280 --> 0:37:09.319 and then said, quote you assume they are good intentions. 0:37:09.360 --> 0:37:11.960 They are not. He wants to erode the fabric, the 0:37:12.040 --> 0:37:17.080 very fabric of civilization. Soros hates humanity. And this is 0:37:17.120 --> 0:37:20.680 just like the mainstreamline of the Republican Party now like 0:37:21.040 --> 0:37:24.880 they just all do this. You can just sort of, 0:37:26.400 --> 0:37:28.759 I mean, and this is honestly like as bad, like 0:37:28.800 --> 0:37:31.000 you know, this is like the stuff that Elon Musk 0:37:31.040 --> 0:37:35.239 is saying is unbelievably unacceptable. That's not even anywhere near 0:37:35.280 --> 0:37:37.839 as bad as it goes, Like it's pretty common to 0:37:37.880 --> 0:37:41.720 just sho these people like talking about the Satan sorrows 0:37:41.760 --> 0:37:47.120 agenda and shit. Now like it's it has gotten unbelievably, 0:37:47.239 --> 0:37:53.240 unfathomably out of control. And so today I wanted to 0:37:53.280 --> 0:37:57.000 take a look at, okay, who George Soros actually is, 0:37:57.239 --> 0:37:59.520 like the real human being and not the sort of 0:37:59.560 --> 0:38:02.200 like caricature projection that has been created of him on 0:38:02.239 --> 0:38:04.640 the right. And I wanted to also sort of look 0:38:04.680 --> 0:38:08.080 at why the right hates him so much. And you know, 0:38:08.160 --> 0:38:10.160 Soros is kind an interesting figure because he falls like 0:38:10.280 --> 0:38:13.440 right in the middle of like our two shows about people, 0:38:13.680 --> 0:38:15.640 because he's not he's not really like a cool person. 0:38:15.680 --> 0:38:17.360 He does cool stuff, but though he does stuff that's 0:38:17.760 --> 0:38:21.280 cool sometimes, but he's not also like a bastard properly. 0:38:22.200 --> 0:38:25.240 So though he's done some bastardy stuff too, he has. 0:38:25.160 --> 0:38:27.000 We are going to talk about that. 0:38:27.160 --> 0:38:28.880 He said, he's a Yeah, I mean. 0:38:28.719 --> 0:38:30.600 Most of what this episode is about, he's. 0:38:30.560 --> 0:38:34.160 I would say he's like twenty percent more complicated than 0:38:34.200 --> 0:38:36.040 the average billionaire on a on. 0:38:36.000 --> 0:38:39.440 A morel yeah, I think I think like twenty or 0:38:39.440 --> 0:38:40.040 thirty percent. 0:38:40.200 --> 0:38:42.560 Yeah, there's there's somewhere in that neighborhood. 0:38:42.920 --> 0:38:48.080 Yeah, you know, and I think there's three George Soros's. 0:38:48.120 --> 0:38:49.919 Two of them are real and one of them is fake. 0:38:50.560 --> 0:38:54.359 There is you know. So George Soros is a billionaire philanthropist, right, 0:38:55.239 --> 0:38:56.880 and you know, so that means that he has a 0:38:56.880 --> 0:38:59.520 sort of billionaire side and a philanthropist's side, and they 0:38:59.520 --> 0:39:02.759 are very often working across purposes. Sometimes they're not working. 0:39:02.800 --> 0:39:07.480 Sometimes there he aligns them together, sometimes he doesn't. And 0:39:07.719 --> 0:39:09.120 so the way I've sort of structured this is like 0:39:09.160 --> 0:39:12.080 the first episode we're gonna be talking about the sort 0:39:12.120 --> 0:39:14.319 of billionaire side and how he did that, and the 0:39:14.360 --> 0:39:16.560 second episode is going to be more about the philanthropist's 0:39:16.560 --> 0:39:21.200 side and how both of these basically have been kind 0:39:21.280 --> 0:39:25.319 of accidentally structured in such a way that the right 0:39:25.560 --> 0:39:27.719 was like, oh my god, this is the perfect guy 0:39:27.760 --> 0:39:30.759 to do atise medic conspiracy theories about. And then there's 0:39:30.760 --> 0:39:33.520 also the third George Soros is like the one who's 0:39:33.520 --> 0:39:36.200 just literally the devil who the Republicans have made up 0:39:36.640 --> 0:39:41.240 and yeah, so George Soros was born to a Jewish 0:39:41.280 --> 0:39:44.880 family in Hungary in nineteen thirty, which is not a 0:39:44.920 --> 0:39:47.200 good time to be born into a Jewish family in Hungary. 0:39:47.600 --> 0:39:51.680 No, really, there's not a good time to be born 0:39:51.719 --> 0:39:54.920 to a Jewish and family in Hungary until like I'm 0:39:54.960 --> 0:39:56.840 gonna get I'm gonna say, sometime in the fifties. 0:39:57.680 --> 0:40:01.200 Yeah, you know, I will say that it gets way 0:40:01.280 --> 0:40:05.520 like it. It is way worse when he is born 0:40:05.680 --> 0:40:09.280 than it was in like even like the eighteen nineties, 0:40:09.320 --> 0:40:12.319 which is like not a great time, but it's gotten 0:40:12.360 --> 0:40:16.080 significantly worse. He is fourteen when the Nazis invade Hungary 0:40:16.160 --> 0:40:20.080 nineteen forty four, and this is the point at which 0:40:20.080 --> 0:40:22.120 we get to our first Soros conspiracy, which is that 0:40:22.160 --> 0:40:23.319 there's this, there's this. 0:40:23.400 --> 0:40:25.200 It's a little more complicated than that. It's not really 0:40:25.200 --> 0:40:28.560 the Nazis. Well, it's a little more complex than yea, 0:40:30.520 --> 0:40:35.040 when the extermination of the Hungarian Jewish community begins, really 0:40:35.239 --> 0:40:37.439 in nineteen forty four, yeah, yeah. 0:40:37.120 --> 0:40:41.600 And so there's a thing that happens. I don't know. 0:40:41.920 --> 0:40:47.440 He and his dad have a kind of complicated like 0:40:49.000 --> 0:40:52.680 set of things they survive, and there's a part of 0:40:52.719 --> 0:40:54.239 the story that gets picked up by the right that 0:40:54.280 --> 0:40:57.239 gets If you've ever heard Alex Jones talk about Sorows, 0:40:57.280 --> 0:40:59.400 like the second or third thing he will say is 0:40:59.400 --> 0:41:02.000 that like Soros Nazi collaborator, was like a willing collaborator 0:41:02.000 --> 0:41:02.120 with the. 0:41:02.160 --> 0:41:04.800 Nazis, which is not true. 0:41:05.200 --> 0:41:09.799 And also like he's fourteen, like you know, but like 0:41:10.640 --> 0:41:13.600 I don't really call even like fourteen year olds and 0:41:13.640 --> 0:41:17.279 the Hitler youth willing collaborators because they're children. Yeah, you 0:41:17.400 --> 0:41:20.080 have to have a lion at some point, even with 0:41:20.200 --> 0:41:23.680 Nazis where if their kids, they're not really morally responsible 0:41:23.680 --> 0:41:26.080 either way. Yeah, and like you know, so the specific 0:41:26.200 --> 0:41:27.960 thing that he does is there's these notices that are 0:41:27.960 --> 0:41:30.680 sent up by the government that's like telling Jewish people 0:41:30.760 --> 0:41:33.920 to like go like to a place and if you 0:41:33.960 --> 0:41:35.880 go to the place, you're gonna get routed up and killed. 0:41:36.560 --> 0:41:41.000 And basically, so the thing that actually happened is that 0:41:41.680 --> 0:41:44.640 so George Ros's dad is told to do this and 0:41:44.680 --> 0:41:46.480 he gives it to George Rosen is like go tell 0:41:46.480 --> 0:41:48.440 these people that they've been called for this and that 0:41:48.480 --> 0:41:50.400 if they go, they're like they're gonna get taken away. 0:41:51.800 --> 0:41:55.080 And this has been transformed by you know this that is, 0:41:55.239 --> 0:41:57.640 this is a nightmarish thing these people are spiving. This 0:41:57.640 --> 0:42:00.000 has been transformed by a bunch of the worst people 0:42:00.160 --> 0:42:03.680 ever lived into Nazi collaboration, which is also you know, 0:42:03.840 --> 0:42:05.640 the part of the story that never gets told, even 0:42:05.680 --> 0:42:08.359 even when people sort of like do the like dive 0:42:08.400 --> 0:42:10.520 into like oh this is fake. Is that the thing 0:42:10.560 --> 0:42:13.160 that like Soros's family spends the rest of the war 0:42:13.239 --> 0:42:18.840 doing is basically getting like counterfeit papers to Jewish families 0:42:18.880 --> 0:42:21.000 that like says that they're Christian, and you know they 0:42:21.360 --> 0:42:23.919 like they they legitimately save a bunch of families from 0:42:23.960 --> 0:42:26.080 dying in the Holocaust, and yeh. 0:42:25.960 --> 0:42:28.279 Know, the shit that Jones pulls on them is like 0:42:28.400 --> 0:42:30.680 part of this because of like the job this guy 0:42:30.680 --> 0:42:35.240 who's like saving young George Soros has involves like basically 0:42:35.280 --> 0:42:39.239 like itemizing stuff left behind by Jewish families forced out 0:42:39.280 --> 0:42:41.880 of their homes. He's like they were profiting off of 0:42:41.920 --> 0:42:44.319 the holl No, they were like doing whatever job kept 0:42:44.360 --> 0:42:47.239 them under the radar while they attempted to help. Like 0:42:47.320 --> 0:42:50.279 it was the Holocaust. It was messy. Yeah, but like 0:42:51.320 --> 0:42:54.000 it's almost like saying like Oscar Schindler took advantage of 0:42:54.280 --> 0:42:57.480 slave labors. Well, no, it's actually what Schindler was doing. 0:42:58.040 --> 0:43:00.320 It was not that, Yeah, like he was you the 0:43:00.400 --> 0:43:04.000 trappings of this slave labor system in order to rescue people. 0:43:04.000 --> 0:43:06.320 It's quite different from just enslaving people. 0:43:07.239 --> 0:43:09.839 Yeah. I think the thing that's really disturbing about this though, 0:43:09.880 --> 0:43:12.040 right is like, Okay, like this is like Alex Jones 0:43:12.080 --> 0:43:14.279 is Alex Jones, Right, He's just gonna say the worst 0:43:14.280 --> 0:43:15.840 shit you've ever heard. But like this is like a 0:43:15.880 --> 0:43:18.600 thing that mainstream right wingers just say now, yeah, and 0:43:18.680 --> 0:43:23.040 it's just unbelievably horrible and it sucks and it's just 0:43:23.280 --> 0:43:28.920 like not true. But fortunately for George Soros, his family 0:43:29.239 --> 0:43:32.719 makes it through the Holocaust, well his immediate family does, 0:43:33.719 --> 0:43:38.319 and they like get out and they end up in 0:43:38.320 --> 0:43:42.319 the US. And this is where, Okay, this is something 0:43:42.320 --> 0:43:45.600 that I think is very important to the story that 0:43:46.840 --> 0:43:50.080 isn't told very much. So Soros is like a finance whiz, right, 0:43:50.680 --> 0:43:53.759 he is very, very very good at finance. And we're 0:43:53.760 --> 0:43:56.080 gonna be talking a bit about like how like the 0:43:56.120 --> 0:43:57.680 things that he figured out to let him do this, 0:43:57.719 --> 0:44:01.200 because it's interesting. But he's also not from the sort 0:44:01.200 --> 0:44:04.400 of like American or the British financial elite, Like if 0:44:04.520 --> 0:44:07.640 I don't there's like a certain kind of person, right 0:44:07.680 --> 0:44:10.400 who like goes into finance and you know, it's like 0:44:10.400 --> 0:44:14.239 like like wasp frat Brose or like in bred British aristocrats, right, 0:44:14.920 --> 0:44:18.080 and door Soros is like a hung is a Hungarian immigrant, right. 0:44:18.080 --> 0:44:21.640 He is not sort of from these people. He is 0:44:21.840 --> 0:44:25.160 like and and you know this is this is gonna 0:44:25.160 --> 0:44:27.400 be a really big deal when he like goes up 0:44:27.440 --> 0:44:31.279 against the British financial elite later on. But you know, 0:44:31.320 --> 0:44:33.840 he he he threw sort of like he's able to 0:44:33.880 --> 0:44:37.160 turn like a job doing door to door salesman into 0:44:37.239 --> 0:44:39.600 like a way into a firm, and he's able to 0:44:39.600 --> 0:44:41.120 sort of work his way up to a point where 0:44:41.120 --> 0:44:44.000 like he has suddenly like has his own hedge fund 0:44:45.160 --> 0:44:48.279 and he is really really good at this. He's he's 0:44:48.280 --> 0:44:51.600 one of the sort of early people who does hedge funds. 0:44:52.080 --> 0:44:54.880 There's a great book called The Influence of Soros, Politics, Power, 0:44:54.920 --> 0:44:59.040 and the Struggle for an Open Society by Emily Tempkin, 0:44:59.160 --> 0:45:01.880 who did a lot of really great work like interviewed Soros, 0:45:01.880 --> 0:45:04.919 interviewed an enormous number of the people who were around him. 0:45:05.960 --> 0:45:07.880 And I want to read a passage of this about 0:45:07.920 --> 0:45:10.480 like how he figured out how to sort of beat 0:45:10.520 --> 0:45:14.680 the market. He's talking about this guy named Carl Popper, 0:45:14.719 --> 0:45:16.960 who's like a philosopher of science who also wrote this 0:45:17.000 --> 0:45:21.280 book called The Open Society that we'll talk about next episode. 0:45:21.360 --> 0:45:21.560 More. 0:45:22.000 --> 0:45:24.719 Popper's philosophy made me more sensitive to the role of 0:45:24.760 --> 0:45:29.000 misconceptions in financial markets, Soros said decades later. People believe 0:45:29.080 --> 0:45:31.680 that markets don't lie and shouldn't be and should be trusted. 0:45:31.719 --> 0:45:35.800 But that isn't true. Sorrow's knew markets react to humans, 0:45:35.800 --> 0:45:38.840 and humans are fallible. Instead of looking at the money 0:45:38.880 --> 0:45:41.680 being made, or as Sebastian Mallaby put it, in more 0:45:41.680 --> 0:45:44.440 Money than God, his book on the history of hedge funds, 0:45:44.960 --> 0:45:49.239 the Psychology that drove investors appetites, Soros looked at how 0:45:49.360 --> 0:45:52.400 one impacted the other, predicting that each would drive the 0:45:52.480 --> 0:45:55.560 other forward until the trust were so completely overvalued that 0:45:55.600 --> 0:46:01.560 a crash was inevitable. And this is really like if 0:46:01.640 --> 0:46:05.000 you even today, right, you know, if you're able to 0:46:05.120 --> 0:46:08.719 understand that, you know, like the way a lot of 0:46:08.719 --> 0:46:11.440 hedgephoon people tend to think about the market is as 0:46:11.440 --> 0:46:13.320 like the market, you know, especially in this period, is 0:46:13.360 --> 0:46:15.279 this is this sort of dogmatic, neo lible thing of 0:46:15.320 --> 0:46:17.520 like the market is like a perfect codvance of price signals, 0:46:18.080 --> 0:46:19.480 and so I was just like no, it's made out 0:46:19.480 --> 0:46:24.120 of people. And those people like get greedy. They have 0:46:24.160 --> 0:46:28.240 emotional stuff they like they get into these like fomo 0:46:28.360 --> 0:46:31.520 like fear of missing out stuff. You know, they like 0:46:31.600 --> 0:46:36.320 intensely overvalue assets because everyone else sees the assets like expensive, 0:46:36.400 --> 0:46:39.040 so everyone like you know, rushes to buy it, and 0:46:39.080 --> 0:46:41.160 like this is something like like even now right, this 0:46:41.239 --> 0:46:43.280 is this is like a very smart way to understand finance. 0:46:43.960 --> 0:46:46.520 She's figured this out in like the seventies. And if you, 0:46:46.640 --> 0:46:48.400 if you, if you're able to do this kind of 0:46:48.440 --> 0:46:51.080 stuff and like use this to understand how the market 0:46:51.080 --> 0:46:53.120 works in the seventies, you are going to look like 0:46:53.120 --> 0:46:56.400 a god among men. And he starts a hedgephone in 0:46:56.480 --> 0:46:59.560 nineteen seventy three, but by nineteen eighty one he has 0:46:59.600 --> 0:47:01.960 a fun that is worth three hundred and eighty one 0:47:02.000 --> 0:47:05.399 million dollars in like nineteen eighty one money. I don't 0:47:05.440 --> 0:47:07.400 know what that is in modern money, but I assume 0:47:07.400 --> 0:47:09.560 it's a lot. I'm a hack of a fraud. I 0:47:09.560 --> 0:47:10.520 should have actually figured this out. 0:47:10.640 --> 0:47:12.360 Yeah, that's like a billion dollars. 0:47:12.800 --> 0:47:15.799 Yeah, And like he personally is like has like for 0:47:15.920 --> 0:47:19.719 himself like one hundred million dollars right, and he you know, 0:47:19.880 --> 0:47:21.319 at this point, he starts to become sort of very 0:47:21.320 --> 0:47:24.040 famous in finance circles because you know, I mean he's 0:47:24.080 --> 0:47:29.560 just like absolutely destroying the market. Now, okay, this is 0:47:29.600 --> 0:47:32.000 where things get. You know, up until this point, he's 0:47:32.080 --> 0:47:35.239 kind of like he's been doing a lot of sort 0:47:35.280 --> 0:47:38.400 of finance stuff that's kind of shady, but it's mostly 0:47:38.440 --> 0:47:41.560 just been him like ripping off other finance people, which 0:47:41.680 --> 0:47:45.480 I'm entirely okay with, like that's just very funny. But 0:47:45.600 --> 0:47:50.680 he starts to get into currency speculation, and in nineteen 0:47:50.719 --> 0:47:53.439 eighty five he has one of his big breaks, which 0:47:53.480 --> 0:47:56.360 is he predicts the plaza cords. Now, okay, the Plaza 0:47:56.480 --> 0:47:58.360 cord is something we've talked about on the show before, 0:47:59.000 --> 0:48:01.040 but I need to talk about it a bit more 0:48:01.120 --> 0:48:03.879 because unfortunately it's we have to talk about the Asian 0:48:03.880 --> 0:48:06.839 financial collaps this episode. And this is a like one 0:48:06.840 --> 0:48:08.839 of the key moments of the Asian financial collabs, even 0:48:08.840 --> 0:48:12.080 though it was like a decade earlier. So in nineteen 0:48:12.120 --> 0:48:14.960 eighty five, Ronald Reagan is trying to like revive the 0:48:15.080 --> 0:48:19.120 US as a domestic manufacturing industry because it's like dying, 0:48:21.239 --> 0:48:23.279 and you know the reason part of the like a 0:48:23.280 --> 0:48:24.640 big part of the reason is dying is that they're 0:48:24.640 --> 0:48:27.160 getting absolutely destroyed by sort of German and like West 0:48:27.160 --> 0:48:31.480 German and Japanese manufacturers. And part of what's happening here 0:48:32.480 --> 0:48:37.440 is that particularly Japan's currencies are worth way currency is 0:48:37.440 --> 0:48:39.560 worth way less than the dollar. This is called having 0:48:39.560 --> 0:48:41.680 a weak currency, and having a weak currency is really 0:48:41.680 --> 0:48:45.680 good for if you have like an export based manufacturing economy. 0:48:46.000 --> 0:48:48.440 And so Reagan basically like walks into a meeting with 0:48:48.520 --> 0:48:50.879 like the Germans, Japanese government, the British, like few other 0:48:50.920 --> 0:48:54.279 people and just basically just like not quite in so 0:48:54.320 --> 0:48:56.359 many words, but basically just says like you are all 0:48:56.400 --> 0:49:00.360 American military protectorates, and because you're all American military protecs, 0:49:00.400 --> 0:49:02.200 like I can I can force you to increase the 0:49:02.239 --> 0:49:05.680 value of your currency like or else capital O, capital e. 0:49:07.320 --> 0:49:09.480 And they do. They comply, and this is this, this 0:49:09.520 --> 0:49:11.759 becomes this is a thing called the Plaza Cords. And 0:49:11.800 --> 0:49:14.000 this this, you know, weakens the value of the dollar 0:49:14.280 --> 0:49:17.120 versus a bunch of other currencies. And this like literally 0:49:17.200 --> 0:49:21.319 single handedly like restores the profitability of American manufacturing like 0:49:21.400 --> 0:49:26.640 through the nineties, which is really wild, but the the 0:49:27.360 --> 0:49:30.680 other the important thing for this story is that I 0:49:30.400 --> 0:49:32.879 I don't know how he did this, but like George 0:49:32.920 --> 0:49:35.520 Soros predicts that this is gonna happen, and she makes 0:49:35.560 --> 0:49:39.840 an unbelievable amount of money basically like no, no, like 0:49:39.920 --> 0:49:43.040 basically do in currency speculation because he knows what, like 0:49:43.120 --> 0:49:44.880 currencies are going to increase in value, which you know, 0:49:44.920 --> 0:49:48.120 he knows that, like uh, for example, he knows that, 0:49:48.160 --> 0:49:50.319 like the Japanese yen is going to increase in value. 0:49:50.360 --> 0:49:54.000 So he makes an enormous amount of money doing this stuff, 0:49:55.040 --> 0:49:57.480 and he gets very famous for like he'll like make 0:49:57.520 --> 0:49:59.000 it much of money, and then it'll lose it again 0:49:59.800 --> 0:50:03.120 and and then he'll make it again. And this all 0:50:03.160 --> 0:50:09.520 culminates in okay, so they're they're okay. He starts taking 0:50:11.440 --> 0:50:18.359 a truly enormous bets, like against national currencies, and there's 0:50:18.360 --> 0:50:20.160 one of these that's just funny, and there's one of 0:50:20.200 --> 0:50:23.320 these that's really bad. So we're gonna do the funny 0:50:23.360 --> 0:50:26.440 one first, which is so in nineteen ninety two Soros 0:50:26.520 --> 0:50:27.839 And this is the other part that they ever got 0:50:27.880 --> 0:50:29.880 talked about. It's like it's not just Soros doing this stuff. 0:50:29.920 --> 0:50:33.480 He has like allies because like as big as Soros 0:50:33.600 --> 0:50:36.560 for NBA is right, he can't him and his ally 0:50:36.640 --> 0:50:39.160 is gonna take a fifteen billion dollars short position on 0:50:39.200 --> 0:50:42.280 the pound. And even he doesn't have like nobody like 0:50:42.400 --> 0:50:45.160 this is like fifteen billion of nineteen nineties money, right, 0:50:45.320 --> 0:50:47.319 Like you need a bunch of firms working together in 0:50:47.400 --> 0:50:50.600 order to do this. But he basically takes this massive 0:50:50.640 --> 0:50:53.360 bet the pound is gonna go down, and because of 0:50:53.400 --> 0:50:55.600 the way that these these bets work, like the actual 0:50:55.680 --> 0:51:00.760 value of the pounds like collapses and the British Central 0:51:00.800 --> 0:51:03.560 Bank like like doesn't have enough thing. The reason we're 0:51:03.560 --> 0:51:04.640 able to do is they figure out that the Birtis 0:51:04.640 --> 0:51:06.640 Central Bank doesn't have enough money to stop them, like 0:51:06.680 --> 0:51:08.680 they don't have enough money to like maintain like they 0:51:08.680 --> 0:51:10.719 don't have enough reserves to like maintain the value of 0:51:10.719 --> 0:51:14.480 the pound. And so he gets like completely blamed for this, 0:51:14.520 --> 0:51:17.440 even though again there's like other people involved in this, right, 0:51:18.400 --> 0:51:21.840 Like the front page of the Daily Mail is literally 0:51:21.880 --> 0:51:24.680 his face in the title I made a billion crashing 0:51:24.719 --> 0:51:29.440 the pound baste, which is I okay, so like an 0:51:29.480 --> 0:51:36.080 anti British level, this is very funny. It's no, there's 0:51:36.080 --> 0:51:38.600 a bunch of arguments about like what does this mean 0:51:38.800 --> 0:51:42.640 for like the world economy and for national sovereignty. Soros 0:51:42.680 --> 0:51:47.319 thinks that like currency speculation is necessary evil and he he. 0:51:47.320 --> 0:51:49.279 Has this sort of seem to think that when you're 0:51:49.320 --> 0:51:51.080 making that much money, yeah right. 0:51:51.239 --> 0:51:59.160 You know it's now okay, this this like specific thing 0:51:59.320 --> 0:52:03.360 which is like a a a bank a banker comes 0:52:03.360 --> 0:52:05.720 in and is able to manipulate the value of a currency. 0:52:06.000 --> 0:52:12.560 This is like this is like absolutely like this is 0:52:12.600 --> 0:52:15.680 the fodder for like the absolute most paranoid fantasies of 0:52:15.719 --> 0:52:18.360 the anti Semitic right. Like it's this sort of like 0:52:18.480 --> 0:52:21.200 rootless cosmopolitan banker like attacks the good and righteous like 0:52:21.280 --> 0:52:24.360 noble people of Britain thing, And this is how it 0:52:24.360 --> 0:52:26.520 gets framed in the press, who are like the press 0:52:26.600 --> 0:52:28.360 is I mean it's the British press, right, Like the 0:52:28.400 --> 0:52:32.440 British are not known for, you know, not being anti Semitic, 0:52:32.960 --> 0:52:37.040 and so they just like go wild with this. But 0:52:37.200 --> 0:52:40.400 you know, like this particular thing he's doing against the British. 0:52:40.880 --> 0:52:43.040 Part of what's happening here, right is there's this sort 0:52:43.040 --> 0:52:46.680 of there's this kind of like national populist equation thing 0:52:46.760 --> 0:52:49.839 going on here where there's this assumption that like the 0:52:49.880 --> 0:52:52.640 Bank of Britain, like the bank, like the British Central 0:52:52.680 --> 0:52:56.400 Bank is like an entity that is identifiable with like 0:52:56.440 --> 0:53:01.200 an ordinary person in Britain, and like no, like the 0:53:01.239 --> 0:53:04.560 the Retis Central Brank is run by just unbelievably and 0:53:04.600 --> 0:53:05.960 bred aristocrats, right. 0:53:06.000 --> 0:53:10.680 And you know, I think they're pretty believably in bread. 0:53:11.400 --> 0:53:11.919 That's fair. 0:53:12.360 --> 0:53:17.040 Yeah, we're just talking about like like zero point five 0:53:17.200 --> 0:53:20.560 six of a Habsburg unit. You know, I have the 0:53:20.600 --> 0:53:23.799 Habsburg is the international unit for measuring how inbred someone is. 0:53:23.880 --> 0:53:25.520 If you're if you're unaware. 0:53:26.480 --> 0:53:29.240 I yeah, yeah, that seems that seems like a reasonable 0:53:29.239 --> 0:53:32.120 amount of inbread for these specific people. But you know, 0:53:32.239 --> 0:53:33.400 like but this is what I was talking about, Like 0:53:33.440 --> 0:53:34.759 at the very beginning, I was talking about sort of 0:53:34.800 --> 0:53:37.360 like sorrow's not being from this sort of like normal 0:53:37.440 --> 0:53:41.960 class of finance people. And the thing is, like the 0:53:42.000 --> 0:53:44.839 normal class of finance people are fucking terrible at their jobs, right, 0:53:44.920 --> 0:53:47.760 like these amber British aristocrats and like the fucking American 0:53:47.880 --> 0:53:51.080 like cocaine frat boys, like like just like doing lines 0:53:51.080 --> 0:53:53.280 of cocane off each other's as cracks. Like these people 0:53:53.400 --> 0:53:56.160 all suck at their jobs. And George Soros is like 0:53:56.320 --> 0:53:58.880 smart and is good at his job, and so she 0:53:59.120 --> 0:54:02.320 just like absolutely goes through these people like a fucking 0:54:02.360 --> 0:54:05.400 flaming chainsaw, and she just like, you know, and the 0:54:06.400 --> 0:54:09.920 maneuvers that he's doing here, she just like absolutely humiliates 0:54:10.400 --> 0:54:12.160 all of the people at the at the at the 0:54:12.480 --> 0:54:15.080 British Central Bank. He's humiliating, like and not just those 0:54:15.080 --> 0:54:18.080 guys too, it's humiliating the Tories, it's humiliating like all 0:54:18.120 --> 0:54:22.360 of the people who are seriously important in the real economy, 0:54:22.360 --> 0:54:26.080 in the sort of real British economy. And he can 0:54:26.120 --> 0:54:29.759 do this right because like his opponents are you know, 0:54:29.920 --> 0:54:32.200 people who are like they're they're they're promoting they're like 0:54:32.200 --> 0:54:34.160 they're they're they're okay, they take in like their people 0:54:34.200 --> 0:54:35.960 from college, right, and they're promoting the base off how 0:54:36.000 --> 0:54:40.600 good they are at golf. And so when she just 0:54:40.640 --> 0:54:43.319 sort of like cut like walks in and just makes 0:54:43.400 --> 0:54:45.880 it like makes like billions of dollars just like destroying 0:54:45.920 --> 0:54:51.080 these people, he makes just a permanent enemy of a 0:54:51.200 --> 0:54:54.680 very very powerful like faction of the British ruling class, 0:54:55.160 --> 0:54:57.839 and the British ruling class, like I don't know, they 0:54:57.920 --> 0:55:00.879 they It is hard to fight people who will beat 0:55:00.920 --> 0:55:03.880 the British ruling class and an anti semitism off. And 0:55:04.000 --> 0:55:05.399 this is this is one of the things that sort 0:55:05.400 --> 0:55:08.480 of you know, if you're looking at like why Sorrow 0:55:08.640 --> 0:55:11.560 specifically is the guy who all of these sort of 0:55:11.640 --> 0:55:14.560 right wing conspiracies wind up being about, Like part of 0:55:14.600 --> 0:55:18.000 it is because he pisses off these specific people. 0:55:19.040 --> 0:55:21.880 Yeah, these guys who's like dads were all friends with 0:55:21.920 --> 0:55:24.920 the King of England, who was like a close personal 0:55:24.920 --> 0:55:27.799 buddy with Hitler. Like there it's a bunch of like 0:55:27.920 --> 0:55:30.240 it's a bunch of guys who are already pretty bigoted 0:55:30.560 --> 0:55:33.239 and then they get beaten at their own stupid financial game. 0:55:33.400 --> 0:55:36.440 And so like the fact that it's a Jewish dude 0:55:36.440 --> 0:55:39.240 who does it means that they're going to be even 0:55:39.280 --> 0:55:42.120 more racist than they already were. And the fact that 0:55:42.160 --> 0:55:47.760 there's plenty of international anti semitism and that George Soros 0:55:47.800 --> 0:55:52.120 after this starts funding liberal and you know, vaguely progressive causes, 0:55:52.239 --> 0:55:54.400 Like yeah, it's not this is not a it's not 0:55:54.440 --> 0:55:56.200 surprising that this is the way things went. 0:55:57.239 --> 0:56:01.000 Yeah, and you know, and again, like I can't under 0:56:01.040 --> 0:56:04.080 emphasize the extent to which this is also very specifically 0:56:04.120 --> 0:56:06.440 the reaction to the British media class. Who I mean, 0:56:06.680 --> 0:56:10.239 we know now that those people are psychos, Like we 0:56:10.800 --> 0:56:13.400 have seen them see a transperson at a boat race 0:56:13.880 --> 0:56:16.959 and like like ten years ago and like like draw 0:56:17.000 --> 0:56:19.200 a giant things circling them in a boat and making 0:56:19.200 --> 0:56:22.920 it a front page news story. Those people in the nineties. 0:56:22.520 --> 0:56:26.920 Were like, sure, they are biological biologically better at navigation, 0:56:27.080 --> 0:56:29.200 that is that has actually been been proven. 0:56:29.640 --> 0:56:32.920 Yeah, but then they're like justice, they're they're they're just 0:56:32.960 --> 0:56:38.759 a sort of feral and like terrifying lead bigoted then 0:56:38.800 --> 0:56:41.480 as they are now. And this means that like like 0:56:42.280 --> 0:56:44.799 just if you're a regular British person and you are 0:56:44.840 --> 0:56:47.280 like walking down the street and there's a newspaper sand 0:56:47.560 --> 0:56:53.600 you are seeing like like they truly unbelievably terrifying anti 0:56:53.600 --> 0:56:59.279 Semitic shit, like just literally everywhere. And this this will 0:56:59.280 --> 0:57:03.040 have no consequence, which is whatsoever? Yeah, it's all good, 0:57:03.120 --> 0:57:07.960 nothing bad ever happens. And speaking of no consequences, do 0:57:08.239 --> 0:57:12.880 you know what we can promise about about training services? 0:57:13.040 --> 0:57:14.480 Twenty three minutes. 0:57:14.160 --> 0:57:17.560 In you know, look, you're welcome, Daniel. 0:57:19.080 --> 0:57:22.920 Okay, we're back. We have to talk about Okay, so 0:57:23.040 --> 0:57:25.480 the doing it to the British economy was mostly just 0:57:25.520 --> 0:57:28.480 really funny because the British economy is going to be fine. 0:57:28.720 --> 0:57:31.360 And it's the funny part about shed H doing it 0:57:31.440 --> 0:57:33.720 of the British economy is that this actually unfortunately helps 0:57:33.720 --> 0:57:37.640 the British economy because it forces the British to like 0:57:38.760 --> 0:57:43.240 abandon some truly spectacularly not very good financial policy they 0:57:43.240 --> 0:57:50.920 were doing. But then he does it to Thailand and 0:57:51.280 --> 0:57:59.000 that is a lot less justifiable. So it in this 0:57:59.080 --> 0:58:02.360 is five years later, is nineteen ninety seven. Sous brings 0:58:02.360 --> 0:58:08.280 in some economists, Arminio Fraga, like Roddy Joe's David Kowitz, 0:58:09.480 --> 0:58:11.960 he brings He's bringing in people who are sort of 0:58:12.000 --> 0:58:19.160 experts in like developing market economics, and that's never no 0:58:19.240 --> 0:58:22.520 one has ever brought in a developing market economist for 0:58:22.600 --> 0:58:28.320 like a good reason. And what they what they realize 0:58:28.400 --> 0:58:31.600 is that they start doing analysis of Southeast Asia, like 0:58:31.640 --> 0:58:34.800 the Southeast Asian markets, and they realize very quickly that 0:58:35.480 --> 0:58:41.520 Thailand is fucked. They they figure out that Thailand has 0:58:41.920 --> 0:58:45.400 Thailand has his currency pegged to the dollar and this, 0:58:45.640 --> 0:58:47.640 but you know, they don't have the reserves support this, 0:58:47.720 --> 0:58:50.600 and the tie like actual Tai currency isn't strong enough 0:58:50.640 --> 0:58:54.320 to maintain like stay being pegged to the dollars. It's 0:58:54.360 --> 0:58:56.560 not a strong enough currency, and so they do a 0:58:56.560 --> 0:59:02.760 two billion dollars short of of like Thailand's currency. And 0:59:03.480 --> 0:59:05.040 I mean, I'm gonna read from the Influence of Sorrows 0:59:05.160 --> 0:59:09.680 again about like the process of this. It was a 0:59:09.720 --> 0:59:12.520 debate we had. Jones told me we'd gone to work 0:59:12.560 --> 0:59:14.720 in Asia, and here you are taking large scale short 0:59:14.720 --> 0:59:18.600 positions in countries with institutional fragility. Going for the juggular 0:59:18.640 --> 0:59:21.040 in the United Kingdom was one thing doing the same, 0:59:21.080 --> 0:59:24.320 and Thailand was another. The Bank of England would surely recover. 0:59:24.840 --> 0:59:27.560 Thailand was a developing economy and it was unclear what 0:59:27.640 --> 0:59:32.800 impact outside investors could have. Soros has justified speculation with 0:59:32.840 --> 0:59:34.320 the idea that it could serve as a kind of 0:59:34.400 --> 0:59:39.480 warning to governments. Look, Thai government, the bot needs to devalue. 0:59:39.640 --> 0:59:42.440 Change your policy now before a currency collapses, devastating for 0:59:42.480 --> 0:59:46.560 your people. The trouble is the Thai government didn't do this. Instead, 0:59:46.560 --> 0:59:49.040 it spent months using Bank of Thailand reserves to buy 0:59:49.120 --> 0:59:51.440 tai bot. When it finally ran out in early summer 0:59:51.520 --> 0:59:54.280 nineteen ninety seven, the value of the bot plunged thirty 0:59:54.320 --> 0:59:57.040 two percent against the dollars, and millions of people lost 0:59:57.360 --> 1:00:00.760 Thai people lost their livelihoods. The Soros fund seven hundred 1:00:00.760 --> 1:00:01.920 and fifty million dollars. 1:00:02.840 --> 1:00:05.800 Yeah, it's a little bit like me being like, look, yes, 1:00:05.920 --> 1:00:09.040 I made a lot of money selling Heroin to those 1:00:09.080 --> 1:00:12.000 middle schoolers, but really, when you think about it, it 1:00:12.080 --> 1:00:15.080 was a warning to those schools that it was too 1:00:15.160 --> 1:00:18.040 easy for me to bribe the janitor to sell Heroin 1:00:18.120 --> 1:00:18.560 to kids. 1:00:18.560 --> 1:00:18.760 There. 1:00:19.320 --> 1:00:22.040 You know, I was actually performing a public service. 1:00:23.080 --> 1:00:27.280 So true, Robert, it is just like that, you know, 1:00:27.680 --> 1:00:29.640 to be fair, you know, I'm not going to every money. 1:00:29.720 --> 1:00:30.720 I'm not going to finish that thought. 1:00:31.000 --> 1:00:34.480 That's probably for the best. Yeah, we need we need 1:00:34.520 --> 1:00:37.280 one person to remain uncanceled here to keep the lights on. 1:00:39.040 --> 1:00:41.000 Oh god, doesn't have to be me. 1:00:41.240 --> 1:00:43.200 Oh no, yeah, no, legally it does. 1:00:43.400 --> 1:00:46.840 It's really bad. Yeah, no more joking, but yeah, we can't. 1:00:46.880 --> 1:00:48.560 We can't suffer any other jokes. 1:00:48.680 --> 1:00:53.400 Yes, somebody's got to upload this episode. 1:00:52.360 --> 1:00:55.640 All right here here, here, here's the next joke. Soros 1:00:55.680 --> 1:00:58.720 actually doesn't make money off of the speculation. If off 1:00:58.760 --> 1:01:02.520 of a speculating in Southeast Asia because he loses basically 1:01:02.600 --> 1:01:05.400 the same amount of money taking like a long position 1:01:05.400 --> 1:01:06.040 in Indonesia. 1:01:06.440 --> 1:01:08.560 Yeah, the same thing happened to me when I took 1:01:08.600 --> 1:01:12.280 a long position on doing cocaine in my bathroom with 1:01:12.320 --> 1:01:15.760 the money that I made selling drugs to all those kids. 1:01:15.880 --> 1:01:19.360 You know, we're a lot alike him and me, we're 1:01:19.400 --> 1:01:21.360 a lot of like, well. 1:01:21.160 --> 1:01:23.360 Okay, to be fair, to be fair, and this is okay, 1:01:23.400 --> 1:01:25.240 this is the thing I I The reason I wanted 1:01:25.280 --> 1:01:28.680 to talk about this specifically is that, like, okay, like 1:01:28.720 --> 1:01:33.920 to this day, if you look under sort of if 1:01:33.960 --> 1:01:35.919 you if you every once in a while, someone someone, 1:01:35.960 --> 1:01:37.960 there'll be a tweet that's like, like, what did George 1:01:37.960 --> 1:01:41.560 Sorrows do? And immediately there will be a bunch of 1:01:41.560 --> 1:01:44.320 people talking about how he like deliberately destroyed all of 1:01:44.360 --> 1:01:48.240 the economies in Southeast Asia. Yeah, and that's not really 1:01:48.280 --> 1:01:49.000 what happened. 1:01:50.200 --> 1:01:51.960 And that would be for one thing, too much to 1:01:52.000 --> 1:01:54.680 put on one guy fucking around with a cup. 1:01:54.840 --> 1:01:57.560 Yeah. Yeah, And I wanted to actually kind of walk 1:01:57.640 --> 1:02:01.280 through this a little bit in depth, just because Okay, 1:02:01.360 --> 1:02:04.120 there's a really really easy way to think about the 1:02:04.160 --> 1:02:07.000 economy that is bad. It leads you into anti Semitic traps, 1:02:07.040 --> 1:02:10.000 which is like, hey, here is like one banker who 1:02:10.080 --> 1:02:12.360 wanted to make money, and because he wanted to make money, 1:02:12.440 --> 1:02:16.480 he like destroyed all these economies. And like, on the 1:02:16.480 --> 1:02:19.920 one hand, yeah, like like sorrow is vetting against like 1:02:20.120 --> 1:02:22.600 the tai currency is bad, right, like this is this 1:02:22.640 --> 1:02:24.680 is not a thing you should have been doing. On 1:02:24.720 --> 1:02:26.560 the other hand, you know, Okay, so that's like the 1:02:26.560 --> 1:02:29.320 sort of level one thing. But the thing about you know, 1:02:29.360 --> 1:02:30.600 this is the sort of this is the sort of 1:02:30.640 --> 1:02:33.880 like great Man anti anti Semitism theory of collapse. And 1:02:33.960 --> 1:02:35.120 this is the theory that a lot of the sort 1:02:35.120 --> 1:02:39.120 of regional leaders take, you know, because and this and 1:02:39.120 --> 1:02:41.680 this is sort of a crucial thing, right, this position 1:02:42.400 --> 1:02:45.320 very conveniently allows them to just like not think about 1:02:45.360 --> 1:02:48.240 capitalism in general or like their role in this in 1:02:48.280 --> 1:02:53.560 this crisis, which is not insignificance. And so in order 1:02:53.560 --> 1:02:56.880 to figure out what what actually happened here, we need 1:02:56.960 --> 1:02:59.080 to look at so so Sorow sort of like tip 1:02:59.160 --> 1:03:02.600 like tip some don dominos, right, but the dominoes were 1:03:02.640 --> 1:03:04.760 already there and they were going like regardless even if 1:03:04.760 --> 1:03:07.160 Soros had never existed, right, like they were going to 1:03:07.320 --> 1:03:11.040 fall and they were going to fall because ironically of 1:03:11.040 --> 1:03:15.240 the Plaza coords. So you know when we talked about 1:03:15.240 --> 1:03:17.880 the plaza courts earlier. The US forces Japan to increase 1:03:17.880 --> 1:03:20.840 the value of its currency relative for the dollar. Okay, 1:03:20.840 --> 1:03:23.520 so this is great for the American economy. This nukes 1:03:23.800 --> 1:03:26.440 the Japanese economy, I mean the Japanese economy, you know. 1:03:26.480 --> 1:03:28.400 And we'll talk about this in a bit too. It 1:03:28.480 --> 1:03:31.040 was already kind of doing bad when the US does 1:03:31.080 --> 1:03:34.200 this and its manufactured economy just like implodes it. It 1:03:34.880 --> 1:03:37.440 gots the Japanese economy. It has. The Japanese economy has 1:03:37.440 --> 1:03:41.280 never recovered from this. It probably will never recover really 1:03:42.080 --> 1:03:47.360 into what it was. And you know, the effect this 1:03:47.440 --> 1:03:50.800 has is that now the governments of Japan has to 1:03:50.800 --> 1:03:54.280 figure out how to grow their economy without having any 1:03:54.520 --> 1:03:57.760 like way to make money that grows your economy. But 1:03:57.840 --> 1:03:59.680 and now they have a stronger currency. And so their 1:03:59.720 --> 1:04:03.040 solution is, okay, what what did they all all the 1:04:03.120 --> 1:04:04.840 central bank people look around each other and they go, 1:04:04.920 --> 1:04:10.160 what is a strong currency good for housing speculation? And 1:04:10.240 --> 1:04:13.240 so they they start like they start they start slashing 1:04:13.240 --> 1:04:16.800 interest race and they start basically building an entire economy, 1:04:17.160 --> 1:04:19.480 uh based on the assumption that housing prices will always 1:04:19.560 --> 1:04:21.200 go up, and so you should just take out loans 1:04:21.360 --> 1:04:23.200 so you could buy houses because the value of the 1:04:23.240 --> 1:04:28.640 housing will because housing prices will always go up, so 1:04:28.640 --> 1:04:30.200 you can you can have all of these assets based 1:04:30.200 --> 1:04:33.360 on mortgages. This is this may may or may not 1:04:33.400 --> 1:04:35.680 be sounding familiar to everyone who lid you thousand. 1:04:35.320 --> 1:04:35.720 And eight. 1:04:37.120 --> 1:04:39.400 And so you know, in in like in like nineteen 1:04:39.400 --> 1:04:42.840 eighty two, the entire Japanese economy implodes sort of again 1:04:44.080 --> 1:04:49.360 because they they literally built the two thousand and eight machine. 1:04:49.520 --> 1:04:53.800 And so this this forces the US to do something 1:04:53.800 --> 1:04:56.320 called the reverse Plaza cords where they take the original 1:04:56.360 --> 1:04:58.560 Plaza records and they reverse it and they increase the 1:04:58.640 --> 1:05:01.640 value of the American dollar. American manufactory dies like it's 1:05:01.680 --> 1:05:06.400 never recovered, it's never coming back. And this for a 1:05:06.640 --> 1:05:09.360 this kind of the stabilizes the Japanese economy a little bit, 1:05:09.640 --> 1:05:12.280 but it means that the US now no longer has 1:05:12.280 --> 1:05:15.520 a functional economy. And so we do our solution to 1:05:15.560 --> 1:05:16.960 this is we need two thousand and eight, right, we 1:05:17.160 --> 1:05:20.520 build an entire economy also on the Japanese model of 1:05:20.960 --> 1:05:23.640 currency speculat of you know, of like housing price speculation, 1:05:23.760 --> 1:05:27.000 craculation of like or like the rising prices of like stocks. Right, 1:05:27.040 --> 1:05:31.600 we we build an economy completely made a bullshit. But 1:05:31.840 --> 1:05:33.880 you know, okay, but what does this have to do 1:05:33.920 --> 1:05:35.800 with the Asian market collaps? Okay? The problem is that 1:05:35.880 --> 1:05:37.840 like all of the countries in East Asia and like 1:05:37.880 --> 1:05:40.720 Southeast Asia also do this. They also do the thing 1:05:40.720 --> 1:05:42.360 where they're like, oh, we're gonna, we're gonna, we're gonna 1:05:42.360 --> 1:05:44.960 ba We're okay, so our manufacturing economies are declining, right, 1:05:44.960 --> 1:05:47.360 so we're gonna we're gonna base our entire economy on 1:05:47.480 --> 1:05:51.560 housing prices going up. And you know that's and it's 1:05:51.960 --> 1:05:56.000 not George Soros. That's the thing that actually destroys like 1:05:56.160 --> 1:05:59.360 the sort of that that's something that like that like 1:05:59.400 --> 1:06:02.960 actually destroy all of these economies. And you know, and 1:06:03.040 --> 1:06:05.160 I wanted to sort of run through this, and you know, 1:06:05.200 --> 1:06:07.680 this is like a lot of like sort of econ shit, right, 1:06:07.880 --> 1:06:09.680 But the reason I wanted to run through this is 1:06:09.680 --> 1:06:14.280 that I think I think he gets at the sort 1:06:14.280 --> 1:06:18.480 of truly the truly horrifying thing about how our economy 1:06:18.480 --> 1:06:23.120 works that is really difficult to face, and is I 1:06:23.160 --> 1:06:26.800 think it's at least a part of why people really 1:06:26.880 --> 1:06:29.360 really want there to just be one guy who is 1:06:29.400 --> 1:06:32.160 running anything everything, whether that's the CIA, whether that's Soros, 1:06:32.160 --> 1:06:38.360 whether that's like the New World Order. Yeah, right, because 1:06:38.440 --> 1:06:41.200 if there's if there's like a guy who's doing this, right, 1:06:41.240 --> 1:06:44.880 you can stop him. But the great horror of this 1:06:44.920 --> 1:06:46.880 world is that there is no deep state, right, there 1:06:46.880 --> 1:06:49.400 is no Satanis cabal, There's no one pulling the strings 1:06:49.440 --> 1:06:51.880 at all. The only thing that is there is just 1:06:51.920 --> 1:06:54.840 sort of the cold, lifeless and inexorable death logic of capital. 1:06:55.440 --> 1:06:57.840 And that logic is moving all of us, right all 1:06:58.040 --> 1:07:00.640 you know, the people who are doing that can conspiracies 1:07:01.240 --> 1:07:03.680 insofar as they exist, are being moved by this. All 1:07:03.720 --> 1:07:06.000 of the rulers are being moved by capital. All of us, 1:07:06.040 --> 1:07:11.200 the subjects, are being moved by capital. But that like sucks, right, 1:07:11.640 --> 1:07:14.600 Like the fact that all of these economies are destroyed 1:07:14.640 --> 1:07:17.960 not by like the individual actions of people, but by 1:07:18.000 --> 1:07:20.480 the fact that, like returns are less good in Thailand 1:07:20.520 --> 1:07:23.280 than they are in China. And this is just sort 1:07:23.320 --> 1:07:25.600 of the inectable logic of the entire economic system we have. 1:07:26.720 --> 1:07:30.880 This is, you know, this is absolutely terrifying and faced 1:07:30.960 --> 1:07:33.320 with this sort of reality, right, like people who want 1:07:33.360 --> 1:07:36.120 to protect capitalism because you know, they have a bunch 1:07:36.120 --> 1:07:39.680 of assets in it, right, retreat into this sort of 1:07:39.760 --> 1:07:42.960 like they you know, they they they use Soros as 1:07:42.960 --> 1:07:45.560 a smoke screen for like why everything is suddenly going wrong. 1:07:47.560 --> 1:07:50.320 But sort of simultaneous to this, right, this is also 1:07:50.560 --> 1:07:55.720 a real problem for George Soros because he's like, you know, 1:07:55.880 --> 1:07:58.000 when he's not sort of in his role as like 1:07:58.280 --> 1:08:02.200 capital he's like not a piece of shit. He's like 1:08:03.000 --> 1:08:08.400 a person who wants the world to be better. And this, 1:08:08.760 --> 1:08:13.760 you know, this causes a sort of there was a 1:08:13.760 --> 1:08:16.360 contradiction in his ideology, right, which is that he wants 1:08:16.439 --> 1:08:18.840 the world to be a better place, and simultaneously he's 1:08:18.840 --> 1:08:21.680 also a capitalist, and these two things are sort of 1:08:21.840 --> 1:08:24.000 warring with each other. Even as early as even as 1:08:24.040 --> 1:08:26.759 early sort of the nineties, he's giving speeches about how 1:08:27.320 --> 1:08:29.360 like his open society that he wants. It's a sort 1:08:29.400 --> 1:08:32.040 of like this liberal democratic society of like laws and 1:08:32.080 --> 1:08:35.600 norms and human rights. The greatest danger twitter ceased to 1:08:35.600 --> 1:08:39.040 be communism, it's now capitalism. But he can't do anything 1:08:39.040 --> 1:08:42.519 about it because he is also a capitalist. And next 1:08:42.560 --> 1:08:46.680 episode we are going to watch Soros like through his 1:08:46.680 --> 1:08:50.120 philanthropic endeavors, attempt to solve the problems that his economic 1:08:50.120 --> 1:08:54.920 system has caused, and fail catastrophically and become the sort 1:08:54.960 --> 1:08:59.280 of boogeyman and the the anti Sivdic spector of every 1:08:59.320 --> 1:09:00.400 conspiracy theory the world. 1:09:01.200 --> 1:09:05.760 Yeah, so check out that next time. And you know, 1:09:05.920 --> 1:09:09.240 if you're hanging out around Clark Middle School and you 1:09:09.360 --> 1:09:13.680 have forty dollars, I can hook you up with some 1:09:13.680 --> 1:09:16.960 some of that sweet black tar, so you know, give 1:09:17.000 --> 1:09:19.479 me a ring. My phone numbers posted in the show 1:09:19.520 --> 1:09:34.360 notes of every episode. 1:09:36.160 --> 1:09:41.200 It's it could happen here the podcast where I attempt 1:09:41.400 --> 1:09:49.040 to wrangle jokes that are enough okay that we keep podcasting. Yeah, 1:09:49.280 --> 1:09:56.559 with me here to wrangle Robert Evans and also Karrison Davis. Welcome, 1:09:57.000 --> 1:09:57.880 Welcome by Eck. 1:09:58.760 --> 1:10:03.240 My two uses in this series are to make corrections 1:10:03.320 --> 1:10:08.280 on Hungarian history of the Holocaust and talk about selling 1:10:08.280 --> 1:10:11.840 Heroin to children. So proud to be here. 1:10:13.200 --> 1:10:15.679 I'm very excited. You're gonna hear me complain. You're gonna 1:10:15.800 --> 1:10:17.880 get to listen to me very briefly complain about Plato, 1:10:18.400 --> 1:10:19.840 a thing I did not think I was gonna do 1:10:19.920 --> 1:10:20.840 when I started. 1:10:20.520 --> 1:10:23.840 This like the like the philosophy guy. 1:10:23.960 --> 1:10:28.519 Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, all right, okay, so all right, 1:10:28.560 --> 1:10:30.400 why why are we eventually going to talk about Plato? 1:10:32.120 --> 1:10:38.679 So George Soros is probably best known for a foundation 1:10:38.760 --> 1:10:41.880 that he eventually funds called Open Society that was visually 1:10:41.880 --> 1:10:43.720 the Soros Foundation. Then he was like, why am I 1:10:43.760 --> 1:10:46.600 naming this after myself? And it changed to Open Society. 1:10:47.760 --> 1:10:50.559 I'm going to read, so the Open Society is a 1:10:50.760 --> 1:10:51.439 very sort. 1:10:51.240 --> 1:10:55.439 Of again, I gotta say, exactly twenty percent more self 1:10:55.439 --> 1:10:58.080 awareness than you get from the average billionaire. Like Bill 1:10:58.160 --> 1:11:01.240 Gates is like, well call it the Gatespell Foundation. Sourus 1:11:01.360 --> 1:11:04.000 is like, well call it the Soros you know wait, 1:11:04.240 --> 1:11:05.760 wait you know, no, you know what? 1:11:06.880 --> 1:11:12.360 Well, And to be fair, like Soros has Sorros has 1:11:12.400 --> 1:11:17.200 a real ideology and it it can't work, but if 1:11:17.240 --> 1:11:21.280 it did, the world wouldn't be that bad, Unlike unlike 1:11:21.320 --> 1:11:24.400 what would happen if you let Bill Gates run rampant 1:11:24.400 --> 1:11:26.640 over the earth, which is the world we live in 1:11:26.720 --> 1:11:30.760 right now. So I'm going to read a little bit 1:11:30.960 --> 1:11:33.800 from the influence Soros again about like what the Open 1:11:33.840 --> 1:11:39.520 Society is. I have lived through Nazi persecution and Soviet occupations. 1:11:39.560 --> 1:11:43.799 Soros later said, Popper's book is Carl Popper Open Society 1:11:43.800 --> 1:11:46.080 and His Enemies struck me with the force of revelation. 1:11:46.720 --> 1:11:50.040 It showed that fascism and communism have a lot in common, 1:11:50.120 --> 1:11:52.639 that they both stand in opposition to a different principle 1:11:52.680 --> 1:11:59.280 of social organization, the principle of open society. So okay, 1:11:59.800 --> 1:12:02.400 I I read this, and I was like, okay, so 1:12:02.600 --> 1:12:06.240 let's go, let's go. Let's go read Carl Poppers's book, 1:12:06.240 --> 1:12:10.280 which is called The Open Society Enemies. And so I assumed, right, 1:12:10.439 --> 1:12:11.160 that's interesting me. 1:12:11.280 --> 1:12:13.080 I was also doing poppers last night. 1:12:14.120 --> 1:12:16.759 You had to suppear your experience with your poppers. I'm 1:12:16.800 --> 1:12:20.200 assuming I had a bad fucking time. I read this 1:12:20.280 --> 1:12:21.280 like last week. 1:12:21.600 --> 1:12:24.000 She got mears from a gas station too, Yeah. 1:12:24.120 --> 1:12:26.840 No, instead I got it from the internet for free, 1:12:27.520 --> 1:12:34.000 which questionable results. So okay, so I read this book, right, 1:12:34.200 --> 1:12:37.160 So this is Karl Popper is like normally a philosopher. Well, 1:12:37.200 --> 1:12:40.240 he's like a scientist, right, He's most famous for philosophy 1:12:40.240 --> 1:12:42.719 of science stuff. But he also wrote this book, and 1:12:42.920 --> 1:12:46.960 this is his critique of totalitarianism. So okay, I'm expecting, right, 1:12:47.000 --> 1:12:48.439 it's going to be half of it's gonna be about 1:12:48.439 --> 1:12:49.840 the Nazis and half of it's going to be about 1:12:49.840 --> 1:12:53.200 the communist right. No, the first half of this book 1:12:53.240 --> 1:12:56.639 is about Plato and the second half of this book 1:12:56.680 --> 1:13:00.360 is about Borks. But he spends like two hundred ages 1:13:00.439 --> 1:13:04.200 yelling at Plato. And to be fair, everything he says 1:13:04.200 --> 1:13:07.439 about Plato and about why Plato is totalitarian is completely true. 1:13:08.479 --> 1:13:13.439 But like his conclusion about what totalitarianism is is that 1:13:13.479 --> 1:13:16.920 totalitarianism is descendant. It's like the product of this thing 1:13:16.960 --> 1:13:21.719 he calls historicism, which is when like you have one 1:13:21.960 --> 1:13:25.799 thing that's the agent of history. And so he sees 1:13:25.840 --> 1:13:29.400 like like I don't know, like a great man or 1:13:29.479 --> 1:13:33.599 like the guy like whatever hegel's geist, or like one 1:13:33.720 --> 1:13:37.040 great nation or like a great class as like those 1:13:37.040 --> 1:13:39.320 are all examples of historicism. And if you think about 1:13:39.360 --> 1:13:42.160 history like this, you will this is how totalitarianism is born. 1:13:43.160 --> 1:13:48.519 And I am incredibly skeptical of that, of the view 1:13:48.560 --> 1:13:51.120 of the way you look think about history being the 1:13:51.160 --> 1:13:57.479 origin of totalitarianism. I I don't know. It's it's a 1:13:57.600 --> 1:14:02.280 very very weird book. In a lot of ways. Poper 1:14:02.320 --> 1:14:05.360 is trying to do this thing that like a lot 1:14:05.400 --> 1:14:07.559 of kind of liberal philosophers of that period is doing, 1:14:08.120 --> 1:14:10.160 which is that she's trying to reconcile sort of like 1:14:10.520 --> 1:14:14.080 individual freedom but then also sort of economic calitarianism. And 1:14:15.400 --> 1:14:18.200 you know, okay, so if you were actually serious about 1:14:18.200 --> 1:14:21.160 doing both of these things right, like the two things 1:14:21.160 --> 1:14:24.800 you care about on earth are protecting individual freedom and 1:14:25.200 --> 1:14:29.080 achieving economic calitarianism, you have two options. You either become 1:14:29.080 --> 1:14:31.760 an anarchist and you sacrifice neither of your values, or 1:14:31.800 --> 1:14:34.719 you become a neoliberal and you sacrifice both. And Popper 1:14:34.800 --> 1:14:36.439 unfortunately takes a second route. 1:14:37.160 --> 1:14:40.200 And I feel like a lot of a lot of 1:14:40.200 --> 1:14:44.640 the conflict between kind of like reconciling you know, the 1:14:44.680 --> 1:14:46.760 Great Man theory of history with some of these other 1:14:47.479 --> 1:14:50.519 like it comes out of an unwillingness to look at 1:14:50.800 --> 1:14:55.040 systems of power, because the extent to which like individual 1:14:55.320 --> 1:15:00.840 weirdos and their obsessions influence history is largely due to 1:15:01.160 --> 1:15:03.880 or is largely like related to the degree of power 1:15:04.000 --> 1:15:07.840 that like different systems allow to be invested into like 1:15:07.920 --> 1:15:11.720 individual weirdos. Like it's it's less a matter of like 1:15:11.800 --> 1:15:13.960 you've got these sort of you know, in that kind 1:15:14.000 --> 1:15:16.240 of fascist idea, you've got these sort of individuals who 1:15:16.240 --> 1:15:18.960 embody the spirit of a people. And more, if your 1:15:19.040 --> 1:15:22.320 system allows huge amounts of power to be invested in 1:15:22.320 --> 1:15:25.400 individual people with their weird hang ups, than those weird 1:15:25.400 --> 1:15:28.479 hang ups of this one guy may wind up defining history. 1:15:28.520 --> 1:15:30.639 I don't know, this is this this is an unrelated ram. 1:15:30.760 --> 1:15:32.800 Well, no, I think it is related because this this 1:15:32.840 --> 1:15:34.720 is sort of the core flaw of this ideology, which 1:15:34.720 --> 1:15:37.320 is that these people conclude okay, so like they don't 1:15:38.160 --> 1:15:41.519 okay the thing that they have to do, like pop 1:15:41.600 --> 1:15:45.439 rass to do right, because he like acknowledges that a 1:15:45.439 --> 1:15:47.720 lot of the Marxist critique is really powerful and that 1:15:47.880 --> 1:15:50.680 like it is in fact not very good that you 1:15:50.720 --> 1:15:53.280 have an entire class of people to like survive off 1:15:53.320 --> 1:15:57.640 of extracting like labor from another class of people. But 1:15:57.960 --> 1:16:01.360 you know, if you accept that, right, you can't actually 1:16:01.400 --> 1:16:03.760 like defend capitalism on the merits of it being an 1:16:03.800 --> 1:16:06.679 economic system. You have to like do this like circle 1:16:06.720 --> 1:16:11.040 run around dance of like defending ideas. And this all 1:16:11.200 --> 1:16:13.760 gets like gets to this point where the problem that 1:16:13.800 --> 1:16:15.719 you're talking about happens, which is that like, well, okay, 1:16:15.720 --> 1:16:18.519 capitalism is also a system where one really weird guy, 1:16:19.439 --> 1:16:22.000 and he's like, terrible ideas can have an enormous impact 1:16:22.040 --> 1:16:24.360 on how society operates. Like this is this is this 1:16:24.439 --> 1:16:26.120 is this is the thing we're all suffering from from 1:16:26.160 --> 1:16:30.000 like Elon Musk, right, or like what what's that guy's name, 1:16:30.920 --> 1:16:34.880 like Robert Moses, right, Like yeah, like the you know, 1:16:35.000 --> 1:16:38.200 like capitalism is absolutely a system that generates just one 1:16:38.280 --> 1:16:40.800 guy who can just fuck everyone's. 1:16:40.400 --> 1:16:42.720 And that's a perfect example of it, because like the 1:16:42.760 --> 1:16:46.360 fact that Moses has these weird personal hang ups around 1:16:46.360 --> 1:16:50.800 public transportation and this love of being driven around influences 1:16:50.840 --> 1:16:53.400 how tens of millions of people live to this day, 1:16:53.439 --> 1:16:57.200 and influences like the global climate crisis. And so it's 1:16:57.200 --> 1:17:01.679 not like this great man didn't like grab the lathe 1:17:01.680 --> 1:17:04.160 of heaven. It was more like, no, our we we 1:17:04.320 --> 1:17:06.760 are society kind of like the system we set up 1:17:07.040 --> 1:17:09.679 allowed an enormous amount of power for this specific thing. 1:17:09.760 --> 1:17:12.120 How our cities are set up to be invested in 1:17:12.160 --> 1:17:14.879 an unelected weirdo because he was the only one interested 1:17:15.000 --> 1:17:16.800 enough to focus on it, and that led to this 1:17:16.960 --> 1:17:18.040 very bad situation. 1:17:18.520 --> 1:17:20.920 Yeah, and like I think I think Popper's think of that. 1:17:20.960 --> 1:17:22.640 I was like, well, okay, you do you do you 1:17:22.680 --> 1:17:26.040 deal with this by like just having elections for everyone, 1:17:26.080 --> 1:17:29.960 And it's like, well, okay, like so sometimes you have election. 1:17:30.200 --> 1:17:33.920 We never vote for crazy assholes, thank god. Sometimes sometimes 1:17:33.960 --> 1:17:37.439 sometimes you get Donald Trump, right, like, you know, the 1:17:37.720 --> 1:17:39.599 these these are these are these are things that are 1:17:39.600 --> 1:17:43.320 going to haunt both Popper. Popper doesn't live long enough 1:17:43.360 --> 1:17:47.479 to see like the absolute worst this can possibly go. 1:17:48.160 --> 1:17:52.000 But George Soros unfortunately has lived to see exactly how 1:17:52.080 --> 1:17:53.479 value this this con possibly go. 1:17:54.760 --> 1:17:58.000 But let's call him, let's let's call him by his 1:17:58.160 --> 1:18:03.640 nickname from from now on. Uh uh g Sizzle? Is 1:18:03.680 --> 1:18:06.599 that good that we're not doing that. We're not doing that. 1:18:06.640 --> 1:18:10.320 Thank you, Thank you, Garrison. This is this is this 1:18:10.360 --> 1:18:14.240 is why you're This is why you're here. You have 1:18:14.360 --> 1:18:17.800 power of attorney over what nicknames we call the subjects 1:18:17.800 --> 1:18:18.640 of the episodes. 1:18:20.520 --> 1:18:23.200 I will I will keep it and reserve this power. 1:18:28.880 --> 1:18:31.719 See, this is we're We've built a system to try 1:18:31.840 --> 1:18:35.400 and uh and stop you know, individuals with with weird 1:18:35.439 --> 1:18:40.040 hang ups from from influencing history so much. It's that simple, folks, 1:18:40.120 --> 1:18:45.760 you know, devolve powers. Yeah, works great for un precedency. 1:18:46.320 --> 1:18:49.160 Unfortunately, we're you have to talk about Ugoslavia this episode. 1:18:49.439 --> 1:18:54.240 So it doesn't always work. But all right, so back 1:18:54.360 --> 1:18:56.759 back back in, back in sort of the heady days 1:18:57.040 --> 1:19:02.960 of of the seventies and eighties George, where like, okay, 1:19:02.960 --> 1:19:06.120 he has a dual thing where he at once has 1:19:06.160 --> 1:19:08.320 his kind of crisis a conscience thing where he's like, 1:19:08.360 --> 1:19:11.360 I want to actually do something with my life that's 1:19:11.400 --> 1:19:13.880 not just you know how, I want to have an 1:19:13.880 --> 1:19:16.320 impact on the world that is positive and not like 1:19:16.800 --> 1:19:19.960 I made so much money that like gods look at 1:19:20.000 --> 1:19:24.760 it and vomit and so and so. Okay, So his 1:19:24.800 --> 1:19:26.559 solicial is he sets up a tax dodge. And he's 1:19:26.560 --> 1:19:29.320 actually very explicit about those interviews that his first foundation 1:19:29.400 --> 1:19:32.479 to do charity work was set up as a tax dodge. 1:19:34.200 --> 1:19:36.000 But but this is where Soros is very interesting, right 1:19:36.040 --> 1:19:40.639 because he has, you know, for for like a billionaire, right, 1:19:40.720 --> 1:19:43.600 he has some positions that are started only very good. 1:19:44.200 --> 1:19:47.000 So he is anti apartheid and that is like not 1:19:47.160 --> 1:19:49.800 a thing you can guarantee from people in that era, 1:19:50.400 --> 1:19:54.000 like oh boy. He also and this is only I 1:19:54.000 --> 1:19:56.000 guess gets him in trouble like to this day, is 1:19:56.000 --> 1:19:59.240 he is pro Palestine. And this is part of why 1:19:59.280 --> 1:20:02.679 like Netanyahu absolutely hates him. He's he's not like like okay, 1:20:02.800 --> 1:20:03.320 he's he's. 1:20:03.200 --> 1:20:07.160 Not like a radical pro Palaestine by the standards of 1:20:07.200 --> 1:20:08.519 net and Yahoo a radical. 1:20:08.600 --> 1:20:10.640 Yeah yeah, yeah. It was like his you know, his 1:20:10.800 --> 1:20:13.280 sort of like like his sort of like liberal humanism, 1:20:13.720 --> 1:20:18.799 like hey, we should not like shoot children with guns. 1:20:19.000 --> 1:20:23.720 Thing is Broadley anti shooting children throwing rocks? 1:20:24.000 --> 1:20:26.360 Yeah, and like like that that that makes you a 1:20:26.960 --> 1:20:30.040 like like like enemy number one of the Israeli Still 1:20:30.080 --> 1:20:32.599 well yeah, no, I okay put them like. 1:20:33.040 --> 1:20:35.719 The enemy number one is those kids, but yeah. 1:20:36.560 --> 1:20:40.760 Or four. They haven't rapped him yet. So oh god, 1:20:40.800 --> 1:20:44.040 speaking of things that the Israeli government didn't do. So 1:20:44.320 --> 1:20:45.400 he gets his start. 1:20:45.439 --> 1:20:46.439 I thought you were going to do an ad. 1:20:50.120 --> 1:20:53.160 I don't worry. I have a better one. It's kind 1:20:53.160 --> 1:20:57.120 of good. So in that today, his first experience, like 1:20:57.280 --> 1:20:59.080 doing charity work is he decides that he's going to 1:20:59.160 --> 1:21:03.080 go up against like apartheid in South Africa, and yeah, 1:21:03.240 --> 1:21:05.439 this is good. So he he what he starts doing. 1:21:05.560 --> 1:21:07.680 He starts giving scholarships to black students to go to 1:21:07.680 --> 1:21:10.519 the University of Cape Town, and then he learns a 1:21:10.600 --> 1:21:13.200 very very important lesson about neoliberalism that he's about he's 1:21:13.240 --> 1:21:17.080 going to like promptly forget after this, which is that, okay, 1:21:17.280 --> 1:21:20.080 So what actually happened what he thinks is going to happen, right, 1:21:20.080 --> 1:21:21.639 is what he's trying to do, is he's trying to make, 1:21:21.720 --> 1:21:23.160 you know, he's trying to make sure there's more money 1:21:23.200 --> 1:21:25.720 for black kids to go to go to university. What 1:21:25.840 --> 1:21:29.000 actually happens is that the state uses his money to 1:21:29.000 --> 1:21:31.639 pay for the existing scholarships and stops paying for any 1:21:31.640 --> 1:21:34.320 more scholarships. And so there's two things going on here, right, 1:21:34.400 --> 1:21:36.000 One is the obvious. This is the this is the 1:21:36.040 --> 1:21:39.080 apartheid racism, right like they don't want more like they 1:21:39.080 --> 1:21:41.680 don't want more non white kids going to school. But 1:21:41.720 --> 1:21:43.639 then two also this is also sort of a classic 1:21:43.680 --> 1:21:46.320 nearliberal failure, which is like if you were, if you were, 1:21:46.320 --> 1:21:49.800 when you replace the state with like billionaire philanthropists, the 1:21:49.840 --> 1:21:53.439 state simply instead of like you know, having more of 1:21:53.479 --> 1:21:55.560 the of like the resources of the services provided, the 1:21:55.560 --> 1:22:00.000 state just stops doing it and spends more money on cops. 1:21:59.760 --> 1:22:03.680 And so he sours very quickly realizes that like he 1:22:03.760 --> 1:22:05.840 figures this out, it is like I fuck this, Like no, 1:22:05.920 --> 1:22:07.479 I'm not going to help you, like I'm not going 1:22:07.520 --> 1:22:10.439 to help the apartek government do racism. And so this 1:22:10.520 --> 1:22:14.760 makes him kind of weary of this stuff because he 1:22:14.880 --> 1:22:18.479 has sort of he has sort of seen how you 1:22:18.600 --> 1:22:22.360 see what happens when you when you very explicitly try 1:22:22.400 --> 1:22:25.519 to work within a system that is unbelievably fucked up, 1:22:25.560 --> 1:22:27.920 which is that the apartheid government uses your money to 1:22:28.960 --> 1:22:30.920 as a way to like funnel more of their own 1:22:30.920 --> 1:22:33.880 money into their own pockets. And do you know who 1:22:33.880 --> 1:22:35.880 else use the system of apartheid to funnel more money 1:22:35.880 --> 1:22:36.799 into their own pockets? 1:22:38.400 --> 1:22:41.840 Oh okay, I see, I now see what you were doing. 1:22:42.120 --> 1:22:44.760 I think the last I think the previous attempt to 1:22:44.840 --> 1:22:46.360 not break was actually better. 1:22:46.400 --> 1:22:47.960 I was kind of like, you know, you. 1:22:47.880 --> 1:22:53.200 Know, I mean criticism correct that our podcasts are entirely 1:22:53.240 --> 1:22:57.000 sponsored via a time machine. We used to go back 1:22:57.080 --> 1:23:01.720 to apartheid South Africa. Uh get their advertising dollars. So 1:23:01.840 --> 1:23:07.519 please keep the krue grands flowing and purchase these products 1:23:07.560 --> 1:23:10.960 and services. I learned that krue grands was the South 1:23:11.000 --> 1:23:15.479 African currency from the movie Lethal Weapon two. We're back 1:23:15.640 --> 1:23:18.640 and I'm sitting uncomfortable in the knowledge that I am 1:23:18.680 --> 1:23:21.040 the only person on this zoom call who has watched 1:23:21.120 --> 1:23:24.120 lethal Weapon? Two? Have either of you seen any of 1:23:24.120 --> 1:23:29.599 the Lethal's weapon? No, unbelievable. You're missing maybe the best 1:23:29.760 --> 1:23:32.679 Mel Gibson performance outside of that time he got pulled 1:23:32.680 --> 1:23:35.240 over in Malibu and gave a racist rant to those 1:23:35.280 --> 1:23:42.720 California State Highway Patrol officers. 1:23:39.439 --> 1:23:45.080 H okaygre thinking of people who are about to give 1:23:45.160 --> 1:23:49.400 racist rants. Okay. So the other thing about Soros, and 1:23:49.439 --> 1:23:54.400 the thing that is sort of blisteringly ironic about how 1:23:54.479 --> 1:23:57.040 the sort of course of Andy Soro's attacks go, is 1:23:57.080 --> 1:24:01.679 that Soros is like a vehement, like pretty hardline anti 1:24:01.680 --> 1:24:07.479 communist and this is what he spends most of his time, 1:24:08.000 --> 1:24:10.120 like in the eighties doing, is is you know, like 1:24:10.160 --> 1:24:12.799 give giving money to anti communist groups and communist countries. 1:24:13.360 --> 1:24:16.240 So he funds Solidarity in Poland, which is this like 1:24:17.760 --> 1:24:20.120 I very mixed record. 1:24:20.120 --> 1:24:23.599 Well, we'll get the like he's funding anti communist causes. 1:24:23.720 --> 1:24:25.360 Yeah, yeah, he's funny, but you know he's he's funny. 1:24:25.400 --> 1:24:27.080 He's trying to fund like a very specific kind of 1:24:27.080 --> 1:24:31.760 like liberal anti communist cause, right, and you know this 1:24:31.760 --> 1:24:33.960 this goes badly for him in a number of ways. 1:24:34.280 --> 1:24:37.320 One is that the moment, like the moment the Berlin wallfalls, 1:24:37.360 --> 1:24:40.559 everyone just like suddenly forgets about all of the anti 1:24:40.600 --> 1:24:45.080 communism that he did because you know, and this is 1:24:45.120 --> 1:24:47.519 something about this, we have a kind of anti communist 1:24:47.560 --> 1:24:48.960 that he is, right, Like, there's a lot of anti 1:24:49.000 --> 1:24:52.759 communists who are, like you were, just like desk squad guys, 1:24:53.040 --> 1:24:55.640 right like, this is your like your guy trained by 1:24:55.640 --> 1:25:01.559 Shan Kai Shek who's like shooting peasants in like El Salvador. Right, 1:25:02.439 --> 1:25:04.760 there's also like another kind of anti communists in this 1:25:04.800 --> 1:25:07.120 era who are sort of liberal anti communists who like 1:25:07.520 --> 1:25:10.320 are anti communists but like also anti Pinochet. For example, 1:25:10.840 --> 1:25:14.240 like Soros give somebody to the people, you know, when 1:25:14.240 --> 1:25:17.080 when Pinochet has this big referendum of his like should 1:25:17.080 --> 1:25:19.320 I stay in power? He gives money to the people 1:25:19.320 --> 1:25:25.880 who are like no, and those are people who, ah, 1:25:26.200 --> 1:25:31.840 their intentions are better than the just like absolutely horrifying 1:25:31.920 --> 1:25:36.160 right wingers. But you know, it doesn't it doesn't go 1:25:36.240 --> 1:25:41.200 great for him. So Soros his initial plan, right is 1:25:41.240 --> 1:25:43.080 he's gonna, you know, okay, when he's trying to like 1:25:43.120 --> 1:25:45.160 start funding ant communist groups, He's gonna use his things 1:25:45.160 --> 1:25:46.360 like he was gonna go into Hungary and he was 1:25:46.400 --> 1:25:51.599 gonna like give Hungarian students scholarships, and the Hungarian students 1:25:51.600 --> 1:25:53.880 were like, don't do this, Like if you if you 1:25:53.960 --> 1:25:57.120 just show up and give us money, the state is 1:25:57.120 --> 1:25:59.080 immediately going to be able to go like, hey, you 1:25:59.160 --> 1:26:03.439 were like outside funded opposition people doing like regime change stuff, 1:26:03.680 --> 1:26:06.960 and it's going to like immediately discredit us. And so 1:26:07.080 --> 1:26:09.679 this is the point where he sets up the SOUS Foundation, 1:26:10.920 --> 1:26:14.960 which becomes opens There's a whole thing with this. This 1:26:15.240 --> 1:26:20.839 stuff changes names like many times the Open Society Foundation stuff. Yeah, yeah, 1:26:20.880 --> 1:26:24.160 and you know, and so you know what we were like, 1:26:25.240 --> 1:26:28.200 we just talk about what they actually do because in 1:26:28.560 --> 1:26:29.080 sort of like. 1:26:29.000 --> 1:26:30.880 That, I can tell you one thing that they do 1:26:30.920 --> 1:26:33.519 because I used to work with when I was teaching 1:26:33.680 --> 1:26:36.960 classes at Belling cat my my partner, my partner, John Carlo, 1:26:38.400 --> 1:26:41.280 he would go and teach because he's he was born 1:26:41.320 --> 1:26:44.240 and for at least a period of time raised in Venezuela. 1:26:45.120 --> 1:26:49.480 He would teach classes in Latin America to local journalists 1:26:49.520 --> 1:26:53.439 who wanted to know open source investigative techniques and who 1:26:53.479 --> 1:26:55.680 didn't have the kind of money to pay what it 1:26:55.760 --> 1:26:57.639 usually costs to do a belling cat thing, and that 1:26:57.720 --> 1:27:02.840 program whereby a bunch of journalists in Latin America, particularly Columbia, 1:27:03.320 --> 1:27:07.040 got training, was funded by the Open Society Foundation. And 1:27:07.120 --> 1:27:09.040 so a couple of years ago when there was that 1:27:09.120 --> 1:27:12.479 massive swellowing of like the police murdering people and protest 1:27:12.520 --> 1:27:15.599 crowds and stuff in Colombia, the journalists who were like 1:27:15.680 --> 1:27:19.360 doing open source investigation to track down which police officers 1:27:19.439 --> 1:27:21.760 were you know, killing folks and how this was going 1:27:21.800 --> 1:27:23.759 were a lot of the folks that John Carlo had trained. 1:27:23.880 --> 1:27:27.040 Like that's the kind of stuff that one of the 1:27:27.160 --> 1:27:29.240 kind of things that the Open Society Foundation does. 1:27:29.600 --> 1:27:31.479 Yeah, they also do a lot of They do a 1:27:31.520 --> 1:27:34.240 lot of like giving student scholarships. The other thing they're 1:27:34.320 --> 1:27:38.640 really big on that doesn't get talked about much is 1:27:38.680 --> 1:27:43.000 that there were huge on like cultural events basically like 1:27:43.120 --> 1:27:45.640 paying people money to like put on plays and like 1:27:45.840 --> 1:27:49.200 theater stuff and music and like writing poems and books, 1:27:49.240 --> 1:27:51.960 which is like I don't know, like I actually think 1:27:52.000 --> 1:27:54.680 that's cool, Like like we as a society used to 1:27:54.720 --> 1:27:57.920 do this, Like we used to like pay people, like 1:27:57.960 --> 1:27:59.960 the government used to pay people to like write things 1:28:00.320 --> 1:28:02.639 and like create art. And then we decided that that 1:28:02.800 --> 1:28:04.280 was bad, and I've never done it again. 1:28:04.479 --> 1:28:08.920 And yeah, I'm anti creating art for the record, That's 1:28:08.920 --> 1:28:10.280 why I'm really happy about all this. 1:28:10.360 --> 1:28:20.320 Ai bait bait ye bait post do not engage. So 1:28:20.760 --> 1:28:23.519 unfortunately for the Soros Foundation, one of the people they 1:28:23.600 --> 1:28:28.559 give these these scholarships to is victor Or Broun, which 1:28:28.600 --> 1:28:31.200 is I. 1:28:31.080 --> 1:28:38.000 Victory the Hungarian Yeah, press, yes, we. 1:28:38.400 --> 1:28:40.719 Shall, we shall return to that. This is I think 1:28:42.000 --> 1:28:45.200 maybe the single greatest example of like creating young grave 1:28:45.240 --> 1:28:49.160 Digger I've ever seen in my entire life. I I 1:28:49.160 --> 1:28:51.120 I don't know, like one of the things that that 1:28:51.120 --> 1:28:52.559 comes up about this and this is this is one 1:28:52.560 --> 1:28:54.960 of the things that another one of the guys who 1:28:54.960 --> 1:28:57.400 sorows BACKX, who like betrays him later on, says that 1:28:57.400 --> 1:29:00.400 Soros is bad at politics, like you just he's like 1:29:00.439 --> 1:29:01.840 not very good at it, Like he's not you know 1:29:01.880 --> 1:29:05.120 people like the sort of like thing about him is 1:29:05.160 --> 1:29:07.240 that he's this sort of like criminal mastermind who can 1:29:07.320 --> 1:29:12.040 like like bankow revolutions and stuff, and he just like 1:29:12.360 --> 1:29:16.000 gets out maneuvered by people constantly in ways that are 1:29:16.280 --> 1:29:21.120 like kind of depressing. Yeah, but you Okay, So he's 1:29:21.120 --> 1:29:23.400 spending in the eighties like doing all this, you know, 1:29:24.080 --> 1:29:27.920 like doing this sort of cultural work. And you know 1:29:28.439 --> 1:29:31.040 in Hungary, right, there's a sort of interesting thing that 1:29:31.080 --> 1:29:33.160 happens where like he's wealthy enough that like even the 1:29:33.160 --> 1:29:35.600 Communist Party is sort of like has to work with 1:29:35.720 --> 1:29:41.000 him because he has money and they sort of don't. 1:29:41.000 --> 1:29:42.320 But you know, the other thing that that's I think 1:29:42.320 --> 1:29:45.439 important to understand is that he's not like there's a 1:29:45.479 --> 1:29:48.479 bunch of foundations who do like exactly the same stuff, right, 1:29:48.600 --> 1:29:51.599 like maybe slightly worse. Like you know, there's like the 1:29:51.600 --> 1:29:55.080 Ford Foundation, There's like the Rockefellers, right, or the Rockefeller Foundation, 1:29:55.600 --> 1:29:58.040 like they all they all like at any place where 1:29:58.080 --> 1:30:00.679 open society is like doing stuff, there's like a worse 1:30:00.800 --> 1:30:03.080 version of it at the Ford Foundation, and like the 1:30:03.160 --> 1:30:07.920 Rockefellers are doing. But you know, somehow, stunningly only one 1:30:07.960 --> 1:30:12.800 of these groups is singled out for being yelled at 1:30:12.800 --> 1:30:14.040 all the time. And I will I will leave as 1:30:14.040 --> 1:30:16.880 an exercise to the reader why specifically picked Soros and 1:30:16.920 --> 1:30:19.200 not Ford? Huh huh? 1:30:19.400 --> 1:30:22.960 I wonder, I wonder what big mystery. I wonder what 1:30:23.000 --> 1:30:26.280 differences and uh and cultural views might be. 1:30:26.320 --> 1:30:31.679 It might be Yeah, so okay, the other real problem 1:30:31.720 --> 1:30:35.040 that he runs into, which is a cultural problem, is that, okay, 1:30:35.040 --> 1:30:37.000 this is the problem that all the liberal anti communists 1:30:37.040 --> 1:30:41.800 run into, which is that, Okay, so the walls come down, right, 1:30:42.240 --> 1:30:46.320 and the communist governments fall, and it turns out that, uh, 1:30:46.439 --> 1:30:48.519 the anti communists and and Europe are almost all right 1:30:48.560 --> 1:30:51.880 wingers and their base are all like right wing nationalists fanatics. 1:30:53.400 --> 1:30:56.599 Here's another Stories quote about this. I thought I would 1:30:56.600 --> 1:30:58.960 blaze the trail, I would lead and others would follow. 1:30:59.160 --> 1:31:01.280 But now that I look, I find that there was 1:31:01.320 --> 1:31:04.519 practically nobody behind me. I asked myself what went wrong? 1:31:06.320 --> 1:31:09.240 And part of what went wrong is like what Soros 1:31:09.320 --> 1:31:12.400 is doing in these places. So for example, you know, 1:31:12.640 --> 1:31:17.160 he's involved in funding solidarity, he's involved in some solidarities 1:31:17.160 --> 1:31:19.280 negotiations with the government. And then the other thing that 1:31:19.320 --> 1:31:22.080 he does is he's one of the people who helps 1:31:22.400 --> 1:31:27.599 like do structural adjustment in Poland. And this goes really 1:31:27.640 --> 1:31:30.080 badly because so what we were talking about, we just 1:31:30.120 --> 1:31:32.920 talk a little bit about what solidarity is because he 1:31:32.920 --> 1:31:36.479 helps destroy it by accident. Solidarity is this giant sort 1:31:36.520 --> 1:31:41.960 of like social democratic e union that forms in you know, 1:31:42.200 --> 1:31:44.920 in like the early eighties in Poland, that's like the 1:31:44.920 --> 1:31:47.880 first sort of independent union in one of these communist countries. 1:31:48.280 --> 1:31:51.960 And they eventually are able to sort of like knock 1:31:51.960 --> 1:31:56.640 off the government. But they come into power, and you know, 1:31:56.840 --> 1:31:59.320 so they do on sort of Soros's advice and on 1:31:59.360 --> 1:32:01.519 the advice of a lot of the sort of financial people. 1:32:01.520 --> 1:32:03.800 They're getting, right, all of the people are telling them 1:32:03.840 --> 1:32:06.000 to do privatization. So they do it, right, They privatize 1:32:06.000 --> 1:32:09.040 all of these giant state owned like facilities, they privatize 1:32:09.040 --> 1:32:11.920 their docks like stuff like that. And this, it turns out, 1:32:12.160 --> 1:32:15.439 it just causes massive de industrialization. It destroys Solidarity's base 1:32:15.479 --> 1:32:17.599 because there's there's suddenly no longer all of these union 1:32:17.680 --> 1:32:21.040 jobs at all these state owned factories. And so you know, 1:32:21.080 --> 1:32:23.679 they lose an ex election and the solidarity like vanishes 1:32:23.720 --> 1:32:25.800 forever into the midst of time. There's like six of 1:32:25.840 --> 1:32:29.880 those guys left. Yeah, and this and this is a 1:32:29.920 --> 1:32:33.080 real sort of source problem. This that like keeps running 1:32:33.800 --> 1:32:35.760 over and over again, right is you know, he spent 1:32:35.840 --> 1:32:38.400 all this time being an anti communists, but then the 1:32:38.479 --> 1:32:41.639 actual anti communists who have bases and who aren't just 1:32:41.680 --> 1:32:45.160 like destroying their own bases by like doing privatization, which 1:32:45.200 --> 1:32:49.360 is something he stuff he's also pushing, right are these 1:32:49.479 --> 1:32:53.400 right wringers? And this is this is just sort of 1:32:53.400 --> 1:32:57.519 a fiasco, and you know, it's so like he he does, 1:32:57.560 --> 1:32:59.120 like he tries to do like a very similar thing 1:32:59.120 --> 1:33:01.240 to what he'd been doing in in Eastern Europe and China, 1:33:01.320 --> 1:33:05.040 and this goes like even worse because he winds up 1:33:05.240 --> 1:33:08.040 like backing, he winds up backing one of the CCP 1:33:08.160 --> 1:33:12.040 factions who gets purged after Tienemann, and so you know, 1:33:12.280 --> 1:33:16.519 surus like as the sort of nineties go on, right, 1:33:16.720 --> 1:33:20.040 like he's sort of slowly starting to realize that, like 1:33:21.360 --> 1:33:25.000 the stuff that he's doing is not working very well. 1:33:25.080 --> 1:33:27.160 And one of the sort of I don't know if 1:33:27.160 --> 1:33:30.120 consequence is the right word, but okay, one of soros 1:33:30.120 --> 1:33:32.280 are sort of like principles that makes them different from 1:33:32.320 --> 1:33:34.120 a lot of other of these billionaires rights. He doesn't 1:33:34.120 --> 1:33:37.120 do humanitarian aid. His thing is that like he wants 1:33:37.160 --> 1:33:40.599 to produce a society that doesn't need humanitarian aid, which 1:33:40.640 --> 1:33:41.320 is sort of noble. 1:33:41.680 --> 1:33:43.559 But like. 1:33:45.439 --> 1:33:51.160 Then then Yugoslavia falls apart, and he winds up doing 1:33:51.200 --> 1:33:53.240 a bunch of stuff in Yugoslavia, Like he winds up 1:33:53.280 --> 1:33:56.640 building like a water purification plant Sarajevo. While aside resiege 1:33:57.280 --> 1:33:59.240 and the other thing that I didn't know he was 1:33:59.280 --> 1:34:03.879 like really involved with is like he's basically the reason 1:34:04.040 --> 1:34:08.240 why the UN war crimes tribunal that like tries Moloshovic 1:34:08.240 --> 1:34:11.160 and stuff like happens, Like he funds it. It wasn't 1:34:11.160 --> 1:34:13.360 really like a UN thing he was. He was like, Hey, 1:34:13.360 --> 1:34:16.240 we're gonna have this tribunal. And then the German government 1:34:16.360 --> 1:34:18.439 like arrested one of the war criminals just sort of 1:34:18.479 --> 1:34:22.559 randomly at like an airport or something. And he's able 1:34:22.600 --> 1:34:25.000 to convince sort of like Clinton and a bunch of 1:34:25.040 --> 1:34:27.720 other people to like actually turn and the UN to 1:34:27.760 --> 1:34:30.879 like turn this into a real court. And this pisses 1:34:30.920 --> 1:34:33.280 off a lot of people and like bye by a 1:34:33.280 --> 1:34:35.760 lot of people. I mean, like very specifically pisses Belosovik 1:34:35.800 --> 1:34:39.439 cough because I somewhat obvious reasons that he tried to 1:34:39.439 --> 1:34:44.280 try him for war crimes. Okay, so I think, gar 1:34:44.439 --> 1:34:46.639 you're too young for this. Robert, do you remember Rock 1:34:46.680 --> 1:34:48.479 the Vote? God? 1:34:48.960 --> 1:34:51.920 Oh yes, I remember Rock the Vote. 1:34:52.479 --> 1:34:56.120 Okay. So one of the things Soros does is he 1:34:56.160 --> 1:34:58.719 does like a he brings like a rock to vote. 1:34:58.800 --> 1:35:00.320 He's like one of the people who brings the rock 1:35:00.320 --> 1:35:04.920 devote to like Slovakia great, and you know, and this 1:35:05.000 --> 1:35:05.720 is the first. 1:35:05.439 --> 1:35:09.400 Time that this is how we introduce people to democracy 1:35:09.520 --> 1:35:12.200 by showing how cringe it can be perfect well. 1:35:12.200 --> 1:35:14.840 And the government is immediately immediately this is sort of 1:35:14.880 --> 1:35:19.519 the first time that like a government is seriously like, well, 1:35:19.560 --> 1:35:22.080 I mean, okay, this is the first time that you've 1:35:22.120 --> 1:35:25.639 had like a protest movement that starts and the head 1:35:25.680 --> 1:35:28.160 of the country goes like, it's George Soros. He's the 1:35:28.160 --> 1:35:32.080 one doing this, even though like the Ford Foundation again 1:35:32.200 --> 1:35:34.679 and the Rockefellers and just like a bunch of random 1:35:34.680 --> 1:35:38.800 people in Slovakia are also doing this. But this is, 1:35:38.840 --> 1:35:40.840 this is this is sort of going to become like 1:35:41.160 --> 1:35:45.240 a pattern in in in these things, because you know, 1:35:45.280 --> 1:35:48.160 he he's sort of like like I think she's kind 1:35:48.160 --> 1:35:50.800 of like poking a lot of sort of very powerful, 1:35:51.640 --> 1:35:55.920 like increasingly powerful sort of regional right wing leaders because 1:35:56.120 --> 1:35:59.559 he looks at the societies and are like, actually, it 1:35:59.680 --> 1:36:05.000 sucks to have like just dog shit right wingers who 1:36:05.040 --> 1:36:07.759 are like racist and hate everyone running a country. 1:36:09.040 --> 1:36:10.599 Yeah, that sounds like it would be bad. 1:36:11.000 --> 1:36:13.320 Yeah, and this is this is the thing about words, right, 1:36:13.360 --> 1:36:17.320 Like he every once in a while, right, he sees 1:36:17.360 --> 1:36:20.160 something really bad going on and goes, I'm gonna throw 1:36:20.200 --> 1:36:21.880 a bunch of money at it try to fix it. 1:36:23.479 --> 1:36:24.720 And so one of the things that he does this 1:36:24.800 --> 1:36:28.479 for is the war on drugs, like in the in 1:36:28.640 --> 1:36:31.080 sort of the eighties and nineties, Like Saras looks at 1:36:31.080 --> 1:36:33.680 this and it is like this fucking sucks, Like this 1:36:33.800 --> 1:36:36.280 is really bad. And so he starts working in Baltimore, 1:36:36.360 --> 1:36:40.360 where the government is trying to do like something's like 1:36:40.400 --> 1:36:43.639 pretty like something like even now is to consider sort 1:36:43.640 --> 1:36:48.519 of like pretty radical I like harm reduction stuff. So 1:36:48.520 --> 1:36:50.679 I mean they like it. Like Baltimore in the nineties 1:36:50.760 --> 1:36:56.320 has needle exchanges. Uh, he's doing like narcan trainings for people. 1:36:56.960 --> 1:36:58.840 He's you know, he's doing things like funny instead of 1:36:58.880 --> 1:37:00.960 like like giving money to like he's doing he's has 1:37:01.000 --> 1:37:03.839 these programs to like get people out of like prison faster, 1:37:04.000 --> 1:37:07.679 and he's doing like after school programs for kids and 1:37:08.040 --> 1:37:12.160 this stuff like this is like genuinely good. Like there's 1:37:12.200 --> 1:37:15.840 no like I don't know it sucks that like it's 1:37:15.880 --> 1:37:18.280 it's billionaire money that's like doing it. But like I 1:37:18.280 --> 1:37:21.040 don't know, like probably there's a lot of people who 1:37:21.080 --> 1:37:24.200 are alive because I didn't get HIV from needles that 1:37:24.240 --> 1:37:26.160 they were able to do exchanges for. Yeah. 1:37:26.240 --> 1:37:27.799 Sure, that's all. That's all good stuff. 1:37:28.160 --> 1:37:30.080 Yeah, And but you know the interesting thing about Storts, right, 1:37:30.120 --> 1:37:32.400 he's he's like not like you know, he's doing stuff 1:37:32.439 --> 1:37:35.080 that's like pretty lefty, right, but he's like not a 1:37:35.120 --> 1:37:40.120 partisan guy until he sees George Bush and he sees 1:37:40.240 --> 1:37:42.640 he's he like the day after nine to eleven, he's like, 1:37:42.760 --> 1:37:46.520 holy shit, this guy is a maniac. And like it's 1:37:46.080 --> 1:37:49.160 just instantly has like the switch flips of like this man, 1:37:49.240 --> 1:37:52.320 this man is an enemy to open society, which is true. 1:37:52.479 --> 1:37:54.600 And he's like he's he like, guess this braid of 1:37:54.720 --> 1:37:58.320 like I need to bring this man down. So he 1:37:58.360 --> 1:38:00.880 starts getting really for the first time, he starts getting 1:38:00.880 --> 1:38:02.800 really really involved in the two thousand and four election. 1:38:02.880 --> 1:38:06.240 He's doing like like these like micro targeting ad stuff. 1:38:06.240 --> 1:38:09.040 He's like throwing money around everywhere, and you know, I 1:38:09.080 --> 1:38:11.080 mean he explicitly like the like the way he looks 1:38:11.080 --> 1:38:12.720 at it, like if he's very explicit about this is 1:38:12.720 --> 1:38:15.920 like he wants to level the like the playing field 1:38:15.960 --> 1:38:18.639 between the Republicans, who are funded by just a trillion 1:38:18.680 --> 1:38:22.439 routing billionaires and the Democrats, who are funded by not 1:38:23.000 --> 1:38:25.960 that many billionaires. The problem with this is that he 1:38:25.960 --> 1:38:29.200 has like a very weird view of what's wrong with Bush. 1:38:29.240 --> 1:38:31.920 I'm gonna read from the People up the Stars again 1:38:32.560 --> 1:38:35.519 in imposing its view of freedom on both the American 1:38:35.520 --> 1:38:38.840 people in a foreign country. Quote the supremacist ideology of 1:38:38.880 --> 1:38:41.800 the Bush administration, and it is in contradiction with the 1:38:41.800 --> 1:38:44.920 principles of open society because it claims possession of an 1:38:45.000 --> 1:38:49.800 ultimate truth, which I don't know, I don't actually think 1:38:49.920 --> 1:38:53.320 like claiming possession of an ultimate truth is like specifically 1:38:53.360 --> 1:38:56.599 the thing that like is the reason why the Bush 1:38:56.640 --> 1:39:04.960 administration is bad. But simultaneously, I don't know, Like I 1:39:05.120 --> 1:39:08.000 it's hard for me to be like too mad about 1:39:08.000 --> 1:39:12.000 a billionaire seeing George Bush and just like going, oh 1:39:12.040 --> 1:39:13.840 my god. 1:39:14.439 --> 1:39:17.679 Yeah it didn't it didn't work, but it yeah, good 1:39:17.720 --> 1:39:20.160 that he gave it, gave it the old college try. 1:39:20.600 --> 1:39:20.960 Yeah. 1:39:21.000 --> 1:39:21.160 Well. 1:39:21.280 --> 1:39:24.400 Unfortunately, this this has a backlash effect, which the Republicans 1:39:24.439 --> 1:39:27.920 see him start doing this and they're like, oh shit, 1:39:28.320 --> 1:39:31.599 this is incredible campaign material for us, and we start 1:39:31.640 --> 1:39:36.040 seeing like the sort of the less openly anti Semitic 1:39:36.080 --> 1:39:37.960 like precursors. So like all the stuff we see today, 1:39:38.000 --> 1:39:40.839 like Bill O'Reilly goes after him. 1:39:41.400 --> 1:39:46.439 Oh god, Robert, do you remember denn Dennis Hastard. Oh yeah, 1:39:47.400 --> 1:39:52.559 Look if my favorite pedophiles who were long standing speakers 1:39:52.560 --> 1:39:56.680 of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastard is easily in 1:39:56.720 --> 1:39:57.439 the top three. 1:39:58.240 --> 1:40:01.800 She i, this is the thing that's been like collectively 1:40:01.840 --> 1:40:05.639 wiped from like America's conscience. Is that like the Republican 1:40:05.680 --> 1:40:07.640 speaker of the House for like twenty years was like 1:40:07.680 --> 1:40:10.240 one of one of one of history's most prolific pedophiles. 1:40:10.600 --> 1:40:11.360 He sure was. 1:40:12.280 --> 1:40:15.439 And she she also turns out one of the people 1:40:15.479 --> 1:40:19.640 who mainstream the anti Soros stuff. She starts citing a 1:40:19.720 --> 1:40:23.639 fucking Lyndon LaRouche quote unquote report claiming that Soros got 1:40:23.680 --> 1:40:27.680 his money from drugs. So Lyndon LaRouche is this like 1:40:27.760 --> 1:40:30.559 fascist weirdo who cut his teeth and running this like 1:40:30.640 --> 1:40:33.920 anti communist cult that would like physically fight leftist groups 1:40:33.920 --> 1:40:38.200 on campuses and would like give information on like student 1:40:38.280 --> 1:40:40.280 leftist groups and like other leftistcroops or the government like 1:40:40.800 --> 1:40:44.439 they are they are so feded up that like if 1:40:44.479 --> 1:40:47.680 you start reading about de LaRouche sites, like they were 1:40:47.760 --> 1:40:50.559 narking to federal orgs like you've never heard of before, 1:40:51.080 --> 1:40:56.960 it's stunningly, stunningly bizarre like conspiracy cult thing. And Dennis 1:40:56.960 --> 1:41:01.280 Hastert was just straight up like reading their antisemitic conspiracy 1:41:01.320 --> 1:41:05.720 theories like on TV. But you know, and I think 1:41:05.760 --> 1:41:07.320 I think it's something that that one of the things 1:41:07.360 --> 1:41:09.880 I wanted to emphasize like in this episode, right is 1:41:09.920 --> 1:41:15.080 like the anti Soro stuff isn't really like I don't 1:41:15.120 --> 1:41:16.599 know what you call it, like or sort of organic 1:41:16.600 --> 1:41:19.200 anti Semitism, Like it's not something that like comes from 1:41:19.200 --> 1:41:22.920 the Republican base, right, This is something that this is 1:41:22.920 --> 1:41:26.280 a deliberate choice by Republican political strategists who are very 1:41:26.320 --> 1:41:29.360 deliberately like this this is this is a Jewish billionaire 1:41:29.400 --> 1:41:31.840 who's helping the who's helping a Democratic party, Like we 1:41:31.880 --> 1:41:34.240 can use this to do to try to do like 1:41:34.280 --> 1:41:38.479 culture warship to win this election. And you know, like 1:41:39.360 --> 1:41:40.960 we know we can see the results of this, and 1:41:41.000 --> 1:41:42.200 this isn't even you know, we're gonna get this in 1:41:42.240 --> 1:41:44.639 a little bit, but like this this isn't even the 1:41:44.680 --> 1:41:48.439 only time this is gonna happen where like the specific 1:41:48.520 --> 1:41:51.680 like sorrows, like anti Semitism stuff for dreaming agust is 1:41:51.720 --> 1:41:55.240 like it's cooked up by like like very specifically cooked 1:41:55.320 --> 1:41:59.599 up as a targeted thing by political strategists. I love it. 1:42:00.120 --> 1:42:02.920 Which it's it's good. 1:42:05.640 --> 1:42:07.640 Anyways, we should we should do ads. 1:42:08.080 --> 1:42:14.280 Yeah, speaking of anti Semitism, you know, just just speaking 1:42:14.320 --> 1:42:20.160 about it. That's what we're doing here. Anyway, here's the mads. Ah, 1:42:20.280 --> 1:42:23.640 we're back, got another email from the A d L. 1:42:23.680 --> 1:42:26.879 I'm gonna deal with this. Y'all continue talking about George Soros. 1:42:27.360 --> 1:42:30.919 Oh boy, So all right, Well the other thing Soros 1:42:31.000 --> 1:42:34.360 keeps doing, like you know, so in going after Bush, right, 1:42:34.439 --> 1:42:37.679 he has now made himself like he's not enemy number 1:42:37.720 --> 1:42:39.680 one yet, but he's going he's made himself like a 1:42:39.720 --> 1:42:42.160 pretty high profile enemy of the Republican like. 1:42:43.840 --> 1:42:44.519 Through the shoe. 1:42:44.680 --> 1:42:47.280 Yeah yeah, yeah, so that guy actually sucks. 1:42:47.040 --> 1:42:49.280 Ida Yeah yeah, we're not praising him. 1:42:51.240 --> 1:42:55.839 Yeah. He starts this sort of like arc of pissing 1:42:55.840 --> 1:42:58.240 off a bunch of really really powerful and important people 1:42:58.320 --> 1:43:03.400 who are anti Semitic great wingers. So remember how I 1:43:03.960 --> 1:43:06.120 a while back, I said I was talking about there 1:43:06.160 --> 1:43:08.680 was a guy who double crossed Soros, who was like, 1:43:08.680 --> 1:43:11.960 this guy's bad at politics. So that guy was like 1:43:12.160 --> 1:43:16.080 a h that that that that guy. That guy was 1:43:16.120 --> 1:43:21.680 a Georgian protest leader who Soros like helped like his 1:43:21.800 --> 1:43:25.840 protest movements overthrow a sort of like kind of pretty 1:43:25.840 --> 1:43:29.439 shitty like pro Russian government in Georgia. But like that guy, 1:43:29.479 --> 1:43:31.280 that guy has like a wild arc that you could 1:43:31.320 --> 1:43:35.439 do his own fucking movie series on. He's now a victor, 1:43:35.640 --> 1:43:38.360 a close ally of Victoria Bond. So it's going great, 1:43:38.560 --> 1:43:40.479 But how do you actually pronounce his name? For some reason, 1:43:40.479 --> 1:43:43.840 it always just like pings off my brain. 1:43:44.600 --> 1:43:46.920 Oh yeah, I mean Victoria Garren. I hear, are the 1:43:47.000 --> 1:43:51.759 real brain trust to ask about pronunciation? You've brought together, 1:43:52.040 --> 1:43:53.519 you know, just the goat. 1:43:55.479 --> 1:44:05.960 Latest gnunciator just said to me a list of like 1:44:06.000 --> 1:44:08.280 European cities. That's a free episode idea. 1:44:09.040 --> 1:44:09.639 There you go. 1:44:10.560 --> 1:44:14.160 Yeah, I'm just gonna say the word Binghamton like forty 1:44:14.200 --> 1:44:15.840 seven times. It's gonna be great. 1:44:19.560 --> 1:44:23.439 Okay, So sorrows back to this GE's called the Rose Revolution, 1:44:24.240 --> 1:44:26.400 and you know this turns out badly for Soros in 1:44:26.400 --> 1:44:28.679 every possible way, which is that like one his guy 1:44:28.840 --> 1:44:31.920 like sucks and turns on him. And then two he 1:44:32.000 --> 1:44:35.320 really like this like really pisses off Latimer putin a 1:44:35.360 --> 1:44:37.760 man who is going to hold this grudge like like 1:44:38.040 --> 1:44:43.280 on his deathbed, he will be holding this grudge. Now, okay. 1:44:43.320 --> 1:44:47.120 So one of the things that that sort of like happens. 1:44:47.439 --> 1:44:50.320 So he's backing these sort of like protest movements in 1:44:50.760 --> 1:44:55.760 Eastern Europe. I refuse the sort of two thousands. And 1:44:56.720 --> 1:44:59.880 you know, as the two thousands go on and turn 1:45:00.040 --> 1:45:03.240 two thousand and eight, thing the world economy goes to shit. 1:45:03.920 --> 1:45:09.160 A bunch of right wingers started taking power. And one 1:45:09.200 --> 1:45:12.360 of victor Or Bond's like political consultants, who's this guy 1:45:12.439 --> 1:45:16.679 who he met through net and Yahoo? Like specifically like 1:45:16.960 --> 1:45:20.559 this is this is another consultant guy very specifically cooks 1:45:20.640 --> 1:45:23.559 up the idea for how you know, he's trying to 1:45:23.560 --> 1:45:25.519 fend off like a right like a sort of another 1:45:25.600 --> 1:45:27.360 sort of right wing challenge. He's trying to fend off 1:45:27.439 --> 1:45:30.280 like the rest of our political establishment. And or Bond's 1:45:30.320 --> 1:45:32.559 consultant like very specifically is like what if we go 1:45:32.600 --> 1:45:37.360 after Soros again? And you know, and so he does, 1:45:37.720 --> 1:45:39.880 and this is this is another one of those things 1:45:39.880 --> 1:45:43.160 like this is literally the anti Semitism is fucking cooked 1:45:43.200 --> 1:45:46.840 up in a pr lab in order for these people 1:45:46.840 --> 1:45:50.599 to win elections. And I don't know that that that 1:45:50.760 --> 1:45:56.880 just sort of just sort of like cynical cold bloodedness 1:45:56.920 --> 1:46:00.160 of it, like of these people, like this politic cool 1:46:00.160 --> 1:46:03.000 consultant by the way, like is also Jewish, right like, 1:46:03.040 --> 1:46:04.519 and he just doesn't give a shit. He's like a 1:46:04.560 --> 1:46:07.320 fuck it. Like well, you know, like I'm like one 1:46:07.320 --> 1:46:09.960 of Netanyahu's guys. NETANYAHUO fucking hates this guy too, Like 1:46:09.960 --> 1:46:11.599 why don't we just use him as a punching bag, 1:46:12.280 --> 1:46:14.599 And so they do, and you know, this is this 1:46:14.640 --> 1:46:16.559 is part of a big part of the reason like 1:46:16.960 --> 1:46:19.080 why Soros turns into this sort of enemy Number one 1:46:19.160 --> 1:46:22.040 is that in twenty fifteen, they start blaming him for 1:46:22.320 --> 1:46:25.760 the influx of refugees from Syria and this spreads like 1:46:25.760 --> 1:46:29.479 fucking wildfire. Suddenly, like every single right wing leader on 1:46:29.600 --> 1:46:32.000 earth is like, oh shit, I can blame all of 1:46:32.000 --> 1:46:34.519 my refugee stuff on this guy, and they start doing it. 1:46:34.520 --> 1:46:37.000 And you know, so suddenly, like like air Dowan is 1:46:37.040 --> 1:46:39.160 blaming him for like the Gtzy part protests and he 1:46:39.200 --> 1:46:44.240 does at thirteen, like Trump gets on this and you know, 1:46:44.439 --> 1:46:47.400 this stuff sort of like it's it spreads really quickly, 1:46:47.640 --> 1:46:51.200 and once it's sort of out of the bottle, right 1:46:51.360 --> 1:46:54.760 like you know, like people like like there are the 1:46:54.800 --> 1:46:56.760 people who sort of first start this right are doing 1:46:56.800 --> 1:47:00.320 this sort of like you know, like incredibly cold, cynical 1:47:00.320 --> 1:47:02.839 political calculus. But once once that, once this like incredibly 1:47:02.920 --> 1:47:05.000 high level that he sent and he sententism gets out 1:47:05.000 --> 1:47:06.960 of the open, it starts turning into just like Soros 1:47:06.960 --> 1:47:12.840 a Satan ship and you know, and and part part 1:47:12.840 --> 1:47:16.880 of what happens here is is that like this is 1:47:16.960 --> 1:47:18.560 this is one of the things, like the sort of 1:47:18.680 --> 1:47:21.800 campaigns against Soros is one of the things that he's 1:47:21.840 --> 1:47:24.760 responsible for, like our current like migrant policy, like why 1:47:24.800 --> 1:47:27.920 it's so bad, Like why like half our episodes next 1:47:27.960 --> 1:47:30.240 week and are going to be about like just horrible 1:47:30.240 --> 1:47:34.320 shit happening at the border, which is that like Soros 1:47:34.360 --> 1:47:36.000 in the in the like the late the nineties and 1:47:36.040 --> 1:47:39.240 two thousands found out that like Clinton was funding his 1:47:39.320 --> 1:47:42.920 welfare reform by cutting legal immigrants off from food stamps 1:47:42.920 --> 1:47:47.840 and like SSI benefits, and he's like, wait, this is fucking. 1:47:49.320 --> 1:47:49.519 Yeah. 1:47:50.080 --> 1:47:53.759 It's just like like he caught one point five million 1:47:53.800 --> 1:47:57.519 people off of his off of fucking benefits for just 1:47:57.760 --> 1:48:02.679 no reason, like on believably demonic act. And Soro finds 1:48:02.720 --> 1:48:04.160 out about this is like wait, what the fuck, what 1:48:04.160 --> 1:48:06.639 do you mean he's doing this? So he like puts 1:48:06.640 --> 1:48:09.200 a coalition together that like funds a bunch of immigrant 1:48:09.200 --> 1:48:12.760 advocacy groups, and he's able to overturn this. But there's 1:48:12.760 --> 1:48:15.240 a sort of right the right wing reaction to this, 1:48:15.360 --> 1:48:17.360 right like is partially also part of the right wing 1:48:17.400 --> 1:48:20.080 reaction to Soorros two thousand and four. There's this very 1:48:20.240 --> 1:48:23.960 very effective and like unbelievably brutal sort of right wing 1:48:24.000 --> 1:48:27.960 backlash about immigration politics. That is, you know, it's one 1:48:27.960 --> 1:48:29.480 of the things that drives the Obama administration. 1:48:29.560 --> 1:48:29.640 Right. 1:48:29.680 --> 1:48:34.160 The Obama administration is like worse than the Bush administration 1:48:34.240 --> 1:48:37.160 on like deportation shit. It's you know, just utter horror, 1:48:38.000 --> 1:48:40.920 and all of that stuff continues, and all of these 1:48:41.000 --> 1:48:43.519 right wing people figure out that if you can just 1:48:43.680 --> 1:48:46.240 pin like like Trump starts with Trump pins the migrant 1:48:46.280 --> 1:48:48.960 caravent on Soros, and they figure out, like, this is 1:48:49.000 --> 1:48:51.960 the this is like the specific combination, right, It's like 1:48:52.040 --> 1:48:54.960 the the the anti semitism of like the Jewish banker 1:48:55.000 --> 1:48:57.760 bringing immigrants into your country is just like the sort 1:48:57.800 --> 1:49:01.200 of one way shop driving your entire country into like 1:49:01.600 --> 1:49:08.799 a like fascist right wing frenzy. And it works. And now, 1:49:08.960 --> 1:49:11.120 you know, like the cycle that we're in now is 1:49:11.120 --> 1:49:15.160 like anytime something happens, like the right blames info like this. 1:49:15.280 --> 1:49:18.080 So the the the current right wing panic is that 1:49:18.560 --> 1:49:22.280 Trot Soros was funding some like pretty moderate like reform 1:49:22.400 --> 1:49:26.240 DA people because he's a criminal justice reform guy. And 1:49:26.320 --> 1:49:29.320 the Republicans are now all talking about how this is 1:49:29.360 --> 1:49:32.760 like a scheme by Soros to like cause crime and 1:49:32.840 --> 1:49:38.680 like destroy the entire country. And unfortunately, like this is 1:49:38.800 --> 1:49:41.600 just like this is this is just this is just 1:49:41.640 --> 1:49:48.240 reality now all of these like really bleakly cynical political 1:49:48.320 --> 1:49:52.960 leaders and they're like polsters and pr consultants, where like 1:49:53.160 --> 1:49:55.800 we could use anti semitism to win elections and they 1:49:55.840 --> 1:50:02.719 did and now we live in hell. 1:50:02.920 --> 1:50:03.240 Yeah. 1:50:03.280 --> 1:50:09.840 But on the upside, you know, uh, the you know, 1:50:10.080 --> 1:50:12.639 have you guys had the new uh the new Mountain 1:50:12.680 --> 1:50:16.720 Dew zero major melon. It's not tasty, but uh it's 1:50:16.760 --> 1:50:20.000 in grocery stores. So if you're looking for a diet 1:50:20.000 --> 1:50:23.760 mountain dew flavor, you know, that makes it all kind 1:50:23.760 --> 1:50:24.360 of worthwhile. 1:50:26.240 --> 1:50:28.799 I no longer even delivering flavor. 1:50:29.200 --> 1:50:31.479 That's that's what I had for you. It was that 1:50:31.600 --> 1:50:32.439 or another heroine. 1:50:32.600 --> 1:50:34.960 Why why would they need to deliver flavor when instead 1:50:35.000 --> 1:50:38.479 they can just continue to mainstream anti semitism to get 1:50:38.840 --> 1:50:42.439 right wing politicians elected so they can make say. 1:50:42.840 --> 1:50:45.519 But you know what I've been I've been studying this 1:50:45.680 --> 1:50:48.520 can for a while now, and none of the anthropomorphized 1:50:48.560 --> 1:50:53.639 watermelons look like they could be racial caricatures. So that's 1:50:53.640 --> 1:50:53.960 a win. 1:50:54.520 --> 1:50:58.000 You know, Look, if that is, if that is actually 1:50:58.160 --> 1:51:01.760 that actually is a racism wind to. 1:51:01.439 --> 1:51:05.080 If Mountain Dew had made a melon version in nineteen thirty, 1:51:05.360 --> 1:51:07.800 it would have been pretty bad. Like we would be 1:51:07.840 --> 1:51:10.760 sharing pictures of those cans on Twitter today and going, 1:51:10.800 --> 1:51:13.640 oh my god. They would have to make a statement. 1:51:14.000 --> 1:51:16.360 They'd have to donate some money to like, I don't know, 1:51:16.479 --> 1:51:20.360 fun to probably scholarships or something. It'd be a real 1:51:20.439 --> 1:51:22.920 problem for Mountain Dew, is what I'm saying. But today, 1:51:23.400 --> 1:51:26.080 nothing problematic about the melons on their can. 1:51:26.560 --> 1:51:30.000 Yeah, I'm sure there's nothing problematic about the soda industry. 1:51:30.840 --> 1:51:34.920 Aspertaine, the health chemical. 1:51:35.080 --> 1:51:37.640 Well, is that is that all we had? 1:51:37.800 --> 1:51:37.960 Yah? 1:51:38.040 --> 1:51:40.840 Yeah, that's yeah, this is this is endicular app here. 1:51:41.360 --> 1:51:45.200 Well, it's now we finally know why George Soros is 1:51:45.240 --> 1:51:51.720 as bad as Magneto, and why comparing George Soros to 1:51:51.800 --> 1:51:55.240 Magneto as the one of the richest men in the 1:51:55.280 --> 1:51:58.400 world who owns probably the most influential communication app is 1:51:58.680 --> 1:52:00.479 probably not a good thing, you know. 1:52:00.560 --> 1:52:03.640 Okay, one more thing I want to get out, like 1:52:03.680 --> 1:52:05.439 for one second that I forgot I realized I forgot 1:52:05.439 --> 1:52:08.200 to say earlier, is that like Soros is not like 1:52:08.640 --> 1:52:10.960 in the scale of billionaire, Soros is not very rich, 1:52:11.000 --> 1:52:14.640 Like he's like the three hundred and seventieth richest billionaire. 1:52:15.000 --> 1:52:16.880 Like he's not even in the top one hundred. Right, 1:52:17.000 --> 1:52:19.559 Elon Musk he has like six billion dollars. Elon Musk 1:52:19.600 --> 1:52:22.280 has like one hundred and eighty four billion dollars or something. 1:52:23.200 --> 1:52:29.800 So like, you know what the the relative levels of 1:52:29.800 --> 1:52:31.080 influence that these people have. 1:52:31.880 --> 1:52:36.439 No, I was talking about Elon Musk, Yeah, right, the 1:52:36.960 --> 1:52:38.360 one of the chest most influential people. 1:52:38.400 --> 1:52:41.280 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I just I just I need 1:52:41.320 --> 1:52:44.160 everyone to understand exactly how much more fucking riches. It's 1:52:44.200 --> 1:52:46.960 it's it's like fucking it's like when fucking Henry Ford 1:52:47.439 --> 1:52:49.840 was like doing anti Semitic conspiracy series. It's like you 1:52:49.960 --> 1:52:54.960 literally like like you personally literally control like more wealth 1:52:55.040 --> 1:52:57.360 than like all the people you're ranting about combined. Like 1:52:57.400 --> 1:53:02.759 shut the fuck up. Oh my god, h anti semitism, folks, 1:53:02.800 --> 1:53:05.479 it sucks. And also rich people do it even though 1:53:05.640 --> 1:53:11.680 they're they are the actual like the actuals. Yeah, in 1:53:11.760 --> 1:53:13.800 so far as anything even remotely like what they're what 1:53:13.840 --> 1:53:17.160 they're hypothesizing, could even potentially exist, it's fucking these people. 1:53:17.600 --> 1:53:40.000 So yeah, they're bad. Uh yeah, it's it could happen here. 1:53:40.520 --> 1:53:42.439 Uh look, I didn't I didn't think of an intro 1:53:42.560 --> 1:53:45.200 for this one. I really should have. I apologize to 1:53:45.240 --> 1:53:47.679 the readers. I was reading about Chinese aloze instead. 1:53:48.400 --> 1:53:48.839 Uh. 1:53:48.920 --> 1:53:51.920 Yeah, this is a podcast that's I don't know. It's 1:53:51.920 --> 1:54:01.759 about things. I'm here unlike all those other podcasts about things, 1:54:01.800 --> 1:54:04.719 and ours is actually about things. And today it's about 1:54:04.760 --> 1:54:08.080 hot dogs, and in order to talk about hot dogs, 1:54:08.080 --> 1:54:11.160 were joined by Jamie Loftus, whose new book Raw Dog, 1:54:11.200 --> 1:54:13.599 The Naked Truth about hot Dogs boldly asked the question 1:54:13.680 --> 1:54:16.240 what if a book was good? Welcome to the show, JB. 1:54:16.400 --> 1:54:20.640 Hello, Hello, So it's so good to be here to 1:54:20.680 --> 1:54:25.000 talk about things. This is like the thingiest thing available, 1:54:25.160 --> 1:54:25.559 I think. 1:54:26.479 --> 1:54:29.800 Yeah, so I I read this book in Okay, I 1:54:29.960 --> 1:54:31.760 don't know how you're actually supposed to divide up, Like 1:54:31.960 --> 1:54:33.680 if you stand up to go to the bathroom in 1:54:33.680 --> 1:54:37.280 the middle of a sitting, is that still one sitting? 1:54:37.560 --> 1:54:37.720 Yeah? 1:54:37.720 --> 1:54:39.000 So I read this book in one sitting and it 1:54:39.040 --> 1:54:39.360 was great. 1:54:40.640 --> 1:54:42.560 One sitting with a bathroom break. 1:54:43.160 --> 1:54:45.600 I think there was two technically, but yeah, it was 1:54:46.000 --> 1:54:52.360 a good time. Yeah. And so okay, so this is 1:54:52.400 --> 1:54:54.240 this is a book that's about hot dogs and also 1:54:54.360 --> 1:54:57.640 about it's a tale of human human and animal misery 1:54:57.640 --> 1:55:00.360 and suffering. And so as I was reading book, my 1:55:00.360 --> 1:55:02.880 playlist pops up Daniel Connan The Painted Birds song The 1:55:02.880 --> 1:55:05.640 Butchers Share, and so I'm like reading about this and 1:55:05.680 --> 1:55:08.440 the song starts going, Let's take a walk around the 1:55:08.440 --> 1:55:11.600 Old Bizarre, where every little thing has traveled far, every 1:55:11.640 --> 1:55:13.920 pair of pants and grain of rice contains a horror 1:55:14.000 --> 1:55:14.880 story and its price. 1:55:20.840 --> 1:55:23.520 Wow. Really really theming right at you? 1:55:24.120 --> 1:55:26.200 Yeah, I was like wow, Wow, Okay, I guess reality 1:55:26.240 --> 1:55:27.920 is just sort of telling me what the what what 1:55:27.960 --> 1:55:29.000 the plot is right now? 1:55:29.680 --> 1:55:29.880 Yeah? 1:55:29.920 --> 1:55:31.920 I mean that In another another case, I think it's 1:55:31.920 --> 1:55:33.680 really important that we're talking about this right now. 1:55:33.760 --> 1:55:34.560 Is that I. 1:55:34.520 --> 1:55:38.440 Believe your book was officially published on May twenty third, Yeah, 1:55:38.520 --> 1:55:41.800 which is which is the twenty third day in the 1:55:41.880 --> 1:55:45.040 fifth month, which is obviously of the year twenty twenty three, 1:55:45.080 --> 1:55:47.720 which is very important in the in the Discordian glendar, 1:55:48.200 --> 1:55:50.800 and your books about hot dogs, which is a specifically 1:55:51.080 --> 1:55:55.160 it is the one sacred food in the religion of Discordianism. 1:55:55.360 --> 1:55:58.280 So we for these. 1:55:58.160 --> 1:56:01.960 Reasons, it's really it's really important we talked with this 1:56:02.280 --> 1:56:05.400 because you us be a very powerful wizard to have 1:56:05.640 --> 1:56:06.640 to have figured this out. 1:56:06.840 --> 1:56:10.440 Yes, yes, I had to reserve this date years in advance. 1:56:10.520 --> 1:56:13.520 I saw it coming and uh, you know, and and 1:56:13.520 --> 1:56:15.600 then by the time people caught on it was too late. 1:56:16.040 --> 1:56:19.800 I had already I had already wizarded my way into 1:56:20.160 --> 1:56:23.960 the most potent release date. And now I mean, it's 1:56:24.400 --> 1:56:26.880 we all may be fucked because I didn't. 1:56:31.360 --> 1:56:33.200 Someone's gonnassassinate JFK again. 1:56:33.560 --> 1:56:36.480 It's gonna be great, and this time his head is 1:56:36.480 --> 1:56:38.800 going to explode like there's twice as much blood in 1:56:38.840 --> 1:56:41.200 it as the original. It's gonna be really shocked. 1:56:41.360 --> 1:56:41.959 The original. 1:56:42.000 --> 1:56:42.280 I love it. 1:56:42.360 --> 1:56:45.160 It's like as the original series or movies. 1:56:45.920 --> 1:56:47.800 It's gonna be a second there's gonna be a second 1:56:47.840 --> 1:56:50.000 grassy knoll stack on top of the book depository. It's 1:56:50.000 --> 1:56:50.680 gonna be amazing. 1:56:51.400 --> 1:56:54.880 Has reboot Culture gone too far? You know? It's good, 1:56:55.640 --> 1:56:56.560 it's a good question. 1:56:59.280 --> 1:57:00.960 I was gonna I was trying to do a reboot 1:57:00.960 --> 1:57:04.320 culture plug cycle back here thing, and I can't do it. 1:57:04.320 --> 1:57:08.320 I'm a hack and a fraud. But I wanted to. Yeah, 1:57:08.360 --> 1:57:10.800 So I wanted to talk to you a bit about 1:57:11.080 --> 1:57:12.240 one of the things you mentioned in the book is 1:57:12.240 --> 1:57:15.080 that you were trying to get into like like try 1:57:15.120 --> 1:57:16.800 trying to be able to get tours of these of 1:57:16.840 --> 1:57:19.280 these meat like packing plants, and just they just like 1:57:19.440 --> 1:57:21.880 didn't let you. So I wanted to ask a bit 1:57:21.880 --> 1:57:24.000 about like that process, because that seemed like it was 1:57:24.120 --> 1:57:25.240 incredibly chaotic. 1:57:26.600 --> 1:57:31.480 Yeah, it was really frustrating and humiliating kind of every 1:57:31.480 --> 1:57:34.120 step of the way. Where I mean, as we were traveling, 1:57:34.160 --> 1:57:36.280 I had, you know, the map of places that I 1:57:36.320 --> 1:57:38.320 wanted to go, and then I also had a map 1:57:38.320 --> 1:57:41.440 of like meat packing plants that we could possibly go 1:57:41.520 --> 1:57:44.000 to on the way, And so I reached out a 1:57:44.040 --> 1:57:46.640 little bit in advance and either got I mean got 1:57:46.640 --> 1:57:48.880 a ton of just no answers, and I would try 1:57:48.880 --> 1:57:55.240 to call, but generally the excuse I was given was was, well, 1:57:55.280 --> 1:57:58.840 we don't let people tour anymore since COVID, because there 1:57:58.840 --> 1:58:02.320 were a few places. I know that the Vienna Beef 1:58:02.360 --> 1:58:06.400 factory in Chicago used to do tours of very specific 1:58:06.600 --> 1:58:10.680 areas of the factory, kind of the least gnarly parts, 1:58:10.680 --> 1:58:14.920 which is saying nothing, but you know, there were places 1:58:14.920 --> 1:58:19.400 that you used to let civilians tour, and now it's 1:58:19.480 --> 1:58:22.920 just unless things have changed in the last you know, 1:58:23.480 --> 1:58:27.160 year or so, no one can. And on top of that, 1:58:27.280 --> 1:58:30.680 in certain states, and this is also shifting. But the 1:58:30.720 --> 1:58:35.000 AGGAG laws I think make it way less possible and 1:58:35.760 --> 1:58:39.360 appealing for any meat packing plant to allow other people in, 1:58:40.240 --> 1:58:44.440 which is true. I mean the AGAG law rabbit hole 1:58:44.600 --> 1:58:49.120 is so sinister of just like, instead of any meaningful 1:58:49.160 --> 1:58:52.560 improvement in meat packing plants, they're inventing new laws to 1:58:52.720 --> 1:58:56.840 combat technology, which is just like terrifying. 1:58:58.400 --> 1:59:00.680 Yeah, I mean that was all was that? Was that 1:59:00.720 --> 1:59:02.280 technically pregreen. 1:59:01.800 --> 1:59:06.280 Scare That's a good question, Honestly, I think I think 1:59:06.320 --> 1:59:06.440 it was. 1:59:06.520 --> 1:59:08.480 I think that was mostly like a mid like a 1:59:08.520 --> 1:59:09.600 mid nineties thing. 1:59:10.880 --> 1:59:14.000 Yeah, but they've definitely kicked up. I mean, I think 1:59:14.120 --> 1:59:16.720 awareness of them in general has kicked up in the 1:59:16.800 --> 1:59:21.440 last couple of years because like in uh, sort of 1:59:21.480 --> 1:59:27.040 in step with how horrible conditions were for workers during 1:59:27.120 --> 1:59:30.280 lockdown after the executive order, I think there was like 1:59:30.320 --> 1:59:32.680 all of a sudden, a heightened interest in wanting to 1:59:32.720 --> 1:59:35.960 investigate it, and they were just blocked at every single turn. 1:59:36.080 --> 1:59:38.400 And there are some I know that some have been 1:59:39.080 --> 1:59:42.200 overturned or in the in the process of being overturned, 1:59:42.240 --> 1:59:46.720 but I don't know. It seems pretty bleak to me. 1:59:47.120 --> 1:59:49.960 Yeah, yeah, like you do know, I think i'd help 1:59:50.040 --> 1:59:52.600 with that, right, Like we found out like one like 1:59:52.640 --> 1:59:55.879 a look was like a month ago, like pretty recently. 1:59:55.920 --> 1:59:58.840 Also that there were a bunch of companies, of these 1:59:58.880 --> 2:00:01.760 meatpacking companies that were just like using child labor. The 2:00:01.840 --> 2:00:03.320 children were getting horribly named. 2:00:04.800 --> 2:00:08.840 Yep. That yeah, that was in didn't make the book, 2:00:08.960 --> 2:00:11.920 but I could have taken an educated guess, you know, 2:00:12.040 --> 2:00:17.760 like truly it is like often so comically bad it 2:00:17.800 --> 2:00:21.520 feels wrong, but it's just like so over the top horrible, 2:00:21.600 --> 2:00:27.240 and it sounds like describing current meatpacking conditions in the us. 2:00:27.360 --> 2:00:30.760 Sounds like you're describing meatpacking conditions one hundred years ago, 2:00:30.840 --> 2:00:33.680 and they were actually slightly better one hundred years ago. 2:00:34.880 --> 2:00:38.080 So it is it is very bleak in the unions 2:00:38.680 --> 2:00:44.760 that still exist, but they are somewhat weakened and making 2:00:44.800 --> 2:00:47.280 it possible for laws like this to sneak through at 2:00:47.440 --> 2:00:51.960 active child labor. And uh, there's I know. I put 2:00:52.000 --> 2:00:53.600 this in the book because it's something I think about 2:00:53.640 --> 2:00:56.720 all the time. Where you know, down the line, it 2:00:56.840 --> 2:01:00.560 was reported that not only was working to meet packing 2:01:00.560 --> 2:01:03.000 plant one of the least safe jobs in the country 2:01:03.400 --> 2:01:07.920 during lockdown, but but on top of that, a year later, 2:01:08.360 --> 2:01:12.560 it was revealed that the top brass at Tyson and 2:01:12.680 --> 2:01:17.120 Smithfield were directly colluding with the government and essentially drafted 2:01:17.520 --> 2:01:22.040 the drafted the executive order that was given in April 2:01:22.080 --> 2:01:25.160 twenty twenty to keep the meatpacking plants open. There were 2:01:25.320 --> 2:01:28.160 you know, foreman and sort of middle managers at these 2:01:28.200 --> 2:01:30.640 companies that would take bets on how many of their 2:01:30.680 --> 2:01:32.880 employees would get sick. It was just like it was 2:01:33.600 --> 2:01:34.600 cartoon evil. 2:01:34.840 --> 2:01:37.840 It was yeh, I'm like constantly haunted by the taking 2:01:37.880 --> 2:01:41.320 bets thing like that's you think about that, like once 2:01:41.360 --> 2:01:44.480 a week and of like, I think I think your 2:01:44.520 --> 2:01:47.120 line was I think your line was like a continued 2:01:47.160 --> 2:01:48.640 thing of how okay with you are? 2:01:48.640 --> 2:01:48.760 You? 2:01:48.800 --> 2:01:51.560 Are you with bringing the guillotine back? And I was like, 2:01:51.760 --> 2:01:53.360 you know, like this. 2:01:54.960 --> 2:01:57.600 And it's the worst when it's like middle managers. I'm like, 2:01:57.720 --> 2:02:00.920 what is what is your endgame here? Like it's I mean, 2:02:00.960 --> 2:02:03.080 I know what the endgame is, but it's so bleak 2:02:03.280 --> 2:02:06.680 to you know, be making you know, just getting by 2:02:06.880 --> 2:02:11.560 and still betting against your like like vulnerable people that 2:02:11.720 --> 2:02:14.520 work for you, who you see every day. It's just like, 2:02:14.760 --> 2:02:17.520 I mean whatever, not surprising, but yeah, I was like, Wow, 2:02:17.920 --> 2:02:20.120 there's no there's no justice in hot dog Land. There 2:02:20.120 --> 2:02:20.440 really is. 2:02:21.800 --> 2:02:26.200 I'm so curious about how curated what they what information 2:02:26.480 --> 2:02:29.320 is allowed to be shared, Like I'm curious if I 2:02:29.320 --> 2:02:31.400 don't know if they know how bad it is even 2:02:31.520 --> 2:02:33.440 or if they're just like conditioned not to not to 2:02:33.440 --> 2:02:34.080 think about it. 2:02:34.320 --> 2:02:37.440 Yeah, from what I can tell, there are. And I 2:02:37.480 --> 2:02:39.080 write about one at length in the book because it's 2:02:39.080 --> 2:02:41.640 one of my favorite YouTube clips of all time. This 2:02:42.360 --> 2:02:47.360 like Canadian TV show that's like a I think it's 2:02:47.400 --> 2:02:49.080 just called how It's Made, But. 2:02:49.000 --> 2:02:51.680 It's like this is a very popular Canadian television show. 2:02:52.280 --> 2:02:56.080 It's I watched this as a kid, really, yeah, yeah. 2:02:55.960 --> 2:02:59.360 Yeah, I love I mean, I love shows like that, 2:02:59.440 --> 2:03:01.920 and I love specifically when they show you how something 2:03:02.480 --> 2:03:06.520 gross is made because they're really trying to like keep 2:03:06.560 --> 2:03:09.560 the mood light in a way that is like so 2:03:09.840 --> 2:03:12.800 funny with hot Dogs where it's like just these big 2:03:13.080 --> 2:03:17.480 machines farting out goo and then there's like this bassline 2:03:17.480 --> 2:03:20.360 playing that's like boom boom, boom boom. The next step 2:03:20.400 --> 2:03:22.760 in the hot dog's journey is going to the shit 2:03:22.840 --> 2:03:28.120 that and you're like, what, it's so good, but it's 2:03:28.160 --> 2:03:31.560 really I mean, those those clips are ridiculously curated and 2:03:31.600 --> 2:03:33.160 to the point where it's like I can't even really 2:03:33.200 --> 2:03:35.480 tell you what's missing, but I you know, you could 2:03:35.480 --> 2:03:40.440 tell weird pr when you see it, and yeah, like 2:03:40.680 --> 2:03:43.880 they're sort of showing the easiest I don't know, it 2:03:43.920 --> 2:03:47.960 reminds me. I don't know why. I'm like in I'm 2:03:47.960 --> 2:03:50.440 like Farah Nose pilled today, but like it reminds me 2:03:50.520 --> 2:03:52.800 of the anecdote about Elizabeth Holmes where she was like 2:03:52.840 --> 2:03:55.520 taking Joe Biden around Pharah Nose and then there were 2:03:55.560 --> 2:03:58.360 like people in each room, setting up the next room 2:03:58.400 --> 2:04:02.080 to look like it was a functioning business, as like 2:04:02.360 --> 2:04:04.800 they were taking him through the through the rooms and 2:04:05.200 --> 2:04:09.240 successfully deceived him. That's very much what hot dog production 2:04:09.400 --> 2:04:13.520 clips feel like to me, which is wild because they're 2:04:13.600 --> 2:04:18.640 still disgusting, like you cannot make it look good. But yeah, 2:04:18.680 --> 2:04:21.880 I don't know. I mean, going back through years of reports, 2:04:22.480 --> 2:04:28.040 it's it's really difficult, understandably so to speak with people 2:04:28.080 --> 2:04:31.120 who work at meat packing plants as well, because there's 2:04:31.160 --> 2:04:34.400 like not a lot of that they stand to gain 2:04:34.640 --> 2:04:37.440 from talking to reporters. But there was a good Washington 2:04:37.480 --> 2:04:40.240 Post report about it in the early two thousands that 2:04:40.400 --> 2:04:46.040 detailed not just labor abuses within the workforce, but how 2:04:46.200 --> 2:04:48.560 you know when you're not paying your employees enough and 2:04:48.640 --> 2:04:52.480 not keeping the equipment updated, and are you know, factory 2:04:52.520 --> 2:04:56.560 farming focused on just production production production. The animals are 2:04:56.880 --> 2:04:59.520 far worse off too, and there were some pretty horrifying 2:04:59.520 --> 2:05:03.000 descriptions of what would happen to animals when people didn't 2:05:03.040 --> 2:05:06.800 have the workforce or the or the tools to be 2:05:07.240 --> 2:05:11.400 able to, you know, slaughter an animal in not the 2:05:11.440 --> 2:05:12.800 most horrible way possible. 2:05:14.000 --> 2:05:17.080 I like thought I had to, like i'd like watch 2:05:17.120 --> 2:05:21.920 stuff before on factory farming and like, I don't I 2:05:21.960 --> 2:05:24.720 might have a real fun time sleeping tonight thinking about 2:05:24.720 --> 2:05:27.880 the fucking like I don't know. I mean, the LA 2:05:27.960 --> 2:05:29.960 should probably content wording this because this is like the 2:05:30.160 --> 2:05:34.240 animal stuff and this is genuinely horrible, Like this thing 2:05:34.240 --> 2:05:36.040 I was like, I was like, I'm talking about like 2:05:36.360 --> 2:05:38.480 they're like stunning an animal to kill it, but the animal 2:05:38.480 --> 2:05:40.760 comes back and they're like literally chopping the animal apart 2:05:40.800 --> 2:05:43.920 while it's alive. The animals like blinking out that're like 2:05:44.120 --> 2:05:45.360 Jesus Christ. 2:05:46.480 --> 2:05:50.120 It's like it's hot. And then and on the workers end, 2:05:50.160 --> 2:05:53.840 it's like and don't stop or you're fired, and like 2:05:54.040 --> 2:05:56.520 and you have no protection. It's just like it's a 2:05:56.840 --> 2:06:00.600 it's a nightmare in a lot of places. And there 2:06:01.040 --> 2:06:05.000 it came around in an interesting way with at the 2:06:05.080 --> 2:06:08.680 Nathan Totalk eating contest last year because they use I 2:06:08.680 --> 2:06:10.520 don't know if they used Smithfield plants for all of 2:06:10.560 --> 2:06:12.920 their food, but they did certainly some of them. And 2:06:12.960 --> 2:06:15.440 there was a protester who came on stage while Joey 2:06:15.520 --> 2:06:20.160 Chestnutt was gobbling seventy five guzsies or something like that, 2:06:20.480 --> 2:06:23.240 and like the protester was like wearing a Darth Vader 2:06:23.320 --> 2:06:26.480 mask and he had this sign that said like take 2:06:26.520 --> 2:06:29.320 down the Smithfield death Star. And it was a good, 2:06:29.320 --> 2:06:31.920 like a pretty solid protest. It made it on TV. 2:06:32.280 --> 2:06:35.640 But then Joey Chestnut tackled him to the ground and 2:06:35.680 --> 2:06:38.200 then just stood up and kept eating hot dogs. It 2:06:38.320 --> 2:06:43.400 was like, I mean, the protester was so in the right, 2:06:43.760 --> 2:06:48.440 but also watching Joey really just take someone just in 2:06:48.480 --> 2:06:51.080 the middle of eating. He was like forty hot dogs 2:06:51.080 --> 2:06:54.680 deep tackled this guy to the ground and on like 2:06:54.720 --> 2:06:57.320 the low res feed I was watching, it looked like 2:06:57.360 --> 2:06:59.760 he killed him, and I was like, what did Joey 2:06:59.840 --> 2:07:02.440 just do on ESPN? Did he just kill a man? 2:07:03.920 --> 2:07:07.960 He didn't, but he injured someone and he also had 2:07:07.960 --> 2:07:10.400 a broken leg at the time. Joey not the protester, 2:07:10.720 --> 2:07:12.560 so it was just like then he went back to 2:07:12.880 --> 2:07:15.160 very very bizarre and then he yeah, and then he 2:07:15.200 --> 2:07:17.440 finished the contest and he was like, well, I would 2:07:17.440 --> 2:07:20.320 have beat my own record, but unfortunately I had a 2:07:20.360 --> 2:07:27.280 pause for five seconds to kill someone. But anyways, Yeah, 2:07:27.520 --> 2:07:31.200 the especially Smithfield, I think is uniquely bad. That Smithfield Entyson. 2:07:31.280 --> 2:07:35.280 It's just like her, like horrendous with labor practices. 2:07:35.920 --> 2:07:38.120 Yeah, I mean I think that was like I had 2:07:38.160 --> 2:07:39.800 a thing I was gonna say and then it simply 2:07:39.840 --> 2:07:43.600 evaporated from my mind. Uh you know what fucking ed 2:07:43.720 --> 2:07:47.680 breaker to cover up my failures. 2:07:49.200 --> 2:07:52.160 I keep having this like false memory. I feel like 2:07:52.160 --> 2:07:54.840 it's like it's like Mendela effect thing where when everyone says, 2:07:55.200 --> 2:07:58.920 whenever someone says Joey Chestnut, I keep I keep thinking 2:07:58.960 --> 2:07:59.800 it's a character. 2:08:00.320 --> 2:08:02.920 I think you should leave, But whenever I look at it, 2:08:07.320 --> 2:08:10.360 very single time, I mean, it does sound. 2:08:10.360 --> 2:08:14.800 Like that, and I think you should leave. Has such 2:08:15.600 --> 2:08:19.240 god tear hot dog jokes that Joey should be on 2:08:19.320 --> 2:08:28.280 that show, but unfortunately he lacks charisma and so he's 2:08:28.680 --> 2:08:33.400 He's definitely complicit in a number of things. Very hard 2:08:33.480 --> 2:08:36.800 to know what Joey's politics are, which I know is intentional, 2:08:36.920 --> 2:08:39.800 but I'm like, what's going on with him? He's from 2:08:39.880 --> 2:08:42.440 San Diego, but now he lives in Indiana. I just 2:08:42.480 --> 2:08:44.880 don't feel like it bodes well, but I can't say 2:08:44.920 --> 2:08:45.280 for sure. 2:08:46.080 --> 2:08:49.280 Yeah, yeah, you know that was another part of this 2:08:49.400 --> 2:08:51.400 that I was like, I was reading this and especially 2:08:51.600 --> 2:08:53.960 like given the ship that's been happening the last few 2:08:54.040 --> 2:09:01.600 weeks reading about to Kyu Kobyashi, the former champion competitive 2:09:01.640 --> 2:09:06.400 eating guy coming to the US and then like having 2:09:06.440 --> 2:09:09.040 the very combination American experience of like coming to the 2:09:09.160 --> 2:09:12.280 US and then slowly realizing, holy shit, this place sucks ass, 2:09:12.840 --> 2:09:14.440 Like there's just a bunch of racist here and they 2:09:14.480 --> 2:09:17.880 hate us, and my boss is going to like run 2:09:17.920 --> 2:09:20.120 a racist pr campaign against me for money. 2:09:20.680 --> 2:09:24.840 Like like mask off like every day all the time, 2:09:25.000 --> 2:09:27.480 And here's the guy I'm going to be replacing you with, 2:09:28.040 --> 2:09:32.880 and you will be only abused until this guy can 2:09:33.120 --> 2:09:36.960 beat you and then goodbye forever. And that's what happened. 2:09:37.000 --> 2:09:40.000 It's so I mean, I don't know. I think it's 2:09:40.800 --> 2:09:44.760 fascinating in a very sick way because it's like he 2:09:44.920 --> 2:09:50.840 is just hot dog Vince McMahon, like absolutely who this 2:09:50.960 --> 2:09:54.080 guy is and clearly idolized as Vince McMahon, the guy 2:09:54.200 --> 2:09:57.480 George Shay like his wife wrote for the WWE and 2:09:57.680 --> 2:10:01.160 soap operas, and so he he's just like very well 2:10:01.280 --> 2:10:07.800 versed in a very racist, anti woman high drama. Like 2:10:07.920 --> 2:10:13.000 it's just like what he it's his favorite and I 2:10:13.120 --> 2:10:18.640 hate him and he's so uniquely in control of that world. 2:10:18.800 --> 2:10:22.240 It feels very Vince mcmonish, where you're like, surely someone 2:10:22.800 --> 2:10:26.560 else could do this job, but it's just not not allowed. 2:10:27.360 --> 2:10:29.440 If he's the Vince McMahon of the hot dog world, 2:10:29.680 --> 2:10:32.520 are what are you now in the hot talk world? 2:10:35.000 --> 2:10:36.960 Good question, the study of hot talks. 2:10:38.120 --> 2:10:43.360 I'm one of the people who Vince McMahon covers up 2:10:43.400 --> 2:10:48.720 the murder of I think probably that's eventually me. I'll 2:10:48.760 --> 2:10:54.160 be involved in a very small, suspicious incident in this 2:10:54.360 --> 2:10:58.240 man's life. I don't know. I mean, yeah, Unfortunately, I 2:10:58.320 --> 2:11:01.240 feel like that's the best shot I have. Uh. It 2:11:01.360 --> 2:11:04.800 was interesting though, when I released an excerpt of my 2:11:04.920 --> 2:11:08.640 book that was about Joey Chessman and there they did 2:11:08.680 --> 2:11:10.720 not run this by me, but they just named the 2:11:10.800 --> 2:11:13.960 excerpt I'm in Love with Joey Chestnut, and I was like, Okay, 2:11:14.240 --> 2:11:17.680 I guess I do say that, but I wouldn't lead 2:11:17.760 --> 2:11:22.880 with it anyways. Uh, the Major League Eating PR team 2:11:23.760 --> 2:11:25.480 reached out to me, and I thought it was going 2:11:25.560 --> 2:11:27.720 to be I was just going to get like reamed, 2:11:28.160 --> 2:11:31.640 but they it was just a light fact correct. It 2:11:31.760 --> 2:11:34.680 was very weird, a little menacing, But I guess that 2:11:34.720 --> 2:11:38.200 they're fine with me calling them evil. They're like, hey, 2:11:38.840 --> 2:11:42.320 when you said we were evil, your number was a 2:11:42.320 --> 2:11:45.680 little bit off, just so you know. And thanks. 2:11:46.200 --> 2:11:47.760 I guess Russ is good for us. 2:11:47.840 --> 2:11:52.760 Yeah, knowledge is power, and I changed my mind. I 2:11:52.760 --> 2:11:54.680 think they're great now due to this small fact. 2:11:54.560 --> 2:12:03.280 Correction ringing ringing endorsements where we're attempting to confirm live 2:12:03.320 --> 2:12:05.600 there is not, in fact a gun behind Jamie's head 2:12:05.680 --> 2:12:06.000 right now. 2:12:10.920 --> 2:12:14.560 Look, I can't say. I can't say I think the 2:12:14.680 --> 2:12:18.120 two things. Yeah, with the book being out now, it 2:12:18.200 --> 2:12:21.680 feels nice in most ways, and then two ways where 2:12:21.800 --> 2:12:24.040 I'm like stressed out about it, where I'm like, I'm 2:12:24.080 --> 2:12:25.920 afraid that George sha is going to come for me, 2:12:26.640 --> 2:12:28.960 and I'm also afraid the entire city of Chicago is 2:12:29.000 --> 2:12:29.360 going to come. 2:12:29.440 --> 2:12:31.480 Oh okay, I want to talk about this because okay, 2:12:31.480 --> 2:12:32.840 all right, So I'm gonna have to go into witness 2:12:32.840 --> 2:12:35.120 protection after this. But I agree with you that the 2:12:35.200 --> 2:12:38.400 Chagosolt hot Dog is not that good. Yeah, like I 2:12:38.440 --> 2:12:42.040 think on hot Dog is really good. But yeah, there's 2:12:42.840 --> 2:12:45.400 like it doesn't it just it's it gets to soggy 2:12:45.480 --> 2:12:48.760 pretty quickly. It like the flavors don't necessarily go together. 2:12:49.440 --> 2:12:53.200 Like it's only okay, it's it's it's. 2:12:53.240 --> 2:12:57.320 Wet and there's too much going on, and it's just like, yeah, 2:12:57.360 --> 2:13:01.080 it's a catastrophe. I I well, okay, I'm was promising 2:13:01.160 --> 2:13:05.640 myself I would dial back on Iago hotdogs lander, but 2:13:06.160 --> 2:13:10.320 it's like not, it's not it's not very good. And 2:13:10.760 --> 2:13:12.600 I think the main thing, it wouldn't bother me as 2:13:12.680 --> 2:13:17.520 much if they I'm like those people in Chicago who 2:13:19.320 --> 2:13:24.160 But if the Chicago hot dog loving community was just like, hey, 2:13:24.360 --> 2:13:26.960 we have this gross hot dog and we love it, 2:13:27.440 --> 2:13:31.440 that's fine, unbridled enthusiasm for something gross, love it. But 2:13:31.680 --> 2:13:35.240 then they top that up by being like, and if 2:13:35.320 --> 2:13:38.520 you like Ketchup, you should walk into traffic and get 2:13:38.600 --> 2:13:42.760 hit by a car. Like so aggressively hate Ketchup in 2:13:42.880 --> 2:13:45.880 a way that I don't know. I love something disgusting, 2:13:46.200 --> 2:13:49.200 but hating something innocuous is such a weird thing to do. 2:13:49.480 --> 2:13:50.320 It's very bizarre. 2:13:52.080 --> 2:13:55.040 I also got like just absolute whiplash reading this because 2:13:55.240 --> 2:13:59.960 one of these places you go to is the incomprehend 2:14:00.040 --> 2:14:03.560 simply named Fatso's Last Stand, and I was literally there 2:14:03.680 --> 2:14:06.720 last week by accident, because I know, yeah, so I 2:14:06.920 --> 2:14:09.520 was like an absolute fool. I was trying to travel 2:14:09.560 --> 2:14:11.320 at seven am on two hours of sleep because I 2:14:11.320 --> 2:14:13.120 was writing an episode and I took a bus the 2:14:13.160 --> 2:14:15.160 wrong way and I ended up there and I was like, 2:14:15.240 --> 2:14:18.000 what the fuck have I just walked into? Opened this 2:14:18.120 --> 2:14:21.000 book and I was like, Oh my god, what is 2:14:21.120 --> 2:14:21.800 happening to me? 2:14:22.680 --> 2:14:27.400 Empty Fatso's Last Stand sounds like a very scary, wominal space. 2:14:28.120 --> 2:14:31.120 It was so a cursive like I was like getting 2:14:31.160 --> 2:14:32.760 off the bus and the bus driver was like, are 2:14:32.800 --> 2:14:34.000 you sure you want to get off here? And I 2:14:34.120 --> 2:14:37.800 was like, yeah, well like a like a I don't 2:14:37.880 --> 2:14:41.200 know episode, it was a thing. 2:14:42.760 --> 2:14:44.680 Yeah, and then you find out that Fatso's Last Stand 2:14:44.760 --> 2:14:49.400 burned down twenty years ago. Did you get anything? 2:14:50.080 --> 2:14:50.800 They weren't open? 2:14:51.640 --> 2:14:51.800 Oh? 2:14:53.000 --> 2:14:53.480 Pretty good? 2:14:53.520 --> 2:14:53.680 It was. 2:14:53.840 --> 2:14:55.680 It was pretty good there. And then I've since gone 2:14:55.760 --> 2:14:57.920 back to Chicago because I didn't have time to go 2:14:58.040 --> 2:15:00.680 everywhere I wanted to, And I since on back and 2:15:00.800 --> 2:15:04.320 I do genuinely like the Chicago style hot dog at 2:15:04.360 --> 2:15:07.000 Red Hot Ranch. I'm a big Red Hot Ranch head. 2:15:07.200 --> 2:15:11.480 I've converted, but a lot of it is, Yeah, it's 2:15:11.560 --> 2:15:14.000 just bizarre, and the hating the ketchup thing is confusing. 2:15:14.280 --> 2:15:18.080 And then I went to Pittsburgh recently and their Ketchup City, USA, 2:15:18.880 --> 2:15:23.440 and so I was having some interesting conversation and yeah, 2:15:23.520 --> 2:15:25.760 this is what my life is like now I did everything. 2:15:25.800 --> 2:15:27.960 Okay. So there's there's two more various like hot dog 2:15:28.120 --> 2:15:30.400 questions you need to ask. One is do you have 2:15:30.520 --> 2:15:31.360 portillo takes? 2:15:32.520 --> 2:15:36.880 Ooh not really? I like I like Portillo's and I've 2:15:36.960 --> 2:15:41.919 been in Illinois and I've been in California too. It's 2:15:41.960 --> 2:15:45.200 a classic. It's good it didn't it didn't make it 2:15:45.280 --> 2:15:47.480 into the book because there was like so many hot 2:15:47.520 --> 2:15:49.520 dogs that didn't make it into the book because they're like, 2:15:49.960 --> 2:15:52.480 all right, that's just you saying, like there were so 2:15:52.640 --> 2:15:54.800 many paragraphs in the road, like and then I had 2:15:54.880 --> 2:15:56.560 this one and I liked it. And then I had 2:15:56.600 --> 2:15:59.640 this one and I liked it. So my editor was like, 2:16:00.160 --> 2:16:02.360 all right, we can, we can cut it. 2:16:02.480 --> 2:16:05.040 Yeah we can. 2:16:05.120 --> 2:16:08.160 I had to cut whole chapters. It's so wild how 2:16:08.280 --> 2:16:11.680 long this book could have been where I not reigned 2:16:11.720 --> 2:16:14.720 in but there was well this is Chicago relevant too. 2:16:14.800 --> 2:16:18.200 I took a two day course called hot Dog University 2:16:18.880 --> 2:16:22.200 through Vienna Beef from this Guy's a thing. 2:16:23.360 --> 2:16:25.560 I'm going to beat that for me. 2:16:25.880 --> 2:16:30.480 Sorry, oh yeah, I'm a graduate of hot Dog University. 2:16:32.480 --> 2:16:37.440 It's a course where you it was on zoom. Unfortunately 2:16:37.520 --> 2:16:41.279 it used to be in person. This is Guy Mark, PhD, 2:16:41.440 --> 2:16:45.440 Professor hot Dogs, and you take the course and he 2:16:45.560 --> 2:16:49.000 teaches you how to open your own hot dog stand 2:16:49.120 --> 2:16:50.560 and over the course of two days. And it was 2:16:50.600 --> 2:16:51.440 actually I learned a lot. 2:16:51.840 --> 2:16:53.480 How many people were on the zoom. 2:16:54.240 --> 2:16:57.080 There are three people. It was me and two guys 2:16:57.120 --> 2:17:02.240 from Chicago. And I was trying to like be I 2:17:02.480 --> 2:17:04.800 didn't want to say why I was there, so I 2:17:04.920 --> 2:17:07.039 was trying to like, oh, my name's Jamie, and I'm 2:17:07.400 --> 2:17:11.240 interested in opening a California hot dog stand. And Mark 2:17:11.400 --> 2:17:13.280 was really interested in an idea. And it was a 2:17:13.320 --> 2:17:15.640 couple months of me kind of like dodging some emails 2:17:15.680 --> 2:17:19.960 of like I'm not going to do it. I never 2:17:20.120 --> 2:17:22.760 told them, but I'm not going to do it. 2:17:24.120 --> 2:17:26.800 Okay, So all right, I need to I got. I'm 2:17:26.800 --> 2:17:29.160 now conflicted because I have a great hot dog stand pivot. 2:17:29.240 --> 2:17:30.640 But also I want to ask you the second hot 2:17:30.720 --> 2:17:32.560 dog question, which is have you had Japa Dogs? 2:17:33.360 --> 2:17:35.680 No, I haven't had Japa dogs yet. I wanted to 2:17:35.720 --> 2:17:36.920 go because I know that there's like a bunch of 2:17:37.000 --> 2:17:38.640 there's some Vancouver. 2:17:38.360 --> 2:17:41.879 Is that right, Like I know, yeah, yeah, Canadian Canada codd. 2:17:42.640 --> 2:17:46.040 My my friend in Vancouver keeps insisting I eat it, 2:17:46.080 --> 2:17:46.720 and I refuse. 2:17:48.120 --> 2:17:50.560 I wanted to go to Vancouver and try it because 2:17:51.000 --> 2:17:54.360 like Northwestern hot dogs, there's like there's a lot going 2:17:54.400 --> 2:17:57.640 on there in a good way, Like Portland, Seattle, big 2:17:57.720 --> 2:17:59.720 fan of their hot dogs. Yeah, I didn't get to 2:17:59.800 --> 2:18:02.080 jack a dog. There are a few places. There was 2:18:02.080 --> 2:18:03.760 a place in Maine I really wanted to go to, 2:18:04.400 --> 2:18:06.200 but it was so on the side of the highway 2:18:06.320 --> 2:18:08.400 and open two hours a day that it was like 2:18:09.160 --> 2:18:12.880 it would be so logistically hard to be there. But 2:18:13.280 --> 2:18:15.200 working on it. Yeah, I want to go to jap 2:18:15.240 --> 2:18:17.640 a dog someday. I went to U. I got hot 2:18:17.680 --> 2:18:21.199 dog poutine in Montreal recently, which I guess is common 2:18:21.280 --> 2:18:23.200 a common poutine make. 2:18:24.760 --> 2:18:25.240 It was great. 2:18:26.120 --> 2:18:29.320 So now that you've dedicated I'm guessing multiple years of 2:18:29.400 --> 2:18:30.039 your life. 2:18:30.560 --> 2:18:33.960 Two years Yeah, ye, not getting those back. 2:18:34.720 --> 2:18:37.640 So I guess it's studying both hot dogs and like 2:18:37.720 --> 2:18:40.119 the cultural conditions that are created around them. 2:18:41.200 --> 2:18:43.279 Do you feel like a better person. 2:18:45.280 --> 2:18:45.520 Ooh? 2:18:48.040 --> 2:18:51.920 Or have you learned something extremely useful about American culture 2:18:51.959 --> 2:18:53.920 that will improve your life going forward. 2:18:55.240 --> 2:19:00.280 Thank you for two alternatives to the question. I said 2:19:00.280 --> 2:19:02.360 that knowing more about hot dogs didn't make me a 2:19:02.400 --> 2:19:05.360 better person. I think, I hope, And I also I 2:19:05.480 --> 2:19:07.959 think that like I don't know, it's like it feels 2:19:08.879 --> 2:19:13.240 better to or I don't know, like I enjoy my stuff. 2:19:13.360 --> 2:19:16.360 That it's like you can get to a really dark 2:19:16.440 --> 2:19:20.840 and serious place, but they seem so innocuous. It's like whatever, 2:19:20.959 --> 2:19:24.480 and getting Hansel and Gretel to come into your candy 2:19:24.560 --> 2:19:27.959 house and then being like, actually, it's sucking a murder city. 2:19:28.320 --> 2:19:31.440 Everyone's fucked in here. Like you're gonna have fun for 2:19:31.520 --> 2:19:33.959 a little while, the food is delicious, but then you're 2:19:34.000 --> 2:19:37.320 gonna die. Like I just I like, I like subjects 2:19:37.400 --> 2:19:41.800 like that and getting to I don't know, I've met 2:19:42.000 --> 2:19:44.600 genuinely when we had the book release show the other night. 2:19:44.959 --> 2:19:47.920 I've met so many nice people through the hot dog community, 2:19:49.160 --> 2:19:53.440 my my dog community. It's true. I had this guy 2:19:53.680 --> 2:19:56.600 I met in a parking lot in Culver City. He 2:19:56.760 --> 2:19:59.360 was a Wiener mobile driver at the time, and he 2:19:59.600 --> 2:20:02.840 like his yance. We talked on stage and he was 2:20:02.920 --> 2:20:06.440 reflecting on his Wienermobile heyday and he told me this, 2:20:06.720 --> 2:20:10.160 Oh I'm excited because at the time he was still 2:20:10.240 --> 2:20:12.240 working for Oscar Meyer and I was like, do people 2:20:12.280 --> 2:20:14.920 have sex in here? And he was like, I don't know, probably, 2:20:15.959 --> 2:20:18.240 but now he doesn't work for Oscar Myers. I was like, 2:20:18.520 --> 2:20:21.680 do people have sex in there? You have no loyalty 2:20:22.000 --> 2:20:25.200 at this point, and he was like, okay, well I 2:20:25.360 --> 2:20:29.160 never did. But there is like, there's like six seats 2:20:29.320 --> 2:20:32.040 in the waitermobile, and I guess on the back left 2:20:32.360 --> 2:20:36.000 it's called the meat seat. And that's where the fuck 2:20:36.879 --> 2:20:41.640 the meat seats. I know. It was really it was 2:20:41.720 --> 2:20:44.400 really shocking, and he's so sweet that it was really 2:20:44.600 --> 2:20:49.880 scary to hear it coming out of his mouth. So 2:20:50.440 --> 2:20:52.760 there is the meat seat. Anyways, I've made a lot 2:20:52.800 --> 2:20:56.039 of nice I've met a lot of nice people through 2:20:56.120 --> 2:20:59.840 hot dogs, and I've learned stuff I did not know. 2:21:00.320 --> 2:21:00.960 So fun. 2:21:02.320 --> 2:21:05.000 Well, you, you too can become a better person by 2:21:05.600 --> 2:21:10.240 purchasing the book Rock Talk wherever books are sold. One 2:21:10.360 --> 2:21:13.520 actual serious question, have they ever watched the movie Food Fight? 2:21:14.680 --> 2:21:14.720 No? 2:21:15.200 --> 2:21:16.320 Wait? When? When? 2:21:16.440 --> 2:21:16.560 Is it? 2:21:16.640 --> 2:21:22.400 From the twenty twelve computer animated movie starring starring supermarket 2:21:22.520 --> 2:21:28.400 food mascots that they and they unite to fight the 2:21:28.720 --> 2:21:33.720 generic brand food products in their grocery store. And there's 2:21:33.720 --> 2:21:36.599 a lot of really weird na see imagery, really uncomfortable 2:21:36.879 --> 2:21:41.000 like over sexualization and some of the most some of 2:21:41.040 --> 2:21:44.280 the most garish animation you've ever seen. It's a pretty 2:21:44.320 --> 2:21:44.840 wild movie. 2:21:45.040 --> 2:21:45.240 It was. 2:21:45.360 --> 2:21:47.680 It was a development for like it was like almost 2:21:47.720 --> 2:21:49.120 like a decade and a half. 2:21:50.240 --> 2:21:53.800 Evil Longoria, Hillary Duff, Oh. 2:21:55.840 --> 2:22:00.320 Yeah, Christer Lloyd plays Plays plays one of the villas. 2:22:01.640 --> 2:22:01.840 It is. 2:22:02.640 --> 2:22:04.960 It is one of the worst like acid trips of 2:22:05.000 --> 2:22:07.040 a movie, just just because of like it is just 2:22:07.160 --> 2:22:07.760 really bad. 2:22:09.120 --> 2:22:13.119 That is, I have zero records predominantly features hot dogs, 2:22:13.480 --> 2:22:15.040 so I can. 2:22:15.120 --> 2:22:17.760 I mean, hot dogs are certainly prominent on this post there. 2:22:17.879 --> 2:22:23.720 I'm just like shocked at them billing the starkest tuna 2:22:24.160 --> 2:22:27.720 above the twinkie. It doesn't make sense to me. 2:22:27.959 --> 2:22:31.680 Also, there is there is there is a dog character 2:22:31.760 --> 2:22:35.880 who's just like Indiana Jones, but a dog that is 2:22:35.959 --> 2:22:40.320 also but also in a romantic relationship with a human woman. 2:22:43.000 --> 2:22:45.280 I don't want to know where the Nazi stuff comes in, 2:22:45.520 --> 2:22:48.240 but I am this is so wild because it's like 2:22:48.280 --> 2:22:50.600 I thought that sausage party was the worst thing to 2:22:50.720 --> 2:22:54.120 happen to this very scary genre, and it like, this 2:22:54.280 --> 2:22:54.600 is like. 2:22:54.720 --> 2:22:56.680 The dark side of Sausage Party. 2:22:57.000 --> 2:23:02.320 No, oh my hot. Oh, and there's a maybe there's 2:23:02.400 --> 2:23:05.120 a sequel Food Fight. It's about time. 2:23:05.959 --> 2:23:07.520 I've not heard of this. 2:23:07.760 --> 2:23:10.560 Oh oh, maybe this is fake. No, maybe this is fake. 2:23:10.640 --> 2:23:11.320 I hope it's fake. 2:23:11.800 --> 2:23:12.000 Yeah. 2:23:12.040 --> 2:23:14.360 This is so ugly Holy no, it is. 2:23:14.480 --> 2:23:17.000 It is one of the worst movies ever ever made. 2:23:17.080 --> 2:23:21.800 It's it's it's it's garish, it's upsetting, it is weirdly fascistic, 2:23:23.320 --> 2:23:27.640 and it's also like primarily based around like brand promotion. Also, 2:23:27.800 --> 2:23:30.040 a lot of these big food companies like signed these 2:23:30.120 --> 2:23:32.320 contracts in the late nineties, and of course the film 2:23:32.360 --> 2:23:33.879 didn't come out until twenty twelve. 2:23:34.160 --> 2:23:36.680 Oh my god. There's a whole bunch of really weird, 2:23:36.800 --> 2:23:40.920 like Food Fight merchandise that was made with all of 2:23:41.000 --> 2:23:45.279 these brand mascots and it's all extremely questionable. 2:23:46.240 --> 2:23:49.520 That does explain the cast, yeah, because it was like, 2:23:49.720 --> 2:23:53.840 it's a late nineties cast to have Wayne Brady playing Daredevil, 2:23:53.959 --> 2:23:58.840 band Christopher Lloyd playing mister Clipboard, Chris Catan is in it. Yeah, 2:23:58.920 --> 2:24:01.039 this movie has been in the me for a long time. 2:24:02.520 --> 2:24:03.600 Wow, holy ship. 2:24:03.720 --> 2:24:06.360 Anyway, I was just wondering since it is. 2:24:06.480 --> 2:24:11.000 It is supermarket food hot dog adjacent, and it does 2:24:11.080 --> 2:24:15.760 does often draw draw draw parallels to Sausage Party, which 2:24:15.800 --> 2:24:18.879 is also obviously one of the most famous hot dog films. 2:24:19.360 --> 2:24:21.400 One of the most famous films. 2:24:26.840 --> 2:24:27.040 I have. 2:24:27.560 --> 2:24:30.680 I've been wearing them at the shows I have. They 2:24:30.760 --> 2:24:34.520 did make Halloween costumes for Sausage Party, and they have 2:24:34.760 --> 2:24:39.400 the bun that looks so visceral like the like it 2:24:39.600 --> 2:24:42.600 has like vagina mouse, and then they gave the bun 2:24:43.120 --> 2:24:47.040 huge boobs and a huge butt. Anyways, she's voiced by 2:24:47.120 --> 2:24:53.280 Kristin Wig and I have the costume and I've been 2:24:53.320 --> 2:24:53.680 wearing it. 2:24:54.360 --> 2:24:56.560 You have the actual costume, Yeah, I have. 2:24:57.120 --> 2:25:00.600 It's it's tonight. 2:25:01.640 --> 2:25:02.560 Oh god, you're. 2:25:02.480 --> 2:25:03.640 Wearing it for your book stuff? 2:25:04.560 --> 2:25:04.800 Yeah. 2:25:04.879 --> 2:25:08.240 I love a costume change, especially when it is also 2:25:08.320 --> 2:25:09.119 a jump scare. 2:25:11.080 --> 2:25:16.800 Yeah yeah wow. Yeah, Well that's incredibly upsetting. That's about 2:25:16.840 --> 2:25:24.160 all the time we have today, though, Jamie. Where can 2:25:24.200 --> 2:25:26.160 people find the hot Dog book? 2:25:27.320 --> 2:25:27.480 Oh? 2:25:27.560 --> 2:25:31.120 You can find it all over the place, but I 2:25:31.160 --> 2:25:33.959 would recommend getting it from bookshop dot org if you're 2:25:34.040 --> 2:25:37.560 ordering online. It's a really cool website that will automatically 2:25:37.640 --> 2:25:41.040 purchase from your nearest independent bookstore and send it to you. 2:25:42.400 --> 2:25:44.480 So yeah, it's a pro labor book, so don't buy 2:25:44.520 --> 2:25:48.320 it from somewhere shitty, use your head, but yeah, get it. 2:25:48.400 --> 2:25:51.640 And there's also I also the audience book if you 2:25:52.720 --> 2:25:54.640 like many people have been telling me for the past 2:25:54.680 --> 2:25:56.480 couple of days, or like a book kind of a 2:25:56.560 --> 2:26:00.960 long podcast in a way, and it's like, sure, it 2:26:01.000 --> 2:26:02.360 feels great. It feels great to hear. 2:26:05.160 --> 2:26:07.080 And where can people find you on the internet and 2:26:07.120 --> 2:26:08.720 the stuff that you also do that's not the hot 2:26:08.800 --> 2:26:09.439 time book. 2:26:10.080 --> 2:26:14.280 Uh, bravely still on on Twitter at Jamie loftus help 2:26:14.520 --> 2:26:18.200 and Instagram at Jamie christ Superstar. And then you can 2:26:18.240 --> 2:26:20.280 listen to me on the Bechdel Cast every week on 2:26:20.879 --> 2:26:22.200 this very network. 2:26:23.080 --> 2:26:25.520 Well, I sure hope you cover food Fight in an 2:26:25.600 --> 2:26:26.520 upcoming episode. 2:26:27.959 --> 2:26:30.760 We just covered Sausage Party, and I think we both 2:26:30.800 --> 2:26:32.520 have PTSD, So. 2:26:33.240 --> 2:26:35.640 You have like a de talks period first. 2:26:37.320 --> 2:26:40.320 And then come back with food Fight and by the 2:26:40.440 --> 2:26:42.120 end be like, you know, Sausage Party. 2:26:44.360 --> 2:26:46.680 This is the one you do when the paperback comes out. 2:26:48.720 --> 2:26:52.520 Honestly nice, not the worst idea. I I do want 2:26:52.560 --> 2:26:54.440 to watch this movie now, but I like looking at 2:26:54.480 --> 2:26:55.760 the poster, I'm like, I don't know if I can 2:26:55.840 --> 2:26:58.040 watch it alone, but I will watch it. 2:26:59.680 --> 2:27:01.840 We can, we can surely plan something. 2:27:02.520 --> 2:27:04.640 Let's do it all right. 2:27:06.080 --> 2:27:07.800 Thank you, Thank you for coming on and talking about 2:27:07.840 --> 2:27:10.720 hot dogs and labor and all of all of your 2:27:10.760 --> 2:27:15.280 hard work. You can find us on cool Zone Media, 2:27:15.600 --> 2:27:18.560 on most of the Instagrams and twitters and other places. 2:27:19.040 --> 2:27:25.280 And happen here pod keep on dog dog doggin yep. 2:27:25.560 --> 2:27:49.040 Okay, as they say, as they say, yes, hello, welcome 2:27:49.160 --> 2:27:53.480 to it could happen here. I'm Garrison Davis. Recently, I 2:27:53.800 --> 2:27:57.200 just wrapped up a whole five episodes about the previous 2:27:57.680 --> 2:28:01.240 week of action to stop cop City in Atlanta, Georgia. 2:28:02.320 --> 2:28:06.920 In a somewhat unsuccessful attempt to shorten the running time 2:28:07.040 --> 2:28:09.880 of those episodes, I had to cut out many of 2:28:09.959 --> 2:28:14.960 the funny bits, jokes, gaffs, goofs, bloopers, and related tomfoolery. 2:28:15.720 --> 2:28:19.560 But as demonstrated by the police's massive mobilization to shut 2:28:19.600 --> 2:28:22.600 down a canceled comedy event in the woods on March seventh, 2:28:23.280 --> 2:28:27.120 the Wallani Forest and surrounding area of Atlanta are often 2:28:27.240 --> 2:28:31.760 home to manifestations of absurdist humor. There's been a lot 2:28:31.800 --> 2:28:35.920 of not great news recently, well there's kind of always 2:28:36.000 --> 2:28:38.280 a lot of not great news now that we live 2:28:38.320 --> 2:28:42.640 in an ever expanding hyperreality oversaturated with information. But I digress. 2:28:43.040 --> 2:28:47.200 I think it's just as important to not overlook the comedic, 2:28:47.440 --> 2:28:50.200 lighthearted side of things as it is to keep up 2:28:50.240 --> 2:28:52.640 with all of the doom and gloom that we usually. 2:28:52.480 --> 2:28:57.400 Platform on our show. So, without further ado, I present 2:28:57.560 --> 2:29:03.920 to you jokes from the Atlantist side. 2:29:03.959 --> 2:29:09.720 Note, I am now invoking Jester's privilege legally, everything we 2:29:09.879 --> 2:29:12.840 say in this episode is a joke as a as 2:29:12.840 --> 2:29:15.800 a little heads up. Okay, this episode will probably make 2:29:15.840 --> 2:29:18.040 more sense if you listened to the four part Week 2:29:18.040 --> 2:29:21.400 of Action series or the retrospective episode. But also I 2:29:21.480 --> 2:29:23.880 will do my best to pop in via this narration 2:29:24.320 --> 2:29:28.000 to help fill in any gaps so that listeners will 2:29:28.080 --> 2:29:30.440 not be completely lost if you've not listened to those 2:29:30.879 --> 2:29:34.920 other episodes. Anyway, we shall start by tuning back into 2:29:34.959 --> 2:29:38.840 my conversation with Matt from the Atlanta Community Press Collective 2:29:39.280 --> 2:29:42.680 as we discuss the March fifth police raid of the 2:29:42.800 --> 2:29:49.160 South River Music Festival. Welcome to it could happen here cast. 2:29:49.480 --> 2:29:51.000 I'm Garrison Davis. 2:29:51.720 --> 2:29:53.920 In World of Warcraft, you can shield bash. 2:29:54.040 --> 2:29:54.120 So. 2:29:57.840 --> 2:30:00.360 There's been this effort from police and media to frame 2:30:00.400 --> 2:30:03.120 these arrests as like these were arrests that happened at 2:30:03.160 --> 2:30:06.000 a crime scene, like these these arrests were people who 2:30:06.080 --> 2:30:09.000 were torching equipment, who were involved in all these actions, 2:30:09.000 --> 2:30:11.680 who were doing domestic terrorism. But all the rest that 2:30:11.760 --> 2:30:14.400 happened were at a music festival, Like they were in 2:30:14.480 --> 2:30:16.600 a completely different section of the forest. 2:30:16.760 --> 2:30:19.080 At a music festival, at the parking lot, even away 2:30:19.120 --> 2:30:23.240 from the music festival. And you know, police surveillance may 2:30:23.320 --> 2:30:25.280 be good, and they may have been able to pick 2:30:25.320 --> 2:30:30.120 out an individual or two, but for the most part, 2:30:30.240 --> 2:30:34.240 like you had something like two hundred people partake in 2:30:34.320 --> 2:30:37.000 this direct action and then disappear into the woods, there's 2:30:37.160 --> 2:30:40.520 really no way too And of course most of them 2:30:40.560 --> 2:30:42.440 were wearing block of some form. 2:30:43.280 --> 2:30:45.680 There's really no way much of that block, which has 2:30:45.720 --> 2:30:48.280 now been burnt and it's no longer existing in the 2:30:48.320 --> 2:30:52.520 physical material realm, so there's no way to like really 2:30:52.680 --> 2:30:57.760 tell who was there, and other than allegedly having mud 2:30:57.800 --> 2:30:58.320 on your clothes. 2:30:58.520 --> 2:31:00.560 Don't want to talk about what the war and were 2:31:00.640 --> 2:31:04.959 in the oddity of how the warrants were formatted. 2:31:05.320 --> 2:31:07.960 Once you started to listen to them, you noticed this 2:31:08.240 --> 2:31:13.000 very repetitive nature of them. And so about halfway through 2:31:13.400 --> 2:31:15.600 we get to a lawyer who straight up calls out 2:31:15.640 --> 2:31:19.320 the fact that these warrants seem like they were just 2:31:19.440 --> 2:31:20.519 copy pasted. 2:31:20.560 --> 2:31:25.440 Like every single person all the way downline. And one 2:31:25.520 --> 2:31:29.720 of the such claims the mud mud. 2:31:30.240 --> 2:31:33.359 So I don't know, I don't know how many festivals 2:31:33.400 --> 2:31:36.520 you've attended in your life, but I've been to a few, 2:31:37.320 --> 2:31:39.560 and they are never clean affairs. 2:31:40.720 --> 2:31:46.000 So it rained like one day before the night before 2:31:46.080 --> 2:31:49.280 the festival started, there was a tornado warning in Atlanta. 2:31:50.480 --> 2:31:54.800 I forgot about that, and there was rain, which makes 2:31:55.520 --> 2:31:58.119 I don't know if the prosecutors know this, but when 2:31:58.280 --> 2:32:00.840 rain mixes with dirt, it creates something called that we 2:32:01.040 --> 2:32:03.720 that we refer to as mud. My dock martins are 2:32:03.800 --> 2:32:07.879 still caked in mud. Future me cutting back in here 2:32:08.000 --> 2:32:11.080 for a sec. So for the record, I have since 2:32:11.200 --> 2:32:15.080 cleaned my dock Martins, but the mud was still on 2:32:15.280 --> 2:32:18.520 there for well over a month until I was forced 2:32:18.560 --> 2:32:21.880 to wash my shoes after I stepped in much much 2:32:21.959 --> 2:32:25.880 more mud while in the Tillamook Forest as I was 2:32:26.160 --> 2:32:29.920 failing to shoot Akeeltech, which yeah, that was that was 2:32:29.959 --> 2:32:33.080 probably my bad. These charges don't make any sense. There's 2:32:33.120 --> 2:32:35.680 no evidence these people committed any actual crimes, so they're 2:32:35.720 --> 2:32:39.800 just being charged with terrorism. This like nebulous concept. The 2:32:39.879 --> 2:32:42.760 judge said that the legal basis of these claims will 2:32:42.800 --> 2:32:46.200 have to be decided on another day. Similarly, they said 2:32:46.240 --> 2:32:49.760 that in regards to like actual evidence that these people 2:32:49.920 --> 2:32:53.280 charged did any crimes, she said that she had none 2:32:53.320 --> 2:32:55.400 of this, none of the She said that she had 2:32:55.480 --> 2:32:57.240 none of this evidence in front of her, and that 2:32:57.320 --> 2:32:58.640 evidence is for another day. 2:32:59.360 --> 2:33:04.160 So it's absolutely I think bonkers is an appropriate word. 2:33:04.280 --> 2:33:06.520 One of those one of those kangaroo court moments. 2:33:07.120 --> 2:33:10.480 It really my faith in the legal system was really 2:33:10.640 --> 2:33:13.640 solidified this day. There was also the threat of arrest 2:33:13.760 --> 2:33:17.160 for the New York Times reporter that happened forgot to 2:33:17.240 --> 2:33:25.360 mention that, So yeah, I'll leave that commentary by itself. 2:33:25.640 --> 2:33:27.360 They should have they should have charged Sean Keenan with 2:33:27.400 --> 2:33:31.879 domestic terrorism. Sorry for making fun of noted trans ally 2:33:32.080 --> 2:33:35.000 the New York Times. I promise it won't happen again. 2:33:35.800 --> 2:33:38.320 Wait wait, no, that's that's a lie. That there's at 2:33:38.400 --> 2:33:41.199 least two more New York Times jokes. 2:33:41.000 --> 2:33:41.720 In this script. 2:33:41.879 --> 2:33:50.359 Fuck, I guess let's talk about Monday, Monday, Monday, So, uh, don't. 2:33:53.520 --> 2:33:54.640 It is the editor? 2:33:54.800 --> 2:33:57.520 No, Daniel, Daniel, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. 2:33:57.680 --> 2:33:59.920 He's not going to hear any of this ship. I'm 2:34:00.000 --> 2:34:02.240 because the way these work as I transcribe them and 2:34:02.280 --> 2:34:04.440 then I copy and paste sections, so they only move 2:34:04.520 --> 2:34:05.119 the section over. 2:34:05.360 --> 2:34:10.840 So when I when I say, ask Garrison about okay. 2:34:10.959 --> 2:34:14.000 So it turns out that was a lie. Daniel did 2:34:14.160 --> 2:34:18.280 need to hear that. So sorry, danel full full transparency. 2:34:18.600 --> 2:34:22.879 Most of those bleeps were me making horrible, horrible slurping 2:34:22.959 --> 2:34:26.200 noises into the microphone, as Daniel can probably attest. So 2:34:26.440 --> 2:34:29.040 really all of you should be thanking Daniel for suffering 2:34:29.120 --> 2:34:32.520 through those to bleep them out. Daniel died for your sins, 2:34:32.560 --> 2:34:35.640 I mean content truly, truly, braver than the troops. 2:34:35.800 --> 2:34:39.680 Insert joke. Anyway, back to me from the past. So 2:34:39.959 --> 2:34:42.440 let's talk about let's talk about Monday. I want to 2:34:42.440 --> 2:34:44.840 talk about the clergy event that happened in from a 2:34:44.879 --> 2:34:48.280 city hall, so city council meeting. You work for the 2:34:48.440 --> 2:34:52.160 Atlantic Community Press Collective. You've you've covered a lot of 2:34:52.200 --> 2:34:55.119 city council meetings in Atlanta before. This was my first 2:34:55.200 --> 2:34:59.800 time covering an Atlanta City Council meeting. Due to your 2:35:00.120 --> 2:35:02.720 know wisdom in this in this field, I would like 2:35:02.760 --> 2:35:06.240 for you to to discuss what happened at the city 2:35:06.280 --> 2:35:08.440 Council meeting and in relation to your to your to 2:35:08.520 --> 2:35:13.320 your years of experience in covering these these uh these meetings. 2:35:13.560 --> 2:35:18.080 So I city council meets every other week on Mondays. 2:35:18.720 --> 2:35:22.760 I cover several other committees, but uh, you know, the 2:35:23.040 --> 2:35:25.840 big one is always the city Council meeting. And over 2:35:26.160 --> 2:35:28.640 over the course of time, there there's like a cast 2:35:28.680 --> 2:35:32.400 of characters that that you just begin to understand are 2:35:32.480 --> 2:35:35.800 going to appear either every week or or from time 2:35:35.840 --> 2:35:39.240 to time. And you you had the pleasure of actually 2:35:39.320 --> 2:35:40.840 getting to see a few of these and I was like, 2:35:41.040 --> 2:35:42.640 there were we were there were a few of us 2:35:43.080 --> 2:35:46.320 media folks there, and I was actually really happy that 2:35:46.400 --> 2:35:48.320 like people got to experience this with me because I 2:35:48.400 --> 2:35:51.160 usually have to do it by myself. So you got 2:35:51.200 --> 2:35:53.360 to meet three of the characters. You got to meet 2:35:53.400 --> 2:35:56.760 Brother Hakim, you got to meet Rachel, and you got 2:35:56.800 --> 2:35:58.760 to be your favorite chef doctor. 2:35:59.040 --> 2:36:02.000 So this is just somebody who everyone refers to as 2:36:02.160 --> 2:36:05.840 chef Doctor. He is dressed up as what you can 2:36:05.879 --> 2:36:09.080 only describe as a chef doctor some wondering half of 2:36:09.160 --> 2:36:12.320 a chef's outfit, half of a doctor's outfit. He had 2:36:12.400 --> 2:36:15.600 a Freemason pin on his shirt, because of course he did. 2:36:17.080 --> 2:36:19.720 And I just like watched him for a while, because 2:36:19.840 --> 2:36:21.440 like initially in the city council meeting, they were just 2:36:21.560 --> 2:36:25.800 like handing out awards to, like the proclamation, the proclamations 2:36:25.840 --> 2:36:28.120 and awards to like various people, including like former city 2:36:28.160 --> 2:36:33.560 council members, like whatever. And then eventually public comments started, 2:36:34.480 --> 2:36:40.840 and I guess, let's let's talk about chef doctor so well, no, 2:36:41.280 --> 2:36:44.960 so for the entirety of the city council meeting. During 2:36:45.000 --> 2:36:49.080 the proclamations, in the back, in the back of the 2:36:49.160 --> 2:36:54.000 back of city Council, there was this large red like 2:36:54.520 --> 2:36:57.120 like heart just sitting sitting in the back. 2:36:57.280 --> 2:37:01.320 But it looked like Bob the Tomato from the it looked. 2:37:01.640 --> 2:37:03.240 That was exactly what I thought. 2:37:03.320 --> 2:37:05.520 I like, this heart, Like, why is there this Bob 2:37:05.560 --> 2:37:09.200 the Tomato ass heart mascot just sitting in the back 2:37:09.240 --> 2:37:11.760 of city council. No one was inside the costume. It 2:37:11.840 --> 2:37:14.240 was just like the heart sitting there next to like 2:37:14.400 --> 2:37:17.560 another massive heart made up of like flowers. 2:37:18.600 --> 2:37:18.840 I saw. 2:37:18.840 --> 2:37:20.320 I was kind of confused for why that was there. 2:37:20.800 --> 2:37:22.720 There was like a pediatric surgeon that got like one 2:37:22.760 --> 2:37:24.520 of the awards, and like, oh, maybe the heart's there 2:37:24.680 --> 2:37:27.320 because of like because of like heart surgery or something. 2:37:27.400 --> 2:37:27.800 I don't know. 2:37:28.080 --> 2:37:30.880 No, No, that would make sense. And you have to 2:37:31.480 --> 2:37:34.440 you have to get out of that mindset for public 2:37:34.480 --> 2:37:35.640 comment for the most part. 2:37:35.760 --> 2:37:39.840 So then chef doctor gets ten minutes of public comment. 2:37:40.120 --> 2:37:43.400 So we should explain that mechanism. Everyone who signs up 2:37:43.400 --> 2:37:46.240 for public comment gets two minutes. You can award your 2:37:46.320 --> 2:37:48.280 time or give over your time to somebody else. So 2:37:48.480 --> 2:37:50.959 there were four other people who gave their time over 2:37:51.040 --> 2:37:53.640 to chef doctor to give him ten minutes, and he 2:37:54.400 --> 2:37:55.720 used all ten minutes. 2:37:56.560 --> 2:38:01.640 And so what was chef doctor trying to get out 2:38:01.680 --> 2:38:04.320 of the city? Why was he giving public. 2:38:04.160 --> 2:38:06.280 Heart So a shout out to chef doctor. Okay, like 2:38:06.720 --> 2:38:10.360 his Chef doctor wants to create a soul food museum 2:38:10.920 --> 2:38:13.440 in the West side of Atlanta, and and he's she's 2:38:13.600 --> 2:38:16.400 shown up a few times to kind of ask city 2:38:16.440 --> 2:38:19.840 council for money, and as far as I know, that 2:38:19.959 --> 2:38:23.959 has gone nowhere. But that was what he is ostensibly 2:38:24.160 --> 2:38:30.080 there for today. However, beyond just the heart, the dancing, 2:38:30.879 --> 2:38:34.039 we haven't got there yet. However, beyond just the big 2:38:34.120 --> 2:38:37.520 red heart, and like the paper mache flower heart, he 2:38:38.320 --> 2:38:38.920 brought a. 2:38:39.040 --> 2:38:43.000 Floutist, a floutest. So a floutist is someone who plays 2:38:43.040 --> 2:38:45.920 the flute. If you are like an uncultured person, who's 2:38:45.920 --> 2:38:49.280 who's who's listening to this? And he walked up to 2:38:49.280 --> 2:38:53.200 the microphone and then for five minutes he got a 2:38:53.240 --> 2:38:57.680 floutist to play a flute cover of amazing Grace. 2:38:57.840 --> 2:39:01.360 Yes, but but he had back muse from a laptop 2:39:01.480 --> 2:39:04.280 that just kind of appeared up nowhere, and so he 2:39:04.400 --> 2:39:05.439 played into the microphone. 2:39:05.480 --> 2:39:11.480 They played this funeral song as as this now heart 2:39:11.560 --> 2:39:15.840 that's been brought to life, it starts dancing. 2:39:15.800 --> 2:39:19.840 Starts dancing. So this person wearing like heart pajama pants 2:39:21.440 --> 2:39:23.920 changed into this hard question at some point. I didn't 2:39:23.959 --> 2:39:26.039 see them change into this. I don't know how this happened. 2:39:26.080 --> 2:39:27.000 I must have missed it. 2:39:27.240 --> 2:39:28.320 With City Council Magic. 2:39:28.600 --> 2:39:29.039 Next will be. 2:39:30.560 --> 2:39:32.080 Chef doctor Kenneth Wilhoyt. 2:39:32.879 --> 2:39:35.160 You'll have ten minutes due to yield in time. 2:39:35.800 --> 2:39:37.080 Chef, let's go ahead and get started. 2:39:38.200 --> 2:39:38.760 My name is. 2:39:40.920 --> 2:39:44.680 A chef doctor Kenneth Wilhoyd. I'm the president of the 2:39:45.120 --> 2:39:51.879 Soul Food Museum and the Soul Food University. 2:39:53.200 --> 2:39:59.200 We are celebrating a twentieth anniversary and we are asking 2:39:59.360 --> 2:40:03.800 for the City Council and an honorable mayor to get 2:40:03.920 --> 2:40:12.080 behind us and support us with donating a museum space, 2:40:12.600 --> 2:40:16.879 building and land with parking in the city of Atlanta. 2:40:16.959 --> 2:40:20.840 For our tourists that come here to have a place 2:40:20.920 --> 2:40:28.440 to come and experience our hospitality agriculture Service of Atlanta. 2:40:28.840 --> 2:40:32.920 I'm gonna sell quick prayer because I'm spirit lid. I 2:40:33.080 --> 2:40:35.920 do things by spirit. I'm at that age you know 2:40:36.040 --> 2:40:40.640 it's not about me, it's about the spirit. Now we'll 2:40:40.760 --> 2:40:44.640 have a song that was selected by the spirit of 2:40:44.720 --> 2:40:47.440 the ancestors, not by me, but by the spirit of 2:40:47.480 --> 2:40:49.640 the ancestors. I asked God to say, Hey, God, what 2:40:49.840 --> 2:40:53.280 songs should we introduce today? This is the one that was. 2:41:09.560 --> 2:41:11.920 But this, this guy in the heart costume walks up 2:41:12.200 --> 2:41:15.160 and he starts like kind of dancing to this float 2:41:15.280 --> 2:41:19.240 music for five minutes. Talk about the dancing. 2:41:20.680 --> 2:41:22.800 I don't think it was so much dancing as a 2:41:22.920 --> 2:41:25.520 swaying with a little bit of hand motion along with 2:41:25.600 --> 2:41:26.039 the swang. 2:41:27.120 --> 2:41:28.440 But like I. 2:41:29.320 --> 2:41:30.440 I wasn't expecting it. 2:41:30.760 --> 2:41:33.720 I thought some would like dosed me with hallucinogens. 2:41:33.800 --> 2:41:38.440 I did, actually I had. There were some streps of LSD. 2:41:38.640 --> 2:41:41.000 I put them in your water bottle when you went looking. 2:41:41.200 --> 2:41:43.440 This explained so much about what happened on Monday. 2:41:44.320 --> 2:41:47.960 No, it would make much more sense if that's what happened. Unfortunately, 2:41:48.400 --> 2:41:52.640 Atlanta is a cartoon town and that's not what happened. 2:41:52.720 --> 2:41:53.520 This was real life. 2:41:54.360 --> 2:41:57.840 So this, this this float cover of Amazing Grace played 2:41:57.879 --> 2:42:00.960 for five minutes with along with the dancing Heart, and 2:42:01.040 --> 2:42:03.879 then we finally got to public comment for the reason 2:42:04.120 --> 2:42:06.560 for the reason for the reason for why we were there. 2:42:07.360 --> 2:42:10.920 Not only were we blessed with that stunning rendition of 2:42:11.000 --> 2:42:15.640 amazing Grace, the floutist himself was was briefly able to 2:42:15.720 --> 2:42:20.200 address the city Council before President Dave Shipman rudely, very 2:42:20.400 --> 2:42:23.120 very rudely called time amazing. 2:42:24.160 --> 2:42:27.440 It's such a sort that made the world. 2:42:28.400 --> 2:42:29.080 So that's. 2:42:42.200 --> 2:42:45.280 Okay, and we are back. And just as a note, 2:42:45.280 --> 2:42:46.720 I forgot to put this in the script, so I'm 2:42:46.720 --> 2:42:49.880 going to say it now. It turns out that that 2:42:50.080 --> 2:42:53.120 heart costume that was quote unquote dancing to the music 2:42:53.640 --> 2:42:56.640 that's actually rentable. You can rent that in Atlanta. So 2:42:56.800 --> 2:42:59.520 I I have some really good ideas for the next 2:43:00.440 --> 2:43:04.520 for the next week of action, since we could rent 2:43:04.600 --> 2:43:07.600 more more bouncy castles and also that hard costume. I 2:43:07.600 --> 2:43:09.960 think there's a lot of potential, extremely funny things that 2:43:10.320 --> 2:43:13.760 that could happen. Anyway, back to my conversation with Matt 2:43:14.120 --> 2:43:16.199 from the Atlantic Community Press Collective. 2:43:16.320 --> 2:43:19.360 There are a couple like things to note about how 2:43:19.480 --> 2:43:22.760 city council public comment works. City council doesn't tend to 2:43:22.760 --> 2:43:27.240 pay attention to them Oessensibly the only one who pays 2:43:27.280 --> 2:43:30.160 attention is City Council President Doug Shipman, because it is 2:43:30.200 --> 2:43:31.880 his job to call time and to call up the 2:43:31.920 --> 2:43:35.119 next person. But you know, city councilors will like step 2:43:35.160 --> 2:43:37.120 in and out of the room, get something to eat 2:43:38.120 --> 2:43:40.280 during the seventeen hours of public comment for cop city, 2:43:40.400 --> 2:43:43.200 like one of them held a press conference like it is. 2:43:43.360 --> 2:43:46.120 It is weird. How they're like legally allowed to not 2:43:46.280 --> 2:43:48.160 pay attention like that is that is bizarre. 2:43:48.640 --> 2:43:50.640 You would you would you would think that if you 2:43:51.800 --> 2:43:53.360 allegedly work for the people, like. 2:43:53.520 --> 2:43:55.280 You would you have to actually listen to them. 2:43:56.160 --> 2:43:59.320 So amongst the city Council. There are two in particular, 2:44:00.200 --> 2:44:02.879 I'm glad you got to see there. There's Mary Norwood, 2:44:02.920 --> 2:44:07.000 who represents Buckhead, and then there's Dustin Hillis, who is 2:44:07.120 --> 2:44:11.680 the the committee chair for the Public Safety Legal Administration Committee. 2:44:12.360 --> 2:44:14.440 So he's basically in charge of police here. 2:44:14.640 --> 2:44:21.120 Throwing molotov cocktails at officers and damaging millions of dollars of. 2:44:21.160 --> 2:44:25.160 Equipment, and he gives off that vibe and neither one 2:44:25.240 --> 2:44:26.240 of them will pay attention. 2:44:26.800 --> 2:44:29.040 They were, they were on their phone from almost the 2:44:29.240 --> 2:44:33.520 entire time I was there. The the the Buckhead woman 2:44:34.000 --> 2:44:39.680 gave off ontologically evil vibe. Like I I did not 2:44:39.879 --> 2:44:41.440 know like who she was when I went to the 2:44:41.480 --> 2:44:44.080 City Council, but once I saw her, I was like, oh, okay, 2:44:44.160 --> 2:44:47.600 this person is like obviously evil, right, And I asked 2:44:47.640 --> 2:44:49.840 people about it afterwards, like oh, yes, that is a 2:44:49.920 --> 2:44:52.320 person that represents Bucket. I'm like, okay, yes, of course, 2:44:52.400 --> 2:44:54.520 of course, Bucket of course. 2:44:54.360 --> 2:44:58.280 Being the like primarily white neighborhood in North Atlanta, that 2:44:59.400 --> 2:45:02.120 part of it wan to secede from the city, and 2:45:02.879 --> 2:45:07.680 that's a whole, Yes, that is a whole another issue. 2:45:07.720 --> 2:45:11.400 But to kind of give context of what Buckhead is redlining. 2:45:11.720 --> 2:45:14.600 That's not a question, that's just a observation. 2:45:15.480 --> 2:45:17.879 And so sitting directly next to her is Dustin Hillis, 2:45:17.920 --> 2:45:21.400 who is known for not paying attention. 2:45:21.520 --> 2:45:25.880 Ever, except except they did both pay attention after public 2:45:25.959 --> 2:45:29.400 comment when police gave their testimony on what happened to 2:45:29.400 --> 2:45:33.680 the night previous, and then these two people were very engaged. 2:45:34.640 --> 2:45:37.960 We will hear more from Mary Norwood ontologically evil in 2:45:38.080 --> 2:45:41.160 a in a bit, but first I have to saw 2:45:42.760 --> 2:45:51.360 Jesus Christ fucking fuck Jesus. My cats are just running 2:45:51.400 --> 2:45:52.560 a muck all right. 2:45:53.200 --> 2:45:56.520 We will hear more from Mary Norwood ontologically evil in 2:45:56.640 --> 2:45:59.360 a bit, but first I have to I have to 2:46:00.440 --> 2:46:04.960 some of Councilman Antonio Lewis's response after Police Chief Darren 2:46:05.000 --> 2:46:08.240 Cherbaum gave his little presentation at City Council. Because I 2:46:08.320 --> 2:46:11.400 don't think I've ever heard January sixth, the Atlanta Way, 2:46:11.480 --> 2:46:14.520 and six Flags all get mentioned in the same sentence 2:46:14.600 --> 2:46:15.640 before they. 2:46:15.640 --> 2:46:19.840 Looked like January sixth. I ain't never seen police run 2:46:20.040 --> 2:46:22.440 from a group of people, and so the only thing 2:46:22.480 --> 2:46:24.240 I could think about when I saw that video. I 2:46:24.320 --> 2:46:27.520 saw it on atl scoop, the videos all out there. 2:46:27.520 --> 2:46:29.760 I've been seeing it all over and when I saw 2:46:29.840 --> 2:46:33.360 the police officers run, I mean I was a little nervous. 2:46:33.440 --> 2:46:35.840 When I saw the heat map, I saw one hundred 2:46:35.879 --> 2:46:40.120 people I saw, I saw it. I mean like that 2:46:40.200 --> 2:46:42.520 ain't the Atlanta wait, I mean, I ain't never seen. 2:46:42.879 --> 2:46:44.640 I'm just thinking about the At the same time, at 2:46:44.680 --> 2:46:47.000 six Flags, we had some young men that were fighting, 2:46:48.240 --> 2:46:50.039 some of our teenagers fighting at six Flags. 2:46:50.200 --> 2:46:51.560 They didn't run up on the police. 2:46:52.080 --> 2:46:54.720 They didn't run up on the police with molotail malor 2:46:54.800 --> 2:46:58.000 tail cocktails throwing to burn up stuff. What I will say, 2:46:58.040 --> 2:47:00.680 I thank you so much for last night for working. 2:47:00.959 --> 2:47:04.840 I want to really commend officers because y'all were under 2:47:04.879 --> 2:47:08.360 some immense pressure. And to not see a gun fire 2:47:08.480 --> 2:47:12.600 back because when I see the firecrackers, I'm from Cleveland Avenue. 2:47:13.200 --> 2:47:17.039 If they throw firecrackers at me, I don't know those firecrackers. 2:47:17.600 --> 2:47:20.320 I've never seen that. So I appreciate APD for doing that. 2:47:21.280 --> 2:47:27.480 Truly, truly a stunning admission, just just perfect. So I 2:47:27.680 --> 2:47:31.080 had to listen to Atlanta Police Chief Darren Sheerbaum's testimony 2:47:31.440 --> 2:47:34.240 a few times for the five episodes that were released 2:47:34.280 --> 2:47:38.080 earlier this month, so I didn't really feel like fully 2:47:38.160 --> 2:47:41.000 listening through again to find any funny bits to put 2:47:41.040 --> 2:47:43.760 in this episode. So I just kind of like skimmed 2:47:43.840 --> 2:47:48.480 through while multitasking, and weirdly enough, I noticed that the 2:47:48.600 --> 2:47:51.280 chief said some pretty shocking things that I somehow just 2:47:51.480 --> 2:47:54.800 must have missed in my previous viewings. So I will 2:47:54.840 --> 2:47:57.880 play those for you now, and I will warn you 2:47:58.040 --> 2:48:01.080 it is. It is pretty disturbing. Like all the subjects 2:48:01.320 --> 2:48:03.560 we put on air, their statements do not reflect our 2:48:03.600 --> 2:48:07.000 opinions or the official position held by whatever current company 2:48:07.360 --> 2:48:10.520 owns this podcast. So yeah, like I said, well warning, 2:48:10.680 --> 2:48:13.040 these are shocking, but I will let the chief speak 2:48:13.120 --> 2:48:13.640 for himself. 2:48:14.200 --> 2:48:17.720 Take aggressive action against these officers, move to the front gate, 2:48:18.280 --> 2:48:22.280 more accelerant, inflict vitally harm upon them, launch illegal and 2:48:22.400 --> 2:48:26.480 criminal attacks to attack members of law enforcement, bring harm 2:48:26.959 --> 2:48:30.120 to our officers. These attacks are going to continue. 2:48:31.040 --> 2:48:34.480 Pretty pretty shocking stuff coming from a police chief to Jesus, 2:48:34.959 --> 2:48:38.200 But that is only the tip of the iceberg. Because 2:48:39.400 --> 2:48:43.240 to my surprise, after public COVID was over and all 2:48:43.280 --> 2:48:46.080 the news cameras left after I left, and you know, 2:48:46.320 --> 2:48:50.560 everyone left the building, it turns out Darren Sheerbaum gave 2:48:50.640 --> 2:48:53.760 a second testimony at the very end of the City 2:48:53.800 --> 2:48:58.280 Council meeting that I just completely missed until now, so 2:48:59.040 --> 2:49:01.520 I will warn you it is kind of leud in nature. 2:49:01.720 --> 2:49:04.840 So if you want to skip past lewd police conduct, 2:49:05.240 --> 2:49:07.800 just fast forward like a minute or two. But anyway, 2:49:08.200 --> 2:49:12.600 without further ado, here is the secret recently unearthed second 2:49:12.720 --> 2:49:16.920 testimony presented by Atlanta Police Chief Darren Sheerbaum. 2:49:17.480 --> 2:49:19.720 Presidentship and members of the Council would like to brief 2:49:19.760 --> 2:49:22.480 you on events that transpired yesterday. I'm going to let 2:49:22.560 --> 2:49:24.840 the video play here. Why I walk through each of 2:49:24.879 --> 2:49:27.400 the situations. What you see here is of our partners 2:49:27.440 --> 2:49:30.880 at the Decab County Police Department, the Sheriff of Fulton County, 2:49:31.280 --> 2:49:34.480 as well as the Georgia State Patrol. We're seeing changing 2:49:34.600 --> 2:49:36.760 out of the clothes that they were wearing. They're going 2:49:36.800 --> 2:49:38.880 to position themselves when it appears to be an attempt 2:49:38.920 --> 2:49:42.080 to keep pursuing the officers. This is the officers see these. 2:49:42.280 --> 2:49:44.720 We had a rapid response from our partners as well 2:49:44.760 --> 2:49:48.400 as to change their clothing. Different groups were performing acts 2:49:48.600 --> 2:49:51.960 within the manner of their training and their discipline at 2:49:52.000 --> 2:49:56.000 this time. Our officers repositioning themselves inside of our partners. 2:49:56.920 --> 2:49:59.720 These officers had been stationary to ensure that they are 2:49:59.800 --> 2:50:04.040 being restrained. The officers are on city property and are 2:50:04.120 --> 2:50:08.600 positioning themselves and repositioned themselves to be prepared to go 2:50:08.720 --> 2:50:11.880 back in. Our officers are showing great restraint. They remained 2:50:11.879 --> 2:50:15.040 in a position. It's what you see here is a 2:50:15.120 --> 2:50:19.240 lieutenant that is discharging. We're very fortunate that that was 2:50:19.320 --> 2:50:22.040 the outcome, and I want to commend every man and 2:50:22.120 --> 2:50:25.520 woman on duty yesterday as they stood in the gap 2:50:25.600 --> 2:50:30.280 to do their job, those officers entered our partners, and 2:50:30.440 --> 2:50:32.720 what you see here, ladies and gentlemen, is as some 2:50:32.840 --> 2:50:36.400 of the individuals that had just previously had entered into 2:50:36.480 --> 2:50:40.040 those officers, they start changing back into the clothes that 2:50:40.120 --> 2:50:43.600 they were just wearing moments before. Just last night, officers 2:50:43.640 --> 2:50:45.880 of this department, as well as the Cab County to 2:50:45.879 --> 2:50:48.640 the Georgia State Patrol and the Sheriff's Department moved in. 2:50:49.040 --> 2:50:50.960 And I want to think of the men and women 2:50:51.000 --> 2:50:53.199 again of the Atlanta Police Department, the Georgia State Patrol, 2:50:53.760 --> 2:50:55.680 the Sheriff's Department, as well as the the Cap County 2:50:55.680 --> 2:51:00.160 Police Department for the professionalism that they demonstrated through the 2:51:00.280 --> 2:51:02.879 night and to the early hours of this morning while 2:51:02.920 --> 2:51:04.879 many of us were asleep, they continue to work through 2:51:04.879 --> 2:51:05.160 the night. 2:51:06.000 --> 2:51:08.720 I've never seen that, so I appreciate APD for doing that. 2:51:09.720 --> 2:51:12.320 I would have loved for every one of those very 2:51:12.400 --> 2:51:15.520 hysterical people that we've been sitting listening to for two 2:51:15.680 --> 2:51:20.040 or three hours to have seen an actual video of 2:51:20.120 --> 2:51:22.960 what really did happen. And there may be great reasons 2:51:23.000 --> 2:51:25.520 if the administration chose to do it this way, but 2:51:25.680 --> 2:51:28.520 our media is gone and all the people that needed 2:51:28.600 --> 2:51:29.520 to see this are gone. 2:51:30.680 --> 2:51:33.200 I'm glad that nobody was hurt and none of our 2:51:33.200 --> 2:51:34.320 employees were hurt yesterday. 2:51:35.120 --> 2:51:40.120 Oh boy, whoa uh well that was That was certainly 2:51:40.200 --> 2:51:42.760 something I did not did not want to know that 2:51:43.000 --> 2:51:45.920 much about what the the APD and their partners get 2:51:46.000 --> 2:51:50.600 up to after hours. Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled comedic, 2:51:50.720 --> 2:51:55.560 James I know A. Sheerbaum was addressed with some questions 2:51:56.160 --> 2:52:00.240 by Unicorn Riot when he was trying to exit, which 2:52:00.280 --> 2:52:02.959 he then denied. He hea have a very frustrated face 2:52:03.000 --> 2:52:06.519 and then denied answering and promptly left the building. 2:52:06.879 --> 2:52:09.600 Well in the company of the New York Times journalist 2:52:09.879 --> 2:52:11.280 Oh with With with. 2:52:11.440 --> 2:52:14.240 A friend of the show Sean Keenan. So that was 2:52:14.400 --> 2:52:17.240 that was a That was most of Monday. Yeah, that 2:52:17.360 --> 2:52:18.440 is everything that happened on Monday. 2:52:19.000 --> 2:52:22.720 So what Monday evening I went home to start working 2:52:22.760 --> 2:52:24.080 on article. What did you do, Guaryson? 2:52:24.160 --> 2:52:26.360 I went to the Perham in the Woods. I got 2:52:26.440 --> 2:52:31.960 to share my memory of the veggie tails esther story 2:52:32.240 --> 2:52:35.080 starring the tickle monsters. I got to bond with a 2:52:35.080 --> 2:52:37.920 few expangelicals about that, so that was fine. Then there 2:52:37.959 --> 2:52:40.640 was an experimental noise show in the forest. 2:52:41.160 --> 2:52:44.600 And then you had a tragic neck injury on Monday night. 2:52:45.280 --> 2:52:47.600 So Tuesday, the. 2:52:47.800 --> 2:52:50.480 Group that we followed left out of the church and 2:52:50.680 --> 2:52:54.320 went to Norfolk Southern, which is one of the funders 2:52:54.360 --> 2:52:59.200 of APF and UH Friend of the Environment in Ohio. 2:53:00.000 --> 2:53:02.200 When they finished reading the letter, like all they asked 2:53:02.360 --> 2:53:05.120 was that the letter go to the CEO. Yep, And 2:53:05.600 --> 2:53:08.440 they denied that and all they had to do was 2:53:08.440 --> 2:53:09.960 accept it and and move on. 2:53:10.160 --> 2:53:15.840 But they while people were inside the security called ns Police. 2:53:16.280 --> 2:53:19.280 And if you're wondering, you're like, you know, NS Police. 2:53:21.760 --> 2:53:23.240 That isn't the city in Atlanta, what could that be? 2:53:23.480 --> 2:53:26.160 That is the Norfolk Southern Police, who are legally allowed 2:53:26.240 --> 2:53:27.240 to arrest people. 2:53:27.480 --> 2:53:30.960 And we we thankfully we avoided going to Norfolk Southern 2:53:31.000 --> 2:53:36.800 Police Jail, going to Norfolk Southern Court, which certainly would 2:53:36.800 --> 2:53:39.280 have been a very legitimate court, so. 2:53:39.760 --> 2:53:41.800 It would have been almost as legitimate as the real 2:53:41.879 --> 2:53:45.200 court that that the bail hearings happened at. That same day, 2:53:46.120 --> 2:53:51.120 after successfully evading Norfolk Southern Jail, Matt and I headed 2:53:51.280 --> 2:53:54.320 downtown for a march that was accompanied by a cadre 2:53:54.520 --> 2:53:59.320 of over one hundred officers. Pinning this crowd onto the sidewalk. 2:54:00.160 --> 2:54:06.040 Got a blocking the sidewalk like a Doorida State University 2:54:06.320 --> 2:54:09.320 canine unit. This blocking off the entire sidewalk next to 2:54:09.320 --> 2:54:12.360 a Fulton County Sheriff's vehicle. I like the cops are 2:54:12.400 --> 2:54:15.400 just also commanding the corporate media on where they can 2:54:15.440 --> 2:54:19.400 stand and the whatever like boomer journalist is with whatever 2:54:19.520 --> 2:54:22.200 like mainstream news. Helle and was very peeed off at 2:54:22.240 --> 2:54:24.279 this cop for telling you to get on the sidewalk. 2:54:25.240 --> 2:54:28.440 The next day, a smaller crowd met up at the 2:54:28.640 --> 2:54:32.160 same spot and broke off into little subgroups to walk 2:54:32.240 --> 2:54:36.560 around downtown Atlanta and hand out defend the forest leaflets. 2:54:37.200 --> 2:54:41.000 So all the little subgroups kind of meet up on 2:54:41.760 --> 2:54:44.960 on Andrew Jung and Peach Tree, right next to the 2:54:45.080 --> 2:54:46.879 Hooters and the hard Rock Cafe. 2:54:50.600 --> 2:54:54.040 To classic examples of atlanted food. There was an Atlanta 2:54:54.120 --> 2:54:57.840 swat vehicle parked outside of the Hooters. Fucking the fucking 2:54:58.320 --> 2:54:59.959 outside a fucking hard rock cast. 2:55:00.360 --> 2:55:03.400 So I can't keep picking up this copyrighted music. 2:55:03.720 --> 2:55:04.480 But there's a big. 2:55:04.360 --> 2:55:08.920 Atlanta Police swat vehicle parts on the block by the 2:55:09.000 --> 2:55:11.760 Atlanta Police Foundation head quarters. All right, there's actually a 2:55:11.800 --> 2:55:14.440 pretty decent number of people gathered here for the flywering 2:55:14.480 --> 2:55:20.840 event today. They're at the Peachtree and Young International Boulevard intersection, 2:55:21.640 --> 2:55:24.080 right across from the Hooters and the Hard Rock Cafe. 2:55:24.560 --> 2:55:27.840 There's a swat vehicle parks right behind us. There is about, 2:55:27.920 --> 2:55:30.480 I don't know, twenty to thirty officers stationed a little 2:55:30.480 --> 2:55:33.480 bit to our north. You know, normal police responds to 2:55:33.520 --> 2:55:36.800 people handing out flyers, just fifty officers and a swat team. 2:55:37.440 --> 2:55:41.400 Lieutenant Neil Welch approaches the crowd and gives them a 2:55:41.680 --> 2:55:44.880 dispersal order. They cross the street walk like a block 2:55:44.959 --> 2:55:47.200 north past some of the cops that are guarding the 2:55:47.280 --> 2:55:51.920 Wells Fargo building. At this point, people chatted the cops 2:55:52.160 --> 2:55:56.080 to quit your jobs. Quit your job, and one of 2:55:56.120 --> 2:56:00.480 the cops guarding the wells Fargo, says, that's actually good idea. 2:56:01.240 --> 2:56:02.560 You can always quit your job. 2:56:03.520 --> 2:56:06.320 That's actually sounded. 2:56:09.520 --> 2:56:10.160 Already tried. 2:56:10.560 --> 2:56:12.640 And he's like, I tried to and they wouldn't let me. 2:56:13.000 --> 2:56:17.000 But like, I don't like laughing, but that one got me. 2:56:17.240 --> 2:56:17.840 That one got me. 2:56:18.000 --> 2:56:20.640 The cop responded like, not in like a glib tone 2:56:20.680 --> 2:56:25.280 like he was, it was actually actually like yeah, that's 2:56:25.280 --> 2:56:26.960 actually yeah, that's actually a good idea. 2:56:28.440 --> 2:56:29.520 Extremely funny moment. 2:56:30.240 --> 2:56:33.959 While this is happening, Uh, there's another group who comes 2:56:34.040 --> 2:56:37.840 in to the side of Petree Center Mall and enters 2:56:37.879 --> 2:56:39.920 the mall to find Mayor Andre Dickens. 2:56:40.240 --> 2:56:42.880 Andre Dickens is like the head of some kind of 2:56:42.920 --> 2:56:44.440 like board or something. 2:56:44.879 --> 2:56:46.640 Yeah. There there are a couple of boards in Atlanta 2:56:46.760 --> 2:56:50.920 that stipulate the mayor is like the head of the board, 2:56:50.959 --> 2:56:53.200 and this is one of them. And it meets in 2:56:53.400 --> 2:56:57.480 Peatree Center Mall as one does. So the mayor is 2:56:57.520 --> 2:57:01.040 having a meeting in the mall office spaces, you know, 2:57:01.120 --> 2:57:04.560 sort of above the mall, and so so three Indigenous 2:57:04.560 --> 2:57:09.440 An activists along with Kamal Franklin arrive and they find 2:57:09.480 --> 2:57:12.400 the mayor. They enter the board meeting and they begin 2:57:12.560 --> 2:57:16.960 to read this letter from the Muscogie Nation aloud. Mayor Dickens, 2:57:17.040 --> 2:57:21.840 in true mayor fashion, bolts away from this, running through 2:57:21.879 --> 2:57:24.280 an exit door which is then like blocked by a 2:57:24.360 --> 2:57:26.760 guard which I think that has its own like set 2:57:26.760 --> 2:57:32.279 of legal issues, essentially just ignoring them over his shoulder. 2:57:32.320 --> 2:57:34.600 He calls out, I've got a copy of the letter 2:57:34.879 --> 2:57:39.840 and hides just completely trying to escape what is not 2:57:40.040 --> 2:57:40.920 a good look for him. 2:57:41.040 --> 2:57:45.760 This this is what we call a ted Wheeler moments. 2:57:46.520 --> 2:57:49.600 So as this happens, I think like like Apex Swat 2:57:49.760 --> 2:57:50.800 is deployed. 2:57:51.280 --> 2:57:53.920 They so Apex and Swat had had been elsewhere and 2:57:54.160 --> 2:57:57.280 they were called back to their vehicles like right before this, 2:57:57.560 --> 2:58:01.920 and then the activist exit and almost like in this 2:58:02.200 --> 2:58:05.560 very comical moment, after they get out in a way, 2:58:06.760 --> 2:58:11.080 squads of these special units start rushing into the building, 2:58:11.879 --> 2:58:13.080 of course, finding no one. 2:58:13.720 --> 2:58:18.240 Charlie Chapman asked, shit, truly, okay, even a more future 2:58:18.400 --> 2:58:21.720 version of Garrison here. Apparently I've been told by Daniel 2:58:22.040 --> 2:58:25.520 that his name is Charlie Chaplin. I don't know he's 2:58:25.560 --> 2:58:35.120 a pedophile. So whatever, Charlie not Daniel, oh boy, And 2:58:35.480 --> 2:58:37.879 I do want to say I did try multiple times 2:58:38.280 --> 2:58:41.320 to take Matt to the Hard Rock Cafe or the Hooters, 2:58:41.440 --> 2:58:46.520 either one, and he refused my offer multiple times, very 2:58:46.760 --> 2:58:50.760 very rudely. So at some point when I'm back in Atlanta, 2:58:50.840 --> 2:58:53.400 I will have to gather a troop of fanboys and 2:58:53.600 --> 2:58:58.039 head over to the Hooters anyway. Next was the Community 2:58:58.120 --> 2:59:02.119 Movement Builder's rally on the evening of Thursday, March ninth, 2:59:02.520 --> 2:59:05.920 which had fewer jokes that night, but there are a 2:59:06.000 --> 2:59:10.720 few embarrassing recording bloopers at the expense of my own ego, 2:59:10.959 --> 2:59:15.119 So I will play those for your amusement. You absolute 2:59:15.240 --> 2:59:15.879 seck Fox. 2:59:18.160 --> 2:59:18.840 Yeah, we'll start. 2:59:20.520 --> 2:59:22.000 It is a kind of raining. 2:59:23.240 --> 2:59:25.720 We'll see how many people show up and how how 2:59:25.879 --> 2:59:33.600 large the police response will be. In comparison, what could 2:59:33.640 --> 2:59:34.080 happen here? 2:59:35.000 --> 2:59:39.480 Well, it could happen here. A podcast by Robert Evans. 2:59:41.760 --> 2:59:45.520 We are at the site of the Martin Luther King Memorial. 2:59:45.800 --> 2:59:47.879 Did you see the two Sandy Springs police buses? 2:59:48.120 --> 2:59:50.560 I did see that, Sandy. I lived in Sandy Springs 2:59:50.640 --> 2:59:53.280 for a year and that brought back some memories. But 2:59:53.440 --> 2:59:56.880 yes to Sandy Springs police buses, Sandy Springs, of course, 2:59:56.959 --> 3:00:01.840 being mostly outside of the perimeter. A good A good 3:00:01.959 --> 3:00:07.000 drive from here. That's good, that was good. All right, hoggers, 3:00:07.959 --> 3:00:09.519 absolutely hoggers. 3:00:10.320 --> 3:00:15.600 The police police has has been stating, well, I'll never mind, 3:00:15.640 --> 3:00:20.440 I cut that. What am I saying? Big puddle on 3:00:20.600 --> 3:00:25.600 the street, demonstrating the city's commitments to infrastructure. That was 3:00:25.800 --> 3:00:29.240 that was a joke because the drawing was plumped. I 3:00:29.320 --> 3:00:32.840 accidentally turned off my my my recording by tripping on 3:00:33.040 --> 3:00:36.080 some stairs. They're so they're so close together, we're just 3:00:36.200 --> 3:00:40.040 they're just sandwiched in. Got a New York Times reporter 3:00:40.160 --> 3:00:43.800 standing in the middle of the street, of course, the 3:00:43.920 --> 3:00:46.320 only person allowed to stand in the streets the one, 3:00:46.560 --> 3:00:50.080 the one New York Times reporter. I would estimate almost 3:00:50.080 --> 3:00:53.640 about a kilometer, But I'm Canadian, so that's not very 3:00:53.680 --> 3:00:56.400 helpful to you, to you us listeners. 3:00:56.920 --> 3:01:00.720 The real outside agitators is Sandy Springs. Please. Yeah. The 3:01:00.879 --> 3:01:05.400 police were ready to mass rest the entire time. I 3:01:05.440 --> 3:01:09.440 don't know if you mentioned this. So in between the 3:01:09.480 --> 3:01:12.320 police line in front of the APF building and the 3:01:12.400 --> 3:01:17.000 protesters was essentially like a mixture of Copwatch and National 3:01:17.120 --> 3:01:19.960 Lawyers Guild and a CLU, because of course you had 3:01:20.000 --> 3:01:24.320 to have like both both legal observer factions just to 3:01:24.360 --> 3:01:26.000 make sure everybody's watching each other. 3:01:26.040 --> 3:01:28.400 Get you can watch energy, Get a westrested, who can 3:01:28.440 --> 3:01:29.520 watch acil you get arrested. 3:01:31.080 --> 3:01:34.199 It's turtles all the way down, legal observers. 3:01:33.800 --> 3:01:40.040 All the way down. Oh and we are back. That's 3:01:40.720 --> 3:01:41.680 that's great, all right. 3:01:42.120 --> 3:01:44.320 One of the stops on the tour of the Blondie 3:01:44.360 --> 3:01:47.360 Forest that Joe Perry was doing throughout the week was 3:01:47.440 --> 3:01:50.280 the area of the land swap between the former owner 3:01:50.280 --> 3:01:53.320 of Black Hall Studios, Ryan Millsap, and the Cabot County's 3:01:53.480 --> 3:01:57.280 Entrenchment Creek Park. So on one side there's this beautiful 3:01:57.440 --> 3:02:01.040 forested park that Ryan Millsap wants to trade for. Then 3:02:01.080 --> 3:02:04.039 on the other side is this massive amount of dirt 3:02:04.600 --> 3:02:08.200 that he currently owns, which is right next to Bouldercrest Road. 3:02:08.720 --> 3:02:11.920 That's a huge, huge dirt field that you see. And 3:02:12.320 --> 3:02:18.160 what happened is while that swap was being orchestrated, Blackhall 3:02:18.400 --> 3:02:22.440 was bringing thousands and thousands and thousands of dump truck 3:02:22.480 --> 3:02:25.320 loads of dirt and just filling it up, filling it up, 3:02:25.400 --> 3:02:28.080 filling it up, and somebody else is gonna have. 3:02:28.040 --> 3:02:28.560 To do the math. 3:02:28.640 --> 3:02:30.800 But I don't know if you say, like fifteen acres 3:02:31.560 --> 3:02:35.640 of dirt that is twenty feet plus high, how much 3:02:35.720 --> 3:02:36.360 dirt that is. 3:02:36.720 --> 3:02:37.240 It's a lot. 3:02:37.959 --> 3:02:42.279 It's not natural. It's not something that's helping this flood 3:02:42.320 --> 3:02:45.560 prone area. All that's gonna run into here, no matter 3:02:45.600 --> 3:02:48.520 how many silk fences you put up. So that's what 3:02:48.600 --> 3:02:56.480 they're calling Michelle Obama Park. That's exactly exactly right. If 3:02:56.480 --> 3:02:58.800 somebody needs to talk to Michelle and say, Nahu, you 3:02:58.879 --> 3:03:00.280 need to take your name off of that. And I 3:03:00.320 --> 3:03:02.400 don't know who who got away with that, but that's 3:03:03.080 --> 3:03:03.320 not it. 3:03:04.879 --> 3:03:08.360 You're seeing the most picturesque side of that piece of land. 3:03:08.520 --> 3:03:10.560 Yeah, you get gets the top worse. 3:03:10.879 --> 3:03:13.400 It's just it's just it's garbage. 3:03:13.040 --> 3:03:16.080 Well the thing, and it is literally garbage because a 3:03:16.200 --> 3:03:20.120 lot of this stuff, this dirt cave. You know, Ryan 3:03:20.200 --> 3:03:24.480 millsp has he is. He's not a movie mogul, He's 3:03:24.600 --> 3:03:27.960 he's a land baron. He's he's in real estate and 3:03:28.080 --> 3:03:30.840 he's made billions of dollars in real estate, and so 3:03:31.280 --> 3:03:34.560 that dirt comes from other properties. He's he's digging up 3:03:34.560 --> 3:03:36.760 a place on you know, a boulevard to put some 3:03:36.840 --> 3:03:39.560 apartments in. He's pulling dirt out of there. That's what's 3:03:39.600 --> 3:03:42.119 coming in here. That's dirt coming from all these other 3:03:42.200 --> 3:03:43.039 construction sites. 3:03:43.080 --> 3:03:45.200 Yeah, that is not top soil. 3:03:46.040 --> 3:03:47.879 You can, and I believe me, I'm not saying I'm 3:03:47.920 --> 3:03:49.600 not making that up. I've been over there and I've 3:03:49.640 --> 3:03:51.920 walked and I've seen what's in there. I've seen water 3:03:52.000 --> 3:03:54.400 heaters in there. I've seen gutters in there, I've seen pipes, 3:03:54.400 --> 3:03:55.600 I've seen all kinds of crap. 3:03:55.800 --> 3:03:56.360 It's trash. 3:03:56.760 --> 3:03:59.680 It's a big trash mountain. That's what they want to 3:03:59.720 --> 3:04:06.280 have be Michelle Obama Park and hanging a hath So. Yeah, 3:04:06.560 --> 3:04:08.680 that's I just wanted you to kind of lay your 3:04:08.720 --> 3:04:12.560 eyes on what the county thought was a good idea, 3:04:13.200 --> 3:04:14.959 in what Black Hall thought. Of course, you know, Ryan 3:04:15.000 --> 3:04:17.160 Miller is a great idea for Ryan millsatt because the 3:04:17.280 --> 3:04:20.240 land that he acquired is worth way more millions more. 3:04:20.840 --> 3:04:24.400 It's now worth millions more than than when he made 3:04:24.440 --> 3:04:27.199 the swap. So he has made a lot of money 3:04:27.600 --> 3:04:29.600 on this swap, and that's why he's angry that he 3:04:29.680 --> 3:04:31.800 can't get his hands on it. Yet nobody knows what 3:04:31.879 --> 3:04:34.360 he's gonna do with it, because the original agreement between 3:04:34.440 --> 3:04:36.600 him and the county was that he was gonna build 3:04:36.640 --> 3:04:40.240 movie studios on that land. Well he can't now because 3:04:40.600 --> 3:04:43.400 he sold his rights to the movie studios to a 3:04:43.520 --> 3:04:45.800 company that's now called Shadow Box. They're the ones that 3:04:45.920 --> 3:04:50.760 owns his previous studios, so he can't have a rival 3:04:50.840 --> 3:04:54.240 company right across the street from them. So he hasn't 3:04:54.280 --> 3:04:57.000 said and nobody knows exactly what he's gonna do with 3:04:57.080 --> 3:05:00.200 the property if he wins this court case, and it's 3:05:00.280 --> 3:05:05.360 those forty acres, who knows. It's a mystery. So that's 3:05:05.520 --> 3:05:08.959 that's where that stands right now. Hopefully we win the lawsuit. 3:05:09.840 --> 3:05:12.760 If we do, he will be he will have to 3:05:12.800 --> 3:05:16.040 put the bill for repaving the path and redoing the 3:05:16.080 --> 3:05:19.000 parking lot and putting a new gazebo in. That's what 3:05:19.120 --> 3:05:21.080 the judge decreed. That's why they said we don't need 3:05:21.120 --> 3:05:25.160 a restraining order. All that is replaceable. So except for 3:05:25.200 --> 3:05:27.440 the trees that he tore down, you know those are 3:05:27.480 --> 3:05:30.440 going to take another seventy five years, but who's counting. 3:05:31.280 --> 3:05:34.680 The fate of Michelle Obama Park is still up in 3:05:34.720 --> 3:05:38.360 the air as of time of recording. So yeah, I'm 3:05:38.840 --> 3:05:44.160 excited to visit that if the landswap gets passed, almost done, 3:05:44.280 --> 3:05:46.840 we're gonna we're gonna briefly, briefly tap back into my 3:05:46.920 --> 3:05:50.680 conversation with Matt from the Atlantic Community Press Collective and 3:05:50.840 --> 3:05:53.640 then unfortunately, our jokes must come to an end. 3:05:54.200 --> 3:05:55.760 I think one thing that's been lost in all of 3:05:55.800 --> 3:05:58.240 this too is all of the lighthearted events that have 3:05:58.320 --> 3:06:00.240 continued to gone through the week. And you know, we 3:06:00.320 --> 3:06:03.320 have this this, this youth rally or there's the youth 3:06:03.400 --> 3:06:07.119 rally that's happening on Saturday. Of course recording this beforehand, 3:06:07.760 --> 3:06:12.439 and like the joy of the movement that was represented 3:06:12.520 --> 3:06:18.320 in the Bouncy Castle rip which was first pointed at 3:06:18.800 --> 3:06:20.320 a rifle was pointing at and. 3:06:20.400 --> 3:06:24.160 We haven't talked about the gun, talk about the guns 3:06:24.200 --> 3:06:25.160 in the bouncy castle. 3:06:26.480 --> 3:06:27.920 So so one thing I think that that. 3:06:30.400 --> 3:06:31.240 We didn't mention. 3:06:31.760 --> 3:06:35.160 How can you forget about the guns and the bouncy castle. 3:06:36.920 --> 3:06:40.200 So when when the police came running up onto the 3:06:40.440 --> 3:06:42.520 tarmac at RCA Field where the bouncy Castle was, of 3:06:42.600 --> 3:06:46.800 course they had to point a rifle at the bouncy Castle. 3:06:47.320 --> 3:06:49.119 And if that doesn't show that police are not here 3:06:49.200 --> 3:06:51.120 to have fun and have joy. I don't know what 3:06:51.440 --> 3:06:54.000 what is I I don't know if anyone was in 3:06:54.040 --> 3:06:56.400 it at the time. I don't think so. I think 3:06:56.440 --> 3:06:59.520 they were literally just pointing a gun at an empty 3:07:00.000 --> 3:07:05.040 bouncy castle which they have they destroyed, and and I 3:07:05.120 --> 3:07:07.880 think we have to take a moment to mourn that. 3:07:08.040 --> 3:07:10.480 Did they destroyed or like deflate it? I think they destroyed. 3:07:10.520 --> 3:07:12.080 It wasn't like a rental or something. 3:07:12.320 --> 3:07:18.920 Yes, So rip bouncy house, you will be missed and 3:07:19.160 --> 3:07:23.039 all the joy that you represented. Uh, my girlfriend's texting 3:07:23.120 --> 3:07:24.440 me cringe. 3:07:27.400 --> 3:07:31.720 Let me let me check my my note my notes. 3:07:34.480 --> 3:07:38.120 In case Garrison doesn't cut this. Ask about Garrison's neck? 3:07:39.240 --> 3:07:40.760 What hmm? 3:07:41.040 --> 3:07:42.320 What what did you say? 3:07:43.040 --> 3:07:44.720 Ask about what Garrison did? 3:07:44.920 --> 3:07:55.039 Friday fire, burn Tower Saturday, Gresham Park Sunday, Monday noon Tuesday. 3:07:55.760 --> 3:07:59.320 All right, all right, okay, I'm gonna just gonna look 3:07:59.320 --> 3:08:01.320 through my other notes app because I keep my notes 3:08:01.360 --> 3:08:02.879 in three different notes apps because I'm normal. 3:08:04.080 --> 3:08:07.720 So one thing that's been notable, especially in how the 3:08:07.760 --> 3:08:10.520 police talk about the forest, is they've begun using like 3:08:10.640 --> 3:08:15.600 these these militarized terms, like the denial of operating area 3:08:15.760 --> 3:08:22.400 that we saw when Ryan millsap was important to Cap County. 3:08:22.879 --> 3:08:26.520 He said, the GBI told him to clear the area 3:08:26.680 --> 3:08:32.600 to deny operating space. And you know the use of terrorism, 3:08:32.760 --> 3:08:36.600 like there's there's some eerie parallels between the language that 3:08:36.760 --> 3:08:42.400 was used to describe insurgencies in countries that America is 3:08:42.560 --> 3:08:45.560 invading or the United States is invading, and a lot 3:08:45.640 --> 3:08:48.560 of that language, like the military equipment that was used 3:08:48.600 --> 3:08:51.280 there is has come home and it is now being 3:08:51.440 --> 3:08:56.080 used against Americans engaged in like these liberation struggles. 3:08:56.840 --> 3:08:58.600 I wonder where we've talked about that before. 3:08:58.720 --> 3:09:03.040 I don't know it happen where speaking of it is 3:09:03.440 --> 3:09:07.000 still happening. The last week, approximately five hundred people came 3:09:07.040 --> 3:09:09.879 out to City Hall as the city Council is now 3:09:09.959 --> 3:09:13.200 in the process of voting to approve public funds for 3:09:13.400 --> 3:09:16.800 the Cop City project. Nearly three hundred people signed up 3:09:16.879 --> 3:09:20.080 for public comment, with one hundreds more waiting in line. 3:09:20.560 --> 3:09:24.680 A public comment lasted seven hours, and during so not 3:09:24.879 --> 3:09:28.840 a single person voiced support of using taxpayer money to 3:09:29.080 --> 3:09:33.279 fund the police training facility. The Atlanta Community Press Collective 3:09:33.520 --> 3:09:37.960 have recently reported that the proposed city funds toward the 3:09:38.040 --> 3:09:42.040 Cop City project have ballooned to a minimum of fifty 3:09:42.120 --> 3:09:46.200 one million dollars, with the thirty million dollar package awaiting 3:09:46.280 --> 3:09:49.160 final vote in City Council, plus another at least twenty 3:09:49.200 --> 3:09:52.080 million dollar chunk to be given to the Atlanta Police 3:09:52.120 --> 3:09:56.000 Foundation via a quote unquote loan, which indicates that the 3:09:56.040 --> 3:10:00.240 Atlanta Police Foundation's private fundraising has not gone as well 3:10:00.280 --> 3:10:03.320 as they initially had hoped. For more on that, I'd 3:10:03.360 --> 3:10:06.280 recommend checking out The Press Collective's recent article from May 3:10:06.360 --> 3:10:09.640 twenty fourth, and you can also donate to them to 3:10:09.760 --> 3:10:13.560 support their continued reporting of the happenings in Atlanta. 3:10:14.080 --> 3:10:16.680 You can find us on Twitter at Atlanta Underscore Press. 3:10:17.280 --> 3:10:21.840 Our website is Atlpress Collective dot com, and you can 3:10:21.959 --> 3:10:26.960 find our Instagram at atl Press Collective. We have partnered 3:10:27.000 --> 3:10:30.480 with Open Collective. We are fiscally sponsored now by the 3:10:30.600 --> 3:10:35.880 Open Collective Foundation in a way to transparently fundraise in 3:10:36.040 --> 3:10:39.720 order to sustain our reporting. Everything up until actually the 3:10:39.760 --> 3:10:43.520 Week of Action, everything that we have done up until 3:10:43.560 --> 3:10:47.680 the Week of Action was all unpaid, and it is 3:10:47.720 --> 3:10:50.160 our desire to continue to grow with the movement, and 3:10:51.000 --> 3:10:53.640 so we were excited to find a partner in the 3:10:53.720 --> 3:10:59.119 Open Collective Foundation that can continue that sort of horizontal 3:10:59.720 --> 3:11:04.119 open in organizing that that we have done internally. 3:11:04.840 --> 3:11:05.920 Okay, yeah, I think I think. 3:11:06.000 --> 3:11:06.600 I think we're good. 3:11:07.160 --> 3:11:07.800 I think we have it. 3:11:08.000 --> 3:11:08.720 Good job team. 3:11:08.840 --> 3:11:10.119 Oh shit, I wasn't required. 3:11:24.640 --> 3:11:27.760 Hey, we'll be back Monday with more episodes every week 3:11:27.879 --> 3:11:29.760 from now until the heat death of the Universe. 3:11:30.360 --> 3:11:32.720 It Could Happen here as a production of cool Zone Media. 3:11:32.959 --> 3:11:35.600 For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website 3:11:35.640 --> 3:11:37.840 cool zonemedia dot com, or check us out on the 3:11:37.920 --> 3:11:41.279 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 3:11:41.720 --> 3:11:43.840 You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated 3:11:43.920 --> 3:11:46.920 monthly at cool zonemedia dot com slash sources. 3:11:47.160 --> 3:11:47.960 Thanks for listening.