While the toll from the pandemic rolls past 80,000 dead and creates mass unemployment, the Trump Administration is relying on propaganda from Fox News and OANN to carry its water and distort reality. Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman discuss the misinformation efforts and possible solutions on how we can make it out of this crisis.
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Recent reports claim the Remdesivir patent is controlled by mainland China, Bill Gates and the WHO, while the Clintons may have a stake in it as well.
The entire cover-up is allegedly backed by globalist billionaire George Soros.
We're going into transition.
And I call it transition to greatness.
It's going to be transition to greatness.
Because we're going to do something very fast and we're going to have a phenomenal year next year.
In China, EcoHealth has worked for 15 years with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
But his funding from the NIH was killed two weeks ago by a political disinformation campaign targeting China's Wuhan Institute.
Hey everybody, welcome to the Muckrake Podcast.
I'm your co-host Jared Yates-Exton and as always I'm joined with my co-host Nick Haussmann who later this week is going to sacrifice his own reality and sanity by watching nothing but Fox News and reading nothing but right-wing
Media in order to give us an idea of where that that that mindset is One of the reasons this is a necessary experiment is because in the middle of a generational pandemic, of course You don't need to be told this but the right-wing media is Engaged in its own reality that has absolutely nothing to do with the one we're living in and unfortunately suffering in the coronavirus pandemic continues, but meanwhile, we keep learning that this alternate reality is keeping us from being
safe and being able to open up safely and save our economy.
Today, unfortunately, we need to talk about the fact that the President of the United States is yelling about something called Obamagate and is apparently angling for state-run propaganda media.
Nick, how are you feeling on the eve of this experiment?
Well, you know, it reminds me of, if you ever saw the movie Captain America, First Avenger.
Right now, I'm sort of the weakling version of Steve Rogers.
And then by doing this thing, we're listening to Fox News and everything like that.
I'm going to be going into that machine where they're going to be injecting me.
I'm going to be screaming and yelling.
And I'm going to come out, though, I think a different person at the very least.
I'm not sure exactly if I'm going to be like Captain America, but that's sort of what I'm picturing is going to happen.
So wait, wait, so instead of being injected with super soldier serum, you're going to be injected with right-wing propaganda and become stronger for it?
Yeah, is there a difference though when you think about it?
Oh man, that is a whole different podcast.
I wanted to talk a little bit today.
I posted about this on Twitter.
If anyone wants to get real in-depth in it, they can go take a look at it and get a primer on it.
There is some weird stuff that is happening.
Obviously, in the middle of a pandemic and in the middle of crisis, these things tend to happen.
If you haven't already, go and seek out—there's a segment from One America News Network that has gone viral.
It's important to watch.
It includes—and Nick hasn't seen it.
I believe we've been keeping him separate from the right-wing media in preparation for this to get him pure for it.
It implicates Bill Gates as—I guess they think he's the originator of this virus?
Is that what's happening?
That's what seems to be propagating her out there.
Yeah, he's the one who's in charge of this whole thing.
Okay, so Bill Gates, and remember this is just like QAnon, right?
This is just Donald Trump is a savior.
This massive international conspiracy is against him.
Bill Gates apparently helped create the coronavirus pandemic and is now going to profit off of it by giving a A vaccine that I think the anti-vaxxers think is going to be a controlling serum?
Is that fair?
Yeah, it's an interesting confluence of events here that like all the different kind of conspiracy things can clash or merge into one.
It's pretty intense, I think.
And it's also this plandemic thing, which is now, you know, gathering steam for anybody who's not aware of this.
This is a, I don't know who she is, but she is a really dangerous, terrifying person who is now claiming the United States.
And this is incredible.
I wish people would try and keep up with this, because I've been getting my mental fitness from trying to keep up with this thing.
So here's what she has said.
The United States created the coronavirus in order to kill a bunch of people.
But it's also not as strong as everybody says it is, which is just amazing contradictory information.
You get it specifically by wearing masks, and washing your hands apparently makes it worse.
Now, OANN is pushing this thing, and in the segment I saw, which, again, I wish everybody would go see, it involves, Nick, giant floating pyramids with all-seeing eyes.
I mean, it is New World Order iconography completely, and this is what Trump people are putting their energy towards right now.
Oh, without question.
I mean, interestingly enough, it's like the notion that Bill Gates invented the virus so that he can come in and sort of save everybody from it.
Which, that concept is interesting.
Like you do.
Yeah.
Like you do.
Yeah.
Well, by the way, that's an interesting concept when you look at the Trump administration because There is this notion that yes, they can kind of create these catastrophes and then somehow swoop in as if they're going to fix them all.
And in reality, you know, we've seen that sort of in the past in the way that they want to control the narrative across the media.
Anyway, there's all these sort of interesting parallels to that, but it's all bad, however you want to slice it.
It's all bad.
I saw this thing, I saw it on Saturday, and it made clear to me a couple of things.
So I study these things, these conspiracy theories and narratives, and even while I do, there's like a part of my brain that's like, nobody believes this.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, there's still the rational part of my brain that is like, no, there's no way anybody believes this.
Meanwhile, the reopen protests are starting to involve people with signs that say things like the mark of the beast and, you know, I will not take Bill Gates's vaccine.
And I watched this OANN clip, and I realized, I was like, oh, this is the network of Trump's dreams, right?
This is exactly what he has wanted.
And I wrote about this.
Trump actually thinks that Fox News is critical of him.
He thinks they're tough on him.
He said that multiple times.
And when he met with Kim Jong Un, he said he wanted North Korea's media, which is, they worship him.
Like a god, right?
This is, you know, what was it, Kim Jong-il's, uh, his father, I think, uh, played golf and scored 18 holes in one, and right, and he had perfect weight and all this stuff.
And that's actually what Trump wants, and I think that's something that people need to be aware of and kind of terrified about.
The idea that there's something out there that's actually worse than Fox News.
Oh yeah, well let's not forget he was going to do this before he won the election anyway.
I don't think OANN was really a thing in 2016.
I gotta look at the history of it a little bit better.
I don't want to, but I might have to.
But yeah, they were going to do this anyway.
They were going to use the campaign.
To develop a brand and then launch their own version of news.
They were already interviewing people and they were already going to start doing casting for this.
And then he won.
And so it's not surprising that they want to now do this, especially because you see that one woman in the back of the press room, the press briefing room, who always gets, you know, a couple of those softballs in and they make sure and, you know, it's clear they set her up.
Here's a question you're going to ask today.
And he's like, God, that's a really good question.
I'm glad that you asked it.
And then he goes into this ridiculous answer.
So, you know, there's no question that there's some synergy going on here.
And of course, we talked about it last week, where we now know who's going to invest in it more, or I guess own it, I suppose.
Which is?
Who's the lucky man?
The guy, he happens to have the same name as the president.
It's pretty interesting.
How weird.
Donald Trump Jr.
has been reported to be interested in investing in OANN.
Meanwhile, as Donald Trump has repeatedly said, I don't even watch Fox News anymore.
I just watch OANN.
Which, you know, we talk a lot about corporate mindset, right?
And economic competition.
That, I mean, OANN is a competitor of Fox News.
They have every reason to court favor with Trump.
He is their outlet.
And you're exactly right.
When I was covering the 2016 campaign, Trump's people told me constantly that's what they were planning on doing.
They were just going to take the campaign and turn it into a media empire.
Trump TV or whatever they were going to call it.
This is his dream.
This is his absolute dream.
And if we look at a situation where he could possibly win a second term, This could be the avenue by which he gets state-run propaganda TV and Fox News is already doing that and causing untold damage.
The idea that somebody else could come in and do this is horrifying.
It gets worse though because he's been calling for Chuck Todd to be fired and he wants the FEC to remove the NBC's license.
It sounds crazy and it's one of the, you know, no one, you know, like you mentioned before, like rational brain starts to take over.
It really, it's not gonna happen.
You can't do that NBC, whatever, but I don't know.
I don't think he's joking when he tweets those things and says that the truck child needs to be removed and they should investigate their license to be able to broadcast, you know, news overall.
You know, that's the other beginning.
You say it enough times, you get enough people whipped up and upset, then, you know, suddenly the guy who they have in charge who You know, is a real Trump, uh, you know, whatever he is, sycophant.
Sycophant.
He might, he could do that.
I mean, we're already, I, the propaganda they put out about having free internet, um, you know what, now I'm blanking on what they call it.
What's the, uh, you know, um, uh, whatever the act is, is, you know, the notion they want to be able to charge for, you know, faster speeds and whatever.
Uh, it's, it's crazy.
It's more propaganda and it's probably even as dangerous as some of the things they're doing politically.
Have we not learned to take Trump at his word?
I mean, he tells you what he's going to do, and that's the problem.
We've had four, four and a half years now of Trump telling everyone exactly what he plans on doing, and everyone's just like, oh, he's just up there talking.
Take him, you know, figuratively, not literally.
He has lusted after state-run propaganda.
He's lusted after a media that worships him.
I mean, the idea that he would go after Chuck Todd, who, by the way, is just like the most middle-of-the-road, having everybody on his program.
Nobody likes him.
No, nobody's up in arms about it.
And the idea that that's the guy that Trump's getting upset about is just so absurd.
But this is what he wants.
And this goes along with something else that we have to talk about, which is actually horrific.
And I don't even like saying it because even talking about it brings out in the universe.
They're talking right now on Fox News, and again, Fox News has to, they have to do a tightrope act, right?
They have to be the news network of record for Republicans who aren't necessarily Trumpist, and they also have to be there for Trumpists, right?
They have to do that crazy-ass Tea Party stuff, right?
While also trying to be the news network of record.
They're talking about Obama being put on trial.
They're talking about Hillary Clinton being put on trial.
This has become a, and by the way, they told you they were going to get Mike Flynn off.
They told you that for weeks, if not months.
They are talking about the possibility of bringing charges against Barack Obama in the investigation into the Russia probe.
That is a thing that we might be looking at in a few months.
The idea that the former president could possibly be brought up on trumped up show trial charges.
And I know that sounds insane, but like we're living in insane times.
You know to me it just sounds a little bit more like what they try to do with Joe Biden by accusing him of being corrupt in Ukraine and they'll never actually have a trial they're never going to have evidence that shows that but it did enough at least in the very beginning of the impeachment trial to basically render Joe Biden DOA and like in some weird I don't know how it ever happened he like South Carolina and then all of a sudden here he is
So I would suspect they're going to try something in that similar vein as distraction and then to pump it up.
But I don't know.
I still don't feel like we're going to get there even though he keeps telling us what he's going to do.
I would still be a little bit surprised if they ultimately charge Barack Obama with something.
And what would they actually charge him with?
God knows.
I mean, it doesn't matter.
You know what I mean?
Like, it literally... and that's the thing is... and if I came back from the future, right?
If I came back in my DeLorean, Nick, and I was like, Nick, I just came back from October.
Biden and Obama are on trial right now.
Would you be that shocked?
Would you?
Because I wouldn't.
That's the unfortunate thing in all of this.
That's what these people are capable of.
That's what these people do.
They don't win elections.
They rule by taking any competitor and just absolutely flooding them with charges of corruption.
And usually putting them in prison.
I mean, they become political prisoners at some point.
I would not be shocked if this is something they actually try.
Okay, I mean, I guess you're right.
I can't say that I would be shocked, you know, especially because in the whole context of Barr and what he's done and how they dropped the charges on Flynn and, you know, you're having the prosecuting attorneys quit, you know, basically in disgust at what's happening in the Department of Justice.
So, you know, him using that arm of the government to do whatever he wants is already happening.
And so I suppose it's not that much of a stretch to be like, okay, he'll just tell Barr We've got to come up with something that will be, you know, splashy and, you know, dramatic and it has to happen, you know, around October, right?
Is that what he's probably saving it for?
You would have to assume it's going to be in, like, late August, September, probably around the time when the coronavirus starts coming back around.
You know what I mean?
Where the numbers are.
And by the way, I just want to do a quick little thing.
We haven't done this on the podcast before.
I want to think back to, like, 2015-2016 Nick.
Right?
Oh, what a lovely child that 2015-2016 Nick Halsom is.
I just love thinking about it.
If you could tell yourself back then that you would say in 2020, I would not be shocked to hear that they put on these political show trials.
Like, can you believe how much has actually changed?
Like, that's one of those things I think we have to do on this show, is we have to actually, like, put it in perspective.
Like, how much has actually changed?
Yeah, well listen, he said that in the debate against Hillary.
He would put her on trial the first day in office or something like that.
I remember hearing that.
And by the way, that's the other thing.
I almost forgot that that happened.
You know what I mean?
Like so much has happened.
I remember seeing that.
And in 2016, Jared.
Poor, poor 2016 Jared who was still learning.
poor, poor 2016 Jared, who was still learning.
Oh, poor, poor Jared.
I heard that and I was like, oh, that's it.
You can't, that's it.
You can't do that in a presidential debate and come back from it.
That is the norm too far.
That's a banana republic situation.
There's no way that could possibly happen.
And now, I mean, that just seems so quaint, doesn't it?
Oh, I know it's yeah, it's a far cry from the past of like a little almost reassuring like oh look what he was telling us even then and we didn't really want to Acknowledge it, I guess, in some way, right?
We wanted this, certainly then we're like, oh, okay, either, yeah, he's gonna lose, there's no way, that can't happen, it can't happen, and yet here we are.
You're right, it's a different universe.
That's why the context matters, right?
That's why we have to constantly be looking at history and not even as far back as what we usually do in the, you know, 60s or 70s or 50s.
We gotta look back into, you know, I can remember 2015 or 2016.
Those are the really important warning signs.
Well, there were still people in 2015 and, you know, they like to hide behind it now, right?
And these are the pundits and the political experts who are like, well, nothing would really change if Donald Trump was elected.
You know, well, first of all, he could never get elected because this country would never do that.
But if he did get elected, nothing could possibly change because there would be adults in the room.
You know, he'd probably go through four years.
He wouldn't be great, but basically it'd be like cruise control and nothing would happen.
Meanwhile, here we are.
We're in the middle of a generational pandemic, which he has no solution for whatsoever.
I mean, his only solution is to shovel more of us into it.
And, you know, what are we at now? 81,000?
By the way, what does it show you that Boris Johnson could come up with an organized plan of attack going into the future for several months to understand what he wants to do, and we don't have it?
He's got like a pamphlet of, you know, wash your hands and whatever.
Remember that?
Pence wouldn't stop holding it up, his little thing.
Yeah, I mean, that's frightening when you fall behind a kind of leader like that.
And we know that we've fallen behind just about every other country, too, the way they're dealing with this.
You know, actually, you mentioned the Obamagate, and we're also revisiting 2015-2016.
And, you know, a point I wanted to make, I think, was because of the context of what the Obama administration was going through, monitoring all this insanity of the Russians and the collusion that they were seeing, I think that what was going on with, like, what Obama decided to do was, after the election, you know, they put sanctions on Russia, right, for interfering with the election.
And I think that most of that was not necessarily that was going to be a big thing that's going to really, you know, cause problems with the Russians.
I think it was to find out what the response was going to be from the Trump administration, right?
This is going to sort of give us the clues.
Well, it was before Trump even took office.
something, they say, oh, we're not going to enforce these or whatever, then that gives you a pretty big sign that, yes, all the collusion that they were seeing in the whole summer was valid.
It was absolutely happening.
Well, do you remember what happened?
Do you remember what ultimately after the sanctions happened?
Well, it was before Trump even took office.
They were promised to be lifted.
Yeah.
And then this is why we're talking about Flynn today.
It's because he lied about it.
And why would he lie about it if it wasn't a big deal?
And so, that to me would be like, you know, that's what Obama did that for.
It's the same reason why Mueller indicted those Russians.
He knows he'll never get those people in the court and actually charge them and have them go to prison.
But he did it, remember what was happening exactly when they indicted him?
He was in Helsinki meeting with Putin.
Let's find out what Trump says in response to that in front of all these, you know, media members who can question him, whatever.
And he ended up basically going against his own IC and denying that that actually happened.
Again, that's why he did those things.
You know, Mueller was kind of ineffectual, but at least there's some breadcrumbs I think they left out on purpose just to out the reaction of the Trump administration.
Yeah, I think all of that is true and unfortunate that there were these games of chess being played.
One of the things that I look back on is And by the way, a lot of this had to do with Mitch McConnell, who, you know, this is the little-known history that people don't actually know that much about.
I forgot the hiss when you said Mitch McConnell.
Yeah, no shit.
You know, as the Obama administration found out that Russia was working to help Donald Trump, he got together a, you know, a group of Democrats and Republicans to release a statement to let the American people know what was going on, and Mitch McConnell completely scurried it.
And Obama, who hasn't really ever wanted to trouble a lot of, you know, public consensus, let that happen.
And that's always bothered me.
Lately, I've been happy with what he's been saying.
But I kind of feel like, and this is the thing, and I don't know where the listeners are with this, but in the past week, I don't know how you've been feeling, Nick.
I mean, you know, we talk about how frustrating this thing is, and obviously we've got this show.
I've gone through periods of both frustration and anger, but also despair.
And right now, I am just in this place where I'm like, we're on our own.
We just are.
You know what I mean?
Like, the American people are, they're not coming to help us.
Trump's not, I mean, what's the unemployment number?
Oh, yeah, I misrepresented that before.
I think it's like 15 right now, and everyone's saying it's gonna be 20, no problem.
It's a depression.
Yeah.
It's what it is.
It's a depression.
And by the way, we got to talk a little bit about the history of that.
And I'm saying percent, by the way, not million, but I'm saying 15 to 20.
It's 15 percent now and then 20 soon.
It's depression level unemployment.
And we have to realize how the depression happened, which is that the government failed the people.
They failed to regulate markets, and then they failed to help the people, right?
And that all exacerbated the depression.
We're in a situation right now, the Trump administration is not going to help us.
It just came out this weekend that they're looking into plans for having Americans borrow against their social security benefits.
Yeah.
That's a plan.
And by the way, listen, if you have a kid in the car or hanging out at your home, put some earmuffs on.
Fuck them.
That is cruelty upon cruelty.
And that is their big plan.
The Republicans today, on cue, I don't know if you saw this, they're like, oh, we're getting a little worried about the deficit right now.
And it's like, are you?
Really?
Because Donald Trump has added more to the deficit than anybody else and you have stood by and done this entire thing.
They're not going to help us.
It's on us now.
It really is.
And this might sound apocalyptic, but hopefully you can find some hope in it.
It's on us to recognize communities again.
It's on us to make sure our neighbors are okay.
Because these people aren't going to do jack shit to help us.
So a couple things, because Trump wants to attach a payroll tax cut to the next stimulus bill.
And so all of a sudden he's going to continue to benefit his wealthy friends and his cronies.
Wait, don't you have to employ people to tax them on payroll?
You know, usually.
And by the way, if you gave them a payroll tax, then wouldn't that make sure that they didn't want to have payroll?
Yeah.
I don't know.
I'm not an economist.
I'm a simple caveman lawyer.
I've just been unfrozen.
I'm thrown off by your crazy new world.
Well, let's even take another step.
Okay, if you want to get rid of some of the deficit and bring that down, would the solution be to, like, collect less money?
That's the solution, I guess, right?
Because, again, how many times have they promised us that these tax cuts will make up for it in revenue later, and it never does.
And it just lets them take more money from the places they want to take it from.
But what's worse is that, you know, we used to hear these reports.
I mean, I used to because we still do, but now it's still down in the part of the news.
It's the predatory lending, right, where these people are so desperate for money and they get into these horrible deals where it costs them so much more money to borrow that initial money right away.
Well, they're using a lot of that sort of game plan because they're trying to give this money under the guise of like, here's money from the government of stimulus.
And every time they're trying to do this, it sounds like they're going to try and get the money back another way a little bit later, like with your tax returns later, when you can, you know, your deductions, or here, where they're going to try and do it through Social Security.
So it's almost like it is a big fuck you to the Americans.
It's really what it is.
And so the regular people.
What has the Republican Party tried to do to Social Security since Social Security was passed?
Privatize it.
Privatize it and destroy it.
That's it.
They've tried to get rid of it.
That's the problem in all of this.
And there's no other way to put it.
This is the problem with America right now.
They're still looking for advantage.
Right?
It's not actually about helping people.
It's like, well, how can we gain an advantage from this situation?
Because I have to tell you, I told you this before we started taping.
Somebody in my family saw Bread Lines this weekend.
You know?
And for you and me, we see a breadline.
We're like, my God, this is terrible.
This is human tragedy and something needs done, right?
And I would be willing to sacrifice.
You'd be willing to sacrifice.
Our listeners would sacrifice because we're human, right?
This idea that you're looking to, well, yeah, this would be a good chance to get rid of Social Security, right?
And these rubes, which by the way, are my people.
My people are the ones who go to payday lenders.
My, you know, my family are the ones who, like, take out their 401ks because they don't expect to live to see them, you know?
They don't expect to live to them.
They're being worked to death.
So, like, now all of a sudden you're, like, you're going to drain social security, take away the social safety net.
Where does that lead?
Because if I remember correctly, in the Great Depression, that's when you had old people who were having to, like, not only move in with their families, but were having to survive off of gruel, you know?
And live just tortured, awful lives.
They're trying to rewind that, and they've been trying to rewind that for decades now.
Well, here's the weird irony on this one.
Do you remember when Social Security was actually enacted?
It was during the Depression as part of the method the FDR needed as the New Deal to help get him out of it.
Now, there's actually evidence that the Depression was starting to end a little bit sort of before World War II started.
Obviously, the war really is what got us out of the Depression and got the economy going again.
But it wasn't necessarily going... I was just reading something where it wasn't going precipitously down, you know, in like 37 and 38.
It was sort of like stabilizing.
The New Deal things were actually working.
And what it ended up doing was creating an unprecedented amount of, I guess, goodwill for Democrats.
And the Democrats had power for a long, long time, except for the 50s with Ike in the presidency.
They had the White House for a huge stretch of that run.
And why?
Because what happened in the 1950s is they used the Red Scare to dismantle as much of the New Deal as possible.
And they went after all of the New Dealers in the government, and they portrayed them as communist.
And they persecuted them and fired them and harassed them.
And it's one of the greatest crimes we've ever had.
And that is when they started chipping away at the social safety net.
You're exactly right.
Yeah, but then you also have to throw in the Southern strategy and how the parties completely flipped.
And then that's when the racism started to creep into the Republican Party.
You know, make America great again.
That's where it gets really frustrating is that in that stretch post-war, all this stuff has been, the seeds were planted then.
And you could see it as clear as day.
And I probably could have sought it back then, too.
And here we are.
That's the root of this whole thing.
People need to look at this and realize that Trump has more or less erased 70 years of progress.
Just wiped it.
Wiped it clean from the slate.
And like we talked about this, I want to say we talked about it on Friday.
I mean, the New Deal in part was to instill a new vision for America.
It didn't even completely fix the economy.
The war helped with that, which, by the way, not to get people worried, but wars always follow crises and depressions.
People need to understand that.
And by the way, it's not even necessarily... We need to realize we can be on one side or another of a conflict, right?
We can either be the side that deals with it, or we can be on the side that starts it.
And unfortunately, we're on the latter right now.
Like, the New Deal was about instilling a new vision of America to stall the rise of fascism.
And it happened.
This fascism started growing because we had two Republican administrations who did absolutely nothing to help the people.
Right now, I...
I can't imagine what the next poll is gonna say in terms of the approval rating for the government.
I mean, can you?
It has to be... I would be shocked right now if it's 10%.
I really would.
Why would we trust it?
And by the way, and I'm gonna throw this on there, and we take some shit for this every now and then.
Democratic Party needs to show up right now.
I'm not a Democrat.
I'm an independent.
I will vote Democrat in every election until I have an alternative because they are the only sane political party right now.
They need to show up.
They need to realize what the Republican Party is doing and they need to use a bully pulpit as much as possible.
They need to get out there and say what's happening because this is so far beyond the grain.
This is such a disgraceful moment.
Well, just to address the notion about, you know, wars coming after, you know, economic crises.
I mean, it's at least, it's not like our government is attacking a specific country right now and vilifying them and trying to make them into this, you know, unknown.
Wait.
Oh, that's right.
That's right.
Because, you know, what ends up happening is that we've had years of triangulation between two majors or three major superpowers in the U.S., Russia, and China.
And that's coming to a head in the middle of a crisis.
And it turns out that we're probably going to be on the side of Russia because fucking Donald Trump is president.
Did you watch 60 Minutes last night?
I didn't watch it, but I saw the coverage of it.
It was a truly alarming segment.
They talked to people at the Wuhan lab, and these are people who are on the front lines every day, because so much of this stuff comes from China and comes from the expansion of human civilization into nature.
And these people were framed by a disinformation campaign by GATS and by Trump and Tucker Carlson.
And it is a large, organized attempt.
And we talked about this before we started taping, this thing that Trump's campaign manager is talking about, the Death Star.
That they're ready to unleash their ultimate weapon.
Their ultimate weapon is disinformation and bots and trolls and a total propaganda movement to blame China for everything.
I mean, that's all they're doing.
And every time Trump gets a chance, he's linking Democrats and the media to China.
I mean, that's the only thing they've got.
They're not going to help us.
That's their plan, is to just completely, you know, throw us into hell and then just tell us, oh, somebody else did it.
That's it.
You know, it's funny because I remember what happened in that movie with the Death Star.
In fact, they had like three of these movies.
And each time, we all know what happens to the Death Star.
And it's just an amazing lack of awareness that they would use that imagery to trumpet their cause and how well it's going to do.
It's insane.
But it actually is appropriate, isn't it?
I mean, at this point, where we are now, it's kind of appropriate to use the Empire.
You know, I've seen the people who want to argue the Empire were actually the good guys, right?
I mean, heck, we all know that Return of the Jedi is just a parable for Vietnam, right?
Sure.
You know, so the Ewoks, they were the Viet Cong, and we are the, you know, well I guess, actually the Americans were the Empire.
So, you know, there's a lot of things going on across a lot of different platforms here, and it's hard to keep all this straight.
But without question, the Wulan Institute was a place that they actually were doing really good work, and we were involved in helping to do a lot of that, and monitor and make sure that we're all on the same page here.
And it is unclear to me a little bit, like last year when they got rid of that, they had that program where we had American scientists in China.
And then they got rid of it, I want to say, like in November.
It's kind of interesting, isn't it?
Like it's a weird timing to me.
I'm not exactly sure what that means, but that would have really helped had they kept those people there on the ground.
Well, and by the way, to bring that full circle.
So the OANN and Plandemic stuff, which by the way, the Plandemic thing is just unbelievable.
Again, I know I stated that already.
Like, it is some... and I know that QAnon and all that is mind-bending.
It's a lot.
There's a reason why there's a bunch of conspiracy theories out there.
Conspiracy theories are bred from moments of crisis where leadership does not do a good job of explaining what's happening.
Right.
Or providing leadership.
And it's either intentional or unintentional.
Right, that's like, so for instance, going back to the genesis of the New World Order, which was the Clinton administration with NAFTA and globalism.
They did a terrible job of explaining it to the American people.
And what's wrong, what's more, they were wrong about it.
They were wrong about what would happen with globalism because it ended up actually screwing over America in a massive way.
Well, guess what?
You don't explain it in a good way, people will figure out how to explain it for political manipulation.
That's how you get the New World Order conspiracy theory.
This case right now, the Trump administration can't tell anyone what's going on, right?
There's no leadership where we're going or what's happening.
I mean, let's say that we have a vaccine.
Which this, by the way, this is the thing we have to talk about.
Let's say that they rush everything.
And what is it?
It's usually like four years to get a vaccine, right?
I mean, that's like the quickest they've ever been able to do it.
Let's say they haul ass and they have a vaccine by January.
How many people are going to take that vaccine, Nick?
You got a lot of problems there, yeah, because now you're mixing in the crazies, the anti-vaxxers, with the people who don't want to stay indoors, right?
It's like a weird thing where all these things are getting connected all at once, and that's when you start thinking that, you know, this is going to be a zombie apocalypse here, but yeah, it's going to be a problem.
It's going to be a massive problem.
Like, even if this vaccine, if it's rushed and it's a miracle vaccine, we're going to have so many Americans who just refuse to take it, right?
They're going to see it as Bill Gates, the mark of the beast.
They're going to see it as some sort of control device.
And by the way, Trump might lean in on that.
You know what I mean?
It all depends on where he's at on that day.
I mean, today, before we started taping, he, oh my god, I have tried to stop watching his live stuff, but I, you know, I watched a minute of it.
He's talking now about putting so much money towards the wall, and he's like, oh, we're having really low numbers of people coming in.
It's like, they don't want to come here.
We're filled up with coronavirus.
That's why people aren't coming here.
And meanwhile, it's like, well, the virus is under control, but the virus isn't under control.
It doesn't matter for him.
He'll use whatever he needs at the moment.
I mean, that's how we got hydroxychloroquine.
That's how we got UV light or whatever in the hell he was talking about.
I mean, the anti-vaccination thing and the pandemic thing is gonna be really, really ugly.
Well, what got dangerous in the beginning of all this, and this is probably even decades ago, was the anti-intellectualism that the Republicans wanted to sell.
And you would see, you know, it's the elite liberals in these colleges that are, you know, indoctrinating... I'm right here, Nick!
I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to, you know, insult you to your face, but you really gotta stop educating kids, you know, these young adults.
Indoctrinating kids.
I have to say, by the way, I'm so sorry, I gotta get on the soapbox for two seconds.
So I am a professor, right?
I would never mention politics in a classroom.
I pride myself on being a political figure and having students who have no idea what my politics are.
And what's more, have you ever tried to tell someone what to think?
Have you ever tried to tell a college student or like a younger person what to think?
It doesn't work.
Anyway, I just had to say it's such rubbish.
It's such stupid, stupid rubbish.
Seriously, but you have safe spaces and these terrible things on campus that let... Trump rallies?
Trump rallies?
Safe spaces?
Yeah, and you won't let, you know, Nazis speak on campus.
It's like a terrible place.
You know, listen, I already have my issues with the colleges these days, but at the very least, it has permeated and taken hold and allowed to, again, it's like an alien when the ship gets taken over and all their tentacles are grown on the walls, so it's no longer metal walls, it's like whatever the so it's no longer metal walls, it's like whatever the alien thing is.
And that's what's happened inside the brains of the people that want to follow this.
So you have the anti-intellectualism, and then you mix that in the anti-authority, which is a little bit of a newer thing to me.
It's interesting that the people who are railing against, like, you know, I'm not going to stay indoors.
You can't tell me.
There's no law.
This is like, to them, it's a suggestion.
And it's fine.
If you want to stay in, you can stay in.
That's fine with me.
I don't care, right?
But meanwhile, if you want to be gay, well, that's not okay with me, but that's another story.
But if you want to stay inside, that's fine with me, but I'm going to go out and I'm going to do my thing.
And here's the only problem I have with that, which is causing some torque in my brain, is that I get the argument, we talked about this last week, which is, you know, a lot of these people probably feel, and rightfully so, that if they don't go back to work, they're going to starve, right?
They don't have any safety net here.
And I don't know how to rectify those two things, because they have to stay home.
I mean obviously the answer would be it's the government that was supposed to deal with this and actually give money to the people directly like we've seen other countries do so they don't feel that pressure to go out and mix and you know whatever but we definitely do see the other spectrum there really quickly would be that they seem to relish in breaking the social distancing rules.
Right?
They're like flaunting them and that's what's really frustrating.
There's a lot of things happening here and they all have to do with the major problems of America.
Like on one hand, what you said is exactly right.
The reason why we're debating opening America when it's not safe to open America is because nobody wants to debate economic reform.
Right?
To actually talk about what would need to save America economically during quarantine, we would have to talk about massive income redistribution.
We would have to talk about how unfair the economy is in the first place.
And I'll tell you who doesn't want to talk about that.
The people who are in power.
They do not want to have that conversation.
They'd rather have tens of thousands of people dead.
I know that sounds cruel, but it's 100% true.
That's exactly what's happening here.
The second part of it is you're absolutely right there is a part of America that it's it's the myth of the individual and the rugged individual right and and you see it all the time like there's a reason why men like to act like they're not afraid of death right it's a character a character it's it's a complete persona and avatar that they put forward and so you have a lot of people that like They pride themselves on, again, being warriors against the New World Order.
They really think that if the UN took over America and the tanks and the drones came in, that they would take down the entire army, you know, with their .22 rifle or maybe their AR-15.
I mean, I'm sure you saw this, the pictures of the protesters with their massive long guns at Subway.
Like, they go into these places to show off how tough they are.
They want people to say they're tough, but it's so absurd and sad.
Well, the fourth picture, if you look really closely, the guy's gun was made of wood.
It was actually like a prop.
And I didn't believe it.
If I zoom in, you can see the grain.
It literally isn't really a thing.
And it was huge.
It was ridiculous.
It probably wasn't anything practical you would ever be able to use as a weapon.
So, this dress-up thing is just...
I'm so misplaced.
Really hard to understand what that even means.
And it makes me wonder, because this has become a sides thing, this has become liberal versus whatever we're calling conservatives, I guess, how is it liberal to listen to the government and stay at home?
That's what it is now.
We're snowflakes because we want to listen to the government and stay at home.
I don't understand that.
Explain that.
This goes back to what we've talked about all the time.
The idea that politics is a spectrum.
It's not.
It's not a flat line from left to right.
I have to say, one of the craziest things that I've seen, and this is in the past four years, and this has everything to do with This desire to believe that there's something good happening in the world or that there's adults who will take care of things that we can't take care of.
If you would have told me years ago that the liberals would lionize the FBI and the CIA and the intelligence community, that's insane because let me tell you they've been some of the most oppressive individuals ever.
Right, and this whole thing, and listen, I know that some people listening had this going.
People who wanted to believe that Robert Mueller was going to be a hero, you know, and shared memes of him in like Captain America suits and, you know, like it's Mueller time or whatever.
It's not.
We can't depend on that.
We have to stop depending on other people to fight our battles and to do all this stuff.
It's on us.
And that's the unfortunate truth that this has made clear.
I mean, the government's not going to come help us.
They're just not.
And how long have we been in quarantine now?
I've lost track.
Two months.
We've been in here two months.
The government has not just not done anything.
I mean, they threw $1,200 at us.
I haven't got mine yet.
I don't know if you guys have.
Oh, I can't get it.
Oh, this is great.
I'm not eligible for it.
I'm not eligible for any.
Oh, awesome.
So, look at my co-host here.
I'm on the ivory tower, man.
I tell you, I haven't got mine yet.
And as a liberal professor, since I'm raking in all that public university money.
But it's one of those things where...
It can't be any clearer.
They're not helping.
And they're not going to help.
Right.
I mean, 80,000 are dead.
Trump just gave a speech, if you want to call it that, where he's like, we've done a great job and we have more tests than everybody.
I'm just going to lie until, I don't know, everybody dies.
Until we transition to greatness.
Until we transition to greatness.
Which, if you can figure that out, congratulations.
It's great, you know, and by the way, let me address that, because what he's propping this whole thing up on is like the unemployment had gone down, everyone had jobs, there's this amazing economy, but I think what we're seeing, because you know, you mentioned in the New York Times they had the front page and they showed the drop, and it's a deeper drop than it was for the depression, as far as unemployment, but I think that what he ended up doing was propping up this
mythical economy he's been talking about for those first three years with these kind of jobs that simply aren't stable.
The kind of jobs that will just disappear at the hint of any kind of problems you might have in society like an epidemic.
And that's the problem here is this is all a house of cards.
This was not a serious economy that was built on solid fundamentals.
They don't care about that.
But who are the people ultimately to get really punished by that are minorities.
Black people not only have lost the most jobs, You know, as far as the unemployment percentage.
But they've also, the ones who are dying the most, by like, leaps and bounds more than anybody else.
It's, it's, if that isn't institutional racism, I don't know what is.
And there's no, they don't even recognize that.
All you hear is, he keeps trying to say, oh, I've gotten more jobs for black people than anybody else, but it's like, what he's doing is he's killed more people than anybody else, and he's taken more of their jobs away.
And it is institutional racism.
And, you know, I can't speak for my well-to-do co-host, but I will say it is such a mirage that has just evaporated.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, this economy was not real.
And the people who are listening, I assume, feel the same way as I do.
Like, if you lived in the quote-unquote richest country in the world, which is just a lie, right?
You shouldn't feel this way.
We are all made to feel like we're one day away from being destroyed.
You know, what is the statistic?
It's like 80% of Americans can't afford like a $300 emergency or something like that?
Something like that, yeah.
That's cruelty.
You know, and the truth is this mirage and the pandemic has made very, very clear that it's all been an illusion.
And that America's economy is not fair and the vast inequality was only growing and only becoming more and more inhuman.
And this whole thing has just made it clear.
That's the sad truth of it.
It's just made it very, very clear what the truth is.
And unfortunately, that's what we have to realize.
That this isn't just an anomaly.
This is the way it's been.
You call it cruelty.
I call it capitalism.
Sure.
You know, that's basically how this is set up to be that way, and that's why when Bernie comes in and talks about Socialist Democracy, what does he call it?
Democratic Socialism?
Yeah.
You know, that's what's resonating here, and then that kind of impedes into the capitalism side of the thing, so we need a little bit more of a... It's not even capitalism.
It's hyper-capitalism.
Yeah.
Which is the problem with America.
We keep having these cycles where you have capitalism and then suddenly a bunch of money and power gets invested in like very, very wealthy people and powerful people.
Then they buy out the government.
This is exactly what happened during the Gilded Age.
They just took over the government and basically bought and sold everybody until Citizens started fighting back.
They started getting organized, and the progressives started coming from the ground up, and they were like, we're not going to take this anymore.
And then luckily you had to transform into a figure like Teddy Roosevelt, who comes in and like, you know, throws his big stick into the fight.
Yeah, but let's blame him for the rugged individualism bullshit you just mentioned before.
Amen.
And a lot of the white nationalism that we're talking about, and a lot of the colonialism, and the malleable ideologies.
You're exactly right.
It's the good and the bad together.
But that's what happened with the Progressive Age, is you had a bunch of people.
And this is what I'm getting ready to scream about over and over and over again, because everyone's like, fine, what do we do?
Well, you talk to other people.
You start organizing with other people.
You get organized in your life.
You figure out what's going on.
You reach out to other people who feel the way that we do.
We're happy to be a cog for that.
I hope that that's what we're doing.
Every time I get behind this microphone, that's what I hope that we're doing.
is trying to bring together like-minded people who understand that this is more complicated than a 30-second soundbite and all the bullshit that comes with it and you get organized and in America keeps showing us that there's moments of great political disparity followed by ground-up movements and we have to have a ground-up movement that's it Yeah, I'm going to get my thousand people in my living room and we're going to fill out those ballots from the mail-in, you know, whatever Trump is accusing us of doing.
We're going to fake all those ballots and we're going to stuff the ballot box with mail-in ballots and make sure he loses, right?
That right there, you're joking, but that's going to end up on a conservative podcast by tomorrow.
Maybe you'll come across it during your experiment.
It'll just be like, Proof of the liberal media conspiracy.
A liberal professor and his California crony.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
But, I mean, I guess that's the thing.
You can call.
You can organize.
You can help whip people up to get motivated to do it.
I mean, I suppose that works.
You know, I don't know.
My wife cold called for Hillary in 2016.
And I listened to that.
I just couldn't do it.
I don't know why.
I'm a shy person, Jared.
Realize that.
So I can't call people on the phone.
Internet personality, Coach Pete.
Shy person.
Or Coach Nick.
Why'd I call you Pete?
That's weird.
Maybe it's Coach Pete Newell, who was one of my mentors.
Why'd I call you Coach Pete?
That's funny.
Anyway, I suppose it works.
There's some hearts and minds going on here.
By the way, it probably isn't even to swing the vote.
I think it's simply to get them to go and vote.
I don't even think voting has to be the only aim.
We have to start understanding that power doesn't just come from elections.
I actually think one of the bigger problems with the Democratic Party is that there's a lot of people who think, oh, if you just win an election, it's over.
And meanwhile, the Republican Party has just run circles around everybody.
I mean, look what's happened with the judiciary.
I mean, they took it over.
Like, from the ground up.
And on top of that, this is also sad, but also true.
One of the reasons why Republicans keep winning elections besides disenfranchising and gerrymandering?
They are so much more active on the local level.
Then Democrats are.
And that's where people realize they meet Democrats or Liberals and they're like, you know what?
Pete over here is a good guy.
I should trust him, right?
And maybe I will vote for him to be County Commissioner or State Senator.
No, I don't think they would say it's a good guy.
He's like, Pete over here is telling me all about these black people who are lazy and they're not working hard and they're taking my money.
Like that's what they're doing, isn't it?
That's exactly what the Republican Party is doing on every single level and by the way part of it is People have to get educated on what's happening all this stuff is out there You know like it's it's all you gotta do is read and look it up and research it and I know that it takes time and I know that it takes energy you have to understand what they're doing in order to counteract it because this misinformation that we started this podcast talking about with OANN and all that it's it's it's very transparent, but if you don't know
that it's propaganda, you're not going to see it.
Right.
And you have to look for this stuff.
I mean, that's one of the reasons why, you know, everyone's like, well, I don't really pay attention to Fox News, which my compatriot is going to, unfortunately, go swimming in.
You have to pay attention.
You have to know what these people are doing in order to defend yourself from them and in order to counter them.
We have to start working against this from the ground level because, again, it's not coming from the top.
And that's what Reaganomics and what the Republican Party has been about.
It's top-down.
It has to start becoming bottom-up.
Has to.
Yeah, I agree.
Well, I mean, I'm going to have to get busy now creating my Twitter list of... I guess I'll start with Trump and Hannity and we'll figure out who else I suggest I follow on that list.
Are you going to do the Twitter thing, too?
Well, I created a list, so I don't have to follow them.
I just create, you know, a Twitter list and so I go there and I can see a stream that's completely just Republican and conservative tweets.
And that's going to be my main... I am so excited about this.
Yeah, I don't know.
I am too to some degree, but I'm worried.
Well, I'm very, very excited about this.
And I think our listeners should be too.
That means when our podcast drops on Friday, This is a completely different experience.
I'm not going to look at anything else but Breitbart, I guess OANN, I'll try to find that somehow, and then Fox News, and then Twitter will be only those guys.
It's going to be wild.
I'm not sure how easy it's going to be not to hear.
I'm going to make sure my wife doesn't say anything or whatever, but I guess if there's a time to do it, it's now where I can't go out, I can't see anything, I can control the environment really easily.
So you and I were on radio silence until Thursday.
Unless I'm like, hey, you're not going to believe what I just learned and send it over to you.
If you start sending me a bunch of forwards that are like, Obama, Antichrist, both have how many letters?
If you want to send me those forwards, you can.
I mean, that'd be fine with me.
I'll see how I feel, but I don't know.
It might be good to be as pristine.
Just drop it on you in one show.
Let's just get on here Thursday.
That is exciting to me, and I think people should be excited.
So let's all wish our co-host Nick Halsam luck as he becomes an astronaut into the deep, deep space of right-wing propaganda.
I'm going to become Pete.
That's the alter ego!
I knew it!
Coach Pete is the evil right-wing alter ego.
Yes, because Pete is the name that everyone uses for the evil, you know, mastermind behind Atlanta.
Anyhow, all right, well listen, I'm looking forward to it, so we'll find out what happens on our next show.
Alright everybody, so we will be back.
The next episode will come out on Friday if you make it through.
If you don't cut ties with the podcast and you're like, that little rag of a podcast, I'm done with it.
I'll start my own podcast.
So everybody, until then, please stay safe.
If you want to follow us, like us, subscribe us, it helps so much and we've been so appreciative lately of the people who have been doing that.
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