Kamala Harris has only been the Democratic Vice-President candidate for a few short days and already the Right Wing is calling into question her race and questioning whether she is constitutionally eligible for office. Co-hosts Nick Hauselman and Jared Yates Sexton discuss the virulent racism, the Right's history of othering people of color, and how Donald Trump will stop at nothing to maintain power.
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I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for Vice President.
But that's a very serious issue.
They're saying that she doesn't qualify because she wasn't born in this country.
They want $3.5 billion for something that'll turn out to be fraudulent.
They want $25 billion for the post office.
Now, they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots.
Now, in the meantime, they aren't getting there.
By the way, those are just two items.
But if they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting because they're not equipped to have it.
Hey, everybody.
Welcome to the Muckrake Podcast.
I'm Jared Yates Saxton.
As always, I'm here with Nick Halseman.
Before we get going, and by the way, we got to talk about Birtherism 2.0.
We have to talk about the President of the United States of America blatantly telling Fox News that he wants to murder the United States Postal Service in order to steal an election.
Before we begin that, a little bit of a programming note.
Nick and I are really excited about this.
Next week is the Democratic National Convention.
Snuck up on us.
Snuck right up on us.
And so as part of our ongoing exclusive coverage, we are going to be offering the experience of watching the Democratic National Convention's The speeches, the hullabaloo, the pomp, and the circumstance.
We are going to be covering it as an independent journalistic exercise.
We're going to be watching it live.
We're going to be reacting to it.
We're going to give you analysis, and we're going to give you an evening wrap-up show.
That begins on Monday of next week, and that will be exclusive to our Patreon members.
Yes, I forget to call the VD&C.
Right?
It kind of has a nice ring to it.
But yes, exclusive to Patreon members, which again, it's been incredible what's going on over there.
And I want to stress, you can communicate directly with us in a private environment, which has been amazing.
I love being able to talk to people there.
And at certain levels, we follow you on Twitter, and there's been DMs going back and forth, at least on my end.
I don't know about you, Jared.
And it's been really rewarding and just deeper levels of understanding of what's happening out there.
Just to let you know what happened.
So, when the VP pick was announced... Man, that doesn't come off the tongue very easily.
The VP pick was announced.
We did an emergency muckrake podcast.
We intended... Nick and I were talking about it being like a 10 minute, you know, maybe 15 at the most.
What did we do?
It was like... 45.
We did 45 minutes, and so it was just an extra episode of the Muckrake Podcast.
But head on over if you're interested in our coverage of the Democratic National Convention.
And again, that is four nights next week, where we're going to be going live and going really, really in-depth and giving you information that the cable news networks just aren't going to do.
You need to go over to patreon.com slash muckrakepodcast.
That'll be for patrons only.
There's that.
Please come and join us.
We're really excited about that.
I'll tell you what I'm not excited about, though.
And here's the segue.
I am not excited about the fact that the Republican Party, within days of Kamala Harris being named as the vice presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, we've been reintroduced to birtherism in a really bizarre, twisted way.
We're also watching Tons of conversations that go back into racial conspiracy theories.
We've started talking about whether or not people of color are dangerous.
And actually, my personal favorite, and I don't know if you saw this, Nick, I don't know if you're on Donald Trump's email list, but I am because I snuck into a bunch of rallies a few years ago.
Trump referred to Kamala Harris as the meanest Democrat, which is just so sad and so pathetic.
But this birtherism thing is toxic and poisonous and just as bad as it gets.
I'm kind of mad because, again, we pride ourselves in predicting what they might do.
We talked about this.
We talked about this.
Yes, how depraved it might get.
And, again, I didn't see the birtherism coming.
We had said misogyny, we had said racism, no problem there, and obviously this is racist, but I didn't see, you know, you kind of forgot in all the hub-a-lub, hub-a-lub-a-lub, whatever the word is, that, you know, Kamala Harris, her father is from Jamaica, and her mom is from India, and they were students at, I think, Berkeley at the time, in the 60s, when she was born.
So this asshole, John Eastman, you know, some sort of professor of law, comes on, who had clerked for Clarence Thomas, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, or something like that, or he's, whatever.
It comes out and tries to argue that the 14th Amendment, the Citizenship Clause in the Constitution itself, somehow has this notion that without the parents being citizens, she is not a citizen.
And it's malarkey.
Listen, as we're talking, I don't know if you saw this or if our listeners seen this, so the Republican Party and the American right are just so Infected with just disgusting, disgusting ideology.
So one of the people who has just gone above and beyond on this entire thing already is everyone's favorite idiot, which is Dinesh D'Souza.
And Dinesh D'Souza already today has said, you know, some really cool things.
Some like really, really above board things.
This is political analysis at its best.
Dinesh says, Kamala Harris, like Obama, is part black, yet neither is African American in that they have no connection to American slavery, part Kenyan and part Jamaican or something else entirely.
Earlier today, he talked about Kamala Harris' family and how her father had mentioned that part of their lineage was a slaveholder in Jamaica.
Well, Nick, let's just take a second here.
Why would a person of color have somebody in their family who was a slaver?
Is it because they were part of the slave class?
Or is it, oh yeah, that's right, we need to talk about this, that there is an entire culture of sexual assault and rape in slave societies?
Meanwhile, This is all they want to talk about already.
They're calling her, oh my God, she's too liberal.
She's also too anti-liberal.
She's too black.
She's not black enough.
She's not actually black.
I mean, it is so disgusting already.
And we're not even talking about her politics right now.
You know what I mean?
Like it's all, they've already taken a person of color and completely robbed her of anything approaching political ideology.
And she has simply become A manifestation of America's racism.
That's what's happened already and we're only a couple of days in.
Jared, I guess you didn't get the memo.
The memo was that we would never utter Dinesh D'Souza's name on this podcast.
Okay?
I'm just mortified that we even have to mention his name.
He that will not be named.
Wait, public intellectual Dinesh D'Souza?
He knows what he's talking about, Nick.
I mean, he's got his finger on the pulse of history.
Yeah, oh my goodness gracious.
Now, I wanted to point out one more thing about this John Eastman character in the Newsweek article he wrote, the op-ed, of which the Newsweek was forced to write an op-ed on their op-ed to somehow apologize and insist it's not birtherism.
So, here's the issue, is that, and it applies to what you were saying just a second ago, which is, he's arguing right now that because Kamala Harris' parents were not citizens when they had her, she is not a citizen.
But yet, in 2016, he argues that Ted Cruz is a citizen, even though he was born in Canada.
But the key point he makes in that article from 2016 is that The Constitution clearly says you are a citizen if you're born on American soil.
That is the arbiter of whether or not you're a citizen.
So, ask yourself, Jared, how does he go from defending this white man who's trying to be a representative of Texas as being eligible to be president To now arguing that a black woman is not eligible, even though he's arguing against himself in two different articles.
It's an interesting question.
What is so different about this that would make him reverse his course?
What could possibly be different?
You know, when I was doing research to write American Rule, like, okay, so we all know That like, you know, slavery was one of the foundations of this country and white supremacy played into the founding and it completely affected our laws and our customs and our culture.
Well, when I was doing research on it, I actually, like, was shocked by the public and political discourse that infected American politics.
Leading up to World War II, and then all of a sudden something happened where all of a sudden Americans didn't want to talk about racism out in the open anymore.
It's almost like, oh yeah, we inspired Nazi Germany, but that's neither here nor there.
And what you end up finding are all of these debates where these white, wealthy politicians, male politicians, would get up in Congress and they would just be like, oh, you know, maybe we don't want slaves anymore, but these people, they're not citizens.
Right?
They don't deserve all these rights.
They're not capable of self-representative government, right?
And this is one of the reasons, by the way, why we sent, you know, the military around the world in order to knock off, you know, democratically elected officials in countries where, you know, they were not predominantly white.
It's also one of the reasons why the CIA would go in and perform coups and, you know, PSYOPs in order to knock off democratically elected leaders in non-white countries.
The entire philosophy of this country has been, oh yeah, maybe you can live here, but you don't deserve the same rights.
Like, do not confuse yourself.
You are not an American.
Which is actually the speech that a lot of, like, Reconstruction governors, white governors, would give freed slaves.
Which would be like, Yeah, you're free, but do not mistake that you are equal or that you're actually an American.
Like, this is an inconvenience for us that you are free and we're going to make sure that you're not free and that you're not going to do this.
What we're watching is the most virulent strain of American racism imaginable.
And again, I just want to put this out there.
We're like two days in.
We're like two days in and Trump is cooked in the polls.
He is in so much trouble.
The desperation is showing and it's only a matter of time.
I can't even imagine the depths that they're going to go to before this thing is over.
Well, you know, in his last press conference, the Thorazine is really kicking in, man.
I mean, he is, he, talk about low energy, sleepy Trump.
Like, it's kind of like, and every time you hear it, and I know it's anecdotal, but how many people do I have to hear say, you know, I had a relative who went through Alzheimer's and it was a horrible 20 years.
Oh, he's not well.
He's not well.
I don't know.
And this is exactly what it looks like.
Listen, I'm not a doctor, but he's not well.
But here's the thing.
It's worse than what you're describing, Jared, as far as how they're attacking Kamala.
You know why?
It can get worse.
Because the other shroud that they're wrapping this whole thing in is... Remember the notion of the other and someone who's not, like, of this country?
They're trying to wrap it in the notion of the reason why we have this law that you need to be born in America is because we need to be sure of your allegiance.
Yep.
So they are, with a straight face, Trying to pose this notion that because Kamala Harris's father was Jamaican and her mother is Indian, she might have allegiance to those countries.
In the same breath, we have a president who is completely not allegiant to America.
He is completely subservient to Putin.
And to hear them say that and use that as an excuse to like, oh, that's why we have to look at this because we got to make sure what her allegiance is, you know, is so much gaslighting, so much horseshit chicanery.
And again, why?
Rooted in racism.
And it's the evil kind of racism because it's a little bit subversive, a little bit subconscious.
Where you can put some lipstick on this thing and make it seem like you're not talking about that.
And that could get enough people, or a lot of people, on board.
It's just so horrible.
So, we're recording this so everybody knows.
We're recording this on Thursday, August 13th.
I just want this note, because as I'm getting ready to say this, I assume this is happening on Fox News right now, and if it hasn't, it's going to happen on Tucker Carlson tonight.
I just want the do on this, okay?
One of the things that you're going to end up seeing with this Jamaican thing is they're going to pull the same thing that they pulled with Obama, which is they're going to start, the mask is going to slip even more, right?
And they're going to start saying things like Kamala Harris's anti-colonialism.
Right?
And when you say, this person I believe is anti-colonial, they're not just saying Marxist.
They're saying, like, this person is anti-Western civilization.
And I'll tell you who that gets up in arms.
That gets up in arms the people who maybe they don't think that they're fascist, but they're fascist.
Do you know what I mean?
And there's like, wait, you're telling me America shouldn't be spreading democracy?
And listen, I've got those people in my family tree, okay?
Like, these are the people who, they watch the Black Lives Matter protest, and all of a sudden, they're not just sharing the Confederate flag is about heritage, not hate.
These are the ones who, right now, at this moment in time, they're like, we demand a white month.
You know, it's like the White History Month, which is every month, but that's neither here nor there.
Like, these are the people who are going to be, like, they're going to start talking about the idea that because she has immigrant parents that she is antithetically opposed to America in general.
And, I mean, that's where, and listen, I'll tell you, I'll tell you who's really good at writing that stuff.
Are you ready?
Stephen Miller.
Stephen Miller right now is somewhere with his rad ass face sharpening his knives and he's figuring out every euphemism that he can imagine to talk about Western civilization and colonialism and the idea that people of color and by the way this is the defining characteristic of American white supremacy that we have seen throughout history which is every person of color must be lorded over by white people
Less they be manipulated by Jewish people, less they be manipulated by globalist cabals, or they become potentially violent.
Right?
Because if you do not keep them under your iron fist, they are just, I mean, they're like savages.
They will just destroy everything.
Which is what Stephen Miller has fed America and what Fox News has fed people.
We're getting ready to watch that and I'm telling you the temperature is going to go up and it's going to go up in a crazy amount.
Oh, I mean, sorry, but I just picture Stephen Miller with a boner trying to write all these things down.
Oh, God!
No, no, no.
That can't happen on this podcast.
No.
We can't say that?
No, you can never, ever make our listeners hear that again.
That's it.
That's gone.
That's up there with Mitch McConnell.
We have to prepare people before we talk about Mitch McConnell.
We can't talk about Dinesh D'Souza.
And we cannot talk about Stephen Miller An arousal.
No.
All right.
I'm sorry.
All right.
Good.
Good.
Because, you know, and then we won't talk about Lady G either.
We'll go.
We'll avoid all those.
But, you know, I could just see him sweaty.
OK.
Come on.
We'll use another.
Oh, God.
You're making it worse.
No.
In his cave.
You know, I mean, listen, yes, it's red meat, but you know what's going to happen?
Like you said, it's not going to work.
And here's the other thing I think is sort of disarming to Trump is that, you know, Kamala Harris is a very attractive woman.
And I think that there's these competing, you know, signed images in his head.
He can't, he's not going to be able to sort of understand how to deal with this.
He's never been able to deal with any strong women as it is.
People who are smart and want to challenge him.
He's been ending his press conferences when these smart ladies are asking him questions you know, from CBS or whoever they are, is it Reed?
You know, and we've never ever seen this before, where he just sort of, he does his, the TH sound like a, like, oh gosh, who's the bad guy in the Harry Potter movies?
Rollin' Word?
Voldemort and he's like you know does that noise at her and then leaves so this is probably why they picked her obviously right because she is really good at that and she's gonna be good at being able to handle this and here's the best part about it we're not talking about Biden right now is that the best part about this whole thing Well I, okay, so I want to lay my cards on the table and just to bring everybody around on this.
So I spent, I spent years covering like, you know, campaign rallies and campaign moves and basically engaging in basic punditry.
You know what I mean?
Like, well I really enjoyed the third paragraph of that speech.
I really think that that is an effective play towards suburban moms who happen to enjoy ketchup over mayonnaise.
I think it's so gross, right?
And actually, I think one of the things that we've seen already, I don't know how you felt about it, it was actually really...
Kind of not inspiring, but it was actually like a huge relief to hear like Biden and Harris give a speech that wasn't necessarily like rah, rah, rah, you know, political campaign.
But it was like, hey, just so you guys know, like we're interested in running a government that actually works.
You know what I mean?
Like a real, almost a pedantic thing.
And like, we've always seen these speeches that are like, America is great, and it will always be great, and we'll go back to the moon, and you know, you'll have a ham in your oven or whatever.
And I'm so glad that at this point, like, I'm sorry, Joe Biden isn't like gonna moonwalk up to take the nomination.
You know what I mean?
Like he's not gonna like go up with lasers and we're the champions like Trump did or whatever the hell it was he walked out to.
It's nice to have a sobering moment where we're not talking about, and by the way, notice that we're talking about what's happening around this ticket.
We're not talking about like the cult of personality that like you always try and start up around a presidential ticket.
Like we're talking about reactionary toxicity.
Right, which is what we're going to be looking at when we have actually two people who are like, hey, we're interested in maybe trying to run a government.
So, yeah, I think it's the best possible thing that could have happened at this point to the opposition.
Sure.
A couple of things.
Like, first of all, it's been it was remarkable, the feeling just to sort of have a sense of You know and it's not euphoria, but like just it's not it was glad I was glad to finally hear some good news Right he picked the VP.
She's a great candidate.
They're gonna go out there and discuss these things it was like just to break the the cycle that we've been stuck in for all this time because of the absence of a You know, this is now, finally, we're picking up with the campaign.
Like, it's really going to be on.
And they also seem to demonstrate the notion that you have to keep the subject on Trump, right?
You have to keep the focus on what he's doing so poorly.
And it seems like, because you know, in the past, there would have been the whole thing where they would have ignored Trump and would have just talked about how they're going to lift us up and we're going to get back on track and all these things.
By the way, ironically, it's what Trump has been saying.
But, I think in this context, the eye of the prize has to be, you have to continually remind everybody where we are, how bad it is, and who is responsible.
And it seems like they've got that, they understand that.
And that would be, in my opinion, the winning ticket here, to keep that on.
If they start to get into other stuff, and other kind of policy stuff, which people's eyes start getting glazed over, that's when they lose part of the audience.
So I think it's really important, and it seems like, from what Kamala's been saying the last couple days, it's been pretty clear, She knows how to do it, and she knows how to respond properly and keep the pressure on them.
I'm with you.
I want to warn listeners because we have internalized presidential politics.
It's like one of those things where if you watch one of your favorite shows and you just put on a rerun, you don't even need to pay that close of attention.
You feel it.
You feel the beat.
You understand where the next joke is coming and maybe even where the characters are moving.
We've internalized presidential politics so much that we kind of lose track of the fact that, like, it has a rhythm and a sway to it.
And one of the worst parts about all of this is how the mainstream media treats all of this stuff.
And we have to remember, we have to remember, this is a for-profit enterprise.
These people need a presidential campaign with ups and downs and twists and turns and lead changes.
And right now, Biden just announced his VP pick.
That is the sexiest story that they can possibly have, right?
Oh, this is a competitor.
And oh, this is a new vision for America.
And by the way, so next week, we're going to have the Democratic National Convention, and they're going to have the spotlight for a while, right?
And we're going to talk about what their vision is and what it's going to do.
And again, we're going to be hanging out all next week watching this stuff.
So subscribe on Patreon so you can hang out with us, too.
But you need to remember something, which is that the media needs momentum changes.
Right.
And I have to tell you, the question that America has to have at this point is, should it be this bad?
Right.
Should the pandemic be this bad?
Should the economic crisis be this bad?
Should you feel this bad?
Right.
These are things that we have to keep in mind and we have to remember.
And you're going to feel bad.
And all of a sudden you're going to see like, oh, I think there's Trump-mentum or something like that.
Right?
And they're going to try and sell that or whatever.
You need to remember that this is a situation where we have a dysfunctional, narcissistic, dangerous authoritarian in power, and he needs to be gotten rid of.
You have to, you cannot take your eye off that ball, and you cannot worry about what the media paints it, and how the narrative moves, and all this stuff.
Because we haven't been paying attention to it because of the pandemic, but I'm telling you, they're not going to miss out on those ratings and the advertisement dollars that they'll get from them.
Yeah, I don't want to bum anybody out, but this race is, you know, the ultimate race, the presidential campaign is going to be as close as it was in 2016, or within a couple points of that.
I really think it will.
And I think part of the reason is because they're going to pull something at the very end, like all of a sudden they come up with a vaccine.
Even though the vaccine really isn't developed, they're going to pretend that it is and roll it out and say, like, here, we've developed it, but, like, you're not going to get it for eight months.
You know what I mean?
Something like that.
But that's not going to bury that one, right?
That's bleak.
That's bleak, Nick.
That's really bleak.
And people call me an alarmist.
I remember getting into an argument at some point with somebody after the election in 2016 about how there seemed to be evidence, and the person was arguing that there wasn't any evidence, but when you're doing these polls and the people are simply not going to tell you they're voting for Trump, I think it's a real thing.
Especially in this time.
And you still have enough people who want to support this guy because of the two issues they have.
And so it's just hard to really get that feeling.
And so as a result, the key here is going to be, can they get people up beyond the polls to get out and vote?
Can they stop black people from being disenfranchised in places like Milwaukee?
And if we can do that, great.
But you know, we'll talk about this now, I guess, as far as what they're doing with the post office.
But it's so systematic what they're going to do.
They're now trying to pass laws that can only have one of those receptacles where you can drop off your vote per county, like in Pennsylvania.
You might have a million people in a county and they have one drop-off location for all these ballots.
It's insane.
And it really is the type of authoritarianism that we never thought we'd live in.
And I would only hope that when you present the facts of how they've been systematically destroying our voting system over the last 10 years, you'd only hope that you laid out those facts clearly that a lot of the Republicans who want to continue to support these candidates would realize and maybe switch.
You know, that message is not getting out clearly either.
Can I have a moment of personal gratification?
Is that okay?
Remember, your camera is on at the moment.
A moment of personal gratification.
I have been warning about Donald Trump since 2015, and I have taken a lot of flack for what I've said that Donald Trump would try and do, and the lengths that he would go to to consolidate power and maintain power.
Inevitably, every single time, what happens is he then does it, and the people who called me an alarmist start reporting on it like, who could have ever have talked to, who could have ever have seen this happen?
I will tell you that one of the things that is really disturbing is when that happens because Donald Trump says aloud what he's planning on doing.
And at this point in the podcast you have heard, of course, his comments today on Fox & Friends in which he says, I'm trying to destroy the United States Postal Service so I can ensure that people aren't going to be voting by mail.
He's not hiding it.
Right?
And by the way, that's the thing he's willing to tell us about in public that he's doing.
Which is killing the United States Postal Service.
Which is one of the trademarks of a shared society.
It's one of the bedrocks of a civilization.
If you watch a dystopian movie, we're not going to watch The Postman for a bonus episode, right?
But if you watch a dystopian movie, what is one of the first things they try and bring back after the apocalypse?
It's some way to get messages and to connect cities and tribes and people, right?
He's trying to kill it in order to keep people from voting.
I'm telling you that this isn't where he's going to stop.
But you need to understand, and by the way, like, for people who are like, oh my god, this is sheer terror.
We now have to save the Postal Service.
Absolutely.
This is what authoritarians do.
It's what despots do.
It's like watching a movie and, like, the guy's getting away and he keeps knocking down trash cans and you gotta jump over the trash can and there's another trash can and then he throws, like, something at you and you have to move around it.
That's what they do.
And the more desperate that he becomes, the more democratic institutions and norms will be not just endangered, but possibly destroyed.
And they're not even going to hide it.
They're being honest and open about what they're planning on doing.
We used to talk, I know we've mentioned this in the last, you know, at some point, how frustrating it is when you have people like in business who want to come in and pretend like they're going to run the government as a business, and people get rallied behind that because you hear about the government waste and all this different spending issues.
It's the dumbest shit.
The post office is not a business.
It never has been a business, right?
It is a necessary component of our society, right, like you just described.
So it would never be the kind of thing where you're going to try to run it where it's going to make money.
The whole point is that stamps are cheap and it is reliable.
and you can get your medications that way, so you don't die.
So if you're a veteran who needs your medications and they need to get refilled, you need it within a month, you don't die because you get them in the mail and it's cheap.
Do you know that the United States Postal Service is one of the biggest employers of veterans and disabled veterans?
I know this.
Yeah, isn't that weird?
We love them when they go fight for us, but man, we're just trying to kill who employs them in order to rig elections.
Isn't that weird?
Oh yeah.
I mean, almost as weird as Trump continually lying that he invented Veterans Choice, as if he's for the veterans.
So we have to understand that the post office is the thing that's going to need to be subsidized by the government forever.
And that's how it needs to be.
Why is that even a debate?
Why is that even something to debate?
Because the Republicans!
Because the Republican Party did this!
Now, they don't give a shit about whether it makes money or not.
This is not the whole.
This is, again, this is like the allegiance, you know, question with Kamala Harris and her parents.
They can put a sheen on it.
This is all about, obviously, repressing the vote in the mail.
We already hear reporting in Iowa that they're removing sorting machines, which, I'm no post office worker, but do you think that a sorting machine would be important to getting mail out to the peoples in their houses?
Would that be safe to say?
It seems like it would be.
Yeah.
Now, do you also think that, you know, if mail starts to pile up, there's probably, like, there's not, and by the way, they've been in business, and I hate to use the word business, but they've been operating for, what, a couple hundred years?
It seems to me, if the mail starts to pile up, and their goal is to get these things out timely, you might need to, you know, work a little overtime.
Sure.
And they're eliminating overtime now.
So if you're wondering, oh, they're not really doing anything.
They're making it more efficient.
They're eliminating overtime.
They're getting rid of sorting machines.
They were already now seeing, this has been for about a month now, lots of reports across the country of completely delayed shipments from the post office.
It's clear.
And then now Trump says the thing out loud.
And by the way, that whole thing about always saying the quiet part out loud, it's frustrating.
I like that phrase.
I like to use it.
I can't because everyone's using it now for him.
He keeps doing it over and over again.
It's now like so cliche.
You can't even use that phrase anymore.
We've got to come up with something funnier.
But he literally is now saying that.
He's going to destroy the post office so they can't do the universal mail-in voting because they don't have enough people, not enough resources, and the ballots won't get there forever.
Real fast, I want to ask that trivia question again.
Nick, do you know who the first Postmaster General of the United States of America was?
Oh, is it like Ben Franklin?
It's Ben freaking Franklin!
Oh, I was right?
- Right, I'm right. - Benjamin Franklin, one of the most revered founding fathers who was considered a grassroots philosopher, decided that the postmaster generalship was worthy of his talents and focus and intellect.
That's how important the idea of a postal service is.
And you're exactly right.
It's not just about communication.
It's not about, you know, connecting towns or whatever.
It's about having a functioning, open society.
It's about, and I'm sorry, it's about getting medication.
It's about, you know, getting your bills on time.
It's about getting your goods and services on time.
And I have to tell you, so real fast, I actually really like my postal carrier.
He works like a dog.
He works like a dog because of that overtime thing.
He has to run around.
He has to do everything as quickly as humanly possible.
And they're being treated.
And by the way, that used to be a good gig.
You know what I mean?
To be a postman or a postwoman.
That used to be an amazing gig.
And they have just treated them like dogs.
And they have treated them, again, like they treat everybody else.
First responders, health care people, teachers.
They treat them like Dogs.
And the reason is because they don't give a shit about society.
They don't give a shit about an open society.
They don't give a shit about a working country.
They care about what they can bleed.
They care about what they can profit off of.
They care how they can consolidate power.
The new Postmaster General, and listen, I'm getting hot about this.
I never thought I would get hot about the Post Service, the Post Office, but I am.
They installed a new Postmaster General who is actively dismantling the Post Office.
And that's the same thing with everybody that Trump appoints to any position of power.
Is that the only thing, they'll come in the door and he's like, are you corrupt?
They're like, oh, absolutely, I'm corrupt.
Number two, do you think this should exist?
And they're like, no.
And they're like, you're hired.
Go to work.
Right?
Oh, can you keep a secret?
Will you leak to the press?
Probably.
We'll go on.
You can do it.
And that's all it is.
This guy went in for a seek and destroy mission to just completely sabotage the United States Postal Service.
And again, like, listen, I've been one of the most vocal critics and I've been called an alarmist about what I say about Trump.
I'm shocked.
I'm shocked by how blatant this is.
And the fact that we're talking about the United States Postal Service and the president of the United States is talking about actively doing it on purpose and letting everyone know that he's doing it to disenfranchise Americans.
It's unbelievable.
We finally, finally, in the last day or two, heard some reports about Congress wanting to do investigation into this to find out what's going on.
is Do you think this is going to have any influence or any effect on anything?
I don't know.
I have to tell you, probably not.
Right?
I mean, and by the way, how bullshit is that?
We've talked about this on the podcast before.
Like, Putinist Russia is based on the idea that you don't have to always oppress people.
You just have to oppress them enough and, like, show them enough that your corruption will not be kept in check for people to just suddenly become apathetic and be like, what the hell are we supposed to do?
No, I don't.
I, you know, they've drug in Bill Barr who, you know, shredded the Constitution and that dude got out of there and went on Mark Levin and was like, we are fighting a religious war.
And everyone's like, well, I mean, what are you gonna do?
He's the Attorney General of the United States of America.
It doesn't matter what's happening here.
It, it has to be grassroots.
It has to be grassroots.
And I don't know if that means going out and buying more stamps.
I don't know if that means protesting.
I mean, it certainly seems that way, right?
It seems like the only way that we're going to get a free and fair election is if we have mass action.
I mean, that's how close I am.
I really think we're about ready to call for mass action.
I think that's what we're looking at.
Hence why I'm saying this election is going to be as close as it was.
You know, listen, I want to hedge my bets here so I'm not completely wrong if it doesn't happen that way, but again, like I mentioned, people in those polls are not being truthful, and they're going to be successful with the voting thing.
But again, just to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, it's pretty clear to me that what they're going to ultimately do is they're going to lose, Trump is going to lose the election, and they're going to simply try and contest it.
That's going to be their play.
And even if it's not that close, by the way, they might try and contest it on the grounds of like, you know, illegal ballots in the mail or whatever, right?
What?
Yeah, they don't care.
They don't care.
They have no idea.
It can be a landslide.
It can be a Reagan-Mondale landslide.
It won't matter.
So that's where the mobilization ends up coming, and I would shudder to think what America would look like if and when that happens in December and in January, if they're going to try and draw this out.
Let's just say Biden wins by three points and gets the 270, no problem.
I would feel it's my patriotic duty to get out there in March, even though I'd be really scared as hell.
You know, about violence.
And I'm talking about the kind of violence where people are dying.
But I don't know what else would matter.
But I have to imagine if I don't go out there, there's going to be millions that will.
And it'll make 68 in Chicago look like Disneyland.
A walk in the park.
Well, I'll just say this, and I'll give another plug here for our coverage of the convention.
When we're done recording today, I'm going to drive to the liquor store and buy a bottle of bourbon.
That I will finish off by the end of the Democratic National Convention.
I will probably finish off a bottle of bourbon the night of the election.
What are you kidding?
It's gonna be like leaving Las Vegas.
For anybody who has ever watched my bourbon talks on Sunday nights at 8pm, that's the situation we're looking at in this.
What you just described, I have to tell you, and again, I take no joy in this.
I've seen all this stuff take place, and I've seen it coming, and I've predicted it because it's logical.
We're not talking about tinfoil hat bullshit here.
We're talking about where... And again, we talked about this, what, a couple weeks ago.
It's like they did that war games.
And it was like very sober, like run-of-the-mill bureaucrats and military people war-gamed it.
And every time it ends up in like blood in the streets or a constitutional crisis.
I'm with you.
One of the things, and this is terrible, This is a situation where you do have to be in the streets.
If this piece of shit tries to steal the election, and I have no reason to believe he wouldn't, you have to be ready to be in the streets.
And you're right, there will be violence around this country.
There's no way around that.
But you also, I mean, I'm sorry, but if fighting for your democratic rights and a future without an authoritarian dictator, I think that's one of the ways, one of the reasons to like, Lay it on the line, right?
I mean, like, not to get too big and bleak and grandiose, but that, to me, is a worthy cause to get in the streets and to, you know, pledge your fortunes.
Okay, I have more anger at myself, and maybe you, because we also failed, yeah, we failed to predict something else.
We gotta talk about Yeezy.
How did we not see Kanye West coming?
Now, if you're wondering if they're trying to manipulate the election, this is talking about spaghetti on the wall, right?
Because we've always heard about third-party candidates and how they torpedo.
Clinton won because Ross Perot got in the race and took all the votes from H.W., even though apparently it really wasn't the case, but nonetheless.
But here's how desperate they are, because they probably couldn't get anybody else to do it.
But we now have reports that Jared and Kanye have been meeting... Wait, wait, wait, time out!
Don't make it sound like I did it.
I know, but... I'm trying to rehabilitate the name Jared.
Why didn't we predict this?
I... We saw him in the White House.
He was there last year.
We did... I... Okay, in my defense.
In my defense.
And I mean this soberly.
I mean this.
I thought that Kanye was so unwell that he could not have played a role in a plan.
Do you know what I mean?
He was obviously having a mental health episode and was just so off the wall.
I was like, there's no way there could be any sort of a plan.
Jared Kushner, what's his official role at this point?
I mean, he's doing everything but cleaning the toilets in the White House, right?
I mean, he's in charge of peace.
He's in charge of the coronavirus.
Well, if you want me to talk about Stephen Miller's hard-ons, I can't tell you what I think.
Oh, God, you can't do that.
Jared Kushner is in charge of literally everything in the White House, has been speaking with Kanye West.
Multiple times about a candidacy that could possibly draw votes away from Joe Biden.
It's not going to work.
Let's just put that out there.
It's not going to work.
By the way, real fast, this is a thing that people need to hear.
And if you're not aware of it, this is historical context.
This isn't just me working blue and throwing obscenities out there.
So if you have a kid, earmuffs, all that stuff, there's a term for this.
It's called rat fucking.
And ratfucking is an idea that goes back to the Nixon administration and all the people around him.
And by the way, one of the best ratfuckers, Roger Stone.
And what it is, is it's a bunch of dark political operatives who just, they try the most underhanded stuff you could ever imagine.
And they just try a bunch of stuff.
I mean, you know, it's everything from stealing things, starting rumors.
Oh, I don't know, going to South Carolina and planting the idea that John McCain has an illegitimate black child.
You know, the really disgusting parts of the political process.
They're trying everything.
Like Kanye West isn't going to cost Joe Biden the election.
But the fact that they went to Kanye West and took advantage of his mental illness.
And by the way, his marriage might be in trouble.
His career might be in trouble.
His personal health and safety might be in trouble.
And these jackals were in the White House being like, this is a great idea.
This is gold.
Keep doing it.
Like that right there is who we're dealing with.
And if you think, by the way, they're, I can't believe we're talking about this.
They're trying to kill the post office.
They're using Kanye West as like a secret undermining, sabotaging candidate.
If you think that those are the only two things they're doing, like this is the kind of people who are trying to like kill Fidel Castro with like explosive underwear.
Like they're just trying everything.
Yes.
And, you know, oh, even my mind is connecting some dots here because, you know, the Republicans are suing a tiny little news.
Sorry, the tiny little not news TV station in Wisconsin for airing an ad that was negative against Trump.
And it's just blatant, you know, intimidation, right?
But the funny thing is, is that the lawyer, if I'm not mistaken, the lawyer on that case who's representing the Republicans is the one who turned in the paperwork for Kanye in Madison, in Wisconsin, to get him on the ballot.
And then plus you have Jared and him talking all the time.
There actually is some notion of illegality here because if Kanye is doing this in conjunction with them, then it's actually an in-kind donation to the Trump campaign.
It clearly would be worth more than $2,600, which is the limit.
But again, nobody gives a shit if they're going to be a guy.
And by the way, you're telling people to put on earmuffs about using the term ratfucking.
I'm talking about fucking Stephen Miller and what Jared Kushner wants to be doing to Donald Trump.
No, I know, I know.
I'm watching out for America's youth.
That's what I'm hearing.
I'm really, I'm trying.
I'm not, clearly.
Nobody gives a shit about electoral FEC violations.
That's the other big thing.
And why shouldn't... By the way, here's the thing.
No one gives a shit about it, but it really feels like over the last 200 years, for the most part, it seems like the candidates sort of honored the rules.
I mean, to some degree.
I don't know.
I will say, there are instances... I mean, listen.
People who try and tell you that American history was spotless up until 2016.
Like, that's not true.
Like, there have been all kinds of weird things.
Again, and I found this stuff, like, writing American Rule, it's like, Rutherford B. Hayes' group, like, used Western Union to, like, steal communiques from his opponent.
Like, it was like the first Fox News, you know, with him and the Associated Press, and there's so much grossness that's taking place in electoral politics.
But do you know what?
Those people at least had the good Like, the good faith to at least lie about it and cover it up.
You know what I mean?
What happens, and we talk about this all the time, it's like you set a precedent and you start eroding things.
Like, if you just blatantly break the law and you were just blatantly corrupt, it inspires more, you know, breaking of the law and more corruption.
Like, you're exactly right.
These rules, these FEC regulations, they're done.
They're absolutely done.
And what people need to understand is, like, right now, I mean, it's already come out that, you know, Russia is already interfering in this election.
I want people to think about this.
If a Democratic nominee... Oh, we're talking about China.
We're talking about Iran.
They're all interfering.
At some point, if this continues... Like, let's say that Donald Trump wins the election, which, by the way, if you've paid attention to some Democratic senators, it sounds like there's information that is going through intelligence right now that I think would make your long hairs turn curly.
Because there is some... There's some stuff that's floating around in the ether right now about election interference.
If we get to the point where foreign election interference is just the norm...
Like, can you imagine?
It'll be like NASCAR, except for, like, Sitco.
You know, it's like your Democratic nominee sponsored by the People's Republic of Venezuela.
Right.
It's globalism, Jared.
That's what it is.
Yeah, that's globalism is what that is.
But you're not wrong.
And that's part of the corrosion, is that, like, we're getting to a point where nation states are losing any sovereignty and corruption fills the vacuum.
I mean, that's what's happening.
Did you ever think, by the way, that the writer, the TV writer on the Brady Bunch, who wrote the episode about Marsha and Jan, Jan being really upset about being the middle child, did you ever think that he'd ever imagine that, you know, 50 years later, the President of the United States would be invoking that, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha, with Russia, Russia, Russia?
I got into a discussion.
Isn't it clear that that's what he's referencing, by the way?
Russia, Russia, Russia.
It's just Marsha, Marsha, Marsha.
Or am I completely extrapolating that from something else?
Just to take it on its own here.
I think sometimes about... I spend way too much time trying to picture Donald Trump's brain.
And trying to come up with, like, the perfect sort of metaphor or image for it.
I think about, like, a bingo ball.
Like the thing that you roll the bingo balls in.
Except for it hasn't been used in a very long time.
And it was, like, stored in, like, a leaky basement.
So it's kind of rusty.
And, like, you turn it and you turn it and you turn it.
And all of a sudden, in a press conference, he's talking about Kathy Ireland.
And you're like what what how the hell it's like those those balls haven't been replaced in a long time and so like you're like Mr. President what do you think about the threats from North Korea and he's like Robin Leach, very classy.
Great host.
He should host the Oscars this year.
And you're like, what the hell just happened?
I don't think that he has any control over what pops up.
And yeah, it might have been some sort of strange Brady Bunch thing that came up, but I don't even think he would be able to understand it because that wheel, man, that wheel is rusty.
It's bad.
For some context, because we are all about deep context on the show, I had posters of Kathy Ireland on my wall in high school in case anyone... Sports Illustrated swimsuit model with amazing eyes.
Kathy Ireland went rogue.
I have a very, very, very distinct memory of Kathy Ireland going on Huckabee.
What's his first name?
The old governor, presidential candidate.
Mike Huckabee.
Mike.
He went on Huckabee's old show, which by the way, for those of you who don't remember Huckabee on Fox News, it was a gem.
And it included things like him playing Jessie's girl with Rick Springfield, and Rick Springfield just looking like a wax statue that had caught fire.
Like, it was terrible.
Kathy Ireland went on there, and let me tell you, Kathy Ireland was not well.
And was just hawking a lot of right-wing nonsense.
So that's how I now remember Kathy Ireland.
We have a couple minutes left.
I got a weird tangent because it hit me the other day.
So if you ever do a deep dive on Pat Buchanan...
Which, you know, Huckabee, Pat Buchanan.
Speaking of rusty bingo wheels.
Yes, that's my brain as well.
You described my brain.
You're, you know, gaslighting me.
Pat Buchanan is a sickening, disgusting human being.
One of the worst.
And I'm reading a really good book right now, and we'll probably talk about it a little bit, about the history of sort of Republican politics and what it really means.
But Pat Buchanan comes up, and you realize how disgustingly horrible this person was.
But he was also the right winger on the McLaughlin Group for all those years, right?
And I used to love watching the McLaughlin Group.
And I always would appreciate it because he would give you, you know, he was good on that show, right?
He would give you whatever.
And I'm now, reflecting back on it now and everything we've dealt with the last several years even, it just makes me feel like the whole experience now is completely different.
You know what I mean?
It's weird how, like, I know if I were to watch it again I would be throwing shit at the TV and thinking he's a horrible person.
You know?
It's interesting.
Can we just put this in the podcast that this podcast has radicalized you, Nick Halseman?
And you now are looking back on the past history of America and realizing all the gross stuff.
When I was doing, again, research on American Rule, I was going through all these old videos of broadcasts and stuff.
And one of the things, and not to give too much away about a chapter, is I watched this video of ABC covering the opening of Disney World, or Disneyland, right?
And one of the hosts was Ronald Reagan, which was weird.
But also, like, in Epcot, they were like, they went up to, like, the scientists, and they were like, tell us about nuclear energy.
And the scientists started speaking, and I was like, that's an interesting accent that that man has.
I'm gonna look this man up and it was like Walt Disney's personal science expert.
It was a former Nazi.
It was a guy that came over in Operation Paperclip and what you end up finding is beneath the veneer of normalcy are monsters.
Pat Buchanan was one of the most disgusting white nationalists and the fact that he was treated like that by by that show and around Washington of course he worked for Richard Nixon yep he inspired so much of what's happened in America I mean he gave George HW Bush a run for his money and the Republican Party was like well Buchanan's pretty gross but I guess we need some of that and so they just started you know going a little bit further towards white nationalism and A little bit further, a little bit further.
And what you find when you look at this stuff is it's everyone from Buchanan to Roger Stone.
And again, a lot of this disease we're talking about is the Nixon administration.
It's these people who operated in criminal ways with impunity and they never actually faced consequences.
It's going back to the idea.
You break laws, you break norms, you don't suffer consequences, other people break laws, break norms, and it just perpetuates.
And Pat Buchanan's one of them.
He was on CNN's crossfire for forever.
Like, they would bring him on.
Yeah, just go look at the Republican, go look at the Florida presidential race in 2000 that he ran in if you want evidence of why Gore should have won and how many of these liberal Jews voted for Pat Buchanan.
Well, and by the way, just on that note, and listen, this is one of the reasons why we're talking about being in the streets and mass action and why we do this podcast in the first place.
And I need people to hear this.
And I know that right now is a really stressful moment.
And I know that there's the pandemic is just awful and it's debilitating and it's traumatic.
People need to hear this.
Donald Trump is a symptom, he's not the disease.
It does not end with Donald Trump.
If Donald Trump wins a second term, if he somehow or another finagles his way as an authoritarian to a third or fourth or whatever he does, if he hands it over to Ivanka or Donald Trump Jr.
or opens the way for Tom Cotton or Mike Pence or whatever.
This stuff gets worse.
If you don't strangle this in the crib, it can get a lot worse.
And it's all about what you're talking about with the fact that Pat Buchanan was a part of the establishment and just drove it further and further.
This stuff can get worse.
All right, we've achieved a new level by hearing the phrase, if we don't strangle this in the crib.
That may be the title of this podcast, actually.
What do you think?
Hey, listen, it brings it all around, though, because I mean, like, the virulent racism of the attacks we're already seeing on top of threats of killing the post office, like, Imagine more of this.
Like, really.
Imagine more of this.
Like, if you need a reason to get in the streets, like, imagine not just him getting real, not just him serving another term, but stealing it.
Do you know what I mean?
And like, then it's just, the flood, the floodgates are open.
Like, it can be worse.
It really can.
But then you have the scales where it gets worse, but then apathy also rises at the same time.
And then that's the mix you've got to really be careful with.
Well, you brought up hearings.
What if we keep having hearings that have no consequence?
You stop having hearings.
You know what I mean?
If you don't expect them to do anything, why would you hold them?
But you're describing Benghazi hearings, right?
There was never any intention of any consequences for that, right?
They simply were there to do what they did.
Basically, those Benghazi hearings were successful because they made Hillary Clinton lose.
You can almost point directly to that.
That smeared her.
That was their whole goal.
They knew she was going to run.
They said that out loud.
They said that out loud.
Right, and they grabbed at least 10 of these hearings, and they kept going over, and that led to the emails.
These are the direct correlations here.
So you have one party that simply wants to use this politically, as you know, whatever, and then you have the Democrats who want to stomp their feet and gnash their teeth, but then don't really get anywhere.
Look at it this way, I know we're going long, but like, Iran-Contra, President Reagan, H.W.
Bush got off without even a slap on the wrist when it was a Democratic-controlled Congress.
And I think a Senate.
I've got to go check that now.
They started a drug epidemic in America to fund God knows who.
Right.
God knows who!
That's what they did!
And they didn't even really get that much of a slap of a wrist on it.
They just got away with it.
So what kind of good old boy network do we have back then with Tip O'Neill that like, they weren't even going to take them to task for what would have been a bigger thing than Watergate.
And again, what we're pointing out here is what they didn't realize was that by not controlling that, by not killing that baby in the cradle, Yes.
We're here, right?
Well, and by the way, you can draw.
We wouldn't have bar.
You can draw.
Oh God, that's another thing to talk about.
You can draw a direct line from Iran-Contra to the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, right?
And here's the thing.
I want to make people think about this.
None of this stuff happens in a vacuum.
It doesn't just occur.
And everyone's like, why is nobody up in arms about this?
Why are we not in the streets?
Trump came out and he's like, well, Saudi Arabia gives us tons of money, so we're not going to do anything.
And everyone's like, oh my God, how could he possibly say that?
And he's like, no, America has been pulling this bullshit for decades.
They have been playing these mercenary games.
They've been playing fast and loose with morality and ethics time and time again.
And eventually you get to a point where it's just like, yeah, an American citizen murdered and dismembered.
What do you want me to do about it?
We got to sell weapons.
This is like, well, how does that happen?
Well, you have to look back at all this stuff.
And here's the thing.
We're at another juncture point.
You either get rid of it or it continues and it gets worse.
All right.
So on that note, again, we really want you to come hang out with us next week.
I don't know how Nick feels about it.
I kind of love conventions.
Like I understand this isn't a normal one.
They're so absurd and it's so interesting to watch the messaging, the way that it's presented, and again there's not going to be like pageantry or whatever.
We're going to watch what hopefully is a once in a lifetime I'm really excited about it.
the national conventions have to take place in isolation because of a pandemic.
I'm really excited about it.
I'm really excited about us launching this coverage.
I think this is one of the things that Nick and I wanted to do when we started this podcast.
We're so excited about it.
We need you to go sign up on Patreon so you can join us as well.
We're going to be doing it on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, the whole way through.
We're going to give you coverage, historical context that other people won't give you that that the networks won't because they're gonna get on and they're just gonna basically be sports analysis.
That's all they're going to do.
They don't really give you anything approaching historical context or nuance.
So please go ahead and sign up.
That is at patreon.com slash muckrakepodcast.
We're going to do that Monday.
So if you sign up, you'll get the link.
You'll know where to go, how to hang out with us all of those days.
You need to do that this weekend, so you're ready for it on Monday.
Again, that is patreon.com slash muckrakepodcast.
Hopefully we don't need to do an emergency podcast this weekend.
I don't know, maybe he'll take out the park service.
Sure.
Who knows?
Who knows what this person can do?
Space Force?
Something will happen with that.
Wouldn't it be amazing if he started Space Force to kill Space Force?
Wouldn't it be amazing if Trump somehow or another, somebody put the idea in his mind that Space Force was going to help steal the election?
Yeah.
Or they were going to attack us.
We got to take them out.
By the way, just really quickly, you know, unless you think I was radicalized by this podcast, I'm a guy who like still wants to question whether or not the lunar landing happened.
And that was way before we started recording these.
So let's make sure you know where I came from.
Hey, save that for the bonus content.
We'll get into the moon landing one day.
But if you need us, until next time, you can find Nick at CanYouHearMeSNH.