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Co-hosts Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman discuss the latest situation with the Canadian convoy and what it means to the United States as it may spread here, plus they talk about the ramifications of Trump ignoring laws while in the White House.
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Welcome to the Weekender Edition of the Muckraker Podcast.
Ah!
It's an aluminum bottle.
It doesn't sound as impressive.
Wow.
Well, here, I have, I'm going to do mine this time because I actually have something.
You ready?
Nick's actually having a drink.
Well, that sounded, that's very satisfying.
Oh, good.
It didn't feel that way.
I was concerned for a second, but cheers.
Cheers.
Thank God we're taping this episode.
Having a beer.
I need it.
I'm Jerry D. H. Sexton.
I'm here with Nick Halseman.
This is for our patrons.
Thank you for your support.
You're wonderful.
If you want to listen to the full episode, go over to patreon.com slash monkrakepodcast.
On Tuesday, Nick, before we brought on Sarah Kinzier, which I think people enjoyed that interview, and she's wonderful.
Before we got to that, we spent a minute talking about this developing situation with the Canadian convoy of truckers who had started to occupy the capital city of Ottawa.
We had talked about the possibility that this occupation would not only last, but also that it could possibly extend to cutting off You know, roads in from the United States and over across the border.
Well, that happened.
We now have three bridges between the United States and Canada blocked off.
On top of that, the auto industries in both the United States and Canada, both have been brought to a complete standstill.
The United States is asking Canada to put an end to this thing.
Meanwhile, the convoy, a lot of them brought along their kids.
Turns out also that the Canadian trucking groups are now saying that the people involved are not actually truckers, not actually parts of their group.
On top of that, the dark money that is providing millions of dollars for this entire thing to be carried out, turns out, Nick, they're funding similar operations in the United States of America.
There's now a possibility, we're hearing from the Department of Homeland Security, that they might carry out an American convoy that might disrupt the Super Bowl, head to Washington, D.C., possibly in March, and do the exact same thing here.
Just a barrel of laughs, man.
Just great what's going on right now.
You know, I meant to mention it in the last pod that we talked about this, that the Truckers Association had come out and said then that virtually almost every single member of their group was vaccinated.
Sure.
Which is another part of this proof.
It's like, this is not, you know, you need a lot of people to get involved with shutting down.
Actually, you know what the irony is?
You probably don't need that many truckers themselves to cause a lot of havoc, even though they might be a tiny fraction of the overall population of the truckers in Canada itself.
That's what's frightening about it, right?
Because you don't, you know, you could do this.
I'm in LA, you know, the Super Bowl is down the street from me and that would be, you know, it would be devastating.
First of all, traffic is already terrible here as it is.
I would be very concerned, but again, they're hitting this where they know it will be covered.
There's no use having a protest, quote unquote, unless you get the coverage of it.
And this is a great way to do it if that's their goal.
Well, I just want to say, first of all, none of this was hidden.
That's the thing that pisses me off all the time, man, is that people are very open about this.
They're very brazen about bringing these things together.
Everybody who paid attention to this New that it was dark money flowing in from billionaire right wing donors who wanted to strike out against liberal democracies because quite frankly they are looking to destroy liberal democracy.
They very bought the government.
They very brought it to its knees.
Now they want to finish the job.
So this is another part of that ongoing effort.
Everybody knew where the money came from.
Everybody knew that this wasn't going to be some sort of a peaceful protest.
Everyone knew that it was just basically a traveling occupation because you get like 5,000, 6,000 people with their big giant trucks.
You go and you park them in the streets.
Next thing you know, the entire thing is basically blockaded.
And to be honest, not only is it brazen, I just want to go ahead and say it's pretty smart.
It is.
It's a really, really brilliant strategy that they've pulled out here.
On top of it not just occupying a major city and creating a security threat, it also shows how small numbers of people can do things like this.
And it preys upon very brittle supply chains.
It messes with globalism, which, by the way, is part of what these people both want to destroy and also use.
But it's very smart.
And it's very sinister and none of it was hidden.
This is why we were able to talk about this a few days ago.
I was tracking this like a week ago knowing everything that there is that we're talking about now and the media and politicians still don't get it.
They truly think that this is like some sort of a grassroots operation that has just sprung up and is just doing this stuff.
Well, I have no doubt it started that way.
I guarantee you a few truckers decided to do this thing and then it kind of, like, Forrest Gump grew, right?
Like, it had to have a semblance of truth in the very beginning.
But, you know, there's an easy way to end this, right, Jared?
You know what that is, right?
I'm wondering where you're going with this.
Well, just end the mandate that they need to have vaccinated to get into the country.
Oh, man.
I don't actually even think that's part of it.
I mean, that's what they're protesting, right?
Say, fine, you don't need to be vaccinated.
We'll just test you on the way inside the border.
Oh, just call the bluff on this.
Right?
Well, yeah, why not?
I mean, but at this point, cases are going down.
The mask mandates are going away across every state now, in blue states as well.
It's weird how that's happening, isn't it?
As public frustration with everything is reaching higher and higher points as we move towards this midterm, it's weird how those things are falling to the wayside.
I mean, I'm not as cynical as that.
To me, it's like, OK, things are either you've already gotten it or you've gotten the vaccine and like cases are going down and obviously deaths are lagging.
But, you know, the only thing it's so frustrating because here's the thing.
We know that like KN95 masks, whatever they're called, they reduce the amount of, you know, particles going out of your mouth.
We know that the virus is spread by the particles coming out of your mouth.
So ipso facto ergo, whatever that is, it is what's the Latin?
I don't even know.
Don't even try to take me down there.
Basically, it means like it will give you a chance of maybe not spreading it as much.
That's like, you know, common sense.
It's science.
It's all these things.
But it's so frustrating to me.
And I'm actually at that point now where it's like, OK, fuck it.
You know, if you really are that upset about the mask mandates, which we have completely, you know, you can't go anywhere in L.A.
without wearing a mask, you know, in public.
You know, at this point, I think I'm at my wits end as well.
Well, I hear you, but you're talking about two different things.
I know.
Yeah.
As one does.
And first of all, I am that cynical to think that the Democratic Party looked up and they're like, oh my God, we're unpopular.
We're controlling the situation.
We have to do this.
I am that cynical.
But this protest, it's not even a protest, it's an astroturfed attack on democracy, has nothing to do with it.
It literally has nothing to do with the coronavirus.
That's just an incredibly useful cover story.
You know, I've been following the coverage of what's happening in Ottawa.
They're not talking about the coronavirus.
They're not talking about mandates.
They're talking about how they've been, quote-unquote, betrayed.
They're talking about conspiracy theories.
It's the New World Order.
It's the Deep State.
It's QAnon.
The entire thing that has happened here, and of course, the pandemic has exacerbated it, right?
Because the idea of state power being used on people right now is an incredibly dangerous, inflammatory idea.
Yes, that throws fuel on the fire.
But right now they have taken groups of people who are literally up to their eyeballs in conspiracy theories.
They're talking about kids being sacrificed.
They're talking about global cabals.
There's all of that is what's taking place here.
And they're taking advantage.
And this is the important thing here.
The same people who radicalized these people, the same people who spread QAnon stuff, the same people who spread the New World Order deep state stuff, the same people who pushed the big lie, those exact same people who spent all that money and all that energy and all that time pushing conspiracy theories to radicalize people, now have a group of people that they can throw a bunch of money at and say, go over there and sick them.
And that's what they've done.
It's the exact same individuals who are carrying out these things.
They're the ones who started this situation in terms of radicalizing conspiracy theories in the first place.
Well, it's amazing because the right will often just accuse, you know, the left of a plant of the same thing, of fabricating these things.
Can I say something about that real fast?
Yeah.
Because I'm glad that you brought this up.
I've been meaning to talk about this on the podcast for a while.
All right.
You and I have talked, I'm not going to get into everything, right, that you and I have talked about about this, but I'll say this.
I've been in conversations with some people recently about some projects, about some things, and one of the things that keeps coming around is that there are a lot of people who are interested in some really dark shit.
I'm talking about people on the left who think that the answer to the Kochs and that the answers to the Bradley Foundation and all these is you just gotta fight fire with fire and you have to radicalize people on the other side.
We've talked about this.
We've, like weird shit, right?
Well, I'll say this.
Some people are like, well, what about Soros?
Soros is throwing money around.
Yeah, Soros is throwing money around.
That's absolutely true.
And I have to tell you that like there's a lot of money from him that is in a lot of different places and is doing a lot of this shit.
The problem is that it's an arms race.
It's it's it's it's like mutually assured destruction to the point where everybody feels like they have to engage in misinformation and that they have to radicalize people and use conspiracy theories and one way shape or form back and forth.
It's pretty insidious because you're exactly right.
Like the right will say like these protests are completely astroturfed or whatever.
That's not true.
But there are initiatives that are underway to try and fight back.
The problem is we do live in a time in which reality is a very, very thin veneer.
So you're right.
And I just want to get on the record about that because it is really messed up and it's really weird.
It's very confusing and it's frustrating, is what I would say.
Yeah.
I mean, it's all part of the projection of what they always accuse, you know, us, the left of doing, for instance, and now they're just doing it.
You know, did you know that birds aren't real, Jared?
So we haven't talked about the Birds Aren't Real thing in a while and you texted me about this.
I'm so glad that you've now been exposed to the Birds Aren't Real phenomenon.
Well, I was exposed because my son, my 14-year-old son, who at some point needs to come on the show, started talking to me.
He looked at me like we were sitting around and he goes, Birds aren't real, man.
And I don't even think I was like, whatever, get the hell away.
Whatever you're talking about is crazy.
Because he'll get into crazy, you know, he has a savant-like knowledge of the history of European politics.
It's crazy.
So anyway, so I didn't understand what he was talking about.
I asked him the other day, because obviously there was a pod on it, another pod that recently I listened to.
But anyway, the point being that the guy created Birds No Aren't Real as a movement, a fake movement, as a nothing, as a response, as a performative piece, as an art installation almost.
And it's now come to the point where thousands upon thousands of people have sort of joined this movement.
But the best part was the story they relayed in this pod yesterday I listened to was that like there was an anti-abortion rally on a college campus that ended up becoming disbursed because the Birds Aren't Real people came down and just started screaming Birds Aren't Real.
And like the other guys had to like leave because they couldn't be heard.
Good.
It's there's merch.
It's it's not even just like it's capitalistic.
It's all these different things.
This is where we are.
I'm trying to, by the way, Jerry, we should come up with the next Birds Aren't Real.
Let's do that.
Let's figure that out, because I think we can not only, you know, lead people somewhere, but we can, you know, we could fucking make some money on it.
I mean, that's the gross part about it.
It really, truly is.
Because and the problem with all of this and the trucker thing is is really emblematic of it.
The problem is that governments, politicians, businesses have engaged in such reality distortion for so long.
That's the problem, right?
They've lied.
They've carried out operations.
You know, they've just done one thing after another that has Broken any sort of objective reality and and I do think by the way that we are living in the The aftermath of the Cold War and you basically had two superpowers that were engaged in constant clandestine Maneuvering right there was nothing that happened around the world that at least there wasn't like a little thing in the back of your head that was like Is that the CIA?
Was that the KGB?
Was that special operations?
Was that active measures?
Was that half measures?
You know what I mean?
And eventually, after you live in that for so long, and there's no means whatsoever of thinking, man, this is subjective reality, you enter into a hyper-capitalistic society like this one.
There's all kinds of reason to make money off this.
There's all kinds of... You can go down any road.
I mean, I haven't checked on it lately, but I have to assume there's probably still some people milling around Daily Plaza awaiting JFK Jr.
and possibly JFK Sr.
to emerge and lead us into a new Great Awakening.
And that guy undoubtedly is making money, and there's people on the edges of that making money.
And it's gotten to the point where literally every viewpoint that you can imagine is not only making money, but the ones that really find purchase.
QAnon, New World Order, Deep State.
It's profitable for corporations like Fox News to peddle them.
People can get elected president peddling them.
On top of that, the wealthy, who know that the New World Order idea is bullshit, they can simply, like, flip a switch and say, hey, the New World Order is in Ottawa.
Go and surround them.
Starve them out.
And meanwhile, I almost forgot about this because, my God, things are happening so quickly.
Fox News is promoting this shit now.
Because of course they are.
It's around the clock.
Trucker Convoy in Canada.
We need to do our own.
Tucker Carlson is live on the air fantasizing about blockading major cities and or not delivering their goods and starving them.
He literally talked about that the other night.
He fantasized about starving out the coastal elites.
Which by the way, Nick, let me check my notes.
Yeah, Tucker Carlson is one of them.
Yeah, right.
Well, me too.
I guess.
I don't want to be starved out.
But nonetheless, is there any question, is there any doubt anymore that what Fox News is trying to do is encourage people to get COVID so that they die and then it looks bad on Biden?
Right?
It's not even a guess anymore.
I don't know if they had a meeting about that.
Well, you know.
But, you know, look at the facts.
Look at how they're doing this.
It's like there's not a lot of other, you know, ways to interpret that.
You know, the Delia Plaza thing was funny because when they all got there, it really looked just like the Zapruder film.
You know, that many people all around on Elm Street.
It was really interesting.
And it's hard to believe that those people actually, those people really do believe in it, right?
Like they're not like doing birds aren't real, you know, performative stuff here.
This is a, they're on the other side of the real reality to them thing, right?
And I got to tell you, and this is important to say too, there are probably tons of people at like the Ottawa protest who, you know, they know that this is an astroturf thing.
They're political operators, right?
The next generation is Roger Stone.
Whatever his name would be in Canada, you know, like Roger Aboot or whatever.
That's a terrible joke.
That's just awful.
Yeah.
Did you Frenchify his name?
What did you say?
I said Roger Aboot.
That's a terrible joke.
I could have done better than that.
That's all.
But the next generation of Roger Stone is absolutely at this thing.
But I have to tell you, Nick, there are people there who believe that they are there for real reasons.
You know what I mean?
Same thing with January 6th.
There were people in the crowd of January 6th who were part of the military intelligence complex.
There were people who probably wanted to overthrow the government.
Well, obviously there was.
I mean, there was like a coup attempt on the ground.
Then there were other people who literally thought that they were there to protect their favorite president who had been robbed because there was An evil, satanic conspiracy against him.
And there's all different strokes of life that are in place in all these places.
But you're right.
There are true believers involved in this stuff.
And they're true believers because they need something.
Right.
They're desperate for something.
Something that makes sense.
They need life to make sense to them.
And somehow it does.
I'm actually in hiding.
Did you know that Jared?
I'm in hiding.
I'm very afraid of the police, but a very specific part of the police, the gazpacho police.
Oh, they're out there.
And I'm really, really concerned.
So I've been hiding.
I haven't been going out.
I haven't been talking to anybody.
You don't know where I'm broadcasting from right now.
Can I say something controversial?
I don't get cold soup.
I don't get it.
Gazpacho is... It's awesome.
It's amazing.
I love gazpacho.
It sounds like water.
It's like eating salsa, but better.
I'll take salsa.
A really good salsa.
For those who don't know, Right-wing public intellectual Marjorie Taylor Greene was out.
And I saw some people.
So she was being asked about God knows what.
January 6th, right?
Nancy Pelosi in the investigation.
And she said that Nancy Pelosi and her gazpacho police, which of course she's referring to the Gestapo, I got to tell you, I've seen people online.
They're like, there's no way that she is that stupid, that that was an accident.
She did this for attention.
It's like, I know I to inform you.
She's that stupid.
And not only is she that stupid, there is a plethora of evidence that she is not a talented individual.
And yeah, that was that was incredible.
And meanwhile, the Republican story I, man, I, you know what it reminds me of?
It reminds me there was this time in college, there was like a summer where I didn't have like a good job.
Oh, okay.
I thought this was going somewhere else.
No, there was this summer where I didn't have a good job and I couldn't afford cable.
So I had like, I just had like a, an antenna, you know what I mean?
Back in the day when you do that and I had like NBC, ABC, CBS.
And so like of the day, I would just watch days of our lives.
And I watched every single day.
I watched Days of Our Lives for like an entire summer.
And I'd never really watched soap operas before.
But for those of you who have watched soap operas, every single day multiple plots are changing in just absolute absurdist ways.
And I have to tell you, the Republican Party feels like a really poorly written soap opera at this point.
I mean, it is absurd how much this thing is changing and mutating every single day.
Nick, we didn't know exactly why Donald Trump was talking about needing stronger toilets.
Right.
I love that.
We kind of had to consider the scatological habits of a president.
You know, when every single meeting he's talking about how much you need better toilets.
People are needing to flush them 14, 15 times to... I don't even know what to say here.
Get rid of the waste or whatever.
And it turns out, no.
He was just, you know, shredding documents in his toilet basically every single day and was frustrated that they wouldn't go down.
I just love that this is now something that we even have to consider.
Well, you know, here's the thing.
Why was he flushing documents down the toilet?
There's only like, you know, one, well there's two answers, right?
One is that they were so damning, right?
These documents would so clearly implicate him in some horrible nefarious thing that he had to, this is like, you know, Goodfellas flushing the thing down the toilet, you know?
Why'd you do that, Karen?
Anyway, or he is so insane, right, and so addled that he had this whole thing going on in his mind that he thought, oh my god, we have to flush these things down.
Like, I'm sure there are people out there listening right now that have dealt with a family member who has I would go also that there's an option three, which is that the words in the reading scared him and upset him so much he had to get rid of them.
you know, whatever it is, and they're doing this.
I can't tell which, but it's probably a mix of both.
I would go also that there's an option three, which is that the words in the reading scared him and upset him so much he had to get rid of them.
I mean, you know, I don't know why.
And for those who haven't heard already, Maggie Haberman, who just a little bit of background, you know, whenever I talk about people who are in media because their parents were in media or because their parents were wealthy, that's who Maggie Haberman is.
That's how she got her job.
And meanwhile, she has turned into a Trump whisperer.
She has made an entire career off of being one of the people who Donald Trump will talk to.
And she now, by the way, she has a new book coming out, which is like a biography of Trump.
Who wants to read that in 2022?
Do you know what I mean?
You kind of missed the boat on that one, Maggie.
I don't know what to tell you.
Meanwhile, she heard that he was getting rid of top-secret documents, stealing top-secret documents.
Did she tell anybody?
Did she tell the United States of America?
Did she alert authorities?
Did she break the news so they could possibly save it?
No, of course not.
She saved it for a book that would come out a year after he had left office.
Well, listen, that's what everybody does now, right?
If Woodward could do it, then she can do it, goddamn it.
But yes, I mean, but we heard reporting.
I just want to make sure, first of all, you know, Chris Wallace worked really hard and came up, you know, even though his father, you know, was also on, you know, 60 Minutes.
Let's not smear every child of a big name in the media.
I'm saying that reporting and journalism doesn't pay enough.
So most of the people who have the big time jobs, are going to New York City or already live in New York City because their parents give them a trust fund.
And so they can take internships and or they can get jobs working for the former colleagues of their parents.
That's all I'm saying, which is that it's not really a meritocracy.
And it's one of the reasons why journalism isn't that great anymore.
But that's just my two cents.
my two cents okay fair enough fair enough you know um you know uh anyway so the point being is that she sat on this stuff again what's the the point you're making or the outrage that we have is that it would it would have done something right this reporting and the real time when she found out about it would have done nothing right nobody by the way like we know that he's flushing shit down he's stealing uh uh official documents uh he's taking them to mar-a-lago they're in boxes
OK, fair enough.
Fair enough.
You know, you know.
they're burn bagged them some of them like illegally like they you know they got randos just deciding which ones they should burn and which one they shouldn't um these are the people by the way who won't say anything about this who aren't outraged and yet were the people that like decided not to vote for hillary because she had a private email server And you have been listening to a free preview of our Patreon-exclusive Weekender Show.
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