Democrats Just Launched ANOTHER Investigation into Trump At The WORST Possible Time Ever
Democrats Just Launched ANOTHER Investigation into Trump At The WORST Possible Time Ever. Adam Schiff is at again this time calling for an investigation into Trump over his response to the ongoing crisis around the world and the US response to it.Democrats like nancy pelosi have been criticizing the president for this over the past week but fail to point out that while the crisis was growing they were focused on Impeachment of Trump and distracted him and our government. Not only that but Democrats themselves have done little to actually deal with the problem while republicans had been waving warning signs since January.
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We are facing one of the most difficult trials in our country's history.
Donald Trump recently came out and his administration and said that we're potentially looking at 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in, well, during this pandemic, and that the next couple of weeks will be the roughest we have ever faced.
Now, Donald Trump has been criticized in the media and by Democrats for his slow response.
But the reality is that whether you like the job the president did or not, for one, who do we compare him to?
How do we know anyone could have done a better job?
But more importantly, There was an impeachment going on when we should have been focused on more pressing issues.
And throughout the entire presidential run of these past several years, the Democrats have waged investigation after investigation, absolutely slowing down any potential response or any kind of real leadership the president could have engaged in.
The president is deserving of criticism for sure.
I can't tell you who could have done a better job.
I don't know.
But I do think he could have been a bit more serious early on.
But it's also a fact that Democrats weren't doing anything either.
And now here's the great news.
The Democrats are once again launching an investigation at a time when we are in serious crisis.
The last thing the president needs to be worrying about is a new 9-11 style commission To review his coronavirus response, this story from the Hill with 116,000 shares.
We do not need the president of this country to be distracted, nor his administration.
You can criticize him.
You can hate him.
It's fine.
But this is just the most inappropriate thing I have ever seen.
And I am very critical.
Of course, you know, I have my biases.
I'm critical of the investigations.
They've been a waste of time.
We knew the impeachment would fail.
They went for it anyway, while this crisis was brewing.
And of course, my first thought was maybe he's not really targeting Trump.
Maybe the coronavirus review that Schiff wants to draft will be targeting the entirety of government.
Perhaps it would even call out the Democrats themselves, who are too wrapped up in impeachment speeches to worry about what was actually happening around the world.
No, of course, we have another interview, this one from the Washington Post.
Has Trump corrupted the coronavirus supply chain?
Schiff wants to know.
That's right.
Adam Schiff is directing the investigation at the president in a time of crisis, one of the worst we will ever see in our lives, potentially the worst in our nation's history.
And this is what you get when you vote for people like Schiff.
It's truly a truly incredible day.
Now, of course, many of you may be familiar that Adam Schiff was already investigating the president during the impeachment process.
During the impeachment trial, Democrats were already lining up new charges.
And I know why.
Many of you probably know why.
But, you know, it's getting a little redundant.
But once again today, Donald Trump's approval rating is higher than it's ever been.
I believe 47.7.
Yep, it's up.
Even as the economy bottoms out, the American people still support the president.
Major networks are cutting away from his press briefings because his message is getting through to people.
He may not be perfect.
He's got a lot of character defects, to say the least.
But at least so far in the coronavirus, he has not done a bad job.
In fact, he's done a pretty good job.
Is it perfect?
No.
Does he deserve criticism?
Yes, he does.
But is he doing what he needs to do?
I believe he is.
I absolutely do.
And we will see manufacturing come back.
We'll see border security.
And there are absolutely things to be concerned about.
The rise of authoritarianism.
It should all be called out.
But this, This is something else.
Let's read the story and see what's going on.
Chef, I did talk a little bit about this the other day, but we're gonna do a deep dive into what's going on with this investigation.
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I want to show you this story from the 29th.
Pelosi on Trump's coronavirus response.
As the president fiddles, people are dying.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday criticized Donald Trump's response, saying his denial at the beginning was deadly and that as he fiddles, people are dying.
We should be taking every precaution.
With the president, his denial at the beginning was dead.
Okay, they say it a million times.
Thanks, CNN.
We get the point.
Here's the issue.
Donald Trump, as you know, because I've said it several times, formed the task force on the 29th, banned travel on the 31st.
Not perfect, but he did something.
The Democrats were doing nothing.
Joe Biden was tweeting about climate change.
He was tweeting about impeachment.
The Democrats were focused on impeachment.
At least we had a president through all of this do something.
Well, here we go.
Shift is drafting legislation to set up a 9-11 style commission to review the coronavirus response.
They say that, quote, after Pearl Harbor 9-11, we looked at what went wrong to learn from our mistakes.
Once we recovered, we need a nonpartisan commission to review our response and how we can better prepare for the next pandemic.
Schiff did not give specifics regarding when the legislation will be dropped, but suggested it would be after Congress finishes the task at hand, mulling a series of stimulus packages aimed at alleviating the economic impact of the pandemic.
Sources familiar with the legislation told NBC News, the legislation is very preliminary.
And of course, it is about Donald Trump.
This is more of a latest development.
So, when I saw the story the other day, it was possibly he would be investigating everything.
But of course, it is going to be Donald Trump.
The Washington Post, in an op-ed, Greg Sargent says, By now it's been widely documented that the Trump administration's process for allotting medical supplies to states that are urgently pleading for them has devolved into a colossal disastrous mess.
What's sobering is how little we know about why this has happened.
In part due to President Trump's public rage at governors who criticized him.
That was fake news.
100% fake news.
And the starkly different treatment that states appear to have received.
Some state officials are wondering whether politics is playing a role in the response.
As an expose in the Post delicately puts it.
Donald Trump, in a quote, or was quoted as saying, I want them to be appreciative, or I tell Mike Pence don't call them.
This is the sick game the media has played.
Trump actually got a CNN reporter to read the full quote.
Trump said, I want them to be appreciative.
And I'm not talking about me.
I'm talking about the administration and the FEMA and all these other officials.
So yes, you can criticize the president, but do it honestly.
Trump was not talking about himself.
He wanted them to appreciate the work that was being done from the first responders who are seeking to help these states.
He also wants them to focus more on the individual efforts they can undergo.
I'm not a fan of the guy, but let's be real about what's going on.
This is fake news.
The whole process is absolutely screaming out for more transparency and accountability, and Democrats must utilize their institutional powers to the fullest, provided you people are insane.
The last time you did this, every time you did this, his approval rating went up and he raised millions of dollars, dare I say hundreds of millions of dollars, but they don't learn.
They must want Trump to win and raise money.
It's my only explanation.
I can't think of anything.
Look, how many times they need to engage in this behavior, see how it benefits Trump before they realize they're helping him.
My only conclusion is that they know it's helping them and they want to help him by pretending to be a villain, I guess.
In an interview with me, Rep Adam Schiff suggested various lines of inquiry that a democratic oversight effort can pursue.
Schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, noted some fact-finding is already underway, though it's been complicated by the social distancing that has closed down Congress, and there it is.
He's already launched the investigation.
We can play semantics all you want.
You can say it's a preliminary inquiry or whatever.
No, look.
Fact-finding is underway.
They've begun the process.
We can talk about when you think it starts or it doesn't.
The dude is moving forward.
He's launching his investigation because it's the only thing he knows how to do.
He's already had a passive backburner investigation.
This story from February 6th, at a time when we should have been more concerned about the growing pandemic.
What was he doing?
Still pending is a wide-open probe launched by Rep Adam Schiff, California Democrat.
Mr. Schiff has been investigating President Trump, his family, and businesses, the Trump Organization, over the congressman's suspicions of blackmail, money laundering, and bribery.
Let's throw it back to Nancy Pelosi.
What was Adam Schiff doing?
Why are you so mad at Trump?
Was Adam Schiff doing anything to prepare for this?
What's that?
He was just once again dragging investigations of the president?
You know what, man?
The Democratic Party obstructed the stimulus package for a week.
Several times they blocked this.
Anyone who supports them at this point, it's, it's, it's, it's, I think you're out of your mind.
Look, they could, they could whisper sweet nothings into your ears.
There could be some people who say I'm a moderate and I will do right by you.
But even if you find a moderate Democrat at this point, this is what they do with the power.
And the coronavirus is a very serious wake up call.
Policy-wise, I've never been a big fan of Republican policy.
And people will call me conservative simply for saying, this is insane.
What Schiff is doing is not policy.
It is tribalism.
He's not advocating for the poor.
He's not talking about social programs.
He's not talking about alleviating wealth inequality or helping people get healthcare.
He's just saying Orange Man bad over and over again.
Well, I think we know why.
First, The Washington Post has a less partisan, but another story.
The U.S.
needs to know what went wrong.
What did go wrong?
And why did it go wrong?
Did it really go wrong?
Could it have been done better?
I don't know.
You know, it's fine to say we need an inquiry to prepare for future pandemics and understand what we could have done better.
But to do another, another investigation.
And yes, there have already been people calling for the impeachment of Donald Trump again.
It's not as widespread as it is.
There are some letters to the editors, there are social media posts, people saying, his response to the coronavirus is proof he should be impeached.
No, people like his response to the coronavirus.
It's up.
It's amazing.
I've never seen polling this good for the president.
It seriously is nuts.
Almost every poll shows Trump above water.
50% approval.
And this is what we can see.
This is the real reason they want to investigate the president.
Most of you already know, okay?
Because it's obvious to all of us.
But here's, let me lay it out for you.
From Fox Business, Trump's performance against coronavirus not looking good for Democrats.
And there it is.
You see, the economy's not on the ballot anymore.
For the longest time, people said, you know, Moody's Analytics, for instance, Trump's economy is so good, he's going to win in a landslide, unless there's record voter turnout.
No one's going to lose in the economy going this well.
The economy tanked.
And we will learn something when Trump's approval rating went up.
No one blames him for the economy.
In fact, they're hoping a businessman president to a certain degree, or some people are, they're hoping that as a businessman is a good thing.
Many Democrats have started coming around to appreciate what Trump is doing in response to the coronavirus.
No one is blaming him for the economy, and they think he's doing a fine enough job.
Now there have been a few points brought up.
Why are they supporting him in his efforts?
For one, perhaps they genuinely think he's doing a good job and he's helped them.
Or two, perhaps they think he's fighting as hard as he can, daily press briefings, and even though he's doing a bad job, they appreciate that he's fighting as hard as he is.
I don't know which one it is.
You can speculate all day and night.
But it really is not looking good for the Democrats.
Fox Business says, Stuart Varney in his latest My Take argues that President Trump's managing of the coronavirus outbreak only leaves the Democrats in a bad position for the upcoming election.
What's funny is, we can recognize that the Democrats desperately need an edge.
they have a problem. Likely candidate Joe Biden is sidelined and gets no traction.
The primaries and the Milwaukee Convention are in chaos.
Varney said the worst of all for Democrats, Trump's performance during during the coronavirus outbreak
has given him popular approval and is boosting him in the polls. At this stage, the Democrats are
not looking good. What's funny is we can recognize that the Democrats desperately need an
edge. So because Trump is doing well and people like it, I'm the way I the way I see it, in my
opinion, they're hoping that after this they can erase those gains Trump made.
If people right now think Trump is doing a good job, they'll probably forget in three or four months, this will all blow over, hopefully.
And then Schiff launches an inquiry where they can saturate the media with negative stories about Trump's bumbling buffoonery or whatever they want to claim.
That's the goal here.
And they've started already.
They know they will lose otherwise because the pandemic has given Trump an edge.
According to Varney, Schiff has already joined Pelosi's efforts by demanding a 9-11-style commission.
There is no end to the Democrats' contempt for this president.
Adam Schiff is just dying to get back on television.
Varney said Democrats have tried to smear President Trump with Russian investigations and impeachment, and now they're at it again.
Varney believes there's nothing else the Democrats can do but investigate and come up with an October surprise.
It's a desperate political strategy.
What a gamble.
If it fails, it surely opens the door to a second Trump term, which he is on track for.
I love showing these polls.
47.7% approval.
Once again, Donald Trump's approval rating higher than it has ever been.
This is what, like the fourth aggregate update in a row?
How many days have I come out and said like, oh, Trump's approval rating is up?
That's up again.
Republicans raised, I'm sorry, WinRed, the Republican fundraising arm, brought in $130 million in the first quarter of this year.
It's going really, really well for the president.
What's shocking to me is that even amid record unemployment, 6.65 million jobless claims spiking, Trump's still winning.
Because like I said, nobody blames him for this.
The Democrats know they've got to figure out what they can do.
With 10 million in two weeks.
10 million unemployment claims in two weeks.
Now, I think there may be repeat unemployment claims.
I don't know exactly how it works.
But this should show you that this is as bad as it's ever been.
Yet still, you know, Trump is improving.
From the Hill, five reasons Democrats fear Trump's coronavirus briefings.
Well, one of the latest updates is that CNN, MSNBC have refused to carry the full Trump coronavirus briefings.
And the Washington Post's response in the headline is, yay.
I kid you not.
When this was posted to Reddit, there were complaints that you need to post a title as they exist.
And people are like, whoa.
The Washington Post actually wrote yay in their headline that the that the American people will not get access to the president's briefings.
How insane is that?
And just the other day, they actually cut off his press.
Look at this.
CNN avoids majority of White House virus press or trashes trashes Trump for shameless focus on political anti-cartel efforts.
The president speaking to the people.
If the president is lying, the people should know.
If the president is a bad person, the people should see what he has to say.
Isn't the goal of journalism to present the facts and give you information?
When was it ever about hiding information, whether it's correct or incorrect?
So this is what The Hill says.
MSNBC's Chris Hayes says President Trump's daily coronavirus briefings are dangerous.
He was especially offended, he explained, because at a recent forum, you have the MyPillow guy getting up there talking about reading the Bible.
So what?
The guy just shifted his factory production to help save lives, to make masks.
It wasn't clear whether it was MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's enthusiasm for Donald Trump that so alarmed the cable TV host, or the unwelcome mention of the Bible, I'm guessing both.
Either way, he's right.
They are dangerous.
Here are five reasons the left would like to scuttle Trump's revised White House briefings.
First, the forum allows Trump to speak directly to Americans, unfiltered by left-wing media, just as the president has relied on social media over the past few years to circumvent the mainstream press and reach out to voters directly, so he can now do that via the crisis updates.
They say the second problem for Democrats is the briefings are pumping up Trump's approval ratings.
The boost is coming, reports the New York Times from a surprising source, namely, independents and even some Democrats, many of whom did not formally support the president.
The briefings are apparently a revelation to those voters.
The Times interviewed people who think the president is doing the best he can with the limited amount of information available.
Those citizens, like millions of others, the briefings are attracting Monday night football type ratings, are looking for information and comfort.
That's what Trump is giving them.
And you know what?
I love saying this, but it's China's fault.
And everybody needs to realize that.
You can't blame the president, even if he's doing a bad job and he could be doing better.
It is China's fault.
And I'll say this, too.
It's not the Democrats' fault this is happening.
It is China's fault.
But I will say this.
If our response is being slowed down, and if the president is being distracted, it's because the Democrats are holding up these bills.
It's because the Democrats are launching investigations.
I'm sorry, that's a fact.
If the president is doing bad, they are trying to make him do worse.
That is the last thing this country needs.
He says third, the briefings on the coronavirus have relegated Democrats favorite agenda item to the back page.
Clearly, this pandemic is the story of the day, whether or not the president addresses the nation each afternoon.
But having a daily one or two hour session about therapies and equipment delivery soaks up a lot of the evening news cycle.
They go on to say, Speaking of November, it is worth remembering that there is a presidential election coming up, though a reminder is called for given the near invisibility of the opposition candidate.
The former vice president's disappearing act is the fourth reason that Democrats want networks to stop airing the daily briefings.
Not only does President Trump occupy center stage, they highlight that Biden occupies no stage at all.
Moreover, it is impossible to imagine Biden forcefully commanding the instruments of government.
He can barely manage his basement teleprompter.
Finally, liberals want to shut down the president's TV exposure, because the information given out during those briefings is important, like how low-income Americans can access expanded SNAP benefits, or how small business owners can apply for a loan to tide them through these tough times.
Viewers are relying on that stream of news.
They are communing With their president and the federal government in a way we rarely see.
It is not clear how the virus will progress when we get back to work or how bad the economy will be over the next several months.
But Americans see Trump fighting for them every day as hard as humanly possible.
Democrats know that will help him win four more years.
It's incredible.
Donald Trump isn't just speaking for himself.
When he goes up at these press briefings, he has Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci.
These are very popular individuals.
They are considered to be much more credible than Trump and the media combined.
Or for the most part.
I don't want to say combined, because it depends on your polls.
But when it comes to approval rating, Gallup says the media is at 44, Trump is at 60%.
These press briefings aren't just the president.
Other people are there too.
Shutting down these briefings would cut off these doctors that people really trust.
This is why people disapprove of the media and why they don't trust them.
Because they know the media will shut down relevant and important information.
But let me just prove to you, in no uncertain terms, just how broken the media is.
Now, you've seen it all.
And let me wrap this up by saying, you know, this one point before we move on to proof of the media.
This is why the investigations exist.
Trump is doing really well, and Schiff needs to besmirch his name in the coming months once this comes to an end.
That's why he's saying, oh, we're going to wait until, you know, all this blows over.
We've got to get the relief package first.
No, it's because he wants to make sure that the last word in all of this is that the orange man is bad no matter what.
He wants to erase the gains from the polls.
That's his mission.
Check this out.
Russia sends 60 tons of medical supplies to the US after Vladimir Putin offers to assist during a phone call with Donald Trump.
But critics say it is a propaganda gift to the Kremlin.
That's right.
Vladimir Putin sending medical supplies to America is bad because it's propaganda.
And Trump, of course, you know, they always smear him as working for Russia.
What do you think NBC said when it was China sending supplies to the world?
Did they say it was a propaganda effort?
No, they said, as the U.S.
struggles to stem the coronavirus, China asserts itself as a global leader.
Bravo.
When it comes to China, they're a global leader.
When it comes to the Kremlin giving us supplies, it's a propaganda effort.
That, to me, is absolutely incredible.
China lied.
We know they lied.
U.S.
intel reports say they lied.
They could have stopped this.
They could have warned us.
They could have helped us and everyone else, and they didn't.
They've exploited the circumstances.
They were hoarding supplies and extracting them from Australia, Canada, and other countries in January while telling the World Health Organization there was no human-to-human transmission and everything was fine.
It slowed our response down.
BuzzFeed even reported that their trolls, that these social media accounts potentially controlled by China, I don't know who controls them, were sowing disinformation and making people slow their responses.
China was arresting whistleblowers, barricading people in their homes, and lying about the numbers.
To this day, they are lying.
And because we don't have accurate numbers, we can't forecast how bad this is going to be.
First, you want to blame the president for what's going on.
I believe you can criticize him.
Yes, he's not perfect.
But remember, if he had a slow response to things, you have to blame China because they were the ones lying.
Why?
Why would I be surprised that Trump said it doesn't seem like a big deal if China said there was no human human transmission?
Why would I be surprised even if Democrats said they don't think it's a big deal if China was flubbing their numbers?
So I think both the Democrats and Trump were duped by Chinese lies and the World Health Organization.
Rick Scott is now calling for a probe or investigation into the World Health Organization.
Japan is dragging them as the Chinese health organization.
But still, you cannot ignore the fact that the Democrats are once again going to waste our time, the president's time, with a fruitless, boring, you know, we know it's going to fail, 9-11 style commission, another inquiry, more fact-finding.
Why?
What do you think is going on?
Did the president accept bribes from China or Russia or something?
It's just absolutely insane that they don't learn their lesson.
In the wake of all of this, Trump will be stronger than ever.
I can only assume that Adam Schiff is the biggest Trump supporter in the world.
Why else would he be doing this?
You know what?
Maybe he's a smart person pretending to be stupid, or a stupid person pretending to be smart, right?
I guess we'll find out.
No, I think we already know, based on this action.
My prediction.
Trump's approval rating will skyrocket.
Depending on how bad things get, it will go up more and more.
The approval for Democrats will go down.
A Gallup poll recently came out saying that America's approval for Republicans is now above Democrats.
For the first time in a long time, it was reversing a major trend.
It's almost exclusively the American people praising Democrats.
You know, it's really easy to get approval when you tell people you're going to give them a pie in the sky.
And it's really hard when you advocate for personal responsibility.
But right now, amid this crisis, the last thing we need is everything to be bogged down.
So you can blame the Democrats for that.
The obstruction of the bill, of the stimulus package several days in a row, and now this investigation.
I am not looking forward to the next few months, to be honest.
I mean, most importantly is the people who will lose their lives.
That has me worried.
You know, my heart and prayers to everybody.
My thoughts are with you.
After this, I know that there's not going to be a normal.
But I guess it will be kind of normal to see Adam Schiff launching another investigation.
We'll see how things play out.
I'll see you all at 4 p.m.
YouTube... I'm sorry, I'll see you all at 6 p.m.
YouTube.com slash TimCastNews.
It is a different channel.
I'll have several more segments coming up then.
Thanks for hanging out.
I'll see you over there.
The Pentagon is ordering 100,000 body bags for FEMA.
It makes sense because we've heard the projections.
100 to 240,000 dead.
We've got 1,000 people dying in just a single day, bringing the death toll to 5,139.
As it's claimed, defense chiefs warned Trump White House of potential threat in 2017.
So far we have a substantial amount of people have lost their lives already.
And the fear is that either the quarantine was too late or that people are breaking it and still spreading this.
So what you have to understand is with the incubation period, if we say right now everyone stop and go in your homes, two weeks later you will be getting people sick and dying.
So that's why it goes on for some time and these people remain symptomatic.
Which is why we've seen some indefinite stay-at-home orders.
It's why we've seen June 10th as some of the deadlines.
It's why Donald Trump pushed the deadline back to April 30th.
It's because it seems like, you know, we're dealing with an invisible threat, and we don't know who might be sick, and we don't know how long we need to wait, and so we're trying to do the best we can.
But it's gonna get bad.
Because there's another serious... This is insane.
6.6 million filed jobless claims as coronavirus grips economy.
This is... This is sobering.
And shocking.
Whatever you want to call it.
If our economy tanks, things will get worse than you realize.
You can't get those emergency supplies.
You can't get that medical equipment.
You can't pay the doctors.
So, listen.
Most of you understand how the economy works.
I mean, the reason why a doctor or a nurse or a medical transportation or medical waste removal, the reason they do their jobs is because they're being given access to the economy.
You get resources.
We'll give you X in exchange for your labor.
You can then use that money to buy things you need.
Pay your rent, buy food, maybe get a video game or something that allows you to enjoy yourself.
A lot of people might dismiss entertainment.
And while we have, like I have personally joked about how, you know, we mock celebrities and stuff, there is a reason why we like these things, like celebrity gossip and like TV.
It is kind of a de-stressor for people.
You get away from the things that are difficult and it allows you to just kind of like chill out.
I love watching cartoons myself.
I watch Family Guy, American Dad.
I love it.
Futurama.
Because after a hard day's work, you just sit back and you just laugh at some silly jokes.
Reruns are great.
But this is even being put at risk.
The people who are working in these hospitals, if the economy collapses, what's the benefit they get other than they have to do this for themselves?
And I know a lot of them probably would.
But it's the food supply.
It's beyond that.
Everybody is doing something because they need things as well.
And there are certain things we need more.
6.6 million jobless claims.
We are entering uncharted territory.
Let's read the jobless claims one.
I'll go back to the Pentagon body bags.
The reason why I'm starting with this as opposed to the Pentagon is that every single day we get news about the new death toll numbers, the increase, and I think we get it.
I don't want to just start every day by saying like, oh, here's the, here's the, you know, the next day it got even worse.
But we will talk about it.
But I want to talk about the economy.
The Hill reports, and it's short.
A record number of 6.648 million people filed initial unemployment claims in the last week of March, shattering the record number for the second week in a row.
The figure for the week ending March 28th surpassed the roughly 3.3 million seasonally adjusted initial claims the previous week.
Until that point, the highest level on record was 695,000 in October of 1982.
The Labor Department data offers a window into the severity of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which has frozen a significant part of the economy in the United States and in dozens of countries around the world.
An analysis from Goldman Sachs earlier this week projected that unemployment would rise to 15% this quarter, more than quadruple the 3.5% level where it was hovering before the crisis erupted and well above the 10% peak it reached during the height of the Great Recession a decade ago.
On Thursday, the U.S.
passed a grim milestone with the coronavirus-related death count surpassing 5,000.
According to a Johns Hopkins University database, over 1,000 deaths occurred in the last 24 hours.
This is getting serious, and it's what we expected.
A lot of people have been warning about this, and I did this shoutout the other day, but to Tom Cotton, Greg Gutfeld particularly, and that's a politician that's also a media guy, but they were both saying exactly, like, we need to shut the border down.
We need to, we need, We didn't get a handle on it.
You can blame the president.
You can blame the Democrats.
You can blame whoever you want.
I, for the most part, blame China.
I think there's criticism we should have for our own leaders, too.
But it's now coming out that a U.S.
intelligence report, that's what I covered yesterday, China lied.
We know it.
It's essentially confirmed at this point.
I mean, we all knew it anyway, because their I guess crematoriums or whatever, the incinerators have been running nonstop and they're giving out thousands of urns.
So people are projecting 50,000 may have lost their lives in China.
It's going to get bad here.
And the other day Trump said it was, it's, it's kind of scary to see, you know, Trump has been very optimistic this whole time until just two days ago when he said we are in for the roughest weeks this country has ever seen.
The Daily Mail reports the Pentagon is ordering 100,000 body bags as experts predict the coronavirus will claim the lives of more than 200,000 Americans.
And a new report has suggested the Trump administration was warned about the threat of coronavirus three years ago, but failed to prepare.
New deaths in the U.S.
rose by 1,047 to 5,139 by the end of Wednesday, and new infections surged by 26,866 to 216,553.
The majority of the country is now on a lockdown to slow the spread of the virus.
With more than 215,000 cases, the government was expected to get the next 50,000 body bags from a stockpile.
866 to 216,553.
The majority of the country is now on a lockdown to slow the spread of the virus.
With more than 215,000 cases, the government was expected to get the next 50,000 body bags
from a stockpile.
However, preparations were being made to triple up as hospitals and morgues became overwhelmed
with COVID-19 patients and were quickly running out of space in states including California
and New York.
Health officials used forklifts to help lift dead bodies onto a refrigerated truck outside New York Brooklyn's hospital center this week and hospitals have been using bed sheets to wrap bodies because they no longer have body bags.
The COVID-19 death toll in New York City is now 1,139 with 47,439 confirmed cases.
We can see here the graphics from the Trump administration.
FEMA did not have a specific delivery date for the military-style remains pouches,
sources told Bloomberg Wednesday. The green nylon body bags are usually distributed to war zones
and measure up to 94 inches by 38 inches. A source said the bags have not yet been ordered,
but the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support Unit, which manages the Pentagon stockpile,
was looking into the request.
A FEMA spokesperson said there will be prudent planning that includes preparing for mortuary contingencies.
One of the things happening in New York is that inmates have been digging graves.
And the response from, I think this is from Bill de Blasio, they always dig graves.
It's not a new thing.
They dig graves for transient deaths.
You know, people, homeless or whatever.
But it is not confidence building to say the least.
I think right now we're lucky to have caught this early.
We can see it in other countries.
Apparently Italy's numbers have been incorrectly reported.
They could be higher.
Some people have said that they were higher.
I don't know.
I don't have the source pulled up.
But I think we're looking at something much more serious than people want to accept.
I know, you know, I've gotten criticism both directions.
Some people have said that I've been fear-mongering, some people have said that I've been a calmer presence, and some have criticized me for not being crazier.
I'm like, I don't know what you want me to do, man, you know?
And I'm not saying to any individual, it's like, but different people.
There's like no right way to talk about this.
I'll tell you what I think.
I think it's going to get worse, and I've been saying that over and over again.
Admittedly, maybe I'm a bit of a pessimist, or maybe I'm a realist, whatever you want to call it, but I've consistently thought this was going to get worse, and it's consistently gotten worse.
I hope, you know, there will come a point where we see the light at the end of the tunnel.
They go on to say, a source said the bags have not yet been ordered, but the Defense Logistics Agency's Troop Support Unit, which manages the Pentagon's stockpile, was looking into the request.
A FEMA spokesperson said there will be prudent plan—oh, I'm sorry, I read that one already.
After it was predicted the death toll in the U.S.
would hit 200,000, President Trump told the country to brace for a tough time ahead.
This is going to be a painful two weeks, Trump said at a White House coronavirus briefing on Tuesday.
Our strength will be tested.
Our endurance will be tried.
On Monday, the Vice Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Major General Jeff Taliaferro, said they are in a close partnership with FEMA to identify what their needs are.
Talia Farrow said Monday.
Monday's mission assignments included requests for prepackaged meals ready to eat, MREs, and other supplies, as well as a mission assignment from FEMA for a mortuary affairs support team for New York.
Talia Farrow added, they are in process of identifying personnel.
FEMA is working with state and regional health and emergency managers to distribute pouches where needed.
We can see that there's more information from the press event here.
I wonder what could have been happening around the time Donald Trump was being inaugurated that could have distracted him from preparing for this.
on January 6th, 2017.
I wonder what could have been happening around the time Donald Trump was being inaugurated
that could have distracted him from preparing for this.
You know what, man?
I think Trump deserves criticism.
100% I always say it.
But apparently it's never enough.
People say that I always just take Trump's side and all this other stuff.
Yeah, I don't care, okay?
It's a fact that we have dealt with years of insane screeching and investigations.
You think that the Mueller investigation requiring Trump to submit answers to higher legal teams to defend himself and those who worked around him while you simultaneously arrested people for misstating things and then accusing them of lying and then all that controversy and the FISA abuse.
I'll tell you who I really am upset with.
It's not Donald Trump.
If Donald Trump did a bad job, yeah, okay, we'll point it out.
And maybe we can hope that someone else would have done a better job.
But guess what?
That and five bucks will get you a cup of coffee.
Is that how the saying goes?
The point is, Donald Trump was being bogged down by all of this nonsensical scandals.
So to go back in time and now blame Trump for being distracted or dismissive when they were the ones distracting him, to me, is shocking.
I don't know what else you expect me to say.
These people on the left are mad that I'm not screeching.
No matter what Trump does, it's wrong.
It's just not the case.
I think, you know, Trump was downplaying things early on.
I think we've seen reports.
He was hoping that we would pull through it.
And I think there's a legitimate reason why he would have made the decisions he did.
If he comes out and says the end is nigh without evidence, they would go after him for it.
Plus, he wants to make sure the economy works.
As much as people don't seem to get it, I get messages from friends and they're like, Trump only thinks in terms of stock market numbers.
It's like there's a very reductive way of framing it.
But yes, Trump cares about the economy.
Everyone should.
The healthy economy, our ability to grow, expand, buy the resources we need to live our lives the way we want to live them, to get people to, you know, working again so that they feel fulfilled.
These are all healthy and important things.
And yes, Trump is a businessman, so that's what his focus is.
That's his preliminary focus, but it's not a net negative thing.
It's not an evil thing.
It's Trump saying, like, how do we make people's lives better?
Trade, jobs, money, access.
And other people might say something else.
A doctor might say, you know, health, access to medical care.
Politicians would say something else, too.
Political issues, social justice.
But of course, after we went through years of all of the complete BS, Russiagate 1, Russiagate 2, the impeachment process, the sham investigations, Adam Schiff now wanting to launch another investigation, these people never learn.
You want to talk about why we were ill-prepared?
It's not the fault of Trump, necessarily.
It's the fault of our government in general.
Of all of these people, mostly Congress, I must say, screeching and wasting our time.
They wasted our time with Brett Kavanaugh nonsense.
And the guy ended up winning anyway.
They launched these insane and non-stickle fights they know they're going to lose that waste our time that don't solve anything.
And then once everyone's been distracted, they turn around and say, why didn't you know about this, Trump?
Well, you forced him to go hire legal teams, so you know what?
You get some of the blame, too.
And I'll tell you what, as I stated before, at least he did something in January.
At least he did something.
What were the Democrats doing?
Nothing.
Impeaching him.
And what are we hearing now?
Adam Schiff wants to launch another investigation.
Bravo, good sir.
Congratulations.
That's what we deserve, right?
Alright, let's just read more.
The most likely and significant threat is a novel respiratory disease, particularly a novel influenza disease.
The U.S.
NORTHCOM Branch Plan 3560, Pandemic Influenza and Infectious Disease Response, states, coronavirus infection rates are common around the world.
The Pentagon document obtained by The Nation leans on findings from 2012's Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, a type of coronavirus, and incorporates insights from several recent outbreaks.
The 103-page document warns that an outbreak could reach pandemic levels due to a number of factors that are the case with the 2019 virus.
Unsanitary living conditions, crowded workplaces, and proximity to international airports.
It also warns that it would be worsened by a shortage of PPE.
So I wonder why Donald Trump has been complaining the entire time about bringing our manufacturing back.
You know, look, Daily Mail, they're kind of framing it like Trump was warned and didn't do anything.
I disagree.
Trump was warned and said it's really bad what China's doing.
We got to bring our factories back.
In September of last year, Trump ordered U.S.
firms to come back and leave China.
And then we had national security staff say our reliance on medical equipment from China is a serious security threat.
So, yeah, could we have gone faster?
Maybe if they weren't doing scandal after scandal and wasting our time.
All right.
Trump, Trump, listen, let me let me just try and simplify this.
And I know forgive me if I'm saying it again.
You can argue that Trump did a bad job.
I don't care.
You know, what control group do we have to set a standard for whether or not Trump did good or bad is, I don't know, whether you like the guy or not, I guess.
But sure, maybe he did a bad job.
Does that mean that the Democrats wasting our time with these investigations that bogged everything down were net positive?
No, it was worse.
Maybe Trump would have done a better job.
And he gave him credit saying, no, I don't think I would have done a better job, you know, even if they weren't impeaching me, but maybe I was a little distracted.
They say the 103, uh, we read that.
Competition for and scarcity of resources will include non-pharmaceutical medical countermeasures, ventilators, devices, personal protective equipment, face masks, and gloves.
Medical equipment and logistical support is mentioned in the document.
This will have a significant impact on the availability of the global workforce.
We can see here, as of February 1st, 216,000 confirmed cases.
The number of infections is going up, even with these lockdown measures.
And we had the worst day yet.
1,047 have died in a 24-hour period.
So we have this unclassified report.
They say The document also predicts a lack of hospital beds.
Even the most industrialized countries will have insufficient hospital beds, specialized equipment such as mechanical ventilators, and pharmaceuticals readily available to adequately treat their populations during clinically severe pandemic states.
And I also want to make sure I point out, even if the White House received this report, do you have any reports like this they probably get on a variety of different things?
The problem of the corn trade, you know, what would happen if the food supply is disrupted?
The problem of oil and gas, all of these other reports come through.
So if you, if you're a president and you have dozens of reports coming your way, I'm not going to blame you because you didn't prioritize one.
But in fact, I think Trump was doing things that could have better prepared us for it.
And I'm, I'm angry to look back hindsight is 2020, all of these nonsensical investigations, just waste of our time.
What about the Democrats?
Do they not have access to this stuff?
Does Congress not see the same reports?
And there are congressional Republicans that deserve criticism, too.
But, you know, going from 2017 until 2018, the Republicans controlled everything.
And they couldn't get stuff done.
Look, over the past several years, I get it.
Even with Republicans controlling the House and the executive branch, we were still dealing with all these investigations and there was nothing we could do about it.
Because no matter what move was made, it would have been evidence of Trump's collusion or obstruction or whatever nonsense.
So yes, they did have control of the House.
I'm ranting.
Let's just keep reading.
The document has been shared after the likes of California and New York's governors have stressed they are fast running out of space to accommodate COVID-19 patients, and Navy hospital ships Mercy and Comfort have supplied 1,000 extra beds for patients who are not suffering from coronavirus.
Recent images out of New York and New Jersey have shown medical workers hauling bodies into refrigerated trucks.
The states have the highest COVID-19 death tolls in the country.
New deaths from the coronavirus rose by 908 on Wednesday, while new infections across the country increased by 25,676.
More than 40% of the country's fatal cases come from New York State, where the death toll rose by 391 to 1,941.
New Jersey is second behind New York.
Michigan now has the third highest death toll in the country, after reporting a spike in its figures overnight.
The state recorded 75 new deaths.
So, we can see here several photos of what it looks like.
This is the International Christian Relief Organization, Samaritan's Purse, set up emergency field hospitals for patients suffering from coronavirus in Central Park, across Fifth Avenue from Mount Sinai Hospital.
That's really awesome.
You know, to everybody who's stepping up, all businesses, all non-profits, I don't care what your politics are, I don't care which God you believe in, I care that you're coming out to help the community and help other human beings.
I don't care if you're a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Communist, whatever.
If you're gonna come out, food not bombs, whatever you're doing.
If you're helping people right now, you're on my good list, and I appreciate it.
A convoy of ambulances with Ohio and Michigan license plates were seen heading toward New York City on Tuesday.
I think we, you know, yeah.
250 emergency vehicles were heading en route to the coronavirus hotspot.
I'll tell you what, man.
I don't know how significant it is.
But in the past month or so, I have heard around my house more sirens than I've ever heard.
And I'll tell you what, it's not like me just noticing this now.
Some people say, you know, out of sight, out of mind.
There was no reason to pay attention to it, but now that this is happening, maybe you're hearing it now.
Look, I record.
I have to make sure the sound levels are appropriate.
When somebody here on my house will, like, leaf blow or something, I'm like, oh, here we go, someone's, you know, leaf blowin' again.
So, it actually holds me up.
Over the past month or so, I have heard substantially more sirens than I've ever heard in my area.
And that makes me think that, for one, there could be a lot of people that are panicking, saying like, oh no, I think I have it, quick help, and calling 911.
Or there are a lot of complications that are happening, and for some reason, maybe it's a coincidence, maybe not, or maybe this is worse than we realize, because we aren't testing everybody.
And there are a lot of people who are getting sick, and it is, it is, my understanding, mostly people with pre-existing conditions.
You know, diabetes, they're overweight, they have lung problems.
I don't know.
All I know is I've noticed it, and I pay attention to the sound levels around my house every day.
It's something that actually bothers me a lot.
Sometimes you might actually notice it.
If you watch some of my old videos, you'll hear noises.
I pay attention to this stuff.
I have to ask people, I have to wait for them to finish, and I've heard a lot of sirens, man.
Emergency services in NYC are responding to around 6,000 calls per day, more than 50% above average.
It's not the same as North Jersey, which is New York Metro.
I'm Philadelphia Metro.
But maybe it is happening everywhere.
And these are the numbers we have confirmed because maybe there's a lot of cases we don't test for.
Someone could call 911 and they could be hospitalized.
The doctors aren't going to immediately just assume it's COVID.
Maybe they might test for it.
They've been doing testing, you know, posthumously or after death.
And maybe... I don't know, man.
I don't know.
All I can tell you this is... It's...
These are serious projections.
The body bags are coming.
We're going to be locked down until at least April 30th by Trump standard.
Many of you have harder standards than other states.
6.6 million have filed jobless claims.
I told you it was going to get way worse.
I said if you thought this week was going to be bad, I'll tell you what.
I feel like it's a wrong bet for me to constantly say it'll get worse because certainly at some point it'll get better.
Is it just the only reason I'm right is because I keep saying it's going to get worse and it is?
I don't know.
But think about the rent that's not being paid.
Rent strikes, moratoriums on evictions, rental management companies, groundskeepers, you know, just landlords in general, electricians, plumbers, all the people that would normally be working On property, you know, all the jobs that surround it, not just landlord, that money is gone now.
The landlord would get paid, then he'd call the groundskeeper, then he'd call the plumber, then he'd pay his, you know, his secretary or whatever.
Now we're gonna see the malls start buckling.
Cheesecake Factory saying they can't pay their rent.
I don't think the stimulus was fast enough, but now it's gonna get worse.
I think next week we can see an even bigger number, because this is basically double.
Next segment will be coming up at 1 p.m.
on this channel.
Thanks for hanging out, and I'll see you all then.
We here in America are a freedom-loving people, and we have some of the best and most progressive civil rights laws in the world.
We may not be perfect, we may not have the best laws, it depends on who you ask, different opinions, but we have done more over time to guarantee civil rights to marginalized groups than many other countries.
We're also pretty good at immigration.
But in a time of crisis, these things become apparent to everybody.
It's just luxury politics.
Now, civil rights should be granted to everybody.
Some civil rights are non-negotiable.
Assembly, freedom of religion.
But in emergencies, you will see that governments, even the US, will suppress these things, and it's a real challenge.
Because with rights comes responsibilities.
Notably, right now.
We have a right to peaceably assemble to speak, but we're under lockdown.
And people are getting their content removed from Facebook for posting information Facebook doesn't like.
These things, to me, are horrifying.
Facebook should not remove information.
Now, when it comes to quarantine and lockdown, that's the real challenge of responsibility.
We have a responsibility not to spread this disease and cause moral loss of life.
So most of us, I mean, to be honest, are kind of selfish about it.
It's not so much about getting other people sick.
It's about not getting sick ourselves.
But we do have a responsibility not to get people sick.
Right now we are seeing a rise of authoritarianism around the world.
The story I have for you today, Hungary's far-right leader, Viktor Orban, immediately moves to strip away trans rights after being granted absolute power.
Now, as always with media, it's framing.
I could totally reframe this to say, Hungary's leader is granted power by decree and immediately moves to guarantee civil rights to women.
That's another way to frame it.
But of course, this is Pink News.
Pink News is about the LGBTQ community.
So, I will point out that framing is always a factor in how the media tells a story, and we'll go through this.
But the bigger issue I want to get to today is, for one, As I've said it before, and I'll say it again, we must make sure these powers are limited and temporary.
We all understand there's a crisis.
When this crisis is over, we must demand that these powers be rescinded.
I really doubt they will be, though.
Look, it's going to be a pre- and post-COVID world.
This crisis is affecting every country on the planet.
We are going to see dramatic changes.
As one article put it, we're heading back to the 1950s, and I really do think so.
Now Viktor Orban of Hungary was granted rule by decree powers.
I mean, they're in an emergency and there's some arguments that he's going too far with it.
There's actually some arguments that he's doing a good job with it.
And again, it's all about, it'll be about hindsight, right?
I'm sure people will look back on this video and say, I can't believe Tim took a tepid approach to this guy who eventually became on, who eventually went on to become a dictator or something.
Or they would criticize me if the guy goes on to do something good.
I don't know what he will do right now.
So please, those of you 100 years in the future looking back at this video, I don't have the gift of foresight.
You have the gift of hindsight.
All I know right now is that framing plays a role.
I personally disagree with his being granted rule by decree.
I think that's horrifying!
But there are arguments being made in the media that we'll address.
Social justice cannot exist when the world is on fire.
I'm sorry.
I mean, to an extent, it can.
But how many people, you know, are going to be taken seriously when their grandparents are sick and dying and someone's complaining about bigotry and racism?
These articles, these SJW types, whatever you want to call them, are kind of fading away, though it still exists for sure.
Let's take a look at this story.
I'm going to give you a media framing lesson, and we're also going to talk about the powers he was granted and what it means, social justice, authority, etc.
Pink News says that he's taking away trans rights.
Hungary's far-right prime minister, Viktor Orban, has moved to strip away trans rights as one of his very first acts after his pandemic power grab.
Let's zoom in a little bit here if we can.
Maybe we can't.
There we go.
On Monday, the Hungarian parliament agreed to extend Orban's already strong powers by granting him the right to rule by decree indefinitely, meaning he no longer needs to consult other lawmakers before making decisions.
I 100% disagree with this.
I believe there should always be a time limit for emergency powers, a very short time limit, and they should have to come back, review what he's done, and it should be like a month, maybe, and then they review, should we extend this.
His powers came into effect on Monday morning, and by the evening, his deputy Zolt Semjian had introduced a new bill which, if passed, will replace gender with, quote, birth sex in all legal documents issued in the country.
The effect of this is that Hungarian citizens will be unable to change their gender legally, a significant rollback of rights in the Eastern European country.
Since data in official documents such as ID cards, driving licenses, and passports are taken from the civil registry, the change would affect these as well.
The explanatory memorandum of the bill states that current legislation does not define gender, as it is determined biologically, adding, the gender entered into civil registry is based on facts determined by doctors declared by the registry.
It further states, given that completely changing one's biological gender is impossible, it is necessary to lay it down in law that it cannot be changed in the civil registry either.
In recent years, Orban has refused to join his European neighbors in backing LGBT rights, declining to ratify the Istanbul Convention for its definition of gender as a social construct.
In 2015, he blocked an agreement to prevent LGBT discrimination in Hungary, and in 2017, he hosted and spoke on behalf of a vile anti-LGBT group in Budapest.
Now, here's the thing we've seen happening.
Gender, colloquially, culturally, for many nations, was always taken to be, are you male or female?
In recent history, the definition has been changing.
This, in my opinion, is a way to bypass the law undemocratically, in violation of democratic institutions.
Now, I certainly don't think Victor going in here and just, you know, banging a gavel and making it happen is appropriate either.
No, there should be a real debate on whether these things should change.
That's how democratic institutions should work.
Be it a representative body or otherwise.
But people have been trying to... Look, you have a law, and the law says you cannot discriminate based on gender.
So what ends up happening is people say, ah, but gender doesn't mean what you think it means, it means something else.
Thus, the law is changed if our understanding of the word becomes something different.
Or, you can do it the right way.
Go in and vote, and if people agree, the law gets changed and the wording gets updated.
But as they're pointing out, he says that gender isn't defined the way they want to define it as a social construct.
Therefore, they're changing it to either gender at birth or birth gender.
It depends on how you translate it.
In which case, you could argue that they're going after the rights of trans people 100%.
The framing of this is not wrong.
Or you could say that he made a major feminist move to guarantee the rights of females by protecting them from biological males.
Look, as much as people on the left don't want to accept it, There are biological females who are concerned about their spaces being taken over.
And one of the arguments, I think the most important argument, when it comes to sports is that we created women's sports not because of how you feel on the inside, but because of what you are biologically, your immutable characteristic.
There was not a point where someone said, we're going to create women's track You know, running.
Because some people feel like a woman, and they should have this bracket to race in.
We said, biological females and biological males are very different, so we're going to give biological females their own space.
In many sports, females are allowed to compete against males, they just never make the top bracket.
Major league sports, for instance.
So they said, this one's for females.
But because our colloquial understanding of the word woman and gender was related to biology, That we didn't feel like we needed it.
Well, activists have been slowly eroding those definitions, and now we are seeing biological males compete against biological females, thus undermining the intent and the spirit of these divisions.
If you want, you could frame this as, the first movie made was an overly feminist move to guarantee civil rights to biological females, and I'm sure many, you know, gender-critical, I think they're called, feminists would agree.
Framing is everything.
Of course, I don't like this guy ruling by decree, so I'm gonna be more so opposed to these changes.
I get it.
They voted for this rule.
You know, look, indefinite power, I am no fan of.
And if you think these changes should happen, then you need to earn the right to change it, not just bang a gavel.
They say his latest bill will be terrifying for Hungary's trans and non-binary community, and it will not escape their notice that it was proposed on the eve of Trans Day of Visibility, adding insult to injury.
Well, it's also the time they passed this decree.
Come on.
In recent years, Orban has been heavily criticized for his increasing oversight of the judiciary, media, and foreign universities.
And the new emergency measures will cement his power by effectively removing all checks and balances.
Not okay!
The law also introduces jail terms for spreading disinformation about the virus, raising fears it could be used to neuter critics of the government's approach.
Yes, excellent use of the word.
Well, this guy is certainly gaining a lot of power.
There's been a big sell-off, so they're kind of... Look, here's another great thing about capitalism, right?
People who make international trades kind of don't want to invest in a country that goes full-on authoritarian, it would seem, and now their markets are hurting, so they got to figure that one out.
But there's an argument about whether or not he's doing too much, whether he's doing too little.
First thing I'll say, I don't care.
Alright, we got this article from The Guardian.
It says, Victor Orban ditches mayor plan amid claims of coronavirus power grab.
Some arguments say that a recent decision he made was him seizing power, while others could argue he was ensuring checks and balances.
I don't care about the argument, not at all.
If your country decides to bang a gavel and give someone absolute power, you will never have my support, ever, no matter what, no matter what the emergency, period.
I don't like the states forcing lockdowns.
I don't like people getting arrested for having parties.
I don't like any of it.
I understand we're between a rock and a hard place.
And there are many progressives and liberty-minded individuals, left libertarians and right libertarians, who, well, it's actually the right libertarians who are flicking off the government, for the most part.
The left libertarian types are rolling their eyes and, like, face-palming, like, What do we do?
We recognize the threat to the community.
So the lefty in us is like, oh, no, man, we can't let people go out and just get people sick.
They have responsibility, right?
But then the libertarian side is like, should the government have the right to trample the First Amendment?
No, thank you.
What do you do, man?
Well, for the most part, our liberty-loving country has let people do whatever they want.
They've partied, and they've shown up, and they're on beaches, and no one really- I mean, very few people actually care.
Or I should say, there's few people who just don't care at all.
Should the government go and enforce this?
I'd prefer it not.
I would- I would absolutely.
But now we're seeing people snitch on their neighbors.
I don't like any of this.
How do we get through this without some kind of enforcement?
Honestly, I don't know.
That's why I'm willing to begrudgingly accept we need temporary restrictions.
Orban was given indefinite, you know, power.
Yeah, not okay.
Absolutely not.
How do you remove that from somebody?
And he's immediately making moves that are unrelated to the coronavirus pandemic.
Why should he change what the definition of a word is?
I personally think, for the most part, we should guarantee, you know, civil rights based on immutable characteristics.
So, women should be protected.
Biological females should be protected.
But not like this.
Because the ends don't justify the means, period.
You were granted power to help the country in a time of crisis, not to make political agenda moves.
So no, it's not okay.
What this story from The Guardian brings up, they say that Hungary's parliament passed a law that gives Orban the right to rule by decree for an indefinite period, and also criminalizes intentionally spreading false information about coronavirus with up to five years in prison.
The move was roundly criticized by Orban's domestic and international critics.
Here we go.
It was followed up by a bill of further measures published late on Tuesday evening that would target municipal authorities and mayors, many of whom are from opposition parties.
During the state of emergency, mayors can take on the decision-making abilities of local councils, but the new regulation would submit these decisions to a review that could take up to five days.
The move was immediately criticized as inefficient and unworkable, and later on Wednesday, Gergely Interesting.
Gulyaz, the chief of Orban's cabinet, said the government would not follow through on
the measure.
Budapest's mayor, Gergely, how do you pronounce that?
Karakcini had warned the measures risked increasing the loss of life due to coronavirus.
Interesting.
It would seem to me that forcing executive branch politicians into a review period would
be a good thing.
That's a check, right?
Well, they're arguing that it's him, it's Victor grabbing power because then he can rule by decree and they have to rule but be put up for review for a few days.
The argument is that they should have decree powers so that they can move much more quickly.
I don't like any of it!
But this is the main challenge.
First, before we even argue about anything, I'll stress again, he should not have these powers in the first place.
He should not have the ability to do these things.
The decree should have been that for a certain amount of time, he can make decisions as it relates to the national security due to the threat of COVID-19 and, you know, potentially civil unrest.
Changing the definition of gender in civil rights law does nothing.
It has nothing to do with it.
Maybe you can make an argument, I just don't see it.
But this rule right here, another questionable thing.
Should people be put under review?
He should do!
So is it good or bad?
I honestly don't know.
You can look at it either way.
But I will leave with one final point that I've made.
This is an example of the threat of authoritarianism we face.
There's a reason for it, though.
This vanity politics of authoritarian social justice that claims naughty words are violence.
It's fake.
And it made people run into the arms of more right-wing and more authoritarian leaders.
It wasn't just overnight that Victor Orban came into power.
It's been a long time coming.
Years.
The more these weird, authoritarian lefties targeted our cultural institutions with weird ideology and changing of definitions, the more people got worried and voted for people who would do something about it, notably Viktor Orban, who is now given the powers to rule by decree.
This is not surprising to me at all.
I have warned repeatedly that what I expect to occur from Antifa and the far left is far-right authoritarianism.
Because the American people will beg for security.
They will beg for safety.
When these people come and start advocating you shouldn't have a family.
When these people come and start demanding the government take your children and Chemically alter them to say the least, like we've seen in Texas and other states, you will see people start panicking and begging for a typically right-wing, more authoritarian strongman to come and save the day.
Because in the minds of many of these people, we went through the motions of allowing people to vote, and these people who believe the ends justify the means got violent, got angry, manipulated, pressured people, and eventually when regular people in America or anywhere else Feel like nothing is working?
They will say, just rule by decree and drop the hammer.
It's not a country you want to be in, trust me.
There may be some short-term gains.
You may celebrate, but I'll tell you what, no matter who gets the power, they always turn around and it comes for you and things tend to get worse.
Authoritarianism just doesn't work.
Now there's limits, there's pros and there's cons.
There needs to be authority.
There needs to be some kind of system and often the system fails.
It's not always perfect.
I lean on the side of liberty.
I would not be comfortable giving up my freedom in exchange for security.
It does not make sense.
And if Victor has this power now, all the people in that country who are happy about it, don't be surprised if he turns around on you.
He's going to be potentially going after the press if they say things he doesn't like.
Not a fan.
I don't like fake news in this country.
I can't stand it, to be honest.
These people are despicable.
But guess what?
I love the rights.
And so as long as I have it, they have it too.
And that means I get to complain about them all day.
Maybe people will start to recognize it.
And we put pressure on these groups to stop doing things through social pressure.
It's not perfect, but I'll tell you what.
I would rather someone have the right to speak their mind, even if it's something I hate and it's a bad thing about me, than to risk me losing my rights.
You take the good with the bad.
This kind of decree we will see encroach.
We will see more countries adopt these types of measures.
We're gonna see elections be postponed, and you will regret it.
I absolutely believe so.
Maybe this guy's not... I don't know.
I don't know.
Maybe this guy's not so bad.
We'll see.
Right?
The people in the future watching this are gonna look back and say, man, if only he knew.
Perhaps.
Perhaps.
But I'll give that warning now.
You don't know what he's capable of.
And don't make the assumptions that someone you like will always be a good person, because power tends to corrupt, and absolute power tends to corrupt absolutely.
Of course, you'll find that outlier who, you know, gives up the emperor's throne and goes back to being a farmer, but that's a rare story.
Rarely do these people ever give up power because they always think it's better with me in charge.
Yes, I could give up power, but then I'll give it to my enemies and they'll be much worse than me.
And that's history.
That's how things turn out.
We'll see how this one plays out.
For the time being, be careful of authoritarianism, and keep in mind, all of these vanity social justice policies of hate speech and bigotry, it's a luxury item.
It really, really is.
Because when people are losing their lives due to a global pandemic, the luxury item becomes something that no one can afford to buy.
The politics then become about, are you doing a better job of saving lives?
And when someone comes out and says, yes, but someone said a naughty word to me, they're gonna be like, excuse me?
My friend is on an ICU bed, why don't they have a ventilator?
I don't care about your stupid naughty word.
Save my friend's life.
That's what's gonna be important.
There are always pros and cons to everything.
Sometimes the cons are worse, sometimes the pros are good.
No matter what happens, no matter what action you take, you'll end up helping or hurting somebody because the universe is not, you know, your life doesn't exist in a vacuum.
And that means we may see some good things in the end of all of this, but I think we're gonna see a lot more bad things.
So it's always important to point out there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Good things may come, but I think we're gonna be bogged down by a lot of really nasty stuff for some time.
Yeah, yeah, we all get it.
Everything's really crazy.
Again, you know, the pandemic, yada yada, we're all locked in our houses.
But amid this, we are seeing some interesting things.
Americans are starting to prioritize what actually matters.
We're praising doctors and first responders and truck drivers and teachers and All of these much more important jobs, particularly grocery store workers.
And you know who we're not celebrating?
I mean, we still are kind of, but for the most part, not really.
Celebrities.
Celebrities, people who are famous for the sake of being famous.
Some of them are talented, some of them aren't.
Many of them are vapid elitists.
I certainly don't think.
I think many of them are just, you know, they're just upper-class people.
You know, what's really funny is that we do have a society that as much as we have upward mobility in this country, we have a lot of people who are famous just because they were born into rich families.
It's reality.
Well, I'm glad to say that celebrities are getting tore up from the floor up.
People aren't handling it.
You know, they're not taking it well that all these rich people are saying, hey, everybody go donate.
They're like, what about you, Richie Rich?
Everyone's unemployed.
No one's concerned about what you have to say.
When all those celebrities at the Imagine video, everyone mocked them.
And then we see these articles, even the Daily Beast saying celebrities are going insane in quarantine.
Yeah, because they're not getting as much attention as they're used to.
Well, now we have the story from the New York Times.
Celebrity culture is burning.
The pandemic has disrupted relations among the masses.
The elites and the celebrities who liaise between them.
I really, really do not agree with the New York Times description of what a celebrity is here.
The celebrities liaise between the elites?
Sorry, that's not really the case.
I mean, I don't know what you're trying to say, but to act as though me watching a movie with Brad Pitt in it, or like listening to some singer, In any way connects me with a hedge fund manager.
I'm sorry, that makes no sense.
You wanna talk about the elites?
That's not the way you do it.
Amanda Hess for the New York Times writes, America is in crisis, but the celebrities are thriving.
They are beaming into our homes, reminding us to stay indoors and stay positive, and we're all in this together.
When I watch their selfie public service announcements, I find my attention drifting to the edges of the frame, to understand wall molding visible behind Robert De Niro's shoulder, to the craftsman beams on Priyanka Chopra's balcony.
No, no, no.
Ryan Reynolds made fun of celebrities, and it was awesome.
Staying home is my superpower, the Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot reported from her walk-in closet.
Ryan Reynolds urged his fans to work together to flatten the curve from within his rustic
loft.
No, no, no, Ryan Reynolds made fun of celebrities, and it was awesome.
Ryan Reynolds is awesome.
When Jennifer Lopez posted a video of her family sheltering in the backyard of Alex
Rodriguez's vast Miami compound, the public snapped.
We all hate you, was one response.
Among the social impacts of the coronavirus is its swift dismantling of the cult of celebrity.
Yeah, we're reprioritizing.
The famous, and I don't agree with this, the famous are ambassadors of the meritocracy.
No, they aren't.
They represent the American pursuit of wealth through talent, charm, and hard work.
No, they don't!
But the dream of class mobility dissipates when society locks down.
The economy stalls, the death count mounts, and everyone's future is frozen inside their own crowded apartment or palatial mansion.
The difference between the two has never been more obvious.
The guillotine 2020 hashtag is jumping as grocery aisles turn bare.
Some have suggested that perhaps they ought to eat the rich.
Now, don't get me wrong, that's stupid, too.
But a lot of these celebrities are just people who were born into privilege and wealth.
I'm not gonna pretend.
And look, it's not a race thing.
We can talk about privilege, and we can stop pretending like many of these woke social justice leftists do, that a multi-millionaire black woman has less privilege than a white homeless guy.
The reality is, these people are wealthy, many are born wealthy, and they will always be wealthy.
They're celebrities, some of which are famous for literally no reason other than they're good at marketing or they're famous.
They're not liaising between anything, and they're not ambassadors of meritocracy.
Ambassadors of meritocracy are small business owners who've started from scratch and now run a company service, you know, helping their community, helping the people around them, and running it is just making money, hiring people.
That's meritocracy.
Not someone who is beautiful, and so they said, we're gonna put you on TV, here's a million bucks.
It's not true for everybody, but celebrities, come on.
They don't deserve any of my sympathy.
The New York Times says, when Pharrell Williams asked his followers to donate to aid frontline responders, they virtually grabbed him by the pants and shook him upside down, telling him to empty his own deep pockets.
Kristen Bell and Dex Shepard have been outed as landlords.
Outed as landlords!
I love it.
As Ellen DeGeneres lounged on her sofa, video chatting with famous friends, the comedian Kevin T. Porter solicited stories from service workers and Hollywood peons who had experienced run-ins with DeGeneres, whom he called notoriously one of the meanest people alive.
The film Parasite.
In which a poor South Korean family cleverly cons its way into the home of a rich one has been converted into a well-worn social media retort.
Whenever celebrities offer glimpses inside their own manses, the reference succeeds partly because so many super rich people have such blandly similar minimalist homes.
I can't understand why all these rich people live in these crazy houses.
Like, what would you really do with a massive mansion?
It makes no sense.
Isn't that like... You know what it is?
I think they grew up in this, so they're used to it.
But for me, I don't want to say I like cozy, but I at least like to know what my... Like, who's in my house, you know what I mean?
If you're in a mansion bigger than a shopping mall, There could be someone lurking around, you'd never see him.
Like, you could have someone sleeping in the attic, and you'd never know.
That's kind of creepy, okay?
So big houses are weird.
What do you even do with it?
Like, what do you put in these rooms, and don't they just collect dust?
I guess, you know, when people are worth tens of millions of dollars, hundreds of millions of dollars, they just have money to spare, so sure, why not?
But to me, it's frankly absurd.
New York Times says, It must be a very hard time to be so famous.
Celebrities are not among the very wealthiest Americans.
Lopez's reported net worth is a fraction of a percent of Jeff Bezos'.
That's not fair.
Comparing Jennifer Lopez to Jeff Bezos makes literally no sense.
But they are the ones who are tasked with liaising with the general public, offering vicarious access to their lifestyles.
Okay, sure, I guess.
Celebrity culture glorifies them, not just for their performances or personas, but for their wealth itself.
Their blowout child birthday parties, car collections, plastic surgeries, and property ownership.
From Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous to My Super Sweet Sixteen and Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the ability to watch or hate-watch this spectacle of excess has functioned as a bizarre appeasement for inequality.
But this compact rests on the celebrity's ability to seem to move easily between the elite and the masses, to be aspirational and approachable at once, and under normal circumstances, they are accustomed to receiving accolades for using their platforms to raise awareness in the service of bland initiatives for the public good.
But our awareness has never been so easy to rouse and misuse.
Celebrities have a captive audience of traumatized people who are glued to the internet, eyes darting toward trending topics for clues to processing the unimaginable horrors looming just outside, and instead are finding Madonna bathing in a rose petal strewn bath.
Yeah, in a kind of an unhinged way.
Stunts, like Gal Gadot's crowdsourced famous person cover of John Lennon's Imagine, are tone-deaf in more ways than one.
Most of these people cannot even sing.
Their contributions suggest the very appearance of a celebrity is a salve, as if a pandemic could be overcome by star power alone.
It also shows many of them have no talent, and without their major production teams, they're just the face.
They're a marketing tool.
You know why they live in big fancy houses, and they have all this fancy stuff?
So they could sell it to you!
They're wearing that fancy dress, and they want you to know about it in their photos, because they want you to buy it.
In fact, many- often, they don't even own the clothes!
They're renting them, or it's a shoot, and they're getting paid cash.
Of course, many of them are rich.
The- the Imagine thing was so, just, awful.
It was just so awful.
God, it was so terrible.
One of the ironies of this moment is that though we feel less like stars than ever, they seem to feel more like us, or at least what they think it must feel like to be us.
DeGeneres is going stir-crazy from having to stay inside her enormous home.
Katy Perry has lost track of the days she spent inside her enormous home.
Madonna has elevated celebrity delusion to kind of performance art.
In a series of oddly professional Instagram videos suggesting a perhaps dangerous concentration of staff members in her home, she can be seen undergoing a bizarre healing procedure at her personal health clinic and bending over a typewriter in a kimono, pontificating about the social effects of the virus.
For Madonna, performing for the public and holding fans in her thrall is yet another luxury gone for now, she says in one video.
In its place is the disturbing sensation of normalcy.
The audience in my house is not amused by me, she says.
Later from the bath, she concludes that COVID-19 is the great equalizer.
No, I'm sorry, it's not.
You're still super rich.
You're still much more secure than most people.
You have pounds of cash to sleep on while regular people are losing their jobs.
My friends are concerned about having lost their jobs and they're in desperate need of help.
You, on the other hand, are sitting in a rose petal bush saying, now I am just like the poor masses.
No.
No, you're not.
And look, I understand some of these people do come from humble beginnings, but they've certainly lost touch with the regular world.
That you want to talk about minimalism?
Then tell me why they live in these ridiculously large and pointless houses.
That's not minimalism.
Sure, I get it.
The house is big, but it's empty.
Yeah, it's because you got nothing to put in it.
Big houses make no sense.
Great, Madonna.
She writes, and yet the antics of these celebrities, even as they are publicly shamed, still tug on our attention.
I have never thought about Gal Gadot so much in my life.
Well, that's just you, dude.
The coronavirus is the odd crisis where doing nothing actually does help.
Staying inside can save lives.
And in addition to food and rent money and medical attention, people require sufficient entertainment to weather the lockdown.
Yeah, they're all watching Tiger King for that.
We don't need these weirdos in their apartments trying to sing songs they don't know how to sing.
Okay?
We just watch TV like normal.
People aren't so much listening to podcasts as much because they're not on the way to work anymore, so it's more of a visual component now.
So people are watching TV shows.
Guess who wins?
Tiger King wins.
Congratulations.
We don't need you.
We need entertainment.
Yes, these people are in movies.
Yes, sometimes you pay attention to them.
But no, we don't need them now.
They are tone-deaf.
They're nothing like regular people.
And they're the safest of all of us.
I don't think necessarily eating the rich makes sense, but pointing out that these people are weirdos and don't relate to any of us, like Britney Spears' weird call for communism.
So here's what she concludes with.
Spears is an unexpected figure to lead us through the quarantine, but a fitting one.
She has been held under a conservatorship for 12 years, her movements and finances controlled by her father and overseen by the courts.
When she posts about finding community in social captivity, she knows what she's talking about.
Oh please, she's talking about, what did she say?
Redistribute wealth and strike?
Oh, come on, dude.
These people are tone-deaf.
As you put it.
All of- I'm not gonna listen to them.
Britney Spears wants a call for wealth redistribution?
Oh, please, dude.
You know, you're coming from this point of privilege where you're rich, you've always been rich, you don't know anything else, you're safe, and they might as well- This comment from Britney Spears is the Instagram equivalent of, have the maid do it.
I'll leave it there.
Stick around.
I got a couple more segments coming up for you in a few minutes, and I will see you all shortly.
The Democratic National Convention has been officially postponed.
I don't know about the RNC, but at least the Democrats are pushing things back, and they're in serious trouble.
Bernie Sanders has not dropped out.
Joe Biden is nowhere to be found.
And probably the reason they're delaying this is because they have no opportunity to get Joe Biden to do anything.
I mean, look, I don't know if you've been watching the videos from Biden and the interviews he's done, but the dude has deteriorated hard and fast.
I think with him being on TV and constantly working, it's kept him a little bit in tune.
Like, the way to put it is, you know, they say, if you don't use it, you'll lose it.
And as Joe Biden has struggled throughout these debates and campaigns with gaffe after gaffe and nonsensical statement, he was still active to a certain degree.
Now he's sitting around doing nothing and he is declining quick.
He did an interview and he's got a couple interviews, man.
He was on The View and he literally muttered and mumbled three sentences that made no sense whatsoever.
So anyway, I'll ramble about Joe Biden in a second.
Let's talk about what's going on with the Democrats.
They're pushing back the convention.
And we have this story from BuzzFeed.
Where is Joe Biden?
Online being drowned out by the coronavirus and Trump.
The media, for some reason, is pretending this man's brain is working.
I don't know why.
You don't need a Democratic convention.
Nominate Bernie Sanders and get out of the way.
Maybe they're pushing it back because they need time to get Andrew Cuomo on board.
The Hill reports, The DNC in Milwaukee will be delayed for a month because of the coronavirus pandemic, the host committee announced on Thursday.
The Democratic nominating convention will now take place over four days beginning on August 17th, after originally being scheduled to take place July 13 to 16.
The Hill was first to report on the change.
I don't care.
Thanks for letting me know, The Hill.
A source close to Joe Biden's campaign told The Hill that the former vice president pushed to have the convention moved while keeping the same format.
Joe Biden himself wants the DNC pushed back.
Why?
He's drowned out.
He has nothing to do or say.
It's a desperate bid.
However, the DNC committee said it is still determining the most appropriate structure for this historic event, possibly indicating that changes to limit the number of people in attendance might be in the works.
In our current climate of uncertainty, we believe the smartest approach is to take additional time to monitor how the situation unfolds so we can best position our party for a safe and successful convention, said Joe Salmanes, the CEO of the DNC.
During this critical time, when the scope and scale of the pandemic and its impact remain unknown, we will continue to monitor the situation and follow the advice of healthcare professionals and emergency responders.
So, to that regard, I absolutely respect the pushback.
And it's kind of a bummer.
I'm never one for winning through nefarious, malicious, or technical means.
Like, win by default.
Nah, not interested.
The Democrats deserve a chance to mount a legitimate campaign, a legitimate defense, and have everything placed in front of them.
And this is a serious disadvantage for them.
Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee.
He was always going to be, and everyone loves him.
Joe Biden is struggling.
And I gotta say, I am a bit bummed that he won't get the opportunity to have a big rallying event and do these things, because winning fairly to me is very, very important.
That way you know it's for sure.
You know, they tried claiming Trump was cheating and all that stuff, and you know what's gonna happen now?
When Trump wins re-election, they're gonna say it's not fair Because the coronavirus held back Joe Biden and didn't give him a chance to actually shine.
That's what they'll say.
They will use it as an excuse.
The Republican National Convention, where President Trump will be nominated, is scheduled to take place August 24th, 27th in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The party out of power typically holds convention about a month before the incumbent's party.
But many states have stay-at-home orders in place through June, and Democrats have been grappling over the question of whether the nation will ever turn to normal by mid-July.
Democrats did not want to move the convention to a time that would conflict with the Olympics, which had been scheduled to take place over two weeks in late July to early August.
However, the Tokyo Summer Games have since been postponed by a year.
There's been some frustration with the process among Democratic National Committee members in Wisconsin who said they were not consulted about the changes and there are still questions about whether delaying the convention by a month is the right solution with so much uncertainty around when the outbreak will be under control.
Quote, I understand the need to move fast to change the date, especially with Biden calling for it yesterday.
Said a DNC member.
But in fairness, I'm sure this was being planned for weeks, maybe months.
And as a DNC member in the state that it's hosting, I wasn't aware of that.
The word we kept getting was status quo.
I think the other point is that frankly, while I hope by August things are safe enough to hold the convention, right now that feels ambitious.
And I agree.
I mean, we may be a two-month on, two-month off, you know, lockdown order.
We don't know how long it's gonna take.
It could take 18 months to get a vaccine.
There's some reports that a vaccine has been created.
A lot of people are saying this, we just don't know.
But hey, whatever keeps people safe.
So yeah, I'm a little bummed out.
I think it's fair that people, they push this back, they stay home, they don't go out, they don't go to the primaries.
But I don't like the idea of people being taken out because of a virus.
I mean, like, taken out of the running.
If I'm going up against someone in a sporting event, and it turns out they get the flu, I'll say, can we postpone it until they're better?
Postpone it until they're better?
Because the person who deserves to win, you know, should fight fair and should win fairly.
This is not... This is gonna ring... It's gonna be... I don't know.
I just don't like it.
We'll read on.
The convention would bring thousands of people to Milwaukee, packing them closely together into a basketball arena.
Political operatives and thousands of reporters descend on the host cities every four years, staying in local hotels and going out to restaurants and bars.
The host committee has said that ensuring the safety of attendees is its top priority.
The committee has met regularly with local, state, and federal officials to follow their guidance.
They say, there is hope the worst of the coronavirus will have passed by late summer, and that life will have returned to normal.
Quote, I have always believed that American innovation and ingenuity shine brightest during our darkest days, and for that reason, I am confident our convention planning team and our partners will find a way to deliver a convention in Milwaukee this summer that places our Democratic nominee on the path to victory in November.
Solomonese said, We now have this story, where is Joe Biden?
Online being drowned out by the coronavirus and Trump.
Well, as we just heard, this is interesting, that quote from the DNC guy was that while he would like to assume they've been planning this move for a long time, no one heard this, and it wasn't until Joe Biden stepped in that the changes actually were made.
It seems like Joe Biden is, for all intents and purposes, the nominee.
Bernie Sanders is still in the race, but nobody cares.
And Joe Biden knows that he's not in a good position, and they need that big rallying moment.
They need the press.
You know, look, at these conventions, it's huge.
Like stadiums.
It's all these businesses.
CNN converts a local restaurant into the CNN diner and things like this.
All these journalists descend.
And he needs that press.
If they do the event now, guess what?
No one's going to show up.
There's going to be very few people.
That's not what he wants.
He wants a big PR stunt.
That's what he needs.
It's not going to be enough though.
I mean, anyone who's watched Joe Biden speak recently would know that the dude is just not capable of being president.
And I was actually talking to a friend of mine who said that they were going to be voting for Joe Biden, which shocked me.
I'm like, how could you in your right mind vote for this man?
And they said to me, I know he has dementia, but, and I said, no, no, no, no, no.
You know what?
But look, this is legit.
So if you're like a Trump supporter, you should hear this, right?
My friend was progressive.
They said they're going to vote for Biden even though he has dementia.
That's how much they hate Donald Trump.
Does that mean Trump will lose?
I don't know.
But that's what you're up against.
And perhaps there's nothing you can do.
Because dementia for me is like, yeah, that's well beyond the red line.
You know what I mean?
I think Trump's got positions I don't like.
He's done a good job on certain things as of recently.
And I don't want to make it seem like we should vote based on the most recent thing the president has done, but I will tell you this.
My position right now is the Democrats don't deserve power at all.
With Adam Schiff launching this new investigation with a constant waste of time, I feel like they're responsible for getting into this mess to a certain degree.
We can hope the president would do a better job.
We can wish he did.
But come on, man.
Adam Schiff doing another investigation?
Don't vote for these people.
Joe Biden, somehow people are going to vote for a guy with dementia.
I guess some people are hoping that he'll just sit in a chair and sleep all day and that kind of holding back executive authority is a good thing.
So maybe I guess that makes sense.
But do you want to give a guy with dementia access to the nuclear arsenal?
You complain about Trump being erratic and crazy.
What's your what's what's your excuse for giving a guy with dementia access to this?
I'm not saying Joe Biden has dementia.
I'm saying my friend.
I mean, as my friend said, the dude has dementia.
And I'm like, He's sundowning.
You know, he's getting to that point.
Where is he now?
He's drowned out.
Even, look at this, the four reporters for BuzzFeed to point out that Joe Biden is nowhere to be found.
You know what?
I'm not going to read this.
They basically go into what we expect.
I'll read the conclusion to see what they have to say about what Joe Biden's doing.
This is a really long article.
I'm not sure it even matters.
They end it with a quote, so it's kind of pointless.
They say, in interviews and digital events, Biden has consistently strived for political nuance, something that may help in projecting himself as a steady hand.
But that also rarely generates headlines.
That's been especially true in how he's taken on Trump directly.
In a CNN interview this Tuesday, Biden was asked if Trump is responsible for the deaths of Americans.
For his response, he pivoted.
President Trump is not responsible for the virus, he said.
He is responsible for using all of his power at his disposal to be able to deal with this virus.
Like using the Defense Production Act, blah, blah, blah.
If you've noticed what I've been doing, I have not been criticizing the president, but I've been pointing out where there's disagreements on how to proceed, Biden said on The View last week.
BuzzFeed, why don't you point out the dudes out of his mind?
The media is omitting this stuff.
I hate saying the media, but various media outlets are omitting this.
That he's speaking gibberish worse than ever.
There was a post I saw that went kind of viral, and it was someone like, here's Joe Biden's three-point plan for the coronavirus.
And it was literal, it was literal just muttering.
It was gibberish.
It was something like, here's my three-point plan.
Number one, we have to, you know, we have to agree on depending with Trump and, you know, doing what he's done on the virus.
We gotta get in place for the president to do what needs to happen.
And we need to rely on Trump to what's happening in the shortages.
It's something like that.
And I'm just like, I have no idea what this man just said.
And anybody who thinks this man could or should be president is out of their mind.
For all of Trump's faults, at least the dude can form a cohesive sentence.
At least the guy is, is lucid.
My favorite thing that my friend said to me was that he has dementia, but he does have moments of lucidity.
And I was like, what?
You acknowledge the dude's barely there, only sometimes lucid, and you want that?
Holding a finger over the nukes?
Criticize Trump all day, please.
I don't care.
You can talk about how the Orange Man is bad fun, I get it.
But you can't simultaneously say we shouldn't give Trump the nuclear arsenal, and then argue Biden should as well.
I'm not interested in that.
At least Bernie Sanders!
Come on.
I don't like his policies, but the dude can speak English right now.
I'm sorry, Biden.
Alright, whatever.
I got one more segment coming up for you in a few minutes.
I'll see you all shortly.
You know, I was trying to figure out if the opening song from Fallout 3 was public domain yet, because my understanding is that it was written in 1938.
I looked it up, and I'm like, I don't know, so I can't play it, but I really just want to play this music.
For those that aren't familiar, Fallout 3 is that post-apocalyptic video game.
It's awesome, by the way.
And I just got a bunch of stories for you where I'm going to, somewhat facetiously, but... I mean, I guess I'm kind of only half-joking that the end is night.
Anyway, the song is called, I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire.
And it, like, opens... The song plays as you come out of a bus and see the whole world in ruins, because it's, like, post-apocalyptic.
Well, we have a bunch of stories that I want to read for you about things falling apart.
And I kind of wanted to make it more, I don't know, less dire and serious, so I opened with something that was a bit more, I don't know, irreverent?
But yeah, it's kind of serious.
The first story I have for you is that Breitbart says, Probably because a whole bunch of urban liberals ran full speed to the gun store after realizing they were going to be in danger.
Breitbart says, FBI numbers account for 3.7 million background checks last month, shattering the record of 3.3 million in December 2015, the only other time NICS checks crossed the 3 million threshold for a single month.
Moreover, the number of checks conducted in March 2020 represent a nearly 30% increase over the number conducted, the number conducted in March 2019, and that period witnessed the second highest number of checks of any March in history up to that point.
For many reasons, background checks alone cannot be used to determine the number of guns sold.
For example, a check is conducted on the person, not the gun.
Also, a person can buy more than one gun on passing a check, so the number of checks may be far lower the number of guns sold.
It actually stands to reason mathematically that with 3.7 million checks, it is much more likely that substantially more than 3.7 million guns were sold because one is the minimum, More than one is possible.
They say many states regularly run their concealed permit holders through NICS checks to be sure criminal records remain clear.
So it could actually be lower.
All right, fine.
I was wrong.
After adjusting for permit checks and renewals, the NSSF reported a figure of 2.3 million checks for March 2020 versus 1.3... Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Hold on.
Okay, earlier this month, the National Shooting Sports Foundation Uh, out of NICS purpose code permit che- Uh, wait, okay.
Checks and permit rechecks used by states for CCW permit application checks, as well as checks on active CCW permit databases, to come up- That is a very confusing paragraph, I might add.
But anyway, the point is, it looks like... Lots more guns!
We knew it.
Gun stores are being sold out.
Look, I'm not a gun person, so many of you probably are, and you're probably chuckling, saying, Tim, you don't know anything about guns.
I get it.
I get it.
It's true.
No, I know very little.
I know more than a lot of these people, but not a whole lot.
What I can tell you is people are rushing to buy guns.
And now, I can't tell you if that means there's going to be a bunch of people shooting each other in the street.
I don't think that's the case, right?
I'm not saying the world is going to end, so they're going to be marching around.
What I am saying is that people are certainly concerned about it.
The people who are going out, long-time liberals in liberal districts, deciding, now's the time I want to buy a gun.
And there are these viral videos.
One guy saying, first-time gun buyers have no idea that you've got to have a waiting period, a background check, all this stuff, and they're getting mad about it.
Saying, can I pay more?
No, you can't pay more!
How about the next time these laws start coming up, you vote against them?
Vote against people trying to take your stuff away.
That's what he said.
Not a quote from me.
So yeah, we are seeing people now who never thought about how bad it could get before.
But we do have another alarming sign.
Check this out.
The mail just stopped.
Coronavirus staffing shortages and budget gaps push postal service to the brink of collapse.
Now the libertarians are cheering right now, laughing and, you know, drinking to their health and smoking cigars, putting on their finest suits, because government institutions are in dire straits.
Gun stores, you know, are selling guns by the... they're selling out.
And this doesn't bode well for regular society, I suppose, right?
So the post office is being pushed to the brink of collapse, they say.
The mail just stopped for some people.
They went out, checked the mailbox, nothing in there.
And it turns out, after they called the post office, they said, yeah, we're suspending mail delivery service.
Now, this is a government institution, the post office.
They have staff shortages.
I know the post office is not the most important aspect of the government, for the most part.
It does matter, right?
Getting your mail is important.
I do think, for the most part, I get trash in the mail.
I rarely get anything useful, and I'm sure most of you understand that, basically, as soon as you get your own place to live, you get a subscription to garbage, and they put the garbage in your mailbox, and you gotta throw it away the next day.
But no, no, no, no, it is still a government institution.
So here's the point I'm bringing up.
People are buying guns like crazy because they're scared of what might happen.
Parts of the government we are losing confidence in.
I know, I know the post office is into the federal government, but this is an erosion of the government, and we're seeing bits of it come apart.
We're also seeing gig workers striking over lack of coronavirus protection.
Everything's falling apart, man.
April 1st was the other day.
The rent checks came due and we heard about rent strikes.
So put all these things together.
Put all this stuff together, right?
Chance out.
A 3,000% jump in jobless claims has devastated the U.S.
job market.
Many of you have probably heard, 6.6 million jobs.
And so, let me just go off the cuff on this one.
I feel like I'm kind of seeing the potential for a post-apocalyptic social order breakdown, and it's getting worse and worse every day.
There was nothing individually that jumped out at me and said, like, this is it.
You know, we've known about the gun sales, we know about unemployment, but putting these things together starts to paint an interesting picture.
Think about what comes in the next couple of weeks.
The unemployment numbers are going to go way, way up.
You know why?
First, we had the retail service.
Then it rippled through the media.
The media started laying people off, cutting salaries, because advertisement wasn't coming in.
That means the ad agencies and the companies that run ads are also downsizing.
Major corporations are downsizing.
So the next wave comes, and now people skip rent.
The next wave is a-comin', and the stimulus ain't gonna be good enough.
So people are going out and buying guns, and when the post office starts shutting down, that means the government isn't even able to stay open themselves.
I wonder how long this will go on for.
Gig workers are striking.
So what we're going to see now, if these people aren't working because they're not getting the protections they need, and I understand they need them, then you're going to see the next collapse.
I don't know how long it'll take until it reaches the hospitals, but we're already seeing people have their pay cut.
If the hospitals can't function, then all we can do is reopen the economy in shambles.
And the virus will start sweeping through.
And this, to me, is like... You know, I don't think the world is gonna end.
I had this conversation with a bunch of friends.
It's not gonna be like you come out of your house one day and there's zombies running around.
But it's gonna get dark.
It's gonna get bad.
And there's a reason why people are buying up guns like crazy.
Now we do see in some states authoritarian pressures, the governors making decrees, local jurisdictions trying to shut down gun stores, Trump intervening.
You're going to see a desperate attempt from the government to try and keep things together.
But I'm going to tell you something.
Government only exists in the minds of the people.
That's the only place it really does exist.
It's the confidence of the American people.
Confident that if you do something, something will happen.
Why does anyone pay their taxes?
Because they're confident that if they don't, something bad will happen.
Some of them believe they're getting essential services, meaning they're confident if they do, something good will happen.
Most of us believe there's good things and bad things that come with taxes.
For the most part, libertarians would say, you know, so what?
Who cares?
We shouldn't be forced to pay taxes anyway.
I'm open to those arguments, but I tend to fall on the side of there are good things and bad things with taxes.
Yeah, There's a lot of problems with where our tax money goes.
I don't like the war and all that stuff.
But hey, I do appreciate the fire department, the local police department.
I appreciate the people who are there to protect me.
It's like buying insurance in the community.
You know what I mean?
So I'm okay with it to a certain degree.
What about the post office?
What am I paying for?
Now, I get it.
People aren't sending mail, I guess.
I'd assume they'd be sending more, but the post office can't maintain itself.
You know, when I order stuff, it comes FedEx UPS.
So the first thing we see go is I mean, the post office is essential!
I mean, it really is, to a certain degree.
It's not the most essential, but it is, and it's faltering.
What's the next government institution?
And how long until people start losing confidence in local government?
That, to me, is the worrying point.
I mean, this right now is where it gets worrying.
So I'm not saying don't go and buy guns.
By all means, you know, do what you gotta do.
But let me just wrap this up because I feel kind of dejected on this one.
But basically, people are losing their jobs.
It's going to get way, way worse.
People are starting to see, you know, the signs.
So they're rushing out to buy guns because they all think it's going to get bad.
Think about what this means that people are buying guns.
It means the individuals, the people of our country, are losing confidence in the government's ability to protect them.
They think it's going to get bad and they need to defend themselves.
They are losing confidence.
And with the post office suspending service, there's gonna be very little confidence they can actually do anything to help you as this moves on.
I don't know what that means for the local police departments, for the EMTs, for the nurses and doctors, but when these gig workers are striking, and I don't mean just them, but I mean just people in general, What's the money going to be good for?
For real, that's a question.
If you get paid at a job and you're an essential worker, a nurse, and they're cutting your pay, and then you're like, this money's not even doing anything for me.
First of all, I don't got to pay rent because no one's going to evict me anyway.
If I go into unemployment, I get more money than I get now.
At a certain point, people are going to say, I can't do this.
I'm out.
Then what do we do?
Draft doctors?
I don't know, man.
I don't know.
But there's a reason why people are buying up the guns.
And there's a reason why the mail just stopped.
That's what they say.
The mail just stopped.
It is... I don't know what to expect.
Let me just wrap.
I'll just end this.
My point is, it's grains of sand making a heap, right?
That's the analogy I often use.
These are small stories that, on their own, people might laugh at or shrug off.
Not the jobs thing.
That's kind of crazy.
But when you put it all together, you see a bigger picture.
