Chinese State Security Warned China To Prepare For War With The United States Over Pandemic Backlash
Chinese State Security Warned China To Prepare For War With The United States Over Pandemic Backlash. China's Ministry of State Security presented a report to top officials in Beijing early last month including president Xi Jinping warning of a major international backlash over the global pandemic.The report said that they must prepare for the worst case scenario "armed confrontation" with the United StatesWhile some in media are pushing Chinese propaganda there seems to be a plurality of both Democrats and Republicans who put the blame on China for the global crisis.Its hard to tell how seriously they take the potential threat of war or how likely war is but many have already warned of growing military tensions between the US and China
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Early last month, the Ministry of State Security in China presented a report to top leaders in Beijing, including President Xi Jinping, warning that they were facing a very serious international backlash over the coronavirus pandemic, and that because of this, they needed to prepare for the worst-case scenario, war with the United States.
Now, it's hard to know how seriously they take the threat or how likely they think a war will be, but many people have been concerned over escalating military tensions between the U.S.
and China.
Not that long ago, China sent a strike group through the South China Sea near Taiwan.
The U.S.
responded by lining up a bunch of bombers, an elephant walk, they call it, in Guam, and then sending U.S.
warships into the South China Sea, where ultimately China claimed they expelled one of the U.S.
warships.
Now, the U.S.
Navy denies this.
But we've also heard from people like Majid Nawaz, famed intellectual dark web personality, who said China is preparing for war.
Now whether or not a war really happens, I don't know.
I'm not trying to be overly sensational.
But we are getting this report now from Reuters saying that China has been warned by its top officials to prepare for this.
Now when it comes to the United States, there are concerns that people in media are pushing Chinese propaganda, and it certainly seems like many of them are.
But that doesn't matter, because the sentiment among the American people is that China is responsible for this.
We recently saw a leaked document from Western intelligence claiming that the World Health Organization was pushing Chinese propaganda.
And that yes, China was covering this up.
We also heard from the Associated Press a few weeks ago, or a week or so ago, that China knew about human-to-human transmission and withheld this information.
And on this same day, the World Health Organization fed disinfo on social media claiming that China saw no potential human-to-human transmission, even though the World Health Organization had already been warned by other countries.
Whether or not a war breaks out, I don't know.
But among the American people, they feel China is responsible, and Donald Trump has said that China has tried to cover this up.
I'm not going to pretend like there will be a war.
I don't know.
I'm not trying to be sensational.
But for the longest time, news articles had been written at places like the Atlantic, warning of something called Thucydides' Trap, that because China was a rising power, they would seek to overthrow the U.S.
as the dominant power, and this typically results in war.
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Reuters reports exclusive.
Internal Chinese report warns Beijing faces Tiananmen-like global backlash over virus.
An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into confrontation, people familiar with the paper told Reuters.
The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders, including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the sources said.
As a result, Beijing faces a wave of anti-China sentiment led by the United States in the aftermath of the pandemic, and needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers, according to people familiar with the report's content, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.
The report was drawn up by the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a think tank affiliated with the Ministry of State Security, China's top intelligence body.
Reuters has not seen the briefing paper, but it was described by people who had direct knowledge of its findings.
I don't have relevant information, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson's office said in a statement responding to questions from Reuters on the report.
China's Ministry of State Security has no public contact details and could not be reached for comment.
CICIR, an influential think tank that until 1980 was within the Ministry of State Security and advises the Chinese government on foreign and security policy, did not reply to a request for comment.
Reuters couldn't determine to what extent the Stark assessment described in the paper reflects position held by China's state leaders, and to what extent, if at all, it would be influential policy.
Or, I'm sorry, it would influence policy.
The presentation of the report shows how seriously Beijing takes the threat of a building backlash that could threaten what China sees as its strategic investments overseas and its view of its security standing.
Relations between China and the United States are widely seen to be at their worst point in decades, with deepening mistrust and friction points from U.S.
allegations of unfair trade and technology practices to disputes over Hong Kong, Taiwan, and contested territories in the South China Sea.
In recent days, U.S.
President Donald Trump, facing a more difficult re-election campaign as the coronavirus has claimed tens of thousands of Americans' lives and ravaged the U.S.
economy, has been ramping up his criticism of Beijing and threatening new tariffs on China.
His administration, meanwhile, is considering retaliatory measures against China over the outbreak, officials say.
I'm going to pause right here and throw some shade at Reuters.
There is absolutely no reason to bring up your speculation as to the current state of Donald Trump's presidency.
I could easily argue that this has been good for him because it's not Donald Trump calling for the economy to be shut down.
Trump is calling for the reopening of the economy.
But more importantly, the sentiment that Donald Trump is pointing out about China is shared by Americans.
The Washington Post says Trump's not the only one blaming China.
Americans increasingly are too.
This is how you see the bias in media.
They try and make it seem like Trump, by framing it this way, I'm trying to make you think the only reason Trump is calling out China is because he's desperate for re-election.
In reality, both he and the American people increasingly blame China for what's going on.
And it would seem people in other countries do as well, or at the very least are pointing out that China is gearing up for war.
Now I want to show you this.
Vox.com.
How China is ruthlessly exploiting the coronavirus pandemic it helped cause.
Quote, everything they're doing is a full court press.
One expert told Vox.
Vox.com is a progressive media website.
If even they're pointing out China helped cause this pandemic, you need to stop pretending
like Donald Trump is just desperate for re-election.
While it could be, there's no point in speculating.
We heard from Sky News.com in Australia.
Now this is just reiterating sentiment from Majid Nawaz.
China is preparing for war with the West.
I want you to consider what that might mean.
While I'm not going to pretend like Majid Nawaz is a crystal ball and knows exactly what China is doing, when you look at everything they've done over the past few decades and the moves they're making now, a reasonable person could conclude they're preparing for this.
If you go back the just about one month to early last month to see that they were warned they would need to prepare for war, it stands to reason that they are.
Now I'm not trying to fan the flames.
I don't want to encourage any possible escalation.
The only thing I can really do is tell you what's happening and remind you that if they were warned early last month, then the rest of us, the public, we are months behind where they really are in terms of their strategic plans.
Sky News reported.
Founding chairman of Quilliam, Majid Nawaz believes China is preparing for war as tensions between Beijing and the West increase due to a proposed investigation into the origins of COVID-19.
Last month, Australia proposed an independent global investigation into the origins and the initial handling of the novel coronavirus.
A Chinese ambassador warned that Australia could face an economic hit if it does not back down from a push into the Beijing's handling of the coronavirus.
Ambassador Cheng Jingye said the push was dangerous and could dissuade Chinese citizens not to travel or trade with Australia.
Mr. Nawaz said he became aware of the incredible danger the Chinese Communist Party poses to the world when he learned it interned two million Uighur Muslims in concentration camps.
We are already in a cold war with them, he said.
The Chinese Communist Party is preparing for it, and they have a strategy for us in the West, and we have no strategy for dealing with them.
It stands to reason this is the case, and you need to be prepared for what that means.
Take it seriously or don't.
Accuse me of fear-mongering or not.
I'm just going to read to you what we're learning.
This is Reuters reporting this.
The Washington Post says, China spent years preparing for this economic crash, fearing political dangers.
They've been getting ready for this.
Be it preparation for war or a plan B or emergency measures, they have been getting ready for this.
USA Today reported this dangerous dynamic.
Coronavirus threatens new cold war between U.S.
and China, saying President Donald Trump has accused China of a coronavirus cover-up, suggested the government may have allowed the disease to spread, and threatened to extract a substantial price from Beijing for this pandemic.
And that's what the U.S.
fears.
National security officials are concerned China will develop a coronavirus vaccine first and try to extort the world for access.
Whether or not war breaks out, This is a reality we have to face.
If even Vox is willing to admit China helped create this pandemic, and now they're trying to exploit it by getting the vaccine first, first, it really does seem like we're dealing with a malicious actor.
While you can argue whether or not it was an intentional release or they helped spread it, they certainly helped cause it, be it on purpose or an accident, whatever your conclusion is.
So no, we don't want to let them extort the rest of the world with a vaccine.
Before we read that, let's see what Vox had to say.
Vox reports, The coronavirus pandemic that rages across the globe is a fire China helped light.
And now while Beijing grasps at a fire hose with two hands, it's also planting a boot on the world's neck.
The Chinese government spent weeks denying and downplaying the severity of its growing coronavirus outbreak that eventually spread to the rest of the world.
That obfuscation cost nations crucial time in preparing for and potentially curbing the damage of COVID-19.
Some experts Vox spoke with believe President Xi Jinping's regime should be held accountable for the more than 3 million infections and 200,000 deaths that have taken place worldwide.
And that's incredible.
That's Vox reporting what is essentially in line with Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo's thinking.
They say.
But China isn't letting the crisis go to waste.
Instead of looking to make amends, Beijing is taking advantage of the chaos to pursue its long-time foreign policy goals more aggressively.
Quote, When it sees opportunities, China moves to exploit them, said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, D.C.
And we are in a moment where the Chinese definitely see opportunities.
China has capitalized on the world's distraction to claim sovereignty over disputed islands in the South China Sea, intimidate Taiwan, and assert more authority over Hong Kong in an attempt to quash the pro-democracy movement there.
It's taken advantage of vulnerable countries in Africa that are struggling to cope with the coronavirus and its economic impact by offering much-needed debt relief, but only if those countries provide lucrative national assets as collateral.
And after the U.S.
suspended funding to the World Health Organization for allegedly being too cozy with Beijing, the Chinese government pledged millions of dollars in additional support for the organization, giving China even more influence in the global health agency and allowing the country to portray itself as the new champion of multilateralism.
Amid all this, China has launched a global disinformation campaign to reflect blame for the virus onto other countries, for instance, alleging the virus really originated in the U.S.
or maybe in Italy.
It also sent needed medical equipment and doctors to heavily impacted countries, where it seeks to expand its influence, allowing Beijing to play the hero of the pandemic instead of the villain.
Everything they're doing is a full court press, said Michael Sobolik, an expert on China at the American Foreign Policy Council.
Across the board, China is pushing hard.
Experts say this is all part of Xi's broader strategy to dislodge America as the world's sole superpower and expand China's reach around the world.
In other words, he's merely exploiting the coronavirus crisis to achieve his aims faster.
Now, it's possible that because of the report they received early last month, China is desperate to prevent this backlash because they don't want to go to war.
I think anybody in this day and age who would actually press for war or want it is insane.
But the difficult reality is, they are to blame.
And we know it.
The media seems to be coming around to a certain degree.
For the longest time, independent media channels like mine have questioned whether or not this may have emerged from a biolab on accident.
Not that it was intentionally made or man-made.
But there was an early report out of China, out of a university in China, suggesting That the coronavirus we are now facing around the world emerged due to failures at this biolab to contain the virus.
One researcher saying that somebody was bitten, peed on, or got blood on themselves from a bat they had been researching.
Now we don't know if this is true, and there's no conclusive evidence.
And while the media has consistently tried to claim it's fake news or conspiracy, it seems to be that some news outlets are now coming around.
First, from NBC News, they ask, did the coronavirus really escape from a Chinese lab?
Here's what we know.
Experts say animal-to-human transmission is far more likely, but some circumstantial evidence suggests it's possible it was accidentally released by a lab.
Now, I know many of you are sitting here saying, yes, Tim, we know this.
We've all known this, because we actually read the news, right?
Well, I'm not bringing this up to enlighten you as to the fact that it may have emerged from a biolab, but just to point out that even NBC and other outlets are now coming around and starting to blame China, while NBC doesn't take the full leap.
And neither do I, to be honest.
We're seeing even Vox.com and other left-wing sites say, this is China's fault.
They need to pay—they're responsible for what's going on to a certain degree.
Now we did see this tweet recently from Fox News where he says, John Roberts, I'm sorry, John Roberts of Fox News says, sources say not all 17 intelligence agencies agree that the lab was the source of the virus because there is not yet a definitive smoking gun, but confidence is high among 70 to 75% of the agencies.
We're also now seeing Trump say he has seen evidence linking the coronavirus to the Wuhan lab.
And the latest information, White House will release conclusive evidence coronavirus originated in Wuhan lab, Trump says.
Now, I don't know if Donald Trump is completely correct on this one.
We'll see.
Maybe he will or he won't release evidence.
It's hard to know for sure.
Let's read some of the story and see what the claim is.
The Daily Caller says, President Donald Trump suggested during Sunday night's Fox News Town Hall that his administration will soon release conclusive evidence showing how the coronavirus originally leaked out of China's Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Quote, I don't think there is any question about it.
Trump responded when asked a question on whether China's actions allowed the pandemic to spread across the globe.
He proceeded to tell host Brett Baier that the administration will be giving a very strong report on what we think happened, and I think it will be very conclusive.
The president has repeatedly claimed to have seen evidence the virus leaked out of a research facility, and his latest comments come the same day that the Secretary of State Mike Pompeo maintained the administration has compiled an extensive report on the virus's lab origins.
We have said from the beginning, this virus originated in Wuhan, China.
We took a lot of grief for that from the outset.
But I think the whole world can see now, Pompeo said on ABC Sunday morning.
Remember, China has a history of infecting the world, and they have a history of running substandard laboratories.
Quote, these aren't the first times that we have had the world exposed to viruses as a result of failures in a Chinese lab.
Trump clarified Sunday night that he doesn't view the coronavirus as a malicious action from China.
Quote, personally, I think they made a horrible mistake, he told co-host Martha McCallum.
They didn't want to admit it. We wanted to go in, but they didn't want us there.
World Health Organization, World Health, World Health wanted to go in. They tried to cover it.
They tried to put it out.
It's like trying to put out a fire they couldn't put out the fire.
The White House is actively investigating ways to hold China financially accountable for its role in allowing the pandemic to spread across the globe.
Officials did not respond when asked by the Daily Caller when the President's aforementioned report will be publicly released.
We'll see if there's a report.
I don't know.
Trump says they're compiling something.
We'll see.
But you know, this wouldn't be a Timcast video if I didn't at least once call out the media and their deception.
One of the narratives we're seeing pushed, even when these outlets do admit there is a serious threat, is they try to use false framing to change what Donald Trump has said.
Now, in this article from Vice titled, China thinks backlash to its coronavirus response could lead to all-out war with the U.S.
A state security report warned that anti-China sentiment led by the U.S.
has not been this high since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
It seems that they're acknowledging the potential for war is real.
The Reuters report.
But here's where they start playing games.
They say this.
The report was submitted in early April, but since then the Trump administration has ramped up its attacks on the Chinese government, blaming it for the pandemic that has so far killed almost 250,000 people and infected at least 3.5 million worldwide.
Just this weekend, President Donald Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both reiterated unproven claims the virus originated from a government-run lab in Wuhan, despite the Office of the Director of National Intelligence definitively declaring last week that scientific consensus was that the virus was not man-made or genetically modified.
Now this is where things are interesting.
The first phrase, the first line in that sentence, has nothing to do with the second.
This is a dangerous game that people in the media, particularly on the left, try to play, conflating ideas that have nothing to do with one another.
Just because the virus leaked from a lab doesn't mean that it was man-made or genetically modified.
They conflate the two to make it seem like Trump and Pompeo are wrong, or lying, or just trying to connect these dots that shouldn't exist when in reality.
What is being said right now is that potentially they were researching natural viruses that have emerged from bats, maybe have gotten infected, and it may have leaked out of that lab.
One of the ideas right now, or theories, is that this lab was doing research on bats from relatively far away.
They had brought some of the bats in and were researching the viruses the bats had, and some of those viruses escaped the lab.
For Vice to add the man-made or genetically modified is a way to trick you into thinking these two things are related when they're really not, thus creating a picture, like I said, that Trump is lying or that Pompeo is wrong.
Some people have pointed to, many people in media have actually done this, there have been viral videos about Mike Pompeo saying that it may have leaked from a lab, it's not man-made, and then trying to act like that's the same thing.
It's not.
I think the reason for this is that there is still an element of the media that is trying to make this seem that Donald Trump is just trying to get re-elected and look for a scapegoat.
I think the reality is, as we've seen from the report from Reuters, there is a very, very real fear of war.
The sentiment among the American people is that China is at fault.
The Washington Post reports, President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo charges Sunday that the coronavirus emerged from a Chinese government lab Their charges did more than intensify the growing sino-american
conflict They are just the latest sign that China's role in creating
or worsening. The global pandemic will be a key election issue this fall
Few people now contend that China is blameless in causing the crisis that has developed over the in felt the globe
the globe One doesn't have to believe every conspiracy theory to note
that at minimum The communist government failed to be forthright in a
timely manner with the World Health Organization and other governments
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has called for an investigation into China's role, a move that sparked veiled threats of economic blacklisting from state-controlled Chinese media.
Even normally more cautious European allies have called for more transparency from the secretive and closed regime.
Polls show that Americans are also blaming China.
A Harris poll in early April showed that majorities of Democrats and Republicans thought China was not forthcoming about the virus, while Republicans were predictably much harsher in both their views and in how to respond.
Anti-China sentiments were shared across the political spectrum.
A Pew Research Center survey from March also found anti-China views were shared across party lines.
An economist YouGov poll from last week even found a plurality of Americans believe the coronavirus came from a lab with two-thirds of Republicans and nearly three quarters of Republican primary voters in agreement.
Well, of course the Republicans mostly believe it.
But it goes beyond just this virus.
Tucker Carlson warns that Beijing sees coronavirus pandemic as the beginning of a new Chinese century.
It's Thucydides' trap.
The virus is just one aspect of it.
With or without the pandemic, the warnings have been laid before us over the past several years.
And again, Thucydides' trap states that as a power begins to rise and there is a dominant power, As the rising power seeks to upset and take the dominant position, war erupts.
In an article from the Atlantic, they said, over the past 500 years, 12 of 16 moments
where this happened resulted in major war.
So again, I'm not telling you that there will be war, I don't know for sure.
But there have been dramatic military conflicts over the past few months, and it seems to be escalating.
I'm going to save this next bit for another segment at 6pm on my other channel, youtube.com slash timcastnews.
But Venezuela's Maduro says two U.S.
mercenaries were captured in a failed raid attempt.
They believe these men, these Americans, were involved in a plot to end the life of Maduro.
It's not just about China.
It's about the escalations of tensions between China and their allies, including Russia, Iran, and Venezuela.
So I apologize to those who say this is sensationalist.
I'm not trying to be.
I'm just reading to you the reports that are coming out.
It very well may be that this is all normal, right?
It's all normal stuff and the only reason we're focused on it now is because we're locked in our houses and we're bored.
But it could be that the timer is ticking on Thucydides' trap and it's only a matter of time before China tries to take that dominant position.
They're pushing on us.
They have been warned war is coming, and they were warned to prepare for it.
And then we heard from people like Majid Nawaz.
They are preparing for it.
We'll see how it plays out.
Stick around.
Next segment is coming up at 6 p.m.
over at youtube.com slash timcastnews.
It is a different channel, and I will see you all there.
Wendy's, in some locations, has just taken burgers off the menu.
So now we are seeing the next wave of economic collapse.
There's big warnings about landlords and restaurants not reopening, but now even big chains are being hit by this.
It's not just Wendy's.
Costco, Kroger, and other leading stores are now rationing meat.
Recently, Donald Trump announced he was going to use the Defense Production Act to make sure these meat processing plants stayed open because there was a serious threat of a food shortage.
Now, some people have said, no, no, there's a big difference between a food shortage and a meat shortage, and we don't have to eat meat, right?
Listen.
It's not about if it's meat.
I don't care if it was a blueberry shortage.
The point is, food in general is, the supply is collapsing.
The chain is breaking.
It's not even necessarily about whether or not they can produce the food.
It's about whether or not the chain itself of delivering the food can make it to stores.
Farmers have been towing under their vegetables, just dumping them back in the dirt.
Dumping dairy.
And now we're seeing more food shortages, more meat shortages.
And we were warned about this.
So, look.
Many of you maybe don't go to Wendy's.
Many of you probably think it's fine, you know, I'll eat chicken or fish or something.
This is just the beginning.
We don't know how far this will go or how bad it will get, but let me tell you.
It was, I think, three months ago when I started doing ads for that emergency food supply company.
I was told once by a journalism professor that I had the unfortunate privilege of being ahead of the market in most things that I was doing.
And it works out for me, it helps me run my business.
But I also want to point out, yeah, I mean, I was fairly early on warning about food shortages.
At the time, we were seeing people raid store shelves.
They were running into Walmart, they were buying up everything.
But as I noted and many others noted, that was just a temporary thing as they started to restock because the supply chain was still working.
But we were warned that come the end of April or May, the chain was broken.
And we were going to start seeing legitimate, hard shortages from the producers.
Now we're here.
And boy did some of these people get a rude awakening when they pulled up to their favorite fast food chain and there was a sign saying, sorry, we ain't got beef.
I don't know where this ends or how far it goes, but I got a couple stories for you.
Major chains.
I talked about this yesterday, but now we're hearing more stores.
More stores are rationing meat.
Now it could just end at meat, I don't know.
It could get better from here, I don't know.
But I'll tell you what, if you haven't prepared for something, prepared for the worse, well, it's not going to be anyone's fault but your own.
So I'm loving it.
All the people on Twitter who made fun of me because I was promoting emergency food, sure.
You do what you want.
I don't care.
Alright?
Because when you go to the store and they tell you you can't have meat, I'm gonna be sitting back being like, well, I stocked up on my protein a long time ago.
Granted, meat doesn't last that long relative to like beans and rice.
So there's not a whole lot you can do if this food shortage happens.
And it gets worse than just meat.
You're gonna be happy you've had something and you've taken care of this a long time ago.
I wonder if any of these people who are on Twitter acting like they were all smart, I wonder if they're now going, uh-oh, I should have went and bought food.
Oh, now because you're going to the store, they're telling you, you can't.
Check out this story.
From the Daily Mail.
Wendy's takes burgers off the menu in some restaurants as meat shortages spread across the U.S., leading grocery stores Costco and Kroger to warn of rationing and dwindling supply.
It's not just there.
This is the latest update.
Ohio grocers are now rationing meats.
This includes, I think it's called Great Eagle?
Giant Eagle.
Sorry, Giant Eagle.
And they do talk about Kroger.
Many of the big box stores are doing their best to remain open and keep the supply moving.
But because certain processing plants are shutting down, suppliers for certain areas are starting to ration meat.
You gotta understand, this isn't about like one day you wake up and every store in every part of the country has no meat.
It's about each different area has a different processing system.
Each different area sends and receives meat from other areas.
So you might have a regional warehouse that can't get any meat, and then all of the fast food restaurants in your area no longer serve beef.
Two towns over, they might have this.
You don't know when or how it will hit you.
Now, before we read this, I wanna point something out to everyone who seems, I've got a lot of questions about this, so I'm just gonna, I'm gonna tell you.
This is, what you're seeing is my other YouTube channel, youtube.com slash timcast.
It is not the same as this channel.
It is an entirely different channel!
Don't ask me why YouTube did this!
It says Tim Pool, but the URL is YouTube.com slash TimCast.
It is a different channel.
I've been getting a lot of questions from people saying, you keep saying you have a different channel, but this one already is TimCast, and I'm like, no.
I don't know why YouTube did this.
They changed it to Tim Pool, and they changed this one to TimCast.
I'm just letting you know, go subscribe if you haven't.
The videos are fairly similar, but usually more in-depth if you haven't seen it.
And subscribe!
It would be greatly appreciated, plus you get more content from me.
Let's read the story from Daily Mail.
They say Wendy's restaurant has taken burgers off the menu in some locations, and grocery stores Costco and Kroger have announced limited stocks of beef as Americans start to feel the impact of the pandemic-triggered meat shortage.
On Monday, angry customers realized the Wendy's Hallmark item was no longer available, and only chicken items were available for takeout and delivery at select locations across the country.
Where's the beef?
Some outraged social media users asked, invoking Wendy's catchphrase from the 80s.
It's a shocking decision for Wendy's, which established itself as the first fast-food chain to offer fresh, never-frozen beef, and it's an eerie foreshadowing of what's to come at restaurants across the country.
It's not a choice!
It's a shocking decision?
You mean Wendy's couldn't get any beef, so they just decided- No!
If they can't get beef, they can't sell it.
End of story.
There's no decision.
What do they do?
Give you an invisible burger?
It's there, trust me.
It's not a decision, Daily Mail.
This is hitting everybody.
Outbreaks of the virus at meat packing plants across the country have led slaughterhouses to shutter, farms to kill off animals they can no longer feed, store shelves to empty, and now restaurants to alter their menus.
Check this out.
Look at this photo.
Groceries warehouse Costco said on Monday would limit customers to just three packages of meat per shopper.
A look at emptying meat shelves pictured above at Costco in North Miami.
Man, here's the plant-based meats.
Kroger Supermarkets posted an alert on its website saying there's a limited inventory due to high demand.
Empty meat shelves pictured in an Atlanta Kroger on Friday.
You guys ever see V for Vendetta?
Maybe you have.
I'm reminded of that scene where Eevee is in V's HQ.
If you haven't seen it, it doesn't matter.
I'll break it down for you.
He gives her what's called like an egg in a basket or something.
It's a piece of toast with a fried egg on top.
She bites it and she goes, is this real butter?
Wow!
I haven't had real butter since I was a kid.
I think there's going to be a lot of people eating vegan food.
I really do.
You might not be happy about it.
It's not all bad.
That goes to show how I feel about it.
A lot of it is.
There's some good stuff.
But I think what's going to happen with these meat shortages, you are going to see, so long as it's available, Look man, if you can't get meat and you want protein, let me just ask you, you can comment below, would you settle for eating a piece of tofurkey or some kind of gluten-based meat product if you couldn't get meat at all?
I gotta tell you what, if it were me, I like having a sandwich with meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and if the meat's gone, I'll tell you what protein I can get.
I got no problem having like a mushroom-based thing, you know, protein-based or whatever, or chickpeas or something, or a black bean burger.
But I think you're gonna see a lot of people now eating these things and rating the vegan section because, hey man, fake meat is better than no meat at all.
And that's what we're looking at.
Because check out this photo.
Here's the plant-based section.
I don't know if there's actually stuff in it, but it says plant-based.
And you can see the meat section is dwindling.
And I'll tell you what too, if they're telling you you can only get a few, you know, you can only take three items, I'll tell you, I'll take three items of this and a handful of the vegan stuff, because like I said, man, fake meat's better than no meat.
But the reason I brought up the V for Vendetta thing is that we might be entering a future with this pandemic, maybe in the short term, maybe not for the long term, where people are going to be eating fake meat, and then there'll be a point where a rich person is like, we're having real beef for dinner, and people are going to be like, whoa!
You can afford real beef?
Wow!
We've only been eating the tofu stuff!
It could happen, man.
You know, this glorious golden age we're living in might not last forever.
People don't realize just how hard real life is.
They don't realize how much energy and resources and labor goes into the production of this food.
I mean, we could be entering a world where everything's artificial.
Think about fresh water, actually.
I've made this point several times, like, in 50 to 100 years, there's gonna be little kids, and they're gonna be asking you, they're gonna be like, whoa!
When you were little, you would just flush fresh water down the toilet and you're gonna be like, we did it!
Literally just press the thing and watch all that fresh water go into the drain.
And you're gonna go to the store and have to pay exorbitant amounts of money to get your gallon of water for the day and everyone's constantly dehydrated.
I don't know if it'll actually get that bad with fresh water.
We have a lot of water on this planet, but desalination or desalinization, whatever people call it, isn't a guarantee.
It actually increases the salinity levels of the ocean, and actually is really damaging to the sea floor, which has a ripple effect.
I'm not going to get into all that.
The point is, we live in...
A golden age, man.
We can eat whatever we want, whenever we want.
We get strawberries in the winter.
You know, we get avocados from around the world.
People are living in such a luxury.
They don't realize that a lot of things they have are not sustainable in the long term.
Notably, this idea that we can have an unlimited supply of meat all year round whenever we want, especially when emergencies happen.
During wartime, people in this country experienced this stuff.
They experienced shortages.
I remember my grandpa telling me about World War 2 and like what he had to do and he said they would eat moldy bread and basically eat garbage because it was like it's food man you eat what you can eat.
Today's day and age we've all grown up in such luxury we've always had everything we've ever wanted.
This is going to be a shock to people oh no you can't get your burger at Wendy's!
Here it comes, man.
This is just the beginning.
Again, I don't know if it'll get worse from here, get better, I don't know.
But I'll tell you what, if you are seeing these signs, and you are still shaking your head saying, oh please, Tim, it's just a couple of Wendy's that don't have burgers, what did I say a few months ago?
When there was food everywhere?
I said it would get worse.
Now here we are, and it's worse than it's ever been.
Or, in my lifetime, I'll say that.
Maybe not even in my lifetime.
Okay, I'll walk that back.
It's pretty bad.
And it could get worse.
It could get, you know, worse than we've ever seen.
Stores telling you, sorry man, you can't buy the meat.
I'm actually glad that Beyond Burger exists, and the Impossible Burger.
Because I don't know if you've ever had the Impossible Burger.
It's actually pretty good.
I wouldn't say it tastes like a real burger.
I would say it tastes kind of like a fast food processed burger.
So I'll take it, man.
You don't gotta do it.
I'll eat fake meat if there's no meat left.
I'll happily do it.
I actually like a lot of vegan products.
Chow cheese.
My buddy Adam, you might know him from the IRL podcast, is often talking about chow cheese.
And he's right.
It's really good.
Because of these shortages, don't be surprised if we enter a future like V for Vendetta where you're eating imitation products, then you go to that rich person party, the senator is like, we're having real cheese for dinner, and people are gonna be like, oh, oh my!
Let's read a little bit more.
Beef shortages were reported at Wendy's locations in California, South Carolina, and Kentucky on Monday.
In Chicago, Wendy's Baconator Bacon Cheeseburger was still available for order.
As you've likely heard, beef suppliers across North America are currently facing product challenges, said Wendy's.
Because of this, some of our menu items may be in short supply from time to time at some restaurants in this current environment.
We expect this to be temporary, and we are working diligently to minimize the impact To our customers and restaurants.
McDonald's Canada said a statement, it will start sourcing beef from outside the country to make ends meet due to meat shortages.
Quote, due to unprecedented COVID-19 impacts on the Canadian beef supply chain, we are temporarily adjusting our supply to incorporate beef from outside Canada from pre-approved McDonald's suppliers and facilities globally in order to meet the current demand.
Effective immediately.
McDonald's Canada branch said in a statement.
So McDonald's in Canada, it's looking like it's getting really close to a potential shortage.
No burgers.
Could you imagine this?
No burgers?
You know, I'll be honest with you.
I don't eat burgers.
I eat very little beef.
I mostly just eat chicken and fish.
So for me, I'm kind of like, well, I wasn't gonna have a burger anyway.
And a lot of people though, it's like the burger is the staple, man.
It's like the American cheeseburger.
Going away?
It's gonna change people, man.
Grocery warehouse Costco said Monday, it would limit customers to just three packages.
So here's some tweets.
Someone said, I just pulled up to Wendy's for a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger for my drive home.
There are signs saying that due to a shortage of meat, they are not serving hamburgers.
So I have to ask Wendy's, where's the beef?
Haha, it's really funny.
People aren't going to be making these jokes when the food shortage becomes a general food shortage.
And I think it will.
Look man, they told us they wanted to lock things down to flatten the curve.
And so we all said okay.
The projections were way higher than we thought.
And I'll say this, the best way to put it, we did a good job.
Social distancing and locking things down worked.
And now the death rate is much lower than we thought it was going to be.
But now we're seeing serious food shortages.
Take a look at this sign.
It says, We are terribly sorry for the inconvenience.
We are currently experiencing issues with our meat processing supplier and are unable to serve beef products.
We are happy to serve chicken inside items.
Alright.
You still got these people on Twitter.
And these leftists and Democrats saying, We can't reopen.
The second wave.
The second wave.
Dude!
We were told, no matter what we did, people were going to die.
They said the same amount of people will die no matter what we do, but we want to flatten the curve.
We did that.
If a second wave is coming, that's a whole other debate, and we can talk about it.
But we are running out of food!
What do you think happens when there's no food?
You know what, man?
We can't... At a certain point, we gotta say, we flatten the curve, and it's about time we reopen things to get the products back.
Now of course, people are attacking Donald Trump, saying that he's confusing a meat shortage with a food shortage.
And that, you know, from this article from The Conversation says, look man, plant-based diets are healthier!
They're healthier, yes.
Technically.
Technically they're healthier.
The big problem is that Americans eat like nothing but cheeseburgers.
Dude, you gotta have a good amount of meat, protein.
Protein I should say, not necessarily meat, but you want that complete amino chain.
You want that good iron from those, you know, bloody meat products, and you want some leafy greens and vegetables.
Americans tend not to eat enough of their leafy greens and vegetables.
At least that's the perception.
We have fries, a burger, and a Coke, and a lot of people have that all the time.
So you're missing out on really important, you know, aspects of your diet.
Naturally, if someone's eating nothing but meat, like, I mean, like, the meat diet, you might see them saying, like, hey, I feel great, things are better than ever.
And we saw, you know, Joe Rogan did this and talked about it, but he got off it after a month.
I think Jordan Peterson did it.
What you've got to understand about those diets is that they're extreme elimination diets.
And I think this is what Jordan Peterson was saying, basically, that you don't know what's bad for you.
You don't know what's messing you up.
So you switch to an all-meat diet, and then if you feel better, you can slowly start reintroducing things to figure out which was the thing that was kind of jamming you up.
There are some potential all-meat diets that I've seen stories and people are big proponents of.
The issue is, everybody thinks they know what diet is best.
I've met tons of keto people who are like, keto is the right choice.
I meet vegans who say vegan is the right choice.
You've got this article saying plant-based diets are healthier.
Dude, I can show you 500 articles saying meat-based diets are healthier.
The point is, in my opinion, I just say mix it up a little bit, man.
We're omnivores.
Eat a little bit of meat.
Eat some leafy greens.
Eat healthy.
Eat natural.
Try to make sure your food is the least amount of processed.
The issue here is not about whether plant-based diets are healthier.
This is like, in my opinion, vegan.
You know, it's like someone trying to advocate for getting off meat for a variety of reasons.
And there are really good reasons.
But here's the point.
If you're eating fast food trash burgers all the time, you're gonna feel awful.
If you're eating a nice, lean steak, fresh-grilled with a little garlic on it, you're probably gonna feel great.
Not everybody feels good after eating the same kinds of things, but the id- This is supposed to be about people ragging on Trump, but they are.
There are people who have an agenda.
And I think you can see the agenda here when they're like, plant-based diets are healthier.
And by the way, Donald Trump is risking the lives of these workers.
Showing like, I think they have photos of protests here, do they?
No, they don't.
There are photos of like protesters going viral of people saying like, don't force my parents to work at this meat plant, they'll get sick.
And it's like, People need to eat.
And I get it.
But when you see articles like this where they're basically saying Trump is putting these workers at risk, people should just eat vegan and eat plant-based diets, it's like...
Not everybody wants to eat what you want to eat, dude.
Not everybody thinks the same thing, and the science doesn't completely agree with you.
There are a ton of documentaries that contradict each other, and that's why it's really frustrating when people are like, oh, you gotta eat keto, or oh, you gotta eat carnivore, or you gotta eat vegan.
I'm like, bro, I have seen it all.
I don't know.
You show me each of these documentaries, all claiming they're the right documentary.
You show these articles, they all claim they're the right articles.
I'm sure I'm gonna get a bunch of emails from people telling me about why their specific diet is the right diet.
I get it, man.
Maybe you should just follow a diet, control how much you eat, make sure you're getting the right vitamins.
I just try to eat healthy and balanced.
But everybody's got an agenda.
We can't risk this right now.
Donald Trump wants to make these meat plants stay open because it's food.
And I'll tell you what, if there was no food left, Let's say you're on the carnivore diet.
You're like, I refuse to eat grain.
And there's no food and someone hands you a big ol' loaf of bread, you would annihilate that thing.
If you were a vegan and you were starving, and all that was left was a big ol' hunk of red meat, you would annihilate that thing.
You would be surprised what you would eat.
You would go into your backyard, lift up a rock, and look for grubs to eat if you were starving.
And boy, would it taste good.
It would be the most delicious meal you have ever tasted.
Because you're starving.
But people don't seem to realize this.
Americans live in this luxury.
Where, like, we think it's gross to eat insects and we think it's gross to eat certain things.
We literally had a TV show, Fear Factor, where they're like, today, on Fear Factor, you have to eat pig intestines!
And people are like, oh, it's so gross!
And I'm like, dude, that's just food.
It's literally food.
There are countries where they serve up pig intestines on a plate and people enjoy it.
They're like, you gotta eat cow eyeball.
It's like, uh-huh.
That's just food.
We eat animals all the time.
But because we're used to having our perfect meals, this kind of stuff was freaky to us.
Maybe it's for the best.
Like, maybe there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Or an open window here.
The door's closed, the window opens.
And then Americans will start to become more resilient.
Start to toughen up.
And actually consider eating things that freak them out even though it's regular food.
Crickets?
Enjoy some roasted crickets, bro.
They sell this stuff.
You can go to Mexico and you can eat chocolate-covered crickets and stuff like that.
It's food around the world.
They actually make cricket flour.
I kid you not.
They put crickets in a mill and mill it into a fine, like, dust.
And they can make bread with it.
I think it's fascinating.
I'll tell you what, man.
If I'm hungry, and you give me food, I will eat it.
Now, of course, I, like most Americans, have a preference for what I like to eat.
I don't like to eat burgers.
I'll tell you what.
If all the other food was gone, I'll eat a burger.
Who knows what's gonna happen?
I don't.
But I'll tell you what.
My prediction?
This will get worse.
I said it a few months ago.
These shortages are coming.
They are here.
Fast food restaurants are running out of meat.
You can't get your burgers at some Wendy's.
Don't be surprised if you wake up one day and the only thing for you to eat is corn.
So I hope you've considered this.
I'll wrap it up there.
Next segment's coming up at 1pm on this channel.
Thanks for hanging out, and I will see you all next time.
Very early on, at the start of the coronavirus pandemic, we didn't know what to expect.
We were advised that we can't save everyone's life, but by flattening the curve through social distancing and quarantines and shutdowns, we would actually reduce the stress on the hospital system and save some lives.
Now we've done that.
And the amount of people who have lost their lives, while it's very high, is much, much lower than we thought.
And now we're learning that one in four Americans may go hungry due to food supply disruption, due to food shortages, that 130 million people in this world may starve.
Yet we're still getting this tribalist, we-must-remain-locked-down-forever mentality.
People are now going on Twitter and saying, we can't reopen because people might die.
Well, we always knew that would happen.
They're saying a second wave may hit.
Well, we always knew that would happen.
If you let them, they will keep everything locked down forever, no matter what the science tells them, no matter what the economists are saying, no matter what happens with the food supply, no matter how many emergency orders, no matter what Trump does, it will be wrong.
Bill de Blasio says New York won't completely reopen until September, despite declining deaths and hospitalization rates.
That's right.
We know starvation is a real issue.
We know people's jobs are gone permanently.
But Bill de Blasio is saying, well, you know, but we're not going to reopen anyway until September, even though the death rate's going down.
Given the opportunity, for whatever reason, they're not going to change course.
They simultaneously argue that the people who want to reopen the economy are against science.
When Elon Musk came out and said, we need to reopen things, it doesn't make sense, they started going crazy on Reddit saying, wow, he's so anti-science.
But none of these people are reading the science.
This is one of the scariest things I've seen.
People who claim to represent facts that they've never looked for, never researched, and they have no idea what they're talking about.
So meanwhile they walk around saying science is the only true path, and they haven't read any of these articles.
They haven't heeded any of the warnings from the experts, but they're acting like they did.
For tribal reasons.
That's truly scary.
Because I'll say it again.
Given the opportunity, these people will not reopen things.
Everything you're experiencing now will just be the way it is.
This is how things are now.
That's it.
No one's gonna want to reopen, no amount of protests, but I will tell you what.
As much as we're seeing all of these people call for these shutdowns to remain in effect, regular people just don't care.
So perhaps it won't matter entirely what they do, so long as regular people just keep defying these orders.
The Daily Mail reports, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Monday night that he does not anticipate New York City fully reopening until September, despite declining hospitalization rates and deaths.
The city is on lockdown along with the rest of the state until May 15th at least, after which point it must meet seven requirements set out by Governor Andrew Cuomo before it can reopen.
New York City currently meets three of the four criteria.
It is lacking in free hospital beds and does not yet have the number of contact tracers, people to track down everyone who has come into contact with new COVID-19 cases that Cuomo is insisting on hiring before it can reopen.
Now look, I understand New York was hit the hardest, but you've got a city of millions of people, right?
So yes, I understand if people stop social distancing, perhaps things could get bad.
The problem is nobody cares.
Right now we're being told that white privilege is on full display as people overcrowd New York City parks.
So here's the point I want to bring up here about the disparity in what's happening with the lockdown.
First, it's hard to know if the lockdown is actually popular or unpopular.
Just because we're seeing all these people in parks doesn't mean it represents the majority of people.
But, when you look to what New York has been doing, targeting the Jewish community, targeting the black community, and then leaving these people to just romp around in the park, it makes you wonder what their real motive is.
And the other issue is that, across the country, there is no one-size-fits-all policy.
It doesn't make sense the media was calling for South Dakota to lock down, when South Dakota is nowhere near as densely populated as a state like New York.
And even weeks after they claimed it was the hotspot, what happens?
South Dakota still has some of the least amount of hospitalizations for COVID-19.
But let's talk about the real disparity in what's happening with these lockdowns.
In one place, church members get $500 tickets for sitting in their vehicles with windows closed.
But in another place, Oregon, strip clubs are offering drive-thru and delivery entertainment.
Oregon is more densely populated than Mississippi.
So this is the big problem.
The data is in, and we have to actually follow the science and plan for how we reopen.
Instead, for tribal reasons, for whatever reason, the media tries to paint a picture of conservatives being morons, of people being stupid.
You go on social media and they'll say we must remain locked down because a second wave is coming, but they're ignoring all of the data and they're ignoring the hypocrisy and the double standards.
Come on, I need you to justify why you're not out complaining in all of the media about drive-thru strip clubs, but you're calling the churchgoers morons.
That I truly don't understand.
We're seeing more data that a potentially deadly second wave is coming.
And this is what they are going to use.
It's what they're literally using now to justify why they will not be reopening.
I don't know why.
I could only assume it's for tribalist reasons.
They don't like Trump.
Conservatives are protesting.
The media won't call out regular people going to the park.
Some of them are getting tickets.
And thus, a narrative is emerging that the only people who want things reopened are Trump-supporting conservatives, which is just not the case.
Thus, we're going to end up seeing them cite stories like this and keep things locked down permanently, damaging people's lives.
I'd imagine at a certain point, people are going to say enough and actually just come out and do whatever they want.
Well, back over at the story about New York and Bill de Blasio.
They say no one from the mayor's office nor the governor's office would provide numbers for how many had been hired so far when asked repeatedly by DailyMail.com on Monday and Tuesday in reference to the contact tracers.
Then the city can start to reopen in phases with restaurants and entertainment services among the last industries to come back to life.
In an interview on Monday night with Inside City Hall, de Blasio said that while there will be a softening of restrictions between now and September, he thinks it is a safe bet for a fuller reopening.
Quote, I believe right now we're on a good track for the thing I'm focused on the most, which is getting us up and running and as much normal as we can be by the beginning of September when school begins.
I want to see school come back strong.
I want to see us do the work over the next few months to get to that point.
It's also a natural time when people are coming back from the summer, sort of have everything get into high gear.
Now I think in the meantime, we'll be able to start reducing restrictions and opening up certain types of businesses in certain ways.
What's being missed here is that first, They told us it was going to be, you know, mid-April, end of April, mid-May, end of May, June, and they keep pushing it back.
Now they're saying, well, we won't fully reopen until September.
Mind you, many businesses are done for good.
They will never come back no matter what.
That is the most important piece missing from what they're saying.
When they tell you they will eventually reopen things, what they're not telling you is that the longer they stay closed, They won't need to reopen anything because these businesses literally will not be able to be reopened.
We're also seeing a complete erosion of civil rights, and for whatever reason, a lot of people completely on board with it.
This story right here actually shocked me.
Federal judge rules Illinois stay-at-home order constitutional.
I couldn't believe it.
Churchgoers were angry, and churches, that their right to worship and peaceably assemble was being infringed upon.
And even though the governor said, yes, worship is essential, you don't need to do it in person, apparently a judge has agreed.
So now we're actually seeing them erode the Constitution right in front of our faces in real time, with no real plan to reopen things, with actually a plan to destroy things so they can never be reopened.
You know what?
I'll tell you what, man.
I think this is all gonna help Donald Trump.
I really do.
Trump's been the cheerleader for reopening.
Trump's been the one going on TV saying, we gotta get the economy going, the numbers were wrong.
And they're the ones coming out, Illinois, Democrats, these judges, saying, nope, we gotta keep things closed.
What do you see in New York?
What do you see in Miami?
Check this out.
In Miami, Miami Beach closes park just five days after reopening as nearly 8,000 people break face mask and distance rules.
Because they don't care.
Because they don't believe you.
Because you have done nothing to gain their trust, and they're just going out and doing their thing.
Of course.
What we're seeing here is that they're closing parks again.
Reopen it, people come out to do their thing, they close it down.
Because given the opportunity, they'll just keep doing it.
It feels to me like what we're seeing with these rulings, with worship, with the First Amendment, with the re-lockdowns, it's kind of testing our boundaries.
It's what creepy people do.
They want to see what they can get away with.
So now they're literally coming after your rights, and major media outlets and people, mostly on the left, are actually in agreement, agreeing with the violation of our rights in the lockdown, and things are just consistently getting worse.
When people go out to protest, they get smeared and berated and belittled, and then in a lawsuit... Let me read you the story.
Illinois says it's constitutional.
This, I don't... I can't imagine... I couldn't imagine this actually coming out... I couldn't imagine this actually happening.
I'd imagine it's unconstitutional.
So perhaps there's going to be an appellate court or the next high court, whatever, to overturn this.
But WGEM says, On the same day Beloved Church in Lena held a service with more than 100 people defying Governor J.B.
Pritzker's stay-at-home order, a U.S.
district judge rules the order constitutional.
Beloved church and its pastor, Stephen Castle, filed the federal complaint Thursday.
The lawsuit claimed the state and other local authorities have intentionally denigrated Illinois churches and pastors and people of faith by relegating them to second-class citizenship.
But a ruling from U.S.
District Judge John Z. Lee says the state's stay-at-home order is constitutional.
Lee denied the motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.
The 37-page ruling cited the governor's new order, which recognized free exercise of religion as an essential activity.
That adjustment was made on April 30th by the Pritzker administration, the same day the lawsuit was filed.
Castle disagrees and says people need to be together to worship.
For the last four weeks, we have been doing it the way other churches have been doing it, and you cannot minister to a person's heart and provide for their spiritual needs and the needs of their soul by being electronically distanced.
You just can't do it.
The church has not received a citation for Sunday service.
According to Lena Village President Dennis Bergman, he did say the church could still be cited in the future.
The church says it does plan on having another in-person service, though it did not say if it was planned for this Sunday.
When asked on Monday if he will urge authorities to step in and do something more than just disperse crowds, Governor Pritzker said people can be jailed for it, but suggested that not be the first course of action.
It's already happened.
We've seen people arrested for protesting.
They're legally allowed to protest.
Now, to be fair, in some of these cases where people are arrested, it's the same as any other protest.
A cop says, you must disperse, they're gonna say something like, you know, this is an unlawful gathering, and then start making arrests to, you know, people they view to be more egregiously acting, I suppose.
But of course, many of these arrests, in my experience, have been, I don't know, dubious.
In one instance, back in 2011, I filmed a photographer who was standing on the sidewalk getting arrested, and the police lied on the police report to do so.
Now you're seeing people come out and protest, saying they want things reopened, and you're going to get more dubious or questionable arrests.
But it's not going to stop, I'll tell you what.
I don't want to get conspiratorial, but I will say, with the partisan nature of how these lockdowns are being just perpetually demanded or enforced, it seems like, based on the rhetoric we've heard about mail-in voting, that's a huge goal for many of these people on the left.
Whether it's intentional or not, there's an opportunity for Democrats and people on the left to exploit this, to make it so people have to mail-in vote in order to actually vote, and thus they will get a better result.
Many of these younger Democrats don't care to vote.
Many Democrats don't care to vote.
But you send the ballot to them, put it in front of their face, and they'll probably just check whatever box they're told to check, increasing Democrat turnout.
It's a way they can exploit and change the rules in order to win.
Now, of course, I think there are people who have legitimate concerns about what's happening with the pandemic, and thus there's a real argument about whether or not we should reopen.
But it does feel like we're being duped.
They said to us, we're going to lock things down.
Trust us.
It's just to flatten the curve.
And everybody got on board saying, we can do this.
We're in this together.
We have flattened the curve.
The mortality rate is substantially lower.
Many new studies have come out.
The science says the mortality rate is lower.
Now we still risk a lot of people losing their lives, but we've flattened the curve.
We've done way better than we ever thought we would.
Only a few hospitals in certain hotspots reached maximum capacity and were overflowing.
And that is, it is tragic, it is scary, so I'm glad we've done well.
In which case, you'd imagine it's time to reopen things.
Apparently not.
Even when they reopen beaches, they then shut it down again because people aren't behaving in the way they want, but the mortality rate is substantially lower, so what do you expect people to do?
I don't think they're going to come with an argument to reopen things.
And I think the reason is that Donald Trump has said we need to do it.
They're ignoring the data.
They're ignoring the economic result.
They're ignoring the food shortages.
They're going on Twitter and saying things like, you are going to let people die.
They're repeating the same lines without doing any research.
So what do you do?
Here's what I'll ask you in the comments.
How do you convince someone who refuses to do the research?
Who refuses to read the science?
Who simultaneously claims science is on their side?
How do you convince them?
And what do you do when they're risking our lives because of their stupidity?
It's truly a scary thing.
Confident ignorance.
And that's what we're dealing with.
There are people who are saying they know better, they're smarter than you, we gotta close these parks down, we gotta remain closed till September, we can't reopen because we don't want to risk any lives.
Meanwhile, what's happening around them?
Food shortages, starvation, international crisis, trade lines are being disrupted, certain countries are hoarding food.
Yeah, it's getting really bad.
And the UN is warning us of mass starvation.
Where are they and why aren't they reading about this?
They're so confident.
It's a weird phenomenon because when I was growing up, what I'm seeing of the left was something that was more likely to occur on the right.
Or at least that was the perception, I can say at least.
Now we're dealing with these blue-checky journalists on Twitter saying things like, if you're one of these people who wants to reopen the economy, unfollow me now because you're too stupid and I can't deal with it.
Are you kidding?
You're shutting out any real conversation about the ramifications of what we've done with this shutdown.
You're calling protesters bigots and racists, but you're ignoring people in Miami and New York.
That's how clueless they are.
They truly have no idea what's going on around them, and thus, they're trapped in this bubble world.
What do we do when these people are the ones standing in the way of us saving lives?
What do we do when these people are the ones standing in the way of us to get things going again?
And what do we do when these people are saying, we'll just do a UBI?
While the price of food continues to increase, the availability of food continues to decrease, and people are dying anyway.
There's a real risk here.
A bunch of dumb people on Twitter, I guess, but I suppose the real challenge in anything is that everybody thinks they know.
Everyone thinks they're smarter.
I guess the big problem we're facing is that these people have dominated the journalism industry.
They're a clique.
It's a bubble.
It's a culture where they all just talk to each other.
I mean, maybe you've seen the Pulitzer Awards came out.
You know, the Pulitzer Prize.
What we see with this is just I'm gonna avoid adult language.
It's a circle of people patting each other on the back.
None of them have done real research.
They're plugging their ears to any criticism, and they're all just shaking each other's hands, gloating at how smart they are, how smarter they are than everyone else.
Meanwhile, they're ignoring the data and the research, putting people's lives at risk, and advocating for what's going to be the most devastating thing to our country and potentially the world.
I don't know how you get over that.
I really, really don't.
Italy is apparently bracing for a second wave, and I totally understand that.
They're saying that it could get substantially worse.
They say if there's a 40% increase in mobility, there could be more than 23,000 extra deaths in just eight weeks.
At a certain point, what do you do?
Do you not ever ride in a car because car accidents happen?
Do you never fly in a plane because plane crashes happen?
If we know the risk of staying locked down is on par with or getting worse than the coronavirus,
then perhaps the only thing we can do is really open up.
But unfortunately, a bunch of confident, arrogant, ignorant individuals are claiming they're
smarter than us and standing in front of us while people start to go hungry.
Food shortages erupt and nothing you do is going to solve this anyway.
So I guess I'll leave it there, man.
I don't know.
It's a bit all over the place, but I gotta be honest.
I've just seen story after story of regular people defying these orders, getting no criticism, a double standard from the media, and these same people who are calling the Trump supporters bigots and morons are ignoring the people in their own towns, and these people who are claiming that the Trump supporters are the bigots and the morons aren't even doing any research!
What have people been protesting?
Here's what they'll highlight.
A guy in a protest holding a sign that says, I need a haircut.
Yeah, that guy's an idiot.
But someone else will hold a sign saying facts, you know, facts over fear.
There'll be people holding signs saying, we risk starvation, things like this.
And the media ignores it.
Because it doesn't fit their tribal little bubble.
So while these New York journalists and these urban journalists are sitting in their ivory tower, patting each other on the back, ignoring the fact that's the people in their own town.
In fact, many of these same journalists are probably the ones going to the park in the first place.
They're gonna tell us to risk our lives because they're smarter.
So long as our news industry is completely corrupted by morons who don't do research, we are in serious trouble.
And I don't know, it's just a rant because I don't know what the solution is.
All I know is things will get worse.
I got another segment coming up for you.
The next segment will be at YouTube.com slash TimCast.
I'm gonna stop right now because people don't actually go to the URL.
I've been getting a ton of messages from people saying, but this is TimCast.
No.
This is TimCast News.
And for some reason YouTube did this, I don't know why, but the channel you are listening to right now is not YouTube.com slash TimCast.
That is a different channel from this one.
It is.
So go to your search bar, type in YouTube.com slash TimCast, and lo and behold, it's a totally different channel where I produce content every day.
And I don't blame you for not getting it because YouTube's the one who did this, so I'll just leave it there.
Check it out.
The next segment will be at 4pm on that channel, and I will see you all there.
Venezuela has taken into custody two U.S.
men in what they say was an amateur coup attempt to assassinate President Maduro of Venezuela.
Now, not that long ago, we heard that Venezuela sent one of its naval vessels to ram a German cruise liner.
They claimed that there were mercenaries on the cruise or something.
And the Venezuelan ship sank.
Apparently, Venezuela also opened fire.
Now, we don't know who was telling the truth in that regard.
Maybe Venezuela was right.
But now we're getting this story.
And I don't know what's true.
They're claiming that this coup attempt was backed by shadowy US billionaires.
I mean, it's possible.
Apparently, we got photos of these guys.
Yeah, it looks like they're the Americans they say they are.
But could this be some dude's Who wanted to, you know, overthrow Venezuela for personal reasons?
Could it be U.S.
government sanctioned?
I honestly don't know.
Now, Venezuela, of course, is saying the U.S.
sanctioned this.
They're claiming it's not.
Let's read the story.
The Daily Mail reports, footage shows Luke Denman and Aaron Berry being led from a fishing boat alongside six Venezuelan mercenaries and being forced to lie on the ground at gunpoint.
The coup was coordinated by an ex-Green Beret named Jordan Goudreau, 43, who says the objective
was to capture Maduro.
Goudreau claims to have built a force of 300 men, reportedly backed by U.S. billionaires.
President Maduro called the arrested men terrorist mercenaries and blamed the attacks on the
Trump administration, Venezuela's opposition leader, and neighboring Colombia, all of which
have denied involvement.
On Tuesday, President Donald Trump denied any involvement by the US.
government.
We'll find out, we just heard about it, Trump said when asked about the incident and the Americans' arrests.
But it has nothing to do with our government.
So here we can see in a photo, it looks like, here they say, two U.S.
citizens arrested in Venezuela Monday are seen taken into custody in a shocking new video following a foiled plot to capture the Venezuelan president, Nicolas Maduro, the socialist leader has claimed.
Do we trust Venezuela?
Sorry, I don't.
But if they have Americans, well, something was going on, right?
Take a look at some of these photos.
They can say, they say the group of mercenaries were taken from the fishing boat at gunpoint and forced to lie on the ground during the arrest.
The American men are seen here with six Venezuelans during the arrest.
So here we have a photo of the two men.
Another photo of the two men.
Nicolas Maduro, there's a bunch of what look like some kind of vests and radios, as well as bullets and guns.
Oh, yeah.
Then they show a photo of this guy, former Green Beret, Jordan Goudreau, pictured center, said earlier on Monday that he was working with the two men on a mission intending to detain Maduro and liberate Venezuela.
Goudreau has claimed responsibility for the operation.
I don't know why we should trust him necessarily.
I'm not saying he's wrong.
I'm just saying we got to get confirmation.
Who knows what's really going on.
During the press conference late Monday, President Maduro showed images of the fishing boats the alleged attackers used and equipment like walkie-talkies and night vision glasses collected in what he called an intense couple of days.
Quote, the United States government is fully and completely involved in this defeated raid, Maduro said, praising members of a fishing village for cornering one group in the sweep Netting the professional American mercenaries.
The United States has led a campaign to oust Maduro, increasing pressure in recent weeks by indicting the socialist leader as a narco-trafficker and offering a $15 million reward for his arrest.
It could very well be that these men were just trying to get that reward.
Maybe someone gave them a small amount of money thinking they were going to get a return on their investment.
Speaking about two U.S.
citizens that have been captured, he said, they were playing Rambo.
They were playing hero, adding that Venezuelan authorities had caught wind of the plot before its execution.
Six other Venezuelans were arrested alongside the American citizens, CNN reports.
Maduro ally and Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that in total they've arrested 114 people suspected in the attempted attack, and they are on the hunt of 92 others.
According to his social media accounts, Aaron Barry served as a Sergeant First Class in the U.S.
military from 1996 and 2013.
He is listed as having attended school in Texas.
On Monday, Maduro accused Florida-based ex-Green Beret Goudreau of leading the incursion with terrorist mercenaries trained in Colombia to assault Venezuela and try to kill him.
Goudreau said earlier on Monday that he was working with the two men in a mission intended to detain Maduro and liberate Venezuela.
Goudreau is a former associate of Keith Schiller, Donald Trump's bodyguard.
Schiller accompanied Goudreau to a meeting last May to discuss security with representatives of Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido.
Afterwards, Schiller claims he cut contact with Goudreau.
Now I don't know how much I believe that, right?
Again, we have very little confirmation of anything.
We can see here, there are three camps reportedly training 300 mercenaries at a secret location in Colombia.
The U.S.
mercenaries were arrested here just west of Caracas, and there was a Sunday beach attack in Caracas, it appears.
We can see the boat, photos of the guy.
They say a shadowy group of U.S.
billionaires led by Rowan Craft, an eccentric descendant of the cheese-making family, wow, promised support for the private coup, and also met with Schiller and Goudreau.
Kraft allegedly lured prospective donors with promise of preferential access to negotiate deals in the energy and mining sectors with the eventual Guaido government, said one of the businessmen, telling the Associated Press.
He provided a two-page unsigned draft memorandum for a six-figure commitment he said was sent by Kraft in October, in which he represents himself as the prime contractor of Venezuela.
Before dawn on Sunday, officials say the first attacks started on a beach near Venezuela's port city of La Guaira.
When security forces made the first two arrests and killed eight others attempting to make landing by speedboats.
You can see they posted a bunch of photos.
Here we can see passports.
The passports of Luke Denman and Aaron Barry.
You can't really make out anything on them as well, on the passports though.
The two Americans arrested Monday served in Iraq and Afghanistan with him in the U.S.
military, Goudreau said.
Adding that they were part of this alleged mission in Venezuela called Operation Gideon.
The aim was to capture Maduro.
Right, we've heard that.
Sunday's raid came after an AP report on Friday that revealed how Goudreau was planning a coup by training 300 soldiers in Colombia.
However, Efrem Matos, a former U.S.
Navy SEAL who trained some of the would-be combatants in tactical medicine, warned it was doomed to failure.
You're not going to take out Maduro with 300 hungry, untrained men, he said.
Venezuela has been in a deepening political and economic crisis under Maduro's rule.
Crumbling public services, such as running water, electricity, and medical care, have driven nearly 5 million to migrate.
But Maduro still controls all levers of power, despite a U.S.-led campaign to oust him.
It recently indebted Maduro as a drug trafficker and offered a $15 million reward for his arrest.
And that's why, you know, based on what we're seeing here, we'll come to this one in a second, I kind of don't think this was a U.S.-led operation or inspired.
I think there was an award for Maduro.
I think the U.S.
put the reward out.
You get some rich people saying, how much do you need to do this couple million?
We'll get 15 if we get the guy.
That's a profit, man.
That's what the point of the reward is.
So it sounds like these guys had this, well, not very well thought out plan, or, you know, their plan failed, whatever, regardless.
And I kind of feel like if the U.S.
was involved, they would have been much better prepared, to say the least.
We can see in this photo they say Venezuelan security forces escort one of eight individuals arrested Monday in Chua, a village on the northeast coast of the state of Aragua, who are participants of a plot to reportedly overthrow President Nicolas Maduro.
Well, they've alleged.
We can see here we got a bunch of radios.
Maduro displayed walkie-talkies, passports, combat vests, credit cards, and other military equipment when blaming the attempted attacks on the Trump administration.
They say, Venezuela and the U.S.
broke diplomatic ties last year amid heightened tensions, so there is no U.S.
embassy in Caracas.
Officials from the U.S.
State Department did not respond Monday to a request by the Associated Press for comment.
Quote, I've tried to engage everybody I know at every level, Goudreau said of the attempt to help his detained colleagues.
Nobody's returning my calls.
It's a nightmare.
Goudreau's account of the confusing raid has at times seemed contradictory.
For example, he says he was plotting a rebellion for months while claiming not to have received a single penny.
Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido on Monday denied having anything to do with Goudreau.
Guaido said in a statement, That he has no relationship, no responsibility for any actions taken by Goudreau, who repeated assertions that Guaido had a contract with SilverCorp USA, the war veteran's Florida-based security company, though he said he was paid only a tiny share of the amount the group agreed upon.
We can see more photos here of people being loaded up into military vehicles, helicopter it looks like.
Meanwhile, a self-aggrandizing Maduro has thrived broadcasting videos on state TV of what he says was a flawless defense of the nation's sovereignty.
On Monday, Maduro said the main objective was to kill the president of Venezuela during a televised speech on state television.
A terrorist attack in the middle of a pandemic while our people rested one night.
The government said it has mobilized more than 25,000 troops to hunt for other rebel cells.
Seems like things are falling apart in Venezuela if you're hunting down rebels, man.
Kay Denman, the mother of one of the Americans, said the last time she heard from her son was a few weeks when he texted her from an undisclosed location to ask how she was coping with the coronavirus pandemic.
She said she never heard her son discuss Venezuela and only learned of his possible capture there after his friends called when they saw the reports on social media.
The first time I heard Jordan Goudreau's name was today, she said, when reached at her home in Austin, Texas.
Goudreau has said he reached an agreement with the U.S.-backed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido to overthrow Maduro, which Guaido has denied.
The opposition leader said he has nothing to do with Sunday's raid, and I kind of believe it, because if he really did have an agreement, would this dude come out and spill all the beans and be like, here was the plan, here's what we were doing, and we messed up?
Nah.
I'm not sure I buy it.
Goudreau said that the two are waiting for a boat on the Caribbean island of Aruba with
emergency fuel to help extract them.
So look, this is a long story, but I think we get the gist of it.
Both Colombia and the United States have repeatedly denied previous Venezuelan allegations of
backing military plots against the socialist government.
So, look, this is a long story, but I think we get the gist of it.
So, look, this is a long story, but I think we get the gist of it.
So, look, this is a long story, but I think we The Maduro regime has been consistent in its use of misinformation in order to shift focus from mismanagement of Venezuela.
And that's why I don't trust these stories or these claims, right?
Venezuela has repeatedly lied.
That's what they do.
It's what they'll always do.
And now it's very convenient that after ramming this ship and after this operation, some dude comes out and just blames Guaido?
Hard to know for sure.
Conspiracies abound, huh?
Well, the one thing we do know is that there was a conspiracy.
What was the goal?
Why did they do it?
We don't know.
We only know what they claimed.
So, I guess we'll see where this goes, because it definitely feels like this will lead to more tensions between the U.S.
and Venezuela.
We'll see where it ends up.
I'll leave it there.
Stick around.
Next segment's coming up in just a few minutes, and I will see you all shortly.
Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit against Governor Gavin Newsom for spending, or being about to spend, $75 million of taxpayer money on illegal aliens in California.
Now, the story is actually quite interesting.
I'll read you just a little bit, but I want to show you the earlier context.
Daily Caller reports, a lawsuit seeks to stop Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom from doling out roughly $75 million in taxpayer funds to foreign nationals living unlawfully in the country.
Judicial Watch, a conservative legal firm, filed a temporary restraining order against Newsom to keep him from spending about $75 million of state taxpayer funds on direct cash benefits to illegal aliens, the firm announced on Tuesday.
Judicial Watch is arguing that an emergency restraining order is necessary because Newsom's administration will imminently begin distributing the cash benefits.
Now, the context here is a story from April 15th.
California offering $125 million in coronavirus assistance to illegal immigrants.
Now, we'll come back to the story and see the update, but here's the context.
The Daily Caller says, The announced Disaster Relief Assistance Program is a public-private partnership with $75 million in funds being covered by taxpayers and another $50 million by philanthropic donations.
California is the most diverse state in the nation, Newsom, a Democrat said in a prepared statement.
Our diversity makes us stronger and more resilient.
Every Californian, including our undocumented neighbors and friends, should know that California is here to support them during this crisis.
He continued.
We are all in this together.
The Disaster Relief Fund is intended for illegal aliens living in California who don't qualify for the stimulus package.
Congress passed in March.
Individuals can receive a one-time cash benefit of up to $500, and households can receive up to $1,000 to deal with the coronavirus downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
I'm sorry, deal with the economic downturn.
downturn. The state expects to dole out cash to roughly 150,000 illegal alien adults, Newsom
on Wednesday said. Ten percent of California's workforce is undocumented. Wow, that is a
massive number. Quote, Many Californians are one paycheck away from losing their homes
or from being able to put food on their tables.
And COVID-19 has only made these challenges worse.
California is focused on getting relief dollars and unemployment assistance in the hands of those who need it as quickly as possible.
Well, then how about you give the money to Californians instead of these illegal immigrants, right?
I get what he's saying.
He's saying they are Californian.
Individuals can begin applying for the Disaster Relief Fund in May.
This is not the first initiative in California meant to help the undocumented during the coronavirus pandemic.
Newsom already announced the launch of a relief program for businesses in the state that are run by illegal aliens.
And earlier in April, he confirmed that he is working with Democrats in the California state legislature on a fund for those living in the country illegally.
Democrats in Congress and across the country have urged that taxpayer dollars be used to help illegal aliens during the crisis, a debate that will likely take place as to whether the undocumented should be included in the next federal relief package.
What I don't understand is that if you know who these people are and where they are, why they aren't being deported or fined or charged or whatever, they're here illegally and you know.
Well, now we can see that there's a lawsuit seeking an immediate or imminent restraining order Judicial Watch said, Judicial Watch's taxpayer clients asked for a temporary restraining order because Governor Newsom plans to rush plainly illegal direct cash payments using taxpayer dollars to illegal aliens.
Could you imagine if your state announced they were going to take funds from your taxpayer funds to go to a school in a foreign country?
Now, we do have foreign relief.
That's the point.
It's relatively similar.
So, I'm curious as to if any groups are planning on suing the federal government over foreign aid packages because they do similar things.
Now, the goal is to get something in return.
Maybe to stabilize the region or to stop, say, you know, more illegal immigration.
But I do find it interesting that U.S.
taxpayers are funding non-citizens.
Doesn't seem to make sense.
Judicial Watch says, Tom Fitton, the governor has no legal authority on his own to spend state taxpayer money for cash payments to illegal aliens, and coronavirus doesn't give him or any other politician a pass to violate the law.
Newsom in April announced the administration would distribute the money, right?
We understand this now, we read this.
The relief program is intended for illegal aliens living in the state who don't qualify, and we read that too.
Newsom's administration anticipates to dole out cash to roughly 150,000 illegal aliens.
Judicial Watch on Tuesday argued that the governor is overstepping his authority in trying to give taxpayer funds to illegal aliens, and took particular umbrage with the fact that Newsom launched the program without input from California's state legislature.
It is not surprising to say the least.
If you look over at what's going on in Michigan, Governor Whitmer Had, uh, has extended or announced the, you know, her intent to extend the order, I believe to May 28th, even though the state legislature refused to extend the lockdown.
Could you imagine if Congress passed a bill?
Well, we have the veto system, I suppose.
But could you imagine if Trump couldn't get policy passed and then just went ahead and did it?
Again, These things have happened.
Trump wanted to get funding for the border wall, went and just did it.
Yeah, it's a problem when executive authority oversteps its bounds to just do what it wants.
Now, I'll tell you what.
I believe Trump won the Supreme Court challenge.
So what needs to happen here, Gavin Newsom should not be going out and just spending money without approval.
There should be a challenge, at least at the state level, of similar checks and balances.
I don't know exactly what would happen or, you know, if this lawsuit will actually work, but here is the judicial response.
Here's what they go on to say.
These benefits are not to be provided to U.S.
citizens or illegal aliens residing in the state, according to an April 17th fact sheet issued by the California Department of Social Services.
The Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants fact sheet, which reiterates that only unlawfully present aliens are eligible for direct assistance, the legal firm stated.
Federal immigration law generally forbids illegal aliens from being eligible for state or local public benefits.
Only through laws enacted by a state legislature can a state government provide such benefits to undocumented aliens, something Newsom did not do.
Well, I'll tell you what.
If you live in California, and you don't like this, and you have problems with how they're running things, you should probably get out of California, because they are one of the worst states when it comes to enforcing these laws.
And I think I know why.
I'm gonna give you my... I wouldn't even call it a conspiracy theory.
I'll just tell you what I think they're doing.
There were some reports suggesting that California's dwindling population, it's shrinking, is going to result in them losing seats in Congress and a vote in the Electoral College.
So California needs to fluff its numbers.
So you can call out California and say that by giving healthcare to non-citizens, which they've done, By giving now direct cash payments to non-citizens, what they are planning to do, they will attract people.
There will be a pull effect and more people will illegally enter the United States through California.
Yes, it seems to be what they want.
That's why they keep doing it.
And unless someone from the federal government comes in, they won't stop.
And therein lies the big problem.
If they continually incentivize people to come into this country, and then people do, what happens?
California will then run its census and say, look at all the people we have, and they will get a disproportionate amount of power in Congress and in the Electoral College.
And as we know, much of California is Democrat.
They have a Democratic supermajority in many of the major cities, and I think in the state for the most part.
So I don't know how you're supposed to handle corruption when you have a state just doing this because the state agrees they should.
And if the people who live in the state don't have a problem with it, then the rest of us do.
You know, I don't know how you solve this problem, but I can tell you that people in neighboring states are probably not too happy that it is relatively easy for people to illegally enter the country through California.
Then, because California is so large, they can enter any other part of the country through California.
Yeah, there have been some jokes about building a wall around California, but maybe it's not a joke.
Maybe if you want to be a sanctuary state where you say, anybody who comes in, we won't cooperate with ICE and you won't be deported, then maybe we need barriers around that state to protect the rest of the contiguous United States.
Fine, look, if California wants to say, we'll give you our taxpayer dollars, should the U.S.
then bail out these states that are doing this?
Trump has stated something about You know, we'll give relief funds to the states if they start cooperating with ICE or something to that effect, and I believe a court ruling said they couldn't do it.
But I gotta admit, it does make sense.
How can you claim to be bankrupt or broke and in need of cash if you're giving cash to non-citizens?
Sure, go ahead and make every argument you want in the book, but they're not citizens.
The way I often view it is like, If we're all working as part of this system, waiting in line, you know, working by the rules, abiding by the rules, why should people who break the rules be given benefits from our pockets?
The funny thing is, it's not a conservative position.
At least it didn't used to be.
The Democrats used to agree.
The Democrats used to be for the working class.
And now what do we get?
If you agree that we should have border security, you must be a Republican.
Well, this is why I think Donald Trump is going to sweep in November.
You cannot have a pandemic where we are desperately trying to protect our healthcare system and protect our borders and then encourage people to enter the country illegally by offering them cash from the pockets of the American taxpayers.
Well, in your instance, the California taxpayers.
I gotta say, man, it's no surprise that we hear a lot of people are leaving California.
Why would you want to live there?
Could you imagine working, the government takes your money, and then tells someone, come here illegally and we'll give it to you?
Then what?
When your hospitals are overwhelmed and they demand that we stay in our homes, you're giving these people free money?
Nah, man.
I can only imagine this will result in a major backfiring for the Democratic government.
I have to wonder if in the end of this pandemic, people will, you know, if people won't end up becoming more conservative.
I think they will.
I think once all is said and done, you've got people raising their kids, teaching their kids, learning how to cook, baking bread, and you've got people concerned about the limited capacity of our hospitals, and these Democratic governments locking things down, even though most people don't want it, or at least we're seeing people come out in defiance, and offering your money to people who aren't citizens.
If people don't come out of this more conservative, I'm doing air quotes, I would be surprised.
And what I mean by that is a return to normalcy for the Democratic Party.
We'll see how it plays out.
Stick around.
I got one more segment coming up for you in a few minutes, and I will see you all shortly.
As I have repeatedly stated throughout today and yesterday and the day before, people are not abiding by the lockdown orders.
Businesses are reopening in defiance of the state, shop owners are getting arrested, and we're seeing thousands of people in New York and LA go about their business ignoring the orders.
Of course, the media only points the finger in one direction, but sure, that's a whole other issue.
Here's the question.
When you arrest a paddleboarder or a woman in a park, do you know, uh, the question we ask is, do you want a boogaloo?
Because this is how you get a boogaloo.
At first we saw protests, right?
Or, I'm sorry, at first we saw people getting arrested for going about their business.
Then we started to see protests.
Now the protests are getting a bit more serious.
Cops arrest armed men, Texas bar owner, who violated order to close.
Sheriff said they were there to intimidate officers.
So a bunch of guys showed up with guns.
This guy's got we the people on his arm.
A bar remained open.
And the police said, well, you know, we're gonna arrest you.
I'd like to see all of these social justice activists who claimed that these men would get away with it point to this story about how they're being arrested for it.
What law did these men break?
They're legally allowed to open carry, and when the cops walked up, they put their hands up, they got arrested.
How will this stand up?
They are now violating the First and Second Amendments.
So if you want to boogaloo, this is how you get it.
When a bunch of people are standing in front of a business saying, First Amendment, we can do what we want, you start arresting them, you are dramatically escalating these tensions.
Let's read the story.
ABC News says, cops in Western Texas said they arrested a bar owner and a group of armed men Monday after they violated the state's order.
Ector County Sheriff Mike Griffiths said during a news conference Tuesday that his officers were alerted that the owner of Big Daddy Zane's in West Odessa, Texas opened her bar even though Governor Wayne Abbott's reopening plan explicitly mandated that bars remain closed.
When officers arrived, they saw six men in body armor and armed rifles standing outside the establishment, according to Griffis.
Quote, This was not a protest of their Second Amendment rights.
It was a show of force to ensure this lady could violate the governor's order, Griffiths told reporters.
The officers arrested the owner and charged her for violating the governor's orders and arrested the armed men for having weapons on a licensed property, Griffiths said.
The owner will be fined, according to the sheriff.
So perhaps there's some rule about having a gun on a liquor licensed property, I suppose.
I'm not sure.
So then maybe that's the argument he wants to make.
But I'll tell you what, man.
The government is not going to come out on top of this one if they continually try to just arrest and police their way out of this.
If people are continually defying your orders and they're coming to this point and you arrest them, you're only making it worse.
It's a Chinese finger trap problem.
I assure you, this press will result in more anger and more outrage and lead to something potentially worse.
Abbott's reopening plan, which went into effect Friday, allowed for restaurants and stores to reopen, but with only a limited number of patrons.
Bars were not included in the first phase of the plan.
Attorney information for the owner and the suspects was not immediately available.
The bar posted a Facebook event scheduled for May 4th called, Bars and Bartenders Standing United, which had a photo of armed men in body armor posing in an undisclosed location.
Quote, They will be here to help protect our rights as a small business owner to open and be able to feed our families, according to the post.
Griffiths said he didn't have more details about the armed men, but said they were not from the town and they were there to intimidate people.
He acknowledged the hardships that people are facing because of the coronavirus restrictions, but said there are more civilized ways to express their frustration with the governor's order.
If you don't like this, go ahead and vote for another governor, he said.
So this is a question I was asking just recently in the other segment.
How many Democratic governors, how many Republican governors are going to face a recall or lose re-election because of this?
I think everyone is angry with everyone.
A lot of Democrats are mad at Republicans for not locking down.
A lot of Republicans are mad at Democrats for locking down.
And a lot of regular people are mad at both, including Republicans, for locking down.
This is why many people are going out to the park and ignoring your orders.
You can't stop it.
I hope these politicians realize they're probably going to lose re-election because of this.
Nobody was happy.
Well, some people on Twitter are happy, I guess.
Griffiths reiterated, the virus is a very serious health risk and people should take the precautions seriously.
As of Monday, 84 people in Ector County contracted the virus and four died from it, according to data from the state and the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Texas has 32,783 confirmed cases and 901 related deaths as of Monday.
The Johns Hopkins data showed, on Thursday, the number of positive cases in the state increased by 1,033, the biggest one-day jump in three weeks, according to health officials.
This is all new to us.
It's all new to the officials, Griffis said.
My message here is let's work together.
I'm gonna shout out South Dakota again.
Maybe I'll get my comeuppance on this one, but South Dakota didn't lockdown.
They were insulted and berated in the press, saying it was a hotspot, it was gonna go worse, and then it didn't get worse.
So what happened?
Why did South Dakota not get worse?
You're gonna have to explain it to me.
Because other states have gotten worse when they've had no lockdowns, and some states have gotten way worse even with their lockdowns.
Even under consistent lockdown, New York is just continually getting worse, so you're gonna have to explain to me what you wanted to happen, because we don't have any conclusive data for anything.
Now, these defiances, the defiance from these businesses, it's not just one, man.
Oh, I got a bunch for you.
Check this one out.
Howard County bar owner defies governor's orders, opens saloon for business.
This one's also in Texas.
The owner of a local bar in West Texas is defying Governor Greg Abbott's orders by opening up for business.
Apartment 9 saloon in Howard County opened at 2 p.m.
on Monday.
Edward Roach, the owner, says he's opening his doors for two main reasons.
Quote, we have been closed for 54 days and I've got 10 employees that have families that
they cannot feed.
I believe that what has happened here has been unconstitutional.
I don't believe our government should be able to tell us when we can open or close our businesses.
Bars are currently not eligible to reopen under Governor Abbott's executive order to
reopen Texas economy in phases.
Howard County Judge Catherine Wiseman tells CBS7 that the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission is now investigating Apartment 9 saloon.
Oh, but surely there is more.
Take a look at this story.
Coronavirus.
NC men arrested after opening tattoo parlor despite stay-at-home order.
It's gonna keep happening.
It's going to escalate.
More armed men are going to show up.
And then what do you do?
Look, this is not the appropriate way to handle this.
I'm not saying I know it is, but I'm telling you, you're making things worse.
You need... Here's what I think we should do, okay?
Let me walk that back.
I think we need to reopen everything with social distancing.
I went to a restaurant.
And they make you walk in one door, stay away from everybody, walk up to the counter, order, take your takeout, and walk out the door, and they let people in one at a time, just like that.
And there's hand sanitizer, and everyone's wearing masks.
That will do enough.
Being out and about is better than being locked up.
The data shows this.
These people aren't paying attention.
And you know what?
They're going to regret this come November.
Matthew Jax Myers, 38, who owns Apex Tattoo Factory in Apex, was arrested 10 minutes after reopening his shop, the Raleigh News and Observer reported.
Myers told the newspaper the governor's order prevented him from making a living and feared he could lose his house and be unable to feed his three children.
I hope this will inspire other people to do the same.
These people aren't blaming Donald Trump for this.
Donald Trump has their back.
Donald Trump has been saying reopen.
These people who are suffering are blaming the local governments, not the president.
There is going to be a reckoning come November, I swear.
Look, I hate making predictions, I don't know for sure, but I'll tell you what.
I do not see how people come out of this blaming Trump.
There is rampant unemployment, several businesses have gone under, and the entire time Trump has been saying we need to reopen.
Bill Barr has been saying the Constitution is not suspended.
What has Trump done?
He's advocated for reopening, he's put up his three-phase plan, and the governors still refuse to do it.
Not all of them.
Many of them.
So what do you think's gonna happen?
These blue states, like people in California, I'm willing to bet a lot of these people go vote Republican.
I mean it.
I don't think the state will flip Republican, but there's a really funny point we made about their efforts to get rid of the Electoral College.
You realize that if you do, you can sway people in even blue states to vote for Donald Trump.
They don't like what you're doing.
Some of these people are probably politically uninitiated.
They don't pay attention to politics.
They don't care.
All of a sudden now, they have no choice but to question why they are being arrested, why their livelihoods are being destroyed.
Congratulations.
It's going to be on you.
I hope this will inspire other people to do the same, Myers told the News & Observer.
You can arrest one person, but you can't arrest all these people.
Amber Myers, the owner's wife, told WRAL.
Her husband tried to get a small business loan, but was unable to do so.
Matthew Myers said he was approved for insufficient unemployment payment after 13 attempts to sign up, the News & Observer reported.
He has spent years building up this business, and for it to be taken away after being shut down for so long would be horrible.
The tattoo business is located in a strip center in Apex.
A CBD store and a restaurant serving wings were open for business, the News & Observer reported.
Each of us is responsible for the choices we make, and those choices have consequences, Wake County Commission Chairman Greg Ford told the newspaper.
One way or another, we are always held accountable.
I wish him well.
I got more stories like this, man.
Local barbershops swamped with customers after defying shutdown order.
Surprisingly, people literally wanted those haircuts, man.
As a lot of people have been shaving their heads, and as soon as this barbershop opened up saying, basically, we're gonna do what we want, a few everybody rushed in to get a haircut because it's been, what, like two months?
Almost two months now.
Yeah, man.
People need haircuts.
I'll tell you what.
I said it before.
You know, they're gonna keep trying to lock us down.
They're gonna give you no real reason.
They're gonna keep saying, oh, we must, we must, we must.
I'm not going to tell you what the right thing to do is.
I think the economy needs to be reopened.
We'll see what the governors, you know, enact.
But I will say, if anyone is breaking the law, it's the governors.
Those locking things down, it's the police officers.
The law of this country is the Constitution, and you must always follow the law.
Governor decree is not a law.
If the state legislature in Michigan says this is the law, no lockdown, and the governor says no, the governor is not acting within the law.
