June 23, 2021 • 59 mins
The gang talks about how shit is going in Biden Land. Bidenopolis. Bidengrad.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production of I Heart
Radio Together Everything, So don't don't hey, no, no, no, no,
(00:25):
leave it all, leave it in. Welcome to the Year Ever?
Am I right? Am I right? Isn't it bad? Yeah?
It's not great. I think we just lost a lot
of listeners. It's not the best year ever, which is
what this podcast would be called if this year wasn't terrible.
(00:48):
You know what the best year ever podcast would be
is like I feel like like three maybe that's one
of the mid Simpsons was really comment like just just
hit whatever year the Mono Rail episode came out, and
that's got to be the best year ever. Um, just
like everybody sort of pretending like everything like everything's fine.
(01:10):
R I p R. Mentioned, everyone's going to tell us
everything that was fine. Phil Phil Hartman was still on
The Simpsons, so we had no problems. Yeah yeah, but
that's not this year. The year is and there is
no but it's just as bad and there's no Phil
(01:33):
Harmon left. And today we have a Hodgepodge news smorgas
board for your earballs. Yes, sucker up, slip it down,
just just guzzle, guzzle this hot, thirsty load of news
as it is it as it burbles down your throat,
(01:54):
maybe gets backed up into your nose a little bit,
regurgitate it. Yeah, we're one pump suff news into your
cream and then spit it into your baby birds mouths. Okay,
is this not the whole show? It's not. Um, let's
(02:16):
start off light. There's never anything like uh COVID. We'll
start off by talking about COVID and lightly lightly talking
about it. The new the new variant, which Delta heard confirmed,
is up here in Oregon. Now it's everywhere, I think
in Los Angeles. Yeah, that's anywhere strain in a lot
(02:38):
of places. How do they decide the names of these things?
How do they decided to Delta? Because I feel like
that's just bad pr for the airline, Like, what's the
like have nothing to do with if you're going variant.
If you were going to name a deadly plague variant
after an airline, you would go with Spirit. That's what
I'm saying. The Spirit variant is tearing through the American Southeast,
(03:03):
um or like Virgin Atlantic, Yeah, the Virgin Nobody wants
to catch that. Um sorry, I got the Branson started
naming me on the gates and the bezos. There there
was a better branding for the coronavirus that would have
(03:23):
made people uh more wary of I mean it hurt
so Corona beer. Did you say dirty martinis? What did
you start skirting health mandates and things like sure, yeah,
whatever you just said that could Yeah, I don't know,
(03:45):
I got nothing. Um. The main thing I want to
start off by saying is that if you're vaccinated, you've
got very good protection against it. That hasn't changed, um
as far as they can tell. Yeah, that seems still
true and so but there's a real risk, of course,
as always to those of us who have chosen to
(04:08):
remain unvaccinated, which is about half Yeah, the country, we're
about uh people vaccinated at this point. And it's almost
the same as Biden's new approval rating. That really is
new approval rating. Well, you know these are the ship
(04:29):
fluctuates all the time, like it's not, but yes, the
most well one of the most recent, so the one
of the new because like there's a bunch of different ones.
One was doubt, Like he's dropped points among Democrats and
risen like eight points among Republicans, which is bizarre, but
he's overall doubt he was. According to that one pole,
well we should probably maybe we can do this next week.
(04:51):
We should probably do a comprehensive look at um how
he's how he's doing in the polls and one Americans like,
we do we get in this space. No US are
fans of Joe Biden. Some of us actively despise him.
Most of us actively despise him. I don't know. We're
not wild about the administration, but I do think it's
important from time to time to take like a step
(05:11):
back and be like, Okay, how is the country actually
reacting to his plans, Like what's popular, what's unpopular? What
do people like? Yeah, we need to do that prepare
for the day that we are eventually out of our
cubes and able to treport people in person. But yeah,
I agree with you theine. There was a recent poll
that showed him down quite a bit, which isn't super weird.
(05:33):
You know, it's what happens with presidents, right, you know,
you have your your kind of honeymoon period, which Trump
didn't get, and that was weird Biden did. He was
pretty popular for a while and now, you know, not abnormal,
it doesn't look But yeah, I mean we're six months
in five months in its presidency. He's not he's not
benefiting from the whole. Thank god Trump is out anymore. Really,
(05:54):
you know, yeah, just in general, these variants are something
for us to be aware of and um wary of,
but not to act in fear. I guess, is my
what do we have to say about this? I think
that's fair. I think that Um it's get like you said,
if you're vaccinated, Ah, that's good, continue to be vaccinated. Yeah,
(06:20):
take more vaccines, steal as many vaccines. Feel whatever hospital
is near you. You know, you want to get a
car with a big metal front grill and just drive
it through the side and and heist as many of
that and then drink all of them as fast as
you can tend the building is like a group of
protesters and just plow through it. Yes, yes, there's no
hard I mean uh and uh. You know, it doesn't
(06:44):
matter which vaccine or what is for. It doesn't need
to be a COVID vaccine, any any vaccine will help.
Just drink straight smallpox. It works the same. That's break
into a level three bio hazard lab and just drink
anything you find. It will make you stronger. Um. But
(07:08):
I guess, seriously, it's something to be concerned about because
it is a stronger variant is worse and people even
today there's a big uptick in COVID, particularly in the South, UM,
where a lot of people are not getting vaccinated. Yeah,
I mean I think that what do we have your Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee,
(07:29):
and Wyoming have fully vaccinated less than of residents. And
that is definitely what we're going to start seeing the
surges at this point in the communities. I mean, of course, yeah,
of course. UM. And like you know, I remember just
a few what was a few weeks ago when UH
(07:52):
Texas had zero deaths one day, UM, and that was
there was like a thirty six hour news cycle or
every like UH Texas official and people in the media
were like they did it, look see it was good
to open up and so on. But obviously like the
next day there were deaths. Um. That's not how this works.
(08:14):
It's not we did at zero today, we were done. UM.
And it changes quickly. I mean, here's this is from CNN.
UM the delta variant made up about ten percent of
cases that were tested three or four weeks ago. As
of last week, it appeared to be. So that's how
(08:35):
things change. We know, we lived through the last year
and a half. Um, but you know this, this is
the only way that we were gonna vanquished COVID was
by getting everybody on the same page. You know, I
guess wasn't going to happen, But it's not happening. Yeah,
(08:56):
on the same page about whether or not murdering unarmed
people is bad. Yeah. We're definitely not getting a consensus
on literally anything, pardon with the exception of whether or
not pot should be legal, which is why it's so baffling.
No one's done that yet. But anyway, should we have
(09:16):
named it like the demo virus or the democratic something? No,
that the antifa virus that work, whatever it is, Like,
we should have named it virus, the critical race theory
virus me to get vaccinated against the socialist virus. You know,
maybe something like that would be better. Comy comy virus. Yeah. Um,
(09:39):
that wouldn't have worked because they think, like, oh I
gotta I don't even know, nothing would happen. Um. No,
So I think the point, the real point is get vaccinated.
If you can get vaccinated, if you can you know
what I'm going to add to that, get vaccinated if
you can. Yeah, you know what what vaccinated if you can?
(10:02):
Should we talk about something else? Um? So I on
the subject of vaccines, I didn't want to bring this up.
This was from I believe late last week or a
few days ago, Palcinians canceled this deal vaccine swap they
had put together with Israel, where they would basically Israel
(10:23):
would give them a bunch of vaccines now and then
later in the year Alisin would give Israel. Uh. I
believe it was the equivalent number of vaccines or a
very similar number. And it was. This whole story was
sort of framed as like, look, thank god Placinians hated, hate,
hate do so much that they don't want their their vaccines. Um.
(10:45):
And obviously, uh, equating uh Jewish people with Israel is
not uh the best thing to do. And it's not
because they hate Israel. It's because the vaccines we were expired.
UM they expired that month. Uh. There was the deal
(11:06):
was basically saying that they would the vaccines would expire
in July or August UM, and they expired in June.
And that means they're not as strong worthless, but it's
not not they're not like worthless worthless, but they're definitely
not as effective and they're still like they're still doing
uh studies on the effective is the problem that if
(11:30):
it's a lot less effective, you get these people and
they think they're vaccinated and they stopped taking precautions, and yeah,
there's a lot of reasons to be concerned. It's not
a they're so racist they won't take Israeli vaccine. Yeah,
the framing of that, it's just been very wild and
reading like oh they were they're expired. Well that makes sense. Um.
(11:50):
And I just saw a lot of people even point
out like, well it's inspired in June. That means they
can still use it, like they've got They've got a
couple of weeks to still use it. Um. I don't
know if anybody else knows this, but the fis are vaccine.
You take a dose and then you take a second
dose three weeks later. Um. It's not even like, oh
they got they got a bunch of one dose Johnson
(12:12):
and Johnson's they got. They like they got. They have
to work hard to get them out in time, but
they can still do it. Um. Which also is like
unreasonable if you know, um, this was earlier this year,
I do not know, some ridiculous to me as if
as if the Israeli government didn't know that their vaccines
that they were going to give away expired in June,
(12:34):
you know of course, or if what and then it
can be framed as you know there yeah yeah, but
also um yeah, just give them non expired vaccines. They
did vaccinate about a hundred thousand Palsinian day workers in
Israel earlier, so that was nice. Yeah, it's nice of
(12:57):
the occupying force to do that. Kind of benevolent populations
they're occupying. Um anyways, that was the thing on my radar,
and it was you know, like this was the appropriate
time to bring it up, as we talked about COVID
before we moved on to other things. So I just
want to commend you for piping up. Thank you so much.
We wanted to start light, so we started with COVID.
(13:19):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, there's I mean, there's a couple
of nice things that have happened recently. Uh, law wise,
the Supreme Court just ruled on um a case involved
in the n c a A, which is like student
athletes and they're called student athletes because if you call
them student athletes, you don't have to pay them, and
(13:41):
you can also make them ineligible to receive certain kinds
of like scholarships and compensation and whatnot. Like there's a
bunch of ways you can fuck them over, um if
they're if they're student athletes, and you can also make
millions of dollars off of them. Um. And they don't
get any real compensation other than you know, some some
of them get free at uccasions or whatnot. Um. But
(14:02):
they don't get money, and they often damage their brains
and bodies playing, for example, football, a sport which kills you. UM.
So this is bad. And there was a case in
the Supreme Court UM that was relating on um like
whether or not the n c A was violating antitrust
law by placing limits on education related benefits that schools
(14:23):
can provide to athletes. UM. And they basically ruled the
n c a A was was being a motherfucker. And
now schools are open to provide their athletes with a
lot more compensation as long as it's connected in some
way to their education. Um. Just as Brett Kavanaugh not
a what do you mean, like what kind of compensation
(14:45):
as related because a lot of them do get full
ride scholarships and you know lots it's more that, which
is like, you know, significant amount, but it's yeah, it's
more that right now, and see A rules restrict any
kind of compensation, including direc payment UM for what they're doing,
you know, as athletes. UM. And particularly the big deal
(15:05):
is the restrictions on direct payments UM, because these people
are making the schools millions of dollars UM. And the
decision that Gore such offered UM basically said hey, you
can't do that thereat you are actually violating antitrust law
by saying schools cannot pay their athletes directly basically, I
mean the the the the exact wording of his of
(15:26):
his decision, which is pretty good I think, is UM.
The n c A is not above the law. The
n c A couches its arguments for not paying student
athletes in innocuous labels, but the labels cannot disguise the
reality the n c a's business model would be flatly
illegal in almost any other industry in America. Basically, the
core of the issue is these kids are playing sports
(15:46):
at a near professional level and they are. It is
a multimillion dollar industry, and the n c a A
says you cannot pay the people who make that industry possible,
and that would be illegal in any other business. The
n c AS argument up until now as well, there's
students and so they're getting like a scholarship, so we
don't like we not not only do we not have
to pay them, we are making it so that you
cannot pay them. Our rules make you're you're not allowed
(16:07):
to pay these athletes. And the decision is saying like, no,
you can't fucking do that. Um, which is potentially a
huge deal and has we don't entirely know all this
is going to shake out. I'm sure there's going to
be further cases on different aspects of this, but like, yeah,
this has the potential to blow up the whole system. Yeah,
and look, I think I have a lot to learn
(16:28):
about it, and I want you I was starting to
dig into this a little bit before, and on the
on the face it's like, yeah, you know this, these
schools are making a lot of money off of these athletes,
and you know they should be paid. But the counter
the flip side of what I'm seeing and I'm sure
I'll get some pushback from people. Again, I'm learning and
(16:51):
trying to educate myself about all of this, and like
you said that more stuff that unfolds is, um, how
that affects a college at sitions, resources and recruitment. Um.
And if money gets spent on getting the best athletes,
how does that affect other programs women's athletes, women's sports programs, uh,
(17:15):
tying up funding and having to folks be all on
the mail. Um, you know, teams that bring in more income. Um.
So there are some things in here that I am
curious to learn more about. But also you know, I understand,
I see, I see the benefits. To me, the issue is,
(17:37):
I don't care about sports. I've never watched college sports.
I don't I don't like them. Um. But it's a
pretty egregious issue, especially considered. Like the biggest part to
me is that like, yeah, often their their education is
paid for. But um, these kids are taking on permanent
injuries and they are making the small group of people
(17:59):
multi million airs and they aren't being compensated, and a
lot of them leave college not you know, I think
it's most of them don't not go on to become
professional players, and so they're leaving with permanent and continuous
medical bills. UM. And let's not pretend like even if
(18:21):
they're getting a full right scholarship, a lot of these
institutions are are having people there to focus on sports,
so the education isn't necessarily the most important part of
the college. It's not like you're leaving like with a
whole set of skills outside of let's say basketball. Yeah,
it's one of those things. As far as you know,
the injustices we talk about a lot of the time
(18:42):
where it's like, you know, problems of climate change, of
like restrictions on immigration, all these like really massive and
systemically brutal issues. It is a smaller fry issue than that,
but it's it's horribly unethical the way that student athletes
have been treated for decades by the n c a A.
And and this is like a pretty good decision, it seems, Yeah,
(19:05):
that's nice. Feed any of the athletes unless they were
in season. It's ridiculous. They have all sorts of dumb limitations. Yeah,
but yeah, so you know, I think it's good. I
am concerned about the effects of this on UM other
sports programs and what happens. But I think good, hey people, people, Hey, everybody, everything.
(19:34):
And speaking of that, why don't you shout out some
some of those shillings to these sponsors as for ears everything,
(19:56):
hand suckers. Shall we talk bitches? Domestic terrorism, Robert, you
pitched this idea. I love domestic terrorism, so I'm a
huge domestic you know terrorism stand it. Yeah, basically, so
(20:16):
if you remember what five months ago, when um, those
people tried to overthrow the government by attacking the capital
in a mob, it was kind of a thing. You
might have caught that story. Um, everyone was you know,
it got a lot of people up in arms who
had not been as concerned with right wing extremism. But
it also like the thing that any organization is going
(20:40):
to do in a situation like that. And by organization,
I'm talking about like the Department of Justice in you know,
specifically branches of it, like the FBI. They're they're going
to be like, well, we could have caught this if
we had more power. And some of the things they've
been talking about is like more ability to kind of
monitor social media. There's some legal restrictions there for them, um,
but also of some of it is just like you know,
(21:01):
they want more money. Um, they want the ability to
go after you know, um, to fund and to kind
of like go after a broader swath of people. And
this is always like framed as what we need to
deal This would have let us solve the problem that
that happened that got away from us. And I think, yeah,
(21:22):
I published the day before the attack a list of
people talking about all the things they were going to
do that was like point by point all of the
things that happened on the sixth, Um they have access
to to to all of that information to um. The problem,
as a number of us were saying, is that like well,
because obviously I think that when a group of people
try to force a dictatorship on the country, um, they
(21:45):
should be uh penalized for that. I'm not I'm not
against penalizing them. No, Like I don't know, you know,
in ancient Rome, they had these rocks that they threw
people off of they committed treason. Um anyway, I'm off
but Mount Rushmore. Yeah, I want to be clear here
(22:12):
because people are, oh, you're being you know, hypocritical because
you don't you know, your prison abolitionist. Yes, I'm also
saying within the context of the situation that we're in.
You have to use the tools as they presently exist
in our in the system that we live under. I'm
sorry you didn't say anything about imprisoning them. You said
throw them off of a rock. So I do think
(22:32):
we should throw some of them off of rocks. But specifically, yeah,
point taking, yes, working within the system that we have,
working with within the system that we have, the d
o J has the power um and these people were
committing crimes that are defined crimes. They are able to
prosecute these people. They are able to catch these people,
(22:53):
and they had, I believe, the powers necessary and the
funding necessary to have stopped this if they had had
the ship more on the ball. They don't need anything extra.
There didn't need to be more money. There didn't need
to be more powers. There didn't need to be even
a new plan. There need to be a willingness to
it was always illegal to try to break into the
capital and murder elected leaders. You don't need anything. They
(23:18):
just need to get their ship together. But well they
could have just not opened up those Uh, just don't
let them in. If the if the Capitol police that
day had used as much force as the Portland police
used whenever someone hoocked a water bottle, those people never
would have gotten inside. UM, but they didn't. And anyway,
(23:41):
so Biden has ordered ordered pretty much right after that,
a review of how federal agencies A dressed domestic extremism,
and they put out a new strategy document um and,
as a number of us had predicted, UM. The document,
while it does focus on some of the things we
saw in the sixth and some of the right wing
stuff that people like me have been yelling about for
a while, it's also clearly geared towards giving the government
(24:02):
a lot more power to funk with the left UM
who you will. You might note didn't try to institute
a dictatorship UM in January of this year. UM and
hasn't been shooting up houses of worships for years, and
hasn't been setting off bombs in American cities for years.
UM has in general been when they do uh illegal
acts like fucking up windows and spray painting ship which
(24:23):
you might recognize as not terrorism. UM, by my yes,
when ISIS took over mosle and spray painted graffiti on
the walls, UH, that was the real problem with isis
crime against humanity. Yeah, so the new strategy. The goal
(24:47):
here is to like coordinate efforts across the government. Um
in an outline's for priorities improving information sharing among law
enforcement agencies, which if you remember nine eleven, that was
the big one of the big things they said like
why nine eleven slipped pass? And it's like, oh, there's
not enough information sharing between agencies, right, And it is
again I have my ideological hat that I can put
(25:09):
on when I talk about stuff like this in the
way I think things should go. I also have my
hat as somebody who is a researcher in this field,
who has had its like interfaced with the government on this,
who has sources and who has like done consultations and
whatnot on this. So I'm I'm taking that head on now,
and I'm talking about the structure of how of how
these systems work. Um, there's there's some like one of
(25:34):
the reasons why information sharing across different agencies is often
shitty is just very simple competition, Right. These agencies are
competing for funds, these agencies are in some cases competing
for good manpower. There's a lot of like, um, you know,
bad faith or bad feelings over like you know which
agency winds up in charge when multiple agencies are involved
(25:55):
in a situation. Right, That's why a lot of other
law enforcement agencies, that federal agencies even don't really the FBI,
and why the FBI doesn't like them, especially since the
FBI is also like a watch, like it is supposed
to police other law enforcement agencies. So there's it's not
like I think a lot of times people tend to
look at the whole federal law enforcement apparatus as kind
of one unified thing, and it's not. There's quite a
(26:17):
lot of competition, and so it is true that they're
one of the problems when you're we're talking about from
a a standpoint of how effective these agencies can be
at their given tasks. One of the things that is
continually a problem and was a problem in two thousand
one and and did contribute to why nine eleven was successful,
is that there's shitty information sharing between them. Right, There's
other reasons. It's not just competition. There's reasons of like
(26:39):
what are you allowed to share and like what sort
of different systems are in place for Like there's there's
a bunch of just sort of structural stuff, right, like,
so I'm not surprised to see that on here. Um,
there's obviously concerns because like, what does it mean about
what kind of we We never really know what kind
of information is being gathered about the average citizen by
(26:59):
law enforcement. Right. We all remember when like Snowdon came
out with his leaks and a bunch was revealed about
what the n s A had been doing. So I
anyway that that that it's not surprising to see that
on there. You should always be concerned when you hear
that kind of language. I also think it is kind
of a cheap excuse because again, it's not like you
needed a great deal of information sharing for the Capitol
(27:21):
Police to know what was being planned because I found
it out. And you may notice I am not a
federal law enforcement agency. I'm I'm a guy with Google.
Like that's all I used to find out this Google. Yeah,
it's not I mean they do, um, I know, I
know yea. So the other priority was preventing recruitment by
(27:44):
extremist groups. Again, you know, when when Islamic terror was
the big boogeyman, they would talk about this a lot.
They're they're never good at it. I don't think they
ever will be good at it. I don't think they're
capable of being good at it because they fundamentally don't
understand in a lot of cases, what why these groups
what recruitment means. There's still I think a lot of
this idea that it is. It's very direct. It's the
(28:06):
way that you would have, like, you know, the way
people tended to think it worked back right after nine eleven,
where you've got these centralized organizations like recruiting people to
carry out centralized attacks, and that's not how a lot
of domestic extremism works now. It's it's stochastic. You know,
there are people within these agencies who do understand that.
I don't think they have a lot of power. But
(28:28):
also it's a question of I don't I don't know
how they could with all of the resources they have.
I don't know how you actually, as the FBI or whatever,
could stop the kind of recruitment that exists, because how
do you stop people from winding up falling down these
internet rabbit holes that lead them to believe the white
races being genocided and they should shoot up a mosque? Right? Like? What?
(28:51):
How what does prevention of that look? Like no one
really knows. There are theories people have possible task, but
I don't think that there's a blanket answer for one way,
one thing or another in the community. It depends on this. Yeah,
and it's it's to be honest again, and I am talking.
I'm saying, we're talking right now because we're talking about
(29:11):
how these agencies are looking at things, how the government
is looking at things from a perspective of if you
believe there should be federal law enforcement, right, if you
believe these organizations should exist, is there anything they can
do to stop that kind of recruiting. I don't actually
know that there is, um because I tend to think
most of the problems that lead these groups to be
able to recruit, that lead to this kind of propaganda
having an impact are structural problems in our society that
(29:33):
make people vulnerable to these kinds of messages. And no
matter how much power you give the FBI, they're never
going to be able to deal with that unless you
give the FBI the power to give everyone in healthcare,
which happen. Not only do they not have the power
to do that, they wouldn't want to do that. Yeah,
they wouldn't want to do that obvious. Yes, I don't
(29:53):
think they can do that. I think, yes, of course
they want to prevent recruitment. I don't think even if
they understand fully and there are individuals within these organizations
who do have a good understanding of how this recruitment works,
but I don't think there's anything they can do to
really stop it. Um, then you have investigating these groups,
you know, the groups doing the recruiting, and confronting the
long standing drivers of domestic terrorism racism and bigotry. I
(30:15):
am happy to see that put in there. It's the
most direct statement you kind of see in this document
stating that the primary drivers of domestic terrorism are racism
and bigotry. Now, there's some waffling later on about what
kind of racism and what kind of bigotry which is
a problem. Um that said, Um, again, you're you're looking
(30:36):
at another thing that federal law enforcement can't confront racism
and bigotry as as problems like the FBI again will
never be able to have there not be bigotry. That's
not number one. Never what they've been able to do. YEA, yes,
it is, including the FBI has released some of actually
(30:57):
some of the better reports we have about the extent
of supremacist infiltration of local law enforcement. Staton and local
law enforcement are FBI reports, so they're very aware of
the problem within law enforcement. I think they're less aware
of the problem within the FBI. But also again you
can you can write reports on it, which I guess
is again it's good that there's some sort of watchdog
(31:19):
for the police writing this ship they don't have a
great record of doing anything about it, you know, like
they don't have a great record of actually stopping for example,
they can write a bunch of reports saying, hey, there's
a shipload of white supremacists and local police less you know,
right now, the city of Portland is in like contempt
of federal law enforcement because, um, they're violating federal law
(31:40):
with all of the use of force against particularly UH
mentally uh ill people and UH and houseless people. Um,
and they're in a bunch of trouble, and the federal
government has been threatening them because they have not brought
up to state that like years ago they were like
they were told you need to do these things, and
they did none of them. And they're basically just saying,
what are you gonna do? Fire all of the cops
(32:01):
in Portland, and so far the FEDS have been like,
I don't know what we're gonna do. Like so again,
they say these are all the things that we need
to do, and I guess, broadly speaking, they're not wrong. Yes,
if you want to stop domestic terrorism, you prevent uh
recruitment by extremist groups, you investigate the groups, You confront
(32:22):
the things that drive domestic terrorism, which is racism and bigotry.
I don't think federal law enforcement can do any of that.
I don't think they have that power. I think even
in the best case scenario, right, they just can't. It's
just not the they're they're not able to do that.
They're pretty good at I mean they're not even They're
not even great. They're not even as good as you
want to at. Like for example, on the sixth, somebody
(32:43):
was placing pipe bombs outside the d n C and
the RNC headquarters. They didn't catch that guy, and I'm
pretty sure that guy's a fed UM former or current
because from the footage that we have, the individual knew
how to address themselves in order to not be visible. UM.
They constructed function in weapons and more to the point,
they knew exactly where the cameras were, and they made
(33:03):
sure that they were not filmed in a way that
would possibly give them away. They were very very smart
about that. They have not been caught. They have somebody
that um I said, if they're not a fed, they
have are connected to them to have information. And there's
a very probably a purposeful reason why they have not
been caught. Whoever that was was very competent. So again,
if they can't catch that, how are they going to
(33:25):
deal with like structural problems in American society? You know,
they can't. They won't. So with everything I've just said,
you understand why. I think it's kind of silly that
based on these things that federal law enforcement largely cannot
possibly do in the most ideal world. Um, the administration
has requested a hundred million dollars in additional funds to
(33:46):
hire prosecutors, investigators, and analysts. I don't think that's going
to help. UM. Maybe the analysts, well, you know, having
more analysts people who are like, you know, looking at
chatter online and stuff. I don't know how fucking tapped
those dudes where I'm sure some of it has been
a problem, like the Trump administration was very loath to
have people investigating this stuff, so that that is one
(34:07):
of more things that that might have some impact. You know,
they can do some stuff there. Yeah, if you're if
you and if you're monitoring like social media, there's a
lot of discernment you need to know like this person
just like ship posting or is like this is a
serious thing, like what is Yeah, and like being you know,
aware of all those communities. Um. And again, to the
(34:29):
extent that I have in the past, like lectured members
of these you know, organizations, That's the stuff I lecture about.
It's not like techniques. I'm not saying, like here's how
you track, because I number one, I'm not good at that.
I'm trying to explain like ship posting. I'm trying to
explain like the way people fall down rabbit holes and
get pilled, and like how stochastic terrorism works, um, because
(34:51):
that is one area where I do think it can
be useful. So I'm not saying there's absolutely nothing again
talking about you. We're not going to tear down this system, right,
certainly Joe Biden is not. So how is there a
way the system can be made that actually might reduce
the number of people who get murdered in this way,
that is something that can help. Is a hundred million
dollars needed? I don't know. I don't think so. I
think most of this, I think there's very little that
(35:13):
will actually be done that will have an effect. Um. Yeah, well,
and if it does have an effect, it's probably just
going to be like very civil civil liberties. And that's
where I wanted to get to because part of this
is also in these reports, in all of this, this
these plans and this ship that's coming out, there's a
(35:34):
huge risk for organizers at protesters. You're very right, and
I think we'll get to that, um, because that is
my primary concern. Um. I have concerns that, like, for example,
at some point, a bunch of fucking seventeen year olds
breaking Starbucks windows are going to get wrapped up with
terrorism charges and stuff like that has happened before the
(35:55):
Green scare was people who were like like fucking up
logging equipment and ship and doing what in a normal
world would it most be kind of mild to moderate
property destruction getting twenty year terrorism sentences. Um. Because because
the government was really scared of of the Green movement
(36:17):
you know of of people taking direct action, um, because
the people who fund the government are scared of that. Um.
And then you get you know that you start having
people being surveilled and surveillance being put on. Yeah, even
like old old lady who is at the capital riot,
like you're like gonna, you know, go like we have
(36:40):
to feel like that happened to be there as opposed
to like your example of the person who said, like
pipe bombs in these places? Yeah, and like where that
focus goes. Um, we have to take a break, but
then we'll come back and we'll keep talking about this.
Sound good. You know who will not set off pipe bomb? Well,
(37:03):
no they will not because Raytheon has access to Katie,
have you heard the good news about Hexagen? I have not.
Now your standard pipe bomb you're gonna be making out
of probably like smokeless powder or something. Right, basically gunpowder
makes a big boom. Hexagen, Oh, Katie, Hexagen is like
if if if the black powder in a normal pipe
(37:25):
bomb is like a cool like like a Corona beer. Hexagen,
you're talking like one fifty one rum and that's what
Raytheon And with hexagen, a pipe bomb you can take
out the front of a school bus. Hexogen. You make
sure that school bus is in the atmosphere. You know,
that's the beauty of Hexagen. So listeners, you know, do
(37:47):
the right thing the next time you're creating illegal terrorism
devices and go with raytheon. Well, forget everything. We're back
and we're talking about domestic terrorism. My favorite kind of
(38:09):
terrorism of the terrorisms, absolutely the best terrorism. I mean,
in my opinion. You know, international terrorism is such a
real drag, I know, and and kind of ghost right, yeah,
a little bit out of out of season. Right, nobody's
doing international terrorism anymore. We're all going domestic. Baby. I
think that the term that the internet influencers are using
(38:33):
is choog. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's one of those things,
Katie Cody. You know, we're all more concerned about the
climate these days. Right, We're shopping local, we're using local
farms to get our produce, and our terrorism should be
local too, you know, that's just better for everybody. Yeah,
keep it local, keep it local, shop local, bomb local, Jesus, Okay,
(38:56):
we terrorism guidelines here. Yeah. One of the things that
concerns me most about this is that UM seventy seven
million dollars through a Homeland security grant program is going
to state and local partners to protect against and respond
to domestic violent extremism. UM. This is potentially potentially a
(39:19):
significant issue because they really go out of their way
to both sides every terrorism thing. So they talk about
the threat of pro pro life extremists who murder a
murder a significant number of people and who regularly carry
out legal attacks um, and then also mentioned pro choice
extremists as being a problem which you may recognize is
not a thing, um, a pro choice terrorist attack. Oh,
(39:43):
I just love to find people on both sides and
the bad people on both sides. Yeah, uh, something like
before talking like talking about like far right terrorism and
then go to the people who oppose those people and
(40:05):
who are actively yeah, resisting the people. Yes, maybe maybe
these organizations should just fund antifa and um yeah take over.
So one of the things that's a concern to me,
I mean one of the so one of the things
that's good about this, if I'm going to be fair,
is that at multiple points it talks about it makes
(40:26):
it very clear that they that white supremacists are the
primary threat. UM. There's a line specifically pose an elevated
threat to our country one with racially and or ethnically
motivated violent extremists, and specifically those who espouse the superiority
of the white race in the anti government militia, violent
extremists posing the most lethal threat. Pretty good line, um,
(40:47):
pretty reasonable statement. There's another that says, um, the their
insistence on violence can at times be explicit, it can
at times be less explicit. Lurking in ideology is rooted
in a perception of the superiority of the white race
that call for violence and further into perverse int a
Borran notions of racial purity or cleansing. Um. But then
it goes right down to saying that a key component
(41:07):
of the threat comes from anti government or anti authority
of violent extremists. This significant component today militious. Yeah, that's
so they're they're they're looping in militias which have carried
out carried out a couple of different terrorist attacks. Last year.
The militia movement brought us the Oklahoma City bombing. Um,
and the militia militias are specifically named in the Constitution. Yes,
(41:28):
and you do have a you do also like that
is also a concern right, Like it is one of
those things. I mean, I guess most particularly liberals, I
think that militia should be illegal. But it's always a concern.
I think people don't like, you have a right to
be in a militia, which is not like again, a
lot of my work has been dealing with the militia
movement because it's a problem. But like, you have a
constitutional right to be in a militia. That's there's no
(41:50):
legal artists there right there, right, they're very clear right
to our guns. Yeah, well we get lated militia. But yeah, yes,
of course there's there is debate about like how that,
but you do have a right to be in a militia. Um,
you don't have a right to attempt to co adapt
the governor of Minnesota, Um, I'm the constitutions throw this
(42:12):
out that the birth of this nation was allegedly, uh
explicitly anti authoritarian. Yeah again right like it. And that
that's what concerns me because immediately after they talk about militias,
they talk about um anarchist, violent extremists who violently opposed
all forms of capitalism, corporate globalization, and government institutions which
(42:35):
they perceive as harmful to society. And that is listed
as a threat right above sovereign citizen violent extremists who
have killed more cops than any other group of extremists
um and in fact, repeatedly, when police themselves are question
over who scares the most, sovereign citizens always top the
list because they, especially during traffic stoff, they shoot a
buckload of cops. It happens a bunch, um. You may notice,
(42:56):
no anarchist like Portland's We've had a lot of people
throw ship at cops. We've had even a couple of malatabs.
Not a single Portland police officer has been killed or
severely injured. Um. Because for whatever criticisms you want to
make of the anarchist movement here, they don't want to
murder people, whereas like four cops were killed by boogaloo
(43:17):
types last year. Yeah yeah no, it's uh, like I'm
you know, it's important always be skeptical of this kind
of thing in general, um and giving an these organizations
more power um and validation. The shift over the past
like four years or so of after after Trump of
(43:40):
being like we fucking love the FBI, Now we freaking
love the FBI, the CIA. We've fucking shower me with
whatever Um, that's an issue. But but then like to
see it like they're they're just like explicitly being like, well, yeah, no,
we're going after everybody. Anybody goes like capitalism or authority,
like all these kind of stuff. It's there permission to
(44:00):
crack down on anything and everything. Yeah, it's it's a mix. Yeah.
I think what it is is it's it's at the
highest level, it's cravenness and a desire not to be
seen as playing sides and not to make the right
wing angry. And at the level of implementation, what that
means is it's created a justification to crack down on
the left. Um, that's what I think we're seeing. Yeah.
(44:23):
But but to an extent it doesn't because seventy seven
million dollars of this funding is going to local programs
to combat violent extremism, and all of that effort is
going to be focused on the left. They don't give
a shit about the Proud Boys. You know, I've watched it, um,
and that is concerning UM. One of the good things
here is that they list in voluntary celibate violent extremism
as a problem UM as a is a lethal problem,
(44:45):
which it absolutely is one of the biggest drivers of
deadly domestic terrorism attacks in recent past. The problem with
that is that they list it um alongside other domestic
terrorists motivated by violence, like other single issue ideologies, which
they list abortion, which if they're saying pro life, yes,
that is an equivalent threat. They also list animal rights
(45:06):
and environmental single issue extremists, which don't murder people. Certainly
not and nearly there have been I think maybe a
couple of accidental injuries and deaths, but like not nearly
the same thing. It's not. Yeah, you know, environmental activists
are planting busses into crowds. Yeah, exactly. I'm sure that
(45:30):
you're like, maybe something accidental has happened, but yeah, that's
not the ideology of how to affect change that group.
Concerned that the Sunrise Movement will start bombing people, That's
what I got to keep an eye on the Sunrise movement.
So yeah, I kind of right alongside this big high
level government report. The Foundations for Defensive Democracies report released
(45:52):
two dueling reports and domestic extremism, one of them on
the far right and white supremacists, and one titled Behind
the Black Block on anti fascists and anarchists. Now, the
f d D is a ship organization. They're a right
wing think tank. What's funny about this is there they
cite my research pretty extensively in the in the report
(46:14):
the Block, No No No, in the report on white
on white supremacists, they cite a significant amount of my
work and some other people at Bellycats work. Um. Their
report on behind the Black Block is just it's complete
fucking nonsense. Um. For like, so for one thing, at
one point in this report they talk about how online
ideologies right like kind of the expressions of violence that
(46:37):
that people make before doing a physical attack can lead
to physical violence. And there are two examples of that
are the christ Church shooting, right, which is a fine
example of of of like ideology and rhetoric leading someone
to carry out a fatal attack. Um. They equivocate that
to a guy breaking windows on a police car. Um.
(46:58):
They mentioned them in the same as two examples of
the same thing. And you may notice a window is
not fifty people being shot to death. UM. I would
call that ridiculous and and even blatantly offensive. The report
includes as examples of left wing terrorism and arson attack
on a police station in Portland I was physically there.
I watched that quote unquote attack go down. And what
(47:20):
happened was somebody dragged a trash can fire and shoved
it against the plywood of a beauty salon that was
attached to a police station, and then thirty members of
the crowd put the fire out. Um. I wouldn't call
it an arson attack. I guess you could. You can argue,
and one person it has gotten convicted of arson for that.
But what actually happened was the crowd stopped the fire. Um.
(47:40):
And furthermore, no significant damage was done, no life's were
ever threatened. It is interesting, as our researcher Garrison points out,
that they do not mention the Third Precinct in Minneapolis
being burnt down. Um, possibly because they know that most
Americans can think that that was a more or less
righteous attack um and utterly justified, and they know what
makes them look bad. Um And yeah, and then yeah,
(48:05):
it is weird, right, because all that happened at that
Portland attect was literally some plywood got charted, like literally,
some plywood got charged. That's the extent of the damage.
Whereas the Third Precinct is gone. Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yeah,
it's pretty it's pretty blatant. Yeah. Did you guys see
uh this this new piece from Ken Cliftonstein on the Intercept. Yeah,
(48:31):
US military training documents say socialists represent terrorist ideology. Basically,
there was a section in the training document called study Questions,
and the question was anarchists, socialists, and neo Nazis represent
which terrorist ideological category? The answer was political terrorists, and
(48:53):
I would say none, none, and then political maybe would fail.
I would fail. Um. Shocking and frustrating thing to come
out at the same time, not shocking. Yeah, you know
what I hat about, like the terrorist organization Democratic Socialists
of America when they stop people with busted tailights and
(49:18):
uh and replace those busted tailights for people, um so
that they don't get pulled over, yeahs and um all
their mutual aid they do, and helping the homeless camps
not get sued by police in l A and anyway,
it's I I uh in mixes just that that's how
(49:39):
we're training people. That's how we're um indoctrinating. Uh you know, yeah, no,
it's this is uh, it's so disgusting actually, um too,
like even mentioned those two things, like together with Neo
Nazis neo Nazis um. Um. You know. And and another
(50:02):
thing that a point that Ken makes in this document
is that, you know, during the Trump administration, you know,
Democrats expressed a lot of concern uh, you know that
national security, it was targeting groups on the left. But
(50:23):
all of those concerns and all of that conversation has
kind of gone away. You know, the media stopped covering
it from that angle um. That that that pressure is
coming off now that Biden is in office, um, and
that angle um conveniently at a time when all of
this stuff was coming forward. I don't know, bothers me. Yeah,
(50:45):
it's not great. A lot of real bad signs. Um.
One cool thing that happened recently, because I do want
to end this section on a cool thing, is in Portland,
the mayor and police just announced that they're no longer
going to pull people over from minor traffic and fractions. Awesome, uh,
And they're going to reduce the circumstances under which they
can search cars, specifically in order to not funk with
(51:08):
black people as much. Like that was the stated reason
why they're doing it, because they recognize that those kind
of searches unfairly impact that segment of the population. So
it's actualization that A doesn't need to do the till
I think anymore. Yeah, hopefully, Um. I mean, we'll see
how it actually works in implementation. But it is one
of those things I was hugely surprised to hear it.
(51:30):
And if it's the thing like, if I was going
to be asked like, what was the number one change
I could make that isn't taking away their guns to
make cops less dangers, This would be it is reducing
because really, most of what you could do, if you're
gonna have cops to make them safer is reduce the
amount of interactions they have with the public. And nothing
does that more than stopping count stories people losing their
(51:52):
lives are being unfairly incarcerated over being pulled over, or
you know, cops profiling and using some traffic as an
excuse to function up uh and you know, like I
don't get a car freshmener hanging from your rear view
(52:13):
mirror for example. Any who, that is a positive note
to end this on. And I guess the episode because
I'm looking at it and we're kind of out of
time here. Mm hmmm. Do you think the UH Congress
is going to pass the People Act. No, I don't
(52:33):
think anything is going to be done to protect voting rights.
I don't think anything is going to be done at all.
And then we'll lose the mid terms. Fun, Yeah, it's
gonna be rad Um. I don't know. Uh, should we
talk about the fucking New York City MARYL Race for
a little bit? Sure, it's happening. How boy Yang has
(52:56):
really I'm feeling bad that we were at one point
optimistic about Yang being a positive force for political discussion. Um,
he's because boy, howdy, he has not been unin not
been he's I mean, well, they're doing ranked choice voting, right,
they're doing ranked choice voting. Um, that's exciting. That's the
(53:18):
first time that they've been doing that. So we will
see how that works out. But apparently from a lot
of I don't have it in front of me, but
the polling and the data suggests that a lot of people, um,
particularly uh minority groups have expressed a desire to not
choose multiple options and to just go with their picks.
(53:39):
So we'll see. We'll see actually how this works out
in implementation. Um, but it is it is a bit
of a toss up right now. Um, I mean they're
there are no good mayors ever, So there are no
good mayors ever. I mean sometimes towns elect dogs to
be the mayor, and I think actually that should be
(54:00):
the only kind of mayor. If all of our mayors
were dogs, I would not have problems with any of
the mayors. Visit a place that had the had a
cat mayor and uh in Idle Wild, California, they've got
a dog mayor. Yeah. See, these are all good, these
are all good ideas for mayors. Yeah, I'm not two
thrilled with anybody in the race, um, except for I
(54:26):
guess Maya Wiley, but she doesn't have you know, she's
better than the other. She also has not come out
of pro defund the police, but she has committed to
taking a lot of money away from the NYPD. Um,
but we already did that. And yeah, that's why crime
(54:46):
is up everywhere, not just in New York. But it's
all based in New York, you know. Yeah. But yeah,
the races is between Andrew Yang, Eric Adams, and Catherine Garcia.
Uh uh for the most part, and they're all you know,
Yang would and Catherine would call themselves democrats, but they're
(55:07):
a bit more centrist, and we also call himself in
New Yorker, right, I don't know about fad Ao. Um. Yeah,
but it's it's sounding like people are kind of rallying
around like Eric Adams might be a strong choice, but
he's problematic. Um. But we'll see, we'll see what happens.
(55:28):
He's a wild one. Yeah, yeah, we'll see. We'll see.
It's interesting because he's he's kind of getting so. Yang
and Catherine have started campaigning together, um as a strategy
for the ranked choice voting. You know, and uh, Eric
Adams has come out accused them of you know, not
(55:54):
wanting to have a black mayor, but you know, being
antime minorities. But Andrew Yang is is Asian. Anyway, it's
all a mess. We'll see. There's a better way to
end this section. I just not thrilled with any of
these candidates. We could uh end on some. I mean,
Eric Adams is not Yeah, you vote for wherever you
(56:17):
want to. What do you gotta do? Um? He plans
on retiring. We uh retires. He plans on moving to
the Golden Heights. Um, which is interesting when asked. Here's
a fun little quote that I'm just gonna read he's
asked about the best concert he's ever been to, Uh,
(56:38):
Curtis Mayfield at the Windate Concert Series. At that concert,
there was a rainstorm and the lights fell on Curtis
Mayfield and they actually paralyzed him at that concert. He
died a few years ago. But it was an amazing
concert before that happened. Just the favorite concert when oh man,
that's literally like the joke of out how was the play?
(57:01):
Mrs Lincoln Like, yeah, Adams is uh, you know, a
former police chief, police chief commissioner, um, and uh has
has said several problematic things in the past during his
his time is in the public, um, you know, racially
(57:24):
insensitive things. Um. So we'll see, we'll see what happens.
And he's a Republican, which is also you know, it's
wild that he's got such a big, you know, a
strong leg to stand on in this race when everyone
talks about how liberal New York City is. So those
are some things. Yeah, the left is not doing great
in New York right now. We'll see what happens in
(57:47):
the next couple of days. Well, they defunded the police
and then ye, like, I mean, what are you gonna get?
You know what are you gonna do ye? All right?
I think that does it for us today. That's gonna
do it for us here at the Worst Year Ever.
Um you know, in the next week, I suggest each
of you go out and um you know, buy some hexagen.
(58:11):
Just just start buying hexagen. Get as much of it
as you can. Put it under your your attic, in
your basement. Were on these lists, aren't we? Wherever you
keep a lot of dry wood to you know, really,
if you don't have hexagen, go out of oil soaked
rags and dry wood. Keep that, Keep that around the
edges of your of your ceiling, you know, make sure
(58:31):
you block windows with it. Um good stuff. Just be safe, alright, guys,
see you next week. So I tried. Worst Year Ever
(58:53):
is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts
from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you list into your favorite shows.
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production of I Heart
Radio Together Everything, So don't don't hey, no, no, no, no,
(00:25):
leave it all, leave it in. Welcome to the Year Ever?
Am I right? Am I right? Isn't it bad? Yeah?
It's not great. I think we just lost a lot
of listeners. It's not the best year ever, which is
what this podcast would be called if this year wasn't terrible.
(00:48):
You know what the best year ever podcast would be
is like I feel like like three maybe that's one
of the mid Simpsons was really comment like just just
hit whatever year the Mono Rail episode came out, and
that's got to be the best year ever. Um, just
like everybody sort of pretending like everything like everything's fine.
(01:10):
R I p R. Mentioned, everyone's going to tell us
everything that was fine. Phil Phil Hartman was still on
The Simpsons, so we had no problems. Yeah yeah, but
that's not this year. The year is and there is
no but it's just as bad and there's no Phil
(01:33):
Harmon left. And today we have a Hodgepodge news smorgas
board for your earballs. Yes, sucker up, slip it down,
just just guzzle, guzzle this hot, thirsty load of news
as it is it as it burbles down your throat,
(01:54):
maybe gets backed up into your nose a little bit,
regurgitate it. Yeah, we're one pump suff news into your
cream and then spit it into your baby birds mouths. Okay,
is this not the whole show? It's not. Um, let's
(02:16):
start off light. There's never anything like uh COVID. We'll
start off by talking about COVID and lightly lightly talking
about it. The new the new variant, which Delta heard confirmed,
is up here in Oregon. Now it's everywhere, I think
in Los Angeles. Yeah, that's anywhere strain in a lot
(02:38):
of places. How do they decide the names of these things?
How do they decided to Delta? Because I feel like
that's just bad pr for the airline, Like, what's the
like have nothing to do with if you're going variant.
If you were going to name a deadly plague variant
after an airline, you would go with Spirit. That's what
I'm saying. The Spirit variant is tearing through the American Southeast,
(03:03):
um or like Virgin Atlantic, Yeah, the Virgin Nobody wants
to catch that. Um sorry, I got the Branson started
naming me on the gates and the bezos. There there
was a better branding for the coronavirus that would have
(03:23):
made people uh more wary of I mean it hurt
so Corona beer. Did you say dirty martinis? What did
you start skirting health mandates and things like sure, yeah,
whatever you just said that could Yeah, I don't know,
(03:45):
I got nothing. Um. The main thing I want to
start off by saying is that if you're vaccinated, you've
got very good protection against it. That hasn't changed, um
as far as they can tell. Yeah, that seems still
true and so but there's a real risk, of course,
as always to those of us who have chosen to
(04:08):
remain unvaccinated, which is about half Yeah, the country, we're
about uh people vaccinated at this point. And it's almost
the same as Biden's new approval rating. That really is
new approval rating. Well, you know these are the ship
(04:29):
fluctuates all the time, like it's not, but yes, the
most well one of the most recent, so the one
of the new because like there's a bunch of different ones.
One was doubt, Like he's dropped points among Democrats and
risen like eight points among Republicans, which is bizarre, but
he's overall doubt he was. According to that one pole,
well we should probably maybe we can do this next week.
(04:51):
We should probably do a comprehensive look at um how
he's how he's doing in the polls and one Americans like,
we do we get in this space. No US are
fans of Joe Biden. Some of us actively despise him.
Most of us actively despise him. I don't know. We're
not wild about the administration, but I do think it's
important from time to time to take like a step
(05:11):
back and be like, Okay, how is the country actually
reacting to his plans, Like what's popular, what's unpopular? What
do people like? Yeah, we need to do that prepare
for the day that we are eventually out of our
cubes and able to treport people in person. But yeah,
I agree with you theine. There was a recent poll
that showed him down quite a bit, which isn't super weird.
(05:33):
You know, it's what happens with presidents, right, you know,
you have your your kind of honeymoon period, which Trump
didn't get, and that was weird Biden did. He was
pretty popular for a while and now, you know, not abnormal,
it doesn't look But yeah, I mean we're six months
in five months in its presidency. He's not he's not
benefiting from the whole. Thank god Trump is out anymore. Really,
(05:54):
you know, yeah, just in general, these variants are something
for us to be aware of and um wary of,
but not to act in fear. I guess, is my
what do we have to say about this? I think
that's fair. I think that Um it's get like you said,
if you're vaccinated, Ah, that's good, continue to be vaccinated. Yeah,
(06:20):
take more vaccines, steal as many vaccines. Feel whatever hospital
is near you. You know, you want to get a
car with a big metal front grill and just drive
it through the side and and heist as many of
that and then drink all of them as fast as
you can tend the building is like a group of
protesters and just plow through it. Yes, yes, there's no
hard I mean uh and uh. You know, it doesn't
(06:44):
matter which vaccine or what is for. It doesn't need
to be a COVID vaccine, any any vaccine will help.
Just drink straight smallpox. It works the same. That's break
into a level three bio hazard lab and just drink
anything you find. It will make you stronger. Um. But
(07:08):
I guess, seriously, it's something to be concerned about because
it is a stronger variant is worse and people even
today there's a big uptick in COVID, particularly in the South, UM,
where a lot of people are not getting vaccinated. Yeah,
I mean I think that what do we have your Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee,
(07:29):
and Wyoming have fully vaccinated less than of residents. And
that is definitely what we're going to start seeing the
surges at this point in the communities. I mean, of course, yeah,
of course. UM. And like you know, I remember just
a few what was a few weeks ago when UH
(07:52):
Texas had zero deaths one day, UM, and that was
there was like a thirty six hour news cycle or
every like UH Texas official and people in the media
were like they did it, look see it was good
to open up and so on. But obviously like the
next day there were deaths. Um. That's not how this works.
(08:14):
It's not we did at zero today, we were done. UM.
And it changes quickly. I mean, here's this is from CNN.
UM the delta variant made up about ten percent of
cases that were tested three or four weeks ago. As
of last week, it appeared to be. So that's how
(08:35):
things change. We know, we lived through the last year
and a half. Um, but you know this, this is
the only way that we were gonna vanquished COVID was
by getting everybody on the same page. You know, I
guess wasn't going to happen, But it's not happening. Yeah,
(08:56):
on the same page about whether or not murdering unarmed
people is bad. Yeah. We're definitely not getting a consensus
on literally anything, pardon with the exception of whether or
not pot should be legal, which is why it's so baffling.
No one's done that yet. But anyway, should we have
(09:16):
named it like the demo virus or the democratic something? No,
that the antifa virus that work, whatever it is, Like,
we should have named it virus, the critical race theory
virus me to get vaccinated against the socialist virus. You know,
maybe something like that would be better. Comy comy virus. Yeah. Um,
(09:39):
that wouldn't have worked because they think, like, oh I
gotta I don't even know, nothing would happen. Um. No,
So I think the point, the real point is get vaccinated.
If you can get vaccinated, if you can you know
what I'm going to add to that, get vaccinated if
you can. Yeah, you know what what vaccinated if you can?
(10:02):
Should we talk about something else? Um? So I on
the subject of vaccines, I didn't want to bring this up.
This was from I believe late last week or a
few days ago, Palcinians canceled this deal vaccine swap they
had put together with Israel, where they would basically Israel
(10:23):
would give them a bunch of vaccines now and then
later in the year Alisin would give Israel. Uh. I
believe it was the equivalent number of vaccines or a
very similar number. And it was. This whole story was
sort of framed as like, look, thank god Placinians hated, hate,
hate do so much that they don't want their their vaccines. Um.
(10:45):
And obviously, uh, equating uh Jewish people with Israel is
not uh the best thing to do. And it's not
because they hate Israel. It's because the vaccines we were expired.
UM they expired that month. Uh. There was the deal
(11:06):
was basically saying that they would the vaccines would expire
in July or August UM, and they expired in June.
And that means they're not as strong worthless, but it's
not not they're not like worthless worthless, but they're definitely
not as effective and they're still like they're still doing
uh studies on the effective is the problem that if
(11:30):
it's a lot less effective, you get these people and
they think they're vaccinated and they stopped taking precautions, and yeah,
there's a lot of reasons to be concerned. It's not
a they're so racist they won't take Israeli vaccine. Yeah,
the framing of that, it's just been very wild and
reading like oh they were they're expired. Well that makes sense. Um.
(11:50):
And I just saw a lot of people even point
out like, well it's inspired in June. That means they
can still use it, like they've got They've got a
couple of weeks to still use it. Um. I don't
know if anybody else knows this, but the fis are vaccine.
You take a dose and then you take a second
dose three weeks later. Um. It's not even like, oh
they got they got a bunch of one dose Johnson
(12:12):
and Johnson's they got. They like they got. They have
to work hard to get them out in time, but
they can still do it. Um. Which also is like
unreasonable if you know, um, this was earlier this year,
I do not know, some ridiculous to me as if
as if the Israeli government didn't know that their vaccines
that they were going to give away expired in June,
(12:34):
you know of course, or if what and then it
can be framed as you know there yeah yeah, but
also um yeah, just give them non expired vaccines. They
did vaccinate about a hundred thousand Palsinian day workers in
Israel earlier, so that was nice. Yeah, it's nice of
(12:57):
the occupying force to do that. Kind of benevolent populations
they're occupying. Um anyways, that was the thing on my radar,
and it was you know, like this was the appropriate
time to bring it up, as we talked about COVID
before we moved on to other things. So I just
want to commend you for piping up. Thank you so much.
We wanted to start light, so we started with COVID.
(13:19):
So yeah, yeah, yeah, there's I mean, there's a couple
of nice things that have happened recently. Uh, law wise,
the Supreme Court just ruled on um a case involved
in the n c a A, which is like student
athletes and they're called student athletes because if you call
them student athletes, you don't have to pay them, and
(13:41):
you can also make them ineligible to receive certain kinds
of like scholarships and compensation and whatnot. Like there's a
bunch of ways you can fuck them over, um if
they're if they're student athletes, and you can also make
millions of dollars off of them. Um. And they don't
get any real compensation other than you know, some some
of them get free at uccasions or whatnot. Um. But
(14:02):
they don't get money, and they often damage their brains
and bodies playing, for example, football, a sport which kills you. UM.
So this is bad. And there was a case in
the Supreme Court UM that was relating on um like
whether or not the n c A was violating antitrust
law by placing limits on education related benefits that schools
(14:23):
can provide to athletes. UM. And they basically ruled the
n c a A was was being a motherfucker. And
now schools are open to provide their athletes with a
lot more compensation as long as it's connected in some
way to their education. Um. Just as Brett Kavanaugh not
a what do you mean, like what kind of compensation
(14:45):
as related because a lot of them do get full
ride scholarships and you know lots it's more that, which
is like, you know, significant amount, but it's yeah, it's
more that right now, and see A rules restrict any
kind of compensation, including direc payment UM for what they're doing,
you know, as athletes. UM. And particularly the big deal
(15:05):
is the restrictions on direct payments UM, because these people
are making the schools millions of dollars UM. And the
decision that Gore such offered UM basically said hey, you
can't do that thereat you are actually violating antitrust law
by saying schools cannot pay their athletes directly basically, I
mean the the the the exact wording of his of
(15:26):
his decision, which is pretty good I think, is UM.
The n c A is not above the law. The
n c A couches its arguments for not paying student
athletes in innocuous labels, but the labels cannot disguise the
reality the n c a's business model would be flatly
illegal in almost any other industry in America. Basically, the
core of the issue is these kids are playing sports
(15:46):
at a near professional level and they are. It is
a multimillion dollar industry, and the n c a A
says you cannot pay the people who make that industry possible,
and that would be illegal in any other business. The
n c AS argument up until now as well, there's
students and so they're getting like a scholarship, so we
don't like we not not only do we not have
to pay them, we are making it so that you
cannot pay them. Our rules make you're you're not allowed
(16:07):
to pay these athletes. And the decision is saying like, no,
you can't fucking do that. Um, which is potentially a
huge deal and has we don't entirely know all this
is going to shake out. I'm sure there's going to
be further cases on different aspects of this, but like, yeah,
this has the potential to blow up the whole system. Yeah,
and look, I think I have a lot to learn
(16:28):
about it, and I want you I was starting to
dig into this a little bit before, and on the
on the face it's like, yeah, you know this, these
schools are making a lot of money off of these athletes,
and you know they should be paid. But the counter
the flip side of what I'm seeing and I'm sure
I'll get some pushback from people. Again, I'm learning and
(16:51):
trying to educate myself about all of this, and like
you said that more stuff that unfolds is, um, how
that affects a college at sitions, resources and recruitment. Um.
And if money gets spent on getting the best athletes,
how does that affect other programs women's athletes, women's sports programs, uh,
(17:15):
tying up funding and having to folks be all on
the mail. Um, you know, teams that bring in more income. Um.
So there are some things in here that I am
curious to learn more about. But also you know, I understand,
I see, I see the benefits. To me, the issue is,
(17:37):
I don't care about sports. I've never watched college sports.
I don't I don't like them. Um. But it's a
pretty egregious issue, especially considered. Like the biggest part to
me is that like, yeah, often their their education is
paid for. But um, these kids are taking on permanent
injuries and they are making the small group of people
(17:59):
multi million airs and they aren't being compensated, and a
lot of them leave college not you know, I think
it's most of them don't not go on to become
professional players, and so they're leaving with permanent and continuous
medical bills. UM. And let's not pretend like even if
(18:21):
they're getting a full right scholarship, a lot of these
institutions are are having people there to focus on sports,
so the education isn't necessarily the most important part of
the college. It's not like you're leaving like with a
whole set of skills outside of let's say basketball. Yeah,
it's one of those things. As far as you know,
the injustices we talk about a lot of the time
(18:42):
where it's like, you know, problems of climate change, of
like restrictions on immigration, all these like really massive and
systemically brutal issues. It is a smaller fry issue than that,
but it's it's horribly unethical the way that student athletes
have been treated for decades by the n c a A.
And and this is like a pretty good decision, it seems, Yeah,
(19:05):
that's nice. Feed any of the athletes unless they were
in season. It's ridiculous. They have all sorts of dumb limitations. Yeah,
but yeah, so you know, I think it's good. I
am concerned about the effects of this on UM other
sports programs and what happens. But I think good, hey people, people, Hey, everybody, everything.
(19:34):
And speaking of that, why don't you shout out some
some of those shillings to these sponsors as for ears everything,
(19:56):
hand suckers. Shall we talk bitches? Domestic terrorism, Robert, you
pitched this idea. I love domestic terrorism, so I'm a
huge domestic you know terrorism stand it. Yeah, basically, so
(20:16):
if you remember what five months ago, when um, those
people tried to overthrow the government by attacking the capital
in a mob, it was kind of a thing. You
might have caught that story. Um, everyone was you know,
it got a lot of people up in arms who
had not been as concerned with right wing extremism. But
it also like the thing that any organization is going
(20:40):
to do in a situation like that. And by organization,
I'm talking about like the Department of Justice in you know,
specifically branches of it, like the FBI. They're they're going
to be like, well, we could have caught this if
we had more power. And some of the things they've
been talking about is like more ability to kind of
monitor social media. There's some legal restrictions there for them, um,
but also of some of it is just like you know,
(21:01):
they want more money. Um, they want the ability to
go after you know, um, to fund and to kind
of like go after a broader swath of people. And
this is always like framed as what we need to
deal This would have let us solve the problem that
that happened that got away from us. And I think, yeah,
(21:22):
I published the day before the attack a list of
people talking about all the things they were going to
do that was like point by point all of the
things that happened on the sixth, Um they have access
to to to all of that information to um. The problem,
as a number of us were saying, is that like well,
because obviously I think that when a group of people
try to force a dictatorship on the country, um, they
(21:45):
should be uh penalized for that. I'm not I'm not
against penalizing them. No, Like I don't know, you know,
in ancient Rome, they had these rocks that they threw
people off of they committed treason. Um anyway, I'm off
but Mount Rushmore. Yeah, I want to be clear here
(22:12):
because people are, oh, you're being you know, hypocritical because
you don't you know, your prison abolitionist. Yes, I'm also
saying within the context of the situation that we're in.
You have to use the tools as they presently exist
in our in the system that we live under. I'm
sorry you didn't say anything about imprisoning them. You said
throw them off of a rock. So I do think
(22:32):
we should throw some of them off of rocks. But specifically, yeah,
point taking, yes, working within the system that we have,
working with within the system that we have, the d
o J has the power um and these people were
committing crimes that are defined crimes. They are able to
prosecute these people. They are able to catch these people,
(22:53):
and they had, I believe, the powers necessary and the
funding necessary to have stopped this if they had had
the ship more on the ball. They don't need anything extra.
There didn't need to be more money. There didn't need
to be more powers. There didn't need to be even
a new plan. There need to be a willingness to
it was always illegal to try to break into the
capital and murder elected leaders. You don't need anything. They
(23:18):
just need to get their ship together. But well they
could have just not opened up those Uh, just don't
let them in. If the if the Capitol police that
day had used as much force as the Portland police
used whenever someone hoocked a water bottle, those people never
would have gotten inside. UM, but they didn't. And anyway,
(23:41):
so Biden has ordered ordered pretty much right after that,
a review of how federal agencies A dressed domestic extremism,
and they put out a new strategy document um and,
as a number of us had predicted, UM. The document,
while it does focus on some of the things we
saw in the sixth and some of the right wing
stuff that people like me have been yelling about for
a while, it's also clearly geared towards giving the government
(24:02):
a lot more power to funk with the left UM
who you will. You might note didn't try to institute
a dictatorship UM in January of this year. UM and
hasn't been shooting up houses of worships for years, and
hasn't been setting off bombs in American cities for years.
UM has in general been when they do uh illegal
acts like fucking up windows and spray painting ship which
(24:23):
you might recognize as not terrorism. UM, by my yes,
when ISIS took over mosle and spray painted graffiti on
the walls, UH, that was the real problem with isis
crime against humanity. Yeah, so the new strategy. The goal
(24:47):
here is to like coordinate efforts across the government. Um
in an outline's for priorities improving information sharing among law
enforcement agencies, which if you remember nine eleven, that was
the big one of the big things they said like
why nine eleven slipped pass? And it's like, oh, there's
not enough information sharing between agencies, right, And it is
again I have my ideological hat that I can put
(25:09):
on when I talk about stuff like this in the
way I think things should go. I also have my
hat as somebody who is a researcher in this field,
who has had its like interfaced with the government on this,
who has sources and who has like done consultations and
whatnot on this. So I'm I'm taking that head on now,
and I'm talking about the structure of how of how
these systems work. Um, there's there's some like one of
(25:34):
the reasons why information sharing across different agencies is often
shitty is just very simple competition, Right. These agencies are
competing for funds, these agencies are in some cases competing
for good manpower. There's a lot of like, um, you know,
bad faith or bad feelings over like you know which
agency winds up in charge when multiple agencies are involved
(25:55):
in a situation. Right, That's why a lot of other
law enforcement agencies, that federal agencies even don't really the FBI,
and why the FBI doesn't like them, especially since the
FBI is also like a watch, like it is supposed
to police other law enforcement agencies. So there's it's not
like I think a lot of times people tend to
look at the whole federal law enforcement apparatus as kind
of one unified thing, and it's not. There's quite a
(26:17):
lot of competition, and so it is true that they're
one of the problems when you're we're talking about from
a a standpoint of how effective these agencies can be
at their given tasks. One of the things that is
continually a problem and was a problem in two thousand
one and and did contribute to why nine eleven was successful,
is that there's shitty information sharing between them. Right, There's
other reasons. It's not just competition. There's reasons of like
(26:39):
what are you allowed to share and like what sort
of different systems are in place for Like there's there's
a bunch of just sort of structural stuff, right, like,
so I'm not surprised to see that on here. Um,
there's obviously concerns because like, what does it mean about
what kind of we We never really know what kind
of information is being gathered about the average citizen by
(26:59):
law enforcement. Right. We all remember when like Snowdon came
out with his leaks and a bunch was revealed about
what the n s A had been doing. So I
anyway that that that it's not surprising to see that
on there. You should always be concerned when you hear
that kind of language. I also think it is kind
of a cheap excuse because again, it's not like you
needed a great deal of information sharing for the Capitol
(27:21):
Police to know what was being planned because I found
it out. And you may notice I am not a
federal law enforcement agency. I'm I'm a guy with Google.
Like that's all I used to find out this Google. Yeah,
it's not I mean they do, um, I know, I
know yea. So the other priority was preventing recruitment by
(27:44):
extremist groups. Again, you know, when when Islamic terror was
the big boogeyman, they would talk about this a lot.
They're they're never good at it. I don't think they
ever will be good at it. I don't think they're
capable of being good at it because they fundamentally don't
understand in a lot of cases, what why these groups
what recruitment means. There's still I think a lot of
this idea that it is. It's very direct. It's the
(28:06):
way that you would have, like, you know, the way
people tended to think it worked back right after nine eleven,
where you've got these centralized organizations like recruiting people to
carry out centralized attacks, and that's not how a lot
of domestic extremism works now. It's it's stochastic. You know,
there are people within these agencies who do understand that.
I don't think they have a lot of power. But
(28:28):
also it's a question of I don't I don't know
how they could with all of the resources they have.
I don't know how you actually, as the FBI or whatever,
could stop the kind of recruitment that exists, because how
do you stop people from winding up falling down these
internet rabbit holes that lead them to believe the white
races being genocided and they should shoot up a mosque? Right? Like? What?
(28:51):
How what does prevention of that look? Like no one
really knows. There are theories people have possible task, but
I don't think that there's a blanket answer for one way,
one thing or another in the community. It depends on this. Yeah,
and it's it's to be honest again, and I am talking.
I'm saying, we're talking right now because we're talking about
(29:11):
how these agencies are looking at things, how the government
is looking at things from a perspective of if you
believe there should be federal law enforcement, right, if you
believe these organizations should exist, is there anything they can
do to stop that kind of recruiting. I don't actually
know that there is, um because I tend to think
most of the problems that lead these groups to be
able to recruit, that lead to this kind of propaganda
having an impact are structural problems in our society that
(29:33):
make people vulnerable to these kinds of messages. And no
matter how much power you give the FBI, they're never
going to be able to deal with that unless you
give the FBI the power to give everyone in healthcare,
which happen. Not only do they not have the power
to do that, they wouldn't want to do that. Yeah,
they wouldn't want to do that obvious. Yes, I don't
(29:53):
think they can do that. I think, yes, of course
they want to prevent recruitment. I don't think even if
they understand fully and there are individuals within these organizations
who do have a good understanding of how this recruitment works,
but I don't think there's anything they can do to
really stop it. Um, then you have investigating these groups,
you know, the groups doing the recruiting, and confronting the
long standing drivers of domestic terrorism racism and bigotry. I
(30:15):
am happy to see that put in there. It's the
most direct statement you kind of see in this document
stating that the primary drivers of domestic terrorism are racism
and bigotry. Now, there's some waffling later on about what
kind of racism and what kind of bigotry which is
a problem. Um that said, Um, again, you're you're looking
(30:36):
at another thing that federal law enforcement can't confront racism
and bigotry as as problems like the FBI again will
never be able to have there not be bigotry. That's
not number one. Never what they've been able to do. YEA, yes,
it is, including the FBI has released some of actually
(30:57):
some of the better reports we have about the extent
of supremacist infiltration of local law enforcement. Staton and local
law enforcement are FBI reports, so they're very aware of
the problem within law enforcement. I think they're less aware
of the problem within the FBI. But also again you
can you can write reports on it, which I guess
is again it's good that there's some sort of watchdog
(31:19):
for the police writing this ship they don't have a
great record of doing anything about it, you know, like
they don't have a great record of actually stopping for example,
they can write a bunch of reports saying, hey, there's
a shipload of white supremacists and local police less you know,
right now, the city of Portland is in like contempt
of federal law enforcement because, um, they're violating federal law
(31:40):
with all of the use of force against particularly UH
mentally uh ill people and UH and houseless people. Um,
and they're in a bunch of trouble, and the federal
government has been threatening them because they have not brought
up to state that like years ago they were like
they were told you need to do these things, and
they did none of them. And they're basically just saying,
what are you gonna do? Fire all of the cops
(32:01):
in Portland, and so far the FEDS have been like,
I don't know what we're gonna do. Like so again,
they say these are all the things that we need
to do, and I guess, broadly speaking, they're not wrong. Yes,
if you want to stop domestic terrorism, you prevent uh
recruitment by extremist groups, you investigate the groups, You confront
(32:22):
the things that drive domestic terrorism, which is racism and bigotry.
I don't think federal law enforcement can do any of that.
I don't think they have that power. I think even
in the best case scenario, right, they just can't. It's
just not the they're they're not able to do that.
They're pretty good at I mean they're not even They're
not even great. They're not even as good as you
want to at. Like for example, on the sixth, somebody
(32:43):
was placing pipe bombs outside the d n C and
the RNC headquarters. They didn't catch that guy, and I'm
pretty sure that guy's a fed UM former or current
because from the footage that we have, the individual knew
how to address themselves in order to not be visible. UM.
They constructed function in weapons and more to the point,
they knew exactly where the cameras were, and they made
(33:03):
sure that they were not filmed in a way that
would possibly give them away. They were very very smart
about that. They have not been caught. They have somebody
that um I said, if they're not a fed, they
have are connected to them to have information. And there's
a very probably a purposeful reason why they have not
been caught. Whoever that was was very competent. So again,
if they can't catch that, how are they going to
(33:25):
deal with like structural problems in American society? You know,
they can't. They won't. So with everything I've just said,
you understand why. I think it's kind of silly that
based on these things that federal law enforcement largely cannot
possibly do in the most ideal world. Um, the administration
has requested a hundred million dollars in additional funds to
(33:46):
hire prosecutors, investigators, and analysts. I don't think that's going
to help. UM. Maybe the analysts, well, you know, having
more analysts people who are like, you know, looking at
chatter online and stuff. I don't know how fucking tapped
those dudes where I'm sure some of it has been
a problem, like the Trump administration was very loath to
have people investigating this stuff, so that that is one
(34:07):
of more things that that might have some impact. You know,
they can do some stuff there. Yeah, if you're if
you and if you're monitoring like social media, there's a
lot of discernment you need to know like this person
just like ship posting or is like this is a
serious thing, like what is Yeah, and like being you know,
aware of all those communities. Um. And again, to the
(34:29):
extent that I have in the past, like lectured members
of these you know, organizations, That's the stuff I lecture about.
It's not like techniques. I'm not saying, like here's how
you track, because I number one, I'm not good at that.
I'm trying to explain like ship posting. I'm trying to
explain like the way people fall down rabbit holes and
get pilled, and like how stochastic terrorism works, um, because
(34:51):
that is one area where I do think it can
be useful. So I'm not saying there's absolutely nothing again
talking about you. We're not going to tear down this system, right,
certainly Joe Biden is not. So how is there a
way the system can be made that actually might reduce
the number of people who get murdered in this way,
that is something that can help. Is a hundred million
dollars needed? I don't know. I don't think so. I
think most of this, I think there's very little that
(35:13):
will actually be done that will have an effect. Um. Yeah, well,
and if it does have an effect, it's probably just
going to be like very civil civil liberties. And that's
where I wanted to get to because part of this
is also in these reports, in all of this, this
these plans and this ship that's coming out, there's a
(35:34):
huge risk for organizers at protesters. You're very right, and
I think we'll get to that, um, because that is
my primary concern. Um. I have concerns that, like, for example,
at some point, a bunch of fucking seventeen year olds
breaking Starbucks windows are going to get wrapped up with
terrorism charges and stuff like that has happened before the
(35:55):
Green scare was people who were like like fucking up
logging equipment and ship and doing what in a normal
world would it most be kind of mild to moderate
property destruction getting twenty year terrorism sentences. Um. Because because
the government was really scared of of the Green movement
(36:17):
you know of of people taking direct action, um, because
the people who fund the government are scared of that. Um.
And then you get you know that you start having
people being surveilled and surveillance being put on. Yeah, even
like old old lady who is at the capital riot,
like you're like gonna, you know, go like we have
(36:40):
to feel like that happened to be there as opposed
to like your example of the person who said, like
pipe bombs in these places? Yeah, and like where that
focus goes. Um, we have to take a break, but
then we'll come back and we'll keep talking about this.
Sound good. You know who will not set off pipe bomb? Well,
(37:03):
no they will not because Raytheon has access to Katie,
have you heard the good news about Hexagen? I have not.
Now your standard pipe bomb you're gonna be making out
of probably like smokeless powder or something. Right, basically gunpowder
makes a big boom. Hexagen, Oh, Katie, Hexagen is like
if if if the black powder in a normal pipe
(37:25):
bomb is like a cool like like a Corona beer. Hexagen,
you're talking like one fifty one rum and that's what
Raytheon And with hexagen, a pipe bomb you can take
out the front of a school bus. Hexogen. You make
sure that school bus is in the atmosphere. You know,
that's the beauty of Hexagen. So listeners, you know, do
(37:47):
the right thing the next time you're creating illegal terrorism
devices and go with raytheon. Well, forget everything. We're back
and we're talking about domestic terrorism. My favorite kind of
(38:09):
terrorism of the terrorisms, absolutely the best terrorism. I mean,
in my opinion. You know, international terrorism is such a
real drag, I know, and and kind of ghost right, yeah,
a little bit out of out of season. Right, nobody's
doing international terrorism anymore. We're all going domestic. Baby. I
think that the term that the internet influencers are using
(38:33):
is choog. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's one of those things,
Katie Cody. You know, we're all more concerned about the
climate these days. Right, We're shopping local, we're using local
farms to get our produce, and our terrorism should be
local too, you know, that's just better for everybody. Yeah,
keep it local, keep it local, shop local, bomb local, Jesus, Okay,
(38:56):
we terrorism guidelines here. Yeah. One of the things that
concerns me most about this is that UM seventy seven
million dollars through a Homeland security grant program is going
to state and local partners to protect against and respond
to domestic violent extremism. UM. This is potentially potentially a
(39:19):
significant issue because they really go out of their way
to both sides every terrorism thing. So they talk about
the threat of pro pro life extremists who murder a
murder a significant number of people and who regularly carry
out legal attacks um, and then also mentioned pro choice
extremists as being a problem which you may recognize is
not a thing, um, a pro choice terrorist attack. Oh,
(39:43):
I just love to find people on both sides and
the bad people on both sides. Yeah, uh, something like
before talking like talking about like far right terrorism and
then go to the people who oppose those people and
(40:05):
who are actively yeah, resisting the people. Yes, maybe maybe
these organizations should just fund antifa and um yeah take over.
So one of the things that's a concern to me,
I mean one of the so one of the things
that's good about this, if I'm going to be fair,
is that at multiple points it talks about it makes
(40:26):
it very clear that they that white supremacists are the
primary threat. UM. There's a line specifically pose an elevated
threat to our country one with racially and or ethnically
motivated violent extremists, and specifically those who espouse the superiority
of the white race in the anti government militia, violent
extremists posing the most lethal threat. Pretty good line, um,
(40:47):
pretty reasonable statement. There's another that says, um, the their
insistence on violence can at times be explicit, it can
at times be less explicit. Lurking in ideology is rooted
in a perception of the superiority of the white race
that call for violence and further into perverse int a
Borran notions of racial purity or cleansing. Um. But then
it goes right down to saying that a key component
(41:07):
of the threat comes from anti government or anti authority
of violent extremists. This significant component today militious. Yeah, that's
so they're they're they're looping in militias which have carried
out carried out a couple of different terrorist attacks. Last year.
The militia movement brought us the Oklahoma City bombing. Um,
and the militia militias are specifically named in the Constitution. Yes,
(41:28):
and you do have a you do also like that
is also a concern right, Like it is one of
those things. I mean, I guess most particularly liberals, I
think that militia should be illegal. But it's always a concern.
I think people don't like, you have a right to
be in a militia, which is not like again, a
lot of my work has been dealing with the militia
movement because it's a problem. But like, you have a
constitutional right to be in a militia. That's there's no
(41:50):
legal artists there right there, right, they're very clear right
to our guns. Yeah, well we get lated militia. But yeah, yes,
of course there's there is debate about like how that,
but you do have a right to be in a militia. Um,
you don't have a right to attempt to co adapt
the governor of Minnesota, Um, I'm the constitutions throw this
(42:12):
out that the birth of this nation was allegedly, uh
explicitly anti authoritarian. Yeah again right like it. And that
that's what concerns me because immediately after they talk about militias,
they talk about um anarchist, violent extremists who violently opposed
all forms of capitalism, corporate globalization, and government institutions which
(42:35):
they perceive as harmful to society. And that is listed
as a threat right above sovereign citizen violent extremists who
have killed more cops than any other group of extremists
um and in fact, repeatedly, when police themselves are question
over who scares the most, sovereign citizens always top the
list because they, especially during traffic stoff, they shoot a
buckload of cops. It happens a bunch, um. You may notice,
(42:56):
no anarchist like Portland's We've had a lot of people
throw ship at cops. We've had even a couple of malatabs.
Not a single Portland police officer has been killed or
severely injured. Um. Because for whatever criticisms you want to
make of the anarchist movement here, they don't want to
murder people, whereas like four cops were killed by boogaloo
(43:17):
types last year. Yeah yeah no, it's uh, like I'm
you know, it's important always be skeptical of this kind
of thing in general, um and giving an these organizations
more power um and validation. The shift over the past
like four years or so of after after Trump of
(43:40):
being like we fucking love the FBI, Now we freaking
love the FBI, the CIA. We've fucking shower me with
whatever Um, that's an issue. But but then like to
see it like they're they're just like explicitly being like, well, yeah, no,
we're going after everybody. Anybody goes like capitalism or authority,
like all these kind of stuff. It's there permission to
(44:00):
crack down on anything and everything. Yeah, it's it's a mix. Yeah.
I think what it is is it's it's at the
highest level, it's cravenness and a desire not to be
seen as playing sides and not to make the right
wing angry. And at the level of implementation, what that
means is it's created a justification to crack down on
the left. Um, that's what I think we're seeing. Yeah.
(44:23):
But but to an extent it doesn't because seventy seven
million dollars of this funding is going to local programs
to combat violent extremism, and all of that effort is
going to be focused on the left. They don't give
a shit about the Proud Boys. You know, I've watched it, um,
and that is concerning UM. One of the good things
here is that they list in voluntary celibate violent extremism
as a problem UM as a is a lethal problem,
(44:45):
which it absolutely is one of the biggest drivers of
deadly domestic terrorism attacks in recent past. The problem with
that is that they list it um alongside other domestic
terrorists motivated by violence, like other single issue ideologies, which
they list abortion, which if they're saying pro life, yes,
that is an equivalent threat. They also list animal rights
(45:06):
and environmental single issue extremists, which don't murder people. Certainly
not and nearly there have been I think maybe a
couple of accidental injuries and deaths, but like not nearly
the same thing. It's not. Yeah, you know, environmental activists
are planting busses into crowds. Yeah, exactly. I'm sure that
(45:30):
you're like, maybe something accidental has happened, but yeah, that's
not the ideology of how to affect change that group.
Concerned that the Sunrise Movement will start bombing people, That's
what I got to keep an eye on the Sunrise movement.
So yeah, I kind of right alongside this big high
level government report. The Foundations for Defensive Democracies report released
(45:52):
two dueling reports and domestic extremism, one of them on
the far right and white supremacists, and one titled Behind
the Black Block on anti fascists and anarchists. Now, the
f d D is a ship organization. They're a right
wing think tank. What's funny about this is there they
cite my research pretty extensively in the in the report
(46:14):
the Block, No No No, in the report on white
on white supremacists, they cite a significant amount of my
work and some other people at Bellycats work. Um. Their
report on behind the Black Block is just it's complete
fucking nonsense. Um. For like, so for one thing, at
one point in this report they talk about how online
ideologies right like kind of the expressions of violence that
(46:37):
that people make before doing a physical attack can lead
to physical violence. And there are two examples of that
are the christ Church shooting, right, which is a fine
example of of of like ideology and rhetoric leading someone
to carry out a fatal attack. Um. They equivocate that
to a guy breaking windows on a police car. Um.
(46:58):
They mentioned them in the same as two examples of
the same thing. And you may notice a window is
not fifty people being shot to death. UM. I would
call that ridiculous and and even blatantly offensive. The report
includes as examples of left wing terrorism and arson attack
on a police station in Portland I was physically there.
I watched that quote unquote attack go down. And what
(47:20):
happened was somebody dragged a trash can fire and shoved
it against the plywood of a beauty salon that was
attached to a police station, and then thirty members of
the crowd put the fire out. Um. I wouldn't call
it an arson attack. I guess you could. You can argue,
and one person it has gotten convicted of arson for that.
But what actually happened was the crowd stopped the fire. Um.
(47:40):
And furthermore, no significant damage was done, no life's were
ever threatened. It is interesting, as our researcher Garrison points out,
that they do not mention the Third Precinct in Minneapolis
being burnt down. Um, possibly because they know that most
Americans can think that that was a more or less
righteous attack um and utterly justified, and they know what
makes them look bad. Um And yeah, and then yeah,
(48:05):
it is weird, right, because all that happened at that
Portland attect was literally some plywood got charted, like literally,
some plywood got charged. That's the extent of the damage.
Whereas the Third Precinct is gone. Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yeah,
it's pretty it's pretty blatant. Yeah. Did you guys see
uh this this new piece from Ken Cliftonstein on the Intercept. Yeah,
(48:31):
US military training documents say socialists represent terrorist ideology. Basically,
there was a section in the training document called study Questions,
and the question was anarchists, socialists, and neo Nazis represent
which terrorist ideological category? The answer was political terrorists, and
(48:53):
I would say none, none, and then political maybe would fail.
I would fail. Um. Shocking and frustrating thing to come
out at the same time, not shocking. Yeah, you know
what I hat about, like the terrorist organization Democratic Socialists
of America when they stop people with busted tailights and
(49:18):
uh and replace those busted tailights for people, um so
that they don't get pulled over, yeahs and um all
their mutual aid they do, and helping the homeless camps
not get sued by police in l A and anyway,
it's I I uh in mixes just that that's how
(49:39):
we're training people. That's how we're um indoctrinating. Uh you know, yeah, no,
it's this is uh, it's so disgusting actually, um too,
like even mentioned those two things, like together with Neo
Nazis neo Nazis um. Um. You know. And and another
(50:02):
thing that a point that Ken makes in this document
is that, you know, during the Trump administration, you know,
Democrats expressed a lot of concern uh, you know that
national security, it was targeting groups on the left. But
(50:23):
all of those concerns and all of that conversation has
kind of gone away. You know, the media stopped covering
it from that angle um. That that that pressure is
coming off now that Biden is in office, um, and
that angle um conveniently at a time when all of
this stuff was coming forward. I don't know, bothers me. Yeah,
(50:45):
it's not great. A lot of real bad signs. Um.
One cool thing that happened recently, because I do want
to end this section on a cool thing, is in Portland,
the mayor and police just announced that they're no longer
going to pull people over from minor traffic and fractions. Awesome, uh,
And they're going to reduce the circumstances under which they
can search cars, specifically in order to not funk with
(51:08):
black people as much. Like that was the stated reason
why they're doing it, because they recognize that those kind
of searches unfairly impact that segment of the population. So
it's actualization that A doesn't need to do the till
I think anymore. Yeah, hopefully, Um. I mean, we'll see
how it actually works in implementation. But it is one
of those things I was hugely surprised to hear it.
(51:30):
And if it's the thing like, if I was going
to be asked like, what was the number one change
I could make that isn't taking away their guns to
make cops less dangers, This would be it is reducing
because really, most of what you could do, if you're
gonna have cops to make them safer is reduce the
amount of interactions they have with the public. And nothing
does that more than stopping count stories people losing their
(51:52):
lives are being unfairly incarcerated over being pulled over, or
you know, cops profiling and using some traffic as an
excuse to function up uh and you know, like I
don't get a car freshmener hanging from your rear view
(52:13):
mirror for example. Any who, that is a positive note
to end this on. And I guess the episode because
I'm looking at it and we're kind of out of
time here. Mm hmmm. Do you think the UH Congress
is going to pass the People Act. No, I don't
(52:33):
think anything is going to be done to protect voting rights.
I don't think anything is going to be done at all.
And then we'll lose the mid terms. Fun, Yeah, it's
gonna be rad Um. I don't know. Uh, should we
talk about the fucking New York City MARYL Race for
a little bit? Sure, it's happening. How boy Yang has
(52:56):
really I'm feeling bad that we were at one point
optimistic about Yang being a positive force for political discussion. Um,
he's because boy, howdy, he has not been unin not
been he's I mean, well, they're doing ranked choice voting, right,
they're doing ranked choice voting. Um, that's exciting. That's the
(53:18):
first time that they've been doing that. So we will
see how that works out. But apparently from a lot
of I don't have it in front of me, but
the polling and the data suggests that a lot of people, um,
particularly uh minority groups have expressed a desire to not
choose multiple options and to just go with their picks.
(53:39):
So we'll see. We'll see actually how this works out
in implementation. Um, but it is it is a bit
of a toss up right now. Um, I mean they're
there are no good mayors ever, So there are no
good mayors ever. I mean sometimes towns elect dogs to
be the mayor, and I think actually that should be
(54:00):
the only kind of mayor. If all of our mayors
were dogs, I would not have problems with any of
the mayors. Visit a place that had the had a
cat mayor and uh in Idle Wild, California, they've got
a dog mayor. Yeah. See, these are all good, these
are all good ideas for mayors. Yeah, I'm not two
thrilled with anybody in the race, um, except for I
(54:26):
guess Maya Wiley, but she doesn't have you know, she's
better than the other. She also has not come out
of pro defund the police, but she has committed to
taking a lot of money away from the NYPD. Um,
but we already did that. And yeah, that's why crime
(54:46):
is up everywhere, not just in New York. But it's
all based in New York, you know. Yeah. But yeah,
the races is between Andrew Yang, Eric Adams, and Catherine Garcia.
Uh uh for the most part, and they're all you know,
Yang would and Catherine would call themselves democrats, but they're
(55:07):
a bit more centrist, and we also call himself in
New Yorker, right, I don't know about fad Ao. Um. Yeah,
but it's it's sounding like people are kind of rallying
around like Eric Adams might be a strong choice, but
he's problematic. Um. But we'll see, we'll see what happens.
(55:28):
He's a wild one. Yeah, yeah, we'll see. We'll see.
It's interesting because he's he's kind of getting so. Yang
and Catherine have started campaigning together, um as a strategy
for the ranked choice voting. You know, and uh, Eric
Adams has come out accused them of you know, not
(55:54):
wanting to have a black mayor, but you know, being
antime minorities. But Andrew Yang is is Asian. Anyway, it's
all a mess. We'll see. There's a better way to
end this section. I just not thrilled with any of
these candidates. We could uh end on some. I mean,
Eric Adams is not Yeah, you vote for wherever you
(56:17):
want to. What do you gotta do? Um? He plans
on retiring. We uh retires. He plans on moving to
the Golden Heights. Um, which is interesting when asked. Here's
a fun little quote that I'm just gonna read he's
asked about the best concert he's ever been to, Uh,
(56:38):
Curtis Mayfield at the Windate Concert Series. At that concert,
there was a rainstorm and the lights fell on Curtis
Mayfield and they actually paralyzed him at that concert. He
died a few years ago. But it was an amazing
concert before that happened. Just the favorite concert when oh man,
that's literally like the joke of out how was the play?
(57:01):
Mrs Lincoln Like, yeah, Adams is uh, you know, a
former police chief, police chief commissioner, um, and uh has
has said several problematic things in the past during his
his time is in the public, um, you know, racially
(57:24):
insensitive things. Um. So we'll see, we'll see what happens.
And he's a Republican, which is also you know, it's
wild that he's got such a big, you know, a
strong leg to stand on in this race when everyone
talks about how liberal New York City is. So those
are some things. Yeah, the left is not doing great
in New York right now. We'll see what happens in
(57:47):
the next couple of days. Well, they defunded the police
and then ye, like, I mean, what are you gonna get?
You know what are you gonna do ye? All right?
I think that does it for us today. That's gonna
do it for us here at the Worst Year Ever.
Um you know, in the next week, I suggest each
of you go out and um you know, buy some hexagen.
(58:11):
Just just start buying hexagen. Get as much of it
as you can. Put it under your your attic, in
your basement. Were on these lists, aren't we? Wherever you
keep a lot of dry wood to you know, really,
if you don't have hexagen, go out of oil soaked
rags and dry wood. Keep that, Keep that around the
edges of your of your ceiling, you know, make sure
(58:31):
you block windows with it. Um good stuff. Just be safe, alright, guys,
see you next week. So I tried. Worst Year Ever
(58:53):
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