Pulling Back The Media's Veil of Deceit - In The Tank #487 - In The Tank

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Donald Kendal (00:38):
Welcome to the In The Tank podcast. Don't turn off
the screen. I know Lynea is nothere. You're gonna have to deal
with Donald Kendall for thisweek. Lynea is out recording
with John Stassel or somethingover in New York.
I'm not entirely sure, but wehave got a good show for you.
I've only been gone for a coupleof months, but I swear the world
has gone insane. Suddenly, theleft is burning the most popular

(01:00):
electric vehicles while aRepublican president promotes
them in the front of the WhiteHouse. No, the world did not go
insane. It was driven toinsanity by an incredibly
corrupt media system, a mediasystem that has lied to us about
virtually everything for thepast, I don't even know how
long.
We're gonna cover these topicsand more on episode 487 of the

(01:22):
In The Tank podcast. Yes. That'sright. I said it during the cold

(02:01):
open, but you're gonna have todeal with me this week. Donald
Kendall returning as host of thein the tank podcast only for
this week.
Don't worry. Lanea will be back.I already saw the numbers drop
when, when you guys saw my face,but you're gonna have to bear
with me. We got a lot of goodtopics that we're gonna be
talking about. We're gonna getinto it.
So this is kind of the normalcrew. If you go back to 2024, we

(02:24):
got Jim Lakeley, VP of theHeartland Institute. How are you
doing today, good sir?

Jim Lakely (02:29):
I'm doing just fine. You know, I'm a little I'm a
little, well, I'm not crankyenough yet. So hopefully, well,
we are talking about the mediaand that usually does get me
pretty cranky. So, you know,which is where I need to be for
this show. That's kind of myposition here on that on that
deal.
But, it's nice to have you backin very sharp eyed viewers will

(02:52):
notice, I believe, Donnie, youare wearing the exact same top
that you are in the intro videothat we recorded years ago. It's
pretty funny.

Yeah. And actually, you know, was gonna I
wore this specifically becauseit's got a zipper down. I wanted
to show off my shirt, 10Internet points to anyone that
could figure out the, what thisis referencing. Jim and and
Chris, you could stay quiet.I'll look in the comments for
the winner for that one.
I'll give you one more good lookat it. Anyone understand the
reference? Yes. I don't know.We'll find out.

(03:22):
But, I do see some happycomments in there about me
returning as host. I'm feeling alittle bit under the weather, so
I'm gonna be riding yourpeople's enthusiasm, so keep the
comments coming. Also joiningus, we have Chris Talgo. He is
the editorial director here atthe Heartland Institute and and
apparently losing in the, golffantasy league that he's, in. So

(03:43):
he's in a sour mood.
How are you doing today, Chris?

Chris Talgo (03:46):
Well, Donnie, like you, I'm wearing a really cool
shirt, so I'm gonna show theaudience.

Oh, what is this?

I know, Jim. I know I know that Jim loves this one.
First concert I ever went to.It's great.

Speaker 4 (03:57):
It was great night.

Great. There you go. There you

to go. Probably in, like, to this day, actually,
almost.

Jim Lakely (04:03):
So Yeah.

Yeah. So so, so like I said, Lanea is off
gallivanting in New York City.She is going to be recording
with John Stassel on someclimate change, topics or
something along those lines.Jim, is she gonna be back in
time for the climate realismshow tomorrow? That's the big
question.

Jim Lakely (04:23):
I think not, actually. So, you know, we do
have, at least one specialguest, maybe two special guests
on tomorrow's the ClimateRealism Show. Matthew Wyllicki
will be joining us and perhapseven Steve Malloy. Lanea, yeah,
she's this is actually really,really cool. I mean, John
Staustel reached out to us andwanted to have Lanea featured in

(04:44):
a video he's doing talkingabout, well, we presume
environment and climate topics.
We're not really quite sureexactly what he's gonna be
getting to, but it's it's prettyexciting. He has millions of
fans. All the videos he puts outon these topics get million many
millions of views. So this isfantastic opportunity for Linea
and for the Heartland Institute.And thank you, John Stassel.
I can't wait to see whathappens.

Yeah. Clearly, Linea is well Go ahead.

What can you say? Just real quick. John Stassel,
he's from the town that I amfrom, so that's pretty cool. He
went to the high school I wentto. That's even cooler.
He also was one of the first,I'd just say, like, libertarian
influencers that really kindagot me thinking down this path.
I've read all his books. I usedto watch his show on Fox

(05:28):
Business. And even way back inthe day, he was on 2020, and I
remember that. So John Sussle isa great guy.

Oh, yeah. For sure. He's been a a speaker at
our benefit dinner before.Actually, one of the first this
is a little history lesson here.One of the first interactions
that I ever had with theHeartland Institute was me going
as, like, a high school student,maybe a college student, to a
Heartland Institute event wherethey had John Stassel speaking

(05:56):
about his book, no, they can't,I think it was called.
And, I think Jim yelled at me orsomething because I sat in the
wrong chair, but that's that'sfor the history books to to
decide. But, yeah, we got a lotto talk about. Oh, actually, you
know what? I was gonna say oneother thing is also to kinda
promote our stuff that Linea isdefinitely, in the right mindset
to do an interview like, Jim wasdescribing because she, is the

(06:20):
figurehead of our climaterealism or climate at a glance
videos that we've been puttingout regularly on our YouTube
channel. There is two, threeminute short things on one
specific topic, very easilyconsumable with a beautiful
thumbnail in case you're lookingat our YouTube page.
But those have been very popularand, probably one way or another
kind of led to this opportunitywith John Stassel. So good luck,

(06:43):
Lanea, and, she'll be back nextweek. Don't you worry. But we
got a lot of topics to get into,so let's go. Oh, I see some
comments in the side there.
Wheelman says Atlas shrugged.You are right. 10 fake Internet
points to you, Wheelman. Greatjob. Alright.
So let's get down to businesshere. Tesla vehicles,

(07:03):
dealerships, and chargingstations have been vandalized,
suffering arson attacks, andfaced protests since the
company's CEO, Elon Musk, beganhis work with the Department of
Government Efficiency or Dogeleading to mass layoffs of
federal workers, authoritiessaid. So I am reading from an
ABC News article, which is, anarticle that I found had a very

(07:26):
nice outline of kind of all ofthese arson attacks and
vandalism attacks on on Teslavehicles in the past couple of
months. So I'm just gonna runthrough a handful of these. This
is just me reading from thearticle.
It says the latest suspiciousincident occurred overnight in
Dedham, Massachusetts, wherethree Teslas were vandalized
according to the Dedham PoliceDepartment. Officials said words

(07:49):
have been spray painted on twoTesla Cybertrucks with all four
tires of the trucks and a TeslaModel s being reportedly
damaged. Teslas were alsodamaged in Seattle on Sunday
night where crews had toextinguish a fire involving four
electric vehicles according tothe Seattle Fire Department. Six
Teslas were also vandalized at aTesla dealership in Lynnwood,

(08:11):
Washington on Saturday where oneblack Tesla Cybertruck was
graffiti was swastikas accordingto that police department. A
Tesla charging station in SouthCarolina was targeted on Friday
where an unknown individualspray painted an expletive
directed at president DonaldTrump along with long lived
Ukraine on a group of red paint,on the ground with red paint and

(08:35):
threw homemade Molotov cocktailsat the station according to that
police department.
Similarly, seven Tesla chargingstations sustained heavy fire
related damage in Massachusettson March 3 according to the
Littleton Police Department,that that the officials
determined that the fires weredeliberately set. Shots were

(08:58):
also fired at a Tesla dealershipin Oregon where several bullets
damaged three cars and shatteredwindows on March 6. On March,
second, another Tesla deerdealership was spray painted in
Maryland with no musk waswritten in in red spray paint on
the windows, and anotherincendiary event occurred in

(09:19):
Colorado where a woman wasarrested on February 27 after
police caught her withexplosives at a Tesla dealership
according to Loveland PoliceDepartment. I will note that I
found the listing of all ofthese kind of interesting
because usually with, like,media reporting, you kinda start
with, like, the bigger dealstuff first and then kinda get,

(09:40):
like, less important as you godown. I felt like this got more
important as we went because,yeah, a lady found with
explosives at a Tesladealership, I feel like that's
kind of the lead of the story,not spray painting swastikas,
but what hat?
Whatever. So all of this, youknow, is obviously a pretty sane
and well adjusted response toElon Musk wanting to cut

(10:00):
government waste in a systemthat spends trillions and
trillions of dollars a year.What are your thoughts on on
this spat of, political violenceand, you know, property damage
and all of that, Jim?

Jim Lakely (10:14):
Well, you know, we're part of what we're talking
about here is the media'scoverage and reaction to it.
And, I'm reminded in a phrasethat's uttered, it's not
original to me, but we've saidit a lot on this podcast, the
left's violence is speech andthe right's speech is turned
into violence. Here we have youknow, lefties going absolutely

(10:35):
insane and violent anddestructive, and the media
basically just shrugs orcelebrates it. We Chris, you're
the one who who we don't forceyou to do it. You're the one who
watches CNN and MSNBC on behalfof the program to keep us
informed.
And I know I've seen clips on xof the democrat commentators,

(10:56):
but the the most viral one thatalways goes is what's that guy's
name? Scott something on CNN.It's him versus seven other
lefties, and he and he kickstheir butt every week. But,
know, they're they'redownplaying the violence.
They're or or even celebratingit.
You know, I'm trying to imagineif, say, Trump supporters were,

(11:16):
I don't know, destroying solarinstallations across the country
in protest of,

you

Jim Lakely (11:23):
know, the green agenda or in protest of China,
whatever, for any reasonwhatsoever, how that might be
covered and what might happen tothose people that were
inflicting that criminalviolence not criminal violence,
criminal destruction of propertyand perhaps even violence. I
mean, I'm I'm reminded that, youknow, the the the idiots who did

(11:44):
the j six committee keptreferring to j six as the
equivalent of nine one of nineeleven and Pearl Harbor all
wrapped into one and the worstact, in The United States since
the civil war or maybe or maybethe war of eighteen twelve. Who
knows? But they completelyignored, another pretty
insurrection y incident whenDonald Trump was president when

(12:06):
don't you guys remember duringthe summer of love, I believe it
was, when the White House wasunder attack from a leftist mob.
And dozens of cops, not acouple, dozens of cops were,
assaulted and injured, and, themedia didn't give a crap about
that.
And then they ended up goingacross the street and almost

(12:26):
burning to the ground a historicchurch across the street from
the White House. And that wascelebrated by our media as just
a vigorous expression of speechby people who are righteously
angry. And frankly, you know,I'm just really tired of the the
left being able to get away withthis sort of violence morally.

(12:47):
They more they get away with itmorally in our media. And
frankly, they tend to get awaywith it with no criminal charges
whatsoever.
I mean, how many people in theduring the riots all across the
country during the summer oflove in 2020 actually faced any
criminal charges? What happenedto all those people that set up
Chaz in Seattle? Remember that,Donnie? That was a lot of fun.

(13:08):
Oh, you were the regular host ofthis show.
We make quite a bit of fun ofChaz, the an an autonomous zone
in the city of Seattle. Nothinghappened to those people. And
somebody was actually murderedin that utopian city of Chaz in
Seattle. The the police stationin Portland, I believe it was,
that was attacked by leftistrioters and even set on fire.
That wasn't, described asanything other than, frankly,

(13:30):
righteous anger by people whohave a right, you know, who are
right to to express themselvesin such ways.
But you're right, Donnie. It'squite a weird world we live in
when the same left that wasdemanding that we all get into
electric vehicles andcelebrating Elon Musk as maybe
the greatest entrepreneur andmaybe greatest American, you

(13:51):
know, immigrant to America inhistory is now characterized as
a Yahtzee. I don't want to usethe word. Have enough. Have bad
enough time on this channelgetting demonetized.
I'll just say that. You know,it's it's a weird world. Yeah,
and Republicans celebrating ElonMusk and the Tesla while the

(14:13):
left is now burning trying toburn Teslas and all this stuff.
It's it's crazy. And it's allwhy It it's why because, you
know, as you said, all he'strying to do is use Doge to
identify enormous amount ofwaste, fraud, and abuse in our
federal government, and,apparently, that is a bridge too
far for the American left.

Yeah. We'll get to the Trump's response too.
But, Chris, I'm I'm curious ofyour your thoughts on the spat
of political violence and alsoyour thoughts on, on some people
going out and calling this, youknow, domestic terrorism. I
think Marjorie Taylor Greenementioned that. I think Trump
even made reference to that.
Marjorie Taylor Greene onTwitter posted, quote, these

(14:53):
attacks, which seem to involvecoordinating acts of vandalism,
arson, and other acts ofviolence seriously threaten
public safety. What is yourthoughts on on just this in
general and the idea that it's,like, being labeled by some as
domestic terrorism?

Okay. First couple things. I did watch about forty
five minutes of Anderson Cooperlast night just to see how they
would, you know, frame all thisbecause knew that we'd be
talking about a lot of thisstuff on the, you know, on the
show today. I also even watched,about 15 of Chris Hayes. So I
was kinda flipping back andforth.
I can guarantee you needs araise. No. They did not they did

(15:27):
not mention this one time inthat entire hour. However, what
they did mention was how theeconomy is on the brink of an
all out collapse like we haven'tseen since the Great Depression.
So they were really going overthe top on the economy's about
to crash, and this is allTrump's fault and all that
stuff.
So they're trying to, you know,hype that up while they are

(15:48):
completely ignoring, you know,and and not even mentioning this
stuff. You know, Jim kindatouched upon this at the very
end of his answer, and I thinkthis is really, really, really
important to emphasize andunderscore. Why are they doing
this? It's because Elon Musk isfinally actually going after the
fourth branch of government.Elon Musk is actually going

(16:10):
after the bureaucracy.
He's going after these NGOs.He's going after the swamp. He's
going after the deep state,whatever you wanna call it.
Because what's happened over thepast, you know, fifty, sixty,
seventy, eighty years iscongress passes bills and then
they give all this money and allthis authority to these
departments, to these agencieswho then, you know, use those

(16:34):
funds for NGOs. And it's alljust like a big scam.
It really is. It's just a giantscam. He is finally, you know,
enlightening the American peopleof how deep this goes, how deep
the rot and corruption is inWashington DC and the democrats
because generally speaking, thisis not a partisan thing at all
because Republicans are just asguilty as this as Democrats are.

(16:56):
They want all this spending.They want it because it's not
only gives them, you know, aribbon cover a ribbon cutting
ceremony for some stupid bridgein their district or whatever it
is.
They are they are addicted tothe spending. We do not have a
revenue problem in this country.We have a spending problem. Elon
Musk is finally addressing that,and it's almost like I gotta

(17:17):
pinch myself every single dayseeing, oh my gosh, the
Department of Education's gonnalay up half their workforce.
This is the greatest thing ever.
Of course, CNN, MSNBC, and the,you know, liberal mainstream
media is saying that this isgonna, you know, destroy
education and all this stuff. Weknow that that's not the case.
So I make that abundantly clear.These people are upset and are,

(17:41):
you know, are hyperbolic aboutElon Musk simply because he is
finally, finally, after so long,he is finally getting to the
root of the problem. And that isthis just giant, you know,
overspending, corruption, waste,fraud, abuse that is so rampant

(18:02):
and widespread throughout thisgigantic federal government.
Just one last quick quickstatistic. So, you know, I I do
also watch a lot of Fox Businessbecause I love to see how they
are, you know, talking aboutthis stuff like this terrorist
or anything else and they had areally interesting statistic,
placenta, that just jumped outto me. Nineteen twenty nine, our
federal government's, spendingwas 3% of GDP. What is it today?

(18:23):
Twenty five percent.
What what Doge is trying to dois get it back to about 20%.
That is not that big of a, youknow, of a of a we're not
talking about slashing the gutthe the federal spending to 1%
of GDP. We're talking aboutgoing back to the basically, to
the pre COVID levels. And, also,you know, in the meantime, just

(18:45):
getting rid of a lot of waste,fraud, and abuse. This is just
this is what the American peoplevoted for.
This is what we want. And Ithink that all these, you know,
crazy leftists who are, youknow, going and burning down,
you know, charging stations and,you know, burning, you know,
Tesla vehicles, you know, onthese lots, It's not resonating
with the American people. TheAmerican people are not sure.

Of course.

American people think this is, you know,
atrocious, which it is. So Ithink they are actually just,
you know, their overreaction isshowing how political they are
and how not in line and in tunewith the American people and
what the American people wantfor the future of this country.

Yeah. Just one quick note. I have a comment on
that, but one quick note. Ourproducer Andy says all of our
international viewers areconfused due to the daylight
savings time. I apologize.
It is a weird system that we'vegot over here. And, if it caused
the show to come out seeminglyan hour early, we gotta adjust
our clock. So, that's just theway it's gonna be until about

(19:45):
November when we come back withwhatever. I don't like daylight
savings time, but that's a topicfor a different day. I think
that a lot of this is just likethe media kind of pulling these
extremist types and kind ofradical types just by the nose.
Because, like, some of thethings, and this is what I
pointed out in the introductionof this episode, are just like

(20:07):
patently contradictory. We'relike, we've always talked about
this idea that the the green newdeal. Right? Let's go back to
the green new deal for a minute.The idea that, like, the green
new deal also had to do with,universal health care and job
guarantees and all of thisstuff.
And it's just like like, whywould you spend a penny or a
second dealing with any otherthings other than what you claim

(20:30):
to be as the end of the world,the imminent end of the world
that is climate change? To me,it's just it's just patently
contradictory. It's justincredibly, hypocritical because
if the world's coming to an end,who cares if people have, you
know, good education orwhatever? Save the world first,
then deal with education. And Ifeel like the same thing has,
you know, we could bring that upin regards to this where it's

(20:52):
like, so what what's what's moreimportant that, you know, Elon
Musk cutting waste in thegovernment or, you know, trying
to get everybody to save theplanet by getting a, electric
vehicle.
It seems like it's just whateverthe outrage that the media wants
to conjure up is the mostimportant thing of that month or

(21:12):
week or day or year. And likenow, climate change is and and
dealing with climate change andgetting people on electric
vehicles is just put to the sidewhile we deal with the Yahtzee
that is that is Elon Musk. It'san absolutely insane, but that
is the clown world that we findourselves in.

I gotta make one little correction. It's not the
green new deal. It's the greennew scam.

Oh, there you go. There you go. So now I wanna
talk about the other side of thecoin. So to counter these acts
of violence and propertydestruction targeting Elon,
Donald Trump went out of his wayto support Elon Musk even going
as far as hosting a pro Teslamedia stunt outside the White

(21:54):
House. Donald Trump was joinedby Musk in an assortment of
Tesla vehicles where DonaldTrump picked out one of the more
popular Tesla electric vehiclesto buy, calling Tesla a great
American company.
During this event, Elon evenpledged to double the electric
vehicle production in The UnitedStates. So just think about this

(22:14):
for just one minute. We'resitting in the year 2025.
Liberals are vandalizing andtorching the by far most popular
electric vehicle out there onthe market, making them out to
be Yahtzee cars. Simultaneously,you have a Republican president
doing an advertisement forelectric vehicles outside of the

(22:35):
White House.
I'm not sure what's on your 2025bingo card, but I would not have
predicted this even a year ago.And clearly, the intention of
the media stunt, in front of theWhite House was to make Tesla
EVs more attractive toRepublicans and conservatives
despite the fundamentals of EVsnot changing. They're still very

(22:57):
largely impractical to mostdrivers. They still require far
more rare earth material thantheir gas powered alternatives.
They're still more likely toexplode into uncontrolled fires
and everything else that we talkabout electric vehicles.
But it's just I I I've been gonefor, like, two months. The world
has changed. It's just it's justtoo bizarre to try to keep up

(23:21):
with. Jim, what's your take onall those?

Jim Lakely (23:23):
Well, Donald Trump himself was was making fun of
electric vehicles. And, youknow, his policies early on when
he was when before he waselected, he talked about getting
rid of the it was a cornerstoneof his environment and energy
policy was to get rid of theelectrical veal electric vehicle
mandate, which he has done. Andright from the very beginning,

(23:44):
Elon Musk goes, that's fine withme, because he knows he's the
number one electric EV maker inthe country. He's the only
company that is able to make aprofit on EVs. We on this
podcast, me especially, wouldcriticize Elon Musk, you know,
building his business on thebacks of taxpayers with all the
subsidies and tax breaks that hewas able to get to build that

(24:06):
company.
You know, and as you said,electric vehicles are not for
everyone. But the idea of DonaldTrump and Republicans now
embracing you know, everythingthe world seems it really does
seem flipped upside down becauseliterally a year ago, the same
people burning know, tryingtrying to burn all of the the
Teslas down and attacking Tesladealerships were the same people

(24:29):
that would mandate that you canonly drive an electric vehicle.
And now here you have it.Instead of mandating that
everyone drive them, they'retrying to destroy all of them.

So Yeah. Right. There is somebody

Jim Lakely (24:40):
fit in in a fit of, you know, you know, just
throwing a tantrum.

Right. There there so there are people out
there that right now are, like,simultaneously, like, crying
over the idea of subsidies forelectric vehicles being taken
away while spray painting aswastika on an electric vehicle.
It's just clown world that we'rein, folks.

You know, a couple of things here. So first of all,
I remember right after Trump gotelected and, know, Musk had a
prominent role in the WhiteHouse that people like Sheryl
Crow were, you know, sellingtheir test laws and making such
a big deal about it. So I justthought that was, you know,
funny in and of itself. But Ithink there's a couple things
here. So I don't thinkRepublicans by nature are anti
EVs.

(25:21):
What we're against is thegovernment saying you have to do
this. Fair. If someone, I mean,like, I have I have a couple
friends and they live in thecity and they have EVs and they
say, hey, it works for me andI'm like, okay, that's fine.
It's it's not like I have someantipathy towards EVs in
general. If it's a right fit forsomeone, that's totally fine but
it's when, you know, the Bidenadministration tried to mandate

(25:43):
and also ban the internalcombustion engine.
That's when it's, I think itstarts to become a problem. I
agree with you on the subsidies.I don't like em. They are still
in place. So those aren't goingaway anytime soon as far as I
know.
But you know, it's just sostriking to me how Elon Musk,
who's a brilliant businessman,we all know that, is losing

(26:04):
money. Tesla stock is down waydown. He was asked by Larry
Kudlow on Monday, how are youable to run your businesses
right now while doing this? Andhe basically was like, Larry, I
can't run my businesses. Mybusinesses are struggling big
time.
So this whole narrative that thethat the laughed in the, you
know, mainstream media is sayingthat Elon Musk is really in this

(26:24):
just to make all this money. Itmakes no sense. Right. He's
losing money. He's not in thisto make money.
He's not in this. This is not agrift at all. He's doing this
and he's making huge sacrifices,not only to his, like, you know,
to his persona and his, youknow, reputation, but also to
his businesses. And I think thathe's putting his money where his
mouth is, and we should actuallyreally, you know, look up to him

(26:47):
for doing that. You know?
I mean, I was I'll be brutallyhonest with you guys. I was not
the biggest fan of Elon Muskbefore he made this kinda, you
know, transition and, you know,was more about free speech and
all that. But I do agree withhim on most things. I don't
think he's a hardcorelibertarian. I don't think we
agree with he probably doesn'tagree with me on, you know, 80%
of things.
But I think on, you know, on onsome of the big things like, you

(27:09):
know, government corruption andjust getting this, you know,
spending under control, that issomething that, like, 80% of
Americans agree on. And ElonMusk is doing that. And he's,
you know, a brave person, and hehas a lot of courage for doing
it and sticking with it. Andit's an idea that, like, the
president can't have people likethat in his, you know, in his
orbit is just ridiculous. GeorgeWashington had Benjamin Franklin

(27:31):
in the White House becauseBenjamin Franklin was a very
good businessman and innovatorand an entrepreneur.
And he he he, you know, he couldhelp. So this is not, you know,
like, of the ordinary. This thisis actually quite ordinary.

Right. Right. Yeah. I think that's a good
point about the the idea thatconservatives aren't necessarily
by definition against electricvehicles. It's about, the
government force and subsidizingof that.
I will put a little bit morenuance onto that, just to kind
of counter it a little bit. Butgenerally, I agree with you
that, this whole EV system andinfrastructure is built up with

(28:08):
tons of government spending. Imean, we just talked about the
inflation reduction act and allthe billions of dollars put
towards building chargingstations and all of that. None
of those things are, because ofthe free market. It's all
government interference, thatsort of stuff.
But in principle, I agree withwhat you're saying. Let's move
on. You mentioned the LarryKudlow thing. That's a good

(28:29):
transition to our second topicbecause apparently, Elon Musk
announced on the Larry Kudlow,interview that he wants to
destroy Social Security,Medicare, and Medicaid. So, I'm
reading from an article.
This is from, MSN, MSN website,whatever. It says the headline

(28:51):
is Trump will protectentitlements despite Musk's
elimination talk according tothe White House. The paragraph
the the introduction to theparagraph says president Donald
Trump has been unequivocallyclear regarding his promise to
protect Social Security,Medicare, and Medicaid according
to the White House despite ElonMusk describing entitlement

(29:13):
spending as the big one in termsof cutting and the federal
government. So this is how thearticle is framed, and this is
how much of the mainstream mediacoverage of Elon Musk's remarks
have been framed. Elon Muskwants to eliminate Social
Security, Medicare, andMedicaid.
Of course, this has been echoedthroughout social media, the

(29:35):
left wing talking head circuits.On Twitter. Many people are
sharing a clip of Elon Musksaying, quote, most of the
federal spending is inentitlements. So that's the big
one to eliminate. So that's nota deepfake.
This is a clip from an actualinterview with Larry Kudlow. So
there you have it. Elon Muskwants to eliminate Social

(29:56):
Security, Medicare, Medicaid.Well, turns out not the truth.
And if people read more thanjust misleading headlines and
watched more than just fiveseconds of out of context video,
you would know that the media islying to you.
So we have a video. It's morethan five seconds. It only takes

(30:17):
you about thirty seconds. Solet's go ahead and play this
video that's got just a littlebit more context into Elon
Musk's remarks. Go ahead andplay that video, please.

Speaker 4 (30:26):
Here? Yeah. I think so.

I final report middle of next year?

Speaker 4 (30:33):
Well, we're we're we're just getting things done
as opposed to writing a report.Like I say, reports don't mean
anything. You just you gottaactually take action. Yes. So
the, I mean, the the wastereport in in entitlement
spending, you know, which is allof the which is most of the
federal spending isentitlements.
So that that's that's, like, thebig one to eliminate. You know,

(30:57):
is that that's the sort of halftrillion, maybe
$6,700,000,000,000 a year. Thatthat is also a mechanism.

So, I mean, there you have it. There it goes on a
little bit further to explainsome of the other kind of
implications of the gargantuanentitlement systems that we
have. But he's talking about thewaste report. He's talking about
Doge waste report andidentifying waste spending in
these entitlement programs. Andhe's talking about that's the
big one to eliminate is thewaste, not the program itself,

(31:29):
the waste.
And if people would just lookedfor one second, I mean, I I I'll
I'll say that a lot of peopleare just echoing this point.
Probably just saw the fivesecond clip, just saw the
headlines, and just kind of wentwith it. But there are certainly
people that should know betterthat are propagating this idea
that Elon Musk is saying, yep,nope, we're gonna take a take a
take a, you know, a chainsaw tothese entitlement programs and

(31:53):
get rid of them completely. Itis absolutely not the case. So
Jim, thoughts on the media'shandling of this story seems to

Jim Lakely (32:02):
be par for the course. Well, the media's job is
to parrot, the well, the thediminishing power of the legacy
media is good to see, but theirjob for a long time has been to
parrot Democrat talking pointsand attack any, Republican
anywhere in public, and and doit in this way. I'm actually
reminded of, at the end of,George w Bush when he was

(32:24):
reelected in 02/2004, he had hisfirst press conference, and he
talked about he had a lot ofpolitical capital and he was
going to spend it. And what hewas going to spend it on was
trying to reform social securityto make sure it was solvent for
future generations. And thatlasted one of the ideas he was
just kicking around some ideaswas like partial privatization.

(32:44):
In other words, younger workerscould take a portion of their
social security contributionsand put them into the private
sector in a four zero one ks andeventually kind of wean that
off. That would still sustainthe program going into the
future. That was considereddestroying Social Security, and
so it never went anywhere. Justthink about how much more
stable, even

if

Jim Lakely (33:05):
you included all of the it's not just waste, Donnie.
It's fraud. All of the SocialSecurity fraud, if you even if
you were still included all thatand didn't touch it at all,
which is what Elon Musk istrying to do. If we had moved to
at least partial privatizationfor younger workers, the program
would be very much still solventfor those at retirement age and
almost at retirement age todaybecause that was twenty years

(33:26):
ago. But we didn't make thosekind of make those kinds of, you
know, reasonable reforms becausethe Democratic Party wanted to
attack George W.
Bush and Republicans fordestroying Social Security. And
now here we are today where ElonMusk, with the wonder with the
wonders of new technology of AIand with Doge, has been able to

(33:48):
very quickly identify anenormous amount of fraud in the
Social Security system. Now, didevery was every example of
Social Security fraud thatDonald Trump brought up in his
address to Congress the otherday accurate? You know, was it
investigated to make sure thatthat was actually true? Who
knows?
But the idea that there is nofraud and no waste and no abuse

(34:09):
of the social security system,is robbing it of its solvency
and taking money out of ourpockets. I'm Gen X. I've never
thought for my entire workinglife that I would have social
security there for me when Iretired. And I still actually
don't think it'll be thereunless reforms like this
actually end up coming true. Oneof the things that Doge has
really identified is not justwasteful programs and foolish

(34:34):
spending, But the enormousamount of absolute fraud and
theft that is going on that hasnever been investigated.
It has never been we have nevertried it. He said it in that
clip with with Kudlow. He'slike, you know, another report.
We don't need another report.You know, I'm old enough to
remember when we have reports onhow to balance the budget and
how to do this and anotherreport on that.

(34:55):
And then a blue ribboncommission would come out with
another report on how to how todo this to fix the country. Elon
Musk is right. The time forreports is over. The time for
action is now. And the actionthat needs to happen is that
people who should not be there'sobviously money going out of the
Social Security system to peoplewho don't don't deserve it.
And who are either stealing itor it's finding its way

(35:18):
offshore. Who knows? But ourfederal government has never
once in my lifetime, I'm 54years old, has never once that I
can remember actually tried tofind out if social security
system has any fraud in it atall. We've never even looked.
And so now we're looking andwe're seeing that not only is

(35:38):
the Social Security systemfilled with fraud, but so is
Medicaid and Medicare,obviously.
And so are so many othergovernment programs that are set
up that we can we've talkedabout this on this podcast a few
times and also on the ClimateRealism Show that this whole,
you know, NGO system whereDemocrats are in government and
they're connected to theirpoliticians in Congress And then

(36:01):
they form an NGO outside thegovernment that is funded by the
government. Round and round theygo staffing that NGO to being in
a in a government agency andtaking the money and going
around and everybody gets richexcept you and me. We get poorer
because our tax money is takenaway. And so this I don't think
it's actually going to work, youknow, but part of the you know,
we're leaning into the idea thatthe legacy media is, you know,

(36:23):
be clowning itself as it alwaysdoes. But the larger picture
here is that the people are notlistening to this.
I know Chris watches CNN andMSNBC for us, but their ratings
have never been lower. Thecirculations of the major
newspapers in this country havenever been lower in our
lifetimes. We just learned thisweek that The New York Times has

(36:44):
laid off half of its editorialstaff and more layoffs are to
come. The Washington Post islaying off reporters left and
right. And so these leftistpropagandists can go start their
own substack somewhere that willbe not read by anybody
important.
The American people have theireyes opened and those eyes are
not going be shut again. We seethe world now finally for how it

(37:06):
is. And Elon Musk sees theSocial Security system for what
it is, which is a necessaryprogram for a lot for every
American, but one that is notsustainable in long term because
the amount of fraud and crimeand stealing out of that is that
system that we have.

Yeah. I just don't know how many examples of
this, like, I can take anymoreof, like, the media taking some
little sound bites, removing allof the context, and then
parading that as truth. I mean,the most the most insane example
to this day is, them the theDonald Trump, you know, they're
very fine people comment orwhatever, where they were saying
that the neo Yahtzee is we'regonna get like Yahtzee is gonna

(37:45):
become like the new thing thatthat just is not allowed in
society because of you, Jim,because of this. But but, yeah,
when when you watch the actualclip, he says, no. Except for
those guys, they're the worst.
Like, they should be contemptentirely. You've just cut all of
that out. Just save the veryfine people, and that's the
truth for the rest of the therest of the, you know, time.

(38:08):
But, you know, I I don't know.Like, I get it.
The media, the legacy media,that's not what it used to be,
but, like, it still seems to bewhere all of this stuff kinda
flows through all of these otherchannels that people watch. I
mean, so frequently, a familymember or friend will come to me
and they'll ask me somethinglike, like, in in regards to

(38:28):
this story. Oh, what do youthink about Elon Musk's comments
about eliminating SocialSecurity? So then, you know, the
issue, because I always hear itfrom them first, it's just like
it I know that it's coming froma broken premise. Like, I can't
comment on Elon's commentsbecause I don't trust the media
is accurately relaying thatinformation to you to ask me

(38:48):
about it.
So then it becomes a homeworkassignment where I have to go
and find the truth. Then I haveto like, you know, go back to
them and respond that the wholething was a broken premise. It's
tiring, but it just seems likeold hat for the media. So,
Chris, the media lying aside,what are your thoughts on the
idea of tackling entitlementspending to get government

(39:09):
spending under control? I mean,you've you've told me a million
times that the entitlementprograms are kind of the big
elephant in the room when itcomes to this stuff.

Yeah. A couple of things here. So, I think your
comparison to Charlottesvillewas spot on, and I've heard a
lot of other people make thatsame comparison where they're
just obviously taking it out ofcontext on purpose. I mean, that
that that is intentional. Thatis not just we're trying to,
like,

fit in the Malicious.

Combat. It is. It absolutely is. Okay. So first, I
do wanna comment on that.
Couple other things. Ever sinceI've been following politics,
you know, for the past twentysomething years, the
entitlements have been the thirdrail, the taboo topic. You can't
talk about them. And wheneverthere's a government shutdown or
anything, you know, like that,what do the Democrats know in

(39:55):
the mainstream media always do?This is going to affect your
Social Security payments andMedicare when that's never ever
been the case, will never be thecase because those are on
autopilot.
Those are going to go outwhether there's a government
shutdown or not. So I've seenthis happen again and again.
Okay. Yes. That is, you know,just that is fact.
Now, the entitlement programs,how much of the federal budget

(40:18):
do they encapsulate? 70%. That'sa huge amount. These programs
are completely unsustainable.They were put in place in a time
when, you know, the population,especially the baby boomers,
were able to make up thedifference between the silent
generation.
But now that the baby boomersare retiring, there's not enough
of us to keep the promises thathave been made. And gee, last

(40:42):
time I checked, congress did notput all that money that's
supposed to be in socialsecurity into a trust fund. They
spent it. It's gone. It has beengone for a very long time.
The only way to get out of thissituation is a pro growth
economic agenda. And that isexactly what Donald Trump is
trying to do. The media, ofsaying, you know what? This is

(41:03):
not gonna happen in a day or amonth. It's gonna take, you
know, a couple of years probablybecause if, you know, companies
are gonna rebuild factorieshere, they can't just do that in
a week.
It's gonna take a long time. Sothat's what this is about. This
is about a pro growth economicagenda that Donald Trump is
trying to embark upon becausethe only way that we can solve
this problem is to have anexplosion of economic growth.

(41:26):
We've been, you know, in this 1%growth model for a very long
time. If we do, you know,actually pass the, Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act extension, thederegulation goes through, drill
by be drill and all this stuff,we will, I strongly believe, get
back to 3%, maybe even four or5% economic growth.
That would make all of thesethings moot because economic

(41:49):
growth is the only way to solvethese problems. We cannot cut
our way. We have to grow ourway. Elon Musk knows that, most
economists know that. So, youknow, it's like, it's just so
disingenuous when they're sayingthat he's trying to cut, you
know, social security paymentsto, you know, like the little
old lady who, you know, surviveson social security.

(42:11):
It's not true. What he's tryingto do, as Jim said earlier and
has been, you know, said many,many, many times across the
mainstream media, These programsare rife with fraud. Even the
New York Times, I just, I wasquoted on this for the
healthcare news article a coupleweeks ago. Even the New York
Times admits that there's500,000,000,000 in annual fraud

(42:31):
in Medicaid. I pointed that outand I got a email from someone
of course saying, well, you justwanna take away Medicaid and and
you don't wanna deny healthcareto people.
No, actually I don't. No, notone bit at all. But I read
stories all the time aboutrampant fraud, about, you know,
double billing, about, you know,just so much stuff going on

(42:52):
because it's, you know, there'sno incentive in place to check
that this is on the up and up.And what, you know, Elon Musk is
trying to do is basically tryingto audit these programs, just
like he's also trying to auditthe Department of Defense and
the Department of Education andall these other departments. But
these these departments andthese programs have been

(43:12):
operating without any sort ofaccountability for so long that
when it actually finally comestime to, you know, implant that
accountability, there are peoplewho are going to, you know, pull
their hair out and you know,then smoke's gonna come out of
their ears.
I say, let that happen. Let thathappen. American people are
gonna realize, wait a second, mybenefits are not being cut. And,

(43:34):
you know, the only once again,the only way we can actually
solve this problem is a progrowth economic agenda, and
that's what Donald Trump istrying to do. And the media,
instead of actually just givinghim, you know, a little bit of
time, fifty days into hispresidency, they're already
saying the economy's beencrashing, Trump recession, all
this stuff.
But you know what's so funny?For years, for two or two, maybe

(43:59):
three years, when Biden'seconomy was a complete and utter
mess and inflation was throughthe roof, what was the what was
the, media's what were the mediasaying, and what were the
Democrats and the leftists allsaying? Oh, well, first of all,
it's not. You know, the firsttime that they tried to gaslight
us, then they were saying, oh,it's only transitory. And then
they're saying, well, it wasn'teven Donald it wasn't even,
Biden's fault in the firstplace.

(44:19):
So just think of the the thedichotomy, the contrast between
how the left gives the mean, Ihate to make this so political,
but I feel like we like, it ispolitical at this point in time.
And I hate I'm not trying to belike a partisan person because
I'm not saying that all thedemocrats are, you know, for
wasteful spending and all therepublicans aren't. That's not
true, obviously. But generallyspeaking, the democrats and

(44:41):
Chuck Schumer is is, you know,doing this right now with this
stop gap spending bill saying,we're gonna we're gonna hold it
up because we do not want this,you know, the CR to go through,
and we do not want these, youknow, tax cuts to be extended.
And that's a very bad state ofaffairs.
You would think at this point intime that the Democrats would

(45:01):
say, you know what, we wanna dowhat's good for the American
people. What's good for theAmerican people is to put these
programs back on a sustainable,you know, trajectory. In order
to do that, of course, you needto cut the waste, fraud, and
abuse which we all know iswidespread throughout these
programs but you also need tostop the fear mongering and I
don't just, you know, I I hopeI'm not, you know, blabbering
here, but this I I see such a acomparison and parallel between

(45:25):
the fear mongering they do onentitlement programs, the fear
mongering they do on climatechange, and the fear mongering
they do on COVID, and all thefear mongering. That's what it
is. It's trying to scare theAmerican people.
I think the American people aresmarter than that. I think that
they have seen through this andyou can't just keep crying wolf
again. You just can't. At acertain point, people say, you
know what? We've heard thisbefore.

(45:46):
You have already, you know,played that card and they're
just not buying it. I think thatthat is making them more nuts.

Right. Yeah. It's just I think, it's hard for me
to compare, just because thishas been, like, the reality of
the last eight to ten years,however long Donald Trump's been
in kind of the politicalspotlight. But, like, that's
just the political rhetoric.It's just gotten so lazy where
it's just people have just heldup Donald Trump as the political
north star that we align withhim completely or we align

(46:16):
against him completely.
And if they say they're gonnacut $1 in waste when it or or
fraud when it comes to SocialSecurity or entitlement
programs, that's that just meanshe wants to get rid of all of
it. When you can go back notthat far, Jim was talking about
this with me just the other daywhere you could find clips from
02/2008 where Bernie Sandersand, like, Nancy Pelosi are

(46:37):
talking about how there's a lotof fraud and waste in Social
Security that needs to be dealtwith. So we're all of a sudden
there MAGA before? Were theyMAGA back in 02/2008? Like, it's
just so ridiculous that youcould literally you could
literally read a Bernie Sandersquote from 02/2008 right now and
be accused of being some rightwing extremist.
Like, that's how lazy everythinghas gotten. This is the clown

(47:00):
world that we find ourselves in,and this is how ridiculous the
media system has become. Jim,I'm gonna give you first swing
on this next topic because thisis a topic that you suggested
while we were coming up withideas for the show. And
originally, I didn't reallywanna do this topic, the topic
of COVID five year anniversary.But then I found this pretty

(47:21):
interesting article from TheFederalist that I thought would
make a pretty good jumping offpoint, for this conversation.
So the article is from TheFederalist is titled COVID
taught Americans to stoptrusting a government that puts
them last. So it's a really goodarticle. You should go check it
out. But generally, it talksabout the double standards that
were in place for average peopleand the politically connected.

(47:43):
People banned from going tochurch while joy George Floyd
protesters were beingencouraged.
Children getting their educationstolen from them while Nancy
Pelosi got special treatment atan at a hair salon. Everything
when it came to COVID divideddown political lines eventually
with the media carrying waterwhenever possible for the left
side of things. You're hesitantabout taking the vaccine while

(48:05):
you're killing grandma. Youthink this originated in a
Chinese lab? You're a racistconspiracy theorist.
You point out the hypocrisy ofpeople being treated different.
You're a right wing extremist.So five years since COVID
lockdowns, I think the mostlasting effect of all of this,
five years later, is thecomplete and utter severing of

(48:26):
trust in the media and otherinstitutions from many
Americans. Jim, what's yourthoughts on this?

Jim Lakely (48:33):
Oh god, I mean, yeah, I'm gonna get triggered
here again just because COVIDdoes tend to drive me a little
bit crazy, you know, but yeah,it's the I I mentioned it's the
five year anniversary. I thinkit was March 11. There was an
NBA game. I know Andy Singh, ourproducer's big NBA fan. I
believe it was a Utah Jazz.
Rudy Gobert was the the firstNBA player to be diagnosed with

(48:55):
as positive for COVID, And thenall hell broke loose. They
canceled the game, I think, inthe middle of the game, and
then, suddenly, universities andsports sporting events were
being canceled all over theplace. And it was just it was
just really weird. The NCAAtournament was going on. I think
they played one day worth ofgames and realized, you know,

(49:15):
people sweating and breathing ineach other's faces when we're
telling everybody that there'sthis new disease that will kill
everyone.
It's probably not a good idea.And then we were told, hey,
guys, just two weeks to stop thespread. Let's all do our part.
Let's all pitch in. And I did soand everybody around the world
did so.
And but we were lied to from thevery beginning. And really, I

(49:38):
think COVID I was already kindof, well, just constitutionally,
I'm very skeptical of governmentand distrusting of government
and authority anyway. I mean,that's why I'm a conservative or
a libertarian, however you wantto label me. But COVID really
exposed the utter corruption andfrankly evilness of governments
in the West that we thought, youknow, we couldn't get that bad.

(50:02):
And I remember on this podcasttelling you and Justin and Chris
that I really didn't think thatit was going to last very long
and by last I mean the lockdownsand all the restrictions on our
liberties.
I thought the American peoplewere not going to stand for that
and boy was I disappointed andboy was everybody disappointed
because we did accept basicallyliving in a totalitarian state

(50:26):
for a long, long time. And, youknow, COVID was the totalitarian
model. It was the test case. TheWestern governments use China as
the example, not as something,you know, not as a cautionary
tale, but as an example of howthey needed to run societies.
And everything they told usabout COVID turned out to be

(50:48):
false, either intentionallyfalse because they were lying to
us to control us or I would notI'm not even going give the
benefit of doubt.
There were no mistakes. Okay,there were no mistakes. It was
all intentional lying,gaslighting and totalitarian
control over the people. See howfar and how how far they could
push it, how much they could getaway with. Were the American

(51:09):
people really going to wavegoodbye to their grandma through
a window at the old age old agehome because you're not allowed
to be in there and hold her handas she passes?
Are they really not going toallow people to have proper
funerals for those loved onesthat were were left to die
alone? The answers to both thosequestions were yes, we lived
through that. That is what wehad to endure. Thank goodness

(51:30):
nobody actually in my family hadpassed away or gotten sick or
was in the hospital during thattime. But, you know, we still
had to remember the arrows onthe ground.
You could only walk this waydown this aisle in the grocery
store. And if you saw somethingand you missed it, you can't go
back because, oh my gosh, mybreathe on somebody. All the
mask nonsense, all theseparation nonsense, it was all

(51:54):
arbitrary. None of it was real.And the topper of all of that,
of course, is that anybody whojust entertained something
outside the government line onthe cause of COVID, the origins
of COVID, the dangers of COVID,anything of the government under
Joe Biden shut you down,silenced you, tried to get you

(52:17):
canceled.
I remember being on on what wasthen called Twitter, and I was
accused by people of wanting tomurder people because I wasn't
taking COVID seriously enough.And so, yeah, I think it's the
five year anniversary. I

think a lot

Jim Lakely (52:33):
of us just kind of don't want to remember how
traumatic and terrible the COVIDregime that was put in place in
this country and in governmentsall over the West. We just want
to forget it happened. It isreally it's easier to not
remember than it is to remember.And I think we should always
remember what our government iscapable of, even on this level,

(52:55):
even in The United States, andthat it could and could get a
lot worse, a lot worse thanthat. And just one last, you
know, everybody's got their ownCOVID stories.
You know, mine is that I had togo on an international trip. I
had to get the vaccine and abooster in order to leave the
country. And then before I couldcome home, I had to take a COVID

(53:17):
test on camera with a governmentbureaucrat, and I had to remain
on camera so they didn't so thatI didn't cheat on the test. And
I had to sit there with thatperson for fifteen minutes
waiting for my test results. Andthen we opened them up together
and I showed it on screen.
If that was an error, if therewas an if that was a bad test,
if there was some mistake in itand it said I was positive, too

(53:40):
bad. I would have had to stay inthat outside of my own country
for another week at my ownexpense. And this is that's just
one little example of how insanethe world got over COVID, and we
must not forget it. We have toremember it. You may not want to
get this triggered as I do.
And a lot of it is quite silly,but a lot of it is very serious

(54:00):
because we cannot go throughthat again because I don't think
if the government is able to doall of that again, I don't think
they're going to give it up everagain and we will live in a
complete totalitarian state.

Yeah, Chris, I mean, think like just kind of
anecdotally, think that therewas a lot of people around me,
whether it's friends or family,kind of getting like red pilled
during the whole lockdown thingor the way the media was
treating, everything, the waythat they're reporting on
everything. I rememberspecifically, if we're gonna go
through these these kind ofstories or whatever.

Well, that I remember one. Can I just go in a
completely different directionhere?

Well, I'm gonna let you go in a different
direction.

Because I've got I've got something that I really
wanna get off my chest aboutthis.

Absolutely. That's totally fine. But I
remember that there was, like,one moment where there was this
glimmer of hope in the heart ofthe lockdowns where there was
like, oh, this there might bethis this thing that's effective
for treating COVID. It's called,I forget what it even called.
Evermectin.

Jim Lakely (54:55):
Oh, don't say it. Oh, jeez.

Oh, no. No. No. Sorry, guys. Yeah.
So so it was like that. I waslike, oh, great. Like, that's
fantastic. Some low cost thingthat's already out there.

Jim Lakely (55:05):
We can

start treating people with it. It was like
before anyone could even, like,decide whether or not it was
truly effective, the media camedown like a hammer on anyone
that would even suggest agree

with you. Okay. But why did they do that? But why?
You know why?
This goes back to 2016. It wasall because of Donald Trump. And
I'm not trying to say thatDonald Trump is this, like,
infallible figure. He's a veryflawed man. But you know what he
may is so different from DonaldTrump in all the years that I've
studied American history andespecially since I've been
engaging in this world.
He's an outsider. He's not apolitician, and he says it like

(55:37):
it is. And I think that in 2016,when the left just assumed that,
of course, Hillary Clinton'sgonna take over for Barack Obama
and the transformation ofAmerica is just gonna keep going
forward. And it was such a, youknow, like a seismic blow to
them that let's let's think backfor a second. Twenty seventeen,
twenty eighteen, twentynineteen, all they tried to do

(55:58):
was, you know, was, you know,get rid of him.
And then in 2020, or I shouldsay late twenty nineteen, it was
November 2019, when this stuffstarted happening in China, what
did they do? They realized, oh,here's here. This is how we can
do it. So what did they do? Andby me, by they, I mean, you
know, Fauci and the mainstreammedia and big pharma and just,

(56:18):
you know, the usual suspects.
They tried to make it seem as ifDonald Trump is personally
responsible for COVID nineteen,which is just ridiculous on its
face. Okay? So they tried to useit as a cudgel to get rid of
him. They knew they knew, and II will go to my death believing
this, that Fauci and Birx andall those people knew that it

(56:39):
was not nearly as contagious orwell, I shouldn't say contagious
because it was contagious, butnot especially from child to
adults. So the whole schoolthing was a total joke.
And they knew that early on. Weknow that. But it was not nearly
as deadly. We know that. Andwhat did they do?
They went out of their way tomake it appear as bad as
possible. So I I rememberwriting about this stuff because

(56:59):
I was just in I was in totalshock when I was watching this
happening in real time. Wow.Someone died of a car someone
died in a car accident, but theyhad COVID. So now they're
narrowed their COVID death.
Like, that doesn't make anysense. So what they try to do is
they try to manipulate. They tryto spin and skew all of it. So
it looked like it was as bad aspossible thinking now we can get
rid of this guy. And you knowanother well, and it it kinda

(57:20):
worked unfortunately.
Unfortunately, it did. But youknow what? Another thing. So
Jim, Donnie and I, you know, weexperienced COVID in Illinois.
Illinois was terrible.
Blue state, it made it asdifficult as possible. My
brother at the time was livingin Georgia. Totally different.
Georgia actually was ahead ofthe curve. They were even above
Florida and saying, no.

(57:41):
We're not doing any of thisstuff. I went down to visit my
brother. I wanna say MemorialDay weekend of 2021, maybe 2020.
And it was like, I entered likea different universe down there.
It was like, people don't wearmasks everywhere and you can
actually, like, like, like, gointo store.

(58:02):
Like, this is just blowing mymind right now. So I think that
we, us three might have beenjust a little bit biased or not
shouldn't say biased, but, youknow, like, we were you know, we
see it through the prism of theIllinois model, but that was not
the case in all the states. Youknow? So I

just Imagine if we were living in Australia.

Well, yeah. New Zealand for that matter or even
in Europe or in Germany where itwas, you know, 10 times worse.
Yeah, exactly. So I do wanna,you know, put that out there.
And, you know, as a formerteacher, I pay very close
attention, nation's report card.
And just so you know, it's likestatistics like coming out. And

(58:41):
when I see that at the mostrecent nation's report card that
our eighth graders areproficient at reading at a
twenty eight percent rate andmath is I think thirty one
percent. That is really reallysad. And you know what? I'm not
saying that it was totally dueto COVID, but without a doubt,
without a doubt, I mean, I was ateacher, I know how this stuff

(59:04):
works.
If you tell kids don't come tothe classroom for a year and a
half to two years, they're gonnathey're they're gonna go
backwards. They're gonna gobackwards big time. Not only
intellectually in terms of mathand science and history and all
that stuff but also socially andyou know, I mean, I, this is
anecdotal. This is, you know,this but I have seen a lot of
studies, you know, that showthis but this is just my little

(59:25):
anecdotal, you know, world. Isee kids now who are 15, 16, 17
years old.
They're not as normal as I wouldexpect them to be in terms of,
you know, interacting withpeople, in terms of looking at
me in the eye when I'm speakingto them, like that kind of
stuff. I cannot help but wonderif locking them in their rooms

(59:45):
for a year to a year and a half,ruining, you know, one of the
best times of their life,whether it's going to prom or
what whatever it is, graduation.I mean, that stuff matters. I
remember that stuff in my life,and it was a great time in my
life to just say, no, you don'tget that because of because we
have some political, you know,aim that we are trying to
achieve and using them as pawns,that to me is just beyond the

(01:00:09):
pale. So, that's why I'm I Iview these people in a very
negative light.
I view them literally and youknow, I don't use this word
lightly, evil. Doctor Fauci,evil. Totally evil. Because they
were sorry. Go ahead.

Jim Lakely (01:00:22):
No. No. I'm just gonna yeah. And you're right.
And the upshot of this, the onlyreally good outcome of all of
this is the absolute destructionof the trust of institutions in
this country that never earnedthem in the first place, and
we're just kind of using them,and you abuse that authority,
the whole public healthauthorities.
Who's who who can trust themagain?

Donald Kendal (01:00:39):
Yeah. That's what I was gonna say. Like, generally
speaking, people didn't have anopinion. Your average person
didn't have an opinion on theWorld Health The average person
didn't have an opinion on theNational Institute of Health.
The average person didn't evenknow who Anthony Fauci was.
You know? But, like, all of thisjust, you know, it just tore
down the the the the thegeneral, like, perceived

(01:01:01):
integrity of these institutionsjust tore it down. So

Chris Talgo (01:01:05):
Yeah. It did. It did. And you know what? I mean,
I almost feel like I was kindaguilty of that.
Like, you know, before this, Ijust generally trusted FBI. They
generally do the right thing.Yeah. They're not perfect, but
generally, like, f FDA, yeah,generally, they do the right
thing. They're looking out for,like, you know, my best
interest.
Wow. Has that changed?Especially when I saw what they
did with the definition of avaccine and how they gave these

(01:01:28):
vaccine makers who rememberthis, it's not a vaccine. It
never was and never is. Blanketimmunity.
What is that about? Right. Sothe media to take it, and then
you say, if something badhappens to you, which we know
bad things did happen, you know,heart conditions and all that
kind of stuff, we know that thatdid happen saying, well, you
have no recourse. Like, whatwhat is that about?

Yeah. No. Thanks to you for bringing up the
education stuff too becausethat's also like a very long
lasting effect that might havegenerational impacts too. So,
yeah, I definitely can't forgetabout that. We're at an hour
mark, but we gotta get to ourlast topic here.
This is, this is a prettyimportant one. So JPMorgan Chase
has agreed to update their codeof conduct to protect against

(01:02:11):
religious and politicaldiscrimination in what activists
are calling a major win in thefight against debanking. So
political debanking is an issuethat we've talked about for a
while. I know that we've done afew episodes of this show
talking about it specifically.This was an issue that we, took
on here at the HeartlandInstitute after we got really
involved in the, you know,combating ESG.

(01:02:33):
Banks refusing services topeople based on their political
beliefs or to protect from, to,you know, to to protect their
ESG rankings, that sort ofthing. So with a republican
controlled White House andcongress, we were really trying
to increase the pressure to thatyou know, for policymakers to do
something about this issue. SoJustin Haskins, who you've, you

(01:02:56):
know, seen on the show shortly,has been flooding the zone with
op eds and notable publicationsabout this issue. In just the
last month, he had a piece intown hall titled a new bill
would crush banks thatdiscriminate against
conservatives and Christians. Inthe federalists, he had an
article titled fair access billwould finally stop activist
banks from discriminatingagainst conservatives.

(01:03:19):
And in the blaze, he had apiece, titled mister president
stop woke banks from targetingconservatives and Christians.
Well, it turns out we didn'thave to wait for legislative
action. JPMorgan Chase wentahead and amended their code of
conduct to introduce languagethat would stop the banking
giant from debanking peoplebased on their political
beliefs. So consideringJPMorgan's role in the larger

(01:03:43):
banking sector, this is a bigwin. The group Alliance
Defending Freedom, who has beenreally at the forefront of this
particular issue, put out apress release in light of
JPMorgan Chase's announcementsaying in part, quote, this is a
major victory for free freespeech and religious freedom in
the marketplace.

(01:04:04):
So, you know, we'll just gothrough this real quick because
we're already over an hour. Butthis is a a great thing. This is
something that we've beenwanting to happen. The idea that
these banks would kind of takethis action by themselves
without, you know, governmentmandates is a fantastic thing.
So let's just take one second tocelebrate.

(01:04:24):
Woohoo. Alright, but back toreality. This there's a little
bit of a, what's the opposite ofa silver lining of a dark cloud?
Because there's an opposite.We've got a nice we got a nice
sunshine, but there's a littleglimpse of something bad, which
is the question of whether ornot this kind of takes the
pressure off of kind ofcodifying this into law.

(01:04:47):
So now is there pressure forlawmakers or the president to
mandate this and do, like, somesort of fair access type thing
that would prevent banks fromdoing this in the future?
Because it seems like thepressure is off. These banks
have already doing it. Butwhat's stopping these banks from
undoing this code of conductswitch when, you know, the next
president takes over or, youknow, people with d's in front

(01:05:10):
of their name take over congressor something along those lines.
So I don't wanna just like,alright.
Great. We're done. Let's stick aflag in this and move on to the
next topic because I feel likethe progress that we've made on
this issue could easily bewalked back in just a few short
years. Jim, what are yourthoughts on this one?

Well, we have talked about the debanking and it's all
tied in with ESG and and it'stied in with, you know, so
called social credit scores andall of that stuff, you know,
that they have in China and thatwas kind of slow walked or
softly imposed in the West. Isaw today that I think the Trump

(01:05:48):
organization, so not thepresident himself, but his
company sued who is it? Theythey sued Capital One Bank over
the them being debanked. Youknow, this is this is really
evil. And yes, you are right.
There needs to be a law passedthat bans what should be upheld

(01:06:10):
in courts. But there ought to bea law just to make it easier
because it's expensive anddifficult if an ordinary person
is debanked because of theirpolitical views. A friend of
ours and who's been on the show,the Climate Realism Show, us,
Jason Isaac. This is similar tothis. Jason Isaacs, he's head of
the American Energy Institute.

(01:06:32):
Formerly he was with the TexasPublic Policy Foundation. And
his insurance company, TheHartford, canceled him. They
said we cannot insure theAmerican Energy Institute, which
is a nonprofit organization,because you guys advocate for
the drilling and use of fossilfuels, which we cannot support

(01:06:53):
as a company. And it's part ofour DEI and ESG and all the
other stuff that we do here inthis company that has nothing to
do with making money orproviding services, but has to
do with a political agendabecause you do not align with
that. Jason Isaac, you are out.
You What? Correct. And so we'llsee if The Hartford, which I

(01:07:16):
believe actually well, I I thinkI've had some dealings with The
Hartford. Let's just say that.So I might be getting a phone
call or a letter pretty soon.
But this is all of the samething, Donnie, that there are
companies that are puttingpolitics and canceling people,
canceling insurance, debankingthem. One of Trump's lawyers,

(01:07:38):
John Eastman, was debunked andtried and disbarred and
destroyed. The American BarAssociation tried to make it so
that any attorney who everrepresented any Trump affiliate
or official or somebody adjacentto Trump would be harassed and
and, you know, to the to the endof their life and disbarred and

(01:08:00):
all this sort of stuff. So thisit's debanking is part of the
weaponization of both theprivate sector and government
against perceived politicalenemies. We are seeing that
there is a cost to that on theleft now, too.
And hopefully there will be atruce on this sort of thing. And

(01:08:23):
it cannot happen in America thatyou are quote unquote debanked
or uninsured or or run out ofyour profession and not allowed
to hold, say, a medical license.They did that. They were trying
to go after the medical license.Gosh, all these things come back
to your head during COVID of JayBhattacharya.
They tried to get him hismedical license revoked. I mean,
these are the sorts of thingsthat when the left thought they

(01:08:44):
would be in control forever,we're happily engaging in. And
now they are starting to seethat the the tables have turned,
that these are actually not goodideas and that Americans in a
free country like America shouldnot even think about abusing
their power, be it public orprivate, in such ways.
Hopefully, we can go back toliving like that, which is how

(01:09:05):
we've lived our lives and runour society for hundreds for
more than two hundred years.

Yep. Yep. Yep. It's it's insane. Yeah.
And you're right. It's like asI'm, like, thinking about this
stuff, all of these memoriesthat we've been covering this
for, like, you know, a couple ofyears now. It's just like, oh,
yeah. This this happened andthat happened too. It just comes
comes kinda pouring back.
But, Chris, I'm gonna give youfinal thoughts on this topic or
any topic that we talked abouton this this episode before we

(01:09:33):
wrap up the show?

Well, as much I would love to talk about the up
and smoke tour in February, I'mgonna put that for another day,
and I'm gonna talk about thisbecause this matters a lot. And
I take what Jamie Dimon said,the head of JPMorgan Chase, with
a boulder of salt. Because Idon't think he really means it.
I think he's only doing thisbecause Donald Trump won the
election, and it looks likethere's been a sea change, you

(01:09:57):
know, not only in, the thepolitical landscape, but also in
the cultural landscape. So Ithink he's just looking at the
political wins and saying, okay,better do this because that's
gonna be good for business.
I don't think this is aprincipled stand on behalf of
Jamie Dimon whatsoever. I thinkJamie Dimon is totally, totally,
you know, doing this forpolitical reasons. I also think

(01:10:19):
it was stupid in the first placebecause why would Jamie Dimon
and Bank of America and allthese other, you know, city
whomever, you know, Wells Fargo,why would they want to restrict
their clientele? It just doesn'tmake sense. But then you think,
oh, well they did it becausethey wanted to, you know, stay
in good with the Bidenadministration and all the ESG
stuff and all the crony stuffthat was going on there.

(01:10:41):
So I don't think that this isenough. I saw and I think I
posted it in our little Slackthread that Tim Scott, one of my
favorite senators had proposed abill that would actually codify
this into law and I think that'sgreat. Here's what I think would
apply mostly to reputationalrisks. So it'd be like firearms
dealers and stuff like that. ButI think every single person in

(01:11:03):
The United States, you know, hasa right to have a, you know,
financial service provider.
Now, I'm not saying thatJPMorgan Chase has an obligation
to offer services to everysingle American, but I don't
think that it's okay for them tosay, well, we're just not gonna
we're not gonna work with youbecause we just don't like what
you say, what you do, or whatyou believe in. That's what I

(01:11:23):
think this is truly about. Youknow, and I've been, you know,
I'm kind of a hypocrite on this.I do have accounts at Chase and
I do have accounts at Bank ofAmerica and the reason why is
because of convenience. Theyhave lots of ATMs.
It's easy for me to move fundsand just do all that kind of
stuff. But at the same time,Donnie, I think I told you like
years ago when I was like, hey,my Bank of America, they're like

(01:11:43):
giving me this thing called anESG score and they're kind of
telling me like, hey, we wantyou to invest more in this kind
of stuff. And that definitelyrubbed me the wrong way. Now I
have, you know, with BofA and Istill have an account with, you
know, Chase. However, I'm notchanging my investments one iota
that can, you know, make me dothat.
But I do think that this issomething that is not an

(01:12:04):
institutional change, it's notpermanent. It's basically they
are trying to, you know, stay onthe good side of, you know, the
the new administration and theyknow that the new administration
does not look kindly upon banksthat discriminate against people
based on their political viewsor whatever else. So, yeah, I
mean, I think this is a it's agood step, but by no means

(01:12:24):
should we be, you know,celebrating the streets yet. I
think we gotta get this codifiedinto law, and, you know, that's
what I think is the realsolution here.

Yeah. You know what's the craziest thing? And
this kinda goes back to thefirst topic that we were talking
about. Is that, like, this, youknow, potential legislative
solutions to this idea of, youknow, these banks discriminating
against people based on theirpolitical beliefs pretty much
divides down ideological linesor, you know, left versus right
lines where you have the leftdefending banks, with their

(01:12:55):
right to discriminate againstpeople. This is the world that
we live in now, folks.

Well, let's also let's also remember that, you
know, in in in in the the the,February when the big banks
were, you know, not exactlybehaving, you know, perfectly,
although I don't blame themsolely, what happened? They got
bailed out and Barack Obama andTim Geithner, you know, two
people who I am not a big fan ofthese days, they basically
empowered them like neverbefore. And this whole notion of

(01:13:22):
too big to fail. I mean, I thinkthat's really, you know, like
the the genesis of a lot ofthis, you know, bad stuff where
Bank of America and, you know,Chase and Citi and Wells Fargo
have way too much market share.They're way too big for their
own bridges.
I would love to see, you know, amore decentralized banking
system. I just don't know ifthat's gonna happen in the
foreseeable future, but thatwould be, that would be my my

(01:13:45):
dream.

Yep. Well, stay tuned because these are topics
that, we will continue to talkabout on the Inletank podcast
with your regular host, LeneaLucan, who will be joining the
show back next week. So you'llbe able to look at her instead
of me, which is a net positivefor the intake podcast for sure.
Let me let me see if I could dothis outro because I haven't
done it in a couple of months,but I wanna thank everyone for

(01:14:07):
joining the show, every Thursdayat noon central time where we
are live streaming on Facebookand YouTube and Rumble and X.
Join the conversation.
Throw your comments andquestions in the chat. Maybe
we'll show your comments in thescreen. Maybe we'll address your
questions on the fly. You cannotsupport us monetarily on YouTube
through Super Chats becausewe've been demonetized, but you
can still go toheartland.org/inthetank and

(01:14:30):
donate directly that way. Andthat way, YouTube doesn't take a
25, 30 percent cut or anythinglike that.
If you are listening to theaudio only version, leave a
review on iTunes. That would begreatly appreciated. You can
consider joining us live onThursdays at noon central time
like I said. And if you arewatching us live, you could help
out the show not by spending adollar, but by spending a couple

(01:14:53):
of seconds hitting that likebutton, sharing this content,
subscribing if you haven'talready, or just leaving a
comment under the video, allthose things help break through
those big tech algorithms thatprevent content like this from
being shown to more people. Ifyou have any comments or
questions for the show, feelfree to email us at
inthetankpodcast@gmail.com, andfeel free to follow us on x at

(01:15:14):
in the tank pod.
Jim Lakeley, where can the finepeople find you?

At j Lakeley on x at heartland inst on x, and always
visit heartland.org.

Fantastic. Chris Talgo, what do you have to pitch
today?

I'm gonna pitch the country because I just wanna
make this just abundantly clear.I've been watching this stuff
for twenty five years now and,you know, I've never been more
optimistic. I've never been, youknow, more, you know, positive.
I've never been, you know, moreproud. And, you know, they're
gonna be this is not gonna beperfect.
They're gonna be some, you know,hiccups along the way, but

(01:15:48):
America's back on the rightpath, and that just makes me so
proud.

Fantastic. And, for everyone that wants to, make
sure you tune in to the ClimateRealism Show, which will be
taking place on all of thesesame channels tomorrow, Fridays
at noon central time. Thank youall for tuning in, and we will
talk to you next week.

All Episodes

Pulling Back The Media's Veil of Deceit - In The Tank #487

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

Dateline NBC

24/7 News: The Latest

Therapy Gecko

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Pulling Back The Media's Veil of Deceit - In The Tank #487