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- [00:00]
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do@mintmobile.com.
- [00:18]
Andy Levy
Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month Required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra.
- [00:28]
Paige DeSorbo
See full terms@mintmobile.com this is Paige, the co host of Giggly Squad. I use Uber Eats for everything and I feel like people forget that you can truly order anything, especially living in New York City. It's why I love it. You can get Chinese food at any time of night, but it's not just for food. I order from CVS all the time. I'm always ordering from the grocery store. If a friend stops over, I have to order champagne. I also have this thing that whenever I travel, if I'm ever in a hotel room, I never feel like I'm missing something because I'll just. Just Uber eats it. The amount of times I've had to Uber eats hair items like hairspray, deodorant, you name it, I've ordered it on Uber Eats. You can get grocery alcohol everyday essentials in addition to restaurants and food you love. So in other words, get almost anything with Ubereats. Order now for alcohol. You must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.
- [01:33]
Andy Levy
Hey everyone. Welcome to a brand spanking new episode of as the World Churns. I'm Andy Levy. I'm here, as always, with Danielle Moody. And today we're going to talk about tacos.
- [01:47]
Danielle Moody
They're delicious.
- [01:48]
Andy Levy
They are delicious. And in particular, a lot of people seem to like chicken tacos. And we've now got a new thing that's going around Wall street where taco is being used as an acronym for Trump always chickens out. And apparently this is being used every time Trump announces some new outlandish tariffs, like 100% on China or whatever. And then he backs off. So these have been called taco trades. It's because the people on Wall street are like, they expect it. They know that every time he announces these huge tariffs that he's going to back off. So they adjust their trading accordingly. You might be shocked to learn that Donald Trump is not a fan of this name these taco trades and that he is not the most secure person in the world and does not like to be told that he is chickening out. So he kind of lashed out at a reporter who brought it up saying, oh, I chicken out. Isn't that nice? I've never heard that. Six months ago this country was stone cold dead. We had a dead country. We had a country that people didn't think it was going to survive. And you ask a nasty question like that, it's called negotiation. Putting aside the fact that I don't really know what he's talking about, but then again, I never do these days about the fact that people didn't think this country was going to survive six months ago, I would wager that more people think that now. Danielle, are you a fan of, of, of Wall street coining these terms or.
- [03:25]
Danielle Moody
I love chicken tacos.
- [03:27]
Andy Levy
Okay, go ahead.
- [03:28]
Danielle Moody
Like I look, you know, we are living in the stupidest times, so it just makes sense that this would be the acronym that folks would come out with. But I mean, the reality is he does chicken out every single time. So over the past four and a half months of this administration, we have lived through over 200% tariffs for China and then, oops, not so much. We have lived through the, oh, we're going to tax steel and we're going to tax, you know, a wood and we're going to do this, that and the other thing to Canada to then being like, whoops, wait, we get a lot of our energy from them. Donald Trump is not a good businessman. It's the reason why he's filed for bankruptcy multiple times over his long, long 79 year old life. You know, it's not called negotiation, it's actually called market manip. And I feel like we don't use language in the way that we should. So while, yeah, sure, he is chickening out because no one is coming to the table to make a deal with him. Instead they're figuring out how to deal without America, right? Like how to maneuver with each other and build trade relations that don't rely on America being the middleman because it's, it's. Now we're an unreliable country. We're not a sound investment. You're seeing that from the bond markets to the rollback of tariffs to the announcement of new tariffs, it all depends on Donald Trump's fucking mood. So, you know, the fact that he would lash out to a reporter and say, that's not a very nice question. It's like, dude. But the reality is, five minutes ago, you said that we were going to have 200% increases and that you were playing a game of literal chicken with China who never blinks. Like, they, you know what I'm saying? Like, China is not the country to pick a fight with, Right? They have a billion, you know, billions of people that live inside of that country who they can just rely on themselves and other, and like, and other countries. They don't need America in the same way that America needs China. And so, you know, Donald Trump has just continued to show himself to be a used car salesman, right? Like, he, he's, he's. Or, or what is a bet? What is a better analogy? Like the wizard of Oz, right? He, he gives you this idea that he's this big, powerful businessman. Look at my Art of the Deal. And then you pull back the curtain and you're just like, oh, you're just an old, frail, large man who doesn't know what he's doing.
- [05:51]
Andy Levy
It's not a lot of large, frail people. But I think in his.
- [05:54]
Danielle Moody
Do you know what I mean?
- [05:55]
Andy Levy
Absolutely right. Oh, I know exactly what you mean. Yeah. And you're absolutely right to talk about market manipulation because really, this taco Trump always chickens out is just another way of saying buy the dip, Right? And because the investors on Wall street know that, you know, he's going to announce these tariffs and, and, and the stock prices of companies are, are going to go down, and then he's going to roll back the tariffs or say, well, we're not doing that now. And then those, the stock price of those companies is going to go back up. So, you know, we've been hearing the phrase buy the dip for a long time now, and this really is that. It's just another way of describing that. So it is, you know, in a sense, it is market manipulation, whether it's intent. Like, I don't know if that's the intent or not. I think there's a lot of people around Trump probably getting rich because of it. The thing is, though, but I really do think Trump is a true believer on tariffs. I mean, that's, he's just that stupid. So I don't think he means it, at least purely as market manipulation, but in effect, that's what it is. And the people around him, the ones who aren't quite as stupid as him, know exactly that that's going to be the effect. And that's why you get these traders coming up with phrases like taco or I guess in this case it was a Financial Times columnist, Robert Armstrong, who coined the phrase, it basically amounts to the same thing. And what it means of, is the rich get richer. Because who are the people who could afford to buy the dip? I'm not going out there and buying the dip. You know, the only people who can afford to do that are the people who are rich in the stock market already pretty much, or just rich in general. They can go out there and take the chance that maybe the stock prices won't rebound this time, but they can afford to take that chance. And it pays off for them almost every time because as they say, Taco Trump always chickens out.
- [07:58]
Danielle Moody
But the fact is, I mean, look, we, we've heard and we've, we've discussed. Marjorie Taylor Greene, right, bought in the dip. Sean Duffy, road rules. You know, our road rules. Secretary of Transportation, he also bought. And it's like if you're in Trump's inner circle, and this is why I, I lightly disagree with you, Andy, because I do think that Trump is very aware that he is manipulating the markets. I do think that he also loves the idea that, that anytime he says something, things can go up or things can go down. Look how, again, I'm the great powerful Oz. Look how powerful I am, and look how powerful my words are. But the people that are around him, they know, right, Based on who's whispering in his ear at one time or another, like, what he's actually going to stick to and what he's not. So it isn't just, I, I think that it is both the super rich who have, you know, the hundreds of thousands of dollars laying around that they can play around with that isn't tied to, let's say, their 401k or their pensions or like, their retirement. But the ones that are in Trump's inner circle, they know how long he's going to be playing this game for, so it benefits them the most.
- [09:07]
Andy Levy
No, I absolutely agree with that. My only point is that Trump is a true believer in tariffs. Like, he legitimately thinks that tariffs are a good idea and that they're going to make, they're going to be good for the American economy, when, in fact, pretty much every serious economist would say the exact opposite. So that's my only point, is that I don't think he's doing it solely to manipulate the market. Like, I think he really does think these tariffs are a good idea. Someone who doesn't think these tariffs are a good idea, or legal, for that matter, is a panel of Judges on the U.S. court of International Trade, which put a halt on the tariffs that Trump announced on his so called Liberation Day back in April. It also blocked another series of tariffs or another set of tariffs that Trump had imposed on China, Mexico and Canada. And the federal court basically just said, you can't do that. You don't have the authority to do that. What do you think?
- [10:12]
Danielle Moody
I think that, like, if it ends up going to the Supreme Court as everything else has gone, that they'll just continue to give Donald Trump more power. Right. Like the lower courts, you know, to the extent that we've been covering them on as the world, they are always right, like trying to hold on to democracy and trying to rebalance, right. Our separate branches of government. But Donald Trump, they are like kids in a candy shop right now with sledgehammers, like trying to just smash and grab as much as they possibly can until somebody slaps their hands. And then they're like, oh, wait, we can't do that. Oh, we'll just. And then they just wait. They wait until it goes up to their buddies who then say, oh, yeah, why can't the President do that? He can do whatever he wants. He has entire, you know, full power and full immunity. So it's like, yes, we know that a major, I feel like a majority of the things this administration is doing is illegal if we actually believe in the Constitution. But when it gets up to the Supreme Court, they're like, it's roll the dice with them. So I don't know how long this will actually hold. So, Andy, as it turns out, it's almost as if living inside of Trump's America is just like legit playing Russian roulette, you know, just putting bullets in and trying to figure out, like, what is going to get us right? Are you going to face economic ruin first? Are you going to, you know, face like an absolute virus? You know, like, what, what is it? What's going to get you in Trump's America? And right now I'm putting my money on everything that has to do with our health and well being because, well, we have a man that has a worm inside of his head that doesn't believe in vaccines, that isn't a doctor that has no medical degree whatsoever, telling 330 million Americans what they should be doing with their health. Most recently, RFK Jr. Has said that the US will, according to the New York Times, no longer recommend Covid shots for children and pregnant women. Of course, we knew that this was coming, given all of the conspiracy theories that he has said about COVID and the vaccines and reading your DNA and what is the government doing, et cetera, et cetera, while, you know, the Biden administration was rolling out shots in arms to save people's lives, 500,000 of which died under Donald Trump's administration because he told them to, you know, liberate themselves, don't wear masks and shoot bleach into their arms. The fact is, I believe that the American people are going to have to take their health and the health of themselves and their children into their own hands because America is no longer safe. Right. We have an HHS director, we have an FDA leader who is in almost ensuring that Americans will suffer some type of outbreak, whether that's measles, which they still haven't gotten under control, whether it's a new COVID virus, which I just saw recently, that there is one that is circulating. And then now it's up to you to decide whether or not you're going to take RFK Jr. No doctor included in this package, his word for it, or your own general practitioner or. Or just your gut over this man. But right now, I feel probably the most unsafe that I've ever felt health wise in this country. And that's saying a lot, given where our health is rated in comparison to the rest of the world.
- [13:43]
Oliver Darcy
Yeah.
- [13:43]
Andy Levy
And Kennedy keeps going out there and saying things that simply aren't true. You know, about a month ago, according to the New York Times, he went on Fox News and said that most kids don't have a risk from COVID unless they have very profound morbidities, and then they might have a slight risk. And as the New York Times points out, that CDC data from July 2023 to March 2024 found that half of children who were hospitalized because of COVID had no underlying medical conditions. So he's straight up lying there. It goes on and on and on. He has made the comment that not a single healthy kid has died from COVID That's absolutely not true. 32% of children who died of COVID did not have another medical condition, according to a review of data that looked at 2020 to 2022. They also want to get rid of the COVID vaccination. For pregnant women. This is really bad. Pregnant women are at a much higher risk of getting a severe form of COVID if they get Covid, and if they get vaccinated, it lowers the risk that their. The child that they bear will be hospitalized from COVID So all of this is just, you know, we've been saying for a while now, we keep saying it, they want us to die.
- [15:13]
Danielle Moody
Mm.
- [15:14]
Andy Levy
And this is just, you know, every time we talk about one of these things, I just keep coming back to that. Like, they just. They legitimately want, slash, don't care if people die. And so this is just. It's just more of the same. It's like every day there's another example.
- [15:30]
Danielle Moody
Of it, you know, because I think that the reality is, is that they want us to be sick and undereducated. Right? Like, that is what makes you easy to control, right? Is that when you are in your most downtrodden space and place, then you're easy to take advantage of. And that's what they are setting up here. So whether it is this right now, there's more, right? Like we. How many? So we, Donald Trump comes into office, we have a major bird flu crisis, right? Where the price of eggs, as everybody knows, goes through the roof, where you're looking at 10, 12, and sometimes in the teens, depending on what area of the country that you're in and the price gouging that is happening for a carton of eggs. And come to find out that this administration, even given what they came into office seeing, has canceled more than $700 million of funding for Moderna's bird flu vaccine. Make it make fucking sense, right? Like, bird flu is not something that we were making up in our heads. It was happening and people were killing entire flocks of. Of birds and ducks and et cetera, to like, to save. Right? The rest of us, we've lost FDA inspectors, so we don't even know if what we are getting on our shelves anymore that we can guarantee is safe. And then you have a pharmaceutical company who is like, let us do some research and put out onto the market a potential vaccine for what is now becoming what seems like a recurring crisis in America around bird flu. And this government says, nah, we'd rather pocket the money.
- [17:14]
Andy Levy
Yeah. It's just. It is absolutely wild. And it always makes me think, you know, the COVID vaccines were a goddamn miracle. Like, I don't even know how else to describe them. I mean, for those of us who remember what it was like when Covid first hit and there was no vaccine, and the images that we saw of the body bags and the people that we knew who died and who died alone because no one could be with them, and just the overall sense of fear, of legitimate fear that people had, and then we get these vaccines, it was literally the one good thing Donald Trump did while he was in office, was to fast track those, to help fast track those vaccines. And they were a damn I don't know what other word to use other than miracle. Like they were a complete world changer. And it started not long after that. We saw the sort of the rise of the conspiracy theories about the vaccines and in particular the fact that they were these MRNA vaccines which people. There are people out there who I guess believe that it is legitimately changing their DNA and things like that. So this bird flu vaccine was also, you know, a moderna, an MRNA thing. And I think that this, these people, the RFK juniors of the world and all the MAGA people and all the MAHA people are just absolutely terrified of these MRNA vaccines and legitimately think and legitimately believe that they are like a tool of the devil. And I don't even mean that in like a metaphorical sense. I think a lot of them really believe that this absolute miracle that we were granted that if I were a religious person I would be, you know, giving thanks to God for these vaccines every damn day. But instead they look at this miracle, this life saving miracle and they say this is a tool of the devil. And so I think that's what we're getting more of here. That point of view is now U.S. health policy.
- [19:22]
Danielle Moody
I can think of who is a tool of the devil, but that's a topic for another day.
- [19:28]
Ryan Reynolds
Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this but anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities. So do like I did and have one of your assistant's assistants switch you to Mint Mobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do.
- [19:45]
Andy Levy
@Mintmobile.Com Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to 15 DOL dollars per month. Required intro rate, first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees, extra fee, full terms@mintmobile.com this.
- [19:59]
Paige DeSorbo
Is Paige, the co host of Giggly Squad. I use Uber Eats for everything and I feel like people forget that you can truly order anything, especially living in New York City. It's why I love it. You can get Chinese food at any time of night. But it's not just for food. I order from CVS all the time. I'm always ordering from the grocery store and if a friend stops over I have to order champagne. I also have this thing that whenever I travel, if I'm ever in a hotel room, I never feel like I'm missing something because I'll just uber eats it. The amount of times I've had to Uber Eats hair items like hairspray, deodorant, you name it, I've ordered it. On Uber Eats, you can get grocery alcohol, everyday essentials in addition to restaurants and food you love. So in other words, get almost every anything With Uber Eats. Order now for alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.
- [21:02]
Andy Levy
Oliver Darcy is the former senior media reporter for cnn, where he wrote the widely read Reliable Sources newsletter. He's now the founder and lead author of Status, a newsletter which has quickly become a must read for people who follow journalism. As he gets scoop after scoop, you can subscribe at Status News and you can catch him right now as my next guest. Oliver, thanks so much for being here.
- [21:25]
Oliver Darcy
It's a pleasure to be here, Andy.
- [21:27]
Andy Levy
So I want to start with a story that you've broken news on and which the Wall Street Journal broke more news on Wednesday night. This is the saga of Paramount, parent company of CBS and Donald Trump. Can you give us a quick summary of the basics here before we get into the sordid details?
- [21:43]
Oliver Darcy
Sure. This is a, this is a really interesting story because it involves a business transaction as well as a lot of politics and newsroom interference. The short version of the story is that Paramount Global, which is the parent company of CBS News, is trying to merge with Skydance Media, which is owned by Larry Ellison and David Ellison, and they're trying to get this merger completed. The last step is getting FCC approval because Paramount Global, they have the CBS licenses, so that it involves a transfer of broadcast licenses, which requires FCC approval. The FCC is now chaired by a Trump lackey named Brandon Carr. And as they're going through this approval process, Donald Trump has separately sued 60 Minutes. Right. So he sued 60 Minutes. It's an absurd lawsuit. It's based on what he describes as like malicious editing to make Kamala Harris look better in a 60 Minutes episode from before the election. Right. It's, there's, there's no real there there. The transcript's been released. It shows no malicious editing. There's been, there's nothing there. But Donald Trump's filed a $20 billion lawsuit and he is using basically the government at this point to stall this merger until this lawsuit is settled by Sherry Redstone, who controls Paramount Global. Now, they'll say, too, just to be clear, they'll say that this lawsuit and the FCC not approving yet the merger are not connected. But I think it's pretty clear to everyone, including Sherri Redstone, that there is Some connective tissue here. And once they perhaps settle the lawsuit, this FCC approval might, might speed along.
- [23:24]
Andy Levy
So why is this story so important? What sets this apart from the sort of sadly typical story? Giant corporation is trying to cut a deal with DC in order to get something it wants. Why do people need to be paying closer attention here? Because I feel like, you know, outside of, of people who have an interest in media, like, like you do or I do, there's not a lot of focus on this as, like, something that is incredibly important.
- [23:49]
Oliver Darcy
Well, one, I mean, it deals with 60 minutes, which is considered to be the crown jewel of American broadcast journalism. And so what Donald Trump wants is he wants 60 Minutes to apologize to him. And so he can hold that up high and say that, you know, the 60 Minutes, that it basically pushed fake news and they helped Kamala Harris win. That's what he really want. And as a result, you've seen CBS News as leaders actually exit the company. So Wendy McMahon, who said she would never apologize, basically she didn't say it, but that was her red line, that she was not going to apologize to Donald Trump. She resigned in the last couple of weeks. The executive producer who was beloved inside 60 Minutes, Bill Owens, he also resigned. And so you're seeing an incredible amount of pressure put on the news division at, at CBS News in 60 Minutes, which I think should alarm most people that, that, that Donald Trump is basically using the levers of government to tweak news coverage at the, you know, premier news magazine in the country, which is supposed to be speaking truth to power. And credit to 60 Minutes, they have been speaking truth to power. They've been running a lot of very critical segments over the last season about Donald Trump, which has angered Donald Trump quite a bit and which has made the owner, Sherry Redstone, feel very uncomfortable. And so Sherry Redstone or George Sheeks, who is the CEO, co CEO of Paramount, even floated, according to the people I've talked to, not airing the season finale of 60 Minutes, it was suspected that he was operating under instructions or pressure, at least from Sherry Redstone. And so this is a really interesting story and a really important story because it not only is it dealing with a merger and yes, basic politics, when you want to get a merger completed, a business deal completed, but also how we get our news and information and how Donald Trump can use the government to, you know, bend the media to his will so he can push through his radical agenda without as much criticism.
- [25:46]
Andy Levy
So I mentioned in the intro that the Wall Street Journal broke some news on this. It was Jessica Tunkel and Josh Dossey who reported Wednesday night that Param offered $15 million to settle the lawsuit and that this offer was turned down by the Trump team, who said it wanted more than 25 million. And also an apology from CBS News. Is that what you're hearing as well?
- [26:07]
Oliver Darcy
I haven't heard the specifics of this, but I would. I would bank with the Wall Street Journal's reporting. I would be shocked if they would accept a $15 million lawsuit because, you know, frankly, Donald Trump has Sherry by the throat. She needs this deal to be clear, to go through, like Paramount Global. I mean, the broader context is Paramount Global has been completely like a lot of legacy media companies, by Netflix and streaming, and the only way they can compete is by merging with other companies to get bigger. And the value of Paramount, Paramount Global has dramatically decreased in recent years. And so Sherry Redstone has left. You know, her father left her with this media empire that's rapidly shrinking, and she wants to cash out. And for the company to succeed in the future, they need to merge. So this deal has to happen. If it does not happen, it will be catastrophic for the company. And so Donald Trump knows this. He knows they need this deal. And so it would be shocking if you would accept $15 million. That's basically what Bob Iger paid him over at Disney, and he didn't have him by the throat. So I would suspect you would need a lot, much larger sum of money to satisfy Donald Trump's team. And I think he's going to demand an apology so he can hang that up in the museum he's going to build, which I'm sure is going to include some sort of fake news wing that's going to end up being paid for by all the media companies, which it will be, you know, making a mockery of them.
- [27:26]
Andy Levy
Yeah, it's really sad. You mentioned Wendy McMahon earlier. Talk a little more about why she left. You reported that there were rumors. Was it about the apology or was it about the programming? What was it exactly? Or was it just all of the above?
- [27:40]
Oliver Darcy
There was a confluence of different factors that caused her to resign. But I think ultimately a lot of this came down to newsroom pressure and her refusing to go along. And so there had been some instances, to be fair to Paramount and. And the folks there where they were not happy with some of the moves she made. For instance, she redid the evening news and the ratings dropped, and it wasn't a great look. And so there were. There were certainly some bones to pick with the way she was managing CBS News. But I would, I would put money that if she was going along with, you know, sanitizing 60 Minutes and, and placating Donald Trump on behalf of Paramount, that she would still have a job and she'd probably have a job in the new Skydance version of Paramount. I think, you know, and my reporting suggests that she wasn't going along. She was not going to be a news chief who went along with censoring 60 Minutes and taking it off the air and, and, and watering it down, the content. And I think that was really the main sticking point between her and her bosses at Paramount Global, George Sheeks, who, who is the co. CEO, and also Sherry Redstone. And, and to be clear, Sherry, from my understanding, never, she never actually directly communicated with Wendy. She would communicate through George Sheiks, which put him in this awkward position of middleman. I think George knows that he shouldn't be interfering with CBS News and, and he was empathetic probably to Wendy's arguments and position. But at the end of the day, his boss is putting tremendous pressure on him to do everything they can to make sure that Donald Trump stays happy because they want this deal to go through. And so I think all of this led to a breaking point and the break. The final straw, I think really was George Sheiks floating to Wendy that maybe we just don't even air 60 minutes, the season finale. Maybe we just put some other primetime programming in its place, which would be wild. And obviously Wendy and everyone there would be criticized immensely. But I think that was just the straw that broke the camel's back and she pushed back against it and he asked for her resignation and she, and she gladly gave it.
- [29:45]
Andy Levy
So what have the Democrats been doing, if anything, about this? I know you wrote a piece, I want to say, a week or so ago about a letter that three Democratic senators sent to Sherry Redstone. What was in those letters? And has there been anything since then?
- [30:01]
Oliver Darcy
Well, they were warning that the Democratic senators, they were warning that basically paying a settlement could break the law because it could be seen as bribery of the government to get a merger done. You can't obviously bribe public officials to, you know, to get a deal done. That would, that would be a crime. And so they were saying that you really still now, I mean, it seems like, yeah, I mean that whether it's prosecuted or not, that's, that's the other thing too, right? Yeah, but, but generally speaking, if the government's working properly and law and order are in place, you can't bribe public officials to get them to do things. So the Democratic senators were warning like, hey, you, you are really walking a fine line here with the settlement. And they asked a list of questions to Sherry Redstone, asking her to respond by June 2, which is in a few days. Whether she does respond remains to be seen. It would be something, I think, for her to just ignore Congress, especially the Senate. But, you know, what is she going to say?
- [30:58]
Andy Levy
Right. Yeah. And there's been, like you said, June 2nd was the deadline that they set on that. There's been no other talk from Democrats about looking into this, has there?
- [31:08]
Oliver Darcy
They've made a lot of noise. There's been some noise that they've made where they have sent letters and there was another letter sent to Sherri Redstone by more Democratic congressional officials expressing, you know, worry and concern and alarm. But no, they haven't, they haven't gone full House GOP or anything, demanding hearings with Sherry Redstone and, and Wendy McMahon. That hasn't happened. And I don't know if it's ever will. But, you know, there's only, there's only really guess being these letters. So that's about it, right? Yeah.
- [31:40]
Andy Levy
All right. So I want to ask you about something that happened with longtime CBS journalist Scott Pelley, who is a correspondent for 60 Minutes. So this is all related. He delivered the commencement address at Wake Forest about a week ago, and he sort of touched on this whole situation. And among the things he said, and I'll quote here from Justin Baragona's report on this in the Independent, he said, our sacred rule of law is under attack. Journalism is under attack. Universities are under attack. Freedom of speech is under attack. He went on to say that ignorance works for power, meaning the powerful people want us to be ignorant. And they, quote, make the truth tellers live in fear when they sue the journalists and their companies for nothing. So everything he says there is absolutely true, right?
- [32:29]
Oliver Darcy
Yes. I mean, I think there's no doubt about it, right? Yeah.
- [32:33]
Andy Levy
Well, Oliver, the esteemed journalists at Fox News disagree with you. Harris Faulkner was furious that Pelly had the nerve to attack Trump's policies. She said, quote, does he hate half the country as much as he hates President Trump? He never mentions anything about the 76 million people who voted for Trump as being valuable and loved in the country. He goes after the man they voted for. Former Trump press secretary Kelly McEnany went even further, saying Peli should have been arrested because there was an overt lie. And she said, what do you know about journalism Being under attack. What does he know about that? I mean, 60 minutes should be reduced to zero minutes. So does this make you change your mind?
- [33:16]
Oliver Darcy
Well, I think it's so rich, by the way, that these Fox News personalities who are not really journalists, you know, they're frankly propagandists that they would talk about insulting half the country or whatever. What, what, what did they think they were doing for the last four years under Joe Biden? Were they showing immense respect for Democrats? If anything, they've been mocking them as snowflakes and triggered and then showing that they are the ones who get triggered more than anyone when they hear Scott Pelley telling the truth about Donald Trump. Right. You know, he's, he's, he's stating facts. I mean they're all supported by reality, what we're seeing in front of our faces. And in fact, you know, at sometimes Fox News even sort of reports on the things that they were attacking him for. And anyway, so I, the hypocrisy is rich with them. But I think it really shows that 60 Minutes has struck a nerve not only with Donald Trump, but the Greater MAGA movement as a whole. And Scott Pelley is obviously one of the top correspondents at 60 Minutes. He was the one who defended Bill Owens when Sherry Roastone was interfering with the program. And he had I think, quite a powerful one minute report about the interference at 60 minutes. And so he has a target on his back. And speaking truth to power like that is going to result in a lot of blowback. And I think the Fox News, they want to, when they see someone like Scott Pelley, they want to quickly try to make them out to be a partisan and to destroy their credibility with conservatives. And I think that's what they're trying to do right now with them.
- [34:52]
Andy Levy
Obviously the things that leapt out at me were in particular, Scott Pelley says journalism is under attack and freedom of speech are under attack. And Fox News is outraged that he said this and then says he should have been arrested. And I just.
- [35:09]
Oliver Darcy
Do you not also not caring apparently about the insurrectionists who are all let out of prison?
- [35:15]
Andy Levy
Sure. Oh, of, of course.
- [35:17]
Oliver Darcy
It's the hypocrisy over there. I mean the standards, there's no consistency, there's no intellectual consistency over there. It's just, you know, owning the Libs 24 7.
- [35:26]
Andy Levy
Yeah, it's the Fox Grievance network. It's not the Fox News Network. But, but just the idea that you would call a guy a liar for saying that freedom of speech is under attack and then say he should be arrested for saying that. Like, I don't, I don't under the disconnect there. And again, I know I'm, you know, I should, I would love to know.
- [35:47]
Oliver Darcy
What, like, some of the Fox correspondents think about that. You know, Jackie Heinrich is the, is on the board of the White House Correspondents association. And the White House Correspondents association has been saying that the president is assaulting the free press. In fact, Fox News even signed on to a letter as an organization when Trump was, you know, banished the AP from, from their, their spot in the pool. So the fact that FOX News personalities are saying one thing while their, you know, organization and company as a whole are saying another thing is, you know, also notable. And, you know, I, I wish that they would put more correspondence like Jackie Heinrich on air to talk about the assault that Donald Trump is waging against the, the press instead of these talkers who know nothing about what they're talking about. Yeah, but they're just being dishonest, which is actually probably more likely.
- [36:40]
Andy Levy
Exactly. And also they don't want their listeners to know that Jackie Henrik is doing this, you know, that, that's sort of the, for them. That's sort of the, you know, oh, she's off doing that. See, that gives us legitimacy. But they won't tell their viewers that. They'll just have people like Harris Faulkner and Kelly McEnany get on there and spout their nonsense.
- [37:02]
Oliver Darcy
And by the way, but what they will do is they'll take Jackie Heinrich and Trey Yings and all those guys and put them in front of advertisers. Right. So they're the ones who, you see and they tell advertisers, you know, we do real news and look at all our serious journalists. But on air often you see those folks, right? The Harry Faulkner's and the Kayleigh McEnanys and the Sean Hannity's and they're overtly misleading the audience.
- [37:27]
Andy Levy
Yeah, for sure. I have like two minutes left. I want to ask you about something else you wrote about, which is about Trump threatening to defund National Public Radio. Can you contrast Paramount's response to Trump's lawsuit with how NPR is handling this?
- [37:40]
Oliver Darcy
I think NPR is taking the Harvard route, which is like, we're not going to back down. We're going to actually seek to remedy this in court. And that's what they're doing. They're taking Donald Trump to court. They filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump and his administration earlier this week. And, you know, I talked to Catherine Marr who is the CEO of npr. And she told me that there would never be any negotiations because they're not going to negotiate on their editorial with the White House. And I think that's obviously standing in stark contrast away at Paramount and a lot of other media companies and tech companies have operated over the last several months with Donald Trump. Now, I will say too, again, it's a little bit different. Right. It's not apples to apples because Sherry Redstone's trying to complete this deal. There's no deal with, with npr. But I do think that, you know, the way when you look at the way they're handling this, it certainly comports to the way you would expect a journalistic outfit to respond to a bully like this, given that the responsibility is to hold them accountable and not to bend to their will. And seeing what Sherrie Redstone's doing over at Paramount with CBS News, you know, the network of Edward R. Morrow and Walter Conkright Cronkite. Sorry, I just think it's, it's a shame.
- [38:50]
Andy Levy
Yeah, absolutely. And it's good to see NPR doing this, obviously. And as you said, they're sort of following the Harvard lead and also the lead of the law firms that didn't capitulate to Trump, unlike Paul Weiss, which, you know, sort of started this ball rolling by capitulating. And, you know, and the dirty secret.
- [39:08]
Oliver Darcy
Is Donald Trump keeps losing in court. Right.
- [39:11]
Andy Levy
That's what I was just going to.
- [39:12]
Oliver Darcy
Say, losing in court. There's injunction after injunction issued by these judges, so much so that now you're seeing on the right a real talk about, like, should district judges even be allowed to issue injunctions? Law and order party is now basically upset about the law being, you know, followed. And so, you know, that's disturbing rhetoric. But yeah, like, I think that there's obviously a case for NPR to make. I'm sure, you know, the NPR is very confident that they're going to get an injunction. I guess the only issue here with, with Sherry is, is that they can't really go to court and seek an injunction in this way. They would have to sue the government if they block the merger. And that might end up taking a while. That's actually what happened in the first Trump administration when they sued over the CNN, the AT& T Time Warner deal. And CNN was obviously front and center in that lawsuit and they had to go to court and eventually they won. But it was a protracted legal battle. And I think that Sherry Redstone just wants to avoid that, pay off Donald Trump and make this go away.
- [40:12]
Andy Levy
Well, at least that merger worked out really well. I'm kidding, of course. Oliver. Yeah. Oliver, thank you so much for being here. Folks. If you're not subscribed to Status, go to Status News. Hit it up. It's just, it's good stuff all the time, Oliver. Really appreciate your time.
- [40:31]
Oliver Darcy
I appreciate it, Andy. Thank you so much.
- [40:35]
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Andy Levy
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- [42:09]
Danielle Moody
Folks, I am so excited to actually welcome for the first time on as the World Turns ASO in Sub Seng, who is a reporter at Rolling Stone, who I follow pretty much everything that you write and your most recent piece is where I want to start today which is condemns save themselves by spending 20 million on quote speaking with American men or SAM, the SAM Project, which is their attempt to win back, I'm assuming young, I would say 20, 30 something year old men who find themselves to be disaffected with the Democratic party party that Donald Trump through. I mean this has honestly been a project of the right wing for well over a decade to kind of scoop up young men. So let, let us start there. What have you learned, Swin, about the SAM project?
- [43:07]
Swin Cash
I'll start things off on a personal note. I apologize to your listeners and viewers. You might notice this side of my face is drooping and completely pumped full of Novocaine. But I'm here, I'm here, I'm soldiering through it. So I'm going to talk as lucidly as I can, Right? So over the long Memorial Day weekend, the New York Times put out this larger story that had buried in it a brief detail. It was a rather eye popping detail. I'm sure many of your listeners saw it. I'm pretty sure you saw it when it went viral over the weekend. So it was just a few sentences dedicated to saying that one of these proposals that's floating out there in elite Democratic circles and among Democratic donors and optics is this 20 million dollar fundraising effort. This prospectus, this document. It's a short document. It's basically asking for money to fund a 20 million dollar budget or something called SAM, obviously acronym said speaking with American Men. And one of the points of this project, according to the New York Times, was to study and understand the quote, unquote syntax and, and different facets of these cohorts of young male voters in different communities, including online video game communities, who have in recent years, and particularly in a very big way during the 2024 presidential election, drifted towards the right, specifically towards Donald Trump, Trumpism and candidates and cultural movements like that. So as I think your viewers and listeners who aren't already aware of this can probably guess right now, this paragraph and a half or so was aggressively screenshotted in repeat and widely mocked, mocked in a variety of places online, including by alumni of Kamala Harris's presidential campaign, other Democratic operatives, left wing podcasters.
- [45:14]
Danielle Moody
It was, it was mocked by myself. I mocked it on, I mocked it on Blue Sky.
- [45:19]
Swin Cash
Fox News devoted at least one segment to it, like did indeed go viral or at least semi viral. But my editor Andrew Perez and I at Rolling Stone magazine, we thought to ourselves, well, wait a minute, this thing that a good number of people seem to be talking about both on the left and the right, the New York Times story, while a very good story, didn't dedicate that much time to this, and frankly, it didn't even say who was behind the project or what Sam was exactly, had this like incredibly mockable snippet of the prospectus. So we went digging, calling and messaging around to a bunch of our Democratic and liberal sources to try to figure out who or what is saying. That was the question on our mind in recent days. So we dug enough to figure out that two of the Democratic bigwig names who are leading this effort and behind it, other names are Elise Hogue, who is the former head of NARAL and a longtime progressive activist and an abortion rights activist, and also a guy named John De La Volpe, who is a longtime director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics. He also was an advisor to Joe Biden's successful 2020 presidential campaign. We also later learned that Colin Allred, who, of course last year lost his Senate campaign.
- [46:46]
Danielle Moody
Right.
- [46:46]
Swin Cash
Cruz in Texas.
- [46:47]
Danielle Moody
Yep.
- [46:48]
Swin Cash
Is one of the, I believe, four principles involved with this project. So this is a real thing. It's not being run out of the dlc, but it's also far from a collective of nobodies, those actual, like mainstream Democratic elite juice and Personas behind this thing.
- [47:06]
Danielle Moody
So, like, I just, I want to say this because that's one of the things, as I was reading your piece, to figure out who was behind this. I think that that's what makes me so concerned. I move from mocking, which I did when I first saw the, the, the piece in, in the New York Times, to concern that Democrats really have no idea how to just have conversations. That one of the things that I think that you would highlight it is wanting to create, quote, memeable content. Right. And like, which says to me, it's almost as if, you know, a parent trying to learn the slang of gen Alpha and using it all incorrectly and just seemingly showing just how disconnected they really are. So, so talk to, talk to us about how, you know, through the research that you have done, like, what is it that they're, who is it that they're really trying to reach and what are the avenues that they're trying to use? Like, are they just going to try and cosplay what the right has done with the gaming and the manosphere and like the bro, you know, podcasts, or is there something that they are innovating on and creating themselves?
- [48:25]
Swin Cash
Well, it's at a very early stage because even though the project is off the ground and for this Rolling Stone story you're talking about, we did end up being able to talk on the record to John and Elise, who are fronting the effort right now. And they want to make very clear this is the early stages. We're still raising money for this effort. The $20 million budget would be spread out over a two year period. And it would be devoted both to study and research and also what they call outreach and outreach communications to these communities. And to answer your question about what they're talking about, this is included but not limited to certain popular online spaces in crypto, in popular how to videos like do it yourself, stuff on YouTube, popular with a lot of young male and young male voters and spaces like that. And obviously, I don't think you or I are against Democrats or Democratic operatives or lawmakers of any stripe trying to do more outreach to people in these spaces and communities, particularly young male voters, especially given the results of the 2024 presidential race, what struck people as a little bit bizarre, including Democrats we spoke to who had recently received, before it had broken in the New York Times, a copy of this fundraising pitch, this document is that when they were reading it and seeing what these people were raising money for, it read to them as if you were trying to study young male voters and Gen Z, dis, yes, pro Trump guys, as if they're an alien species, as if you were on safari. And some Democrats who have been working, including in trying to do outreach to young voters for a long time, quibbles with the very premise of thinking that $20 million is far too big a price tag for something like this, and that raising that amount of money for something like this risks draining funds or potential funding away from organizations and entities and people who they believe are actually doing the effective on the ground organic work of this type of stuff. And I want to go back to something you said earlier. I think you mentioned that when you read about this stuff both down in the original New York Times story, it kind of reeked to you of elite Democrats trying to cosplay or reverse engineer.
- [51:00]
Danielle Moody
Yes, yes.
- [51:01]
Swin Cash
Something that actually happened for the most part, I think, organically.
- [51:05]
Danielle Moody
Very organically. Yeah.
- [51:07]
Swin Cash
I actually raised this criticism or potential critique, John and Elise, when we were talking on the phone, where one thought bubble I had was okay in concept. I don't necessarily, of course, see anything wrong with this, but I, or someone else could argue is this, in a sense, fighting the last war. Not that. Again, not to belabor the point, but not that it is a mistake to reach out to these or any other demographic. I think all political parties should be doing that across the spectrum. But for instance, growing up in the 1990s, all I heard over and over and over again in certain Democratic and political spaces was liberals whining about, where is our Rush Limbaugh? Why don't we.
- [51:54]
Danielle Moody
Oh, my God. And now. And now fast Forward. Where is our Joe Rogan?
- [51:58]
Swin Cash
Exactly. And in terms of fighting the last war, when you're talking about the Republican Party in the wake of their devastating losses to Barack Obama, the Republican party, including then RNC chair Reince Priebus, commissioned that now famous post2012 election autopsy. What the right needs to do to start winning elections in presidential elections again, that includes we need to be nicer to immigrants, including the undocumented. We need to stop throwing out all these hard line, hyper draconian, ethnic cleansing style policy proposals. And it did not take that many years for a guy named Donald J. Trump to come along and crack the code to show them. Actually, that is not the path to victory. Here's another one. So when I read about all these different proposals, not just the one from John, at least, about how we need to get better with all of the crypto spaces, we need to get better with young men who listen to Joe Rode It Rogan or the Nelk boys or whatever, I mean, there's nothing inherently wrong with having that as a part of your mantra, but doesn't it kind of feel like you're fighting the last war?
- [53:03]
Danielle Moody
Yeah. One, it feels like they're fighting the last war. And also not actually getting to the core problem as to why these young men have found themselves looking to a Joe Rogan and a Donald Trump. Like what has happened inside of our society, right, where they are feeling isolated and they don't have the same opportunities that they were their parents once had and their grandparents once had. Why talk about the, the rise in misogyny, right? And as a pushback to more women getting higher education degrees, having more financial autonomy and all of these things. And what Donald Trump and, and, and that like toxic masculine set came in and said, no, bro, like you can like get back to the top of the heat, the top of the. But this is how you're going to do it. You need a woman that's like a trad wife, right? Like, you need to pump more iron. You need to like assert yourself instead of trying to move along with these progressives and soften your language and like soften who you are. And I, I think that for me when I read this, I'm just like Democrats, just, you know, I talk about them being out of touch. And this to me is just like them solidifying the fact that over the last decade plus you've really learned nothing. And you also continue to throw money at chasing people who actually don't want to hang out with you, rather than trying to figure out how to widen the base of people who do. And that, that to me is like the, the, the problem with this. But what, what ultimately with with Hogue and, and, and, and the other co leader of this project, what do they, what, what, what are their hopes here? What, what are their hopes being as how honestly they're decades behind the, behind the eight ball here they are hoping.
- [55:00]
Swin Cash
To get out of this studying level of outreach, a roadmap for the national Democratic Party and its local and state affiliates to figure out a way to talk to and effectively message to both on a cultural and policy perspective to particularly young male voters who are aggressively drifting away from the Democratic Party right now and to try to do it in a way that doesn't completely sacrifice bedrock non negotiable Democratic principles. Now, going back to something you mentioned earlier, one of the issues is that a lot of these younger male voters who really went for Trump in a big way late last year and again I'm saying a lot because this is by no means all of them. I'm not trying to paint with a broad brush or portray anything super simplistically here, but a really solid number of them went for Trump and guys like Trump because the right is offering them, as you laid out earlier, something the Democratic Party simply can't. You can't really triangulate your way around offering up a liberalized version of Donald Trump's authoritarianism.
- [56:18]
Danielle Moody
No.
- [56:19]
Swin Cash
Or, or at least you should if you want to.
- [56:21]
Danielle Moody
Right, right.
- [56:22]
Swin Cash
Or moral about it when it comes to his zeal for ethnic cleansing and immigration crackdowns, you can try to triangulate on that. But that is something that very much the Democratic Party at least says or oftentimes at least pretends to be very, very much against. And on your point, on a lot of like the post Gamergate, I hate using the term culture war, but for whatever, we'll just use it right now. Culture war stuff. These are things that the opposition, which is currently, of course, the Democratic Party is supposed to be fighting against. So when you're talking about trying to appeal to younger men, you are you. I'm not saying this is a direct criticism of San specifically. I just mean broadly speaking.
- [57:13]
Danielle Moody
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [57:14]
Swin Cash
Large problem you're seeing with so much of the Democratic Party elite right now is that they are starting to fight that battle on the right wing's terms and on their. You can see this with someone like Gavin Newsom in California who you can tell just every time he speaks and every time he shows himself in public, he really, really, really wants to be President of the United States one day. And when he talks about trans issues, you can already hear him seeding the ground to the right and these quote unquote cohorts of young men who really don't like the idea of quote unquote trans athletes and just granting the premise of their argument and saying, oh, you're right about a lot of this. I think we need to adjust yourself to you. And if you do that, they're not going to start listening to you more than they would to a Donald Trump. You're just going to be seeding moral and political ground to them while they just say, well, the next time the election comes around, why would I vote for a guy like you when I can get the real thing as opposed to a guy who's trying to emulate, at least in some respects, a right wing guy or a MAGA guy, such as the guy I'm going to end up voting for.
- [58:20]
Danielle Moody
I mean, because the fact that, the fact is, whether or not like we want to admit or agree, but the, the fact is Donald Trump and MAGA are authentic about their misogyny and their xenophobia and their like all of the things that they, they don't mince their words and they're not trying to pretend to be something that they're not. They've actually ripped the hoods off right, in terms of the language that they use. And the, the reality is, is that Democrats still find themselves either being pulled further and further to the right in the desire to try and get a part of the population back that they're never going to get. And so they, like you said, you know very well, they are playing on the rights terms using their language. I mean, you heard it from Slotnik the other day talking about we need more alpha males and more. I was like, what are you saying?
- [59:17]
Swin Cash
Well, to be fair, that totally worked during the 2004 presidential election when John Kerry got up there and tried to portray how much of a troop and how much of a bad ass allegedly and how tough he was. It definitely works when you start doing stuff like that. That's why George W. Bush was a one term president.
- [59:36]
Danielle Moody
Well, with that we will have to leave it there. But I will say this, that it's just, I appreciate the fact that you all did a deep dive into this and did more than a blurb for us to really understand, frankly, I guess for me to understand that Democrats are in a lot more trouble than I even thought that we were in. Right. And that to me is like, wow, where do we really go from here?
- [60:06]
Swin Cash
And to your listeners and subscribers and viewers, if you want to go to RollingStone.com and check out the piece, you can they lay out their case and then there are people who think it is a bad idea who lay out theirs. You can take a gander at it and decide for itself if this is as, as stupid as you might have initially thought it was. If you were aware of the New York Times story and also the New York Times story. No offense to them whatsoever, but it they they do not include a copy of the prospectus, a quote of portion of which was my widely mocked including by you on the Internet. So if out of curiosity you guys would like to see the whole thing for yourself, go to the Rolling Stone story and we embed the whole thing at the bottom. You can read the entire document for you.
- [60:49]
Danielle Moody
Swin, we appreciate you and hope to have you back again on as the World Churns very soon.
- [60:55]
Swin Cash
Thank you so much.
- [60:59]
Danielle Moody
So Andy, as we close out another fine week in this collapsing place we call America, how are you rounding it out with your that guy?
- [61:10]
Andy Levy
Well, first I want to say I don't like that we don't say each other's names at the beginning of this segment anymore.
- [61:14]
Danielle Moody
Unbelievable. Unbelievable.
- [61:21]
Andy Levy
A little behind the scenes thing for our listeners and viewers. I was the one that didn't like it, right?
- [61:26]
Danielle Moody
And now he kind of misses it.
- [61:32]
Andy Levy
It's like dating a horrible person. And then the minute they're gone you're like, oh, so my fuck. That guy to finish off this week is Senator Mike Lee. He would be a Republican. He is sponsoring a bill that I guess the best way to say it is it would give a clear definition of obscenity under federal law and it would sort of take us away from the famous Justice Potter Stewart line of basically saying I know it when I see it. And you might think to yourself, well, what's the big deal about this? Well, the big deal about this is there's actually several big deals about this. If you look at the bill and the language that is used, it defines obscenity, among other things, as any picture, image, graphic, image file, videotape, film or other visual depiction that depicts, describes or represents an actual or simulated sexual act or sexual contact, actual or simulated normal or perverted sexual acts or lewd exhibition of the genitals. So to clarify, that would criminalize, make illegal all pornography that would criminalize anything in a non pornographic movie that features simulated sex by actors. This is a huge deal is what I'm saying. And it goes further than that because as we've seen, conservatives have been trying to use supposed anti porn bills and anti porn laws to basically criminalize anything they consider normal. And you saw it even in this definition here where he says normal or perverted sexual acts. I don't know what is a normal sexual act and what is a perverted sexual act. Like, I don't, I know what that is for me. I don't know what that is for literally anyone else in the world, because everyone has their own definition of that. But what they want to do is criminalize any depictions of queer life, of trans life. Because what they will say was, even if there's no nudity or any simulated sexual acts, that this is just the mere appearance.
- [63:55]
Danielle Moody
Yep.
- [63:55]
Andy Levy
Presence of, of queer people, of trans people is quote unquote perverted, is appeals to a prurient interest. And so this has been their goal all along. Yes, they also do want to get rid of pornography because they can't stand the idea that someone somewhere is enjoying sex. But they also very much want to get rid of queer and trans culture, queer and trans people. They just want to get rid of them. They want to criminalize it. They want to make it illegal to be queer, to be trans. And all of this is of a piece, and all of this is, you know, is, is the motivation here and the ultimate aim of things like this. So this is a huge deal. I don't know how far it'll go and I don't know even if it passes, if it will withstand muster from the court as a, you know, or if it will be ruled to violate the first Amendment. But, but I have no confidence in this Congress not to pass it. And I have no confidence in our current courts to say, no, you can't do that. The Constitution doesn't let you. So this is a huge deal. I hope to God it fails in Congress and I hope to God it goes no further. And if you're out there thinking, you know what, there's too much porn in our society, this is, you know, I'm not opposed to this, this is a good idea, you're wrong because this is about so much more than porn and you are absolutely falling for the, for their act if, if you limit it to just being about that. So yes, for that. And you know, there's a host of reasons where, when it comes to Mike Lee, but for this particular reason, he is my fuck that guy for today. So fuck that guy.
- [65:52]
Danielle Moody
You know, it's funny because the other day I saw, I think it was. It was either a quote or a meme that said something to the effect of, if you have a dog and you have a dog on a long leash, and over time, you shorten the leash. You don't shorten it all at once. You shorten it link by link by link, then by the time that the dog is unable to move, because now there is no leash, they won't fight because they have been trained, right, over the course of time to give up their freedom. And that is exactly what is happening to us in America, is that for so many people, right? It was, I'm not a migrant, so I don't care that they're being rounded up. I'm not an immigrant. I came here the right way. I have a green card. I have this, I have that. So this doesn't affect me. And through those actions, the links on our ability to call ourselves a democracy, a free country, has gotten shortened over the last ten years of Trumpism. And so now you have another situation where they create this false binary between, oh, there's too much porn and there's too much this, and if you don't vote for this, then you're for porn and you're for X, Y and Z. No, I'm for freedom of expression. I'm for the freedom of people to exist as they are, right inside their bodies, inside their skin, inside their lives. Right. That is the difference between the United States and other nations. And so what people have to understand is that there has been a concerted effort of the shortening of America's leash and liberties, and we've allowed it to happen. And we are about at the place where we can no longer move. And so the question is, what are you going to do in response to that? For that and so many other reasons, fuck that guy.
- [68:00]
Andy Levy
Yep. All right, Danielle, so, hey, finish off week two of as the World Churns. Who's your first checkup?
- [68:07]
Danielle Moody
Week two.
- [68:08]
Andy Levy
Week two.
- [68:09]
Danielle Moody
Happy anniversary. We're doing it. We're so in it now. So this person is not new to the hall of Fuck that guy fame. As a matter of fact, she's pretty much a regular. But, you know, for people who like to dismiss Marjorie Taylor Greene because she's an idiot, because she says the most outrageous things, but she did say something that was very smart many years ago, where she said that she was not the fringe of the Republican Party, she was a main actor and her ideology was going to be mainstreamed in the Republican Party. She said that years ago, and we all scoffed, and she was Absolutely right. So now Marjorie Taylor Greene, along with other Republicans inside of Georgia and inside of the MAGA party, are working to try and get Derek Chauvin, the former disgraced police officer who murdered George Floyd in broad daylight by placing his knee on his neck and suffocating him in front of bystanders and in front of the world for over nine minutes. They are calling for his release and calling for Donald Trump to give him a pardon. I want to remind folks that in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic, before we had vaccines, it was this murder that was on everyone's screens and caused such an outrage and uprising because we were all home, while most of those of us that were privileged to be home were home and watching our screens intently, waiting on any type of news. And all collectively saw this happen. Yeah, it spawned the largest protest in this country and around the world because everyone saw the naked truth of what white nationalism, white supremacy, literally does by having its knee on the necks of black people and people of color in this country. Marjorie Taylor Greene is now on a campaign, along with Elon Musk and others inside of MAGA that want Derek Chauvin released. I'm pretty sure that maybe they would like to make him a deputy to Pete Hegseth in the fucking Pentagon, because this is where these people go. You commit murder and you're a Republican or a white nationalist, you either are Shiloh Hendricks and you raise nearly a million dollars from racists. You're Kyle Rittenhouse and you get front row seating at the rnc. You're Daniel Penney and you get a job at a law firm. Right. Like, this is the track record and the path to success for maga. It is sickening. It is depraved. I would not be surprised if it happens. And so for that reason and so many other fucking reasons, Marjorie Taylor Greene and the entirety of MAGA that is pushing for this monster's release is my. Fuck that guy.
- [71:16]
Andy Levy
Yeah. And, you know, shout out to Tim Walls, the Governor of Minnesota, who basically said. He said, look, I haven't heard anything about Donald Trump planning to pardon Chauvin. But he said if he does, if he said if he issues that pardon, we will simply transfer Derek Chauvin to serve out his 22 and a half years in prison in Minnesota. So good for him for coming out and saying that. And I have absolutely no doubt that he would follow through on that. But the idea that it's even being talked about and the idea that it's being talked about by people who are sitting in Congress is just. It's so gross. It's so disgusting. I think it was mtg. She tweeted that she wanted Chauvin pardoned and then she said George Floyd died of a drug overdose. No, he didn't. He absolutely did not. She's lying, which is what she always does. She's making shit up. And yeah, so yeah, fuck that guy.
- [72:19]
Paige DeSorbo
This is Paige, the co host of Giggly Squad. I use Uber Eats for everything and I feel like people forget that you can truly order anything, especially living in New York City. It's why I love it. You can get Chinese food at any time of night. But it's not just for food. I order from CVS all the time. I'm always ordering from the grocery store. If a friend stops over, I have to order champagne. I also have this thing that whenever I travel, if I'm ever in a hotel room, I never feel like I'm missing something because I'll just Uber Eats it. The amount of times I've had to Uber eats hair items like hairspray, deodorant, you name it, I've ordered it. On Ubereats. You can get grocery alcohol everyday essentials in addition to restaurants and food you love. So in other words, get almost anything with Uber Eats. Order now for alcohol you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.
- [73:19]
Andy Levy
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- [73:44]
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- [73:45]
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