“COVID-19 Virus Was Created In An AMERICAN Lab!” – Jeffrey Sachs

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Jimmy Dore Show – “COVID-19 Virus Was Created In An AMERICAN Lab!” with Jeffrey Sachs Release Date: May 7, 2025

Overview In this compelling episode of The Jimmy Dore Show, host Jimmy Dore delves into two major discussions. Initially, he engages in a humorous and satirical conversation with actor Alec Baldwin about Baldwin's upcoming film, "Rust." The episode then transitions into a heated and controversial analysis of the origins of COVID-19, featuring expert Jeffrey Sachs. The discussion further explores the implications of recent U.S. tariffs on African nations, featuring insights from Libyan political figure Musa Ibrahim. Throughout, Dore challenges mainstream narratives, presenting alternative theories and critiquing established institutions.

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1. Alec Baldwin's Promotion of "Rust" ([01:21] – [06:12])

The episode opens with a playful and critical interaction between Jimmy Dore and actor Alec Baldwin. Baldwin calls in to promote his new film, Rust, a gritty Western that has garnered mixed reviews and controversy due to a tragic on-set accident. Dore humorously critiques Baldwin's press pitch, highlighting the difficulty of marketing the film amidst its production troubles.

Notable Quotes:

• Alec Baldwin ([02:16]): "We made a movie. It has budgets, investors, bonds, just like anything else."
• Jimmy Dore ([05:00]): "I think you need to come to terms with the fact that the only reason anyone is going to see this movie is because of what happened. Pure morbid interest."

This segment serves as both a comedic relief and a critique of Hollywood's handling of public relations crises.

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2. The Controversial Origins of COVID-19 with Jeffrey Sachs ([06:27] – [32:24])

2.1. Jeffrey Sachs' Claim on COVID-19 Origins ([07:26] – [14:47])

Jeffrey Sachs presents a provocative assertion that COVID-19 originated from the University of North Carolina (UNC), challenging the widely accepted theory of its origins in Wuhan, China. He claims extensive U.S. government involvement in manipulating the virus, suggesting that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered as part of a biodefense program.

Notable Quotes:

• Jeffrey Sachs ([07:26]): "My view, based on very extensive work over the last four and a half years, is that Covid came from the University of North Carolina... it's been hidden from view."
• Jimmy Dore ([08:13]): "I'll tell you a sad truth, also a little surprising. And I have to admit what I'm about to tell you is only 99% sure."

Sachs emphasizes the lack of global governance to control such dangerous pathogen manipulations and points to significant death tolls attributed to the virus.

2.2. Critique of Established Institutions and Figures ([14:47] – [32:24])

Jimmy Dore and co-host Kurt Metzger engage in a fervent debate, scrutinizing the roles of prominent figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Ralph Baric. They accuse the NIH and CDC of funding gain-of-function research that allegedly led to the creation of COVID-19. Dore criticizes mainstream media for suppressing these claims and portrays Fauci as a deceitful figure who has lied to Congress multiple times.

Notable Quotes:

• Jimmy Dore ([11:40]): "This is a big claim. So of course it's never. So a lot of people are scared that he's calling for global governance to stop."
• Jeffrey Sachs ([09:42]): "It's never properly investigated. It's covered up. It's hidden from view."
• Jimmy Dore ([12:44]): "They just made it up by Tony Fauci... they know if you did your own research... you would find out that they were lying about everything."

The conversation delves into conspiracy theories surrounding the pandemic's origins, presenting a narrative that challenges official reports and mainstream scientific consensus.

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3. Impact of Trump's Tariffs on African Economies with Musa Ibrahim ([46:58] – [60:36])

In a shift from the COVID-19 debate, Dore discusses the economic repercussions of former President Donald Trump's tariffs on African nations. Featuring insights from Musa Ibrahim, a former Libyan Information Minister, the discussion highlights the severe impact of these tariffs on African exports and the broader economic landscape.

Key Points:

• Tariff Details: 51 African countries face a baseline of 10% tariffs, with 22 countries subjected to up to 50% tariffs on goods like denim, diamonds, and vanilla.
• Economic Consequences: Increased costs for U.S. consumers, disrupted global supply chains, job losses in textiles and apparel sectors, and heightened inflation in African nations.
• Response and Adaptation: Encouragement for regional integration within Africa to mitigate reliance on external markets. A strategic pivot towards trading partners like China and India is highlighted as a viable alternative.
• Africom's Role: Musa Ibrahim criticizes the U.S. Africa Command (Africom) for its military presence aimed at ensuring American access to Africa's natural resources, rather than fostering genuine economic partnerships.

Notable Quotes:

• Musa Ibrahim ([48:15]): "The only sector that actually survives this... is the subsistence sector. Shepherds, fishers, people who work in local industries, artisans..."
• Kurt Metzger ([54:51]): "This is exactly what is happening... countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Uganda are turning completely to China and India."

Ibrahim underscores the resilience of Africa's subsistence economy and advocates for strengthening internal trade networks to achieve economic justice and reduce exploitation by Western financial centers.

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Conclusion

This episode of The Jimmy Dore Show presents a blend of satire, conspiracy-laden discussions, and geopolitical analysis. Jimmy Dore challenges established narratives around major global events, questioning the integrity of influential institutions and advocating for alternative viewpoints. The conversation with Jeffrey Sachs ventures into contentious theories about the origins of COVID-19, while the economic discussion with Musa Ibrahim sheds light on the adverse effects of U.S. policies on African economies and the continent's strategic responses. Throughout, Dore emphasizes skepticism towards mainstream media and advocates for independent research to uncover hidden truths.

Key Takeaways:

• Skepticism of Official Narratives: The episode encourages listeners to question mainstream explanations of significant events, advocating for deeper investigation and alternative theories.
• Critique of Institutional Integrity: There is a strong focus on exposing perceived corruptions and lies within major health and governmental institutions.
• Geopolitical Shifts in Africa: The discussion highlights Africa's strategic moves towards forming stronger economic ties with non-Western powers to counteract detrimental external policies.

Listeners unfamiliar with the episode will gain insight into Jimmy Dore's perspective on significant global issues, marked by his signature blend of humor, criticism, and advocacy for progressive change.

Transcript

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[Jimmy Dore]

Come see us on tour. We're going to be in Buffalo, New York, Toledo, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Glasgow, Manchester, Belfast, Dublin, Liverpool, Birmingham and London. Go to jimmy dore.com for a link for tickets. Hey, this is Jimmy. Who's this?

[Alec Baldwin]

Jimmy, this is actor, husband, father and eldest brother of siblings Alec Baldwin.

[Jimmy Dore]

Oh, Alec Baldwin. Thanks for calling. How are you, Jimmy?

[Alec Baldwin]

As I'm sure you know from watching my family's joyfully chaotic reality show, I did watch Baldwin on tlc. Yes, My life is one goddamn thing after another.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes.

[Alec Baldwin]

And I wouldn't change any part of it.

[Jimmy Dore]

No part? You wouldn't change any part of your life?

[Alec Baldwin]

Nothing that comes to mind.

[Jimmy Dore]

Ah.

[Alec Baldwin]

As you can see from the show, I'm surrounded by love and support.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes.

[Alec Baldwin]

Which is how I interpret my wife being a big old bee to me all the time.

[Jimmy Dore]

I'm sorry, Alex, I don't watch your reality show on tlc.

[Alec Baldwin]

Yes, well, there's a lot of that going around. Yeah, but if you're not interested in my reality TV show, perhaps there is another project of mine I could interest you in.

[Jimmy Dore]

Oh, what's that?

[Alec Baldwin]

I'm excited to say my new film, Rust is opening in theaters nationwide this Friday, May.

[Jimmy Dore]

You have got to be kidding me.

[Alec Baldwin]

Jimmy, I am as serious as a fatal onset accident. This gritty western pits.

[Jimmy Dore]

Is this. Is this why you're calling? You're literally doing press for Rust.

[Alec Baldwin]

Well, someone has to. Yeah, pretty much everyone else involved has abandoned it like an incest baby. The writer director recently told the Guardian, I wish I had never written this movie. Thanks, Paul. Much appreciated.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Alec Baldwin]

What a friend. Fantastic PR strategy. Personal regret.

[Jimmy Dore]

Not gonna get butts and Seats, for sure.

[Alec Baldwin]

He's just sore about the whole thing.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Alec Baldwin]

No, literally. He's still doing rehab to regain motion after being shot with a bullet during an onset mishap.

[Jimmy Dore]

What kind of mishap?

[Alec Baldwin]

I'm not at liberty to discuss that. What I am at liberty to discuss is that in this modern Western noir, which critics have hailed, an honest look at the flawed human soul, I play fallen hero Harlan Rust.

[Jimmy Dore]

Wait, that's your character's name, Rust? That's why the movie's called that?

[Alec Baldwin]

Yes. Jimmy.

[Jimmy Dore]

Oh, my.

[Alec Baldwin]

Let's just. Yeah, let's just get on with this, shall we? Let me do my little pitch and I'll let you go and call into Bob and Tom.

[Jimmy Dore]

I. I guess I never really thought about the fact that there would inevitably be a time where this movie Rust would be released and promoted like any other movie.

[Alec Baldwin]

It has to be done, Jimmy. We made a movie. It has budgets, investors, bonds, just like anything else. Everyone involved with this picture has a fiduciary duty to promote it and make money. And I seem to be the only one taking that fucking duty seriously.

[Jimmy Dore]

Must be a burden, Jimmy.

[Alec Baldwin]

Sometimes it feels like the weight of the world is on my shoulders.

[Jimmy Dore]

I imagine so. Anyways. Go on.

[Alec Baldwin]

Thank you. As I was saying, I play Harland Rust and a man in the Old West, a man whose past is as mysterious as his future is uncertain, who knows not whether to fight his fate or to simply embrace it. This is falling flat, isn't it?

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, I'm afraid so. Alec? Yeah.

[Alec Baldwin]

Goddammit, Jimmy, this is impossible. People associate this movie with one thing and one thing only.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Alec Baldwin]

Here I am like a big fat idiot trying to sell it by talking about everything except that thing.

[Jimmy Dore]

Well, maybe that's the problem.

[Alec Baldwin]

What do you mean, Jimmy?

[Jimmy Dore]

Well, I think you need to come to terms with the fact that the only reason anyone is going to see this movie is because of what happened. Pure morbid interest.

[Alec Baldwin]

I see. You mean I should exploit that tragedy for financial gain? Do you really think I've sunk that far? Jimmy, how long have we known each other?

[Jimmy Dore]

Are you currently exploiting your own family for a reality TV show?

[Alec Baldwin]

Point taken. Perhaps you're right. A movie most famous for its disastrous production must be promoted based on that disaster. Rust is like Waterworld without the water.

[Jimmy Dore]

Exactly, Alec.

[Alec Baldwin]

Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you for setting my head straight on this. I'll get right on it. It will have a viral astroturfed campaign without my fingerprints on it. I'll start. Subreddits called Rustheads gin up support for opening night call. May 2nd St. Armorer's Day. Get really fucking grim with it. But fuck it, we need to make at least 75% back.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's the spirit, Alec.

[Alec Baldwin]

Will you be seeing it, Jimmy?

[Jimmy Dore]

Well, I'll talk to Steph and maybe see that's a no.

[Alec Baldwin]

No worries old friend. There's always man cow. Until next time, Jimmy. As my wife Ilaria would say. Adios Miyamichi.

[Kurt Metzger]

Establishment media sucks. August lighting so good luck.

[Jimmy Dore]

Bullshit we can't afford why he's fomenting this.

[Kurt Metzger]

Watch and see as his jack golf.

[Jimmy Dore]

The medium speeds and jumps the medium and hits him head on. It's the chimney to show.

[Jeffrey Sachs]

But my view, based on very extensive work over the last four and a half years, is that Covid came from the University of North Carolina, which is the leading researcher on beta coronaviruses, working with the US government on a set of grant proposals that identified putting in the viral change that created SARS CoV2. It's a grim truth. It's ugly. It's been hidden from view.

[Jimmy Dore]

You know we've been telling you that there wasn't a thing. They didn't lie to you about COVID They lied about masks. They lied about herd immunity, natural immunity. They lied about the vaccine stopping transmission. They lied about the vaccine stopping contraction. They lied. They tried to bury the vaccine trial data for 75 years. They got rid of the placebo group, which you're not supposed to do in science. They lied about where the. Where the virus came from. They lied about funding the virus. Well guess what? Now Jeffrey Sachs is telling us that it wasn't actually invented in China. Jeffrey Sachs was, by the way. Remember he was the head of the Lancet. Of the Lancet Study Group to. To study Covid and the virus. Where it came from. So now he's saying this.

[Jeffrey Sachs]

I'll tell you a sad truth, also a little surprising. And I have to admit what I'm about to tell you is only 99% sure. But my view, based on very extensive work over the last four years and a half years, is that Covid came from the University of North Carolina, which is the leading researcher on beta coronaviruses, working with the US government on a set of grant proposals that identified putting in the viral change that created SARS CoV2. It's a grim truth. It's ugly. It's been hidden from view. The reason I mention it in this context is we don't have any global governance that is effective right now to control the manipulation of dangerous pathogens like the Manipulation that created the pandemic. And when it happened, and officially it took 7 million deaths. But probably, if you count all of the deaths associated with COVID it was probably closer to 20 million deaths. Even when that.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, I can't believe that he still quotes that statistic. We know that they were counting. They were over counting those deaths. They were saying people who died with COVID died from COVID And we know that's not true. So we know. So I'm kind of surprised he's still. He's still quoting that. That's a. That's a shocker to me.

[Kurt Metzger]

By the way, dying with COVID was the whole point of designing and releasing Covid. People that would die with COVID would do that. It's not an accident. Oh, it accidentally got out in Wuhan and for Dietrich. Yeah, they both had oopsie butterfingers. No, that's planned. And the guy that told me about the Taliban having the lithium triangle in it, and his info was good. He told me the deal in China is they've got that population bomb of old people that they can't take care of because they don't have kids to replace them and they don't do immigrants. So they need to get. They need to soft kill. Just like in America where we don't want to pay Social Security. That means how I take that is just my personal how I take it. Foushee and a coalition of whoever is in the universities with China, they both released at the same time because the plan was to get rid of some.

[Jimmy Dore]

Extra excess population with COVID Now that's Kurt's theory. And I am past the point where I discount anybody's theory on Covid or anything that the government has said in the last 20 years. Because it's been nothing but lies, lies and lies, starting at 911 and going right through every war, going right through Libya, right through the meltdown, right through everything. Right, right through Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan for 20 years. The COVID everything about COVID So if you can think it, there's a good chance it's true, is what I'm saying. But I'm surprised he still quotes that number. Let me just see what else he has to say here.

[Jeffrey Sachs]

Happens. It's never properly investigated. It's covered up. It's hidden from view.

[Jimmy Dore]

This is a big claim.

[Kurt Metzger]

Is the first time I hear.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes, it's a big claim. So of course it's never. So a lot of people are scared that he's calling for global governance to stop. I don't think he wants the world's governments to agree to stop doing gain of function. I don't think he's advocating for the global governments to come together and start a World Health Organization. I don't think he's doing that. I think he's saying, hey, let's have a world treaty to stop gain of function. I'm on board with that. He's right about that. But this is not new news. And my question to Jeffrey Sachs, who's a friend of the show and an amazing guy just in general on world politics, my question to him, I wish that guy would have asked him, when did you figure this out? How long have you known this? Because Redfield, this is the former CDC director. He was the CDC director under Trump for a little while.

[Kurt Metzger]

He.

[Jimmy Dore]

He said this last year. Last year, I think, in November on this podcast.

[Kurt Metzger]

Who else?

[Jimmy Dore]

China said it and China said. China's been saying that, by the way.

[Kurt Metzger]

We were telling the truth. They were telling the truth.

[Jimmy Dore]

China's been telling the truth. That. No. It was created at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill by Ralph Barrick. And here, this is what he says. Watch.

[Unnamed Expert]

This virus was engineered. I think it was intentionally engineered as a part of a biodefense program.

[Jimmy Dore]

What was the US role? So when they say biodefense, they mean it wasn't created for defense. It was created to be a weapon. And. And then they create the vaccine to. So it was created as a weapon not to defend ourselves from someone else. It was a weapon to attack people. And then they create a vaccine so they could give it to our people who are fighting. So that's what that's all about. But anyway, so she asked him this question in that I think it was.

[Unnamed Expert]

Substantial and this is why.

[Jimmy Dore]

What was the role of the US in creating this?

[Unnamed Expert]

You know, when you look at the accountability for China, their accountability is not in the lab work and the creation of the virus. Their accountability is not following the international health regulations after they realized that they had a problem. And allowing people like me at CDC to come in and to help them within 48 hours, like they were obligated to, based on the treaty. But the US Role was substantial. One is they funded the research, both from nih, the State Department, USAID and the Defense Department, all four of those agencies have. Helps fund this research. Secondly, the scientific mastermind behind this research is a guy named Ralph Barrick at the University of North Carolina. And he was very involved in this research. I think he probably helped create some of the original borrow lines, but I can't prove that, but he was very involved.

[Jimmy Dore]

Some have said that they are concerned that it was actually developed here and China was framed. Is that possible?

[Unnamed Expert]

I don't know if they're afraid, but I think there is a real possibility that the virus birthplace was Chapel Hill.

[Jimmy Dore]

So he was saying that last year and we see. We need to ask him if Fort Detrick is the source of the pandemic. In summer 2019, an epidemic of an unknown respiratory disease spread across the United States when the CDC abruptly shut down Fort Detrick for serious safety violations. And this is from Global Biodefense. Reacher Taulted. The US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, the only biosafety level 4 laboratory in the Department of Defense, has ceased research operations on high risk pathogens after failing to meet. So that was when a lot of people were getting sick. These respiratory viruses. And they go, oh, it's, it's. Remember they said it was from vapes. And a lot of people, a lot of people speculate. I'm like, why would it just happen in that area? Why would people be getting sick from the vapes just there? People are using vapes all over the world. Why just right around Fort Detrick? So then they shut it down. And of course you were lied to about that. And so here, you know how Jimmy.

[Kurt Metzger]

If you got, if you do vape and you drop your vape on the ground and you get something in there.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Kurt Metzger]

You're inhaling it into your lungs, so it's kind of you. But it wouldn't just be everywhere because a virus is loose in the area where you dropped your feet.

[Jimmy Dore]

So the Carolina journal, the former CDC director claims that COVID 19 emanated from you. This is from last November. At the time, UNC Board of Governors Chairman Randy Ramsey said Dr. Barrack has provided life saving coronavirus treatment options for the people of our state, our nation and the world. But rumblings of Barrick's possible involvement in the virus's creation have been circulating almost since its known beginnings. Before we go, before we go on, Malcolm, can you find that when Ryan Paul questioned Fauci and he said, are you funding gain of function research? And he said no. And he said, are you doing it in Ralph Barrack at the University of North Carolina? And he said no, but if we are, it's being done according to regulations. Do you remember that? Could you find that video? We've used it before, but I don't know what. So take a. See if you can find it. And of course, cut this out. But the Rumblings of Barrick's possible involvement in the virus's creation have been circulating since almost since its known beginning. But you guessed. You're never going to hear that on msnbc, cnn, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Fox News.

[Kurt Metzger]

You don't want him to be cyberbullied.

[Jimmy Dore]

Jimmy Barrack has been researching coronavirus for three decades. So for 30 years he's been doing this work. Barrack was named in different conspiracy theories. That's according to the Carolina Journal. Conspiracy theories? You mean conspiracy facts that it wasn't a wet market.

[Kurt Metzger]

Do we have a wet market in Raleigh?

[Jimmy Dore]

Barrick was named in different conspiracy theories after a 2015 paper he co authored with many other scientists, including one associated with the Wuhan Lab, which showed that coronaviruses and bats could directly infect humans rather than evolving in another animal. First. This first theory that emerged about the origins of COVID 19 was that it first appeared in a bat form a wet market in China. Because that was a lie they just made. It wasn't a theory. That was a lie. That was made up by Tony Foushee. Tony, the science, it was made up. He gave an $8 million grant to the scientists that he sent to China to find out about the virus. And they originally reported back, yeah, it looks 100% like it came from a lab. And he said, hey, here's $8 million. Say it came from a wet market. And that's what happened. So this wasn't a theory. There wasn't a theory. There was no theory that emerged. So this is why you can't trust corporate newspapers. That wasn't a. It wasn't. Yeah, it just emerged out of nowhere. A crack in the earth opened up and then this theory came out.

[Kurt Metzger]

Like a biogenesis, life from nothing.

[Jimmy Dore]

The first theory. No, it was the lie that was pushed by Tony Fauci, by Anthony Collins, the. The entire medical profession, including the medical journals. You always think medical journals are beyond reproach. No, they're all run by criminals who take bribes. That's why. That's why they told you, don't do your own research. Because they knew if you did do your own research and you looked into it for a second, you would find out that they were lying about everything and that the whole medical system is completely corrupt. Completely. You couldn't get. They wouldn't allow you to get Ivermectin, which is available over the counter in other countries, including Mexico. They wouldn't allow Walgreens to give it out or they were threatening them. Yeah, that's how corrupt the United States is. So. And the people in the United States don't know, because the people in the United States are so stupid. They have no idea that when they turn on the TV news or read the Washington Post or that they're being lied to, that they're being propagandized. They don't know that they're the most propagandized people in the entire world. People in China are propagandized. Do you know the difference? They froze. Know it. They know they're being propaganda. People in North Korea are being propagandized. You know the difference? They know it. The people in the United States have no idea. And that's how you know it's really good propaganda. Because they don't know it's propaganda.

[Kurt Metzger]

Yeah, they don't know they were propagand.

[Jimmy Dore]

What? They don't. Propaganda is about ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, steroids, early treatments. They were propagandized about mass, the virus, the vaccine, along COVID lockdowns, social distancing. It was all propaganda. And you bought it. And you still see fricking people walking around today with. With masks.

[Kurt Metzger]

Right? Well, I think there is a health directive for fat people who work at the airport too.

[Jimmy Dore]

There is, definitely. Yeah. The first. So that wasn't a theory. The first theory did not emerge about the origins of COVID out of the.

[Kurt Metzger]

Mouth of a liar.

[Jimmy Dore]

It didn't emerge. It was a lie concocted by Anthony Fauci. That's why he got a blanket pardon going back to 2014. Oh, my God. This guy wrote a paper in 2015 all about it. I wonder why his pardon goes all the way back to 2014. Is that because that's when the United States overthrew the democratically elected government in Ukraine and we started opening up Bio Labs like McDonald's over there in Ukraine. You think that's it? So we could create bioweapons under the direction of Tony Fauci, who was the head of the bioweapon program for darpa, which is the Pentagon.

[Kurt Metzger]

Wait, Jimmy Obama said you can't do that no more. Does that mean that Ralph Barrack was doing it and it was still being done in America too?

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes, that's what that means.

[Kurt Metzger]

Awesome.

[Jimmy Dore]

Awesome. In 2021, Barrack signed onto an open letter that appeared in Science to demanding an investigation into the origins of COVID I demand to find out where the gambling's happening in this casino.

[Kurt Metzger]

It's more of a dare than a demand. Yeah, I dare you. To try to investigate this and see.

[Jimmy Dore]

Where you get to. That same year, US Senator Rand Paul also pointed the finger at Barrack at a congressional hearing. For years, Dr. Ralph Barrack, a virologist at the University at the United States, has been collaborating with Dr. Xi Zhengli of the Wuhan Virology Institute, sharing his discoveries about how to create super viruses. Rand Paul said that. We've played that video on this show. He said that. He said that to Anthony Fauci in the Senate in a Senate hearing. And then Anthony Fauci lied to him. So that's the third time I caught Anthony Fauci lying to Congress. And of course, he has a blanket pardon now, so he'll never have to face prosecution over it. That's why they pardoned him, because he lied to Congress on three different occasions.

[Kurt Metzger]

Jimmy, you're just cherry picking all the times he lied.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, just. This gain of. This is what. This gain of function research has been funded by the nih. The implication was clear. Intentionally or unwittingly, it was intentional. Ralph Barrick was complicit in the creation of SARS CoV 2. Notwithstanding the total lack of evidence.

[Kurt Metzger]

Wait, so you see the connections to China that they all have? So that's usaid, the CIA, darba, Fauci, all of them have deep relations to China. Coming up with bioweapons to soft kill their old people. That's what I think. I think it looks pretty obvious.

[Jimmy Dore]

Personally, that's Kurt's personal theory. I cannot confirm or deny that theory. Any theory deserves complete. You should entertain all theories because the stuff that we already know is true is crazier than any theory. I could ever hear someone make up.

[Kurt Metzger]

Two and two in front of your.

[Jimmy Dore]

Face too soon after Ralph Barrick gain of function became a popular online search phrase and included online threats.

[Kurt Metzger]

Oh, bullying.

[Jimmy Dore]

As the guy's creating viruses that are killing millions of people, they're worried that that guy who did that might get a threat.

[Kurt Metzger]

Wow, I had a mandated bioweapon put in me.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, that's all you had. I feel threatened. He later told MIT Review we never created a super virus. Another lie that's a figment of Rand Paul's imagination and obviously being used for political advancement. So that's what they do. They try to discredit anybody who's onto them and they call them conspiracy theories for political advancement.

[Kurt Metzger]

If Rand Paul somehow gets these scumbags the punishment they deserve, Put him on.

[Jimmy Dore]

I'll make a president.

[Kurt Metzger]

Yeah, erase the other president. Just put him. Yeah, just Rand Paul advance him politically. If he. Anyone that could bring these assholes to justice, please advance them politically.

[Jimmy Dore]

Listen to how this newspaper reports. At the Carolina Journal, Rand Paul, who also had a beef with Dr. Anthony Fauci. You mean he also exposed Dr. Anthony Fauci for lying to Congress? You mean that kind of a beef where he asked him a question and then Anthony Fauci lied to Congress about the dangerous research they were doing? I mean, not research, experiments. Crazy nutty scientist research.

[Kurt Metzger]

So, Jimmy, this beef isn't a nothing burger.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. Former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease had also criticized gain of function research which Baric uses.

[Kurt Metzger]

I'm sorry, I thought they don't do that.

[Jimmy Dore]

And yeah, I thought they didn't do that. This research involves experiments that alter viruses or other organisms, genetic makeup to gain new abilities or functions in viruses. This can mean making them more transmissible or perhaps more deadly, or both. Which is exactly what they did.

[Kurt Metzger]

I wonder if that had something to.

[Jimmy Dore]

Do with COVID I wonder. In 2014, the federal government put a moratorium on some gain of function research. But Baric's work was not banned.

[Kurt Metzger]

So they didn't go around Obama. Obama's in on it.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right. Here comes the big one. Let's see if this will play. And then use this man made super virus to infect human airway cells. Think about that for a moment. The SARS virus had a 15% mortality. We're fighting a pandemic that has about a 1% mortality. Can you imagine if a SARS virus that's been juiced up and had viral proteins added to it to the spike protein, if that were released accidentally? Dr. Fauci, do you still support funding of the NIH? Funding of the lab in Wuhan? Senator Paul, with all due respect, you are entirely and completely incorrect that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute. Do they find Dr. Baric? We do. They fund Dr. Baric at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Now here. So here. Now this is the third time Dr. Fauci lied to Congress. The second time. I just showed you the first time. Rand Paul quoted in that video. Here's the third time. Hey, are you guys funding Dr. The gain of function Dr. Barracks doing here it is. Full due respect, you are entirely and completely incorrect that the NIH has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute. Do they fund Dr. Barrett? We do not fund. You fund Dr. Baric's gain of function research. Dr. Barrett does not doing gain of function research. And if it is, it's according to the guidelines and it is being conducted in North Carolina. There it is. He's not doing it. But if he is doing it, it's doing according to the guideline well, which is so right there in North Carolina. And he said it right there. He said in North Carolina. He goes, Dr. Barrack is. He's not doing gain of function, but if he is, it's being done according to guideline well, which is it? Is he doing gain of function or not? And that didn't make the news. You know what part did make the news where Fauci goes, you don't know what you're talking about. But of course not that part. Not the part where he obviously is lying and obviously contradicted himself. You know who caught it? A jagoff. C student nightclub comedian caught it on YouTube, which is why that my channel is now considered borderline content. Because I told the truth about COVID which is why 95% of my old friends in Hollywood don't talk to me anymore. Because I told the truth about COVID And they're lemmings. And they're. At least they're not corrupt like the. Like the news is. The news didn't cover this because they're corrupt. They're all corrupt. They're all corrupt. Sean Hannity's corrupt. Anderson Cooper's corrupt. Rachel Maddow, Chris. Chris Hayes, the nerd, fake tough guy. Lawrence O'Donnell, Wolf Blitzer. Of course we know that Fredo Cuomo is corrupt. We only know that Don Lemon was corrupt. Of course they're all corrupt. Meaning they're paid off to lie to you. And they didn't talk about this. I knew about this. I was able to find it in 30 seconds as I'm hosting a show. You don't. But they're never going to show this on the news. They won't show it tonight in the news. After Trump bans gain of function, they're going to make it look like Trump is being anti science. I guarantee you that's how it's going to be covered tonight on the news.

[Kurt Metzger]

Aren't you amazed how not classified the plots are? They're not conspiracy because they're not classified. You can find them. You're just not gonna.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes, don't do your own research. That's why they didn't want you to do your own research, because you would find out that Dr. Fauci, the government, was creating a bioweapon called COVID 19 and they were doing it at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Now we have the guy who was the lead guy for the Lancet study group to figure out where the virus came from. And we have the former CDC director saying it came from Ralph Barrack at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. And we have Dr. Fauci completely contradicting himself on incentive testimony, which is a felony. But that's why he needed a blanket pardon. I guarantee you they're going to cover. I can't wait to see how they cover Trump's executive order ban and gain of function. You know, they're going to call it conspiracy theory. They're going to show him saying, oh, he said he put bleach. He didn't say any of that stuff. Trump has a lot of flaws. It's amazing that. But. But the problem is that the establishment and Trump agree on the worst things. So they have to make up stuff about Trump. Isn't it amazing Trump has a lot of flaws. You don't have to make up stuff to criticize him. Yet they do. ABC News had to pay him $15 million because they lied about him and they're going to lie about. They lied about them. The both people find people on both sides. That was a total lie. They lied when he said you have to inject bleach to fight. That was a total lie. They're lied. There wasn't a thing they haven't lied about. Russiagate, 100% lie and everything they said. But there it is. I want. Do you want to play? I'll play it again. This is, this is one of the most remarkable pieces of video that surround Covid that I've ever seen. And nobody else talked about it. I didn't see another YouTuber. Maybe Kim Iverson talked about it. Maybe I don't no other. They still don't talk about it to this day.

[Kurt Metzger]

If I had to bet Richard Grove's pretty thorough. He picks up this show a lot on his channel.

[Jimmy Dore]

Oh, no kidding.

[Kurt Metzger]

My rabbi. Yeah, he's great. Grand Theft World, Great pod. It tells you everything about everything.

[Jimmy Dore]

Has not ever and does not now fund gain of function research in the Wuhan Institute. Do they fund Dr. Barrack? We do not fund. You fund Dr. Baric's gain of function research. Dr. Barrett does not doing gain of function research. And if it is, it's according to the guidelines and it is being conducted in North Carolina. You don't think concerning a bat virus spike protein that he got from the Wuhan Institute. Do you see the guy behind him? That's his. That's his aide laughing. Because they know they just got Fauci lying. But of course, nothing's going to happen.

[Kurt Metzger]

Well, I think they got him telling the truth because he said, it's in North Carolina.

[Jimmy Dore]

Oh, that's right. But he lied first. He lied first and said, no, we're not funding it.

[Kurt Metzger]

What a great point.

[Jimmy Dore]

And then he said, but if we are funding it, he's doing it correctly. What?

[Kurt Metzger]

Yeah. Where the sleight of hand was to keep you focused on China this whole time.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yes.

[Kurt Metzger]

It's really. You gotta give them credit for this, like, little.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Kurt Metzger]

Pony show, because it was very effective.

[Jimmy Dore]

And isn't it amazing the people who are still shitting their pants about COVID which they are. They're out there. They're all over the place. I know people look at any evidence.

[Kurt Metzger]

About it because they become comfortable shitting their pants.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right. And they like to. They like to shit their pants over it. And then I asked them the next logical question. So if you're still wearing a mask when you go out to concerts, you're still wearing a mask. And when you go into the airport, you're still wearing a. And you're still deathly afraid of COVID and you're still getting your boosters, wouldn't you be angry at the guy we now know created that virus that you say killed millions and millions and millions of people? That's more people than Hitler killed. But wait, why aren't. But they're not mad at him. They're not angry at the guy who invented the virus that they're still shitting their pants about on a daily basis? They're not angry. Why would. Wouldn't it be logical that they would be angry at the guy who created the virus that has completely dominated their life for the last five years and they say killed millions of people, but they're not. They don't ever do that. They never go, oh, my God, this virus is deadly. I have to wear a mask 24 hours a day. I have to take my boosters and that and that. But they. Then they'll go, oh, and the guy who made it should be in jail. They never do that. Why do you think that is, Kurt?

[Kurt Metzger]

Okay, because all your friends that don't talk about it, these are people. Because old scenes lie. Nerds. And it's programmed into them from childhood. They're more afraid of being mistaken or wrong, because in their world, there's no forgiveness for that. That's like you're bad and you're out. So having to admit you're wrong is way worse than wearing a mask forever and living in fear. I mean, that's a fact. You know, these people I know in person being wrong, they would never forgive you for being well, they won't forgive you being right.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's it.

[Kurt Metzger]

But if you made a mistake and they could catch you in it, they would never let go of it. So that applies to them too. So they'll do this forever.

[Jimmy Dore]

So now we know it was invented right here in the United States at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

[Kurt Metzger]

So we do make things in this country.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, we can still make stuff. We can make bombs and viruses. Anything that has to do with the bio with the Pentagon, we can do that. Anything that has to do. We have a death economy in the.

[Kurt Metzger]

United States, not hypersonic missiles.

[Jimmy Dore]

Somehow Iran, somehow we can't make hypersonic missiles.

[Kurt Metzger]

Somehow maybe this trillion dollar budget will help us catch up to Iran.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah. Hey, you know, here's another great way you can help support the show is you become a premium member. We give you a couple of hours of premium bonus content every week and it's a great way to help support the show. You can do it by going to jimmy door comedy.com Clicking on join Premium. It's the most affordable premium program in the business and it's a great way to help put your thumb back in the eye of the bastards. Thanks for everybody who was already a premium member and if you haven't, you're missing out. We give you lots of bonus content. Thanks for your support. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you joy over paying, no judgments. But that's weird. Okay, one judgment. Anyway, give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of 45 for.

[Ritual Marketing Team]

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. See full terms@mint mobile.com Nobody voted for this.

[Jimmy Dore]

Nobody voted for him to do a war with Iran. Nobody voted for him to give more money to Israel. Nobody voted for him to give to do a war with the Houthis. Nobody voted for any of this stuff. Nobody voted for him to curtail our freedom of speech at the behest of a protected class of Jewish people called Zionists, the most powerful people in the country. No They're a protected class. I'm not going to bury the lead. Donald Trump is trying to increase the military budget like $160 billion. Do you realize how much money that is? You know the difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars? About a billion dollars. So here's Steve Bannon saying, remember, Doge is going to save all this money. We're going to balance the budget, we're going to save all this money. They're getting rid of USAID and Ned, but the real money is in the Pentagon. And this is what Steve Bannon had to say about it. And first off, they will not go across the Potomac, which they have to do. Across the Potomac means to the Pentagon, to get to the Pentagon to start to see where cuts are going to come from and where, where waste, fraud and abuse is. It just has to happen. You're not an adult in Washington D.C. and trying to take on the people that run the Imperial Capital if you're not prepared to do that. So if you're not prepared to go and audit the Pentagon and cut their ways, fraud and abuse, you're not a grown up adult and you're not real. And so that's what all this Doge was. Doge was a smokescreen to make you think they were. Guess who else is a big defense contractor? One of the biggest, Elon Musk. So he's cutting all that money. And what did they do with that money? Well, they gave it to the Pentagon. So all the money that Elon Musk just saved you, he's now sending to the Pentagon. And who gets all that money? His favorite charity, himself. He's a big defense contractor. So that's why they never went there. It was always a scam. And that's why Trump was allowed to cut all that money from USAID and from the Ned, from the Deep State. Why? Because they knew he was going to take it and give it right back to them. He took it from one pocket and put it in the other. So he just cut out the middleman. The middleman is usaid. They do the, they're the middleman for the Deep State and the Pentagon. So now he just took out the middleman and they give it right to the Pentagon. That's. It's like if, it's like if someone stole money from me, they came to my house and they stole all my money and the cops caught the guys and they got the money, but they didn't give the money back to me. They used the money to buy, to hire more cops like What? That's not what you're supposed to do with that money. So that's what they're doing with that money. They're using that money to go do more shit that nobody voted for.

[Kurt Metzger]

Yeah. By the way, Elon's not the guy in charge. Those three guys standing behind Trump, I bet they're in charge. Those guys. Go ahead and sign it Trump.

[Jimmy Dore]

So Trump budget proposed a $1 trillion for defense.

[Kurt Metzger]

Is that a record?

[Jimmy Dore]

That's a record.

[Kurt Metzger]

Yay.

[Jimmy Dore]

As he slashes education, foreign aid, environment, health. Environment, health and public assistance.

[Kurt Metzger]

I'm forgetting their CIA things.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Kurt Metzger]

So one faction of the deep state took all the money from the other faction.

[Jimmy Dore]

So they didn't cut anything is the point. They lied to you and they did something that nobody wants more money for. The Pentagon. The Pentagon, they wanted audited. They wanted. Just like Steve Bannon said, they want cut waste, fraud and abuse. They can't even pass an audit. Nobody knows where the money goes. Did Elon not break his pick on that? Remember we kept saying cross the Potomac. Cross the Potomac. Cross Potomac. Because you can't talk about fraud and waste and abuse. It's seriously. In this town. Unless you're going to go to the Pentagon. You know what's happened since he went over there? Crickets. Because they're tough. That's it. They've done nothing. Here's Trump. Remember when he said he wanted to cut the military budget in half? Remember this? Watch this.

[Kurt Metzger]

Yeah.

[Donald Trump]

We have the greatest military equipment in the world. We're building it. At some point, when things settle down, I'm going to meet with China and I'm going to meet with Russia in particular, those two. And I'm going to say there's no reason for us to be spending almost a trillion dollars on military. There's no reason for you to be spending $400 billion. China is going to be at 400 billion. We're at a trillion. We're going to be at close to a trillion. And I'm going to say we can settle this on. We can spend this on other things. We don't have to spend this on military because. And I'm going to.

[Jimmy Dore]

We could all have free college. We could all have high speed rail trains to every city in the United States. We could all have new parks, we could all have brand new roads. We could all have health care. We could have everything. But they're not going to give it to you. They're not going to give you any of that shit. Because Donald Trump is also controlled by the Deep state. He still is. This is what this is. This is why he was allowed to cut USAID and Ned in the first place because they knew he was going to just put it right back into the Pentagon. And all this was bullshit.

[Donald Trump]

Meeting with China. You know, we were trying to de escalate nuclear. And I was in a position where Russia had agreed and had agreed we were going to start. And then we had a rigged election so that never took place. But this one was too big to rig. We won by so much that it was too big to rig.

[Jimmy Dore]

These are going to be some of the most beautiful military budgets you've ever seen. Once we mix Russia's and China's military budget into ours, you won't even believe how fun and easy it's going to be to join the army.

[Kurt Metzger]

Well, did you hear what he said? He goes at some point when things settle down.

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah.

[Kurt Metzger]

So here's how we get around that. Things are never going to settle down.

[Jimmy Dore]

They're never going to settle down.

[Kurt Metzger]

Yeah.

[Jimmy Dore]

So here's what he said a month ago.

[Donald Trump]

We have great, great things happening with our military. We also essentially approved a budget which is in the, the facility. You'll like to hear this. Of a trillion dollars, One trillion dollars.

[Jimmy Dore]

And you'll like to hear this. Who's he saying it to? Elon Musk. Because he's going to get about a couple hundred billion of that money as a defense contract. Who's he saying? You're going to love this. Who's going to love this?

[Kurt Metzger]

Larry Ellison. The guy from Palantir?

[Jimmy Dore]

Yeah, the guy from Palantir.

[Kurt Metzger]

There's like a whole bunch of tech jerk offs that are going to love it. Oh, the AI guy. Remember they got all that money for AI?

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right.

[Kurt Metzger]

China somehow in that as well and.

[Donald Trump]

Nobody'S seen anything like it. We have to build our military and we're very cost conscious. But the military is something that we have to build and we have to be strong because you got a lot of bad forces out there now. So we're going to be approving a budget and I'm proud to say actually the biggest one we've ever done for the military.

[Jimmy Dore]

So the question should be what could America have done with a trillion dollars? And sadly the answer is we, what we always do with a trillion dollars? We give it to the military, we give it to the war machine. Because Eisenhower wasn't lying when he said you have to resist the undue influence of the military industrial complex. Guess who's not doing that? Donald Trump. Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Clinton. None of them, none of them are resisting the undue influence of the military industrial complex.

[Kurt Metzger]

Well, they're, how would they even be allowed to.

[Jimmy Dore]

First of all, they're not.

[Kurt Metzger]

We haven't won a war since we had this complex. How is that possible? We have not won a war or even wrote down that we had a war on the books since the military industrial complex. So the money's been going up to lose wars the entire time. Nobody has a problem with that.

[Jimmy Dore]

So that's the, that's the big news. And I could go into it about all the intricacies, about there's a reconciliation bill and. But Trump's actually only proposing to keep the budget at the same level. But there's a reconciliation part that, that's when you get the extra $160 billion. That brings it to a trillion dollar. Trump wants a trillion dollar military budget and he's going to push to get it. That's the story.

[Kurt Metzger]

How come the military never has to run slimmer and better? Everything else.

[Jimmy Dore]

Everything else does.

[Kurt Metzger]

This is a lot of waste.

[Jimmy Dore]

Because our country's 100% corrupt, Kurt, that's why. Because of those people, when they do a session of Congress, they're not doing, they're not there doing the bidding of citizens or taxpayers or students or the elderly or the sick or anybody or workers or you. They're. They're doing the bidding of the military industrial complex, Big pharma and Wall Street. That's what they're doing. And oil companies. That's it. The people who actually run things, as George Carlin said, the owners of this country, you don't have representatives. That's there to give you the illusion that you're being represented by somebody. Nobody voted for this. Nobody voted for him to do a war with Iran. Nobody voted for him to give more money to Israel. Nobody voted for him to give, to do a war with the Houthis. Nobody voted for any of this stuff. Nobody voted for him to curtail our freedom of speech at the behest of a protected class of Jewish people called Zionists, the most powerful people in the country. They're a protected class. Holy shit. Nobody voted for any of this. We're going to talk about that in another second.

[Kurt Metzger]

Telling me the masters of the universe.

[Jimmy Dore]

The masters of the universe. So that's the story. Trump wants a trillion dollars. And most of the MAGA people who come to my. I just did a show last night in San Jose, they don't want any part of this trillion dollar military budget, they're upset.

[Kurt Metzger]

They're upset that they're taking up for the military now. I mean, you know, but they are.

[Jimmy Dore]

Upset, Kurt, I'm telling you, the people who came out to come out to my shows, who are maga, they're sincere, they want to, they want to have those Doge cuts. They don't want it to put, give it right back to the warmongers. They don't want to give it to Israel, they don't want to give it to Raytheon. They don't want to do that Booze Allen and Boeing, they don't want to do that. They want to invest that money back in our own country. They want to have.

[Kurt Metzger]

What do we get for this? We give them all.

[Jimmy Dore]

We don't even have clean water. We don't even get clean water. We don't get nice roads, we don't get high speed trains, we don't get free education, we don't get brand new parks and nothing. We get nothing.

[Kurt Metzger]

That's what you do get. You do get a UFO hint twice a year.

[Jimmy Dore]

That's right.

[Kurt Metzger]

It's a lesson for us in Africa to learn that anyone who thinks that they can't be part of, of the global trade is wrong. In the global trade, you are either a master or a slave. And you cannot be an equal partner for those who hold power, who hold money, who hold technology.

[Jimmy Dore]

We have a special guest returning to the show. Musa Ibrahim is a Libyan political figure who served as Muammar Gaddafi's information minister and official spokesman during the Libyan Civil War in 2011, frequently denouncing rebel forces and NATO intervention in defiant press conferences. After the fall of the Gaddafi government, he fled to Egypt and then to Serbia. He has remained involved in politics, frequently speaking publicly about Libya's political situation. Now we all know that the Libyan Barack Obama calls it his biggest blunder. That's, that's quite an understatement. And so what they did was another, it was another, at the behest of Israel, illegal decapitation of a government. And now it's a failed state run by terrorists and has open slaves markets. So we know this. And by the way, the United States bombed their water system, which was considered the seventh wonder of the world. We did it with and we wrecked it. How? Because we used uranium tip bombs, depleted uranium tip bombs to poison their water. That's, that's how we helped out the people in Libya. So again, once again, the terrorists are NATO in the United States. So let me bring on Moussa Moussa, thank you for coming back on.

[Kurt Metzger]

I'm very happy, Jamie, to be with you again.

[Jimmy Dore]

So I'm here to talk to you about what's happening with Africa right now economically. And this is from the center for Strategic International Studies. It says, how should Africa respond to Trump's new tariffs? And let me just give a quick rundown. 51 African countries, 29 countries will face a baseline of 10% tariffs, while 22 other countries are going to face tariffs up to 50% for almost all their products, excluding a very short list of products such as certain critical minerals deemed necessary to the US Economy. The tariffs apply to all goods except the following. Steel and aluminum articles that automobiles and automobile parts already are subject to this other tariff. Copper, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors and lumber articles, all articles that may become subject to future section 232 tariffs. Bullion, I'm going to guess that's gold and energy and certain other minerals not available in the United States. And here's a quick so the countries in gray, they have zero tariffs. The countries I mean, the dark gray, they have 10% tariffs. The countries in gold or yellow, they have 10 to 30% tariffs. And in green, they have 30% tariffs or more. And just to let you know how much business we do, the U. S total trade with Africa was an estimated 71.6 billion in 2024. The United States exported to Africa 32 billion in goods and imported from Africa almost 40 billion in goods. Now, the specific impact, there's a country called Lesotho, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right there. They face the highest tariffs with a potential 50% levy on its exports, including denim and diamonds. Madagascar is hit with a 47% tariff on its good, including apparel and vanilla, impacting a large swath of their population. And Mauritius is going to be hit with 40% also. So what's the consequences? Tariffs are going to raise the cost of goods for the United States consumers, including jeans, chocolate, ice cream. And it's going to disrupt supply chains. Tariffs could disrupt global supply chains, especially for products like denim, diamonds and vanilla, which are heavily reliant on African exports. And plus there's going to be job losses. They could lead particularly in sectors like textiles and apparel. And the tariffs could lead to increased inflation in Africa as the cost of imported goods. So there are needs. There's a need for regional integration. The tariffs highlight the importance of developing regional trade networks within Africa to reduce reliance on external markets and build more resilient economies. So let me just go to you. What do you. What's your response to the tariffs and to what I just said?

[Kurt Metzger]

Absolutely. Jimmy. Let me just point out that for some time now, I have been the executive secretary of the African Legacy foundation, which is a society that was established by the sons and daughters of the leaders of African liberation, the very great leaders from the 50s, 60s, and 70s that led the fight for Africa to be liberated from Western colonialism. So the sons and daughters of Mandela and Nasser and Nicroma and Lumumba and all of the great names, and we are based in Johannesburg. As for Africa, de Jimmy, it's quite an interesting image because it's not unified. We have three sectors of the economy in Africa. We have the extractive sector, meaning, of course, oil, gas, gold, copper, iron, and then we have the manufacturing sector, and then we have the subsistence economy of Africa. Now, the tariffs were directed at, of course, especially the manufacturing sector. And most of the tariffs and the numbers you read out loud now were in direct contact with this sector and badly affected hundreds of thousands of workers and badly affected the local economies of countries from guinea to Ghana to Senegal to Ethiopia and many others. However, Trump's administration says that they are not directing any tariffs or on the extractive sector, but I would say that's because it's already robbed, it's already extracted, it's already taken out of Africa. We know the numbers. Almost US$140 billion are extracted out of the continent with very little being paid back to the continent itself. The only sector that actually survives this, and this is a very, very important point, is the subsistence sector. So shepherds, fishers, people who work in local industries, artisans, anyone who is not linked or organically structured within the hegemony of the financial centers of London, Washington, New York, have basically survived these tariffs. And this is a reminder that maybe this is the way forward for Africa not to link its economies to the global market, but to unify its own markets, strengthen its own manufacturing sector, and maybe also look towards the east, where better trade agreements can be reached with China, India, Korea, Japan, and to Latin America, Brazil, and Argentina. So the picture is varied, is multilayered, and it's a lesson for us in Africa to learn that anyone who thinks that they can't be part of the global trade is wrong. In the global trade, you are either a master or a slave, and you cannot be an equal partner for those who hold power, who hold money, who hold technology.

[Jimmy Dore]

So you do you think this in a weird way, even though there's a lot of economic pain that this will actually spur a positive development where the African countries will seek other markets like China. Why wouldn't they, why wouldn't they go to China? Because they're not tariffing them. Right.

[Kurt Metzger]

This is exactly what is happening and it got a boost in the last few months. So countries like Mali, like Burkina Faso, Niger and Uganda, I'm naming the very countries that now have turned completely to China and India. India is becoming an important player as well. And they are already proving that this is the right choice. And they are showing it to other African countries to the extent that important politicians from bigger African countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, they are speaking out loud now and saying, look, of course they are speaking to the West. These smaller African countries have directed their efforts to the east and Latin America and they are getting better deals. You have to change the way you treat us. But what I know for reality for sure is that the west will never listen. These financial centers, all they care about is extracting wealth from the continent and making sure that Africa does not join the global market on equal footing. Because if they do that, it means they will not be able to rob it anymore.

[Jimmy Dore]

So let me. So do you think this will. Eventually this will have a bad effect on the United States.

[Kurt Metzger]

It will have a bad effect on the elites, on the oligarchy in the West. As for the general population, that's a different matter, an internal matter for Americans and Europeans to change the very structure of their national economies to make sure that there is economic justice and just distribution of wealth. But this news is bad for the financial centers in the West, I do believe, and I really wish my brothers and sisters in the States will pay attention to this. There is a major revolution taking place in Africa in the last two, three years. And it's not just like the China or India or Brazil are coming or Russia are coming into Africa and conditioning the continent to their needs. It's actually the other way around. Africans are going out and reaching to these rising economies and bringing them back into the continent. And I have been touring Africa in the last few years. I have never seen such development, infrastructure, radical structural changes in the economies of Africa as I have seen in the last two, three years. There is a major change and I think the west is feeling it. And that's why you have your General Langley, who is the commander of the africom, just yesterday talked about how important it is for. For the States to keep a strong military presence in the continent. And he blasted African revolutionary leaders like the leader of Burkina Faso and Mali, because they nationalized their extractive industries. So it's quite weird for a military general to actually go out of his way to comment on political leaders and their economic policies. But this tells you what is happening in Africa is very important.

[Jimmy Dore]

So, I mean, so you're talking about Africom, which people. Yes, people in the United States are not made aware of what AFRICOM is, what they do. We are completely ignorant to it. And it was invented in like 2007, I think, by George Bush. And it's basically to have a military presence in Africa so that we can ensure we can influence governments and extract natural resources. Right. Isn't that basically the job of africom?

[Kurt Metzger]

Absolutely. And it's not a secret if you read the statements by Africom year in, year out. They always, of course they talk about stability, fighting terrorism, but they always highlight their rule as guaranteers for the extraction of natural resources. They are moving in for the first time, by the way, under Trump, into the Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a huge country, one of the biggest in Africa with over 100 million population. And they have some of the richest lands in the whole globe in terms of minerals and natural resources. And now American military boots are on the ground in the Congo fueling civil conflict there and fueling unrest to make sure that the, you know, the globalized, financialized capital has free, unlimited access to these materials from the land of Africa. So, yeah, absolutely.

[Jimmy Dore]

Hey, become a premium member. Go to Jimmy's or comedy.com sign up. It's the most affordable premium program in the business. All the voices performed today are by the one and only, the inimitable Mike McRae. He can be found at mikemcrae.com that's it for this week. You be the best you can be and I'll keep being me. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Don't freak out. Do not freak out.

[Kurt Metzger]

I'm not kidding.

[Jimmy Dore]

Do not. Do not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. I'm not. Do not freak out.

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