American author and journalist
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Story #1: Stolen land! Will breaks down the claim by the Left that Los Angeles belongs to Mexico as rioters and politicians make the riots about more than ICE deportations. Story #2: FOX Sports' Soccer Analysts and National Soccer Hall of Famers, Alexi Lalas and Carli Lloyd join Will following the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team's embarrassing loss to Switzerland. Can U.S. Men's Soccer ever reach the top of the world stage? Story #3: Will is joined by award-winning Reporter at Racket.News, Matt Taibbi to analyze Elon Musk's apology following his tweet storm against President Donald Trump and the firing of Terry Moran over tweets about the Trump Administration. Plus, the two delve into what the future likely holds as AI threatens major American industries. Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing WillCainShow@fox.com Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show! Follow Will on X: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 3: 5:00pm- Lenore Skenazy—Contributing Editor for Reason, Founder of the Free-Range Kids Movement, and President of Let Grow—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss her latest article, “Mom Arrested, Facing 5 Years in Prison for Leaving 8- and 10-Year-Old Boys at Home.” David DeLugas—Attorney & Executive Director Member of the Board Founder of Parents USA—is representing the Georgia mom and offers a legal update. You can learn more about the story here: https://reason.com/2025/05/29/mom-arrested-facing-5-years-in-prison-for-leaving-8-and-10-year-old-boys-at-home/. And here: https://www.pledge.to/ParentsUSA-Kids-alone-Mom-arrested. 5:25pm- During a conversation on Matt Taibbi's podcast, novelist Walter Kirn revealed that George Orwell's “1984” now comes with a trigger warning! 5:40pm- Jimmy Failla—Host of “Fox News Saturday with Jimmy Failla” & “Fox Across America”—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss their frequent appearances together on Fox News. Failla will be performing at SoulJoel's in Montgomery County, PA on August 9th. You can find information about tickets here: https://radio.foxnews.com/fox-news-talk/fox-across-america-with-jimmy-failla/.
The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Show (06/03/2025): 3:05pm- On Monday, statistician and political analyst Nate Silver shared a survey which indicates 45% of self-identifying “liberals” suffer from “poor” mental health—suggesting there could be a correlation between “excellent” mental health and conservative political views. 3:30pm- In a new article posted to his Substack, statistician and political analyst Nate Silver attempts to answer the question: why do young men dislike Democrats? Silver concludes that young males are largely ambitious, entrepreneurial, and strong believers in individualism. Contrarily, the Democrat Party is viewed as risk averse and overly controlling. Additionally, the Democratic Party's fixation with politically correct speech is perceived as restrictive and hostile towards humor. 3:50pm- During Tuesday's press briefing, Peter Doocy asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt about former President Joe Biden's reliance on the auto pen for pardons. Doocy's investigation concluded that Biden's authentic signature only appears on the former president's pardon of his son Hunter Biden. 4:05pm- Anna Kelly—White House Deputy Press Secretary—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. She reacts to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) inaccurate rant against the Republican bill where he baselessly claimed it would end “American energy dominance.” Many on the left continue to meltdown over every Trump-endorsed plan/policy. But during a recent interview, even JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon advocated on behalf of the One Big Beautiful Bill—calling it essential for small business and strong economic growth. 4:30pm- Rich steals Justin's headset, Matt gets yelled at (as per usual), and Rich—with some help from the audience—relives some of his greatest injuries, including the time he was stung in the eye by a jellyfish! 4:45pm- In a series of articles published last week, The New York Times examined the Democrat Party's continued struggles appealing to the American electorate. Shane Goldmacher writes that Democrats “are still searching for the path forward”—noting that the party spent $20 million studying their “erosion” of support with “young men” specifically. In another article, Goldmacher—alongside June Kim and Christine Zhang—evaluate “how Donald Trump has remade America's political landscape.” They document that 435 counties across the country became more “Democratic” from 2012 and 2024—however, 2,678 counties became more “Republican.” Further complicating matters is the 2030 census which is expected to cause comfortably blue states to lose electoral votes as citizens move to red states. You can read the articles here: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/25/us/politics/democratic-party-voters.html. And here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/05/25/us/politics/trump-politics-democrats.html. 5:00pm- Lenore Skenazy—Contributing Editor for Reason, Founder of the Free-Range Kids Movement, and President of Let Grow—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss her latest article, “Mom Arrested, Facing 5 Years in Prison for Leaving 8- and 10-Year-Old Boys at Home.” David DeLugas—Attorney & Executive Director Member of the Board Founder of Parents USA—is representing the Georgia mom and offers a legal update. You can learn more about the story here: https://reason.com/2025/05/29/mom-arrested-facing-5-years-in-prison-for-leaving-8-and-10-year-old-boys-at-home/. And here: https://www.pledge.to/ParentsUSA-Kids-alone-Mom-arrested. 5:25pm- During a conversation on Matt Taibbi's podcast, novelist Walter Kirn revealed that George Orwell's “1984” now comes with a trigger warning! 5:40pm- Jimmy Failla—Host of “Fox News Saturday with Jimmy Failla” & “Fox Across America”—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss their frequent appearances together on Fox News. Failla will be performing at SoulJoel's in Montgomery County, PA on August 9th. You can find information about tickets here: https://radio. ...
I wasn't sure I'd be able to finish the Jake Tapper/Alex Thompson book, Original Sin. I downloaded the audiobook, narrated by Tapper, to listen to as I drive across the country from California to Ohio to see my daughter for her birthday. Out my window, I see the same running commentary of the real America I witnessed years ago, which changed my mind about Trump and MAGA. When you see Trump's name arising in unexpected places in nearly every state, from Arizona (“Viva Trump”) to Nebraska to Iowa to New York, you know something significant has shifted in this country.It felt like a secret cry for help among forgotten and abandoned Americans. I see it even now:I was not encouraged by the book's first chapter, which describes a world where the Democratic Party isn't corrupt, where they don't hand-pick candidates and then force everyone to “Vote Blue No Matter Who,” where identity politics don't rule the day, and where the democratic process is allowed to play out. What a load of garbage. To quote Deep Throat in All the President's Men, “Oh, but it's touching.” Just imagine Gavin Newsom attempting to challenge Kamala Harris. She might be the world's worst candidate, but all points lead back to her; you have to start there, whether they had a primary or not. They knew that, which is why they skipped the foreplay and went straight to a first-ever installed candidate for president. So I didn't think listening to an entire audiobook shaped by a false premise and awash in false media narratives would be a good use of my time. Maybe I'd listen to, I don't know, the new Mark Twain biography.As Victor Davis Hanson points out, Jake Tapper is an unreliable narrator because there would be no Biden cover-up if the media had done its job:Had Original Sin been written by Tom Wolfe, Gore Vidal, or even Walter Kirn and Matt Taibbi, it would have been the searing indictment of a deep state plot foiled by Mr. McGoo, told with bemused irony. But it is dead serious, for better or worse.But I must say, in the end, I'm glad I stuck with it. It might not be the definitive account of the rise and fall of a once-mighty empire I would have wanted, but it is a surprisingly revealing look behind the curtain all the same.Could it really be that Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg were brought in to “direct” Joe Biden with better light, sound, and acting coaching? Yes. Could it be that Rob Reiner and Jane Fonda broke down in hysterics at some mansion in the Hollywood Hills after the debate? Yes. If the aim was to scapegoat Joe Biden, they failed. He comes off as the most sympathetic, a victim of a massive machine of creeps that chewed him up and spit him out. Do they legitimately believe we would sympathize with some fat cat in Hollywood who threatens never to write another check unless they push Biden out? We're supposed to care about what the donors think? Tapper seems to have emerged from the grim experience with a bit of a perspective shift. At least now, he's able to talk about the problems the Democrats have in a way he hasn't in the past ten years. The value of Original Sin, at least for someone like me who fled the party in disgust in 2020 after watching them use their power to take our elections away from the people and decide their outcome, isn't so much that there are any new revelations. But it's a book written from the inside, with access to over 200 voices anxious to be heard. That meant following the events as they unfolded in real time, and let me tell you, there is pleasure in that. I found it cathartic, not just because the Democrats had it coming, and got everything they deserved, but for the sheer joy of witnessing the most most powerful people in the world have their asses handed to them by the very democracy they claimed they wanted to protect. That George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, and Jeffrey Katzenberg were so heavily involved in the politics of the Democrats makes it all look like the Wizard of Oz, pulling back the curtain and exposing the ugly truth. Hollywood might make this into a series for HBO or Netflix, but since the co-founder and chairman of Netflix, Reed Hastings, was one of the fat cats who threatened to withhold funds unless the Democrats got rid of Biden, I'm guessing we won't get the whole story. But if they wanted to tell it like it really happened, it would make one hell of a tale.The Story That Writes ItselfHollywood doesn't have the guts to tell the whole story. They can't because they're part of it. They're way too cozy with the Democrats, and if they really wanted to tell the truth, they'd have to admit, as with Michael Corleone, they are part of the same hypocrisy. At best, they could cobble together something that paints Trump as the ultimate evil that vain and selfish Joe and Jill Biden allowed to take back power. The real story is how they built a powerful coalition and had no choice but to turn to corruption to preserve that power. This would make a great long-form series.Episode One—The “hope and change” candidate lights up the world and chooses an “old white guy” to be his Veep, just as JFK did with LBJ, a cynical ploy to make his youth and inexperience (and, in this case, skin color) more palatable for a nervous electorate. Episode Two - The “hope and change” guy doesn't like the “old white guy” as the successor of his powerful coalition, which now includes all of culture, all corporations, all institutions, all media, and all social media. Why go backwards? The “old white guy” with a stutter who just lost his beloved son to brain cancer was no longer useful to the “hope and change” guy. No one thinks much of it as he's kicked to the curb and embarrassed as not electable enough, not desirable enough, and past his sell-by date. So, the “hope and change” guy picks the “Wall Street Sweetheart,” the former First Lady and Secretary of State, to become the “first woman POTUS.” With the help of a grassroots populist movement and an “Old Socialist” challenging the “Wall Street Sweetheart,” the party is fractured, and Trump wins. Episode Three - The establishment and the Obama coalition decide that Trump should not be allowed to rule, forget democracy! Who needs it? No “old white guy” was supposed to win, least of all that guy. Millions pour into the streets in an orgy of self pity, imagined oppression, fragility, privilege and narcissism — mass hysteria takes hold, cancel culture grips the left. Hundreds lose their jobs as they desperately try to undo the election results and get rid of Trump. They impeach him, they frame him, they smear him, they attack him. The OG “old white guy” waiting in the wings isn't looking so bad. An easy, lateral move. An establishment pick. One “old white guy” for another.Episode Four - 2020 is its own whole episode. It has to be. It was the year the Democrats sold their souls to the Devil to cling to power. They spent $1 billion with a “well-funded cabal” of elites to fund and amplify the racial protests, change election laws, $400 million to collect ballots, and trot in experts to lie about everything from the laptop to COVID to the protests. They censored Americans on social media, and the FBI forced censorship of the laptop. The country sinks. Media credibility is destroyed. Large swaths of the electorate abandon the Democrats. But the “old white guy” wins. So finally, he gets his dream at long last, to be president of the United States. Episode Five - The “old white guy” is finally the savior he always dreamed he'd be. He became a blank check for Black Americans, trans Americans, and especially women of color. He would finish what the “hope and change” guy started. Are we topless at the White House?But the “old white guy” bungles the withdrawal from Afghanistan, and his approval ratings tank. Americans don't see a nice old grandpa anymore. They see George Spahn, who just moved the Manson Family into the White House, and now they're running the country.Now what? He goes after Trump and MAGA, calling them fascists, extremists, and a danger to society. If the “old white guy” can't have the presidency, then no one will.The “old white guy” isn't so nice anymore. Trump is indicted four times, convicted, and takes a mug shot that goes viral. They've sold their soul to the Devil, after all, they're not going to give up power so easily. Episode Six - The final battle. Trump teases and torments the “old white guy” and forces him to debate. Trump mocks him mercilessly at his rallies for not knowing where he is. For Trump, beating him will be a cake walk for anyone not sucked into the false reality pushed by the legacy media.Trump and Biden debate rematch. The “old white guy” crashes and burns so hard it nearly sets Rob Reiner's hair on fire. “He just lost the election,” Dana Bash scribbles on a note to Jake Tapper. What now for the empire that was never the resistance?Trump survives an assassination attempt at Butler the following month. His entire campaign is transformed. Elon Musk joins his dream team. This was our last best hope for America. We wanted out. We wanted something new. We wanted to be set free:But inside the Bubble, it's Original Sin. It's denial. It's a legacy press that lies to the monarchs, lies to their voters, sending them cascading into yet more hysteria. Please make the bad orange man go away! For the sake of democracy! Please give us our utopia back! Jane Fonda, Steven Spielberg, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, David Simon, Jon Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Rob Reiner are losing their minds. It's a dystopia full of aging, frustrated aristocrats who can't keep democracy down. We're about to lose our democracy, they cry. Biden will lose us our democracy, they insist. How can this be happening? Get rid of the “old white guy.” GET RID OF HIM! For the sake of democracy! “We need a new nominee,” says George Clooney. Who's we? What happened to democracy? Now, the duly elected nominee, aka “the old white guy,” must step aside to save democracy? Yes, that is where the Democrats arrived in their pitiful last gasp to salvage and preserve their power. They cynically install the “woman of color” because they know all points lead to Kamala Harris. Their flock will fall in line as they always have. Push him out, push the “old white guy” out in a palace coup worthy of a fading, useless, self-serving monarchy on the brink of collapse. Trump wins again. We see the “old white guy” grinning in the oval office and having the last laugh. They used him. They lied to him. They flattered him. Then, they kicked him out, all because they were exposed and couldn't hide the truth anymore.As the scene fades to black, we see a close-up on Jake Tapper lying in bed, working it all out. Holy s**t, he thinks. Someone has to tell this story. He picks up the phone, “Alex? Hi, it's Jake. I was wondering if we might talk.” I mean, come on. It's Ishtar Part Two. It writes itself.Do I think you should read Original Sin? Absolutely. It might not be the whole truth. It might be spin for the Democrats to regroup and recover. It might be reputation laundering for the media. But for me, it was an early Christmas present, if only for the delicious pleasure of watching them squirm as their corrupt plot to cling to power unravels. I can't think of anything more satisfying than that. Original Sin proves two things: the Democrats are creeps and they got exactly what they deserved.Somewhere in Iowa, 8pm.// This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sashastone.substack.com/subscribe
Few Americans have been as explicit in their warnings about Donald Trump than the St. Louis based writer Sarah Kendzior. Her latest book, The Last American Road Trip, is a memoir chronicling Kendzior's journey down Route 66 to show her children America before it is destroyed. Borrowing from her research of post Soviet Central Asia, Kendzior argues that Trump is establishing a kleptocratic “mafia state” designed to fleece the country of its valuables. This is the third time that Kendzior has been on the show and I have to admit I've always been slightly skeptical of her apocalyptic take on Trump. But given the damage that the new administration is inflicting on America, I have to admit that many of Kendzior's warnings now appear to be uncannily prescient. As she warns, it's Springtime in America. And things are about to get much much hotter. FIVE TAKEAWAYS* Kendzior views Trump's administration as a "mafia state" or kleptocracy focused on stripping America for parts rather than traditional fascism, comparing it to post-Soviet oligarchic systems she studied as an academic.* She believes American institutions have failed to prevent authoritarianism, criticizing both the Biden administration and other institutional leaders for not taking sufficient preventative action during Trump's first term.* Despite her bleak analysis, Kendzior finds hope in ordinary Americans and their capacity for mutual care and resistance, even as she sees formal leadership failing.* Kendzior's new book The Last American Road Trip follows her journey to show her children America before potential collapse, using Route 66 as a lens to examine American decay and resilience.* As an independent voice, she describes being targeted through both publishing obstacles and personal threats, yet remains committed to staying in her community and documenting what's happening. FULL TRANSCRIPTAndrew Keen: Hello everybody, it is April the 18th, 2025, a Friday. I'm thrilled today that we have one of my favorite guests back on the show. I call her the Cassandra of St. Louis, Sarah Kendzior. Many of you know her from her first book, which was a huge success. All her books have done very well. The View from Flyover Country. She was warning us about Trump and Trumpism and MAGA. She was first on our show in 2020. Talking about media in the age of Trump. She had another book out then, Hiding in Plain Sight, The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America. Then in 2022, she came back on the show to talk about how a culture of conspiracy is keeping America simultaneously complacent and paranoid that the book was called or is called, They Knew. Another big success. And now Sarah has a new book out. It's called The Last American Road Trip. It's a beautifully written book, a kind of memoir, but a political one, of course, which one would expect from Sarah Kendzior. And I'm thrilled, as I said, that the Cassandra of St. Louis is joining us from St. Louis. Sarah, congratulations on the new book.Sarah Kendzior: Oh, thank you. And thank you for having me back on.Andrew Keen: Well, it's an honor. So these four books, how does the last American road trip in terms of the narrative of your previous three hits, how does it fit in? Why did you write it?Sarah Kendzior: Well, this book kind of pivots off the epilog of hiding in plain sight. And that was a book about political corruption in the United States and the rise of Trump. But in the epilogue, I describe how I was trying as a mom to show my kids America in the case that it ended due to both political turmoil and corruption and also climate change. I wanted them to see things themselves. So I was driving them around the country to national parks, historic sites, et cetera. And so many people responded so passionately to that little section, especially parents really struggling on how to raise children in this America that I ended up writing a book that covers 2016 to 2024 and my attempts to show my children everything I could in the time that we had. And as this happens, my children went from relatively young kids to teenagers, my daughter's almost an adult. And so it kind of captures America during this time period. It's also just a travelog, a road trip book, a memoir. It's a lot of things at once.Andrew Keen: Yeah, got great review from Ms. magazine comparing you with the great road writers, Kerouac, of course, and Steinbeck, but Kerouak and Steinback, certainly Kerouack was very much of a solitary male. Is there a female quality to this book? As you say, it's a book as much about your kids and the promise of America as it is about yourself.Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, I think there is in that, you know, I have a section actually about the doomed female road trip where it's, you know, Thelma and Louise or Janet Bates and Psycho or even songs about, you know, being on the road and on the run that are written by women, you know, like Merle Haggard's I'm a Lonesome Fugitive, had to be sung by men to convey that quality. And there aren't a lot of, you know, mom on the Road with her husband and kids kind of books. That said, I think of it as a family book, a parenting book. I certainly think men would like it just as much as women would, and people without kids would like just as people with kids, although it does seem to strike a special resonance with families struggling with a lot of the same issues that I do.Andrew Keen: It's all about the allure of historic Route 66. I've been on that. Anyone who's driven across the country has you. You explain that it's a compilation of four long trips across Route 66 in 1998, 2007, 2017, and 2023. That's almost 40 years, Sarah. Sorry, 30. Getting away my age there, Andrew. My math isn't very good. I mean, how has Route 66 and of course, America changed in that period? I know that's a rather leading question.Sarah Kendzior: No, I mean, I devote quite a lot of the book to Route 66 in part because I live on it, you know, goes right through St. Louis. So, I see it just every day. I'll be casually grocery shopping and then be informed I'm on historic Route 66 all of a sudden. But you know it's a road that is, you once was the great kind of romanticized road of escape and travel. It was decommissioned notably by Ronald Reagan after the creation of the interstate. And now it's just a series of rural roads, frontage roads, roads that end abruptly, roads that have gone into ruin, roads that are in some really beautiful places in terms of the landscape. So it really is this conglomeration of all of America, you know of the decay and the destruction and the abandonment in particular, but also people's, their own memories, their own artistic works, you know roadside shrines and creations that are often, you know pretty off beat. That they've put to show this is what I think of our country. These are my values. This is what, I think, is important. So it's a very interesting journey to take. It's often one I'm kind of inadvertently on just because of where I live and the direction I go. We'll mirror it. So I kept passing these sites again and again. I didn't set out to write this book. Obviously, when I first drove it when I was 19, I didn't know that this was our future. But looking back, especially at technological change, at how we travel, at how trust each other, at all of these things that have happened to this country since this time, it's really something. And that road will bring back all of those memories of what was lost and what remains to be lost. And of course it's hitting its 100th anniversary next year, so I'm guessing there'll be a lot of reminiscing about Route 66.Andrew Keen: Book about memories, you write about that, eventually even your memory will just or this experience of this trip will just be a memory. What does that suggest about contextualizing the current moment in American history? It's too easy to overdramatize it or perhaps it's hard not to over dramatize it given what's happening. I want to talk about a little bit about that your take on America on April the 18th, 2025. But how does that make sense of a memorial when you know that even your memories will become memories?Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, I mean it's hard to talk frankly about what's happening in America now without it sounding over dramatic or hyperbolic, which I think is why so many people were reluctant to believe me over my last decade of warnings that the current crises and catastrophes that we're experiencing are coming, are possible, and need to be actively stopped. I don't think they were inevitable, but they needed to be stopped by people in charge who refused to do it. And so, my reaction to this as a writer, but just as a human being is to write everything down, is to keep an ongoing record, not only of what I witness now, but of what know of our history, of what my own values are, of what place in the world is. And back in 2016, I encouraged everyone to do this because I knew that over the next decade, people would be told to accept things that they would normally never accept, to believe things that they would normally, never believe. And if you write down where you stand, you always have that point of reference to look back towards. It doesn't have to be for publication. It doesn't have to for the outside world. It can just be for yourself. And so I think that that's important. But right now, I think everyone has a role to play in battling what is an authoritarian kleptocracy and preventing it from hurting people. And I think people should lean into what they do best. And what I do best is write and research and document. So that's what I meant. Continue to do, particularly as history itself is under assault by this government.Andrew Keen: One of the things that strikes me about you, Sarah, is that you have an unusual background. You got a PhD in Soviet studies, late Soviet studies.Sarah Kendzior: Anthropology, yeah, but that was nice.Andrew Keen: But your dissertation was on the Uzbek opposition in exile. I wonder whether that experience of studying the late Soviet Union and its disintegration equipped you in some ways better than a lot of domestic American political analysts and writers for what's happening in America today. We've done a number of shows with people like Pete Weiner, who I'm sure you know his work from the Atlantic of New York Times. About learning from East European resistance writers, brave people like Milan Kundra, of course, Vaclav Havel, Solzhenitsyn. Do you think your earlier history of studying the Soviet Union helped you prepare, at least mentally, intellectually, for what's happening in the United States?Sarah Kendzior: Oh, absolutely. I think it was essential, because there are all sorts of different types of authoritarianism. And the type that Trump and his backers have always pursued was that of a mafia state, you know, of a kleptocracy. And Uzbekistan is the country that I knew the most. And actually, you what I wrote my dissertation about, this is between 2006, and 2012, was the fact that after a massacre of civilians... A lot of Uzbekistan's journalists, activists, political figures, opposition figures, et cetera, went into exile and then they immediately started writing blogs. And so for the very first time, they had freedom of speech. They had never had it in Uzbekistan. And they start revealing the whole secret history of Uzbekistan and everything going on and trying to work with each other, try to sort of have some impact on the political process in Uzbekistan. And they lost. What happened was the dictator died, Islam Karimov died, in 2016, and was replaced by another dictator who's not quite as severe. But watching the losing side and also watching people persevere and hold on to themselves and continue working despite that loss, I think, was very influential. Because you could look at Václav Havel or Lech Walesa or, you know, other sort of. People who won, you know, from Eastern Europe, from the revolutions of 1989 and so forth. And it's inspiring that sometimes I think it's really important to look at the people who did not succeed, but kept going anyway. You know, they didn't surrender themselves. They didn't their morality and they didn't abandon their fellow man. And I think that that's important. And also just to sort of get at the heart of your question, yes, you the structure of it, oligarchs who shake down countries, strip them and sell them for parts. Mine them for resources. That model, especially of what happened to Russia, actually, in particular in the 1990s of these oligarch wars, is what I see as the future of the United States right now. That is what they're trying to emulate.Andrew Keen: That we did a show with Steve Hansen and Jeff Kopstein, both political scientists, on what they see. They co-wrote a book on patrimonialism. This is the model they see there. They're both Max Weber scholars, so they borrow from that historic sociological analysis. And Kopstein was on the show with John Rausch as well, talking about this patrimonials. And so you, do you share the Kopstein-Hansen-Rausch analysis. Roush wrote a piece in the Atlantic about this too, which did very well. But this isn't conventional fascism or communism. It's a kind of 21st century version of patrimonialism.Sarah Kendzior: It's definitely not traditional fascism and one of the main reasons for that is a fascist has loyalty to the state. They seek to embody the state, they seek to expand the state recently Trump has been doing this more traditional route somewhat things like wanting to buy Greenland. But I think a lot of what he's doing is in reaction to climate change and also by the way I don't think Trump is the mastermind or originator. Of any of these geopolitical designs. You know, he has a team, we know about some of them with the Heritage Foundation Project 2025. We know he has foreign advisors. And again, you know, Trump is a corporate raider. That is how he led his business life. He's a mafia associate who wants to strip things down and sell them for parts. And that's what they wanna do with the United States. And that, yes, there are fascist tactics. There are fascists rhetoric. You know there are a lot of things that this country will, unfortunately, and has. In common, you know, with, say, Nazi Germany, although it's also notable that of course Nazi Germany borrowed from a lot of the tactics of Jim Crow, slavery, genocide of Native Americans. You know, this has always been a back and forth and America always has had some form of selective autocracy. But yeah, I think the folks who try to make this direct line and make it seem like the 20th century is just simply being revived, I've always felt like they were off because. There's no interest for these plutocrats in the United States even existing as a sovereign body. Like it truly doesn't matter to them if all of our institutions, even something as benign as the Postal Service, collapse. That's actually beneficial for them because then they can privatize, they can mine resources, they can make money for themselves. And I really worry that their goal is partition, you know, is to take this country. And to split it into smaller pieces that are easier to control. And that's one of the reasons I wrote this book, that I wrote The Last American Road Trip because I don't want people to fall for traps about generalizations or stereotypes about different regions of this country. I want them to see it as a whole and that our struggles are interconnected and we have a better chance of winning if we stand by each other.Andrew Keen: Yeah, and your book, in particular, The View from Flyover Country was so important because it wasn't written from San Francisco or Los Angeles or D.C. Or New York. It was written from St. Louis. So in a way, Sarah, you're presenting Trump as the ultimate Hayekian b*****d. There's a new book out by Quinn Slobodian called Hayek's B******s, which connects. Trumpianism and mago with Neoliberalism you don't see a break. We've done a lot of shows on the rise and fall of neoliberalism. You don't say a break between Hayek and TrumpSarah Kendzior: I think that in terms of neoliberalism, I think it's a continuation of it. And people who think that our crises began with Trump becoming the president in 2017, entering office, are deluded because the pathway to Trump even being able to run for president given that he was first investigated by the Department of Justice in 1973 and then was linked to a number of criminal enterprises for decades after. You know, that he was able to get in that position, you know that already showed that we had collapsed in certain respects. And so I think that these are tied together. You know, this has a lot to do with greed, with a, you know a disregard for sovereignty, a disregard human rights. For all of this Trump has always served much better as a demagogue, a front man, a figurehead. I do think, you he's a lot smarter. Than many of his opponents give him credit for. He is very good at doing what he needs to do and knowing what he need to know and nothing more. The rest he gives to the bureaucrats, to the lawyers, et cetera. But he fills this persona, and I do wonder what will happen when he is gone because they've tried very hard to find a successor and it's always failed, like DeSantis or Nikki Haley or whoever. And I kind of wonder if one of the reasons things are moving so, so fast now is they're trying to get a lot of things in under the wire while he's still alive, because I don't think that there's any individual who people have the loyalty to. His cult is not that big. It's a relatively small segment of the country, but it is very intense and very loyal to him. I don't think that loyalty is transferable.Andrew Keen: Is there anything, you know, I presented you as the Cassandra from St. Louis, you've seen the future probably clearer than most other people. Certainly when I first came across your work, I wasn't particularly convinced. I'm much more convinced now. You were right. I was wrong. Is there, anything about Trump too, that surprised you? I mean, any of the, the cruelty? Open corruption, the anger, the hostility, the attempt to destroy anything of any value in America, the fact that they seem to take such great pleasure in destroying this country's most valuable thing.Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, it's extremely sad and no, he doesn't surprise me at all. He's been the same guy since I was a little kid. You know, he was a plot line on children's television shows in the 1980s where as a child, I was supposed to know that the name Trump was synonymous with corruption, with being a tax cheat, with being a liar, you know, these were just sort of cultural codes that I was expected to know. What surprised me more is that no one stopped him because this threat was incredibly obvious. And that so many people in power have joined in, and I'm assuming they're joining in because they would rather be on the side with all that power than be a target of that power, but that they feel apparently no sense of loss, no sense grief for things like the loss of national parks, public education, the postal service, things that most folks like, social security for your elderly parents. Most Americans... Want these things. And most Americans, regardless of political party, don't want to see our country torn apart in this fashion. And so I'm not surprised by Trump. I'm surprised at the extent of his enablers at the complicity of the press and of the FBI and other institutions. And, you know, it's also been very jarring to watch how open they are this time around, you know, things like Elon Musk and his operation taking out. Classified information. The thing is, is I'm pretty sure Trump did all that. I mean, we know Trump did this in his first term, you know, and they would emphasize things like this box of physical written documents in Mar-a-Lago illegally taken. But, you know my mind always just went to, well, what did they do digitally? Because that seems much easier and much more obvious. What did they with all of these state secrets that they had access to for four years? What kind of leverage would that give them? And I think now they're just kind of, they're not bothering to hide anything anymore. I think they set the stage and now, you know, we're in the midst of the most horrible play, the most terrible performance ever. And it's, you can be still crushing at times.Andrew Keen: And of course, the real question is whether we're in the last act. Your book, The Last American Road Trip, was written, mostly written, what, in 2024 from?Sarah Kendzior: 2023.Andrew Keen: 2023. So, I mean, here's, I don't know if you can answer this, Sarah, but you know as much about middle America and middle Americans as anyone. You're on the road, you talk to everyone, you have a huge following, both on the left and the right in some ways. Some of your books now, you told me before we went live, some of your previous books, like Hiding in Plain Sight, suddenly become a big hit amongst conservative Americans. What does Trump or the MAGA people around him, what do they have to do to lose the support of ordinary Americans? As you say, they're destroying the essential infrastructure, medical, educational, the roads, the railways, everything is being destroyed, carted off almost like Stalin carted of half of the Soviet Union back into Asia during the Second World War. What does he have to do to lose the support of Middle America?Sarah Kendzior: I mean, I don't think middle America, you know, by which like a giant swath of the country that's, that's just ideological, diverse, demographically diverse supports him. I mean some do certainly. He's got some hardcore acolytes. I think most people are disillusioned with the entire political system. They are deeply frustrated by Trump. They were deeply frustrated. By Biden, they're struggling to pay bills. They're struggling. To hold on to basic human rights. And they're mad that their leverage is gone. People voted in record numbers in 2020. They protested in record number throughout Trump's first term. They've made their concerns known for a very long time and there are just very few officials really listening or responding. And I think that initially when Trump reentered the picture, it caused folks to just check out mentally because it was too overwhelming. I think it's why voter turnout was lower because the Democrats, when they won, didn't make good on their promises. It's a very simple thing. If you follow through with your campaign platform that was popular, then you're going to retain those voters. If you don't, you may lose them, especially when you're up against a very effective demagogue who has a way with rhetoric. And so we're just in such a bad place, such a painful place. I don't think people will look to politicians to solve their problems and with very good reason. I'm hoping that there are more of a sense of community support, more of sense that we're all in this together, especially as financially things begin to fall apart. Trump said openly in 2014 that he intended to crash the American economy. He said this on a Fox News clip that I found in 2016. Because it was being reprinted all over Russian-language media. They loved this clip because it also praised Putin and so forth. And I was astounded by it. I was like, why in the world isn't this all over every TV station, every radio station? He's laying out the whole plan, and now he's following that plan. And so I'm very concerned about that. And I just hope people in times like this, traditionally, this opens the door to fascism. People become extremely afraid. And in their fear they want a scapegoat, they are full of rage, they take it out on each other. That is the worst possible move right now from both a moral or a strategic view. People need to protect each other, to respect each other as fully human, to recognize almost everyone here, except for a little tiny group of corrupt billionaires, is a victim in this scenario, and so I don't see a big difference between, you know, myself and... Wherever I go. I was in Tulsa yesterday, I was in San Francisco last week. We're all in this together and I see a lot of heartache wherever I go. And so if people can lend each other support, that is the best way to get through this.Andrew Keen: Are you suggesting then that he is the Manchurian candidate? Why did he say that in 2014?Sarah Kendzior: Well, it was interesting. He was on Fox during the Sochi Olympics, and he was talking about how he speaks with Putin every day, their pals, and that Putin is going to produce a really big win for us, and we're all going to be very happy about it. And then he went on to say that the crashing of the economy and riots throughout America is what will make America great again. And this is in February 2014. Fox has deleted the clip, You know, other people have copies. So it is, it's also in my book hiding in plain sight, the transcript of that. I'm not sure, like a Manchurian candidate almost feels, you know like the person would have to be blackmailed or coerced or brainwashed somehow to participate. I think Trump is a true volunteer and his loyalty isn't to Russia per se. You know, his loyalty is to his bank accounts, like his loyalty is to power. And one thing he's been after his whole life was immunity from prosecution because he has been involved or adjacent to such an enormous number of crimes. And then when the Supreme Court granted him that, he got what he wanted and he's not afraid of breaking the law in any way. He's doing what all autocrats do, which is rewrite the law so that he is no longer breaking it. And he has a team of lawyers who help him in that agenda. So I feel like on one sense, he's very. All-American. It's kind of a sad thing that as he destroys America, he's doing it in a very American way. He plays a lot of great American music at his rallies. He has a vernacular that I can relate to that and understand it while detesting everything he's doing and all of his horrific policies. But what they want to turn us into though, I think is something that all Americans just won't. Recognized. And we've had the slipping away of a kind of unified American culture for a while, I think because we've lost our pop culture, which is really where a lot of people would bond, you know, movies, music, all of it became split into streaming services, you know. All of it became bifurcated. People stopped seeing each other as much face to face, you know, during COVID and then that became kind of a permanent thing. We're very fragmented and that hurts us badly. And all we've kind of got left is I guess sports and then politics. So people take all the effort that they used to put into devouring American pop culture or American civic life and they put it into this kind of politics that the media presents as if it's a game, like initially a horse race during the election and now like, ooh, will the evil dictator win? It's like, this is our lives. Like we have a lot on the line. So I wish they would do, they would take their job more seriously too. Of course, they're up paywalled and on streaming sites, so who's watching anyway, but still it is a problem.Andrew Keen: Yeah, it's interesting you talk about this death wish, you mentioned Thelma and Louise earlier, one of the great movies, American road movies, maybe in an odd way, the final scene of the Trump movie will be similar to the, you seem to be suggesting to, I'm not gonna give away the end of Thelmer and Louise to anyone who's watching who hasn't seen it, you do need to see it, similar ending to that movie. What about, you've talked about resistance, Sarah, a one of. The most influential, I guess, resistors to Trump and Trumpism. You put up an X earlier this month about the duty of journalism to resist, the duty to thinkers to resist. Some people are leaving, guys like Tim Snyder, his wife, Marcy Shaw, Jason Stanley, another expert on fascism. You've made it clear that you're staying. What's your take on people like Snyder who are leaving this country?Sarah Kendzior: Well, from what I know, he made a statement saying he had decided to move to Canada before Trump was put in office. Jason Stanley, on the other hand, explicitly said he's moving there because Trump is in office, and my first thought when I heard about all of them was, well, what about their students? Like, what about all these students who are being targeted by ICE, who are being deported? What about their TAs? What about everyone who's in a more vulnerable position. You know, when you have a position of power and influence, you could potentially do a lot of good in helping people. You know I respect everyone's decision to live wherever they want. Like it's not my business. But I do think that if you have that kind of chance to do something powerful for the community around you, especially the most vulnerable people in it who at this time are green card holders, people here on visas, we're watching this horrific crackdown at all these universities. My natural inclination would be to stay and take a stand and not abandon them. And I guess, you know, people, they do things in different ways or they may have their own personal concerns and, you know that's fine. I just know, you know I'm not leaving, you know, like I've got elderly parents and in-laws. I've got relatives who need me. I have a lot of people who depend on me and they depend on me in St. Louis and in Missouri. Because there aren't that many journalists in St. Louis. I think there could be, there are a lot of great writers in St Louis, you know, who have given a chance, given a platform, you could really show you what it's actually like here instead of all these stereotypes. But we're always, always marginalized. Like even I'm marginalized and I think I'm, you know, probably the most well-known in terms of being a political commentator. And so I feel like it's important to stand my ground but also You know, I love this, this state in the city and I love my community and I can't fathom, you know, leaving people in the lurch at a time like this. When I'm doing better, I'm on more solid ground despite being a target of various, you know organizations and individuals. I'm at a more solid down than somebody who's a, you know a black American or an immigrant or impoverished. Like I feel like it is my job to stand up for you know, folks here and let everyone know, you know what's going on and be somebody who they can come to and feel like that's safe.Andrew Keen: You describe yourself, Sarah, as a target. Your books have done very well. Most of them have been bestsellers. I'm sure the last American road trip will do very well, you're just off.Sarah Kendzior: It is the bestseller as of yesterday. It is your bestseller, congratulations. Yeah, our USA Today bestsellers, so yeah.Andrew Keen: Excellent. So that's good news. You've been on the road, you've had hundreds of people show up. I know you wrote about signing 600 books at Left Bank Books, which is remarkable. Most writers would cut off both hands for that. How are you being targeted? You noted that some of your books are being taken off the shelves. Are they being banned or discouraged?Sarah Kendzior: I mean, basically, what's been happening is kind of akin to what you see with universities. I just think it's not as well publicized or publicized at all, where there's not some sort of, you know, like the places will give in to what they think this administration wants before they are outright told to do it. So yes, there is an attempt to remove hiding in plain sight from circulation in 2024 to, you know, make the paperback, which at the time was ranked on Amazon. At number 2,000. It was extremely popular because this is the week that the Supreme Court gave Trump immunity. I was on vacation when I found out it was being pulled out of circulation. And I was in rural New Mexico and I had to get to a place with Wi-Fi to try to fight back for my book, which was a bestseller, a recent publication. It was very strange to me and I won that fight. They put it back, but a lot of people had tried to order it at that time and didn't get it. And a lot of people try to get my other books and they just can't get them. You know, so the publisher always has a warehouse issue or a shipping problem and you know, this kind of comes up or you know people notice, they've noticed this since 2020, you know I don't get reviewed in the normal kind of place as a person that has best selling books one after another would get reviewed. You know, that kind of thing is more of a pain. I always was able to circumvent it before through social media. But since Musk took over Twitter and because of the way algorithms work, it's more and more difficult for me to manage all of the publicity and PR and whatnot on my own. And so, you know, I'm grateful that you're having me on your show. I'm also grateful that, you Know, Flatiron did give me a book tour. That's helped tremendously. But there's that. And then there's also just the constant. Death threats and threats of you know other things you know things happening to people I love and it's been scary and I get used to it and that I expect it but you know you never could really get used to people constantly telling you that they're gonna kill you you know.Andrew Keen: When you get death threats, do you go to the authorities, have they responded?Sarah Kendzior: No, there's no point. I mean, I have before and it was completely pointless. And, you know, I'll just mostly just go to people I know who I trust to see if they can check in on things. I have to be very vague here who are not in the government or in the police or anything like that. I don't think anyone would protect me. I really just don't think anyone could help. You know, one thing is, you know, yes, I'm a prominent critic of Trump and his administration, but I was also a prominent critic of. The DOJ and Merrick Garland for not doing anything about all of these threats and also a critic of Biden and the Democrats for not impeaching quickly, for not being more proactive, for not acting with greater urgency. So I'm targeted by kind of everyone except for people who don't have any power, which is a strange situation to be in because I love my readers and I think that they're wonderful and I'm incredibly grateful for them because my books largely spread through word of mouth. It is scary for me, just as like a mom in Missouri without a lot of resources to be targeted by all of these kind of high profile, wealthy, powerful people. But all I have is my voice and my writing. And so I just do what I can. And that's just the way the cards have been dealt for me and it is what it is, so.Andrew Keen: Later historians write about this period in 50 or 100 years time. How do you think you mentioned the Biden administration, you were critical of them. We haven't talked about Kamala Harris's failed presidential term, which I wasn't particularly impressed with. How much moral responsibility do you think that Biden and Harris should be accused of for Trump too?Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, I'd be delighted if we have historians in the future. Well, I will be, even if I don't.Andrew Keen: Well, there will be, even if, I don't know, in America, there'll be somewhere.Sarah Kendzior: I is where it'll be some sort of AI creation that just, you know, belches out, make America great again, like, you know, like in The Shining or something, just over and over and over again. But assuming we have real historians that actually assess the situation, I think they are going to be tremendously critical of the Biden administration. I think it may in fact go down as one of the worst of all time. And he will be seen as a Neville Chamberlain-like figure who had the opportunity to stop or slow A number of autocratic practices and either chose to look the other way or to enable them. Because the thing is, in 2016, people were very doubtful that America could become an autocratic state. They hadn't seen this before. A lot of this was new to them. From 2016 through 2021, we saw all that Trump was capable of, and he committed a large multitude of crimes,RetryClaude hit the max length for a message and has paused its response. You can write Continue to keep the chat going.AKplease continueEditHere's the continuation of the transcript:Sarah Kendzior: ...and those crimes, not just him, but his cohort were never held accountable. And what they did during the Biden years was plan all of their next moves. Like you don't suddenly have a gulag for Americans in El Salvador, like just off the top of your head. You know, all of this takes planning. We knew about a lot of the plans, you know, the Democrats campaigned about combating Project 2025. And my question to them was, well, what what if you lose? How are you going to combat it then? You know what, if he gets back, what are you gonna do? They would be so offended. They're like, how dare you, you question us. How dare you question, you know, our plans? They're, like, well, I don't, you don't have a plan. Like, that's my question is what is the plan? And they didn't. And they could have spent those four years creating a bulwark against a lot of the most horrific policies that we're seeing now. Instead, they're kind of reacting on the fly if they're even reacting at all. And meanwhile, people are being targeted, deported, detained. They're suffering tremendously. And they're very, very scared. I think it's very scary to have a total dearth of leadership from where the, not just the opposition, but just people with basic respect for the constitution, our civil rights, etc., are supposed to be.Andrew Keen: You mentioned Project 2025, we've got David Graham on the show next week, who's written a book about Project 2025. Is there anything positive to report, Sarah? I mean, some people are encouraged by the behavior, at least on Friday, the 18th of April, who knows what will happen over the weekend or next week. Behavior of Harvard, some law firms are aggressively defending their rights. Should we be encouraged by the universities, law firms, even some corporate leaders are beginning to mutter under their breath about Trump and Trumpism?Sarah Kendzior: And it depends whether they actually have that power in wielded or whether they're just sort of trying to tamper down public dissent. I'm skeptical of these universities and law firms because I think they should have had a plan long ago because I was very obvious that all of this was going to happen and I feel so terribly for all of the students there that were abandoned by these administrations, especially places like Columbia. That gave in right away. What does hearten me though, you know, and I, as you said, I'd been on this tour, like I was all over the West coast. I've been all over, the Midwest and the South is, Americans, Americans do understand what's happening. There's always this like this culture in media of like, how do we break it to Americans? Like, yeah, well, we know, we know out here in Missouri that this is very bad. And I think that people have genuine concern for each other. I think they still have compassion for each other. I think there's a culture of cruelty that's promoted online and it's incentivized. You know, you can make money that way. You could get clicks that that way, whatever, but in real life, I think people feel vulnerable. They feel afraid, but I've seen so much kindness. I've been so much concern and determination from people who don't have very much, and maybe that's, you know, why people don't know about it. These are just ordinary folks. And so I have great faith in American people to combat this. And what I don't have faith in is our institutions. And I hope that these sort of in between places, places like universities who do a lot of good on one hand, but also can kind of act as like hedge funds. On the other hand, I hope they move fully to the side of good and that they purge themselves of these corrupt elements that have been within them for a long time, the more greedy. Aspects of their existence. I hope they see themselves as places that uphold civic life and history and provide intellectual resistance and shelter for students in the storm. They could be a really powerful force if they choose to be. It's never too late to change. I guess that's the message I want to bring home. Even if I'm very critical of these places, it's never to late for them to change and to do the right thing.Andrew Keen: Well, finally, Sarah, a lot of people are going to be watching this on my Substack page. Your Substack Page, your newsletter, They Knew, I think has last count, 52,000 subscribers. Is this the new model for independent writers, journalist thinkers like yourself? I'm not sure of those 52,00, how many of them are paid. You noted that your book has disappeared co-isindecially sometimes. So maybe some publishers are being intimidated. Is the future for independent thinkers, platforms like Substack, where independent authors like yourself can establish direct intellectual and commercial relations with their readers and followers?Sarah Kendzior: It's certainly the present. I mean, this is the only place or other newsletter outlets, I suppose, that I could go. And I purposefully divorced myself from all institutions except for my publisher because I knew that this kind of corruption would inhibit me from being able to say the truth. This is why I dropped out of academia, I dropped out of regular journalism. I have isolated myself to some degree on purpose. And I also just like being in control of this and having direct access to my readers. However, what does concern me is, you know, Twitter used to also be a place where I had direct access to people I could get my message out. I could circumvent a lot of the traditional modes of communication. Now I'm essentially shadow banned on there, along with a lot of people. And you know Musk has basically banned substack links because of his feud with Matt Taibbi. You know, that led to, if you drop a substack link in there, it just gets kind of submerged and people don't see it. So, you know, I think about Twitter and how positive I was about that, maybe like 12, 13 years ago, and I wonder how I feel about Substack and what will happen to it going forward, because clearly, you Know, Trump's camp realizes the utility of these platforms, like they know that a lot of people who are prominent anti authoritarian voices are using them to get the word out when they are when they lose their own platform at, like, say, the Washington Post or MSNBC or... Whatever network is corrupted or bullied. And so eventually, I think they'll come for it. And, you know, so stack has problems on its own anyway. So I am worried. I make up backups of everything. I encourage people to consume analog content and to print things out if they like them in this time. So get my book on that note, brand new analog content for you. A nice digital.Andrew Keen: Yeah, don't buy it digitally. I assume it's available on Kindle, but you're probably not too keen or even on Amazon and Bezos. Finally, Sarah, this is Friday. Fridays are supposed to be cheerful days, the days before the weekend. Is there anything to be cheerful about on April The 18th 2025 in America?Sarah Kendzior: I mean, yeah, there's things to be cheerful about, you know, pre spring, nice weather. I'm worried about this weekend. I'll just get this out real quick. You know, this is basically militia Christmas. You know, This is the anniversary of Waco, the Oklahoma City bombings, Columbine. It's Hitler's birthday. This is a time when traditionally American militia groups become in other words,Andrew Keen: Springtime in America.Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, springtime for Hitler. You know, and so I'm worried about this weekend. I'm worry that if there are anti-Trump protests that they'll be infiltrated by people trying to stoke the very riots that Trump said he wanted in order to, quote, make America great again and have everything collapse. So everyone, please be very, very careful this weekend heading out and just be aware of the. Of these dates and the importance of these days far predates Trump to, you know, militia groups and other violent extremist groups.Andrew Keen: Well, on that cheerful note, I asked you for a positive note. You've ruined everyone's weekend, probably in a healthy way. You are the Cassandra from St. Louis. Appreciate your bravery and honesty in standing up to Trump and Trumpism, MAGA America. Congratulations on the new book. As you say, it's available in analog form. You can buy it. Take it home, protect it, dig a hole in your garden and protect it from the secret police. Congratulations on the new book. As I said to you before we went live, it's a beautifully written book. I mean, you're noted as a polemicist, but I thought this book is your best written book, the other books were well written, but this is particularly well written. Very personal. So congratulations on that. And Sarah will have to get you back on the show. I'm not sure how much worse things can get in America, but no doubt they will and no doubt you will write about it. So keep well, keep safe and keep doing your brave work. Thank you so much.Sarah Kendzior: Yeah, you too. Thank you so much for your kind words and for having me on again. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Megyn Kelly is joined by Walter Kirn and Matt Taibbi, hosts of "America This Week," to discuss Lauren Sanchez, Katy Perry, and Gayle King going to space for a few minutes, why it was framed as some big step for feminism, Sanchez' relationship with Jeff Bezos and her bizarre interview when she came back, the ridiculous over-the-top Blue Origin announcers, pretending they actually did "training" for this space visit for two days, the horrifying terror and arson at the Pennsylvania's Governor's mansion, how his family was sleeping inside but escaped, details about the suspect and his extremism, Taylor Lorenz giggling about Luigi Mangione in a shocking CNN segment, her disgusting praise of him and those who support him, Bill Maher revealing what happened at his dinner with Trump at the White House, how he surprisingly described him as gracious and a good listener, what this could mean for his future coverage of Trump and viewership, Taibbi suing a Democratic Congresswoman who smeared him in Congress and also on X, the attacks he's faced over the years from the government, and more. Kirn- https://countyhighway.com/Taibbi- https://www.racket.news/ Birch Gold: Text MK to 989898 and get your free info kit on goldDone with Debt: https://www.DoneWithDebt.com & tell them Megyn sent you!ARMRA: go to https://tryarmra.com/MEGYN to get 15% offByrna: Go to https://Byrna.com/MEGYN to save 10%Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow
Hello and welcome to HBR News where we talk about the news of the week! This week we discuss lawfare against Elon Musk for protecting some semblance of free speech, congresswoman and Harvard professor cought planning massive riots, and more!
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Matt Taibbi returns to the show to discuss his recent testimony in front of Congress. They start by quickly going over the false claim one Democratic Congresswoman leveled at Taibbi before he testified and why he's now suing her for $10 million. They then get into the meat of his testimony, which leads them onto a discussion of government censorship, what we know now about Russiagate and more. Discussed on the show: “A Response to a Member of Congress” (Racket News) “Exclusive: Clinton Plans Long In The Making” (Sleuth News) Racket Library Matt Taibbi is a journalist, author and political commentator. Subscribe to his Substack publication: Racket News and follow him on Twitter @mtaibbi. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Download Episode. Matt Taibbi returns to the show to discuss his recent testimony in front of Congress. They start by quickly going over the false claim one Democratic Congresswoman leveled at Taibbi before he testified and why he's now suing her for $10 million. They then get into the meat of his testimony, which leads them onto a discussion of government censorship, what we know now about Russiagate and more. Discussed on the show: “A Response to a Member of Congress” (Racket News) “Exclusive: Clinton Plans Long In The Making” (Sleuth News) Racket Library Matt Taibbi is a journalist, author and political commentator. Subscribe to his Substack publication: Racket News and follow him on Twitter @mtaibbi. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY
Hosted by CannCon and Chris Paul, this episode of Badlands Daily unpacks a whirlwind of breaking news, global intrigue, and political realignments. The hosts dive into the new Trump-era tariffs shaking up trade with China, exposing how the de minimis loophole has allowed billions in unchecked imports, many linked to fentanyl precursors. They tackle the fresh wave of MeToo-style allegations, with Russell Brand and Matt Taibbi both in the crosshairs, and discuss the strategic takedown of Marine Le Pen, drawing parallels to Trump's own legal persecution. They break down revelations about Chief Justice Roberts' shady week in a Czech mansion with lawfare architect Norm Eisen, the VA's shocking $380k monthly web contract scam, and explosive firings from Trump's National Security Council, rumored to be linked to SignalGate. Also featured: Macron's meltdown over Trump's trade war, Elon vs. the EU, GAO fraud stats that validate Doge, and a laughably ironic JFK Courage Award for Mike Pence. From America's economic sovereignty to the inner rot of global institutions, this one's a Friday firestorm.
Stay for Mark's 2-minute AI Tip at the end!00:30 Shout out to our listeners and special comments - thank you!21:00 The red ants and black ants effect in social media.28:30 The MAGA Scorecard - not fairing well at all on our 8-point agenda.30:45 Our runaway national debt. Federal Reserve siphoning the money from this country.37:45 Matt Taibbi, American journalist accused of sexual assault - another example of distraction, inflammatory tactics.43:00 The efforts of the Trump admin have hit a massive brick wall.49:30 The ra-ing of middle class America – we want our money back!55:00 The Social Security government Ponzi Scheme.1:07:30 Kid Rock gets Bill mAher and Donald Trump together for dinner.1:09:00 Looking back at the Dumbing Down of America. Leads to Merle's Christina Applegate crush.1:23:00 Stock market crash fears. Let's fix it.1:25:00 Communist influences destabilizing America for decades.1:35:20 LIGHTENING! Video. OMG.* Mark's 2-minute AI Tip!#DonaldTrump #BillMaher #KidRock #ChristinaApplegate #MattTaibbi #MAGAReportCard #O5OPodcast #PoliticalCommentary #MiddleClassCrisis
SEASON 3 EPISODE 115: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:45) SPECIAL COMMENT: It only took Trump losing a critical election by 10 points in a state he carried last November for even HIM to figure out that Elon Musk is the best electoral friend the Democrats have right now. The White House has leaked that Elon's 130-day exemption as a "Special Government Employee" is up at the end of May and so is his time inadvertently saving democracy from the MAGA cult. We CAN'T LET HIM LEAVE! Also, INDICT ELON! Also also, PROTECT ELON AT ALL COSTS! The reporting suggests Trump intends to keep Musk as an informal advisor and frequent White House visitor and that is great news. If Trump won't keep Musk attached to him sufficiently, we have to do it for him. ELON MUSK'S UNFAVORABILITY AMONG DEMOCRATICS IN WISCONSIN IS 97 PERCENT. Let's take that national! OH BY THE WAY TRUMP JUST TANKED THE WORLD ECONOMY. 54% tariffs on China? 26% on India? Huge on the EU and UK? 10 percent on the people he likes? This is the day the Leopards of Wall Street discover that Trump of the Leopards Eating Faces Party is a cannibal: he eats the faces of other leopards! Also I'll explain how this whole tariff crap mainlines back to Trump's insane fixation with gold and the color gold. MEDIA DISASTER: Bill Maher self-destructs. Stephen A. Smith thinks he's the first person to discover the Trump 3rd Term Scam. MSNBC's attempt to tank is so successful "Morning Joe" is now behind CNN in the demo. B-Block (36:14) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Whoever let the BBC start a piece about the Myanmar Earthquake with the line "On the road to Mandalay." Ex-journalist Matt Taibbi will never testify to the House again. And Richard Carlson, at the center of transphobia, sports, TV news, Fox News, Renee Richards, and even worse things, is dead. C-Block (49:45) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: With the New York Times reporting Chuck Todd is seeking to buy a podcast or local high school sports news company for two billion dollars, it's time for me to note that we are nearing the six year mark since I finally said "I have had enough of this idiot for one lifetime."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Substack teams up with FIRE to protect writers across the political spectrum, especially those criticizing foreign governments. Plus: the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University dramatically leaves the U.S., pro-Israel fanatic Randy Fine wins his House race in Florida, and members of Congress derail hearings on JFK and censorship. ---------------------------------- Watch full episodes on Rumble, streamed LIVE 7pm ET. Become part of our Locals community Follow System Update: Twitter Instagram TikTok Facebook LinkedIn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit smokeempodcast.substack.comLiz Wolfe, Reason writer/podcaster, joins Nancy and Sarah to talk about the mess of politics, the value of free speech, and how to talk about parenting in a world where fewer and fewer women are parents. Wolfe is not your average 28 year old: Unapologetically pro-life and pro-natalist as a time when many in her generation haven't even started contemplating freezing their eggs. Or, in the case of singer Chappell Roan, 27, they might tell an interviewer, “All of my friends who have kids are in hell. I actually don't know anyone who's happy and has children at this age.”Liz has thoughts!With her surfboard in the background and her toddler occasionally in her lap, Liz talks about choices, wonders, border chaos, her Catholic faith, reproductive tech, and why she's pleased that Grok compared her to Kat Timpf.Also discussed:* Happy Liberation Day?* Grok summarizes your narrators, and Sarah gets grumpy* Nancy's alter-ego has a pie in her backpack, with a gun* Truth Czar, Disinformation Chief … have the American people not suffered enough?* Sarah is pissed on Matt Taibbi's behalf* Talk to your hairdresser about the New York Times …* Warren Beatty quote: “One of the nice things God does is, he does not let people who don't have kids know what they're missing.”* Chappell Roan, a second-rate Lady Gaga* “Ambiguous loss”* Will Sarah have a kid on her own?* Do NOT call Nancy a single mother* Unrealistic expectations about our fertility window* “I bite Mama!”Plus, sliding out of Obama-era liberalism, the hazards of toxic empathy, poop under your fake nails, and much more!
-Newsmax TV host Lidia Curanaj talks about unhinged anti-American Tesla protests, the lost-in-the-wilderness Democrat party, and the transformation of mainstream media. -On Capitol Hill, Biden's disinformation specialist, Nina Jankowicz doubles down on censorship and goes after “Twitter Files” reporter Matt Taibbi. Today's podcast is sponsored by : BIRCH GOLD - Protect and grow your retirement savings with gold. Text ROB to 98 98 98 for your FREE information kit! To call in and speak with Rob Carson live on the show, dial 1-800-922-6680 between the hours of 12 Noon and 3:00 pm Eastern Time Monday through Friday…E-mail Rob Carson at : RobCarsonShow@gmail.com Musical parodies provided by Jim Gossett (www.patreon.com/JimGossettComedy) Listen to Newsmax LIVE and see our entire podcast lineup at http://Newsmax.com/Listen Make the switch to NEWSMAX today! Get your 15 day free trial of NEWSMAX+ at http://NewsmaxPlus.com Looking for NEWSMAX caps, tees, mugs & more? Check out the Newsmax merchandise shop at : http://nws.mx/shop Follow NEWSMAX on Social Media: • Facebook: http://nws.mx/FB • X/Twitter: http://nws.mx/twitter • Instagram: http://nws.mx/IG • YouTube: https://youtube.com/NewsmaxTV • Rumble: https://rumble.com/c/NewsmaxTV • TRUTH Social: https://truthsocial.com/@NEWSMAX • GETTR: https://gettr.com/user/newsmax • Threads: http://threads.net/@NEWSMAX • Telegram: http://t.me/newsmax • BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/newsmax.com • Parler: http://app.parler.com/newsmax Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
0:00 Matt Taibbi attacked by Nina Jankowicz at censorship hearing; Real propagandist exposed! Robby Soave 11:43 Elon Musk's $25 million money couldn't buy votes in Wisconsin, MAGA bruised 22:41 Trump administration's crackdown of the Ivy league Vs antisemitism: Rising debates 36:37 A bird's eye view of Sen. Bernie Sanders oligarchy tour: What is America saying? 46:46 Sen Cory Booker makes history with an impassioned filibuster, GOP pollster calls it a turning point 55:14 Michael Shellenberger: FBI knew Hunter Biden laptop was real, pushed censorship anyway 1:06:17 DOGE scores victory after Judge allows takeover of $500 million USIP building 1:14:22 Exclusive: Sen. Rand Paul responds to Trump blasting him over opposing tariffs, saying he has 'TDS' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
TALK TO ME, TEXT ITCensorship, political maneuvering, and surprising revelations dominated yesterday's news cycle – but how much did you actually hear about? In this eye-opening episode of An Americanist, we pull back the curtain on a critical censorship hearing that received minimal mainstream coverage.Matt Taibbi's Capitol Hill testimony revealed how the State Department's Global Engagement Center, originally created to combat foreign disinformation, pivoted under the Biden administration to monitoring everyday American social media users with no foreign connections. This confrontation between Taibbi and former "Disinformation Czar" Nina Jankowicz exposes troubling questions about government overreach and free speech limitations that deserve your immediate attention.We also explore Wisconsin's seemingly contradictory electoral outcomes, where voters overwhelmingly supported voter ID requirements while simultaneously electing a liberal judge. The explanation? Redistricting's powerful impact on our democratic process. Plus, bombshell revelations from a new book claiming former President Obama worked behind the scenes against Kamala Harris' potential 2024 candidacy, the Trump administration's unexplained suspension of university grants, and newly released JFK files suggesting CIA officials lied about their awareness of Lee Harvey Oswald.The episode wraps with a lighter audience question about your dream celebrity date, proving that even in times of serious political discourse, we can still find moments of connection and levity. Visit anamericanist.com for daily writings, follow on X for updates, and join our community of engaged citizens who believe transparent information is the foundation of a functioning democracy. What news stories do you think deserve more attention? Share your thoughts and become part of the conversation.Exit bumper Not A Democracy Podcast Network made by @FuryanEnergySupport the showTip Jar for coffee $ - Thanks Blog - Carol ReMarksX - Carol ReMarks Instagram - Carol.ReMarksFacebook Page - Carol ReMarks Blog
Renée DiResta is one of the nation's leading researchers of social media and the author of “Invisible Rulers : The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality”: a book about the ways social media platforms are used — and abused — to reshape the way we think and behave. Renée also shared her thoughts on the government's hostility toward researchers who study social media and some of her experiences interacting with Matt Taibbi.You can read Renée's emails with Matt Taibbi here: reneediresta.substack.com/Transition Music: “Get Dumber - feat. Jeff Rosenstock” by PUP This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit postthroughit.substack.com
In this episode of The Free Thought Project Podcast, Jason and Matt sit down with award-winning journalist and best-selling author Matt Taibbi, Editor-in-Chief of Racket News, an independent investigative journalism platform exposing corruption, censorship, and abuses of power across the political spectrum. With a storied career that spans decades—from covering the financial crisis to co-authoring the Twitter Files—Taibbi has become a rare voice of integrity in modern journalism. We discuss the impactful story of the Free Thought Project's censorship experience and the crucial role played by journalist Matt Taibbi in shedding light on our deplatforming back in 2018. As they celebrate Matt Agorist's birthday, the conversation takes listeners through a revealing journey into the heart of media manipulation, the complexities of social media platforms, and the ongoing struggle for transparency in the information age. From there, we dig into the shadowy entities behind our page removal, including the DFR Lab, an arm of the Atlantic Council, which continues to shape online narratives in partnership with government and Big Tech — all under the guise of fighting “disinformation.” We shift gears to the new wave of authoritarianism from the right, namely Trump's executive order targeting anti-Israel speech on college campuses, and how it's a direct assault on the First Amendment. Taibbi shares his insights on the duopoly's weaponization of censorship, regardless of which party is in power. In a particularly raw and revealing moment, Matt opens up about being shadowbanned by Elon Musk himself, despite having helped bring transparency to Twitter via the Twitter Files. He details the financial and emotional toll of having his reach artificially suppressed and the betrayal felt when those who claim to champion free speech fall short. Despite the challenges, the conversation ends on a hopeful note. Matt delivers a powerful answer to our white pill question, and even lets listeners in on a little-known detail about where he really falls on the political spectrum. This is an essential episode for anyone trying to make sense of the new censorship-industrial complex, the betrayal of civil liberties from both sides of the aisle, and how we push back with truth, humor, and principle. (Length: 1:01:08) Matt's Substack: https://www.racket.news/ Follow Matt on Twitter: https://x.com/mtaibbi
Megyn Kelly opens the show by announcing the launch of her “MK Media” podcast network, the first three hosts Mark Halperin, Maureen Callahan, and Link Lauren, why it's so important to promote and uplift independent voices of reason and common sense, and more. Then Walter Kirn and Matt Taibbi, hosts of "America This Week," join to discuss the strange details about the Signal group chat that The Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg was added to, what national security issues were actually being discussed amongst the Trump administration officials, if this was an accident or something else, Trump's fight with the courts over the “Alien Enemies Act,” the illegal gang members living in America that the left is somehow defending now, corporate media journalist John Harwood making obscene comments comparing Tom Homan to the Jim Crow era, the absurdity of his statement and its harmful effects, New York Times “The Daily” podcast claiming Trump is worse to the media than Nixon, how he actually has been the most transparent and open with the press of any president, the corporate media still playing the victim, Rep. Jasmine Crockett calling Gov. Greg Abbott “Governor Hot Wheels,” her code switching and new accent as she becomes a Congressional influencer, her artificial personality and real background, and more.Taibbi- https://www.racket.news/Kirn- https://countyhighway.com/120/Life: Go to https://120Life.com and use code MK to save 15%Grand Canyon University: https://GCU.eduAngel Studios: Become an Angel Guild member today and get 2 free tickets to The King of Kings movie when you become a premium member. Visit https://angel.com/MEGYN Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow
Senate Republicans on Wednesday passed a measure to allow payment apps like Venmo and PayPal to return to ideological debanking—repealing a rule implemented in December by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Repeal of the rule would leave users of the apps in limbo, as the laws protecting consumers would still be in place, but the rule enforcing the law—and the bureau with the capacity to enforce it—would not. Jimmy and Americans' Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss the bill, which has not yet passed in the House, and how it will allow these payment app companies to deny service to individuals or groups on ideological grounds. Plus segments on Americans' declining support for Israel, Matt Taibbi's perspective on why the left should support Kash Patel's efforts to reform the FBI and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's bellicose rhetoric toward China. Also featuring Stef Zamorano and Mike MacRae. And a phone call from Al Pacino!
This episode originally aired/published 2/25/25 here: https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/taibbi-trump-has-a-once-in-a-lifetime I am aware that in the past I have said the podcast is always going to be free, and I am committed to sticking to that promise. Just know that these podcasts, posted here, are now all on a slight delay and are taken from my near-daily blog, Fringe Finance: http://quoththeraven.substack.com However now you don't have to listen to 7 minutes of introduction from sponsors. How's that for a trade off? Anyways, you can get all of my podcasts as they happen by subscribing to my Substack. All QTR podcast listeners can take 40% off an annual subscription by using this link: https://quoththeraven.substack.com/subscribe?coupon=fa90a2a2&utm_content= You can still contribute a donation to the podcast via Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/QTRResearch All podcast content is subject to this disclaimer, which you should read slowly, multiple times. QTR's Disclaimer: Please read my full legal disclaimer on my About page here. This post represents my opinions only. In addition, please understand I am an idiot and often get things wrong and lose money. I may own or transact in any names mentioned in this piece at any time without warning. Contributor posts and aggregated posts have been hand selected by me, have not been fact checked and are the opinions of their authors. They are either submitted to QTR by their author, reprinted under a Creative Commons license with my best effort to uphold what the license asks, or with the permission of the author. This is not a recommendation to buy or sell any stocks or securities, just my opinions. I often lose money on positions I trade/invest in. I may add any name mentioned in this article and sell any name mentioned in this piece at any time, without further warning. None of this is a solicitation to buy or sell securities. I may or may not own names I write about and are watching. Sometimes I'm bullish without owning things, sometimes I'm bearish and do own things. Just assume my positions could be exactly the opposite of what you think they are just in case. If I'm long I could quickly be short and vice versa. I won't update my positions. All positions can change immediately as soon as I publish this, with or without notice and at any point I can be long, short or neutral on any position. You are on your own. Do not make decisions based on my blog or what my guests say. Nothing is fact checked. I exist on the fringe. Assume any and all numbers in this piece are wrong and make sure you check them yourself. The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. These are not the opinions of any of my employers, partners, or associates. I did my best to be honest about my disclosures but can't guarantee I am right; I write these posts after a couple beers sometimes. I edit after my posts are published because I'm impatient and lazy, so if you see a typo, check back in a half hour. Also, I just straight up get shit wrong a lot. I mention it twice because it's that important.
PRESIDENT TRUMP this week paused “intelligence sharing” with Ukraine. That really means the US is no longer targeting and firing long-range missiles from Ukraine into Russia. This has caused fear and consternation with America's European allies, who seem hell-bent on provoking open war with Russia. Since this is a war Europe can't win without American involvement, and perhaps not even then given the sorry state of US industry, there must be spiritual forces behind this warmongering—which is why we began this podcast 20 years ago. As Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus, we're not wrestling against human opponents. Our true adversaries are in the spirit realm—and they appear to want a war that will drive a desperate, war-weary world to welcome a false messiah. For reference, here's the link to the article by Matt Taibbi that Derek mentioned on the timeline of the war in Ukraine (which began in 1990). If you are interested in reading or watching more of Tom Horn's work about the final pope, see this page at the SkyWatchTV store. Our new book The Gates of Hell is now available in paperback, Kindle, and as an audiobook at Audible! Derek's new book Destination: Earth, co-authored with Donna Howell and Allie Anderson, is now available in paperback, Kindle, and as an audiobook at Audible! Sharon's niece, Sarah Sachleben, was recently diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer, and the medical bills are piling up. If you are led to help, please go to GilbertHouse.org/hopeforsarah. Follow us! X (formerly Twitter): @pidradio | @sharonkgilbert | @derekgilbert | @gilberthouse_tvTelegram: t.me/gilberthouse | t.me/sharonsroom | t.me/viewfromthebunkerSubstack: gilberthouse.substack.comYouTube: @GilbertHouse | @UnravelingRevelationFacebook.com/pidradio ——————JOIN US IN ISRAEL! We will tour the Holy Land October 19–30, 2025, with an optional three-day extension in Jordan. For more information, log on to GilbertHouse.org/travel. Note: Due to scheduling conflicts, we hope to have special guests Dr. Judd Burton, Doug Van Dorn, and Timothy Alberino on our tour in spring 2026. We will announce dates as soon as possible. Thank you for making our Build Barn Better project a reality! Our 1,200 square foot pole barn has a new HVAC system, epoxy floor, 100-amp electric service, new windows, insulation, lights, and ceiling fans! If you are so led, you can help out by clicking here: gilberthouse.org/donate. Get our free app! It connects you to this podcast, our weekly Bible studies, and our weekly video programs Unraveling Revelation and A View from the Bunker. The app is available for iOS, Android, Roku, and Apple TV. Links to the app stores are at pidradio.com/app. Video on demand of our best teachings! Stream presentations and teachings based on our research at our new video on demand site: gilberthouse.org/video! Think better, feel better! Our partners at Simply Clean Foods offer freeze-dried, 100% GMO-free food and delicious, vacuum-packed fair trade coffee from Honduras. Find out more at GilbertHouse.org/store/.
In what can only be described as a stunning reversal on a key political issues, Republicans have now siezed the mantle of supporting free speech away from Democrats — mostly owing to Democrats' support for efforts to counter what they call “misinformation” and “hate speech” online. But now Donald Trump appears to be willing to crack down on speech he doesn't like as well, in particular criticisms of Israel and support for Palestinians. Jimmy and investigative journalist Matt Taibbi discuss just how much Trump's proposed measures against protesters will undermine his free speech bona fides among the MAGA faithful. Plus segments with Taibbi on Trump exposing the likes of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders as pro-war tools, CNN's post-speech poll showing wide-ranging support for Trump's stated agenda and Zelensky rethinking his stance of pissing off Trump and coming crawling back to make peace with Russia.
- Introduction and Breaking News (0:00) - Climate Fraud and Money Laundering (2:01) - Sanctuary City Mayors and Legal Actions (5:32) - Book Review: "Griftopia" by Matt Taibbi (8:59) - Impact of Financial Crisis and Reforms (13:57) - Health and Politics in America (15:50) - The Role of Robots in Homesteading (42:29) - Technological Advancements and Ethical Considerations (1:13:30) - The Future of Robots and Human Interaction (1:14:07) - Conclusion and Final Thoughts (1:14:51) - Exploring the Gladio Network and Intelligence Connections (1:15:10) - The Age of Human Cognition and AI Advancements (1:23:46) - The Role of AI in Enhancing Human Intelligence (1:27:14) - The Impact of AI on Economic Activity and GDP (1:51:26) - The Future of Work and Human Labor (1:58:20) - The Role of AI in Decentralization and Freedom (2:03:58) - The Importance of Prompt Engineering in AI (2:15:19) - The Role of AI in Business and Decentralized Income Opportunities (2:26:32) - The Future of AI and Its Impact on Society (2:35:51) - The Importance of Transparency and Accountability in Government (2:36:57) For more updates, visit: http://www.brighteon.com/channel/hrreport NaturalNews videos would not be possible without you, as always we remain passionately dedicated to our mission of educating people all over the world on the subject of natural healing remedies and personal liberty (food freedom, medical freedom, the freedom of speech, etc.). Together, we're helping create a better world, with more honest food labeling, reduced chemical contamination, the avoidance of toxic heavy metals and vastly increased scientific transparency. ▶️ Every dollar you spend at the Health Ranger Store goes toward helping us achieve important science and content goals for humanity: https://www.healthrangerstore.com/ ▶️ Sign Up For Our Newsletter: https://www.naturalnews.com/Readerregistration.html ▶️ Brighteon: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/hrreport ▶️ Join Our Social Network: https://brighteon.social/@HealthRanger ▶️ Check In Stock Products at: https://PrepWithMike.com
Hour 3: The Tara Show - “Raising Teenagers with Tara and Lee” “Matt Taibbi's Red Pill Moment” "Controlling the Deficit in America” “Bad Mornings” full 1830 Wed, 19 Feb 2025 15:11:16 +0000 l708RvbCqpqgS5tvgkn1Uzba0Hei5acJ news The Tara Show news Hour 3: The Tara Show - “Raising Teenagers with Tara and Lee” “Matt Taibbi's Red Pill Moment” "Controlling the Deficit in America” “Bad Mornings” Tara presides over the Upstate's #1 all news/talk morning show every weekday on News/Talk 989 WORD.Tara's faithful listeners are affectionately known as "Tara-ists" because of their passion and participation in the show. Tara was named 2021 Best News Talk Show and Best overall Personality, AGAIN, by the South Carolina Broadcasters Association! Tara took home the same honors in 2018 and was also named 2016 "Personality of the Year!" In addition, Tara has also won over two dozen state and national journalism awards for column writing, news reporting and investigative reporting while working for three newspapers and writing for a variety of national publications. She won a first place reporting award from the North Carolina Press Association for an investigative series about the weaknesses in Charlotte's overburdened court system, which regularly let murderers off the hook with less than 15 years in prison. Due to her work, that system has been reformed. Tara is also a winner of the prestigious first place Green Eyeshade Award, a national award for column writing from The Society of Professional Journalists. Tara took to the airwaves about 15 years ago to do a radio show heard up and down the coast and fell in love with bypassing her editors to talk straight to the people. Tara hasn't stopped reporting, and still brings her investigative journalism to the show. Tara is a mom, wife and talk radio convert-- and weekday mornings she's live and local on News/Talk 989 WORD. Are you a "Tara-ist"? It's time to get captured! 2024 © 2021 Audacy, Inc. News False https://player.amperwavepodcasting.com?feed-link=https%3A%2F%
Megyn Kelly is joined by Michael Knowles, host of The Daily Wire's "Michael Knowles Show,” to discuss how “60 Minutes" celebrated German censorship of online speech, the lack of pushback by the reporter, the history of "60 Minutes" and how the CBS show has declined in recent years, CBS' Margaret Brennan's outrageous comments about the Holocaust and free speech, how the legacy media members are still embarrassing themselves, conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair claiming Elon Musk is the father of her child, her claiming she wants privacy but appearing in a New York Post profile and photoshoot, why women can be successful in their careers and in their family lives, the need for personal responsibility in our society, and more. Then Matt Taibbi and Walter Kirn, hosts of "America This Week," join to discuss the Associated Press throwing a tantrum over losing some White House access, how the AP and other media have torpedoed their own credibility, why independent media doesn't need access to succeed, why the media is outraged about the Trump DOJ dropping charges against Eric Adams, Kamala's latest ridiculous word salad in NYC, how Democrats are struggling to find a way to “resist” Trump, one Dem politician calling Elon a “d*ck,” and more. Then aviation experts Whiz Buckley and Greg Feith join to discuss what likely caused the shocking Delta plane crash in Canada, how weather conditions played a role, the reasons everyone miraculously survived, and more.Knowles- https://www.dailywire.com/Taibbi- https://www.racket.news/Kirn- https://countyhighway.com/DailyLook: https://DailyLook.com to take your style quiz and use code MEGYN for 50% off your first order.Home Title Lock: Go to https://www.hometitlelock.com and use promo code MEGYN25 to get 25% off your subscription AND a free title history report to ensure that you're not already a victim.Herald Group: Learn more at https:/GuardYourCard.comJustThrive: Visit https://JustThriveHealth.com and use code MEGYN and save 20% sitewideFollow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKellyTwitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShowInstagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShowFacebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at: https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow
0:00 JD Vance is right, Germany's censorship regime is insane and must stop—Robby Soave 8:56 Zelenskyy snubbed? Rubio in peace talks with Lavrov in Saudi Arabia: Ret. Lt Col Daniel Davis interview 16:44 Trump Admin slashing more gov't agencies; Scott Jennings defends move; Dems sound alarm 26:20Conservatives blast Tom Hanks's MAGA character on SNL: 'Hate mongering' 31:55 Biden admin snuck $20B into 'green banks' for climate projects at last second: Matt Taibbi intv 41:26 Jen Psaki, Ana Kasparian shred democrats' political tactics: 'Drives me insane' 51:16 ' J.D. Vance calls Mehdi Hasan 'dummy' over free speech 56:19 Elon Musk has 13th child?! Baby mama Ashley St. Clair reveals her side of story Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
The Rich Zeoli Show- Full Episode (02/13/2025): 3:05pm- On Thursday, from the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order placing “reciprocal tariffs” on trading partners who currently place tariffs, taxes, and fees on American imports. The Trump Administration has argued that the reciprocal tariffs are designed to persuade trade partners to drop trade importation penalties on American-made goods—ultimately resulting in truly fair and free trade agreements. 3:30pm- On Thursday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Robert Kennedy Jr. as the Trump Administration's Secretary of Health and Human Services. The vote was 52 to 48—with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) being the only Republican voting against his confirmation. 3:40pm- Justin Goodman—Senior Vice President of Advocacy and Public Policy for the White Coat Waste Project—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss his recent testimony before Congress where he spoke about his organization's findings indicating federal government involvement in barbaric studies on animals, including purposefully “poisoning puppies.” These disturbing tests are being financially supported by organizations like USAID and the NIH. Goodman hopes that with WCW ally Robert Kennedy Jr. confirmed as Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Trump Administration will do away with these unnecessarily cruel experiments once and for all. 4:05pm- On Thursday, from the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order placing “reciprocal tariffs” on trading partners who currently place tariffs, taxes, and fees on American imports. The Trump Administration has argued that the reciprocal tariffs are designed to persuade trade partners to drop trade importation penalties on American-made goods—ultimately resulting in truly fair and free trade agreements. 4:15pm- After a lengthy conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, President Donald Trump expressed optimism that the war in Ukraine may soon be coming to an end. While speaking from the Oval Office, Trump told reporters he plans on meeting with Putin in Saudi Arabia to finalize a deal. 4:20pm- On Wednesday, independent journalists Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Rupa Subramanya testified before the House Judiciary Committee. While being questioned by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) Shellenberger accused USAID—and other elements of the federal government—of engaging in nefarious “information operations” and manipulating publications like the Guardian and New York Times. 4:30pm- BREAKING NEWS: Hamas announces it will release all remaining Israeli hostages by Saturday at noon. President Donald Trump had vowed that “all hell” would break loose if the hostages weren't returned by that deadline. 4:35pm- Jacqueline Tobacco—Creative Director & Producer for 43 Oak—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss her tireless fight for parental rights in New Jersey and reacts to Robert Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services. 5:05pm- On Wednesday, independent journalists Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Rupa Subramanya testified before the House Judiciary Committee. While being questioned by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) Shellenberger accused USAID—and other elements of the federal government—of engaging in nefarious “information operations” and manipulating publications like the Guardian and New York Times. In another notable moment Subramanya—who was born in India—emphasized that the First Amendment's protection of free of speech is what separates the United States from the rest of the world. 5:15pm- Angry Megaphone Bernie is BACK! And he is still furious about the wealthiest 1% of Americans (which statistically, according to his net worth, he is a part of). 5:20pm- A video montage which has gone viral on social media, shows the Clinton and Obama Administrations openly advocating for reducing the size of government and eliminating wasteful spending within the executive branch. So why are Democrats opposed to ...
In hour 3, Mark is joined by Scott Jennings, a 97.1 Political Insider and CNN Political Contributor. They discuss the work that DOGE is doing as well as the outrage that Elon Musk is causing from Democrats, Trump's cabinet continuing to get confirmed, and more. Mark is then joined by Neil Gellman with the Gellman Team to discuss the local market for home buyers and sellers. They wrap up the show with the audio cut of the day.
About two years ago Matt Taibbi and Michael Schellenberger revealed to the world that the American government actually doesn't care about FREE SPEECH, despite it being the 1st Amendment in the Constitution. Matt Taibbi was back on Capitol Hill discussing the widespread corruption within our media complex and revealing that it cannot be reformed. We initially spoke about the problem in Episodes 189 and 212 when both Taibbi and Schellenberger testified before Congress.Episode 189 https://creators.spotify.com/pod/dashboard/episode/e1selu6/detailsEpisode 212https://creators.spotify.com/pod/dashboard/episode/e1ts75m/detailsMatt Taibbi Statement before Congresshttps://x.com/newstart_2024/status/1889713416689881177Quote from Show"The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”- C.S. Lewis
The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 2: 4:05pm- On Thursday, from the Oval Office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order placing “reciprocal tariffs” on trading partners who currently place tariffs, taxes, and fees on American imports. The Trump Administration has argued that the reciprocal tariffs are designed to persuade trade partners to drop trade importation penalties on American-made goods—ultimately resulting in truly fair and free trade agreements. 4:15pm- After a lengthy conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, President Donald Trump expressed optimism that the war in Ukraine may soon be coming to an end. While speaking from the Oval Office, Trump told reporters he plans on meeting with Putin in Saudi Arabia to finalize a deal. 4:20pm- On Wednesday, independent journalists Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Rupa Subramanya testified before the House Judiciary Committee. While being questioned by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) Shellenberger accused USAID—and other elements of the federal government—of engaging in nefarious “information operations” and manipulating publications like the Guardian and New York Times. 4:30pm- BREAKING NEWS: Hamas announces it will release all remaining Israeli hostages by Saturday at noon. President Donald Trump had vowed that “all hell” would break loose if the hostages weren't returned by that deadline. 4:35pm- Jacqueline Tobacco—Creative Director & Producer for 43 Oak—joins The Rich Zeoli Show to discuss her tireless fight for parental rights in New Jersey and reacts to Robert Kennedy Jr.'s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The Rich Zeoli Show- Hour 3: 5:05pm- On Wednesday, independent journalists Matt Taibbi, Michael Shellenberger, Rupa Subramanya testified before the House Judiciary Committee. While being questioned by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) Shellenberger accused USAID—and other elements of the federal government—of engaging in nefarious “information operations” and manipulating publications like the Guardian and New York Times. In another notable moment Subramanya—who was born in India—emphasized that the First Amendment's protection of free of speech is what separates the United States from the rest of the world. 5:15pm- Angry Megaphone Bernie is BACK! And he is still furious about the wealthiest 1% of Americans (which statistically, according to his net worth, he is a part of). 5:20pm- A video montage which has gone viral on social media, shows the Clinton and Obama Administrations openly advocating for reducing the size of government and eliminating wasteful spending within the executive branch. So why are Democrats opposed to the Trump Administration following through on an identical pledge? 5:30pm- On Thursday, the U.S. Senate confirmed Robert Kennedy Jr. as the Trump Administration's Secretary of Health and Human Services. The vote was 52 to 48—with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) being the only Republican voting against his confirmation. 5:40pm- Attorney General Pam Bondi announced the Department of Justice will be suing New York over the state's “green light” law (which allows undocumented migrants to receive a driver's license) and its limited cooperation with the federal government on illegal immigration. Governor Kathy Hochul and State AG Letitia James were both named specifically in the suit.
Paris Marx is joined by Eoin Higgins to discuss how tech billionaires set out to change the media ecosystem and made it profitable for influential voices to shift to the political right. Eoin Higgins is a journalist and the author of Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left.Tech Won't Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Support the show on Patreon.The podcast is made in partnership with The Nation. Production is by Eric Wickham.Also mentioned in this episode:Read an excerpt of Eoin's book on LitHub.Last year, Peter Thiel bragged to Ann Coulter about killing Gawker.Rick Perlstein wrote about the time he met Marc Andreessen.Support the show
This time we've got Eoin Higgins on to talk about his book Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left. He uses Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi as case studies in how shifting monetary incentives created by tech oligarchs like Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen combined with certain personal pathologies turned formerly respected progressive journalists into right-wing blowhards. Coincidentally, Ryan also made videos on both Greenwald and Taibbi, which make for a nice pairing.
Our friend and colleague Stony Brook sociologist Musa al-Gharbi has a new book out. And it's a tour-de-force. We Have Never Been Woke is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the economic, political and cultural divides between the haves and the have-nots in the United States. We were delighted to host Musa for a book talk on the Carleton campus last month. He spoke with Amna in front a packed house. This is episode 2. Episode 1 is available here. Show Notes* On the limitations of diversity training, see this piece from Musa, “Diversity is Important. Diversity-Related Training is Terrible.” Also see this piece we wrote in Inside Higher Ed, “Don't Mistake Training for Education.” And this short, animated explainer video we made, “Training is Performative. Education is Transformative”* Georgetown philosopher Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò wrote the book on elite capture; here's a précis in the Boston Review. And this piece by Táíwò, published in The Philosopher, is also worth reading: “Being-In-The-Room Privilege: Elite Capture and Epistemic Deference”* Creating a Class: College Admissions and the Education of Elites by Mitchell Stevens is arguably the best book ever written on how the many advantages of the rich and well-off accumulate in the race to get into the most prestigious schools* On the incentives for students of color to highlight their trauma in college admissions essays, this NYT piece is excellent, “When I Applied to College, I Didn't Want to ‘Sell My Pain.'” On “racial gamification” in college admissions, see Tyler Austin Harper, “I Teach at an Elite College. Here's a Look Inside the Racial Gaming of Admissions”* College essays are more strongly correlated with social class than SAT scores. See this journal article by A.J. Alvero et al.* On the question of whether college admissions tests drive or reflect social inequalities, see this Banished episode (“Should More Colleges Drop the SAT and ACT?”) and this article in Inside Higher Ed (“Tests are not the source of inequities in American society”)* On the test-optional debate, see this article from the New York Times, this study from Dartmouth College and these comments from the MIT Dean of Admissions* Bertrand Cooper, “Who Actually Gets to Create Black Pop Culture?” (Current Affairs, May/June 2021)* Matt Taibbi discussed the controversy surrounding former Intercept journalist Lee Fang here This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit banished.substack.com/subscribe
Wow. According to the journalist and historian Eoin Higgins, right wing tech billionaires like Marc Andreessen, David Sacks and Peter Thiel have “bought” prominent anti establishment journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi. That's the highly provocative thesis at the heart of his new book Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left. While I'm no great fan of the Greenwald/Taibbi school of paranoid anti-establishment journalism, I'm not totally convinced. After all, does working for an online publication partially funded by Thiel like Rumble really mean that you've been bought by him? But WTF do I know? Listen to Higgins for yourself. He certainly makes an interesting case for this highly controversial thesis.Here are the 5 KEEN ON takeaways for our conversation withHiggins:* Tech Billionaire Influence on Media: The conversation centers on how right-wing tech billionaires like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Marc Andreessen have invested in and influenced alternative media platforms (like Rumble and Substack) as a response to what they perceived as hostile coverage from traditional media outlets.* Evolution of Left-Wing Voices: Higgins discusses how prominent left-wing journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi have shifted their political positioning over time, with their audience and platform choices moving increasingly rightward. He argues this shift “coincided” (LOL) with opportunities and financial support from right-wing tech platforms.* The Rumble Example: Higgins points to Rumble (a conservative YouTube alternative backed by Peter Thiel) hiring Glenn Greenwald as a concrete example of how tech billionaires have influenced media voices. He sees this as a "smoking gun" of how financial relationships can shape media alignment.* Complex Media Ownership: The discussion highlights the nuanced relationship between media ownership and editorial independence. While Higgins critiques certain ownership patterns, he acknowledges that journalists can maintain independence even within organizations owned by billionaires (citing examples from The Washington Post and other mainstream outlets).* Impact on Alternative Media: Higgins argues there's been a broader "takeover of alternative media" by tech billionaires, but he's careful to frame this not as a conspiracy but rather as a confluence of factors involving tech industry resentment of critical media coverage, financial opportunities, and changing political alignments.Eoin Higgins is a journalist and historian from New England. His work has appeared in many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Intercept, The New Republic, The Nation, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), Common Dreams, The Outline, Splinter, Deadspin, and many others. Additionally he writes for Morning Brew's tech newsletter, IT Brew, with an audience of nearly 100,000. He can be found at his Twitter account (@eoinhiggins_, nearly 80,000 followers), where he engages regularly with a large audience on tech and U.S. and world politics.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Edward Snowden is largely only a public name thanks to Glenn Greenwald's reporting, for which he was one of the contributors to a Pulitzer Prize-winning series for The Guardian in 2014. For a while, Matt Taibbi was considered the heir to Hunter Thompson when his gonzo journalism tore open the 2008 financial crisis and gave the public the term “vampire squids.” Yet in more recent years, both men have swerved right: Glenn became a darling on Fox News and Taibbi was recruited by Elon Musk as one of the Twitter Files “journalists.” How did that happen? We're joined by journalist Eoin Higgins, whose new book, Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left, dives into the career arcs of both Greenwald and Taibbi, and how they confuse and distort right-left alignments. Show Notes Sharath Jois, Heir to Founder of Ashtanga Yoga, Dies at 53 - The New York Times Sharath's Statement on Pattabhi Jois's Assaults: Context, Links, Notes – Matthew Remski Surviving Modern Yoga - North Atlantic Books Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left Eoin Higgins Morning Brew | Bluesky Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Eoin Higgins, author of Owned, talks about tech moguls and the journalists, like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi, who work for them. Ronnie Grinberg, author of Write Like a Man, on the mostly male, mostly Jewish New York intellectuals of the postwar scene. Behind the News, hosted by Doug Henwood, covers the worlds of economics and politics and their complex interactions, from the local to the global. Find the archive online: https://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/radio.html
Eoin Higgins, author of Owned, on tech moguls and the journalists, like Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi, who work for them • Ronnie Grinberg, author of Write Like a Man, on the mostly male, mostly Jewish New York intellectuals The post Moguls and their scribes, the New York intellectuals appeared first on KPFA.
According to President Trump, Bill Gates' Microsoft is very interested in buying the social media App TikTok. But as TikTok's owners do not want to sell, will this be a mafia deal where either their signature or their brains will be on the contract? And...how is Bill Gates owning TikTok any better than its current owners? Also today, Matt Taibbi joined Tucker Carlson recently to discuss the need for even more transparency on how the government colluded with companies to maintain silence over COVID's origins.
Story #1: What will the three most important stories from investigations by President Trump's second administration be? A conversation with Investigative Journalist, Matt Taibbi. Story #2: Are the Kansas City Chiefs approaching the New England Patriots for the greatest dynasty in NFL history? Plus, 'New York Magazine' published an insanely misleading title and column from a young conservative influencers party inauguration weekend. Is the right now winning the culture war? A conversation with The Crew. Story #3: National Review Sr. Writer, Noah Rothman published an article this weekend responding to Will's critique of his stance on birthright citizenship. Noah joins the show for a friendly and nuanced debate with Will on the issue. Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing WillCainShow@fox.com Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show! Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Donald Trump is releasing more secrets than any president in history. Matt Taibbi on the top ten mysteries we're likely to solve. (00:00) Fauci's Pardon (07:32) The J6 Committee's Pardon (11:02) The Golden Age of Journalism Has Begun (17:44) The Major Questions We Should Be Asking Now That Trump Is President (31:00) The Destruction of Nord Stream Will Kill the EU (37:57) The Key Players of COVID That Have Yet to Be Investigated Paid partnerships with: ExpressVPN: Get 3 months free at https://ExpressVPN.com/Tucker PureTalk: Get your free iPhone 14 or Samsung Galaxy at https://PureTalk.com/Tucker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Joe Biden said goodbye. He wanted to mirror Eisenhower, who once warned of the Military Industrial Complex, but Biden saw something equally alarming—the Big Tech oligarchy. He sees Zuckerberg and Bezos attending Trump's inaugural. He greatly fears the power of Elon Musk. He realizes that his side lost control of it and now, he wants all of us to be afraid.Well, I'm sorry, Joe. I can't play that game anymore. It's time to say goodbye. Farewell, Joe Biden, farewell, Democrats. Farewell, hysteria. Farewell to mandated preferred pronouns in everyone's bio. Farewell to being forced to lie about whether or not masks work. Farewell to not being allowed to give people the benefit of the doubt. Farewell to being too afraid to ask questions about an experimental vaccine. Farewell to Critical Race and gender theory in elementary schools.Farewell to the ruling oligarchy — yes, Joe. You were the frontman for it. You can't fool me. I was part of it, too. It was like a daisy chain of paper dolls—Hollywood, all major corporate and cultural institutions, Big Pharma, and all of the ads they pumped into the veins of Americans that showcased the American utopia in all of its splendor. Just take this pill, and you, too, can be with us, in the happy place. Farewell to a government censoring speech via social media. Farewell to the absence of masculinity. Farewell to worrying about every word that comes out of our mouths, what we drive, what we wear on Halloween, what we buy, what we eat, what we watch, what we desire.Farewell to being made to hate ourselves and everything we know to be true but can't say out loud. Farewell to being the oppressors or the oppressed defined only by the color of our skin. Farewell to hating our history, hating our country, hating our heroes. Farewell to virtue signaling our goodness. Farewell to always being told that it's better to keep your head down and say nothing about any of it.Farewell to never being able to take a joke. Farewell to seeing problematic content in every movie and farewell to the warning labels now affixed to all of them. Farewell to seeing all men as predators and all women as victims. Farewell to a country ruled by fear because our leaders can't see it any other way. Farewell to a president who called half the country “ultra fascists,” “ultra MAGA,” and “extreme MAGA Republicans.” Farewell to a government that believes its biggest threat comes from the people of the United States.Farewell to life inside the doomsday cult, where every single day is the end of the world. Farewell to every word taken literally and seen as another chapter of Mein Kampf. Farewell to repression and sanctimony. Farewell to the long, dark winter. Farewell to lawn signs. Farewell to pretending Kamala Harris wasn't a terrible candidate installed by the deep state. Farewell to ever having to worry about speaking the truth. Farewell to the unshakable hopelessness, the unending sadness, the mourning of the long-forgotten Old Left. It's never coming back. Everything has to be rebuilt. Welcome to the beginning of the rest of your life. At least now, you can have a life. Bringing it all Back HomeWatching the confirmation hearings was bringing it all back. Adam Schiff was still out of his mind, braying like he's Cotton Mather in the Oyer in Terminer in Salem, demanding Pam Bondi say Joe Biden “won the election.” Why did it matter so much to him? Are there really that many Americans out there who need to hear those words said out loud?The nominees' worth depended on whether or not they would stand up to the tyrant fascist racist rapist dictator that they impeached twice, indicted four times convicted on a bogus felony charge, all of which eventually landed in the fevered dreams of a washed-up surfer hippie from Hawaii who got himself a gun and tried to kill the president to SAVE DEMOCRACY. And they still lost. They lost the Electoral College and they lost the popular vote. I never get tired of saying that. Talk about owning the libs. What can we do except quote Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire. HA. HA HA HA.That's how much America hates them. After all, how hard could it possibly be to beat Hitler? The problem with utopias is that they can't last. They either must become more authoritarian and thus, less utopian, or they collapse. By the end of our utopia, anyone we knew could be one of those things. A bad person. A sexist. A racist. A homophobe. A bigot. A transphobe. Toxic masculinity. White feminism. Everyone was either an abuser or a victim. The weaker we were, the more we were celebrated. We'd snuffed out all independent thought. We were under constant surveillance by the government, advertisers, AI, algorithms, and each other. We began to wonder what real life even was anymore. It was like Winston and Julia in 1984 trying to carve out some love and lust from the dystopia under Big Brother's ever-watchful gaze, with children spies at the ready to tattle—and cancel—those who broke the rules. So if you say Joe Biden won the 2020 election, like you say 2+2=5, then democracy might have a chance. But if you dare think for yourself and start looking behind closed doors and see things you aren't supposed to see, well, now you threaten democracy.When I pushed open the door of the doomsday bunker and escaped, I knew there was no going back. I also knew I couldn't save anyone, much less the once-great culture I used to love. There is no saving whatever it was we used to call the Left. There is only saving America from what it had become so that all of us at least have a fighting chance.No, it won't be perfect. Yes, it might be chaos — entertaining chaos — but chaos all the same. We'll have to learn how to tolerate each other again, live together somehow, and learn this new way of life suddenly foisted upon us with the internet. Now, we know what it looks like to shut ourselves off from people and ideas we cannot control.If the Democrats on Blue Sky and in the Senate Confirmation hearings are any indication, nothing much has changed on the inside. They're still transfixed by the one guy they couldn't cancel, the one guy they couldn't destroy. 1984 Part TwoAnd maybe now we're about to find out what happens in the sequel. Does Big Brother find a way to regain power by destroying Elon Musk to retake X and make it Twitter again? Do those of us exiled and canceled remain on the outside? Does the New York Times beg Bari Weiss to come back, or The Atlantic to throw themselves at the feet of Walter Kirn, or Rolling Stone magazine, the crap rag it has become, offer Matt Taibbi millions to write for them again?Can those on the inside who have speciated with a whole new language and belief system learn to live with the unwashed masses again? Can they tolerate offensive speech? Can it all be one big, happy, dysfunctional family?On the inside, the news that Carrie Underwood and the Village People were playing at the inaugural birthed a fresh new crop of mass hysteria and rage. So I'm guessing Saturday Night Live won't have Trump back any time soon. The Oscars won't ask him to attend, and those who still believe they control this country will hold onto their collapsing empire until ashes, ashes, it all falls down.I don't know. But it doesn't matter. Because today we say farewell. And oh, how sweet it is. // This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sashastone.substack.com/subscribe
[00:18:25] Del Bigtree [00:36:50] Chris Christie [00:55:12] Matt Taibbi [01:13:35] Michael Goodwin [01:32:00] Brad Meltzer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Trish reports in from the road and wintery Medicine Hat, Alberta where she has been busy with the trucker convoy documentary project. And she brings a laugh with Matt Taibbi's hilarious new piece on our Prime Minister's embarrassing face-plant. A mini-episode to stay in-touch while in production. Check out Trish on Substack and stay critical. Follow Trish on X @woodreporting Website: www.trishwoodpodcast.com Shop: https://www.trishwoodpodcast.com/shop
Scott and Matt Taibbi look back at the 2024 election. They discuss the reason Trump was able to quickly return to form, Biden getting tossed out, the many weaknesses of Kamala Harris and, of course, how awful the media was. Discussed on the show: The Pentagon Wars (IMDb) “How America's Accurate Election Polls Were Covered Up” (Racket News) Hate Inc. by Matt Taibbi Matt Taibbi is a journalist, author and political commentator. Subscribe to his Substack publication: Racket News and follow him on Twitter @mtaibbi. This episode of the Scott Horton Show is sponsored by: Roberts and Robers Brokerage Incorporated; Tom Woods' Liberty Classroom; Libertas Bella; ExpandDesigns.com/Scott. Get Scott's interviews before anyone else! Subscribe to the Substack. Shop Libertarian Institute merch or donate to the show through Patreon, PayPal or Bitcoin: 1DZBZNJrxUhQhEzgDh7k8JXHXRjY Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
We don't think it's an exaggeration to say that we're standing at the precipice of what could be a third world war. At the very least, the thing that we refer to as the “Free World” is burning at its outer edges. Just a few weeks ago, Iran launched its largest-ever ballistic missile attack against Israel, while its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, continue to wage war against Israel, making use of the steady flow of weaponry and funding from Iran—which is ever closer to having nuclear weapons. The war in Ukraine continues to rage, with both sides engaged in intense fighting across multiple fronts. After over a year and a half of relentless Russian bombardment, Ukraine is barely holding the line as the grinding war of attrition drags on. According to The Wall Street Journal, more than one million people on both sides of the border have been killed or injured. And then there's China, which has lately been attacking Philippine and Vietnamese vessels in the South China Sea, terrorizing international waters with impunity as the world watches anxiously. Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran have solidified a new axis of autocracy, united in its goal to unravel the Pax Americana and undermine American dominance. The question on our minds tonight is: What should America do about it? Many Americans are saying they don't want the United States to continue leading the world order. A 2023 Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey revealed that 42 percent of Americans think that the U.S. should stay out of world affairs, which is the highest number recorded since 1974. It is easy to talk about foreign policy as an abstract idea because war, for us, is thousands of miles away. But foreign policy is a matter of life and death. Not just for people around the world, but for the more than two million Americans that serve in our armed forces. It's conventional wisdom that American voters don't prioritize foreign policy. But this year, given the state of the world, that might be different. Which is why we hosted a debate, live in NYC, on this very topic. Arguing that, yes, the U.S. should still police the world is Bret Stephens. Stephens is an opinion columnist for The New York Times and editor in chief of Sapir. As a foreign affairs columnist of The Wall Street Journal, he was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. And he is the author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder. Bret was joined by James Kirchick, contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, writer at large for Air Mail, and contributing writer for Tablet. He is the author of The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age. He is also a senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Arguing that no, the U.S. should not still police the world is none other than Matt Taibbi. Taibbi is a journalist, the founder of Racket News, and the author of 10 books, including four New York Times bestsellers. Matt was joined by Lee Fang. Lee is an independent investigative journalist, primarily writing on Substack at LeeFang.com. From 2015 to 2023, he was a reporter for The Intercept. Be it resolved: The U.S. should still police the world. If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com and become a Free Press subscriber today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” is live from Washington D.C.'s "Rescue the Republic Rally with Jordan Peterson, Russell Brand, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Bret Weinstein, Charlie Kirk, Matt Taibbi, and many more. Check out the NEW RUBIN REPORT MERCH here: https://daverubin.store/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices