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Joe Rogan Experience #2197 - Mike Baker

Mike Baker is a former CIA covert operations officer and current CEO of Portman Square Group, a global intelligence and security firm. He’s also the host of the "President’s Daily Brief" podcast: a twice daily news report on critical events happening around the globe available on all podcast platforms. www.portmansquaregroup.com

Joe RoganhostMike Bakerguest
Aug 29, 20242h 44mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:002:59

    Trump rally shooting: conspiracy denial and the loss of objective discourse

    1. NA

      (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience.

    2. JR

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music)

    3. MB

      (laughs)

    4. JR

      Well, all right, we're up, Mr. Baker. How are you, sir? Good to see you.

    5. MB

      Really? That's it? We're just jumping right in?

    6. JR

      Yeah.

    7. MB

      Oh my God, I just sat down.

    8. JR

      Well, there's so many things to talk about.

    9. MB

      Is there? Something... Anything happen?

    10. JR

      A few things happened since I last saw you.

    11. MB

      (laughs)

    12. JR

      One guy got shot.

    13. MB

      Yeah, some guy.

    14. JR

      And, uh, the guy who shot him, it just, his body vanished.

    15. MB

      Yeah.

    16. JR

      No t- no poli- (laughs)

    17. MB

      Now, now did he get shot? Because I, I've, I've, I've seen a lot of people talk about this like, "No, he didn't get shot."

    18. JR

      That's hilarious.

    19. MB

      Oh my God.

    20. JR

      Like do you think that he cut his ear like a pro wrestler?

    21. MB

      Yeah.

    22. JR

      "I got shot."

    23. MB

      Yeah.

    24. JR

      Like it's all fake. The guy behind him who got murdered, that wasn't real?

    25. MB

      I saw... Exce- that w- again, you know, you would think that would be a clue, but I've, I've seen people who would say, "No, he didn't have any blood on him. And then he ducked down behind the podium just long enough."

    26. JR

      (laughs)

    27. MB

      And I'm thinking, "Are you fucking psycho?"

    28. JR

      They are psycho.

    29. MB

      Yeah, but, you know, but then, you know, to be fair then... Well, no, that can't be fair. How can you be fair about that?

    30. JR

      There's no fair.

  2. 2:594:55

    Civility whiplash after the shooting and Trump’s instinct for nicknames

    1. MB

      Yeah. Yeah, I, what, that, yeah, I, I think with the Trump thing though, I was surprised at how... 'Cause it was, it was about a day and a half maybe, maybe, maybe it was 36 hours of, "Oh fuck, how could this happen? Look, look what we created."

    2. JR

      Yeah.

    3. MB

      "This environment."

    4. JR

      Yeah.

    5. MB

      "We have to be more civil with each other."

    6. JR

      Yeah.

    7. MB

      And that was a big push from the Democrats, right? You remember Biden and, and, and, and, uh, and Harris talking about, "We've got to be more civil. We've got to dial it back and turn, turn down the temperature." And that lasted, for that, for that side, that lasted almost no time at all. Yeah.

    8. JR

      Less than two days.

    9. MB

      Yeah.

    10. JR

      And they were back talk- calling him a piece of shit and a liar. (laughs)

    11. MB

      Yeah, and a, and a, you know, a threat to democracy-

    12. JR

      Yeah.

    13. MB

      ... and he's got to be stopped.

    14. JR

      Unbelievable.

    15. MB

      And, you know, now, now to be fair, n- you know, neither side really stuck to the idea. I would argue if Trump, if Trump had, had just said, "You know what? From a strategic point of view, maybe it's not me, maybe it's not what I want to do, but from a strategic point of view," if after that attempt had happened and he had just walked that civil line and said, "You know, I've had a reflective moment." And, and if he had kept the high road, think about the disparity there. Because the Democrats, they would have lost, first of all, they would have gone crazy because they wouldn't have known what to do. But they also wouldn't have been able to help themselves. So they would have turned into, you know, they would have thrown the hand grenades again and as usual. And then you would have had Trump over here being the reasonable one.

    16. JR

      Yeah.

    17. MB

      And being the reflective and civil one.

    18. JR

      That would have been a good strategy.

    19. MB

      Yeah, but it didn't happen. (laughs)

    20. JR

      No, it's not in his nature.

    21. MB

      No, no.

    22. JR

      That's the scorpion and the frog. (laughs)

    23. MB

      Yeah. I forgot about that story. That's right. The scorpion needs to ride across the pond.

    24. JR

      Yeah.

    25. MB

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      Exactly. It's the, it's the same thing.

    27. MB

      Hmm.

    28. JR

      I mean, that guy loves to talk shit. He's calling Tim Walz tampon Tim now.

    29. MB

      Yeah. (laughs)

    30. JR

      (laughs) That guy is so good at it. It's such a good nickname. He's so good at it. He's so good at that shit. Oh my God.

  3. 4:559:40

    Tim Walz’s résumé disputes: Guard service, rank, deployments, and “weapons of war” rhetoric

    1. JR

      What do you, what do you think about Walz's, um, descriptions of his military career? Because there's, there's some issues there.

    2. MB

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      That people have. Um, I don't know if he flat out ever said that he served in Afghanistan, but he certainly didn't dissuade people-

    4. MB

      Right.

    5. JR

      ... from saying that he was de- when they were saying he didn't correct them.

    6. MB

      Right.

    7. JR

      There was things-

    8. MB

      He didn't and he didn't. And you can look at, at interviews and, and there's no pushback. There's no like, "Excuse me, you know, I didn't go to Iraq." Right?

    9. JR

      Exactly.

    10. MB

      Um, and, uh, "I retired, you know, as my unit was deploying." Um, and so-

    11. JR

      "Well, he retired a couple months before his unit deployed, right?"

    12. MB

      "Couple months before." Yes, but-

    13. JR

      What is the whole story behind it?

    14. MB

      But those guys know, they, they know that they're going, right?

    15. JR

      Right.

    16. MB

      It's not like, it's not like they suddenly get a paper, you know, on one day. There's, there's a build up to that and they're aware of it. And so, uh, you know, even as, even as personnel were saying, "Look, we all knew we were going." He knew he was going. Now, okay, fine, he made the decision, right? But I think...... with his, his, uh, what do you want to call it? Padding of his resume, for political purposes, obviously, when he was running for, for Congress.

    17. JR

      Well, there's more than one thing too, right?

    18. MB

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      He said he was a head coach.

    20. MB

      Yeah, he was a head coach, he was-

    21. JR

      He was not a head coach, he was an assistant coach, which is an honorable thing. There's nothing wrong with being an assistant coach.

    22. MB

      Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Um-

    23. JR

      And he also inflated his, his actual rank, right? He was slated to achieve a certain rank.

    24. MB

      Right.

    25. JR

      And what, how did it go?

    26. MB

      (sighs)

    27. JR

      Like, he had to commit the, to the fact that he wasn't going to retire in order to achieve his rank? Is that what it was?

    28. MB

      He didn't finish the, essentially the, the program, the coursework, you know, for, um, a, um, command sergeant major.

    29. JR

      Can you-

    30. MB

      So-

  4. 9:4020:34

    Biden’s decline, the ‘who’s in charge’ question, and why Harris avoids solo interviews

    1. JR

      Right? Well, he's also seen Joe Biden get away with it, right?

    2. MB

      (laughs)

    3. JR

      Joe Biden has gotten away with lying about his record, lying about his accomplishments, lie- uh, from the beginning-

    4. MB

      Right.

    5. JR

      ... back when he was running for Senate.

    6. MB

      Right.

    7. JR

      I mean, you've, I'm sure you've seen that old video where he confronts the guy and tells him he's got a higher IQ than him, and how he graduated at the top of his class.

    8. MB

      Oh, yeah.

    9. JR

      And... All lies.

    10. MB

      Yeah, yeah, no, abs- absolutely. And, and you're right. He's gotten away (laughs) with it, just like-

    11. JR

      Yeah.

    12. MB

      ... you know, apparently the plagiarism and, and other issues, and, and certainly now the mental decline. He's still president, I guess, uh, so-

    13. JR

      I guess.

    14. MB

      ... he's, he's kind of passed.

    15. JR

      But he's kind of not. He's kind of quit.

    16. MB

      Who is in charge? That's the question I think a lot of people are wondering.

    17. JR

      Well, Kamala's on tour, so, uh, she- (laughs)

    18. MB

      (laughs)

    19. JR

      ... she can't be doing... She's out there doing concerts.

    20. MB

      Oh, she's going to do an interview tomorrow night.

    21. JR

      With Tim, though.

    22. MB

      With Tim, with Tim, because she's a strong woman, so she wants a strong man by her side.

    23. JR

      Yeah, she does not-

    24. MB

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      ... want to be alone out there.

    26. MB

      No.

    27. JR

      Which is wild. You have to be alone. Who the fuck-

    28. MB

      Yeah.

    29. JR

      ... has ever done an interview, the only interview since they have been-

    30. MB

      Yeah.

  5. 20:3424:45

    Media incentives, deceptive clips, foreign influence, and the Telegram CEO arrest

    1. JR

      I really do because there were some people that posted a deceptive, uh, video, deceptively edited video that made it look like Tim, you know he has a son that is-

    2. MB

      Yes, yeah.

    3. JR

      ... has some disabilities. And it looked like he was yanking his son, like, mea- in a mean way.

    4. MB

      Yeah, yeah.

    5. JR

      But he was really just trying to get his son to not hit his head on the teleprompter.

    6. MB

      Yeah, yeah.

    7. JR

      'Cause the teleprompter's this clear thing, the kid's walking towards it, and he just gives him a pull this way, like, "Let's go this way." And they just took that clip, like, "Oh, I bet he's mean. Look, he's mean-

    8. MB

      Yeah, yeah.

    9. JR

      ... to his boy." It's creepy.

    10. MB

      It's, it's, the level of disinformation and misinformation right now leading up to November is astounding.

    11. JR

      Astounding.

    12. MB

      Right? And it's becoming more and more difficult 'cause o- you know, generative AI and, and just a willingness to, to kind of disappear down a rabbit hole and believe whatever you, you wanna believe, right? Nobody's questioning all this shit. So, but it is, whether it's coming from, uh, outside influence and, you know, we know the Iranians are very active right now. The, obviously, the Russians and Chinese are always interested in s- screwing us up. So, but, you know, uh, people, if they don't do it themselves, you know, it's not as if, you know, this idea that the government is going to, you know, tell you what's good and what's not to read is amazing, right? They just arrested the Telegram CEO over in Europe.

    13. JR

      Yeah, isn't that crazy?

    14. MB

      Right? Yeah, yeah.

    15. JR

      I was gonna ask you about that too.

    16. MB

      Yeah.

    17. JR

      So it seems like they wanted access to Telegram's messages because there were certain people that were posting things that had been a part of, uh, there was a, a terrorist attack in Russia-

    18. MB

      Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

    19. JR

      ... that they tried to get him to give up information about, but then they, they-

    20. MB

      Right.

    21. JR

      ... gave up on that-

    22. MB

      Yeah.

    23. JR

      ... and they left him alone. But now in France they've arrested him.

    24. MB

      Yeah, they picked him up, um, uh, three days ago, I think, four days ago.

    25. JR

      And unfortunately, he's got this social media girlfriend who posts pictures-

    26. MB

      Yeah.

    27. JR

      ... everywhere she goes-

    28. MB

      Yeah.

    29. JR

      ... so they could fucking find him everywhere.

    30. MB

      Yeah.

  6. 24:4531:24

    Secret Service failures at Butler: site surveys, comms, and crisis communications

    1. JR

      Is it normal for there to be an assassination attempt and then no press conference?

    2. MB

      Um, it is... B- because we don't have assassination attempts every week, it's kind of hard to say that it- is it normal to do this.

    3. JR

      No, but if it's a major-

    4. MB

      But-

    5. JR

      ... uh, world event-

    6. MB

      Right. Right. Um-

    7. JR

      ... generally, don't they have press conferences?

    8. MB

      Yes. And it was... (clears throat) Look, the whole thing, the, the protocols that weren't followed, the process, the, the, the fact that it was a cock-up of monumental proportions, uh, leading up to, uh, Thomas Crooks taking those shots, um, and then the afterwards, right? Then the way that they handled it was another series of in- it, it... Still, to this day, this series of mistakes that there is no justification for it. You can't... Look, doing security at a, uh, an event, like, uh, the Butler rally, uh, back in July with, uh... where Trump was shot. Um, right now, there's people out there going, "I don't think he was shot."

    9. JR

      (laughs)

    10. MB

      Uh, I'm pretty sure he wasn't (laughs) . Um, so I think, uh, that's... It's not rocket science, right? It's, it's very, uh, labor-intensive and detail-oriented. But it's not... You're not building a spaceship, right? You're, you're going through the same process that you go through every time you have one of these events, right? And so you have a political rally like that, and it's not a national security event. So it's not the DNC, it's not the RNC, it's not the Super Bowl, uh, it's not the Olympics. That- those are national security events. You have a year-plus to plan and prepare, get all your resources together, and figure out your, your game plan, your site surveys, all the rest of it. You still have time. With these political events, don't have a year, but you've got sufficient time. And they do it over and over again. And it's not tough. So you do a site survey and, and you say, "Okay, he's going to show up at Butler. Let's get out there." And the Secret Service has primacy. Uh, they work with local, state resources if they need to heavy up the security and they don't have the available resources. But they have the primacy, so they go out and the site survey, that whole process, the risk threat assessment in the survey, is where you identify your timelines and your resources and your deployment of resources and all the various things. Your command and control center, your communications protocols, all those things. But it's over and over and over again. It's a meth- uh, uh, uh, there's a methodology to it. And the Secret Service, you know, they, they do this all the time. So it does lead you to wonder how many more events in the past have they been, you know, not buttoned up and they just got lucky because there wasn't a shooter? But there's no way to excuse what happened, uh, because it was such a breakdown of, of events. And, and then afterwards, in the hot washing in the, in the briefings that they did provide, then going up on Capitol Hill and Kimberly Cheatle, the now departed, uh, director, um, it was a, a classic lesson in how not to do crisis communications.

    11. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    12. MB

      And she should have been, the director who's now gone, she should have been out on the, on the rally, uh, grounds that afternoon, that evening, sorry, and with a team and with the agent in charge. And it should have been very clear to, uh, the press all around that they were, uh, out there doing the investigation, assessing what had happened, and people would be responsible and they would ta- But it... None of that happened. It was just a fucking goat rope. So, you know-

    13. JR

      It's because it's Trump.

    14. MB

      (sighs) Yeah.

    15. JR

      If it was anybody else-

    16. MB

      Yeah.

    17. JR

      ... like if that had happened, if there was an assassination attempt about Biden-

    18. MB

      Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

    19. JR

      ... Yeah.

    20. MB

      Yeah. Uh-

    21. JR

      It would have been crazy. If Biden got winged in the ear the same way and they took him out in the whole deal and, you know, they, they shoot the guy and there's an investigation, it would have been on the news constantly.

    22. MB

      Oh, yeah.

    23. JR

      Constantly for weeks and weeks. It would have been-

    24. MB

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      ... lead story every night, more information in the assassination attempt on President Biden.

    26. MB

      Yeah. Day 22.

    27. JR

      Yeah. It would have been the same thing.

    28. MB

      Uh, yeah. Yeah.

    29. JR

      Right-wing, far-right activist, registered Republican-

    30. MB

      Yeah.

  7. 31:2433:36

    Operational red flags: sloped-roof excuse, range finder, drones, and finger-pointing

    1. JR

      Well, how about the sloped roof thing?

    2. MB

      Yeah. Oh, God. (laughs)

    3. JR

      "We couldn't get agents up there because the roof was sloped."

    4. MB

      (laughs) Yeah.

    5. JR

      "And it could be dangerous." And it sloped by five degrees.

    6. MB

      Yeah, that was- that was the nail in her coffin when she came out with that bullshit, um ...

    7. JR

      It was ... The whole thing was insane because you had snipers on another roof, so what are you talking about?

    8. MB

      Yeah. You had- you had, uh, what did they have? Two counter-sniper teams and ... But again, when you go out to a place like that and you walk the grounds and you stand and you survey, right, and you- you fly drones around and you- you get a real sense of what you're talking about. In the early stages of a survey or an assessment like that, um, there are just certain things you look for.

    9. JR

      Right.

    10. MB

      You know? Okay, there's the stage. There's a tall building (laughs) over there.

    11. JR

      Right. How about the water tower?

    12. MB

      Yeah, how about the water tower? Maybe we cover that down too.

    13. JR

      Yeah.

    14. MB

      And, uh ... But, and- and, you know, and I think the transparency that we have on this right now is pretty much thanks to the local law enforcement. I mean, that's where we've gotten most of our information, right?

    15. JR

      Right.

    16. MB

      They've shared body cam images, they've shared, uh-

    17. JR

      Yeah.

    18. MB

      ... radio, uh, conversations. And I think in part they're doing it because they're so pissed off, right?

    19. JR

      Yeah, well, they-

    20. MB

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      Their conversations were about how they saw this guy in advance and they alerted people. He was walking around with a fucking range finder.

    22. MB

      (laughs) Yeah, yeah, yeah. You think-

    23. JR

      That's it.

    24. MB

      ... that's a clue? That's a- (laughs)

    25. JR

      You walk around with a range finder, they should just arrest you.

    26. MB

      (laughs) Yeah. It's ... It is- it is- it's shocking. And then, he was there a couple of hours ahead of time flying a drone.

    27. JR

      Insane.

    28. MB

      Um, yeah. And, uh ... But I think that the Secret Service, their go-to in the immediate aftermath was to point fingers at the local law enforcement and so, I think local law enforcement was like, "Fuck you."

    29. JR

      "Fuck you."

    30. MB

      Yeah.

  8. 33:3639:31

    CNN, objectivity as a business model, and the collapse of trust in legacy news

    1. JR

      Here's one. Was there ... Is it normal for CNN to live stream a Trump press event or a Trump campaign event?

    2. MB

      They normally ... I mean, if they- if they show it, they normally jump out of it after the first 10 seconds or so.

    3. JR

      "Oh, he's lying again."

    4. MB

      Yeah, yeah.

    5. JR

      "We've counted five lies." But I do have to say this, and I say this as a credit to CNN, it seems like they have made a concerted effort to be more balanced. And I think this is in the aftermath of firing Don Lemon-

    6. MB

      (laughs) Yeah.

    7. JR

      ... and Brian Stelter and all those people over there that people were frustrated with. I think they have made a concerted effort. Like, there was a gentleman-

    8. MB

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      ... who was on, who was talking about, um, that everyone's blaming Trump for things, but that the Democrats have been in control of the White House for 12 of the last 16 years. And when he said that, it was like, "Whoa."

    10. MB

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      That- that was a big moment, and no one had an answer to that. There- they were like, "Yeah, but, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah-"

    12. MB

      Yeah.

    13. JR

      "... they have to ... The undermining that Trump has done to our dem- democracy and the threats and ..."

    14. MB

      (laughs)

    15. JR

      What did he say? He's gonna be a dictator. He said he's gonna be a dictator.

    16. MB

      (laughs) On day one.

    17. JR

      Holy shit, man.

    18. MB

      Yeah.

    19. JR

      He's joking around about closing the border.

    20. MB

      Yeah.

    21. JR

      Like, that's ... He's not gonna listen to anybody, he's just gonna close the border.

    22. MB

      12 of the last 16 years and you know what? Kamala Harris, if she wins, she's gonna fix the problems. (laughs) She-

    23. JR

      She's in right now.

    24. MB

      I know. I know. That's ... (laughs)

    25. JR

      Which is so crazy.

    26. MB

      Another part of the whole e- equation that I'm sure they won't get asked tomorrow night.

    27. JR

      Right.

    28. MB

      You ... When you talk about fixing the problems and- and making America ... What have you been doing?

    29. JR

      Maybe they will-

    30. MB

      Yeah.

  9. 39:3141:02

    Money in politics: fundraising totals, alleged donor fraud, term limits, and insider trading

    1. MB

      You see they made... They, they've raked in, uh... The Democrats have raked in something like half a billion dollars.

    2. JR

      Nuts.

    3. MB

      In... Yeah. And they'll probably spend it all too.

    4. JR

      But have you seen the Project Veritas, uh, deep dive into that? Where they in-

    5. MB

      Hmm.

    6. JR

      ... they go to people's houses and they ask them, "Did you donate $150,000?" 'Cause he's registered donors.

    7. MB

      Oh.

    8. JR

      And he's like, "Goodness, no."

    9. MB

      (laughs)

    10. JR

      Like, "I didn't d- donate any of that money."

    11. MB

      $150,000?

    12. JR

      So there's all these donations that at least Project Veritas is claiming-

    13. MB

      Okay.

    14. JR

      ... and these people are claiming were not theirs. And this is... That they're throwing money into this pot and they're attributing it to all these people that probably don't even know-

    15. MB

      Right.

    16. JR

      ... it's being attributed to them. I think that's what they're alluding to.

    17. MB

      If they, if, if, if they can s-... I mean, if this... The cost of this campaign is, uh, you know, uh, is gonna be north of a billion you have to assume.

    18. JR

      That's so crazy.

    19. MB

      And you think about... Yeah. I- i- i- if there was a way to take (laughs) ... If there was a way to take money out of it, if there was a way to take the term l-... Or enact term limits, and there was a way to have a, a meaningful third and fourth party, completely change the landscape here-

    20. JR

      Yeah.

    21. MB

      ... I, I would think. And I think for the better. I don't think there's any... I mean, in my mind, I, I, I don't think I can be persuaded otherwise, but I- I just don't see that happening. Who's gonna vote against their own best interests, right?

    22. JR

      Right.

    23. MB

      You look at the, at the money that these politicians can make, and they can walk out the door multi-millionaires on salaries where that doesn't make any sense. Oh, that's the other thing you need to get out of there is insider trading.

    24. JR

      Yeah.

    25. MB

      Um, yeah.

    26. JR

      Well, I think it's important that we all p- p- p- participate. It's a free market.

    27. MB

      Yeah, gotta go. (laughs)

    28. JR

      (laughs)

  10. 41:0254:13

    Family detour: marriage jokes, kids ‘testing’ dad, and IMG Academy stats

    1. MB

      Gotta go. Oh, you know what? You know what, what?

    2. JR

      (laughs)

    3. MB

      My wife is, is so damn smart. A lot... Hell of a lot smarter than I am.

    4. JR

      She's very smart.

    5. MB

      She's, she is very smart.

    6. JR

      She's kind of spooky smart.

    7. MB

      I know, right?

    8. JR

      You talk to her, you're like, "Yo."

    9. MB

      Yeah, yeah.

    10. JR

      "This lady's operating on a very high frequency."

    11. MB

      I know, which makes you wonder how did... (laughs) Why is she still with me? Uh-

    12. JR

      That's what they like in a nice dumb guy.

    13. MB

      (laughs) Like a dumb guy, right?

    14. JR

      Yeah.

    15. MB

      You know, I'm good at picking things up and putting them down.

    16. JR

      That's all they need.

    17. MB

      Yeah, I can fetch things. Um, but-

    18. JR

      They need you to open up mayonnaise jars. (laughs)

    19. MB

      (laughs) Look at this.

    20. JR

      Hand Mike the pickles.

    21. MB

      Uh, every now and then I walk over there and I just show her-

    22. JR

      Yeah.

    23. MB

      ... just so she knows what I'm around here for.

    24. JR

      Yeah, that's right.

    25. MB

      Yeah.

    26. JR

      "I can fucking open shit."

    27. MB

      God damn it. My... I, I, I will say this. The other thing about this is, uh, um... Like, all three of my boys. Like, like, I just... I just got in from, uh, from Florida this morning. And I was dropping, uh, our middle boy, um, back at IMG, right? He plays basketball down there. And he's constantly... And the older one, even the youngest one, they're constantly just hitting me. They're beating on me, right? Every time they walk by.

    28. JR

      Boy stuff.

    29. MB

      Yeah, they can't walk by me without hitting me, right?

    30. JR

      Yeah.

  11. 54:131:03:19

    Election mechanics: voter ID, Texas roll cleanup, and ‘opportunity for fraud’ logic

    1. JR

      Well, Pennsylvania's already saying they're not gonna be able to do it on Election Night.

    2. MB

      Yeah. What the fuck?

    3. JR

      They used to.

    4. MB

      Yeah.

    5. JR

      What'd you guys do?

    6. MB

      Yeah.

    7. JR

      You know?

    8. MB

      Yeah.

    9. JR

      We used to.

    10. MB

      Remember? You'd go to bed...

    11. JR

      What happened...

    12. MB

      ... and you knew.

    13. JR

      Yeah.

    14. MB

      You knew when you went to bed if you stayed up late. Uh...

    15. JR

      But not only that, there's no pandemic. So why do we have all these mail-in ballots?

    16. MB

      Hm. Well, yeah.

    17. JR

      That seems kinda silly.

    18. MB

      Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know what else seems silly? And I, I, (laughs) I don't consider this to be voter suppression. Have a fucking ID to show that you're a US citizen, right?

    19. JR

      That's racist.

    20. MB

      I, I, I know, I know. I apologize. But, but I do think it, it makes sense. You go to, you go to...

    21. JR

      It 100% makes sense.

    22. MB

      Yeah. I couldn't vote in another country.

    23. JR

      You should not be able...

    24. MB

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      ... to vote here without an ID.

    26. MB

      Yeah.

    27. JR

      Just like you can't dr- get a driver's license. You have to have your fucking birth certificate. You have to, like... We have paperwork.

    28. MB

      Yes.

    29. JR

      It's, it's there for a reason, because people are full of shit. There's a lot of fraudsters out there. And if there's a way to mitigate fraud in the most important thing that we do...

    30. MB

      Yeah.

  12. 1:03:191:14:18

    Narratives that destabilize democracy: ‘stolen elections,’ platform pressure, and Zuckerberg’s reversal

    1. JR

      I'm just scared because of the rhetoric.

    2. MB

      Yeah.

    3. JR

      And I- and I'm not just scared because I want one side to win. I'm scared because I think that by overzealously wanting their side to win and doing it so in a way that really isn't fair-

    4. MB

      Mm-hmm.

    5. JR

      ... that you set up a precedent where anybody can do that in the future and they think they're justified in doing that, and I feel like there's a lot of people that think 2020 was stolen.

    6. MB

      Yeah.

    7. JR

      And Trump has said it over and over again. But by the way, Hillary said it in 2016-

    8. MB

      She- yeah.

    9. JR

      ... over and over again.

    10. MB

      W- w- well, she- she f- f- for several years.

    11. JR

      Yeah, they said Russia.

    12. MB

      Yeah.

    13. JR

      Ru- and then, you know, there's always people saying he's a- a Russian plant, Russia put him into power, Russian disinformation is why he got-

    14. MB

      Mm-hmm.

    15. JR

      And meanwhile, you know, they were actively doing disinformation on- on their own, especially with the Biden laptop thing.

    16. MB

      Oh, God. Yeah.

    17. JR

      The fact that with Zuckerberg coming out and saying that thing yesterday was fucking huge.

    18. MB

      Yeah. Yeah.

    19. JR

      That was huge, and releasing that statement, 'cause Mayorkas, didn't he- when he was testifying, he said they didn't do that under oath.

    20. MB

      Oh, yeah.

    21. JR

      So is that perjury?

    22. MB

      Yeah, well, I, you know, not being a lawyer, um, but I wo- (laughs) I would think that you had- you had conflicting things because you would also have, um, you would also have someone in government, you know, almost bragging about the fact that, you know, "Look, we're getting this disinformation taken down during the pandemic."

    23. JR

      Right.

    24. MB

      And so, yeah, Zuckerberg coming out and making this statement, I agree with you, it is huge. It's sort of Zuckerberg going, "Eh, what are you gonna do? We're gonna do better next time." You know?

    25. JR

      "Well," he said, "we're not gonna engage in that anymore."

    26. MB

      Yeah.

    27. JR

      "We're gonna push back." And he said they're not gonna promote one side or the other.

    28. MB

      There's a brilliant thought, right?

    29. JR

      Crazy.

    30. MB

      Yeah.

Episode duration: 2:44:32

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