In this episode of the podcast, host Alex Blumbergert talks about the removal of the Capitol Hill Occupation, and how it was handled by the mayor of Seattle, Jenny Durkin, who handled the situation in a masterful way.
00:01:39.540And 321 until Scott tells us we are wrong that Ghislaine Maxwell was arrested. Well, I believe she was arrested. I believe she was. So, the simulation has delivered to us once again. Entertainment, it's nonstop. How much do you want to know what Ghislaine Maxwell is going to tell you when she cuts a deal?
00:02:05.740That the most exciting news day you'll ever have will be this headline. Ghislaine Maxwell cuts a deal.
00:02:16.440Can you imagine? I don't know if she can. I've got a feeling she may not survive the incarceration process. But we'll see what happens.
00:02:26.340All right. So, the CHOP was dismantled. The Capitol Hill occupied people or whatever it was.
00:02:37.840And were you surprised that there was no real violence when they got cleared out?
00:02:45.120Have I ever told you about the fake because?
00:02:48.080So, that's a term I put on it. And it's based on the book Influence by Cialdini, in which he talks about an experiment in which you can prove that people will do things just because you said because.
00:03:02.420Our brains are wired in a way that when you hear the word, actually just the word, because, your brain says, oh, there's a reason.
00:03:15.180And you can use the word because and then add nonsense after it.
00:03:19.240And people will still, at least in a statistical way, will be more likely to give you what you want just because you used the word because.
00:03:27.620Now, I've taken that and I've extended it to the concept that you're not using the word, but you're giving somebody a reason that they wanted a reason to do something.
00:03:38.860Now, let me let me game this out for you.
00:03:42.580So, in my opinion, the the mayor of Seattle, Jenny Durkin, played this brilliantly.
00:03:49.520I know most of you are going to disagree with this, but in my opinion, this could not have been played better, honestly.
00:03:58.800It was one of the most masterful examples of leadership I've ever seen.
00:04:07.740Now, there's another interpretation which fits the facts just as well.
00:04:13.560Remember, you got two movies going on here.
00:04:15.580They both fit the facts because the other the other set of facts would be she didn't care about any of this until they started threatening her own personal residence, at which point she got mad and then police cleared them out.
00:04:35.420So from day one, I was on the side of, no, let this play out a little bit.
00:04:40.620Let it play out a little bit, because if you do it right away, the energy is too high and you just cause, you know, the opportunity for more death and more videos of police beating people up and resistance and, you know, God knows what.
00:04:56.900So if the police had acted aggressively on day one or two or three, you don't know what would have happened, but in all likelihood, because the temperature was so high in terms of people's attitudes, it was very likely going to end not well and spark more protests, which themselves would end well.
00:05:18.200So if you're trying to quell protests across the country, the last thing you want to do is go hard the first moment you can, you want to let the temperature come down a little bit, and then you could go through.
00:05:31.980So here's my hypothesis, that by letting the the occupiers in CHOP experience the life, which they did not intend to be permanent.
00:05:42.500The people who, you know, occupied it, they didn't, they didn't start out the month and say, hey, I think I'll go live in a tent on the street somewhere with no shower.
00:05:53.740I think the longer they stayed there, the more they wanted, wait for it, a fake because.
00:06:02.400They needed a reason to leave that they could say it wasn't our choice.
00:07:07.560You had to reduce the energy, and she did it, simply by not creating a counterforce that would cause them to get worked up again.
00:07:16.180Once they had experienced living there for a while, however many weeks it was, you know they wanted to leave.
00:07:25.360You know, again, not every single person, but you know they did not want to live there for the rest of their lives.
00:07:32.320What they needed, they really needed, was for their mayor to give them a fake because, a reason to leave that didn't look like they had made their own decision.
00:08:44.900Now, the other take, which fits the facts just as well.
00:08:49.100So let me give attention to the alternative movie here.
00:08:52.360Which one of these fits the facts the best?
00:08:56.940The other one is that she's an incompetent Democrat mayor who botched it from the beginning, because if she'd been tougher in the beginning, they wouldn't have taken over the chop in the first place.
00:09:07.300And that the only reason that she got tough in the end and had them cleared out is that she only cared about herself because they threatened her own home, and then it became serious to her.
00:09:55.780Now, if the other movie is correct, and she's just thoroughly incompetent and selfish or something, then you would expect that she would not do clever things in the future.
00:10:27.440So, yesterday I was telling you that Trump's, let's say, silence about masks was disqualifying, meaning that you can't really support a president who is not pushing masks or promoting the use of masks during a pandemic.
00:11:45.720I got a message from Vladimir Putin yesterday, not directly, in which the message was that Russia wants to be an ally with the United States to team up against China.