Episode 16 - Antifa is a Terrorist Organization, Twitter Censors My Tweet, Riots Across America
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Summary
In this episode of Hot Takes, Rep. Matt Gorsch takes on the Antifa rioting and rioting in the streets of America and calls for the government to do more to stop it. He also takes aim at the lack of support for a bill that would designate Antifa as a terrorist organization and calls on President Trump to act on it.
Transcript
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you ever watch this guy on television you all were not telling the truth and you should not
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be trusted congressman matt gates thank you for what you did for your country today be offended
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with the democratic whip not house republicans like a machine matt gates
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welcome to hot takes this is congressman matt gates let's talk about the news and the news
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in america today is that the beatings and stabbings and destruction of people and property
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and dreams and livelihoods continue across this great country while there's no doubt that
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reasonable and peaceful protest is an acceptable endeavor what we see falls far away from that
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this is not political speech this is the destruction of our order and our society and our way of life
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tucker carlson tonight reports on it accurately no one has bothered to poll the guys beating up old
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ladies on the street or looting gucci but you've got to wonder how many of them have ever even
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heard of george floyd and if they have heard of him what difference would it make violence and looting
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are not forms of political expression if you were killed tomorrow how many buildings would you want
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burned to the ground in your memory how many old women smashed in the face on the street in your name
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none we hope because you're not a vicious psychopath in fact what we're watching is not a political
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protest it's the opposite of a political protest it is an attack on the idea of politics the rioters you
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have seen are trying to topple our political system that system is how we resolve our differences without
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using violence and so things are bad and normally when things are challenging in our country we turn to
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those who provide leadership and comfort to be able to bring solutions and opportunity but one area
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where we've seen a real departure from that sense of patriotism and common good is in our social media
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platforms and i'm speaking specifically of twitter where it appears i've made some news on the podcast
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yesterday i talked about how the attorney general of the united states designated antifa a terrorist organization
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and by the way that's real and just and proper and it should have been done long ago because these riots that
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you're seeing not the chants not the peaceful protests but the actual riots where folks are being
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harmed where their storefronts are being torn down and smashed in those circumstances you are not
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watching something that is organic that just occurred out of the blue organizers professional anarchists
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go out of their way to ensure that the vulnerable are picked on that the weak that the people who don't have
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the ability to maybe stand up and protect their own property or their business or themselves are made
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examples of for some cause that is in no way served by this violence and so i was grateful to hear terrence
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floyd the brother of george floyd step out and say that these activities these burnings and attacks they do
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nothing to honor the life of his brother and he's calling on him to stop i understand y'all upset
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but like it was everybody said i doubt y'all half as upset as i am so if i'm not over here wilding out
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if i'm not over here blowing up stuff if i'm not over here messing up my community
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come on what are y'all doing what are y'all doing y'all doing nothing because that's not gonna bring
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my brother back at all and so clearly the victim's family doesn't want to see people engaged in
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professional protest and clearly the department of justice and the trump administration is using
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every tool in their disposal by designating antifa terrorist organization to stop it and so i took to
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twitter and issued the following tweet now that we clearly see antifa as terrorists can we hunt
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them down like we hunt those in the middle east as listeners of the podcast know as those who follow
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my work in the congress know i am no fan of the endless unconstitutional wars in the middle east
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carried out by our government and it is absolutely my belief that the businesses that the people in our
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country are far more deserving of our protection than some tribe that has a temporary alliance and
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no alignment of values with us does in the middle east and i think it's worth mentioning that our
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obligation as leaders is to our own people to our own country and when we see this type of violence
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violence and disruption of the social order against our country we have an opportunity to act to actually
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do something about it and i wanted to lend my voice to that discussion and oh boy did i trigger the left
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u.s senator chris murphy that came out on the attack he said take the gates tweet down right now twitter
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the survivors of mass shootings are lighting up my phone they're scared to death that this will inspire
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someone to start shooting into a crowd tonight and they are right so i guess the fact that the night
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ended and no one was shooting into a crowd citing the inspiration of my tweet clearly proves chris murphy
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to be wrong and an alarmist and frankly someone that i think is is largely taking to the woke virtue signaling
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script that so many in the left seem to deploy in a time of crisis and that's why i replied to chris murphy
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spare me your woke virtue signaling every real democrat ran for president and you ran to twitter
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governments go after terrorists individuals don't we the government should continue to do so and antifa
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is rightly on the list and of course i'm speaking to the list of terrorist organizations and then i
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admonish senator murphy speak against riots hurting americans and that's i think what really draws into
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the political discussion that we're having in this country right now you know i am out there saying
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antifa is a terrorist organization and we ought to use the tools not of vigilantes but of the government
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we ought to use the ability to seize their assets to be able to track their movements to be able to stop
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them from attacking people and hurting people and by the way that precise sentiment that i reflected on
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that i called for is what our great president spoke about in an address to the country from the white
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house here's president trump speaking about the strong actions he's taking not only to designate
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groups like antifa as terrorist organizations but to do something about it and go after them here's
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president trump i am taking immediate presidential action to stop the violence and restore security and
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safety in america today i have strongly recommended to every governor to deploy the national guard
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in sufficient numbers that we dominate the streets mayors and governors must establish an overwhelming
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law enforcement presence until the violence has been quelled if a city or state refuses to take the
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actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents then i will deploy
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the united states military and quickly solve the problem for them i want the organizers of this
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terror to be on notice that you will face severe criminal penalties and lengthy sentences in jail
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this includes antifa and others who are leading instigators of this violence so despite the fact that i
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took a position that was almost entirely line by line consistent with that of the president of the united
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united states who has been elected by tens of millions of americans despite the fact that i was
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elected by my constituents to serve them in the congress twitter decides that they're going to be the thought
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police and they issue a tag or a label to my tweet it says this tweet violated the twitter rules about
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glorifying violence however twitter has determined that it may be in the public's interest for the tweet to
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remain accessible whatever that means because you know what they didn't remain accessible the interactions
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and responses of people who wanted to share my content who wanted to like it there were tens of
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thousands of retweets of the message that i shared about antifa being a terrorist organization and being
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absolutely worthy of being hunted down by our government but they removed those tweets we had over a hundred
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thousand likes on that tweet that i sent twitter removed those likes instead all they did was leave the
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comment section which you know predominantly includes the blue jackpot brigade that is absolutely incensed
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that i would call for you know some accountability and condemnation of these antifa entities and so i make
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no apology for the fact that antifa should be in fact hunted down by our government i don't think that
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people should ever take justice into their own hands but undoubtedly they're taking their safety into
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their own hands in santa monica we saw reporting that even in liberal california store owners were
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having to stand outside of their retail establishments with firearms to try to deter the violence that was
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occurring and it seems troubling to me that twitter would be so afraid that what i've said about preemptively
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stopping the organizers of the attacks being a priority they're so troubled by that that they
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don't want you to know how many tens of thousands or even more than a hundred thousand americans were
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supportive of that and wanted other people to share that precise perspective twitter has issued warnings
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or condemnations or bans to content in only two cases in the united states congress in my experience
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they did it initially to u.s senator marcia blackburn when she was in the house of representatives
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she had criticized planned parenthood for offering to sell the parts of unborn babies that had aborted
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by the way she was entirely right to offer that criticism but twitter was just too woke to handle it
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and so they censored her content by the way it's probably the best thing that ever happened to her in
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our u.s senate campaign because so many people ended up seeing it that they saw she was a true fighter
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and elected her to the senate and now i guess i'm the second chance that they think that they have
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to make an example well i'll tell you this i wear twitter's warning as a badge of honor antifa
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is a terrorist organization and i'm not afraid to tell the truth about it and neither is the trump
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administration these are riots they're hurting americans they're hurting real people blue collar people
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people like the folks that i care about who just want to have a chance in this country to be
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successful and who deserve every right to that success if they're willing to work hard and play
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by the rules to achieve it our government should hunt down these antifa organizers and the organizers
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of any group that is encouraging violence or harm to our police or to our businesses and i will not be
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afraid to continue saying it on twitter on this podcast on television on every platform that i am
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able to access including the floor of the house of representatives you know why because it's true
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it's 100 true that these are not organic protests these are not circumstances where people
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people are simply showing up and then independently all at once deciding to throw things or attack
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cops or try to create some senseless act of disruption or chaos no they know what they're
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doing when they go there many of them have been recruited from outside the areas where the protests
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are even occurring so that they have the opportunity to export violence to other areas of this country
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and i won't stand for it i don't think our country should stand for it certainly our president won't
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stand for it and that's why i'm grateful that president trump is taking strong action against these
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terrorist attacks within our country and i'm glad that attorney general bar is designated antifa a
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terrorist organization and you know what if twitter wants to criticize me for glorifying violence
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against terrorists maybe they ought to look in the mirror and see how they contribute to that
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violence themselves when twitter allows radical isis extremists access to their platform to spew their
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hate and their their just absolute lust for violence they've got some accountability for that
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when twitter allows these antifa thugs and these black lives matter protesters who in in many cases
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aren't peaceful who are inciting violence against the cops when they go and give them a platform
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to organize and attack and strategize against the people who seek to uphold our laws then i think they
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should be held liable for that and that's one of the reasons why i support president trump
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in his tweet to repeal the special liability protections that twitter and facebook and google
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enjoy that your local newspaper company doesn't enjoy and i've talked about that in prior episodes
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but it seems particularly poignant when twitter targets the president and they target me because we
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have an america first view and we have a view that people should be held accountable when they attack
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our country and cause harm to our citizens the double standards in the designations of how twitter
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determines who incites violence are just so incredibly palpable they said that my tweet calling for
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we the government the country to hunt down terrorists people who the government had designated as terrorists
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that that was a national priority and we ought to have the same vigor protecting our own people in our country
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that we do protecting faraway sand dunes in the middle east well that was deemed too inappropriate
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too inciting of violence by twitter and thus they put a label on it but let's review some of the
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messages and tweets that twitter found presumably entirely acceptable these were the messages that drew
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no such criticism no such labeling colin kaepernick says and i'm quoting when civility leads to death
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revolting is the only logical reaction the cries for peace will rain down and when they do they will
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land on deaf ears because your violence has brought this resistance we have the right to fight back rest
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in power george floyd now again george floyd's own family was not calling for this type of violence but
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colin kaepernick was and he seemed to have the full support of twitter in doing so akash singh another
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verified account tweets honestly if you can burn down the white neighborhoods so companies are afraid
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to move back there then after the property values lower enough by the neighborhoods mad cheap and
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rebuild it this is a real opportunity to flip the gentrification cycle so so literally the sickness
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of a verified twitter account hoping that white people will suffer some unique harm some unique
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disadvantage to the benefit of some other group of people i wouldn't wish that on anyone i don't
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think it's american or patriotic or consistent with our values to say that we hope that any racial or
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ethnic group suffer so that there could be a benefit to some other ethnic group but twitter's got no problem
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with that and burning down white neighborhoods the puget sound john brown gun club another twitter account
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tweets all across the country police are running out of count crowd control ammunition and getting
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surrounded by protesters who outnumber them in magnitudes these police are finding out that there's
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a lot more of us than there are of them imagine if we were all armed so again you know just someone
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calling for the intimidation outnumbering and physical resistance of the police but again i call for our
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government not to be resisted but for to actually take action against our people and twitter deems that
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to be out of bounds one more another verified twitter account femme feminist she's responding to
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celebrity christy tegan who tweets and keep the same energy when you vote the worst thing that could happen
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is that all of this goes for nothing and femme feminist a verified account replies who was president when
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treyvon was killed when sandra was killed when mike brown was killed when freddie gray was killed
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the u.s is a settler colonial government founded upon and rooted in white supremacy you don't vote that
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blank anyway you burn it down so literally the advocacy of burning down our society our government
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our history our institutions that's okay with twitter and frankly i'm just so sick of the political
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correctness i'm so sick of feeling like because i love our country and i hate the terrorists who
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would destroy our country because i stand with the people who want to follow the law instead of the
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people who want to break the law because i stand with our businesses who want to invite people rather
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than the thugs and mobs who want to scare people that i'm somehow that which deserves the condemnation
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of twitter that's bs that's total garbage and it's one of the reasons why i think we need reform
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to the online platform laws that give entities like twitter so much protection
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a quick note on sports we're starting to see more and more college football programs like at
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my beloved florida state university engaging in volunteer student athlete workouts starting june 1
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we're also seeing negotiations in major league baseball continue between the players and the
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owners and there the progress has not been as notable there's currently a standstill and there
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remains a real question as to whether or not major league baseball will in fact occur this year
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as a consequence of salary disputes owners and teams would like to see players take discounted salary
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as a consequence of reductions and anticipated fan revenue the players are saying no we've got a contract
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to play baseball for a certain amount and we expect those contracts to be honored and if there's a risk
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associated with declining revenue from fewer people coming to the stands well that's a risk that the owners
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should have to bear not the players and on this issue i'm with the players the coronavirus has not made
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showing up to work less challenging less likely to have an injury less likely to fall ill if anything
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it's a neutral or a negative to the players and these franchises their values their ability to get
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the taxpayers to build their stadiums the overall uh multiples that they're getting on revenue when
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these assets are sold seem to indicate that the least cost avoider the entity most able to take the
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hit and frankly under contract the entity that has agreed to assume the risk for this type of
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diminution and fan participation and fan spending would not be the players it would be the owners i
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mean if something fundamentally changed about baseball and all of a sudden there were to be a massive
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increase in fan attendance or revenue if something were to happen where every baseball game in america
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instead of a bunch of seats being empty they were all to be full the players wouldn't be able to
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rush back to the table and say well because we're more successful financially as a league then we're
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all demanding more pay all at once or none of us are going to play i think that under such a circumstance
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the league would be able to demand those contracts honored but in this circumstance they want to be
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able to essentially balance the budgets of the league on the backs of the workers on behalf of the players
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i don't think that's fair i spoke with a major league baseball player within the last several days who
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agrees with me then in the concepts of of equity and justice here financially and who also predicted
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that if the owners don't ultimately come closer to the players position that this may be a year
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without baseball that would be a tragic thing i hope there's baseball but i think that's going to take
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the owners coming off their pocketbooks and being fair to their players thanks for listening to hot
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takes with matt gates please leave us a five-star rating and a review it helps other people get our
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content and it lets us know that you're enjoying the show thanks so much we'll be back tomorrow with