Episode 92 - Music City in Treble Over COVID Numbers. Does Speaking English Spread Coronavirus？ America First Fashion.
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Summary
In this episode of Hot Takes, Rep. Matt Gaetz talks about the mayor of Nashville and his administration's attempt to cover up the fact that there wasn't a problem at the bars and honky tonks on Nashville's Lower Broadway.
Transcript
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Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news.
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And sometimes the news comes to us through local journalists who engage in the type of
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roll-up-your-sleeves investigative journalism that gets to the truth. And throughout the
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coronavirus, we've had too many people in government, in bureaucracy, lie to us, not
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tell us the truth, for the purpose of expanding their own authority and power and influence over
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the daily choices we make in our lives. Today's top story comes from Fox 17 Nashville, and it
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exposes the mayor of Nashville and their administration for trying to hide the fact
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that there wasn't really substantial community spread going on at the bars. That's right,
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there's a series of emails in the June 30th time frame where the mayor of Nashville and his
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administration, they're all trying to figure out how to conceal the fact that they don't
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really have a problem at the bars and honky-tonks on lower Broadway in Nashville. Instead, construction
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sites were a major area of spread in Nashville, and nursing homes were really problematic for
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them. But at one point, they only had like 22 cases in bars, then they only had about 80
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cases in bars. And so you see this email back and forth where they're saying, well, gee, reporters
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are asking us for the numbers of positive cases from lower Broadway, and it's a low number.
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So what should we do about that? And do you see one of the senior members of the mayor's
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team say that it's not for public consumption, that they don't want to release a specific number,
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because if that number looks too low, then they won't be able to, you know, continue to exercise
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their authority to keep these bars and honky-tonks shut down. I will confess, I've spent my fair share
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of time in the music halls of Nashville, Tennessee. I very much enjoy it, folks from all over come.
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And, you know, it may be the case that these never were and never were going to be substantial areas
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of spread. But, you know, traveling and interacting and, you know, being with your fellow human beings
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is something that generates commerce and activity. And it's not just for people's joy or desire to
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listen to music. Folks make their livelihoods at these places. These businesses have to be open
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for people to be able to pay their rent and meet their obligations and feed their families. And so
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these decisions that government makes in the absence of real evidence can become problematic.
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Just yesterday, I was with Governor DeSantis as we were surveying the damage from Hurricane
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Sally. And I could tell in our conversation how much the negative impact and disruption on people's
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lives really affected him as a consequence of these lockdowns. And while in Florida, we took a lighter
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approach, we didn't take the toughest, meanest, most aggressive lockdown approach. You know, we now see
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that we've basically gone through our wave, our positivity rate is down in the low single digits.
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And I don't know that history is going to judge these lockdowns all that favorably when you look
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at the cascading negative consequences. So in Florida, I suspect that we're going to be opening
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up even more, that people are going to be able to go listen to music, go to a local watering hole,
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eat at a restaurant without the restrictions that we've seen regarding capacity, and that we will be
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just fine, we will be better than we've been when we impair the ability of people to make an make a life,
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earn a living and succeed as Americans. And so I look forward to those reforms coming to Florida to
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loosen up a little bit. And I think the folks in Tennessee, and California, and Michigan and everywhere
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elsewhere, they're trying to clamp down on their citizens could take a lesson from what's going to happen
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in the Sunshine State. The ethics of fashion often get called into question. And fast fashion is
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something that I think we need to be on the lookout for. When you go to the store and you spend, you
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know, four, six, eight, $12 on a shirt or a dress, you have to know that the cost of production is pretty
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damn low, if they're able to sell that in retail for that low of a price. And the way they're able to
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keep the cost low in many places is by utilizing forced labor, oftentimes in China. And so if we really
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want to be America first in our hearts, we should be more America first in our shopping habits. Americans
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should not be so quick to tolerate fast fashion that we know is the consequence of someone being
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enslaved in many cases and, you know, tied to a sewing machine and forced to work oftentimes in
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child labor camps. Channel News Asia is reporting an Australian study that draws a bead on some of the
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partners that engage in this unethical fast fashion, one of which is H&M. And by the way, you know who it
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is. It's the Forever 21s. It's the Express, you know, at times like Banana Republic, but H&M, they were
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highlighted as having relationships with a sheng shua mill. And that mill was identified in this
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Australian study as having a particularly egregious human rights record. H&M puts out a statement that
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while they don't believe they have any direct relationships with any of these mills, they may
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have some indirect relationships with some of these Chinese mills. And so you see them take some
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intermediate action to remove themselves from this particular partner. China's reaction is
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particularly interesting. They say that when Australia or the United States or any other
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Western country criticizes the enslavement of their people to make clothes, that we are bullying
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China. Give me a break. China has an economic model that bullies its own people, that steals from the
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world, that then tries to replace and supplant those who want to employ their own hardworking
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citizens, but without the type of awful environmental conditions and human rights conditions that we see
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in China. Here's my hot take. We should have a border adjustment tax against Chinese goods, where we know
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those goods were made as a result of horrible human rights, horrible environmental standards,
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or anything else that would not adhere to our American values and our sense of humanity. How is it okay
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for these Chinese to go and, you know, pollute the skies in Shanghai, destroy our earth, and then come
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by penthouses in Manhattan? How is it okay for us to drive jobs offshore to China, only to know that
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people are going to be in worse conditions, that our earth is going to be cared for less? So I
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think we need to get a lot tougher with China on trade. The president has been transformational
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in his confrontation with China, a confrontation that I think was long overdue and that will need
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to continue. But if President Trump is not reelected, we will go back to simping for China, to the
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Chimerica dream that the elites tell us about, which is actually a nightmare for working class people,
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and really a nightmare for the Chinese people who are exploited as a consequence. So good to see H&M
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take some small step towards more humane business practices. I think there's a lot more that needs
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to change in the fast fashion world. And if we had a border adjustment tax against Chinese goods that were
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made unethically, I think we would be a stronger country and we would be in a better position to confront
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our true competitor for dominance in the 21st century.
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The 1619 Project, nurtured by the New York Times, is an effort to have Americans believe
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that our country is fundamentally racist and flawed and that slavery that occurred at the beginning of
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America is not something we could ever divorce ourselves from, that we can never be a more perfect
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union that we are just intractably and inexcusably and forever linked to the slavery history of our
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past. I believe we can be better than our past. I believe that throughout human history, we have
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tried to understand each other better, treat each other better, build societies that are stronger and
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more diverse and more loving and ultimately more equal. But the way we achieve that greater equality
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is not by trying to put any one group of people above another. It's by saying, gosh, you know, beneath
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our, the dermis of our skin, we're all the same. We want to have better schools, good roads, clean
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environment. We want a safe country. And most importantly, we want every American to have the opportunity to
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succeed. I believe that success in America is tied and linked to our love of country, to our understanding
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of our founding, because only when we understand how great and special and unique America is, do we have
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the opportunity to really, I think, motivate the country to its highest potential. You know, that's what
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our greatest leaders have done. When we've tackled medical challenges, when we've put a man on the moon,
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when we've defeated the Nazis, we've rallied together under the banner of American values, not in
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critique of American values. President Trump understands this. He understands that this is a
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special country worthy of even more love than any of us could ever muster for her. And so President
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Trump signed an executive order countering the 1619 project with the 1776 project. And this will be a
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commission of people who will come together to infuse our education system with more patriotism,
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with more of an understanding of our nation's founding values. And I think that projects to
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just a richer and more prosperous people, because we will be more engaged in the type of activity that I
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think honors the traditions of our country and their traditions that we should be proud of.
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We believed in religious liberty and tolerance. We believed that the government, the king,
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should not have such excessive power over us, that this isn't going to be a strong country because
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our government is strong and our people are weak. We'll be strong because our people are robust in
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their rights and in their powers and in their commerce. And the government really is just there to
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vanguard our rights, not to tell us what to do or cause us to be more addicted to government.
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President Trump announced this. Let's take a listen.
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The left has warped, distorted, and defiled the American story with deceptions, falsehoods,
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and lies. There is no better example than the New York Times' totally discredited 1619 project.
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This project rewrites American history to teach our children that we were founded on the principle of
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oppression, not freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth. America's founding set in motion the
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unstoppable chain of events that abolished slavery, secured civil rights, defeated communism and fascism,
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and built the most fair, equal, and prosperous nation in human history.
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Today, I'm also pleased to announce that I will soon sign an executive order establishing a national
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commission to promote patriotic education. It will be called the 1776 Commission.
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It will encourage our educators to teach our children about the miracle of American history
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and make plans to honor the 250th anniversary of our founding.
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Saturday Night Live is coming back with a limited audience at Rockefeller Center.
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They'll begin on October 2nd and begin with five live shows. The big news they're announcing is that
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Jim Carrey will be playing Joe Biden in the upcoming season. Now, I know Jim Carrey. The movie,
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The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey, was filmed in my house in Seaside, Florida back in the mid-90s and
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got the chance to meet him and interact with him as a 15-year-old kid. And Jim Carrey then made some
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more movies and I got elected to the state legislature and then Congress. And it appears that Jim Carrey is no
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longer a fan of mine. He does these kind of bizarre, somewhat abstract paintings of people he doesn't like.
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And I got one. And in the commentary of the painting offered by its author, Jim Carrey, he said that
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I have the hair of Conway Twitty, which frankly, I did not take as that much of an insult. I thought Conway Twitty had
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great hair. Now, the painting that Jim Carrey made of me, not the most flattering description that I've
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ever encountered. However, he'll be on Saturday Night Live playing Joe Biden. He is a funny and
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interesting, creative guy. I think he's somewhat tortured in his own mind. Maybe after he made that
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movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I don't know. Maybe after he made that movie with Kate
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Winslet about how the mind goes crazy, he became a little bit different. But we wish Saturday Night
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Live would be a little funnier. Back to the days of like Will Ferrell, Norm Macdonald,
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Sherry O'Terri. That was probably the golden era of Saturday Night Live. It's become a little more
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Google and other big tech representatives faced off with senators in the antitrust subcommittee.
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Do I understand it now that you have a content moderation requirement in order to access Google's
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ad platforms? Is that right? Is that your testimony?
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No. Because the Federalists had it. They didn't moderate their content section. And what you're
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saying is they, you require them now to engage in moderation in order to have access to your
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platforms. Is that right? No. Our ads policy, our ads policy is that our ads will not show up against
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harmful, offensive content. That's the requirement. If they want to show our ads next to their content,
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then that content can't be harmful or offensive.
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So in other words, they have to moderate it. As Senator Lee pointed out, it's extraordinary
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market power that would enable you to do something like this, to basically call the tune for a small
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independent publisher's construction of their site, to design moderation policies for third-party
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content that they don't monitor or use. And yet you are able to do this and to force them to adopt
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these sorts of policies or effectively cut off their revenue stream. That's extraordinary.
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Senator Cruz was also aggressive in his questioning. Take a listen.
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How many websites, how many media outlets has Google used its market position and market power
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on ads to force them to take down or change their comment page? How frequently has what
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happened to the Federalists happened to others?
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I would have to get back to you, Senator, with that answer. And I'm happy to get back to you with
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that answer. I would point out, though, that we do receive complaints on either side of the aisle
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on this issue. We've pulled down videos on The Daily Show, on Last Week Tonight, and Democracy Now,
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and have received complaints from those sides. So we operate a wide platform. A wide platform has
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more views that have probably ever been expressed in human history in one platform. And we get
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complaints from both sides when we use our policies, again, clearly stated policies, to pull down content.
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So, Mr. Harrison, I'm going to follow up with you in writing and ask you for that information.
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And you just represented to this committee that Google will provide that information. I've asked
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you for that information before, and Google has stonewalled and refused to give an answer. So I'm
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hopeful that your testimony here will be followed up on by some modicum of transparency.
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We've now seen major hearings in the House and the Senate focusing on antitrust issues and the
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anti-competitive practices of big tech. It's time to take action. Hopefully more to come.
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Does speaking English spread more coronavirus than speaking other languages? That is the question
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posed by Allison Escalante in Forbes. And the argument is that the consequence of our aerosol
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spreading of particles matched with particular consonants could actually lead to more projection
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of the type of virus-filled droplets that seem to move this virus without having to touch someone,
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but in fact, through the air. So we all understand that it's the aspirated particles of water that one
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would see maybe come out of the mouth that spreads coronavirus. And, you know, the article has
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somewhat of a comical image of thinking about the professors in your high school or college
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classes who would speak loudly and you could always kind of see the droplets coming out of their mouth.
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You never wanted to sit in the front row if you had a loud talking professor with the risk of being
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bathed by them without consent. But there are particular consonants in the English language. The P,
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the T, the T, the K. And if you think about it, if you say words with that hard P, T, or K,
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the argument scientifically is that they have a greater likelihood of being aspirated with this
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type of water that could impact another person. So I don't know. English has always been good to me,
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but I sure hope that it doesn't result in the greater spreading of coronavirus. Check out the
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Big Ten football will return in October. And oddly, the Big Ten is taking credit for this when
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it seems it's largely the consequence of pressure. As the ACC and the Pac-12 and the SEC have engaged in
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some competition without the explosive, you know, outbursts of the virus that would be
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catastrophic to the sport. I think that pressure has grown on the Big Ten from their boosters and
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donors, from their member institutions. And they've announced protocols through their website,
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including study, testing, monitoring, research, a chief information officer for COVID,
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and communications. And while certainly, you know, we've seen a challenge at LSU with a bit of an
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outbreak, while we saw at Florida State, some players and coaches have some disagreement about
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the nature of the protocols. I think it's a good thing to have more conferences participating and
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innovating and coming up with different ways to treat the virus. The ACC, in response to the
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protocols from the Big Ten, came out and said that they were confident that their approach and that
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their testing regime was adequate. It appears the Big Ten has a bit of a more robust and frequent
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screening process. But I actually look forward to seeing which conference cracks the code here and
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comes up with a system that might work. And you never know what we might learn from athletics from
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a society at large. I mean, you look at the NBA bubble, that's largely been a success. Major League
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Baseball seems to be following suit for their playoff strategy. But with college football and
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student-athletes, there's always unique sensitivities because these are amateurs and not professionals.
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You've always got to allow for the opt-out, but you've also got to allow for the opt-in for players
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who want to engage in the sport, for institutions that want to ensure that they make that opportunity
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available to their student-athletes. So I'm glad to see the Big Ten come around. I don't know that they
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should be patting themselves on the back. I think this is largely a consequence of the pressure
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put on the conference by the people, by the athletes, and by the universities.
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Thanks so much for listening to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Hope you enjoy the show.
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