The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - Episode 92 - Music City in Treble Over COVID Numbers. Does Speaking English Spread Coronavirus？ America First Fashion.

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Let's talk about the news.

00:00:20.100 And sometimes the news comes to us through local journalists who engage in the type of

00:00:25.840 roll-up-your-sleeves investigative journalism that gets to the truth. And throughout the

00:00:30.980 coronavirus, we've had too many people in government, in bureaucracy, lie to us, not

00:00:37.640 tell us the truth, for the purpose of expanding their own authority and power and influence over

00:00:44.400 the daily choices we make in our lives. Today's top story comes from Fox 17 Nashville, and it

00:00:51.840 exposes the mayor of Nashville and their administration for trying to hide the fact

00:00:58.220 that there wasn't really substantial community spread going on at the bars. That's right,

00:01:04.660 there's a series of emails in the June 30th time frame where the mayor of Nashville and his

00:01:12.220 administration, they're all trying to figure out how to conceal the fact that they don't

00:01:18.040 really have a problem at the bars and honky-tonks on lower Broadway in Nashville. Instead, construction

00:01:25.360 sites were a major area of spread in Nashville, and nursing homes were really problematic for 0.94

00:01:32.140 them. But at one point, they only had like 22 cases in bars, then they only had about 80

00:01:37.180 cases in bars. And so you see this email back and forth where they're saying, well, gee, reporters

00:01:43.160 are asking us for the numbers of positive cases from lower Broadway, and it's a low number.

00:01:50.340 So what should we do about that? And do you see one of the senior members of the mayor's

00:01:55.180 team say that it's not for public consumption, that they don't want to release a specific number,

00:02:00.540 because if that number looks too low, then they won't be able to, you know, continue to exercise

00:02:06.640 their authority to keep these bars and honky-tonks shut down. I will confess, I've spent my fair share

00:02:13.900 of time in the music halls of Nashville, Tennessee. I very much enjoy it, folks from all over come.

00:02:21.400 And, you know, it may be the case that these never were and never were going to be substantial areas

00:02:27.900 of spread. But, you know, traveling and interacting and, you know, being with your fellow human beings

00:02:34.500 is something that generates commerce and activity. And it's not just for people's joy or desire to

00:02:40.540 listen to music. Folks make their livelihoods at these places. These businesses have to be open

00:02:46.780 for people to be able to pay their rent and meet their obligations and feed their families. And so

00:02:52.120 these decisions that government makes in the absence of real evidence can become problematic.

00:02:59.120 Just yesterday, I was with Governor DeSantis as we were surveying the damage from Hurricane

00:03:04.080 Sally. And I could tell in our conversation how much the negative impact and disruption on people's

00:03:11.100 lives really affected him as a consequence of these lockdowns. And while in Florida, we took a lighter

00:03:17.660 approach, we didn't take the toughest, meanest, most aggressive lockdown approach. You know, we now see

00:03:24.300 that we've basically gone through our wave, our positivity rate is down in the low single digits.

00:03:29.880 And I don't know that history is going to judge these lockdowns all that favorably when you look

00:03:35.540 at the cascading negative consequences. So in Florida, I suspect that we're going to be opening

00:03:41.920 up even more, that people are going to be able to go listen to music, go to a local watering hole,

00:03:48.560 eat at a restaurant without the restrictions that we've seen regarding capacity, and that we will be

00:03:54.460 just fine, we will be better than we've been when we impair the ability of people to make an make a life,

00:04:02.480 earn a living and succeed as Americans. And so I look forward to those reforms coming to Florida to

00:04:09.580 loosen up a little bit. And I think the folks in Tennessee, and California, and Michigan and everywhere

00:04:15.440 elsewhere, they're trying to clamp down on their citizens could take a lesson from what's going to happen

00:04:20.360 in the Sunshine State. The ethics of fashion often get called into question. And fast fashion is

00:04:30.900 something that I think we need to be on the lookout for. When you go to the store and you spend, you

00:04:36.440 know, four, six, eight, $12 on a shirt or a dress, you have to know that the cost of production is pretty

00:04:45.440 damn low, if they're able to sell that in retail for that low of a price. And the way they're able to

00:04:50.940 keep the cost low in many places is by utilizing forced labor, oftentimes in China. And so if we really

00:04:59.520 want to be America first in our hearts, we should be more America first in our shopping habits. Americans

00:05:06.560 should not be so quick to tolerate fast fashion that we know is the consequence of someone being

00:05:14.300 enslaved in many cases and, you know, tied to a sewing machine and forced to work oftentimes in

00:05:20.440 child labor camps. Channel News Asia is reporting an Australian study that draws a bead on some of the

00:05:28.160 partners that engage in this unethical fast fashion, one of which is H&M. And by the way, you know who it

00:05:35.800 is. It's the Forever 21s. It's the Express, you know, at times like Banana Republic, but H&M, they were

00:05:44.020 highlighted as having relationships with a sheng shua mill. And that mill was identified in this

00:05:51.600 Australian study as having a particularly egregious human rights record. H&M puts out a statement that

00:05:58.660 while they don't believe they have any direct relationships with any of these mills, they may

00:06:04.160 have some indirect relationships with some of these Chinese mills. And so you see them take some

00:06:08.780 intermediate action to remove themselves from this particular partner. China's reaction is

00:06:15.180 particularly interesting. They say that when Australia or the United States or any other

00:06:21.460 Western country criticizes the enslavement of their people to make clothes, that we are bullying

00:06:28.780 China. Give me a break. China has an economic model that bullies its own people, that steals from the 1.00

00:06:38.380 world, that then tries to replace and supplant those who want to employ their own hardworking

00:06:44.880 citizens, but without the type of awful environmental conditions and human rights conditions that we see 1.00

00:06:51.620 in China. Here's my hot take. We should have a border adjustment tax against Chinese goods, where we know 1.00

00:07:00.300 those goods were made as a result of horrible human rights, horrible environmental standards,

00:07:08.380 or anything else that would not adhere to our American values and our sense of humanity. How is it okay

00:07:16.780 for these Chinese to go and, you know, pollute the skies in Shanghai, destroy our earth, and then come 1.00

00:07:23.640 by penthouses in Manhattan? How is it okay for us to drive jobs offshore to China, only to know that

00:07:32.680 people are going to be in worse conditions, that our earth is going to be cared for less? So I

00:07:38.360 think we need to get a lot tougher with China on trade. The president has been transformational

00:07:44.100 in his confrontation with China, a confrontation that I think was long overdue and that will need 0.65

00:07:51.360 to continue. But if President Trump is not reelected, we will go back to simping for China, to the

00:07:58.060 Chimerica dream that the elites tell us about, which is actually a nightmare for working class people, 1.00

00:08:03.720 and really a nightmare for the Chinese people who are exploited as a consequence. So good to see H&M 1.00

00:08:10.920 take some small step towards more humane business practices. I think there's a lot more that needs

00:08:17.920 to change in the fast fashion world. And if we had a border adjustment tax against Chinese goods that were

00:08:24.580 made unethically, I think we would be a stronger country and we would be in a better position to confront

00:08:32.220 our true competitor for dominance in the 21st century.

00:08:39.260 The 1619 Project, nurtured by the New York Times, is an effort to have Americans believe

00:08:46.480 that our country is fundamentally racist and flawed and that slavery that occurred at the beginning of

00:08:54.560 America is not something we could ever divorce ourselves from, that we can never be a more perfect

00:09:01.080 union that we are just intractably and inexcusably and forever linked to the slavery history of our

00:09:09.780 past. I believe we can be better than our past. I believe that throughout human history, we have

00:09:16.260 tried to understand each other better, treat each other better, build societies that are stronger and

00:09:23.000 more diverse and more loving and ultimately more equal. But the way we achieve that greater equality

00:09:29.480 is not by trying to put any one group of people above another. It's by saying, gosh, you know, beneath

00:09:35.720 our, the dermis of our skin, we're all the same. We want to have better schools, good roads, clean

00:09:43.780 environment. We want a safe country. And most importantly, we want every American to have the opportunity to

00:09:50.560 succeed. I believe that success in America is tied and linked to our love of country, to our understanding

00:09:59.820 of our founding, because only when we understand how great and special and unique America is, do we have

00:10:06.480 the opportunity to really, I think, motivate the country to its highest potential. You know, that's what

00:10:13.100 our greatest leaders have done. When we've tackled medical challenges, when we've put a man on the moon,

00:10:19.360 when we've defeated the Nazis, we've rallied together under the banner of American values, not in

00:10:26.400 critique of American values. President Trump understands this. He understands that this is a

00:10:33.160 special country worthy of even more love than any of us could ever muster for her. And so President

00:10:40.500 Trump signed an executive order countering the 1619 project with the 1776 project. And this will be a

00:10:49.340 commission of people who will come together to infuse our education system with more patriotism,

00:10:56.300 with more of an understanding of our nation's founding values. And I think that projects to

00:11:01.980 just a richer and more prosperous people, because we will be more engaged in the type of activity that I

00:11:11.520 think honors the traditions of our country and their traditions that we should be proud of.

00:11:16.920 We believed in religious liberty and tolerance. We believed that the government, the king,

00:11:23.740 should not have such excessive power over us, that this isn't going to be a strong country because

00:11:29.760 our government is strong and our people are weak. We'll be strong because our people are robust in

00:11:36.380 their rights and in their powers and in their commerce. And the government really is just there to

00:11:41.820 vanguard our rights, not to tell us what to do or cause us to be more addicted to government.

00:11:48.380 President Trump announced this. Let's take a listen.

00:11:50.680 The left has warped, distorted, and defiled the American story with deceptions, falsehoods,

00:11:59.680 and lies. There is no better example than the New York Times' totally discredited 1619 project.

00:12:10.700 This project rewrites American history to teach our children that we were founded on the principle of

00:12:18.080 oppression, not freedom. Nothing could be further from the truth. America's founding set in motion the

00:12:27.180 unstoppable chain of events that abolished slavery, secured civil rights, defeated communism and fascism,

00:12:36.860 and built the most fair, equal, and prosperous nation in human history.

00:12:42.680 Today, I'm also pleased to announce that I will soon sign an executive order establishing a national

00:12:49.040 commission to promote patriotic education. It will be called the 1776 Commission.

00:12:57.280 It will encourage our educators to teach our children about the miracle of American history

00:13:02.740 and make plans to honor the 250th anniversary of our founding.

00:13:10.680 Saturday Night Live is coming back with a limited audience at Rockefeller Center.

00:13:19.840 They'll begin on October 2nd and begin with five live shows. The big news they're announcing is that

00:13:26.760 Jim Carrey will be playing Joe Biden in the upcoming season. Now, I know Jim Carrey. The movie,

00:13:34.380 The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey, was filmed in my house in Seaside, Florida back in the mid-90s and

00:13:41.700 got the chance to meet him and interact with him as a 15-year-old kid. And Jim Carrey then made some

00:13:47.980 more movies and I got elected to the state legislature and then Congress. And it appears that Jim Carrey is no

00:13:54.620 longer a fan of mine. He does these kind of bizarre, somewhat abstract paintings of people he doesn't like.

00:14:02.140 And I got one. And in the commentary of the painting offered by its author, Jim Carrey, he said that

00:14:11.220 I have the hair of Conway Twitty, which frankly, I did not take as that much of an insult. I thought Conway Twitty had

00:14:18.380 great hair. Now, the painting that Jim Carrey made of me, not the most flattering description that I've

00:14:23.460 ever encountered. However, he'll be on Saturday Night Live playing Joe Biden. He is a funny and

00:14:31.120 interesting, creative guy. I think he's somewhat tortured in his own mind. Maybe after he made that

00:14:36.920 movie, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I don't know. Maybe after he made that movie with Kate

00:14:44.880 Winslet about how the mind goes crazy, he became a little bit different. But we wish Saturday Night

00:14:51.960 Live would be a little funnier. Back to the days of like Will Ferrell, Norm Macdonald,

00:14:57.980 Sherry O'Terri. That was probably the golden era of Saturday Night Live. It's become a little more

00:15:03.880 mean-spirited, but I'll probably check it out.

00:15:06.600 Google and other big tech representatives faced off with senators in the antitrust subcommittee.

00:15:17.760 Listen to this exchange with Senator Hawley.

00:15:20.000 Do I understand it now that you have a content moderation requirement in order to access Google's

00:15:24.300 ad platforms? Is that right? Is that your testimony?

00:15:26.620 No. Because the Federalists had it. They didn't moderate their content section. And what you're

00:15:33.700 saying is they, you require them now to engage in moderation in order to have access to your

00:15:40.760 platforms. Is that right? No. Our ads policy, our ads policy is that our ads will not show up against

00:15:47.300 harmful, offensive content. That's the requirement. If they want to show our ads next to their content,

00:15:55.200 then that content can't be harmful or offensive.

00:15:57.700 So in other words, they have to moderate it. As Senator Lee pointed out, it's extraordinary

00:16:00.920 market power that would enable you to do something like this, to basically call the tune for a small

00:16:07.340 independent publisher's construction of their site, to design moderation policies for third-party

00:16:14.040 content that they don't monitor or use. And yet you are able to do this and to force them to adopt

00:16:19.180 these sorts of policies or effectively cut off their revenue stream. That's extraordinary.

00:16:22.680 Senator Cruz was also aggressive in his questioning. Take a listen.

00:16:26.460 How many websites, how many media outlets has Google used its market position and market power

00:16:32.600 on ads to force them to take down or change their comment page? How frequently has what

00:16:37.260 happened to the Federalists happened to others?

00:16:39.460 I would have to get back to you, Senator, with that answer. And I'm happy to get back to you with

00:16:43.620 that answer. I would point out, though, that we do receive complaints on either side of the aisle

00:16:49.000 on this issue. We've pulled down videos on The Daily Show, on Last Week Tonight, and Democracy Now,

00:16:58.140 and have received complaints from those sides. So we operate a wide platform. A wide platform has

00:17:02.680 more views that have probably ever been expressed in human history in one platform. And we get

00:17:07.920 complaints from both sides when we use our policies, again, clearly stated policies, to pull down content.

00:17:13.860 So, Mr. Harrison, I'm going to follow up with you in writing and ask you for that information.

00:17:19.260 And you just represented to this committee that Google will provide that information. I've asked

00:17:23.360 you for that information before, and Google has stonewalled and refused to give an answer. So I'm

00:17:27.760 hopeful that your testimony here will be followed up on by some modicum of transparency.

00:17:34.680 We've now seen major hearings in the House and the Senate focusing on antitrust issues and the

00:17:40.600 anti-competitive practices of big tech. It's time to take action. Hopefully more to come.

00:17:50.000 Does speaking English spread more coronavirus than speaking other languages? That is the question

00:17:58.260 posed by Allison Escalante in Forbes. And the argument is that the consequence of our aerosol

00:18:06.900 spreading of particles matched with particular consonants could actually lead to more projection

00:18:13.760 of the type of virus-filled droplets that seem to move this virus without having to touch someone,

00:18:22.260 but in fact, through the air. So we all understand that it's the aspirated particles of water that one

00:18:31.260 would see maybe come out of the mouth that spreads coronavirus. And, you know, the article has

00:18:36.440 somewhat of a comical image of thinking about the professors in your high school or college

00:18:43.260 classes who would speak loudly and you could always kind of see the droplets coming out of their mouth.

00:18:48.860 You never wanted to sit in the front row if you had a loud talking professor with the risk of being

00:18:55.920 bathed by them without consent. But there are particular consonants in the English language. The P,

00:19:03.440 the T, the T, the K. And if you think about it, if you say words with that hard P, T, or K, 0.76

00:19:10.260 the argument scientifically is that they have a greater likelihood of being aspirated with this

00:19:17.340 type of water that could impact another person. So I don't know. English has always been good to me,

00:19:22.680 but I sure hope that it doesn't result in the greater spreading of coronavirus. Check out the

00:19:28.820 Forbes article.

00:19:32.340 Big Ten football will return in October. And oddly, the Big Ten is taking credit for this when

00:19:39.040 it seems it's largely the consequence of pressure. As the ACC and the Pac-12 and the SEC have engaged in

00:19:48.060 some competition without the explosive, you know, outbursts of the virus that would be

00:19:55.400 catastrophic to the sport. I think that pressure has grown on the Big Ten from their boosters and

00:20:01.460 donors, from their member institutions. And they've announced protocols through their website,

00:20:06.900 including study, testing, monitoring, research, a chief information officer for COVID,

00:20:13.200 and communications. And while certainly, you know, we've seen a challenge at LSU with a bit of an

00:20:18.740 outbreak, while we saw at Florida State, some players and coaches have some disagreement about

00:20:24.060 the nature of the protocols. I think it's a good thing to have more conferences participating and

00:20:29.680 innovating and coming up with different ways to treat the virus. The ACC, in response to the

00:20:35.060 protocols from the Big Ten, came out and said that they were confident that their approach and that

00:20:42.120 their testing regime was adequate. It appears the Big Ten has a bit of a more robust and frequent

00:20:48.620 screening process. But I actually look forward to seeing which conference cracks the code here and

00:20:54.400 comes up with a system that might work. And you never know what we might learn from athletics from

00:21:01.180 a society at large. I mean, you look at the NBA bubble, that's largely been a success. Major League

00:21:06.420 Baseball seems to be following suit for their playoff strategy. But with college football and

00:21:13.120 student-athletes, there's always unique sensitivities because these are amateurs and not professionals.

00:21:18.480 You've always got to allow for the opt-out, but you've also got to allow for the opt-in for players

00:21:24.060 who want to engage in the sport, for institutions that want to ensure that they make that opportunity

00:21:30.620 available to their student-athletes. So I'm glad to see the Big Ten come around. I don't know that they

00:21:35.220 should be patting themselves on the back. I think this is largely a consequence of the pressure

00:21:39.560 put on the conference by the people, by the athletes, and by the universities.

00:21:47.340 Thanks so much for listening to Hot Takes. I'm Congressman Matt Gaetz. Hope you enjoy the show.

00:21:52.660 Hope you leave a five-star rating. Put in a review. Let us know what you'd like to hear.

00:21:57.820 And join us next week for more Hot Takes.

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The Anchormen Show with Matt Gaetz - September 18, 2020

Episode 92 - Music City in Treble Over COVID Numbers. Does Speaking English Spread Coronavirus？ America First Fashion.

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