Ep. 444 - Incompetence And Partisanship In The Midst Of A Pandemic
Episode Stats
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Summary
Coronavirus is a global pandemic, and no one seems to know how to stop it. What will we do about it? And what s the best thing we can do to prepare for it? Plus, Amazon takes down a vile product, and a woman fills up the entire grocery store with diapers.
Transcript
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Today on the Matt Wall Show, I don't know if you guys have heard of this coronavirus thing,
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but yeah, it turns out we're in the midst of a global pandemic. Nobody's really talking about
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it. So I'm sure you're relieved that I'll be discussing it on the show today. Now, the bad
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news is, on top of the fact that it's a pandemic, is that our elected leaders do not seem interested
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in or capable of leading us through this. Have we gotten to a point where our leaders in Washington
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simply don't have the capacity to handle something like this? We're going to talk about that. Also,
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five headlines, including an especially vile product being sold by Amazon. In fact,
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it was being sold. It's taken down now. But the fact that it was ever up there to be sold in the
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first place, I think, tells you something. And in your daily cancellation, something a little bit
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different. Handshakes have been canceled. I didn't cancel them. It's just they've been canceled as
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all hand-to-hand contact or combat is now out the window because of the coronavirus.
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But where do we go from here? I've noticed there's a real problem of people not knowing how
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to greet each other. So we're going to try to sort through that very important issue as well
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today. All of that, including your emails, why I'm wrong, a bunch of stuff coming up. We'll talk
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LifeLock.com slash Walsh. All right, coronavirus, coronavirus, coronavirus, coronavirus, coronavirus.
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One quick coronavirus tidbit, corona bit, before we get into the meat and potatoes here.
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I was at a store yesterday, and I saw this is a common sight. I'm far from the first person to
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see something like this at the store. But this is actually my first time seeing it because I hadn't
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been to the grocery store in a little bit. And so I went to the grocery store. I saw a woman
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filling her cart with every box of size four diapers in the aisle. And as I said, we've gotten
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used to this kind of scene. People buying up all the toilet paper, hand sanitizer, soap, etc.
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I just think we need to be able to work together a little bit on this thing. And I'm going to get
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back to that theme later on as we discuss this. But I think we as Americans, we need to be able to,
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and community members, we need to be able to help each other out a little bit. Whether this ends up
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being as bad as we fear it might be or not, either way, people need things like soap and diapers and
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toilet paper. And your kid is probably not going to go through that many diapers in a few weeks.
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Just like you're probably not going to go through 19 gallons of hand sanitizer in a month. Other
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people need that stuff. Now, I know maybe leaving something on the shelf for the next guy to get,
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it doesn't feel like the most rewarding thing to do because you're just leaving it for some random
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stranger. And so you think, hey, I might as well take it. But I think we need more teamwork than
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that. And I saw someone point out on Twitter yesterday that it also is in your best interest
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to allow other people in your neighborhood to wash their hands too. So maybe that's another reason not
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to buy up all of the soap and hand sanitizer and everything else. Now, I get that what I saw,
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maybe there's a reasonable explanation. Maybe she has triplets. We had twins. So even that,
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I understand how many diapers you go through. Maybe she had triplets. That would explain all the
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buying. Probably not, but maybe. Maybe she was buying the diapers to donate to an orphanage.
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Again, probably not, but it's possible. I don't know. But obviously, there is a problem,
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generally speaking, of people buying up all the necessary items for themselves, hoarding them.
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And I think we need to be better than that because we're not going to be able to rely
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on the government to get us through this. And that's becoming more and more obvious.
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As I said, we'll talk more about that in a minute. The bigger picture,
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we discussed the virus on the show yesterday, just like everybody else. And I said, I think I was
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wrong early on when I said, this is panic about nothing or nearly nothing. The facts on the ground
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have changed and enough doctors, virologists, epidemiologists, and other experts have weighed in.
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And to this point, it's become pretty obvious. And I'm convinced that my initial approach and
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attitude was wrong. Now, I've gotten a fair amount of blowback from the show I did yesterday.
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Some people have really bought fully into the idea that this is nothing but hype. It's just a
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media thing. There are even some people who really do think it's a media hoax. I think that's a minority.
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People who think it's just almost invented. What's more common is, yeah, it's real, but it's not
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nearly as bad as everybody's saying. And these are, that was, again, that was my
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take on it a month ago, a month and a half ago. But for me, it seems like the reality has become
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more clear. The facts have surfaced, enough facts anyway, and I'm going to change my mind. I think
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there are some people that they had that take early on and they're going to ride with it.
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This is their official position on the coronavirus and I'm sticking with it no matter what happens
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all the way to the end. And I sort of understand part of that because in some ways, it still doesn't
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feel real. I think that's part of the problem, that it's hard for us, it's hard for me, I admit,
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to accept that something so primitive and ancient and barbaric as a viral epidemic could intrude into
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our comfortable, safe, modern lives and turn everything upside down. It's hard to accept that.
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Especially when you still look around, aside from the grocery store shelves being cleaned out,
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other than that, most of us, depending on where you live, but most of us, we look around and
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everything seems pretty much normal. And so you think, well, it's normal.
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We take it for granted. It's always going to be normal. It always has been normal. It's going
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to continue being normal. This thing couldn't possibly turn our lives upside down, but it has,
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whether we choose to accept it or not. Governments across the world have quarantined
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entire populations. Some have gone so far as to track their infected citizens with GPS. That's what
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South Korea did. Italy, the mortality rate is 5%. Doctors are so overwhelmed, they have to choose
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which patients to treat. Yes, they have an older population. Yes, that's true. But part of their
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problem, I read something to you yesterday from a doctor in Italy saying that our problem is, yes,
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we have older populations, but our biggest problem is we didn't take this seriously enough early on,
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and we got blindsided. And we know that the numbers of infected are trending up drastically,
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and medical experts are saying that it's going to get much worse. I don't have any information
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or evidence to disagree with them. If I were to say, no, it's not going to get worse, I would be saying
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that purely based on what I hope is true. It's not like I have any scientific research that I can put up
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against what the medical experts are saying. I don't. Now, here in the United States, 1,300 reported
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cases just two weeks after President Trump said there were 15 cases and that he expected that to
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be close down to zero very soon. That obviously has not happened. The number here is growing
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exponentially, even though very few Americans have been tested. I think the latest I saw is they're
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doing about 100 tests. Each state is doing maybe about 100 tests per day. The CDC has done 100 tests
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total in the last two weeks. That is not nearly enough. All of these factors, I think, explain why
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organizations like the NCAA and Disney have chosen to forfeit billions of dollars by shutting down their
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basketball season and theme park, respectively. I don't think we can chalk this up to simple
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panic. Businesses don't throw billions of dollars into the fire pit for no reason. They don't do it
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on an emotional whim. Now, you could say that they're doing it out of because of a concern for
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liability. And they've talked to the insurance companies, and I'm sure that's the case.
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But still, they wouldn't be forfeiting billions of dollars for fear of liability unless there was a
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real chance of there being some liability. And then, of course, we know we have states and towns,
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the state of Maryland shut down all the schools. All these things are happening.
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All of this to say that it's a damn shame we have a collection of partisan hacks and useless buffoons
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leading us through this crisis. And that's what I want to focus on a little bit more.
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and more time doing what you love. All right. Now, keeping in mind, you know, the severity of the
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situation, do we have leaders in Washington that are capable of actually taking this seriously
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and addressing the problem? I'm not very optimistic. You know, it was reported yesterday
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that Nancy Pelosi tried to jam funding for abortion into the coronavirus economic stimulus package that
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they're working on. I mean, think about that. We're looking at a global pandemic. What she's worried
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about is let's get abortion funded here and overseas. That's what she wants. Other Democrats have spent
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their time accusing Trump of racism for accurately reporting, accurately stating that the virus
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originated in China, which it did. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, we talked about a few days ago,
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has been talking about how it's straight up racism because people aren't patronizing Chinese restaurants.
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In fact, she said patroning Chinese restaurants, which isn't a word. The Democratic governor of
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Washington, the state hardest hit by the virus so far, responded to a supportive call from Vice
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President Pence, Vice President, the Vice President called him, asked him if he needed anything, was
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checking in, doing his job. The governor turns around and bashes Pence and Trump on Twitter.
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And now Democrats are rallying together to stop us from blaming China. That's their focus.
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Even as China is blaming us. So China is blaming us. China is now claiming that the US military brought
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the virus to China. And then China turned around and shipped it back to us. That's the absurd
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conspiracy theory and the deflection of blame that they're doing. And fortunately for them, they have
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half of our elected officials in Washington taking their side and saying, yeah, that's exactly what
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happened. So China's blaming America and the Democrats are blaming America. What else is new?
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The fact that China started this is actually important. This isn't semantics.
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Okay, this isn't some irrelevant detail like we should just move on and not worry about it.
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There are other things to worry about too, of course. And blaming them won't in itself solve
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the crisis. Nobody is saying that it will. But this did begin with them. They weren't honest about it.
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They still aren't being honest about it. They weren't transparent. They still aren't being
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transparent. They stifled the spread of information. They stopped doctors and health experts from talking
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about it publicly. Some people have called this essentially the Chinese Chernobyl. And I think
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that's a good comparison. And their responsibility for this is real. And it's important for us to
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acknowledge, I think. But the Democrats are running interference for them. And but this isn't just
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about the Democrats and China. Now, those groups are certainly they deserve some of the fingers to be
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pointed at them. But it's not just about them. And I think this is the part up until now, most of you
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have probably been giving me the thumbs up and saying amen as I'm blaming talking about China and talking
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about the Democrats. But this is the part where some of you switch from amens to boos, probably,
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because you're not going to like the next part of what I have to say. But I have to be honest about
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it and call it as I see it. President Trump has not performed much better. And the conservatives who
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are going around saying Trump's been brilliant is absolutely great. I don't believe that they really
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believe what they're saying. There's no possible way they really think that.
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President Trump, after contradicting his own officials to predict that the coronavirus would
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virtually disappear from the United States after 15 cases. That's what he said. He said he expected
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the case to be down close to zero. He wasn't getting that from his medical officials. If he had listened
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to them, they would have told him, don't say that. It's not true. But he said it anyway.
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And it does matter. He's the president of the United States. I said I've been wrong about this
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too. I'm not the president. I'm a podcast host. He's the president. So what he says matters a hell
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of a lot more than what I say. But after that didn't end up happening, of course, the 15 cases didn't go
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down to zero. He attempted desperately for days to minimize the severity of the crisis because he was
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worried about the political impact of having to admit that a bunch of people are infected. He was
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worried about the hit to the stock market, which, of course, the president is going to be worried
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about that. But part of the problem is that Trump, for the last three years, has been taking a lot of
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credit for the successes on the stock market. And the problem is when you do that, where the stock
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market takes a hit, now you have to take the blame for that. Unless you're going to say, oh, when it
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goes up, it's because of me. But when it goes down, it's not because of me. That doesn't make any
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sense, which is maybe a lesson here. Stop trying to brag about the successes of the stock market as
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if it's all because of the president. And then, you know, from there, Trump sent out a tweet
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saying that we've been implying, insinuating that we should be, you know, no more concerned about this
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than we are about the seasonal flu. Yet again, contradicting the medical experts in his own
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administration, the doctors and medical experts that he employs, or that we employ, actually, but
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that are in his administration, contradicting them. When asked about the lack of testing last week,
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he bizarrely politicized the issue by bringing the transcript of his Ukraine call into it.
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He was asked about the testing, and he said, oh, you know, the testings are perfect, just like the
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call, the Ukraine call, and the transcript was perfect. The hell does that have to do with
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anything? Why are you bringing that political issue into this? It has nothing to do with it.
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And by the way, it's not true. The testing has not been perfect. It's been far from perfect.
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Now, it may not be entirely the administration's fault that our testing has lagged far behind most
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of the developed world, but the buck stops with Trump, whether he likes it or not. Just like he said
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with the pandemic that the Obama administration had to deal with. Yeah, it's true that the media
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let Obama off the hook. Conservatives didn't. We blamed him, and so did Trump. Now Trump wants to
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say, it's not my fault at all. I had nothing to do with this. People aren't getting tested. It's been
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a total disaster with testing. Not my fault. You cannot blame me even one iota. We know that's BS.
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Come on. And we know that if it was Obama, we would be blaming him. We know that. We know that's
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how the game is played. Let's stop playing the game. There are more important things to be done
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right now. You know, in rambling about perfect tests doesn't instill the American people with
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confidence that he understands the severity of the situation. Then he goes and tweets out a picture
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of himself literally fiddling in the middle of a pandemic. Tweets a picture of himself fiddling.
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And I don't want to hear, oh, there's old Trump trolling again.
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I think unless you are a Trump groupie at this point, nobody else finds it very cute or fun for
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the president of the United States to be worried about trolling during a pandemic. Maybe focus on
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other things. His address from the Oval Office. I know there have been conservatives saying it was
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great, great, good stuff, awesome. Oh, come on. We know that. Let's be honest. You watched it, right?
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Adequate at best. And that is being extremely generous. Banning travel from Europe is an important
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step. Not nearly enough was said, though, about containment within our borders.
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And in terms of boosting national morale and uniting the country, the speech
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in content and delivery was a dud. I mean, he was reading the thing like it's the first time he read
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it, which I believe probably is the case. Maybe take this a little bit more seriously. It does matter.
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Other administration officials aren't doing much better in communicating. Seema Versa,
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administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was on Fox last night,
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was asked multiple times directly whether the whether U.S. hospitals are prepared for this.
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And she wasn't willing to answer the question. Watch.
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Before I let you go, I want to ask you one more time. Are there going to be people in this country
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who don't get a ventilator if they need one? Are you concerned that the actual physical equipment
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that is needed to serve the people who will get sick is out there? Can you reassure everyone tonight
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that there is not a shortage of ventilators or ICU units? And that's why the president has taken such
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a bold and decisive action. Right. We're not waiting for this to get worse. We're not waiting
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for this to be a crisis in our health care systems. And that's why the mitigation strategies that he
00:21:00.260
announced last night, limiting travel from Europe, not allowing that. You know, we've given travel
00:21:06.000
advisories on cruise ships. That's why we're taking all of this action, because we don't want to put
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stress on the health care system. OK, that's not a direct answer to the question.
00:21:16.640
Yeah, that's that's a little concerning. That's you would you would hope to get a straight answer
00:21:21.300
on a question like that. That's the kind of question you need to be able to answer.
00:21:27.420
Now, we'll talk more about this in a second. But first, a word from our very good friends over at
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You've got all the it's like these cars are more computer than actual parts now. And that makes it
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your car truck. Write Walsh in there. How did you hear about us box so that they know that I sent
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you. So what's the moral of the story here? Conservatives are going to want to make this all
00:23:13.940
a story of Democrats politicizing an epidemic. Liberals want to make it a story about Trump
00:23:19.340
fumbling and bumbling and wasting crucial days early on downplaying the situation, whispering sweet
00:23:24.780
nothings in our ears, which he did even during his speech. In fact, he spent way too much time talking
00:23:29.800
about how great the economy is doing and how great he's doing and everything's doing great,
00:23:33.480
great, great, great, great. Not really. You're not fooling anybody. Let's just be honest.
00:23:41.020
The story, though, is both of those things. It's not one or the other. It is ultimately a story of a
00:23:46.120
dysfunctional government run by people who are not interested in coming together in a dire time to
00:23:51.140
steer us towards calmer and safer waters. That's what we need. We're not getting it.
00:23:55.600
This is a moment, I think, that calls for a seriousness of purpose and a disregard for
00:24:02.860
political point tallying that is apparently beyond the capacities of the people in Washington who we
00:24:09.960
have elected to lead us. And I think if you're sitting there and you're trying to exempt one side of
00:24:18.520
the political aisle from this and say, oh, it's all the other guys, you're being delusional.
00:24:24.280
You're trying to delude yourself. And I think you know it.
00:24:30.680
So what does that mean? I think it means basically batting down the hatches
00:24:35.640
because the Washington clown show isn't going to save us. And whatever happens, we're going to have
00:24:42.300
to handle it the good old fashioned American way on our own. I'm this. This is not meant to be
00:24:49.260
melodramatic. I'm not saying that it's the end of all things. Repent. Well, you should repent even
00:24:55.140
so we should do that regardless. Not saying that. But this is a serious issue. And when I look at the
00:25:01.560
government, I don't know about you, I'm not instilled with confidence. They can't even figure out how to
00:25:06.280
get testing done. The whole rest of the world's figured it out. The developed countries and not
00:25:13.220
just developed modern countries, other countries too, figured out how to test people. Even in this
00:25:19.600
country, the NBA, they were worried about coronavirus. Somehow these NBA teams managed to
00:25:26.660
get testing done, testing dozens of players, gather results back quickly. So when it's a rich
00:25:35.580
celebrities, all of a sudden there's no problem getting the tests. Yeah, you read all these
00:25:41.960
stories. I mean, there are so many of them. If you read about them on social media, people who
00:25:45.580
are very, very sick have all of the symptoms of coronavirus. They're trying to get the tests
00:25:51.840
and they can't get them. This is a problem that someone is responsible for this. The people we elect
00:26:01.060
to head the government that we put in charge, the buck does stop with them. Not just Trump. He's not
00:26:07.780
a dictator. It goes to all the rest of them too. But all they're going to do is deflect blame. No
00:26:13.700
one is going to stand there because there's nobody in government right now with the moral courage and
00:26:20.380
honesty to stand there and say, you know what? Yes, I'm part of the problem. I screwed up on this.
00:26:25.900
I'm going to do better. We're going to get down to business now. No one's going to do that. They're
00:26:30.680
all going to sit there and say, it's them. It's them. Don't look at me. No, it's all them. They did
00:26:34.420
it. Meanwhile, you've got a pandemic spreading across the globe and this is all we get from these
00:26:39.640
clowns. And they convince their followers on both sides to join in. It's all them. It's all their
00:26:48.300
fault. Let's talk about them. Shut up. All right, let's go to news headlines.
00:26:58.320
Number one, as we covered, the Democrats, you know, they want to make this about racism and Ringo,
00:27:03.980
the Ringo of the squad, Ayanna Pressley, has decided to jump on the bandwagon of accusing people
00:27:10.140
of racism for not eating at Chinese restaurants. This, it's hard for me to believe that they're
00:27:15.980
continuing with this, but this is what they're going with. If you're not eating at Chinese
00:27:21.920
restaurants, you're a racist. This is what Pressley had to say. You know, since the beginning
00:27:26.300
of the COVID-19 outbreak, we have seen not only the spreading of the virus, but also a rapid spreading
00:27:32.340
of racism and xenophobia. We have witnessed at the highest levels, in fact, of the Republican Party
00:27:38.540
fanning irresponsibly these flames. One colleague tweeted that everything you need to know about
00:27:45.860
the Chinese coronavirus, unquote. My district is home to nearly 32 percent foreign-born residents
00:27:53.460
with more than a quarter immigrating from Asia. This painful rhetoric has consequences.
00:27:59.740
Restaurants across Boston's Chinatown have seen up to an 80 percent drop in business,
00:28:05.100
and I believe this has everything to do with the rapid spread of misinformation and paranoia.
00:28:10.120
It is critical that we stand against these insightful messages and assuage fear
00:28:14.240
in our communities. And we do that by dispelling untruths and misinformation. We can only do that
00:28:21.600
by sharing the facts. Now, we've already covered this. I've explained why it's fantastically stupid.
00:28:27.080
Not that you need it explained. I'll just say one more time, one note. Even if people became so
00:28:35.360
paranoid that they believed every Chinese person had the virus and they stayed away from Chinese people
00:28:41.060
and Chinese food and Chinese finger traps, even in that case, and that's not what's happening,
00:28:46.020
but even if it was what happened, that would be paranoid. It would be incorrect. It would be
00:28:51.540
overkill. It may even be insulting, but it's not racist. Even that would not be racist.
00:28:58.460
Racism is a particular thing. That's not racism.
00:29:00.600
Now, I think Dems like Ringo would love it if that's what started to happen.
00:29:08.520
It would be politically convenient for them. But my point is, even in that extreme scenario,
00:29:13.900
it still would not be racism because racism is the belief that somebody is inferior to you
00:29:18.760
because of their race. That's what racism is. Being paranoid about a disease that comes from a
00:29:25.100
certain country, even being overly paranoid, not racism. Whether or not it's justified is besides
00:29:32.340
the point. It's not racism. Number two, is there any, well, is there any news that isn't about the
00:29:37.740
coronavirus? Dr. Brian Monahan, the attending physician of Congress in the U.S. Supreme Court,
00:29:43.960
said that he expects 70 million to 150 million people in the U.S. to become infected with COVID-19.
00:29:49.200
Well, no, that's not it. That's still about the coronavirus. Let's see if we can move to number
00:29:52.980
three. Reporting from LifeSite News, it says a Scottish mother who has a six-year-old son with
00:29:57.720
Down syndrome has slammed Amazon for selling T-shirts, which read, let's make Down syndrome
00:30:03.100
extinct. She said, quote, to target a group who are disabled is just disgusting. Stacey Corrigan,
00:30:10.880
age 34, has a six-year-old son with Down syndrome named Daniel. Ms. Corrigan slammed the T-shirt
00:30:16.260
slogan as hateful and disgusting, asserting that it should be treated as a crime.
00:30:19.600
Um, she said, I can't believe they've been allowed to sell this. Who even thinks up an
00:30:25.340
idea to design this? The T-shirts were initially spotted by two mothers from England who filed a
00:30:31.360
complaint to Amazon accusing them of promoting a hate crime on their website. Now, I don't think
00:30:36.260
it's illegal. I wouldn't call it a hate crime. But this is a troubling message. And I'm glad they
00:30:41.660
pulled the shirt. I'm glad someone noticed it. To have a major corporation selling something like
00:30:46.360
that is highly disturbing, especially when you consider making Down syndrome extinct is a very
00:30:52.800
real effort that's actually underway. This is not just a T-shirt slogan. This is actually what
00:30:57.140
countries are doing, including our own. And the effort invariably to make, the effort to make
00:31:04.100
Down syndrome extinct invariably involves killing Down syndrome children in the womb. In some European
00:31:10.640
countries, Down syndrome is, in fact, nearly extinct. But what that means is that Down syndrome people
00:31:15.860
are nearly extinct because they've been killed.
00:31:20.640
Number four, reporting in Greenwich Times says,
00:31:23.540
at a time of near record wealth concentration, more than twice as many young Americans say the
00:31:27.260
existence of billionaires is bad for society as those who say it is good. According to the Pew Research
00:31:32.080
Center, 39% of adults younger than 30 support the view that people whose personal fortunes exceed
00:31:38.540
$1 billion is a bad thing, while 16% say billionaires are good for society. It's worth noting,
00:31:44.760
however, that a plurality of young Americans, 45% profess indifference either way. This is one of
00:31:49.320
those times where I think the indifferent answer is probably the right one. I mean, good or bad for
00:31:53.100
society? On one hand, who cares? I mean, it's their money, whether it's good or bad for society that
00:31:59.740
they have it. There's nothing we could do about it other than take it from them. And that's the point.
00:32:08.540
We have billionaires. Even if you think that all billionaires are horrible, evil scumbags,
00:32:15.640
well, they exist regardless. They have the money. The only way to get rid of the billionaires would
00:32:24.760
be one, to kill them all, which I'm increasingly convinced there are people, plenty of people in
00:32:29.820
this country who would be perfectly fine with that plan. The other option, though, would be to take
00:32:34.460
their money. But who takes it? Well, the government does. And then who gets it? Well, the government
00:32:41.760
does. Maybe they redistribute it. I'm sure you're hoping that, but they are taking ownership of it.
00:32:49.020
The point here is that this money and wealth and power, it exists. It's just a question of who has it,
00:32:56.940
who's going to get it. And when it comes to money, well, either the person who earned it can have
00:33:04.680
most of it, or the government can take it. Those are the two options. There really is not a third
00:33:08.800
option. And so when you say that there shouldn't be billionaires as bad, what you're saying is it's
00:33:15.440
better for the government to have all of that additional money and power. That's what you mean.
00:33:20.640
And I think that's a very foolish, to put it mildly, perspective. Number five, finally,
00:33:28.820
things have gotten pretty bad down in Australia, it seems like. It appears the currency system
00:33:32.800
has collapsed. And this is how they're forced to buy and sell goods now. Take a look.
00:33:38.380
Can I just get a cheeseburger meal with the water? How much was it? $7.05.
00:33:43.740
That was $7.05. Oh, was I short? There's a dollar. Keep the change.
00:34:03.880
I just need to make a deposit. Yes, how much is it worth?
00:34:08.160
I haven't counted it, but there's quite a bit here.
00:34:23.220
Just a hundred dollar notes will be fine. Just cashing in the toilet, maybe.
00:34:35.860
Pretty awful. Awful, I mean, because that wasn't even two-ply.
00:34:39.160
He's trying to pass off a small wad of one-ply sandpaper as equivalent to $7? I don't think so.
00:34:46.620
See, we're not going to make it through the apocalypse if this is how we're bartering.
00:34:52.720
Though I guess not making it through the apocalypse is sort of the point of the apocalypse.
00:34:57.280
Now, for today's daily cancellation, today we're canceling, well, it's not really me canceling it,
00:35:01.260
but society has canceled the handshake. Hand-to-hand combat. I keep, I wanted to say combat.
00:35:09.280
Hand-to-hand contact, to include combat, is now verboten.
00:35:14.400
But I don't want to focus on the cancellation so much of the handshake.
00:35:20.520
Because I was in D.C. yesterday. I had to be in D.C. for work.
00:35:24.400
And I had several occasions where I was greeting somebody, but we aren't shaking hands anymore.
00:35:29.960
So in each occasion of greeting, we had to ad-lib something else on the spot.
00:35:35.180
And in one case, we did kind of a mimed handshake, where you sort of shake your hand towards the other person like this.
00:35:44.520
Another time, a guy saluted me, which was interesting.
00:35:47.620
And then a couple others, it was more of an awkward sort of half wave, where you stand back, you're sort of like that.
00:35:55.260
And then you make an awkward comment about the coronavirus.
00:35:59.340
I think we need to shut down all greetings until we figure out what the hell is going on.
00:36:04.500
Because this cannot continue. It's chaos out there right now.
00:36:08.080
I swear, I saw two guys a few days ago touching elbows.
00:36:12.060
They did this, and they both put their elbows out and touched elbows for the greeting.
00:36:18.340
That's not going to fly. That's not going to work.
00:36:21.280
So last night on Twitter, I started a poll to see if we could come to a collective understanding,
00:36:26.500
in agreement, on what our new greeting will be.
00:36:30.100
Like I said, we can't rely on the government for anything.
00:36:33.260
So this is another issue we're going to have to solve on our own.
00:36:37.600
I suggested four alternatives to the handshake.
00:36:41.540
So four non-contact greetings that maybe we could agree on.
00:36:50.060
Number two, you kind of point to each other and say, hey-o, like that.
00:36:54.660
And maybe you give a wink and a hey-o, like that.
00:36:59.820
Number three is to tip your top hat and say something like, good day, gentlemen.
00:37:07.780
And then the number four option would be a deep, sensuous, silent stare.
00:37:29.320
Out of those options, and you can see the results right here, the top hat won out pretty big.
00:37:36.040
We're all going to need top hats for this to work.
00:37:44.820
Just sort of read the room, get the feel of things, and decide which one you're going to do.
00:38:03.860
Probably more of a connection than you want or need.
00:38:07.480
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00:39:32.640
This is actually a Twitter message, but not a mailbag thing.
00:39:35.560
But I have to read it here just because I find it psychologically fascinating.
00:39:44.480
Did you see that Tom Hanks and his wife have coronavirus, in quotes?
00:39:52.880
Q also said that the first arrest would be big.
00:40:06.700
Both announcers, both announce right after the president's speech.
00:40:22.200
The virus is not being contracted by children because we are saving the children.
00:40:34.940
We're all familiar with the QAnon folks, the QAnon conspiracy.
00:40:38.820
But to see how the conspiracy theorist's mind constructs connections and narratives is always very interesting to me.
00:40:46.220
So Q, Q is the secret government agent, I think.
00:40:50.640
If I'm familiar with that, I may be wrong with it.
00:40:53.080
I think the theory is that there's this guy named Q.
00:40:56.500
He's on a mission to fight the evil global pedophile cabal.
00:41:08.000
And together they're fighting this global cabal of pedophiles.
00:41:11.920
And they're passing along clues and hints through message boards and like Reddit, little breadcrumbs to let everybody know what's going on.
00:41:24.820
So we know that Q at some point on Reddit or on some message board said these people are sick, talking about Hollywood.
00:41:49.640
Well, I think it's because they're being ravaged by a disease.
00:42:15.620
Why would the NBA choose to suspend its season at exactly 9.11?
00:42:20.240
I mean, even if they were involved in some kind of secret pedo ring and this was tied
00:42:23.660
to 9.11 somehow, which doesn't explain how exactly, why would they leave a breadcrumb
00:42:27.580
for the QAnon people to see by saying, no, let's announce this right at 9.11.
00:42:32.580
Well, because the whole world is one big movie, basically, in the minds of these people.
00:42:44.520
See, as human beings, our minds are really good at doing two things, especially constructing
00:42:52.520
The problem is that sometimes these functions go into hyperdrive and completely override the
00:42:59.600
And you end up in that case with something like QAnon, with people who find patterns
00:43:04.060
everywhere and can invent entire film plots out of the most meaningless coincidences.
00:43:10.640
And if they can't find a coincidence, they can always just make up a coincidence and then
00:43:15.340
create a story around it and believe the story.
00:43:20.040
With a lot of these conspiracy theories, the conspiracy theorists, many times they trade
00:43:25.780
in just taking meaningless coincidences and building stories out of them.
00:43:30.800
But sometimes they'll just make up details that aren't even true and then convince themselves
00:43:37.220
that it is true and then build a story around it based on nothing and convince themselves
00:43:51.720
This is someone criticizing my porn stance, but from the right.
00:44:07.560
Advocating for crimes such as porn to be regulated is morally wrong.
00:44:15.200
Pretend to submit a scenario where rape is legal in America.
00:44:21.740
You're implying that rape is okay before 8 p.m.
00:44:25.180
If you say that people shouldn't be allowed to watch it when they're young, you're implying
00:44:27.900
that they should be allowed to watch it when they're old.
00:44:29.760
When you regulate a crime, you make it seem more presentable and respectable.
00:44:36.000
Then the abortion industry starts to comply with them and look more professional.
00:44:39.460
I've done sidewalk ministry outside of Planned Parenthood for my entire life, and I've
00:44:42.620
seen how regulations have made abortion mills much more professional looking.
00:44:50.020
Implementing regulations just prunes the evil weed while strengthening its root.
00:44:54.400
Not one jot or tittle should pass from Christ's law or morality.
00:44:58.180
By regulating evil, you're compromising on his everlasting word.
00:45:01.780
Do not teach your followers that it is better for Pornhub to be regulated.
00:45:04.980
I know you'd like to see porn abolished, so stand for that.
00:45:07.320
When Christ comes to rule with a rod of iron, will he regulate porn or will he abolish it?
00:45:11.560
Will he thank you for regulating this abomination, or will he be upset that you weren't firm enough
00:45:16.880
to advocate solely for its immediate abolition?
00:45:19.580
Well, Dominic, as you know, I am in favor of a porn ban, and I've made that case elsewhere.
00:45:29.600
Of course, I agree with your religious case, but when you're advocating for an actual law,
00:45:33.840
for an actual real-life law that can really be passed in the United States of America under
00:45:40.600
our system, you can't do it by saying it's in keeping with Christ's commands.
00:45:46.020
Because somebody will rightly point out that making laws that establish a religion, a state
00:45:50.980
religion, and a law banning porn on the basis that it's unbiblical would certainly be that,
00:46:00.320
You can't just throw the Constitution to the side.
00:46:06.220
You can't, if you're advocating for a law to ban porn, the argument of Jesus hates it,
00:46:11.060
which he does, and, you know, among Christians as a moral argument, I think it's a very good
00:46:16.800
But in terms of actually trying to get something done in real life, that's not going to do it.
00:46:35.260
So then what is, I don't even, what's the point of your argument?
00:46:39.000
I guess it, and I'm not trying to be cynical or anything in interpreting what you're doing
00:46:47.020
here, but it does seem a little bit like advertising your holiness rather than actually trying to
00:46:58.800
When I advocate for a porn ban, I don't do it on a religious basis.
00:47:02.920
I think you can make the case without making it a religious case, and that's how it must
00:47:06.540
be approached if you actually want a chance of it really happening.
00:47:10.500
Now, as for the regulation part of this, this goes to the question of incremental gains.
00:47:16.560
Should we, as conservatives, seek incremental improvements, or should we insist on total
00:47:21.360
victory and reject smaller victories until we get the big one we're looking for?
00:47:27.740
We maintain our principled position and our opposition to the thing, but we accept incremental gains
00:47:36.100
So if there was a 20-week abortion ban that was about to be passed in a state, would you
00:47:44.000
Would you say, no, I don't want that 20-week abortion ban?
00:47:47.840
You would say, better to have no abortion ban than a 20-week ban.
00:47:52.220
But that's completely unreasonable and counterproductive and wrong, I think, because a 20-week abortion
00:48:06.900
And so if you say, I don't want that, you're throwing those lives out.
00:48:14.480
I'm not going to let people die on the basis of my all or nothing principle.
00:48:19.920
I'm not going to stamp my feet and say, no, I won't accept this measure that will save lives
00:48:32.420
Probably can't happen right now, considering Supreme Court decisions that touch on this issue.
00:48:37.720
It's very dubious whether a full-on ban, which is what I would like to see happen, could actually
00:48:50.300
I'm a big believer in operating within reality because we have no choice but to do that, right?
00:48:58.700
I still think we should insist that a full ban ultimately in principle is right, but why not chip
00:49:05.760
If we can't ban porn, which we can't right now, but we can potentially protect millions
00:49:11.340
of eight-year-olds from seeing it, from being exposed to it and traumatized by it, why wouldn't
00:49:17.860
Are you going to let those eight-year-olds get exposed to porn on principle?
00:49:22.320
Are you going to stand on principle and say, well, yeah, we could protect them.
00:49:26.020
We're not going to, though, because it's not everything we want.
00:49:28.540
If we can't protect the older people, we're not going to protect the kids, all or nothing.
00:49:35.560
You say that regulations only make something seem more acceptable.
00:49:39.500
Smoking, cigarette smoking, is much less common now than it used to be.
00:49:44.160
I'm not saying that's all because of regulations, but it was regulated heavily, and the message
00:49:49.280
was sent that this is a bad, dumb, stupid thing to do, and it's going to get you killed.
00:49:54.160
And it's now much less prevalent than it used to be, especially among younger people.
00:50:02.540
Younger people, for the most part, aren't smoking cigarettes.
00:50:04.420
Now, they are still smoking things, and they're smoking other things, but as far as cigarettes
00:50:12.840
So I think your claim that regulation is going to automatically make the thing more acceptable
00:50:18.900
and more appealing in some ways, I don't think that holds up to scrutiny.
00:50:24.160
The abortion industry, as far as regulations go, they oppose regulation.
00:50:29.860
Now, if regulations help them in some sort of counterproductive way for us, you'd think
00:50:41.600
Well, because they know that regulations are going to get in the way.
00:50:44.360
It's going to prevent them from doing everything they want to do, which means, i.e., it's going
00:50:49.620
And they also know that, I think they know that the more this thing is regulated, and
00:50:55.040
the more we treat it like something potentially dangerous and serious and harmful, the worse
00:51:07.540
Because then they can present it as, hey, it's just a medical procedure, no big deal.
00:51:20.280
Now, you doing your great work outside of the abortion clinic, the regulations that you
00:51:25.780
run up against are mostly, like, I'm sure I don't have to tell you, but the regulations
00:51:31.100
that are regulations on you, telling you that you can't be within X amount of feet of the
00:51:40.520
Now, yes, those are regulations that the abortion clinic is happy about, but those are regulations
00:51:49.580
meant to make it easier for them to do their job.
00:51:54.400
So I think that's a totally different scenario.
00:51:56.440
Anyway, thanks for all your work you do, though, in the pro-life cause.
00:52:05.240
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