Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is
Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or
Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Brady. Hello, welcome back to the show.
Speaker 1: My name is Matt, my name is all they called
Speaker 1: me Ben. We're joined as always with our super producer
Speaker 1: Paul Mission controlled deconds. Most importantly, you are you. You
Speaker 1: are here, and that makes this stuff they don't want
Speaker 1: you to know coming to you again, live, direct and
Speaker 1: full effect, in the midst of a global pandemic that
Speaker 1: hasn't been seen since the beginning of the nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 1: This is our third episode on the coronavirus pandemic, and
Speaker 1: you know, as we said in earlier episodes, just like
Speaker 1: when we're covering Epstein, this is an ongoing event. It's
Speaker 1: one that we, like everybody else out there in the world,
Speaker 1: are keeping a close eye on. And in our previous episode,
Speaker 1: towards the end, I'd mentioned we weren't able to get
Speaker 1: to all the conspiracy theories about COVID nineteen. In a
Speaker 1: move that should surprise no one, these conspiracies are still
Speaker 1: around there. In fact, they're even more but Let's start,
Speaker 1: as always with the facts, because there are some much
Speaker 1: needed updates we want you to be aware of. So
Speaker 1: here are the facts. Yeah, I think it'd be smart
Speaker 1: to take a look at the global state of COVID
Speaker 1: nineteen UM. At this point, we have a confirmed death
Speaker 1: toll UH due to the coronavirus that's approaching one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand worldwide UM. And as COVID nineteen is detected in India,
Speaker 1: the Ivory Coast, Brazil, and and more, the fears begin
Speaker 1: to grow that the infection could um ravage particularly densely
Speaker 1: populated UM lower income areas, neighborhoods, slums, many of which
Speaker 1: don't have clean running water or access to medical care um,
Speaker 1: let alone equipment that the rest of the country is
Speaker 1: obviously lacking and is in very short supply, like ventilators,
Speaker 1: well yeah, in personal protective equipment, just something as simple
Speaker 1: as masks and gloves, things to protect healthcare workers. It's
Speaker 1: it's crazy even around here, like my pharmacy, they're sold
Speaker 1: out of gloves and masks. You can't really buy them.
Speaker 1: And I've seen so many people making these cloth masks.
Speaker 1: And the CDC just put out an infographic showing the
Speaker 1: protection level against certain you know materials, of course, first
Speaker 1: and foremost being um viruses, and those cloth masks are
Speaker 1: apparently zero percent effective in protecting you against the virus. Well,
Speaker 1: it's it's also the function of the cloth mask is
Speaker 1: that it protects other people totally. No, And I see
Speaker 1: that's that's that's very important. But I think there's maybe
Speaker 1: a misconception in some folks that those are apples to
Speaker 1: apples um to those much more medical grade surgical masks
Speaker 1: and the ones that are used in industrial situations that
Speaker 1: have the little filter on the front. Well, we've we've
Speaker 1: had people writing in and calling us who are healthcare workers,
Speaker 1: are people working in this industry to try and you know,
Speaker 1: stop this thing and help people who are dealing with
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen and there. They have mentioned to us that
Speaker 1: the you know, imagine like what they're doing. Imagine going
Speaker 1: to work every day exposing yourself to people that have
Speaker 1: have been infected, you know, are infected. You have tested them,
Speaker 1: you know they're infected, and you don't have the proper
Speaker 1: equipment like you're talking about there, You've just got something
Speaker 1: you created, like uh handkerchief over your face, you know, um,
Speaker 1: just pulling your shirt up in order to protect yourself
Speaker 1: like that. That is mind boggling to me that that
Speaker 1: could happen anywhere in the world today in well, and
Speaker 1: a really spooky thing that's been happening is the federal
Speaker 1: government has been quietly, uh, commandeering medical supplies and diverting
Speaker 1: orders of medical supplies placed by hospitals, um and quietly
Speaker 1: Well yeah exactly, but it's unclear what they're doing with it, right,
Speaker 1: because I mean, you know that that really becomes the
Speaker 1: feeling of living in a police day where you know,
Speaker 1: regular rules don't apply anymore, and who needs these things
Speaker 1: more than hospitals? And what is the government actually doing
Speaker 1: with them? Where's the accountability? In the same way, you
Speaker 1: have to wonder what the accountability is on this kind
Speaker 1: of you know, bailout package where so much money is
Speaker 1: being diverted to corporations and uh and far less than
Speaker 1: than maybe we would like being diverted to individuals. I
Speaker 1: have some pretty choice things to say about that as
Speaker 1: we get towards the conspiratorial side of today's show. Uh.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, I would like to recommend a show
Speaker 1: called It Could Happen Here. It's a pure podcast of
Speaker 1: ours by h guy named Robert Evans. I'd love that
Speaker 1: him on the show too at a later date. Please
Speaker 1: getting a thumbs up from Maddie Fred there. But you
Speaker 1: guys are absolutely right. You're right. And before we go
Speaker 1: into the US, let's explore the world a little bit more.
Speaker 1: That's something everybody wants to do while we're in quarantine.
Speaker 1: Right multiple companies are declaring bankruptcy already. Over the first
Speaker 1: two months of more than two hundred and forty thousand
Speaker 1: companies in China alone went belly up. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, right now, we mentioned the UK Prime Minister
Speaker 1: Boris Johnson, after bragging about how he loved to go
Speaker 1: to hospitals and shake hands, he came down with COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: He was in I c U Uh. He is on
Speaker 1: the mend according to the official government statements. But the
Speaker 1: doctor who tried to warn him to practice social distancing. Uh,
Speaker 1: that guy contracted COVID nineteen and died. To your point, matt, Um,
Speaker 1: you can see these harrowing videos of medical professionals on
Speaker 1: the lines. Um. I'll send you, guys one of a
Speaker 1: guy who's showing his suit up process and it's it's insane,
Speaker 1: even sped up. It takes forever um and we know
Speaker 1: that people are fighting against it. China recently in news
Speaker 1: that a lot of racists have mischaracterized. China recently instituted
Speaker 1: bands on the consumption of wildlife, and some cities like
Speaker 1: shin Xin are explicitly banning the consumption of animals that
Speaker 1: are considered pets. So you know, racists are hopping on
Speaker 1: saying like, oh, China is eating cats and dogs. But
Speaker 1: to be clear, I think we mentioned this before on
Speaker 1: some show. Most people in China not only don't eat dog,
Speaker 1: but have never eaten it and never ever want to.
Speaker 1: But wet markets are the real problem, not consumption of pets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we talked about these wet markets where animals are kept
Speaker 1: in pretty close proximity to each other than they are
Speaker 1: live generally, and then they are slaughter on site and
Speaker 1: then taken as meat. We noted that this was one
Speaker 1: of the possible origin points for the for you know,
Speaker 1: all kinds of diseases that have occurred across time since
Speaker 1: these things have you been around and you think about
Speaker 1: the history of wet markets, They've been around longer than
Speaker 1: most social constructs that exist. You know for humans, um,
Speaker 1: but they're thought to be the origin place or possibly
Speaker 1: the orangin origin place of the COVID nineteen uh, well
Speaker 1: the coronavirus and the COVID nineteen affliction and stars there
Speaker 1: was a pangling call. I mean, it's it's clear, you know,
Speaker 1: when we say thought to be, we're we're being pretty diplomatic.
Speaker 1: It's it's pretty much thought to be unless you think, uh,
Speaker 1: it was created in that nearby lab. Uh. The worst
Speaker 1: part of about the wet markets is that it's plausible,
Speaker 1: if the practice is not ended, that another pandemic could
Speaker 1: arise from these locations, because you know, as as we
Speaker 1: established in your previous episode, this is not the first
Speaker 1: time that a market like this has produced uh, a
Speaker 1: lethal infection. And now the world as a whole. I'm
Speaker 1: sure we're we've all heard this. We're in this together.
Speaker 1: The world is a whole. We have a theoretical path
Speaker 1: to reducing the scale of the infection, but there's currently
Speaker 1: no vaccine, there is no cure, and perhaps most troubling,
Speaker 1: there's no real estimate on what will happen next because
Speaker 1: there are so many factors at play. There's so many
Speaker 1: things we can do to make this worse or to
Speaker 1: make it better, and just to reiterate something that we
Speaker 1: talked about. I believe even in the first episode. These
Speaker 1: are zoo anotic diseases, which means that they are transmissible
Speaker 1: between species or between you know, from animals to humans,
Speaker 1: and that is what makes it particularly virulent and and scary.
Speaker 1: And we even heard a story recently about a tiger
Speaker 1: I believe is it at the Bronx Zoo UM that
Speaker 1: that was found to have COVID and they're actually monitoring
Speaker 1: this tiger and you know, testing the tiger. I thought
Speaker 1: that was really interesting, especially considering UM how the Tiger
Speaker 1: King Netflix series has caught fire, that we're living in
Speaker 1: a time of COVID and tigers. Well yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: just think how strange that is. The small amount of
Speaker 1: human interaction that that tiger has with a very specific
Speaker 1: number of people, and one of those people just happened
Speaker 1: to be carrying it. That's the only way that tiger
Speaker 1: gets coronavirus, right right. It was a get a report
Speaker 1: on this um episode UH Strange Newsdaily a few days ago.
Speaker 1: It's it was multiple tigers by one zookeeper. The tigers
Speaker 1: are UH fans, big cats will will be happy to
Speaker 1: learn the tigers are okay. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: the tigers, I hate to say it, but the tigers
Speaker 1: are getting better medical care than a lot of human
Speaker 1: residents of New York City, and that's something that critics
Speaker 1: are quick to point out. Um. But also, you know,
Speaker 1: tigers are an endangered species, and there then those tigers
Speaker 1: specifically are living in much closer quarters than a tiger
Speaker 1: should ever ever should. There are also more tigers in
Speaker 1: captivity that they're all in the wild. Tigers are like
Speaker 1: my favorite animal. Can we do an episode of tigers
Speaker 1: or octopus? I look, I'm getting distracted. You're right though,
Speaker 1: You're right. It's it's coming out. And the zootic thing
Speaker 1: is really important. Point no, old because I think fifteen
Speaker 1: percent of cats that were tested for COVID in Wuhan
Speaker 1: uh tested positive. Uh. We don't. We don't think that
Speaker 1: this is a situation where a tiger or a house
Speaker 1: cat could get COVID and transmitted to a human. But
Speaker 1: we know that humans can transmit it to cats. So
Speaker 1: if you feel like you are immuno compromised, you're getting
Speaker 1: the signs and you can't get tested or something. Just
Speaker 1: be mindful of how you interact with your pets, uh,
Speaker 1: because uh, you know, the last thing you want is
Speaker 1: an emergency vet visit. Right. So we're we're talking about
Speaker 1: the world. There's some good news, there's some bad news.
Speaker 1: We're at we're at a crossroads, were at a decision point.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, if you are listening to this show in
Speaker 1: the US, or if you like us, are making this
Speaker 1: show in the US, we have some pretty some some
Speaker 1: pretty sobering things to report. As we record today April ten,
Speaker 1: New York has reported its highest daily death count. The
Speaker 1: positive lining there is that hospitalizations are down in general.
Speaker 1: But get this, According to the latest figures, New York
Speaker 1: State now has more coronavirus cases than any single country
Speaker 1: outside of the United States, more than Italy, right, more
Speaker 1: than more than China, more than well, China's numbers are
Speaker 1: a little little sketchy. But but the New York the
Speaker 1: state alone has more coronavirus cases confirmed than any other country.
Speaker 1: They're like a hundred and ninety seven countries. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: we have we have to keep in mind here these numbers,
Speaker 1: any numbers you're mentioning. China's numbers are a little fishy.
Speaker 1: There any numbers for any country, any state in the
Speaker 1: US are gonna be off because of the lack of
Speaker 1: testing or the limited amount of testing that we can do.
Speaker 1: Also the lagin reporting. I mean, we're seeing numbers that
Speaker 1: are already two weeks old, you know, so as like
Speaker 1: as we see a number, it's probably you know, guaranteed
Speaker 1: higher than that by uh not an insignificant amount because
Speaker 1: of the fact that there's a lag in reporting. But
Speaker 1: according to the official numbers out of New York, the
Speaker 1: confirmed caseload of COVID nineteen jumped by ten thousand cases
Speaker 1: in one day this past Thursday, that's yesterday as we're
Speaker 1: recording this, and it jumped to one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: nine thousand, nine hundred and thirty seven, putting it ahead
Speaker 1: of Spain, which will one hundred and fifty three thousand cases,
Speaker 1: and then Italy, which was the number that everybody was
Speaker 1: trying to avoid early on, which is one hundred and
Speaker 1: forty three thousand as of today, Yep, YEP, and UH. China,
Speaker 1: where of course the virus was confirmed to emerge from
Speaker 1: those most likely from those wet markets last year, has
Speaker 1: only reported a d two thousand cases. Now I don't
Speaker 1: mean to sound callous when I say only a D
Speaker 1: two thousand. I just want to emphasize again that there
Speaker 1: are some serious and troubling questions about their methodology and
Speaker 1: how they define a case the same way with how
Speaker 1: a coronavirus death is defined. Right. Um, And you know
Speaker 1: this is familiar to anybody who has recently tried to
Speaker 1: get testing, because for a while, in a lot, in
Speaker 1: a lot of the U s, there were some pretty
Speaker 1: strict requirements to get testing. There were even some strict
Speaker 1: requirements to get type different types of assistance. You had
Speaker 1: to prove that you had COVID. And Uh, now the
Speaker 1: US has recorded four hundred sixty cases. Uh, we're getting
Speaker 1: closer to sixteen five hundred deaths that number. We may
Speaker 1: surpass that number. Honestly, by the time this episode comes out.
Speaker 1: Globally we're looking at one point six million cases. And
Speaker 1: the same day that we recorded our earlier episode COVID
Speaker 1: to Rise of the Pandemic. That same day the United
Speaker 1: States Senate approved a stimulus package that was worth more
Speaker 1: than two trillion dollars, making it the largest deal of
Speaker 1: its kind in modern US history. And if you live
Speaker 1: in this country, you know that the economy is still
Speaker 1: going straight into the garbage. Why what what's happening? We'll
Speaker 1: tell you after a word from our sponsor, and we're back.
Speaker 1: So this stimulus package, First off, no one really, Let's
Speaker 1: be honest, folks, no one really has a grasp of
Speaker 1: how much one billion dollars is uh, not even uh
Speaker 1: doctor evil in Austin powers. We we clearly have no
Speaker 1: understanding what to trillion dollars really means. This. This package
Speaker 1: is supposed to, or was supposed to help the country
Speaker 1: and the people who live here respond to this coronavirus
Speaker 1: pandemic by providing direct payments right uh two people and
Speaker 1: jobless benefits, and then also giving money to states, and
Speaker 1: then of course a gigantic, a leviathan size bailout fund
Speaker 1: for various businesses. Uh. And I'm not saying that any
Speaker 1: of those things are bad. You know, on paper, they're
Speaker 1: they're very good. And a lot of people hearing this
Speaker 1: have just struggled to figure out rent for April, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. These this is serious and the
Speaker 1: problem here is that this bill is more than twice
Speaker 1: the size. Yeah, it's more than twice the size of
Speaker 1: a similar package that Congress passed back in two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine during the days of the Great Recession, that
Speaker 1: was eight hundred billion dollars. And uh, despite the size
Speaker 1: of this two trillion dollar thing and all the corruption
Speaker 1: and lack of oversight that's going into it, uh, economists
Speaker 1: are are saying this might only get us a few
Speaker 1: months down the road, because again, we don't know how
Speaker 1: long this is going to go. Well, yeah, even if
Speaker 1: a month, I mean maybe a month, that's probably what
Speaker 1: you can get because you're talking about rent therapin which
Speaker 1: generally is paid on a monthly basis, and the the
Speaker 1: actual amount that's going out to the individual, you know,
Speaker 1: we will probably take care of that and a little
Speaker 1: extra you know, some food hopefully um or any necessities.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that's that's all you're to get out of
Speaker 1: that two trillion dollars per person. Really, the only hope
Speaker 1: is that the injection of money for some of the
Speaker 1: states you know that ends up going to businesses in
Speaker 1: the perfect world, um, would actually help something. Because man,
Speaker 1: right now, more than sixteen million Americans have lost their jobs.
Speaker 1: Unemployment may well be the second epidemic that we're facing
Speaker 1: here is in this country, at least and again that
Speaker 1: situation is going to be true across the world because
Speaker 1: of the nature of having to stay apart from one
Speaker 1: another and stay home. Small businesses are just getting hammered
Speaker 1: right now. Absolutely. Uh. You know, we have a lot
Speaker 1: of we have a lot of people who are fighting
Speaker 1: to keep a job we have. We have a lot
Speaker 1: of small business owners. Some of our fellow listeners are
Speaker 1: small business owners who are doing innovative things just to
Speaker 1: try to keep the lights on. For for a lighter
Speaker 1: note on this, I would add, for instance, uh, you'll
Speaker 1: you'll hear all these stories about people doing very creative,
Speaker 1: unorthodox things like restaurants staying in business by only doing
Speaker 1: curbside take out or no contact delivery. Um. One example
Speaker 1: that's a little bit body, uh, if you'll excuse the
Speaker 1: craft nous, is something called buber Eats out in Oregon. Uh,
Speaker 1: there was there's a strip club called the Lucky Devil Lounge.
Speaker 1: And you know, these adult dance clubs shut down just
Speaker 1: like a restaurant or something. And so to keep his
Speaker 1: employees working, the guy who owns the I think his
Speaker 1: name is Sean Bowden. The the guy who owns the
Speaker 1: place started like an uber eats thing where they would
Speaker 1: have dancers come deliver food to people. Uh and and
Speaker 1: he started it as a joke, but people took him
Speaker 1: up on it because they wanted to support the business.
Speaker 1: So people are finding ways around it. But those are
Speaker 1: very very small, all sparks of light in a very
Speaker 1: very dark landscape. And I agree with you, Matt, absolutely,
Speaker 1: ben and and uh Matt to your point about small businesses,
Speaker 1: um and and to the point we mentioned earlier in
Speaker 1: the episode about this two trillion dollar coronavirus relief package. UM,
Speaker 1: there's an author um and uh a research director at
Speaker 1: the American Economic Liberties Projects by the name of Matt Staller,
Speaker 1: who wrote a column for The Guardian UM basically talking
Speaker 1: about how the coronavirus relief bill, because of the lack
Speaker 1: of oversight, UM, it could potentially become a corporate coup
Speaker 1: if if, if the government isn't careful, because um, you know,
Speaker 1: with all of these small businesses failing, we could potentially
Speaker 1: to his his the point that he makes is emerge
Speaker 1: with just like you know, some sort of crazy um
Speaker 1: monopoly or bigger than that oligarchy. I don't know where
Speaker 1: there's just like maybe five or six corporations control all
Speaker 1: of the goods and services for the entire world. Yeah,
Speaker 1: similar to um, well, I don't know about the entire world,
Speaker 1: but um, it's similar to what they call a chibowl,
Speaker 1: a chabol in uh South Korea, like this conglomerate that
Speaker 1: runs everything, you know. Uh. And we're we are looking
Speaker 1: at something that that could be well, very bad for
Speaker 1: the average person. But yeah, you're you're right and all
Speaker 1: there we were running the risk of a huge consolidation
Speaker 1: and not necessarily um, some something that is a good
Speaker 1: thing overall. I mean, they're they're also think about this,
Speaker 1: like the politics business. Their fingers on a hand, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, As as different as they may
Speaker 1: try to appear, Uh, they are fingers on a hand.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't matter what sort of political ideology you
Speaker 1: ascribe to. Um. They're at least here in the U
Speaker 1: s they're both supported by big business. This and there
Speaker 1: are also clear and present concerns that this pandemic may
Speaker 1: interfere with the upcoming presidential election here in November in
Speaker 1: the US, I mean primaries. So we have a lot
Speaker 1: of we have a lot of listeners who have written
Speaker 1: into us through one platform or another. Who have basically
Speaker 1: asked us what the hell is going on with the
Speaker 1: voting system in the US. And it is like complicated
Speaker 1: partially by design, um, But so we have these things
Speaker 1: called primaries. Again, this goes for it doesn't matter what
Speaker 1: political party you vote for. If you want to vote, uh,
Speaker 1: you you do a thing called a primary where you
Speaker 1: kind of like, if you're a Republican or if you're
Speaker 1: a Democrat. Uh, there are going to be multiple people
Speaker 1: who want to be the Republican or Democratic candidate or
Speaker 1: what have you. So before you actually vote November, you
Speaker 1: go do to this other voting thing where you vote
Speaker 1: between like, uh, there are five Democrat candidates, you vote
Speaker 1: for the one you like, or there five or pub
Speaker 1: looking candidates to vote for the one you like. And
Speaker 1: this is already getting pushed off, Like a ton of
Speaker 1: states haven't been able to vote in these primaries and
Speaker 1: they were supposed to. So what does that mean for November?
Speaker 1: It's it's scary. Yeah. The only good thing is that
Speaker 1: largely across the US you're seeing an increase in you know,
Speaker 1: applications for absentee ballots being sent out. I know, I
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, I just received one. Um which is
Speaker 1: which is a good thing. I generally don't get them,
Speaker 1: and it was just sent. It wasn't like I had
Speaker 1: to request it. Hopefully, you know, that will continue to
Speaker 1: occur where we can hopefully make the whole democracy thing happen.
Speaker 1: And you know, we've talked about the problems with democracy
Speaker 1: before and the way it's run, especially if you have
Speaker 1: a two party system, a two party plus or a
Speaker 1: two point one party system. Let's say, uh, if you
Speaker 1: add in the independence there. But you know, and that's
Speaker 1: gonna affect us. But the real, the real impact, and
Speaker 1: the scary thing for me is that you know, we
Speaker 1: talked we're talking about the sixteen million Americans that have
Speaker 1: lost their jobs, right and you know that has an
Speaker 1: impact on the individual but also an entire family for
Speaker 1: each one of those people. Um. And the scary thing
Speaker 1: is that that number ramped up to sixteen million over
Speaker 1: the course of three weeks. And when you compare that
Speaker 1: to what happened in two thousand and eight, two thousand
Speaker 1: you know, well the end of two thousand seven all
Speaker 1: the way into two thousand nine. Um, that that fifteen
Speaker 1: million job loss that occurred back then took eighteen months
Speaker 1: to reach that level. And we've only just begun this
Speaker 1: thing and we're already seeing jobs hemorrhaging like that. And
Speaker 1: when you say a job, it means rent and food
Speaker 1: and you know everything, clothing, shelter, everything that's needed for
Speaker 1: entire families, each one of those. Yeah. Yeah, And when
Speaker 1: one important well said one one important point, I'd add
Speaker 1: this is gonna sound unusual to a lot of people
Speaker 1: outside of the United States. Uh, if you lose your
Speaker 1: job here, that often means you lose access to medical
Speaker 1: care almost always. Yeah, because of the way insurance works
Speaker 1: in this country. You're you're right, this, this level of
Speaker 1: growth is dangerous and things are very much no matter
Speaker 1: what we do for for the near future, things are
Speaker 1: set to get worse before they improve. Even if the
Speaker 1: pandemic is wiped out, um the you know, sooner than
Speaker 1: we think. Uh, there, they are still going to be
Speaker 1: a lot of enormous problems. To the Knowle's point about corporations, Matt,
Speaker 1: to your point about recovering this, this is not a
Speaker 1: bounce back situation, you know. And and on the corporate point,
Speaker 1: while there are tons of industries that are faltering, there
Speaker 1: are a few, very few that are skyrocketing. Hedge funds
Speaker 1: are making a killing. And we were talking about this.
Speaker 1: I think, um, off air, we were talking about this. Uh.
Speaker 1: Price scalaging is insane. You know. You think of toilet paper,
Speaker 1: you think of a hand sanitizer and and ppe and
Speaker 1: stuff like that, personal protective equipment. Uh. But Nintendo switches,
Speaker 1: It's it's bizarre. Nintendo switches are going through the roof.
Speaker 1: Exercise equipment, uh is going through the roof. I mean
Speaker 1: someone right now, maybe someone listening to the show has
Speaker 1: a side hustle or full time hustle, Uh, scalping Nintendo
Speaker 1: switches and selling them for exorbitant amounts. And if shoot,
Speaker 1: or scalping toilet paper and paper towels. Think about the
Speaker 1: big paper in the heyday they're having right now. My god,
Speaker 1: Ambidet companies, we called that a while back, I think.
Speaker 1: But uh, but but something else is proliferating. And that's
Speaker 1: something else is is conspiratorial thought. Um. Now, you know
Speaker 1: some of this is some of this is a product
Speaker 1: of fear and searching for answers, which is what humans do. Uh.
Speaker 1: Some of it is a product of the truth, the
Speaker 1: actual stuff that a lot of politicians and a lot
Speaker 1: of mainstream media don't want you to know. Some of
Speaker 1: these things sound crazy and they are, and some of
Speaker 1: them sound crazy and they're real. After this break, we'll
Speaker 1: get to a few that we didn't cover in our
Speaker 1: last episode, as well as some brand new ones. Here's
Speaker 1: where it gets crazy. Let's talk a little bit about UM.
Speaker 1: The religious angle or some allegations pertaining to to religion
Speaker 1: surrounding the coronavirus. They're few distinct religious aspects that are
Speaker 1: coming to ahead right now in the days of corona UM. First,
Speaker 1: some apocalyptic sects believe that it's a sign of the
Speaker 1: end of the world. UM. Doesn't seem like too much
Speaker 1: of a stretch to me, even not being a fundamentalist
Speaker 1: UM religious person UM or there is it's some kind
Speaker 1: of UM fundamental shift in our civilization. Second, some either
Speaker 1: you know, unscrupulous or particularly deluded religious figures have started,
Speaker 1: like many politicians UM talking about unproven UM and quite
Speaker 1: expensive cures. Jim Baker, for example, UM for was recently
Speaker 1: selling something he was calling Silver Solution UH that he
Speaker 1: claims was created by God himself. He is in cahoots
Speaker 1: with a woman named Cheryl Sealman and they have been
Speaker 1: selling his massive viewership, UM like on this stuff like
Speaker 1: it can you know, with the expectation that it can
Speaker 1: cure coronavirus in just twelve hours, Um, it can't. And
Speaker 1: and and the US Food and Drug Administration UH told
Speaker 1: him to stop marketing this uh, this snake oil UM
Speaker 1: as a cure for coronavirus. And and of course that's
Speaker 1: not the only one. I mean in the same wait
Speaker 1: wait wait wait wait wait wait, Jim Baker, you can
Speaker 1: from this man. You can also purchase all of the
Speaker 1: buckets of food you've you'd ever want to have. We're
Speaker 1: talking burritos for two months, We're talking rice and chicken
Speaker 1: dinners for like two years, just in buckets that you
Speaker 1: can keep in your house if you will. And it's blessed.
Speaker 1: I think you can get some of it blessed. Look,
Speaker 1: you know, we're not we want to be very clear,
Speaker 1: we're not UM denigrading religion at all, but we are
Speaker 1: denigrading UH televangelists, especially those that you classify as prosperity
Speaker 1: theology practitioners like Kreflo Dollar, who still is my my
Speaker 1: favorite to love slash hate. But you're right, well there
Speaker 1: that kind of business and for these guys, it is
Speaker 1: a business. That kind of business is booming. There's a
Speaker 1: guy named Kenneth Copeland out in Texas. He went to
Speaker 1: the White House two years ago eighteen and had dinner
Speaker 1: with uh, like for this dinner where a bunch of
Speaker 1: other evangelical leaders got together, and he says that he
Speaker 1: has a coronavirus cure that he can transmit through your
Speaker 1: television screen. Remember all those old tropes, Oh, we're on camera,
Speaker 1: so you do it now where it's like put your
Speaker 1: hands against the against the screen, feel the energy and say,
Speaker 1: you know, by the power. Uh, it's like that kind
Speaker 1: of thing. On his Victory channel on March twelfth, he
Speaker 1: claimed that he would be able to heal coronavirus infected
Speaker 1: viewers who touched their TVs. Say, put your hand on
Speaker 1: that television set. Hallelujah, Thank you Lord Jesus. He received
Speaker 1: your healing as long as they wash their hands like
Speaker 1: before and after. I think I'm okay with it. But
Speaker 1: I think what we're pointing to here, which is really unsettling. Um,
Speaker 1: these are these are businesses that can successfully take fear,
Speaker 1: the fear that you feel, the anxiety that you feel
Speaker 1: about this situation and translate it, turn it and spin
Speaker 1: it into gold. It's very rumple, still skinnesque, and uh,
Speaker 1: it's disturbing I think in general, but in a time
Speaker 1: like this, it feels, at least to me personally, particularly vile. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean these in the same way that um, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: phone fishing scams are on the rise, you know, to
Speaker 1: kind of take advantage of older people that are maybe
Speaker 1: scared and and and living by themselves and willing to
Speaker 1: give up their person information. In times of crisis, those
Speaker 1: things always flourish, you know, or and thrive, and you
Speaker 1: really have to be vigilant to keep your loved ones
Speaker 1: who might be susceptible to this kind of stuff from
Speaker 1: from you know, biting. But here's the only other thing
Speaker 1: is that I have to add here. I currently cannot
Speaker 1: prove that there is something to putting out energy in
Speaker 1: the way that let's say Copeland is saying that he's
Speaker 1: going to put out energy. I'm extremely skeptical of it,
Speaker 1: to the point where I do not believe it unless
Speaker 1: it has proven to me. However, I cannot disprove that
Speaker 1: there is something to that kind of connection, even if
Speaker 1: it's through a television Yeah. Yeah, and that's I mean
Speaker 1: that that is fair. We also know that we also
Speaker 1: know that the placebo effect is a real and powerful
Speaker 1: thing to some degree. Uh. And and you know if
Speaker 1: if uh someone making these claims, if they personally believe it,
Speaker 1: then if they believe what they're selling, then it's kind
Speaker 1: of like Merlin in Mark Twain's a Connecticut Yankee and
Speaker 1: King Arthur's Court. We can't we can't call them liars. Uh.
Speaker 1: We can say that maybe that practice is not as effective,
Speaker 1: or maybe it's ineffective, but if they're not actually harming people,
Speaker 1: then it's it's their choice to do as they will.
Speaker 1: The problem here is that they could be harming people,
Speaker 1: at least in the cases we outlined, and and this
Speaker 1: idea though still what's interesting here by way of segue,
Speaker 1: is that the difference here is that they're not purposefully
Speaker 1: hurting people. In fact, they may believe that they are
Speaker 1: helping people. However, there's another conspiracy theory that says this, uh,
Speaker 1: this disease, this infection is purposely designed to target certain
Speaker 1: demograph fix or to injure uh certain people. Right. It's
Speaker 1: it's a population control or it's a weapon of war.
Speaker 1: This this is quite a popular theory. In Iran. UH
Speaker 1: the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Kamani has refused American assistance
Speaker 1: to fight the new coronavirus and said that it could
Speaker 1: be man made by the US government. UM. And really
Speaker 1: that's a little misleading because the issue is that the
Speaker 1: US offered a certain kind of help and look, COVID
Speaker 1: is out of control in Iran. UH, the U s
Speaker 1: A offered a certain kind of help, and UH Iran
Speaker 1: had requested another kind. They said, you know, lift the sanctions,
Speaker 1: because you know, the sanctions that have been placed on
Speaker 1: Iran and Cuba as well have interfered with the transport
Speaker 1: of of medical equipment and assistance. People are literally dying. UM. Others,
Speaker 1: of course, as always accused Israel of manufact exturing the weapon,
Speaker 1: or obviously they accused China of creating the weapon. At
Speaker 1: this point, it's kind of like the conspiracy theories about
Speaker 1: HIV as a weapon. It's it's just such a um,
Speaker 1: it's just such a dumb thing. If you were designing
Speaker 1: a weapon, they're better ones to design and and this
Speaker 1: is surprising that this is still proliferating out there. We
Speaker 1: talked about this in the past. It's still there, it's
Speaker 1: gaining grounds. I just want to add here, I I
Speaker 1: agree with you, Ben, I just want to add here
Speaker 1: that when you're thinking about Iran because of coronavirus, maybe
Speaker 1: we've kind of forgotten, but we are actively engaged in
Speaker 1: maybe not a proxy war, but but there are um,
Speaker 1: actual firefights, actual hot conflicts that are occurring in Iraq
Speaker 1: between US forces and uh um Irani. It's Iran back
Speaker 1: to militias. I believe that we're the targets by the US. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's it. I mean, that's still happening, and that's
Speaker 1: been happening that kind of um but behind closed doors
Speaker 1: battling has been happening for so long between Iran and
Speaker 1: the US. Uh. You know, just trying to add that
Speaker 1: other side there, like the reason why maybe community doesn't
Speaker 1: want assist it from America in any way, and also
Speaker 1: just due to all the things that we've outlined in
Speaker 1: the past about that the relationship between the two countries. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean it's unfortunately it's a very old story, right
Speaker 1: and this is just another another um chapter in a
Speaker 1: disturbing book. So we've outlined a couple of problems, but
Speaker 1: we we want to give you a we want to
Speaker 1: solve something for you, and we think we've done it. Uh,
Speaker 1: we have new revelations. We have found the truth or
Speaker 1: we're on the way of finding the truth about one
Speaker 1: of the most popular recent conspiracy theories related to COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: the idea that five G technology is is responsible for
Speaker 1: the virus, or responsible for what's being perceived as a virus.
Speaker 1: We've mentioned this earlier, but there's more to the story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's true. I'm just a few days ago there were
Speaker 1: at least three attacks on cell phone towers in the
Speaker 1: UK and in Ireland that authorities believe were related to
Speaker 1: the five G coronavirus conspiracy theory. But there is proof
Speaker 1: that a conspiracy of some kind really does exist here.
Speaker 1: Maybe not the one that that we've been hearing about,
Speaker 1: or that that conspiracy theorists would prefer that we uh
Speaker 1: we think about. UM. A person named Mark Owens Jones,
Speaker 1: who's a researcher at Hamad Ben Khalifa University and Qatar
Speaker 1: specializing in online disinformation networks, analyzed twenty two thousand recent
Speaker 1: interactions on Twitter mentioning five G and Corona, as as
Speaker 1: this as the search terms and said that he found
Speaker 1: a large number of accounts displaying quote inauthentic activity, so
Speaker 1: like bought type accounts I imagine, um. He said the
Speaker 1: effort bears some of the hallmarks of a state backed campaign. Um.
Speaker 1: He noted quote there are very strong indications that some
Speaker 1: of these accounts are a disinformation operation, and went on
Speaker 1: to say that the campaign used a strategy similar to
Speaker 1: Russia's Internet Research agency, which was behind the disinformation campaign
Speaker 1: during the US presidential campaign. The reason that the term
Speaker 1: Russian bots has become such a hot hot button thing
Speaker 1: to throw around. UM. So, while Jones has an explicitly
Speaker 1: linked this campaign to a specific state, he he does
Speaker 1: note that there are pretty extraordinary similarities. Yeah. Yeah. In short,
Speaker 1: the spread of the five G conspiracy theory is itself
Speaker 1: a conspiracy. Um, just a backtrack real quick, Uh, and
Speaker 1: be clear, Uh, the the five G concept is um
Speaker 1: is something that existed before and it's just now being
Speaker 1: tied with coronavirus. But people were concerned about the possible
Speaker 1: health impacts of five G beforehand, uh and right now. Honestly, Uh,
Speaker 1: not to be alarmist about it, but it is a
Speaker 1: new technology, which means there are no longitudinal studies about
Speaker 1: the h the possible long term risk. Do it right now?
Speaker 1: It seems safe? Uh, it definitely doesn't seem like it
Speaker 1: creates virus or viral like infections. Well, and you only
Speaker 1: you only have to go back to October in Scientific
Speaker 1: American and other places to see that there is some
Speaker 1: research coming out about five G that it is potentially
Speaker 1: dangerous the amount of radiation that people will be exposed to.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean it has anything to do with coronavirus.
Speaker 1: It makes me ask and and just to to to
Speaker 1: go off topic, just ever so slightly. How does this
Speaker 1: stuff get pushed through so quickly without you know, if
Speaker 1: there are these concerns and if there is even some
Speaker 1: research already showing that this level of radiation is dangerous,
Speaker 1: Like how how how are we as a country just
Speaker 1: fully on board with five G? It just seems like
Speaker 1: an example of like commerce being put in front of
Speaker 1: the general well being of of people. Well, I mean,
Speaker 1: if you go to like the New York Times or
Speaker 1: Wired right now, you know around that same time December
Speaker 1: and part of the summer of last year or twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: everyone is doing their best too to say no, look,
Speaker 1: there's no actual harm that's going to be caused by
Speaker 1: you know, using your phone or having a five G
Speaker 1: device with you, or having five G transmitters near your
Speaker 1: home or anything like that. And to a large extent,
Speaker 1: it's it's true. It's just one of those things that
Speaker 1: does need to be studied more. And I think I
Speaker 1: see what you're saying there and all, like, it feels
Speaker 1: like a necessity to push this through in order to
Speaker 1: enhance our interconnectivity and the amount of stuff we are
Speaker 1: doing online right now. Just as a an individual, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's needed. But you know, I like your point about
Speaker 1: doing the things you want to do or need to
Speaker 1: do as an individual. Part of the reason this stuff happens,
Speaker 1: and part of the reason UH, political and corporate opportunists
Speaker 1: are are taking they are buying the farm right buying
Speaker 1: the ground out from under you right now, is because
Speaker 1: we have as individuals a dearth of time. We have
Speaker 1: so little time to invest in hunting down and finding
Speaker 1: these things that matter. Yes, there are regulatory bodies right UM,
Speaker 1: but they are there. There are things that you have
Speaker 1: to go look for. Right The FCC, for instance, UM,
Speaker 1: doesn't doesn't go public and blast out across broadcast channels
Speaker 1: any any policy, every policy decision they make, you have
Speaker 1: to look for it right. And it's the same with
Speaker 1: these kind of approvals. The onus of the activity is
Speaker 1: on you as the individual. Is that the way it
Speaker 1: should be? Probably not? Are things getting past that the
Speaker 1: average person would object to? Yeah? Probably? Uh, but that
Speaker 1: is the way it is right now. That doesn't make
Speaker 1: it right, but that's that's what's happening. That's how these
Speaker 1: sorts of things can can continue. If you want to
Speaker 1: learn more about bots, check out the excellent episode we
Speaker 1: did with Joe McCormick from Stuff to Blow your Mind
Speaker 1: about Russian bots. The only thing left, the only piece
Speaker 1: of the puzzle here on the five G conspiracy is
Speaker 1: figuring out who is controlling the bots. You know, Uh,
Speaker 1: anti Russian types will say it's Russia. Anti China types
Speaker 1: will say it's China. Um, and then you know, anti
Speaker 1: US types will say it's the US. But the truth is,
Speaker 1: at this point we do not have proof of the
Speaker 1: puppet master's identity. We just know that. You know, when
Speaker 1: you see uh sled berties like Woody Harrelson or um
Speaker 1: that um the British celebrity Amanda hold him when you
Speaker 1: see them plugging these kinds of stories and this kind
Speaker 1: of information. They're probably not in on it, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Like, I don't think Vladimir Putin or
Speaker 1: um some other leader of a country contacted them like hey, Wood,
Speaker 1: he love you and cheers helped me terrify the public
Speaker 1: and make sure that people are scared of five G.
Speaker 1: As you said, guys for the wrong reasons. You know,
Speaker 1: you know who who it's It's Big four G. Finally,
Speaker 1: Big four G. Yeah, that's the elephant in the room,
Speaker 1: you know. The I guess one of the last things
Speaker 1: we want to talk about today is that we definitely
Speaker 1: knew something was on the way here in the US.
Speaker 1: UH officials knew something was on the way, you know.
Speaker 1: You can find an interview from NBC with two current
Speaker 1: US officials and one former U s official who went
Speaker 1: public and said that U S by agencies were collecting
Speaker 1: raw intelligence about Wuhan, China, specifically back in November, and
Speaker 1: they could tell that there was something going on, and
Speaker 1: they it was. They could tell it was a public
Speaker 1: health crisis. And now they say that this was not
Speaker 1: initially understood as the first warning signs of a pandemic.
Speaker 1: But um, they had situation reports, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: They had overhead images, they had intercepted communication that showed
Speaker 1: health facilities were going into hyper drive. And this was
Speaker 1: given to the FEDS and various public health officials way
Speaker 1: back in November. Recall again that the insider trading started
Speaker 1: to occur in January. And even when US officials realized
Speaker 1: the magnitude of this problem, there wasn't it wasn't very
Speaker 1: much action, right. We didn't take a lot of steps
Speaker 1: as a country to ready ourselves for a pandemic like um,
Speaker 1: like the Spanish flu epidemic. You know, there there was
Speaker 1: no effort to boost those stockpiles of medical equipment we're
Speaker 1: hearing so much about. There's no effort to encourage social distancing.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, if if you think I
Speaker 1: don't know, I don't want to be I don't want
Speaker 1: to be unnecessarily frightening to people. But if if you
Speaker 1: have been counting on six ft distance to keep you safe, uh,
Speaker 1: that's unfortunately not gonna fly. Uh. We know, we know
Speaker 1: now that even the even the personal behavior modifications we've
Speaker 1: tried to institute there better than nothing, But they are
Speaker 1: also not a silver bullet. We should have been prepared
Speaker 1: for this in some way much much earlier. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean back in Bill Gates gave a ted talk that's
Speaker 1: being kind of bandied about a lot now, essentially outlining
Speaker 1: exactly what we're experiencing right now, and outlining just how
Speaker 1: unprepared we as a country would be, and and his
Speaker 1: idea that we should run all these simulations to see
Speaker 1: how uh prepared the private sector would be to have
Speaker 1: then e lators, what kind of quarantine measures should be
Speaker 1: put in place, um And and realizing as this has
Speaker 1: happened that no one was prepared for any of this
Speaker 1: at all, and people didn't even take it seriously to
Speaker 1: begin with, including the government. Um And you know, not
Speaker 1: to get too political, because I know it bugs people sometimes,
Speaker 1: but you know, it does feel like there's a certain
Speaker 1: amount of double speed going on in terms of the
Speaker 1: narrative the government has presented in terms of how prepared,
Speaker 1: uh we were, you know, this notion of it being
Speaker 1: some sort of left wing plot um and then immediately
Speaker 1: this about face of oh no, we were. We knew
Speaker 1: all along that it was serious and were prepared for it.
Speaker 1: So it's really kind of head spinning to see that
Speaker 1: shift in rhetoric, and it's like but no, but but
Speaker 1: but but you said, but no, but we have it
Speaker 1: on Uh you know, well, well here here's the problem.
Speaker 1: And we're hearing more and more stories that the Federals
Speaker 1: dock pile of like Ppe and other you know, equipment
Speaker 1: that is supposed to be available. These hospitals are getting
Speaker 1: this old stuff and like if you're talking about one
Speaker 1: of these masks, you can't use it because the elastic
Speaker 1: strap has dry rot all over it and it just
Speaker 1: falls apart because it's been there for so long and
Speaker 1: that spans much further than the current administration, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So it was it. It is like
Speaker 1: one of those things where we we didn't we were
Speaker 1: not prepared in so many ways, uh, throughout a large
Speaker 1: span of time. Here the last thing really quickly, I
Speaker 1: just want to jump back to what you were talking about, Ben,
Speaker 1: the intelligence agencies looking hard at Wuhan in November, like
Speaker 1: before we knew there was even a crisis. That's the
Speaker 1: kind of thing that spawns conspiracy theories because you know,
Speaker 1: when you hear of let's say, uh An official in
Speaker 1: China saying this was you know, this virus was started
Speaker 1: by the United States knowing that US by agencies have
Speaker 1: overhead cameras in Wuhan before it officially becomes a pandemic,
Speaker 1: knowing that they're watching the health facilities in particular and
Speaker 1: seeing what kind of activity is occurring. That's what ends
Speaker 1: up creating I think, or at least assists in the
Speaker 1: creation amongst this uncertainty that oh, well, maybe the US
Speaker 1: was watching the spread of this virus they created there. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it's it's just somebody have to be careful about um.
Speaker 1: But it's also troubling, right, and it should be because
Speaker 1: you know, what that clearly points to is not just
Speaker 1: a conspiracy theory, but an actual conspiracy. Make no mistake.
Speaker 1: You know, certain members of Congress, with access to intelligence reports,
Speaker 1: did indeed conspire to make a buck, make a vig
Speaker 1: off of this, uh, this disaster. You know. Then they
Speaker 1: did so because they had information that you and I
Speaker 1: and everyone listening, well some of the people listening did
Speaker 1: not have. And and this like, there's a really important
Speaker 1: point that's kind of related to this that I want
Speaker 1: to I want to point out. Um, we mentioned it
Speaker 1: kind of at the top of the show. This spells
Speaker 1: a lot of problems in conclusion when we ask where
Speaker 1: do we go next? Right where now? We are already
Speaker 1: seeing domestic stability become increasingly fragile here in the United States. UM.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been very lucky as a country that
Speaker 1: there's always a peaceful transition of power. A lot of
Speaker 1: other countries have not been able to pull that off. UM.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's it's something that we take for
Speaker 1: granted here, but the chain of command uh may start
Speaker 1: to break down. Just in Massachusetts, for instance, the governor
Speaker 1: of Massachusetts had to smuggle mask from China that can't
Speaker 1: believe there's a true story on a New England Patriots
Speaker 1: airplane because the FEDS were going to take these things.
Speaker 1: They wanted to be in charge of giving this metical
Speaker 1: equipment to states. UH. And the system or the process
Speaker 1: they used to determine who gets what has been under
Speaker 1: a huge amount of criticism. So the Massachusetts governor smuggled
Speaker 1: this stuff on a sports team airplane with the help
Speaker 1: of the National Guard, with the help of the Massachusetts Police,
Speaker 1: they transported it to other states. This is an open
Speaker 1: defiance of the federal government. UH. And you know, like
Speaker 1: think about think about what happens if um the federal
Speaker 1: government and the state of California, which if it were
Speaker 1: an independent country, would be like the world's fifth largest
Speaker 1: in terms of GDP. What if California gets an order
Speaker 1: from the Feds to fire or arrest their governor, just
Speaker 1: being hypothetical, and California says, no, we're not gonna do it.
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do about it? That? Like, that
Speaker 1: is possible, not plausible, but possible. Yeah, maybe a different episode.
Speaker 1: Let's let's hope that the next of all ar isn't
Speaker 1: as close as it feels. Let's just put it that way,
Speaker 1: because there will. There will be the next one at
Speaker 1: some point in the future, hopefully not anytime soon. Do
Speaker 1: you think it's a political party based or or is
Speaker 1: it just between the halves and the have nots? Or
Speaker 1: what's the division in this in this coming warrior you're picturing, Well, depends.
Speaker 1: I mean, draw lines wherever you want there. They will
Speaker 1: be drawn, and they kind of already are in so
Speaker 1: many different ways, whether it's economics or you know, ideology,
Speaker 1: or in this case, you know, something as simple as
Speaker 1: states rights versus federal right. I guess you're right. I
Speaker 1: think things have gotten so complex and there's so many
Speaker 1: divisions in our country, Like, it's not going to be
Speaker 1: as simple as like, you know, the North versus the South.
Speaker 1: There's so many potential sects and things that can shoot off.
Speaker 1: The one silver lining here is that there is a
Speaker 1: common enemy. There's one common enemy now that each state,
Speaker 1: each government across the world faces each individual, and that
Speaker 1: is this pandemic, a tiny little microscopic thing, an invader
Speaker 1: that can find its way into your body or your
Speaker 1: you know, your spouse's body, or your child's body, or
Speaker 1: your parents body. And that's the thing that we can
Speaker 1: band together and fight and hopefully we can see past
Speaker 1: a lot of this other stuff at least long enough
Speaker 1: to to get through this together. That's a really good point,
Speaker 1: Matt and and and and something that I'm leaning on
Speaker 1: as well in terms of a silver lining or some
Speaker 1: kind of hope, Well we better get it together. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know this, uh, just the one point about politics,
Speaker 1: you know, like or the US, California could go independent
Speaker 1: and Texas has historically had this um this great pride,
Speaker 1: a willingness to go independent. Um. So the stability of
Speaker 1: the union might be a problem, but having a common
Speaker 1: enemy is something that does really unite people. I think
Speaker 1: that's a fantastic point, Matt, and we better get it together.
Speaker 1: Because six new coronaviruses were discovered in bats in Myanmar
Speaker 1: just this we uh, they're not they're not the same
Speaker 1: as stars or um what we call stars and what
Speaker 1: we call COVID. But the point is they're out there,
Speaker 1: and this recovery period for the world will take much
Speaker 1: much longer than a lot of politicians and a lot
Speaker 1: of businesses want you to believe. Like I said at
Speaker 1: the top, don't think of this in terms of bouncing back.
Speaker 1: We need to think of this in terms of clawing
Speaker 1: our way out of a slippery pit. And it's it's
Speaker 1: gonna take everybody where a species that's terrible at working together.
Speaker 1: But now the rubber is hitting the road, you know, um,
Speaker 1: we we know that that international trade is already reaching,
Speaker 1: um reaching some crisis points. Like you think you think
Speaker 1: that that it's bad when you see the grocery store
Speaker 1: shelves in your neck of the woods empty and you
Speaker 1: can't get toilet paper. Imagine that happening on a macro
Speaker 1: cosmic scale. With mask ventilator's respiration eads more. The US
Speaker 1: is taking and I feel like we have to say
Speaker 1: this even though we are residents of the U S.
Speaker 1: And and I, for one, UH, I am a patriot.
Speaker 1: I love this country. But the US is like straight
Speaker 1: up stealing international shipments of medical equipment and this is
Speaker 1: uh and other countries are doing shady stuff too. The
Speaker 1: U S Is not alone here, but now as we
Speaker 1: record this, at least sixty nine countries have banned or
Speaker 1: restricted the export of protective equipment, medical devices, medicines, and more.
Speaker 1: And this seems set to continue. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't know, what do you guys think? This feels
Speaker 1: very much like we are in a moment that future
Speaker 1: historians will spend years writing about. We're We're in one
Speaker 1: of the defining moments of history. This is a major shift,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of us have already started
Speaker 1: thinking about this differently. Um. I I was really struck
Speaker 1: by some comments that Dr Anthony Anthony Fauci I believe
Speaker 1: is his name, UM, one of the one of the
Speaker 1: you know, main people who is fighting against this thing
Speaker 1: and attempting to advise everybody on what to do. And
Speaker 1: he basically advised this week on Wednesday, and maybe a
Speaker 1: little before that he advised that as a custom, the
Speaker 1: world and particularly the United States, stops shaking hands forever,
Speaker 1: Like we just cut it out of a thing that
Speaker 1: we do, and that that to me is crazy. But
Speaker 1: at the same time it makes total sense. And after
Speaker 1: going through this, I think everyone will see that as well. Well. Obviously, yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't shake hands anymore, you don't hug anybody anymore
Speaker 1: in public. It's not It's not as though it's gonna
Speaker 1: be for a couple of months or even a couple
Speaker 1: of years. I think this is gonna be a so
Speaker 1: full shift across the world. It feels like, because Ben,
Speaker 1: you're saying, this is like a shifting point, This is
Speaker 1: a This is one of those moments in history that
Speaker 1: we literally make a turn twenty five degrees in one
Speaker 1: direction and we don't ever go back the other way. Yeah, Ben,
Speaker 1: I mean to your point about it not being a
Speaker 1: bounce back thing. Like even if this were eradicated tomorrow,
Speaker 1: which obviously isn't going to happen, It's just not how
Speaker 1: it works. There's going to be a period of distrust
Speaker 1: and a period of adjusting to, you know, the trauma
Speaker 1: that we have all collectively experienced as a as a
Speaker 1: as a you know, a global society, you know, where
Speaker 1: there's going to be things some kind of PTSD as
Speaker 1: a culture and and as a world that we're all
Speaker 1: going to have to waite our way through. Even if
Speaker 1: all of this just went, you know, blipped out of
Speaker 1: existence tomorrow. And obviously that's not going to happen. So
Speaker 1: we're going to be dealing with those, uh, those various
Speaker 1: individual and collective traumas for probably a long time. But um, hopefully, Matt,
Speaker 1: to your point, there is something we can learn about
Speaker 1: our cells and the way we interact with people, and
Speaker 1: the way government's work that maybe can be taken from
Speaker 1: this and hopefully move things in a positive direction. I
Speaker 1: would like to believe that I think shaking hands is
Speaker 1: weird again. I know I say this a lot on
Speaker 1: our show, but it's it's kind of it's it's like neckties.
Speaker 1: You know. Sometime over the course of civilization, we just
Speaker 1: accepted that it's weird. It serves it doesn't really serve
Speaker 1: a function. The old story about shaking hands is just
Speaker 1: to check people for weapons, and you've got to admit, man,
Speaker 1: it's a weird and specific thing. Goodbye to it. I
Speaker 1: won't miss I'll miss a lot of things, but I won't.
Speaker 1: I won't miss just rubbing palms with some stranger right
Speaker 1: off the jump when I meet them. That's so weird.
Speaker 1: I love the human physical connection of shaking your hand.
Speaker 1: I am a huge hugger, and I be aware. I
Speaker 1: will hug you. Don't come too close. I will hug you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you got you've you've gotten us before. Yeah, well, I
Speaker 1: mean that's that's on a like seriously, on a very
Speaker 1: personal note. That is how I met my wife by
Speaker 1: ran em lely hugging her and like like I you know,
Speaker 1: losing that kind of interpersonal connection even with a you know,
Speaker 1: a total stranger, you know, showing showing that connection that
Speaker 1: you know we're both the same. Um. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Not being able to do that physically and having to
Speaker 1: do it either with an emoji in the future or
Speaker 1: whatever else we're gonna have to do to communicate that
Speaker 1: kind of feeling that troubles me deeply. But yeah, who knows,
Speaker 1: Maybe that's where we're headed. Guess let us know what
Speaker 1: you think, folks, shaking hands, you love it, You're gonna
Speaker 1: miss it. What's what's your take? Uh? We still haven't
Speaker 1: made a secret handshake for conspiracy stuff and now we
Speaker 1: maybe never us, but we want to hear from you.
Speaker 1: We want to hear your stories, your experiences from your
Speaker 1: neck of the global woods. Find us on Facebook, Find
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Speaker 1: we've um you know, we want to thank you if
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Speaker 1: but this has been Uh, this has been a really
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Speaker 1: thanks to everybody who's been calling into our number of
Speaker 1: just leaving us some really great insight and you know,
Speaker 1: just knowing that you're out there and hearing your voice,
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Speaker 1: wee hours of the nights and and have that personal
Speaker 1: moment um Matt you. I am always blown away by
Speaker 1: how good a steward you are of of this, of
Speaker 1: this call in and you really treat it with a
Speaker 1: lot of respect and care, and I really appreciate that. Well.
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Speaker 1: Here's where it gets crazy. I think all you have
Speaker 1: to do is name one or all four of the
Speaker 1: members of our crew, or just make a reference to
Speaker 1: something you've heard in the show, or just just make
Speaker 1: us laugh, and I think you're You're in, like flynn, Um.
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