87 Comments
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curt s sanders's avatar

Dear Matt and Walter.. thank you for creating ATW one of the most fascinating podcasts.. I have yet to see.. and I've seen quite a few in the last five years.. one suggestion I would like to make though .. live streaming comments are a distraction and sometimes diminish the quality of your production.. As I'm sure you know.. you have a few adolescent provocateurs in your audience.. and their distracting commentary regarding Palestine, the Trans/woke movement..

I don't know how you do it? Maintaining a meaningful exploration of any topic while reading the feedback simultaneously..

Anyway, that's my two cents worth..

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txag72's avatar

Disagree. The immatur-ish comments is as big of a part of the problem as the actual issue. As Matt and Walter so skillfully pointed out.

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curt s sanders's avatar

When you're constantly responding to a child that continues to interrupt the exploration of the topic.. It's not possible to penetrate as deeply into the issue as Matt and Walter uninterrupted could.. save the questions till after the exploration.. which also gives a little time to filter the wheat from the chaff.. No need to waste time glancing or responding at an obviously silly comment…

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Biff's avatar

What Walter has to say about the motivation behind all MSM News organizations agreeing to bury the Charlotte murder is as usual, dead on point - covering the facts of this murder would move more Americans to support Trump's general federal intervention in controlling crime. That's it. If a news story is perceived as possibly helping Trump, they universally choose to ignore it. What I wonder is if once Trump is done with this term, passes on to history, when TDS is removed from influencing news reporting, will news coverage make a turn back towards honest reporting? Scott Jennings of CNN recently commented that the Democratic Party's strategy is simply to oppose Trump, with a little socialism thrown in on the side. Seems he has them accurately described. He's also said the head of the Democratic Party is Donald Trump, because he controls what they do. It's another very good point he is making.

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yohan1954's avatar

ATW is one of the best podcast put there. Love Walter's takes.

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Roxanne McCarty's avatar

So agree

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Andrew Scheid's avatar

I've been a subscriber since June of 2020, which has been incredibly rewarding with Taibbi's brilliant and hysterical writing. This will be my final month as a subscriber, after listening to Kirn invoking the Old Testament to glibly dismiss the concerns of "proportionality" as over 20,000 Palestinian children have been murdered since October of 2023.

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That TERF Owl's avatar

This isn’t an airport no need to announce your departure.

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Mark Blair's avatar

I didn't here him use it as a justification.

He sounded descriptive, noting that it isn't novel in war.

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Andrew Scheid's avatar

The not-so-subtle commentary was "What do you expect to happen when young people were murdered on October 7th? Look at the history of religious wars in the region going back to the Old Testament."

It's my right as a paid subscriber to air my disgust with such vapid and callous commentary in the midst of American tax dollars being used for the slaughter of tens of thousands of children.

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Daily Growler's avatar

You definitely have a right to express your opinion and to unsubscribe. IMO, however, it's childish and manipulative to announce your decision publicly. Like a toddler stamping his or her feet.

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Andrew Scheid's avatar

That argument would be more credible if was name-calling and using all caps. Calmly expressing sadness over their commentary is a healthy part of the discourse.

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Pat Robinson's avatar

Not sure why you were even here in the first place

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Andrew Scheid's avatar

Because I've purchased every book written by Taibbi and find him to be a hysterical writer with a great deal of insight.

Congrats on your self-appointed role of being an online hall monitor!

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Robert Brown's avatar

It’s absolutely not a complex issue and, the false narrative that it’s a complex issue is an old trope . . .

Not a good look and clearly disingenuous to claim ignorance when one can easily get up to speed with the subject. 🤦🏻‍♂️

For example, try a wee bit of Chris Hedges to figure things out:

https://open.substack.com/pub/chrishedges/p/chris-hedges-live-q-and-a-now-come?r=rc1x&utm_medium=ios

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Mark Blair's avatar

I didn't take that from it, but understand your interpretation.

But I agree that this is the response Hamas would expect. The attack was clearly made to draw an emotionally fullfilling response from Israel rather than a cold, logical one. Much like 9/11 in our case.

Like you, I don't want US dollars spent on this at all. Not our fight and it subverts our ability to be peacemakers.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

Bye bye

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SUZ's avatar

watch this until you get to the bits about Walter/past the Epstein chat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8pFBOW1u-M

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Steve's avatar

This guy is uninformed. Wholly ignores the history of Arab conduct for the last two hundred years, and undoubtedly has not viewed the unredacted video of the Hamas slaughter on Oct 7th. Oh his neighbor came into his house and slaughtered his family in the way 1500 people were slaughter on Oct 7th, he’d find a gun, and any other implements to go next door and kill em all.

Until he does the work Id say I don’t really give a crap about his opinion. He feels like a Jew hater/ nothing special for sure.

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Andrew Scheid's avatar

Are you referring to me?

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Amanda Puckett's avatar

As a Psych NP, I absolutely saw potential psychotic behavior right away with the murderer; looked like preoccupation with internal stimuli. Spot on analysis.

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Mark Blair's avatar

He’d been diagnosed previously with schizophrenia. His mom tried to commit him, but the system released him.

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Amanda Puckett's avatar

I worked a long time as an inpatient psych RN. I'm in Maryland. It's so hard to get someone involuntarily committed and med paneled or have someone admitted to Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, which is Maryland’s only maximum-security forensic psychiatric hospital. Basically nurses have to get the shit beat out of them and press charges each time. Recently, where I used to work, a nurse got stabbed in the neck with a pen; the list goes on and on. They go out into the population and then stop taking their meds and then the whole cycle repeats because they are dangerous and then the police are called and then then they are readmitted and restarted on meds and then it takes longer to get them stabilized. When people say they aren't in favor of bringing back long term hospitalizations or institutions, they haven't REALLY worked in psych. It's tiring, dangerous and causes harm to society at large.

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Mark Blair's avatar

It was clear by the late 70s that Kennedys plan to devolve institutions was failing. We need long-term mental facilities. Too often we get to the point that they are imprisoned, and prison is no place to treat someone with schizophrenia.

Nobody wants to pay for these, so we pay in blood by leaving the problem for the streets to solve. Absolutely mad.

People learned the absolute wrong lessons from the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which really put the wind in the sails of the deinstitutionalization movement.

As nutty as the defund police movement, but Jack Nicholson really sold it.

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OBOB's avatar

So are we saying pay for public health mental institutions again? Loved one who flew over the cocoos nest - what about decriminalizing self defense and violence against criminals/those that are against public good interest…may be cheaper and more effective. What about sterilization mentally ill or criminals? Or people who fit both categories? Def think 14 raps on your rap sheet is too much especially when you can be physically dominant so not being able to buy a gun may not prevent you from violence..

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Pat Robinson's avatar

“ They go out into the population and then stop taking their meds and then the whole cycle repeats because they are dangerous”

We had our own case here in canada some years ago

A psychopath called Vince Lee (?) stood up on a greyhound bus and killed then hacked the head of a young man, he was shaking it at people.

The people who came out of the sewer to sympathize with the killer was disgusting and all so expected.

Another was a college kid here in calgary who slaughtered 4-5 room mates, again the people working so hard to get him back into the population.

Poison.

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Mark Blair's avatar

I actually feel bad for the killer too. He never should have been put into that position by society. We failed him and everyone he came in contact with that was rolling the dice by being in contact with his demons.

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Amanda Puckett's avatar

Absolutely. These are inhumane ways to treat the mentally ill, with no support and no guidance. It's scary to be schizophrenic, every schizophrenic or psychotic patient that I have assessed even after they feel semi better talk about the fear they experience, whether they are oriented to reality or not. Our system is not humane.

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Mark Blair's avatar

It is a truly terrible affliction. I believe future generations will look back at us an shake their heads at how we left the mentally ill to fend for themselves on the streets, much in the way that we have a hard time understanding slavery today. Not humane at all.

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Rebecca Hunter's avatar

Israel is not a theocracy- Muslim Arabs hold positions in government, in news organizations, in education, etc. It is a liberal democracy that supports rights for gays, women, all religions. The only preferential treatment it gives Jews is providing citizenship to any Jew throughout the world who seeks it. This may be due to Jews being ejected from most all Muslim countries. Israeli Arabs (which sits around 30% of the population) were massacred along with their Israeli countryman on October 7th.

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RebeccaStar's avatar

I love this show always❤️

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Richard Pemberton's avatar

Matt, you are so lost. You know what the deal is with Israel/Palestine. You described it perfectly years ago. Who know what’s going on. I hope you figure it out. We miss you.

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That TERF Owl's avatar

Go listen to Democracy Now or TYT if you want leftist dogma.

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Richard Pemberton's avatar

Well I guess you’re the audience he’s cultivated. Alas.

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That TERF Owl's avatar

Sasha’s one of my new favorites, and I appreciate Evan, too.

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Ritaritabobita's avatar

Sam Husseini says it well here as to why the subject of Israel and the Palestinians is important…..

https://open.substack.com/pub/husseini/p/palestine-will-free-us-all?r=1jzb30&utm_medium=ios

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Steph's avatar

Walter is right no one‘s talking about the crime. Pritzker just wants to jump in and say no no we’re fine which is a lie typical of Democrats and Johnson I don’t even know what his purpose is except to get into the mayors mansion and have free access to money and security detail.

I heard an interesting comment last week that the only reason Pritzker and Johnson are screaming bloody murder to keep the national guard out is because they’ll lose 850 million from the federal government for crime prevention…ha! Just another California where they’re going to pocket that money and people will keep dropping like flies. I wish you would investigate that and see if it’s true. It doesn’t seem like the residents of Chicago think anything is OK concerning crime. How do these people keep getting elected? If you keep sticking your hand in fire it’s going to get burned.

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Mattlongname's avatar

Has Trumps invasion of Chicago been imminent for 1 month, or has it technically been imminent since inauguration day?

I just want to understand how long the troll job has been having the effect of leaders defending themselves by acting like excessive violent crime is fine.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong in the next 3ish years, but Chicago isn't going to have Marines jumping out of lake michigan and taking over the city. It would have happened already.

But it is fun to watch the obviously empty threat.

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Dos Chihuahuas's avatar

So cringe. This video isn't going to age well for you guys. The world is watching a genocide unfold in real time and all you guys seem to care about is pointing out the flaws in leftist messaging. This issue isn't even about the left. It's much bigger than that, but you're both too stubborn to see it.

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Jake's avatar

Yeah, those climbing paid subscription numbers for Racket News are really foreboding.

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S B T Larzier's avatar

I am a white woman of the USA, specifically western Nordic, ancestors from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, and some unspecified European place further east. I have lineages going back to 1630s Colonial American New England, although no sign I had Mayflower ancestors; my ancestors missed that boat and got on the next one.

Since the 1970s, the USA has become less white. I lived in California for thirty-five years. I felt uncomfortable there then, and more-so as time went on. I need to be with “my people” (my clan) aka people who look like me and I look like them, which is the reason why I relocated to Wisconsin. It is restful to go to the grocery store and other public places, where I have the same general appearance as workers there — I blend in. I need to blend in. Same pale skin, same light brown hair, same general facial features, &tc.

I don’t like to be around Negroes — they are not my clan.

I don’t like to be around Hispanics and southern Europeans — they are not my clan.

I don’t like to be around Asians — they are not my clan.

I don’t like to be around American Indians — they are not my clan.

I don’t like to be around Jews — they are not my clan.

I have nothing against “them.” No, that is a lie. I do hold something against them: they are not MY clan. Their groups have not advocated for “my type” all my 70 years; they left me to shift for myself. They have taken all possible resources for themselves and did not share — they are “give me’s” and “I want that. Gimme.” Why should I advocate for them? No more. I shan’t any longer.

I do not hold non-whites in esteem.

And so it is.

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Miss Information's avatar

This is where capitalism works to the benefit of ordinary citizens; we boycott CBS and Paramount. It would be so delicious to see them go under after paying her all that money.

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JM's avatar

I love seeing Walter get upset and calling out the listeners. I hope he stays in his cabin for a while.

I'm surprised you did not compare the Charlotte murder to Luigi.

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Graham Baird's avatar

Listening to his temper tantrum, “if you don’t like it, what are you even doing here!!” was hilarious. Sometime in the future, Walt might get his wish. As Matt wrote on Monday, “audience is not owed.” I’ll definitely be sticking around if the commenters/audience keep triggering him into hissy fits.

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SUZ's avatar

this "love it/or leave it" stance is the last refuge of gaslighting defensiveness......ask why do you think an audience expects more from you on I-G?...because your past cred is filled with deep dive research and your current excuse is "I don't know enough about it"?

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That TERF Owl's avatar

I hope they block you people. You’re like obnoxious losers in school who make everything about you.

“Say what I want to hear!”

You people are authoritarians and no one wants to play your game. I think you also underestimate the Gen-X mindset: keep telling us what to say, it’ll only make us “whatever” you even more. We don’t care if you like us, we’re not socially crippled like you.

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Graham Baird's avatar

As a Gen Xer, I am familiar with the mindset and while we likely disagree on some things, I bet I would like you. Also, I would never advocate for your people getting blocked or stifled because they don't share my views. Cheers!

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That TERF Owl's avatar

When people are deliberately harassing a writer to say what they want to hear, and insist on trolling him and disrupting the community—blocking has a purpose.

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Graham Baird's avatar

Telling a writer that their opinion is hypocritical and wrong is not "deliberate harassment." In this little community, we're not all acolytes to the church of Walter (although, that's certainly what he would prefer); we're not obligated to genuflect. Walter's been talking for years about campus "safe spaces" and the stifling of free speech, yet mild pushback to his opinions makes him lash out at Matt's patrons: LEAVE YOU DIRTY UNWASHED! I apologize for finding that highly amusing.

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That TERF Owl's avatar

I see him get this stuff ALL THE TIME from the same people. Here and on X. It’s absolutely becoming harassment.

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