If anyone is looking for when Taibbi and Kirn went full-blown propagandist for the Trump agenda, look no further than today. The lies and deception flew fast and furious, starting with the whopper that rigthwing terrorism is neglible in America (everyone from the University of Maryland to the FBI to the CSIS concluded that it was not only a problem but responsible for the majority of incidents from the 1990s until now). Then there was the lie that Democrats are involved in a nefarious plot to open borders to flood our country with migrants. It is well documented that both Biden and Obama have deported more people than Trump. What Trump has acheived has been essentially through suspending due process by having masked men engage in warrantless arrests, thus terrifying documented and undocumented alike. Then there is the Big Lie — that Matt and Walter are fully complicit in — that our cities are awash in crime; it is well documented that it is down, including in the very cities where Trump is sending in the National Guard (and who can forget Taibbi recently having to backtrack in real time as he tried to assert otherwise). The upshot of all of these lies is that Walter and Matt are now full-throated Trump supporters, there's no denying it— they are vocal supporters of the blatantly unconstitutional move of sending federal police into states under false premises and over the objection of governors.
We don't love Matt and Walter because they offer hot takes on whatever the algorithm tells us we must all focus on and care about until the next algorithm comes along, but because of the perspective they offer on whatever topic interests them.
I would get more out of Matt and Walter reading and offering their perspectice on a phone book than the rest of the media combined barfing out Israel-Gaza hot takes. You can get that literally everywhere 24/7. Why are you perpetually upset that you found a place on the internet where that is not the constant focus?
If it bothers you so much, look anywhere on youtube, or focus on the book club. That's my favorite part of the program anyway.
Wright can't ignore Walter and Matt, because he is committed to "Countering the lucrative right wing disinformation industry." It gives meaning to his life.
Sorry to disappoint, you're welcome to send me a check if you like, but alas no one pays me (what might be confusing you is that I try to make coherent arguments, not the usual gibberish).
Hall Monitor Bookwench has no actual arguments she can muster, so she resorts to trolling someone she calls a ‘troll,’ hmmmm. Nothing irritates her as much as dissent!
Where in the comment do they mention Israel/Gaza at all? What the hell are you even talking about? They wrote two paragraphs on the topic of the show. Did they edit it out or are you actually the one bringing up Israel/Gaza?
How many people would Obama have deported if the left had given him the same treatment as they are giving Trump? How many judges threw up blocks to his deportations?
apparently you have no problem grabbing people off the streets and deporting them to random countries with zero due process.....when you find yourself pushing down on people you see as below you chances are you are being manipulated be those above you....in this case blaming immigrants for what's wrong with the country is designed so that you won't blame the billionaires.....
Really? Do you not think that if there was no due process the democrats would be in front of a judge stopping the deportations?
People who have had their day in court and now have a deportation order have HAD THEIR DAY IN COURT!
What makes you think I look down on anyone? Whose Identity do you think illegals are using? Poorer people who don't have the resources to protect their id. They aren't going to use yours are they. So I assume you are looking down on poor American citizens who don't have your resources. You haven't lost out on a construction job to an illegal have you.
It is very easy for you to spout the dem "compassion" blurb because the jobs, housing, education overcrowding don't affect you.
Sorry if my concern for American citizens gets in the way of your virtue bat signal.
ask yourself this question: why is the US political focus always on the illegal worker and never the employer who hires people/often for less than minimum wage?....what do you think would happen at the border if employers were arrested for hiring illegals and the only people permitted to work were citizens?
Agree that they should also be arresting those who knowingly hire illegal aliens, but the fact is, many of these illegals are using stolen identities, and fake social security numbers.
Illegal aliens are hurting those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, by taking low-skilled jobs, or even skilled jobs (in construction, for instance) from US citizens or legal residents. They are contributing to the lack of available affordable housing. Many of them send a large amount of their wages back home, so they aren't even helping the local economy as much as their champions claim.
The collapse of citizenship is purposeful. The government, mainly Republicans, eliminated the draft because the draft fueled the anti-war movement. Half the people pay no taxes, because they are poor, and a few pay no taxes because they own the government.
Both Democrats and Republicans want to keep the focus on domestic, divisive issues, whether abortion, guns, immigration, LGBT yada-yada, because they are mostly united on foreign policy. except when Trump makes very timid efforts toward peace, and then they bitch about it.
Trump has negotiated with Hamas through intermediaries, Russia, China, Rwanda, Saudis, Qatar and the Houthis.
The Republicans suck in about 100 different ways, but the Democrats are worse right now.
More than one thing can be true; Bernie, Kuchinich, the Squad and others can be right about wealth inequality; and Rand Paul and Ron Paul can be right about civil liberties.
The more dedicated leftists know - because they've gone to jail - that we need both social democracy and libertarian ideas.
Absolutely, all of the employers who knowingly hired illegal immigrants should be thrown in jail. But the border isn't really an issue anymore, that's been largely dealt with. It's all of the people already in the country illegally that are the issue now.
If you crack down on their employers, how many illegal immigrants will choose to self deport, and how many will want to stay and therefore be forced to turn to crime to support themselves. I don't know, but when you're dealing with millions of illegal immigrants, you could potentially create an even bigger problem that way, unfortunately.
Some do have their day in court .. and some don't ... if it was just illegals being sent back where they came from, the people who protest everything would still protest, but the protests would have less roots and less support ... but it's more than that ...
Doesn't make it wrong to deport illegals (while still treating them like humans ...), and doesn't make it right to throw rocks at cars of federal workers trying to drive home ...
But there have been innocent people grabbed, and not just "deported" with no due process, but sent to hellish places ...
Fair point ... and extremely important ... it's not true that all that's happening is "the worst of the worst" are behind bars and migrants who snuck in are sent back where they came from, yet treated like human beings ...
That is happening, but it's also innocent people caught up in it ... and that's important to mention ... the tantrums in the streets, though, don't seem any way to be taken seriously ... it perpetuates the cycle of blaming everyone in a group for what some did, and on and on ...
Reposting a comment I left at Coffee & Covid the other day ~
"(Please don't misunderstand, I'm *not* excusing Antifa violence in any way. I'm not excusing the kind of people who beat up journalist Andy Ngo, call people in red hats Nazis, destroy local businesses in the name of absurd hypocrisy, and regularly call for murder.) But if ICE stuck to Deporting Illegal migrants - deporting meaning sending them back to the countries they came from, and imprisoning violent criminals after fair due process - then protests against them would have as much sense as supporting men in women's sports or encouraging teen girls who don't like wearing dresses to cut off their breasts.
But when deportation of illegals is mixed in with deporting people here Legally, perhaps for the "crime" of criticizing the foreign country that actually runs the US (even Charlie Kirk observed that Israel bullies the Trump administration and was becoming more skeptical in his last days ... interesting timing) ...
And when locking up violent criminals is mixed with locking up random guys with tattoos, perhaps identified by AI(?), who are innocent, with no due process ...
There becomes real reason to protest that. Not in the way Antifa thugs are protesting, but, just sayin, there's awfulness on both sides.
In a sense, there's a similar thread, although I'll concede Antifa are more mentally unstable. Each "side" sees something done that Is a moral outrage - on one side, it's the reality of brutal crimes done by illegal migrants, rapes, murders, fentanyl, and then innocent people who look like other people are lumped in with the "bad guys".
On the other side, it's the reality that sometimes people who did nothing wrong and didn't even come illegally are chained in CECOT, or someone like Rumeysa Ozturk is detained for co-writing a calmly worded op-ed - so the protestors, full of too much misplaced rage, take out their anger on anyone working for ICE, and federal workers who want to help public safety are in fear for their lives and their families - to the protestors, everyone working for ICE is one and the same.
It's messed up all around, I'm not excusing violence or smashing things or being insane, but this quote from CJ Hopkins, political satirist /author, who was sued by the German gov't for tweeting his book cover (with a faint Nazi symbol on a surgical mask, to make the point of the totalitarianism of COVID), whose principles don't change depending on who is in the White House, makes sense -
"Since so many people seem to have forgotten, due process is not enshrined in the US Constitution because the framers wanted to be nice to monsters. It is there because the framers wanted the new nation to operate according to the rule of law, not according to the will of tyrants, whose excuse for tyranny is always 'the monsters'“- CJ Hopkins, “The War on Whatever”
And this brilliant short skit from JP Sears says it well, who I give much credit to for being a strong Trump supporter for a long time, yet still willing to criticize the current administration, makes sense - each side feeds the other for the ultimate goal of taking our freedoms. (Nothing so far has topped the atrocity of "jab or job", and as Matt Taibbi attests to, censorship was worse under "Biden", but the direction we're going in is still totalitarian technocracy, just in the name of safety from violence instead of safety from virus.) ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUGIp7Lk8-c
"When politicians serve the same Master" (It may not seem like it, as each party has different stated goals and talking points and votes, but looking a few levels through, it likely is the same master)"
It's possible to respect that open borders and the gov't being "Uber drivers for the cartels",, as Tulsi Gabbard said, is all sorts of messed up, and respect law enforcement as human beings and also point out sometimes innocent people are lumped in with gangsters, disappeared from their people, and not treated like human either ...
I don't see change on the horizon...the democrats work hardest against progressives and neither party supports the working class ..... the US is now normalizing a police state, control of US media is being purchased by Zionists and academic universities have caved to fascist pressures to censor and obey instead of organizing in solidarity......what would change this very heavy agenda?......the currently divided and conquered populace struggling to survive and now at the mercy of major corruption would have to somehow unite and demand.....will this happen?......things will get much worse before anyone asks this question...
The seeds of all this, like repealing Posse Comititus Act were sown in Bush Cheney, and 90% of the Democrats were all-in. The history of Posse Comititus is an eye-opener; it involved a disputed election and the end of Reconstruction.
A lot of that violence data is bogus. For example, some of the datasets count Islamic attacks as "right wing". I wish someone would sweep that data and give it proper categorization.
Too many groups create statistics to buttress their preconception or desired outcomes. Everyone is out there gaming people.
As for deportations -- my understanding is that the numbers bandied about generally include include extremely recent arrivals. So, if you welcome all of the Americas to walk up north and declare asylum, you'll also have more deportations. Simply the wrong metric to use. The fact is that Biden in particular permitted the industrialized abuse of our asylum system, leading to vast numbers of non-Americans to enter the country -- over the objections of the majority of the populace.
Crime numbers are also deceptive. Crime may be down, but it is now oft organized via the internet and impacting parts of the cities that used to be safe. It used to be mostly constrained to the ghettoes.
Also, here in California some crime as been changed to "not crime". Stores get ripped off all the time and there is nothing the police do, so shopkeepers suck it up until they close shop. You don't find that in the crime stats, but it impacts everyone.
Virtually all academic and think tank institutes have been captured by special interests and generate data to support advance the agendas of special interests. Case in point, my medieval Japanese history prof was up for tenure in the East Asian History department at an Ivy - published two good books, publications out the wazoo, only one Japanese medievalist in the department. About that time, a big chunk of money showed up from ? and the Sino Studies folks got a whole lot more funding, and showed my prof the door. Couldn't believe it.
Everybody seems to be weaponizing everything in their battle to define reality.
That's the reason we are devolving into a world where the sanest thing is to "choose your own reality". At least then you live in your own myth, as opposed to someone elses.
At some point the Right realizes the facts are not on their side and just, excuse my French, make sh*t up. With Biden — the accusation by Matt and Walt is NOT that they mismanaged the migrant crisis but that they willfully opened the floodgates. That is classic changing of the goalposts by you (by the way, migration was declining precipitously in the last year of Biden). You never responded to the thornier issue that Trump has achieved his ‘results’ through warrantless arrests by masked men that are capturing documented and undocumented alike, with repercussions for due process for all Americans — presumably you whole heartily agree, right? You can’t have it both ways. Glad that you acknowledge that crime is down, you’ve now moved the goalpost to the squishy argument that some people feel unsafe (no big surprise with the round-the-clock riot porn shown on Fox, and claims by POTUS that migrants are eating their dogs).
And btw, nice try, but no — none of the major studies (FBI/DHS, CSIS, START/UMD, etc.) classify Islamist or Muslim fundamentalist terrorism as right-wing.
They treat it as a separate ideological category — usually called “religious,” “jihadist,” “Islamist,” or “Salafi-jihadist” extremism.
First, I don't consider myself on "the right". I don't even know what that is anymore. I haven't changed any goalposts.
IMMIGRATION
Yes, crossings dipped during campaign season after years of record highs -- but only under immense pressure. That hardly redeems the policy that created the surge. And as a rule, if politicians change their policy in a reelection year, I'm not going to trust it will continue post election.
Mass immigration, beyond the ability to assimilate, has never polled well in American history and Gallup consistently shows more Americans want immigration decreased than increased.
Biden's policy was willful. There is no question about that. Everything Trump did to reduce border flows in his first term served as a role model that they explicitly chose not to follow. They even stopped building the wall, selling Trump's steel for scrap. They built an app to facilitate asylum requests. Symbolic of reversing enforcement rather than improving it. Their priorities were not in the right place.
MASKED MEN
I opined only on the points I wanted to make, but am happy to address this. As long as you have activists doxxing and harassing the individuals that serve in law enforcement, I have no problems with defensive masking.
As for ICE raids, I support discerning the citizenship of anyone trapped in them through due process. I've yet to hear of a citizen that didn't get due process. I do think the administration is being too aggressive at their attempts to revoke status of long-term visa holders. This has been done, in some cases, for people that haven't committed a crime for decades and are productive, integrated members of society. Although legal to null out their visa and deport them, mercy is best here.
CRIME
To be precise, I said crime "may" be down. We don't know because crime is getting harder and harder to report in major cities, at least here on the West Coast. And many felonies have been transformed into misdemeanors, that get ignored. California's Prop 47 reclassified thefts under $950, and the result has been shoplifting waves that don't show up in felony stats. We don't even arrest people for pissing all over Main Street anymore.
But let's pretend, without an ability to actually know, that crime is down citywide. What matters is individual neighborhoods. If crime was relegated to ghettos that almost nobody seems to care about, that is very different from it emerging in previously safe neighborhoods. You tried to write this off as a perception issue. That isn't what it is. If you can no longer park in your neighborhood without your car window being broken, that is a very expensive fact.
MISCLASSIFICATION
If true that none of the major studies misclassify Muslim anti-semetic attacks as 'right wing', that is great. I've seen critiques raising that concern -- maybe those critiques were wrong.
Do you know how many of those studies counted the violent rioting amidst the BLM protests in Summer 2020 as "left wing violence"? If those riots weren’t counted as left-wing violence -- and I think they largely weren't -- then the standards are inconsistent. My concern is that categorizations aren't applied consistently or in a way that clarifies the real landscape of violence. The "political right" should no more be tarred by neo-Nazi violence, than they "political left" by that from anarchists.
Of course, you're entitled to call yourself whatever you want, but I put to you that you frequently repeat unproven MAGA memes, so you are a 'de facto’ supporter, and in my book, you are rightwing. It really doesn't matter if you voted for Bernie last time or Obama, you’ve swung to the right— hey it happens.
You might protest that you are not a full blown supporter (or maybe you are), but you have accepted the Trump framing of these issues. He is, at heart, an autocrat, he says it openly, over and over again, and in that tradition, he has trained his base well to eschew facts— they’re bothersome and don’t support his extreme allegations. You seem OK with that (there is a certain attraction to having a 'strong man' in power, just ask the average Russian).
For example, no serious person, including Border Patrol folks, thought the wall would keep migrants out nor that Mexico would ever pay for it. It was a marketing ploy that worked wonders with his base. For you now, it is proof positive that Biden was willfully letting millions in illegally. Your one argument to that effect is a blatant bit of MAGA fake news — No, the Biden administration did not create an app to help increase illegal crossings. It was part of a system which by all accounts was successful in decreasing the numbers of illegal crossings. The app allowed for an orderly system where where asylum seekers were given a number and had to wait for their court date— outside the US. The part that is not mentioned by the right, is that it immediately disqualified you if you were known to have crossed illegally. This was a way to ensure that people had a vested interest in ‘waiting their turn in line’ which is what many on the right presumed to want. You might think it was terrible policy — but again your premise is there was a willful desire to let millions of migrants in — Trump has anchored you in a false premise and you have bought it lock, stock and barrel.
Mind you, you like Trump’s results at the border. He has gotten results which you approve of through implementing a reign of terror with masked men without warrants throwing suspects into a van and shipping them off to Rwanda. I put to you that, if left to your own devices, neither you nor Taibbi would have devised such a system, which can do lasting harm to all of our due process rights, but you think the ends justify the means, and you are unwilling to speak up. History show us that is a slippery slope. They say the trains ran in very orderly fashion under Mussolini.
Same with Federal boots in city streets. Crime is down and governors don’t ask for them. Would you six months ago, when the crime numbers were about the same have said, ‘Hey, yes the crime rates are down in Portland and in DC, the people are not clamoring for law and order at the expenses of their constitutional rights, the governors aren’t either— let’s send in the National Guard in against their will!!’ I doubt it, but you’re willing to hitch your wagon to the Trump train now. There is a certain frisson that power produces in men— 'Now, here is someone doing something, finally!' But your framing around crime is still the very nebulous one where you acknowledge it is down, but you say somewhere, some people feel unsafe so you feel draconian measures are necessary. Trump knew as much so he told people Haitians were eating their pets. Fox knows this so they show their viewers riot porn from two years ago. Ultimately, you now own these actions by Trump. You can't pick and choose— the attempt to put a crony at the Fed to do his will, the unprecedented use of DOJ to settle personal scores, the firing of the head of labor statistics when you don't like the numbers — this is the classic formula used by autocrats on the Left and Right — Putin, Peron, Orban and, yes, Trump. Those societies didn't push back, and look what they got. But hey, maybe that is what you want after all.
What? What facts are these? You are "captured" by liberal media, dude! Now, if there were no deportation orders, but you are here are illegally, you are a criminal. Full stop. You entered our country illegally. Now, documented are released. And, there is a reason ICE agents are masked. So, we can only assume that you are for the murder of ICE agents and their families. Cannot arrest illegal immigrants, but you can kill ICE agents who are American citizens. You argue that due process is for all Americans. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT AMERICAN CITIZENS. CAN YOU EVEN FORM A REAL ARGUMENT WITHOUT CONSULTING MSNBC OR CNN? No, you cannot.
You’ve bought into the ‘shoot first ask questions later tactics’ of the Right— or in this case round up someone who looks a little different, who looks un-American, who has a different accent. Throw them in an unmarked van, don’t tell their wife and children who are waiting for them at home. Drag them down to Alligator Alcatraz, maybe even fly them off to a jail for hardened criminals in Rwanda. And if you made a mistake and they have legal documents to be here? Well double down and fight it in court. This is happening in America now. You are OK with it, I am not.
Nope. The racist shit is not going to work anymore. People are detained and released every single day by the police. Are you as outraged about that? No.
The people they are sending to Uganda are people who have broken laws either in their country or ours of such magnitude that justice is finally being done.
Please tell me who is Alligator Alcatraz who is a documented legal immigrant. Name just one.
Racist shit? Judges are having trouble keeping up with the unlawful arrests, but since you asked:
According to UC Berkeley Law School - 3,600 United States citizens have been arrested by ICE unlawfully.
About 88,000 families containing U.S. citizens have been affected.
Latinos comprise 93% of individuals arrested though they only comprise 77% of the undocumented population in the United States.
Just last week, an Afghan man who was here legally and who risked his life helping US troops, Sayed Nasser, was released after spending over 100 days in detention.
THANK YOU!.....smug-I-know-people/so boring Walter is reprehensible in his apparent support of dragging people off the street with zero due process to deport them to random countries and Matt is becoming infuriating in his efforts to avoid everything Israel.......can't wait for my unsub request to kick in...especially when there are so many other actual journalists to support...Chris Hedges, Caitlin Johnstone, Max Blumenthal et al.
The other journalists/commentators you mention cover little else BUT Israel/Palestine. And, except for Blumenthal, they ignored an issue important to many of us: the Covid abuses and lies that ruined millions. So...you want journalism that only covers matters close to you and in the manner that you prefer? Here's a hint: you can follow more than one report at a time to address the different issues you wish to follow.
Exactly. And just like the US political landscape can include TWO bad parties with TWO bad candidates ... no matter party affiliation. BOTH US parties are awful and care nothing about their constituents, especially once elections have concluded. Voters, directed like oxen with rings in their noses, choose their 'team' and spend their lives hating on members of the other 'team'. I don't know, it just seems so obvious to me that this is all by design and the majority of Americans are falling for it.
the point you are missing: Israel is not some side issue in US politics...it infests every area including the $$$$ sent to support and arm rather than build and provide domestically.....there was a time when Matt would deep dive this issue but now he refuses to touch it on any level.......
I am not missing any point. Of course Israeli influence in the US is substantial enough as to be overwhelming. Same with all things surrounding the pandemic: coordination throughout government to include lies about EVERY aspect of the messaging, the enforcement, the 'science', etc. Everyone was affected to some degree if not to total ruination. Worldwide. To compare its 'importance' vis à vis Israel would be splitting hairs. And Matt has indeed touched on the matter, just not perhaps strong enough for you. You know where to go to get Israel coverage (pro- and con), so go there. Matt Taibbi cannot be all things to all subscribers nor should he be expected to be.
Holy f*ck, leave the MAGA post-fact bubble, man. It seems like you have a bad case of TDS- Trump Delusion Syndrome. Not even Matt Taibbi buys your J6 conspiracies— Trump owns that, he organized it, he had the Proud Boys invited, he put out all of the dog whistles, he sat down with a cheeseburger and fries and watched it on TV. Own it.
Matt says let’s bring balance by showing Trump lying about Portland. Walter’s response, “Have you been to Portland lately.” This exemplifies the problem with this show. Walter can’t own that he’s been jerking off the wrong jerk and Matt lets him get away with it. Federalizing ICE—whose budget dwarfs all other law enforcement agencies have enough in their budget along to offer $50k sign on bonuses but have to bring in federal agents to protect them. Come on, that’s just fucking ridiculous. Add that they are heavy handed masked agents and there is no equivalent comparison. Walter is dead wrong. And my guess is anyone who agrees hasn’t actually read Project 2025, like I’m sure Walter hasn’t. Suddenly free speech warriors don’t mind big government going into cities (all blue, except perhaps Memphis) without anyone asking them to. I despise the Dems, but the neglect of truth coming from Walter is just asinine. Turns out people voted for Project 2025 after all.
They've been masked since the beginning. Yet, that is the myth going around that it is "for their safety." Still, like hiding behind a screen on social media, or hiding behind a avatar, they are not being held accountable and therefore are heavy handed and in some ways just cruel (again, like on social media). With their unmarked cars, lack of name tags or badge numbers, they can do whatever they want without any accountability. It erodes trust even further and will only escalate more quickly and violently. Resistance is part of what makes our country tick. LEOs have to have thick skin at protests, and they are trained to do so. Are ICE agents? Remember Republicans invented "obstructionist politics" under Obama and are now blaming Dems when they don't go along with their every move. I loathe the Dems, but see Trumpism as a dangerous and degrading alternative.
Matt often lets Walter interrupt him while nodding in compliance....why is Walter even here to discuss anything? his smug arrogance is so boring/annoying ...enough to question Matt's actual opinions which seem to have moved to the right...
I would see the world like you if I drowned myself in mainstream media reporting - but I don't thank heavens- I drown myself in independent reporting so I can gain perspective on the business of ICE. ICE agents don't need a warrant to arrest an illegal immigrant - at least arm yourself with some basic facts- if you don't like what ICe is doing you should lobby your legislatures to change the laws passed by congress making illegal immigration a crime and enforceable by ICE.
Biden also let in more illegal immigrants than either Obama or Trump. And if crime is down- hurray… but if people are still being murdered- let’s fix it!
Please stop trying to get us to drink your toxic political propaganda. Matt and Walter are the most balanced journalists. Matt is more left and still reluctant to report all the facts he knows and Walter is more right and very well informed. Together they make a great team.
lol, by ‘trying to get us to drink your toxic political propaganda,’ do you mean expressing dissent? Guess what? You’re entitled to rebut what I’ve written. I won’t fee hurt. I’m struck by how terribly thin-skinned Matt’s readers are.
If you truly paid attention to racket youd hear them both say its not a journalists job to insert their political opinion into every single news story possible- they crack jokes on them types all day
Buckle up stick around, you might end up with your first 3 chest hairs
OMG! Where have You been?! They have been populists for years and are just seeing the same mindset in some of Trump’s policies and MAGA. They have always been encouraging that - Walter more than Matt.
Matt was always a liberal populist and his time in Russia obviously inured him to the totalitarianism of communism and the corruption of unfettered capitalism. I had followed him even before the Twitter Files and knew there were few better journalists to uncover that. To see the transformation of guys like him and Greenwald, Jimmy Dore, and Kim Iversen has been encouraging and has brought me to a more moderate populism myself (from libertarianism).
I would have a bid that they need a third Voice so this doesn’t become a self flagellating echo chamber. They, just like the media outlets that they constantly critique, pick and choose what they wanna focus on which is often deeply steeped and predetermined bias. Even when attempts to bring balanceto a story or opinion, Walter immediately shoots it down almost every single time in favor of Trumpism.
The notion that Trump is an exemplar of economic populism is beyond laughable, unless you mean, in the same way that Putin is one or Mussolini was… everything indicates that Trump is trying to implement a Russian style economy where all guard rails are dismantled, and every decision goes through the ‘strong man’ and if you don’t comply you get tossed out of a window, sometimes figuratively, and sometimes literally. Trump’s only policy seems to be regressive tax breaks that overwhelmingly favor the super wealthy while giving crumbs to ordinary Americans and dismantling any semblance of health care or benefits for the most needy.
The motivation for the opposition to ICE is purely political. The Dems have nothing else but opposition to Trump. They poll and see results that say their voters want to see them be more aggressive in opposing Trump. That's it. That's their entire plan to win election. With the universal support of an eager news media, convince the world that Trump is a fascist, an Authoritarian, a threat to democracy, which then justifies anything and everything they do to oppose him. The News Media, The Protestors, and The Democrat Party are all one in the same
Most of these so-called blue states, if you look closer, are supported by the Big Cities for the pro-immigrant stance. Get out of those cities, and things get decidedly redder. So, if they try secession, they’re likely to get quarantined by those outside of those cities, politically or physically.
And where do the farmers get their equipment, fuel, and data for weather? This is a stupid discussion. The cities need the rural areas and the rural areas need the cities.
The farmers grow the crops, which are then processed into food. Many of the major food companies have plants in urban areas. General Mills has some big facilities in Minneapolis. So that's another angle.
Sure, industrial production food, which in a crisis situation such as we’re discussing here has a seriously vulnerable supply chain. Small rural farms and ranches do still exist however. For now anyway…
It's not a stupid discussion. Such things have happened, as in Cambodia and China. You're completely correct that big cities and outside of big cities are completely dependent on each other, but the lag effect of the dependencies are different. A city turns into chaos within a few days if the food supply is cut, whereas rural areas can stagger on a bit further. Food supply does come from the rural areas but on the other hand, the whole food distribution network is highly centralized, with the big cities being a big part of it.
I mention that only because the various blue states are murmuring about secession, or at least about disregarding federal law. Why couldn't a similar phenomenon happen at a more local level, between these blue states big cities and the outlying areas? Both scenarios are disastrous, but that doesn't prevent them from happening.
I hope you guys address the Free Press announcement today. I know you talked about it before, but I'd love to hear your reaction to the presser they put out.
Interesting the horrific carnage in Gaza is well documented, we're about to get into yet another mideast war over purported nuke program on behalf of an (extremely troublsome) "ally" that already has nukes (and shouldn't) and yet neither Matt nor Walt can muster enough curiosity to correct their professed ignorance on such topics. But I'm glad Matt's take on Bari Weiss is her impressive ability to get things done with a few phone calls.
It’s so weird watching them studiously avoid the Israel subject when it has so many implications to so many news stories they talk about. I listen now out of anthropological fascination just to see when the dam’s going to break and they can’t avoid it anymore.
I love Matt and Walter but don’t see how they can be so ambivalent about Israel’s conduct in Gaza. To me, just looking at the kill ratio between Palestinians and Israel is enough to decide. Hard to know, but it’s got to be around 100:1.
There was mention of large groups of military aged Chinese men with their own buses and organized encampments at the Darian gap. The Chinese have also purchased large tracts of land, some of it near military bases. And how they use farmland could impact our food supply
Here in Illinois, it is not called tax, we have to “register” every vehicle/boat/trailer/etc every year. Sometimes, the fee can increase a lot year-to-year. Democracy!
I would be interested in hearing Matt and Walter discuss President Trump's National Security Directive NSPM-7. According to Ken Klippenstein's Substack, the directive "is a sweeping policy decree for the defense, foreign policy, intelligence, and law enforcement apparatus."
According to the Directive, which is available on the White House website, these federal organizations should be on the lookout for "anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity" conduct as well as "hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality"
Perhaps Matt and particularly Walter can explain to us why we shouldn't be worried about this Directive.
I grew up in a sanctuary city and historically the idea was that when (for example) a Cambodian intellectual arrived in your town and Pol Pot demanded his extradition, and the US tried to comply, a network of sanctuary activists would hide and protect the refugee from a future of certain torture and death. The Ecuadorean embassy provided sanctuary for Julian Assange under great pressure from the UK and US governments.
Protecting violent criminals at the physical and financial expense of the people who were born and raised in your city is a complete corruption of sanctuary. I know not everyone being deported is a violent criminal, but they are also not at risk of violent reprisal in their home countries. It bothers me that nobody mentions what sanctuary originally meant. We let them redefine words without pushing back.
I don't even care whether they're violent criminals.
If they're here illegally, they need to get out, and try coming back in the correct way.
I've known too many legal immigrants who filed all the papers, paid the money, took the classes, and did it right, to just shrug off those who drifted across the border and now expect to be coddled.
I don’t like how either side is handling ICE issue. 1. We had an issue with illegal
Immigrants, so act on it. 2. Stop talking about what you’re doing as a country and act on it. You don’t need to brag about how many illegals you deport. Just do your job and let MOST (not all) depart with dignity. 3. Violent criminals and/or distributing drugs should by an auto deportation
compare the current Matt with the one that worked with Katie Halper/Useful Idiots, wrote a pile of excellent books which challenged the status quo at every turn....no, not the same person......he's been compromised/fear......where's the outrage about people being dragged off the streets with zero due process and deported to random countries....add this to zero crit of Israel and its hold on everything US ....America This Week has become irrelevant and infuriating....
SUZ - You're being completely dishonest and hyperbolic when you write about ". . . people being dragged off the streets with zero due process . . ." If you were honest you would say 'illegal aliens' instead of 'people.' They chose to enter this country by illegal means--ignoring its laws--so their continued presence is unlawful and makes them subject to immediate deportation.
It's a bit rich to blatantly ignore due process to gain illegal entrance to this country and then plead due process to prevent legal deportation. Not to mention that it's a slap in the face to foreigners who make a good faith effort to become a resident alien/citizen by respecting and abiding with U.S immigration laws.
right.....ICE breaking down doors in the middle of the night and dragging people out of their beds is perfectly reasonable and doesn't remind anyone of historical Fascistic behavior at all......
calling people illegal aliens is designed to dehumanize....the US/empire contributes to mass immigration by invading/sanctioning/CIA undermining other countries particularly South/Central America....immigrants often pay taxes and social security into a system they will never collect from....the propaganda is designed to put blame on immigrants rather than the billionaire elite who are busy profiting off the working class.....
I beg to differ. I am a US citizen who has chosen to live in another country ... and to do so legally. I am a legal alien. Were I not a legal resident here, I would be called an illegal alien. Nothing is designed to dehumanize. The words reflect reality. Yes, US policy has allowed it to justify taking enormous advantage of developing countries ... so have the policies of other colonizers throughout history. That doesn't justify the victims of said policies to commit further illegalities by entering the US illegally. But your point about US employers being given a free pass is also true. There is PLENTY of illegal behavior to go around, one does not cancel or justify the other.
Both are guilty. Politicians and employers who benefit from illegal immigration. But we are here and now: The invasion was indeed a recruitment, a strategy and a facilitation to displace American culture and citizens with unvetted people who have no experience or understanding of our language, history, Constitution, etc. This ensures a Democrat constituency forever- undocumented Democrats. It has resulted in murder, rape, assaults and untold crimes against our nation. We are now suffering a Constitutional crises and a still unofficially named civil war. These invaders must go.
the constitutional crisis is found in ongoing efforts to eliminate the first amendment, censor criticism of Israel by weaponizing antisemitism and abolish due process......neither party works for the working class......both parties work to divide people over cultural issues and crime paranoia to block solidarity that should be aimed at the billionaires who dictate policy.....when you find yourself punching down on those you think are below you chances are you are being manipulated by people above you......
Two companies own the majority of the detention centers and are paid by the bed regardless of the standing of the occupant. The jackbooted pageantry is for voters who wanted mass deportation. Matt has said several times that the way we deport people has been random and cruel for decades. What’s new is the flashiness and exaggerated thuggery
Walter asserts that over 250 federal agents infiltrated the J6 rioters. I have been unable to find any evidence for this. There have been statements from some sources that over 250 agents were called in to quell the riot.
One thing I found strange about the claims that the vast majority of those plainclothes agents were responding to the riot, is I'm not sure why they'd be non-uniformed.
If truly plainclothes, I'm still concerned about their activities even if they arrived after the fact. My guess would be to surveil the crowd, or perhaps provide information about the tenor of the crows from within. I'd like to see them all be interviewed with their experiences put on the public record.
Do these mayors think we are in medieval Europe and they can be city-states? Because if this is the case why am I paying federal taxes and why does my city, county, and state expect to get funds back from the feds?
Thanks for picking Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas! I knew this day would come and I can’t imagine a better time. Looking forward to the commentary. This is the silver lining in the depressing political cloud.
I would be interested in hearing Matt and Walter discuss President Trump's National Security Directive NSPM-7. According to Ken Klippenstein's Substack, the directive "is a sweeping policy decree for the defense, foreign policy, intelligence, and law enforcement apparatus."
According to the Directive, which is available on the White House website, these federal organizations should be on the lookout for "anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity" conduct as well as "hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality"
Perhaps Matt and particularly Walter can explain to us why we shouldn't be worried about this Directive.
If anyone is looking for when Taibbi and Kirn went full-blown propagandist for the Trump agenda, look no further than today. The lies and deception flew fast and furious, starting with the whopper that rigthwing terrorism is neglible in America (everyone from the University of Maryland to the FBI to the CSIS concluded that it was not only a problem but responsible for the majority of incidents from the 1990s until now). Then there was the lie that Democrats are involved in a nefarious plot to open borders to flood our country with migrants. It is well documented that both Biden and Obama have deported more people than Trump. What Trump has acheived has been essentially through suspending due process by having masked men engage in warrantless arrests, thus terrifying documented and undocumented alike. Then there is the Big Lie — that Matt and Walter are fully complicit in — that our cities are awash in crime; it is well documented that it is down, including in the very cities where Trump is sending in the National Guard (and who can forget Taibbi recently having to backtrack in real time as he tried to assert otherwise). The upshot of all of these lies is that Walter and Matt are now full-throated Trump supporters, there's no denying it— they are vocal supporters of the blatantly unconstitutional move of sending federal police into states under false premises and over the objection of governors.
I like peanut butter, do you ski?
We don't love Matt and Walter because they offer hot takes on whatever the algorithm tells us we must all focus on and care about until the next algorithm comes along, but because of the perspective they offer on whatever topic interests them.
I would get more out of Matt and Walter reading and offering their perspectice on a phone book than the rest of the media combined barfing out Israel-Gaza hot takes. You can get that literally everywhere 24/7. Why are you perpetually upset that you found a place on the internet where that is not the constant focus?
If it bothers you so much, look anywhere on youtube, or focus on the book club. That's my favorite part of the program anyway.
Wright can't ignore Walter and Matt, because he is committed to "Countering the lucrative right wing disinformation industry." It gives meaning to his life.
The fact he references "lucrative" lends credence to my suspicion he is paid actor.
Sorry to disappoint, you're welcome to send me a check if you like, but alas no one pays me (what might be confusing you is that I try to make coherent arguments, not the usual gibberish).
Hall Monitor Bookwench has no actual arguments she can muster, so she resorts to trolling someone she calls a ‘troll,’ hmmmm. Nothing irritates her as much as dissent!
Dissent is all we get from the corporate media.
Am I too stoned or did the original comment by The Wright Stuff not mention Israel or Gaza even once?
Was there an earlier version that includes this topic or is Subman on an unhinged rant about something that TWS didn't even mention?
Andrew, I don’t know. I usually just skim right over Wright’s posts. It’s possible.
Where in the comment do they mention Israel/Gaza at all? What the hell are you even talking about? They wrote two paragraphs on the topic of the show. Did they edit it out or are you actually the one bringing up Israel/Gaza?
Please don't feed the troll.
How many people would Obama have deported if the left had given him the same treatment as they are giving Trump? How many judges threw up blocks to his deportations?
apparently you have no problem grabbing people off the streets and deporting them to random countries with zero due process.....when you find yourself pushing down on people you see as below you chances are you are being manipulated be those above you....in this case blaming immigrants for what's wrong with the country is designed so that you won't blame the billionaires.....
Really? Do you not think that if there was no due process the democrats would be in front of a judge stopping the deportations?
People who have had their day in court and now have a deportation order have HAD THEIR DAY IN COURT!
What makes you think I look down on anyone? Whose Identity do you think illegals are using? Poorer people who don't have the resources to protect their id. They aren't going to use yours are they. So I assume you are looking down on poor American citizens who don't have your resources. You haven't lost out on a construction job to an illegal have you.
It is very easy for you to spout the dem "compassion" blurb because the jobs, housing, education overcrowding don't affect you.
Sorry if my concern for American citizens gets in the way of your virtue bat signal.
ask yourself this question: why is the US political focus always on the illegal worker and never the employer who hires people/often for less than minimum wage?....what do you think would happen at the border if employers were arrested for hiring illegals and the only people permitted to work were citizens?
Agree that they should also be arresting those who knowingly hire illegal aliens, but the fact is, many of these illegals are using stolen identities, and fake social security numbers.
Illegal aliens are hurting those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, by taking low-skilled jobs, or even skilled jobs (in construction, for instance) from US citizens or legal residents. They are contributing to the lack of available affordable housing. Many of them send a large amount of their wages back home, so they aren't even helping the local economy as much as their champions claim.
Whose political focus?
The collapse of citizenship is purposeful. The government, mainly Republicans, eliminated the draft because the draft fueled the anti-war movement. Half the people pay no taxes, because they are poor, and a few pay no taxes because they own the government.
Both Democrats and Republicans want to keep the focus on domestic, divisive issues, whether abortion, guns, immigration, LGBT yada-yada, because they are mostly united on foreign policy. except when Trump makes very timid efforts toward peace, and then they bitch about it.
Trump has negotiated with Hamas through intermediaries, Russia, China, Rwanda, Saudis, Qatar and the Houthis.
The Republicans suck in about 100 different ways, but the Democrats are worse right now.
More than one thing can be true; Bernie, Kuchinich, the Squad and others can be right about wealth inequality; and Rand Paul and Ron Paul can be right about civil liberties.
The more dedicated leftists know - because they've gone to jail - that we need both social democracy and libertarian ideas.
Actually, there was a huge bust in LA recently, wasn't there?
Absolutely, all of the employers who knowingly hired illegal immigrants should be thrown in jail. But the border isn't really an issue anymore, that's been largely dealt with. It's all of the people already in the country illegally that are the issue now.
If you crack down on their employers, how many illegal immigrants will choose to self deport, and how many will want to stay and therefore be forced to turn to crime to support themselves. I don't know, but when you're dealing with millions of illegal immigrants, you could potentially create an even bigger problem that way, unfortunately.
Some do have their day in court .. and some don't ... if it was just illegals being sent back where they came from, the people who protest everything would still protest, but the protests would have less roots and less support ... but it's more than that ...
Doesn't make it wrong to deport illegals (while still treating them like humans ...), and doesn't make it right to throw rocks at cars of federal workers trying to drive home ...
But there have been innocent people grabbed, and not just "deported" with no due process, but sent to hellish places ...
It's fair enough to mention that ...
https://anotherbetrayedliberal.substack.com/p/context-catastrophes-and-selective
Illegal immigrants are able to be deported simply because they are here illegally.
Fair point ... and extremely important ... it's not true that all that's happening is "the worst of the worst" are behind bars and migrants who snuck in are sent back where they came from, yet treated like human beings ...
That is happening, but it's also innocent people caught up in it ... and that's important to mention ... the tantrums in the streets, though, don't seem any way to be taken seriously ... it perpetuates the cycle of blaming everyone in a group for what some did, and on and on ...
Reposting a comment I left at Coffee & Covid the other day ~
"(Please don't misunderstand, I'm *not* excusing Antifa violence in any way. I'm not excusing the kind of people who beat up journalist Andy Ngo, call people in red hats Nazis, destroy local businesses in the name of absurd hypocrisy, and regularly call for murder.) But if ICE stuck to Deporting Illegal migrants - deporting meaning sending them back to the countries they came from, and imprisoning violent criminals after fair due process - then protests against them would have as much sense as supporting men in women's sports or encouraging teen girls who don't like wearing dresses to cut off their breasts.
But when deportation of illegals is mixed in with deporting people here Legally, perhaps for the "crime" of criticizing the foreign country that actually runs the US (even Charlie Kirk observed that Israel bullies the Trump administration and was becoming more skeptical in his last days ... interesting timing) ...
And when locking up violent criminals is mixed with locking up random guys with tattoos, perhaps identified by AI(?), who are innocent, with no due process ...
There becomes real reason to protest that. Not in the way Antifa thugs are protesting, but, just sayin, there's awfulness on both sides.
In a sense, there's a similar thread, although I'll concede Antifa are more mentally unstable. Each "side" sees something done that Is a moral outrage - on one side, it's the reality of brutal crimes done by illegal migrants, rapes, murders, fentanyl, and then innocent people who look like other people are lumped in with the "bad guys".
On the other side, it's the reality that sometimes people who did nothing wrong and didn't even come illegally are chained in CECOT, or someone like Rumeysa Ozturk is detained for co-writing a calmly worded op-ed - so the protestors, full of too much misplaced rage, take out their anger on anyone working for ICE, and federal workers who want to help public safety are in fear for their lives and their families - to the protestors, everyone working for ICE is one and the same.
It's messed up all around, I'm not excusing violence or smashing things or being insane, but this quote from CJ Hopkins, political satirist /author, who was sued by the German gov't for tweeting his book cover (with a faint Nazi symbol on a surgical mask, to make the point of the totalitarianism of COVID), whose principles don't change depending on who is in the White House, makes sense -
"Since so many people seem to have forgotten, due process is not enshrined in the US Constitution because the framers wanted to be nice to monsters. It is there because the framers wanted the new nation to operate according to the rule of law, not according to the will of tyrants, whose excuse for tyranny is always 'the monsters'“- CJ Hopkins, “The War on Whatever”
https://anotherbetrayedliberal.substack.com/p/context-catastrophes-and-selective
And this brilliant short skit from JP Sears says it well, who I give much credit to for being a strong Trump supporter for a long time, yet still willing to criticize the current administration, makes sense - each side feeds the other for the ultimate goal of taking our freedoms. (Nothing so far has topped the atrocity of "jab or job", and as Matt Taibbi attests to, censorship was worse under "Biden", but the direction we're going in is still totalitarian technocracy, just in the name of safety from violence instead of safety from virus.) ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUGIp7Lk8-c
"When politicians serve the same Master" (It may not seem like it, as each party has different stated goals and talking points and votes, but looking a few levels through, it likely is the same master)"
It's possible to respect that open borders and the gov't being "Uber drivers for the cartels",, as Tulsi Gabbard said, is all sorts of messed up, and respect law enforcement as human beings and also point out sometimes innocent people are lumped in with gangsters, disappeared from their people, and not treated like human either ...
How to change that cycle? ...
I don't see change on the horizon...the democrats work hardest against progressives and neither party supports the working class ..... the US is now normalizing a police state, control of US media is being purchased by Zionists and academic universities have caved to fascist pressures to censor and obey instead of organizing in solidarity......what would change this very heavy agenda?......the currently divided and conquered populace struggling to survive and now at the mercy of major corruption would have to somehow unite and demand.....will this happen?......things will get much worse before anyone asks this question...
The seeds of all this, like repealing Posse Comititus Act were sown in Bush Cheney, and 90% of the Democrats were all-in. The history of Posse Comititus is an eye-opener; it involved a disputed election and the end of Reconstruction.
Quick, there’s actual dissent on these pages! Ignore the dissenter lest he burst our bubble of unanimity!
Hey suck a dick u choose to listen so Fuck off!!
The “troll’s” comment is getting more support from the audience of the very substack they are “trolling” than you are.
Who’s the troll?
A lot of that violence data is bogus. For example, some of the datasets count Islamic attacks as "right wing". I wish someone would sweep that data and give it proper categorization.
Too many groups create statistics to buttress their preconception or desired outcomes. Everyone is out there gaming people.
As for deportations -- my understanding is that the numbers bandied about generally include include extremely recent arrivals. So, if you welcome all of the Americas to walk up north and declare asylum, you'll also have more deportations. Simply the wrong metric to use. The fact is that Biden in particular permitted the industrialized abuse of our asylum system, leading to vast numbers of non-Americans to enter the country -- over the objections of the majority of the populace.
Crime numbers are also deceptive. Crime may be down, but it is now oft organized via the internet and impacting parts of the cities that used to be safe. It used to be mostly constrained to the ghettoes.
Also, here in California some crime as been changed to "not crime". Stores get ripped off all the time and there is nothing the police do, so shopkeepers suck it up until they close shop. You don't find that in the crime stats, but it impacts everyone.
Virtually all academic and think tank institutes have been captured by special interests and generate data to support advance the agendas of special interests. Case in point, my medieval Japanese history prof was up for tenure in the East Asian History department at an Ivy - published two good books, publications out the wazoo, only one Japanese medievalist in the department. About that time, a big chunk of money showed up from ? and the Sino Studies folks got a whole lot more funding, and showed my prof the door. Couldn't believe it.
Everybody seems to be weaponizing everything in their battle to define reality.
That's the reason we are devolving into a world where the sanest thing is to "choose your own reality". At least then you live in your own myth, as opposed to someone elses.
At some point the Right realizes the facts are not on their side and just, excuse my French, make sh*t up. With Biden — the accusation by Matt and Walt is NOT that they mismanaged the migrant crisis but that they willfully opened the floodgates. That is classic changing of the goalposts by you (by the way, migration was declining precipitously in the last year of Biden). You never responded to the thornier issue that Trump has achieved his ‘results’ through warrantless arrests by masked men that are capturing documented and undocumented alike, with repercussions for due process for all Americans — presumably you whole heartily agree, right? You can’t have it both ways. Glad that you acknowledge that crime is down, you’ve now moved the goalpost to the squishy argument that some people feel unsafe (no big surprise with the round-the-clock riot porn shown on Fox, and claims by POTUS that migrants are eating their dogs).
And btw, nice try, but no — none of the major studies (FBI/DHS, CSIS, START/UMD, etc.) classify Islamist or Muslim fundamentalist terrorism as right-wing.
They treat it as a separate ideological category — usually called “religious,” “jihadist,” “Islamist,” or “Salafi-jihadist” extremism.
First, I don't consider myself on "the right". I don't even know what that is anymore. I haven't changed any goalposts.
IMMIGRATION
Yes, crossings dipped during campaign season after years of record highs -- but only under immense pressure. That hardly redeems the policy that created the surge. And as a rule, if politicians change their policy in a reelection year, I'm not going to trust it will continue post election.
Mass immigration, beyond the ability to assimilate, has never polled well in American history and Gallup consistently shows more Americans want immigration decreased than increased.
Biden's policy was willful. There is no question about that. Everything Trump did to reduce border flows in his first term served as a role model that they explicitly chose not to follow. They even stopped building the wall, selling Trump's steel for scrap. They built an app to facilitate asylum requests. Symbolic of reversing enforcement rather than improving it. Their priorities were not in the right place.
MASKED MEN
I opined only on the points I wanted to make, but am happy to address this. As long as you have activists doxxing and harassing the individuals that serve in law enforcement, I have no problems with defensive masking.
As for ICE raids, I support discerning the citizenship of anyone trapped in them through due process. I've yet to hear of a citizen that didn't get due process. I do think the administration is being too aggressive at their attempts to revoke status of long-term visa holders. This has been done, in some cases, for people that haven't committed a crime for decades and are productive, integrated members of society. Although legal to null out their visa and deport them, mercy is best here.
CRIME
To be precise, I said crime "may" be down. We don't know because crime is getting harder and harder to report in major cities, at least here on the West Coast. And many felonies have been transformed into misdemeanors, that get ignored. California's Prop 47 reclassified thefts under $950, and the result has been shoplifting waves that don't show up in felony stats. We don't even arrest people for pissing all over Main Street anymore.
But let's pretend, without an ability to actually know, that crime is down citywide. What matters is individual neighborhoods. If crime was relegated to ghettos that almost nobody seems to care about, that is very different from it emerging in previously safe neighborhoods. You tried to write this off as a perception issue. That isn't what it is. If you can no longer park in your neighborhood without your car window being broken, that is a very expensive fact.
MISCLASSIFICATION
If true that none of the major studies misclassify Muslim anti-semetic attacks as 'right wing', that is great. I've seen critiques raising that concern -- maybe those critiques were wrong.
Do you know how many of those studies counted the violent rioting amidst the BLM protests in Summer 2020 as "left wing violence"? If those riots weren’t counted as left-wing violence -- and I think they largely weren't -- then the standards are inconsistent. My concern is that categorizations aren't applied consistently or in a way that clarifies the real landscape of violence. The "political right" should no more be tarred by neo-Nazi violence, than they "political left" by that from anarchists.
Of course, you're entitled to call yourself whatever you want, but I put to you that you frequently repeat unproven MAGA memes, so you are a 'de facto’ supporter, and in my book, you are rightwing. It really doesn't matter if you voted for Bernie last time or Obama, you’ve swung to the right— hey it happens.
You might protest that you are not a full blown supporter (or maybe you are), but you have accepted the Trump framing of these issues. He is, at heart, an autocrat, he says it openly, over and over again, and in that tradition, he has trained his base well to eschew facts— they’re bothersome and don’t support his extreme allegations. You seem OK with that (there is a certain attraction to having a 'strong man' in power, just ask the average Russian).
For example, no serious person, including Border Patrol folks, thought the wall would keep migrants out nor that Mexico would ever pay for it. It was a marketing ploy that worked wonders with his base. For you now, it is proof positive that Biden was willfully letting millions in illegally. Your one argument to that effect is a blatant bit of MAGA fake news — No, the Biden administration did not create an app to help increase illegal crossings. It was part of a system which by all accounts was successful in decreasing the numbers of illegal crossings. The app allowed for an orderly system where where asylum seekers were given a number and had to wait for their court date— outside the US. The part that is not mentioned by the right, is that it immediately disqualified you if you were known to have crossed illegally. This was a way to ensure that people had a vested interest in ‘waiting their turn in line’ which is what many on the right presumed to want. You might think it was terrible policy — but again your premise is there was a willful desire to let millions of migrants in — Trump has anchored you in a false premise and you have bought it lock, stock and barrel.
Mind you, you like Trump’s results at the border. He has gotten results which you approve of through implementing a reign of terror with masked men without warrants throwing suspects into a van and shipping them off to Rwanda. I put to you that, if left to your own devices, neither you nor Taibbi would have devised such a system, which can do lasting harm to all of our due process rights, but you think the ends justify the means, and you are unwilling to speak up. History show us that is a slippery slope. They say the trains ran in very orderly fashion under Mussolini.
Same with Federal boots in city streets. Crime is down and governors don’t ask for them. Would you six months ago, when the crime numbers were about the same have said, ‘Hey, yes the crime rates are down in Portland and in DC, the people are not clamoring for law and order at the expenses of their constitutional rights, the governors aren’t either— let’s send in the National Guard in against their will!!’ I doubt it, but you’re willing to hitch your wagon to the Trump train now. There is a certain frisson that power produces in men— 'Now, here is someone doing something, finally!' But your framing around crime is still the very nebulous one where you acknowledge it is down, but you say somewhere, some people feel unsafe so you feel draconian measures are necessary. Trump knew as much so he told people Haitians were eating their pets. Fox knows this so they show their viewers riot porn from two years ago. Ultimately, you now own these actions by Trump. You can't pick and choose— the attempt to put a crony at the Fed to do his will, the unprecedented use of DOJ to settle personal scores, the firing of the head of labor statistics when you don't like the numbers — this is the classic formula used by autocrats on the Left and Right — Putin, Peron, Orban and, yes, Trump. Those societies didn't push back, and look what they got. But hey, maybe that is what you want after all.
What? What facts are these? You are "captured" by liberal media, dude! Now, if there were no deportation orders, but you are here are illegally, you are a criminal. Full stop. You entered our country illegally. Now, documented are released. And, there is a reason ICE agents are masked. So, we can only assume that you are for the murder of ICE agents and their families. Cannot arrest illegal immigrants, but you can kill ICE agents who are American citizens. You argue that due process is for all Americans. ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE NOT AMERICAN CITIZENS. CAN YOU EVEN FORM A REAL ARGUMENT WITHOUT CONSULTING MSNBC OR CNN? No, you cannot.
You’ve bought into the ‘shoot first ask questions later tactics’ of the Right— or in this case round up someone who looks a little different, who looks un-American, who has a different accent. Throw them in an unmarked van, don’t tell their wife and children who are waiting for them at home. Drag them down to Alligator Alcatraz, maybe even fly them off to a jail for hardened criminals in Rwanda. And if you made a mistake and they have legal documents to be here? Well double down and fight it in court. This is happening in America now. You are OK with it, I am not.
Nope. The racist shit is not going to work anymore. People are detained and released every single day by the police. Are you as outraged about that? No.
The people they are sending to Uganda are people who have broken laws either in their country or ours of such magnitude that justice is finally being done.
Please tell me who is Alligator Alcatraz who is a documented legal immigrant. Name just one.
Racist shit? Judges are having trouble keeping up with the unlawful arrests, but since you asked:
According to UC Berkeley Law School - 3,600 United States citizens have been arrested by ICE unlawfully.
About 88,000 families containing U.S. citizens have been affected.
Latinos comprise 93% of individuals arrested though they only comprise 77% of the undocumented population in the United States.
Just last week, an Afghan man who was here legally and who risked his life helping US troops, Sayed Nasser, was released after spending over 100 days in detention.
THANK YOU!.....smug-I-know-people/so boring Walter is reprehensible in his apparent support of dragging people off the street with zero due process to deport them to random countries and Matt is becoming infuriating in his efforts to avoid everything Israel.......can't wait for my unsub request to kick in...especially when there are so many other actual journalists to support...Chris Hedges, Caitlin Johnstone, Max Blumenthal et al.
The other journalists/commentators you mention cover little else BUT Israel/Palestine. And, except for Blumenthal, they ignored an issue important to many of us: the Covid abuses and lies that ruined millions. So...you want journalism that only covers matters close to you and in the manner that you prefer? Here's a hint: you can follow more than one report at a time to address the different issues you wish to follow.
Kinda like, "more than one thing can be true"?
Exactly. And just like the US political landscape can include TWO bad parties with TWO bad candidates ... no matter party affiliation. BOTH US parties are awful and care nothing about their constituents, especially once elections have concluded. Voters, directed like oxen with rings in their noses, choose their 'team' and spend their lives hating on members of the other 'team'. I don't know, it just seems so obvious to me that this is all by design and the majority of Americans are falling for it.
the point you are missing: Israel is not some side issue in US politics...it infests every area including the $$$$ sent to support and arm rather than build and provide domestically.....there was a time when Matt would deep dive this issue but now he refuses to touch it on any level.......
I am not missing any point. Of course Israeli influence in the US is substantial enough as to be overwhelming. Same with all things surrounding the pandemic: coordination throughout government to include lies about EVERY aspect of the messaging, the enforcement, the 'science', etc. Everyone was affected to some degree if not to total ruination. Worldwide. To compare its 'importance' vis à vis Israel would be splitting hairs. And Matt has indeed touched on the matter, just not perhaps strong enough for you. You know where to go to get Israel coverage (pro- and con), so go there. Matt Taibbi cannot be all things to all subscribers nor should he be expected to be.
Ta ta!
Don't let the door hit ya!
There are labor leftists who oppose illegal immigration, Bernie used to before he was captured.
It lowers wages for everyone in this country, fact.
The Democrats are using it as an election strategy, fact.
The Democrats dont GAF any more about you or the immigrants, only retaining power.
When they were in power, they did scary bat shit crazy stuff to censor the internet and false flags like J6 and the Witmer "kidnapping" plot, fact.
The Democrats, leading the Uniparty, have started more wars in the 21st century than Bush Cheney. Why do you think all the Neocons became Democrats?
FACT: neither party supports the working class and censorship, US hegemony is on every platform
Holy f*ck, leave the MAGA post-fact bubble, man. It seems like you have a bad case of TDS- Trump Delusion Syndrome. Not even Matt Taibbi buys your J6 conspiracies— Trump owns that, he organized it, he had the Proud Boys invited, he put out all of the dog whistles, he sat down with a cheeseburger and fries and watched it on TV. Own it.
Matt says let’s bring balance by showing Trump lying about Portland. Walter’s response, “Have you been to Portland lately.” This exemplifies the problem with this show. Walter can’t own that he’s been jerking off the wrong jerk and Matt lets him get away with it. Federalizing ICE—whose budget dwarfs all other law enforcement agencies have enough in their budget along to offer $50k sign on bonuses but have to bring in federal agents to protect them. Come on, that’s just fucking ridiculous. Add that they are heavy handed masked agents and there is no equivalent comparison. Walter is dead wrong. And my guess is anyone who agrees hasn’t actually read Project 2025, like I’m sure Walter hasn’t. Suddenly free speech warriors don’t mind big government going into cities (all blue, except perhaps Memphis) without anyone asking them to. I despise the Dems, but the neglect of truth coming from Walter is just asinine. Turns out people voted for Project 2025 after all.
I think they're masked because people who disagree with them keep doxxing them and threatening them with violence.
They've been masked since the beginning. Yet, that is the myth going around that it is "for their safety." Still, like hiding behind a screen on social media, or hiding behind a avatar, they are not being held accountable and therefore are heavy handed and in some ways just cruel (again, like on social media). With their unmarked cars, lack of name tags or badge numbers, they can do whatever they want without any accountability. It erodes trust even further and will only escalate more quickly and violently. Resistance is part of what makes our country tick. LEOs have to have thick skin at protests, and they are trained to do so. Are ICE agents? Remember Republicans invented "obstructionist politics" under Obama and are now blaming Dems when they don't go along with their every move. I loathe the Dems, but see Trumpism as a dangerous and degrading alternative.
Matt often lets Walter interrupt him while nodding in compliance....why is Walter even here to discuss anything? his smug arrogance is so boring/annoying ...enough to question Matt's actual opinions which seem to have moved to the right...
I would see the world like you if I drowned myself in mainstream media reporting - but I don't thank heavens- I drown myself in independent reporting so I can gain perspective on the business of ICE. ICE agents don't need a warrant to arrest an illegal immigrant - at least arm yourself with some basic facts- if you don't like what ICe is doing you should lobby your legislatures to change the laws passed by congress making illegal immigration a crime and enforceable by ICE.
Biden also let in more illegal immigrants than either Obama or Trump. And if crime is down- hurray… but if people are still being murdered- let’s fix it!
I hear the trains ran right on time in Rome during WW II. And Pyongyang is supposed to be the safest city in the world.
Please stop trying to get us to drink your toxic political propaganda. Matt and Walter are the most balanced journalists. Matt is more left and still reluctant to report all the facts he knows and Walter is more right and very well informed. Together they make a great team.
lol, by ‘trying to get us to drink your toxic political propaganda,’ do you mean expressing dissent? Guess what? You’re entitled to rebut what I’ve written. I won’t fee hurt. I’m struck by how terribly thin-skinned Matt’s readers are.
Well you’re not talking to a thin skinned woman. I write what I know and see.
Show us all this recent right-wing terrorism. I am not hearing about it.
Are you here just to be unhappy and leave dumpy comments? Theres a place for you its called bluesky
Are your here just to confirm your biases in an endless echo chamber? Is dissent not allowed?
If you truly paid attention to racket youd hear them both say its not a journalists job to insert their political opinion into every single news story possible- they crack jokes on them types all day
Buckle up stick around, you might end up with your first 3 chest hairs
OMG! Where have You been?! They have been populists for years and are just seeing the same mindset in some of Trump’s policies and MAGA. They have always been encouraging that - Walter more than Matt.
Matt was always a liberal populist and his time in Russia obviously inured him to the totalitarianism of communism and the corruption of unfettered capitalism. I had followed him even before the Twitter Files and knew there were few better journalists to uncover that. To see the transformation of guys like him and Greenwald, Jimmy Dore, and Kim Iversen has been encouraging and has brought me to a more moderate populism myself (from libertarianism).
I would have a bid that they need a third Voice so this doesn’t become a self flagellating echo chamber. They, just like the media outlets that they constantly critique, pick and choose what they wanna focus on which is often deeply steeped and predetermined bias. Even when attempts to bring balanceto a story or opinion, Walter immediately shoots it down almost every single time in favor of Trumpism.
You have a valid point.
The notion that Trump is an exemplar of economic populism is beyond laughable, unless you mean, in the same way that Putin is one or Mussolini was… everything indicates that Trump is trying to implement a Russian style economy where all guard rails are dismantled, and every decision goes through the ‘strong man’ and if you don’t comply you get tossed out of a window, sometimes figuratively, and sometimes literally. Trump’s only policy seems to be regressive tax breaks that overwhelmingly favor the super wealthy while giving crumbs to ordinary Americans and dismantling any semblance of health care or benefits for the most needy.
What’s the next book professors?
Enquiring readers need to know! I love all the political sanity, but I confess I'm mostly about the book club.
The motivation for the opposition to ICE is purely political. The Dems have nothing else but opposition to Trump. They poll and see results that say their voters want to see them be more aggressive in opposing Trump. That's it. That's their entire plan to win election. With the universal support of an eager news media, convince the world that Trump is a fascist, an Authoritarian, a threat to democracy, which then justifies anything and everything they do to oppose him. The News Media, The Protestors, and The Democrat Party are all one in the same
Most of these so-called blue states, if you look closer, are supported by the Big Cities for the pro-immigrant stance. Get out of those cities, and things get decidedly redder. So, if they try secession, they’re likely to get quarantined by those outside of those cities, politically or physically.
💯And of course, where do they get their food in those cities? They sure ain’t growing it themselves…
It reminds me of a much grimmer time in Cambodia (Campuchia) when the Khmer Rouge decided the cities were decadent, and cleared them out.
But unlikely to happen.
Meanwhile - a fantastic discussion of big media power grab of new media https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O35plKjkWeY with Emily Jashinsky and Glenn Greenwald.
Much better signal to noise ratio than Matt and Walter who use ATW more and more as a weekly therapy session.
And where do the farmers get their equipment, fuel, and data for weather? This is a stupid discussion. The cities need the rural areas and the rural areas need the cities.
The farmers grow the crops, which are then processed into food. Many of the major food companies have plants in urban areas. General Mills has some big facilities in Minneapolis. So that's another angle.
Sure, industrial production food, which in a crisis situation such as we’re discussing here has a seriously vulnerable supply chain. Small rural farms and ranches do still exist however. For now anyway…
It's not a stupid discussion. Such things have happened, as in Cambodia and China. You're completely correct that big cities and outside of big cities are completely dependent on each other, but the lag effect of the dependencies are different. A city turns into chaos within a few days if the food supply is cut, whereas rural areas can stagger on a bit further. Food supply does come from the rural areas but on the other hand, the whole food distribution network is highly centralized, with the big cities being a big part of it.
I mention that only because the various blue states are murmuring about secession, or at least about disregarding federal law. Why couldn't a similar phenomenon happen at a more local level, between these blue states big cities and the outlying areas? Both scenarios are disastrous, but that doesn't prevent them from happening.
I hope you guys address the Free Press announcement today. I know you talked about it before, but I'd love to hear your reaction to the presser they put out.
Maybe also discuss the purchase of TikTok. Is this an attempt to censor anti-Zionists content?
Interesting the horrific carnage in Gaza is well documented, we're about to get into yet another mideast war over purported nuke program on behalf of an (extremely troublsome) "ally" that already has nukes (and shouldn't) and yet neither Matt nor Walt can muster enough curiosity to correct their professed ignorance on such topics. But I'm glad Matt's take on Bari Weiss is her impressive ability to get things done with a few phone calls.
It’s so weird watching them studiously avoid the Israel subject when it has so many implications to so many news stories they talk about. I listen now out of anthropological fascination just to see when the dam’s going to break and they can’t avoid it anymore.
I love Matt and Walter but don’t see how they can be so ambivalent about Israel’s conduct in Gaza. To me, just looking at the kill ratio between Palestinians and Israel is enough to decide. Hard to know, but it’s got to be around 100:1.
I’m waiting to see when the bubble they’ve put themselves in bursts.
Answer: Duh
There was mention of large groups of military aged Chinese men with their own buses and organized encampments at the Darian gap. The Chinese have also purchased large tracts of land, some of it near military bases. And how they use farmland could impact our food supply
It sounds crazy, but I’ve seen the footage. Strange days indeed.
I saw footage of large numbers of Chinese men coming into the US, standing at parade rest, while they were processed.
Made me wonder if we’d been sold to the highest bidder
No need for a podcast at this point guys. Just come on wearing MAGA hats drinking kool aid.
you sound sooooo sad. maybe Jim Comey will autograph your dildo. that oughta' cheer you up.
Careful troll. Less you make me tell the chat why your wife called me crying about how she loved her dildo more than you
I’m establishing federal tax free zones, community banks and brokerages (no de banking, no taxes)
Hey, if mayors and governors are abandoning federal immigration laws, why not taxes?!
Ha! Someone today posted that if govt was truly shut down, we wouldn’t be having taxes taken from our paychecks/socsec/etc.
Is it true in Virginia you pay tax on certain personal property Every Year?
Yes. You pay property taxes on any and all vehicles, trailers, RVs, etc. every year.
Here in Illinois, it is not called tax, we have to “register” every vehicle/boat/trailer/etc every year. Sometimes, the fee can increase a lot year-to-year. Democracy!
We have to do that as well. Plus pay for an inspection. On top of the vehicle property taxes.
Montana? No sales taxes on vehicles. No inspections.
Wow. Land of Lincoln v. “Sic Semper Tyrannis.” Where did we go wrong.
The Fed and personal income tax both originated in 1913. My money is on that.
Yes, all towns
Walter, Eisenhower ordered in the 82nd Airborne to Little Rock not the National Guard.
It was the 101st, which was an airborne unit back the, but like you, I think Walter was close enough that we all knew what he meant.
Aren’t they both US military?
I would be interested in hearing Matt and Walter discuss President Trump's National Security Directive NSPM-7. According to Ken Klippenstein's Substack, the directive "is a sweeping policy decree for the defense, foreign policy, intelligence, and law enforcement apparatus."
According to the Directive, which is available on the White House website, these federal organizations should be on the lookout for "anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity" conduct as well as "hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality"
Perhaps Matt and particularly Walter can explain to us why we shouldn't be worried about this Directive.
Oh I’m sure they can and it “won’t be as bad as Biden” no matter what.
That’s the stock answer to everything and the reason they don’t bother analyzing or critiquing Trump and his admin.
I grew up in a sanctuary city and historically the idea was that when (for example) a Cambodian intellectual arrived in your town and Pol Pot demanded his extradition, and the US tried to comply, a network of sanctuary activists would hide and protect the refugee from a future of certain torture and death. The Ecuadorean embassy provided sanctuary for Julian Assange under great pressure from the UK and US governments.
Protecting violent criminals at the physical and financial expense of the people who were born and raised in your city is a complete corruption of sanctuary. I know not everyone being deported is a violent criminal, but they are also not at risk of violent reprisal in their home countries. It bothers me that nobody mentions what sanctuary originally meant. We let them redefine words without pushing back.
Illegals are part of the ingroup, regular Americans aren't. I believe that's a big part of it.
I don't even care whether they're violent criminals.
If they're here illegally, they need to get out, and try coming back in the correct way.
I've known too many legal immigrants who filed all the papers, paid the money, took the classes, and did it right, to just shrug off those who drifted across the border and now expect to be coddled.
I don’t like how either side is handling ICE issue. 1. We had an issue with illegal
Immigrants, so act on it. 2. Stop talking about what you’re doing as a country and act on it. You don’t need to brag about how many illegals you deport. Just do your job and let MOST (not all) depart with dignity. 3. Violent criminals and/or distributing drugs should by an auto deportation
Unfortunately, Trump is so full of shit that’s the only way he knows to act.
compare the current Matt with the one that worked with Katie Halper/Useful Idiots, wrote a pile of excellent books which challenged the status quo at every turn....no, not the same person......he's been compromised/fear......where's the outrage about people being dragged off the streets with zero due process and deported to random countries....add this to zero crit of Israel and its hold on everything US ....America This Week has become irrelevant and infuriating....
SUZ - You're being completely dishonest and hyperbolic when you write about ". . . people being dragged off the streets with zero due process . . ." If you were honest you would say 'illegal aliens' instead of 'people.' They chose to enter this country by illegal means--ignoring its laws--so their continued presence is unlawful and makes them subject to immediate deportation.
It's a bit rich to blatantly ignore due process to gain illegal entrance to this country and then plead due process to prevent legal deportation. Not to mention that it's a slap in the face to foreigners who make a good faith effort to become a resident alien/citizen by respecting and abiding with U.S immigration laws.
right.....ICE breaking down doors in the middle of the night and dragging people out of their beds is perfectly reasonable and doesn't remind anyone of historical Fascistic behavior at all......
calling people illegal aliens is designed to dehumanize....the US/empire contributes to mass immigration by invading/sanctioning/CIA undermining other countries particularly South/Central America....immigrants often pay taxes and social security into a system they will never collect from....the propaganda is designed to put blame on immigrants rather than the billionaire elite who are busy profiting off the working class.....
I beg to differ. I am a US citizen who has chosen to live in another country ... and to do so legally. I am a legal alien. Were I not a legal resident here, I would be called an illegal alien. Nothing is designed to dehumanize. The words reflect reality. Yes, US policy has allowed it to justify taking enormous advantage of developing countries ... so have the policies of other colonizers throughout history. That doesn't justify the victims of said policies to commit further illegalities by entering the US illegally. But your point about US employers being given a free pass is also true. There is PLENTY of illegal behavior to go around, one does not cancel or justify the other.
Both are guilty. Politicians and employers who benefit from illegal immigration. But we are here and now: The invasion was indeed a recruitment, a strategy and a facilitation to displace American culture and citizens with unvetted people who have no experience or understanding of our language, history, Constitution, etc. This ensures a Democrat constituency forever- undocumented Democrats. It has resulted in murder, rape, assaults and untold crimes against our nation. We are now suffering a Constitutional crises and a still unofficially named civil war. These invaders must go.
the constitutional crisis is found in ongoing efforts to eliminate the first amendment, censor criticism of Israel by weaponizing antisemitism and abolish due process......neither party works for the working class......both parties work to divide people over cultural issues and crime paranoia to block solidarity that should be aimed at the billionaires who dictate policy.....when you find yourself punching down on those you think are below you chances are you are being manipulated by people above you......
Two companies own the majority of the detention centers and are paid by the bed regardless of the standing of the occupant. The jackbooted pageantry is for voters who wanted mass deportation. Matt has said several times that the way we deport people has been random and cruel for decades. What’s new is the flashiness and exaggerated thuggery
See Orwell’s “Politics and the English Language.” One of his examples of meaningless language was “jackboot.” And here someone is still using it!
I’m sorry but I just can’t watch Katie Halper blather away like some noontime drunk. Useless Idiot would be a better name for her show.
Seems like the exact same Matt to me.
Walter asserts that over 250 federal agents infiltrated the J6 rioters. I have been unable to find any evidence for this. There have been statements from some sources that over 250 agents were called in to quell the riot.
What is the truth? What are the sources?
One thing I found strange about the claims that the vast majority of those plainclothes agents were responding to the riot, is I'm not sure why they'd be non-uniformed.
If truly plainclothes, I'm still concerned about their activities even if they arrived after the fact. My guess would be to surveil the crowd, or perhaps provide information about the tenor of the crows from within. I'd like to see them all be interviewed with their experiences put on the public record.
I'd be less inclined to think something fishy went on if we weren't just hearing about this now.
This is the main problem with the lack of transparency. Infantilizing and beyond frustrating.
You might want to watch the Epoch Times documentary of the J6 event, parts 1 and 2.
https://justthenews.com/accountability/fbi-bombshell-274-agents-sent-capitol-j6-many-later-complained-they-were-political
Notice the cited 270+ agents were deployed AFTER the violence started, according to this article.
And doesn’t that make you wonder why Christopher Wray didn’t just say this in the first place, instead of repeatedly lying about it?
Sure does. Bunch of professional liars.
Thank you - that's interesting
It’s wacko, and he has no source. Disappointing.
Do these mayors think we are in medieval Europe and they can be city-states? Because if this is the case why am I paying federal taxes and why does my city, county, and state expect to get funds back from the feds?
Thanks for picking Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas! I knew this day would come and I can’t imagine a better time. Looking forward to the commentary. This is the silver lining in the depressing political cloud.
I would be interested in hearing Matt and Walter discuss President Trump's National Security Directive NSPM-7. According to Ken Klippenstein's Substack, the directive "is a sweeping policy decree for the defense, foreign policy, intelligence, and law enforcement apparatus."
According to the Directive, which is available on the White House website, these federal organizations should be on the lookout for "anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity" conduct as well as "hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality"
Perhaps Matt and particularly Walter can explain to us why we shouldn't be worried about this Directive.