Hopefully you also discuss H.R. 867 the IGO Anti-boycott act that was opposed by MTG and Massie but pushed by other republicans which would impose jail time up to 20 years and up to a million dollar fine for Americans who take part in boycotts of nations, say like a boycott of Israel, if international governmental organizations (like the UN or EU) advocate those boycotts.
A bi-partisan effort to criminalize speech, protest, and our general freedom of association as Americans, forcing us to comply with U.S. foreign policy goals even in our purchasing habits.
And by the way, that resolution would have expanded the laws already on the books which criminalize Americans taking part in boycotts of nations if other countries which we oppose geopolitically are advocating those boycotts. If you even fail to report a request from a country to boycott a nation that the U.S. favors, say Israel for example, that itself is criminalized.
This is an attempted massacre of our rights, especially free speech. This cannot be ignored.
To my utter lack of surprise, neither of them mentioned this topic despite the fact that the only reason it wasn’t voted on today was due to efforts by Massie, MTG, and a few others.
Apparently neither Taibbi nor Kirn see this as a free speech issue at all. Or perhaps they both stopped caring about free speech as an issue.
Either way, not worth discussing for even five minutes for these two. Much more important to talk about the Luigi musical or cry about a story about strawberries.
You are on point about everything Andrew but I think the bill is only targeting boycotts of Israel. Not just other nations. How fucked up is that? You can still boycott an American company without breaking the law but not Israel. Seems like pretty big news to me.
From what I understand it isn’t about Israel specifically in the language of the bill. The target of a boycott doesn’t determine whether it would be criminal under that new law to support it.
It’s actually whether or not a designated country or international governmental organization (the IGO part of the name of the bill) like the UN or EU is advocating or “in agreement with” said boycott.
If you are found to be “in agreement with” such a country or IGO in your acts of association and your power of purse, then you are violating that law and are subject to imprisonment and fines.
SCOTUS has ruled in the past that boycotts are free speech/ expression. I'm surprised that 38 states have managed to make contracts and jobs unavailable to anyone who supports BDS. The excuse, as always is "national security", though like most of America's military adventures and foreign policies, Israel is just another black hole for money laundering and war profiteering.
Or they have a lot of other things they decide to work on and do not wish to engage with Jew haters such as yourself. You trolls lurk around Taibbi and Kirn articles that you can weasel in some connection to Gaza.
There’s a difference between telling him what to cover and calling him out the hypocrisy. Are we not allowed to criticize? Does it all have to be ass kissing about yet another article about censorship from the previous administration that doesn’t even matter anymore?
Who fucking cares about NPR or the MSM media. They are dying media. Either way, i would say that people getting jailed for boycotts are more important than NPR only doing trans stories. You tell me what is the bigger free speech offense. If Matt is all about speech then he wouldn’t be doing the same story over and over again about how much MSNBC sucks.
Are you for real? Jew hater? What the actual fuck. Are you a ZIONAZI? Are you a Jewish Supremacist? Do you value Israel and Billionaire Zionists ABOVE the Bill of Rights and the Constitution?
It's worth noting, that contrary to your opinion, Israel does not receive the lion share of its support (financial or other) from Jews. It never has. Both the state itself, and the lobbying firms that support it derive the VAST majority of support from evangelical Christians. They always have.
Yes! Zionists are both Evangelical Christians and ATHEISTS. Zionism is not the same as the Jewish religion... or any religion. It's about MONEY.
Greater Israel is Bibi & the Israelis plan, and the USA going to War with Iran is part of this great idea.
There's also untapped Natural Gas resources off the coast of Gaza, so that's another reason for Oligarchs to get excited about "defending the only democracy in the Middle East."
ALL OF THIS... has nothing to do with making American great again or even Okay again! This is ALL ABOUT protecting and moving forward the agenda of ANOTHER COUNTRY.
You are not MAGA nor are you American if you put Another Country ABOVE the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution. You are Israel First, and do not believe in the United States of America..
running burning man: And arses like you pull out “Jaw hater” as if we are scared. What is wrong with a Jaw hater, anyway? Jaws don’t help non-Jaws, no way, no how, and haven’t for centuries if not thousands of years. Jaws help Jaws ONLY. When was the last time you witnessed, or heard about, a Jaw helping a non-Jaw? Never, or so close to never, it being negligible. That is a legitimate reason to hate Jaws, or it just “the behavior” of Jaws we should hate? Jaws are on the hook, non-Jaws are holding Jaws accountable,—for oh so little things like for every Jaw killed in the State of Isrule, twenty Palestinians “get deaded,” and it is because of weapon-disparity, you know, lethal missiles vs. stone-throwing.🖕🏼
Tell me you don't know any Jews without telling me you don't know any Jews.
"Jews" indicate followers of a particular religion. "Zionists" indicate supporters of the state of Israel. One does not imply the other. You would be very surprised how many Jews do *not* support Israel or what it is currently doing (of course, if you actually knew any Jews, you would already know this).
As for helping non-Jews, I do it every day. I'm the only Jew in my orbit. I work with a bunch of Latinos, Arabs, and Black people. I look out for them, and they look out for me. We get along great!
I think that a critical mass of Matt’s audience need to demand that he speak out. As long as he is going to give into audience capture, we may as well be the captors.
Don’t bother speaking out one way or another for the State of Isrule. Isrule rules America. Isrule won’t fall until the USA falls. USA is crumbling, or hadn’t you noticed? Heard of any Maryland bridges that are about to fail and won’t be replaced?
Free speech to both Taibbi and Kirn was always and only shorthand for ‘stupid bigots get to use the n-word and men get to make rape threats and harass women without any consequences whatsoever.’ Neither one of these two assholes ever gave a single molecule of concern about government restrictions on opinions or expression; they did resent it when women called them out for making disgusting misogynistic comments.
Can any of you bigots actually defend Kirn and Taibbi? Show me where either one of them has ever actually defended a real victim of government oppression based on speech? Show me where either one of them has actually NOT been a vicious woman-hater?
Where and when has Matt Taibbi defended a woman?
Where and when has Walter Kirn advocated for increasing women’s autonomy and economic and government power?
Kirn and Taibbi offend me because they only have any kind of a career due to being nepo babies. They live on their fathers’ connections. Millions of better people with better ideas lost out on creative jobs because these two talentless hacks occupied prime real estate.
Annoying you personally and individually makes me happy.
Serious question, what do you want the world to look like? Do you believe in social mobility? Should we teach kids Shakespeare? If so, when and where? What do you with parents who don’t want their kids educated or think marrying girls off at 13 is a good idea?
Taibbi is nothing but a crank. He has no vision for a decent society and is spending his remaining years complaining that women don’t like rape jokes any more. Do you want to live in his world?
NJ Democrat Josh Gottheimer and NY Republican Mike Lawler, and also 20+ other members of the house from both parties co-sponsored it.
It seems to me that this is standard Trump admin behavior and it is absolutely clear that with people like Massie opposing it, and with Trump targeting and feuding with Massie, this could become a point of contention which feeds into the schism growing within the GOP between true America First ideologues like Massie and Israel First sellout traitors like Lawler and, yes, Trump.
Are you guys kidding me? I'm Irish Catholic and laughed my ass off. Walter, your wife got it too. There's nothing better than a Catholic joke (and an Irish joke). The joke is that Prots are offended (who despise the Pope).
Matt Taibbi has swallowed the rotting seed of cowardice, still refusing to mention the genocide in Palestine, and unless he spits it up he'll be consumed. Watch and see if I'm wrong.
I don't really care anymore that Matt is completely neutered on Israel/Palestine, that's not really an issue with the show. The issue with the show is the non-stop slop that it dishes out instead of covering the abuses of the Trump admin towards free speech.
Matt is apparently traumatized and can never seriously criticize Trump again because of how much the media has inappropriately catastrophized him and Walter Kirn is literally a Trump shill who spends every second he can interrupting Matt to tell him why even the slightest concern he may have can be explained away by some kind of elaborate narrative explanation.
It used to be a serious show about serious topics, now all they do is rag on mainstream media and the Democratic party. I don't think they've actually had any problems between the two of them with a single thing Trump has done. At least never a complaint that is registered as they were under the Biden admin.
It's the game of pretending to still be the outsiders fighting the machine when in fact "your guy" is the head of the machine. But people like Kirn think Trump is "their guy."
I think there are enough Taibbi subscribers to force him to take on the issue if we just consolidate our request. If that interests you, follow my Substack (free) and let’s organize the rest!
Tell you what: You've heard my message, now shut me up for good by tacking the issue head on. Why is Matt Taibbi silent about the most important free speech issue going: the silencing and arrest of people protesting the Genocide?
If you haven't figured it out by now, I probably can't help. But I will try. That guy is a one trick pony who seeks attention through engagement on comment boards. Ignoring his (its?) posts takes away the attention his narcissistic personality seeks.
I've been absent on the comment section for a while an am not up to date on the new residents. His posts are in violation of Substack terms and conditions under "repetitive self promotion" and should rightly be banned if he continues. I was trying to be polite before reporting.
Most countries control immigration. If you need a workforce to harvest crops, you can give seasonal VISAs. There is no need for exploitable illegal immigrant slave labor except to make business owners richer.
Pardoning people never found guilty contradicts the presumption of innocence, a fundamental that predates the Constitution. Seems so obvious, but neither side will call it.
The pardon only applies to federal law and while that would be more satisfying to most, states can still prosecute Fauci and people can, and should, sue him for the damages he caused.
All the poorer countries which could not afford the mRNA vaccines did much better with Covid. Probably due to immunological interactions between superior natural infection immunity and the leaky vaccine immunity (possibly as a result of Original Antigenic Sin?) Really surprising how pitiful the science was during Covid (intentional?)
This has become unlistenable. I didn't make it past the first 15 minutes. Walter ruined the show, but Matt went along with it. I've never seen two journalists refuse to criticize power so consistently. Maybe the rest of the show was different, but I doubt it.
My favorite bit was Matt finally mentioning Rümeysa Öztürk, but only to say that we need to take Rubio’s concerns about her suspected terrorism seriously.
He says he gets annoyed because people say she was arrested for an op ed even though the state department says there is more to it.
Well then how about they fucking state what that is and provide a shred of evidence then?
No. Matt thinks that we have to hold open the possibility that this is all on the up and up and we are just being tricked by that clever mainstream media again!
It’s pathetic honestly.
Hey maybe Iraq really DID have WMD and we just didn’t get told the whole story, right Matt?
Truth. And Rümeysa is just one of a number of people rounded up for protesting the Genocide, to say nothing of people shipped to El Salvador just to make an ICE quota.
I think Matt's subscribers need to speak out forcefully and often to compel him to explain himself.
Looking forward to it. Just by chance today I was searching for performances in SF using Grok and it came up with the Mangione play.
This is what it said: Luigi: The Musical is a 60-minute satirical comedy inspired by Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. The musical imagines Mangione sharing a prison cell with Sam Bankman-Fried and Sean "Diddy" Combs at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, exploring themes of "friendship, justice, and the absurdity of viral fame." It uses satire to critique institutions like healthcare, tech, and Hollywood, drawing comparisons to Chicago for its take on celebrity criminals. The show is described as "wildly irreverent" and "razor-sharp," with campy elements like a song about Mangione’s regret over buying McDonald’s hash browns.
Dates: June 13–28, 2025, with five scheduled performances (all sold out as of May 2025). Additional shows may be announced due to demand.
Tourists have stopped going to Santa Monica because of the homeless drugged out people that have shut down 3rd Street… however there used to be a lot of German tourists and Germany has its own share of Crazy that could also be contributing… plus the wildfires destroyed the beaches of Malibu and Santa Monica. And now they are diverting water in wine country by shutting down dams so there goes more tourism, SF lost tourism a long time ago and New York is screwed up so why and where would you go in the US?
Orlando is still popular both for theme parks and cruises. National parks like yellowstone and grand canyon are a pull. Vegas. Pretty much anywhere that didn't commit seppuku via covid lockdowns, defunding the police and electing incompetent DA's is still doing well.
I spent a week in San Francisco last summer. It saddens me how far the state has fallen, and how blind my remaining friends are to the decline. A lot of Californians still have the "flyover country" superiority complex, which is no longer deserved. It's kind of sad to see how small minded these enlightened souls are.
I'm sorry to hear that Santa Monica is no longer a nice place to go to. Is Santa Barbra still nice? Is state street littered with homeless and needles?
Pork chops and lima beans tonight! And they're "Fordhook" lima beans!... I don't know what the hell that means, but Publix charged me a buck more a bag than regular lima beans.
Walter always sees past the obvious simplistic responses of MSM to the context and broader implications of events. I't why it's important to listen to him.
The "Trump as the Pope" meme has been floating around the internet for a while, and particularly loved by Europeans. It was supposed to be a mockery of him, but if he reposts it on his own account then it loses that appeal.
And regarding travel, yes for sure there are plenty of scary US stories and propaganda in the EU press, to the point that Trump will soon help Putin march through Western Europe. This is turning some people away from US tourism, especially those who consume major media.
Hopefully you also discuss H.R. 867 the IGO Anti-boycott act that was opposed by MTG and Massie but pushed by other republicans which would impose jail time up to 20 years and up to a million dollar fine for Americans who take part in boycotts of nations, say like a boycott of Israel, if international governmental organizations (like the UN or EU) advocate those boycotts.
A bi-partisan effort to criminalize speech, protest, and our general freedom of association as Americans, forcing us to comply with U.S. foreign policy goals even in our purchasing habits.
And by the way, that resolution would have expanded the laws already on the books which criminalize Americans taking part in boycotts of nations if other countries which we oppose geopolitically are advocating those boycotts. If you even fail to report a request from a country to boycott a nation that the U.S. favors, say Israel for example, that itself is criminalized.
This is an attempted massacre of our rights, especially free speech. This cannot be ignored.
To my utter lack of surprise, neither of them mentioned this topic despite the fact that the only reason it wasn’t voted on today was due to efforts by Massie, MTG, and a few others.
Apparently neither Taibbi nor Kirn see this as a free speech issue at all. Or perhaps they both stopped caring about free speech as an issue.
Either way, not worth discussing for even five minutes for these two. Much more important to talk about the Luigi musical or cry about a story about strawberries.
Perhaps disappointing but totally unsurprising.
You are on point about everything Andrew but I think the bill is only targeting boycotts of Israel. Not just other nations. How fucked up is that? You can still boycott an American company without breaking the law but not Israel. Seems like pretty big news to me.
From what I understand it isn’t about Israel specifically in the language of the bill. The target of a boycott doesn’t determine whether it would be criminal under that new law to support it.
It’s actually whether or not a designated country or international governmental organization (the IGO part of the name of the bill) like the UN or EU is advocating or “in agreement with” said boycott.
If you are found to be “in agreement with” such a country or IGO in your acts of association and your power of purse, then you are violating that law and are subject to imprisonment and fines.
SCOTUS has ruled in the past that boycotts are free speech/ expression. I'm surprised that 38 states have managed to make contracts and jobs unavailable to anyone who supports BDS. The excuse, as always is "national security", though like most of America's military adventures and foreign policies, Israel is just another black hole for money laundering and war profiteering.
100%
Or they have a lot of other things they decide to work on and do not wish to engage with Jew haters such as yourself. You trolls lurk around Taibbi and Kirn articles that you can weasel in some connection to Gaza.
I'm no Jew hater, and I oppose all foreign aid, but I don't understand why so many commenters feel justified in telling Matt what to cover.
There’s a difference between telling him what to cover and calling him out the hypocrisy. Are we not allowed to criticize? Does it all have to be ass kissing about yet another article about censorship from the previous administration that doesn’t even matter anymore?
Of course the censorship at NPR still matters; Congress is currently debating whether or not to cut all federal aid to NPR.
We are barely 5 months into 2025, and it's really entertaining to see how many people want to act like the previous 4 years never happened.
Who fucking cares about NPR or the MSM media. They are dying media. Either way, i would say that people getting jailed for boycotts are more important than NPR only doing trans stories. You tell me what is the bigger free speech offense. If Matt is all about speech then he wouldn’t be doing the same story over and over again about how much MSNBC sucks.
Are you for real? Jew hater? What the actual fuck. Are you a ZIONAZI? Are you a Jewish Supremacist? Do you value Israel and Billionaire Zionists ABOVE the Bill of Rights and the Constitution?
Cuz that's what you sound like.
Obviously, you aren't an American.
It's worth noting, that contrary to your opinion, Israel does not receive the lion share of its support (financial or other) from Jews. It never has. Both the state itself, and the lobbying firms that support it derive the VAST majority of support from evangelical Christians. They always have.
Yes! Zionists are both Evangelical Christians and ATHEISTS. Zionism is not the same as the Jewish religion... or any religion. It's about MONEY.
Greater Israel is Bibi & the Israelis plan, and the USA going to War with Iran is part of this great idea.
There's also untapped Natural Gas resources off the coast of Gaza, so that's another reason for Oligarchs to get excited about "defending the only democracy in the Middle East."
ALL OF THIS... has nothing to do with making American great again or even Okay again! This is ALL ABOUT protecting and moving forward the agenda of ANOTHER COUNTRY.
You are not MAGA nor are you American if you put Another Country ABOVE the Bill of Rights and the US Constitution. You are Israel First, and do not believe in the United States of America..
running burning man: And arses like you pull out “Jaw hater” as if we are scared. What is wrong with a Jaw hater, anyway? Jaws don’t help non-Jaws, no way, no how, and haven’t for centuries if not thousands of years. Jaws help Jaws ONLY. When was the last time you witnessed, or heard about, a Jaw helping a non-Jaw? Never, or so close to never, it being negligible. That is a legitimate reason to hate Jaws, or it just “the behavior” of Jaws we should hate? Jaws are on the hook, non-Jaws are holding Jaws accountable,—for oh so little things like for every Jaw killed in the State of Isrule, twenty Palestinians “get deaded,” and it is because of weapon-disparity, you know, lethal missiles vs. stone-throwing.🖕🏼
Tell me you don't know any Jews without telling me you don't know any Jews.
"Jews" indicate followers of a particular religion. "Zionists" indicate supporters of the state of Israel. One does not imply the other. You would be very surprised how many Jews do *not* support Israel or what it is currently doing (of course, if you actually knew any Jews, you would already know this).
As for helping non-Jews, I do it every day. I'm the only Jew in my orbit. I work with a bunch of Latinos, Arabs, and Black people. I look out for them, and they look out for me. We get along great!
Here is my take on Matt’s silence on Israel:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-162427092
I think that a critical mass of Matt’s audience need to demand that he speak out. As long as he is going to give into audience capture, we may as well be the captors.
Don’t bother speaking out one way or another for the State of Isrule. Isrule rules America. Isrule won’t fall until the USA falls. USA is crumbling, or hadn’t you noticed? Heard of any Maryland bridges that are about to fail and won’t be replaced?
Free speech to both Taibbi and Kirn was always and only shorthand for ‘stupid bigots get to use the n-word and men get to make rape threats and harass women without any consequences whatsoever.’ Neither one of these two assholes ever gave a single molecule of concern about government restrictions on opinions or expression; they did resent it when women called them out for making disgusting misogynistic comments.
Taibbi and Kirn are both obnoxious bigots.
Shut up Karen
Is your name ironic?
Can any of you bigots actually defend Kirn and Taibbi? Show me where either one of them has ever actually defended a real victim of government oppression based on speech? Show me where either one of them has actually NOT been a vicious woman-hater?
Where and when has Matt Taibbi defended a woman?
Where and when has Walter Kirn advocated for increasing women’s autonomy and economic and government power?
Show us on this doll where Matt or Walter hurt you, Karen.
Otherwise, go make David a sandwich.
Kirn and Taibbi offend me because they only have any kind of a career due to being nepo babies. They live on their fathers’ connections. Millions of better people with better ideas lost out on creative jobs because these two talentless hacks occupied prime real estate.
Oh, what does the “n-word” mean? N-ggers? There, I said it out loud. Ni-gers. Nig-ers. Nigg-rs.😱Oh, I am so afraid.😱Nigge-.
What was the point of this? Did it make you happy to be offensive? I’m serious — why did you think this was so important?
You should know, Karen.
You try your hardest to be offensive every week.
Does it make you happy?
And why are you defending someone who uses the N-word??? What good does this do to anyone?
Annoying you personally and individually makes me happy.
Serious question, what do you want the world to look like? Do you believe in social mobility? Should we teach kids Shakespeare? If so, when and where? What do you with parents who don’t want their kids educated or think marrying girls off at 13 is a good idea?
Taibbi is nothing but a crank. He has no vision for a decent society and is spending his remaining years complaining that women don’t like rape jokes any more. Do you want to live in his world?
I am both surprised and disappointed. I’ve been dismayed they haven’t touched on this topic at all when it directly implicates free speech.
I’ve been told a while ago these guys are not wholly independent and I didn’t believe it. Now, it’s clear. I’ll be unsubscribing.
Who are the sponsors of this bill? Their in-bins need to be relentlessly flooded.
NJ Democrat Josh Gottheimer and NY Republican Mike Lawler, and also 20+ other members of the house from both parties co-sponsored it.
It seems to me that this is standard Trump admin behavior and it is absolutely clear that with people like Massie opposing it, and with Trump targeting and feuding with Massie, this could become a point of contention which feeds into the schism growing within the GOP between true America First ideologues like Massie and Israel First sellout traitors like Lawler and, yes, Trump.
Thank you. (shaking my head.......)
My two cents on Matt’s Israel quietude: https://substack.com/home/post/p-162427092
Now, do you think Matt ever raised this issue in any of his hearings before Congress? Did he ever write about it?
“This cannot be ignored”? You don’t know Matt Taibbi!
Are you guys kidding me? I'm Irish Catholic and laughed my ass off. Walter, your wife got it too. There's nothing better than a Catholic joke (and an Irish joke). The joke is that Prots are offended (who despise the Pope).
The real joke is atheists are offended! (MSNBC)
Matt Taibbi has swallowed the rotting seed of cowardice, still refusing to mention the genocide in Palestine, and unless he spits it up he'll be consumed. Watch and see if I'm wrong.
Why should Matt mention something that does not exist? We got NPR or NYT for that.
I don't really care anymore that Matt is completely neutered on Israel/Palestine, that's not really an issue with the show. The issue with the show is the non-stop slop that it dishes out instead of covering the abuses of the Trump admin towards free speech.
Matt is apparently traumatized and can never seriously criticize Trump again because of how much the media has inappropriately catastrophized him and Walter Kirn is literally a Trump shill who spends every second he can interrupting Matt to tell him why even the slightest concern he may have can be explained away by some kind of elaborate narrative explanation.
It used to be a serious show about serious topics, now all they do is rag on mainstream media and the Democratic party. I don't think they've actually had any problems between the two of them with a single thing Trump has done. At least never a complaint that is registered as they were under the Biden admin.
It's the game of pretending to still be the outsiders fighting the machine when in fact "your guy" is the head of the machine. But people like Kirn think Trump is "their guy."
Vance is Kirn’s guy. He just wants to live long enough to see Vance take control and establish OCP-style corporate fiefdoms.
My own take on Taibbi’s cringing attitude towards Israel:
https://substack.com/home/post/p-162427092
I think there are enough Taibbi subscribers to force him to take on the issue if we just consolidate our request. If that interests you, follow my Substack (free) and let’s organize the rest!
Stop already with the self promotion. Posting your blog once is enough.....
When enough of Matt's subscribers are ready to push him to talk about the genocide my work on earth will be done.
(Why aren't you one of them?)
When you become a spammer, people will tune out the message you seek to amplify. Just some friendly advice, take it or leave it.
Tell you what: You've heard my message, now shut me up for good by tacking the issue head on. Why is Matt Taibbi silent about the most important free speech issue going: the silencing and arrest of people protesting the Genocide?
What a bizarre exchange. I don't know why he avoids the issue, and even if I did know you would not shut up.
If you haven't figured it out by now, I probably can't help. But I will try. That guy is a one trick pony who seeks attention through engagement on comment boards. Ignoring his (its?) posts takes away the attention his narcissistic personality seeks.
He will always have the last word.
I've been absent on the comment section for a while an am not up to date on the new residents. His posts are in violation of Substack terms and conditions under "repetitive self promotion" and should rightly be banned if he continues. I was trying to be polite before reporting.
Strawberries are harvested now, not August. And yeah, let's talk about the bill that shuts down our rights to criticize Israel.
Most countries control immigration. If you need a workforce to harvest crops, you can give seasonal VISAs. There is no need for exploitable illegal immigrant slave labor except to make business owners richer.
Thank you to RFK! I still hope that the pardon of Fauci can be overturned due to Biden’s lack of cognitive ability to make rational decisions.
Pardoning people never found guilty contradicts the presumption of innocence, a fundamental that predates the Constitution. Seems so obvious, but neither side will call it.
The pardon only applies to federal law and while that would be more satisfying to most, states can still prosecute Fauci and people can, and should, sue him for the damages he caused.
All the poorer countries which could not afford the mRNA vaccines did much better with Covid. Probably due to immunological interactions between superior natural infection immunity and the leaky vaccine immunity (possibly as a result of Original Antigenic Sin?) Really surprising how pitiful the science was during Covid (intentional?)
It might have been intentional, but not necessarily. Science is not as hard and fast as most people believe it is.
This has become unlistenable. I didn't make it past the first 15 minutes. Walter ruined the show, but Matt went along with it. I've never seen two journalists refuse to criticize power so consistently. Maybe the rest of the show was different, but I doubt it.
My favorite bit was Matt finally mentioning Rümeysa Öztürk, but only to say that we need to take Rubio’s concerns about her suspected terrorism seriously.
Seriously what the fuck is wrong with Taibbi?
He says he gets annoyed because people say she was arrested for an op ed even though the state department says there is more to it.
Well then how about they fucking state what that is and provide a shred of evidence then?
No. Matt thinks that we have to hold open the possibility that this is all on the up and up and we are just being tricked by that clever mainstream media again!
It’s pathetic honestly.
Hey maybe Iraq really DID have WMD and we just didn’t get told the whole story, right Matt?
Truth. And Rümeysa is just one of a number of people rounded up for protesting the Genocide, to say nothing of people shipped to El Salvador just to make an ICE quota.
I think Matt's subscribers need to speak out forcefully and often to compel him to explain himself.
Love Matt but I’m really here for Walter’s take. Please Walter don’t ever go away
Looking forward to it. Just by chance today I was searching for performances in SF using Grok and it came up with the Mangione play.
This is what it said: Luigi: The Musical is a 60-minute satirical comedy inspired by Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in December 2024. The musical imagines Mangione sharing a prison cell with Sam Bankman-Fried and Sean "Diddy" Combs at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, exploring themes of "friendship, justice, and the absurdity of viral fame." It uses satire to critique institutions like healthcare, tech, and Hollywood, drawing comparisons to Chicago for its take on celebrity criminals. The show is described as "wildly irreverent" and "razor-sharp," with campy elements like a song about Mangione’s regret over buying McDonald’s hash browns.
Dates: June 13–28, 2025, with five scheduled performances (all sold out as of May 2025). Additional shows may be announced due to demand.
Great show as always Matt and Walter!
Tourists have stopped going to Santa Monica because of the homeless drugged out people that have shut down 3rd Street… however there used to be a lot of German tourists and Germany has its own share of Crazy that could also be contributing… plus the wildfires destroyed the beaches of Malibu and Santa Monica. And now they are diverting water in wine country by shutting down dams so there goes more tourism, SF lost tourism a long time ago and New York is screwed up so why and where would you go in the US?
Orlando is still popular both for theme parks and cruises. National parks like yellowstone and grand canyon are a pull. Vegas. Pretty much anywhere that didn't commit seppuku via covid lockdowns, defunding the police and electing incompetent DA's is still doing well.
I spent a week in San Francisco last summer. It saddens me how far the state has fallen, and how blind my remaining friends are to the decline. A lot of Californians still have the "flyover country" superiority complex, which is no longer deserved. It's kind of sad to see how small minded these enlightened souls are.
I'm sorry to hear that Santa Monica is no longer a nice place to go to. Is Santa Barbra still nice? Is state street littered with homeless and needles?
A lot more coming to our neck of the woods! I won't say where it is, since I don't want any more coming here.
Walter - thanks for the heads up that the antisemitism speech bill died on that old tired vine. Thank God!
No thanks to Matt or Walt.
Pork chops and lima beans tonight! And they're "Fordhook" lima beans!... I don't know what the hell that means, but Publix charged me a buck more a bag than regular lima beans.
They have to be good, then!
They're bigger. You can shishkabob them on a fork and get a big mouthful. That's worth a buck more.
I should say so!
The Luigi Musical!
Walter strikes again.
Sure hope Luigi strikes again!
And Palestine right?
Walter always sees past the obvious simplistic responses of MSM to the context and broader implications of events. I't why it's important to listen to him.
The "Trump as the Pope" meme has been floating around the internet for a while, and particularly loved by Europeans. It was supposed to be a mockery of him, but if he reposts it on his own account then it loses that appeal.
And regarding travel, yes for sure there are plenty of scary US stories and propaganda in the EU press, to the point that Trump will soon help Putin march through Western Europe. This is turning some people away from US tourism, especially those who consume major media.
Still can't figure out why anyone still consumes major media.