Michael frequently is called upon to challenge claims people make. The Epstein matter, Swalwell, etc. He's very skeptical of the claims made -- with good cause. How about pointing a little of that skepticism at the peaceful protests in Iran where 45,000 to 55,000 Shah supporters were said to have been mercilessly gunned down. That's the official story. I wonder about that, but at the same time I don't want to get caught up in some kind of mass-delusion conspiracy theory that outs me as a hateful bigot. Maybe Michael can sort it out before I make a fool of myself.
I’d like to see Matt apply his standards for “conspiracy brain” thinking he just wrote an article about to the claimed numbers of dead Iranian protesters. It should have raised a red flag that the number keeps inflating according to his list of heuristics, but he’s never cast doubt on it for some reason.
It’s not so much the size of the number as the history of it. It started out around 5,500 then by February it became 10-30 thousand, then last month Trump said the number is 45-60 thousand.
Matt listed number inflation as a sign of conspiracy brain as well as “the evidence is behind redactions” explanations since all of these numbers are unverifiable and based on claims from people.
This story checks two of the boxes of “conspiracy brain” that he wrote about in his recent article and yet he’s never treated it with any particular skepticism or pointed this out himself.
"one day palantir decided to institute the draft for journalists. Matt Taibbi, ever the populist, had to join the Army. met his demise in Alaska during arctic warfare training. but the irony is, after he got out, a grizzly got him pretty bad in the wilds of new jersey!" the end https://reason.com/2026/04/20/this-big-tech-firm-wants-to-reinstate-the-draft/
MTracey, write some fiction with Matt and recite it to us in the podcast! here, i'll show you how it's done
"one day palantir decided to institute the draft for journalists. several had to report to the marine corps, which unites us all across all political spectrums. and that's when Gunny Sgt Krystal Ball and 1LT Ann Coulter started licking each other's pussies! and MTracey was like nope i'm out, and then he went AWOL but the MPs recaptured him and made him finish out his eight year contract in the forests of Guatemala. but then the DoD did a stop loss on him and he had to stay in for another twelve years until we took over iran and then we did regime change in china. in fact, you'll never believe it, but MTracey led the last bayonet charge in the history of modern warfare! happened on a small mountain range in west china near the himalayas. MTracey lost a few limbs including his incredibly large penis, but he won the China War for us. the tragedy is he never got promoted and had to eat dog shit served on the USS Abraham Lincoln because the Navy cooks had nothing else available, not even Micky Ds!"
Bring back “
America This Week”
let's do a Walter-Matt-MTracey threesome!
The new Racket News format is terrific. The podcast is God-awful. Where did you find this guy--and why?
oh let's not start this again
I'm looking forward to listening to "Today's News" today, a podcast I've enjoyed listening to.
“I’m totally not a bot.”
-John J’onzz
Michael frequently is called upon to challenge claims people make. The Epstein matter, Swalwell, etc. He's very skeptical of the claims made -- with good cause. How about pointing a little of that skepticism at the peaceful protests in Iran where 45,000 to 55,000 Shah supporters were said to have been mercilessly gunned down. That's the official story. I wonder about that, but at the same time I don't want to get caught up in some kind of mass-delusion conspiracy theory that outs me as a hateful bigot. Maybe Michael can sort it out before I make a fool of myself.
I’d like to see Matt apply his standards for “conspiracy brain” thinking he just wrote an article about to the claimed numbers of dead Iranian protesters. It should have raised a red flag that the number keeps inflating according to his list of heuristics, but he’s never cast doubt on it for some reason.
The number (35,000-45,000) is sort of unbelievable, and yet I wouldn’t put it past the Iranian overlords.
It would be good to know. It would warrant a war crimes tribunal.
It’s not so much the size of the number as the history of it. It started out around 5,500 then by February it became 10-30 thousand, then last month Trump said the number is 45-60 thousand.
Matt listed number inflation as a sign of conspiracy brain as well as “the evidence is behind redactions” explanations since all of these numbers are unverifiable and based on claims from people.
This story checks two of the boxes of “conspiracy brain” that he wrote about in his recent article and yet he’s never treated it with any particular skepticism or pointed this out himself.
"I wonder if they're talking about Epstein"
click
They're talking about Epstein
All the top comments are bashing the show which hasn’t even aired yet.
Amazin’
Maybe Michael Tracey constantly interrupting Matt while they talk about Epstein will be interesting and informative this time
I'd have thought this would be done by now. To keep this up is just being stubborn.
disclaimer: this is a work of fiction
"one day palantir decided to institute the draft for journalists. Matt Taibbi, ever the populist, had to join the Army. met his demise in Alaska during arctic warfare training. but the irony is, after he got out, a grizzly got him pretty bad in the wilds of new jersey!" the end https://reason.com/2026/04/20/this-big-tech-firm-wants-to-reinstate-the-draft/
One day palantir decided to draft Walter Kirn. We won, the end.
draft the boomrs
MTracey, write some fiction with Matt and recite it to us in the podcast! here, i'll show you how it's done
"one day palantir decided to institute the draft for journalists. several had to report to the marine corps, which unites us all across all political spectrums. and that's when Gunny Sgt Krystal Ball and 1LT Ann Coulter started licking each other's pussies! and MTracey was like nope i'm out, and then he went AWOL but the MPs recaptured him and made him finish out his eight year contract in the forests of Guatemala. but then the DoD did a stop loss on him and he had to stay in for another twelve years until we took over iran and then we did regime change in china. in fact, you'll never believe it, but MTracey led the last bayonet charge in the history of modern warfare! happened on a small mountain range in west china near the himalayas. MTracey lost a few limbs including his incredibly large penis, but he won the China War for us. the tragedy is he never got promoted and had to eat dog shit served on the USS Abraham Lincoln because the Navy cooks had nothing else available, not even Micky Ds!"