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The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, Justin Haskins, and Chris Talgo present episode 464 of the In The Tank Podcast. This week, the ITT crew is discussing a handful of stories that revolve around some of the world's most authoritarian socialist rulers. From Brazilian President Lula going after Elon Musk and Twitter to North Korean Dictator Kim Jung Un purging government officials, it seems we are at a time when the world's socialists are desperately clinging to power. What common links can be found between these stories? And what do these events tell us about socialism in general?
PRIMARY TOPIC - World's Socialists Desperately Clinging to Power
Fox News - Venezuelan dictator deploys bizarre distraction as country remains in turmoil after election
The Blaze - Elon Musk torches Democrats after former DNC leader praises suppression of free speech in Brazil
The Blaze - Globalists push to have Elon Musk arrested as global assault on free speech kicks into overdrive
Daily Wire - Brazil’s Crackdown On X Should Be Warning Sign For All Americans, Legal Group Warns
Fox News - North Korea’s Kim Jong Un reportedly ordered dozens of officials executed after deadly floods
Daily Mail - Kamala Harris goes to 'debate camp': Insiders reveal where VP's preparation is already going 'sideways' as she gets ready for primetime Trump showdown
WaPo - Harris to hold final days of debate prep in Pennsylvania
Creators & Guests
Host
Host
Host
What is In The Tank?
The weekly flagship podcast from The Heartland Institute features in-depth policy discussions connected to current news. Host Donald Kendal leads the discussion with the usual crew of Heartland Institute Vice President Jim Lakely, Socialism Research Center “Commissar” Justin Haskins, Editorial Director Chris Talgo, and others at this national free-market think tank. The entertaining and informative discussions often hit topics such as the environment, energy policy, Big Tech censorship, the troubling rise of socialism, globalism, health care, education, that state of freedom in America and around the world, and much more.
This podcast is also available as part of the Heartland Daily Podcast, the “firehose” of all the organization’s podcasts that take deep and entertaining dives into public policy.
Alright. We are live, ladies and gentlemen. Socialist leaders around the world are making moves, flexing their authoritarian muscle, and getting downright desperate in recent weeks. And, we wanna talk about why that might be. We have some stories from North Korea.
Donald Kendal:We have some stories from Venezuela, and we have some stories for Brazil. So buckle up because we're going globe hopping to various socialist utopias in episode 464 of the in the tank podcast.
Joe Biden:Guys, do not listen to the In The Tank podcast. It is a dangerous show of dangerous men with some dangerous malarkey, and I do not stand for it. Alright. Where's my vice president, Condoleezza Rice?
Donald Kendal:Alright. Hey, y'all. Welcome to the in the tank podcast. We're specifically, you know, broadcasting to our friends down south. Yeehaw.
Donald Kendal:So I'm just gonna talk like I normally do. What what cowpoke do we have join us here today? We've got, Jim Lakely. Sorry. I've been I've been trying to I've been doing debate prep with Kamala Harris, and this was, you know, rule number 1.
Donald Kendal:Talk like your audience. So, Jim, how's it going? VP of the Heartland Institute. How are you today?
Jim Lakely:I I really don't even I I had a nice thing to say, something kind of funny, but I just I can't. I can't after that. That was complete surprise, and I am, shocked and horrified. And as I'm sure our listeners are too. But, actually, I I do wanna assure all of our, viewers and listeners that this, this stream, this podcast is not secretly financed by, by Russia or Russia today.
Jim Lakely:We do not have any fake, made up people that are supposedly investors, somewhere in Europe giving us money. We don't have, like, 17 shell companies from which to shovel in and filter foreign money for this for this podcast. So, this podcast is listener supported. So, if you are so inclined, if you like this stuff, you can go to heartland.org/inthetank and help support us because, unfortunately, unlike others, we don't have, secret Russian sugar daddies.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. That's true. Most of our funding comes from Senegal. I think I'm pronouncing that right. Right?
Donald Kendal:Steven Senegal. Yeah. He's, he's our he's our number one backer. Also joining us, we have Chris Salgo, editorial director at the Heartland Institute. How are you doing today, good sir?
Chris Talgo:Well, it's interesting that you bring up Steven Seagal, one of my favorite actors, because guess guess who he's actually good friends with? No kidding. Totally serious. Vladimir Putin.
Donald Kendal:Oh, no. No.
Justin Haskins:Look it up.
Donald Kendal:No. It all circles back. True. No. What?
Donald Kendal:Dang it. Oh, I thought we were saying. I thought we were saying.
Justin Haskins:It really blew up in your face, Donnie. That really did.
Donald Kendal:Oh, John Haskins senior fell off for the, socials and research.
Joe Biden:I mean, is there something you wanna
Donald Kendal:tell us? It's all blowing up in my face. It is.
Justin Haskins:Forget it, Donnie. You're out of your element.
Donald Kendal:How are you doing today, good sir?
Justin Haskins:I don't know. I don't know anymore. I thought I was doing okay, and then I came on the show, and now suddenly I don't know. I don't know where things are going. I don't know where I am anymore.
Justin Haskins:I don't know why we're doing this. Yeah. Honestly, you know, it's it's like we don't need to get into the whole the whole Russian thing. But but but I guess I guess what confuses me so much is who are these people that think it's a good idea to take like, if Russians approach you and they offer you money for anything at this point in time, who who is thinking this is a good idea? Like, even if you're just like, well, I don't know.
Justin Haskins:Yeah. Maybe they're just they're gonna help out with the marketing and whatever. Like, who thinks this is a good idea? Does anybody you know? It's just I just don't know what these people are thinking.
Justin Haskins:I I I really don't.
Donald Kendal:Well, okay. So the references for people that are not in the know, because I think this is just breaking as of within the last 24 hours of recording this, there is a story coming out, a DOJ indictment about some people related to conservative media that, were taking tens of 1,000,000 of dollars from, Russian finance. I think
Justin Haskins:it was 10,000,000.
Jim Lakely:Just just under 10,000,000. Yeah.
Donald Kendal:Okay. 1,000,000 of dollars. Right. But, you know, the details are still very hazy. We're not sure who is, in the know about this and who were victims and all of that.
Donald Kendal:So, you know, we're gonna let it we're gonna not talk about it this afternoon.
Chris Talgo:I I gotta talk about this a little bit real quick because, Merrick Garland held a press conference yesterday with the FBI director right by his side talking about Russia, Russia, Russia, and how Russia's interfering in the 2024 election again. So they apparently think that we're so stupid that we're gonna buy the Russia lie again. And guess what they so, Donnie, I I actually read some of the material that they that they used, and they they literally said, yeah, there were, like, 32 websites that were, you know, basically spouting conservative talking points about, you know, record inflation and that kind of stuff, and that's Russian disinformation. No. It's not.
Chris Talgo:No. It's not at all. The, you know, the amount of, you know, campaign election interference, going on inside the United States of America far outweighs anything close to what Russia could be doing meddling in our elections. I mean, it's I mean, it's you know, the the Twitter files and all the, you know, the all the misinformation, disinformation, malinformation, just all this stuff. That is having a humongous effect on American elections that dwarfs anything that were that the Russian government can do with a couple bots and a couple, you know, like, poorly designed websites.
Chris Talgo:And and and, you know, just on on top of the conservative, commentators who are apparently paid by by Russia, well, it's according to them, they were not directly paid by Russian. They were just, you know, paid by a benefactor, and they were paid to to write what they were gonna write anyways. So it's not as if they were, like, given, like, Russian talking points and said, hey. Go go write at this and, you know, change your mind. No.
Chris Talgo:They didn't do that. So this has been so blown out of proportion, and I can't believe we are doing Russia, Russia, Russia, Redux. This is insane.
Donald Kendal:That see, all of all of Chris's talking points are coming from that Steven Seagal money. Jim, you were gonna say something?
Chris Talgo:I wish, man.
Jim Lakely:No. No. I mean, just this comes in the same week in which a, an actual paid Chinese spy, who was the, I think, deputy chief of staff, if not the chief of staff to the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, she was indicted and charged with crimes because she's a actual paid spy by the Chinese Communist government who is in a high level in in the Democrat politics with the Democrat governor of New York. So I think that might be a little bit more serious than, you know, this this kind of farcical, Russian influence operation allegedly through a few through a a a new conservative, you know, streaming network on YouTube and Rumble. I mean, it it's kind of a joke.
Jim Lakely:I mean, the there is foreign influence in our elections and in our government. And by all accounts that we can see, it's the Chinese government that is infiltrating very high parts of our government, including, sending a honeypot, you know, black widow type spy to jump in bed with, Eric Swalwell, congressman from California who was on the intelligence committee. It seems that kind of serious stuff doesn't really get talked about. It's just, you know, it's a one day story. It's no big deal.
Jim Lakely:But, yeah, they're they're gonna make a big deal about alleged Russian interference in the election. If you read the indictment from the DOJ on this whole thing, against Tenet Media, the only people charged with any crimes is actually not even the, the Tenet Media Company people, let alone the influencers that they had hired to, produce content for Tenet Media. None of those people none no Americans, are charged with any crimes. They just charge the 2 Russians who are operating this whole thing. Again, I actually encourage you to read the indictment.
Jim Lakely:It's not hard to find. It's kind of almost farcical. You know? Boris and Natasha stuff from from Bullwinkle
Donald Kendal:at that point.
Jim Lakely:But, only those 2 Russians were charged with any crimes, and, you know, the Department of Justice might as well have charged penguins in Antarctica with crimes because this much likelihood of them coming to the United States to face justice. But, you know, Molly Hem the great Molly Hemingway from The Federalist said on Fox, the other the other day, a very true thing. One government in the world most guilty of improper election interference in American elections is the United States government, and it is not close. As as Chris mentioned, the Twitter files and all this stuff, and maybe this does segue into some of the topics we're gonna bring in today. But, yeah, I mean, the idea that Russia was somehow influencing the the election through this this scheme or that, you know, buying Facebook ads or Twitter ads or or sending out bots on Twitter is affecting the election is farcical.
Jim Lakely:Chinese the China sending spies to infiltrate themselves very high up in gov in powerful government positions in United States is a real threat and very serious. This kind of other stuff is a joke.
Justin Haskins:You know what? It interferes with elections, throwing your opponent in jail in the middle of an election, and that is exactly what the Democrats are trying to do at this very moment. So I don't really know how anyone can care about anything in the context of that. Like, what what difference does anything else make if there's only 2 candidates that have any chance of winning and one of them is try is is on the verge of going to jail months away from just a couple months away from the election or a few months away from the election. And the people trying to put him in jail are the allies of the other candidate running for president who is in a position of power right now.
Justin Haskins:I I mean, all other talk about election interference is sort of pointless
Donald Kendal:Sure.
Justin Haskins:When that's going on at this very moment. So
Donald Kendal:Well, I I I will say just just a bit a a little bit of a kind of counterpoint to any of this that I am kinda disturbed that, you know, Russia is funneling 1,000,000 of dollars into our kind of media system. And there's whatever way and whoever knows what, it's still kind of disturbing to me, but, I think there's still a lot to come out on that story, and, maybe we'll do a a future episode on just the idea of misinformation and, you know, propaganda and all of that sort of stuff, especially in the lead up to the election.
Justin Haskins:But Who who
Chris Talgo:do you think who do you think, Russia and Biden Putin want more in the oval office, Kamala Harris or Donald Trump? I think it's blatantly obvious they want Kamala Harris. So this whole notion that they are in support of Trump makes no sense. Well, Trump what what did Trump do? He he, said no to Nord Stream 2.
Chris Talgo:What did Biden do? He said a yes. I think that Donald Trump also had a foreign policy that, you know, put Vladimir Putin in his place, but the high, Harris Biden administration, obviously has not. So that's kinda just my 2¢ on that.
Donald Kendal:Yep. And maybe we'll discuss it further in a future episode. But we got a plenty to talk about, in this episode. Like I said, buckle up. But, for those audio only listeners that are catching this show, probably on a Friday or later, you can join us a day earlier on Thursdays at noon CST where we are live streaming this on Facebook and YouTube and Rumble and x, and you could join the conversation through your comments and questions in the chat.
Donald Kendal:Maybe we'll show your comments on the screen. Maybe we'll address your questions on the fly. You could also support the show not by super chats on YouTube YouTube because we have been demonetized, but you can go to heartland.org/inthetank and donate directly to the show. And that way, you know, that, that money you send will go directly to the show and not be taxed at a clip of 30% by YouTube. So that is a great way to do it.
Donald Kendal:Also, hit that like button, share this content, subscribe if you haven't already, leaving a comment. All those things help break through those big tech algorithms to prevent content like this from being shown to more people. But we got a lot of stuff to get into, so let's get into it. The other day I was looking for topics to talk about on the show this week, and, Justin and I noticed that there was a number of stories surrounding some of the world's most prominent socialist leaders, and I already wanted to talk about the story of the Brazilian president Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva and the ongoing feud with Elon Musk and Twitter or X. So I decided maybe we should dedicate the entire episode to covering a whole host of these stories from our collectivist friends from around the world.
Donald Kendal:So the first story I wanna get into is, comes from Venezuela and their leader Nicolas Maduro. So Venezuela, probably not, you know, breaking any news for anybody on this, but just to kind of set the context of the story. Venezuela's been going through pretty significant political and economic and social challenges over the past long time, but, certainly, it's increased over the past 5 or so years, 6, 7 years. The country has been plagued with hyperinflation since 2017, massively eroding the value of the currency. The inflation peaked in 2020 at a rate of, nearly 3,000%, and they've since wrestled it down to a mere 190% as of 2023.
Donald Kendal:But this massive inflation has already thrashed living standards and the economy of Venezuela so bad that the government has already started introducing new denominations of their currency, the boulevard. In 2021, the Central Bank of Venezuela announced the introduction of 3 new banknote denominations, the 200,000 boulevard note, the 500,000, and the 1,000,000 boulevard note. See, it's, this is the socialist miracle. Everyone gets to be a millionaire. You might not be able to buy bread with that $1,000,000, but, you know, I digress.
Donald Kendal:Politically, the country has been on the edge for a while, specifically since the 2018 election between Nicolas Maduro, the kind of heir to, Hugo Chavez, and Juan Guaido. Maduro won the election, but many view the election as being fraudulent, and, Guaido declared himself interim president. He was backed by many western countries, including the United States. However, Maduro still retained control of the military and many of the country's institutions, and Maduro also benefited from international support from Russia, China, Turkey, Iran. So he ultimately remained as president of Venezuela.
Donald Kendal:Last month, Venezuela had another election, which was again beset by claims of fraud and corruption. Large group of company, countries are calling for a third party review of the election, while the country's supreme court has already awarded Maduro as the winner. Limited audits that there have been about the votes in certain jurisdictions that showed double digit leads for the opposition party, but again, Maduro was deemed winner. So citizens in Venezuela are living under precarious political and economic conditions, leading to millions of them fleeing the country while those that remain suffer under massive shortages of basic goods and whatnot. So what does the good, what does the good authoritarian leader do to restabilize his country?
Donald Kendal:He encourages his citizens to celebrate Christmas early. That is right. Maduro announced his, this week plan to move Christmas to October in a bid to distract the public from ongoing political turmoil. Following the latest disputed presidential election. Maduro went on TV on Monday saying, quote, it's September, and it already smells like Christmas.
Donald Kendal:That's why this year, as a way of paying tribute to you all and in gratitude to you all, I am going to decree an early Christmas for October 1st. And 1, one intelligence analyst told Fox News that, it's more evidence that he is desperate to distract people from the fraud he committed on election day and the horrible repression that has been seen in the months since. So, Justin, Christmas in October, don't let the right wing media tell you that living under a socialist regime is all bad. Am I right?
Justin Haskins:Yeah. I mean, how could I mean, how can you argue with this? I mean, this seems like a pretty good move to me. I mean, they love Christmas in Venezuela. I mean, they're poor, and they can't afford anything.
Justin Haskins:But it's the spirit of the season, which, of course, isn't in this season. But in a future season, they're trying to capture the spirit, bring it back in
Donald Kendal:That's right.
Justin Haskins:To the fall. So I don't my real my question is, what what does this mean for, like, like, Halloween? Do they do Halloween there? I don't I don't know what they do in in Venezuela. Does this mean Halloween is gone?
Justin Haskins:Are we swapping them out? Are we going to do Halloween on December 25th? That's my No. That's gets brought back to you. Happens tomorrow.
Chris Talgo:Here's the big question. What is this gonna do to the pumpkin spice industry in Venezuela? Seriously?
Donald Kendal:Oh, good question.
Justin Haskins:You know what?
Chris Talgo:I haven't thought about
Justin Haskins:the ramifications of this at all. It might help. Straight to peppermint. Frank frankly, it might help it. I don't know.
Justin Haskins:Because now you everyone just gets pumpkin spice for the holidays. It's it's maybe that's who's behind this. Maybe it's big big pumpkin. Starbucks. Yeah.
Justin Haskins:Could it could be Starbucks. Could be big pumpkin. I don't know. But somebody's behind it. I think, I seriously do wonder, though, is the plan to celebrate Christmas again in December?
Justin Haskins:Like, I I mean, legitimately, I don't I don't think the media has asked him enough questions.
Donald Kendal:The tough questions.
Justin Haskins:The tough tough questions. The this is just so the thing I love about Venezuela is the gift that keeps on giving to the rest of the world, not to its own people. In that case, it's horrible. But to everybody else, it's the gift that keeps on giving. It's the cautionary tale that this generation needs for why socialism is truly the biggest dumpster fire idea in the history of ideas.
Justin Haskins:It is the worst idea ever. And then as every time the left starts kinda drifting back into openly acknowledging that they're socialist because they are many of them are socialist, but they don't like to openly acknowledge it all the time. Whenever they start drifting into this, something horrible happens in Venezuela, and all of a sudden they're, like, eating their pet rabbits because they can't survive, you know, and you have, like, just the most, you know, zoo animals being slaughtered because there's no food available, you know, election obvious, like, election fraud, people fleeing by the 1,000,000. You know? It's just like some horrible thing happens in Venezuela.
Justin Haskins:You can't buy toilet paper. These are all real stories, by the way. I'm not making these up. Oh, yeah. And and, like, and you're reminded.
Justin Haskins:You're forced to be reminded that, oh, yeah. Socialism is a dumpster fire idea. Mhmm. And it's terrible. And nobody wants to call themselves a socialist because then they have to associate themselves with that.
Justin Haskins:And and for most of the 20th century, we had the Soviet Union. Like, in America, we had the Soviet Union. Everyone could just point to the Soviet Union or they could point to China, and they could say, look, everybody. The Soviet Union, do we wanna be like them? No.
Justin Haskins:Obviously not. So we probably shouldn't go down this road of socialism. And everyone was like, yeah. That's a good point. Like, you didn't really need to do much more than that.
Donald Kendal:Sure.
Justin Haskins:But then once the Soviet Union collapsed and about 10 years went by and everybody stopped remembering about the Soviet Union. You had this whole new generation of people that were little kids when the Soviet Union happened. All of a sudden, that wasn't, like, a a problem anymore. It wasn't a boogeyman for that generation. And now at this point in time, you're like many I mean, you're talking you're decades removed from the end of the Soviet Union.
Justin Haskins:So you you don't you need a new cautionary tale. And the Venezuelans have provided that service to the entire world. Right. Like, it is a total train wreck society. And one of the most important things to remember about Venezuela is it wasn't always a train wreck society.
Justin Haskins:This is often left out. I think people think, Venezuela, and then they just sort of assume, well, it's always been a poor country. So no. Actually, it was one of the wealthiest countries per capita in the world at one point in time. They are blessed with vast oil reserves.
Justin Haskins:They have lots and lots and lots of wealth that comes in as a result of that. And and the real source of their more recent economic woes came from the government really mismanaging badly their their oil companies, oil reserve, all of which has been nationalized and everything. And so this was an incredibly wealthy country on the way up 60, 70 years ago or so. And now it's just a total train wreck, and it's because of socialism. Right.
Justin Haskins:So as sad as this this kind of thing is for for people who live in Venezuela, and it is obviously horrible, it it really does serve the purpose of warning the rest of the world that, yeah, you know, these ideas, they they are it's not just that they, you know, are slightly less efficient than free market capitalism. It's that they lead to people, like, starving in the streets, fighting over toilet paper, not having to kill their pet rabbits for protein. You know, like, it just leads to absolute insanity. Yeah. And the government and the government this is the last thing I'll say.
Justin Haskins:The government's reaction and this is this is also a cautionary tale about socialism. What's the government's reaction? Well, maybe we should you know, let's let's change course. Like, this isn't working out. No.
Justin Haskins:Nope. Nope. Their reaction is to come up with, like, insane gimmicks.
Donald Kendal:Exactly.
Justin Haskins:As ways to like, they're not gonna admit they're wrong. They're not gonna do that. No. No. No.
Justin Haskins:Instead, let's move Christmas. Let's move Christmas up a few months. That'll help us. Like Yeah. I mean It's ridiculous, but this is socialism.
Donald Kendal:Chris, let me let me preface one about the the setup for you, with an acknowledgment that our inflation that we've experienced here in the United States, is is terrible, leading to the increase of, you know, price of groceries and energy and cost of livings, all of that sort of stuff. But, you know, we're talking about, like, 10, 15% inflation rates, here in the United States. I have to, like, reread this because they were talking about a height, a peak of 3000%. I mean, that just doesn't happen, without just, like, colossal mismanagement of every everything going on in that country. I mean, this this is this is some crazy stuff going on down there.
Chris Talgo:Yeah. I mean, like Justin said, it's a really sad case because it's been not that long ago, a couple decades ago, Venezuela actually was on the brink of, you know, being a prosperous country again. And, unfortunately, Hugo Chavez nationalized oil industry, and it has caused all sorts of, all sorts of problems, and the people are paying the price. And it's not as if Maduro and, you know, people on high up in the party are paying the price. No.
Chris Talgo:Of course not. It's, it's the people, you know, at the bottom of the, the ladder who are, you know, really having to deal with the the repercussions of these. But, Donnie, I've got some breaking news. Do you know what, he also announced?
Donald Kendal:Oh, no. Is this a relocation of Easter?
Chris Talgo:No. No. He's got 3 specific economic proposals. Price controls, and then especially for grocery stores because they're they're price gouging.
Donald Kendal:Oh, it's price gouging.
Chris Talgo:He's also he's also gonna give 25,000 to everyone to buy a new home. Okay. And then he's also gonna give $50,000 to everyone to start a new business. Oh, well, I'm sorry. That was actually Kamala Harris's economic agenda.
Chris Talgo:What is just this week?
Donald Kendal:Yeah. I was gonna say
Chris Talgo:you confused. I'm sorry about that.
Donald Kendal:I was gonna say, you know, the grocers in Venezuela are charging $1,000,000 for a loaf of bread. So This year. Well, not dollars. Bolivars. Jim, so since the latest contested election, Maduro has issued arrest warrants for his political opponent, Edmundo Gonzalez, who, many around the world think was the the true winner.
Donald Kendal:Human Rights Watch says that security forces and pro Maduro groups have killed 23 protesters because there was a rash of protests after the contested election. Maduro government is accused of cracking down on protesters, carrying out arbitrary detentions, thousands of arrests, prosecutions, and a campaign called operation knock knock, which encourages people to report relatives, neighbors, and others who participated in protests or simply cast doubts on the election results. Oh my gosh.
Jim Lakely:It sounds like the United States during during COVID and after the 2020 election.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. I I thought maybe your mind would go in that direction. Yeah. What are your thoughts on on what's going on in Venezuela?
Jim Lakely:Well, as as Chris and Justin were talking, I was thinking that, you know, that old saw that you can vote your way into socialism, but you're gonna have to shoot your way out. You know, let's back this up a little bit. It's not just that, you know, some people thought that maybe that election wasn't on the up and up. Pre election polling showed, Maduro's opponent, at 65% to Maduro's 31%. And even the Carter Center, which goes around the world monitoring elections, you know, said that, you know, and it's actually not all that stringent sometimes.
Jim Lakely:Let's just say it that way. The the the actual results of the election were 67% for Gonzales and, 30% for Maduro. And Maduro just declared, no. That's those are like those results are I don't know where you're getting those numbers. I won.
Jim Lakely:That's it. And so, you know, some people in the comments here, one of our regular, viewers, Christine Laurel, had mentioned that, you know, the you can't, you know,
Joe Biden:the you can't you you know, if you can't you if
Jim Lakely:you're Venezuela, as as Justin said, and Christine did in the comments as well, that there it is right there. If you can't be a good example, be a horrible warning. And that's what Venezuela is. Let's also remember that, Hollywood leftist luminaries, a parade of them led by Sean Penn, used to go down to Venezuela and bask in the in the glory of of South American socialism with their buddy, Hugo Chavez, and I'm sure that they visited Maduro as well. And they come back to United States, and they use their amazing celebrity and leverage that they have, and influence they have among people, and talk about how wonderful it is that they've gone to visit such a beautiful and just country that cares about its people, and and then you know?
Jim Lakely:So it's amazing the the PR, that people volunteer to do for socialist hellholes like Venezuela. And, again, you can vote yourself this is a cautionary tale. You can vote yourself into socialism. You can decide that it's better to have a government that is your daddy and takes care of you, but you're not gonna be able to ever vote your way out of it. Venezuela I mean, 63 when people talk about a landslide in the United States, they're talking about maybe 53
Justin Haskins:to,
Jim Lakely:you know, to 47 or something like that or, you know, that would be a landslide in the United States. This was an over the the the people of Venezuela have had enough. And even though they tried to rig the election, obviously, in every single way, disqualifying lots of other candidates, they have to put on a patina that they live in the wonderful socialist utopia that people like Sean Penn are convinced exists. So they have to run an actual election. When Maduro loses by what what did I say again?
Jim Lakely:Was it 69? We'll get it up again. 67% to 30%. When you lose by that sort of a margin and you still declare yourself a winner and move on, and then I'm sorry. This the story was from Fox News.
Jim Lakely:Even western press, which which should know better, kind of covers this stuff as almost a joke that to distract from the strife in his country. Right. You know, strife strife created by starvation and by having their human rights violated at every single turn and to have an election absurdly overturned and just having the dictator for life Maduro declare himself the winner. To distract from that, he's he's, say, talking about it smells like September or, it's September and it smells like Christmas in the air. It doesn't smell like Christmas.
Jim Lakely:It smells like, tyranny, and it smells of bullshit and, you know, distracting. And, you know, it is funny. From our perspective, it is funny that, Maduro, of course, socialist leaders have ultimate and plenary power over their entire country. So they can do something as silly as declare, that, you know what? We're moving Christmas to October 1st in this country because we wanna have a celebration.
Jim Lakely:You know, and and to have it covered really is kind of a distraction, almost funny. And then then, like I said, there is something funny about it. But under all of that is is is a country of misery that too many people in the west make excuses for, if not outright celebrate. And to put on top of that, they would like to have a little bit more of that here. And there are elements of what happened in that election and what happens in Venezuela that are actually happening in this country, including trying to put your political opponents in jail.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. I think there's some kind of overarching themes that we can draw from a a number of these stories, but, let's let's let's save that a little bit. I think the kind of the comedy derived from just the absurdity of all of this, you know, as as we pointed out, the crazy repression of the political opponents and all of that and the absolute economic chaos. And then what's what's the solution? Let's have Christmas early.
Donald Kendal:You know? It's just it's just crazy. Right? But let's move on to the next story here.
Chris Talgo:But, Donnie but, Donnie, I gotta say one thing here. You know, since I've been a kid, it seems like Christmas does keep coming earlier and earlier and earlier.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. You know who's in favor of this? The malls. The malls are like,
Chris Talgo:oh, I'm gonna say. Yeah. You know, I thought of Home Depot or Lowe's or Walmart or Target these days. You know? What is it?
Chris Talgo:September 5th, and it's like they got the Christmas decorations up. So I think that they he's actually just borrowing that idea from those evil capitalists.
Donald Kendal:Right. Right. So next year, it'll be in August. So it'll just keep working its way back every year.
Chris Talgo:Sure. Why not?
Donald Kendal:Alright. Let's talk about the ongoing story in Brazil with Elon Musk. So this story actually started, like, a couple of months ago. Brazilian president Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, I'm just gonna call him president Lula for now on, and the supreme court of Brazil ordered that x remove a bunch of profiles that were considered to be spreading disinformation. They also demanded that x name a local legal representative to oversee Brazilian issues with the platform.
Donald Kendal:I haven't been able to find a list of the accounts that have been ordered off the platform by president Lula, but it appears as though most of the affected users appear to be prominent supporters of the leader of the opposition party, Bola. How do you say that guy's name? Bola Cenaro? Is that how you pronounce it? That's how I'm gonna pronounce it for now.
Donald Kendal:These accounts have been accused of spreading defamatory, fake news, and threats. And after Bolsonaro's election defeat in 2022 for inciting demonstrations across the country. So after a protest at Brazil's capital, the Brazilian judge that seems to be at the center of this whole story ordered Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, TikTok, and Instagram to block accounts of individuals accused of us inciting these protests. Elon committed to fighting for free speech on the platform told president Lula to buzz off saying that he's, not going to meet these demands. So Brazil's response, they have since moved to ban x in their country, originally signaling that anyone that tried to access the platform through a VPN or any other kind of back channel way could face daily fines up to $9,000.
Donald Kendal:It is important to note that, the Brazilian audience on x is not insignificant. There was an estimated 20,000,000 users, of, Twitter x from Brazil. It's also important to note that Lula and the judge have a history of supposedly muzzling free speech and engaging in political persecution. Lawmakers from the Bolsonaro Circle have been imprisoned and supporters have had their homes raided. So, Justin, I'm gonna go to you first on this one.
Donald Kendal:What are your thoughts on this? You know, we, we have some people spreading misinformation on a social media platform. Let's ban the entire thing. What do you think about this reaction from the Brazilian president Lula?
Justin Haskins:Well, I mean, this is in essence what the left wants in the United States for all of us, isn't it? I mean, I don't really see the difference. They they want you know, if they had it their way, the government would go to social media outlets. They'd go to search engines. They'd go to other, you know, websites and news outlets, and they would say, if you're spreading misinformation, then you need to stop.
Justin Haskins:If you're allowing other people to spread disinformation, then you need to stop them. And if you don't, then we're gonna fine you or shut you down and stop you from doing this. And, of course, the whole problem with all of this is there is really no way of accurately defining what misinformation is because how do you it's it's all in the eye of the beholder in a lot of cases. Right? Now on the ones that are really clear cut, that's the stuff that the left likes to focus on at first.
Justin Haskins:They like to say, well, what about, you know, people who just say the Holocaust didn't happen? Like you know? And and and they win some people over with that kind of argument. But in reality, the kinds of things they have attempted and colluded with social media companies in the past to to stop are not cut and dry cases like that. For instance, the Hunter Biden laptop, story that came out immediately before the last presidential election, and you we now know for a fact that the Department of Justice, that the the the had been, pressuring the, had been pressuring x or Twitter at that time, and Facebook and others to with prevent people from from sharing that information.
Justin Haskins:And we now know that the Biden administration had been pressuring social media companies during COVID and the lockdowns and things like that to silence various people talking about the efficacy of vaccines and, COVID 19 and and and that kind of thing. And so we now know that this kind this stuff has been going on for a long time in the United States, but courts have consistently said that those activities are, at least to some degree, illegal in the United States and that that the government really shouldn't be doing that. And even if they do it, it has to be purely in an advisory way. They can't actually impose it on people. But in places like Brazil, where you don't have freedom of speech in the same way that you do here in the United States, all bets are off.
Justin Haskins:But this is exactly the world that the left wants here. And that, I think, is really the most important thing is is, you know, we we talk a lot about slippery slopes and and that kind of thing, and it's it's I know it's it's this thing that's been said over and over and over again, and so people kind of ignore it. But it is real. It is true. When you start going down the road of silencing free speech, you inevitably end up at a spot at a point in time where you're silencing people either for their opinions or religious beliefs or things like that or just actually the truth, like factual things, you start silencing people.
Justin Haskins:The when you hand that kind of power over to institutions, the institutions always abuse it. There is not a single instance in the history of humanity where the government, any government, anywhere in the world, has been given the authority to silence people where they didn't end up abusing that authority. They always abuse it. I there's not a single example where they haven't abused it. And that is precisely why you have to have a universal protection for freedom of speech, which means giving people the ability to say things that are not true.
Justin Haskins:Giving people the ability to express opinions that you don't agree with. Giving people the ability to say offensive things. It's not because we necessarily want people to lie or to cheat or to say offensive things. It's because if you go the opposite direction, you end up with just flat out authoritarianism. And that's what you're seeing in in in Brazil.
Justin Haskins:That's what the left wants here for the United States of America, and it is precisely why, Elon Musk is whether you agree with him, on everything or not, and I certainly don't, and nobody on this podcast agrees with him on everything. That's for sure. The guy is has been a hero. He really has been a hero for free speech, and and I think will go down, in history as one of this generation's most important figures because of him standing up to governments like Brazil, like the United States, and saying, no. We are going to be a we are going to have at least one place on the Internet that is guaranteed that people can express, their their opinions freely without being silenced.
Justin Haskins:And he deserves so much credit for that, especially in light of the financial cost that it required for him to Mhmm. I accent and transform it and everything. Just absolutely incredible.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. I mean, Chris, you, well, actually, first off, before I go to you, Chris, I do want to make a point, that this is far different from the conversation about, like, banning TikTok, you know, that have been going on for a little while. TikTok isn't repugnant because of people spreading misinformation. You'd have to ban every social media platform if that was your threshold. TikTok is repugnant because it's a Chinese owned media platform that's designed to be corrosive to society, pushing horrible content to those of us that are, like, the most vulnerable to manipulation.
Donald Kendal:So it's 2 different things between Brazil wanting to ban, Twitter and the the conversations about, TikTok.
Chris Talgo:Well, also, the TikTok is controlled by the CCP, and, you have a little a little bit of a privacy concern with that, but, you know, just saying.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. So, Chris, you were one of the primary authors, of the of the, recently released socialism at a glance book. And, you know that so that book kind of outlines socialism and practice across history, across a whole variety of different countries. But one of the hallmarks, of pretty much every socialist regime is a crackdown on on speech. So so when this this happens, I I can't help but think that this is not actually from trying to protect people from hate or misinformation.
Donald Kendal:This is just squarely an anti free speech move, from the Brazilian president. What are your thoughts?
Chris Talgo:Yeah. Of course, it is. So I wanna go back to, I think it was probably, like, 2007 ish, the Arab Spring. Does anybody do you know, do you guys remember that? How, that was when social media really started to to come of age, and I remember how many people across the world thought this is the greatest thing ever.
Chris Talgo:Now, finally, people have this mechanism, this communication means to, you know, to to communicate without the gatekeepers, whether it's mainstream media or the government. And how everyone thought this is the greatest thing ever. This is gonna lead to, you know, the end of authoritarianism and totalitarianism. And, you know, it's gonna, you know, have just massive consequences, you know, really empowering, you know, your people. But look what's happened.
Chris Talgo:Big tech has become part of the problem. So they are now, you know, working in in conjunction, in coordination with governments to basically police the speech of the people who they were supposed to give this this vast open platform to share their opinions and to share their, you know, beliefs and to just say whatever they wanna say. So it's just so sad that in, you know, 15 years or so, social media has gone from being something that could really be used to, you know, to to, you know, add truth to power and to hold power accountable because now it's been usurped by those powerful people, and now it's used against the people who were supposed to help in the first place. And that to me is just a really sad state of affairs.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Yeah. No kidding. That that is a great point. So what what has been the reaction to Elon's decision to stand up, for free speech, instead of giving into the demands of the Brazilian government?
Donald Kendal:Surely even those that disagree with Elon's political leanings can support his loyalty to the principles of free speech. Right? No. And in fact, in some cases, it's been quite the opposite. So the highest profile instance, of people kind of coming to, Brazil side over this dispute is, from former US congressman and former deputy chair of the DNC and current Minnesota attorney general Keith Ellison.
Donald Kendal:Ellison welcomed the news about Brazil banning Twitter by tweeting, I I think in in, you know, whatever language, a phrase that translates to thank you, Brazil. So, Jim, I mean, come on. Like, I get it. The left doesn't like Elon Musk, but, like, can't you can't you just swallow that a little bit just to pretend that you're in favor of free speech? How how have we gotten to this point?
Jim Lakely:They they can't because they're not, and they can't pretend. I mean, let let's be clear about something. If you're advocating for someone to shut up, then you're not the good guy. Never. For any and under any circumstance, if you're in favor of censorship, are you the good guy?
Jim Lakely:Censors are the bad guys every single time. Right? And this is what Elon Musk is fighting against almost alone. People here in the chat have mentioned that, what's his name? Pavel Duroff.
Jim Lakely:Yeah. The CEO of Telegram. He was arrested. It was at last week in in France because his platform, which is encrypted in which he also shares Elon Musk's dedication to free speech, has allegedly been used for illicit activities, which I won't describe on this, on this on this podcast because it would get this, we already have enough trouble on our channel. It would just get it completely destroyed.
Jim Lakely:So, but but it's this idea that the CEO is responsible that people are using, his platform to message to commit crimes, so that so that he he is responsible, so he should go to jail. By that justification, the CEO of AT and T or Verizon or, or, you know, any cell company should also be sent to jail because, obviously, criminals use cell phones. So, you know, Ryan Reynolds, if, Mint Mobile is ever used to, to commit a crime under this justification, you also should be in prison. This is all absurd, and it is all you know, I say this a lot on this podcast. It all goes back to Trump being elected in 2016.
Jim Lakely:The Democratic party wants the, the champions of free speech, the American Civil Liberties Union, which used to used to have, liberals, leftists, democrats proudly hold their ACLU membership card up to the camera, to tell people that that they were they were lovers of liberty, not like those censors and, and and prudes on the right. No. It is we, the liberals, who are in who are in favor of free speech because we understand the constitution. We we revere the constitution and especially the first amendment because without free speech, all your other freedoms are are forfeit really at that point. Elon Musk believes this.
Jim Lakely:He believes it so much that he that he spent $44,000,000,000 to buy a single social media company, which, you know, frankly, is nothing in the larger scheme of things as far as the the the volume of speech being done or or how much control you have. Google, you know, its parent company, Alphabet, has much more control over what people know, what people can know, through their search engines, through their suppression of anything that goes against the democratic line. Google is vastly more powerful than than, x is. But Elon Musk is a big danger because to a totalitarian, to a socialist, allowing any free speech is a threat. All of it is a threat.
Jim Lakely:So, again, if if if you're an American, elected official, and you are cheering for the suppression of speech in a, you know, Brazil isn't an adversary. It's not a really maybe it's a bit of an ally, but it's a neutral country, then you are anti American. You are anti free speech. You want to destroy the constitution, and you have, no rep no no business being in any position of influence, in an elected office anywhere in the United States, period. Because the centers are always the bad guys, and for it's what's really been troubling, I know it troubles Chris and Justin as well, is that we see polling about the upcoming generations, Gen z, and millennials, and they don't revere the first amendment the way older generations do.
Jim Lakely:They actually don't think free speech is all that important, and in fact, they think free speech is a is a hindrance to their happiness. This is very troubling because without free speech, everything else is going to go, all of it. So this is extremely important, you know, for for for newspapers to call for the arrest of Elon Musk, be his arrest. Take away his freedom. Put him in jail for allowing people to speak.
Jim Lakely:That's that's it it's really should be talked about more. But, again, our media in this country, they think they are the owners. The corporate media in America thinks they are the only ones for whom the First Amendment applies. For everybody else, it is it doesn't apply to you and me, and so we need to we need to be shut up, lest anybody, question the the power and the agenda of the ruling regime.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Elon Musk's response to Keith Ellison, was pretty good. He he, like, retweeted it or whatever saying the Democratic party, the same one that used to defend the first amendment, now wants to destroy the first amendment. So this also comes on the heels of a recent slew of published op eds calling for Elon Musk's arrest. Jim, you just kinda referenced that.
Donald Kendal:One coming from the just detestable former US secretary of labor, Robert Reich. Reich? Reich? I don't know. I don't know.
Jim Lakely:I don't know.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Who is more popular now for just giving absolute trash takes on Twitter every day. That's how I know him. But, he wrote a piece that was published in the Guardian titled Elon Musk is out of control. Here's how to rein him in.
Donald Kendal:So it talks about basically the whole first two thirds of the article is just all of his problems that he has with the Elon Musk. But then it goes into the suggested actions that people can take to stop Elon Musk. The first one, boycott Tesla. The second one, boycott x. The third one, this one's the one that got, that got my attention.
Donald Kendal:He writes, quote, regulators around the world should threaten Musk with arrest if he doesn't stop disseminating lies and hate on x. So, I mean, Reich, Reich, Reich is not a socialist leader. He's more of a socialist loser, but his statements, also seem to be dripping with that same authoritarian tendencies and desperation of some of the other, socialist leaders that we've been talking about. Justin, what what are your what are your thoughts on this? I mean, this just this just seems like if somebody told me that an article like this would have been written a handful of years ago, I don't think I would have believed them.
Donald Kendal:What are your thoughts?
Justin Haskins:Yeah. I mean, in the wake of, Donald Trump winning
Chris Talgo:Right.
Justin Haskins:In 2016, everything changed for the for the left, in the way that they communicate. Prior to 20 16, there were a lot of people on the right who suspected and openly said, based on a lot of evidence that had happened over many decades, that the left really doesn't support free speech, doesn't really support individual liberty. They are inherently collectivist to the core, that there is a wing of the Democrat party that does not feel that way, but that the base is becoming increasingly more authoritarian. And we've been talking about that for a long time, but then 2016 happened, and it became very, very clear. It all came out into the open, because the hatred of Donald Trump and the fear of what Trump might do to the systems of power was so high that they they just couldn't help themselves anymore.
Justin Haskins:They they felt like they had to take the next step. Then things got even worse after Donald Trump won, and you get to 2017, 2018, and it became we weren't hard enough on Donald Trump during the election. We should have been even harder on him. That's the only reason he won. And they started cracking down even more.
Justin Haskins:And then, of course, COVID happened, and that gave them even more justification to become authoritarians. And now they're not just limiting people's free speech, although they did do that during COVID. They're now, you know, throwing people in jail for holding church services. And it's just gone completely off the rails. And this tendency was there for a while.
Justin Haskins:It's been there, but they weren't always as open about it. And now they're just very they're just very out in the open. Like, what do we wanna do? We wanna put the collective first. We wanna put elites in charge of society who know better, not all elites because Elon Musk is an elite, but only the elites and Donald Trump's an elite, but only the elites that we that that we agree with.
Justin Haskins:We wanna put them in charge of society. They're gonna manage things. The rest of society is a bunch of stupid sheep, and, they're gonna be led by us, the shepherds. And if they don't want to adhere to our rules and and the the rules based order of the world, then, we're gonna silence you. We're gonna ruin your life.
Justin Haskins:We're gonna throw you in jail or, you know, all 3. Okay? And these the or or other thing. Right? Like, this is this is the approach the left has taken since 2016, and a lot of people who used to consider themselves on the left have realized this and are now distancing themselves from it.
Justin Haskins:Not nearly enough people. But Elon Musk is one of those people. That's the most incredible thing about all of this is Elon Musk is not a is not, like, a libertarian conservative or or anything like that. He he's he voted for Barack Obama. He's a he's a liberal, but a more of a classic liberal in the sense that he supports individual rights and free speech and stuff like that, but he also supports some government programs and social safety nets and expanding those and doing things like that.
Justin Haskins:He supports both. And that used to be normal in the Democrat party, and now it's not. Now you have to be silencing the other side. You have to be advocating for the destruction of individual rights. And if you're not, then you're part of the problem, and you need to be destroyed too.
Justin Haskins:And that's, like, the bill that's Bill Maher. That's Elon Musk. That's RFK Junior I would put into that camp, because in my opinion, he's a he's a liberal. Like, all of those kinds of people now have to be destroyed or thrown in jail even because they're not towing the party line anymore.
Joe Biden:Right. And
Justin Haskins:because the party line is becoming so authoritarian that they don't feel comfortable going along with it. And it does make you wonder at what point, like, they're openly they're openly trying to put their political opponents in jail. Right. They're openly calling for people who they used to consider heroes to be thrown in jail for free because of violating free speech norms in their minds. Like, everybody now who who doesn't agree with their social view of the world, which is basically the what's the normal social view of the world, for pretty much everyone in 2016, 2015, 2014.
Justin Haskins:If you don't agree with with them on, you know, LGBTQ stuff and trans stuff and whatever, then you're, like, the worst big most bigoted person who needs to be silenced. If you don't think that this Israel should be wiped off the face of the map, same thing. Right? Like, it's it's gone so far off the how long is it gonna take for the average person to say, I'm sorry. I don't maybe like Republicans, but I can't be part of that.
Justin Haskins:I mean, that's nuts. That's that's completely crazy. I'm amazed that it hasn't happened already, to be honest. Mhmm. It it's it's sad that it hasn't happened already because we have we are reaching the point of no return here rapidly.
Justin Haskins:The the next step is actually putting the people in jail that you keep saying you wanna put in jail.
Joe Biden:Sure.
Justin Haskins:And once we get there, it's all done. You don't have a free society anymore, and we're we're we're nearly nearly there.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I don't, expect Brazil to be the only country that's going to be, pushing Elon to do this, to the extent that they're pushing him to do this. So when especially when you've got people in the west that are celebrating it, expect to see a whole bunch of different countries doing the same thing. But one more story that I wanna, talk about here, and this this comes from good old North Korea where dictator Kim Jong un has reportedly ordered 30 government officials to be executed after deadly floods ravaged their country.
Donald Kendal:So this past summer, there's been a rash of flooding in North Korea that have left 1,000 dead. So what's the dear leader's response to reestablish trust with, the affected communities? Killing a bunch of bureaucrats that were in charge of those areas, of course. So, Kim has toured the affected areas in recent weeks stating that those exaggerating the extent of the damage from the floods are just taking part in a smear campaign and a provoke, trying to provoke, the government. So, I mean, Chris, I'm gonna go back to you on this one because you kinda wrote the book on the socialist regimes and whatnot.
Donald Kendal:But this this one just seems, you know, it's like it's it's harder to scapegoat, you know, the opposition party when you have full supremacy in your country. So what do you do? Hang some bureaucrats from the gallows, apparently. What are your thoughts on the story?
Chris Talgo:Oh, I'm very confused because according to Juche Socialism as practiced in North Korea, the Kim family are gods who descended from heaven to rule the country. So if they're gods who descended from heaven to rule the country, how come they can't actually have any power over flooding or not? I'm it kind of doesn't really make sense. But given that, you know, is the fact that he went through and executed, you know, another 30, members, I mean, this is pretty much par for the course for socialist regimes, purges. When, Kim Jong un came to power, he, engaged in thousands of people being purged.
Chris Talgo:Actually, they, sometimes would put them in, in stadiums, anti aircraft guns to, you know, to kill them, to show the people, like, this is what happens if you don't really, you know, just abide by, you know, our doctrine. So, yeah, this is just, you know, kinda normal for the hermit kingdom. This is what they do. No one takes no one has responsibility for the, bureaucratic, you know, mess ups that probably led to this. And instead, he just, you know, goes, goes in and does another purge and then just thinks that, things are going to take care of themselves.
Chris Talgo:So That's right. It's really sad because the North Korean people have been suffering under this under this family regime for almost 70 years, and, you know, they deserve so much better than this. My niece just went to South Korea. My sister's from China, and she also went to South Korea. And, they, you know, showed me all these pictures of how glorious life is, and they get they went close to the border, not too close.
Chris Talgo:And I told them, please do not get too close. But they just they did take some pictures, and you can just see how different, it is on the other side of that, you know, of that 39th parallel there. It's just a completely different world. And it's really sad because there are families who are stuck in North Korea, and they don't wanna be there. They wanna, you know, reunite with their families in South Korea or if their families have immigrated to the United States, you know, since, the communist, government, you know, was founded in, late 19 forties.
Chris Talgo:They're stuck there. They have no way of getting out. It is a prison camp. It's a prison camp of a country. You know, the statistics speak for themselves.
Chris Talgo:The the, you know, rate of poverty, the rate of malnutrition, the human suffering, the horrible death camps, it is just sickening that this is still happening in 2024. And, this is what, you know, this is what when you give someone complete control over a country, which the Kim family has had now for, you know, 3 generations, this is what you get.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. 1, one of the ways that dictators like this kind of, retain their supremacy over a population over a given amount of time is, to try to instigate this idea of, like, infallibility. Right? So it's looks like if if they if they can't fail, they're the leaders, all of that sort of stuff. So anything that happens, that kind of shows that there's a, you know, the the that they that they they bleed blood or something, that they're not a god, that runs against that narrative, that painting, that veneer that they're trying to, you know, retain supremacy with.
Donald Kendal:So when a flood like this happens, you would think that that would lead to somebody being like, why didn't our, like, godly figures take care of that? Like, that question that you kind of pose, you know, half mockingly, at the beginning of what you were saying, Chris. And and the way to deal with that is to do exactly what good old dear leader did, which is deny that it was actually that bad and to claim that people that are exaggerating the extent of the floods were just, you know, taking part in a smear campaign and cracking down with just absolute iron fist and just murdering a bunch of people. Because if there was some issue and some communities did get, swept away, It wasn't just because of some failings of this or that that we're gonna try to fix or whatever. No.
Donald Kendal:It was because of something so bad that they need to be executed. So to see this regime, taking these actions because of flooding or whatever, is just, again, another one of these hallmarks of a socialist authoritarian communist regime, whatever you wanna call it. Jim, thoughts on the story.
Jim Lakely:Well, yeah. I mean, the thoughts on this, actually, I wanna I wanna take it to I guess it applies to it. But, Justin, when did we start officially the socials and research center at the Heartland Institute? What year was that?
Justin Haskins:So that was right after AOC. So that would have been 2019. The website stuff was built probably in 2018.
Jim Lakely:Right. Okay. And so yeah. And when we started that, we started some of our first, academic work where things like examining kind of the, you know, the so called soft socialism countries like Sweden, and and, you know, and Scandinavia, and warning that it's it's, you know, actually, not even warning about it, but just saying that it's not all it's it's, cracked up to be. But it's it was we we were pointing out that pointing to those countries, friendly, bright, fun countries like like us in Scandinavia, you know, that's the socialist future that that, you know, the the left in this country were pointing to to kinda sell it to the American people.
Jim Lakely:And and what we found since then is is amazing is that, that soft sell isn't isn't, would you agree that that soft sell isn't really used anymore? That we're now at a part where we are, where media and politicians are basically ex either excusing the socialist excesses of places like Venezuela and even North Korea and, and openly wishing it for the United States because you you can't have a society like North Korea if you have free speech. You can't, but we're we are we're supposed to live in the enlightened west, and we have the same sorts of attempts to control free speech happening on an accelerating scale in the United States. In the in the United Kingdom, in Great Britain, they are arresting people for posting social media posts that hurt people's feelings. Legit that that is what's happening.
Jim Lakely:And so if that's happening in Great Britain, how long until it happens here? It's not even a matter I don't think of if, I think it if we keep continue going down this road, it's a matter of when that starts to happen. And because we already have a a media in this country that, they don't actually don't even report news anymore. They just parrot the the lines of the regime and try to push that out there as truth. They set up fact check websites, to to fight disinformation, which is which is defined as just anybody disagreeing with the leftist viewpoint of the world.
Jim Lakely:That is all disinformation. And even in the the thing we talked about here in the beginning, the so called, you know, the tenant media and the Russian, financial backing of it, and how that's a violation of fair laws and all those other kind of stuff. In the beginning of the indictment, I my my antenna went up because our department of justice just declared that what was broadcast out on Tenet Media was, Russian propaganda and disinformation. They didn't even bother to act to actually highlight very much of anything at all what exactly was that disinformation and Russian propaganda. And we are now living in a society here in the supposedly free United States where, our government, high, high elected officials, and our supposed, free and independent media in this country, which is actually just a corporate blob, are all defining what disinformation and misinformation is.
Jim Lakely:We've had on the we've we've had shows on this podcast about the supposedly now, defunct agency that was gonna be in the federal government to, police to find, expose, and silence so called disinformation. We have the Twitter files in which which Elon Musk was able to release after spending $44,000,000,000 to do it that exposed the conspiracy, a real one, not a theory, a real conspiracy of action between our federal government and and the, the people who control speech on Twitter to make sure that anything that went against the regime's line on topics from the election to COVID to anything else were suppressed and that those accounts were taken down. So we already, in a large sense, you know, we don't live in North Korea. We're not starving and eating our shoes and watching our children, wither away and die in this country, but we are living in an increasingly authoritarian, regime when it comes to to speech. If you are policing speech, again, if you are the sensor, if your if your instinct is too censor, you are the bad guy.
Jim Lakely:If you are against people speaking what they what they what they have in their hearts, whether or not you agree, and even if they are objectively wrong about it, if you're against that, you're the bad guy and you are un American. And and so when we started the socialism research center at the Heartland Institute, it was kind of just kind of exposing more in an economic way. You know, kinda economically why how and why socialism doesn't work. And now in a very short amount of time, we are increasingly having to talk about how socialism leads to ultimately tyranny and authoritarianism, and it's accelerating very, very fast. I still thought, you know, 3 or 4 years down the line, we'd still be talking about how socialized health care sucks and why.
Jim Lakely:And instead, we're talking about the very basic principles of a free society that are slipping through our fingers at accelerating rate.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. No. Those are quaint times when we were talking about the idea of socialized health care, quaint time. Also note, corporate blob is also the nickname of Illinois governor JB Pritzker, so I just wanted to point that out. But, Justin, Chris, any final words on any of this?
Donald Kendal:We're already 7 minutes long in the podcast, but, if you have any insightful things to say, now would be the time.
Justin Haskins:No. I'm good.
Donald Kendal:Alright. Hearing nothing hearing nothing, I will wrap up the show. I wanna thank everyone for tuning in to this episode of the in the tank podcast. Join us every week for a new episode. Those audio only listeners that are catching the show probably on a Friday or later, why don't you leave a review for us on iTunes?
Donald Kendal:That would be greatly appreciated. Also, consider joining us a day earlier at Thursdays at noon where we live stream this on Facebook and YouTube, Rumble and x, not x in Brazil. So, you know, you had to find us a different way if you're a Brazilian watcher of the show. But, you can support the show by not giving us super chats because we have been demonetized on YouTube, but you can support the show by going to heartland.org/inthetank and, directly support the show that way, or you can help us out just by hitting that like button, sharing this content, subscribing if you haven't already, or just leaving a comment under the video. All those things help break through those big tech algorithms and prevent content like this from being shown to more people.
Donald Kendal:If you'd like, you can follow us on x at in the tank pod. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for the show, feel free to email us at in the tank podcast atgmail.com. Jim Lakeley, where can the find people find you?
Jim Lakely:Atjlakeleyonx@jlakeleyon, x. What did I what
Joe Biden:did I usually say?
Donald Kendal:Forget it. I don't know. Because I
Jim Lakely:was trying to say, come to ours our, benefit dinner on September 13th. Tickets are still available. You can see me and everybody else here on this podcast there. It's in Chicago. Go to heartland.org for more info.
Donald Kendal:Fantastic. Chris Talgo, what do you have to pitch today?
Chris Talgo:Well, it's a big weekend here in Chicago. Bears are about to, start their Super Bowl run. I think they're gonna win probably 10 in a row with Caleb Williams as the all time greatest quarterback in the history of the NFL. And, Donnie, as you and I have been discussing many times Mhmm. The White Sox are just having an awesome season.
Chris Talgo:So we gotta keep gotta keep that losing losing streak going. Come on, guys.
Donald Kendal:No. They won last night.
Chris Talgo:I know, but we gotta start a new losing streak. Come on. What are they doing? Winning.
Donald Kendal:I don't know. I got 21 games to
Chris Talgo:to So annoyed.
Donald Kendal:Justin Haskins. Where can the fine people find you?
Justin Haskins:At justin c haskins on, Facebook and Twitter. And I don't go to Facebook. That's a and Twitter doesn't exist anymore. Go to x.com@justinthaskins, and go to go to stopping socialism.com as well. A lot of great stuff.
Justin Haskins:Bashing socialism there. You can also, go to Amazon or wherever you buy your books and find, socialism at a glance, as well as socialism is evil, a book that I wrote way, way back in 2018 talking about socialism and moral case against Karl Marx and the views that he had. So all kinds of great videos that Donnie and I did on the stopping socialism TV channel on YouTube, that talk about socialism and all of its facets and the history of of that and all the chaos and destruction of it. Venezuela, we've talked about that endlessly. So a lot of great older videos on there if you're interested in this topic.
Donald Kendal:Yep. Yep. Yep. Also wanna thank, Andy, producer in the background, but thank you all for tuning in, and we will talk to you next week.
Justin Haskins:Turn that off.
Joe Biden:He's a lion dog faced pony soldier.