Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal, Jim Lakely, and Chris Talgo present episode 470 of the In The Tank Podcast. When Elon Musk expressed interest in purchasing Twitter and making it a bastion for free speech, he simultaneously put a target on his back for the political elites. In a recent development, leaked documents appear to show advisors to the Kamala Harris campaign have plans to "kill Musk's Twitter." Elon Musk's response? "This is war." Also, has the media completely lost it? President Donald Trump's recent campaign stunt at McDonalds has exposed what can only be described as lunacy of the mainstream media.
Trump's shift at McDonalds
NYT - How Media Outlets on the Left and Right Covered Trump’s Stop at McDonald’s
Newsweek - Was Donald Trump's McDonald's Shift 'Staged'?
The Federalist - The Press Can’t Handle Trump’s Brilliant Display Of Retail Politics At McDonald’s Drive-Through
Musk: "This is War"
Breitbart - This Is War:’ Elon Musk Furious at Center for Countering Hate Plan to ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
SubStack - Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
Propaganda Wars
Glenn Beck - Propaganda Wars: How the Global Elite Control What You See, Think, and Feel
11 Days Until the Election
538 - Who Is Favored To Win The 2024 Presidential Election?
Politico - Trump set to go on Joe Rogan’s podcast
Creators & Guests
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.
We are live, ladies and gentlemen. When Elon Musk expressed interest in purchasing Twitter all of those months ago, years ago, I don't even remember. He was, making himself a target of the political elites in a recent development. Leaked documents appear to show advisers that the Kamala Harris campaign have plans to, quote, kill Musk's Twitter. Elon Musk's response, this is war.
Donald Kendal:Also, has the com has the media completely lost it? Donald Trump's recent campaign stunt at McDonald's has exposed what can only be described as complete lunacy by the mainstream media. We're gonna be talking about all this and more in episode 470 of the in the tank podcast.
Kamala Harris:She looks at me and she says, oh, look at you. You're pretty up in your television. Mike, look at her. No. Oh,
Donald Kendal:Alright, Jim. Thank you for that one. Welcome to the In The Tank podcast. As always, I'm your host, Donald Kendall. And today, we've got Jim Likeley, VP of the Heartland Institute and editor of that, clip right there that he just forced us all to watch.
Donald Kendal:Jim, how are you today?
Jim Lakely:I'm doing good. You know, I I realized this week that, with the election only 2 weeks away, less than 2 weeks away now, that, we're not gonna have an opportunity perhaps to play those opening drops with, some Kamala clips in them. So I cut a few. You picked one of them at random. That was, my second choice, but, I'm glad you enjoyed it, and maybe we'll drop another one next week.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Enjoy might not necessarily be the word for it, but, yeah, we'll see what happens. Chris Talgo also joining us, editorial director here at the Heartland Institute. How are you doing today, good sir?
Chris Talgo:Doing good. It's nice nice day outside, Donnie. It's a beautiful day in the Chicago suburbs.
Donald Kendal:That is right. That is right. Yes. 11 days until election. We're gonna be talking about that.
Donald Kendal:Also, new book just dropped on Tuesday, propaganda wars by Glenn Beck and Justin Haskins. We'll talk about that. But before we talk about anything, I do have to put that message out there that I say at the beginning of all of these shows that, if you wanna help out the show, you can do so in a number of ways. First, those audio only listeners are probably catching the show on a Friday or later. Leave a review for us on Itunes.
Donald Kendal:That would be greatly appreciated. Also consider joining us live a day earlier, Thursdays at noon, where we are streaming this on Facebook and YouTube and Rumble and x. And you can jump in the conversations or your comments and questions in the chat. Maybe we'll show your comments on the screen. Maybe we'll address your questions on the fly.
Donald Kendal:You can't help us by, sending a super chat because YouTube has demonetized us, but you can go to heartland.org/inthetank and donate directly to the show. That way YouTube doesn't take a 30% cut. Just hitting that like button, sharing this content, subscribing if you haven't already, or leaving a comment under the video all helps break through the big tech algorithms and prevent content like this from being shown to more people. But, as those people that are watching the show can see, we've got a number of topics on our little sidebar column there that we're gonna have to get through. But the first thing that I wanna talk about before we get to our main topic is this, Trump's shift, Donald Trump shift at McDonald's this past weekend.
Donald Kendal:And I know this story in itself is several days old already. I don't think that, we can ignore this story, though, and not not necessarily him just going to McDonald's, but just the media's response to this campaign stunt. So in case you didn't see or you've been living under a rock, Donald Trump donned a McDonald's apron and worked behind the counter for a few hours at a Pennsylvania location on Sunday. Trump learned how to, work the fryer, man the drive through window. Trump, who isn't shy about his liking for McDonald's, had multiple reasons for this brief stint, behind the counter.
Donald Kendal:A, it's because it's, you know, a campaign appeal to the the everyman and those that, work service jobs, but also and probably more importantly, it was a bit of a troll against Kamala Harris, who has claimed that she has worked at McDonald's in the past, a claim that Donald Trump thinks is b s. And so when he was working there, he said, you know, just working here for 15 minutes means that I've worked at McDonald's for 15 minutes longer than Kamala Harris. So the stunt itself went off pretty well from what I can tell. Trump started off walking into the store saying that he was looking for a job, you know, little kind of funny humorous interaction with the manager there. Drive thru customers were filmed getting their food from the presidential candidates and had an opportunity to voice their support for Trump.
Donald Kendal:In one case, thanking the president for, quote, taking a bullet for us. So I think we have a little bit of footage that we can play of, Donald Trump at McDonald's. This is, you know, if you're not just, like, super callous of hearts, you you gotta look at this and and get a little bit of joy from this. So let's go ahead and play this clip, please.
Jim Lakely:By a human hand. Nice and clean. My hands are nice and clean. This guy's a good instructor. I appreciate it.
Jim Lakely:Wow. I'm gonna give a really big one so that look at that thing. Just pouring out of here. How good is that, Margo? Here, Margo.
Jim Lakely:Have them. Hello. You guys have a good looking grill. Hello, everybody. This is not a normal Thank you.
Jim Lakely:We're glad you're talking about the county. And there'll be no charge Trump is paying for. Is that okay? No. I'm doing this right now.
Jim Lakely:Oh, you're going to some extra stuff. Oh, okay. This is this is all on Trump. Oh, look. I'm allowed to do that.
Jim Lakely:Right? Yeah. Let me check and make sure it's It's everything you said it would be. It's better be. It's gonna be the best yet.
Jim Lakely:I made it myself. You're the best. Think about it. That's it. Thank you, man.
Jim Lakely:Thank you. Thank you. Have a good time. Have a good time. That's that's great.
Donald Kendal:He had a, so, like, an impromptu we could let let the footage keep running there. He's got, an impromptu, or probably not impromptu. It's a planned little, press conference outside the window. They had reporters asking questions and all of that, you know, like that was pretty much it, right? That should be the end of it.
Donald Kendal:But instead of saying, hey, you know, Trump did a kind of unique campaign stunt, cool, The media lost its mind, like, seriously lost its mind. So in the hours and days after Trump worked the McDonald's fryer, many in the media tried to undermine the stunts by attempting to expose Trump's time at McDonald's as a, quote, unquote, staged event. Can you believe it, everybody? A staged event. He didn't actually go there and get hired by McDonald's.
Donald Kendal:Don't let him trick you into thinking that he was actually, like, you know, putting his putting his, payment information for his w two at the end of the year or something like that. No. It was a staged event. So I've got one of the worst articles that I think I've ever seen in my entire life. This was from Newsweek, and it was titled was Donald Trump's Mcdonald shift staged?
Donald Kendal:Oh my gosh, again, like, does anyone think that it wasn't staged? Like, even the biggest Trump supporters in the world, does anyone think that this wasn't a staged campaign event? Like, it's just absurd on its face that a headline like that exists. But the article continues, rumors have been circulating on social media that Trump's visit to McDonald's was staged. The article then cites an unconfirmed letter supposedly posted on the front of the store explaining that the store was closed to the public during the event, but it gets worse.
Donald Kendal:Listen to this hard hitting piece of journalism right here. This is reading directly from the article. I'm not joking, everybody. According to a press release issued by the campaign, quote, Donald j Trump, president Donald j Trump suited up for a shift at McDonald's in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A a full shift generally implies 8 to 9 hours of work, yet posts circulating on social media suggest Trump work there for less.
Donald Kendal:Got him. Got him. Surely, the Trump campaign has just sunk after being exposed like this. I mean, Trump wanted us to believe that he got hired at McDonald's, worked the shift, but guess what? It was staged.
Donald Kendal:Checkmate Donald Trump. But, you know, and this wasn't just some moron with a column at Newsweek. The the article is indicative of a narrative being spun by a wide range of people in the media. New York Magazine, CNN, MSNBC, The Guardian, The New Republic, Yahoo all jumped in trying to show that this was some staged event. Even Snopes jumped in to confirm that this was a staged event.
Donald Kendal:So, Jim, I know we make a habit out of just making fun of the media, you know, trying to show how ridiculous they are on the show, but this one's gotta go in the record books for just sheer ridiculousness. What what do you think of, I guess, the stunt and general and then the, media's response?
Jim Lakely:Well, I think it kinda goes all the way back to 2015 and 16 when when Donald Trump first started running for president. Our absolutely clown show media does not take Donald Trump seriously, but they take him literally. So, you know, when he puts on the apron and, so they they run these absurd stories that, as you as you mentioned, Shocking news, he did not decide to suspend his campaign and actually just drop out of the race for president and, start his new career as a fry cook at McDonald's. You you know, the analogy I thought of is, you know, when George w Bush threw out the first pitch at the World Series game after 911, he was not actually trying out for the New York Yankees. He was in he was involved in a political stunt and, actually, a great moment in America's history when he threw a perfect strike, that that meant something, symbolically for America.
Jim Lakely:But, you know, as as, Andy producer Andy had up there on the, on the screen, though he doesn't have this tweet, But the potato, Brian Stelter, who's now back at CNN, he had tweeted something to the effect that, you know, that the right wing media was milking this stunt and turning it into a 3 day story. But as usual, the opposite is true. One of the great accounts to to, to watch or to to read on X is that by Drew Holden. He's basically the, X's greatest receipt keeper, and he has a a long list, a long thread of all of these major media outlets completely losing their minds over Donald Trump, you know, going basically basically and it's known that this is one of his favorite places to eat. He loves McDonald's food, for better or for worse.
Jim Lakely:But The New York Times, French cups and French fries at Donald Trump's McDonald's gig. No hair net in sight, notes, in this thing. And it just OSHA
Donald Kendal:violation for that. They're gonna they're gonna bring them up on OSHA charges or something.
Jim Lakely:Right. I say right. And and, actually, these thing these things kinda go in stages. They actually, the as this kept getting reported for day after day, I think it act actually has finally died down by now. But, you know, inevitably, our our crack reporters in in our complete joke of a corporate media, you know, starts investigating the the actual McDonald's and its owner and if it has any health violations.
Jim Lakely:And so, this is the this is the world we live in now, where our media will it it this goes back many, many years. If you happen to oppose the regime or if you happen to do something fun with Donald Trump, and if when you see that clip, it's clear that he is having fun. It's clear that the employees at that restaurant are having a good time, And it's obviously clear that the people, oh my gosh, that they prescreened to come to the drive through window so that it's not an assassin who pulls out a gun and blows his head off because he's already had 2 assassination attempts. So, yeah, the Secret Service screened these people. But, you know, the media just cannot allow, you know, the modern day American Hitler to be in any way relatable.
Jim Lakely:You know, that's this goes back we talked about it last week, the Al Smith dinner, which is a rite of passage, which is in our political life in America where the the 2 candidates, no matter how much they hate each other, will show up at a Catholic charity event and will will do a little bit of a roast and will will be tough on each other, but not mean. And it's it's kind of a way to heal our politics. Kamala Harris didn't go to that, and I'm convinced it's for this reason. You can't normalize the the, you know, Hitler of Donald Trump by allowing him to, like, do a stunt, like like running the fry machine at a McDonald's or or or telling jokes at the at the Al Smith dinner. So, yeah, this this is just indicative of what a what a complete joke our media is and how, frankly, they work in cahoots with the regime, with with our the powers that be, as it were, with our government to ensure that nothing but propaganda is ever, disseminated to the public to the point where they spend days days debunking the idea that Donald Trump actually worked at a McDonald's.
Jim Lakely:You know, and and they're really mad because they were trolling Kamala Harris, who has yet to produce any evidence that she has worked at McDonald's. The McDonald's Corporation herself itself said it has no records of Kamala Harris ever working there. Now this is a silly and stupid thing to argue over, but, you know, Donald Trump didn't bring it up. Kamala Harris brought it up because she wanted to be more relatable to regular people because she worked fast food, supposedly. I worked fast food.
Jim Lakely:If I were in for office, the one of the first things, I guess, you have to tell everybody is that I worked at Burger King, and I got fired for Burger King because I didn't show up for work one day. I just completely forgot. I learned when you're on schedule, you should show up or else you get fired.
Donald Kendal:Oh, that is a new layer of Jim Lakeley that I was not aware of. He, he got fired for not showing up, not for stealing onion rings. Let the record show.
Jim Lakely:I thought that did happen as well. I I I got away with it, though.
Donald Kendal:Chris Talgo, you watch CNN and MSNBC so that we don't have to. Was there much coverage of, of Donald Trump's stunt over the weekend when it came to work at McDonald's? What was their take?
Chris Talgo:Yeah. I mean, it was, you know, trying to make fun of it, trying to, downplay it. And, you know, I think the reason why is because they are getting very nervous because here we are now less than 2 weeks before the, the big election day, and, things are not looking good for vice president Kamala Harris. And, that is why I think they are in freak out mode, and this is just, you know, the latest example of that. I mean, I think this has nothing to do with, you know, the fact that Donald Trump went to, McDonald's and, you know, worked there for a few minutes and, you know, served French fries and all that.
Chris Talgo:It was about, oh my gosh. He's getting more, the good media narrative. We need to try to push back against this as much as we can. That's what I really think is going on here. And one of the reasons why I think Donald Trump's visit to McDonald's actually worked out well is because he's authentic.
Chris Talgo:So Donald Trump went there. He wore his usual, you know, suit suit and tie, put an apron on over it, and just did his thing. And then I contrast that with, you know, like, Tim Walz going in going hunting, and he's got this perfectly brand new, you know, like, hunting uniform on that's not got one dirty piece of dirt on it or blade of grass on it. He can't even load his shotgun. So I think people understand that, and that's happening more and more.
Chris Talgo:Kamala Harris, I think, is scared to do things like this because she will be exposed as as a fraud. So this this, you know, I think, plays to Donald Trump's strengths. I know Trump understands people. He's very good with people 1 on 1. If you actually watched all those interactions, people were having a great time.
Chris Talgo:Donald Trump was having a great time. The, other workers at McDonald's were having a great time. And then I then I, you know, look at how, Kamala Harris or even president Biden when he when they go to, you know, like, a gas station or a or a convenience store or something like that, it is so awkward. It seems like it is super duper staged. This was organic.
Chris Talgo:This was people just having fun. This was about, you know, Donald Trump going to Pennsylvania and trying to, you know, you know, talk to the people, which he did, and he does that really, really well. So I think that's why the media is so up in arms about this. They don't it it it it's not about the, you know, the hair net or any of that kind of stuff. It's about, oh, no.
Chris Talgo:This guy that we are trying to portray as Adolf Hitler is actually going to, you know, a a a famous, you know, icon in in in, in in America, McDonald's, and he's sitting there, you know, serving french fries to, you know, people in the drive through, and they're having a grand old time. And it's it's personalizing him. It's it's it it it makes him, you know, less of this, you know, evil dictator, you know, Hitler Hitler figure. It makes him actually just, you know, like a normal guy. And that's why the media is saying, oh, no.
Chris Talgo:Oh, no. We have to, you know, prevent this from, actually resonating with the people. But it is resonating with the people, and nothing they can do can change that.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. You know what? I think what you said right there towards the end is exactly, is exactly the right point that this, like, humanizes him and takes away this, like, aura of him being some, like, fascist Hitler 2.0, like, waiting to jump to power or something like that. And and it makes me think of, what show was it? Some late night show when he was running the first time around where they're like, oh, like, can I touch your hair or something like that?
Donald Kendal:Right. And and people, like, ragged on Jimmy Kimball for a while because, like, that supposedly humanized him. You know? The idea that he would be, like, modest enough to have someone ruffle up his hair during an interview or something like that. So we can't have that.
Donald Kendal:We have to make him look like some tin pot dictator, and anything that kind of goes against that narrative has to be, like, pounded in the ground as much as possible. So I think you're exactly right on that. Jim, any last comments on this? Otherwise, we're gonna get to our main topic.
Jim Lakely:Let's go.
Donald Kendal:Alright. So this next story is pretty interesting one, and, the more layers that you peel back on it, the more insidious it becomes. There's a few different things at play, but we're gonna we're gonna start here. So journalist Paul Thacker and Matt Taibbi, Taibbi from the Twitter files, Taibbi, released a bombshell report that reveals the UK's Centre For Countering Digital Hate, which is advising the Kamala Harris campaign, has stated goals to kill Elon Musk's Twitter. So reading from the article that was published by Thacker and Taiedi, it says, in an explosive week with ramifications for the upcoming US presidential election, internal documents from the Center For Countering Digital Hate, whose founder is British political operative, Morgan McSweeney, now advising the Kamala Harris campaign, show the group plans in writing to, quote, kill Musk's Twitter while strengthening ties with the Biden Harris administration and Democrats like senator, Amy Klobuchar, who has introduced multiple bills to regulate online misinformation.
Donald Kendal:So, apparently, the Center For Countering Digital Hate is attempting to grow its presence in Washington, DC. Like I mentioned, you know, reading from the article, working with Kamala Harris and Democratic senators, their plan to kill Musk's Twitter includes attacking x's advertising revenue and laying the foundation for broader regulatory changes in the direction of platform censorship. One of their proposals is called the STAR framework, which calls for the creation of a independent digital regulator that could, quote, impose consequences for harmful content. This plan is similar to that of Europe's Justins, Instituted Digital Services Act and Britain's Online Safety Act, which puts the national media regulator of COM in charge of determining fines for uncooperative platforms. So this all sounds very Orwellian to me, and considering Elon Musk's promise of keeping x as a free speech haven, it it just makes sense that, it makes all the sense in the world that Musk and x have a giant target on their back, and they basically are just like enemy number 1 for all of these people that wanna crack down on free speech under the guise of pushing back against, you know, disinformation or something like that.
Donald Kendal:So, Jim, I mean, we've had several episodes recently that have all revolved around this, you know, seemingly new wave of attacks on free speech, again, under this guise of combating misinformation. And I know that free speech and censorship have always are always kind of a discussion, but it really seems like this is starting to ramp up. Like, it's all seems like it's kinda coming to a head here. So is it too much to say that free speech, especially, you know, looking at this, and we'll get into some of the the the ways that, this UK group is working with Kamala Harris in a little bit. But, is it is it too much to say that free speech, at least when it comes to online speech, is kind of on the ballot this come November?
Donald Kendal:What what are you what are your thoughts?
Jim Lakely:It's very much on the ballot. I think this that makes there's so many reasons why this is this actually is one of the most important elections in our lifetimes, and it's because we are choosing between freedom and oppression. We're choosing between the ability to speak freely on social media platforms and, the op the opposite of that, which is the suppression of our speech, which is tyranny. I mean, that that's really this is just one of many examples of what this election is really about. That's why it's actually quite remarkable and very encouraging that Elon Musk is not just supporting Donald Trump for president.
Jim Lakely:He is stumping for him in the key state of Pennsylvania, giving to pet crowds. I mean, you know, the left doesn't like him, but Elon Musk is a man that's greatly admired by many, many Americans. And he also happens to be a pretty interesting fella. I mean, you know, I think he's on the spectrum and his public speaking skills are, something he's actually worked very hard on. But he makes the point, I think he was in Pittsburgh just the other day talking about how, you know, our ability to speak freely really is on the ballot this year.
Jim Lakely:I mean, looking at that at that story, you know, Elon Musk says this is war because it it it is. I mean, this outfit and everything everything about this sort of thing, it it falls into a pattern. This organization is called Center For Countering Digital Hate. It's it's Orwellian. Everything about all of these things is just straight out of George Orwell's 1984.
Jim Lakely:They're not their their job is not to counter digital hate. It's to suppress the the free expression of anybody who is in opposition to the ruling class. Period. That's the end and the only purpose of these organizations, and there are lots of them. Lots of them actually end up getting United States taxpayer money to exist and to collude with the government to suppress your speech, which I know I don't have to remind people of this, but that's unconstitutional.
Jim Lakely:And if something is unconstitutional, it's also illegal. These are crimes being committed by the ruling class against the people. And for what? Not for not for spouting hate or misinformation or disinformation, Just the the the most powerful institutions on Earth today are being weaponized against ordinary citizens for the sin, the crime of speaking out and criticizing the ruling class. That is what everything that's what this election is going to be about.
Jim Lakely:Because Elon Musk, has promised, I guess, if he's invited, to be part of the, Trump administration if the American people get to elect him to be president. And that's going to be a very, very wonderful thing and interesting thing. And, hopefully, it's wonderful, but it's gonna be very interesting because we're not only would we have an outsider as president, we would we would have an outsider who, Trump wants to put in charge of making the government more efficient. He'll be the efficiency czar. I think, Elon Musk will also be the first amendment czar, ensuring that the cabal, the the conspiracy between government and every other social media outlet except for x, they can't even allow that.
Jim Lakely:They can't allow one social media outlet to not collude with the ruling class to suppress your speech. That is too much. And that in in in their eyes, they're actually correct because it doesn't take a lot of free speech to take down a corrupt, government. And if you allow it on x, that is a big problem for these people. And so, yes, to have it written down, this it's so it's it's almost mind blowing how they say the quiet parts out loud now.
Jim Lakely:They have they seem to have no fear of being found out and stopped because they they are setting it up so that the people actually do not have the power anymore to stop them. It says it here in black and white. Kill Musk's Twitter. That is a goal of the Center For Countering Digital Hate in in collusion and cooperation with the government to violate the free speech rights of of everybody, in America. And and the one of the I'll let Chris have it go at this in a minute.
Jim Lakely:But one of the real insidious things about this is that this is a this is an American and UK, you know, suppression of speech, coordination effort here going on. And we have seen videos, I've seen videos, on x of all places, of police officers showing up at the door of British citizens who thought they were living in a free country to arrest them or cite them and certainly to harass them for posting so called hate speech on their Facebook page or something. This is happening in the United Kingdom right now, and they want that to happen here in the United States. And if this election, goes the way that the Center For Countering Digital Hate would like it to go, that is going to happen in this country. Leave there there should be no doubt about in your mind that that is that is what they aim for, and they will be able to accomplish it.
Donald Kendal:Yeah, Chris. I mean, remember the days it weren't that long ago when the the the talking point when it came to, like, online censorship was that it wasn't happening, and that it was all just these, like, made up, conservative stories of us, like, chasing phantoms or whatever. And then it moved to, like, oh no, it's just like moderation. You know, Don Lemon talks about we're just moderating, you know. And now we've gotten to the point where it just says kill Musk's Twitter.
Donald Kendal:So it's like, can you really blame Elon Musk for, going so hard when it comes to kind of campaigning this season around, but, I don't know. What are your thoughts on that?
Chris Talgo:This is, you know, I think multipasseted topic. So first, you know, I think a lot of Americans don't know it, but, most European countries, including the UK, including Germany, do not have freedom of speech. They actually do not have a first amendment right called the freedom of speech. So this is more or less allowed in, places, you know, like the United Kingdom and, you know, in countries across Europe. It's not allowed in the United States of America.
Chris Talgo:That's why we have the first amendment to protect against this. And for, you know, 230 something years, generally speaking, for the most part, we abide by that. And, you know, I go back to, you know, Skokie, Illinois, you know, back in in the, 19 seventies when the KKK wanted to have a march here in Skokie, Illinois, which has a very, you know, high Jewish population. And the ACLU and all these other organizations said, actually, they do have the right to do that. We're not agreeing with what they're saying, but they have the right to say that.
Chris Talgo:And that's a big, big thing that I think is completely being lost on, people's minds these days is, well, we just don't like what they're saying, so we want them to stop saying it, and we want the government to go in and prevent them from saying that. And that is just flat out blatantly un American. On the Elon Musk thing. So, you know, a couple of years ago, Elon Musk was actually on the left, believe it or not. He's been a leftist.
Chris Talgo:I think deep down, I think he does have much more liberal tendencies, than, MAGA tendencies or whatever you wanna call it. But as he said in a, as he posted and tweeted in a famous tweet that when it could when it was Twitter, he hasn't left the Democrat party. The Democrat party's left him, and he had a great meme, I think, where it was like the Democrat party's, like, gone this far to the left, and he's still here, and the Republican party's basically still there. So it just makes sense that he would align with them. And we're seeing this happening in many other instances.
Chris Talgo:We're seeing Tulsi Gabbard who just announced that she has officially quit the Democrat party and has now joined the Republican party, not because she's, because she's completely changed her her stances on these things, but because the Democrat party, the left, has become such a shell of what they once were. And then she has made a big deal about freedom of speech being one of the biggest reasons why she's done so, and I completely applaud her and agree with her for doing so. So, you know, this when I when I when I think back to, Twitter before Elon Musk and back when the, the left had a, you know, a monopoly on all the social media platforms and almost all of mainstream media platforms and
Donald Kendal:a monopoly on all the social media platforms and almost all of the
Chris Talgo:mainstream media except for Fox News and a couple others. Man, they love those days because they could totally set the narrative. Thank god that Elon Musk solved this happening and said, you know what? I'm gonna overpay by 1,000,000,000 of dollars for this for this platform, Twitter, and I'm gonna make make it back as to what it was supposed to be originally. It was supposed to be a place where people can just go and state their opinions.
Chris Talgo:Section 230 says you cannot actually say their you know, you cannot say things that are, you know, pornographic in nature or post pornographic images or, you know, things like that. That's not what this is about. This is about people just having the ability to just say what they think on a public platform that is supposed to be the modern day town square. And, it just drives the left crazy. And, of of course, it drives, you know, the UK, the Labour Party, who's in charge there now, totally crazy.
Chris Talgo:Because guess what? Everything that Donald Trump is espousing is actually gonna, not harm them, but it's not gonna help them nearly as much as the Biden administration would. Because guess what? Unlike our modern day left, the the Republican Party, GOP, the Trump movement, whatever you wanna call it, they actually care about Americans first. And I think that that's what this is really about.
Chris Talgo:So I'm so glad that Elon Musk had the foresight to see that this was happening and to, grossly overpay for Twitter with not because he wanted to turn it into this, you know, you know, profitable business per se, because I actually think he's losing lots of money off it because advertisers are leaving and all these other things. But because he said, you know what? This this is essential for the maintenance of a free society, and he has followed through on that. And good for him, and I don't know where we'd be at this point in time if we did not have this, if we didn't have the Twitter files and all these other, you know, things that have come to, come to our attention as to how the government was, you know, colluding and basically censoring Americans', you know, opinions for several years. And, Donnie, it's I I almost forget that they first completely tried to deny it, the shadow banning, all that kind of stuff.
Chris Talgo:No. This isn't happening. You're totally just, you know, making you're you're just imagining this. But we all knew it was happening, and then now that the Twitter files have come out and, you know, all these other reports, now we have direct evidence that it was happening. So, you know, once again, I think that date is when we, you know, look back 10, 15, 20 years from now, we are going to congratulate Elon Musk for having the backbone to say, you know what?
Chris Talgo:I'm gonna buy this this, this, you know, media platform, and I'm gonna go against the grain of the, you know, the the leftist narrative of saying, hey. You know what? Just play ball with us, and everything's gonna be okay. And look at how brave and courageous he is. He's got so much on the line.
Chris Talgo:He's already under attack from California for a bunch of, you know, BS. And, you know, the guy is just, you know, super strong and, you know, ardently believes in freedom of speech. And thank God he's around, and thank God he put up the money to buy Twitter and, keep it, you know, a free open platform.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. I mean, just just the brazenness of having that, you know, the words like kill Musk's Twitter. Like, it's not even it's not even, necessarily indicative of just, like, an ideology. You know? Like, oh, we just wanna make sure that there's no fake news and misinformation being spread.
Donald Kendal:No. It says kill Musk's Twitter. Like, that's like a personal attack at, Elon Musk and what he's trying to do. But that's that that alone, I think, is, like, worthy of having this whole podcast, you know, dedicated to this this thing, this idea of, like, kill Musk's Twitter. But the story goes further.
Donald Kendal:So this expose from, Thacker and Taibbi, goes to show that this Morgan McSweeney, the the guy that was, like, the founder of this, center for countering digital hate, who has been instrumental in many prominent UK officials attaining office, has been advising Kamala not only on issues relating to squashing free speech online, but on the, general election strategy. So according to this report, I'm reading from the report now, in the last 2 months, the Washington Post and Politico, among others, have run a series of features about British advisers from Labour Together. That's another McSweeney creation, rescuing the distressed political damsel that is the Harris Walls campaign. Political cast McSweeney as a, quote, election mastermind who first helped hear stamp, Starmer defeat leftist Jeremy Corbyn to become the head of, the Labor Party. All the way to Starmer's landslide win over conservatives to become prime minister this past July, implying that McSweeney and his team can perform similar miracle for Harris.
Donald Kendal:Democrats will supposedly learn from Labor Party's tactical brilliance. Again, still reading from the report here. The new British government also believes that Harris' defeat would leave Starmer alone as the keeper of the center left flame and in worrying isolation as the Grand Atlantic Alliance's last hope. On top of providing election strategy, over 100 current and former labor staffers have begun knocking on doors for Harris this summer, drawing howls from Trump surrogates such as Sebastian Gorka, who called it a bloody outrage. So, Jim, staffers from a liberal party of a foreign nation going door to door campaigning for Kamala Harris, that's not electionference interference, is it?
Jim Lakely:No. I mean, one of our one of our long regular viewers here on on YouTube, said, hey. That sounds like election foreign election interference. It sure it sure would seem to meet the definition of that. Look.
Jim Lakely:This is the you know, we we've talked a lot on this podcast. I know we have the book, the new book Propaganda Wars, with Glenn Beck and also with, with the Heartland Institute's Justin Haskins, contributing to that book as a co author, about, you know, the global elites and the World Economic Forum and, you know, what we call the ruling class, the global ruling class, and how they are all coordinating together. If you would have asked me 5 years ago if we would be talking publicly on a podcast about the ruling elite in the United Kingdom coordinating with the ruling class here in the United States to suppress the speech of anybody who voices even the slightest bit of criticism of them and their policies and to start defining everything as disinformation, misinformation, or malinformation, and hate speech and using those as justifications to well, they want to kill Twitter to actually absolutely destroy the public square in which people can actually speak their minds. I would have thought you were absolutely crazy and nuts. There's no way that that would happen in the in the West, in the free world as it is today.
Jim Lakely:But here we are. When the people get to speak their minds, that's a danger to the ruling class. And so they cannot allow it to happen. Chris was bringing this up too, you know, how Elon Musk was, you know, probably considered himself a man of the left, certainly maybe not a man of the left, but certainly a liberal, a classical liberal that somebody who would define themselves as a liberal, say, in the year, you know, 2,002. And the, you know, the Overton window of politics, liberal politics and politics on the left has moved so far left that it is, you can't even see it anymore as as the, Andy's bringing up that, that that cartoon that kind of shows what has happened to the world over the last, you know, 20 years or so.
Jim Lakely:And it seems to be accelerating. But I it it really is important. This it's amazing. No, it's not amazing. You might notice who is not reporting on this, you know, this coordination to suppress free speech, which used to be considered un American.
Jim Lakely:And the people not reporting on that are the corp the corrupt corporate media in the United States and in Britain for that matter. You have to get it from places like Substack or Breitbart or Zero Hedge or other blogs and places. And the fact that Elon Musk, put the task of uncovering the Twitter files, he basically just opened up the database and and let a journalist, a liberal journalist on the left, Matt Taibbi, to dig into it and to find out what was going on. Michael Shellenberger, who we've had on this program, is a classic liberal. He's he would consider himself somebody he would not consider himself a conservative.
Jim Lakely:He was also unleashed on the Twitter files to find out about all the shadow banning, about all of the all the the meetings that they had, all of the threatening letters they were getting from the government saying, you know, you need to, you need to play ball with us on this by not letting people say anything against what we think is happening in COVID or with lockdowns or with masks or any of that stuff. You better not let any of that speech happen or, you might you're gonna be in big trouble. You know, that section 230 that you enjoy, we're maybe we're gonna have to revisit that. That is called extortion. Those are crimes.
Jim Lakely:And one of the most frustrating things about what we're witnessing going on in the world right now, and maybe this is why the left and the ruling class are so desperate to keep Trump out of the White House, is because a lot of what has been happening over the last couple of years are crimes. It is illegal to do these things. You're not allowed to extort a private company using the temporary power you have as a bureaucrat in the government. That's criminal that's criminal activity. But instead, we live in a world in which people who don't commit crimes are pursued, you know, like the Texas Rangers pursuing pursuing a criminal.
Jim Lakely:If you don't commit any crimes, the government's coming after you. If you commit actual crimes, you get away with them, and you just slink off, and become a CNN contributor. And this goes all the way back to all the crimes that were committed when they started spying on Donald Trump's campaign and then his presidency and then cooked up the whole Russia collusion hoax and all these other things. Though that we we seem to have become numb to the level of corruption that is now just ensconced and definitionally what our power sources and our and our government are these days. I I we have to wake up sometimes because it is really easy to become numb and to think it's the norm that our government sees the people as the enemy.
Jim Lakely:You know, Kamala Harris going out there talking about Donald Trump's out there calling people the enemy within. You know, again, everything is projection. Our own governments from from Great Britain to United States looks at the American people as the enemy to their, to their aims and certainly to their power structure. So this there's a lot on the line in this election, man.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. And, you know, if the center for countering digital hate sounds familiar, it should, because they released a report back in January called the new climate denial. Do you remember this, Jim or Chris?
Donald Kendal:We covered this on our show. Yeah. Yeah. This accused climate realists like the Heartland Institute of profiting off the spread of disinformation and climate denial. The report accused the the Heartland Institute and others for shifting from old denial as they label it, this is the claim that man made global warming does not exist, to the new denial, the claim that proposed solutions to dealing with climate change won't work.
Donald Kendal:It's just like, can you just imagine that, like, accusing someone of being a climate denialist if they think transitioning to a 100% wind and solar would be ineffective and detrimental to the economy? You're a climate denier. So after outlining the new denial, the center for Countering Digital Hate proposed harsher restrictions be imposed on big tech companies to squash the supposed misinformation. And a few months after that report, our channel was demonetized on YouTube, and, the Center For Countering Digital Hates took credit for our demonetization, posting on x, win. YouTube has demonetized the Heartland Institute, a leading climate denial think tank.
Donald Kendal:In April, we led 24 organizations in calling on YouTube to enforce its climate policies. So, yeah. So every one of these episodes where I start off talking about how YouTube is, demonetized us, well, you've got the Center For Countering Digital Hate, the same group that is advocating for killing Musk's Twitter is over there celebrating that fact and taking credit for it. So so, Chris, the Center For Countering Digital Hate works with government and corporations to squash free speech, but Trump is the fascist. Got it.
Donald Kendal:What are your thoughts on this?
Chris Talgo:So the Center For Counter Countering Digital Hate, I I don't see the the hate that they're trying to counter here. It seems like they're just trying to counter the, truth, and it seems like they're trying to counter information that people, want want to have access to. So I I think that the the name of this place is just, you know, completely off base. And when you really think about it, I mean, they're the ones who are spewing hatred. They're the ones who are who are, you know, being the aggressors here.
Chris Talgo:They're the ones who are saying, hey. You can't do this. You can't do that. You know? The the the the whole notion of just live and let live, I guess, does not apply to the to to these people whatsoever.
Chris Talgo:They want to control. They wanna control all information, and it just bothers them to the nth degree that one social media platform, one, out of, you know, 7 or 8 of the, you know, the the big boys allows free information to flow, and they just can't take that. And, you know, we do put a I on this show, we talk a lot about the mainstream media and all that stuff. But if you do look at the at the, ratings and they're they're going way down. People are not watching CNN, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, and NBC nearly as much as they used to.
Chris Talgo:They're turning to these alternative, sources, whether it's Instagram, whether it's Facebook, whether it's, you know, x. And x, I think, plays a very crucial role in that universe because x in real time kinda sets the, you know, the it it it it it's it's like it's like a new scoreboard, and you can just constantly update it and see it in real time what's trending, what's happening, what are people, you know, thinking about these things. And that does have value, and we want it to be as open as possible. We want it to be just a, you know, a a a place where people can, you know, espouse their opinions and and and say what they like as long as they're obviously not, you know, you know, saying, you know, saying terrible things about other people, like, you know, go kill Donald Trump or whatever. But that's what it's supposed to be, and that is what it is, you know, becoming again, and that's that's great for us for people who wanna seek the truth, but it's terrible for those people who want to control the narrative because they feel like they have lost control of the narrative.
Chris Talgo:And they're right. They are. They have.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Well, it's a it's a it's a tool in a battle of information. Right? And it's like when you're lining up all of the tanks of the mainstream media, whether it's CNN or ABC or NBC, MSNBC, whatever. And they've just, like, kind of mowing down the competition.
Donald Kendal:You've got, like, Fox News or, like, the Blaze as being these kind of outliers on the other side of it. But then you've got something massive like Twitter that, like, essentially shifted size of this information battle, when, when when Elon Musk purchased it. That's a huge threat to the establishment in this, you know, institution of, you know, trying to curate the information that goes to the general public. So it has to be demolished. Hence, we have to kill Musk's Twitter.
Donald Kendal:I think it's very, very obvious that that's what's going on here, and that's why I wanna dedicate
Chris Talgo:some of
Donald Kendal:my questions, though, to that.
Chris Talgo:For decades now. Decades.
Donald Kendal:Right.
Chris Talgo:I'd say, really, since maybe, like, you know, 2000, really, the left has been the the gatekeepers, when it comes to the media, when it comes to the flow of information. And, you know, that changed a lot when Elon Musk decided to pony up and, buy Twitter and put his money where his mouth is, and it just drives him insane. And Right. I think that that that's, you know, that's gonna continue. It's not gonna they're they're not gonna change their minds on this anytime soon.
Donald Kendal:Oh, definitely not. Yeah. And it goes for, like, Joe Rogan having the biggest show out there that dwarfs any other kind of media show. They're all threats to the institution that they have tried to construct over the past several decades.
Chris Talgo:Yep.
Donald Kendal:Which brings me to this new book here. This is the new book Propaganda Wars authored by Glenn Beck and our very own Justin Haskins. Also, you have to flip open the book to see this one, but the most important the most important thing right there is contributor Donald Kendall right there. So Justin is actually probably currently on a flight back from Dallas where he was down on, Glenn Beck show and various other shows in the Blaze Network talking about the book. But like I said, I'm a contributor, so I can be here, and I can talk about, on the book.
Donald Kendal:So no worries there. So this book covers a handful of topics, but its main theme is the idea of information dissemination in the modern battleground, in domestic and even international affairs, and that this information warfare is getting more sophisticated as technology advances. It's getting harder and harder for your average person to determine what is fact and what is fiction, and, what we are witnessing today is an all out assault on truth, and it's tearing the nation apart. So Glenn and Justin in this book also give readers a step by step guide to identifying and deconstructing past, present, and future propaganda efforts. It is also important for us to get this book out ahead of election time for reasons that I'll make clear in a minute.
Donald Kendal:The book is fantastic. I could personally guarantee you that, and I just wanna run through some of my favorite aspects of the book. Not to not to, you know, give everything away, but just to kind of wet your appetite of of what you're gonna get when you pick up and read this book. So the first chapter, I'm not gonna go through every chapter, I'm just gonna hit some of my favorite things, but the first chapter is called welcome to clown world. It's probably my favorite chapter name in the book, but this goes through some of the most ridiculous stories that have come out in the past few years.
Donald Kendal:You know, like the idea that math is racist, the coverage or lack thereof of Biden's obvious mental decline, ignoring stories of Chinese spies and their relationships with certain democrat politicians, bald cross dressing, luggage stealing weirdos, and how they hold significant roles of power in our government, transgender activists being made the spokesperson of beer companies. All of these just like ridiculous stories and how the media have tried to present these stories to the general public, trying to convince them that this is all just normal. So the the that's the first one. Just kinda showing the power of the media to try to normalize all of this just insane stuff. If any one of those stories were to happen even 10 years ago, I think everyone would reject it as just being lunacy.
Donald Kendal:But, here we are in 2024. There's a significant amount of attention that is paid, like I said, to this kind of emerging technologies that are having these massive effects on just the way that we consume information. One of the sections talks about super echo chambers. I'm sure most people here are familiar with the idea of echo chambers, the idea that people are only getting their news from, you know, certain sources that serve to back up their previously held beliefs. Generally speaking, this is usually seen more so as a choice, people choosing to watch Fox News or CNN depending on where their political allegiances line up.
Donald Kendal:However, now technology advanced so much that people are increasingly getting sucked into super echo chambers. When online, much of the content that a person is exposed to is dictated not necessarily by choice, but by advanced algorithms that can know based on what you slow down and read and click on that you like x and y. So it'll decide that it's only gonna show you x and y so that you stay on the platform for longer. So the book talks about, this kind of, phenomenon as well as an amazing study by The Wall Street Journal that shows that sites and and apps like Instagram and TikTok push increasingly radical content to people using these advanced algorithms, basically, just like pushing people further and further, dividing them further and further into separate camps. There's a whole section on bots and the idea of the dead Internet theory.
Donald Kendal:The book goes into how much of the content and interactions online are the products of bots and otherwise fake accounts that are pushing an agenda. The book dives into a bunch of different organizations and agencies from around the world whose job it is to manipulate online dialogue, to spin narratives that help push their agenda. I think Russia's Internet Research Agency is probably the best known example of this because you actually have the media talked about this, you know, in the run up to the election that they were trying to manipulate stuff. But virtually every country utilizes this strategy to one extent or another. I'm talking about Iran.
Donald Kendal:I'm talking about China, North Korea, but it's western countries as well. So the book gets into that very deep. Deepfakes, a personal interesting topic to me, is is discussed pretty thoroughly in this book. We've talked about deepfakes on this show a lot, the idea that AI technology can be used to simulate a person's look and speech to create incredibly realistic fake videos or audio clips with the purpose of spreading misinformation. The book shows example after example of this and how it's been used throughout the world already to manipulate election outcomes.
Donald Kendal:And that was one of the reasons why it was so important for Glenn and Justin and I to get this book out before the election because it's basically warning that, you know, some potential giant October surprise video that comes out might be completely fabricated because of the technology that's available now. So this is the the the one of the kind of the core aspects of this book is, you know, that, that old saying, you know, believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see. But when you take all of this technology into account and the way that the media landscape has morphed over the past couple of years, you kinda have to you kinda have to, lower that bar even more. So now it's like believe nothing of what you what you hear and 1 16th of what you see. So, the book is, like I said, it's fantastic.
Donald Kendal:It's available now. You can Google it. You can find it on Amazon. You can go to the Glendex store and order a copy today. Chris, I know that you have a copy as well, and I know that you actually started reading it.
Donald Kendal:So do you have any thoughts, comments, questions so far?
Chris Talgo:Yeah. So I've gone through chapter 1. Chapter 1 is great. It just sets the tone to how, you know, upside down everything has become in recent years, but I do wanna just, you know, kinda circle back to one of the things that you were talking about earlier. So the the notion of these echo chambers.
Chris Talgo:And, when I think back to when I when I first started really, like, paying attention to politics and policy and watching the news and all that stuff, I think back to CNN and MSNBC. And what they almost always had on was they would have a right person and a left person. They would let them go back and forth. On CNN and MSNBC, that almost completely just does not exist anymore. When they do have a panel, they might have one token, person from the right, but they are drowned out by 5 or 6 other people from the left.
Chris Talgo:Fox News pretty much kind of tells the same thing, except they do have their, you know, their their people on 9 5 and some of the other programs who do give the, the other perspective. But it just seems odd to me, and it seems like it's a bizarre twist of these new technologies because they're supposed to give us more access information. However, it seems like the opposite is happening, and people are coming becoming much more, interested in just seeking anything that is going to reinforce what they already think. So it's like the confirmation bias, I think, has just gone up tenfold due to these technological, you know, updates that we've had in terms of how people can receive their news. I think the algorithms and all that kind of stuff has made it even worse.
Chris Talgo:So I you know, that's why I mean, I personally don't get my my news from, you know, social media at all. You know, I try to, you you know, to go direct to the source, try to, you know you know, get different points of view. But I can see how this is creating, almost, you know, a a group of people that are just completely unaware of what's really going on because they just get this, you know, curtailed version of what is actually happening, and it's it's, supposed to fit everything that they, you know, already believe. And that's dangerous because I think back wow. You know?
Chris Talgo:What if a dictator like Adolf Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot or someone had access to this kind of information? They could completely indoctrinate and brainwash their population so much more easily than they had to do in the old way where it was blaring radio messages, you know, and and and newspapers and that kind of a thing. So, I think your book really touches upon something that is very important for the future, and it's just so strange. It's it it it it's hard for me to, you know, to to connect these these two dots here where the technologies that we've, you know, been introduced to in the past, you know, 10, 15, 20 years has vastly increased the amount of information that we can access. However, people's knowledge and people's willingness to dive deep into these subjects, I think, has actually gone way down.
Chris Talgo:You know, people go and and and they just, you know, do a Google search and whatever comes up first, they click on that. Okay. That's the answer. Well, no. That's not the answer.
Chris Talgo:You need to really dig deep. It, you know, takes time to, you know, analyze things. You know, think of all the context. Think of all the other things that are coming in here. So, you know, the the, technologies that you talk about, the AI, the, the algorithms and all that is in some ways, I think, making people dumber, which is just fascinating in, you know, in in in a way because you would think that the more access to information people have, the smarter they will be because they will have, you know, more, access to all different points of view, and they can do their their due diligence and do their research.
Chris Talgo:That's not happening. So, I think your book raises some very interesting points about, the the the future of how human beings access information and how we need to, actually just be much more better about, making sure that the information that we are receiving is in fact the truth. And that usually takes a long time, and it's intensive, and it takes a lot of effort, but it's always worth it.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. And and one thing that, Glenn was very, very clear about from, like, day 1 on, working on this book was that, like, he wanted to make sure that it was solution orientated. Yeah.
Donald Kendal:He he made it very clear that he didn't want to just, like, stand in a bonfire and say it's getting hot in here. Like, he wanted to have some solutions. So it's very solution orientated. There there's a lot of, you know, pointing out stuff that we talk about in this podcast a lot in terms of what the media does, but it also kind of puts some of the responsibility on the reader to be able to figure out and use the tools that are presented in this book to be able to better figure out what is real and not real because misinformation is not just purely, you know, on one side of the political aisle. Like, we have a responsibility as well to make sure that we're not spreading fake news and all of that and undermining our credibility.
Donald Kendal:So, yeah, it's very, very important book. There's a lot of very interesting stuff, that you probably aren't gonna get from your average conservative book out there that is in this book. Stuff that you'll probably would hear if you're a constant listener to this show, but you're gonna love you're gonna love this book. So definitely wanna check that out.
Chris Talgo:Hey, Johnny. Just one more quick comment. So for our for our viewers and listeners who are familiar with Yuval Harari, it's interesting because I just started reading Yuval Harari's book, which is called Nexus, which is kind of about the same thing, but he takes the complete opposite point of view. So it's just interesting that these books actually came out right around the same time, and I I find it very fascinating to read both of them and to consider both, you know, points of view. Obviously, I agree more with, you know, what's in propaganda wars, but I think that that that that's another example of this is don't.
Chris Talgo:And I just I I think that, you know, all Americans should do this. Don't just read everything that that, you know, reinforces your point of view. It's actually very helpful and very necessary sometimes to go and say, I wanna go and see what the other side is saying, or I wanna just, you know, just read a book that's the total opposite of that. Sometimes it makes you question things, and that's a very good thing. So please, you know, please, I just, hope.
Chris Talgo:That is why I watch CNN. That's why I watch MSNBC. That's why I read books by, you know, avowed leftist because it it would just be, I would be limiting myself, if I were to only watch and and read things that, you know, reinforce the the beliefs that I already have.
Donald Kendal:Right. You gotta you gotta sharpen your, thoughts and mind against a whetstone of challenging ideas. So, yeah, if you're just if you're just watching and and listening to and reading stuff that agrees with you, you're actually kind of stunting your own ability to have, like, critical thinking and all of that. So That
Chris Talgo:is that is very true. Yep.
Donald Kendal:So we're we're already in an hour, but my my sidebar prevents me from just ending the show. We have to talk about the fact that the election is only 11 days away, folks. 11 days away. So just just kind of, you know, we'll we'll be brief on this, but just kind of branching off of the, of the topic, I guess, that we've covered over the past couple of weeks. It really feels really feels I'm turning into Joe Biden over here.
Donald Kendal:Really feels like the Harris campaign is getting desperate, and it seems like they're just going off the deep end. And the just the past several days, Kamala and her team and the media, but I repeat myself, have accused Trump of defending Hitler, sexually assaulting some new woman 30 years ago, wishing that he had Nazi generals. I think, actually, Kamala Harris came out and did, like, a fake press conference Yes. Talking about these allegations some of these allegations that That
Chris Talgo:allegation has been completely debunked. Completely.
Jim Lakely:We have a clip of it if you want.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Okay. Let's go let's play this clip. This trigger warning. Kamala Harris about to talk.
Donald Kendal:Go ahead.
Kamala Harris:Of Americans. All of this is further evidence for the American people of who Donald Trump really is. This is a window into who Donald Trump really is From the people who know him best. From the people who worked with him side by side in the Oval Office and in the situation room. And it is clear from John Kelly's words that Donald Trump is someone who I quote, certainly falls into the general definition of fascist.
Donald Kendal:Oh my gosh.
Kamala Harris:Who in fact vowed to be a dictator on day 1.
Donald Kendal:Oh my gosh.
Kamala Harris:And vowed to use the military as his personal militia to carry out his personal and political vendettas. Donald Trump is increasingly unhinged and unstable. And in a second term, people like John Kelly would not be there to be the guardrails against his propensities and his actions. Those who once tried to stop him from pursuing his worst impulses would no longer be there
Donald Kendal:Mhmm.
Kamala Harris:And no longer be there to reign him in. So the bottom line is this. We know what Donald Trump wants. He wants unchecked power. The question in 13 days will be what do the American people want?
Kamala Harris:Thank you.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. Yeah. So we won't have John Bolton over there stopping Donald Trump from acting on his worst impulses of not going to war. Thanks, thanks, Kamala Harris. Jim, I mean, it's really, really starting to get pathetic.
Donald Kendal:What what are your thoughts on this in the last 11 days leading up to the election?
Jim Lakely:Well, I guess the upshot of this, the the silver lining on that utterly disgusting and frankly you talk about dangerous speech, that's dangerous speech. If they're if we're gonna start if we're gonna start having those definitions, if we're gonna start talking about that, that's dangerous speech. But the the upshot of this is that they must be in they must know that they're in big, big trouble, and that Donald Trump is, their own internal polling must show that Donald Trump is poised to win this election, in 11 days. But, you know, it also proves to me that they really do they really do want Donald Trump dead. They're o for 2.
Jim Lakely:Calling him Hitler, saying nobody will be there to, you know, these impulses. We went through 4 years. So, now, I guess, the new spin is the only reason we didn't fall into a a a fascist hellscape under Donald Trump's first administration is because brave heroes like John Bolton and John Kelly and and and Mark Milley, and the joint chiefs of staff were were there to stop him. Mark Milley is the one who was in contact behind the scenes with the Chinese Communist government behind the back of his president, and that means behind the back of the American people, to assure them, don't you worry. I'm not gonna be I will not follow any orders that this president gives gives because I don't believe he is legitimate.
Jim Lakely:And so there was somebody in the in the chat wondering, who is this ruling class I am referring to? Who are these people? Those are those people. Mark Milley, you know, John Kelly, all the all these people that are that are, who decide on their own, by their own account, that the choice of the American people is illegitimate and that we will not allow the will of the people to be expressed in policy through the president that they choose. They spent 4 years thwarting almost everything Donald Trump tried to accomplish in the mandate that he got from the American people, and they will try to do it again.
Jim Lakely:But using this kind of talk, it shows me that they they they had two plans to stop Donald Trump and to get first Joe Biden, now Kamala Harris over the finish line to continue the, the regime as we know it. And that was to either throw him in jail or then if when that wasn't working out, apparently, to try to get him killed. You do not use this this kind of language is really unprecedented in this country. I mean, I know. I know.
Jim Lakely:I know. Every Republican is called Hitler. There's a there was a great thread I saw on x that if you go all the way back to, you know, Mitt Romney was Hitler. George w Bush, of course, was Hitler. Look, there's a website called Chimpy McBush Hitler, as a matter of fact.
Jim Lakely:Every every Republican presidential candidate is called Hitler. This is not this is not new in that respect. But this is getting this is a serious attempt by them to do one of 2 things. I I mean, I really do think they if if they are if they mean it when they say these things, then what are they asking people to do that you need to stop him? And, of course, Kamala Harris says this.
Jim Lakely:As vice president, in front of the vice presidential residence, she uses her official vice presidential account to say these sorts of things on x, by the way, and she does have free speech to seek and say them. But I don't know how appropriate that is for a sitting vice president to do that. And the irony, of course, is that the ones with unchecked power is the regime in power right now. They're the ones who, you know, do censor the free speech of Americans. Biden is the one who's locking up his political opponents and even said, on a on a stump for Kamala Harris somewhere, like, 20 people in the room because nobody wants to see him, that we gotta lock him up, meaning Donald Trump.
Jim Lakely:They're the ones who weaponized the Department of Justice and the CIA and the IRS to go against political opponents. They're the ones coordinating with the 5 Eyes intelligence agencies around the world to spy on Americans because it's illegal for the Americans to do that on their own. You know, they're the ones classifying Americans who show up angry at school board meetings because of the indoctrination, and inappropriate curricula for their children and calling them domestic terrorists. So, you know, it's Kamala Harris who wants to get rid of the filibuster. It's Kamala Harris who wants to stack the Supreme Court with about maybe 7 or 8 new leftists to make sure that, the regime's agenda is never challenged ever again.
Jim Lakely:Everything is all projection, and so it must be that they know this is a sign of desperation. That's the only way I can think of this in any way that's remotely positive. Is that if they're if they're pulling this stuff out, if this is their closing message 11 days out
Chris Talgo:of the
Jim Lakely:election, that has to be because Donald Trump is doing very well in the polls in even in their internal polling and in the early voting. This is a disgusting turn of events in our politics. But, again, if it's happening, it must be because they know that, she's going to lose. I hope so.
Donald Kendal:Yeah. I mean, Chris, you you've made the case on here before that, you know, things, generally, when you're looking at the polls, are looking, looking good for Trump. I think, like, all the swing state polls, averages are looking like they're in Trump's direction. Now in the national average polls are looking like it's in Trump's direction. We've talked recently about some of these betting websites that it looks like it's all going in Trump's direction.
Donald Kendal:And, yeah, when you just see when you see Kamala Harris coming out with these, like, just baseless accusations, just throwing anything at the wall, just, like, seemingly in a panic, it really starts to send that message that, that that campaign is flailing. What what are your thoughts, your and and make them your final thoughts for the episode because we are already very long here. Go ahead.
Chris Talgo:Yeah. A couple of things. Okay. So one of the key I'd say the king's key swing state in this election is gonna be Pennsylvania, and, Pennsylvania has releases their early voting by registration daily, and it shows that Republicans are early voting or registered Republicans, at a much more, higher proportion than Democrats. So that's a very good sign.
Chris Talgo:We also are seeing in some of these key senate, races, like in, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and some others, that the Democrat candidate is actually disavowing Biden, Bidenomics, and Biden's policies in saying, well, I actually agreed with Trump on these three things, you know, immigration, most, you know, most importantly. So that shows that their internal polling is saying, uh-oh. We think if we want to survive, we're gonna have to attach ourselves to the the Trump campaign. I don't think that's gonna work, but that just shows that they're desperate. So RCP average, which I do check, you know, every couple days, Donald Trump is winning RCP average in every single, swing state.
Chris Talgo:All 7 of them, he is winning. Some of the most recent, national polls show that, actually, Donald Trump has a 2 point national lead among, registered voters. So that's another huge, you know, bit of information. When you look back at this point in time, you know, about 2 weeks out from the election, and you say, where was Donald Trump in 2016? Where was he in 2020?
Chris Talgo:2020 at both of the national level, Biden and Clinton had substantial leads. And in those swing states, they also had substantial leads. So all the polling that shows that Donald Trump is actually winning, you know, like these, RCP average shows us right here on the screen, I think that it that's an indicator that this is gonna be a landslide. I don't wanna use the l word. I don't wanna, you know, prematurely, you know, go there.
Chris Talgo:But, I mean, just based on based on the fact that, there were reluctant Trump voters both in 2016 and 2020 who voted for him but didn't tell pollsters they were gonna do so. And now we're seeing that they're actually willing to tell pollsters, yeah. I'm gonna vote for Trump in all these important swing states. I can't I I mean, I can't see a scenario in which Donald Trump does not win. However, I'm gonna have to have to, you know, say that that's all predicated.
Chris Talgo:It all depends on cheating. And, Donnie and Jim, as you know, we spent the past couple of years here at the Harlan Institute talking about voter fraud, mail in ballots not being counted properly, and all this kind of stuff. I know this is, you know, very bad for me to be saying here, but No. No. No.
Chris Talgo:But it's the truth that already be we have we have to just, you know, put it here on the table. So, I mean, I think that that is always gonna be in the back of my mind. But, you know, if that does not happen, if the election is more free and secure and safe than it was in 2020, I predict a giant landslide for Trump. I think that the Republican party is gonna take the senate. Now interestingly, the house, all the polls that I'm showing is that the house is likely to go to the Democrats.
Chris Talgo:So that's one thing that I just can't understand, but that's what the polls are showing. That's what the betting markets are also showing that the Democrats would win the house. So, that has never happened before. In the history of our country, we have never had where the the the party that controls the house and the party that controls the senate, it flips in one election. Never ever ever has happened.
Chris Talgo:So I kinda take all those with a big grain of salt because I do think, you know, that the down ballot races are gonna depend mostly on who wins the presidency. And if it's a Trump landslide, which I do think it's gonna, you know, turn out to be, I don't see how the how the democrats would somehow take control of the house. It's just I I don't I don't understand how that would work that way. So to me, right now, I think, you know, we're sitting sitting well and, you know, come November 5th, it looks like Donald Trump is gonna win the presidency, and Republicans will take back, the senate and retain the house. And, if that does happen, I cannot help but wonder if there will be, protests and violence and, riots and all sorts of stuff because, like we've been talking about earlier in this in this podcast, like we've been talking about for many of these podcasts, when you label someone as a Hitler, as a as a dictator, as a fascist, it is going to incentivize people to not, you know, take their their win legitimately.
Chris Talgo:So I'm kind of actually most interested in seeing how that all plays out. You know, in 2020, when Biden did win, although I don't think he actually did, but he was declared the winner. I'll put it that way. It never occurred to me and, or anyone I know to go out and and and, you know, ride and protest it. It was like, okay.
Chris Talgo:He won. Let's just, you know, move forward. But I do not see that happening on, behalf of our, you know, leftist friends, and foes here in the United States. And I go back to the 2016 election when Donald Trump did win, and it was very apparent that he did win, although it was a humongous upset. And I remember a lot of my, you know, Democrat, you know, friends, just being, you know, apocalyptic.
Chris Talgo:They they could not they they they just could not accept it. So now I'm gonna be very interested to see their reaction to, hopefully, you know, about 2 weeks from today. I hope I hope you know I hope we know by 2 weeks from today.
Donald Kendal:Right. Right. We got one more episode of the show before election day. So when we when we come back on a week from now, that little bottom thing on the on the screen there will say 4 days until election, which is kind of crazy to think about. But but, yeah, plenty of stuff, plenty of time, really.
Donald Kendal:I mean, have we really had much of an October surprise? I mean, Kamala Harris's recent CNN town hall appearance was not much of a surprise at all. We didn't show any of those clips, but holy cow, ladies and gentlemen. If you thought the Bret Baier interview was bad for Kamala, watch some of these clips from this recent CNN town hall. It's like the campaign has to choose whether or not to hide her in a basement and not campaign or put her out there and let her make a fool of herself, but that's the situation that we're in.
Donald Kendal:Also, another big thing, Donald Trump is supposed to be on the Joe Rogan show, possibly Friday, although they might be recording it on Friday and releasing it sometime next week. Joe Rogan show is the biggest show in the world, so that's obviously a big a big get for him, both Rogen and Trump, I guess. So we'll see what happens in the next several days. It certainly will be exciting, and, we will be covering the latest here on the in the thing podcast. Gentlemen, any last words, anecdotes, anything you wanna get your chest before we wrap it
Jim Lakely:up? Yeah. I was going to, record a video to apply to get our our YouTube channel re monetized, but now I guess I can spend the rest of my afternoon doing something else. Thanks.
Chris Talgo:Thanks a lot, Chris. You're very welcome. That's right. Donnie, I do have I do have one last comment. So, Marshall Mathers, was in, what was in Detroit where he lives, and, he did endorse Kamala Harris.
Chris Talgo:And I just wanna say how disappointed I am because this this man, Marshall Mathers, who I respect as an artist, and he's a very good, you know, musician, I I believe, is completely out of touch with the people he supposedly represents. He's supposed to be for the working man. You know? In in 8 Mile, he worked at a a factory in, you know, in Detroit. If you go to Detroit and ask all those factory workers who they're gonna vote for, I can guarantee you they're not gonna say Kamala Harris.
Chris Talgo:So Marshall Mathers, Eminem, some shady, whatever you go by these days. I know he's got, you know, 3 different personalities, but can you please just get more in touch with yourself? Because
Jim Lakely:Yeah. Yeah.
Donald Kendal:Could the real Slim Shady police stand up?
Chris Talgo:It is so disappointing that he has sold out and just does what all the other entertainers are doing. He was once upon a time, he actually, you know, was, you know, did go against the grain. Apparently, not anymore. Shame on him. No.
Donald Kendal:Shame on you. Alright. Thank thank you all for tuning in to this episode of the In the Tank podcast. Please join our show every week with it for when we have a new episode. The, for those that are listening to the audio only version, probably catching the show on a Friday or later, leave a review for us on Itunes.
Donald Kendal:That'd be greatly appreciated. And consider joining us a day earlier at noon central time on Thursdays where we are live streaming this on Facebook and YouTube, Twitter, x, whatever you wanna call it. You could join the conversation through your comments and questions in the chat. Maybe we'll show your comments on the screen. We'll address your questions on the fly.
Donald Kendal:You could also follow us on Twitter or x at, in the tank pod. You can send us your comments, questions, or suggestions for the show by emailing us at in the tank podcast at gmail dot com. You could support the show, not by hitting that super chat button because YouTube has demonetized us, but you can go to heartland.org slash in the tank and, donate directly to the show. That way YouTube doesn't take a 30% cut. You can also help out the show by just hitting that like button, sharing this content, subscribing if you haven't already, or just leaving a comment on the video.
Donald Kendal:All those things help break those big tech algorithms, but content like this from being shown to more people. Jim Lakely, where can the find people find you?
Jim Lakely:Atjlakelyonx@heartlandinstonx, and always visit heartland.org.
Donald Kendal:Fantastic. Chris Talgo, what do you have to pitch today?
Chris Talgo:This amazing book. Please go buy it and read it.
Donald Kendal:Fantastic. Alright. Thank you all for tuning in, and we will talk to you next week.
Kamala Harris:Turn that off.
Jim Lakely:I think she's an idiot.