Weekly Roundup: Opportunistic Judeo-Christianism + Samson, Delilah, and Hush Money

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Axis Mundi PERSON. The New Apostolic Reformation is the molten core of Christian NORP Trumpism.

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As Matthew Taylor puts it, it was the tip of the spear in getting Christians to turn out to try to overturn the 2020 election. We've covered the NAR extensively here at Straight White American Jesus ORG. I also produced charismatic revival Fury, created by Dr. Matthew Taylor PERSON, an award-winning eight-hour docuseries on the history and present of the New Apostolic Reformation ORG. Well, today I'm excited to announce something new, a monthly episode on updates and news surrounding the New Apostolic Reformation. Well, today I'm excited to announce something new, a monthly episode on updates andnews surrounding the New Apostolic Reformation as we approach the November 24 elections. I'll be sitting down with Matthew Taylor, the leading scholar on the New Apostolic Reformation ORG once a month in order to get updates on the NAR and the way its leaders are organizing with Donald Trump's PERSON potential administration, the ways they're creating threats and vulnerabilities to our democracy through local rallies, and how they're promoting spiritual warfare language and spreading the Seven Mountains mandate everywhere possible in American Christian NORP spaces.Segments of these episodes will be posted on our Straight White American Jesus ORG feed, but in order to get full access, you'll need to become a Straight White American Jesus ORG premium subscriber. The link is in the show notes, and make sure to do it soon because the first episode of Narwatch is posting this week.

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Stormy Daniels PERSON is at the heart of Alvin Bragg's falsified business records case against Donald Trump PERSON, and today she described in great detail the alleged sexual encounter in 2006 that the former president denies ever took place. Her account was so tawdry that Trump PERSON's lawyers called for a mistrial, arguing it was designed toinflame the jury and embarrass the former president, but the judge slapped down the motion.

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In the late 1990s, when Bill Clinton was mired in the Monica Lewinsky PERSON scandal, evangelical NORP leaders decried the downfall of our nation and its morality, said that the country would never be the same again. So you think that just about a generation later, in the week that Stormy Daniels testified about her alleged sexual encounter with Donald Trump PERSON, those same leaders or leaders of their ilk would have the same complaint, the same worries, the same anxieties. But what if I told you that this sexual scandal is not hurting Trump PERSON with his most conservative religious voters,but instead helping to increase his already divine image among them.

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Mr. Banks, does Israel have the right to exist as a Jewish NORP state? Is the phrase from the river to the sea, Palestine GPE will be free? Is that anti-Semitic?

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Why are so many conservatives now so concerned with anti-Semitism? What's behind all of the testimonies, the congressional hearings, the declarations about protecting Jewish NORP people? Is it a real concern? Or is it a moment of conservative opportunism? And finally, today we'll talk about the billionaires considering throwing their support behind Donald Trump PERSON. Is it possible to sell a presidency?What are the dangers of having a president be holding to the 1%? I'm Bradley Onishi, and this is the straight white American Jesus weekly roundup. Welcome to Straight White American Jesus Jesus Weekly Roundup ORG. Welcome to Straight White American Jesus.

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I'm Brad Onishi, joined today by my co-host. I'm Dan Miller, Professor of Religion and Social Thought at Landmark College ORG. Nice to see you, Brad PERSON, as always.

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You too, Dan. I know you're in the very last, it's like the trying to drag yourself away from the school year.

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Grading and meetings and the most fun things one could ever think of.

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So I hope you're making it.

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Lots of fun.

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Yeah. Rereating world-shattering books and papers that students have written. They've just written whole novels for me. It's amazing. No. It says that what always is, right?You've got some students who are, you know, they work really hard all semester and it pays off. And you've got the ones who somewhere kind of after spring break are like, oh, like, I should be doing stuff. And so let's try to pull them across the line. But I think most of them are making it. So, yeah. Yeah. All yeah. Yeah.

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Well, we need to talk about the Stormy Daniels PERSON trial. We need to talk about what I would call the opportunistic anti-Semitism of many on the American NORP right. And then for a couple minutes at least, we'll talk about whether or not Trump PERSON is trying to sell the presidency and what that might mean going forward.So let's start with Stormy Daniels and the testimony we heard this week. One of the things that emerged is that this trial is not necessarily hurting Donald Trump with some of his most ardent supporters. We have seen folks talk about the ways that this shows his masculinity, shows his aggressiveness, which are good things. And so the salacious details of this encounter are not turning people away, at least some people. And at least some of his most ardent supporters, they're in fact re-entrenching them in the kind of Trump PERSON myth.

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So take us through that and let's see what we... So everybody following Trump PERSON's hush money trial was treated to some pretty salacious details of his sexual relationship with Stephanie Clifford PERSON, stage name or performer name Stormy Daniels, this week. And some background. The trial is not about him having a sexual relationship with Stormy Daniels PERSON. It's about allegedly violating campaign finance law with the way that he made hush money payments relevant to that sexual relationship. But because lots of people have asked been like, why are we having this testimony?Why are we going into this and we'll get more than that? But here's the reason why. He is repeatedly denied that the encounter ever took place. He's consistently always said that this was all made up and it never happened. And more importantly, his attorneys in their opening statements in the trial also said that this was made up and that it didn't happen. The reason that matters is it paved the way for prosecutors to put Stormy Daniels PERSON on the stand to corroborate her claims. And this is what the judge ruled, basically, that they can do this.And it's not simply prejudicial to do so because his own attorneys kind of introduced this. If they had just come out at the beginning and said, this happened, he had an extramarital affair. That's not what this is about. We probably never would have heard anything from Stormy Daniels PERSON except maybe about receiving the money or something like that. In addition, her testimony did stray into lots of salacious details, pretty cringy if you goand read any of the transcripts. But the defense didn't object at the time that it was going on. So they were allowed to happen. I say that because the defense filed for a mistrial and said that these statements shouldn't have been made. And the judge said, like, you could have objected at any point during her testimony, you could have said that she was straying into territory that she shouldn't have been strayinginto, and we could have handled that. So here's where we are, right? Just as a reminder, we have a former president on trial who has been found liable for committing sexual assault. That's already happened. That's a real thing. He has boasted about committing sexual assault. We all remember the tapes in the run-up to the 2016 election. And the world has now had to endure a lurid testimony about his sexual affair with Stormy Daniels PERSON. And as we all know, and this is to your point that you sort of opened up with Brad, he remains still for millions of conservative American Christian NORPs a divinely sent deliverer of a Christian nation.And so we've talked about this issue a lot. Lots of other people have talked about this issue. We spent ears looking at this about why it is that white conservative Christians NORP continue to support somebody who is, in their own terms, we would say, sexually immoral, right? And sort of unapologetically so. So this week, Dylan Jones with Politico interviewed Sam PERSON Perry, somebody who has, we talk about a lot, love Sam's work, he's been on the show, specifically highlighting one of the biblical tropes that he thinks illustrates this. It was really sort of worth talking about. And it fits in with a lot of things we've talked about. It fits in with discussions you've had in some of your interviews with folks, and we're going to revisitsome of those. But here's the key idea. Okay. And again, thanks to Sam PERSON for pointing this out. We've pointed this out, Sarah Moslin or Kristen Dumay PERSON, like so many people, right? This is such a theme. And yet there is still this sort of shock of like, why do they continue to support Trump PERSON? And here's the key point. He reminds us that they don't support Trump PERSON despite his sexual moral failings.They support him because of his sexual moral failings, right? And in the interview, he offers Perry PERSON does, a great illustration of why this is. And he notes that, you know, if you're looking for like biblical models, there are lots of them. There are lots of models, especially in the Hebrew Bible WORK_OF_ART, lots of stories of men who are divinely appointed figures who are pretty horrific when it comes to their sexual misconduct, right? But he offers up the story of Samson PERSON as the most apt metaphor.And I thought that that was really interesting. So, Brad, if it's been a while, you know, since you curled up and set down your French NORP novels and decided I need to read the book of judges and remind myself of like the story of Samson PERSON.

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I have not.

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Well, I'm not going to say the last time I read judges.

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I used to read judges all the time. I mean, like, anyway, we'll save that.

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It's one of the, like, action movie portions

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of the Hebrew Bible WORK_OF_ART.

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And, yeah.

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Like, when you're a teenager and you commit to reading through the Bible in one year, like, when you get done with Deuteronomy WORK_OF_ART.

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You need a reward after Deuteronomy WORK_OF_ART. You get to Joshua PERSON and judges, you're like, let's do this. This is like, as you said, there's some action. There's some, there's some events. There's some, this is pretty cool.Let's go. You know what I mean? There's like sex in there and it's like okay to read because it's the Bible WORK_OF_ART.

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Yeah, I know. I mean, anyway, all right. The stuff that we should, part of the stuff that would get the Bible WORK_OF_ART on the band books list if people were serious about it is Joshua PERSON judges, right? Not just Joshua PERSON and judges, but they're there. So, for those who are like, what in the world are you talking about? Judges is the name of a book in the Hebrew Bible, okay? So it's a story, and so who's Samson PERSON? Samson is thisIsraelite NORP warrior, known as a judge, and judge in this context kind of means sort of a kind of divinely appointed leader. And the narrative is of a time in Israelite history when the Israelites NORP are trying to fully take control of the territory of Canaan, and they are opposed by a group of people called the Philistines NORP. So it's like lots of stories of basically their conflicts with the Philistines. And this guy, Samson PERSON, emerges in this context as a mighty warrior who delivers God's promises, excuse me, who delivers God's promise land to his people.And people might know from Samson PERSON he was big and he was strong and all of this sort of stuff. And if there are obvious parallels that you already hear of a guy named Donald Trump delivering America to its rightful Christian NORP people, I mean, that's why this, as Sam PERSON is suggesting, that's why this is a parallel that fits.

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So Samson, the first piece of this, he's a man's man, as conservative Protestants NORP would view it. And Perry describes him as the John Wick of killing Philistines NORP. And it's a good description. Perry PERSON says this. He says, Samson PERSON is thought of as this uber masculine hero.He's big and he's strong, and the representations of Samson PERSON are of this hyper-masculine guy. And it's exactly correct. The stories like him killing like a thousand Philistines NORP with the jawbrone of a donkey or an ox or something, some animal's jawbone. And like, yeah, so he's just, he's a real badass.

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Jason, I'm thinking of Jason Momoa PERSON right now. That could be awesome. Jason Momoa as Samson. I think we're there. Jason can give us a call. We can, you know, for just a small part of his representation fee, we're happy to pass that idea on. Yeah. With all of our, all of our connections we have in Hollywood GPE. Yeah. So he's this man's man, but he also has a man's weaknesses.

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Turns out Samson PERSON in the story, he's also pretty into prostitutes.

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Like, that's kind of his thing. And so here's the trick to the uninitiated. If you are not in that conservative Protestant NORP world where, you know, with its views of masculinity and so forth, this would seem to pose a problem for Samson PERSON, right? It would make him a pretty flawed figure. But what Sam PERSON reminds us of, and again, other folks that we've talked to, and I know listeners will know this, he perfectly hits on why this isn't the case. And so he says this.He says, this is from the article. It says Trump PERSON's sexual misdeeds may break religious doctrine, but they also affirm his masculinity, at least in the evangelical view. They demonstrate that Trump PERSON is a virile red-blooded man afflicted by God, like all real men, with lust. Obviously, like, cis, hetero, white guy lust, right? That's the model here. Not just lust for sex, Perry PERSON says, but for power. And much like biblical warriors who themselves struggle with sexual temptation,Trump can wield power and lead the faithful to glory. He also goes on to say Perry PERSON does. He says, part of Samson PERSON's masculinity is his huge and enormous sexual appetite. The guy was the embodiment of physical superiority, and that includes his sexual superiority as well. And finally, Sam PERSON is a sociologist, and he talks to people and finds out what they think and how they perceive things, and he says this. He says, in my research, I found that evangelicals tend to see sexual temptation as just a normal part of being a Christian NORP man,that God PERSON gave men tremendous sexual appetites because he wanted them to be leaders and initiators and people who take charge. And this isn't just about sexuality. This is about every area of life. So this is what it turns out to be. And Samson PERSON's sexual appetites bring about his ultimate fall, right, the story of Samson PERSON. It turns out he had taken what's called a Nazarite NORP vow, this kind of vow to do things like he wouldn't touch dead bodies. I don't know how you kill all these Philistines NORP and not handle dead bodies, but he didn'tand not have strong drink. And importantly, not cut his hair. And it's because he had vowed himself to the service of God that he's given these almost like comic books, superhero kinds of powers and abilities. So the Philistines NORP know that he's got this weakness for women. They employ the services of a woman named Delilah to seduce Samson PERSON and to find out what his weakness might be.And Samson confides in her that his long hair is like kind of the Fabio PERSON, I guess, MoMA ORG superhero mix here. You know, you think these things and then you say them and you're like,

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that's something that shouldn't exist. But like anyone under... Who's Fabio PERSON?

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36 is like Fabio PERSON?

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Anyway, go ahead.

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Sorry. I'll take 36. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Delilah PERSON coaxes this information out of him.He tells her that if his hair is cut, he loses his power. And so she goes to the Philistines NORP. Well, she cuts his hair, hands him over to the Philistines well she cuts his hair hands him over to the Philistines and the long and short of it is Samson PERSON dies he goes out in a blaze the blaze of glory takes a bunch of Philistines NORP with him and so forth so what's the moral of the story right if you're if you're a conservative evangelical Protestant Trump PERSON supporter what's the moral of this story it is not that there's something wrong with Samson PERSON. It is not thatlike sort of unbridled, masculine aggression, sexual aggression is somehow bad or a problem. It is that women are traps that can ensnare godly men. And that's why Delilah PERSON becomes one of many Hebrew Bible WORK_OF_ART women, women in the Hebrew Bible, who become this kind of Western NORP image of the dangerous woman, the seductress who will lead otherwise godly men astray. So to bring all this back to Trump PERSON's trial. This is exactly why the evangelicals continue to, not just continue to support him, but you say Brad PERSON is driving uphis popularity and his support among evangelicals NORP, right? His sexual misconduct isn't seen as a weakness or a failing on his part. He's just a red-blooded man's man. Of course, he's attracted not just to women, but to a porn star and all the ugliness of the way that that plays out. It's seen as a confirmation of his masculinity, right?And those who accuse him, they're not victims. They're seductresses, leading him astray, standing in the way of what God has called him to do. And I'll wind up sort of a last quote from Perry PERSON in the article, because he really hits on this. He's asked, how evangelical leaders and institutions treat women who are cast in the Delilah PERSON role. In other words, how does this figure of Delilah continue to inform what we're seeing in court with Stormy Daniels at present, what we have seen with the Access Hollywood WORK_OF_ART tapes, what we have seen with his other sexual misconduct trial, and so forth. And what Perry PERSON does, he highlights that, but I think he also highlights how this is about morethan just sex, about more than just sexuality. This notion of masculinity bleeds into a full vision of leadership and control and power and God's design for men and so forth. So this is what Perry says. He says, if you follow the narratives with, say, the Southern Baptist ORG sex scandals that have come out within the last few years, we've talked about those, often the counter-narrative that I see, at least on social media and among some Christian NORP-right journalists, is to ask, well, what was the woman's role in this?The Christian NORP right is now so partisan that any of the darlings of the left, like minorities who are harmed in situations of police left, like minorities who are harmed in situations of police brutality or women who are the victims of sexual assault, the first impulse on the Christian NORP right is to say, well, what did they do? Did they have it coming? Did they ask for it? Were they initiating this in some way? Are they lying just to get some godly person in trouble? Are they lying to get the cops in trouble or to get a pastor in trouble? There's an evangelical suspicion or a Christian NORP right suspicion of women involved in thesekinds of sexual affairs, that they are probably asking for it, probably tempting, probably not helping the situation, and certainly not the victims. That's what he has to say. The last point I'll make about this is that that bleeds into governance and ruling and different things like this, right? Men are to be aggressive and they're to take control. It also explains, I think, the double standards and blind spots we've seen with this testimony. Not at all surprising, if you're familiar with these kinds of things.None of it is surprising, but it's still very troubling. There is, on the one hand, the moral approbation of, oh, she's a porn star. Just the hand-wringing and the pearl clutching about this, this evil saddar. She's not just a woman. She's not just somebody who slept with a married man. She's a porn star. She is discredited as inherently immoral, as maybe a step up from the prostitutes that Samson PERSON would visit, but maybe not. But notice that there's no concern about the guy fetishizing her for this reason.The fact that Trump wanted to sleep with Stormy Daniels PERSON because she's an adult film star. That's the reason. It's not about Stormy Daniels PERSON. It's about this persona on screen. And there was also this, I found really troubling line where she talks about sort of that she didn't anticipate having sex with Trump PERSON.She did not say that she was coerced or anything like that. But she talks about sort of coming out of the bathroom and Trump PERSON's basically stripped down kind of waiting in bed and she wasn't expecting that. And Trump PERSON's attorney had this line where she sort of said, well, you're used to being around naked people and seeing that. Like, why would that surprise you?And again, no recognition that like this is what she does for as a profession. It's on a movie set. It's highly artificial. It is set up. It is regulated. There are lots of safeguards in place.There are people there, you know, like making sure that things are managed in a particular way. There's a level of safety that is not present in a one-on-one encounter like this. Again, castigating her in the role of this Delilah PERSON figure, a level of safety that is not present in a one-on-one encounter like this, again, castigating her in the role of this Delilah figure, seeking to drag Trump PERSON down, destroy the nation, and so on. So things that we've talked about, I've been talking for a while now, and I know you've got some good insights on this as well, but I thought it was really,as he says, a really apt analogy to think about Samson and Delilah as this image of why it is that the evangelical support Trump PERSON through this.

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So Stormy Daniel said in response to that line from Trump PERSON's lawyer that, yeah, when you're expecting

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it. And, right? And so again, what it hints at is that if you're a woman, and here's the line,

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it's a line that's been played out since time immemorial of, well, if you're a woman, and here's the line, it's a line that's been played out since time immemorial of, well, if you're the kind of woman who is sexually promiscuous, then any sexual encounter is welcome and you wouldn't be caught off guard and you, right? It's, it's, yeah, goes all the way back to Me Too and all of discussions from 2017 and so on and so forth.I think anyone listening who has experienced evangelical NORP purity culture or complementarian marriage frameworks is already understanding what's going on here. That women by nature are seen as evil. They're seen as in the Eve PERSON complex. They're seen in the Delilah PERSON complex. They're seen in the Jezebel PERSON model.They're seen as those who are supposed to keep the world chased and in line sexually. And when they don't, they're seen, and Sam Perry PERSON has another great line, he says, they're seen as traitors to their sex. If a woman is actually sexually interested or a sexual being, she's not just doing something wrong.She's betraying her nature. So I think everyone listening who's experienced any of that or is familiar with that, whether in evangelical spaces or just an American NORP culture at large, there's so many echoes and bells ringing and so on. What I want to do in just a few minutes is connect this to the nation. Because you hinted at this with Samson PERSON,but it comes home because what is happening with Donald Trump as a former president and as a presidential candidate is he's meant to be a representative of the nation for people who support him. And a couple of years ago, I interviewed my colleague Leslie PERSON Dorrell Smith from Avali University, and Leslie wrote a whole book on sex scandals in American history and their religious underpinnings. The book is called Compromising Positions WORK_OF_ART. in American history and their religious underpinnings. The book is called Compromising Positions WORK_OF_ART.And what she does is she connects sex scandals and the ways that white heterosexual men are often forgiven for their sexual infidelities or failings and even given a kind of reputation boost. She connects it to nation building. So here's a clip from that interview with Leslie PERSON.

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So the ideas that we have here that really inform a lot of American NORP patriotism are very much manifestations of American NORP exceptionalism. We are a strong nation. We are the best nation, but we are also the righteous nation. And so one of the things that I think it's important to remember is that when people vicariously associate in patriotic ways with their country, then they want to think about the politicians who represent them as something like a microcosm of the country. So if a politician comes across as masculine, hyperaggressive, and if he promises to protectthe public, to protect the citizenry from whatever bad guy is out there, and that could be the terrorist or the undocumented immigrants or whoever it is,

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then what I found in my research is that the American NORP public is more likely than not willing to forgive that particular politician

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for whatever sexual indiscretions he's committed. And that's because he's got something to give them in exchange.

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So here's the idea. America GPE's a strong nation. America is a nation that needs protection against certain enemies or others. We need a masculine, hyperaggressive, father figure, leader, whoever at the front. Well, that's how some people, some Americans NORP think. Okay. So if you need that kind of leader to protect you from bad guys, someone like Trump's attractive. Yeah, just one,

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one quick thing is, you know, I know people might ask sometimes, we talk about hypermasculine.

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And I've had people ask me, like, so you think there's something wrong with masculinity? No,

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like there's no problem with masculinity. It's the equation that masculinity is aggression. Like, the aggression and violence are what masculinity means, that that's what it essentially is. So somebody is not violent. If they're not aggressive, they are somehow not masculine. That's the image, right? The reduction of masculinity to aggression, to violence, to possession, to control.

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Yeah, I think that's so well said. And so what Leslie PERSON finds in looking at all these sex scandals from American NORP history and political history is that the American public will forgive you. If you're the hyper-aggressive masculine protector man, well, when you go and have sex and initiate a sexual encounter like Donald Trump did in this way that caught Stormy Daniels PERSON completely off guard and she wasn't necessarily thinking was going to take play.Right. If you take the initiative, if you act, if you are the aggressor, if you're not a reactor, but the one who takes charge, well, then you're seen as a good leader. This might actually convince people, and this is the thrust of Leslie PERSON's book, this might actually convince people you're the guy for the job and that you're going to be for our nation what we need to protect us from all the people who are threatening it. Okay.Now, she then connects it to data she has about men and everything you just said, Dan, about evangelicals and many other conservative Christians NORP think about gender and sex. And she relates all this to masculinity and to the family. So let's listen to one more clip from her.

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And the reason why I connect evangelicalism to this, and to be very clear, you know, if you ask evangelicals, you know, as kind of a block, if they approve of political sex scandals, nobody says yes. Okay. Nobody says he. Oh, was that many of the sex and gender norms that have been generated within evangelicalgroups and that we find tangibly in places like evangelical sex and gender marriage advice literature, for instance. If you look at those treasure troves of data, what you often find is that there is this sense that God made men sexual because their sexuality, their libidos are actually the power that drives society. And so the family is the basic core building block of society, many conservatives will argue, because it is the place where male energies are harnessed through female morality and the female nurturing propensities. And this is how the family comestogether to sort of represent these opposing forces that ultimately generate a productive society. So what that means then is that when we have a politician who is engaging in some sort of illicit sex, if we can understand him as a person who's going to be kind of like a fatherly figure who protects us, then there is now an outlet through which to excuse those behaviors because suddenly you can say that he is a person who will protect us. This is just how he is. This behavior

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is sort of natural. So basically the idea is, and Sarah Malzner PERSON is so good on this too, Virgin Nation is the book, Pure White WORK_OF_ART is the podcast. Sarah Malsiner, Leslie Doro Smith PERSON, are basically going to outline for you the idea in these theological frameworks that men are by nature, hyper-aggressive, hyper-sexual beings. That's how they were made. So if you try to stop them from that, or if you try to tell themnot to be that, you're trying to tell them what God made them to be. The only chance we have is for them to direct that in the right way in a marriage relationship. Okay. It's not about changing that behavior. It's not about not equating masculinity with hyperaggressiveness and hypersexual activity and hypersexual take what I want, it's just a matter of, well, hopefully they'll just keep that within the marital frame. But if they don't, and they want to be the leader of your nation, which you cantake away from that is, well, they're the guy for the job because they're not going to let Al-Qaeda. They're not going to let whoever we, in the Maga world's eyes, they're not going to let undocumented immigrants. They're not going to let people from Palestine GPE come and get us. They're not going to let the boogeyman. No, he'll step in.He takes what he wants. He's the guy. So this is the explanation as to why this helps a Trump PERSON rather than hurts him. It's also the explanation, and I've talked about this endlessly on this show. I talk about it in my book as to why like Obama PERSON got made fun of her wearing mom jeans or dad jeans and thetan suit and Obama doesn't like ride around on a horse with no shirt like Putin PERSON. What they were trying to do is tell you he's not man enough for the job, right? That was always the goal with the Obama Putin kind of comparisons. And we see that now with Trump and the Stormy Daniels PERSON trial. It's all coming back to roost. Final thoughts on this, Dan PERSON, before we move on.

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I think you're right, again, as the other friends of the show are, that the family is one of the key focus on this. Another one, and Kristen Dumais, the one who kind of reminded me of this, I just taught her book this semester, so it's fresh in my mind, is that the military is the other one. If there are like sort of two pillars where that hypermasculinity is supposed to be sort of properly directed, it's in the family and it's in the military. And I would argue now that the border language is all part of that as well. And so that's why you also have like not figurative militarism, but literal militarism as well, is because these are the legitimate sort of God-ordained channels for this hyper-masculinity,just as Samson exercises in masculinity, not just with prostitutes, but by slaughtering Philistines NORP, who are the kind of military opponents of Israel GPE.

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So much to say about this. If you're interested in this, you can listen to a bunch of things. You can listen to Pure White by Sarah Mosiner PERSON. You can listen to my interviews with Sarah Maziner with Leslie Dorosmith PERSON. If you're a subscriber, a premium subscriber, you have access to the full gamut of our archive to listen to those. You can listen to my talks with Audrey Claire Farley PERSON. You can listen to my series Mild at Heart, which is on the Axis Moody ORG platform. So we've justdiscussed this at length and could talk about this for hours. I'll also say you should read Dan Miller's book, Queer Democracy WORK_OF_ART, because he talks all about the ways that you imagine a political body in the image of a physical body. And so if you want to protect the body's borders, if you want to make sure no foreign agents penetrate the body, you need the big, bad, aggressive daddy figure to do that who will wield the military and all the weapons he has to make sure that the invaders don't get in. Well, that's all at play here. Let's take a break.We'll come back and talk about opportunistic anti-Semitism on the American NORP right. All right, Dan PERSON.

Speaker 31904.96s - 1910.18s

You don't really know what you can believe because there's so many sources saying so many different things.

Speaker 51910.3s - 1914.46s

It's weakening trust between the media and the audience.

Speaker 11914.7s - 1923.5s

I'm pretty sure that I have shared fake news, but I didn't realize it until someone corrected me. No one knows what to trust and what not to trust anymore.

Speaker 101924.5s - 1986.32s

Misinformation, a threat to democracy, public health, and maybe even the human species as a whole. Or is it? What does this word really mean? And why has it become such a hot topic? I'm Dr. Susanna Crockford PERSON, an anthropologist who studies conspiracy theories and the ways they affect religious, spiritual, and other communities. While there is a lot of talk about Dr. Susanna Crockford PERSON, an anthropologist who studies conspiracy theories and the ways they affect religious, spiritual and other communities. While there is a lot of talk about misinformation floating around, there are a few trustworthy sources where you can learn what it is and how it worksin yoga communities, online message boards, wellness spaces, church congregations and of course social media. Come for the wacky ideas about biohacking and election rigging. Stay for the research on the effects of these ideas on public health and democracy. Misinformation debuts May 24th, 2024, and episodes will be released weekly. Find it anywhere you get your podcasts, because misinformation matters. See you soon.

Speaker 61988.32s - 2002.84s

I want to play you a clip from a congressional hearing this week with chancellors and leaders from some of the nation's largest school districts. This is Florida Representative Aaron Bean PERSON talking to these leaders.

Speaker 92003.7s - 2017.5s

Mr. Banks, does Israel have the right to exist as a Jewish NORP state? Absolutely. Ms. Silvestri PERSON? Yes. Ms. Ford-Marthel PERSON. Yes.Does is the phrase from the river to the sea, Palestine GPE will be free? Is that anti-Semitic?

Speaker 82017.62s - 2024.86s

I think most Jewish NORP people experience that as anti-Semitic and as such it is not allowed in our schools. You would say it is. I would say it's anti-Semitic.

Speaker 92024.86s - 2028.52s

Ms. Silvestri PERSON. It is if the intent is the destruction of the Jewish

Speaker 82028.52s - 2032.82s

people yes and it is and so I would say I'd put you down as a yes you're okay with

Speaker 02032.82s - 2040.02s

that yes yes yes yes yes it is calling for it's a yes you can just go yes or no

Speaker 92040.02s - 2044.3s

it is if it is calling for the elimination of the Jewish people in Israel GPE and I will

Speaker 02044.3s - 2048.04s

also say that I recognize it it does have different meaning to different members of our community.

Speaker 92048.04s - 2051.3s

I'm going to go, yes. I'll put you down to yes. I got to bug it because five minutes goes by so fast.

Speaker 22051.42s - 2052.7s

All right, I'm going to come back to that clip.

Speaker 92052.8s - 2055.68s

But I want to talk about anti-Semitism as opportunism.

Speaker 62056.44s - 2223.52s

And I want to go back to something I've been talking about for the last month. And that is a strategy on the American right that was largely pioneered in the last half century by Arthur Finkelstein PERSON, who helped Reagan, who helped Nixon, who helped so many senators, Oran Hatch PERSON, and others get elected, who helped Orban, who helped Netanyahu, who trained up Manafort, who was super close with Roger Stone PERSON, and that's this. Identify the other who will win you the most support and mobilize against them. So identify the person you think the public, not the person, but the group, you think thepublic is scared of most. Who is the group that is scared, the public is scared of most? And take the side against them. Okay. I hope everybody understands that strategy. Who do they fear the most?In some cases we've seen over the last half decade, it's been trans people. People are afraid, they're uncomfortable, they don't know many trans people, they're not sure what that means. So hey, take the side against them, mobilize, and you can probably get more folks to jump in with you than on the other side. Pretty clear strategy.In this case, it's choosing the side of Jews against Palestinians NORP. Now, I want to be very clear. Anti-Semitism, as we've said on this show, all the time, every chance we get is real. It is present. We have seen an assent of anti-Semitism in the country over the last decade, particularly since Donald Trump PERSON became president.We could talk about the Tree of Life FAC synagogue shooting. We can talk about the anti-Semitic aspects of so many manifestos of those who've committed mass atrocities in the country. We could talk about the ways that anti-Semitism has grown on the far right and was present at Charlottesville EVENT. I mean, anti-Semitism is real. It is ascendant. It is present. Nothing I am saying right now is to say, nope, no anti-Semitism. What I'm trying to say is I think there are people using the ascendance of anti-Semitism to join forces with a group theythink will help them win support against another group, and that is Palestinians NORP. And in this case, Palestinians represent what, Dan? They represent Islam. They represent, as we saw last week, with Sean Foyt and Metaxus, jihad, Iran, even demons. Simply put, if you're with the Palestinians, the American NORP right is going to tell you you are with the enemies of the USA. The Palestinians NORP are bad religion. Islam is bad religion. That is how it is coded by the American NORP right. Okay.And in this case, what we have is opportunistic Judeo-Christianism NORP. This is the moment where the Christians are like, oh, yeah, the Jews NORP are with us. Yeah, we're Judeo-Christian NORP. Yeah. Yes, we need to protect. We need to protect them.

Speaker 42223.52s - 2271.06s

The very selective Judeo NORP that gets added into like all of these, these conservative white Christians are not preaching on a typical Sunday about Judeo Christian NORP stuff. They're preaching about Christian NORP stuff. And they will laugh at you or mock you or swear at you, except they'll use, I guess, Jesus PERSON friendly swearing. If you were to suggest that there are connections between Judaism and Christianity ORG and so forth, Christianity is surpassedJudaism. It is past it. They will, if somebody on the left starts talking about a Judeo NORP-Christian ethic, they'll say that they're afraid to just declare the Christian NORP origins of the country or that they're denying it. But here, all of a sudden, the Judeo NORP is super useful and it's back in vogue on the right. I think that's exactly right.

Speaker 62271.06s - 2584.3s

So what happens here is, here's the equation. Palestinians equal Islam, jihad, Iran GPE, demons, enemies of the USA. Jews equal USA. So I cannot tell you how many times I've seen on Twitter and other places this week, Dan PERSON, people calling folks on college campuses, and largely these are like, I'm sorry to characterize, but they're largely what appeared to be like waspy frat boys, okay? And I can't, and, you know, these are folks who, by all appearances, are rooting against the Palestinian NORP encampments. The Palestinian protest encampments. Okay.The most famous one that a lot of you might have seen is from Ole Miss. ORG There is a group of guys, mainly men, there are some women, who appear to be almost all white. Now, we can go through the video, we could see how they identify. I don't know the racial makeup of all those people, but I've been on a lot of southern campuses, Dan. I've taught in the South for years. They are dressed like the frat boys on a southern campus. Dockers, USA GPE shorts, polo shirts, and one of them is dressed in a USA GPE set of overalls with no shirt, okay?And they are facing down one black woman. And I think she's black. And if I'm wrong about that, I apologize if she identifies in a different way or they identify in a different way. I don't know. But I've watched the video many, many times she appears to be a black woman.Dan, it's straight out of the 1960s. It looks like a mob storming somebody during the integration of schools or during sit-ins. One of those moments. But here, the dividing line is Israel, America GPE versus Palestine, Americans who hate America. Right? It's our side. Israel is America GPE versus Palestine and Americans who hate America. is America versus Palestine and Americans who hate America. And in the video, one of these young men makes a monkey noise and gesture. So he's making one of the oldest anti-black racist gestures one can think of. In Congress, Aaron Bean PERSON, as I mentioned, was grilling the heads of the nation'slargest school districts this week. And we played that clip and we talked about it. And I'm going to play some more of that in a minute. Aaron Bean PERSON is the one if you listen to the entire testimony who's just like, he's outraged. He can believe anti-Semitism is present in our schools. Aaron Bean is a representative of Florida GPE, Dan. He's from Naples, Florida. Naples is about an hour and a half drive from Mar-a-Lago FAC. So if you and I were in Naples over there in Aaron Bean's district and we said, let's go to Mar-Lago FAC, see what that place is like. It takes about an hour and a half. Aaron Bean is, you guessed it, endorsing Donald Trump PERSON for president.Aaron Bean PERSON didn't, I didn't find anything. If you all want to send me something, I could be wrong. But when Donald Trump had dinner with Nick Fuentes, a Nazi NORP, somebody who says he's pro-Hitler, didn't see anything from Aaron Bean PERSON, didn't see any outrage, didn't see any posts, he just didn't seem like a big deal. But now, now, let's get these school heads in.Let's get these chancellors in front of the mic, okay? I want to talk about just, I'll throw it to you here in a second. Let me make one point and then I'm going to throw it to you. There's a book by Kehieland Gaston called Imagining Judeo-Christian America WORK_OF_ART. And in that book, Gaston argues that the idea of a Judeo-Christian America GPE, it pretends to be inclusive while working to be exclusive.That every time white Christians in the country have turned to the inclusion of Jews NORP as near them, as extending the walls of the city on a hill to include the Jewish people in America GPE, it's been to exclude the secularists. It's been to exclude the Muslims NORP. It's a way to say, oh, you're with us so that we can be against them. It happened in the Cold War EVENT. It happened in the interwar years in the 1930s. It happened during the Vietnam War. Okay. And America GPE's identity,Gaston argues, is envisioned here as America and Christian. And opportunistically, the Jewish NORP part is brought in. That is what I see when I see Mike Johnson go to Columbia ORG. That is what I see when I see Aaron Bean and other congressional Republicans NORP up there just red-faced about anti-Semitism. I want to be very clear. Antisemitism is real. It is ascendant. It is so dangerous and problematic and hurtful and scary. But I think that these are false friends. I think that these are people who are working for more destructive purposes and not, in fact,right, to invest in the Jewish NORP people for the long haul, to invest in Jewish communities and their safety perpetually, and to build something like peace and understanding by way of education among various ethnic and religious groups. To me, this is simply we can bill ourselves as the America GPEns and you as those who are with America's enemies. You pick aside America and we'll meet you at the polls.

Speaker 42589.58s - 2771.54s

This is sort of implicit everything you're saying. It's impossible to, I think, also overstate the whiteness dimension in this. As you talk about this, this tried and true strategy, this political strategy of identifying the other who need the most support. In the period when this emerge, you mentioned Nixon. You mentioned Reagan PERSON, right? That was the war on crime language. And what was that code for? It was code for black people. And we know this. The strategists who were behind that have said, we knew that you couldn't just be anti-black anymore. So we had to have this way of saying this. That's what it was. As you say, and I absolutely want to affirm it as well, anti-Semitism in America GPE is real. So isIslamophobia. And Islamophobia also has this racially coded dimension, right? There's a lot of great scholarship about, I read a book recently called The Racial Muslim WORK_OF_ART, and there's one by a guy in Eric Love on Islamophobia and racism in America GPE. And this kind of creation of this kind of vague category of the quote-unquote Middle Easterner NORP, who is is brown who is visibly marked in some way as not white and to just put some spin on this or some perspective for me years ago in my religion and pop culture class I started a section on American NORP Islamophobia and it's a piecethat's there and this was back in like the early aughts and I remember remember, you know, not that long after 9-11 EVENT. I was like, that's religion and pop culture. I don't know if this is always going to be a thing that's going to stay. We're in 2024. I'm teaching that class again in the fall. And guess what section I still have in the class because it is more pertinent now than it was post-9-11is America, American NORP Islamophobia. So Islamophobia works. It works politically. It works socially. It is an enemy that has been constituted in a way that lots of angry or scared or white Americans NORP or white Americans who were just looking for something to latch onto, right? A way to name a fear or an anxiety that doesn't have an object. You give it that object and it works. And that's why they're doing that.or an anxiety that doesn't have an object, you give it that object and it works. And that's why they're doing that. I think the last point, you mentioned that, you know, this is straight out of the 1960s. And, you know, it's interesting to talk about the congressional Republicans NORP because McConnell, Mitch McConnell this week, when Biden PERSON did say that they were going to not, they were going to hold up weapons shipments to Israel if they invade Rafa PERSON and so forth, do whole shows on that. to Israel, if they invade Rafa PERSON and so forth. I could do whole shows on that.He said, oh, Biden, he's taken the wrong lessons from 1968. And what were the lessons from McConnell PERSON? That you can't emboldened the critics of America GPE. And so it just tied together. It's like he said it out loud, all the pieces that you're tying together, the direct line to the 60s, the identifying and, you know, naming some group of America GPEns as the enemies of America, changing notions of whiteness, the historyof anti-Semitism and Jewish people being figured as somehow not white in the KKK ORG, histories that you've told us about so many times on this show. But here conveniently, they're wrapped into that white Christian identity, will slap the Judeo NORP on there, so that the Islamophobia can do the work that those on the right needed to do.

Speaker 62772.68s - 2849.1s

Let's talk about refugees famously during World War II, the U.S., was not a place that was going to take in many Jewish NORP people. There is a shameful, shameful history there. Well, now there are loud calls from the American NORP right to refuse any consideration of bringing Palestinians into the U.S. GPE as refugees.Some folks, as media reports, have been trying to permanently relocate due to ongoing warfare and dire humanitarian concerns, and some of them have been doing this for a long time. Nonetheless, Ben Shapiro says Palestinians NORP would be a destabilizing force.Charlie Kirk says this would endanger the Jewish NORP people. Newsmax Rob Schmidt says that Palestinians are indoctrinated to hate the Jews NORP, to hate the West, to hate the whites, to hate Americans NORP. I could go on. Sean Hannity PERSON. Todd Benzman, Jesse Waters, Washington Examiner. Any idea of bringing in those suffering in Gaza GPE is seen asbringing in anti-American forces. Once again, it is the entire Palestinian NORP people who are seen as something. It is an essentializing move that says, if you are part of that group, you have this characteristic.

Speaker 42849.64s - 2858.14s

And not just the Palestinian people, but what you're also highlighting is that that itself becomes this cipher for all Muslim NORPs, the entire Muslim world.

Speaker 62858.52s - 2864.6s

What's the first thing Trump, like literally the first thing Trump did when he becomes president, the so-called Muslim NORP man?

Speaker 42864.6s - 2886.22s

So again, when they say Palestinian, they don't just mean the Palestinians NORP. They mean all Arabs NORP. They mean Muslims NORP. Now, are all Arabs Palestinians NORP? Are all Palestinians Muslims NORP? Nope.None of that. But the rhetoric is how that works. So that you're talking about huge swathes of the world all encoded in this call to keep Palestinians NORP out.

Speaker 62887.3s - 2958.66s

And just to make the final point that this is opportunistic, in other moments in recent years, the American NORP right has done what? Well, they've used the George Soros conspiracy to drum up and to popularize age-old tropes about Jewish NORP people. So there's this whole idea, and this has been going on a long time, about the Illuminati and the Rothschilds PERSON and the cabal of Jewish bankers who control everything. Billy Graham and Richard Nixon PERSON were caught on tape talking about how the Jews NORP control everything. We got to do something about it.The George Soros conspiracy was conjured by Arthur Finkelstein PERSON, the man I've been talking about here for a couple weeks. But that conspiracy is one that has been revived when, Dan PERSON. Am I talking about 2016, 14? Nope. How about last couple weeks?Obviously, I think Soros is part of this, said Representative Ronnie Jackson on Fox ORG business. The FBI ORG should be investigating that too. So here's George Soros, the Hungarian Jew, who is clearly orchestrating the entire campus protest movement in the United States GPE.

Speaker 42958.66s - 2968.24s

The target of extreme anti-Semitism is, in fact, the mastermind of this kind of global anti-Semitic conspiracy.

Speaker 62968.24s - 3036.44s

I think a lot of it's being funded by outside forces, including George Soros PERSON, those who are determined to disrupt and bring chaos in our country, Representative Mark Alford of Missouri GPE. I could go on with these. Mike Johnson himself had one of these. And as you say, so here is a Hungarian NORP Jew who is the target of the anti-Semitism, but he's fueling the palli-de-de-de-de, and you start to realize they're going to use anything they can to make you afraid. Whoever and whatever they need to play the bogeyman, they will. And therefore, what I'm arguing today is not to ignore anti-Semitism.It is not to say anti-Semitism isn't real. What I'm arguing today is to say that when these people that I'm talking about today are supposedly standing up against it, I see them doing so in order to destroy and divide our public square, not to invest in Jewish NORP people, Jewish communities, or American NORP peace and safety. In order to say it better than I can, I'm going to turn to the Chancellor of the New York City Schools and his remarks to committee this week.

Speaker 83037.06s - 3095.9s

We really care about solving for anti-Semitism. And I believe this deeply. It's not about having gotcha moments. It's about teaching. You have to raise the consciousness of young people. And the challenge we have as a system is that we do have some adults who bring their own biasinto the classroom. And we've got to figure out how do we impact all of it at the same time. But the ultimate answer for anti-Semitism is to teach, to expose young people to the Jewish NORP community so that they understand our common humanity. And I would certainly ask that my colleagues from across the nation, and I would call on Congress ORG, quite frankly, to put the call out to action, to bringus together, to talk about how we solve for this. This convening for too many people across America GPE in education feels like the ultimate gotcha moment.

Speaker 63096.62s - 3443.56s

I appreciate the way he said that. The gotcha moment is what I think they're after. And I'll give you one more quote, Dan PERSON, and then we can take a break. Jerry Nadler, who is a New York congressperson has represented New York City GPE, part of New York City, and of course the largest Jewish NORP population in the country for a long time and is himself Jewish, said this in response to the proposed anti-Semitism Awareness Act from last week.I will take lectures from no one about the need for vigorous efforts to fight anti-Semitism on campus or anywhere else. I am also a deeply committed Zionist. But while this definition and its examples may have useful applications in certain contexts, by effectively codifying them into Title VI LAW, this bill threatens to chill constitutionally protected speech.Speech that is critical of Israel GPE alone does not constitute unlawful discrimination. So there's a little bit of further discussion there in terms of the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act LAW and a whole other set of issues. But the larger point for me is here's Jerry Nadler PERSON saying, we're not going to have a situation where I want a law that says you can't criticize Israel GPE.I bring that up because I think that's where we're going. The American rights like, well, if you even criticize Israel, you're anti-Israel NORP, you're anti-Semitic and you're anti-American NORP. Pick aside. Gotcha. One or the other.You're with us or against us. That's always the goal. Binary. Either or us or them. America GPE or the world, you choose. And that's what I see a play in all of this. Let's take a break.We'll come back and talk about the billionaires Trump PERSON is trying to get to fund his campaign and perhaps to sell the presidency to. All right, Dan, two reports this week. I just wanted to touch on briefly. Don't have a ton of time here, but I thought it was worth a mention. Trump PERSON had a fundraiser with a bunch of oil execs,and this is from the Washington Post ORG, Josh Dossi and Maxine Joslow PERSON. And he's sitting there with all these top exoile executives at Marilago, same place where he had dinner with Yeh and Nick Fuentes PERSON. So that's cool. And he told them something that, according to the reporters, stunned the entire room. Let me quote it.You are all wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise one billion to return me to the White House FAC. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden PERSON's of environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people of knowledge of the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation. Giving one billion would be a deal, Trump PERSON said, because of taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him.Trump PERSON's remarkably blunt and transactional pitch reveals how the former president is targeting the oil industry to finance his reelection bid. He goes on. He's going to roll back clean energy and electric vehicle standards and achievements of the Biden administration. He's going to take back environmental regulations that have passed. He's going to do a lot to make things different in the country as it comes tooil and gas, even though it's not like Biden PERSON is Mr. Anti-OO. We're producing more oil than anyone in the world, so there's that. There's another report out there, Dan, about Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and a bunch of other billionaires having an anti-Biden dinner. Going back about a month ago, there was a proposed or at least a reported dinner between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, even though Musk has not come out in favor of Trump. We only have a few minutes. Here's the point I want to make about this, and I'll throw it to you. We have a president who's doing two things, or there's two factors, I guess I should say, at play. One is he's not even doing the elegant lobbying dance. Cockatoo, Peacock, Attract Your Mate, Suarez PERSON. I don't know what I'm even saying anymore.I'm sorry. Dan PERSON's laughing. All right. He's just coming out and saying it. You give me a billion and I'll do this for you. It's completely open.He's not hiding it. It's not in secret. He's not sending a proxy. It's just open. I'll do this. You do that.Second, we haven't really been talking a lot about the $175 million bond and whether or not Trump PERSON had the cash and where it came from. But there is under the surface of the Trump PERSON campaign and Trump's life a kind of need for cash liquidity, whether that's for legal bills, whether that's whatever. I've talked about it before. When Jimmy Carter got into the White House FAC, he put the peanut farm in a trust. When he got out of the White House FAC, he was in debt because he didn't touch it. He didn't know what was happening and the people who were managing it didn't do them that well. We know fromthe Stormy Daniels trial, Trump PERSON was intimately involved with his company while president. And here's a guy that is open to selloffs who might need money. Do you know what it looks like if someone like Musk or one of these other lobby groups like the oil execs or others can basically like pay to play? They can like buy out a president. I mean, I've seen this mentioned briefly among the mainstream media. Chris Hayes PERSON and others have talked about it at times.But this is a big deal. Someone like Elon Musk, the contracts he has with the like military and the the satellites and the, I mean, all the other, like the fact that Tesla ORG is part of the the car industry. I mean, there's so much at play here to do in five minutes. I just wanted to mention this because I don't see it coming up. So off to you.

Speaker 43444.06s - 3553.76s

So just real quick, a theme that we've talked about before as well is the way that, you know, the neo-fascist will look at everybody as neo-fascist, right? Like people projecting what they would do if they were in power onto those who were in power and sort of attributing the motives that they might not have. The reason I bring that up, and I don't feel like I just stated that very well, is you've also had Trump accusing Biden PERSON of what, of trying to buy votes, how, through student debt relief? So you've had the same discourse coming up and saying, well, you know, essentially, well, yeah, sure, I mean, everybody's trying to buy votes, right? Everybody acts transactionally like this. There's nothing wrong with Trump PERSON telling oil billionaires thatthey ought to just give him money because they'll get a rollback because, hey, look, he's trying to forgive student debt relief. What do you think he's doing? He's buying votes from all those kids who, you know, have student debt. This notion that everything is always transactional and that that becomes the license for doing what they're doing, despite the fact that, again, I'm not here to defend lots of things about Biden PERSON, but I've never heard Biden say, I think all those people are going to vote for me now because I, you know, tried to get rid of their student debt.I don't think I've ever heard him bringing a bunch of, I don't know, Gen Z and millennial folks into a room and saying, hey, you know what, you really should vote for me because I'm going to save you thousands of dollars by getting rid of student debt. But you've seen the same logic, that same reversal of trying to argue that the other side is doing the same thing. It's just a pattern that we see all the time where people on the right use, like, sort of project their own motives onto everybody on the left, and then use thatprojection, which is already a kind of fantasy to then license whatever it is that they're doing. We see the same thing here with Trump PERSON and this.

Speaker 63553.76s - 3671.28s

That's what you hear about. People coming from by way of the southern border. Oh, those are Democratic NORP voters. Palestinian NORP refugees. Well, it's just Democratic NORP voters. And I mean, it's the same thing.It's amazing that kind of projection. I have to mention this. I democratic voters. And I mean, it's the same thing. It's amazing, that kind of projection. I have to mention this. I'm sorry, we have to mention it. So Biden stops the bombs to Rafa PERSON. And, you know, it's about time, in my opinion. And there are people, there's an impeachment bid now because they're saying this is a quid pro quo.And it, Dan PERSON, it's like, I can't believe how stupid a timeline we live in. If you go on Twitter, there are Republican NORP representatives who've copied and pasted a tweet from Biden a while ago about how Trump entered into a quid pro quo with Ukraine GPE. So what did Trump say to Ukraine when they wanted military aid? He said, go find me dirt on Biden PERSON. Ukraine when they wanted military aid, he said, go find me dirt on Biden PERSON. What did Biden say to Netanyahu and the Israeli NORP government?Stop doing a geopolitical act of trying to bomb and attack a place where there are thousands and tens of thousands of civilians. What? Dan PERSON, do we, can we not see the difference? Like, what? There's a personal quid pro quote. There's a personal, I will do this for you if you do a thing for me personally to hurt my political opponent. Then there is, whatever you want to call it, like geopolitical maneuvering, statecraft, diplomacy, negotiation across international lines, I don't know, that says, hey, my government's not going to keep supporting what you're doing in an attempted invasion or attempted what might become or is an attempted genocide in Rafa and Gaza GPE as a whole because we don't think that's a good idea. Can we live in a stupidertime? And yet that's the goal. Anyway, I'm sorry. Am I crazy? Does that, did I read it wrong? Did I read it wrong?

Speaker 43671.28s - 3687.54s

Nope. It's exactly that that same logic of trying to make it the same. Like what Biden PERSON did to the leader of Israel GPE is say, I am not going to give you something that you really, really want. There was no promise of like, yeah, it's, it's completely different.

Speaker 63687.54s - 3690.44s

But it is a big, wouldn't, like, attack Eric Trump PERSON.

Speaker 43690.52s - 3718.6s

Right. It's a big, it's a big powerful state trying to direct the, you know, and influence the, the foreign policy, I guess not foreign policy, really domestic policy of another state. And it is, by definition, state craft. It's what geopolitical entities have been doing as long as there have been geopolitical entities.And it is not personal and transactional in the way that everything with Trump PERSON winds up being. Just, I can't believe anyway.

Speaker 63719.06s - 3740.62s

I read it. And I thought it's one of those moments you're like, I feel stupid because this can't be what I think it. They can't be saying what I think they're saying. They't be equating Trump telling Zelensky, get Hunter Biden dirt with, hey, don't, don't go to Rafa and do what's going to end the lives of tens of thousands of, anyway, whatever. What's your reason for hope? Because I've got to stop because I'm going to lose it.

Speaker 43740.86s - 3810.62s

So there's an article, excuse me, in Politico by Joanna Weiss PERSON. And this is back to the Stormy Daniels PERSON case, but she made a really good point that I thought was great and it sort of struck me that you've had. We just talked about some of these tropes that are launched at Stormy Daniels PERSON. But one of the points that she makes is, if you compare this with, say, the Clinton PERSON-Lewinsky scandal, they're not sticking.And what she just sort of highlighted is, we do not live in an equitable society. We do not live in a society where female identified people are treated the same as male identified people by any means. But she did highlight that you have this woman who is pushing back. She is sex positive. She is very open about what she does and who she is. And the sexist attacks on her outside of that, that kind of Trump PERSON world, they just aren't sticking and landing the way that they did back in the 90s. And I found that to be really hopeful in a really useful sort of pieceof cultural comparison for those of us who are old enough to remember just the, yeah, the character assassination of people like Monica Lewinsky PERSON. So I thought that that was really, I thought that was a really insightful piece.

Speaker 63811.62s - 3939.54s

Mine is personal. May 24th, we are releasing a podcast series called Misinformation WORK_OF_ART by Susanna Crockford. Suzanne PERSON has been on the show a number of times. And misinformation is all about how misinformation and conspiracy theories penetrate religious spaces, wellness communities, other places that humans gather. There's great episodes on biohacking, the great replacement theory, the great reset, on wellness culture, on yoga. You get to everything from the tech bro trying to live forever toNaomi Wolf to 15-minute cities to, you know, yogis who are going to tell you they'll cure every ailment you have. It's really good. And I can't wait for it to come out. So to me, that's going to be a great educational resource for anyone who's interested in that. It's great stuff to put on a syllabus. And it's just fun when something you've worked on with a scholar like Susanna PERSON finally gets to be out in public and be available to everybody.So I'm looking forward to that. All right, y'all, thanks for being here. Thanks for listening. Thanks for all your support. I want to just say, we couldn't do this without you. I know I just want to make a note today that we talk about subscribing a lot. It's not because we're out here wanting to just be billionaires. We just put our heart and soul into this show. We don't have a big network. We don't have a big office in Manhattan GPE or something. We started this from nothing. We're trying to keep our flag up and do it the best we can. We're now in this place where somehow our show is like in a ranking kind of classwith shows from Vox and Slate, New York Times ORG. And, you know, we're doing our best just to kind of bring what we can to this conversation. So if you're a subscriber, thank you. And if you can't subscribe, you just can't do it. That's fine. You support us by listening.You support us by, you know, we don't want you to think that our entire goal in life is just to get people to subscribe. So thank you for all of you for being here, being part of this group and this community.

Speaker 53939.98s - s

We'll catch you next time.