The David Pakman Show - 12/6/24: Marjorie Taylor Greene wants a pardon, Texas banning THC

Episode Date: December 6, 2024

-- On the Show: -- Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick launches an initiative to target banning all THC products in the state -- Marjorie Taylor Greene sends out a tweet suggesting she's interested in getting a pardon from Donald Trump -- Right-wingers are contradicting themselves on whether blanket pardons are a good thing -- Former staffers for Tulsi Gabbard claim she regularly consumed Russian propaganda -- Many Trump cabinet picks are accused sexual predators or people accused of covering up sexual misconduct -- Donald Trump's margin of victory in the popular vote keeps shrinking -- Senator Josh Hawley goes after airline CEOs during a congressional hearing -- The Friday Feedback segment -- On the Bonus Show: The Friday Bonus Show with Producer Pat 🌱 Ounce of Hope: Get 20% off with code PAKMAN at https://ounceofhope.com 🖼️ Aura Frames: Use code PAKMAN for $35 OFF & free shipping at https://auraframes.com/pakman 🩳 SHEATH Underwear: Code PAKMAN for 20% OFF at https://sheathunderwear.com/pakman ⚠️ Ground News: Get 50% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman 💪 AG1 is offering you a FREE $76 GIFT when you sign up at https://athleticgreens.com/pakman  🛌 Helix Sleep: Get 25% OFF and 2 free pillows at https://helixsleep.com/pakman 🧠 Try Brain.fm totally free for a month at https://brain.fm/pakman   -- Become a Member: https://davidpakman.com/membership -- Become a Patron: https://www.patreon.com/davidpakmanshow -- TDPS Subreddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/thedavidpakmanshow -- Pakman Discord: https://davidpakman.com/discord -- David on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidpakmanshow -- Leave a Voicemail: (219)-2DAVIDP

Many states are going forward, progress to new things, new heights. Texas wants to go backwards. And I'm not just talking about abortion law and same sex marriage, although they do. I am talking about THC cannabis pot. They're talking about marijuana, uh, grass. You guys know the stuff I'm talking about. Lieutenant governor of Texas, Dan Patrick in his infinite wisdom has a new idea. Ban all THC products.

There's a report from Fox San Antonio governor, a Lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick has announced he's launching a major legislative initiative to ban all THC being sold in Texas. This would ban every form of consumable THC, uh, which is the psychoactive chemical in marijuana from being sold in Texas. Patrick says these products are popping up in communities across the state. Many stores sell them beverages that have three or four times the THC content that might be found in marijuana. Think about how stupid that sentence is. That's not, that's not my sentence.

Dan Patrick is upset that there are beverages with three or four times the THC content that might be found in marijuana in, in what, in what exactly, what does that even mean? Uh, and what size beverage? It doesn't make any sense. So let's, uh, take a step back here. Many States going forward saying, Hey, of course people shouldn't be imprisoned for just having this plant that they want to consume. We actually maybe should even go further. We should legalize it. We should tax it. We should use the money for all sorts of different things the way Colorado and Massachusetts and other states have done what they want to do in Texas, according to Dan Patrick, is a broad sweeping initiative that will lump everything

together. Medical marijuana, low dose CBD products that have some THC, high potency recreational products, edibles, drinks, you know, whatever. No nuance, no differentiation, just ban the whole thing. Doesn't matter if people benefit in a medical context, just like, you know, just, just don't do it. Get rid of, I don't know, get, get, get rid of, uh, get rid of Tylenol because some people misuse it. I don't even know what the analogy is. Now second, secondly, you can tell from the way that Dan Patrick talks about this, that

he has no idea what he's what he's talking about. Like when he says, oh, there are beverages with three or four times the THC of marijuana. What does that even mean? Like which marijuana naturally grown or highly concentrated extracts or what? What are you talking about? It's these vague cherry picked statistics that should be an immediate red flag. It's designed to shock me rather than inform anybody. Oh my goodness. It has four times the THC of marijuana. Ban it. Wait a second. What did I just say? I don't even understand that. It is legitimate to be concerned about genuinely high potency products. That's a legitimate

concern. But then what you should be pushing for is let's regulate and label this stuff. And I've seen some of the packaging. I read about it in medical journals. Of course, I've seen some of the packaging that various products have in states where it is highly regulated and legalized. And it says very clearly, you know, there are 20 grams of THC in this entire package and each gummy has one gram of THC that it comes not from saying ban everything, a blanket ban that comes from saying, let's actually get involved and figure this out. So it's also, uh, uh, completely ignoring the economic and the enforcement implications of banning THC.

You ban it, you foment a black market overnight. Texas law enforcement is already struggling with resources. Not exactly. Uh, they have their, their infrastructure problems in Texas, put it that way. And I guess now that means there'll be chasing down, you know, a mom with CBD gummies for her arthritis or something. And meanwhile, other States are raking in millions in tax revenue from regulated cannabis sales.

So it will reinforce the status quo, which remember is that the blue States financial viability and economic flourishing subsidizes the red states. If the red states were a country on their own, they'd go bankrupt because they wouldn't have the blue state money helping them out. So, of course, if it comes out of Dan Patrick's mouth, it's not about protecting Texans. It's about scoring political points with a certain base. It's outdated. It's illogical. It's disconnected from the reality to say ban all THC. Most of the country is moving forward and Texas is moving backwards or at least trying to. Hopefully it doesn't happen.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the radical, repugnant, reactionary Congresswoman wants a preemptive blanket pardon for herself from Donald Trump tweeting on Twitter or putting out an excretion on X. She said, quote, if Democrats are going to play the pardon game, then we should do the same thing. Trump can just blanket pardon all of us too. Now you might be saying, Oh, she's being flippant. It's tongue in cheek. It's whatever. She has a history of wanting pardons from Donald Trump. And the natural question is what did she do that? She thinks she needs a pardon? And this is not a joke. She was looking for a pardon from Trump at the end of his first term. Marjorie Taylor Greene was there was this group of lawmakers, uh, it included Matt Gates and some others who were reportedly seeking pardons

from Trump before he left office in 2021. A former white house aid, Cassidy Hutchinson, um, said that green made the request directly to the white house counsel's office and Marjorie, Marjorie Taylor green has denied it, but now she's asking for a pardon again. Now maybe in 2020 maybe I'm giving the benefit of the doubt. I don't know why, but I am maybe in 2020 if you were Marjorie or you were Matt Gates or whoever, you could have made the argument that Biden planned to, I don't know, do something, which of course he didn't do. Biden just didn't have any plan to do anything. But now with Trump poised to come back to power, why would Marjorie Taylor green need

a pardon? Unlike with Hunter Biden, no one has said we're going to target Marjorie Taylor green. Nobody has said we're going to target Republican members of Congress. And more importantly, Trump and Republicans have said we're going to be targeting everybody else and they will be running the justice department and quite frankly, everything. So why on earth does Marjorie Taylor green think that she needs a pardon? What is she worried she'll be on the hook for to be looking for pardons two times? Now, someone wrote to me and said, David, she planted the January 5th pipe bombs. She's the pipe bomber. That's why she wants a pardon.

Now, many of you believe that Marjorie is the pipe bomber. They still have not found the pipe bomber. I don't have any real evidence I can point to that says it's Marjorie Taylor Greene. Other than I acknowledge, if you look at the surveillance video of the pipe bomber, it is quite a distinctive gate. That's G.A.I.T. And it does seem similar to Marjorie Taylor Greene's gate. But beyond that, we don't have any evidence. Is it possible Marjorie wants a pardon because she was more involved with the 2020 fake electors plot than we know? And she's worried she may be next. Well, it's possible.

But those would probably be state charges, which she would not, uh, uh, which wouldn't be impacted by a presidential pardon to federal crime. So to be perfectly frank, I don't know why Marjorie Taylor green now multiple times has been looking around for a pardon, but it definitely raises some real questions. All right, let's talk a little bit more about the concept of a blanket preemptive pardon. We've all heard the right wing talking points about law and order. Hold on. Do I have my law and order here?

I think it's under my glitches section. Oh, I don't have it. This is going to be not good. Oh, boy. Yeah, I don't have it because you'd be in jail. OK, yeah, I don't have it. All right. We've all heard the right wing wax poetic about law and order.

They love to shout about accountability. They love to shout about justice and personal responsibility until it's their people breaking the law for Trump. Case in point, the ongoing debate about pardoning the January 6th rioters, which Donald Trump has taken to calling hostages. And the latest example came on Fox News when Jesse Waters was interviewing Clay Travis. Clay Travis says, I want him to pardon all of the January 6th people. And Jesse Waters is almost incredulous.

And he goes, even the ones that were fighting cops, because remember, MAGA backs the blue. They support the police and all of that. And Clay Travis says, yes, yes, yes. A blanket party in action is the blue. They support the police and all of that. And Clay Travis says, yes, yes, yes. A blanket party in action is the flaw. Move fast. Break things. Remember, perfection's the enemy of good. Right now, we got a lot broken in Washington. Good is a lot better than broken. I want Trump to hit the ground running. I want him to pardon all the January sixers. Heck, we're in New York City. I would pardon Eric Adams. Every Jan Sixer.

Even the ones that were slugging cops, he won't pardon? Even those guys, Jesse, because if you compare the punishment they got for violent crime with what they're doing to other people in Washington, D.C., even those people have been punished

excessively under the law. I would do a blanket pardon every single one of them done. And I'd also pardon Mayor of New York City, Eric Adams. All right. I think Clay means he wants a pardon. And I'll take one to President Trump. Probably. So we were told blanket pardons are bad. We were told that justice must be served. Imagine for a second the outrage if a Democrat floated the idea of pardoning, say, for example, all of the Black Lives Matter protesters will be pardoned.

Imagine if Biden announced that regardless of their actions, regardless of what they did, Fox News would run 24 seven segments on the downfall of civilization for what, for weeks, or just look at their reaction to the single pardon of Hunter Biden, who is overtly being targeted or will be targeted by the people that Donald Trump wants running law enforcement. So this is not about fairness or justice. It's about tribalism. And if that means throwing away every supposed value, law and order, personal responsibility, backing the blue, then they do it. And they say, give blanket pardons to every single one of these people. It is a forget about post fact world. Forget about alternative facts. This is a post hypocrisy world. Nothing matters anymore. The

truth doesn't matter anymore. And that's how we might end up with a Kremlin friend, a Kremlin friendly tool, but they say Kremlin, uh, with a Kremlin friendly tool named Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. Let's talk about that next. Um, Tulsi Gabbard as director of national intelligence. Let's talk about that next. Um, Tulsi Gabbard is now Donald Trump's selection for director of national intelligence. This is the same Tulsi Gabbard who was once a Democrat, then went independent, then went full MAGA and has a very long history of parroting Kremlin talking points. Her own ex staffers are now going public and they are saying, yes, she loved the Russian propaganda. According to her former aides, she was a devout consumer of RT, the Russian state controlled propaganda network. Even though her

staffers would tell her this is not reliable. She would keep reading it, watching it, sharing it. And I would argue internalizing the narrative from RT. Now, it's really important to understand that RT is not just a biased media outlet with a perspective. It's a Kremlin mouthpiece designed to spread disinformation and undermine trust in Western institutions. When people who we know who are in our orbit got hired by RT, they would love to say, nobody ever tells me what to say. I say what I want on RT. Well, it's not about them telling you what to say. It's you being hired because what they know you'll say is useful to them either because it is a casting doubt on the robustness of American institutions because it questions

American democracy, whatever the reason RT is picking you because they know you'll say what they, what they want you to say. And it's a Kremlin mouthpiece designed to spread disinformation and undermine trust in Western institutions, institutions. It's well documented. It's part of a government analysis, independent media analysis, et cetera. Now we go to tool C's shifted views in 2014 tool C called for military aid to Ukraine and for tougher sanctions on Russia after

the annexation of Crimea. Three years later, by 2017, she was writing memos to her campaign staff, blaming the United States and NATO for provoking Russia. She lamented America's hostility towards Vladimir Putin. She floated the bizarre idea that the United States might try to overthrow the Russian government. This is not a natural evolution of thought where you go, yeah, you know, I used to think the top marginal tax rate should be 39, but I actually realize it should be 50, right? I've had to try. No, no, no. This is like a complete and total 180 and it seems like a regurgitation of Kremlin propaganda

almost word for word. This is not exclusively about Tulsi Gabbard consuming bad information. It's more about her views mirroring the disinformation themes that Russia has been pushing for years. NATO is really the aggressor. Everything we as Russia do is just self-defense. The U S is provoking Russia merely by meeting its obligations of shared defense to other countries. Putin's actions, maybe they're not awesome, but they're justified if nothing else, whether it's naivete on her behalf, straight

up ideological alignment, just political opportunism to get herself nominated by Trump for something which worked. It's all amplifying these Kremlin narratives. Now I want to address one more aspect of tool seed that has become sort of controversial. There's this idea floating around is Tulsi Gabbard, a Russian agent or a Russian asset. I don't know anyone who said she's a Russian agent. This is where the concept of useful idiot comes into play. Uh, it's not an insult. It's a term used in intelligence circles. And it means someone who is unwittingly furthering the agenda of another country

because they're either misinformed or because they're actually ideologically aligned with that agenda. And that seems to fit Tulsi Gabbard perfectly. I don't know of anyone who has said she works for Russia. If you know of anyone who made that claim, let me know. Being an asset to Russia doesn't even require intent, whether she has it or not. I don't know. It just requires actions that align with Russian interests and whether it's her rhetoric on NATO, which we talked about her criticism of us support of Ukraine, her role, just generating divisive narratives and perpetuating them. She is serving those interests. And so at the end of the rainbow, we get to, she's willing to, she's able to believe whatever

she wants. No problem. We have free speech. We have freedom of thought. She can say and believe whatever she wants, but should someone who believes and says the things she believes and says, be director of national intelligence, a role that requires deep understanding of disinformation and global threats. It's like, it's so cliche. It's like putting the Fox in charge of the hen house. It's reckless at best and extraordinarily dangerous at worst.

And a reminder that Trump just cares about loyalty. Tulsi did a one 80 kisses him on stage. He's so great. President Trump, this president Trump that you get a position. Not only are you unqualified for, but you potentially are an actual national security risk in this position. I hope she doesn't get confirmed. I'm hearing that she probably will.

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as how this program is primarily funded. And it is primarily funded by folks like you. So I invite you to sign up at join pacman.com. You can indeed for the rest of the week, take advantage of our black Friday special black Friday, 24 is the coupon code. You can use it at join pacman.com and a nice little list of membership perks, always available to our members. Let's talk about men and masculinity and sexual assault. Okay. We've talked about the perversion of masculinity by MAGA and the manosphere. We've talked about how young men have to a degree moved in the direction of Trump. And related to this is the reality of Donald Trump's 2024 cabinet nominations being filled

with accused sexual predators, accused rapists, cheaters and people accused of covering up sexual assault. And this really reveals much more than just political loyalty. This reminds us of the pattern of, uh, when we look at a pattern of appointees tied to sexual abuse and harassment and enabling such behavior, when we see that it's at minimum, no big deal to Trump and MAGA and at worst seen as a feature rather than a bug, it's a major red flag about the direction that this country is going to go under the leadership of Donald Trump.

So I'm talking about Elon Musk. I'm talking about Matt Gaetz, Pete Hegseth, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Linda McMahon, current former nominees, non nominated advisers like Musk, who just gets to kind of hang around their histories, align with this broader ideology that normalizes and you could even argue rewards abusive power of which sexual assault or covering it up are examples. This isn't just about individual behavior. It's about a culture. It's about a worldview that values dominating other people, ruthlessness, control

above all else. And if it's control over women or control over marginalized groups, and that could be controlling what medical services women have access to. Or it could literally be sexual assault, as many of Donald Trump's former and current nominees have been accused of. You've got Matt Gaetz. Gaetz was poised to take one of the most powerful positions in the Justice Department attorney general despite numerous allegations involving underage girls, statutory rape, trafficking, etc. humorous allegations involving underage girls, statutory rape, trafficking, et cetera. And Gates ultimately withdrew the nomination and he said, oh, these claims are becoming

a distraction. But behind the scenes, it became clear that even the Republican Senate was not going to confirm the guy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump's choice for secretary of health and human services. He has his own baggage. He's maybe more known for conspiracy theories and controversial rhetoric and talking about Ivermectin and raw milk. But his nomination is one that is also under a cloud of allegations of abusive behavior. And again, it's a pattern.

These aren't aberrations. It's it's a large number of these people. Pete Hegseth, who Trump wanted to be defense secretary, significant public scrutiny for accusations of sexual harassment, even his own mom in a letter referring to him in that way. Then she tried to come and clean up the mess. His defenders have said, these are political smears. This stuff happened a long time ago. He's a different person at 44 than he was at 37, you know, nonsense like this. But again, it just symbolizes the total disregard by MAGA for accountability. It's not only men, right? I mean, you go to Linda McMahon,

former head of the Small Business Administration, wrestling lady, one of the few women, women in Trump's circle. Her legacy includes enabling a completely toxic work culture during her tenure as CEO of WWE. And there were widespread allegations that female employees were being mistreated rampantly. And she looked the other way. Um, uh, Elon Musk, another example where there are all sorts of allegations for a Tesla employee that he was inappropriately this and that none of the individual allegations will surprise you. It's just person after person after person. This is the worldview that Trump embodies and champions, which is a celebration of dominance and wealth and power, scorning empathy and seeing anything short of this display of power as weakness and beta energy and whatever.

There's an interesting article by Jennifer Birdall, professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, where she calls this hegemonic masculinity. This is not that often meaningless and very overused toxic masculinity that we often don't define. This is not that often meaningless and very overused toxic masculinity that we often don't define. This is more systemic. Okay. This is about justifying male control over women. It might involve coercion. It might involve violence. It might involve legislation. That's the, that's the totality of it. And it does well in environments where dominance is rewarded. Weaknesses are seen as something to be punished for. If you fall outside of the narrow definitions of power, is it because you're a woman or

you're poor or you're the type of man who is marginalized or the wrong religion or whatever? You're kind of relegated to the sidelines. And what Trump and MAGA want, what the worldview permeates through to Trump's base is that this is the model. And therefore, these allegations, they're not things to look at and say, damn, do we really want this number of accused sexual assaulters in positions of power? That might be the right instinct. That's not the instinct.

The instinct for MAGA is these are subtle ways to show that these are powerful men. They'll take what they want, but also, also it allows them to further the victim ideology, which is, I don't even know that I believe this stuff because they're just making it up. They're making it up in order to smear candidates. They're doing what they did to Kavanaugh as we saw in that interview with Pete Hegseth and Megan Kelly. It is dominance rather than decency. That is their currency. And so many of us see the nominations and we say, how could these people possibly be

who Trump picks? But if you understand their currency and what they value, obviously Trump picked these people. Trump's accused of dozens of similar instances himself. Now, so far, the partial kind of saving grace has been that it seems that the Republicans in the Senate aren't willing to confirm just anybody. They're willing to confirm a lot of unqualified people, but they're not willing to confirm just anybody. And maybe that's what will save us from as disastrous a Trump cabinet as we would potentially otherwise have. As Trump's inauguration approaches, we're already seeing what the next four years are

going to look like. A Trump campaign official said Pennsylvania election workers will face jail time for counting mail in ballots with technical errors like missing dates. Part of the rights attempt to so election distrust and weaponize the courts. This story is almost exclusively being covered by right leaning news outlets spinning the narrative to villainize the election workers. So the public probably has a skewed perspective on what's really happening. That is, unless you use ground news, which lets you see every side to every story like

this one. Ground news is an independent platform that exposes the biases of media outlets by showing you who owns them, what angle they're taking on each story and what hidden agendas might be lurking in the background. the David Pakman show at David Pakman dot com. news slash Pacman for 50 percent off their unlimited access vantage plan. It's their biggest sale of the year. And the link is in the description. Staying motivated and eating healthy during the holidays can be a challenge. That's why I love our sponsor, AG1. I don't always carefully plan every single meal. So I know I'm getting the exact right amount of every vitamin and nutrient every day. That's why I start the morning with a scoop of AG one before my cappuccino. I mix AG one into a glass of cold water. That's it tastes good. One scoop. I get an entire day's worth of 75 high

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keeps shriveling and shriveling and shriveling into a now tiny one point four percent. Here's where we stand today. Donald Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris in the popular vote in the popular vote by just one point four percent. This is one of the narrowest margins in modern history. And it's really important to remind people. And every time the magazine, the audience write to me confusion between plurality and majority.

The majority of those who voted in November voted for someone other than Donald Trump. The majority of the votes in November were for a different agenda than the one Donald Trump offered. Now, of course, this is not a mandate, but of course, Trump gets to be president. There's no question about that. I've also been getting emails from people saying, David, why are you talking about this? You're almost acting like someone else gets to be president. No, no, no. I'm not like you guys in 2020. Trump gets to be president. There's no question whatsoever.

But because so many of my friends on the left have become demoralized and disillusioned and have said, I might just check out for the next four years. The fact that there is such a lack of a mandate and that in fact, if you voted, think about this. If you voted for someone other than Trump, you are in the majority. You're in the majority of the country, the non Trump voters. It is critical that we recognize between their slim house majority and the lack of a mandate for Trump. This is a guy who not only should be opposed in what he plans to do, but he can be opposed.

It is a razor thin margin in the house of representatives. It's also important to consider that one narrative is everywhere shifted to Trump. Yes, there were national shifts to Trump. Massachusetts went more for Trump than 2020. California went more for Trump than 2020. California went more for Trump than 2020. That is true. But the vast majority of the benefit to Trump was not that he inspired gobs of new voters to go and vote for him.

It's dips in Democratic turnout in high population blue states, including California, including New York. None of this makes Trump's win anything but legitimate. I don't want the emails that I'm getting every time I have a conversation like this about David. Now you're doing what the magas did or what you say they did in 2020. Very much not. Trump won. Trump gets to be president. But what we must resist is the idea that a majority of this country likes what Trump offered. A majority of the voters voted for someone else.

What we have to resist is that Trump inspired millions and millions of people to either switch or come out who had never voted before. The biggest benefit to Trump was decreased Democratic turnout. And as far as the popular vote is concerned, overwhelmingly in these large population view of blue states. So then we get to what do the next couple of years look like? The Republican Party took the Senate. The Republican Party has taken the House. The House majority is razor thin. And with some special elections upcoming, it's really a question mark. What sort of majority Republicans are going to have

relying on split ticket voters? And we saw what happened with Kerry Lake in Arizona, where nearly 200000 people who voted Trump said, I'm voting Trump for that, but I'm not voting for Kerry Lake. So we just have to be honest. When Biden won in 2020, this was a country divided. Now that Trump has won, this is a country divided. And Trump's margin of victory is the second smallest since 1968. Trump and the people around him are acting like he just won some Reagan era landslide mandate. The supporters eat it up. And what does it lead to? It leads to Trump thinking I'm going to get Matt Gates confirmed. No, you're not. It leads to Trump thinking anyone he says will be on his cabinet is going to be on his cabinet. But there are many Republican senators and the House is going to be a different thing

as far as passing legislation. But there are many Republican senators who recognize them. There are people who voted for Trump, went out of their way not to vote for the Republican down ballot candidate, be it a senator or be it a candidate for the House of Representatives. We can't just go and say, sure, put Matt Gates in Donald Trump's cabinet, the tighter the margin gets, and it's not going to get much tighter because the vote counting is really almost done. The, the tighter the margin gets, the harder it will be for Trump to spin it. And when these final votes trickle in and Trump's margin of victory, presumably

continues to decline, uh, it is going to be tougher and tougher for Trump to get away with this. But the takeaway has to be I understand the instinct to say I need a break from this and I say take it at least until January 20th. Right. I understand the feeling that we just got crushed. But this is a historically small margin of victory when it comes to Donald Trump in the popular vote. And as far as any kind of mandate where it's even ethically or morally or logistically justified to say we get to do what we want because we won so bigly, it's very much untrue. And it's not obvious that they will be able to do whatever they want if we remain involved. Senator Josh Hawley is a

Republican. He's a man who spends most of his time talking about masculinity while running from the Capitol rioters on video. He is now taking aim at airline executives. And I have to admit, I like a lot of this. The problem I have with it is that Holly is a total hypocrite. So we're going to look at this clip. This clip has been making the media rounds and it's Josh Holly ripping into the airline airline industry. He says that flying a spirit and frontier is a horrible and terrible experience. He goes after the practice that some airlines have of paying a commission, call it a bounty,

call it a commission, call it a spiff. When a gate agents say that bag looks a little big to me, put it in this thing or let me measure it. Oh, you're going to have to pay to check this bag. So sorry. Some of the airlines pay those gate agents a commission when they identify those bags. Josh Hawley is rightly going after all of it. Josh Hawley gets a lot of things right here. Flying has become unbearable. The crammed seats, the fees, the customer service, that's a complete and total nightmare. However, however, you have to remember that most of these values that Josh Hawley is attacking the CEOs for here are values he's actually defended when it comes to businesses and their right to do business how they please. So let's take a listen. Then we'll

talk about Mr. Schroeder. So how much have you paid your gate agents to enforce your carry on bag policy to pick people out of the line like the chairman's video show? I mean, you guys do appreciate that flying on your airlines is it is a disaster, don't you? I'm slightly amazed by the general attitude of all of you here. Flying on your airlines is horrible. It's a terrible experience. I mean, I say this as a father of three young children. But I can't tell you, nobody enjoys flying on your airlines. It's a disaster.

You charge people fees that they know nothing about. You harass them to death. I'll never forget, Mr. Johnson, during COVID when an attendant on your airline threatened my wife because our then five-year-old son, his mask had slipped. This is back when we all had to wear those ridiculous masks. His mask had slipped below his nose. This flight attendant came up to my wife and said, if she didn't keep that mask over his nose at all points on this four-hour flight, she would personally see that my wife was banned from flying. This has happened over and over to families. It's terrible. It's absolutely terrible. And your attitude here today seems to be, well, devil may care. There's nothing we can do about it. Well, I think we are going to do something about it.

So how much have you paid people to pull out customers who are in line with a bag that's two centimeters too big, Mr. Schroeder? Well, we recognize this is a hard job, and so therefore we incentivize them to do that. How much? It's $10 per bag. Wow, $10 per bag. And I think, Mr. Klein, you and Mr. Schroeder, your airlines cumulatively have spent $26 million paying gate agents between 2022 and 2023 to catch passengers whose bags are a little bit too big. $26 million. I mean, if people want to know why it's such a terrible experience to fly, this is news for them today. Your airlines are paying millions of dollars to your employees to harass people. So listen, a lot of what Josh Hawley says here resonates with me. Holly is singling out airline employees who enforce bag fees and these nickel and dime

policies. It's infuriating. It's horrible. It's a disaster. It's the way that these discount carriers have chosen to do business. And it is something that Josh Hawley has long defended. They should be allowed. If you go by Josh Hawley's expressed philosophy on business regulation, why would you drag these CEOs to Washington to dress them down when they should be allowed to

do whatever they want and people should vote with their dollars either by traveling or by not traveling with the airline they like or dislike. That is not my view. That's the view on business regulation that Josh Hawley has expressed before. As far as, you know, kind of going after the employees that are doing this stuff, they're trying to keep their jobs in an industry that thrives on squeezing passengers and employees, right? They get the 10 bucks, which they're eager for because they're underpaid.

The passengers are annoyed. So this isn't really about the individual airline people that, that, that are doing this. But the, the real problem I have with this is Holly is not a fighter for working class rights. This is the guy who opposes stronger unions. This is the guy who fights against wage increases. So he wants to call out the airlines for having a policy of harassing passengers. I'm with you. I think it's horrible, but he hasn't lifted a finger to improve working conditions for the employees that are stuck enforcing those policies. And when it's convenient, Holly will generically blame corporate greed, but only when it's

convenient. When there was this, uh, uh, fire, when corporations were gutting environmental regulations, uh, he didn't really seem to care very much when the benefits for workers are being slashed. He didn't seem to care very much because he's doing this kind of populist dress up. He's not really interested in solving problems. He's interested in, in these sort of moments. And it's an anti elite act that's wearing very, very thin, you know, talking a big game about he's against the elites, but his donors include the very people that profit off of

exactly this sort of airline policy. Do we really think he's genuinely going after airline CEOs or is this yet another opportunity to play Mr. Populist while he actually has a policy of saying, let businesses do whatever the hell they want. So I, while I agree with much of what he expresses and the frustration, uh, this is really about Josh Hawley trying to score points. And it's the same shtick that he's been running for years. Paint himself as a champion of the average American while quietly supporting policies that make their lives worth worse or at minimum looking the other way. That's

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let's get into it. Remember that you can email info at David Pakman dot com. If you have something to say, sometimes we will look at posts from our subreddit or Twitter replies or YouTube comments, Tic Tac messages. It's all fair game. But we start today. I'm sure this is such a nice person to have in your family. The aristocratic utensil on Twitter responded to our video about the plans of Maga to destroy progressive media and says, listen here, you dork, we hate you because you're evil. And yes, I would gleefully watch all progressive media die. You are objectively

a festering cancer. This is what they think about progressive independent media. This is what they think. And when I told you that they are gleefully awaiting our demise, some of you thought I was exaggerating. I was not. There is a movement that wants all of us to disappear and go away so that they can get their cash Patels. And Matt Gates is, is, is, is, although Matt Gates said he's stepping down those types of people into power and do whatever the hell they want, because when you're MAGA, they just let you do it. As Trump likes to say, we have to make sure that they're not in a position where they can get away with any of it. And part of it, I know some people don't like to hear it. Part of it is supporting media on our side. Purple 1984 rain has a different message and says democracy dies with apathy. Democracy

dies with apathy. And I think that that's absolutely right. And there is a sort of moral hazard, self-selection bias sort of thing where on the one hand, the people most likely to make the positive change are rightly demoralized by the fact that Republicans won almost everything a few weeks ago. But I can assure you that it can get worse as bad as it is probably going to get. And I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It can get much, much, much worse. OK. Reaction to my interview with Stephen Kenneth Destiny Bunnell, the second and Jenk Uger, where we discussed their views on what went wrong and the future direction of the Democratic Party. The reaction from Rubin's block list is why would any of these three care what the left is doing? None of them are on the left. And this is, of course, the classic gatekeeping that is the worst of the worst of

the worst of the left. When we start with this stuff, they just win. And it is so demoralizing to see this stuff and, uh, realize that if you say, I mean, listen, guys, I don't claim to be the metric by which being on the left is judged. As I've said before, I'm not a socialist. I'm not a communist. I'm a social Democrat. It's a form of well-regulated capitalism to the socialists and communists. I'm not on the left. What I can tell you is that between myself, Stephen Kenneth, destiny, Benel the second and Jenk Ugar, all a damn huge swath of the left is covered. Are there people to our respective rights that are still nominally on the left? Yes. Are there people to our lefts which are part of the left? Yeah. Although sometimes they go so far that I wouldn't even call it the left. But if we aren't just

recognizing things for what they are, you don't have to like me or destiny or junk, but no matter your view on populist economic rhetoric, no matter your view on the Israeli Palestinian conflict, I mean, on so many issues, we are it's it's a range here. And if you're still gatekeeping by saying none of us has anything to do with what the predominant views of the left are. I don't know what you think the left is, my friend. Let me put it that way. All right. Troy Peterson responded on YouTube and says, bro, I know you're not from America.

That's the wrong. You're here. Here's someone giving me English lessons with the wrong. You're bro. I know you're not from America, but you speak English very well, but are you not able to say truth social instead of troth social? Well, I say it the way Trump said it. Remember central. Yeah. If Trump can't say the name of his own social media platform correctly, why the hell should I have to know? I do appreciate the correction. I will give you one correction. It's Y O U apostrophe R E. Um, but, uh, it's just,

it's just a joke. It's just a little joke because that's how Trump said it. All right. Don't, uh, don't get too upset. Roger null says about my forthcoming book, what's it like buying up thirty five hundred copies of your own book, David? Yeah. You know, here's a little inside baseball on book publishing. So I won't bore you with this, but I do have a forthcoming book called The Echo Machine and close to 4,000 people have pre-ordered it. It's actually a commonly done thing to buy a ton of copies of your own book. The problem is that the, um, systems that rank book sales disqualify huge bulk purchases. In fact, what my, because I S I said to my publisher, Hey, wouldn't it be a good idea for me to just buy like 5000 copies and then I can now sell them? And they said, yeah, no, it wouldn't work because New York Times bestseller, Amazon

bestseller, they all disqualify bulk orders, which are considered more than nine orders to the same address. So you actually can't do that. So I love the idea that Roger is suggesting the only person who would buy my damn book is me. But thankfully, nearly 4000 people, a bunch of libraries, tons of independent bookstores have preordered the book and the book will be out soon. That's the beautiful OK, it's just me, says will Nancy Mace prove she is a biological female every time she goes to the bathroom? I know that this is a joke.

Or it's snarky or tongue in cheek, but it really gets at a critical, critical aspect of the entire trans bathroom thing. And it's the following. Unless you already know of an individual like the whole Sarah McBride thing, we know Sarah McBride is trans because it's been it's been announced. It's been widely said first trans member of the House of Representatives, first trans member of Congress. Great.

Unless you know exactly who you're looking for, there are many trans individuals who would not, I want to use the right terms and I don't totally know what they are. There are many trans individuals who wouldn't be suggestive to anyone in a bathroom that they might have been, uh, that they might've gone through a gender transition. And if that is the case, which it is the only way to really enforce the rules that Nancy Mace is proposing is you'd need to, I guess, do a genital check. But even that doesn't really work because people who have gender affirming surgery, um, end up with, I, I'm so sorry if I'm not using the right terms, but I, I have the best intentions. They end up with the genitalia that matches their gender identity.

Maybe not right away, but if they choose to seek gender affirming surgery, then they do. So what would it even really prove if you make a trans woman expose herself to prove that she has the right genitals? What are you? Are you also going to be asking for original birth certificates? Because many states allow birth certificates to be updated to reflect gender. It's the, the crux of it is it's just a reminder that all Nancy Mace cares about is Sarah McBride.

That's it. Because even with a genitalia check, even with a birth certificate check, it's not going to achieve the thing that Nancy Mace wants, which is, I guess, to force people to use the bathroom that lines up with their birth sex and nothing else, period. It's a complete waste of time. Nancy May should try doing something useful for her constituents. Chandler Somborak says prisoners can't even vote, but a convicted felon can be president makes less than no sense in the normal logical world. You're absolutely right. In the world of MAGA, where it's just what's convenient to us, it makes perfect sense to say we can't let the felons vote, but we can let one really big felon be president of the

United States. Good, good luck convincing them otherwise. Okay. DDE addict said to me, David, I almost unsubscribed when Trump won being the one person I never wanted to hear about again. You were the only real voice of calm and reason. However, your voice is just so nice to listen to that. I have to stay on with your channel. Well, I wish that folks were staying on because they recognize the importance of supporting independent media and building a media ecosystem to challenge that which the right is built. But I'll accept it if you're just sticking around because you like my voice.

We'll take it regardless of you is a view, right? No, I got a lot of messages like these about people saying I was so demoralized. I was really on the verge of just kind of getting out. But I am sticking around and I appreciate the people that are doing so. And that's why I will see you on the bonus show. And I'll see you right back here on Monday.