Hurricanes, Ghosts, and the Power of Teen Stories

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From the most trusted journalists at Comedy Central's America's only source for news. This is the Daily Show with your host Jordan Clambers.

What's that, jo I air worded flamber. I gotta tell you, we got so much to talk about tonight.

Politicians find a new tragedy to politicize. Hurricanes are now affecting people who don't exist, and it turns out that Fox News might not have.

Told the truth. Can you believe it? Let's get right in the headlines.

Let's start tonight with a little stroll down memory lane. Remember the early days of the COVID pandemic when tests had just been developed, but you couldn't find one to save your life.

Well, now we know where they went.

There is reporting that former President Trump, the then sitting president at the time, had quote secretly sent Putin a bunch of Abbot points of care COVID test machines for his personal use as the virus spread rapidly through Russia.

Here's how the phone call goes between Trump and Putin. Putin says, please don't tell anybody you sent these to me. Trump, I don't care, fine, Putin, no No, I don't want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me. They don't care about me.

Oh if that phone call didn't just annex my heart. So Trump was secretly giving sound medical advice to a foreign adversary while publicly convincing Americans to.

Poison themselves with bleach.

I gotta say most presidents would do that the other way around. But hey, you do you Trump. Let's get to our top story tonight. The country is still dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, but now it looks like there's a sequel on the way that may pull a joker aka, cost a lot more and suck even harder.

The breaking news potentially one of the most destructive storms on record. That's the new warning for the National Hurricane Center about Hurricane Milton, headed for Florida's west coast.

It's a category five, which is something that I've never heard a category five actually coming on to land. But it looks like it's going to.

Wow, Donald, you never heard of a category five hurricane hitting land. It's weird because I remember one happening while you were president.

What did you say after that happened.

I'm not sure that I've ever even heard of the category five.

Yes, yes, yes, for all you people who think he's in men until decline, turns out he's been the same level of stupidity for years.

He must do sudoku. Yes, one one one one one, I got it, I got it.

Okay, But yes, Hurricane Milton is bearing down on Florida, which is terrible because we still haven't cleaned up the fallout from Helene. And not just the flooding and the debris. I'm talking about the torrent of misinformation and bullshit that we're still wading through. Because if you've been getting your news from Eternal Hurricane on the Spotless Mind over here, you might think that the victims of Hurricane Helene have been completely abandoned by the government.

The White House is doing nothing. They've abandoned us. And you know, it's largely a Republican area. They haven't seen anybody from the federal government yet. The federal government isn't there.

Horrifying if true.

Comrade Kamala and Sleepy Joe's federal government has left Republican voters out to dry just because of their party affiliates. Now, these Republican governors of those states must be outraged.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, tell the world what horrors you've seen.

I'm incredibly appreciated about the racket response in the cooperation from the federal team at VIVA.

Oh okay, you're probably some deep state Democratic ploy but Tennessee and Florida and Georgia, you guys are the real red states. Your governors will dish on how slow the federal government's response has been.

The response was quick from the federal government.

We have what we need.

We got what we need.

He offered that if there's no other things we need, just to call him directly.

Okay, all right, all right, okay, let me get this right.

So every red state governor, said Biden, is competently helping them. It's clear what's happening here. Either Trump has been lying or every governor has been seduced by the sexual power of Joe Biden's slow, confused smile.

That's a smile that says I don't know where I am, but I know where I want to be.

But Trump isn't the only one spreading misinformation. Conservative media is spreading lies that FEMA is diverting resources to Ukraine, that Jews and the government are secretly sabotaging AID and the biggest conspiracy of all that the hurricane was deliberate.

A Republican Marjorie Taylor Green posting on x Yes, they can control the weather.

It's ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it cannot be done.

Ah.

Whatever happened to the good old days when conservatives believe sensible things like hurricanes were creations of God who was pissed off by gay marriage?

You know what happened?

Did God go to a really nice gay weddinged in Cabo and pass off hurricane duties to Chuck Schumer?

You know what?

I was against this, but when I saw Bruce and Gary take those vows, Wow, they had a live band, for Christ's sakes, that's glass. These crazy conspiracy theories aren't harmless. They spread paranoia around a population that is already desperate, and we're starting to see the effect.

We talked to people who believe that there were Fiddle officials who were seizing a town called Chimney Rock, North Carolina, that there was this conspiracy to seize the town and to bulldoze all the bodies and hide them, maybe to mine it for lithium.

Do you see what's happening?

People are afraid those who are coming to help are actually coming to steal their lithium.

Everyone.

Let's be clear, completely clear. The US government doesn't destroy towns to steal their resources in the US, in the Middle East, charm. All this misinformation distracts from the fact that there are real people in these disaster zones who need help. Like this heartbreaking photo of this little girl and her puppy beneath all these lies.

Her suffering is real.

No, these photos claiming to show girls and puppies being rescued after Hurricane Helene are not real.

They were made with AI.

Damn it.

How can something so fake and this is such real tears. Of course, this hurricane is happening in twenty twenty four, which means on top of all the misinformation from our politicians, we also have to deal with the flood of fake AI bullshit like these pictures of little girls, or or this fake picture of Donald Trump wading through the floodwaters.

Now, this one is subtle.

You can tell this one is fake because it's a picture of Donald Trump helping people.

Look, but you have to look close. You have to look close.

For a lot of other pictures, we have to spend time learning how to spot AI.

This is how we figured out this photo was AI generated. You can count that there are six fingers on this hand, and there's also three nostrils in this guy's nos, which obviously is not a thing.

Thank you, Big Tech for improving our lives. We had to bulldoze fifteen acres of the Amazon to make that extra nostril, but I think we can all agree it was worth it.

For more of the.

Effects of all this misinformation. Let's go live to North Carolina to interview a first responder who's part of the rescue efforts, Brad McDonald. Mister McDonald's, mister McDonald, I want to thank you for joining us. I gotta say you must be sick of all the fake images of six fingered men swirling around out there.

I'll tell you what I'm sick of, mister Klepper. You people in the media who are saying I'm not real.

Okay, wow, you really have six fingers.

I sure do this look artificially generated to you?

Fancy boy?

Why I ought to give you a six knuckle sandwich.

I'm sorry, mister McDonald, I had no idea. Forgive me for forgive me for asking. But do you have six fingers on both hands?

Of course not, I'm not a freak. My other hand is a footright.

Of course.

Clearly this isn't enlightening for me. Frankly, I had no idea there actually was a real six fingered man in North Carolina.

You think I'm the only one.

There's actually six of us, all right, and together we've rescued every dog in the county. But does anybody in the media ever thank us. No, they call us a bunch of AI fakes. If I ever see one of them newspeople, I swear I'm gonna put my hand foot up their ass.

Okay, Okay, point taken.

I guess I guess we'll need to find other clues that a picture is a like a person having three nostrils.

You mean three nostril pete. I mean, come on, there's no way he's real.

Oh tell that to his enormous Kleenex bill. I suppose you want to make fun of his beautiful three nostril kids too, putting down a man who's already been through so much. You know, his son, his son has the biggest coke problem you've ever seen.

I'm sorry, I can't even imagine what that's like.

I'll explain you.

See, it's like a regular coke problem, but with three nostrils.

Yes, yes, No, I got it, I got it.

I guess I didn't appreciate how difficult this is for you. How do you get through it?

Well?

I find strength in my personal relationship with shrimp Jesus. Now let me tell you about shrimp je I'm.

Good, I'm thank you, totally real North Carolina resident Brad McDonald, thank you.

We go back.

We find out if Fox News lies don't go way.

Well Max the Dale Show.

We all know that our table media networks are the bet sources for trusted reporting, but sometimes slip up.

Michael Costa has more.

Last year, Fox News reached a nearly eight hundred million dollars settlement with Dominion Voting Systems for falsely claiming that they rigged the twenty twenty election.

We begin with some breaking news and one of the most consequential media trials in decades.

Dominion Voting Systems had alleged the right wing network knowingly broadcast lies that its voting machines were used to steal the twenty twenty presidential.

Election, avoiding a trial that would have turned Fox News's biggest stars into star witnesses. The company will cut a seven hundred and eighty seven point five I have a million dollar checked.

But what you might not realize is that Fox only reported those claims after one brave woman dared to send them an email. Surely, an email like this must have come from a seasoned investigative journalist or deep state whistleblower. So who exactly was this incredible source?

I kind of liken myself to that statue of the girl in front of the big bed bull of Wall Street.

Me Marlene Bourne, staring into the eyes of one of the most powerful unknown people in American politics. Was thrilling and intimidating at the same time. I needed to know how did she do it?

So I started doing research. I applied my research skills. You know, it's one thing to have a collection of dots, it's another thing to be able to connect.

Them dots ice cream of the future.

No informational dots, informational doots. So I had these dots together, I just kind of threw together this email.

But this wasn't your typical ordinary email. Oh no, this email had life altering consequences.

Walk me through that faithful day November seventh, around five h seven pm.

Whether it was crisp, the leaves were turning. I put together this email in about an hour, fought it over, hit send, and that was it.

And that was it. Time to get to this infamous email that altered US elections for generations.

So you're probably already aware of voting irregularities in a number of states which have one common thread, dominion voting system. Nancy Pelosi's longtime chief of staff is a key executive. Up to three percent of votes for mister Trump would automatically switch to mister Biden. That's what American Expressed charges merchants as a transaction fee.

Marlene, I needed to visual eate to help me with this email.

But what do you think about this?

It's way more complicated than that.

Okay, if you didn't get all that, it clearly states that Diane find three percent transaction fee and then basically the election was stolen. You say to people who say, Marlene, your email, it's a big conspiracy.

So fine, I'm a conspiracy theorist. Okay, I also happened to be correct.

So what started out as just an email led to this.

A Dominion software.

I know that there were voting irregularities then this.

There were substantial questions.

With Dominion all the way up the swampy drain pipe to this, with the.

Dominion machines moved thousands of votes from my account to Biden's account.

Causing people to believe the election was stolen. And again because of one email. I needed to know which hungry reporter first followed up on this explosive news.

No one a text. They sent a messenger to your house.

They contacted your lawyer and said, please have her identify the sources.

A singing telegram, a hot air ble man, not a carrier.

Pigeon whelp.

Nobody contacted you, crickets.

Crickets contacted you.

I heard nothing but crickets.

Oh, I see of that.

Yet they were using your information to and share it with their viewers apparently, So you know, that's the respect that I crave. I love the people. Just accept what you're saying is truth.

So what would have been one of the biggest stories in US political history wasn't even fact checked.

But I get it.

There's no need to fact check because Marlene is a reputable source that does her homework.

What were your sources behind the conclusions you came about dominion voting system.

The wind told me that there were people who wanted to know, wanted to hear what I had to say, so I could have sent just true.

But I'm sorry I was nodding, but I didn't really understand what you said.

The wind told you. The wind told me, and the wind speaks English.

Yes, okay, Look, everyone has their quirks. It's not always how you get the information, but rather the confidence of knowing the person who's delivering it is a legit.

Say I'm a ghost.

I talked with other ghosts.

Am I Hailey, Joe Osmond in sixth sense?

Right now?

Is this real? Well?

If Fox knew this, there's no way they would have aired the content to this email.

Quote. The Wind tells me, I'm a ghost.

The Wind tells me I'm a ghost.

You would think that the contents of this letter would have sent it straight to the trash bin.

But no, Instead they took that garbage and read it out loud on air the very next day.

There has been a massive and coordinated effort to steal this election.

Who knew all that was needed to take down Fox News was a ghost fluent in wind.

You did it, Tucker Carlson's gone.

Fox News had to pay seven hundred and eighty million dollars. Yeah, Americans don't trust democracy as much anymore, but.

You did it.

Listen to the wind man. It will tell you things. It's simply having an awareness of your surroundings.

Maybe I needed to be more open minded like Marlene and pay attention to my surroundings, listening to the breaking wind instead of the breaking news. And it turns out it has a lot to say, and it's telling me the election of twenty twenty four is going to be one hell of a shit show. Thank you, wend.

Thank you Michael. We come back.

Author Jason Reynolds will be joining me on the show Don't Go Away.

Welcome back to the Daily Show.

My guest tonight is a New York Times bestselling author of twenty one books for children and young adults. His latest book is called twenty four Seconds from Now. Please welcome Jason Reynolds. Jason, how are you, sir?

I'm good now now. They tell me, they say this is your first y.

A romance novel, but you insist it is not a romance novel. It is a it is a book about love.

Listen. I'm nervous to say that it is a romance novel. I'm nervous to say that it's not a romance novel because my buddies who work in romance are very particular about the craft. That you know their craft. Sure, what I will say is that there's romance here. There is,

Oh but that just that that wouldn't fit on the cover.

But that doesn't fit on the cover.

It doesn't fit on the cover.

So I mean, this book looks at male sexuality. Do you know which states it will be abandoned?

I'd rather not say so. I don't have to give them any ideas. Let's hope that. Let's hope nobody always going to happen some way.

I was talking to you a little bit backstage. When I read your book, it brought back a lot of feelings. It talks about somebody's first sexual encounter and don't worry, I'm not going to go into mine at all on television. Nobody wants that, especially for you. Yeah, I mean you could could be a little kind around that one.

They're Jason.

But but I think we said right off the bat, it puts you there, It puts you in a mindset there, and it is something that I don't find myself revisiting or literature paying much attention to.

Was that part of the interest of tackling something like.

This, Yeah, I much like you, I haven't seen it either. And there's a question, right that begs the question why not? Why don't we get to see young men navigating the most vulnerable moments of their lives. Why don't we get to see them insecure and nervous and trying to be trying to activate the tender bit right, trying to be

It's interesting, I think when we talk to they have a lot of different people who talk about the crisis of masculinity of modern masculinity, and a lot of this looks at tech and the way kids are and young boys are affected by social media, but also their addiction to pornography. Like my generation, I mean, I would have killed for pornography in my pockets.

I would have killed for it. I couldn't find it.

I wasn't cool enough to know anybody who had it anyone. I didn't see pornography until I was thirty seven.

I just could never figure it out.

But now, being a thirteen year old, that's a different You're learning about sex in totally different ways when you think about something like that and you deal with that someone. In this book too, your main character is seventeen and has certain assumptions about the ways in which a first time goes. How do you how do you balance telling an authentic story there with what you want to articulate to a young audience reading it.

Yeah, I mean it's tricky, right. I'm always very careful about coming into a story trying to teach any lessons, because I think young people can smell that a mile away. My job is just to beid witness to the realities of their lives, and sometimes that reality makes me uncomfortable, but it's something that we still have to grapple with,

And I'm like, what do you mean?

And she's like, you know what I mean.

Well, that's as you describe it in the books. That's essentially taken from your experience with your mother. Rightly, that almost sounds like a threat to like how we talk to countries with nuclear weapons, like I understand you have them, but I know more on my side as well.

And the truth and the truth is the consequences, though different from a macro level, I could be just as devastating on a micro level. If you don't, if we don't have these conversations, you could very well blow up your life and the life of the person that you claim to care about. Right, It's just that simple. We have to pay attention, we have to communicate, We have to be kind, we have to be gentle and tender

Don't don't go nuclear your first time. That is what you're saying.

You can't anyway you can, anyway you can. You could prematurely explode. I got that is something that that can happen.

Did you go to literature, like you know, my understanding is you were not. You're not a big novel reader. When you were you like like like what what what hold you think you're feeling right there? Did you use literature in a way that was reflective of the experience you were having?

Like what what? What? What? What are you? What are you trying to do with in your writing? To speak to this younger general.

I mean, I think I think if I'd have had this book as a kid, I would have read it. Yeah, right, But this is not This isn't the literature that was given to me when I was young. I mean, you know, we're probably close to the same age. I mean back then, you're you're being I mean, we're coming up on the

You don't know it.

I feel like that's a lesson I learned too late in life in many ways, that like literature and.

Art, you have to use it.

You have to use it.

You don't just engage with it.

You have to use it, and you can use it to be reflective of your life, or to make your life better, or to gain perspective. I'm curious seeing yourself reflected at an early age is important. Now that you've grown older, do you seek out literature?

What do you read now?

Are you looking for things that are reflective of your life or are you looking for experiences that are outside of it?

It's different. It's different, and I work in this field too, so it's a little different in general. I mean, for me right now, I'm always looking for I look at literature these days like I look at abstract art, right. I want to stand in front of it and see if it makes me feel something, whether I understand it

I love that. I love that You're You're only right.

You also teach, and you've also spent a decent amount of time going to schools interacting with the youth as somebody who perhaps understands them or has a view into their experiences more than the the average adult.

Do you have faith?

Are they gonna they're gonna pull this one out? Are they gonna help this generation who's everything up?

Yes?

And you know I know that we look the Atlantic. There's an article that came out about how like college kids can't read books and that there's all this stuff. We get all these tidbits about all the things they're not doing right. But as someone who's around them all the time, I think they have the biggest hearts that we've seen in human history. I think they care about

Right.

When we think about gun the gun, gun violence, right, that that move men is being led by the youth. When we think about the Women's March some years back, a lot of people there were very young, right fighting this particular fight. And so I think that while we criticize them, and while we worry, we have to remember

I love that.

We'll twenty four second foot now is available. Jason, We're gonna take a quick crash.

That's a show for today.

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