COVID Groundhog Day

and the reality is is that it did not. Those alerts were provided to the Trump administration, to the President of the United States at that time, and he chose to ignore it. Not only did he choose to ignore it, but what we learned in the hearing is that there was no spontaneity involved on January sixth. This was not an event that took place out of heightened rage, and it was something that just occurred at a thin air. The reality is is that it was orchestrated, It was strategized.

It was Donald Trump's hail Mary. The last sixty cases failed after there was no constitutional loophole that Mark Meadows could find that could keep Donald Trump in power, and that what he then decided to do, as my guest yesterday said Kurt Bardella, was to weaponize his base, to hype them up on anti democratic sentiments, on the big lie, knowing that they were armed, knowing that they were susceptible to his allies, and then point them in the direction

of the Capitol Building towards his vice president, where they would build a gallows, where they would break in, where they would kill people and cause irreputable damage to the

Capitol Building and to our democracy. Donald Trump knew. Not only did Donald Trump know he was the architect in chief, he surrounded himself with an insular group of idiots like Sidney Powell, like Rudy Giuliani and Andrew Giuliani, like Johnny Eastman, like the overstock guy, and others who would concoct and scheme to keep Donald Trump in power come hell or

high water. That nobody who would be perceived to be the quote unquote adults in the room or those people who actually believed in the rule of law and said, Okay, I'm going to ride with you until we exhaust all possibilities here. But once those possibilities have been exhausted. It's time for us to move the fuck on. But they were the logical ones, I guess. I mean, I don't know how logical you could be to work for four years for a petulant toddler and a strong man want

to be right. But what was clear, and I think that what the committee laid out just so brilliantly was without the call from Donald Trump to go to the Capitol Building, the insurrection would not have happened. Without Donald Trump calling off his weapon after he unleashed them on the Capitol Building, Folks, wouldn't have stayed four hundred and eighty seven minutes while the president was doing god knows what.

The question that continues to be asked, however, as we are learning more and more, and next week will be the eighth Congressional hearing on the January sixth insurrection, is that how much evidence is needed? How much more evidence is needed in order to indict Donald Trump and all of his co conspirators who concocted a plan to overthrow

the government and keep Donald Trump in power. I mean, folks, when we saw that draft executive order, my god, it should have scared the shit out of every single American, that this president if not for certain people that maintained control, or said, the entire Department of Justice is going to quit right, That Donald Trump would have had the military sea's voting machines, That Donald Trump would have declared martial law.

That Donald Trump would have gone above and beyond what has ever been done in this country, in this democracy, and turn it upside down. He knew that he lost, He was told on multiple occasions that he lost. But he didn't care, and neither did those very dangerous people around him. And the question that keeps being asked is, while we've never indicted a president before, a former president of the United States, and what damage will that do

to the country? What damage will holding a criminal responsible for disrupting our democracy? What damage will that due to the country. Let me just tell you. Let's all take an imagination trip right now. Let me do my best Sophia from the Golden Girls and picture it. The United States twenty twenty four. Joe Biden is a Democratic nominee. He is up against not Donald Trump, but Rhonda Santis. Rhonda Santis becomes the newly elected president of the United

States and devoid accountability from the Trump administration desires. He's going to declare martial law for pretty much every goddamn thing. He's going to throw queer people in jail, that he's gonna rewrite the Constitution and say that people no longer have the right to assemble, but only white people have the right to assemble, and that everyone else should be deemed a political threat. And you will see not a

plucking of our rights. As Madeleine Albright said about fascism, is that you don't notice because you pluck a chicken one feather at a time, right, And that is exactly what the Trump administration and trump Is m has been doing to our democracy, but without any guardrails, without any responsibility, without any accountability. The next president who is of the trump is ideology will be fucking worse. Think about what message it sends to the white supremaist organizations and that

their leader will never be held accountable. Well, they'll know that, whether it's Trump or de Santists, they have friends in the White House. So what does that say to the rule of law on a day to day basis? And the danger that bipoc people, black, Indigenous people of color, women, queer people people who worship a non Christian god, What is it safe for their safety? If, again, there is no accountability, it means that it is fucking a free for all in terms of violence, in terms of terrorism

in this country. Oh not to mention that prior to all of this happening in twenty twenty four and twenty twenty five, the Supreme Court gave everybody a fucking right to conceal and carry. So the amount of shootouts, the amount of death right that we will see is crazy. So when the question is continually being asked to legal analysts about you know, whether or not accountability should be had for Donald Trump or should be sought after for

Donald Trump, you have no fucking choice. It is either you hauld Donald Trump and all of his sycophants accountable, or you hand over the keys to our democracy to the white supremacist fascist party formerly known as the Republican Party. Those are the choices that we have. And it's not a real fucking choice. The amount of evidence that has been laid out thus far by this committee. And I know that lawyers love to say, well, it's not evidence,

it's information, blah blah. I don't give a fuck. The fact of the matter is is that the story that is being told and by Donald Trump's own people, in their own voices, show a man that was willing to do anything, in everything in order to hold onto power. Legal system be damned, democracy be damned, and he will do it again. And without that sense of fear of the possibility of going to federal prison for crimes for treason against this country. You have just made it open

season on the executive branch and on the presidency. Moving forward, So, friends, the Justice Department, I'm not saying that the job in front of them is easy, but I'm saying that they

need to fucking do it. Coming up next my conversation with our friend, the good good doctor, doctor Jonathan Matzel, to bring us the latest on where we are with the two new variants that have taken over in the United States and also around the world BA four and BA five, and what it is that we need to be careful of and what it is that we need

to pay attention to in the coming months. In this conversation, Jonathan lays out in no uncertain terms that we are headed towards a very dangerous fall, which means a very dangerous winter and are we prepared this time around in order to keep Americans safe? Or is this just COVID groundhogs Day? That conversation with our friend doctor Jonathan Metzel is coming up next. Indisputable with Doctor Rashid Ricci is one of the latest shows on the TYT network and

also the fastest growing news show in America. On his show, Doctor Ricci plays no games regarding policy, delivering a heavy dose of fact based truth and penetrating analysis on all the top news stories focusing on racism, criminal and social justice, politics, police brutality, Karens, and much more. Listeners can also expect interviews with fascinating guests, political leaders, commentators, and even fiery debates with conservatives on a wide range of policy topics

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As always, I'm always excited and elated when we have our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metsil joining Woke app daily to just break down the latest and the most insane things that are happening in this country. And Jonathan, I know that you had not had an opportunity at this point of the recording to watch the seventh hearing

from the January sixth Committee. But there is one thing that I think that you can speak to and have a conversation about, which is regard which is with regard to the testimony of two men who sat before the committee, one of them being his name right, because he's the one that I want to discuss. Jason van Tottenhove Taytenhof, who is a former Proud Boy um was a part of the Proud Boys for quite some time he left.

He left several years ago, well before the insurrection. But the purpose of him sitting before the committee and providing testimony was to paint the picture of who the Proud Boys are, what their vision of America is, and how it is a para militia organization, that it is a terrorist group, and that h Stuart Rhodes, the man who is now under indictment for seditious conspiracy with the to January six has a white supremacist, white evangelical, Christian fundamentalist

vision of America. And what Tottenhofe said is that he said, let us not mince words here anymore, because I think that it's important for the American people to know the truth. What happened on January sixth, he said, was an attempt at an armed revolution. That is the desire of the Proud Boys, It is the desire of the oath Keepers, and it was upholded right and given space by the

former president of the United States. I want you in your travels, in the work that you've done around this country with the writing of your book, Dying of Whiteness, but also how you speak about gun violence and the kind of merging the intersection of these ideologies. He was trying to sound an alarm about how we are talking about this, So how does that land for you? And hearing that Jason van Tottenhove is just like, let's stop

mincing words. Do you feel like we continue to mince words about the danger that these groups and these ideologies are causing. Well, hey, everybody, and you're right, Danielle. So I'm just coming in from the airport. I've been flying, so I met. I was in the air for the hearing today, so I've read about it a little bit and I much just say about the experience of flying

right now, which we can talk about later. Apparently flying with COVID as your travel companion is all the rage this summer and so but anyway, we'll talk about that later. But I would just say I think a couple of things important have happened over the course of the past

couple of days. I mean, one is, of course, that when you hear about people who are from extremist groups who are not in the extremist groups anymore, they're representing people who had the conscious to leave I think a lot of times, but the people whom the people who are still in the groups who are growing and festering and all those kind of things that that's really the people you have to worry about, right So I would love to hear from active you know, three percentage right

now and just honestly hear what they're what they're thinking, and you know, because I would just bet that many people in the in these groups don't share this level of concern because they feel very guided by the goal of fomenting violence or overturning the election or overturning the government. And so I think these these threats are real. But the other thing I think is important to note is that there was a poll released this morning by the

New York Times. And I don't know how much faith you know, you put in polls right now, but some of these kind of polls not who you're going to vote for, but these opinion polls, they're much more accurate than predicting elections. And it said that at least fifty percent of Republicans are ready to get rid of Trump, at least at this point. Now. Of course, right now it's not like, oh, it's Trump or Joe Biden, so who knows. It's not like, oh, they're going to vote

for Democrats. But I would say that I think that the message of the January six Committee does seem to be getting through pretty considerably to a number of people who were paying attention. And I think what was interesting for me about that poll this morning was that people were saying, look, I agree, I'm a Republican. I agree with the stuff, but I'm just tired of the circus.

And so I do think that the January sixth Committee, I mean, we'll have to see where it leads right now, is doing a lot of damage on Trump and he can't really respond. He can't really respond because nobody even knows what the name of his social media app is and so and so I think that really the danger

for the Democrats right now. I was thinking about this this morning was let's just say the January States Committee is effective enough that it actually knocks Trump off his perch and that void is filled by de Santists or Tom Cotton, somebody who's like much smoother and smarter, and the Democrats, really, you're going to run Joe Biden against one of those guys like that would not that would not go well. And so I think the issue here isn't part about waking up America, which I'm happy to

talk about. But I also think there's an urgent call for Democrats to I mean, the Democrats, even when they're writing the show here, they seem to be getting caught flat footed and everything. And I think, you know, what's the plan if this ends up leading to Trump not running in the election, for example, which seems like a really real possibility. So my biggest fear, beside the three percentage and all that, which is super scary, is that the Democrats knock off Trump, but they don't have a

plan and it's just Biden against one of those guys. Well, I think that the reality here is, you know, I believe that the point of the January sixth Committee is to make the case to the American people that so much damage to our institutions, to our agencies, to our democracy was done, and it wasn't by accident. You know. One of the things that I had tweeted was why is it that white people are so susceptible to being

quote swept away into violence? And that's a real you know, that's a real question, a question that your book sought to answer. Right, It's like, why are you willing to literally die for whiteness. And you know, I don't believe that the Committee is necessarily setting up a case to negate Trumps m as they are to negate Donald Trump.

So your question, I think is true, and I've been this is what keeps me up at night, frankly, which is the fact of a seventy nine year old Joe Biden going up against a late forty something year old or fifty something year old the santis who is going to who looks at this point to be the error

point apparent um for twenty twenty four. And what I've always said is that Donald Trump is what is more dangerous than Donald Trump is somebody who has shares his ideology but understands the law and how to maneuver and

how to maneuver it. That's what the danger is. And so you know, the thing though about where we are this fraught time in our country is that while fifty percent of people Republicans may be willing to get rid of Donald Trump, the question for you, Jonathan, is that what is it what is it going to take for them to also say that they want to get rid of Trumpism when Trumpism is what is winning right now, right no, no, that I mean, that's really the issue,

and that that that's kind of the point I'm making is and you're making also, is that what comes after Trump is something you know, Trump is like Cyborg one point zero, but then you get like the actual flesh and blood terminator next or something. And so I just think that what comes next is going to be a far more formable challenge and the I don't like the

Democrats like our strategy is at this point. Maybe it'll coalesce more when and I'm sure there's people who are really smart working on this, but I would just say that the response to the Supreme Court decisions about abortion and guns have been for me so very disappointing, and so it just feels like we're just we're reacting, We're

not going on offense, We're not doing anything. And I think that is that shit's not going to fly against somebody liked a Santas or Cotton or something who are just like robot machines, who are going to come in and know the law and no very loophole. So I don't know, I mean, maybe I'm sure there's a plan for this, we just don't know it yet. I mean let's hope that's the case. I don't mean let's I mean, okay, I know that you like to be on you know,

the up and up and to be optimistic. Well, what we have seen is that there's no fucking plan, right. Like the reason why you started off saying that they continue to get caught flat footed is because they continued to be surprised by just how violent, how devious, um, and how against the law and the constitution this Republican

Party is. And I guess I mean, I mean, forget for against January sixth, they had forty years to know that abortion was going to get a return, thank you, right, Um, Like it wasn't like any big surprise in the gun case. Like I mean, you and I were out here were screaming about the gun case. Um, But the response to the gun case. I mean I watched that press commerce their day. I mean, I know their hands are tied and stuff like that, but they'ren't that tied. And so

I don't know. And so I guess the what I met by a plan, I'll just be clear, was there was another New York Times poll that showed that ninety percent of people thirty and under, Yeah, and So what I meant by there probably as a plan is maybe there's a plan that after the midterms, you know, the least what she'd say is I'm not decided if I'm running again, but I think I encourage everybody who wants to run to run, or is something that gives the okay for people to run, like you know, that's that's

the least that could happen. I mean, this will and it will never happen because people do not, whether for good or for for wrong, never acquiesced their power that they currently have as a way to lay the path for other people. And I think that it would take it would take, you know, more than the polling, but a considerable like I don't even know push by Democrats within his inner circle to say you are not going to win, and so we still have the opportunity to

hold this country. And the bet, the best bet is for actually the American people to feel like they can roll the dice on their leadership as opposed to you being the twenty twenty four nominee. A parent, I mean, the question, though, is is there any benefit to saying something like that before the mid term. I'm betting they wait until left for the mid term. So it's like, I just don't think it would be wise by their calculus. Who knows to come out right now and say I'm

not running again. So I guess when I said that, maybe there's a plan, that was what I was thinking, is maybe there's a plan, they're just not doing it now. So I just don't want to. I don't want to have everybody jump on Biden's back. When we elected the guy, and if he's I mean, I mean, if he's the nominee,

we're supporting him. But when we say that we elected the guy, we didn't really have a choice, right, Like we had a choice, we had a we had a choice, And Jim Clyburn said, well, South Carolina is behind Joe Biden, and so the rest of the rest of us got behind Joe Biden because he declared him as such and said he's the only person that could beat Trump, and he did be Trump. But we're saying that, like you

beat him this time around. But these iterations of Donald Trump, these next phases, like you use the terminator, these next phases of Donald Trump, he is not prepared to beat And we've seen that time and you know, time and time again. Um to switch gears now to go back to our other disaster, which is the pandemic that we are continuing to live in. And by the way, we still haven't talked about monkey pox on this show, but

I'll wait for that. Okay, that's coming next. But um, you know, I will say this that I have noticed in the past. I guess week and a half, Jonathan, since you raised the alarm on this show once again that said, hey, guys, maybe in the next two weeks you want to wear masks indoors because I just came from Scandinavia and the wave is coming right now. Also, sorry you are you are a good, good prophet to us what was coming, and it came faster than the

two weeks that you had actually anticipated. So the media now has picked up and is hip to the fact that, guess what, COVID's not done. And not only is it not done, but these next two variants are worse than the first one because they're more contagious and are attacking the lower lung. So tell us about you know what more you were hearing about what is being done and also about your travels because you just said that COVID nineteen is essentially our copilot. So I just flew in

from Nashville, and boy, and my arms tired. And I would say that I was one of three people wearing a mask on the flight, and there were people who were just hacking up on the flight. So I put on a third mask. And I just had COVID two weeks ago. Like I'm relatively safe compared to other people. But there's just nobody in charge right now, and I stand why, like nobody would do it anyway, But I will say that we had we had the luxury of having the Big O Oscar robertson the O micron straight stage.

And the difference between everything that came before the Big O and the Big O was that the Big O didn't kill people as much because it was largely an upper respiratory infection, and so even though people were catching it, remember everybody got it less December. Everybody got it right.

But the thing is I didn't kill anywhere near as many people because it didn't go in the lower lungs, which is where you get your oxygen, ladies and gentlemen, and so remember that earlier versions of COVID put ended up people, tons of people on ventilators in hospitals because their lungs were infected. And so so we've had this omicron you know, series of BA one, two, three, where it's just like wave after wave, which was just like a cold, you know, a very bad cold, and all

of a sudden four and five. And I I noticed this in myself when I got COVID two weeks ago. I'm still not totally over it. But also like people I was with got really sick, like ended up like having bilateral pneumonia on chess Sex race and something. I started looking at the data and looking at data from other countries, and it turns out there's a lot of people on ventilators right now, which has not been the

case for us for almost year. And so so as this ramps up, just to be honest, I mean again not to be so alarmous, but I am very worried about the fall because as this thing it's got a it's got an infection ratio that is supposedly eighteen, which is higher than smallpox or measles or anything we know.

And so it's it's attacking along and it's got an infection ratio that's pretty much higher than most pathogens that you and I have ever heard of, and so this fall could get kind of bad, and so I don't know. I would not throw away my mask anybody. I would be quite careful. And the other thing is if the infection ratio was eighteen. I mean, I love afropunk, as

you know, I live for that. But crowded outdoor places are going to be a little risky too, because the initial infection ratio was three, you know, last year, and now it's eighteen and that's how many people everybody with it in facts, and so even crowded outdoor spaces are not totally safe right now. So I would I would be I would go back to kind of carefulish right now. Honestly. Thankfully, I think they're working on a booster that is going

to have these four and five strains. It can't come sooner enough, honestly, because I feel like we're going to be in this way verse quite a while. But can you just cant Let me just ask a question, because I want people to be able to follow what you're saying. Can you explain than what the infection rate was for let's say delta omicron and now these BA four NBA five, So people can understand. Yeah, like the yeah, the rise, the first COVID that we all freaked out about. Alpha,

Let's please come back someday. Um, you had to be in an enclosed space for ten to fifteen minutes with somebody. It only went very It was a very dense particle, so it only went six feet roughly. That's why we had social distancing. So, believe it or not, even though nobody, none of us, we were still like, you know, licking subway poles and French kissing strangers and stuff like that in the old days. But I would say that the original coronavirus, compared to what we have now, was really

hard to catch. I mean it was easy to catch because it was because we didn't know it, and we didn't know we didn't Yeah, yeah, but now this thing shoots across the room, is lighter than anything. It You can get infected by literally just taking your mask off for a minute. That's how quickly it infects. It's much much better infecting. And so people who have this the original COVID, one person would infect another two people or three people. Now everybody's got it is infecting eighteen people.

And so that's because it just spreads so much easier. There's much more of it in the air, and when it's living in people's lungs, they're also coughing it, which makes it in the air. So it's just it's a good time to have some good masks on hand, I would say, and to think about just being conservative for

a while here. I mean. The other important thing to note is that this new variant evades immunity from people who have had COVID before, and so the field of people and also people who are vaccinated for the most part, so it's basically like we're starting over a little bit. So the reason I think this this surge is going to last for a while is it's not like there's a pool of people who have had BA four and BA five who were going to be the blockades the

you know. Basically, COVID is just starting on all over with us in a way, and so that's why I think this thing is going to be with us for a while. And again, the fall is going to be pretty intense here, especially if this new lung version then mutates again. So it's it's going to be a time to kind of hold onto your hat again. I know. I teach college and my own employer is saying, Oh, we're just going back normal. But I'm like, tell me

in a month. I mean, I think I'm sure we're going to go back, but I guarantee you we're going to be having masks in the classroom again. Well, Jonathan, you're always the bearer of good news, and I will tell phone, but this is this is kind of what I want to say to folks. We've been having these conversations for well over two years now, and there has not been a time when Jonathan has warned each and every single listener here that a wave is coming, and a wave not com that it's going to be bad,

and it not be as bad as you predict. And so I say that, uh, you know, tongue in cheek about the bearer of bad news, but you are the warning. You are the alert that goes off that reminds people, oh shit. If Jonathan says that it's going to get bad, and he has been right all of this time, then listen to you now, Jonathan Metzel. As always, I appreciate you, Stay safe, stay healthy. We'll get through. Don't forget We're

going to get through this one day. You know, it's Dan Winkle, I'm going to say one more depressing thing for people, just to suppo a lot of people. Just one team ny Moore thing, which is the issue with with a virus in your lungs is that people are going to need to be hospitalized and be on a respirator. And so, just to repeat the point that we made a year ago, you don't want to get sick when

other people are sick. That's another reason to kind of play it safe right now, because then hospitals fill up, and beds fill up, and wards fill up, and respirators, you know, ventilators fill up and stuff. So I would just say now is a time. I mean, it's hard because it's summer, but I would just say nothing else. Just everybody stay on top of the science. Really you can just follow you know, the people on Twitter who are trustworthy, I think. But now is a time to like,

you know, just to play it safe. I would say, all right, Jonathan, and folks listen to Jonathan, play it safe. Don't throw away your masks, put your masks on, and don't think that you were one hundred percent safe at these crowded outdoor concerts, festivals, events that are happening because we're talking about a different difference in particle size, a difference in reach, and a different area of infection. So again we are starting from scratch, not necessarily scratch, because

we have the information that will keep us safe. It's whether or not we choose to use it. Jonathan, as always, thank you so much and we will see you next week. Take everybody that is it for me today, dear friends on Woke FP as always, power to the people and to all the people. Power, get woke and stay woke as fuck.