Mask Mandates and McCarthy’s Lie

It was a busy week. The Justice Department is appealing a federal judge’s decision to ...

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It was a busy week. The Justice Department is appealing a federal judge’s decision to strike down the CDC’s travel mask mandate. The Biden administration is standing by its plan to end Title 42, a pandemic-era border policy, despite pushback from Democrats. Texas and Florida have governors making their own questionable decisions. Netflix and CNN feel the full effects of the streaming wars. Plus, what did Kevin McCarthy say?

Show Notes:

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  1. Avatar photo
    Steven Potter

    Keep up the "Not Worth Your Time" segment. It's interesting to hear why you think so and how each of you think about it. It might turn out that it is worth our time.

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    Marc Frischhertz

    Not sure if there is another way to reach out, but please have Jonathan Height on as a guest. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/

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      Sarah Isgur vertical-nib Author

      We’d absolutely love to—his schedule is a little backed up for the time being but it’ll happen eventually!

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        Marc Frischhertz

        The conversation you all would have with him would be great to hear

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  3. Mathieu

    Loved the episode. I am of the opinion that the "not worth your time" segment is well worth our time, and that it was covered for an appropriate amount of time given that it is really not worth our time.

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    Marc Frischhertz

    Sarah, the McCarthy lie/tape is important because it represents a spread of the willingness of politicians to lie so brazenly that they are essentially saying don’t believe your lying eyes

    This pathogen first arrived with Trump. Sure, politicians have always lied, but it was different with Trump. The lying was no longer just to cover the politician’s ass. Trump’s lies serve the additional and perhaps primary purpose of showing how loyal his supports are. Behind every brazen lie is the implied message, “look at the bullshit I can get away with”. Trump’s lies send the message that his supporters are so behind him, that simply showing that the emperor has no clothes won’t be enough.

    Whether McCarthy has this Trump power is yet to be seen and perhaps doubtful, but the fact that the disease of brazen lies without even and effort to give an explanation is spreading makes this an important story.

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    1. Seth

      I think it was Jonah (or could have been someone else; I listen to a lot of podcasts) who talked about this sometime recently, in the context of extreme authoritarian regimes that use absurd lies as a sort of loyalty test. Most of the elite supporters don't actually believe those things, but say them as if they do to demonstrate their fealty to the leader, who is more confident in their subservience by the fact that they profess to adhere to such absurd lies. I think that's much what we're seeing with Trump and the Big Lie.

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    Mike from Jersey

    Jonah…bubbie…CNN+ was never going to work. Let’s face it, you ate sushi from that gas station in Alabama. It’ll be painful for a day or two, but you’ll be fine. We still love you.

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    Ben Connelly

    The Kevin McCarthy thing was totally worth our time. The Netflix stuff was not. I struggle to find a reason to care about anything on Netflix, let alone how the company’s stock is performing.

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    Philbnichols

    NWYT - Totally WMT. Yeah.

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    ed74siasl

    Two things that I keep not hearing in discussion of the mask decision that seem important to me,
    1, You don't wear a mask to keep from getting Covid, you wear a mask to keep from GIVING Covid.
    2, And more importantly, the reason we should keep public transport a couple levels higher is that public transit is one of the most efficient ways to communicate disease, and fast.
    The second seems so painfully obvious, it's difficult to accept that it's being omitted in good faith.

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  9. Steven Vandzura

    I do not like to be in the category of a yes man and constantly gush over how much I appreciate these podcasts but there I said it, I really, really appreciate all of the podcasts. But I have to include that I thouroughly enjoyed the segment of " not worth you time". Thank you all!

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  10. David D

    Note to Steve: sounds like getting family plans for all the streaming services and doling out accounts as part of the The Dispatch's 2023 employee benefits package would get a lot mileage with Declan

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