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E4: Politicizing the pandemic, Police reform, Twitter vs Facebook with David Sacks & David Friedberg

June 20, 2020 / 01:18:50

This episode features discussions on COVID-19 risk management, political polarization surrounding public health measures, and the upcoming U.S. elections. Guests include Jamal, Paula, Hypatia, David Freiburg, and David Sacks.

The hosts share their personal experiences with COVID-19 precautions, including mask-wearing and socializing. David Sacks discusses adjusting his risk profile while in an undisclosed location, while David Freiburg shares his outdoor activities with friends.

The conversation shifts to the politicization of public health measures, with Sacks and Freiburg debating the effectiveness of mask mandates and lockdowns. They highlight how political affiliations influence public perception of health guidelines.

As the discussion progresses, the hosts analyze the implications of police unions and their influence on reform. They consider the challenges of addressing police violence and the need for systemic change.

Finally, the episode concludes with predictions about the upcoming election, focusing on Biden's potential running mate and the impact of voter turnout on the election outcome.

TLDR

Hosts discuss COVID-19 precautions, political polarization, police reform, and predictions for the upcoming U.S. elections.

Episode

1:18:50
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all right everybody welcome back to the all in  podcast we're here with Jamal Paula Hypatia David
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Freiburg and David sacks our usual usual foursome  as we chop up the business news and what's going
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on and just as a point of order the frequency of  the show is well don't don't ask as we feel like
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it as we feel like it correct so do not ask me  to advertise on the podcast because Tremont band
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advertising and do not ask me when the next one is  the next one is when trauma the sides he wants to
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go on a rant but well how are you holding up best  EC best he's doing pretty well yeah and the family
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everything or have you come out of quarantine in  any way so the first question I have for people is
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has your behavior change now as we go into I think  what most people are calling phase two any change
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in what you're doing in the risk you're willing to  take come off it's a really good question you know
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i i i've kind of ventured out a little bit but i  just kind of put on a mask the only place i don't
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wear a mask is when i walk around my house just  because it's you know i live in the suburbs and
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so there's just so much space between people that  you don't really run into anybody but if I have to
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go to Walgreens or CVS or whatever I always bring  a mask and gloves so I've got I've ventured out a
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little bit but you know nothing nothing meaningful  to be quite honest and Saks you're still out of
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the country in an undisclosed location how are  you feeling about what risks you're willing to
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take I you know small groups of people are you  going out to a restaurant are you seeing other
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people how do you look at the risk you're willing  to take personally I've adjusted my risk profile I
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think quite a bit so I mean that the the learning  over the past few months was just that relatively
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that the fatality rate for say relatively healthy  people under 50 without risk factors is you know
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fifty times lower then say you know someone under  over 60 or someone who has risk factors and so I'm
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not being reckless but I'm willing to kind of rien  social behavior among groups of friends and on the
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theory that you know all my friends have been  locked down I was I was in total lockdown for
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two months sort of my friends and so you know I  have several questions the first is I mean how
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will do you look like 90 roughly how old are you  exactly so how does how did the risk factors apply
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to you second you have friends no there's three  on this call Zach C Pugh I love you I miss ya no
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I mean you raise a good point I mean my physical  age might be 90 but my lungs are only 48 years
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old so my my hopefully my my lungs are you know  qualifying that under 50 category so you know
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I've been playing golf with friends you know I've  I've kind of widened the the circle of people I'm
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willing to let into my quarantine basically so  by a dozen by a hundred by about I've actually
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let in at not all at once but at different times  probably about twenty people got it so you feel
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comfortable and those people you do ask them have  you quarantined have you been wearing masks have
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you been tested or are you just like I kind of  I mean I I generally know that people I mean
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now this may change over the next few months but  everyone's been kind of under shelter in place
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and so if you were gonna start to socializing or  with your friends this would be the safest time
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to do it because everybody has been sort of locked  down to some degree and you know most places have
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been closed and so you know if your friends having  gotten it they're probably pretty safe all right
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swinging over to you Dave Friedberg tell me what  you think of Sachs's position obviously Tremont's
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still in quarantine you know venturing off to  the store once in a while sacks opening up to
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you know 20 people or whatever in small groups  playing golf outdoors but I'm assuming he's not
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having like an indoor party for 50 obviously how  would you look at the risk he's taking and what
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risk are you taking Friedberg personally in your  life I'm not too dissimilar I've got about eight
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buddies coming over to the pool this afternoon  we're gonna do kind of like a Father's Day hang
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session but we're gonna be outside and I've  done a lot of hiking without masks and going
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outside without maths I'm not really too concerned  about outdoor behavior there was a good analysis
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done that showed increasing cases where they  actually found the origin of where transmission
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occurred ninety seven percent occurred indoors  so generally speaking like outdoor activity to
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me is like pretty reasonable to do so I'm pretty  free with like doing stuff outside meeting friends
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outside hanging out by the pool and I've got a  bunch of people come by and hang out and then
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indoor stuff I try and avoid so if I'm gonna go  into a supermarket I'll wear or grocery store
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I'll wear a mask and I'll be in there as short a  time period as I need to be and I'm certainly not
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going into restaurants and stuff like that but you  would sit outdoors at a restaurant I would assume
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if the tables were six feet apart would you go to  a restaurant and sit in the recipe yeah I'm not
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rushing to do that just yet there's just something  a little bit weird about the way some of those are
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configured but generally yes like outdoor seems  fine you know but like the way they set it up
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it's almost like you're exposing yourself to a  bunch of people around you because they're pretty
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confined spaces if they're setting up these  tables at and that but yeah sunlight and wind
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effectively will you know break apart the protein  that that is the virus and and you will not have
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this kind of infectious viral particle and so  that's a pretty you know well understood thing
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at this point and you know but it's not spoken  about as much by public health officials because
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they don't want to kind of mitigate the concern  and they don't want people to start taking off
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maps and you know taking on very risky behavior  but yeah generally speaking I think kind of like
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outdoor behavior is pretty pretty safe and non  non transmissible I the risky stuff I'm doing is
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you know we had a you know just having like folks  come back to the house and that's where I kind of
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still try and draw the line which is having people  in the house and you don't know where they've been
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and so that's a little bit concerning inside the  house the spittle particles with Kovan 19 in of
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them if they did would be lingering that is what  I'm sorry to be graphic but that is the concern
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correct Freiburg is that when you're outdoors the  spittle would blow away and the dirt is right I
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mean it really doesn't happen so the liquid that  holds the protein because the protein needs to be
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in a liquid to kind of maintain its integrity  when that evaporates and it'll evaporate from
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wind or from Sun and that protein will degrade  it becomes kind of a non-infectious particle at
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that point and so when you're inside and you don't  have those mechanisms that particle can just float
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around in the air and that's how it gets spread  and that's why in the tracing work that was done
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it shows like 97% of cases happen in an indoor  environment just like this and I don't believe
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in the 6-foot thing I think it's [ __ ] like  if you're 6 foot away from someone in a room
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people are coughing and that room gets filled with  those particles over a one hour period it doesn't
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matter if you're [ __ ] six feet away or 20 feet  away that stuff's in the air so this whole notion
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about like hey distance yourself in a restaurant  indoor space it's like no that's actually not
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going to necessarily solve a problem maybe if  someone immediately sneezed you'll avoid it but
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I mean certainly since active advocacy for mass  he free burgers are you is that an aura ring your
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own yeah have you tried it yeah I I actually just  bought it a few weeks ago and I've been using it
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to monitor my sleep but the there was an article  that said that you know I think that all the NBA
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players are going to be given these aura rings as  well because it can apparently detect coronavirus
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three days ahead of other people other other ways  because it can see a change in your basal sort of
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body temperature yes so UCSF ran this beta with  them and they developed this algorithm that they
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think it's pretty predictive so we'll see if it  works in production but yeah that's the theory
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well there's also this connected thermometer  that if you use it I forgot the name of it
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it sends all the data to a central repository  and they've been able to predict it as well and
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this just when we look at how the government I  think it's called rekt attempt wrecked attempt
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it has to go in your rectum yeah just whatever  is going out of your rectum it goes right to who
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the government now it there and but this is an  interesting thing when you think about low-cost
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ways to deal with this the amount of money we  pour it into the system shamov is so great that
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if we just sent every single person in America  and aura ring or one of these thermometers and
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said just take your Thurmont your temperature all  the day we would know where the outbreaks were
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and that would be a lot less expensive than a lot  of the stimulus we're doing to try to cure what's
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going on do you agree that we should maybe include  that in some sort of approach look I think that I
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think the basic issue is that something really  odd has happened in the United States and we
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were talking about this in our group chat which is  that we have managed to find a way to politicize
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absolutely everything and you know some things  for example like universal basic income or you
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know what is our national policy towards China  those are political issues but things of public
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health when they get sort of distorted and viewed  through a political lens or just idiotic you know
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we view masks as a political statement we view  we would view these aura rings as you know people
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being afraid that the government was going to  track them so we'll find every good will find a
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lot of excuses in order to blow up any good idea  at this point because we can politicize anything
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and we do it better than any other country in  the world you know it's an interesting point
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you make there and I'm gonna I'm gonna go to you  in a second Sachs if you pull up my computer for
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a second Nick one thing I cannot understand when  I watch the media or I watch this discussion and
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we haven't seen doctor foul Chi in about 60 days  I don't know where they buried him but he's been
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put in a bunker somewhere but the number of  deaths in the United States continues to go
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down massively now I know New York was a big  outbreak and that contributes to it but at the
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same time if you look and you compare deaths to  new cases you know the new cases has increased
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in some regions and testing has gone way up so in  trying to interpret this data I don't understand
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why there's not somebody saying listen here's  the newse debts are going way down testing is
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going way up and here's what we should take from  that sax I think you and I are might be slightly
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different sides of the aisle when it comes to  to politics how do you look at this in terms of
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leadership at a federal level and then the media  and how you know to jamaat's point we politicize
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this yeah well I agree that that things get overly  politicized and mass is a is a really good example
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it's just a really common sense easy solution you  know I wrote a blog that we covered on this pod
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two and a half months ago saying that I thought  math should be public mass wearing should be
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policy it should be the law little did I know  that I was taking a left-wing position yeah did
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you lose any friends over that right still talking  to you I mean I know you guys have me on the show
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as the the token right winger but actually I  just appear at CNN just asked me to be on the
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show today to explain why mass should be policy so  I I just thought that was a common-sense thing you
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know I'm normally very receptive to libertarian  arguments but you know like like we talked about
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the boundaries of libertarianism are you know you  only have the freedom to wave your arms until your
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fist hits my nose you know and something similar  is true about in when your infectious particles
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hit my nose you know there there are reasonable  boundaries to freedom there in the interests of
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other people's health and and you know that that  blog a lot of public pronouncements about kovat if
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not aged very well over the last couple of months  I think that blog actually is aged pretty well by
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comparison and because you just look at all the  countries that have been successful at fighting
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kovat I mean Japan has 135 million people it's an  old population and they've had under a thousand
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deaths South Korea 51 million people under 300  deaths you take a Western European nation like
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Czech Republic they had a huge kovat outbreak  spike just like the rest of Europe they went
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all-in on mass wearing and they've completely  controlled the viruses knocked out and so it's
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really crazy to me that we just can't get on the  same page as a country about something as obvious
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and easy as mass wearing and it's because we the  the the the left wants to get Trump out of office
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so badly and they're so triggered by him and they  hate him so much whether that's valid or not we'll
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leave aside that they want to and then he wants to  say no mask I don't understand his motivation what
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do you what do you think Trump is thinking and  who's advising him that he should be anti mask
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I I think somehow it's for the right has become  an act of defiance and I understand that to some
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degree because I do think that the lockdowns went  on too long they with I think with 20/20 hindsight
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we would say the lockdowns weren't necessary  if we had just gone all-in on a mass policy
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that's what they did in Japan right and so you  you know the the problem the problem with kind
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of the the politicians in charge is that you know  well backing up a second I think the right policy
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is to end lockdowns but where mass and the problem  with the politicians is half of them didn't want
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to end lockdowns and the other half didn't want to  wear masks and that's kind of the the weird way in
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which has become this political football Trump was  trying to do this as an act of defiance what was
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the left trying to accomplish do you think what  would be your cynical or charitable approach to
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what their reaction to this and locking down  so severely well I just I I think that what
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was the purpose of lockdowns I think it was the  I think the initial reaction was it was based on
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what happened in Italy right and so in Italy we  had kind of had this worst-case scenario where
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the hospital system got overwhelmed you know  tremendous fatality rate from the virus and
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then we started to see the same thing happening  in New York and and I think you know blocking
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down briefly in New York to get a handle on the  situation I think was justified I don't think
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again with 20/20 hindsight that we needed to do it  anywhere else in the country if we had instead you
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know just worn masks do you think the left though  perpetrated a perpetual lockdown this is the most
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cynical view that I've heard and I don't think you  hear this often and that's part of why we do this
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pockets is to sort of explore these you know kind  of takes that you hear on the inside but not maybe
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on CNN the cynical interpretation was they wanted  to keep locked down to crash the economy to make
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Trump look bad to get him out of the office do  you think there's anything valid to that argument
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I you know I I don't know I yeah I mean I don't  it's certainly possible I think that it's possible
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though that the left just kind of under weights  you know the economic damage of lockdowns you
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know I heard a lot of arguments about from from  the left that if you wanted to end lockdowns then
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you care more about money than lives you can't  put a price on a life which is literally what we
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do all the time like insurance health care we put  up price on life free birth but but I was never
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in favor of doing nothing I mean I you know I was  tweeting weeks ago that we should end lock downs
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but we're a mass and so my argument would be look  at Japan you do more for lives and the economy by
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having a mass policy instead of lockdowns Freiberg  what's your take on sacks estate no I don't
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disagree I mean I you know I'm not I'm not a great  expert on kind of the politics and you know I can
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kind of comment on policy I think in terms of what  I think is reasonable and not I certainly you know
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thought that the lock downs were unreasonable in  the extent but then the problem was they weren't
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followed so they were all for waste so the worst  of all the worst of all outcomes yeah but there
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wasn't all huge I liked until they actually went  into effect there wasn't a huge amount of debate
00:17:21
about theirs it was just like oh [ __ ] we better  all go into lockdown what happens this is almost
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like the human conscious and unconscious mind like  you know the conscious mind rationalizes what the
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unconscious already decided to do so everyone  freaked out everyone had a great deal of fear
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we shut everything down and then the left and the  right had their own rationalization after the fact
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you know what that meant was it good was it bad  did we overreact and we under react should we have
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done more and so I feel like the narrative told  a little bit too late here where we all kind of
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like have these commentaries about left and right  Paul it's politics after the fact and you know I
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don't think it's really meaningful to be honest  it's just almost like let's what's the windy what
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happened story with our own point of view based  on our cried for whatever we sit in so trimethyl
00:18:03
weird how do we get out of this now because the  debts are going to hangover out we're at we're up
00:18:09
the the genies out of the bottle look the reality  is there is not a single country government that
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can tolerate future lockdowns because I think the  populations will revolt and so we're going to have
00:18:24
to deal with cases as they crop up and we're gonna  have to deal with infection rates popping up and
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you know we'll have to deal with these bursty  economic landscape today Apple just announced
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you're closing a bunch of stores and a few in a  few states though I'm sure they'll reopen them
00:18:39
in a few weeks but we're gonna be in this sort  of start and stop mode now for the foreseeable
00:18:45
future but it's just not possible to ask people  now to go back into any form of quarantine or
00:18:51
shelter-in-place I just don't think they'll do  it right and people people only do lockdowns
00:18:56
until there's some activity that they they want  to engage in that they think is essential right
00:19:03
and so you saw with the protests if you believe  that the civil rights protests are essential you
00:19:08
believe that you're out of lockdown and you  know and if you want to go to a trump rally
00:19:13
you believe that's essential and you're out of  lockdown and so you know so everybody you know
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you have the case in Texas of the woman who wanted  to open her air cut salon and so you know you were
00:19:26
never gonna get good compliance with a lockdown  plan in addition to the damage and destruction
00:19:31
it caused it was never very effective because  people weren't willing to do it and I think
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the big public policy mistake here was the  politicians squandering their credibility on
00:19:43
lock down so we're never very feasible instead  of just going all in on mass and it would have
00:19:49
been a lot cheaper I've yet by the way the other  thing is we need to push mask-wearing back into a
00:19:54
public health debate and you know Newsom yesterday  gavin newsom the governor of california basically
00:20:00
said masks are not mandatory in California the  thing is you have to add fines if you don't wear
00:20:07
them where you know people can be cited and fined  and then the other thing and David you said this
00:20:12
earlier is you have to be criminally culpable  at some level if you go out of your way to not
00:20:17
wear a mask and infect somebody and there is a a  bunch of you know case law on how this can be true
00:20:25
and so I think that you know we need to we need  to solve these things because you need to have
00:20:31
good hygiene around mask wearing and what the  consequences are if you choose to not wear one
00:20:37
well you know chop it's interesting you bring  that up there was a there have been cases of
00:20:41
people purposely infecting people with the HIV  virus and going to jail for it and being liable
00:20:47
for it so there is I think and I'm different  different coughing in somebody's face versus
00:20:53
having sex with them when you know you're infected  what is the difference well that wouldn't have you
00:20:57
saw this viral video of the the Karen which is  a so many Karen's these days so many Karen's and
00:21:06
Aunt Karen just like got upset that somebody was  calling around for not wearing a mask in a cafe
00:21:11
and she literally coughed on the person I know  did you see that video how is yeah person not
00:21:15
in jail I mean it's I think that was in New York  right and I think it was New York and the woman
00:21:19
didn't know she was being filmed but oh my lord  I mean the great thing about the internet right
00:21:23
now is like if anybody basically transgresses they  are identified in about a nanosecond and I mean I
00:21:30
saw that because on sound the Saturday morning she  coughed on this person who was complaining about
00:21:36
her not wearing a mask and within 15 minutes they  had her LinkedIn they had contacted Weill Medical
00:21:43
Center where she worked and then while put out  a press release basically saying we had fired
00:21:49
her you know for being a dummy well before the  mask thing and so the whole thing now just gets
00:21:56
so adjudicated and resolved so quickly it's it's  it's incredible we basically moved to judge dredd
00:22:02
now it's like the the social media is the judge  the jury and the cops in this entire equation
00:22:08
the one that I loved actually that that really  actually frankly I look forward to was the the the
00:22:15
cyclists in Maryland I mean you know you cannot  go after kids touching another person's child and
00:22:24
and women and like attacking them for putting  up you know blacklivesmatter posters like and
00:22:32
then to attack these but then again it was the sub  community on reddit and it was amazing it was the
00:22:38
actual like Maryland subreddit who knows what's  going on in the Maryland subreddit on reddit what
00:22:45
could they be talking about but they identified  this guy and he was fired he was arrested and
00:22:50
it all happened with him you know probably 36  hours but you got you guys know in that story
00:22:55
there was another guy who was identified first  and he's my lease officer and people went after
00:23:00
him and he basically had his life ruined within  those first 24 hours and he will God yeah yeah
00:23:07
he went the guy the way they died was dystrophy a  data right like he had they found a guy on Slavia
00:23:13
who had promised whatever a guy was using stevia  the app that does for the bike people and they
00:23:22
monetize that app through subscriptions correct  don't make fun of my dyslexia your mob bully me
00:23:32
on my own podcast you say monetize on CNBC in  front of millions of people it's a label you've
00:23:38
tried to teach you how to pronounce that word for  15 years I know but I say it on purpose now and
00:23:42
I lean into it now Moni is slightly pornographic  later okay go back to your stevia story what is it
00:23:54
wait right so so so what happened is this guy got  in trouble and this is my point about the problem
00:23:58
with the groupthink hivemind approach to these  issues is you can end up not when you don't follow
00:24:03
a predefined due process and you let the mob kind  of rule over these moments bad [ __ ] can happen
00:24:09
too and so what happened what happened to the cop  the cop II like everyone started chasing him down
00:24:16
and like you know his whole life got ruined every  was like death threats and [ __ ] with him and all
00:24:20
that sort of stuff how calling his employer  calling people who no invited but they found
00:24:24
his phone number they found to address a dacha  turned upside down yeah and but basically like
00:24:28
the fact that they found out that it was someone  else doesn't resolve the fact that there are now
00:24:32
hundreds of people after this guy and they don't  pay attention that it wasn't him and you know due
00:24:37
process has a role in a civilized society where  you can actually create structure and resolve
00:24:42
these things in a proper way as opposed to letting  mob mentality kind of rule I mean otherwise you
00:24:47
know this stuff can get it pretty ugly pretty  fast as we saw as this being just a really you
00:24:51
know pretty lightweight example but I'm not sure  I'm a huge advocate of this like chase the guy
00:24:57
down and then punish him at once and cancel this  cancel culture is a little bit ugly right now you
00:25:01
don't have all the facts in this stuff in a lot  of these cases yeah there is definitely it's great
00:25:07
that you can find criminals so quickly and I'm  curious what people think and obviously you just
00:25:13
don't want to miss target somebody so there's  if you do find somebody's targeted like give
00:25:16
the information to the authorities but you may  not want to DOX them immediately and and try to
00:25:22
ruin their lives before you actually know what's  going on a lot of companies now Microsoft IBM and
00:25:27
others Amazon I think are saying we don't want to  we're going to take a pause on facial recognition
00:25:34
I'm curious what your each of your thoughts are  on law enforcement and we'll get into the law
00:25:41
enforcement discussion and race relations here in  this country and what we went through we look we
00:25:47
we have been we have been we've been arming our  police force mistakenly like our military and
00:25:54
we've been doing it for you know decades now and  it makes no sense there was this crazy tweet I saw
00:26:02
today maybe we can find a OC tweeted out where she  found this announcement from some like long tail
00:26:09
Police Department somewhere who basically got a  free armored truck carrier and you know they're
00:26:17
they're they're driving it around town or whatever  pulling it out of the garage it looks like
00:26:22
downtown Baghdad and you're like I mean they're in  like Fargo North Dakota wherever they are I mean
00:26:26
like it's just so it makes no sense I don't think  I don't think any of us thought that we wanted
00:26:31
to apportion our tax dollars to build a second  shadow army I think we all want an arm Navy and
00:26:40
Marines and an Air Force we want you know aircraft  carriers and f-16s and tanks and machine guns and
00:26:48
all that stuff but we want them with our military  and then we want cops I think to be extremely well
00:26:54
trained I mean half the time you know cops are you  know you ask them to be mental health counselors
00:26:59
other times you're asking them to be you know  CPR givers other times you're asking them to be
00:27:05
criminal apprehend errs the job is too complicated  they clearly can't do it they're poorly trained
00:27:10
and then you arm them on top of all of that and  you have this shitshow that we have today yeah
00:27:14
it's not like there's an AED waiting somewhere for  them to drive over where they need metal plating
00:27:20
on the bottom of the vehicle that's not what  they're dealing with every day at a minimum let's
00:27:24
like look I I'm a huge fan of ending qualified  immunity I think that doesn't make any sense
00:27:29
I think we have to stop arming our police like  their military don't train them like the military
00:27:35
trained them like a different kind of service  and we may need to go back to first principles to
00:27:40
figure out how to actually train them properly  to spot abuse to deal with mental health and
00:27:46
just to be you know a little bit more patient and  understanding and empathetic versus trigger-happy
00:27:51
can ask you can ask you a question on that so a  lot of the actions that police take when it comes
00:27:58
to lethal action is defended by the notion that  my life was under threat as a cop and that sources
00:28:06
from the fact that we have a Second Amendment in  this country where a lot of people are you know
00:28:10
you know gun carriers in Orlando to have arms so  our police force has had to respond with the fact
00:28:16
that there are a lot of guns in this country with  defensive principles and defensive mechanisms to
00:28:21
defend themselves against the loss of life due  to a gun and that makes the United States really
00:28:26
unique in terms of the the circumstance versus if  you look at the United Kingdom where they don't
00:28:31
have a second Amendment right to bear arms the  police aren't armed and the police behavior is
00:28:36
significantly different you can look at this in  any country where there isn't a right to bear
00:28:39
arms do we not have a fundamental problem in this  country that stems from the fact that the police
00:28:43
feel or can justify that they're always under  threat of loss of life due to arms being out
00:28:48
in the Contra I think is a fabulous question  the Contra example I would say is if look at
00:28:53
Switzerland where the per capita gun ownership is  really high Canada where per capita gun ownership
00:28:58
is really high what I would tell you is there's  a different kind of psychological training that
00:29:02
police people go through before they're put on the  streets and that is fundamentally different here
00:29:07
the job as is defined to them here is different  than it is in Canada or Switzerland where you
00:29:14
know gun ownership levels are quite robust and  I think it all comes down to incentives and the
00:29:20
reality is is that there is a to your point David  this amplification of this idea that everybody is
00:29:27
armed which i think is fundamentally mostly not  true in the day to day course of like living
00:29:33
one's life but I think police people tend to be  very amplified around that threat and as a result
00:29:40
the unions have basically written contracts that  protect their use of force the law is written in a
00:29:48
way that protects their use of force and so all of  it comes from to your point the defensive posture
00:29:54
of fear but if you actually tried to train these  people differently I think you'd have a different
00:29:59
outcome because what I can tell you is the police  in Canada do behave differently they don't reach
00:30:04
for their gun every second it's an interest  I think there's a very interesting example
00:30:09
and I know we don't want to like just take one  anecdotal incident and then you know make a big
00:30:15
sweeping generalization with it but if you look  at the gentleman in Atlanta who was shot in the
00:30:21
back twice Rasheed Brooks Rashard Rashard Brooks  Rashard Brooks this example to me is so a luxury
00:30:29
of the problem they spent 40 minutes talking with  this individual who was absolutely not a threat
00:30:38
they had frisked him they knew he was not armed  he was intoxicated he's in a drive-through of all
00:30:45
the ways you could have dealt with the situation  and I come from a family of police officers and I
00:30:52
can tell you a lot of stories about cops letting  people go obviously white people with warnings in
00:30:58
this situation letting him sleep it off taking  his keys letting him run away you know who it
00:31:03
is you have his driver's license you have his  car you have skis let him run away under what
00:31:08
circumstances would you feel justified shooting a  person when there were so many other options and I
00:31:13
it comes exactly I believe Chamath from two things  you pointed out one they're in a very defensive
00:31:19
position into the training they're trained to use  lethal force and if you're in a situation where
00:31:25
you feel threatened you just shoot that's it and  if you shoot you shoot to the center of the body
00:31:30
to kill the person and in their training they're  not trained to think how do i disarm the situation
00:31:37
defuse the situation and what are the other  options this person is obviously not a threat
00:31:42
and you knew the Taser was fired twice I'm not  saying the person should have resisted arrest I'm
00:31:46
not saying the person shouldn't have aimed that  the Taser at the person but they should be trained
00:31:51
to protect life and defuse situations at all costs  Jason like think about the incentives they should
00:31:57
have been trained maybe to just walk into the  Wendy's by this guy coffee and then drive him to
00:32:03
the motel that he said that he was staying at yes  or they should or they should have been trained to
00:32:08
just write a ticket and say listen here's a you  know here's a citation for being drunk because
00:32:13
you did technically kind of drive and I'm gonna  leave it alone they could have done many things
00:32:16
that they chose not to do because the incentive  was to you know project power in that situation
00:32:23
versus project any kind of empathy and compassion  right and and the selection of people who go into
00:32:28
the police department and I come from a family  of police officers and firefighters brother uncle
00:32:34
cousin grandfather up and down the line Irish cops  and firefighters big tradition of my family and I
00:32:43
can tell you that there is a contingent of people  who go into the police who are power-tripping or
00:32:49
maybe didn't get wherever else they wanted to be  in life and the job of seeing people in dealing
00:32:56
with the bad stuff that you pointed out you know  people in domestic domestic violence situations
00:33:02
people who are mentally ill homeless addicted  addiction problems all of that then trains these
00:33:10
peoples to see the worst in humanity and then  they just look at their job as just this dystopian
00:33:15
horrible experience and they are in that defense  of whereas we need to train people and I made this
00:33:23
tweet where we should have a new class of police  officer that is more like a Jedi Knight you know
00:33:29
they get paid twice as much they have master's  degree in social work of psychology and when that
00:33:34
call comes in for an emotionally disturbed  person a person who's intoxicated on drugs
00:33:40
a domestic violence situation you don't want to  send the average beat cop to that you want to send
00:33:45
the Jedi no but Jason make it even easier like  when you go in and again a 9-1-1 call and it's
00:33:51
you know there could be it's it's it's somebody  who's in sort of like mental distress or you're
00:33:55
gonna do a mental health check why don't you send  a really well-trained social worker absolutely and
00:34:03
the reason is why don't we have a whole you know a  whole force of social workers that we pay $100,000
00:34:09
a year absolutely and and that's what these police  officer making and there is an argument to not
00:34:15
have them armed there's an argument for them  to be armed but maybe they're so enlightened
00:34:20
and trained so well I think the training in the  United States is in the low hundreds of hours in
00:34:25
other countries it's thousands of hours I mean if  a person has a gun I think police should not get
00:34:31
their gun until they've completed maybe two or  three thousand hours on the job in other words
00:34:36
they get to their second or third year so the  first year when you're a Probie why even have a
00:34:39
gun why not just have them doing things without a  gun and then when you get that gun maybe you need
00:34:45
to have the equivalent of a master's degree you  know maybe you need to have a level of training
00:34:49
and we need to go to first principles like you're  saying trim off and rethink this whole thing in
00:34:53
any startup or any problem-solving you would  look at the show me the thousand calls how did
00:34:57
they break down what were the outcomes and if you  look at the outcomes of dealing with mentally ill
00:35:01
people or people who are addiction or domestic  disputes the outcomes are things that police are
00:35:08
not trained for that's got to be a very high  percentage of these situations let alone the
00:35:13
no-knock warrant which makes absolutely no sense  I mean I think I think there's there's just a lot
00:35:19
of look there's a lot of change coming I think  that there's a lot of legislation afoot at every
00:35:25
sort of level of government and I think the good  news is that it's going to be hard for people to
00:35:32
sit on their hands on I don't think it's going to  be universally across the country but I do think
00:35:37
that you know people will then again self select  and want to live in places where you know sort of
00:35:43
like the laws match their ideals and this is going  to be an area of tremendous reform and change you
00:35:50
know what's interesting about all of this is like  if you actually go back to the Republican ideology
00:35:54
it's interesting to me why Republicans aren't  the first ones to try to embrace rewriting you
00:36:00
know the union contracts and actually decreasing  unionized power because that's sort of like has
00:36:06
generally been 1/10 whole theme of Republican  ideology but then as it gets applied to cops I
00:36:12
think they kind of just abdicate responsibility  so there's a lot of reasons where you could have
00:36:15
bipartisan agreement on a bunch of these things  but again I think we're we're we kind of like get
00:36:21
caught up and we refuse to see the forest from the  trees and want to fix these things but I suspect
00:36:26
that a lot of these changes will happen just  because they're so bloody obvious and depending
00:36:32
on your ideology you can frame the same reason for  completely different motives and get to the same
00:36:39
answer yeah nobody nobody wants this Sachs what do  you think about the union issue as our token right
00:36:46
winger I think yeah I think I think the police  unions have too much power all the public employee
00:36:53
unions do I think you know just like the teachers  unions have thwarted school choice and education
00:36:59
reform I think we're seeing the police unions  toward a lot of sensible reforms around the use
00:37:03
of force you know I our our friend bill girl he's  been tweeting a lot of great research that around
00:37:11
police departments that are unionized there's a  lot more complaints against them there's a lot
00:37:16
more examples of the use of force and unwarranted  use of force and so clearly there's a connection
00:37:23
here between police unions and the forwarding of  common-sense reforms and I saw someone someone
00:37:31
tweeted this idea that you know the reason I  know is taking on the police unions is because
00:37:35
the Republicans see the word police and Democrats  see the word union and they're both fans of those
00:37:40
things and so who's who's gonna take them on yeah  I mean and teachers unions is the same thing and
00:37:47
the political system the political power of the  unions is so entrenched that in order to get in
00:37:54
office for in most cases you're going to need to  have the support of those unions and if you don't
00:37:59
they're going to tell people to explicitly not  to vote for you yeah I mean well well look I mean
00:38:03
you look at the cities that have had the biggest  problems here I mean starting with Minneapolis and
00:38:08
these are Democrat controlled cities these are  not you know Republican controlled cities and
00:38:13
the politicians are very much you know in cahoots  with the big Union the unions there including the
00:38:21
police and the teachers unions of all that and so  you know both parties need to to be open to reform
00:38:27
to your point David there's a there's a story that  came out last or last couple of days about the DA
00:38:35
in Atlanta who pressed charges against the two  officers but the narrative was about how the DA
00:38:42
is being investigated for getting a hundred  and forty K in kickbacks from a non-profit
00:38:47
tied to something and then he was claiming that  his main opponent who's right who could could
00:38:54
because these you know district attorneys are  politically elected officials right where she
00:38:59
had basically done a side deal with the police  to not to not go after you know use of force in
00:39:06
return for their endorsement and you know what  a what a horribly messy like complicated growth
00:39:12
situation irrespective of whoever turns out to  be right there so to your point they've become
00:39:17
so entrenched and it's just so low level that then  you know what should be obvious justice basically
00:39:24
just gets thrown away for what's expedient and  convenient yeah well you know this is another
00:39:29
example where like like with the mass I felt  like there were you know I wasn't violating
00:39:37
conservative principles I thought there really  was a conservative principle I think with you know
00:39:40
with with this example of the overuse of force by  police you go back to what Lord Acton said which
00:39:46
is power corrupts and absolute power corrupts  absolutely if there's no one standing up to
00:39:51
the police unions politically they have absolute  power and that's going to lead to corruption so I
00:39:57
do think like Republicans should be looking  into this now I think part of the reason
00:40:01
and why Republicans want to defend the police's  because we've also had these examples of looting
00:40:06
and rioting and lawlessness you know after the the  civil rights protests and I think that again we're
00:40:14
kind of dividing up and into sides and there's  too much justification of bad behavior on both
00:40:21
sides because of what the other side is doing you  know and I heard people on the Left justifying the
00:40:28
the looting and rioting on the grounds that you  know it was a legitimate expression of you know
00:40:34
opposition is a legitimate protest as a legitimate  expression of opposition to to the police violence
00:40:39
and I think that that is wrong and I think it's  wrong for people on the right to defend this
00:40:45
police the successive use of force by police on  the grounds that somehow it's justified because we
00:40:51
need to control the lawlessness and the rioting  and you know I think both are wrong and and we
00:40:57
lack a federal leadership to not make this overly  political but when Trump then tear gases with the
00:41:05
military protesters to go to a photo opportunity  you know it's sending the message that he want
00:41:11
and he wants to be the law and order president  now you're just charging things up instead of
00:41:16
just going on TV and just saying something to  bring people back to the concept that we're all
00:41:23
Americans we're all in this together and we rise  and fall together it's such an easy statement
00:41:27
listen the protesters have valid concerns we need  to work on this issue and yes if you see people
00:41:33
doing any vandalism you have we have to stop them  please make sure that doesn't happen because it
00:41:38
it works against the very valid criticism and  protests that are going on that need to go on
00:41:46
and in the fact that the president can't say that  is crazy well what do you guys think about what he
00:41:51
has been saying and how Twitter and Facebook have  basically taken different sides of Freiberg go
00:41:56
ahead where Trump's been saying yeah should food  should Twitter be censoring him / putting warnings
00:42:02
on his posts when he's like crazy I think so yeah  look I mean it's such a slippery slope and there's
00:42:08
too much room for interpretation I'm just saying  the obvious but you know if you're a platform
00:42:13
you're a platform you you let the things get built  on top of you sure you can have some some rules
00:42:18
around what can be built but as soon as you start  you know saying what is true and what is not true
00:42:25
and you become the arbiter of truth you're no  longer an agnostic platform and I think that you
00:42:32
know that is a big dangerous risk to take because  as you guys know something maybe and I think we
00:42:38
saw this with the what's that Twitter accounts  euro hedge was the pinnacle hedge they got an and
00:42:44
then they came back because it turns out what they  said wasn't necessarily as untrue with Twitter at
00:42:49
first thought that they were saying was untrue so  you know it was a great example of how you know a
00:42:54
point of interpretation can very quickly kind of  reverse course and you can look extremely biased
00:43:01
in making that decision at that time when the  YouTube took Susan Wojcicki took the what Jackie
00:43:07
took the position at YouTube that we're going to  allow people to talk about coronavirus if what
00:43:12
they're saying is in sync with the World Health  Organization yeah and by the way the World Health
00:43:17
Organization I've had an issue with since well  before Co vyd just from another life they I won't
00:43:24
get into it but they've said some stuff publicly  that was just flat-out [ __ ] wrong scientifically
00:43:29
and invalid and it was politicized and we we kind  of got to the root of the political driver behind
00:43:34
it so I've long held kind of disbelief in the  World Health Organization as a trusted source of
00:43:39
scientific fact and to Sax's previous point you  want to be able to check power and if the World
00:43:48
Health Organization is this incredibly powerful  organization who got it wrong with masks and
00:43:52
didn't even you know like David Sachs is getting  it right some venture capitalist in the Bay Area
00:43:57
gets it right about mask in the World Health  Organization gets it wrong well he's in Mexico but
00:44:01
yeah undisclosed location but okay Sachs should  they should they be putting labels and warnings
00:44:13
on politicians when they say things that are  consensus wrong yeah I mean call me old-fashioned
00:44:20
but I'm very much in favor of free speech and I'm  against censorship and you know fact-checking your
00:44:28
politicians you don't like is is a is basically  bias it's soft censorship I mean they're being
00:44:35
very selective in who they decide to fact-check  and you know there's no good way to do it right I
00:44:41
mean there is no truth API that they can just plug  in to fact-check people the way that you deal with
00:44:46
with bad speech is more speech I think it's a line  from Justice Brandeis that is the way historically
00:44:52
that we have in this country that we've dealt with  speech by people we don't like which is you have
00:44:57
more speech and and I I don't think censorship or  warnings is the right way to go mouth what do you
00:45:04
think having worked at Facebook okay I think it  exposes a couple things one is that the Twitter
00:45:10
product is is still relatively brittle I mean like  at least Facebook has a whole suite of emoticons
00:45:16
to say something is a crock of [ __ ] you know and  it makes you feel bad or you know makes you feel
00:45:22
angry or thumbs down or whatever and so Twitter's  reactionary feedback mechanism to its algorithms
00:45:29
is very brittle and so if you were gonna try to  algorithmically tune down the distribution of you
00:45:34
know a trump tweet you know you could see where  you could balance thumbs up or hearts in this case
00:45:40
with other ways of signaling that this is either  wrong or hate-filled or you know instigating and
00:45:48
and I think like a little bit more self policing  is probably the only scalable solution all of that
00:45:55
said here's what I will say I think basically  that Facebook is is becoming Middle America and
00:46:00
Twitter is becoming sort of the coasts and you  know Facebook is basically a product of Middle
00:46:08
America plus kind of like countries outside the  United States and fit you know Twitter's about you
00:46:13
know rich coastal kind of people and you can see  that the way that the content ABB's inflows and
00:46:20
you know the kind of content problems like just  for an example you know what is what is Twitter's
00:46:25
latest content problem it was that Donald Trump  tweeted a video from CNN that was doctored you
00:46:32
know and it and it only showed a clip of a you  know a black toddler running away from a white
00:46:36
toddler and the caption was you know the chyron  said something about racism it turned out to not
00:46:41
be wrong blah blah blah what is Facebook's issue  two days ago it was that you know the Boogaloo
00:46:46
movement which is you know a bunch of people who  believe in the militia and an impending Civil War
00:46:51
principally use Facebook and Facebook groups  to organize and they found out that they were
00:46:56
distributing and you know driving you know viewers  and usage and content so it just kind of tells you
00:47:03
like and if you break down the issues and you know  there's a there's a couple of people who tweet out
00:47:08
the most popular tweets on Twitter versus the  most popular content on Facebook what you see is
00:47:14
the left and right distribution and so I think  that the audiences are segregating themselves
00:47:19
into into into using products that basically feed  them what they want to hear well let me ask you a
00:47:25
question about the leadership we you work directly  with Zuckerberg for many years and we all know
00:47:31
jack from Twitter from various projects what is  Zuckerberg politics is he a secret trump supporter
00:47:42
is just Peter Thiel who's on the board and your  good friends would Peter Taylor and worked with
00:47:46
Peter Thiel Sachs I'm curious what you think goes  on inside the brain of Mark Zuckerberg in terms of
00:47:54
making these decisions is he scared that Facebook  has become dependent on the right and is that true
00:48:01
moth that it is a right thing and is he right or  left what is his politics I don't think that's the
00:48:07
right framing I think that if you're running a big  Network like this you have to remember the you you
00:48:13
know you're one of the five or six most valuable  companies in the world you yourself have you know
00:48:18
50 60 70 billion dollars basically the world is  your oyster and what you've seen over the last
00:48:24
five or six years is that there is an increasing  regulatory headwind and if you basically play the
00:48:31
game theory out you know these companies are gonna  get regulated and they're gonna get over tax and
00:48:37
they're gonna get kind of slowed down at a minimum  and broken up at the maximum and so if you're
00:48:41
running one of these companies I think the only  thing you can do is hold on and so if you're gonna
00:48:46
hold on there's no point in making any of these  changes because it minimized the amount of cash
00:48:50
you can make in the amount of you know support  you'll have so you might as well pick a side SF
00:48:55
effectively by doing nothing and waiting and I and  I and I think that's that's largely what all these
00:49:02
guys have decided to do they've essentially said  we're not gonna sort of take a side here well no
00:49:08
Twitter has taken a side Twitter because they're  small enough they can survive they're not going to
00:49:12
get broken up but if you're one of the top four  or five look at the position they've taken the
00:49:17
position they've taken is we have no position  that's Facebook's position we have no position
00:49:21
we're not gonna police adds no hold on it's also  Google's it's also Microsoft it's also apples and
00:49:27
it's also Amazon's and in fairness to Facebook all  big five tech companies have said our position is
00:49:32
no position and the reason is because that's  the only thing they can do to keep that market
00:49:36
cap and to hold on to the economic vibrancy of  their businesses for longer sex why did Twitter
00:49:43
and Jack actually take a position because this  cannot happen if jack is not a hundred percent
00:49:47
supportive of it he is the driver of it and the  person who okay's it and then what do you think
00:49:52
Zuckerberg bought didn't want to answer this but  I want you to try to answer it what is Zuckerberg
00:49:59
relationship with Peter TL and his thinking on  a political basis in your mind without you know
00:50:04
giving up your relationship with Peter about what  is his politics and and what is their relationship
00:50:09
well I I don't know exactly what sucks politics  are and or not even exactly I have no idea what
00:50:15
his politics are not remotely and I do remember  the time when Peter supported Trump during the
00:50:21
election and the rest of the board wanted to  run him off the board so clearly it's not like
00:50:25
I highly doubt Facebook as a bastion of right-wing  thinking but why would Zuckerberg keep him on the
00:50:31
board then in defiance of everybody else who hates  him maybe he simply believes that supporting the
00:50:38
Republican candidate and a presidential election  is not grounds for removal from a board maybe he
00:50:42
simply is not that intolerant I think I mean I'm  gonna actually go out on a limb here and defend
00:50:48
Zuckerberg a little bit which is my impression  of what Zuckerberg is trying to do is simply
00:50:54
maintain Facebook as a speech platform and you  know if you're gonna be a speech platform you're
00:50:59
going to be caught in the crosshairs of all these  very controversial debates and you know people
00:51:06
are gonna publish things that other people hate  in fact even that the majority hates but isn't
00:51:11
that the type of speech that the ACLU historically  defended you know it feels to me like there's been
00:51:16
a rise mainly on the left in terms of intolerance  for speech they don't like that they consider to
00:51:24
be 100 it sufficiently what yeah you saw that with  the New York Times newsroom I think you tweeted a
00:51:31
tweet storm from an opinion writer there is around  the the Tom cotton editorial which you know it's
00:51:36
not like I agreed with it but they kind of had  a they basically fire the opinion page editor
00:51:41
because they realized they published and by the  way sorry just to build on your point the title
00:51:46
which wasn't even written by Tom cotton was I  would say an order of magnitude worse than the
00:51:52
article if you read the whole article right but  the title was really offensive wasn't even written
00:51:58
by them who's written I think by the editor that  got fired but the article itself was kind of bad
00:52:03
but not nearly as bad as the title would she do  this because Freiberg twenty years ago when we
00:52:08
were all as Gen Xers coming up we were taught to  defend freedom of speech this is a core tenant
00:52:13
of a vibrant democracy and that you need to be  able to read unpopular opinions in fact the KKK
00:52:21
needs to be able to march down Main Street and  we need to protect that ugly speech in order
00:52:27
for everybody else to have it and here we have a  you know an editorial which obviously none of us
00:52:31
agree with is is is this an existential threat to  America that we are now going to say freedom of
00:52:40
speech is not a core tenant of the of the American  experiment I'm just looking for the term that was
00:52:47
used but what's the other New York Times opinion  writer I forgot her name static maybe you'll help
00:52:52
me but she talks about like a comfort culture  or so basically we used to pride ourselves on
00:52:59
a culture that enabled freedom of speech and and  and that was that was cherished and heralded and
00:53:06
what is cherished and heralded now is a culture  that protects people from hearing offensive and
00:53:14
scary things that they don't want to hear and  that shift you know those of us who are Gen
00:53:20
X which I think I am out born in 1980 into the  Millennial gems II and beyond kind of generation
00:53:27
has occurred and it is fundamentally changing the  the nature of how we find truth and how we find
00:53:35
you know coalesce around decisions as a society  and we're excluding the things that are offensive
00:53:42
and it's a little bit scary to think about from  my point of view that you know we can't explore
00:53:46
all options we can't hear all dissenting points of  view this is certainly a very deep argument about
00:53:53
how our society and our democracy operates but it  is happening and so the point was like we are we
00:54:00
are starting to shift towards valuing comfort  over over freedom of expression and and that's
00:54:06
that's just kind of the big the big change that's  occurring and look we do live in a democracy so
00:54:13
the votes are going to be what ultimately decides  what happens here votes in terms of who's using
00:54:18
Facebook versus Twitter and votes in terms of  who's voting for what presidential candidate and
00:54:23
what governor and what mayor and so we'll see you  know it's it's it's it's it's a it's a sea change
00:54:31
in how this democracy operate yeah I think it's a  sea change going back very far because the the the
00:54:37
whole principle of the Enlightenment going back  hundreds of years was stated by Voltaire which is
00:54:42
that I may disagree with what you have to say but  I'll defend to the death your right to say it who
00:54:47
today is willing to do that I mean that was the  the idea that led to political liberalisation in
00:54:54
the West it's really a unique feature of Western  democracies and liberalism you go to anywhere
00:55:02
else in the world I guarantee you people aren't  defending to the death your right to say things
00:55:08
they disagree with I don't think they're you know  I don't think she's you're paying a recruit and
00:55:12
is defending your right to hear things that  they don't want you to so you know this is
00:55:17
a very foundational part of of American and you  know Western political liberalism and it's being
00:55:25
challenged now and I think you know we should have  more self confidence in our ideas to worry so much
00:55:32
about Donald Trump's tweets which are ephemeral  be forgotten very soon that we're willing to
00:55:38
throw out freedom of speech well yeah I mean this  is the thing I don't understand about labeling
00:55:43
his tweets is you know I mean it's anybody not  think that this guy is hopped up on adderall or
00:55:50
a complete [ __ ] like or any of those things  like we all know he's an idiot who just tweets
00:55:54
50 times a day and he's too scared you know that  he's not gonna win his you know reelection and
00:55:59
that he's a real he's a little a reality store  so who do you mean by when you say we we all cuz
00:56:05
it's a different way that I think you're saying  that I think other people would be saying yeah
00:56:09
but we represent right I mean that's I think the  generational divide here is I don't know if it's
00:56:15
generational I think there's a lot of dimensions  across which these differences of perspective
00:56:19
occur and I've said this for amongst our group for  a long time but there's a huge difference between
00:56:23
a rural population and urban population in the  United States in terms of what their priorities
00:56:29
are and I think that difference in priorities  is unconscious and that's where things really
00:56:33
resonate that Trump says and that really moved  the needle for a lot of folks the priority of
00:56:39
civil rights is not as it might be an urban center  is not a priority in a rural center and in a rural
00:56:45
population there's a different priority Trump no  matter what how he says it the things he's saying
00:56:51
are different than what I'm tearing from the urban  population which is where the media comes from and
00:56:55
so on and so forth and so Trump resonates with  me I don't care if he sounds a little bit wacky
00:57:00
I need wacky cuz it needs to be different then  than standard and it's just there's a lot of
00:57:05
divides here and a lot of dimensions across yeah I  think I think that we absolutely should not throw
00:57:13
the baby out with the bathwater we should never  attack this very basic principle of free speech
00:57:18
because we will never forgive ourselves if we  do but then this is why I think we come back
00:57:24
to we should be a little bit more resilient to  build products and services that allow a little
00:57:36
bit more texture in the discussion so that you  actually can have free speech floor more in a
00:57:46
more transparent way so David to your point you  know how do you drown out you know hate speech
00:57:51
it's with more speech well these products don't  necessarily even enable that and so I do think
00:57:56
that we have this you know sort of an issue where  the products and services that billions of people
00:58:01
use to consume their information and construct a  worldview today they neither will allow things to
00:58:09
be flagged nor will they increment the feature  surface area so that you can actually have so
00:58:15
then that's why I think people then get into this  place where everybody feels cornered and nobody
00:58:22
likes what's happening and so I think that's kind  of what we're in I think that if we had a little
00:58:27
bit more ingenuity and thinking by the folks at  you know Twitter and Facebook it would go a long
00:58:32
long way yeah I do think there's something I mean  the conundrum of Twitter is simultaneously it's
00:58:40
the main way I get my news information but I also  see it as a huge source of groupthink and kind of
00:58:47
mob mentality and so you you know the more time  you spend on Twitter I mean I see a lot people
00:58:52
saying the more unhappy they are and so you do  wonder whether it's making you more informed or
00:58:57
whether it's just making you buy into some sort  of mass psychosis well it could be you could
00:59:02
becoming more informed and you could be going into  a psychosis which we have a lot of friends who are
00:59:07
high-profile who like their behavior on Twitter  is a separate thing than who they actually are
00:59:14
right like they just lose their [ __ ] on Twitter  and you know they the the is really a very strange
00:59:21
place to be sure can we talk by the way could we  just talk about this Bolton book I mean what the
00:59:31
[ __ ] I mean he he did ask you jimping to help  him win the election and he bartered buy soybeans
00:59:37
to help me win the election I mean this is insane  I think I think we need to we need to first of
00:59:46
all you always got a look at the source here so  I don't know how somebody commentator who's as
00:59:51
far right as you could go well who was picked by  Trump himself well he was a very weird choice for
00:59:58
Trump because one of the main reasons why Trump  won the Republican nomination as he promised
01:00:03
no more bushes meaning an end to these crazy vo  neocon wars of intervention and this guy bolton
01:00:11
like he's right out of that playbook yeah yeah  he's the like Hawk of hawks there's not a war
01:00:16
he doesn't want to get us into he wanted to get  us into our war with Iran they never made any
01:00:21
sense for Trump to hire them in the first place  so do you know why he hired him I stated in the
01:00:25
book I've heard I've heard the explanation that he  liked I think he said something like when when he
01:00:30
sends Bolton into a room he likes it he like he  thinks it strengthens this negotiating position
01:00:35
because the other side thinks that they were about  us is about to invade or something when born and
01:00:40
it's also Trump was like I love hearing you talk  eh just like FoxNews like that's the quote is so
01:00:46
he literally picks people base I mean and he  picked Ludlow right for his you know he picks
01:00:54
them based on being TV personalities I just think  this Bolton guy is like you know this is crazy
01:01:01
war hawk who also is this kind of like a weasel  and I don't know how he creates a 500 page book
01:01:08
out of spending 17 months in the White House  I guess he's writing down every I'm surprised
01:01:13
it's not five thousand yes that should be like  tokens Lord of the Rings trilogy I'm gonna put
01:01:19
this other if he can produce the note that Pompeo  gave him that said Trump is so full of [ __ ] that
01:01:26
thing at auction I'm telling you now what do you  each bid for it five hundred thousand dollars at
01:01:32
least five hundred thousand if that note actually  exists and he has it oh it's not I mean it's it's
01:01:38
but I just think to me first of all it's a  little ludicrous that this guy he is a bit
01:01:43
of a weasel because like where were you during the  impeachment a he made an economic calculation that
01:01:47
his book was more important than the future of the  country so first of all you know kind of go [ __ ]
01:01:52
go [ __ ] yourself to that but the the other thing  though is that you know be beyond his sort of like
01:01:58
character flaws it's just the story after story  after story it's just kind of from the bizarre to
01:02:06
be absurd like Finland's a part of Russia England  doesn't have nuclear weapons please buy so you you
01:02:12
are part of me you are part of the nuclear powers  UK really the United Kingdom has nukes Wow what
01:02:20
if India gets um it but every every one of these  insider tell-all books always makes the you know
01:02:25
always makes the president look bad I mean it's  not it's not a hard task was there anything though
01:02:30
that was surprising to anyone the XI Jingping  enough blockbuster vision thinking did catch me
01:02:35
off guard that he was that brazen and kind of sad  it's alright you I mean like like the fact that it
01:02:41
was said but like the motivation the attention no  to your point Mike my expectations are so low it's
01:02:49
it's like teaching a kid to poop in the toilet for  the first time you know as long as it doesn't poop
01:02:56
on the floor even if he does it in his diaper  you know everything looks like success as long
01:03:00
as there is just not raw feces on my hardwood if  he if he sat on the potty its success its success
01:03:08
even if the pants weren't pulled down if he poops  his pants everybody tell me about tell me about I
01:03:14
just want to switch topics tell me about vaccines  because it seems to me that there's like a growing
01:03:19
Court of people and I'm not gonna put moderna in  this camp but like maybe they did that were very
01:03:26
opportunistically out there generating a ton of  PR but what if you had to pick a time and a time
01:03:33
frame and then a manufacturing time frame can you  just tell me what was the over-under so we commit
01:03:39
we can bet aligned on it so there's gonna I think  there's gonna be a staged release of vaccines
01:03:44
that'll probably believe it or not starting q4  of this year and there's been production ramped
01:03:51
up going on in parallel to testing so you know to  get these vaccines produced whether you're talking
01:03:57
about the MRNA vaccine or you're talking about  the viral vaccine like they did in China which
01:04:02
they actually do have in production there's a  bunch of different challenges with scaling up
01:04:08
and ramping production and then you know what's  called downstream processing and filtering and
01:04:12
then packaging and all this stuff anyway it's a  it's a big [ __ ] exercise so what's gone on is
01:04:18
there's been a parallel effort to actually  scale up production of these things before
01:04:23
we've actually completed the testing them to make  sure that they're safe and efficacious and as a
01:04:28
result and some of this came out of that first  or second stimulus bill some of it came from
01:04:32
private funding and then other governments are  just straight up paying for it and so there are
01:04:37
a number of facilities that are actually ramping  production right now if they don't worry if the
01:04:41
vaccines ultimately don't pass muster just gonna  be a write-off of a couple billion dollars and
01:04:46
so theoretically we could have doses that are  available for distribution to healthcare workers
01:04:50
and frontline people in queue for this year's is  what I would kind of set the over-under at but do
01:04:55
you know do these vaccines are like flu vaccines  which is like fifty sixty percent effective at
01:05:00
best um yeah I don't really know the answer to  that I would say that these things are probably
01:05:07
pretty effective I would say the flu vaccine is  just a high rate of mutation and also a low rate
01:05:13
of utilization and a high rate of infection  so we're gonna have a lower rate of infection
01:05:16
probably a more moderate rate of mutation as  a result and so we should be more in control
01:05:22
if we get something that works with the current  strains and the way that this this SARS Coby to
01:05:29
the most of the vaccines are Deltora the seven  I think major targets around the spike protein
01:05:36
and in different epitopes across the spike protein  and so you know your if you see a great degree of
01:05:42
mutation across that protein it's likely going to  be less infected infective and less effective as
01:05:47
of that as a virus and so it'll go away and so  I think that we've got a really good shot here
01:05:52
what what are the odds that somebody politicizes  the vaccine and America doesn't get it doesn't get
01:06:01
it Oh place is a 100% yeah yeah I mean look we  politicize [ __ ] Meisel 30% of people of kids
01:06:07
now aren't getting vaccinated for measles which  is crazy another's measles outbreaks happening
01:06:11
in the US which is just you know mind-boggling  so that's just happening in Marin where you are
01:06:15
yeah that's it easy the highest percentage of  graduate degrees in the country yeah no but I
01:06:25
mean it's it's inevitable 'ti that they get SARS  but David like how does how does the distribution
01:06:29
of these vaccines work meaning like let's just  let's just say that it's like Sanofi for example
01:06:35
because I saw that the French government made a  large investment and the Germans did as well to
01:06:39
essentially like onshore a bunch of their you know  companies who had promising vaccine candidates and
01:06:48
so if you assume that there's a distribution of  these vaccines let's just say the most efficacious
01:06:51
ones in China are they just gonna dole this out  to whoever's willing to buy it or they're gonna
01:06:56
decide on a political basis how to basically give  these and then when they come to the United States
01:07:00
how do we know that it comes to Texas before it  comes to Wyoming versus California versus New
01:07:05
York so I think the ones that are getting federal  support which all of them are pretty much at this
01:07:10
point are you know going to be federally mandated  in terms of distribution and it's probably some
01:07:15
commercial agreement that none of us have seen in  terms of like what that looks like so chocolate
01:07:20
into the swing states where he's behind is what  you're saying well I think this I think it'll
01:07:24
probably be delegated down to Health and Human  Services what are the chances that there's a
01:07:28
trump logo on the side of the your Trump vaccine  there's a Trump vaccine to save your life okay is
01:07:35
a good point for us to kind of wrap around the  horn choo moth and I think a lot of people were
01:07:40
convinced that Trump was gonna sail into office  now everything is showing you Fox News poll CNBC
01:07:48
polls SurveyMonkey polls that Trump is very far  behind especially in the swing states what are
01:07:55
the chances Trump wins the election sacks I think  he's well I think kovetz really hurt him because
01:08:04
the sort of feather in his cap the thing it really  I going for him was the economy that's been hurt
01:08:09
but it's coming back you know the situation could  look very different six months from now right
01:08:14
now it looks pretty bleak because I do think that  his reaction to the the crisis was seen as a very
01:08:20
inflammatory but I think six months from now could  be arriving a story five months so so you don't
01:08:26
think he's gonna win right now but you're today if  the election were today he would lose but you know
01:08:34
the economy we're seeing a v-shaped recovery which  i think is surprising all of us and if that holds
01:08:40
up and we get past the civil unrest that we've had  and you know peace offspring's so inflammatory on
01:08:48
those issues i think that you know the situation  could look very different in five months you got
01:08:52
to remember the other thing which is Biden at  some point is going to have to enter it to some
01:08:57
presidential debates and you know doesn't know if  he's gonna be there what you're saying cognitively
01:09:03
yeah I mean that's to talk about but you actually  think there's a cognitive issue yes or no probably
01:09:09
yeah it's uncomfortable to say for some reason  yeah but it's I mean at a minimum look I there's
01:09:16
a problem with the way he speaks I don't know  if there's a which is indicative of a problem
01:09:21
with the way he thinks but you know like when  if they're on stage for two hours in the debate
01:09:26
I think we're gonna find out really quick and I  and I think those debates are pretty unavoidable
01:09:31
I don't think Bynes can go to figure out a way to  get out of it so you know I think a lot of people
01:09:36
think that he can just be propped up by a staff  and they can to some extent but I think at some
01:09:42
point you know we're gonna have to take a look at  your Biden shabbath Trump wins Trump loses right
01:09:52
now it's sort of 75 25 he loses okay I think  that's gonna get closer to 55 45 as the date
01:10:01
comes close I think it actually comes down to  two issues number one is who does Biden pick as
01:10:08
a running mate and can you lock up the the swing  states with that running mate and number two which
01:10:18
i think is probably going to play an enormous role  if if the community organizing that saw the black
01:10:25
lives matter movement get to this next level is  avoiding and preventing voter suppression you
01:10:34
know LeBron I think is about to start an enormous  campaign with a lot of very well-heeled well-known
01:10:40
celebrities to get out the vote but if there's  a concerted effort to prevent voter suppression
01:10:46
and get young people and people of color to the  polls it's a Biden landslide but now we've gone
01:10:55
from a trump landslide just six months ago in all  of our minds to a Biden landslide Freiburg where
01:11:01
are you at I still think Chrome's gonna win I'd  say 70% chance Trump wins and I'll tell you why
01:11:08
I think there's still there's not going to be  structural improvement between now and November
01:11:14
for the majority of people that voted for Trump  in the last election there are going to be a large
01:11:21
number of people in blue-collar and rural areas  that remain challenged with their life and feel
01:11:28
like they're missing out and they're missing and  and this may even be true in inner-city districts
01:11:33
but but the big kind of flip vote in the rural  and blue-collar areas is gonna say I still need
01:11:39
change I need things fixed and Trump is the agent  of change Biden he has always been the agent of
01:11:45
change and I'll tell you the other things that  he's also a master of he's laying blame and so
01:11:50
Trump is incredible at pointing a finger at some  third party and saying that's the enemy I'm the
01:11:55
guy who's gonna go defeat him for a year and I  think that's what won in the election last time
01:11:59
and I think it could win it might be elected  again this time no matter what [ __ ] happens
01:12:03
between now and November he will find a way  to make the story about how some third party
01:12:08
or some process or some deep state it's still  responsible for that outcome that's keeping you
01:12:13
down mr. blue-collar factory worker and I will  be the person to vanquish that problem Biden is
01:12:19
the old state he's the old guard he's the guy  from before and we haven't changed anything in
01:12:24
the last four years where people feel happy and  secure about their lives I think to Sax's point
01:12:28
if the economy was even stronger it may hurt  Trump's chances sure a lot of folks might say
01:12:34
great Trump's responsible let's give them a thumbs  up but the more people are feeling pain the more
01:12:39
they're looking for an agent of change and I  think scrumpy against Biden is still gonna be
01:12:43
that agent it makes me the deciding either tie or  swing vote I believe Biden wins I believe Trump
01:12:50
is absolutely lost his ability to win this because  he made two critical errors two saxes very astute
01:12:59
point he just complete blunder on wearing masks  and leadership during kovat and complete blunder
01:13:05
in terms of dealing with the social unrest which  he could have acted as an reconciliation agent
01:13:10
and he's his own worst enemy and couldn't do  those two very simple things I think Biden
01:13:14
wins big if he takes the following strategy  which I will call the Avenger strategy which
01:13:20
is it's not just about him he gets an incredible  running mate to Tremont's point but not only that
01:13:26
he pre announces his cabinet Avenger style and  they start hosting hala Cuomo in New York daily
01:13:35
briefings where they talk about what the country  needs to do with a brain trust in a round table
01:13:41
with five or six people pre-selected so you're not  voting for Biden who might have cognitive issues
01:13:48
and Sachs is correct he could fumble under Trump's  greatest strength which is demolishing people in
01:13:56
debates which we ourselves all watched we watched  Hillary get absolutely beat up in those debates
01:14:03
and that was our I remember those nights when we  were watching about your house cometh and we our
01:14:07
eyes opened right up like holy cow Hillary's in  trouble here he's just really good at this type of
01:14:14
maniac boxing that he does with little mark Rubio  and everybody else here nightly but if he picks
01:14:21
the right VP candidate and I want to know as we  close here who is the VP candidate that you think
01:14:27
he should pick Amy Klobuchar are just bowed out  and said a woman is not enough you need to have
01:14:34
a black woman so Chamath who is the ideal running  mate Sachs who scares you the most since you know
01:14:42
the GOP is gonna lose this time around who's the  scariest for you and Freiberg who do you think you
01:14:47
should pick give it some thought or you do not  have a consensus choice I'll leave my statement
01:14:53
to the end okay sack C poop you know like this and  pick somebody you want him to pick cause it helps
01:14:59
him lose well III don't know the the backbencher  Democrat politicians well enough to say exactly I
01:15:05
don't have a pick I would just say I would really  like for him to pick a great crisis manager an
01:15:10
operator somebody who's been there somebody  who's been tested in a crisis because there's
01:15:15
a very high chance that this VP pick will become  the president given Biden's age and everything
01:15:21
going on in the world and we've just seen crisis  after crisis this year I think there's gonna be
01:15:26
more shoes to drop and this person that we don't  even know yet could very easily be the president
01:15:31
itíd states in the next two years so I just hope  you pick someone who is good at handling a crisis
01:15:35
okay so that would mean Oprah perhaps God you just  pick my five is that really her picture oh yeah
01:15:44
yeah Oprah Winfrey I mean she would be she would  be incredible oh my god what a wild every state
01:15:54
oh she's incredible Oprah Winfrey for the win I  mean if you're gonna pick somebody Biden Winfrey
01:16:02
it's got a red got so many dunks a slam dunk I'm  sorry better than Michelle Obama a.m. dunk better
01:16:07
than Michelle Obama slam dunk I'm gonna email  blinken and Evan Ryan right now Oprah Winfrey
01:16:14
okay Freiberg you have a better candidate who's  your choice provider III don't have I don't have a
01:16:19
choice I mean I'm not gonna make a choice here but  I I think the challenge he's gonna face is finding
01:16:25
a black woman who can appeal to the blue-collar  and rural vote in these areas where he needs to
01:16:29
kind of win some win some folks over and so he's  going to end up in these urban districts like the
01:16:35
Atlanta mayor or like Kamala Harris and they're  they're not gonna they're not gonna bring that
01:16:41
vote so he isn't a little bit of a pickle here  because the Amy Klobuchar hour helped him bridge
01:16:46
the rural divide but you know he's got a he's got  a I do I named this there's gonna be a bit of a
01:16:52
search here the idea of going with Oprah because  it just becomes she is such a reconciler now it
01:17:02
doesn't fit the execution in a crisis to Sax's  desire and I had actually just build a bigger
01:17:09
business Trump I mean what do you but that is what  is about to get to is I think she's so successful
01:17:13
and she's such a great leader and so charismatic  she would bring in better operators than Trump and
01:17:21
pence ever could I mean look at the shitshow of  people who came in and out of the cabinet it was
01:17:25
one goofball an incompetent [ __ ] after another  sorry to get a little frisky here at the end but I
01:17:32
feel like we're at the poker game Trump's cabinet  was in an embarrassment almost universally correct
01:17:38
sacks well look I here's the problem with Oprah or  if you want you know any other Hollywood celebrity
01:17:46
a George Clooney or what have you they're just  they're not used to getting beat up the way that
01:17:51
politicians in our country get beat up you know  they're used to having people catering to them
01:17:55
they're used to having the star trailer and the  star treatment and you know they tend to have
01:18:00
a glass jaw and politics Pacifica's never been  put in an environment where there's constantly
01:18:03
assaulted Trump I mean was a celebrity but he was  used to he kind of grew up in that whole New York
01:18:10
tabloid environment and was used to punching and  Counting embraced it in fact he was his own fake
01:18:16
PR person he was ruling the post yeah it's you  know said old saying about you know wrestling
01:18:21
with a pig you know everyone gets dirty but the  pig likes it I mean Trump is kind of like the
01:18:25
pig who likes it you know mostly celebrities don't  like having to get beat up you know they're used
01:18:31
to being very popular and and that's why they  tend to be I think tough picks politically is
01:18:38
they don't they tend to have a glass jaw all  right on that like free Biden winfrey love
01:18:44
you let's play poker outside we'll see you  all next time on the all end podcast bye-bye

Episode Highlights

  • The Risks We Take
    As restrictions ease, the hosts discuss their personal risk profiles and social behaviors.
    “I've adjusted my risk profile quite a bit.”
    @ 01m 51s
    June 20, 2020
  • Outdoor Activities and Safety
    The conversation shifts to the safety of outdoor activities compared to indoor settings.
    “Outdoor activity to me is like pretty reasonable to do.”
    @ 05m 08s
    June 20, 2020
  • The Politics of Masks
    The hosts debate the politicization of mask-wearing and its implications for public health.
    “It's just a really common sense easy solution.”
    @ 11m 40s
    June 20, 2020
  • The Dangers of Groupthink
    Exploring how mob mentality can ruin lives without due process.
    “Bad [ __ ] can happen when you let the mob rule.”
    @ 24m 03s
    June 20, 2020
  • Reforming Police Training
    A call for better training for police officers to handle complex situations.
    “We need to train people to protect life and defuse situations at all costs.”
    @ 31m 51s
    June 20, 2020
  • The Role of Police Unions
    Examining the power of police unions and their impact on reforms.
    “Police unions have too much power; they thwart sensible reforms.”
    @ 36m 53s
    June 20, 2020
  • Social Media's Impact
    Exploring how platforms like Twitter and Facebook shape public discourse and perceptions.
    “Twitter is becoming sort of the coasts, and Facebook is becoming Middle America.”
    @ 46m 00s
    June 20, 2020
  • The Role of Free Speech
    A discussion on the importance of free speech in democracy and its current challenges.
    “We should never attack this very basic principle of free speech.”
    @ 57m 13s
    June 20, 2020
  • Vaccines and Production
    Insights into the vaccine production timeline and the challenges faced in scaling up.
    “There's going to be a staged release of vaccines starting Q4 of this year.”
    @ 01h 03m 44s
    June 20, 2020
  • Vaccine Distribution Politics
    The conversation dives into how vaccines might be distributed politically, raising concerns about fairness.
    “What are the odds that somebody politicizes the vaccine?”
    @ 01h 05m 52s
    June 20, 2020
  • Trump's Election Chances
    A debate on Trump's chances of winning the election amidst various challenges.
    “Trump is incredible at pointing a finger at some third party.”
    @ 01h 11m 50s
    June 20, 2020
  • Oprah as VP?
    The panel discusses the potential of Oprah Winfrey as a VP candidate, sparking excitement.
    “Oprah Winfrey for the win!”
    @ 01h 16m 02s
    June 20, 2020

Episode Quotes

  • We’ve managed to find a way to politicize absolutely everything.
    E4: Politicizing the pandemic, Police reform, Twitter vs Facebook with David Sacks & David Friedberg
  • The reality is there is not a single country government that can tolerate future lockdowns.
    E4: Politicizing the pandemic, Police reform, Twitter vs Facebook with David Sacks & David Friedberg
  • Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
    E4: Politicizing the pandemic, Police reform, Twitter vs Facebook with David Sacks & David Friedberg
  • We're starting to shift towards valuing comfort over freedom of expression.
    E4: Politicizing the pandemic, Police reform, Twitter vs Facebook with David Sacks & David Friedberg
  • We should never attack this very basic principle of free speech.
    E4: Politicizing the pandemic, Police reform, Twitter vs Facebook with David Sacks & David Friedberg
  • Trump is incredible at pointing a finger at some third party.
    E4: Politicizing the pandemic, Police reform, Twitter vs Facebook with David Sacks & David Friedberg

Key Moments

  • Risk Profiles01:51
  • Mask Debate11:40
  • Police Training Reform31:51
  • Social Media Dynamics46:00
  • Free Speech Debate57:13
  • Vaccine Politics1:05:52
  • Election Stakes1:07:40
  • Oprah for VP1:16:02

Tension Over Time

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown