Episode 118 · The GaS Digital / Ray Kump Era
We're Toast with Russ Baker
with Russ Baker
Oct 19, 2018 · 55:31 · 12 segments, 87 moments indexed
- 1 min
Tim opens the show, notes Ray Kump is out sick, and introduces returning guest Russ Baker, author of Family of Secrets and editor of WhoWhatWhy.org.
2moments
- 0:08Tim welcomes Russ Baker, author of Family of Secrets, back to the show and notes that Ray Kump is out sick.
- 0:31Russ Baker is introduced as creator and editor of whowhatwhy.org, a source for independent investigative journalism.
Friend of the show
- 2 min
Tim recaps Russ's past appearances on Family of Secrets and the Trump-Felix Sater Russia piece, and Russ discusses how WhoWhatWhy often breaks stories months before mainstream outlets, citing the Atlantic's recent Gary Hart piece as an example.
3moments
- 1:11Russ Baker's book Family of Secrets examined the Bush family and the hidden constellations of power that prop up individuals and ideas in America.
- 1:49Baker investigated Trump and Russia, including Trump's connection to Felix Sater, a shadowy figure in Russian intelligence, finance, and money laundering.
- 2:12Tim notes that Baker was months ahead of mainstream media outlets on Trump and Russia reporting.
- 3 min
Russ explains how WhoWhatWhy was early and dismissed on election integrity issues, and they discuss the fragility of democracy under Trump's overt authoritarian instincts versus past covert abuses by Bush and Obama.
5moments
- 2:38Atlantic piece on whether Gary Hart was set up by political opponents in the 1980s
- 3:15Tim says electronic voting security concerns were dismissed as conspiracy until becoming mainstream
- 3:53Mainstream media never acknowledges early reporting that later becomes accepted
- 4:19Current political leader openly displays authoritarian instincts, unlike covert power-grabs of past administrations
- 5:02Tim asks whether warnings of failed states and fascism in America are overblown or justified
- 5 min
Russ recounts the suppressed history of the 1930s military coup plot against FDR involving General Smedley Butler, then unpacks how the term "deep state" has been hijacked, describing it instead as a diffuse, non-conspiratorial alignment of shared interests, with a detour into QAnon and Alex Jones.
9moments
- 5:49The attempted Smedley Butler coup in the 1930s—wealthy industrialists tried to get a decorated Marine Corps general to march on Washington and overthrow FDR over New Deal policies they saw as socialist.
- 6:34This story is documented but suppressed; it doesn't appear in college textbooks or mainstream media coverage despite being well-evidenced historical fact.
- 7:02The term "deep state" has been hijacked in recent years so that any criticism of a sitting president gets labeled a deep state conspiracy.
- 7:30In Maryland you're either making crab cakes or you work for the CIA—it's easy to connect people to the national security state because the military-industrial complex is massive and employs a lot of people.
- 8:19There is no truth to the idea that Donald Trump is a lone man fighting the deep state; the deep state is not a neat concept or a small identifiable group.
- 8:49The deep state is a dimension of society—people who share a certain worldview and self-interest, reaching agreements in non-democratic, non-visible ways.
- 9:27In any organization, there's subterranean activity where people may not like each other but agree to make life difficult for someone they all oppose.
- 10:02QAnon is supposedly a Trump administration insider leaking information to Reddit and 4chan in cryptic, poetic form, preparing the public for a big reveal when Trump arrests Hillary.
- 10:32This has become theater closer to comedy and entertainment than journalism.
- 5 min
Russ argues the media ridicules stories like insecure voting machines until they become convenient, floats the idea Trump may have orchestrated the anonymous "resistance" op-ed to serve his own interests, and details how long WhoWhatWhy has investigated voting machine hacking and who owns the voting machine companies.
7moments
- 11:40Corporate media ridiculed voting security concerns until Trump won, then quickly pivoted to interviewing experts about electronic voting vulnerabilities.
- 12:25The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed from a supposed Trump administration insider claiming to be the resistance, which could have been Trump arranging it himself to rally his own people.
- 13:13Tim asks when the guest started reporting on voting machine vulnerabilities, distinguishing direct election interference from talk of social media and Russian bots.
- 13:56Credible experts at major universities who can demonstrate voting machines can be hacked and produce anomalous results cannot get airtime in corporate media.
- 14:57After the 2000 Florida election, the New York Times and other organizations deliberately shut down questions about voting irregularities, deciding it wasn't good for the country.
- 15:21Major news organizations are for-profit enterprises within larger companies primarily concerned with business, not investigating destabilizing stories.
- 15:40The media functions like a teacher calming a rowdy class, inflaming on some issues but suppressing others to keep the public calm and spending money.
- 7 min
Russ details specific real-world vote suppression methods (interstate crosscheck lists, felon voting bans, pretextual traffic stops near polling places) and WhoWhatWhy's on-the-ground reporting teams in Georgia, Florida, and Texas, contrasting this with the lack of evidence for voter fraud like the old ACORN claims.
10moments
- 16:21How voting machine hacking would actually work — Russia may have probed systems but no proof of breaching actual voting machines.
- 17:00Electronic voting companies are almost entirely owned by well-known Republican and conservative backers, yet nobody discusses this.
- 18:17Closing polling stations creates long lines that discourage people from voting.
- 19:17A nonprofit organization decided to flood the zone with journalists sent to key states like Georgia, Florida, and Texas to investigate vote suppression.
- 20:08Interstate Cross-Check compares similar names across states to block people from voting, claiming Tim Dylan in Idaho can't also vote in New York.
- 20:28Felons in Florida are barred from voting using lists of people who served jail time, blocking anyone with a matching common name.
- 21:42Police in Florida 2000 pulled over drivers for minor infractions like a broken tail light, keeping them stopped during the time they'd set aside to vote.
- 22:10Officers executing this weren't told to stop Black voters; they were ordered to maintain law and order and be highly visible on election day.
- 22:43Studies show voter impersonation fraud is almost nonexistent nationwide, despite repeated claims about ACORN and people voting multiple times.
- 22:59Organized vote suppression is easier and more effective than recruiting individuals to commit fraud — there's almost no evidence such fraud occurs at scale.
- 5 min
They discuss what specifically disturbs Russ about Trump as a figure, his appeal in refusing to apologize, and the cynical alliance between Trump and the evangelical right, plus Russ's own chapter on the Bush family's manufactured born-again image.
10moments
- 23:52Trump compared to giving power to a malodorous character from Family Guy or The Sims
- 24:15Tim finds Trump hard not to like because he never apologizes and never capitulates
- 24:33Trump gives people license to act on every bad tendency they have, endorsed and covered for
- 24:58The evangelical Christian right's alliance with Trump and control of the courts
- 25:29Bush family used evangelical right as cover despite having no personal interest in fundamentalism
- 26:02Church members are well-meaning people dealing with pain; ministers are cynical and wealthy manipulators
- 26:38Trump is very good at manipulating fundamentalists, whose anger and impotence can be directed at any outsider
- 27:13Historical signs of authoritarianism based on reporter's travels in countries that slipped into it
- 27:38Two paradoxical groups support authoritarianism: those with nothing and those with everything
- 28:00This unlikely alliance of the powerless and the wealthy is essentially the modern Republican party
- 5 min
Tim and Russ debate whether Democrats will roll back executive power or just repeat Obama-era drone strikes and Wall Street ties, whether it's the people or the system that's broken (with a jab at AOC), and how the military-industrial complex traps even well-meaning people.
10moments
- 28:19Tim questions whether Democrats will strip executive powers once back in office or simply consolidate them like Obama did.
- 29:05The modern Democratic Party doesn't appear to be the party of progressives, dedicated instead to perpetual war and financial sector dominance.
- 30:02Tim argues there are no signs the Democratic Party will change, though local-level candidates emerging from nowhere offer some potential.
- 30:34He wonders if the problem is bigger than just swapping out individual people—whether it's systemic rather than personal.
- 31:07The media consistently diminished Bernie Sanders and built up Hillary Clinton during the 2016 race, making clear their preference.
- 31:52Tim refuses to fetishize hope; he questions what would actually change if Bernie Sanders had been elected president.
- 32:21How do you unwind a military and national security state that's been building since before World War II?
- 32:56Until society acknowledges the nature of the system, everyone working within it—including Bernie supporters at contractors—remains complicit.
- 33:20The system itself is designed to make people slaves to the machine through law school debt and economic pressure.
- 33:32Everything from universities to textbooks is designed to perpetuate an unfair system, and real change requires acknowledging this first.
- 6 min
They touch on the demonization of anyone questioning Kennedy assassination or Watergate narratives, the US-Saudi relationship and Jamal Khashoggi's killing, and a discussion of Jordan Peterson and how Western living standards are propped up by global brutality and cheap labor.
10moments
- 34:05Very few people talk about the Kennedy assassination or have a different view of Watergate without being labeled a cook or demonized.
- 34:36Saudi Arabia has admitted to killing and torturing a journalist, and the US president's response is essentially indifference.
- 35:23Neither liberal nor conservative establishments will meaningfully reevaluate American alliances, especially with Saudi Arabia, because oil and business interests come first.
- 36:02Universities across the country have opened campuses in oppressive regimes simply as cash cows, making everyone complicit in supporting authoritarian states.
- 36:21Iran is demonized in Western discourse while Saudi Arabia receives favorable treatment, despite potentially being the worse actor of the two.
- 36:54Jordan Peterson and similar figures advocate for Western values and civilization while ignoring the massive amounts of violence committed to perpetuate that system for profit.
- 37:20People defending Western civilization rarely visit war zones or understand what America has done in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria.
- 37:45Western standard of living is artificially maintained and propped up by brutality elsewhere—people don't want to hear about the connection.
- 38:15American food and consumer goods are artificially cheap because people live abysmal lives in other countries so Americans can live better.
- 39:06Authoritarian and nationalist figures are rising across Western democracies because of mass migration, economic inequality, lack of social mobility, and disrupted social cohesion.
- 8 min
They discuss Steve Bannon's European tour, rising authoritarian nationalist figures worldwide, and a nuanced take on why fear of demographic and economic change (using shifting neighborhoods as an analogy) drives people toward extremism, plus the failure of elites to represent citizens.
9moments
- 40:46Change is deeply unsettling, and dismissing people who fear it as racist is a mistake Democrats make.
- 41:17Europe faces assimilation problems that America doesn't have; immigrants there don't integrate the way they do in the US.
- 41:48White flight from neighborhoods is real, but so is gentrification destroying those same neighborhoods later.
- 42:39People are naturally self-interested; elites in charge have lost connection to what citizens actually need.
- 43:53Steve Bannon fascinates as a figure who went from Goldman Sachs to Breitbart to reshaping global politics.
- 44:47Populist strongmen—Hitler, Trump, Brazil's kooky presidential candidate—emerge as reactions when traditional excellence fails.
- 45:51There's an inevitability to leaders like Obama or Roosevelt who excel from youth, versus the schlubby guys who come from nowhere.
- 46:35Stephen Miller, whose teacher said he ate glue, became a top presidential advisor—showing improbable characters always rise.
- 47:09Media have limited bandwidth and choose which problems to focus on; vote suppression matters more than following Steve Bannon's movements.
- 6 min
Russ reflects on how unlikely figures like Bannon and Stephen Miller rise to power, plugs WhoWhatWhy's vote suppression project and donation needs, discusses their investigation into Kavanaugh's father's baby powder cancer cover-up, and teases an upcoming e-book on the disputed 2000 Bush-Gore election.
9moments
- 47:56Guest describes their nonprofit's vote suppression investigation and fundraising challenges
- 48:35Tim urges listeners to donate to Who What Why and explains why independent journalists need funding
- 49:09Guest details how Kavanaugh's father allegedly paid off the son's considerable debts
- 49:44Who What Why releasing e-book on disputed 2000 Florida election with hanging chads and new information
- 50:09Tim reflects on how Bush's 9-11 response and resulting wars might have gone differently under Gore
- 50:55Guest hints at findings suggesting nefarious activity in 2000 election based on voting technology experts' review
- 51:35Guest has been working ten years on book about JFK assassination
- 52:21Who What Why uses volunteer lawyers, accountants, and marketing people to expand operations
- 52:57Guest emphasizes importance of storytelling in covering vote suppression, including firsthand accounts from voters denied access
- 2 min
Russ says he thinks it may be too late on climate change and describes wanting to build a WhoWhatWhy climate storytelling team, followed by closing plugs for WhoWhatWhy.org and Russ's social media.
3moments
- 53:52Tim says we're basically toast on climate change, and nobody planning their retirement seems to care despite reports suggesting civilization might end in 20-30 years.
- 54:37Guest argues that when the public suddenly demands change—like with Saudi Arabia—massive executives panic and pull out, suggesting public pressure can drive action on climate.
- 55:15Tim jokes that given how the country operates, people should get a raft along with their climate team.