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There is a truly excellent article in the Jewish daily Forward pointing out astutely that what the right has accused George Soros of doing for years now is in practice, what Elon Musk is really doing for Donald Trump. The colossal irony playing out before our very eyes is that conspiracy theorists on the far right have been shouting from the rooftops about Jewish philanthropist George Soros. He's this shadowy figure controlling all politics and the media, manipulating the entire planet with a secret stash of money. Except it's not really a secret stash. We all know he's very wealthy. But they painted George Soros as some kind of real life Bond villain. And it's an insidious accusation steeped in old anti Semitic tropes. But the surreal part is that all of the paranoid charges that they've been leveling at George SOROS for what, 10, 15, 20 years, they fit Elon Musk.
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They fit Elon Musk at a fundamental level. And yet the people who have been demonizing Soros for years are completely ignoring Musk and his doing the exact same stuff that they claim George Soros is doing. So let's break it down. Massive government influence. Soros has been accused, without evidence, I might add, of manipulating foreign services and pulling strings behind the scenes. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is now presiding over actual federal level decisions with the new Department of Government Efficiency. Last I checked, Soros did not have access to Social Security payment systems, did not have access to federal contractor payment systems, did not have the keys to the castle. Musk does, but they're quiet about it. One guy funds philanthropic organizations that promote democratic institutions. The other guy is hobnobbing with authoritarian leaders and shaping American policy in real time. And yet only one of them is singled out by the right.
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And it's not Elon Musk. It's George Soros. Secondly, media manipulation. If you listen to certain commentators, you would think that George Soros spends his days, you know, twirling a mustache and whispering scripts into journalists ears. But consider that Soros, his philanthropy, primarily supports independent journalism and in countries with shaky democratic structures, not in the United States. Meanwhile, Musk owns Twitter, has booted journalists from it who criticized him, has adjusted algorithms to boost some extremist content and partizan Republican content. And yet it is Musk who is called the hero of free speech, not George Soros. Number three, global meddling. Soros is supposedly orchestrating uprisings from the shadows. But if we look at actual meddling, Musk is the one having cozy chats with the authoritarian regimes. He's openly praising or receiving praise from the likes of Viktor Orban or Vladimir Putin. He's influencing active war zones with Starlink satellite decisions.
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Where will it be available, where won't it, and to whom? It's all out in the open. But does the far right care? No, it's, it's only a problem if you suspect someone of doing it from the liberal side or in the way that Soros is accused of doing it. The double standard is breathtaking. The right's been ranting that if you've got a billionaire shaping global policy, that's bad and it's a threat. But it seems to only be the case when it's a progressive Jewish billionaire. When it's Elon Musk, all of a sudden we're not worried. So in reality, Musk's control of these essential technologies, his direct line to autocratic leaders, his ability to shape American policy is infinitely more invasive than the philanthropic ventures of George Soros. But Musk is hailed as this visionary tech God that we know him not to be. And Soros remains public enemy number one.
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Now we have recent extremes. Musk openly backing right wing parties overseas, saying oh we should, we should, we should really be supporting the AfD in Germany. He's telling Germany move on from the Nazi guilt. This is the same thing the neo Nazis have been saying for decades. So the hypocrisy is off the charts. And if Soros even whispered a single supportive word about a left leaning party abroad, they would say, oh, it's a globalist puppet master. But Musk can wave this far right banner wherever he wants and there's no pushback. So the bottom line here is, is as you might suspect, the real scandal is not some billionaire influencing politics and media. That's old news at this point. It's that the far right has never been against concentrating power. They oppose it if the billionaire in question supports left wing causes, supports pro democracy causes, and Elon Musk checks all of the right wing boxes.
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So they're fine. They're not worried. It's yet another principle that doesn't really matter when it's inconvenient. That's the irony. The heavy handed anti Semitic smears flung at George Soros perfectly describe Elon Musk's activities right now. But the folks who were supposedly so worried about billionaires controlling stuff, they're missing, they don't care. When it's Elon Musk, it's just blatant hypocrisy. It's fueled by bigotry against Soros. Because he's Jewish. And now we have Elon Musk shaping American policy in a way that quite frankly makes George Soros his influence look modest in comparison. And Trump claims for now that he is thrilled. All right. On the bonus show today, we are going to talk about New York City Mayor Eric Adams embrace of Trump and how this is uniting Democrats against him. Rumors are now flying Eric Adams may switch to the Republican Party. Secondly, we will dig a little more into the renaming of Fort Liberty to Fort Bragg, honoring a World War II soldier.
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And we will talk about Elon Musk's latest cost cutting target, the penny. We've talked about this so many times and everything old is new again. And now all of a sudden Elon Musk thinks, wait, the penny costs more than a penny to make. Let's get rid of it. And then everything's solved and everything's awesome. All of those stories and more will be on today's bonus show. I also want to remind you once again, we are now just five weeks from the release of my first ever nonfiction book, the Echo Machine. We have surpassed 6,000 preorders. I I have been notified. All requests for signed copies must go to David pakman.com/booksmith. Brookline Booksmith, which is near my publisher up in Boston, is going to be handling all signed copies. I'm going to go up there in a couple of weeks, sign hundreds of books. You can get signed copies at David pakman.com/booksmith.
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Of course, you can get the Kindle version, the audio book, all of it, at David pakman.com/book. And also I am excited to tell you that later this week, although it might not make it onto the show until next week, we will have Senator Adam Schiff on the program. We will have members of Congress Ro Khanna and Tom Suozzi next week. A lot of really good stuff coming up. We will see you on the bonus show. Sign up@join pacman.com to get instant access. Well, I wrote a book.
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After a long journey and a ton of work, I am really thrilled with how it turned out and I hope you'll read it. The book is called the Echo Machine and in a nutshell, it looks at how American politics got so broken, who has already figured out solutions and how we can try to fix it and stop the terror of Trump for the next four years. With Trump winning this election, the Echo Machine couldn't be more relevant. Not only a warning about how we got here, but also about what might be coming and how to prevent the worst outcomes. We've got to stay engaged. We need a plan, and that's what the book is about. There is a belief out there that unless you have corporate media behind you, you can't have a successful political book launch. That it's not possible. I think we can prove that wrong.
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Order the Echo Machine today at David pakman.com/echo on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Audible, Kindle, anywhere that books, e books and audio books are sold. You can also call any local bookstore and say, please order me the Echo Machine by David Pakman.
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Wherever you get the book, you'll get.
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The free preorder perks, including the signed book plate. Head to David pakman.com/free book stuff after ordering.