Yet again, the west is burning and Noah Diffenbaugh, who is a Climate Scientist and Stanford Professor, says that the current fires are a troubling sign of what is to come. He also says that "over 1.8 million acres burned in the past 30 days... an event that only occurs every 10 to 12 years.” In this episode, Alex goes into the fires, the accelerating climate crisis behind their intensity, and the politicization of the crisis. He looks into how mismanagement from state governments and environmental lobbyists, Trump's divisive messaging, republican finger-pointing, and an intensifying climate crisis have created a "no-win scenario" in California.

While Drew and Alex are taking a week off, here is an older episode from January 2020. In this "Tonic Rewind," this discussion is 8 months old, but the topic has become even more relevant. Since this was recorded, the Uighur situation in China has gotten worse and the public has started to focus more on this issue. With COVID, world chaos, and growing issues in the US, sometimes it is important to focus back on relevant topics that are out of the public eye.

 

Original summary:

In this episode of the Tonic Accord, Drew and Alex discuss the Uighur situation in Western China. The Chinese government’s surveillance state has taken a sinister turn and over the last few years they have been rounding up the Uighurs and putting them in “re-education” camps for the sake of “national security.” Though the Chinese government claims that these camps are just to help the Uighurs assimilate into the Han culture, there are accounts of abuse, forced abortions, sexual assault, harvested organs, and much more. Of the 10 million Uighurs living in Western China, some reports estimate that up to 3 million are in these prison camps. Drew and Alex believe that this situation resembles not only an apartheid regime but also a form of ethnic cleansing. They’re worried that not enough is being done about this situation because of China’s economic influence. Can the world stop this issue? Or will the world sit on the side and play a fool?

It has been reported inside of the United States that there is a growing rush to release a vaccine, even while skipping the Phase Three trials that usually confirm safety and that there are no risks in taking the vaccine. Dr. Nirav Shah, who is Maine’s CDC director, says there is ‘inherent’ risk in distributing a vaccine before Phase 3 trials are complete. In this episode of “Catching Up” Alex discusses the current issues surrounding releasing a vaccine before it could be ready. He also looks into when President Gerald Ford tried to rush a vaccine for H1N1. Then he mentions that there are also some officials that worry that the federal government's push to release a vaccine before Election Day is politically driven. Will there be an October surprise for Trump? Is a vaccine even safe if made this quickly?

In this lighter episode, Drew and Alex look into their favorite protest/political songs. They talk about Country music, Rap, Rock, and more.

Early last week, events in Kenosha, Wisconsin took a turn when protesting followed another unnecessary shooting of a black man by police. However, by the end of the week, things escalated to disturbing levels. A 17-year-old male shot three people and killed two of them. Now Kenosha is burning and another wave of chaos has hit the US cities. Americans on both sides are struggling with the right words to describe the shooter, Kyle Rittenhouse. In this episode, Drew and Alex talk about how the murkiness of the protests has made it difficult to distinguish who's who. Are people like Kyle Rittenhouse vigilantes? Counterprotesters? Violent extremists? Drew and Alex also look at the health of US Democracy as a whole and what could've brought the nation to the brink of social unrest.

In this "Catching Up" segment, Alex looks into the new CDC report that says that close to 94% of Americans who died from COVID-19 had other “types of health conditions and contributing causes.” He goes into how these numbers only tell a portion of the story and could be misleading and detrimental to public health.

"The Paradox of Tolerance" is an idea popularized by the philosopher Karl Popper in his 1945 book " The Open Society and Its Enemies." The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. This idea came to fruition after World War Two and it is likely that Popper used the example of what happened in Nazi Germany as his support for this idea. In this episode, Drew and Alex discuss this idea and try to figure out how society can protect free speech but also limit dangerous ideas from going into the mainstream. They look at how different countries deal with hate speech. The two also wonder if fringe ideas are again going into the mainstream.

In this segment, Alex goes into the first two nights of the Republican National Convention. His first takeaway is that politically Americans on the left and right are seeing two completely different narratives unfold. He discusses how the RNC seems to be a tale of two messages - one message is that this election is about saving the country from Marxists and anarchists. The other message is that America is a great country that is always getting better. Alex is appalled by the positive coverage of Trump's handling of the coronavirus and personal accounts of his compassionate character. He also touches on moments he enjoyed like the speech by Tim Scott and Trump's pardoning of Jon Ponder. However, Alex fears that the GOP seems to be leaving their traditional platform and instead is fully embracing Trump as their platform.

For decades, Turkey and Greece have been at odds with one another over territorial rights in the Aegean Sea. Last week, a collision between a Turkish and Greek frigate set up new issues and both countries have announced that they will carry out opposing naval drills off the coast of Crete. These demonstrations are merely for the show but could be serious as the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says that "the current situation in the eastern Mediterranean is equivalent to playing with fire." She says that "Every little spark can lead to catastrophe." In this episode, Drew and Alex try to understand why the post-Cold War alliances seem to be unraveling.

Last week, the growing online fringe conspiracy movement Qanon really seemed to hit the mainstream. In a Republican primary in Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene, an avid QAnon supporter, won the primary and will likely be going to congress in November. This illustrates the fact that QAnon is a growing movement that has large support on the right and likely amongst President Trump himself. This group sees many liberal elites as satanic cannibals who are trafficking children and destroying the world. This is a dangerous message and it is getting louder. The Atlantic calls this movement, the birth of a new religion. In this episode, Drew and Alex take a deep dive into QAnon and why it is a very encompassing and strange movement. They also talk about the potentially dangerous implications of going deep down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.