The Tonic Accord

In this episode, Drew and Alex give their analysis on the New York City Primary, as well as the bizarre life and death of John McAfee, the man who innovated antivirus software, yet died living like Joe Exotic. 

The New York City primary has so far been a rebuttal on the progressive agenda. Eric Adams, an ex-Republican (now current centrist democrat) and former NYC police officer, is currently in first place; while Andrew Yang, the social media god of the 2020 presidential election, already dropped out. Drew and Alex go into why this may be. They also look into “Ranked Choice Voting” or RCV, which in theory forces discussion and moderation, over voting for a fringe candidate. In RCV, voters rank their top choices for candidates — first through fifth — rather than selecting just one candidate. If there isn’t a majority, “the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and voters who picked that candidate as their first choice will have their second choice votes count. This process continues until there is a majority winner.” Drew and Alex spar over whether this is a better alternative to the current system. They also discuss why Andrew Yang did so poorly, and why Eric Adams’ success could serve as a strong message to the Democratic Party.

 

Later in the episode, Drew and Alex talk about John McAfee. He launched the world's first commercial anti-virus software in 1987, yet turned out to be a controversial figure. His growing paranoia caused him to run from US authorities in Belize, where he allegedly killed one of his neighbors, set up curfews, and patrolled the beaches with his own security force. He also got interested in cryptocurrencies to the point where the US government was pursuing him for illegal transactions. McAfee eventually ended up in a Spanish jail where he died last week due to what Spanish authorities called “suicide.” Several months ago, McAfee was quoted saying “Know that if I hang myself, a la Epstein, it will be no fault of mine…” Inevitably, Drew and Alex entertain some of the conspiracies around his death, as well as criticize his paranoid yet extravagant lifestyle.

In this end of the week short episode - 

Drew and Alex talk about the recent Supreme Court decision involving the NCAA. The Court unanimously sided with former college players in a dispute with the NCAA over compensation issues. According to ESPN, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the court's opinion, which "upheld a district court judge's decision that the NCAA was violating antitrust law by placing limits on the education-related benefits that schools can provide to athletes.” This doesn’t give the green light for college athletes to be paid, but it does recognize that the NCAA cannot continue with their current practices. Justice Brett Kavanaugh also wrote a concurring opinion that pushed a harder line which said this is only the beginning. 

 

Drew and Alex also talk about recent reports from Iranian state TV that said that Iran’s sole nuclear power plant, Bushehr, had undergone an unexplained temporary emergency shutdown. Russia helped get this plant up and running, and Bushehr is fueled by uranium produced in Russia, not Iran, and is monitored by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency. This comes at an interesting time as President Joe Biden wants to renegotiate an entrance into the Nuclear Deal and a low turnout national election just produced a hardliner named Ebrahim Raisi as Iran’s new president. He is listed by many western countries as an extremist and he may prove to be a roadblock in any attempts to revitalize the Nuclear Deal.

Juneteenth is a new federal holiday in the United States that sheds light on the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. It is also known for celebrating African-American culture. Last week, the Senate Bill 475, called the "Juneteenth National Independence Day Act," was passed with a 415-14 vote. However, some Republican elected officials voted against the act, citing a worry that two “Independence Day” holidays within a month could distract or divide. In reality, it seems like another unnecessary fight in the culture war. 

 

In this episode, Drew and Alex use the debate over Juneteenth to discuss “Critical Race Theory.” CRT is a decades-old academic concept that studies racism through the lens of it being a social construct. This is opposed to something tied solely to an individual, and the lingering effects it has within society. In many ways, this method of study looks at the idea that racism isn’t a universal construct, but instead created by systems, policies, and institutions. Proponents of this theory would argue that to create a better future we need to be able to have a comprehensive discussion about our past. While this theory is mainly involved in academic research in universities, Republicans, led by Donald Trump, decided it would be the next fight in the culture war. Now, many states including Idaho, Texas, Florida, and Arkansas, have banned the teaching of CRT in the classroom. It seems like Republicans like Ron DeSantis are fear mongering about CRT mainly to appeal to a fear of national pride and lost patriotism. Drew and Alex discuss and debate whether this method of study is as toxic as some claim, whether it should be taught in schools, and why this lens of study could be important for moving forward.

Deepfakes are a phenomenon in which an existing image or likeness of a person is replaced with someone else’s image. This technology used to only linked with Snapchat or Instagram, but now it is becoming more nefarious. Last month, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Dutch Parliament had an online call with Leonid Volkov, Alexi Navalny's chief of staff. This man turned out to be a deepfake video of Volkov, meaning it wasn’t really him. To make matters worse, only 30% of companies surveyed by tech experts say they are prepared for deepfake threats.

 

In this episode, Drew and Alex worry about what is next. While this technology used to be funny and meaningless, it could be the next threat to democracy and the truth. According to “Venture Beat,” the number of deepfakes on the web increased 330% from October 2019 to June 2020, impacting close to 60,000 people. Drew and Alex imagine what could happen if a deepfake of Donald Trump called for violence, or the fear of deepfake technology could stop citizens from listening to their leaders.

 

Later in the episode, they turn their attention to Apple in China. Two decades ago, Apple thought it could change China by bringing their American values to China, instead many experts worry that China is managing to change American companies. Now Apple, a company considered to be at the forefront of protecting consumer privacy, has opened their market to China and the backlash could be coming. User data, including iCloud, is currently stored in Chinese data facilities. In the past, Chinese officials couldn’t access the data due to encryption keys that Apple was assumed to possess. Unfortunately, Chinese firms want to open this data up for state organizations and let them use these same systems. This would mean that many Apple users' information could be vulnerable to the Chinese government. Drew and Alex worry that Apple has become one company with two distinct markets and policies. Should western companies put profits ahead of their pure standards?

In this end of the week episode, Drew and Alex touch on some of the fascinating, hilarious, crazy, and fascinating political/cultural issues they have seen over the last week. They discuss: 

Jeffrey Toobin, the Chief Legal Analyst at CNN, who returned after an eight month “hiatus” involving inappropriate conduct during a Zoom call. 

The Biden Administration has kept their promise to end the Keystone XL Pipeline. 

In her middle age, Marjorie Taylor Greene FINALLY learned about the atrocities of the Holocaust after visiting a museum. 

Violence, crime, and shootings are up in the US. Will this be a fun summer, a crazy summer, or a potentially violent summer? 

The conspiracy around magnetic COVID-19 vaccines.

Peru was something of a success story in Latin America. According to the Economist’s tracking, from 2001 to 2016, the poverty rate fell from 60% to 21% and the economy also grew at an average annual rate of 5.6%. The government also used a healthy mix of free market policies and export led growth, which was different from the protectionism seen in other countries in the region. Unfortunately, as of late, the country has become politically divided and has produced four presidents and eight finance ministers in five years. This instability has made long term change impossible and the pandemic only made it worse. As of June 2021, COVID-19 killed over 190,000 people and 3 million fell into poverty once again. Now Peru has a new left wing president named Pedro Castillo. He won just 50.2% of the vote, which is only around 70,000 more votes out of 17.5m cast. Castillo barely beat Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, the autocrat and corrupt leader who ruled in the 1990s. People believe Castillo has a weak mandate and will preside over a bitterly divided country. He also has applauded socialists like Evo Morales in Bolivia and Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, and he seems to sympathize with Communist Cuba. Now Keiko Fujimori is saying that the election was fraudulent and this likely won’t help the bitter division between urban and rural Peruvians. 

 

In this episode, Drew and Alex try to make sense of how a leftist and a right-wing candidate were the only options left, when there were eighteen candidates in the election. They also discuss what is next for Peru and whether the country can succeed, while also fending off the leftist policies that brought down Venezuela.

It took four elections over just two years to finally get a coalition to oust Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, Israel’s longterm Prime Minister. Finally, 60-59 majority was created that removed Netanyahu from his role. The new ruling coalition is a fragile partnership between the far-right, the left, and even an Arab Party. Naftali Bennett, head of the right-wing Yamina party, will be prime minister for the next two years, then the role will be transferred to Yair Lapid, head of the center-left Yesh Atid party. 

In this episode, Drew and Alex wonder if this fragile coalition will last. They discuss how Naftali Bennet is arguably further right than Netanyahu, and has said that he doesn’t want to change any of Israel’s policies involving Gaza. They also talk about Netanyahu’s push that the vote was fraudulent and how he is hoping to sew chaos and division that could lead to him returning to power. This coalition needs to focus on less divisive issues like health care, education, and infrastructure, if they want to stay popular and in power. Will this coalition work? Only time will tell.

The G7 is a global alliance made up of some of the world’s most important economic “big hitters,” this includes Canada, Germany, the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Italy. This year, the U.K. hosted the summit and it marked some change because the United States returned to the table, not as a troll, but as an ally and friend. There was some unity over not only delivering vaccines to the world’s most vulnerable nations, but also holding corporations more accountable (via a global corporate tax). Unfortunately, while the G7 agreed that the Uighur situation in China was atrocious, it floundered over an actual solution on dealing with China. Even some G7 nations like Italy, the U.K., and France, have even welcomed some Chinese influence. Some scholars believe that this G7 was a frozen moment in time, removed from the past, but also not focused on the future. It was as if the last four years hadn’t happened… yet they did. In this episode, Drew and Alex look at what is next for the G7 countries, whether the Biden v. Putin summit will amount to anything, and how the US can work with its allies to deal with China.

Due to the pandemic, the Tokyo Olympics were postponed from the summer of 2020 and now are going to be taking place in late July of 2021. However, these summer games have become controversial. In May, 83 percent of those polled in Japan said that they didn’t want Tokyo to hold the Olympics. This is coming as Japan is experiencing a brutal fourth wave of COVID-19 and the nation has only vaccinated about 9% of its population with at least one dose. Though foreigner tourists won’t be allowed to attend the games in Tokyo, there are fears that unvaccinated athletes from other countries could turn this into a “super spreader” event. In this episode, Drew and Alex talk about the pros and cons of continuing with these games. The discuss how the Japanese government is contractually obligated by the International Olympic Committee to hold the games and they also may need them for a boost of national morale. Do they postpone the games again? Do they require that all athletes be vaccinated? Are the Olympics even worthwhile anymore?

In this quick episode, Drew and Alex try to understand why West Virginia’s senator, Joe Manchin, is still holding out against fellow Democrats’ desire to end the filibuster. His political ideology is being a “bipartisan centrist” but is that possible when the country is so politically divided? Is Manchin being naive? Or is he a man with a plan, who is looking to the future?