Controversy in Washington has moved from ex-President Donald Trump to the new freshman republicans who are following in his footsteps. Of this new dream-team  Marjorie Taylor Greene is the "famous" one and there isn’t a conspiracy theory that she doesn’t believe in. She harassed Parkland shooting victims, blamed Jewish lasers for the California fires, believes in QAnon, and has supported the killing of Democratic leaders. Today on the Tonic Accord, Drew and Alex look into why people like Greene could be problematic for the GOP and the country. They also look into why the house may be trying to protect her.

Starting from the subreddit "wallstreetbets", a movement began earlier last week to react to hedge funds that were shorting the stock of GameStop. These hedge funds bet against GameStop, knowing that it would drop and they could make money off of it. They went all in on the stock going down and they put their financial position on the line. Unfortunately for the hedge funds, this movement of individual reddit investors was able to completely flip the process by overvaluing GameStop. Some argue that they wanted to show that they could manipulate the system as good if not better than the hedge funds. This led to some early independent GameStop investors winning big, hedge funds losing a lot, and AOC and Ted Cruz agreeing on the outcome. In this episode, Drew and Alex look into this crazy situation and debate what is next.

The Republican Party had an easy off ramp from supporting Donald Trump after the insurrection. However, now it appears like they are doubling down on supporting him. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy met with Trump in Mar-a-lago earlier this week and clearly showed signs of loyalty and support. It looks like Trumpism isn’t going away and it may be growing and evolving. In this quick episode, Alex gives his thoughts on the evolution of Trumpism through the eyes of Marjorie Taylor Greene and the fact that Liz Cheney is being attacked more than these conspiratorial nuts. Apparently condemning violence is deplorable, but not blaming the California fires on Jewish lasers? He speculates on whether Trump should even run again when it seems like he may be more powerful in the shadows.

The Fairness Doctrine originated in 1949 with the intention to require broadcasters to give equal time to opposing opinions and stances. It required TV and radio stations holding FCC-issued broadcast licenses to “devote some of their programming to controversial issues of public importance and allow the airing of opposing views on those issues. “ However, it was repealed in the 1980’s during the Reagan era. Some people believe that the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine allowed for the rise of conservative talk radio, Fox News, and inevitably the problem of misinformation that is happening now. Others believe it should be brought back. In this episode, Drew and Alex wade through all the myths and realities of the Fairness Doctrine. Both feel that it wouldn’t fix the problems because it was truly used during a different time. They also talk about alternative solutions to dealing with the age of misinformation.

In this episode, Drew and Alex talk with Nazli Donmez. She is a fellow Chapman University alumni and shares her firsthand experiences on how Turkey’s democracy, under the leadership of Recep Erdogan, has slipped into autocratic rule. They look into modern Turkey’s push for secular politics, its military influence, and the cultural backlash from religious conservatives. Nazli also talks about how a lot of Erdogan’s rhetoric mirrors Donald Trump and other populists’ rhetoric.

In a rare showing of agreement between the Trump Administration and the Biden Administration, last week former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo accused China of Genocide against the Uighur Muslim population in China. Then his successor, Antony Blinken, of the new administration, said he agreed with the assessment. However, many state department officials say this could be a loaded term. While the situation in China is clearly bleak, it is unprecedented for the State Department to use that word in a situation where there aren’t mass killings happening. Today, Alex catches everyone up on how this agreement with Pompeo may foreshadow how the Biden Administration may escalate tensions with China.

In this episode, Drew and Alex decide to take their focus off of world affairs and turn their heads to the stars. They talk about the rise of private space enterprises that have teamed with the public sector like SpaceX. They also look into the changing foreign affairs that could meet their peak in space and how current space treaties that were created between the US and Soviets need to be updated for the modern times. It is an interesting time in the world and it is time to start looking outwards!

It is the eve of President-Elect Joe Biden's inauguration and President Trump has less than a day left in office. He has been an historic president for some unique reasons and this week he added to that by getting impeached for the second time. Now, there are 25,000 troops defending the capitol, tensions are high, and the nation hasn’t been this divided since the civil war. Today, Drew and Alex do a bit of an autopsy of the nation and discuss how we can reconcile and move forward. They look into white supremacy, Greek Philosopher Plato's fears over Mob Rule, and how the nation needs to find a medium between limiting misinformation while still allowing free speech.

There is an out of print book that has been exploding in popularity over the last week inside of China. The book is called America Against America by Wang Huning and some copies of the book have surged to more than $2,500 dollars as Chinese people are racing to buy it so they can better understand the recent chaos in the United States. The book came out over 30 years ago and it forecasts the decline of the US due to domestic conflicts. It also talks about how a "Cold Civil War" would tear the US apart and would weaken its international influence. In this episode, Alex talks about whether this book could be a harbinger for things to come.

The "Overton Window" is a concept by Joseph Overton who was a libertarian think tanker who popularized the concept in the 1990's. His concept involved looking at a policy spectrum that went from extreme to benign. He believed that only a portion of this policy spectrum was within the realm of the politically feasible at any time. He said that "regardless of how vigorously a group may campaign, only policy initiatives within this window of the politically possible will meet with success." In this episode, Drew and Alex talk about how this concept is really about political boundaries and what is acceptable in the current political landscape. They talk about how both the left and the right have expanded the window. Sometimes expanding the Overton Window leads to progress, but other times it can lead to hate, violence, and the rise of oppressive regimes.