On watching the harks i am. In downtown. So youre ready for this july 4th im not going anywhere near military tanks on the ball potentially i would rather go to the mall that the oscars are held in. And get an Orange Julius on oscar night than go to the mall and deal with this now absolutely not this is i mean theres nothing new about the idea of sort of having these you know. Military like parade like i get it i get the over the july i think its strange that it came so quickly like this why wouldnt you do that the 1st year why when you flew to america your 1st year not as why did you wait until youre getting reelected but i think whats interesting is peoples outrage about that i mean for me on my you know whatever but the thing about it and i feel because the idea that this is somehow like new with trump i think is interesting and my favorite former pentagon and state Department Spokesman under. Then obama mr kirby i believe to a did he ordered military fly overs for his big speech on the 4th now according to the Washington Post trump is pushing for military attack this is who we are we should be better than this and far above this sort of crap. I hate to break it but this is exactly who we are. Welcome to do you see where i like 75 percent of the people Walking Around are being paid in some fashion by a military Industrial Complex how much of our money goes to pay for all of this out how much of our safety goes away to make sure these people get more money for planes that fall out of the sky i mean im sure. We are right it does nothing for me. I understand. Side hey youre turning this what should be a National Celebration that could potentially turn into one big Campaign Rally i get that criticism i understand but. I mean im not a fan i dont want to see tanks on the streets here in washington d. C. But at the end of the day. The fact that people are outraged how dare he celebrated the military like this is. So the former military guy who didnt know that nato is an anti Russian Organization thank you lets not play this like i dont know the military how scary. Celebrate the military. Vehicles constantly in this country in this country i mean weve got fighter jets fly over Football Games all the time. Trolling at the pentagon estimates that just in 2001 point 7000000000 dollars and heres the key word advertising for the military one point. We spend 750000000000 on the the budget for the planning to in the year 2020 thats what they want to try to spend some of that the. 1000000000 for the military 2020 more than half of us Discretionary Spending in our budgets goes to the u. S. Military but were not a jingoistic society you know we dont were not over here trumpeting the military thats all we do its absolutely. But whats interesting is. This is what you said earlier this isnt the 1st time this has been pushing for this since but still this year so this is still day parade in france which is a layer this because if we were in the french revolution trump would be the 1st person drug from his home and brought out. And like the idea that that was the thing that really made him excited sort of man also theres the problem with this whole thing is bringing this was brought up before when he wanted to do a military parade here and try to do what the french said heres the problem our tanks will rip up every street in d. C. And if youve been to see the streets are bad enough already so unless theyre ripping them up so that they can more easily replace the day after. Im sorry but i think that my ancestors who fought in the revolutionary war and helped get us that independence that we are celebrating this weekend would sort of roll their eyes at the whole thing the idea of trial of tanks rolling down and this sort of weird monarchy thats happening over here with. Me because that was the thing the government through the one other thing that kind of upset me about this too is that the whole sanction off the area of the front of the line of the 1st half of the from like the front of the. Lincoln memorial back about house ways down on the. Half way down the reflecting on this all the payoff for you gave enough some america. Is series of plans but unpermitted marches by far right and far left organizations class clashed both with each other and police this weekend in Portland Oregon leaving at least one journalist 3 Police Officers and over a dozen civilians indeed injured demonstrations were planned by the Patriot Prayer proud boys and men Rights Groups him to which were then counter process protested by a number of and to follow groups while police try to separate the groups to avoid violence it seems according to portland p. D. That the groups in Chapman Square and loosed in park square merged then began marching toward Waterfront Park this is when an unpermitted march was impeding vehicular traffic for a short time it was then that fights and assaults broke out as at least 5 separate regional and national far right and far left groups converged in this convergence and de niro and editor and photojournalist frustrating in online magazine the quill it was attacked by those identifying with the antiphon movement this isnt the 1st time and has been harassed or attacked and protesters and literally it is twitter bio that they hate him it isnt even the 1st time that its been caught on camera however it does shine a light on the fact that no matter what actually happened this week and years of media conglomerates turning our Political Landscape into a sporting event has had its consequences. Really observations all this does feel like it all feels like teams it feels like instead of going to the park on saturday and playing bob t. Ball or doing your dart league youre like oh lets go march against nazis so lets go be nazis lets go do this you know look i just dont think they take it very seriously to be honest the thing is to lose its like youre show me these reports you know we look at. All these reports were looking at the video and all but the thing that really jumped out at me too was my own after the initial thing happened and everyone went crazy on twitter talking about it was the amount of dishonesty that came out of it the amount of half truths that got cycled out right media sphere the blogosphere and all that like what were some of the biggest ones that you saw that was really one of the biggest ones i think was this the milkshake carry so you know about a few weeks ago nigel faraj in the u. K. Had a milkshake thrown on him so that became a big thing became a sort of protest thing about throwing milkshakes you know promo checks on all the not. So a group had brought them there and giving these good milkshakes by the way these are big and milkshakes. There were reports that were brought in that were sent in during the protests of the portland t. V. That said that these little liberal protestors connected to and you saw were handing out milkshakes laced with quick dry cement to throw it. So it turned out thats not true there was no quick dry cement they never found one and the problem with that as that these things were being handed out and people were drinking it was part of a shake back the streets people were drinking the milk shake so if you would put it. Like. There were times that people films people had them thrown in their face with andy no heres the thing this is someone who in a sweater bio says and if i hate. He goes to these and he puts himself in situations where hes filming them and hes in the middle of these sayings and like i said theres many you get the same reactions whenever he goes there to do at his gig as he shows up they dont like he says hes allowed to be there the whole thing happened but when you look at this i mean i dont see the point of this what does this tell anyone does that suddenly make an. Do andy know who suddenly everything he writes is pointless and oh my gosh who is ever going to follow him again it just it all of it feels so childish and when you watch the video of a bunch of these quote unquote intifada protesters which heres my thing about that i never trust a Grassroots Political Organization or any kind of movement that comes out of nowhere and most everybody involved with that is wearing a mask because ive read and ive done my research on the cia doing that in the fiftys and sixtys and seventys to everyone from you know black power movements to students organizations and the fact that youre out there doing that and purposely saying i am going to cause problems makes me believe more than nothing more than anything else that these people out there are there to cause a problem to make a political point. Because they may be part of Something Else and im mad thats right everyone the proud boy and whatever are meant to all of it theres something not right about any of these organizations extreme islam versus extremism isnt going to solve any problems at the end of the day i think you made a great point tablets like you know throwing milkshakes and throwing all this stuff on this on this writer and king about like i said thats not going to change his views thats not going to change that was really you know and the one thing that gets me that if im sorry we talked about earlier you made a great point to me earlier that i have to commend you for is i dont see them out in soup lines given out soup to the homeless i dont see and make in peoples lives better did the black panthers at the only time i see and depose busy when theyre dressed in black causing a ruckus at a protest now they did do some good things theyve done some good things like protecting people during a protest the got heated but i dont see them doing in thing outside of it all i see is just extremism met with extreme is that people fighting each other in the streets while believed to have to try to figure it out doesnt going to solve this worlds problems im sorry all right as we go to break walk watchers dont forget to let us know what you think of the topics with cover a place for you tube or twitter and be sure to check out watching the box the podcast. Apple music and everywhere listen to your podcast and of course of course do not forget to see our poll shows about dot com coming up we delve into the world of the corporate hijacking of grass roots with author and journalist jason say to those who are watching. This is a stakeout from the water bottle found in the stomach of the fish the brand is part of the Cocacola Company which sells millions of bottles of soda every day the idea was that lets tell consumers theyre the bad ones theyre the litter bugs. Throwing this away industry should be blamed for all this waste the company has long promised to reuse the plastic. Onto. The seats do cookouts lose excuse. That seems cool sets for something their class is christie closely on my end only stay on your own as that special projects funding me. Close on im your best bet is the end of a footy team the fun now in the mountains of waste only grow higher. Prices metaphysic means prices and they ship. Its as a scale of Natural Disaster and gunther strike malaysia. This may bring to this. Is unusual here in japan. For the problem of you say a group of substances which are the other being so flush that governments and International Organizations do not have enough time to change gradually. What politicians do something to. Put themselves on the line to get accepted or rejected. So when you want to be president. Or some want to. Have to go right to be cross this is what it looks like 3 in the morning cant be good. Im interested always in the waters about how. This should. As we speak large organize care of our own the march to the United States. And a player coming out for a caring. You know swears remained sitting down. This is a virtually. Of our country. That are. Going to feel you know what. The night. She will do. The United States of america was built on a Grassroots Movement watchers what started as a small grassroots set of demonstrations against over taxation grew into a Boston Tea Party and then evolved into a full on revolution that eventually saw the birth of a brand new country but Grassroots Movements for change the United States didnt end in 776 from the fight for unions and womens rights in the 1800s to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950 s. And sixtys to the 21st century is occupy wall street in black lives matter Grassroots Movements are an interval of an fabric of u. S. Political history one could argue that they are one of the purest forms of political expression but what happens when a Grassroots Movement is coopted by the very power as it seeks to change or even worse was started by those very powers and order to influence Public Opinion in favor of a corrupt government or corporation well thats called astroturfing and it is one of the many famous journalists. For an author jason business explores and his new book fake politics how corporate and government groups create and maintain a monopoly on truth and he joins us today now from new york city to take us down the rabbit hole a fake politics thank you for joining us jason thanks for having me yes jason i think just so people get my view of what this is what what is astroturfing when you see it in politics and can you give our audience sort of a real world example of that youve seen used in our political system. Will typically rather than simply throwing money at a campaign or doing a lot of the things that wealthy people do to influence politics that they would like to see come to fruition this really set up of a much Deeper Network of advocacy it could be think tanks that are often cited in studies that are conveniently towards one goal thats when the more common things. The examples range from a single issue big tobacco trying to delay the regulation too big or sustained campaigns like the Koch Brothers pretty much holding back climate legislation for going on 2 decades. So you mentioned major corporations have also used this sort of astroturf and to push their agenda you brought up the idea of tobacco corporations but how does that work in a in a corporate world and and who are besides a big tobacco who are some of the biggest offenders. Big tobacco definitely is very good at what they do. Gas Companies Walmart had instance in the book its basically i mean you got to keep mind you ever breaking the law but its greatly dishonest it can be through p. R. Companies it can be through blogs but its easier now than ever because the internet has democratized information. And thats whats so interesting is that its so simple i think im a people dont get is that theyre their own ideas that you think kind of what grew up in your own head largo are kind of support this right really like this it could be something thats completely influenced by these kind of behind the scenes operators and youre suddenly now joining like a like a sort of Political Movement or you know or getting information that is completely true that that is being used to influence your politics at the end of the day i dont im curious are these types of influencing operations exclusive to you know one i mean we have the 2 party tragically a 2 party system here in the United States but are these kind of things exclusive to one Political Party or the other or their offenders on the whole spectrum of politics here. I dont think its a party specific thing in my book openly there are a couple examples that are right of center but thats because the Koch Brothers and. The mercers are particularly wealthy and had particular views they wanted to see enacted but they also typically you know wealthier people do tend to vote right of center as well so that it deb creates a connection but it really isnt one specific side and when you say how scary it is to not be to find it it took me months to research this book so in a day to day life trying to get work done trying to live your life these are the kind of things youre not going to realize are impacting Decision Making both for individuals and in washington. No weve seen that is whats interesting is is that weve seen this in certain kinds of government situations. In which you know certain ideas get pushed forward certain things become a much more important thing in the in the process or in the media than they do they seem to be to the rest of us in real life is this one of those situations where you know you turn on the news and theyre saying americans are so worried about x. Y. And z. And yet you cant find any people who actually care about that is that kind of where this pulls in is making an issue seem like your neighbors are more upset about it than they really are. I dont know if ive done these to these examples of that actually know that thats incorrect i mean people talking about. Different reasons for your neighbors arent as concerned about x. Theyre concerned about gas prices so it usually is to a bigger thing theres a bigger. Set of ideals at mind but the bigger thing is that theres an agenda to be had and often 1 on the contrary they wanted to be under the radar as possible they dont want the news talking about it because if you do the digging that i have the time to do youre going to find that all these organizations happened to have donations from one group and so in sort of writing and researching the book was there any instance you found of a specific kind of manipulation a specific instance of astroturfing that even you were surprised or or couldnt believe was actually a w