German who lives in Melbourne. We got straight into lockdown, everyone wore masks, followed the rules and we went from 700 to 40 in 2 weeks and now down to 7 and nearly ready to reopen. It's the one time being on a distant island with capital cities 1000km apart is beneficial. Also Governments across the aisle co-ordinated and helped each other in a cordial manner.

"No one has a good management strategy..." I'm in Vietnam right now and would like to have a word.

What puzzles me is the mass psychology that lead to mass refusal to wear masks? I feel as if I'm in the Branch Davidian Compound on a national scale. Mark & Carrie: excellent work and stay safe!

TY Mark, you made me laugh like I haven't lately. At aprox 10:30-11:30, I think you said Trump did 8 yrs of work in a 4 yr term. Now that's an understatement. Mercy to us all. lol.

Thank God Ur back

Galileo would be banned by social media

Can we have the webcams again next time?

Why have they stopped video on these productions? It was great seeing the reactions as well as the voices

This podcast is so nice

"Swapping the hard core Catholics for gay Catholics" eh, Mark ? Isn't that a win win ?

I am surprised Mark didn't mention the new Bretton Woods, though I feel its either a big deal or just the IMF blowing hot air.

I am glad I am not the only one sick of election ready to move on I hope it is not close enough for to much dispute. I live in Florida where guns are probably number one issue why Democrats can't break through. If Republicans ever carry through with their threats to cut entitlement spending it might wake some people up. I think when Miami slips into the sea and all the cubans move to the village s that might help. Probably be too late by then.

Still no video. :(

Regional locks down are exactly what happened in Australia as well.

As usual an interesting discussion. If it is of interest to you I would like to hear an exploration of the reasons behind The Middle Kingdom's continued expansion into areas previously untouched by Chinese interests ie. the Caribbean, Africa, South China Sea domination, sparring with Japan, the call to arms for China to prepare for war, and the quiet incursions into municipal politics in various countries of the world. Do you suppose this is because with climate change, desertification in China, is becoming a larger and larger problem for the Chinese populace? It is hard to make the desert bloom, even with a celebrated Silk Road.

Can’t believe your excuse for Hunter and his dad’s dirty dealings is ‘well they’re no worse than any other elite family’. Is this really the best we can do?

hey ...we want to see the guitars..!!

The point with Hunter isn't that he's had a rough time of it and had unlimited funds or taken advantage of the family name to get more funds, I personally couldn't imagine all that he's been through. Mark, the problem is that his father happens to have an outspoken hypocritical view on how to treat people who aren't his son. What's worse is he also acted on that and ruined the lives of countless families, overwhelmingly people who aren't white but ultimately anyone who doesn't have enough money for a lawyer or a Senator for a father. Sure, Rudy and most of the republicans aren't coming at Biden from that angle. They are more focused on some gotcha than pointing out the hypocrisy because them and Biden have long since championed those same authoritarian punishment and control policies. The issue is that democrats and media figures immediately jump on the fact the source of the info is acting on bad faith instead of pointing attention to the hypocrisy. Weeks from the election Biden FINALLY just mentioned addiction shouldn't be a crime. And it was after this NY post story. This is more evidence that democrats shouldn't keep their heads in the sand pretending that Biden is something other than a hypocritical, habitually lying racist just because they hate Trump. They end up hurting their own cause in the long run because firstly, republican voter's will see this hypocrisy and blind loyalty and, rightfully, view the democrats as empty, bad faith actors and secondly, hitting Biden with these issues might force him to address them or even alter his stance on them. Trump could actually be beaten at the same time while forcing Biden to confront the horror he has caused by him making up for it by championing good policy.

US and Europe depend on China because big business wanted cheap labor and people shop at Walmart. The US and Europe have enough diversity and resources to be self sufficient. It is also true that we are stuck in a cycle of consumerism. Why do we always need new cars? We buy too many clothes and don't eat enough good food.

The Uyghur issue is manufactured by western intelligence agencies and the various human rights NGOs that they fund teaming up with religious extremists in exile from Xinjiang. If there was anything close to the oppression described happening you would see at least hundred of thousands, if not millions, of refugees fleeing to neighboring countries. China has a very strong surveillance and security apparatus in Xinjiang but they are not trying to wipe out Uyghur culture. China is quite good about including instruction in minority languages in schools in majority-minority regions. There are still mosques where Muslims can pray but the imams aren't fundamentalist enough for the exiles. Women can still wear headscarves but the exiles want it to be mandatory. Women can get access to abortion and birth control and the exiles claim it is being forced because they would completely ban abortion and birth control.

Not all working class white males support The Donald. I will vote for my own best interest.

This podcast is way too short. An hour would be much better.

We need to see the dog.

Should be on NPR

The Uyghur issue is largely manufactured by western media. That's why it's not worked out on the international level. Almost all major Muslim countries picked the side of China, apart from Turkey. I think Carrie's view on this is quite West-central that US and its allies MUST do something while the rest of the world already looked closely and carefully examined. Again, Mark mentions Sweden that always brought up on talk recently in topics related to the model of dealing Covid-19. But Sweden hasn't done a great job. Their excessive death rate is high compared to its nordic neighbors. They literally gave up on old people for god sake! How is that a model for the other developed countries? I just don't understand. Unless Mark has some sort of fetish toward Swedes.

i wish they would talk about new zealand more ... sigh....

Every family has a loser? Better to say every tree has its sap.

Jezuz H hecking Christ, the British approach is for the Tories to shift blame to the people, the US approach is for the federal government to blame the states AND mess it up with libertarian hoo haw. OK? Both approaches being predicated on the massive, relative failure of both gubments relative to germany, Korea etc. Very unimpressive chat.

Hey! Why wouldn't you (Mark Blyth) ever say "Go Sweden!" ?

Carrie have been Drinking Again And I Don't blame Her.

More dog talk is the way to go.

Mark ignores the whole East Asia region that has shown "successful strategies" with COVID, the other lady continues to be just a "CNN politologist" parrotting mainstream press takes. What a disappointment this thing is.

Blyth gets worse every time they release one of these things. I cut it off midway through, and I suspect this'll be the last one I ever bother to watch. I guess Blyth needs to toss in an irrelevant "Clinton called them deplorable" tagline reflexively. But if you want to see the demographic core of the Trump cult, it's not so much "the white working class" as it is the white petite bourgeoisie -- tradesmen, guys who own snowmobile dealerships, etc. Watch -- at some point in the next few months or years Blyth is going to toss off some passing admission that, oops, turns out that "Trump cult" and "white working class" are *not* synonymous. It'll come in the middle of some smug remarks about, say, the proper way to do particle physics -- kinda like the ridiculous performance he put on last time, as instant expert on the human immune system.