Weak State: How the Coronavirus Pandemic Exposed America’s Dysfunctional Democracy

The Intercept Briefing

The Intercept

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.7 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 22 July 2020

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As Donald Trump promises the pandemic will “disappear,” the U.S. simultaneously grapples with a public health disaster, economic collapse, and a social crisis. This week on Intercepted: The Intercept’s Murtaza Hussain is joined by military expert and anthropologist David Kilcullen. He discusses the global national security implications unleashed by the coronavirus and the decline in U.S. dominance and the liberal international system. Kilcullen also examines the catastrophic consequences that could come from rising tensions within the country and between the U.S. and China. Hussain is also joined by Indian writer Pankaj Mishra, author of many books, including,“From the Ruins of Empire: The Intellectuals Who Remade Asia.” Mishra lays out how the rise of free market ideology in the U.S. and Britain has undermined democracy and diminished social protections for ordinary people. He dismisses the idea of a Joe Biden administration as any departure from the status quo and describes how hope lies in the power of nonviolent social movements.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And hello again from Fox News in Washington today from the White House. Thank you very much. How
0:06.1	do you hear Mr. President? It's hot. It's about a little sort of almost record break. You know who
0:12.1	is more competent? Who's got whose mind is sounder? I don't beat you in that. Well I tell what,
0:18.8	let's take a test. Let's take a test right now. Let's go. Here it comes. Hello, Mrs.
0:25.5	Most exciting. A lot of fantastic prizes. Welcome to the price is right. First item up for
0:32.7	bids and the price is right. So shower heads, you take a shower, the water doesn't come out.
0:37.6	You want to wash your hands, the water doesn't come out. Dish washers, you didn't have any water,
0:42.8	so the people that do the dishes, you press it and it goes again and you do it again and again.
0:50.5	So you might as well give them the water because you'll end up using less water. So we made it
0:55.5	so dish washes now have a lot more water but 199 they were telling me in some cases lower than that.
1:06.9	Well it's not the hardest task. No, but the last picture and it's the last shot and it's an
1:10.8	alumnus. No, no, no. You see that's qualm is represented.
1:28.3	This is intercepted.
1:41.6	I'm Mordez Alessane, a writer at the intercept and this is episode 139 of Intercepted.
1:50.7	I'm sitting in for Jeremy's gay heel this week.
1:53.0	If Americans keep dying, are you responsible for that?
1:56.5	Well, the virus will disappear. It will disappear. I think that I always like to say as you know,
2:02.7	either way when you look at it, the governors are working with me. I'm working with a governor.
2:07.2	We're working hand in hand. I think we're all responsible. I view it as a team.
2:12.0	Very good relationships with the governors. Very, very good relationships. I could say I'm fully
2:17.7	responsible but you know, one day we had a virus come in.
2:27.0	The COVID-19 pandemic has been an asset test for the modern American way of life.
	...

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