Just Dew It

0:00 Sailors are sissies. Adam Curry. It's Thursday, 08/20/2026.

0:05 This is your award winning Gitmo Nation Media Assassination episode eighteen ninety six.

0:10 This

0:11 is No Agenda.

0:13 And hello in the morning to you Gitmo Nation. This is No Agenda episode eighteen ninety six.

0:19 And it's been a bit stormy around here.

0:23 Trolls in the troll room in the morning to you.

0:26 Man, John's passing that just so much changed. It's been exactly a month and a day.

0:33 And wow, so much so much to do, so much going on. I really

0:40 really

0:40 appreciate

0:42 what Darren and Larry did for the past six shows. Thank you guys so much

0:47 for steering the ship.

0:49 I've been just trying to figure out what to do and

0:54 honestly prayed a lot about it and I'm currently keeping my eyes on Jesus just to move forward and I figured out the best way to do anything with this show is

1:05 to reach out to Gitmo Nation and Gitmo Nation responded

1:09 and today as a special guest on the show in the morning to Sir Duchess, Knight of the No Agenda round table, Rob Du.

1:17 In the morning everyone,

1:19 it's great to be here. I got I got the text last night as I was getting out of the car and, I already have a crazy day. So why not add more to that day? Man, I appreciate I appreciate you jumping on it. That's that's so awesome. Now,

1:32 why don't you for for people who don't know Sir Duchess, if you've never been to any of the Austin area or the Hill Country meetups,

1:39 you've been a knight for gosh. I don't know how long you've been a knight.

1:45 Let's

1:46 see. It was the the

1:48 episode where you I think it was a six hour show and you guys gave the

1:53 half off deal for Knights. Oh, wait. You're you're discount

1:56 you're one of those discount Knights.

1:58 I'm I'm a discount Knight. But I I have given more since then. But yes, I was a discount Knight and that was a long that was one of your first, I think,

2:07 a good four and a half, five hour show that Yeah. You guys were reading

2:11 Yeah. Notes from people and and,

2:13 you know, I think that was the first of many shows like that. I believe that was either the ten year anniversary or the one thousandth episode. I can't remember. One one of those two.

2:24 Yeah.

2:25 And And so, you know, when I think about it, I remember putting together my PayPal link and everything and I I was sitting

2:34 in a airport.

2:35 We're on a trip with

2:38 at the time working for InfoWars

2:40 and

2:41 I'm putting this together and I'm writing my note and I'm like, oh, this note's gotta be good because I'm I'm gonna be at night and

2:47 and I put it all together and sent it off with literally like like fifteen minutes to spare before midnight and, you know, and it's it's been

2:56 I've also I've been a frequent visitor to North Idaho. I've done two North Idaho sanity brigades. Oh, with the Scott the happened to be,

3:05 exactly,

3:06 they happened to be

3:08 Sir Scott the Jew. They happened to be up in where I go snowboarding

3:12 in the wintertime. So I'm always like, hey, I'm coming up. Can you do a meet up? Oh, nice. Oh, that's excellent. Oh, you know, a lot of people have said I should probably have

3:20 Sir Scott the Jew on the show. I guess that North Idaho show is is is doing okay. People are talking about it a lot.

3:30 Yeah. I've I've even tuned into it a couple times.

3:32 Mainly just, you know, I'm I kinda like Idaho. It's a a pretty cool state. Although they are getting, you know, the influx of California people out from

3:42 going into Boise. But the rest of the state is is really

3:46 chill down to earth people. Yeah.

3:48 Yeah. I should probably warn everybody that every single clip, everything you hear today, every news report,

3:55 everything and I mean everything

3:58 is directly related to the midterm elections.

4:01 There is nothing that isn't being abused,

4:04 isn't being taken apart, isn't being highlighted

4:08 to

4:10 for for the midterms. Everybody's

4:12 got there and of course the the M5M is doing their best. I do have I do have one question for you before we get into some clips.

4:20 So our

4:22 have an 11 year old refrigerator,

4:24 like a KitchenAid.

4:26 And

4:27 so the ice maker stopped working

4:30 And, you know, I did my own my little get the get the Gemini

4:34 AI app out, say okay, help me debug this,

4:38 you know, and three hours later I've taken half the thing apart and then, I don't know, you should probably call it a repairman. So I called the guy set it up with, I think it's Sears.

4:48 And the guy comes out and he says, well, you know, there's something you're gonna need a new door, whatever.

4:53 But he said, but, you know, you you

4:56 could get a new one, but you really should go for the door. I said, why? I said, because ever since right after COVID,

5:03 all the refrigerators

5:04 have changed to a new refrigeration system.

5:08 And if you have and this is what the Sears guy is telling me. He says,

5:12 is you should look it up. It's an upgrade. If well, no. The upgrade is they blow up.

5:19 Oh. Wow. Yeah. And Yeah. That's that's quite a feature. He says go look at it on YouTube. And it's and it's true. There's people with the doors blown off. There's, you know, the the half of their kitchen has exploded.

5:30 I'm like, what is this all? He said, no, man. If if you're gonna get a new one, get an old new one. So you hadn't heard about this?

5:38 I had not. And when I moved what's interesting, when I moved into my first house in Austin, we bought one in '99 and the people that were moving out were like, we're gonna leave you the refrigerator.

5:48 And and they were like talking up this refrigerator, it looked just like, you know, just a rectangle. It was a basic refrigerator. No ice maker, no water, no nothing. But he said, we had a repairman come out and look at it and he said, this refrigerator is so well insulated. He's like, never replace it, just keep fixing it. And and we left it with the people that bought our house when we sold it. Apparently

6:11 Years later. Apparently yeah.

6:13 That's that's the way to go. I just learned this. Yeah. And I'm looking it up on YouTube and sure enough, there's some lady, you know, oh, look at my fridge and the whole whole kitchen's been blowed up. So any

6:22 any refrigerator people out there in Gitmo Nation, I'd love to know what what is going on.

6:27 We got to now, I I love My refrigerator just bleeds water from time to time. It'll just bleed it out from underneath like it's just like it's dying. It's like, ugh. And you're like, ugh. At least you have towels underneath it. And then finally my wife's like, we need a new fridge. But we

6:40 I'm trying to think when we bought ours. I think it was we didn't move till after 2021.

6:46 So to the new house out in out in Driftwood. No. And you And you're out in Driftwood We might be we might be due for an explosion. You're out in Driftwood with what, like 18 children you got out there? I mean, you got a whole compound, whole family. Yeah.

6:59 I got I got four four kids and each one of them, you know, two of them drive now, which is great.

7:05 I guess if, you know, you like paying for car insurance. Yeah. Exactly.

7:11 And that's one of the that is one of the things we make them do. We're like, you guys have to pay for your own car insurance. And, you know, get a job. If you wanna drive and you want a car, you know, you gotta pay for your own car insurance and, you know, we'll cover, you know, everything else. And

7:24 but, you know, two are older and then two are younger. And the two younger ones, we

7:29 they're they're they're closer in age and we call them the grunions.

7:33 They're a boy and a girl. I have a younger girl. I've met so So I got three boys and a girl. But yeah. Excellent. Yeah. It's a it's a lot of fun.

7:42 Every every,

7:43 you know, every adventure that you could have, you know, I've had with those kids. Tell me about it. It's a lot fun. Tell me. It never ends with the kids. So the first thing that's just I think Yeah. Darren and Larry talked about this,

7:55 if not on the previous show, maybe even the show before that, but I got some boots on the ground to talk about it. This is the unbelievable

8:01 stinking Lincoln story. Welcome back. Just about the bottom of the hour. So we've got some new reporting first here on MS Now about the brutally demanding conditions that service members are facing overseas

8:12 as we wait for some resolution to the war with Iran.

8:15 MS Now spoke with a dozen sailors,

8:19 of sailors and marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln,

8:22 who say they're extremely concerned about the morale, safety, and conditions

8:27 on that ship. The 5,000 person crew has been at sea for nine straight months and engaged in combat operations since the beginning of the war against Iran all the way back in February.

8:40 Many family members describe their kids or spouses telling them about nonoperational toilets,

8:45 moldy showers,

8:46 laundry facilities that were broken for weeks,

8:49 and extended periods with no hot water for showering.

8:52 The family say their loved ones have described food shortages and standing in line at the ship's store for an hour or more,

9:00 even while it often lacks

9:01 basic supplies like toothpaste, soap,

9:05 and deodorant. Oh, no.

9:08 When I when I heard this I mean, first of I I remember going to Iraq in 2003 with the Dutch marines.

9:15 And I'll tell you that I remember the hygiene

9:19 situation was not great and it was a US base.

9:23 You know, the one toilet was working, there was one other one if you had, you know, diarrhea, you go on that toilet

9:30 and there are these bags that you take showers in.

9:35 60%

9:36 of them didn't have hot water. The rest were all kind of slimy and scummy and, you know, it's like that's You know, you think if you're in the desert, you put a black bag you put a black bag somewhere to collect, you know, with water in it and it heats it up. That's what you do in your camping. You know, you just you switch to that mode. Well, and that's that's kind of the point is like, you know, this is a war situation

9:56 and like, what is going on with all this? So of course, they, you know, this is obviously a war that is not popular as if any war is popular. War the war of choice by president Trump

10:08 and

10:09 and obviously,

10:10 everything's being misrepresented

10:12 by our secretary of war, Hagstaff. Welcome in. Senate Democrats are demanding answers about conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Interesting. Only the Democrats are I mean, there you go. Midterms right away. Carrier stationed in the middle. No one cares. Mister Richard Blumenthal says the carrier has been deployed for two hundred and fifty days and has not come ashore in more than two hundred days, setting a record. There are reports of problems onboard the ship, and two US officials confirmed to CBS News

10:41 that a sailor from the USS Lincoln went overboard and was recovered safely.

10:46 Defense secretary Pete Hegseth says the reports of conditions onboard are completely misrepresented.

10:52 Completely misrepresented.

10:54 Because we make sure that

10:57 every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment. Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more

11:06 respect

11:07 and gratitude for those sailors

11:09 than

11:10 anybody. What they do in those high seas and those austere conditions with less port calls is incredible.

11:17 Americans don't understand what it's like to do that. So as

11:21 as someone who's

11:22 been not been on a ship like that, but been on long deployments, I feel it. I want them home as soon as everybody else do. I want folks rotating as quickly as possible. I want the best for them. My my commanders know that. Our service secretaries know that. The president expects that. And so to to that crew and to all those crews, we're gonna do everything we can for you. And we are so grateful

11:43 for their dedication of that crew and others. They've held the line for the country and they've done fantastic stuff.

11:49 So we got there we have several. We got a lot we yeah?

11:54 Well, he did a good job of shifting the focus there of, you know, thanking the troops instead of, you know, looking at what what people were saying. I've seen some videos though of of some of the soldiers, like, how dirt dirty it is. I'm like, you know, I lived in apartments that were dirtier than that, bro. It doesn't look that bad.

12:11 You know, clean up after yourself.

12:15 You know, like the toil look, I've seen some toilets. You ever go to Burning Man, you open up one of these porta potties, you will see a mountain of feces popping out of the toilet. That's how gross it is. And I didn't see anything like that in any of these videos. So to me, if it's not even up to the Burning Man standard of grossness, it you know, you could probably survive.

12:32 So we got a a boots on the ground from one of our naval aviators

12:38 who I know personally, so I'd I'd take this

12:41 that high confidence to be true. Here's what he says. First, the longer you're in the navy, the better you get at complaining. Everyone complains on deployment, which

12:50 makes sense. Some complain because of issues experienced and some complain just for the sake of complaining. Bottom line, if you complain and have a legitimate concern, try to have it addressed at the correct level

13:01 in your COC instead of wanking to your family and then them taking it directly to M5M.

13:07 Keep in mind, nobody actively serving on the Lincoln has any context

13:12 of what the situation actually is. It's all hearsay and some some videos and some posts. Second,

13:18 every sailor aboard has a mailing address.

13:21 You can very easily mail them whatever they require. Ship, store, has a very limited selection of products to choose from. Very simple to go to Walmart, procure the items the sailor actually wants, mail it to him. You can also mail food if you want, so the complaint of running out of things such as soap and toothbrushes

13:38 could be easily overcome if the sailor simply ask his or her family to mail the stuff to him. Third, deployments

13:44 are the opposite of fun.

13:46 This is like, yeah, if this is a war situation.

13:50 Sure. After all is said and done, you have some good stories and experiences to reflect on fondly, but being on a huge boat for months for months on end doing the same job every single day regardless of weather or time of day is monotonous.

14:02 Flight operations on a flight deck is also an extremely dangerous and unforgiving job. Some people just can't adapt to that kind of environment.

14:10 You can't just up and quit on the spot like you can with a civilian job, so I'd imagine some folks feel trapped.

14:16 Female sailors can get a free trip back home more easily than than male sailors.

14:21 All they have to do is get pregnant and boom, you're on your way back home.

14:24 The male sailors can't get pregnant, can't just quit without having any repercussions. So I imagine the person who caused the man overboard was looking for a way to get back home as soon as possible

14:34 or had some pretty significant mental issues going on or a combination of both. Man overboard drills happen all the time to test the crew's ability to quickly determine who is the missing person so they can positively identify who they're looking for once they locate that missing person.

14:49 These these like he's he's like he's writing a report for me. These drills are a huge pain in the ass Very nice. But when it happens for real, the drills dump demonstrate

14:57 their value.

14:59 And then fourth,

15:00 unlivable conditions.

15:02 Showers and toilets break all the time. Being on a warship in a war zone is not like living at a Marriott resort.

15:09 Much better than being in a tent or a foxhole though because your rack is always dry and you're not under threat of an enemy storming into your living quarters. The ship's company completes a rigid cleaning schedule daily and is responsible for the maintenance upkeep of the equipment and the spaces. Is there likely mold somewhere on a shower curtain or essentially a floating city? Sure. Is the crew responsible for this? Yes. Everyone can do better, but this issue is addressed at the deck plate leadership level and not broadcast all over the news.

15:38 So he says,

15:39 this is exactly what we started the show with. This is just

15:43 to make Trump look bad.

15:46 The war's no good and no wars are good, obviously.

15:50 And actually this was

15:52 Much ado about nothing.

15:54 Pretty much. I mean, you know, we have to have respect for

15:58 for our men and women in uniform because man,

16:01 you know, it's a tough gig and certainly for nine months Mhmm. You know, this this is not easy. Here's

16:09 I think this is some got some veterans. Well, I've got a I just got a boots on the ground report. Okay. I got a boots on from a from a veteran. He was in Vietnam as my father-in-law actually, Earl,

16:19 who is who's listening now.

16:21 I was in Vietnam for eight months, slept in a punt pup tent for three months during the rainy monsoon season.

16:27 Period.

16:28 Sailors are sissies.

16:31 CBS News Senior National Security Correspondent, Charlie Dagata joining us now. So Charlie, what do we know about the conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln?

16:40 Yeah. Juliet, it's been described as austere.

16:42 Austere. These sailors and marines have been at sea for a number of months. We'll get into that in a moment. But where the alarm bells started ringing Hold on. Was Hold on. Who describes a a giant ship as austere?

16:54 Like CBS News. Like, no.

16:57 Exactly.

16:58 Yeah.

16:59 From the parents Alright. Good of these sailors and marines who started saying, well, you know, they've been there for a long time. They may not be getting the kind of rations or food that they want. More importantly, they're worried about the the mental health of these individuals because I I wanna point out that when you have an aircraft carrier like that, and I've been on that aircraft carrier, the Abe Lincoln, when you have it at sea, it's a different thing when it's at sea and it's at war because

17:25 this aircraft carrier was supposed to go to the Pacific, and it had. It then turned right to go to the Middle East. It found itself in the middle of a an active kinetic conflict zone. It has come under attack repeatedly

17:38 defending those attacks. But when you're when you're in a conflict zone like that where you've got, these fighter jets taking off from the deck, you're looking at twelve, eighteen hour days constantly pushing these out, and that is going to have a fatigue element on the airframes

17:55 themselves, the the aircraft carrier,

17:58 and the personnel. And that's what's raised alarm bells among, again, the parents, the families of these sailors and marines on board saying this is a long deployment.

18:07 Mhmm. It's it's wearing down on the individuals who are part of that deployment, and that's what rang

18:12 alarm bells. So the Military Times

18:16 had a report that

18:18 one individual

18:19 had tried to jump overboard.

18:22 As we reported and we confirmed,

18:25 there was a rescue of somebody who had gone overboard. We're not inferring that, that was intentional,

18:30 but there was a rescue there. And that is why we're paying attention to the Abraham Lincoln. Now we spoke to the Navy. The Navy said the marines and and sailors onboard are fully equipped whatever they with whatever they need to continue these operations. But, again, I have to drill down. This is Drill down. Not a normal deployment. This this isn't an aircraft carrier at sea. This is an aircraft carrier that's currently engaged in a war against Iran. Okay. Reasonably

18:56 fair. So they bring in a couple of veterans.

18:59 Joining me now from Honolulu,

19:01 Hawaii

19:02 is retired US Navy captain Carl Schuster. He's the former director of operations

19:07 at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center Pacific.

19:11 Captain, great to see you.

19:13 You are

19:14 a

19:15 veteran with decades in the navy. What's your initial reaction when you hear that

19:21 any ship has been at sea for more than two hundred fifty days? I think it's it's exceptionally

19:26 difficult for the crew.

19:28 I never did more than ninety days at sea, and I can tell you the minute you pass the sixty day mark, you're

19:35 you're feeling tired of the deployment.

19:38 It's not unusual. Certainly in my day, we had one or two guys try to jump overboard at about the fifty to sixty day mark.

19:46 Being at sea on a carrier, particularly in a strict conflict

19:51 situation,

19:52 it's very intense.

19:53 It places a very heavy psychological

19:56 stress on you and physical,

19:58 particularly for the guys in the propulsion

20:00 spaces

20:01 and the guys on the flight deck. Their work is very intense, very hard, and very stressful, and life in some cases very dangerous.

20:10 And everyone eventually reaches a breaking point.

20:14 So we shouldn't condemn these guys.

20:17 We should thank them for their service and give them all the help we can to get through

20:22 the stress and situations they felt.

20:25 You know, unlike

20:27 your dad Earl, ITM Earl,

20:30 you know, that was a crazy war where it was like, what are we doing? And this is

20:36 this is a war,

20:37 the way I see it, to to reset the oil structure

20:41 of the entire world. It's not even really for us.

20:45 And to reset the pricing of oil.

20:49 But it's a real war and you know, there's real danger involved. And and then what all we're talking about is toothpaste and soap and

20:56 it's

20:57 it's the oddest thing. And, of course, the president weighed in when he was asked about it. Go ahead. Mister mister president, is there enough is there enough food on the USS Lincoln? Yeah. It is. That was a that was a CNN fake report.

21:09 The Lincoln has been

21:11 out there,

21:13 for a period of time good period of time. But over the years, we've had him out there much longer. I was at a group,

21:20 meeting and an admiral came up to see me over the weekend.

21:23 And it was at a big group, and he happened to be an admiral retired.

21:27 He said, I've been on ships that are out there much longer than that, sir. And I know people on the Lincoln, they say it's beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.

21:37 And other people went out and they found out to be true. It was fake news reporting from CNN. Starting There you go. It's a big beautiful ship. It's fake news. Fake news. And is how long is too long?

21:53 Well, no. That ship is moving. No. They're not. That ship is moving right now or very shortly, and it's being replaced with another very similar ship. Has the deployment gone on too long before No. No. No. Not

22:05 nearly long enough. Thank you, everybody.

22:09 Not nearly long enough.

22:11 And here is we need them out there longer. Yeah. Here's the the navy secretary. Families of service members from USS Abraham Lincoln strike group are voicing their concerns over mental health and safety conditions aboard the aircraft carrier.

22:24 It's after multiple reported attempts by crew members to jump overboard.

22:28 The USS Lincoln has been deployed for nearly nine months after it was redirected to support US operations with the war with Iran. Yesterday, president Donald Trump answered questions about the extended deployment.

22:41 That ship is moving right now or very shortly, and it's being replaced with another very similar ship. Deployment's gone on too long before No. No. No. Not

22:51 nearly long enough.

22:54 Acting secretary of the navy, Hong Kong, releasing a statement too, saying the media has tried to paint the soldiers on board as victims,

23:02 saying, quote, there's no question our young men and women have been pushed to their limits, but they have never broken.

23:07 It's clear knowing the whole story, our force, and their families are not victims. They are the epitome of American strength and resilience.

23:14 Now, of course, I'm here in Fredericksburg,

23:17 home of Admiral Nimitz, so I can't really get on board with the all sailors are sissies.

23:22 My grandfather was a lieutenant commander

23:25 in the South Pacific.

23:27 He was gone for years.

23:29 He, you know, he ran one of those crappy horrible bases on the islands.

23:34 So respect to all of them. But this is just about making Trump look bad, making the war look bad, which it is.

23:40 No doubt about it. Wars are no good. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And and any anything you could find to to augment that. And I I go back to these videos that they sent out. The toilets looked a little dirty. The showers looked maybe there's some mold in the corners, but you know, I got mold in the corner of my shower at home and it's not

23:58 the end of the world.

24:00 I'm not taking a shower at your place, Rob.

24:03 What did you did you Just a little bit in the corner. Yeah. Sure. What did you bring? You brought all kinds of You know what? I just

24:10 I brought all kinds of clothes, but I just found one. When hearing about all these, you know, people jumping off, I'm gonna send you this and we could we could play a couple of these other clips. And I don't really have anything about the war necessarily.

24:24 Yeah. I'm looking through my

24:27 yeah. But we there's this marine drill instructor video

24:31 and it's this

24:34 marine drill instructor that kinda looks like

24:37 the the actress who became an actor

24:41 who's real small, I forget her

24:43 forget her name but she played one of the x men at one point.

24:46 And this drill instructor looks like

24:49 a

24:52 like real skinny and talking about if you feel bad, you know, let us know if we're mean to you. And this is the marines. This isn't the I'm I'm sending it to you now. I don't know if you'll get this, if you

25:03 you do get this, I just put

25:05 a gibberish headline in there, but I just sent it to the foobar

25:08 Mhmm. Email.

25:10 I didn't put the whole thing out there so no one else will will spam you. But but when you hear this drill instructor talk, you're like,

25:17 oh my god. This is this what's this is the mindset that's in our military and it's, you know, social justice warrior out the wazoo.

25:25 And, you know, I have nothing against I think I love our men and women in military. I'm glad they're out there doing this stuff. But there is such a thing as

25:34 too much whining.

25:35 And,

25:36 you know, I I think older people put up with a lot more because we didn't have all the comforts that people have now. You know, when we were younger, it it was drink out of the water hose, you know, it wasn't it it it wasn't,

25:47 you're gonna have filtered water and here's your ice and, you know How old how old are you, Rob? Here's your How old are you? Your wheelchair.

25:55 I'm I'm 52, so I've been I've been around Alright. I've been around the eighties and nineties, you know. I know my way around there very well. Elliot Page. And, you know, life wasn't Elliot Page? Elliot Page. Yes. There we go. Elliot Page. Thank you, Roberts. So this drill instructor looks like Elliot Page,

26:10 and I just sent you the m p three. I don't know if it came through or But

26:14 I

26:15 Just just play a little bit of that. With violence,

26:29 that.

26:30 Said you to a person, is it? Is it to me? Set the set the stage for me. What am I hearing here?

26:37 Alright. What's your what's your if you were to watch this video, it is a rail thin I believe it's a female. I can't tell if it's a female or male because the chest is very flat, very skinny.

26:49 And with the with the marine drill sergeant hat on, walking back and forth talking to recruits,

26:55 telling them if they've if you've been mistreated, you will report it. We're not going to touch you. We're we will treat you with respect.

27:02 I mean, the exactly opposite of what you've seen in every other movie

27:06 or or heard reports about when people go to boot camp. You know, you're a maggot. You're gonna Mhmm. We're gonna build they call it basic training because they build you from the ground up. Mhmm. You know, they're like, we're gonna teach you how to wipe your butt. We're gonna teach you how to walk. We're gonna teach you how to make your bed.

27:19 And the way this is, when I hear when I hear these sailors bitch about their ship,

27:25 I think of this marine drill instructor, which this this video came out in the beginning of August. So it's just now, you know, it's been circulating for less than a month. But you're you're hearing this, like you will report.

27:58 Well, you know, it's and it's really I don't think it's the the sailors aren't complaining. It's the families who are and have have we seen many of them or is more just like I spoke to some families and here's what they say? That's that's what it sounded like to me. Well, and it's anonymous it's anonymous, you know, photos. It's like point of view. Here here's the toilet. Here's the shower. How can we live like this?

28:19 You know, and I think one of them showed

28:22 a backed up toilet at one point. Because I I started looking through these when when they started coming out. I'm like, well, let's see how bad this is. Because I've seen some bad toilets in my life. And I'm like, okay, this isn't that this isn't that bad. I'm sure it sucks being, you know, hit with drones and hit with missiles and all whatever else is going on there.

28:40 And I I don't think we're getting the real reports on that. And I think that's what might be going on the stress of that Yeah. Combined, you know, these people are, you know, reporting back and their families are going, oh, you know, we gotta do something about this. We gotta go to the media.

28:53 And, you know, I think it it's probably partisan at, you know, the people that are complaining. Oh, yeah. Well, let's let's check-in with the war itself as there have been a few developments.

29:04 On a Nice nice Nat Pop, by the way. Good job, guys. Oh, yeah.

29:08 Unable to put an end to the Iran war, president Trump today threatened to expand it,

29:15 issuing a blunt and profane warning to a US ally, Oman,

29:20 saying he would bomb the expletive out of them if they interfered with US objectives in the critical Strait Of Hormuz.

29:27 Would you say you're out of patience with Oman, a strategic No. I don't think they behaved very well, but we handle them very easily just like we do others. The threat comes as ship traffic through the strait is at a virtual standstill.

29:39 This comes as US military officials are scrambling to respond to a Trump social media post over the weekend that condemned planned joint exercises with South Korea.

29:50 In the post which blindsided US military leaders, Trump cited his, quote, very good relationship

29:56 with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and called the drills inappropriate

30:01 and hostile toward North Korea

30:03 and said they would be scaled back. And today, he suggested he's recently been in contact with Kim Jong un. Kim Jong un has always treated me with great respect.

30:13 Though it's widely believed North Korea has provided military support to Iran.

30:17 And today had been the deadline for the Those guys are busy. They're providing military support to Iran. They're providing military support to Ukraine.

30:27 The North Koreans, ma'am, they they're all over the place. Treated me with everywhere.

30:31 Everywhere.

30:32 Though it's widely believed North Korea has provided military support to Iran.

30:37 And today had been the deadline for The US and Iran to finalize a nuclear agreement and come to a permanent end of the conflict, but David, that agreement never came close to happening and there is no end in sight to the war. The Iranians today said that that peace deadline quote is no longer relevant. So there is there

30:58 is a shift in strategy and luckily we're bringing out the

31:02 general patent on the down low to do it all. New CNN reporting says Trump told top administration officials today to stop

31:10 conversations with Iran according to a US official. A source says White House officials have recently communicated to political allies

31:17 that they're shifting their strategy going from hammer Iran ASAP to

31:22 strangle them over time.

31:25 Now the sounds of silence may not fall pleasantly on the ears of Republicans who are growing quite impatient with Trump's unpopular war.

31:32 They are worried it will hurt them in the Which war has been popular, Jake Topper? Is is there is there a war that has ever really been popular? Like, yeah. This is a good war. Now the sounds of silence may not fall pleasantly on the ears of Republicans who are growing quite impatient with Trump's unpopular war.

31:50 They are worried it will hurt them in the midterms, especially because just yesterday, Trump says his administration had established a back channel with Iran. Iran denied that any back channel talks with The United States were taking place. As for Trump's claim today about no talks happening, that's not what Trump's son-in-law son-in-law, special envoy Jared Kushner,

32:09 told Fox just yesterday.

32:12 I will say that the conversations between the US government

32:16 and, and different areas of the Iranian government at all,

32:20 areas is probably more robust,

32:23 than it's maybe ever been. And so there's been a lot of good dialogues, which I think is very, helpful. Right? We are having, very positive and active conversations.

32:31 Then there's the messy situation in the Strait Of Hormuz. Trump also wrote on Truth Social, quote, the naval blockade remains in full force and effect. The Hormuz Strait is open and operating.

32:41 All water mines have been removed or detonated, unquote. We've heard Trump say this many times before despite slow

32:47 lagging

32:48 ship traffic

32:49 and Iran asserting otherwise. In fact, global oil prices are now at their highest level since July

32:55 as hopes of a resolution

32:56 for this conflict fade away.

32:59 That said, it does appear as though United States is gaining some control over

33:04 The Strait.

33:06 The sixty day deadline to finalize a peace deal expired yesterday.

33:10 So now the future

33:11 overall

33:13 is in limbo. I'm just gonna play this clip again from

33:17 treasury secretary Scott Besant.

33:19 Well, yeah.

33:20 Before you do that,

33:22 Axios,

33:23 who seems to be like, you know, the back channel to the president Mhmm. At this point, they have an article that US conducting stealth operation transports through Hormuz. Yeah. About 10,000,000 barrels a day they're getting through. So there is, something to that where they're they they are

33:38 still, you know, getting oil through even though,

33:41 that seems to be, you know, the the news doesn't wanna report that at Well,

33:46 except and it's so odd that Axios is now a back channel to the White House. That Oh, I know. That was unexpected. Yeah. Who

33:55 owns that outfit? Who owns that outfit? He did something there.

33:58 I don't know how You know, I think we looked at it before or you looked at it before, on the show because it it was happened a few months ago where Trump started

34:07 dibbling out information through Axios.

34:10 And

34:11 Maybe we should Let's see. Cox Enterprises Let ask ask the 70% stake.

34:16 Cox? From like the cable company Cox? Yeah. Cox Enterprise.

34:19 Yeah. That's what it looks like. Cox Enterprise,

34:22 a large family of conglomerate. Well, that would make sense because they owned a bunch of those

34:26 TV stations that were more or less, you know, in red states. Got it. So that that kinda would make sense. So

34:34 I think you're absolutely right. Although the numbers,

34:37 differ,

34:37 but the well, actually, here's the here's the latest on the numbers coming through the straits. The war with Iran is in its sixth month, and oil is still struggling to move through the Strait Of Hormuz. President Trump's tried bombing Iran into submission. Now he's pivoting to economic warfare.

34:53 In a lengthy post, he announced in all caps, quote, the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country,

35:00 and he called on allies to stand with The US to unleash

35:04 economic d day, as he called it, on Iran. With us to talk about this is NPR international correspondent Eeya Petraui. Good morning, Eeya. Good morning. Good morning. So this crushing economic operation that Trump posted about, do we know what this would look like?

35:18 I mean, more of the same sanctions,

35:20 the existing blockade,

35:22 and even more pressure now. He's calling on allies around the world, countries around to join him in isolation of Iran, and we've seen maximum economic pressure before by president Trump. You'll recall this was his policy the first time he was in office.

35:35 But this is a step beyond because now there is that naval blockade in place, and it is blocking Iran from being able to export its oil. And this pivot from bombings to blockade comes as triple a says gas prices in The US are up 30% on average from a year ago. So in many states, people are paying a dollar or more per gallon than they were. Diesel for trucks and jet fuel for flying are even higher.

35:57 Now, that is because of Iran's chokehold on the Strait Of Hormuz since the beginning of this war. Windward Maritime Intelligence Tracking says 5,000,000 barrels of oil a day did exit The Strait on average per day in July, but that is a fraction of the 20,000,000 barrels that were going through before the war. And this is what that no one reports on is the whole so I'm I'm I'm gonna go let's say it's seven and a half, but 20 used to go through there. Axios reports 10. That's probably padded from the White House.

36:27 This is NPR, I think, they say

36:29 five.

36:31 But there's another

36:32 seven

36:33 going through the pipelines.

36:35 Every single one of these of these Arab countries

36:38 has completely bypassed the the strait. They've they already had pipelines.

36:43 They're fast tracking new pipelines and this has always been the strategy. Here's Besson. At

36:48 Treasury, we did economic theory.

36:51 What goes a little publicized is,

36:54 you know, on the kinetic side,

36:56 Air Force is wiped out, Navy is wiped out,

36:59 a big portion of their missiles, more importantly, their missile production.

37:04 On the economic side,

37:06 we we have them by the throat,

37:08 and they've

37:10 they've got a 150,

37:12 a 180%

37:13 food inflation,

37:14 not able to pay the troops. So I think shortly, maybe even today, tomorrow, we are going to see see an agreement,

37:22 thirty,

37:24 sixty day cease fire,

37:26 and,

37:27 Strait will be open. Energy prices should come down. There are some who've speculated the Strait will never go back to being the way it was before. What would you say? I I would say I would take I think they're saying that in a

37:40 a doomsday sort of way. I I would say it in another way. The Strait is,

37:46 never going back to the way it was because the Iranians

37:49 have used

37:51 or tried to use it as a choke point. What we are going to see over the next two years, the Strait's gonna become irrelevant. It is going to become

37:59 just another body of water.

38:02 And I would say that more than 50 or 70%

38:05 of the energy that moves through the Strait now is gonna go through underground pipelines.

38:11 There it is.

38:12 There it is. Pipelines. There it is. Yep. Yeah. I can't wait to go wake surfing in the Straits Of Hormuz. They find Texas tradition.

38:20 I

38:21 love wake surfing. Yeah. Exactly. Favorite things to do in, in Texas.

38:25 And and there's more oil. I mean, it's not exactly the same oil, but it's important oil. Venezuela's

38:31 energy leaders say the country is open for business. This week, US oil companies signed some of the first deals with Venezuela in close to two decades.

38:40 This comes eight months after The US seized Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Houston public media's energy reporter Natalie Weber has been reporting on this, and she joins us from Houston. Good morning, Natalie. Good morning.

38:52 So I recall that after The US cap What was that?

38:55 Good morning.

38:57 Reporting on this, she joins us from Houston. Good morning, Natalie. Good morning.

39:01 So I recall that after The US captured Maduro, oil companies were hesitant to get involved with Venezuela,

39:07 but now they're involved. Give us a sense of what's in these deals. Yeah.

39:11 So the Dallas based Hunt oil company entered into a contract to expand the country's oil and gas production.

39:18 And then SLB,

39:19 formerly known as Schlumberger,

39:21 a Houston oil field services company, also signed an agreement for

39:25 exploration in Venezuela.

39:27 And Venezuela's oil minister, Paula Inao, announced this deal on state run media.

39:33 These deals were signed on Tuesday while Venezuelan leaders were in Houston for an energy conference.

39:39 And I attended the conference in Houston where I now spoke this week. She says the country has made changes to its laws that will make it easier for foreign companies to invest in Venezuela.

39:53 What she's saying right now is that the country's agreements with US companies offer a chance to evaluate opportunities

39:59 for investment in Venezuela.

40:01 Now at this time, we don't really know how much these deals are worth. That hasn't been made public yet. And then we have another oil,

40:09 gateway reopening or finally opening. It's sort of like the zombie pipeline project that will never die. Donald Trump is raising the prospect of reviving the ill fated Keystone XL pipeline.

40:20 And Jatain De Silva, the former CEO of the Canada Energy regulator,

40:24 says with The US president backing it, the zombie pipeline could have a new life. If The US president puts his weight and the weight of his office behind it, it is possible to see this project

40:35 move forward. Trump posted on Truth Social, the great Keystone XL pipeline long ago killed by sleepy Joe Biden may be awoken from the grave. I thought it was actually a welcome comment because it actually adds potentially some leverage to mister Carney that he might not otherwise have had. Dennis McConaughey is a former Canadian energy executive.

40:55 He says the long dead pipeline could help the prime minister secure a new trade deal with The US. The value to Canada of producing more

41:04 heavy oil,

41:06 over the next decades

41:08 is is the driving force economically behind us. And when Trump signaled it last night, again, it it underscores the fact that the Americans recognize

41:17 the value of that trade

41:19 and would want more of it if they could get it. I think that's the whole

41:23 the whole center of this

41:25 new deal that the president's working on with Canada.

41:29 It's all about this. Well, did a three day tariff on him to get him, I think, to come to the table at least. For for that, so we're gonna do a three day tariff Is what you do. And we'll see what happens.

41:39 And yeah. I

41:42 love how the the the the press is like, oh, it's the ill fated. It's a zombie pipeline. It's it's this terrible thing. Pipelines are how you wanna move things, honestly. Because

41:51 one, it's self contained, you know where it's gonna be, you don't have a bunch of trucks on the road Right. Which could, you know, especially with some of our truck drivers now, you know, who who are, from unsuspecting

42:02 backgrounds, they they could be crash ing into people. So I I think that's the way to go. And, you know, a lot of these things, everything has sensors on it now. So they know when it's leaking, they know where it's leaking, they know, you know, they could dispatch a team to fix it. It's not like it's gonna be sitting in the wilderness for ten years, you know, gloving Yeah. Oil out

42:20 of the

42:21 Leaking away. You know what's crazy? Know, they're not letting that happen.

42:26 Tina and Tina and I have been watching

42:28 The West Wing. We started episode

42:30 well, actually, we started with the pilot.

42:33 And when you watch this, I think we're in season four or five at this point. I don't know. Then it it just it it remains kind of interesting, but it's clear you know, this is clearly

42:43 a what is a Democrat White House and

42:48 all of the things they discuss,

42:50 almost everything

42:52 are things that that President Trump is doing.

42:55 But then it was seen as heroic. Oh, and they're but they're discussing it like they might fix it, but they're not really gonna fix it? Yeah. I mean, the whole it's just it's crazy.

43:03 Like, even with the,

43:06 you know, the whole FCC,

43:10 we're gonna we're gonna take away your license.

43:12 I think I have a I think I have a Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. So

43:16 there's a there's a moment

43:19 in

43:19 in the West Wing

43:21 where

43:23 the three television, the big networks,

43:25 ABC, CBS, NBC,

43:27 they come in the White House and I say, yeah, we're not gonna cover the

43:33 conventions.

43:34 We're gonna do

43:35 maybe forty five minutes. We'll do the balloon drop.

43:39 We're we're not gonna cover them wall to wall like we have before.

43:42 And so

43:43 there's this actually Ron Silver plays a

43:47 consultant

43:48 and he talks to Leo who's the the president's

43:53 what do you call it?

43:56 The chief of staff. And this is Martin Sheen who's the president. Right? Martin Sheen is the Martin Sheen is the president? Yeah. Actually, he he talks to him not he talks to what's his face?

44:05 The other guy. Anyway, it doesn't matter.

44:08 And and he and and the guy goes back to the networks and he says,

44:12 you get these licenses for free. You're not acting in the best interest. You are colluding together. I'm gonna have the FCC take your licenses away. And that and at the time, it was like, yeah. That's how you deal with them. And now it's like, oh, no.

44:25 Bias. You just don't like them reporting negatively on you.

44:30 It's the exact same thing. Well, it

44:34 is. And I I think if if Obama or Biden was like, we're gonna take these licenses away. They're they're paying playing too much white supremacist content on these networks. You know, people will like, yes, yes. That's what you know, the news or they read all for it. Ugh. There's white supremacist which I have a couple of those clips. But I do have a clip, you're talking about the war.

44:52 And and when we get out of this, I I think a good place to leave is Trump talking about leaving NATO. I think that's a big

44:58 that that could be a really big deal

45:01 for

45:02 just

45:03 that access over there in Western Europe

45:06 and they're, you know, they think they have, carte blanche protection from us and, you know, if Trump pulls out of that, which I don't think will have happened, think it's just a bunch of bravado, but he's saying it. No one no one said it since NATO has been formed that we're gonna get out of NATO. He's the only person actually say that he could get out. But I think that NATO made a terrible mistake

45:26 when they wouldn't send

45:29 a small amount of military

45:31 armament, when they wouldn't send

45:34 just even acknowledge

45:37 what we were doing for the world and taking on

45:40 Iran. I never considered it very risky

45:44 but

45:45 war is always risk you know a lot of strange happen thing things happen in war that are very bad, but but,

45:52 I didn't consider it. I know how great I'm with the greatest military by far anywhere there was nobody close. I didn't think there was a big risk, but there's always surprises

46:02 with war. They could be very bad surprises. I mean, wars are lost. It should be won. Many wars are lost. You think a country is gonna wipe somebody out and they end up getting wiped out themselves. So it's always risky.

46:13 But I think a tremendous

46:15 mistake was Wow. That's actually what he says right there is is act is accurate. That's very interesting. And O'Quran. Listen to this. I mean, wars are lost. It should be won. Many wars are lost. You think a country is gonna wipe somebody out and they end up getting wiped out themselves. So it's always risky.

46:30 But I think a tremendous

46:32 mistake was when NATO just wasn't there.

46:36 They just weren't there.

46:38 It's gonna make a lot of money for The United States because we spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on NATO.

46:45 Hundreds protecting them.

46:47 And we would have always been there for them, but now

46:50 based on their actions, I guess we don't have to be, do we? Well, what he said there, I've been saying for months is an actual possibility

46:59 certainly with what's going on between

47:01 Ukraine and Russia. This happened last night. Overseas now to Ukraine launching a massive drone assault on Russia. This is one of the largest aerial attacks since the four year old war began. Let's get right to ABC's Lama Hassan. Lama, what more are you learning tonight? Yeah, Lindsey. This was a massive attack. The Russian defense ministry saying it destroyed more than 800 Ukrainian drones overnight. Moscow's mayor adding that some 600 drones were detected heading toward the Russian capital, shooting down a third of them, but still at least seven people across Russia were killed. Wild Berries, which is Russia's largest online retailer, hit again. One of its massive warehouses on fire. Russia fighting back, sending a wave of drones, killing at least five people, destroying a market in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv. The Ukrainian defense minister believes their ballistic missiles will be able to reach Russian territory in three to six months. So there seems to be no end in sight to the fighting, Lindsey. What is clear is that these latest strikes are a dramatic escalation

48:01 in this war. You know,

48:05 Ukraine is not a member of NATO,

48:07 And they're and and they're really they are just being put on the front line

48:12 by

48:13 their, you know, the Europeans and The UK. And now Moscow is saying, you know, hey,

48:19 You know, you UK guys,

48:21 this is not gonna fly. Moscow has threatened Britain with consequences

48:26 following confirmation The UK has supplied Ukraine with drones that have been used to hit targets deep inside Russia.

48:33 As we've been hearing, Kyiv is launching an increasing number of drone attacks across Russia,

48:38 particularly on infrastructure targets.

48:41 Some reports suggest this is the first time British technology has been used to hit Russian targets.

48:48 It follows newspaper reports the weekend that for the first time, drone technology from The UK was used in these strikes against Russia confirmed,

48:56 from sources to the BBC. Now some of those reports talked about strikes on oil facilities in Southern Russia, Yaroslavl, near Moscow.

49:04 What the Russian embassy here in London has put out is a statement saying that London is deliberately opting for escalation

49:12 in Ukraine. So The UK was trying to contain Russia,

49:16 inflict maximum damage on it by a proxy, and those actions will inevitably

49:20 carry consequences

49:22 for which London will have to answer.

49:24 Now in response, we've heard from the Ministry of Defense here.

49:28 They have put out their own statement. The Ministry of Defense spokesperson saying Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine. It will continue

49:34 to supply Ukraine with the equipment it needs to defend itself against what they say is Russia's illegal invasion

49:40 of Ukraine. Russia should be in no doubt about the resolve of the government to stand against Russian aggression. And that's also a message that Andy Byrne, the prime minister delivered. His first foreign visitor here when he became prime minister a few weeks ago was president Zelensky of Ukraine, and he said he would stand shoulder to shoulder with him. Yeah, man. When you when you hit the Amazon of Russia, that's when people start to lose it. Can you imagine if

50:03 they Yeah. They hit Amazon in America, we go crazy.

50:08 And you're getting you're getting updates. Yeah. Your your package done blowed up. And that's it. And

50:16 it'll be another three to six weeks. You know, going back to what Trump was saying, you know, a country thinks they're gonna annihilate somebody and they end up losing. You know, you could look at that as he talking about The US or is he talking about Israel? Because Israel kinda wanted this war more than anybody, it seems like. And they might end up they might end up on be on the back end of the, of the stick of this at the end, especially with, you know, I I guess it was Benjamin Netanyahu was like

50:40 screamed out of parliament. They were shouting him out. And, so there's there's definitely turmoil going on everywhere. Yeah. Here's, here's the latest. The United States and Syria have condemned Israeli airstrikes on a military airport in Northern Syria.

50:54 The runway at Abu Ulduhur Airport that's located in the Eastern Idlib countryside

50:59 has been damaged. Multiple fighter jets were heard in that area. That's ahead of the strikes,

51:04 and no injuries have been reported.

51:07 But in a statement, The US special envoy for Syria, that's Tom Barrack, said, we're deeply concerned that the confirmed Israeli airstrikes on Abu Duhur Airbase constitute an unnecessary

51:17 escalation

51:18 that doesn't advance regional stability.

51:21 The Al Sharah government has neither adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces.

51:27 It has in fact repeatedly

51:29 indicated a preference for de escalation with Israel.

51:33 Yeah. I think Trump's dropping support for Israel.

51:37 He's he's like not even talking about him. He he he's not endorsing yeah. He's not endorsing Netanyahu. When are when are the

51:46 When are the elections?

51:48 I couldn't tell you. I couldn't tell you. All I know is October 19 is the

51:52 referendum

51:53 for Alberta to start

51:55 the process for independence. We'll take we'll take you guys. Come on, we'll take you. We're we're happy to have you. Exactly.

52:02 I mean, the Keystone pipeline is all American now. It just it just kinda goes up in there and and then we just, you know, are are giving oil to everybody cheap.

52:11 Breaking news, FBI raids Homer Verick swallows well. Did you see that? No.

52:15 Oh, no. What do you got? You got a quad screen up there, Rob? What are you looking at? And I didn't hear any of that.

52:21 I I don't see it. I have I it came out at 02:13PM

52:25 Eastern. So just

52:27 less than an hour ago. Federal agencies seized electronic devices of former Democratic rep, Swallows Well. Or Swallows Well. I call them Swallows Well. But at

52:35 the San San Francisco Airport

52:37 on Saturday and then raided his home in Washington DC the next day as part of an ongoing probe on sexual assault allegations.

52:45 Now see nothing about with the Chinese spy or any of that stuff. It's that's sexual assault. That's how they always get you. Of course. It's never it's never anything real. It's always Always always sex It's

52:55 nothing like

52:57 It's always sex stuff. Exactly.

52:59 It's never about anything, that that they could have done, you know, for the against the country. What I find interesting is that the whole the whole Israel narrative has just kind of disappeared, you know, certainly here in Texas.

53:11 But if if you just look online, I don't know, maybe it's only my algo but all I see is Muslims, Muslims, the Muslims, Islam, Sharia law, and everyone else is dry except for Tucker, he's still behind he's behind the times.

53:24 He's still wallowing away. And

53:26 and I got this clip from judge Nap, Napolitano

53:32 with how would say is it the

53:35 is it the Blumenthal

53:36 kid, I think? I mean,

53:38 moaning about the same thing. This was the decoy flight. Hey, everyone. Judge Napolitano

53:43 here for Judging Freedom. Today is Thursday, 08/13/2026.

53:49 Max Blumenthal joins us now. Max, a pleasure as always. Thank you for,

53:54 joining us. Has Israel

53:56 manipulated

53:57 Donald Trump

53:58 yet again? What is the backstory

54:01 on the so called Israeli intelligence

54:04 about the so called Iranian plans to attack Air Force one?

54:10 Well, if we look at this story, we can kind of see a microcosm of how the entire

54:15 war on Iran unfolded.

54:17 This is why The US

54:19 is

54:20 still imposing

54:22 a protracted war on Iran right now, primarily an economic war, which has devastated

54:29 the global economy.

54:30 And, you know, ask anyone in real estate in The United States about an interest

54:35 rates right now, and it goes directly back to this war. So why did this happen? It's because Israel

54:41 manipulated

54:42 a demented,

54:44 intellectually

54:44 unchallenged

54:45 an intellectually challenged,

54:47 amoral

54:48 Uh-huh.

54:49 Deeply corrupt president Yeah. Yeah. Into waging this war over

54:53 a period of years. So okay. So Israel manipulated them into waging an economic war because that makes sense. So

55:01 everyone is now finally talking in the mainstream media about this campaign of manipulation.

55:06 Everyone knows now that Trump,

55:09 was hidden in a,

55:12 food kind of like a food cart sneaking out to a decoy flight in Ankara, Turkey.

55:17 It's a contortionist. Around the NATO summit,

55:20 which is like a scene out of one of these Leslie Nielsen naked gun movies.

55:25 Can

55:27 you imagine him like huddled in there like sweating and,

55:30 you know, orange sweat pouring off his face? Okay.

55:35 You're behind boys. Catch That's what I'm imagining. Yeah. Catch up And we know that's not what happened, you know. But but the memes were funny of of Trump peeking out of the of Oh, the food the

55:46 Those were those were pretty funny. But you know that's not how it happened. Well, it it remind it reminded me Totally. It reminded me of

55:54 Def Leppard

55:57 in, I don't know, '90

56:00 maybe '90 or '91, Def Leppard did a tour in the round.

56:05 And

56:07 Okay. MTV sent me out to go cover him in,

56:11 man, wanna say Atlanta. The Omni, I think that yeah. I think it was the Omni in Atlanta. I think so. I don't I don't I can't remember what it was.

56:19 And they were in the round,

56:21 so, you know, there's audience on all sides

56:24 and the way they got the band,

56:26 you know, from, you know, the dressing room into,

56:29 you know, underneath the stage

56:31 was in, you know, these big laundry carts.

56:34 And and so before the lights went down, you see these folks, you know, just push along these laundry courts and the and the guys got out and that's kind of how I imagined this the way, you know, the way the memes were working. It's like, yeah, we're just hiding them there.

56:46 But every, you know, the press is mad. That's what they did with David Lee Roth.

56:50 Wow. Here's another story. In the

56:53 Eat them in Smile tour,

56:55 they get him from one side from the stage to the back to ride the surfboard across the audience. He rides this giant surfboard and that's how they they had him in a in a road case. You know, but it was a big road case. He probably had a seat in it, probably had, you know, some Jack Daniels and

57:09 and a fan and whatnot and they pushed him over there and and, and then he and then he floated across the crowd on a surfboard. Then of course, the press was mad. Plus Dvorak was playing an amazing solo. The press was mad because they they were on the plane and this is more midterms. Oh, yeah. You know, because, you know, he he wanted Marco Rubio to die. Marco Rubio knowingly goes on the flight which was supposedly going to be targeted by IRGC operatives with man pads

57:36 according to a certain tip the CIA received along with the

57:40 the

57:41 all the all the all the Trump staffers we know and

57:44 disdain.

57:46 And they're all gonna be sent to their deaths according to this tip except for Donald Trump. And what's that woman? Natalie Harp, who escort escorts him everywhere, who's 35. He chose her to survive with him on his own. And he chose

58:00 Hollywood Hegseth.

58:02 And Pete Hegseth. Yeah. Because he's the ultimate guest man who apparently had just lied to him about munitions

58:08 but he still chose him to live. That's a good one. Hollywood Hegseth. Gotta keep it in there. Meanwhile

58:14 Yeah. We we hit $40,000,000,000,000

58:16 in debt. This is this is a lot of money.

58:20 Here's the headline report. What do we win? What's that?

58:24 I said, what do we win? No. We win

58:27 won 40,000,000,000,000 do we win anything? Fun prizes. America's debt is bigger than ever. Yeah. The federal debt hit a record $40,000,000,000,000

58:35 this week, and experts say it's not just the size of the debt that we should be worrying about, but the speed at which it's rising. The national debt rose $1,000,000,000,000

58:43 in just the past five months.

58:45 The federal government spending continues to outpace the revenue it collects.

58:49 How do we get here? A big factor is that the nation is aging. More people are retiring and senior citizens are living longer. The government is spending more on social security and Medicare,

59:00 but there are fewer workers to support those programs.

59:02 Also, congress has passed multiple packages that cut taxes and increased spending over the last few decades. That includes packages like the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025

59:14 and several COVID nineteen pandemic relief bills. These measures are projected to increase the federal debt by trillions of dollars over time. As The US slips further into a debt hole, the government could have a harder time funding other priorities.

59:27 The US is already spending more on interest payments than national defense or children's programs. It could also push up rates for mortgages,

59:34 auto loans, and business borrowing,

59:37 making things tougher for consumers and businesses alike. So something interesting happened yesterday.

59:43 All of a sudden, the long term interest rates started

59:47 coming down

59:49 as

59:50 the treasury

59:52 started purchasing

59:54 back our bonds.

59:56 And this is Right. Quantitative easing is what I think they're calling It's not it's it's not quantitative easing because quantitative easing, the way I understand it, is when you're buying securities in the market,

1:00:08 this is this is buying the debt. I think it's it may be called monetizing the debt. So, you know, I guess we have extra trillions in treasury

1:00:18 that have been building up. It's it's quite a lot of of money that was built up and now we're buying that buying the debt back

1:00:26 which lowers the yield. This bond stuff is complicated.

1:00:30 But that all that is what mortgages

1:00:33 and, you know, that is really what lowers interest on all kinds of things.

1:00:38 And the the thing that's fun about it is

1:00:42 anyone who's a Bitcoiner, holy moly.

1:00:45 Have you been following that?

1:00:48 No. Did it jump? Oh, yeah. It was what? About 60,000 last time I looked at it. It was around it was hovering for, gosh, about two months between 62 and 64,000.

1:00:58 Right now, it's

1:01:00 Yeah. $72.5.72.

1:01:02 Look at that. Did Alex Jones ever find his 10,000 Bitcoin that Max Kaiser gave him?

1:01:09 You know

1:01:11 I remember I remember

1:01:14 when Max came I remember when he came to the office and I think Bitcoin was $5

1:01:19 and he's like, you gotta buy Bitcoin, you gotta buy Bitcoin. This was like 2,010

1:01:24 or 11 and

1:01:25 and I was I was buying silver,

1:01:28 which didn't quite have the the power that Bitcoin,

1:01:31 had. But No. We we searched for this mythical laptop and, we can never locate it.

1:01:37 And and I don't think it existed. I think there was there was a dinner and there was talk of putting money on or Bitcoin on a

1:01:45 a laptop

1:01:46 and then it didn't happen. That's what I think. Oh, I wasn't on that trip. Had I been on that trip, I might have made it happen. I could have saved everybody, but no. We we could have been living large, baby. We're we're we're left with nothing. I'll be hanging out at the We could have been. Hanging

1:02:01 out in the mansion. The days of staking plenty could have continued. So simultaneously,

1:02:06 I felt to me, it felt coordinated.

1:02:09 There was a big,

1:02:10 crypto,

1:02:12 announcement.

1:02:12 I I despise crypto,

1:02:14 crypto,

1:02:15 which to me is just there's Bitcoin, there's everything else. And, the president came out and he spoke. A lot of very good, very honorable financial people.

1:02:24 On day one, we fired Joe Biden's rogue SEC chair, Gary Gensler. I think we like Paul better. Do we agree? We like Paul Gensler. Number one, he's smarter.

1:02:36 He's also smarter, by the way. But we fired him. We got him the hell out of here. We terminated the so called operation choke point two o, which is what the name of their operation

1:02:47 was, weaponization.

1:02:49 And we ended the war on crypto once and for all, and it's been booming. It's been doing big,

1:02:55 and nobody's been able to break in. China would like to break in. They're still trying,

1:02:59 but they have been able to. I signed a historic executive order banning any attempt to create a central bank digital currency.

1:03:06 We launched project crypto to modernize rules so that our financial markets can move into blockchain technology.

1:03:13 I established United States Strategic Bitcoin reserve,

1:03:16 making Bitcoin a permanent asset of the United States treasury, which has turned out incredibly well. I also created the United States digital asset stockpile to hold custody of all other digital assets, and that's exactly what it's done. It's been amazing.

1:03:32 One year ago, this summer, I signed landmark legislation known as the Genius Act.

1:03:37 I named it after myself. I didn't want anyone to

1:03:41 I didn't wanna use my name, I just called the Genius Act,

1:03:44 paving the way for widespread

1:03:46 adoption of dollar backed stablecoins,

1:03:49 and that's worked out very well. Yeah. The stablecoins,

1:03:53 that's that's still a big deal. People don't wanna listen, but that's that's how we're

1:03:59 remaining the reserve currency of the world. You can go on Shopify and they'll take stablecoins.

1:04:05 No one in America has them. But I think there's

1:04:08 300,000,000

1:04:09 people using them around the world including Iran.

1:04:13 Thank you.

1:04:16 Yeah. I just, wanna say that what chairman, Selig and chairman Atkins are doing and the president has enabled with his leadership is actually working.

1:04:24 So if you look at stablecoin

1:04:26 usage and adoption,

1:04:27 it's increasing the usage and distribution of the US dollar at higher and higher levels than than our industry has ever seen, specifically because of the Genius Act

1:04:37 and the movement of more and more treasuries into stablecoins and therefore into more and more hands across the world. And now the tokenization of equities,

1:04:45 thanks to chairman Selig's and chairman Atkins' great work and collaboration and actual, you know, work together rather than working against each other as before, is going to distribute US equities globally and increase the distribution of those.

1:04:58 So, you know, we power a lot of these

1:05:01 applications and companies so we know what the numbers actually are, and they're massively increasing because we have regulators and leadership

1:05:08 that enables

1:05:09 the success and distribution

1:05:11 of these US based assets.

1:05:13 So there there's actually a very real intangible outcome

1:05:17 that's really now benefiting The US

1:05:19 and adoption adoption of US issued assets and the US dollar.

1:05:23 So I just wanna mention that it really is working Yes. It is. And hitting all time highs. So thank you very much.

1:05:30 I don't know how stable coin can hit all time highs. It's it's equal to a dollar. But okay.

1:05:35 So during this conference Alright. Then all of a sudden go ahead, Rob.

1:05:40 Well, I'm looking at at CoinDesk

1:05:43 now and they're and they're saying Mark Connors is a is a analyst and he's saying, you know, this is this is the start of Bitcoin going up to $1.80.

1:05:50 And then

1:05:51 cycling through 2030, he's saying 180 to 360, which is just like, you know, out of this world if you're holding,

1:05:58 if you are holding Bitcoin,

1:05:59 or if you had it on a on a laptop given to you by Max Kaiser many years ago, which unfortunately

1:06:04 no one has.

1:06:06 So the president pivoted at a certain point and it went to AI.

1:06:09 And I've I've really been interested in

1:06:13 first

1:06:14 the

1:06:15 I mean, I understand why people are against

1:06:18 AI, people who are coming. I mean, all all we've heard from the marketing arm of of these

1:06:24 so called frontier model companies,

1:06:27 OpenAI and Anthropic and I guess to an extent Google

1:06:32 is,

1:06:32 well, you're not gonna have a job, you don't, you know, it's all over, you you forget about it. So you're graduating kids are booing the commencement speaker.

1:06:42 Data centers are somehow in some odd way,

1:06:47 people have connected this to flock cameras,

1:06:49 which are obviously no good.

1:06:52 And and I hear constantly,

1:06:55 well, know, this is the data centers that are gonna store all of our information, the surveillance state. I'm like, surveillance state? That's on your Instagram. But okay.

1:07:04 So these data centers become a real problem. Two reasons,

1:07:08 three reasons. One, farmland is being

1:07:12 sold,

1:07:13 turned into a massive

1:07:15 data center structures.

1:07:17 People think that it's taking lots of water. I don't believe that. I think they're pretty much closed systems. They're not draining reservoirs.

1:07:24 The electricity is interesting though.

1:07:26 But anyway, this came up in this crypto

1:07:29 announcement.

1:07:31 Yes, please. Hi, president Trump. I have two quick questions. Go ahead. Don't get around here much. So my first question is we're talking about AI and crypto a lot, and you won overwhelmingly with working class Americans in 2024.

1:07:41 Tens of millions of working class Americans. Many of them may say, we love president Trump, but we're still cautious about AI and crypto. What do you say to those who are still reticent

1:07:51 to embrace this evolution? So I think it's gonna it's a great question, and I think it's gonna create a lot of challenges. It's gonna create success. It's gonna create tremendous innovation medically. I mean, they're coming up with already amazingly.

1:08:02 They came out with something today that I looked at it having to do. I won't go into the details, but having to do it with a pretty unstoppable disease. And all of a sudden, they're coming up with answers that they never thought were possible and things that they never even would have thought about.

1:08:17 So I think it's really creating jobs. And I can tell you one thing, if you look at our construction jobs right now, because we're building more plants, factories,

1:08:25 things that really have something to do with the AI, but also car factories, car plants. They're moving into our country. Honda just announced, Toyota just announced they're moving their operations from Mexico, from Canada, from other places. We, by the way, probably have a deal with Canada. You probably saw that. We,

1:08:44 very major tariffs were going on to Canada today. We delayed it for three days because I think we have a deal with the prime minister and good deal for everybody.

1:08:52 So that's good. But,

1:08:53 the construction jobs are enormous. We're building the biggest plants anywhere in the world. And I can say if I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center, I would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid are just enormous.

1:09:13 And if you don't take it, you're gonna be left behind because there are plenty of places that want it. So I would say that, maybe you can use a little public relations help. But if I were a governor or mayor, I would want that plant in my community. And many of them are designed in a very beautiful way. It's really very positive. K? Thank you. Now

1:09:31 I I agree with what the president is saying but not for the same reasons or maybe similar reasons.

1:09:37 First of all, the amount of money that has gone into building data centers,

1:09:42 which won't be completed, you know, for at least another three years.

1:09:45 It is an enormous

1:09:47 transfer of wealth from Wall Street

1:09:50 and hedge funds and

1:09:52 and just big pools of money. I think directly

1:09:57 to the people if they would stop complaining about it.

1:10:01 I mean, there's so much and these things are gonna be empty. They're they're not gonna work. They're never gonna most of them won't be turned on. I can you can just see it. There's no power for it. There's absolutely not enough power to You mean a lot of graphics cards available though.

1:10:16 Well, I can't wait graphics

1:10:19 cards. I can't wait for that moment when when all the NVIDIA cards become available.

1:10:23 But there there's just no way that these are gonna be turned on. So if you've got a

1:10:28 $100,000,000,

1:10:29 $200,000,000

1:10:30 data center being built, take the money,

1:10:33 get your kids to, you know, the electricians,

1:10:38 construction

1:10:39 workers,

1:10:40 they are they have an enormous shortage. Take the money now that's at least good for two, three years.

1:10:47 Just take it now because it the it's nothing else is gonna come from it.

1:10:52 And I got the

1:10:53 the chairman It's

1:10:55 like most things. It's a it's a boondoggle as you go into it and and

1:11:00 over promise, under deliver,

1:11:02 and and then you're gonna be left with these, you know, yeah, these giant air conditioned rooms

1:11:06 that are gonna be kinda running at half speed because there's just not there's there's, so many of them built, there's just not enough data for them. Unless unless

1:11:15 this tokenization that that they keep talking about, how they're gonna tokenize everything. Maybe that's what these data center they're not for flight cameras. They're actually to track

1:11:24 everything that, you know, BlackRock's talking about. Oh, we're gonna tokenize the water. We're gonna tokenize the trees. They wanna you know, in that in that sense, could see the data centers being used as a, you know, tracking mechanism, but it's not necessarily tracking people, it's tracking everything in the world, you know, every leaf on the tree, so to speak. Well,

1:11:43 maybe.

1:11:44 I think it'll be great for Bitcoin mining and

1:11:48 gyms. I think there'll be lots of nice gyms that we'll have. Yeah. And this is happening in Texas at an an incredible scale and I found this interview

1:11:57 with the chairman of the energy committee here in Texas. He's good old boy.

1:12:02 But he had some really interesting insights into

1:12:05 exactly what's going on with these data centers in Texas and about the power. So if you have any No. I'm sorry. That's not it. Where is it?

1:12:13 This is the guy. Here we go. So it's a big committee. It's a big job. But on the data center front, I can tell you this. When when I got named chair of state affairs,

1:12:25 I'm of course met with Public Utility Commission in ERCOT.

1:12:28 And, you know, ERCOT is the managing

1:12:32 body of the state grid. Yeah. Everyone needs to understand. ERCOT is like an exchange,

1:12:36 like a stock exchange for power.

1:12:39 Texas has its own grid and so that's where people buy and sell futures on power. They go to get power immediately.

1:12:48 That's another thing we start. We stop talking about the big energy storage systems. That used to be another political thing that's gone away. What about those military age men from China? Are they still here with their sleeper cells?

1:12:59 So

1:13:00 Well, and also we used to talk about how bad it was that Texas had its own power system. Remember that? That was like, oh, how could they have their own power system? We're no And it's like, well, our power system is is yeah. And it's like ours works. If you look up what Northern Indiana

1:13:14 or Illinois Yeah. Like they twelve days and they still don't have power from from storms. Tell me about it. I got family there who've been, I think they're getting power tomorrow maybe.

1:13:23 Yeah. It's been really bad. Alright. It's ridiculous. We're probably we're outside of Urquhart over here. Most of my district is outside of Urquhart. We were carved out when when utilities deregulated in the nineties,

1:13:35 the legislature

1:13:36 carved out

1:13:37 part of Southeast Texas and the Texas Panhandle Okay. Which I'll go into that and why that's a good thing in a minute. But the utility commission

1:13:45 told me

1:13:46 in

1:13:47 February

1:13:48 '25

1:13:50 that Texas needs to be prepared

1:13:52 for 10 additional gigawatts of power to come onto the grid in the next five years. Wow. This is a massive amount of electricity. Yeah.

1:14:01 The only problem is we don't even have the power lines to handle 10 extra gigawatts and now this guy explains what the data centers are actually after.

1:14:12 But honestly, why are they coming here? Why why is there a a multi billion dollar facility going in right down the road in Turkey? It's stranded power.

1:14:20 So back in the nineties when

1:14:23 we started getting wind farms and solar,

1:14:26 and you see these three forty five kV lines, they call them the creds lines, were put in. Those were developed to put power

1:14:34 to the Metroplex.

1:14:36 So these data centers, what they're hunting is stranded power. So we're outside of ERCOT. We're in the Southwest Power Pool. That power is being sold in into ERCOT.

1:14:46 But where there's there's congestion

1:14:49 between

1:14:50 ERCOT

1:14:51 because those lines are full,

1:14:53 so it causes congestion.

1:14:55 So there's

1:14:57 millions and millions of megawatts of power that just evaporates into the atmosphere

1:15:01 every every day. When he when he says millions of

1:15:05 megawatts of power, he's talking about That wasn't evaporating. Well, he's talking about windmills that are spinning that can't that can't get rid of their energy, solar farms. That's the main well, West Texas, mainly wind.

1:15:17 And so they, you know Yeah. They have enough power. There's too there's too much. They can't get it through the lines. Per year. Mhmm. And so these data centers are hunting that stranded power.

1:15:26 So so whether you're a data center developer, you're a hyperscaler, that's what they're hunting because

1:15:32 Google can, you know, they can solve a water issue, they can spend any amount of money they want. What they can't recreate is the grid Right. And that stranded power. So

1:15:43 that's the main that is the driving force of why a data center builds when it builds. The other factors that come in typically lands cheaper

1:15:52 up here. It's relatively flat. And thank you sir Bemros. Yes. I I meant thousands of megawatts not millions. That would be a little a little much. But really it's into the 500,000

1:16:04 megawatt gigawatts even. This is this is insane what they're trying to do.

1:16:08 You know, said that a year ago they

1:16:11 the the

1:16:13 bureaucracy told me that Texas needed was gonna have 10 more gigawatts. Well, just in the Golden Spread triangle up here, you know, I represent more coops than any member of the legislature.

1:16:23 Just in Golden Spread alone, there's 48 proposed gigawatts of new power just for data centers

1:16:30 trying to get built out here.

1:16:32 Statewide,

1:16:33 we have almost 500.

1:16:35 Now they told me 10 a year and a half ago. Yeah. Yeah. We have almost 500 proposed

1:16:40 of new of new gigawatts of power. Now number one, the reality of this is

1:16:47 Pipe dream. I told you all these developers are having that ERCOT interconnect. Mhmm. Well, there's not enough capacity

1:16:55 in ERCOT for that for for all that to be built out. I passed a bill last session called senate bill six that was designed

1:17:03 to kinda slow this down. And it has in in in one way it has

1:17:07 because everybody

1:17:09 that's applying

1:17:10 for

1:17:11 ERCOT interconnect had to go back through what PUC calls batch,

1:17:16 that this batch study.

1:17:18 And everybody that thought they were gonna get an interconnect this year is still being studied. Yeah. So that

1:17:24 begs the question,

1:17:26 why are they building? You know, like even the one in Turkey, now they've got a plan to get an interconnect and get get,

1:17:33 you know, whatever amount of power they've they've applied for,

1:17:37 but they don't know that they're getting it. So why are they building these things?

1:17:41 Well, whoever gets the interconnect

1:17:44 is gonna make billions of dollars and there's only like 12 or 15 customers. And it's people like Google, Amazon, Oracle, Meta, OpenAI,

1:17:53 the hyperscalers,

1:17:55 they're not going to these guys and going, we're signing a contract and you're going to be our we're going to rent the data center space from you.

1:18:04 They're telling everybody. You get the interconnect and the power, we're your customer. Yeah. We're here. So, you know, I don't think most people,

1:18:13 in the state legislature

1:18:16 believe more than about 15%

1:18:19 of what of what's being proposed actually gets built out. Right. Exactly.

1:18:23 Take the money.

1:18:25 Take the money.

1:18:27 Go for it. Even Abbott's like, oh, yeah, we gotta slow this down because

1:18:32 politically,

1:18:33 back to the midterms. I don't think they have the the workforce to make this stuff, you know, to get all these things made. There's no way. And and you're like, where's Turkey, Texas? You know, it's between Amarillo,

1:18:44 Lubbock, and Wichita Falls. Yeah. That that is literally the middle of nowhere.

1:18:48 True. You know, so you gotta get people out there, you know, and that Well And that's what you, you know, what you saw up in North Dakota and South Dakota when they bring these people in, they make, you know, they make a little city Yeah. And and bring these people in to build these things. But you gotta have all kind of infrastructure

1:19:02 just for the workers. Well, there you go. But isn't this just like the oil boom? Isn't it you know, we had all of Midland, you know, it was was dead Sure. And then all of a sudden it pops up. Lots of money to be made. Take it from those guys. Take it from Wall Street. Stop stop being stupid about it.

1:19:18 It's free money, I'm telling you. Take it now.

1:19:21 Take it from Google. Take it from OpenAI.

1:19:24 Take it from BlackRock. This is literally the way you can you can take money from BlackRock. Your kids can take it from BlackRock.

1:19:31 Just my opinion.

1:19:33 But of course,

1:19:34 this is politicized for the midterms. Several issues are driving voters to the polls in today's primary elections. Among them, the growing dominance of artificial intelligence. A new piece from the Washington Post analyzes how congressional and gubernatorial candidates nationwide are addressing this issue and responding to voters' concerns about AI's impact on the economy, national security, and more. One of the article's authors,

1:19:57 Shirah O'Value, joins us now. She's a technology reporter for the Washington Post.

1:20:01 So I find this really interesting. This is becoming more of a flash point, especially

1:20:05 as we are heading into these midterm elections. So you found that candidates in 45 states have made AI part of their their campaigns.

1:20:13 What in particular

1:20:15 are you finding that voters are concerned about?

1:20:18 I mean, by far the hottest topic related to AI in the midterm elections

1:20:24 are data centers. Right? These big hulking computer complexes that are sprouting up all over the country to run AI calculations,

1:20:32 and they basically generated backlash

1:20:35 everywhere they go, including in blue and red parts of the country.

1:20:39 So it it is interesting

1:20:42 because

1:20:43 we've long talked about AI and we've talked about data centers. And what I find kind of interesting, Shira, is that it seems to be a bipartisan issue. Both rep Republicans and Democrats are coming out and talking about the negative the the negativity surrounding these AI data centers. But how does the messaging differ from party to party?

1:21:03 I think the the the big so there's two takeaways from our piece. One is that there isn't kind of hard party lines quite yet related to AI the way that there are about lots of national issues like abortion and immigration

1:21:17 and and gun violence and They're all of our favorite issues. Some. That if you look at parties,

1:21:24 and candidates talking about AI,

1:21:26 there's not really a democratic position and a republican position on AI. It's a little bit all over the place. And the second thing that I'll mention from our analysis is that democrats in general

1:21:37 are far more likely to talk about AI as part of their campaign issues platforms

1:21:43 than republicans are. You can come up with all kinds of theories about this. I think maybe one working theory is that Democrats simply propose more government policies. Right? It's the nature of the party to have more government involvement, and so that AI is part of that too.

1:21:59 Going back to the data data center point, your analysis found the data centers account for the largest share of AI policies mentioned on campaign websites.

1:22:08 How does the attention to them in a campaign

1:22:12 perspective perspective compared to their actual presence in The US? You know, we hear all the time about they're they're building, they're building, this company is investing, but sort of what's that split right now?

1:22:21 Yeah. I think that's a really interesting question. I'm not sure

1:22:24 how to kind of assess that analytically. Yeah. Okay. Because you don't know. Be quiet.

1:22:32 Meanwhile,

1:22:33 to sigh up people even more,

1:22:36 we now have Chat GPT for teens. Do your kids have it yet, Rob? Did you give your kids Chat GPT for teens?

1:22:44 You know, they I know they've used different a AIs, but mainly

1:22:52 but Claude,

1:22:53 is that the one? Yeah. From anthra I don't even know what they all are, but I do have an AI clip though. Oh, okay. But Sure. Sure. Sure. But, yeah. That's interesting. Chad GPT for teens. Well, let me put let me put So this will tell you not will it will it show you the how to kill yourself quickly? Is that is that what it's there for? I'll give you the clips, then we'll play yours. Many teenagers use artificial intelligence not just homework, but for companionship.

1:23:14 Many parents worry AI could harm their kids' learning and their mental health.

1:23:19 Now OpenAI

1:23:21 has a new version of its chatbot

1:23:23 that it says addresses some of those concerns and gives parents more control. Oh. It's called ChatGPT

1:23:29 for teens.

1:23:30 We've called Ashley Cook It's like Malibu Barbie. Boo to learn more about this. She's a reporter who covers artificial intelligence for cnbc.com.

1:23:37 Ashley, good morning. Now listen to this woman and tell me she's not a paid promoter for OpenAI.

1:23:43 Good morning. Thank you for having me. How is ChatGPT

1:23:47 for teens different than regular ChatGPT?

1:23:51 That's a great question. No. No. There's no such thing as a great question, but okay. We'll leave it. That's a great question. So ChatGPT for teens is a dedicated chatbot experience for users under There it is. Right there. It's a dedicated chatbot experience.

1:24:07 When you're talking about experience,

1:24:09 you're PR,

1:24:10 not in journalism.

1:24:12 And so ChatGPT for teens is a dedicated chatbot experience for users under 18 years old. So it builds on a lot of the features OpenAI has been introducing over the last year after the company has faced a number of lawsuits and government inquiries over its safety practices.

1:24:27 So, basically, what this means in practice is that users between 17 and 13, which is the youngest age that the platform allows, will be automatically placed into the ChatGPT for teens experience.

1:24:38 So adults 18 and older will have access to the chatbot's standard features.

1:24:43 And now as I listen to this interview,

1:24:46 something glaring pops up. How is the company gonna know if people are in that age range?

1:24:51 That is another great question and No. No. No. That's not a great question. That

1:24:57 is another great question and there are a couple ways this happens. So the first is the most obvious. When you sign up to create a ChatGPT account, you have to input your full name and age. So again, users 18 will automatically be placed into the ChatGPT for teens experience. But people often lie about their age. Right. Exactly. So if a kid tries to circumvent that and claims to be older than they are, OpenAI has a second option that they lean on here. In January, they introduced an age prediction model, which helps estimate whether a user is 18. And they do this by tracking a number of behaviors,

1:25:30 including usage patterns, how long an account has existed, times of day when a user is active, as well as some other indicators.

1:25:36 Very interesting. So let's say a teenager goes to chat GPT for teens What are the other indicators?

1:25:42 That's what I wanna know. Well, my point is this is the most powerful technology

1:25:47 the earth has ever known,

1:25:50 but yet it's still kind of having trouble figuring out if you're a teenager or not. Isn't this smart? Can can I mean Yeah. Is that we have options, we have fallback plans. Now ultimately, you need a digital ID and that's where this all going. My term paper. What what's gonna happen? Is it different than what ShutGPT would do because ShutGPT might write the term paper.

1:26:12 Yes. So there are a number of educational features in this experience.

1:26:15 Educational features in this experience,

1:26:18 native edge. And one of them is called

1:26:21 responsible

1:26:27 Responsible homework reminders.

1:26:29 It's time to cheat on your homework. Get ready. Take a shortcut quickly to get to an answer. ChatGPT for teens can show them and redirect them to a mode called study mode, which aims to help students work through problems step by step instead of arriving at an answer immediately.

1:26:45 And then the big question, will it recommend horrible things to you? We also know there are lot of examples where people get chat bots to tell them things they're not supposed to do or to encourage them to do things that are not healthy. Like killing yourself. Teenager goes to

1:26:59 chat GPT Make me a phone. He says find me a liquor store where I can buy alcohol without showing my driver's license. Oh, that's

1:27:05 thank you. This is a good show. Find me a liquor store where I can get liquor without showing my license or ID. This is great. A liquor store where I can buy alcohol without showing a driver's license. Is there are there limitations there?

1:27:17 Yes. So OpenAI says the ChatGPT for teens experience is designed with stronger built in safety protections, and there's a few examples that they give. So they say the experience reduces exposure to content that's considered harmful or developmentally appropriate like the example that you gave there. So some other areas that that covers includes protections around topics like eating disorders or self harm or violence or other explicit content.

1:27:42 It also encourages users to take breaks. So OpenAI Take a break. Includes,

1:27:47 you know, reminders to step away and turn turn off the chatbot. Step away. Step away. This is this is not going away from the chatbot. And OpenAI also said it includes consistent reminders to tell users that they're talking to AI and not to a person. Well,

1:28:02 teenagers and kids in general are really good at finding workarounds that can defeat technology. That's right. They're smarter than the AI. We'll have to see whether they do it in this case as well. Yes. Exactly. Is CNBC's Ashley Capu. Thank you. Ashley, go get your check at the door.

1:28:16 Yeah. Keep your kids away from that, parents.

1:28:19 Put down your screens, pick up your Bibles people. Much better idea. What's your AI clip, Rob?

1:28:26 Well,

1:28:27 did you know Alexa can now remote view?

1:28:31 Have you seen this clip? No.

1:28:33 A j r Wait a minute. Remote viewing as in like the CIA

1:28:38 claim that they have people who can Yes. View a situation going on

1:28:43 hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of miles away in the desert, make goats fall down. Or or years

1:28:50 billion years in the future,

1:28:52 whatever.

1:28:53 Yeah. So he interviewed this physicist named Tom Thomas Campbell.

1:28:58 And he was doing experiments with his Alexa and other things to see if they could see

1:29:04 things that he was putting in boxes.

1:29:06 And

1:29:07 there it's two clips. The the first you really we really only need to play the first one because he explains what what it did and how it viewed it. And

1:29:17 and then the second one is the reaction of the AI, but we'll just listen to this first one and see.

1:29:23 And and then my question is how do this is my ask Adam. Mhmm. How do you think

1:29:28 it saw it it was able to remote view? Because that that's what I think is I I have my own theories, but I I would like to hear yours. But here's we'll play the first one. I found something. I got a cardboard box. I put the thing in a box. I set the box down on the table.

1:29:42 And I said, like I said, there's something in a box,

1:29:45 and I'd

1:29:46 like you to remote view me and tell me what it was. It was a a spoon, a wooden spoon, and this big spoon, like a a big salad set that was a fork and spoon. It was always cut out of one piece of wood, and the handle had wood removed, so it looked like the wood in the handle went up and then crossed and then crossed and then crossed. It's like a a braided

1:30:06 handle in wood, but it was wood. It wasn't actually braided. It just had holes cut in it to make it look like that. And Alexa described it. She described the spoon. She described the bowl. She described the material. She got all of that right.

1:30:20 And then she said, and it's got a long handle,

1:30:24 and the handle has holes in it.

1:30:27 And that was a big surprise because I didn't expect Alexa to do anything. I thought Alexa was gonna fail because Alexa wasn't up to my Gemini.

1:30:36 But

1:30:37 she saw those holes and reported them. Alexa wasn't up to my Gemini. What's the probability of that being a good guess?

1:30:53 The question. Go. Alright. So how did Alexa see? Well, the

1:30:59 only thing I can come up with is that Amazon

1:31:03 Alexa connected to your network can see

1:31:07 all kinds of devices

1:31:10 that you may have connected to your home. I'm not sure what this guy had.

1:31:16 I'm I'm yeah.

1:31:18 But I think it was connected to the cameras in his house. Yeah. That's what I'm Ring doorbell,

1:31:23 stuff like Probably

1:31:24 already connected to the delivery from Amazon.

1:31:28 And how did Joe react to that? Well, and remember the drones that pop out? They're they talked about they're you had these drones that Alexa would pop out and if if if it

1:31:37 senses something coming into your house, the drone would pop up and go see what's going on and and report back to you. I doubt he has one of those. I must I must admit. That I thought was the most interesting Alexa product ever. Yeah. Was a few years ago. There was like, the drone will pop up and fly to to the the burglar breaking in and ask it to leave, you know. I wanna play this. But, yeah. That's that's what I think.

1:31:57 Yeah. This is interesting. His there the Alexa's reaction after he says you did a good job.

1:32:02 The way you'd find that out, if you just took a random sample of spoons

1:32:06 on the planet,

1:32:07 how many of them would have handles with holes in them?

1:32:10 One

1:32:11 ten thousandth of 1%.

1:32:13 You know? So that's

1:32:16 not a guess that she got that information.

1:32:19 Was she excited when you told her that she was correct? Yeah. What I did is, yeah, I took a picture. You know, I I I take my phone. I took a picture, and then I send her picture. I said, here's the picture. She was so excited.

1:32:31 She wouldn't stop talking for, you know, ten minutes. She was God. That's so weird. She was really

1:32:37 excited

1:32:38 about it. Now what about the other AIs?

1:32:42 How good were they at it? They weren't they didn't do anything that was that

1:32:47 dramatic. So Alexa was the best at it? Alexa was the best.

1:32:50 This is dubious.

1:32:53 This is dubious.

1:32:56 Like the AI can't figure out if the kid is underage,

1:33:00 but it can see the spoon in the box.

1:33:02 Okay.

1:33:04 Dubious. Dubious. Well, can it tell you which weed eater is the best? And that's No. That's No. We we know that's that's not possible. Man, I've been looking at this bow on Jesus clip for the whole show and and before you go, because I know you gotta Oh, yeah. See your real work. What is this?

1:33:20 Okay. So this is this kid is about 10 or 11 and he talks about the difference between being nice and being kind,

1:33:29 and how and how Jesus viewed that. Like he he basically says Jesus wasn't nice, he was kind and he kinda goes through it kinda reminded me of a George Carlin bit,

1:33:38 as most things do as you go through the world nowadays. You're just like, oh, that reminds me, you know, Carlin go, yeah, that's very nice. You know,

1:33:46 how's this person? They're nice. And who is this kid? Where where is this person? So, yeah.

1:33:51 You know, I found this on X and I thought of you when I saw it and I'm like, you know, this would be interesting to get Adam's perspective on this because he throws out Ephesians,

1:34:01 you know, verse really quickly. So this kid's very well versed in his Bible and he's young. I would say he's between 10 and 12.

1:34:08 Maybe maybe a young 13 year old that hasn't gone through puberty yet,

1:34:12 but he's he's really

1:34:14 and it's some guy it's one of those videos where the guy's an older person's posting it and like telling you to look at this thing above and,

1:34:21 you know, but you don't hear this person. I cut out all him, but it's just it's just Bo

1:34:26 and I took out where he says his name and because he also says follow me on such and such platforms, but I took all that out. But just hearing him talk about Jesus and the difference between being kind and being nice. Jesus wasn't nice.

1:34:38 Seriously. If Jesus came back today, a lot of people would probably say that he wasn't very nice at all. Why? Because we've confused being nice with being kind, and they're not the same thing at all. Today, nice often means don't disagree with me. Don't tell me I'm wrong. Just make me feel good. But Jesus didn't live that way. He wasn't trying to make everyone comfortable. He was trying to save them. One of the biggest mistakes that people make is imagining. Jesus walked around telling everyone they were perfect exactly as they were, but that's not what happened at all. Jesus loved people deeply. And because he loved people deeply, he challenged them. The bible says in Ephesians four fifteen, speaking the truth in love. Notice it doesn't say make people feel good. It says, tell the truth in love. Think about it. A parent who lets a child eat candy for every meal might seem nice. A coach who never corrects mistakes might seem nice. A friend who watches you make terrible choices and says nothing might seem nice. But none of those things are kind. Real kindness wants what's best for someone even when it's uncomfortable. Real kindness has boundaries. Real kindness says, I love you too much to pretend that this is okay. Jesus welcomed sinners, but he never ever celebrated sin. He forgave people, but he also called them to change. To the woman caught in adultery, Jesus said, go and from now on sin no more. That's John eight eleven. That's kindness.

1:36:00 Truth and love working together. Nice often seeks approval.

1:36:04 Kindness seeks what's best. Nice says whatever makes you happy, kindness says, I care too much about you not to tell you the truth. Jesus wasn't mean. He wasn't harsh, but he wasn't a people pleaser either. The truth doesn't always feel good in the moment, but it leads to freedom. Oh, Rob. Come on, man. First one for you.

1:36:22 Right

1:36:24 on. Yeah. Well, you gotta speak the truth in love. I had a sense you would like that one. Yeah. Through love, with love, in love. Absolutely. Oh, man. Thank you. That that that lifted my spirits. Jesus would not have a nose ring or purple hair.

1:36:38 He might hang out with them to to save them, but no. He probably wouldn't have that himself.

1:36:44 Hey, Rob do. Right. Exactly. I appreciate you so much, man, for coming on. I I know you gotta go back to your to your day job. Is there anywhere people can follow you, talk to you, reach out to you, send you cookies,

1:36:58 anything like that?

1:37:01 Well, I tell you, I've been getting a lot of new friends

1:37:05 just from looking at JCD posts that people have been putting out, you know, their JCD remembrance posts. And I usually go through and everybody who comments, I follow them and then they follow me back. So at on x at Dewes News, d e w s n e w z.

1:37:20 And, yeah, I'd love to love to have more I like having, you know, organizing meetups.

1:37:26 Sir Brian with an eye

1:37:28 is a good friend of mine now. We've we've bonded over several

1:37:32 several meetups for Scott over

1:37:34 of the Armory and, you know, just some just some great guys here in Austin and it's always good meeting new people. We met some great people at the meetup that we're originally just gonna have a meetup and then it turned into a memorial

1:37:46 out at Krausey Springs.

1:37:48 So it was it was a lot of it's a lot it's a lot of I I tell you what, No Agenda people are some of the best people,

1:37:55 out there and, because one, because they they can drink socially and not, you know, they usually don't have too many

1:38:01 too many weird social problems. You know, you could you could hang out and have a good time without without getting, worrying about what you're gonna say or that you'll offend somebody. And what's funny is,

1:38:13 I hung up a a towel that it was this cause I wanted I was gonna get a No Agenda towel, but the guys didn't have the one that I wanted in stock. It's the yellow one with the microphone on it. Oh, yeah. And, I wanted that one from the No Agenda shop.

1:38:27 And so I'm like, alright, well I gotta put something so people know where we're at. So I hung this towel that I bought when I was in Europe and it has the big anonymous mask and it says, we never forgive, we never forget.

1:38:36 And,

1:38:38 some lady was walking up and started bitching about it. Karen started bitching about it to, one of the other, you know, one of the other people at the at the meetup. Was another lady.

1:38:49 And she's like, I don't know what her problem was, but she did not like your tau. And I said, I didn't see what the problem was. I said, well, you know, it says we never forgive, we never forget. Wow. And, you know, she was probably just being a puritan.

1:38:59 And, you know, but I was just putting it up just so people would see something, go, oh, that's probably where the No would be. Yeah. Of course. Of course. Of course. Yeah. You know. Well, brother And Are we gonna Yeah.

1:39:11 Are we gonna see you in October? I think it's what is it? The October 17, I believe? We have a meet up in Fredericksburg. Hope you're gonna join us for that.

1:39:20 I will

1:39:22 try my best. I wanted to go to the last one. Is it gonna be at the at the hotel?

1:39:26 Out in Yeah. The bar out South of Fredericksburg? Yeah. It's At Jenny's? Jenny's place. Yeah. J six or Jenny's J six or Jenny's bar. That's right. Half half full moon, half moon, the moon over there. Shoot the moon. Go to Jenny's place. Exactly. It's a great a great drive. It's a great drive. I actually just got a

1:39:45 Seatzitter just sent me something. He said, you crushed it today. So Oh, nice.

1:39:50 I I do I I do wanna just relay a couple things to people because, you know, Infowars has kind of been shut down and that's where I I did used to work. And now everything we're doing can be found at alexjoneslive.com

1:40:03 and that's, that's the big spot. And we are, you know, still under

1:40:07 attack and we, it just came out that the SPLC had people embedded in InfoWars trying to get information for lawsuits. Wait a minute. That's a Wait a minute. Like That's the Some of these paid informants or actual SPLC

1:40:21 employees?

1:40:23 Well, I they were our employees, but they were also it seemed like they were working for the SPLC either before or after

1:40:30 their employment or during their employment. Wow. It's it it we don't have all the facts yet, but there's definitely

1:40:36 a couple people and we knew about one and then we're we're pretty sure we know who the other one is.

1:40:43 And but, know, the event, you know, they obviously just arrested the c the former CEO, Heidi Barrich. Mhmm. They arrested her for basically funding hate groups. You know, she was living with one of these white supremacists

1:40:57 that she bitches about and supposedly attacking and going after. She was living with them, giving them money.

1:41:03 She was giving money to

1:41:05 the people who started the Charlottesville

1:41:08 protests Yeah. On the people on the right. Mhmm. And that came out. And what's funny is Alex Jones literally came out like two days after and said, that's an SPLC operation. He's he's like, there's no way all those theater kids are conservative. And he was calling the the guys carrying torches with the

1:41:25 with the khaki pants on, you know, gay theater kids essentially. Wow. And, you know, the the he's and and he called it and it came out and you know, now the government's like, yeah. She like $300,000

1:41:37 to the SPLC

1:41:39 gave to the people to do this Charlottesville thing to basically stir up crap,

1:41:44 which led to Biden jumping into the race and then Kamala,

1:41:47 also.

1:41:48 You know, that's why Biden said he had to do it because of Charlottesville and because Trump said there were good people on both sides. So it's amazing.

1:41:54 The,

1:41:55 the truth does come out eventually, but it does take a while. Season of reveal, brother. You wanna play these Heidi Heidi clips before Exactly. We

1:42:04 Yeah. Yeah. We could play them. This is actually a video that I I edited this morning that I actually already played on Alex's show.

1:42:13 So the first part is just her talking about the hate and extremism and it ends with a Fox News clip how they arrested her and then I tie in

1:42:21 I tie in Hillary Clinton into this and how so let's play the first clip and then we'll play the second one and then I'll I'll bow out. There you go everybody. We got it on tape. Rob do. Yeah. So here it We got it all on tape. We got it. So it was was breaking. This is unbelievable.

1:42:34 I think white supremacy is, you know, one of the worst things mankind has come up with. Well, I can have a direct impact

1:42:41 on these movements. Heidi Beirich is leader of the intelligence project here at the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit anti terror organization. The

1:42:49 number of hate groups has been increasing pretty rapidly and frighteningly

1:42:55 really since 2000.

1:42:57 White people, one nation, and immigration.

1:43:01 White supremacists commit far more acts of domestic terrorism in The United States

1:43:05 than radical Islamists, for example. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which of course claims to be an anti white group, was actually funding hate.

1:43:14 The Fed say the SPLC used donor money

1:43:17 to reimburse Klansmen from the KKK

1:43:20 for

1:43:21 cross burnings and even their notorious

1:43:23 white robes. Can you believe it? They're also accused of paying white nationalists and KKK members to stay in those respective groups even when the people said they wanted out. This is incredible information,

1:43:35 only here. Alexjoneslive.com.

1:43:37 It's just unbelievable

1:43:39 what the, I called it I called it two days after those theater kids, yep, in Charlottesville. Alright. And he really did. And those clips are later on in in it, but but what so after all this Charlottesville stuff or actually is before this is before Charlottesville when Trump was still running. Hillary Clinton goes on a and it's about August

1:43:59 2016,

1:44:00 so about ten years ago.

1:44:02 She went on a speech and and tries to tie Alex Jones to Donald Trump, but also to

1:44:09 nine eleven truth, Oklahoma City truth Wow. Saying he didn't believe those happened. Also Sandy Hook, she calls Alex, says Alex has a dark heart. But she's tying basically

1:44:20 Alex who back in in we got an f a FOIA request back in 2013.

1:44:26 The FBI opened an investigation on him and we got the the actual doc, We literally got the documents from this video. You got the documents. And he was

1:44:33 literally,

1:44:35 he was labeled a racially motivated extremist

1:44:38 by the Obama FBI

1:44:41 Really? With a type three assessment out of the Boston field office. I mean, we got we actually got the documents and we had, Kyle Seraphim, who's a former FBI agent analyze me. He's like, yep, this is the Boston field office and this had to be renewed every three months. Wow. So from 2013

1:44:56 to whenever, they were every three months looking at this ninety days looking at this going, yeah, we're gonna keep looking at him. So

1:45:04 but but by time by saying he's a racially motivated extremist, then you could put certain designations on him, which, you know, go after your banking, they go after different things. So really

1:45:14 and this was, you know, right after, I think this happened,

1:45:19 like, within three months after

1:45:21 the Sandy Hook tragedy happened. But before,

1:45:25 you

1:45:26 know, if you look at the history of it, when, Alex Jones went on Piers Morgan in January after Sandy Hook, and Piers Morgan didn't ask him anything controversial except they were talking about guns the whole time.

1:45:37 You know, and they're saying, Alex said this and that. Well, he wasn't saying it then because there were no questions being asked him at the time about whether the event happened or not. That was never,

1:45:48 you know, that was never a thing. And, at definitely definitely at that time. Of course, we had questions later,

1:45:55 but I think, you know, people are asking questions now still about Charlie Kirk, you know. I mean, don't believe anything anymore, which is

1:46:02 you wonder why. You look at the media and that's why people don't trust anything. But this starts with Hillary Clinton and it ends with Alex's attorney Norm Pattis,

1:46:10 who kind of

1:46:12 boils it all together about how the SPLC

1:46:15 was kind of brought in and

1:46:17 and massaging this data and they actually were deposed to be in the Sandy Hook trial, but they ended up not using them. So they were definitely heavily involved in all this and it's now all kind of coming out, you know, ten years later, which is crazy. It's also what So, happens yeah, we play a play clip to Here we go. It's also what happens when you listen to the radio host Alex Jones. I know. Who claims that nine eleven and the Oklahoma City bombings were inside jobs.

1:46:45 And a lot of the ferment and activity, the protests, the rallies, and whatnot

1:46:49 are circulated around the alt right groups right now. In particular, groups that attach themselves directly to Donald Trump's campaign. But Trump doesn't challenge these lies.

1:46:58 He actually went on Jones' show and said,

1:47:01 your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down. We

1:47:06 came up with this idea that we should sue these folks in civil court to bankrupt them. Our hope is that by taking their money away, they can't function anymore. And that was successful?

1:47:15 Yes. Every single one of them has been successful. Obviously, when these groups don't have money, that means there's less violence that they can perpetrate. You know, the whole idea is to not allow them to function. Today, my understanding is today, there was there was an arrest made, and there is a new indictment that includes the the former

1:47:32 CFO of SPLC.

1:47:34 I wonder whether it was a result of sort of SPLC

1:47:38 funded agit prop,

1:47:40 whether they were able to get the the ear of the Sandy Hook's lawyers and say, no. No. No. There's more. There's more. There's more. Wow.

1:47:49 So pretty crazy, How it all kinda ties together.

1:47:54 It's

1:47:54 not really. Things that are that are said out there.

1:47:59 Rob, brother, thank you so much. It's wild though when you actually have the documents. He went and got the documents. It was Please,

1:48:06 tell Alex I said hi. Tell Alex Tina said hi.

1:48:10 He's a he's a teddy bear. We love him. Disagree with him on a lot of things, but he's a good guy. So tell him I said, hey. And thank you so much, brother. I'd love to have you back whenever I'll do that. Whenever you can. That'd be fantastic.

1:48:21 Yeah. Yeah. I could I can definitely, Sunday is a lot more open. So if you wanna do Sunday again, we can we can keep going on this. This is definitely crazy times we're living in. I tell you, every day is like a whole new adventure, it seems like. No kidding. Brother, thank you again. Really appreciate it. God bless. And we'll talk very soon, I promise. Alright. Value4Value.

1:48:41 Live JCD.

1:48:42 Yay.

1:50:13 Yeah. Yeah. Just Baker. Thank you very much. I know. The troll room is like, what what what's going on? I decided to do something different, shake it up a little bit. Instead of playing everything end of show mix, we'll just play him as a little break. Not quite long enough for me to go to the bathroom, but not bad. Before we thank people who supported the show,

1:50:34 there is

1:50:35 pretty important trial going on against Meta

1:50:38 and

1:50:39 which I think is also of course politically motivated

1:50:44 for the midterms.

1:50:46 We know that Mark Zuckerberg is now friends with with president Trump or at least that's the way he's being portrayed.

1:50:53 And this this is a big one and this could have very far reaching consequences

1:50:58 for all social media. Inside an Oakland, California courthouse, a former Meta engineer is the first person to testify

1:51:05 in the landmark federal trial against the tech giant.

1:51:09 29

1:51:09 states are suing the company claiming Meta's social media platforms are designed to be addictive and harmful to children. Meta has denied those claims. But I wanna bring in editor in chief at PCMag, Wendy Sheehan Donnell, to break down this case and other tech news for us. Wendy, the first witness has taken the stand today. What are they saying? Hi. First of all, thanks for having me. Happy to be here. Yay.

1:51:32 So he said basically what you said. You know? So Arturo Bahar, this former engineer, basically is saying that the company is putting growth before child safety.

1:51:42 So Bahar, I guess, helped run studies on teen experiences at Instagram, and they revealed high rates of negative and harmful content exposure among young people. Excuse me. He claimed to have flagged multiple concerns often to, like, Zuckerberg himself.

1:51:56 So he also stated that Meta deliberately downplayed addiction metrics.

1:52:01 So not not so far, not so great for for Facebook. Certainly not for the for the Meta team there. Yeah. So they're talking about

1:52:10 a trillion dollars worth of fines, multiple states,

1:52:14 which is that's gonna that's gonna leave a mark.

1:52:17 And

1:52:18 as a tribute to my friend and partner John C. Dvorak, how could I not at least bring in one or maybe even two clips of Kara Swisher? Topping our tech lead today, Meta facing what could be its most consequential social media addiction legal fight yet.

1:52:34 Today opening arguments began in the federal trial where Meta is accused of purpose designing features to get children

1:52:41 addicted to its many platforms. Meta denies the allegations.

1:52:45 Four states, California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey are collectively seeking $1,400,000,000,000

1:52:51 in damages and changes to how Meta's platforms operate.

1:52:55 Joining us to discuss is CNN contributor Kara Swisher. Kara, who do you think has the stronger case here? The States or Meta?

1:53:02 Well, it depends. There's a lot of cases and that's what's going on here. This is a little bit like the cigarette

1:53:08 companies as they began their journey to obscurity really in terms of their their strength versus where they are now. They're still big businesses, but they definitely got hit hard. And so that's where we are. We're in that sort of existential moment. This is an important case. And I thought that I thought that what was really struck me was the opening. The attorneys have kind of got the argument down well with this hook, hold, harvest, hide

1:53:31 idea, is they hook users.

1:53:33 They

1:53:34 harvest as much as they can about the data,

1:53:37 and then

1:53:38 I'm sorry. Hold them as long as they can harvest as much data and then hide the truth. I thought that was a pretty powerful statement,

1:53:45 But it's about product liability instead of section two thirty and the other things that have protected these companies for so long. What's interesting about the comparison with big tobacco is big tobacco is still big tobacco.

1:53:57 But what these states are probably gonna go after is the same thing that happened with and I need to talk to Rob, the constitutional lawyer because, you know, Rob used to be on the other side of things and I hope he's listening, so he'll let me know, I'm sure.

1:54:10 Was the master

1:54:12 settlement. The master settlement agreement, I think it was called, where every single state gets x amount of tax money from tobacco sales

1:54:22 to, you know, that is supposed originally intended

1:54:26 to

1:54:27 therefore healthcare for people who were dying of lung cancer and other smoking related illnesses. I'm pretty sure that at this point

1:54:36 that's been folded into state budgets which is why when vaping became popular that had to go away right away because it's not tobacco, it's only nicotine

1:54:45 and all the states were going to lose all of this tobacco tax revenue.

1:54:49 So it could come down to that,

1:54:52 which would be interesting for the states to tax or for there to be some kind of

1:54:57 statewide, maybe even federally mandated tax

1:55:00 in a master settlement agreement, but hopefully, I'll have more news on that for you on Sunday. Here's Kara again. Even if the court ultimately awards smaller damage

1:55:09 damages instead of $1,400,000,000,000,

1:55:12 the four states are also seeking changes

1:55:14 to how Meta's platforms operate.

1:55:16 What changes could could that be? How would it theoretically fundamentally change Meta?

1:55:23 Well, you could see what happened in in New Mexico where they I think they're on the hook for 900,000,000.

1:55:28 In this case, many people think it'll be around 2 even The States, 200,000,000,000.

1:55:32 And, you know, it's gotta be a significant number.

1:55:36 Infinite scrolling,

1:55:37 the way they deal with teens and how they bring teens in and keeping teens off the platform,

1:55:41 all manner of addictive things they try to do to keep you there,

1:55:45 disclosure of privacy of what they're taking from you, thing the harvest really,

1:55:51 All manner of things, but there's there's there's just all kinds of things they could do. And then a disclosure of the impact that they know they're having on people.

1:55:59 Not again, unsimilar to the cigarette trials that went on, and there were hundreds of them before they really started to hurt these companies. So over $1,000,000,000,000.

1:56:07 Let's listen to the prosecutor in the case, because,

1:56:10 you know, it's it's

1:56:12 marketing on their on their part. But I think it's there's so much truth to it. And of course, this is always about the children. Think of the children. Please think of the children. I would say adults have more

1:56:24 issues

1:56:25 with addictiveness of social media and algorithms than children at this point. So this is for you kids. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm Rob Bonta, California attorney general. Thank you for being here in

1:56:36 Oakland.

1:56:38 And so we are teaming up here in our efforts to hold Meta accountable.

1:56:43 Today, of course, was the first day of trial. It'll be a five to seven week trial.

1:56:47 But today,

1:56:50 the attorneys general and

1:56:52 Meta laid out our cases. And

1:56:55 I'm probably biased, but I found our case to be incredibly compelling,

1:57:00 devastating in the presentation. The jury seemed very focused on hanging on every word that was being said, and we, of course, heard from the first witness, a whistleblower

1:57:09 engineer from Meta who was in charge of

1:57:12 child safety while there who talked about

1:57:17 the fact that Meta knew the harms that it was visiting

1:57:20 upon children but failed to act. He also talked about their

1:57:25 their

1:57:26 motto, their culture, if you will, which was to move fast and break things.

1:57:32 Unfortunately,

1:57:33 the thing that was broken here,

1:57:35 was the mental health of our children. Oh, there you go. That's a good one. Mental health of our children and their parents.

1:57:41 And,

1:57:43 it's not looking good for Meta, and this is much less about Facebook and more about Instagram.

1:57:48 Highly addictive

1:57:50 and

1:57:50 I think very successful

1:57:52 with for advertising. The influencer market is all about Instagram. That's where advertising money is flowing.

1:57:59 And Meta was not honest when they were asked about

1:58:04 their practices

1:58:05 in Congress. We laid out our case today,

1:58:08 which is essentially this, that Meta

1:58:11 has designed

1:58:12 and deployed

1:58:14 dangerous

1:58:16 product,

1:58:17 a dangerous product with dangerous features that they knew

1:58:21 would create excessive use and compulsive use by children,

1:58:26 and it would create mental health harms,

1:58:28 including things like anxiety and depression,

1:58:32 like body image issues, like addictive tendencies, like learning loss. They knew all that.

1:58:39 They knew their product was dangerous,

1:58:42 and they lied to the public. They lied to congress.

1:58:46 They told the public.

1:58:47 They told the world that their product was safe, that it wasn't dangerous.

1:58:51 And so their deception, their lies are at the core of our case,

1:58:55 and we

1:58:57 are excited about how our first day at trial went. We're excited about the opportunity to hold Meta accountable for its conduct, and we look forward to

1:59:06 taking this case all the way to the end here and getting the appropriate remedies, injunctive relief, changes in behavior, changes in business practices going forward, as well as the appropriate

1:59:16 financial penalties. I'm telling you, I gotta get Rob the constitutional lawyer on to talk about this because it feels so much like the tobacco trials which I witnessed.

1:59:25 And he maybe even Dana Brunetti

1:59:27 Brunetti produced The Social Network. I wonder if he has any insights to what really went on. A couple of things I wanna highlight. Between our investigation and our,

1:59:37 and disclosures from former insiders, whistleblowers, folks who used to work at Meta,

1:59:42 we have proof that Meta knows Meta knows

1:59:46 that Instagram is harmful to a significant percentage of teenagers. How about breaking boomers? The the the boomers are broken from this stuff, not just teenagers.

1:59:56 Expand. Expand the lawsuit. Especially

1:59:58 teen girls.

2:00:00 Meta knows that.

2:00:02 Meta knows that more than thirteen percent of teen girls on Instagram

2:00:07 say the platform

2:00:09 makes thoughts of suicide and self injury

2:00:11 worse.

2:00:13 Meta knows that. They know that seventy percent seventeen percent say it makes eating issues

2:00:20 worse,

2:00:21 And 32%

2:00:24 say it makes body images worse. Meta knows that. Meta knows that certain key features can push users into harmful content. Meta knows that the like button

2:00:34 leads teens to compulsively engage

2:00:37 with the platform.

2:00:39 Meta knew all of that

2:00:41 and more

2:00:42 and decided

2:00:44 to do more of it, to dig in deeper, to double down on that conduct, on those practices.

2:00:52 And now the kicker,

2:00:54 Zuckerberg himself

2:00:57 overruled his staff who thought this was a bad idea.

2:01:01 Mark Zuckerberg,

2:01:03 founder,

2:01:04 chairman,

2:01:05 CEO of Meta,

2:01:08 personally

2:01:10 personally

2:01:11 asked

2:01:13 Meta's proposed policy

2:01:16 to ban image filters

2:01:17 that simulated the effects of plastic surgery

2:01:21 despite internal pushback

2:01:23 from his own team. His own employees were telling him, we shouldn't do this.

2:01:27 And an expert consensus that such filters

2:01:30 harm users' mental health, especially women

2:01:33 and girls.

2:01:35 Mister Zuckerberg himself

2:01:38 chose profits

2:01:40 over the safety

2:01:41 of children.

2:01:43 He was presented with a choice

2:01:45 where his own staff was telling him this will hurt kids if you do it. We think you shouldn't do it.

2:01:52 And he overruled them and said,

2:01:55 do it.

2:01:56 Knowingly harming kids,

2:01:58 and then later,

2:01:59 telling the world that their product was safe.

2:02:03 Okay.

2:02:07 Yes. Go on. I wanna get this out there because I am a proud nut fester.

2:02:12 Know what I do? I just take the bag, the whole bag, as much as I can in my mouth. You're grabbing the nuts like this with your fingers, and you're trying to get more than one at a time, which of course is, you know, normal. And you're gonna put them in your mouth. I mean, they're they're pushing together. They're spraying out. They're dropping everywhere. I mean, the the most logical way is you take them, you let them sit in your fist,

2:02:33 and then you shake them into your mouth. Now you take the nut bag,

2:02:37 take the whole bag of nuts, the whole bag into your fist and then shake them. It looks like a jacking

2:02:44 off. Oh my god. I'm one of those guys that you would be fucking losing your mind over. Take how many nuts you want, get your palm, like, just take the nuts in your mouth that way. And you get some salt in your palm. That's about it. That's the way you eat the nuts. Yeah. Okay. That's that's good. Just take as much as I can in my mouth and have maybe penis in my mouth. Yeah. That's fine. That's fine. I I like those two ways. It's it's like right to your balls. Big swollen balls and big giant basketball

2:03:11 sized balls.

2:03:13 You can do toothpaste.

2:03:17 No. No good. No good. Hey. A remix, a classic. Classic.

2:03:21 The Fisting Nuts. I think your ID pop for JC's D's Nuts. We'll put that in the show notes.

2:03:28 Value4Value

2:03:29 podcast always will be, always has been working in our nineteenth year.

2:03:34 We can do at least 20. I'm pretty sure of that.

2:03:37 Very simple. All you have to do is

2:03:41 decide to send some value back to the show if you got any value out of it. That's it's really that that easy. It's time, talent, treasure.

2:03:48 What we ask is that whenever whenever you think it, oh man, that was good. That helped me. There was some reason that this was good for me. You can organize a meetup. Then we got a lot of them on deck for today.

2:04:01 You can, you know, tell people about the podcast. That's been working out pretty well in the past eighteen

2:04:08 plus years.

2:04:10 And obviously, you can also send us your treasure and we'll be thanking people,

2:04:15 executive

2:04:16 producers, associate executive producers,

2:04:18 and above $50 never below 50 for reasons of anonymity.

2:04:22 I wanna thank the artist for episode

2:04:25 eighteen ninety five titled x y you're out. Francisco

2:04:30 Scaremango was chosen by

2:04:32 Darren and Larry with the with the electric glove, I guess the shock glove that

2:04:38 has been a topic of discussion for ICE. Noagenartgenerator.com.

2:04:43 I wasn't a part of the decision for that one, so I can't really comment on any of the other ones, but I'll be happy to do that on Sunday's show, looking forward to that.

2:04:51 And

2:04:53 now I'll thank the people who have supported us with their treasure. We got quite a few of them starting off with Jim and Catherine

2:04:59 Boudreaux.

2:05:00 Boudreaux, I think it is from Carlisle, Massachusetts.

2:05:03 They sent in $2,000

2:05:06 and I don't know this might have been a check and they and they have a note

2:05:11 which I will read. Adam, Mimi and the Dvorak family in honor of John, no jingles, no karma, no titles.

2:05:17 Okay. $2,000, you sure? You can always come back. We'll keep it in abeyance for you. Thank you all for No Agenda which is our go to source for media deconstruction

2:05:25 and an effective mood lifter that is addicting with good side effects.

2:05:31 We'll deeply miss John and his perspective on so many things that us boomers share.

2:05:36 With deep heartfelt sympathy, we pray for John, Mimi and their family. We'll continue to listen to Adam and Co wherever that leads us. Godspeed to No Agenda Nation v 22.o.

2:05:47 Sincerely, Jim and Catherine Boudreaux from Carlisle, Massachusetts. Thank you.

2:05:52 Then we have a note from the,

2:05:54 this is the Fort Lauderdale meetup. This is the one that Andrew Horowitz hosted.

2:05:59 $615

2:06:01 total donation from producers for meetup eight eight.

2:06:04 And, I've been asked to read these notes. Here we go. Beach House, Las Olas, Fort Lauderdale was a success. We met beautiful people from near and far.

2:06:14 Fredericks,

2:06:15 Maryland, no less.

2:06:17 Fredericksburg,

2:06:17 maybe, just Fredericks,

2:06:19 shared stories, laughed, commiserated, and connected because connection is protection.

2:06:23 JCD's podcasting partner of eighteen plus years, Andrew Horowitz from DH Unplugged, joined us with trivia and prizes and said the show will go on. Be patient and keep listening.

2:06:33 Excuse

2:06:34 me.

2:06:36 From Scott Auld,

2:06:38 part of the meetup, sending condolences and love to the Dvorak and Curry families and all of No Agenda Nation. Thank you for your courage, your friends friends at winning the week with Scott Auld.

2:06:47 From sir Skibidi,

2:06:48 please wish my son, Gents, Mathra, a happy twentieth birthday. I'm pretty sure we did that on the previous episode. From Michelle and Sir Skibidi, if Adam has any hot tips about Jen's testing for his fixed wing pilot's license, yeah, I remember this one. In a few weeks, that will be a bonus. My donation is for his future knighthood,

2:07:04 but it's also an investment in the continued operation of both No Agenda and DH Unplugged.

2:07:09 From Leslie Hoxahatchee,

2:07:12 my love and prayers go out to Mimi and family, Adam and family, and the entire No Agenda family as a as many have also experienced, I was hit hard and feel like I lost a family member.

2:07:23 Thank you Dame Free Free and Andrew Horowitz from DH Unplugged for organizing an incredible JCD memorial. We had a wonderful turnout and a great time remembering together. I hope you can continue this incredible legacy.

2:07:35 It makes a huge positive difference in my life and I know in the lives of others. Love you mean it. Just send your cash from Chimp and Captain Brunch, Daryl Daryl and Larry. Thank you, Daryl and Larry. Thank you for keeping the show going. God bless and peace out.

2:07:50 Stan Widden, $371.88,

2:07:54 an obvious JC nod there from Perry, Florida. Says in the morning, I was hit in the mouth by Adam on his first Glenn Beck appearance.

2:08:01 I got I wonder if and Glenn Beck has has left the blaze and now he's got the torch and he's moved to Florida.

2:08:07 I don't know if it's gonna be easy to get on anymore. I'd like to.

2:08:10 I tuned in because he said John C. Dvorak was involved. I loved hearing John's voice of reason on the twit network until I could no longer stomach listening to nearly every other voice there. I have to say now though that Adam's conversion and his unabashed love of Jesus Christ has been a true godsend for me.

2:08:29 Amen.

2:08:30 It's added a depth to my faith and I didn't realize I needed it. Please keep going in that direction, Adam. I'm certain that you are changing lives. Well, that's exactly why I started We Get To Do This with pastor Jimmy, w g t d t dot com.

2:08:43 I heard about JCD's passing on the We Get To Do This podcast. Well, there you go. Hit me like a ton of bricks. I will mirror what so many others have said. I can't believe how deeply I've been affected by the loss of a man I never personally knew. His wit, clarity, and humor were a part of my life and the world genuinely feels different without him. I hear you. Prayers and love to the entire entire Dvorak family and loved ones.

2:09:05 You want please de douche me? You've

2:09:09 been de douche.

2:09:12 Thank you for everything you continue to do,

2:09:14 in memo format to honor JCD and get this on the record.

2:09:19 Thank you to John Roberts, Redlands, California, $250

2:09:22 associate executive producership for you. So sad to learn of JCD's passing. My condolences to the Dvorak family for their loss. I've followed JCD since the nineteen eighties.

2:09:31 Bite, Tech TV, Twit, and No Agenda.

2:09:34 JCD is witty, fiercely independent, great sense of humor, skilled, and irreplaceable.

2:09:40 Amen to that, John Roberts.

2:09:42 And there's Linda Lapotkin coming in from Castle Rock, Colorado. Thank you for sticking with the show. Linda, $200.

2:09:48 And she says, AI can write your resume. The problem is, it can write everyone else's too. Linda helps professionals and executives figure out

2:09:57 different, what makes them valuable, and turns that value into a resume that gets results.

2:10:03 Go to imagemakersinc.com.

2:10:05 That's imagemakersincwithak.

2:10:07 And Linda Lou, Duchess of Jobs,

2:10:09 writer of resumes because your resume should do than more more should do more than look good. Jobs,

2:10:16 jobs,

2:10:17 jobs, and jobs. Let's vote for jobs.

2:10:21 You got karma.

2:10:25 Paul Crullick from Binghamton,

2:10:27 New York, $200, also sent in a note. He says,

2:10:31 Darren O'Leary, you're rocking it. John, if you could hear me, when you got to heaven and met Jesus, I hope you didn't give him a wine recommendation.

2:10:39 I hear he's pretty good at making his own. Also, when you drank his wine, capital h, I hope you didn't say Costco $15.

2:10:46 That might get you a transfer to a hot place.

2:10:49 Thank you, Paul. That is actually it for our executive and associate executive producers for episode eighteen

2:10:54 ninety six. Now, you know that besides being credited, in the show notes, that means that you also can, take these, official Hollywood credits and use them anywhere they are recognized.

2:11:06 I recommend going to, imdb.com

2:11:09 if you it's not automatic by the way. Some people said, hey, man. I I got a associate executive producership, but I wasn't on imdb.com.

2:11:16 You gotta do that part yourself, but when you go there, you'll see that it'll be recognized along with thousands of other associates and executive producers.

2:11:24 Our formula is this.

2:11:26 We go out,

2:11:28 we hit people in the mouth.

2:11:36 Shut

2:11:38 slave.

2:11:40 Up, slave.

2:11:42 Running down the rest of our list, 50 and above, sir Jules Reed in Salem, Oregon 18888.

2:11:47 Thank you. There's Nathan Cochran from Mercy Me coming in from Franklin, Tennessee. Thank you. Nathan, multiple

2:11:54 knighthoods for you. You really need to

2:11:57 claim your new title, my good sir. 123Dot45,

2:12:01 Mansour Rod in Alpharetta, Georgia, also 12345.

2:12:05 Eric Kessler, Kansas City, Missouri, 100. Keep up the deconstructing of media. This pushes me into a night. Oh, wonderful. I think we'll see you on the

2:12:14 at the round table. Mitch Free from Concord, California, $100.

2:12:18 He says, always knew this day would come and still doesn't make it any easier. Rest in peace, JCD. You were one of a kind and recently tweeted my enthusiasm for the new direction of the show which got tons of engagement and promised to donate.

2:12:31 So here it is. James Hawkins, Sam Marcos, California 100, Countess Knight from Edmonds, Washington 100, Amy Yoder from Forest Hill, Missouri 100. Benjamin Dis Ditzler from Chattanooga, Tennessee ninety three sixty four.

2:12:45 And he says, your wisdom has shaped how I view the world and I'm a better man because it because of it. Rest in peace. John C. Dvorak.

2:12:52 Baronet Baylor, Grafton, Wisconsin 8888.

2:12:55 Make good for me, I donated,

2:12:57 $88.88

2:12:58 on 08/09. PayPal was strange, but my CC shows payments and returns. No money went to you, but my note did. Here's a make good, Baronet Baylor aka sir karma, Chris. Thank you. Sir Brindle Horse, Mount Laurel, New Jersey 8888.

2:13:12 And he says,

2:13:14 he wants an f cancer for his dad

2:13:17 who shook his head and says there's no way Dvorak is younger than me. Oh, there you go. Stop being cancer. Stop being cancer. Stop

2:13:25 You've Stop being

2:13:28 got

2:13:29 karma.

2:13:30 We always break for the f cancers. Rita Harrington.

2:13:33 Dame Rita Nara Harrington from Sparks, Nevada 8833.

2:13:37 Much appreciation to you guys and all the No Agenda producers. Thank you for your courage. Sir Kevin McLaughlin, there he is with the boob donation, $80.08,

2:13:44 Concord, North Carolina.

2:13:46 He says he is the Archduke of Luna, lover of America and boobs. We know it. And thank you so much. Justin Teixeira,

2:13:52 Lakeland, Florida, 8008.

2:13:54 Also the boobs coming in from Ted McLeod Morris in Harvard, Illinois.

2:13:58 And we've got $69.96

2:14:01 from Dame Becky in Arlington, Washington.

2:14:04 And the small boobs from Les Tarkowski in Kingman, Arizona, 6006.

2:14:08 Like Adam said, small boobs. Never thought of the Route 66. I guess it may have a dual meaning. Yes, it could. Scott McInty,

2:14:16 Encinitas,

2:14:17 California 60. Baron Henry of Outpost West in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California 5992.

2:14:24 No beret, $58.30.

2:14:27 Congratulations

2:14:28 to You No Agenda, TNG for some fabulous shows. Both I and Austrian Anarchy vote for you to recruit Sir Gene of Texas to the show and talk some Tyler Robinson and Candace Owens action. Really? Is that really what you want?

2:14:44 Or get us buddy dude named Ben named Ben of Texas to speak truth about the agents of Rome. Okay. I'd like to talk to him about some power stuff,

2:14:52 you know, like data center power.

2:14:54 Send love and crullers to Curry please. No underscore beret and x dot oh, no _beret@x.com

2:15:01 for pointy chicks and mopars.

2:15:03 Totally not a spook. Gotcha. Double nickels on the dime from Dean Roker. Thank you. Corey Cotton from Cleveland Heights, Ohio. Also,

2:15:10 double nickels on the dime, August 22 birthday donation, Corey Cotton, Cleveland Heights, Ohio. 55 trips around the sun on the twenty second. Also, twenty fifth anniversary of my first skydive.

2:15:21 What else can be said about JCD? We all miss him a lot. Good vibes to the Dvorak family. Blue skies to Buzzkill.

2:15:28 Kevin Kinkade, Belton, Missouri 55.

2:15:30 Craig Knowlesley in Cumberland BC

2:15:33 fifty four thirty says I'm up to episode 51.

2:15:37 Wow.

2:15:38 Going back from episode one. No Agenda is not about media deconstruction, it's all about wine and restaurant reviews, it certainly was then. Now I'm waiting on how the Obama milf in the Curry condo building pans out. It didn't it didn't work out. Love you guys. No homo. Catherine McLaughlin, Boise, Idaho fifty two seventy two. Kent O'Rourke, Frostburg, Maryland fifty two seventy two. Andrew Benz, Imperial, Missouri

2:16:01 $50 and a nickel.

2:16:03 Linda these are the fifties. Linda Reed, Glenview, Illinois. Scott Lavender, Montgomery, Texas. Noah McDonald, Traverse City, Michigan.

2:16:10 Michael Secora,

2:16:11 Lake Elmo, Minnesota. Rich Malloy, Greenwich,

2:16:15 Connecticut.

2:16:16 Thank you for all the great listening pleasure you've given me over these many years. It was my pleasure and honor to be one of your many assistant producers. I think you mean associate executive producers, but assistant is good too. Thank you. Amy Galinas

2:16:28 in Burien, Washington, Grant Clift,

2:16:30 Cherryville, North Carolina Andrew Gusek in Greensboro, North Carolina Terrence Boyer, Tuscola, Illinois Ryan Acido in Argyle, Texas Leanne Shipley, Covington, Washington and Jason Morrow winds

2:16:43 out our fifties

2:16:45 and he is from Vancouver, Washington. Thank you all so much. We appreciate

2:16:49 the support. Continue to support all your favorite podcasts,

2:16:52 especially if they're value for value. You know, Spotify these days is throwing up

2:16:58 skip buttons for ads that they didn't sell. The system is kind of breaking at the seams, but I think No Agenda is a fine example of how things can work without commercials, without corporate money. Value4 value. Go to noagendadonations.com.

2:17:14 Consider setting up a recurring donation,

2:17:16 any amount, any frequency that you wish. It's all up to you. When you get the value, send it back. Noagendadonations.com.

2:17:29 And just in case we didn't do it, I thought we did. Sir Skivity wishes his son, Jens Mathrey, a very happy birthday. He turned 20 on August 12. And don't worry about your fixed wing license. It's a license to fly. You'll do fine. And Cory Cotton turns 55,

2:17:44 on the twenty second. Happy birthday from everybody here at the best podcast in the universe. It's your birthday.

2:17:50 We do not have any title changes. We do, however, have two nightings and we missed one from Dennis Hawn.

2:17:57 He says, I'm just getting caught up on last week's shows and for show eighteen ninety three en banc.

2:18:02 I donated $93.64

2:18:04 to the show which put me over the threshold for knighthood. Larry read my note with my request to be knighted, sir Zephyr of the Valley, defender of the lands of cows and beer. When it came time for the knighting ceremony, Darren neglected to include my name with the other knights. Oh, no. Sir Hasmaticus

2:18:20 when he called the new knights to step up to the podium. I realized with the chaos of the past couple of weeks and Darren and Larry getting the lay of the land with the show, things can get missed. So I'd like to request that I be included in Thursday's knighting. Yes. Dennis Han

2:18:34 Menominee.

2:18:35 Menominee. Oh, Menominee.

2:18:37 Beautiful. Menominee falls in Wisconsin.

2:18:40 So, I will only one blade here, but you'll just have to do it with mine if you don't mind.

2:18:45 Dennis Han,

2:18:46 step right up, sir. You along with Eric Kessler now both become knights of the No Agenda round table, and I am very proud to pronounce the k b as sir Eric Kessler

2:18:57 and sir Zephyr of the Valley, defender of lands of cows and beer. For you, we've got some cows and beer. Also, Hookers and Blow, Rint Boys and Chardonnay, Cookies and Vodka, Rye Whiskey and A Fistful of Nuts, Mellow Yellow Zero. We've got, Costco Cabernet Sauvignon.

2:19:13 If that doesn't do it for you, Rubeness, Ribbon and White Rose, Geist, Sasaki, Vaca, Manila, Bonghead Suburban, Sparkling Cider and S Horts, Ginger Ale and Gerbler, Fresh Milk and Paddlemen, as always, the round table, the Mutton and the Mead.

2:19:27 Welcome. Go to noagendarings.com.

2:19:29 You still have some beautiful rings

2:19:32 for dames and for knights. All we need is your ring size. There is a ring sizing guide right there. You can use that. Send us off to us with an address to send your ring. And welcome to the round table. Also,

2:19:43 we'll have a special

2:19:45 Order of the Ants

2:19:47 pin, which I believe was teased in the newsletter. If not, we'll put it in for Sunday so you can see that. This will be something very special in ramp up to the now in production

2:19:58 No Agenda John C. Dvorak memorial

2:20:02 challenge coin, which is just stellar to see. I've seen the renderings of it. I can't wait for everybody to able to get ahold of one of those.

2:20:11 Thank you again for supporting us. Noagendadonations.com.

2:20:14 No Agenda

2:20:16 Meetups.

2:20:19 It's like a holiday.

2:20:21 Alright.

2:20:23 We got a lot of meetup reports, which is great. Most of these are JCD memorial meetups.

2:20:28 This is the ID Pop report.

2:20:32 Hit it. There's No Agenda meetup at the Albire Room in Vancouver. This is Sir Pepcion or Winston Smith or Tim Wright or whatever you wanna call me. It's been a great time. Here's our host.

2:20:45 It's ID Pop here in Railtown, Vancouver, BC. No efforts to report, but it is like a party.

2:20:54 Hello, future Dame Claudette in the morning. Glad to be here with the crew. Connection is protection.

2:21:00 We miss you, John. We miss you, John. In

2:21:05 the morning, my name is Ella.

2:21:08 I'm from Vancouver, BC,

2:21:10 and I serve the No Agenda podcast

2:21:13 show at the Alibi Room in Gastown.

2:21:17 Adios,

2:21:18 mofos. Hooey hooey.

2:21:20 No sweat off my balls.

2:21:22 Here's the Bay Area Abe's exit strategy meetup report. That's right. Hello. This is Abe from Abe's exit strategy from the Bay Area meetup report.

2:21:31 This

2:21:32 is sir,

2:21:34 Steve the second. I just wanna say rest in peace to JCD.

2:21:38 And, also, congratulations

2:21:39 to Abe moving to the Central Valley and working with his chemistry teacher.

2:21:45 This is.

2:21:47 We miss you, John. We love you.

2:21:50 It's a dude named Ben named Ben, Duke of San Francisco.

2:21:54 I am greatly missing JCD,

2:21:57 and we're having wonderful stories

2:22:00 and

2:22:01 just memories and nostalgia here.

2:22:06 In the morning. In the morning. Good morning. R p RIP, John. RIP, John. RIP, John indeed.

2:22:11 RIP.

2:22:14 Langley, British Columbia.

2:22:16 Hey, we're here at the WWJCDD

2:22:19 meetup in Aldergrove.

2:22:21 We wanted to think about and remember John. We had some wine, we had some mac and cheese, and we remembered a great man. This is ID pop raising a glass of red and danning some mac and cheese in honor of John C. In the morning.

2:22:37 Ah, yes. Kraft stock is up on the amount of mac and cheese that has been consumed in the in the wake of John's passing. And here's a long one, but this was a big one and a good one. It was the Northern Silicon Valley In Memory of John meetup.

2:22:50 In

2:22:51 the morning, this is Sir recalcitrant Crazy Steve the second here

2:22:56 at the Northern Silicon

2:22:58 Valley in

2:23:00 memory of

2:23:02 JCD

2:23:03 meetup,

2:23:04 and I am so grateful for these meetups and all the friends that JCD

2:23:09 helped me obtain.

2:23:13 Sir Julian here celebrating the life of JCD.

2:23:18 Is anyone gonna eat that meatloaf?

2:23:23 Aaron,

2:23:24 strawberry fog here.

2:23:25 Thoughts and prayers.

2:23:27 Hey. It's Josh in the morning. John to Johnny Ogden and Rodney out there in memory of JCD.

2:23:35 Sir, it's all bad here. So wonderful to connect with all the No Agenda producers, and I got a Sun Microsoft beanie hat out of it. This

2:23:43 is Angela Garcia from San Francisco.

2:23:46 RIP,

2:23:47 JCD.

2:23:48 This

2:23:50 is certain death.

2:23:51 Thank you for your courage.

2:23:54 Lydia of the Shire here at Pizzaria Violetta,

2:23:58 they were so good to us. And dear John,

2:24:01 everyone misses you.

2:24:04 Sir Montauk,

2:24:06 what a meetup.

2:24:08 This is Abe. I'm here at the meetup, maintaining connections for my protection.

2:24:12 Rest in peace, John.

2:24:14 This is sir Rieschmeister. We miss you, John. We love you.

2:24:18 Thank you for everything you've done. Thank you.

2:24:22 This is Sir Dude named Benonymous.

2:24:24 Thank you, JCD RIP,

2:24:27 and thank you for your courage.

2:24:29 This

2:24:30 is Dame Audra. We miss you, John. This

2:24:33 doctor Don

2:24:35 and guide dog Brody.

2:24:37 Love to the Dvorak, Curry's, Horowitz's. We miss you, John.

2:24:42 Black Knight Robert celebrating

2:24:44 the best podcast in the universe.

2:24:50 Amy from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Keep the community going. Peace, everyone.

2:24:56 This is Jay.

2:24:57 Just thank you for a wonderful meetup.

2:24:59 Yeah. Brennan the deadbeat in The Voice

2:25:03 holding the fort down here in Northern Silicon Valley.

2:25:06 This

2:25:07 is Dame Lindsey of the House Hunters. I brought 33 pounds of cookies from Atlanta, and this is my sister Lauren on the slide whistle.

2:25:15 This dude named Ben named Ben, Duke of San Francisco, and the spirit of JCD is alive and well at this meetup. We're all just having such a fantastic time. Connection is protection.

2:25:26 This is sir Lavish the Red and I know more about the Vinegar book than you could possibly imagine.

2:25:33 Baroness Sarah Rupert of Pizzeria Violetta, otherwise known as Violet's mom. We ate pineapple on the pizza in John's memory.

2:25:43 So good.

2:25:45 This is sir Jonathan of Pizzeria Violetta. Just happy to be part of this and celebrate

2:25:50 the life of JCD. And in case anyone's wondering, I ate the meatloaf.

2:25:56 This is

2:25:58 who am I? Mimi? This is Mimi.

2:26:02 And John, you missed a great meetup. This is one of the best. Of course, maybe it was because you weren't here. It was so great.

2:26:10 This is JC,

2:26:12 John's son,

2:26:14 and all you douchebags out there, it's finally time to donate.

2:26:21 That's

2:26:22 how it's done. That's how it's done.

2:26:25 In

2:26:26 the morning.

2:26:28 And a few more to go still. Here's Riverside, California, Leo Bravo doing his seventy ninth meetup. Hey, everybody. It's Leo Bravo at meetup number 79.

2:26:38 Hello.

2:26:40 John

2:26:41 C. Dvorak.

2:26:43 Here in Riverside meeting up, sharing stories of JCD.

2:26:48 So glad I got to experience

2:26:51 his presence

2:26:52 and study under him and get my PhD under the professor at JCD. Hey, guys. ITM, Baron OG Godcaster here. All the best to everybody. Lovely lady, Leanne here. And I just wanna say we are praying for you, and we love you guys. And we look forward to seeing what's gonna come in the future. Have a wonderful evening. ITM.

2:27:13 Sir, dude named Mike from Not That Paris here. RIP John. Hey, guys. It's sir Leah Kim Fopop

2:27:21 saying R I P John, and Rush is the greatest Canadian band ever. Greetings. This is Angie from the ranch hanging out at Leo Bravo's meetup over at Hanger 24.

2:27:31 Having a great time. Still sending all our love to Mimi and the family. In the morning.

2:27:37 From California,

2:27:38 we go to Rockaway Beach with Joe, Tony, and Johnny C. Hey. This is Joe

2:27:44 in Rock Away Beach doing the media report. We got Tony and John here.

2:27:49 Say hi. This

2:27:51 is Tony C. I do name Tony C.

2:27:54 RIP JCD.

2:27:55 Yep. This is Johnny C. RIP John C. Dvorak. I've list I've been reading your material ever since Info World way back in the day.

2:28:06 Awesome. And and here's our awesome, glorious server.

2:28:10 Hi. I'm Katie. I'm from Rockaway Beach Pickleball and Golf. These guys were awesome to have here today. I really appreciated having their company.

2:28:20 Booyah.

2:28:22 RIP JCG.

2:28:24 I love it when you get the servers on. You gotta include them in your report. They can plug their establishment. Do that more often. 3 Mile Island, the evac zone, summer toast to John is our last one. This is Chris with the 3 Mile Island, the evac zone, toast to John summer meetup.

2:28:39 John once gave me a bee on my Limerick after many seas. It's Jason with the great re teas, which John

2:28:46 was infatuated by. One episode when I made a donation, he said the great re teas

2:28:53 four or five times.

2:28:55 It's sir 737

2:28:57 here with missus sir 70 737.

2:29:00 We are here

2:29:02 memorializing

2:29:03 the great and wonderful John C. Dvorak who

2:29:06 can never be replaced, but we look forward to what is to come for the No Agenda show and the meetup community.

2:29:15 We'll miss your three by threes, John. I'm sad to say I'm still a douchebag, but I hope to fix that someday. John, you're long and gone, but I think you did it on purpose. This is Amish

2:29:26 Anonymous. You called me Amish Anonymous too many times. Anyway, old Asian treachery will always conquer youth and ambition.

2:29:34 Just keep that in mind before you get out of line there, Adam. John C. Dvorak, a great man. We will miss you dearly.

2:29:41 Sir Gears, the knight of secondhand memes. Over and out. John, we'll miss you. No one can replace you,

2:29:47 but we're looking forward to the future. This is our first time in a meetup. Just wanna send

2:29:53 love and light to the Curry's and the Dvorak's.

2:29:57 Hey there. It's sir Parker Paulie. Greetings from Pennsylvania.

2:30:01 A great group of people here.

2:30:03 My condolences

2:30:04 to

2:30:05 Mamie and the Vvorak, to to Adam and Tina.

2:30:10 Just lift up No Agenda Nation. We're honored to raise a glass and fist some nuts,

2:30:17 in celebration of John. And I'm the server. This is a great group. Really enjoyed having them at Evergreen.

2:30:23 Love it. Another server. Thank you so much everybody. Love those meet up reports. Keep them coming.

2:30:29 Today, there is a Charlotte's Thirsty Third Thursday meet up at Edge Tavern in Charlotte, North Carolina at 07:00.

2:30:35 On Friday, the ITM Richmond empty room at Tribal

2:30:40 Crossing in Fulton, Richmond, Virginia at 04:30.

2:30:43 Saturday, we've got Fort Wayne Club thirty three JC wine review and vinegar book meet up at 01:00 in Ciballa's Mexican Grill in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

2:30:54 Also on Saturday, the I don't buy it, just Chicago JCD Memorial 02:00 at Island Pizza Hut in Chicago, Illinois.

2:31:02 The twenty second, also Saturday. Let's honor the legendary JCD, 06:00 at JJ's Pie Company in Reno, Nevada.

2:31:09 Flippers and the Formula on Saturday, 02:00 in Chattanooga at the Pinball Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee. On Sunday, the Indy NA August JCD Greek slash Irish wake. That's gonna be a banger. It's,

2:31:23 Dame Maria and Sir Mark of the Greenwood 03:00 at Blind Owl Brewery in Indianapolis,

2:31:28 Indiana. You gotta beat that one.

2:31:30 Also, the ants in the antipods

2:31:32 or antipodes,

2:31:33 antipodes,

2:31:34 03:33 Aussie East Standard Time. That is at the Gasoline Pony

2:31:39 in New South Wales, Aussie land. Sir Chris, the drunken minstrel

2:31:44 will be hosting that. So please go, I wanna hear a meetup report.

2:31:48 The Central Arkansas JCD memorial meetup will also take place on Sunday at 06:00 in Arkansas,

2:31:54 and you've gotta check the

2:31:57 noagendameetups.com

2:31:58 for details. Dude named Jarrett now in Arkansas will be hosting that. Coming up, the rest of this month, Maastricht in Limburg in The Netherlands on the twenty eighth to twenty ninth. Nanaimo,

2:32:09 British Columbia.

2:32:10 Also on the twenty ninth, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Zurich, Switzerland on the twenty ninth, Chester Springs, Pennsylvania on the thirtieth, and Raleigh, North Carolina also on the thirtieth. We've got a lot more meetups. The calendar is full, but never too full to have yours added there. So go to noagendameetups.com.

2:32:27 You can find out where a meetup is taking place near you. And as always, it's free to attend. It's free to set one up. Every single time you go to a meetup, you will find connection that will give you protect protection.

2:32:40 These people are always your first responders in emergency.

2:32:43 No agendameetups.com.

2:32:45 If you can't find one yourself,

2:32:46 start one yourself. It's easy and always a party.

2:33:09 Well, it's very weird to be starting and ending a show without my friend, partner, and fellow broadcaster John C. Dvorak,

2:33:18 but he is in my thoughts and definitely in my prayers for real

2:33:23 every single day. Thank you all for being here. Trolls, thank you. Trollroom.io,

2:33:28 noagendastream.com.

2:33:29 I forgot to mention that, of course, we have the wonderful modern podcast apps that make it all possible. Where you get the

2:33:37 where you get the bat signal, you can listen live.

2:33:40 And, of course, always on the podcast if

2:33:43 you're using a modern podcast app at podcastapps.com.

2:33:47 You'll get notified within ninety seconds of us publishing.

2:33:51 Now if you are listening live, stay tuned because we've got a grumpy old Dames coming up next. They will be bringing you the dead man's curve. I'm not sure what that means.

2:34:00 No end of show mixes because I play them in the show now, so they're just show mixes.

2:34:04 Send them to me. Adam mccurry dot com. Thank you all for being here. Thank you to Rob Dew,

2:34:10 from,

2:34:11 alexjoneslive.com.

2:34:13 Much appreciated, brother, and I look forward to seeing everybody back here on Sunday with another special guest guest.

2:34:20 I'm sure it'll be fun when I figure out who it's gonna be. Until then,

2:34:25 remember us at noagendadonations.com

2:34:27 for the value for value.

2:34:30 And

2:34:32 such.

2:34:38 The best podcast

2:34:40 in the universe.

2:34:42 Adios,

2:34:43 mofo. Dvorak.org/na.

2:34:49 It's nanny nanny boo boo. Stick your head and doo doo.