Chapo Trap House - 973 - Cross on the Moon feat. Brendan James (9/29/25)

Episode Date: September 30, 2025

It’s Chapo—in person! Will, Felix, and Brendan James of Blowback (formerly Chapo Trap House) gather at Will’s apartment to talk about Eric Adams dropping out of the NYC mayoral race. They then read a profile of Adam Jentleson and his new PAC, Searchlight, and its novel plan to win elections by pulling Democrats to the right. Also this episode: Pete Hegseth’s mysterious all-hands meeting, Trump finally releasing the files, and Peter Thiel’s obsession with the antichrist. And be sure to vote for American Prestige at the Signal Awards: https://vote.signalaward.com/PublicVoting?utm_campaign=signal4_finalists_finalistnotification_092325&utm_medium=email&utm_source=cio#/2025/shows/genre/news-politics And check out the new Blowback season! https://blowback.show/

All I want to be it's a job All I want to be is they'll jump All I'm going to be is there are trouble Hello, everybody. It's Monday, September 29th, and we've got some shopper for you. We've got some special shopper for you because we've got three of the OGs in the same room. That's right. It's in my apartment. And here we are. Back at it again. Me, Felix. Matthew Walter. Matthew Walter is back. What a time. It's Brendan James in the house, everybody. Hey, and I'm also kind of producing because we're using my Zoom

and I'm looking at the levels to make sure I don't fuck it up. So it's all back. Guest, producer. Guest, producer. We got some cats. Maybe one of them can take a huge shit on the floor. Fomit on one of us. You can stop recording because it smells so bad.

Yeah. This is original choppo stylings here today. Yep. Well, gentlemen, it's great to have you back in my house, back on the mic. and you two gentlemen have collaborated it recently as well so congratulations on that. You've been killing it

with the Players Club. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. It's been, I mean, it really doveteled nicely. It's been now exactly 12 years since the game Heavy Rain came out. We've produced six 12-hour-long episodes

about Heavy Rain. It is strange to be in a room with Felix now not being expected to talk for about nine hours about Metal Gear. I feel like Homie the Clown when all Homer can see is everyone's a clown and there's clown music playing

you guys will be talking to me about P-Nexeth and I'll just be going on about jeans and I noticed that our recent episodes the percentage of Metal Gear

solid references has jumped a thousand percent over the last couple episodes well we just we just finally recorded like the last bit of anything

we needed to record yeah but it took us what like a combined like 20 days to do the Phantom pain yeah it was like I mean

don't get me wrong part of it was I was busy with blowback and I just wanted to make sure that we had a nice clear time but we did three sessions on the Phantom Pain and each each session was pretty long like that the last one was the shortest one and it was still like five or six fucking hours it was like three so you know can't wait to edit that that episode but uh it was it was a very rewarding experience and we I think we had a lot of fun with it and I uh it seems like people like it so yeah yeah no I have been pleasantly surprised by um how much people enjoy it uh it's always i don't know it's always like a minefield putting out anything where you you give

your opinion about like any video game even like the most bullshit game that you think everyone forgot if you do a piece of like a video or like even like a short podcast segment about like the game breakdown people will be like he didn't understand that game at all eating cheeseburgers to restore your health was actually symbolic well also i i I know you guys just made fun of that Star Wars book that that man, who is he? Cass Sunstein. That's the Samantha Powers. Yeah, Samantha Powers.

I almost said his wife, her wife. Yeah, he's, he's did that Star Wars book. And I bet you had people being like, oh, so you're going to talk about Star Wars, even though Felix and Brenner are talking about Metal Gear Sol. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Metal Gear is better than good. It's objectively a better piece of. It's a better lens, a heuristic to understand the contemporary world in American politics

than Star Wars. I would, I, I'd certainly, look, you can say we, we recorded too long of an episode here or there, but we never wrote an actual book. And we certainly didn't try to say it explains the child tax credit or whatever, you know, which I'm assuming is what his book was about. And you never wrote the, you never wrote the sentence. My father was healthy as a wookie. Until he died of brain cancer in 60. I'm not yet. I'm sorry. I keep thinking about that. It's so, I keep thinking about it is. It is, uh, yeah, we haven't gotten there yet. My family has been texting me about healthy as a wook in your life. it's everyone is just because like no one knows what the fuck he means like is it like ironic like oh as healthy as a wookie that like it's an it's an old phrase everyone knows like you know like sober as a sailor or or is it or is it like he was healthy as a wookie until this happened yeah it's a very confusing and maddening i mean if i had to if i had to guess i think it's just because wookies appeal they appear very sort of hail and hearty

robust they're very large and hairy yeah and they're always sort of growling which is a sign of health I would imagine I get but no one says like oh he's as healthy as a bear you know it's like it's so fucking dumb I I didn't bring up

my personal cast on scene lore on that episode though but I I think I he's a Chicago guy right yeah well he used to live in my neighborhood. And I think I told the story on the show before. But like I in so much as like two four year olds can go on a date. I like I went on a like chaperone like dinner play date with his daughter when we were both like four or five. Wow. That is lore. Yeah. No, I don't. I very

vaguely. The Biederman Sunstein and they were trying to like meld two great dynasties together. Yeah, bring peace to hide it hard. Well, this is, this is like before I was excised for the University of Chicago laboratory system for, you know, making. Because your grandparents stole Einstein's brain slices. Well, no, I was making maps of the school in the game missed. In the game, sure, sure, no, no, no, not a violent game. I was like, wouldn't it be funny if there were.

like puzzles in the school. And but this is around Colin. Well, actually before you guys came over, I saw a bit of video game news that touches on global international politics. And I wanted to get your reaction to this here.

EA has announced it plans to be acquired for $55 billion by a consortium of investors led by the public investment fund of Saudi Arabia. I knew you were going to say that. I knew you were going to say Saudi Arabia. So what do we think? EA? Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia SA EA it's in the game it does it does like I mean EA was already like the most

Saudi Arabian main like big video game publishing company they do all like the sports games and flight simulators will be good for this now

it makes sense well yeah it's like because they already have golf right they've they're yeah they got the live golf core

they have to now Now they have the Madden franchise and I assume the other electronic arts games but then they also have the the comedy festival Oh my God I forgot about that

They're getting a lot of press lately They're really like every quadrant Right now they're hitting it Soft power It I think so I think so But that that was a weird one With all the comedy

Kings of Comedy Yeah It's like Everyone seems fine Just being like Yeah put my face on it It feels like they wouldn't, you wouldn't be, you wouldn't be so out and about about it

even a couple years ago, but. Do you know that they took Azizan Sari's passport? I thought it was fucked up. But like, is this comedy festival is like, is like, you know, Bill Burr or Kevin Hart or whoever, whoever's doing this, are they going to be performing for Saudis?

I, I don't know much. Who else would they perform? Like, would they, like, if Matt Rife was performing, They might, like, fly in a normal, like a normal Matt Rife audience. But, like, what is Matt Rife going to do? What are any of those guys going to do in Saudi Arabia for crowd war? Crowdwar? Yeah, yeah.

And also, we don't, there's no history in Saudi Arabia of, you know, taking people from other places and forcing them to be inside of Saudi Arabia to do any kind of task. You know, that's not something that they tend to do. So I'm sure it's all on the up and up. I would love to see. I mean, Matt Rife, to his credit, was not on this. Yeah, no, he was not. I think he should be on the next one.

Yo, what your job is, folk? Executioner? Damn, bro. That's serious. It's like, it's hard to do crowd work because, like, most crowd work is based on, like, a guy and his girlfriend. But, like, there's going to be no women in the audience.

So, just be like, I mean, yo, how many y'all here don't have a beard? I see this one guy here. He's got a beard. weird, but it seems like everyone does. Okay, we'll move on the next one. Bill Burr was like the weirdest one on there. That's the shocking one to me.

I'm, yeah, that's a, that kind of sucks. I mean, with this isn't sorry, it's like, not just a, but it does kind of like make sense. Because it's like, okay, you got, they wrote that article about how you're really, you're so bad at finger banging that it like caused debates and newsrooms across America. And there was no way, like,

you should have made an extra. like $7 million from a Netflix show that no one liked. Like there should have been more master of none. And you have to like get your nut back. But Bill Burr isn't like everything. Like Bill Burr isn't like every show and movie and fucking everything.

It's either you would expect like down on your luck or Kevin Hart. Where you are preeminent, but in the way that doesn't preclude you from going to Saudi Arabia. Look this motherfucker right here. You're probably like goddamn falcons to a comedy show. Being in the middle of that.

Does the bird count towards the two-drink minimum? That's good. See, you should be on the poster. Forget Patreon. Well, that's news in comedy and video games. But just one more quick thing here at the top of the show. It's September 29th. You know, the leaves begin to change.

Chill enters the air. No, no, not here in New York, obviously. But the fall is here. And what is in on the Westfall? That's right. Halloween. spooky season Brendan and I's

favorite time of year Hess and I just recorded episode one of this season of gulvy scream set horror movie mindset but every year

around this time I enjoy like the resurgence of like a new kind of discourse that I see propping up again and that is

are Halloween decorations too scary and are they really demonic I saw a bit of this this comes courtesy of the post Francis Fukiamo

is the first guy to do this he did he did how did he how did he had a post about Halloween decorations are too, are too grisly and ghoulish. Yeah, yeah. This was in like 2014,

and 2015. This is like back when you would, like, this wasn't like a respectable opinion to have. Now, like if you, if you say this now, like your job has to do like a sensitivity training about not putting up like cartoon skeletons on the company. That's so funny. Bulletin board. That did he, I mean, I guess when you predict the end of history, there's not a lot to worry about accept Halloween decorations at that point. So maybe it makes sense that he would focus on that.

This entry into the discourse comes courtesy of C.J. Engel who writes, the problem with evil Halloween decorations is that they are real. They summon real monsters. They bring forth real beings. It's not a game.

Festivities matter. It used to be like embarrassing to be like an asshole. Like it used to be like, it used to be like, I feel like if Susan doesn't Smith happen now, like, she would be given a TV show. She would be like, the new host of the view. They would be like, what?

Sometimes, sometimes you just get a calling that you have to kill your kids because Revelation is going to happen. Is this an article you're reading from? No, no, this is just a tweet. Okay. But, you know, like, he did reply, like, you know, some people are replying and they were like, are pumpkins evil? And he was like, no, pumpkins are fine.

You know, what's the criteria here? He does he have skeletons, goals, you know, like, they. They, they, uh, depictions of real monsters. Bats. I think those are evil. God invented, uh, bats. Yeah, but like, you know, like, part of nature. But to be evil, I guess.

No, he made them to be part of soup. See, this is like, this is shaky to me, you know, don't, don't get too, don't, don't get too afraid of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of things like skeletons and bats, you know, because they're part of our natural world. But what about werewolves and mummies? Okay, now you're getting into, yeah, like, like, cult. Yeah, occultish stuff. That I can see. But yeah, pumpkins on one side of the spectrum and then you get into demonic stuff on the other. I don't know. I don't really tend to see as like Halloween decorations the way I used to either. I don't know. Like maybe my neighborhood just doesn't get into the mood. But it doesn't seem like a huge problem to me that things are getting scarier. Well, you'd be wrong. Okay. Things are getting scarier every day. Well, that's true enough. Things are getting a frightening. An alarming rate. I guess so. You're right.

We'll probably talk about a bit of it. Yeah. I just feel like I don't. I usually hate the thing that people go to. Like, they don't even believe this. But this just feels so like, it feels like every year you get like a new crazy Christian guy who says this. Like always a guy who converted like four years ago.

Because they think they're like supposed to say this. I saw like someone compared this to a WoVicky tweet, which is like dead on. but that like whoa vicky she's she is so funny because she is one of those people who like found out about christianity in like 2022 and because like because she if she filtered it through her brain she's like witches touch on people to make them gay yeah but that's like all of them now like they're all like that now like whoa vicky wo vicky wouldn't even like WoVicky should probably be a senator

He should I'm looking at a WoVicky tweet right here that just says My own family forsaken me How did she learn that word? Well, the Bible probably Probably yeah So yeah everyone

Stay safe out there In this Halloween season Any any Any sort of monster-style decorations There's a good chance Could summon real monsters And you know Stock up on silver bullets

That's all I've got to say. All right. Moving on. Some more sad news here, here in New York City. Unfortunately, Eric Adams has departed our mayor's race. He has crossed the political rainbow bridge to live on a farm in Turkey. And I just got to say, I know this is tough right now. It's a difficult moment given the commitments that we've made on this show and all that I've invested

into Eric Adams candidacy for mayor but I'm here to tell you he can still win if you vote for him stay in line that's true stay in line and vote Eric Adams we also believe he can still be mayor if you vote for him yeah I mean he dropped out frankly because

he didn't think anyone liked him so let's do it let's do a real it's a wonderful life thing and I'll write him in I'm just looking here at one of my favorite Eric Adams headlines Mayor Adams admits to jumping subway turnstile to visit A shorty.

This is the kind of thing that we're not. We're not going to get any of this kind of stuff anymore. And I'm not trying to be funny. It does bum me out. Like, I do get something from this, from him being our mayor. There's a lot of stuff that, you know, we don't get because he is our mayor, because money is allocated elsewhere or things are corrupted. But this is an important part of being a New Yorker for the past X amount of years.

And it's going to go away. And that does bum me out. Do you remember when he was like, this was a really recent one, when he was. like he was trying to like I think he's trying to like juice his polling like with black voters to sort of like prove that prove to donors that he was the better foil

to Zoran than Cuomo and he went I you after after work is done you'll find me in a closed barbershop drinking tennis shit and it's like you implied strongly imply that that's like that's it black people with it every they all do that we all do that we all

do that. I'm including myself this hypothetical. But not like I did, I've never fucking heard of that stereotype like ever. It's so specific. It also maybe is kind of implies he broke in like it's an empty barbershop. No one's with him. He's just inside of it because he broke in in order to do that

and sit alone. My favorite thing that I ever heard was that there was like a cop who was shot and killed and he said something like, I love that man. And I, I care actually have a photo with them in my wallet at all times. And then they were like, may we see it? The press or whatever? And he said, well, I'm just out the door. And then he, like, tried to get his staff

to print out a photo and laminate it and crinklet up. So then he, like, you know, I just, I found it. I mean, that is like a, a David Brent level lie to sustain over days on end. And I don't think we're going to get that again anytime soon. Yeah. Every day he created his own, like,

steamed hands catastrophe. Exactly. It was very skinnarian. Yeah. His life and his reign. We've had Black Flanders. He was a Black Skinner. Really have. I just, it was so funny when he won.

And he won by like 0.003% against like the shittiest candidates. Like who is the one who like put out an official press release where she's like yelling at Ross Barkin? I don't remember. I was it Morales? I honestly I really don't remember it was it was the one it was like the Warren the like Radlib Warren one who um her her campaign workers did one of those like 2019 style unions where like a union is just like a club for good people where they're just like we declare union and I guess Morales was like okay like what the

fuck. What do you want from me? Yeah. And Barkin reported on it and she just like spent all day like calling him like a stupid like a privileged white boy. Anti-Barkinite. Yeah. I, though that like that's who he was running against and he won by like like a comical percentage. Like yeah, the margin of error. but um for like a month like every all the like as are client all the all those people were like this is over yeah like this is an off ramp from like the 2016 Hillary style id poll this is perfect this will play everywhere and all he had to do was just like engage in the normal acceptable like corruption that happens in democratic politics and instead he did like he engaged in the most easily traceable and low like low cash

value corruption. He was, he fucked himself for like $3,000 worth of airline tickets. It was loony-tune-style corruption. It was like, there was like a black and white photo of him with Judge Doom making a deal to like, you know, I don't know, just destroy half of the city to run his whatever railroad through. And again, I guess this is just a way to clear. I mean, is this, is this him like bowing out for the sake?

of, I don't know, the Trump or like anti-Mam Dani coalition behind the scenes, or is it actually him exhausted? I can't imagine him wanting to drop out. Yeah. But what if it's a legal ploy? What if it's like, oh, you indicted the mayor of New York, huh? Like, that's how he thinks it works. That's brilliant.

And it could work. Yeah. I would say a Hannibal Lecter level deception. Yeah. I'm having an old friend for Hennessy in the barbershop. I'm in your barbershop now, drinking Hennessy. Call me. Well, actually, like, this is a good segue.

Because, you know, Eric Adams wants the future of the Democratic Party, perhaps still the future of the Democratic Party. Like I said, like, yeah, he can still, 2028, it's right there. Yeah, National Office. But I've been meaning to bring up this one for a couple weeks now. But, you know, this is like ringing the dinner, the ringing the dinner bell for this show. Our good friend Adam Gentleson has a new, a new pack, a new think tank out called the Searchlight Institute. And like, you know, now that Eric Adams, you know, his brand has been

slightly damaged. Is it a searchlight looking for his boss at this wherever he is right now? We can't find him. He's escaped again. We need an institute to try to handle this. But, you know, like, they're casting around for like, what's the future of the Democratic Party going to be now that now that Eric Adams isn't around anymore and now that literally everyone associated with this think tank is perhaps tainted by their association with the genocide ogre who they all previously worked for yeah but yeah it's called it's called the searchlight pack and there's just a sort of right right up here in the the times that I

want to dip into for a second it says here as Democrats search for their way out of the political wilderness a new think tank a new think tank introduced on Wednesday has some ideas about where the party went wrong. Among them, too much emphasis on issues like climate change and LGBQ rights and far too much deference to the powerful liberal organizations championing those causes at the expense, some argue, of appealing to voters in battleground states. The think tank, the Searchlight Institute, was started by Adam Gentleson, a veteran Democratic operative.

He knows that his effort intended to minimize this way that left-leaning groups have over candidates before what is expected to be a crowded 2028 presidential primary will infuriate almost everyone, activists, organizations, and the party's liberal base, which is urging Democrats to fight President Trump. The folks who are most to blame about Trump are the ones who push Democrats to take indefensible positions, Mr. Jentelson said in an interview on Thursday, citing a series of positions Kamala Harris took in 2019 before walking back many of them once she became the Democratic presidential nominee in 2024. Right now, we're pursuing every tactic imaginable except for the obvious one, which is taking positions that are more in line

with the people we are trying to win over he added why does there need to be another think tank that suggests this in democratic politics isn't there aren't there like 50 that already yeah like this is this is the center the centrist equivalent of like in 2018 being like actually me and my friends have a podcast where we talk about the news and we actually had the idea for it in 2015 we just got it started now yeah we have 17 different hosts from this week. He writes here, we have been fighting oligarchy for several months now. And economic populism

alone is going to fix our problems. Why do Americans still resoundingly prefer Republicans on the economy? I just like the line that we've been fighting oligarchy for several months now. Yeah. You've had a good start of it, but like, you know, hopefully we'll make it to next week. I mean, it's hard not to glaze over with

the, I didn't hear anything that you described about that pack. Because like you said, it's just this is, I guess, what you do when you leave politics technically and become part of the consultant class. You have to say all these words. But does anyone expect this guy

to be the one who figures it out? Probably not. He seems not very well-liked or doesn't seem trustworthy even to his own sort of his own cohort. But I don't know him that well, obviously. Maybe he is. Well, look, they have a really cool squad photo

to go with the new think tank. so here, check that out. Liberal myth busters. I mean, it's like, it's a pretty, it's a pretty hard squad, squad pick. Yeah. It sort of reminds me of, I mean, I'm sort of casting about for what, what this reminds me of. And like, I, what I can think of is, like, album cover. And the only, the only album cover that's coming to mind when I think of this is,

do you remember the, uh, the documentary overnight about the guy who directed Boondock says? Yes. Yes. Okay. Fuck, what was his name again? Troy Doffey. Duffy, yeah, okay, it's, it's an astonishing documentary about, like, it's like, what if Harvey Weinstein gave the keys to, like, all of Hollywood independent filmmaking to, like, the most detestable alcoholic from Boston? Okay, I'm starting to see. And, okay, so, like, as part of the deal that Harvey Weinstein gave him to, like, do Boondock Saints and basically, like, run independent cinema, he also had to give him and his, his brother, a record deal for their band called The Brood.

and in the movie there's a there's a hilarious scene of them taking like doing like a photo session to do like the album cover for the brood and it's like like I said

six guys who look like Adam Gentleson holding Rottweiler isn't like shot through a chain link ferrets the brood like it always makes me

like cry with laughter it's so fucking funny he's that movie's so good like Troy Duffy is such an asshole that like I wouldn't say Harvey Weinstein is, like, the protagonist. But he's sort of like an anti-hero in that movie. You're like, yeah, go, fuck this guy.

Yeah. But I was always like a little bit about, like, oh, man, do you think in 2017, Troy Duffy was like, I was also a victim of Weinstein in a way? I mean, he literally was. Like, it kind of. Well, you know, maybe not in the sense that other people were victimized by him. Yeah.

I was going to say that the picture. that the New York Times took it for me it has anime club vibes like true to anime club like a very anime club like male to female ratio

um Gentleson would definitely be like the chair of anime club he's making them watch a shitload of bleach well there's one thing I want to I want to highlight here where he says here like

what he said it's like he's going after the groups that he holds responsible for uh democrats continued uh struggles at the develop box yeah that was you yeah it's just a thing i can't get over yeah yeah i mean i don't know how many times we can really react this way because they just keep making you say it but i cannot believe that this this supposed switcheroo here of the exact people who you're yelling at who used to call the problem or are the people rather that you're you're yelling at now you know you used to work with and the people who you say you need used to say were degenerates

and ruining the party. Look at any of Adam Gentleson's tweets from like until like 2022. Like again, he was such like anti-bro like yeah, yeah. He was an Elizabeth Warren guy. I've talked about this before

but he like, um, I quote tweeted some like Warren staffer. I was arguing with them in like March of 2020. And he was like, you're such a piece of shit for quote tweeting a 22 year old and it's like oh is this an age gap it's like age gap thing took me a while to forgive you for doing that but i'm glad we're back being friends again well okay so like and just the fact that like it's like him tray easton another bunch of you know like democratic ramora fish um but like they're like okay like the

The problem is, like, Democratic voters are at odds with Democratic leadership because they, like, democratic leadership, um, pays fealty to these, like, nefarious groups that force them to take policy positions that are anathema to the majority of Democratic voters, i.e., uh, climate change or trans people existing, things like that, but it's just like all of these guys used to work for John Federman, who is currently most well known for his association with probably the most unpopular position. as it regards democratic politicians and the voters who they seek to, you know, cajole into supporting them.

And that would be Israel and Palestine. And for a period, did defend him on that position, you know, publicly in the capacity as a person in politics. So I don't know what the track record here is supposed to be that's so impressive. That is the other thing. If we're taking them at face value that, like, they've, after all these years, they've crack the code. They figured out exactly what to do. We'll just

pretend that all those shitty blue dogs at Rahm Emanuel got elected for one term. That none of that happened. They didn't get cashed out immediately. All these people like just last after Kamala losing was that was enough for them to go all right, I'm taking down my profile

picture where I'm wearing a Deshiki. I figured out that people don't like this. And I was only going along with it for 10 years of my life, because I was afraid of getting yelled at. But now I offer the bold leadership. He more or less is on record with that big Federman piece where he ratted on his old bars. He's more or less on record by saying, I had to get out of this. It was embarrassing. It wasn't like he figured out politics works a different way. And he got his own ideas.

He would have stayed there if Federman had been, you know, more successfully hidden from the wider Republic. So you're already known to be someone who abandoned a sinking ship anyway. You don't have this instinct of the future that you can now enlighten others about, especially this guy. Well, Dave Weigel interviewed him for Semaphore, and Dave asked him, can you tell me about the origins of this? A lot of the ideas you blame for dragging down Democrats came from 2019 in the presidential primary. And at that time, you were supporting Elizabeth Warren. He says, I think the 2016 broke a lot of people's brains and rightfully upended a lot of the assumptions we had about how politics worked. Wow. That was definitely true for me. For the first 15 years of my career,

it was working for people whose issue positions were further to the right than my own. I just took it as a given that that's what people needed to do to win elections. After 2016, watching the rise of Bernie, it was like, wait a minute, what if you could spark massive grassroots energy and turn out different kinds of odors by moving to the left? What caused that theory to be untrue was that there was never any evidence that moving to the left was what sparked additional energy among the grassroots. Bernie 2016 was a pretty darn a pretty darn heterodox candidate, a classic popular. to his left on economic issues, but further to the right than a lot of Democrats on cultural

issues, whether it was guns, immigration, or crime. He was rejected by the groups in 2016 and called them the establishment. I learned a lot after that. Clearly. Clearly you did not. Like, why? I mean, again, take an unfaced value. Obviously, the reason you give a group like this money is because I don't, like you, you want to, you want access to federman for some reason. or whatever piece of shit. But, again, at face value, people are supposed to give you money and let you steer the direction of the entire party

and your excuses like, hey, it was a fucked up emotional time. Like, I just realized that I was wrong. Well, it's just like, okay, and why go ask him, like the last question he asked him? He says, where does foreign policy fit into this? Democrats are getting pulled in different directions on Gaza. Groups that had access to funding are losing it over that issue.

His response to this is, this is all I will say about that for now. A-PAC is a group too. Okay. Very brave. Profile and courage here from the gentle son. Oh, my God. Maybe a little too gentle on this issue. But like, this is what I mean.

It's just like, they're like, oh, like identity politics, like we're off that. We're no longer alienating people with like, you know, like stupid positions on like saying Latin X or whatever. but the undivided you know the state of is Judea and Samaria is the traditional home of Israel and like and should be part of the Israeli state it's really it's really weird how there's only one thing yeah one ethnicity where if you make people watch a sensitivity video about them and their issue that's fine yeah all the other everything else woke bullshit yeah it's yeah with with probably like easily i would say the systematic oppression of jewish college students is easily in like the top 100,000 most pressing issues in america yeah um easily

um you should absolutely like you should get expelled from your you your university if you do not go to that sensitivity training all the other ones though stupid get like don't yeah no by the way that answer where he he's clearly caught off guard which is that throat clearing of uh well look uh here's here's the one thing i'm gonna say and he's like this is what i'll say about that now like are we expecting another statement uh incoming soon yeah he said right now he's obviously caught off guard he didn't even expect that question he's not even aware as a political operator that this is something that might come up that he'd have to have a slick answer to at the very least and then be able to spin into some kind of pitch for why he

has answers that others don't. He didn't even fucking think about it. He's not even thinking that far ahead about the liabilities of standing on this side of the Israel issue and his own history with it. Why would you trust a guy who didn't even expect that question? Well, because the thing is they don't actually believe in anything. Of course. And like, and as evidence that here's my favorite part from, this is from the very end of the New York Times right up on this. It says, Searchlight, Mr. Gentleson said, well, let me just read a little bit further up. It says many of the groups Mr. Jentelson has argued Democrats should cast aside were already struggling to raise money and maintain their influence in a political environment dominated by the agenda of Mr. Trump and his allies.

Searchlight, Mr. Jentelson said, will conduct its own polling and serve as an ideas generator in the service of winning with margins big enough to advance meaningful policy in Congress, where increasingly slim margins have made such achievements difficult. Ready for this? Mr. Jentelson described a shark tank style policy generation process to attract proposals from outside Washington with an aim of untethering mainstream democratic thinking from the current ideological spectrum. We're going to be holding up a mirror

to this influence industry, Mr. Gentleson said. We were going to produce products that call into question a lot of these assumptions we have been operating on for a long time. I'd like to hold up a piece of rope to your ceiling fan. Can we get you fired from your dad Venmoing you?

This sucks so much. What are these policies that they're going to be advancing? I don't know, but we're going to hold the game show-style competition. Sharks. I'm here to pitch you on a new policy. Sharks. It's called, we're going to give people tax credits for building settlements in the West Bank. I mean, also the first half of that answer when he was, I didn't want to interrupt you,

but he was just like, what we're going to do is we're going to use polling to come up with sentences that we will write down and give to clients that indicate where political wins may be blowing this way or that way, which is like, yeah, you're just describing. like the most basic idea of what a pack or whatever, like a consultant does. I don't think he's even like gotten far enough in this to like know how to make this sound like he has anything of value.

Here's what I have to say to the gentle son and about all of his policy product ideas. What's proprietary about this? What's stopping me from starting my own think tank? Indeed. That will also tell Democrats that they need to move to the right on a number of pressing social, economic, and moral issues.

I mean, yeah. I'll crush you like the fucking cockroats you are, Mr. I'm Mr. Wonderful. I'm political Mr. Wonderful. Yeah, I like we are setting up our own. We're calling it, um, the Lighthouse Institute, actually. We're calling it the Spotlight Institute, which has a very different mission. That might involve some people you know.

So watch out. We represent a group of political prisoners who have taken asylum in Israel. we let's collaborate we have some similar ground here to work with our number one issue we think that democrats are alienating everyone with their outdated rejected at the rejected at the ballot box anti-Japanese empire president we're going to get democrats to unrecognized korea both koreas the entire peninsula it belongs to japan hey look those women were comfortable it's in the name Yeah, that's right. They had a great time.

Yeah, we're, we're going to do a presentation where we show everyone how annoying it is to use a Samsung TV. And we're going to show everyone where the Sony is like. I mean, I think, is Adam Gentleson? Adam Gentleson. I think Adam has the wrong idea of like what sort of secrets of the trade he has to offer here. I'm not hearing a lot by way of political strategy. It's a brand new strategy for the Democrats, which is that you try and. to the right after losing an election.

Right. I mean, this guy has secrets about, like real secrets, like you said, access to Federman, like what happens when you crush one of his tusks into a potion and what kind of magical properties that can imbue you with, you know, if you put it in a cauldron? Like, that's valuable stuff that no one else has. Forget this polling shit. That's not your value. Adam, we're the best place to feed ducks in Washington, D.C., while you're on a depression quest.

you have access to that I Brendan what you said about how like he there's something so vacant about this it just such

well trod territory the weirdest thing about him it's so similar to Kamala to where it's clear that like if they do have any beliefs they are lightly held enough that they will take on, like, any set of positions, any posture, any branding, whatever is, like, the most expedient thing at the time.

And after the fact, they will always come out and say, okay, at the time, I knew what I was doing was stupid. But, well, you know, here's why, here's why you should trust me the next time. The weird thing about it to me is, like, there is this unspoken branding with both of them that they are like, that they're, like, that they're, that they're so good at the at like the the real life house of cards like dirty work of politics. But when you actually get them in a conversation, like with Jentelson, how he was not astute enough to realize that he would be asked about Israel or with Kamala in any interview, they are just, they don't even have the ability to just bullshit for like 30 seconds. Yeah. The wheels completely fall off. So it's not there's not even like a point.

them not having any beliefs. It certainly doesn't make them... It certainly doesn't make them... It doesn't make them quick on their feet. Yeah. It doesn't make them... It's supposed to be the whole trade-off. Yeah.

It doesn't make them can-your operators. You know, the era of like, like, I think, you know, maybe we're thinking of the Clinton era where it's like the guy's, he's a stuffed shirt, but like he can, he can spin a yarn. He can keep people, you know, just by whatever, lies or, um, just embellishing stuff. But this is, yeah, like you said. None of the sense of genuine ideals or values that I think people like to imagine is there, nor is it the slick operator. You're failing like in both directions.

He's fucking proposing having like a game show to decide what they believe in. That sounds horrible. Like no one thinks that sounds like a good idea. And you're telling it to the, I guess, to Wigel or the New York Times or whatever, everywhere you get interviewed. It's a bad idea. Who would watch that show? Like more people would live.

If Aces High was real, more people would. I would watch that. I would rather watch Ace's Oh my God. Absolutely. Ace's high is 100% more interesting. He'd have better ideas about these problems, I'm sure, from the different guests. You didn't have Harry Reid for one. Absolutely.

You bring up Kamala. This is just like a small detail from the Kamala's book tour that I thought was great. This is from Politico. It says Kamala Harris's new memoir. throws elbows at several 2028 contenders from her party, including Governor Gavin Newsom, who she cast as unreachable in the hours after Joe Biden dropped out of the last year's presidential race.

Hiking, we'll call back. The former vice president wrote in her notes from her calls that day, which recounted in her campaign memoir, 107 days. She pointed noted in parentheses, he never did. This is the strongest indication that Gavin Newsom is the strongest contender that the Democrats have for president. Because like, for all his,

manifest flaws and evil, he can smell a loser. Yeah. He can think, and then like, that is a, that is a, that is a quality sorely lacking among democratic politicians and operatives. Honestly, like, this is, you know, market, this is the first time he's ever done or said anything where I don't immediately want him like ex-i for the planet. Like, I dare even say the first thing that he comes off is even somewhat likable. Yeah.

Yeah, like, I love how terse it is. It reminds me of how I respond to messages when, like, someone I don't know that will ask me to do their podcast. Yes. You're just so rude and curse without saying no, that, like, no one could possibly think you're going to do it. He's a real master. He must say no to a lot of stuff. He must get asked to do the most bullshit stuff. Like, Lev Parnas's son is probably like, do you want to do a Snapchat when cast with me?

And he's like, diarrhea retreat right now. I'm getting my, I'm getting my colon blown out in the Seychelles. And I also like, uh, hiking, we'll call back. That's such a California asshole thing to do. It's like, yeah, I said these people, they love hiking. It's not urgent. It's not like there's an emergency. He's just like, I'm out.

It's just, I'm walking up a hill right now. Yeah. River Park is nice today. Yeah. It's, if he, if he just like, if he just held like a couple of. of my position. Like if he was just like, yeah,

we're going to, we're going to nationalize like all health care. I would be, I would max out to him. Because that kind, like that kind of asshole behavior, I have more faith in in someone like that being able to like get things done than like the Biden glad handy stuff.

Yeah. Yep. Unfortunately he is, he's just like Biden, but with like a like Patrick Bateman's skin over. Yeah. The fact that he wasn't, he didn't even speak at the last convention, right? I thought was like, there must be either just a lot of hate for him within the party or there's a, there's like a, you know, Tyrannosaurus-sized skeleton in his closet that they're just like, well, no, we're not going to have him, you know, be the face of the party, you know, I don't know which one it is.

I mean, if there's no type of like, like a real me too, not, you know, not an article that's like, as. Gavin Newsom's finger blasting secret. How he fucked up on a wine date. If he's not, if there's no me to have Gavin Newsom, then like, I don't know what to believe. Like he's, yeah, like,

I don't, yeah, then maybe the earth is flat. Well, I think he has the DeSantis thing. I think he's, we talked about it long ago, but it's like, I think, I mean, the one time he actually did try in a re-election campaign, he kind of

stomped electorally in his in California at least against a Larry fucking elder but I just his whole thing I do not think it will play in other places I think it's going to be the same thing as DeSantis where he has a decent floor among like losers who just like a Democrat who can string a few words together and shows like mild awareness for the media meta we're in but the ceiling is not that much higher. I mean, he is trying to cast himself right now as like the Democratic Trump. You know, like, and, you know, he's like, say the election was stolen then. Yeah, yeah, they always stop short.

And like I said, like, yeah, they stop short. And I'm just saying, I will max out to him if he, if he runs on a campaign pledging to imprison all of his political enemies. Sure. And to criminalize, uh, criminalize the opposition party. Also, get back together with Kimberly Gilfoyle. no put her in jail well one or the other do both treat her like the same time yeah treat her like the american and balloon just just he needs to these these little snarky tweets or whatever it's just

I'm sorry that that's not that's not you being Trump that's not you being Democrat Trump no well let's check in on how things are going with with Donald Trump hmm let's go let's check out the other side for a second here now this is some big news this is like some earth shattering news happened over the weekend that like i'm i'm going to be breaking here on the show guys there's that issue that's out there that's sort of just been haunting american politics for a couple years now the thing that sort of seems to implicate the leaders of both parties and much of you know the sort of banking tech and entertainment elite in this country that everyone's been asking for answers about this case and everyone's saying show us the files release the files

guys, Donald Trump is going to release the files. We're getting the files. We're getting the files. This is from this from the AP. President Donald Trump announced Friday that he has ordered the declassification and public release of all government records about aviator Amelia Earhart. Noting that her disappearance in 1937 as she attempted to fly around the world has captivated millions. Trump called her fate an interesting story. And people have been asking him about declassifying and making. public everything the government has on her. Okay, everything the government has in her.

They're releasing the Air Hard files, guys. Has on her? Guys, emergency pod. Emergency pod. The Air Hard files are getting released. Imagine if they release it and like it just turns out she's a pedophile. She's the first, she's the first version of Epstein. It's like something handed down.

What was she flying around everywhere for? Landing on islands. I mean, it would make it easier to do that. Going missing on an island, maybe? It's, what's in the files? imagine, okay, imagine Trump, like, brings all those, like, right-wing media influencers and hands on documents that they, like, get photographs waving to the media. Yeah.

We have the Earhart files. Yeah. Their disappearance are going to crack the case on this. I personally think she just crashed into the ocean. But that's, that's me. I think she was trying to hit the Empire State Building. She's like the nexus of every single terroristic, pedophilic aspect of American culture. It's all there in one lady.

why do you think he's I was trying to figure out like why he's doing why it says her in the article because people have been asking him for years about because no no they haven't he didn't even he's released a few JFK files

but he didn't even go back to the JFK thing like that's the one air hard doing you know not even like the Lindberg baby that's a more compelling mystery than what the fuck happened to Emily Earhart aliens she was flying like one of the first airplanes ever around the world and then disappeared yeah

I wonder what happened to her This shit pisses me off so much I see this so much Like I get because of like the YouTube videos I watch I get so many recommended videos that are like The 20 scariest disappearances ever Yeah and it's like This guy was a hiker and he went missing

And it's like wow I wonder what happened He probably got killed by a cult It isn't just that he like wandering He got lost and like died Died of dehydration What could There was literally video like four hours long videos that are like the 20th, the 20 scariest, unexplained disappearances of outdoors

YouTubers. Yeah. And it's like, that's a very easy one to solve. The files are just going to be like a transcription of the one of those YouTube videos, you know, and Pam Bonnie's going to sit there like reading it and be like, you know, say like, don't forget to like and subscribe because they're just directly copying it over from a YouTube video. Amelia made it almost three corners around the world before she suddenly and without notice

vanished. Never to be seen again. Trump wrote on the social media site. Her disappearance almost 90 years ago has captivated millions. I'm ordering my administration to declassify and release all government records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip,

and everything else about her. Like what? What? Her blood type, shoe size. I like who he's calling her Amelia, by the way. It's just that's a weird little touch of first name basis. I would, going back to like

why he's doing this, I was, this. may be, I may be assuming too much, but do you, I'm trying to kind of do the same thing that we did with Brandon, where we try to get, you know, get, take a sip of the soup and guess what's in it? Um, he, what if like, he was no angel folks. He was, he was a bad, bad woman. He, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he's perceiving that, like, the heat is on him, right? For, for, for Epstein stuff.

And his brain is probably like running it through a filter of the stuff that happened during his first administration. Like he still probably thinks like Me Too is a thing. Yeah. And so what if his, his calculation is like, I know, I'll like,

I'll throw a bone to the Me Too people by releasing these files about this, this famous icon, Amelia Earhart. What's just, it's like a mystery. It's one of those like quote unquote mysteries of history that he thinks will be, I guess. It's not a mystery.

And there's nothing salacious about the mystery to begin with. The mystery is, where is her body in the Pacific Ocean? I mean, he could have been out and out to be like, we're going to find D.B. Cooper. Yeah, that's interesting. That's watching. That's a mystery. Some people say he knows Bigfoot.

We don't know. They could be in cahoots. We don't really know, but we're going to find out very soon. But like, this is such a bland. It's a Hail Mary. and I thought it was a joke when I first heard about it It is like classic old guy stuff

Yeah Like this is Like he's kind of interested Maybe in a cursory way So he thinks other people Are dying to hear about it Yeah like this is Amelia Earhart is like

That is the topic of great Of conversation that Like a great great uncle brings up after 20 minutes Of awful silence Yep Ever found her You know

And you're just like I bring it up because I know you've read this too, but do you remember in one of Gorvadole's memoirs this is a whole chapter about his father and Amelia Earhart? Oh, yeah. Oh, I don't remember like the exact connection, though.

Basically, his father, like, Amelia Earhart was like one of the first, like, American aviators. He was one of like the pioneers of flight. Right. And like he was like, the family was very close to the Amelia Earhart. And basically like Gorvado's, it was just a bit basically about how,

in his estimation, Amelia Earhart was in love with his father and was being sort of like semi-exploited by her husband, who was sort of like a promoter and who sort of like coasted off of her and like created kind of like a, made her into like a national media figure. But we're going to find out about all that. Definitely. What did Gorvadel's father know and when did he know it?

It is, yeah, I mean, I do like that final clause. What did he say? Everything else about her. And everything else about her. Okay. Can't wait. And that's like, that's, that's, like, that's all. almost as as lame as the Hegseth thing as well.

Like the other big secret. Let's talk about the Hegseth thing. This is another thing I saw over the weekend where it was like, Hegseth orders rare, urgent meetings of hundreds of generals, admirals. This from the Washington Post says, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered hundreds of the U.S. military's generals and admirals to gather on short notice. And without a stated reason,

at a Marine Court base in Virginia next week, so in confusion and alarm after the Trump administration's firing of numerous senior leaders this year. And, like, when I saw this, I was like, our, you know, our rummy secretary of defense is like, you know, on a bender and orders literally like all of like generals admirals who were in like, you know, operating like, you know, like all over the fucking world, like the Pacific Command or whatever, orders them back to like a retreat in Virginia for like an all hands urgent meeting. And of course, my first thought was like, oh fuck, like World War Three is starting. Like we're just going to go to war with Russia over Ukraine or something like that.

I was like, this does not seem good. Then I thought about it for a second. And then I was like, oh, Hugh, it's going to be something mind-numbingly stupid. Well, a bunch of people, I mean, some people, people I know, were like, text me, like, you see this thing about, heck, that's going to be, I mean, this is like, this is scary. I'm like, I guarantee you, it's not going to be scary. It's going to be fruity. Like, this is going to be some really fruity thing that he thinks is cool. Fruity is exactly what this is.

this is from ABC News. At next week's unusual gathering of several hundred senior U.S. generals and admirals, defense secretary Pete Hegseth will deliver his message of restoring the quote, warrior ethos to the U.S. military

and present new standards towards that goal, according to five U.S. officials. Many of the senior military officers will come to the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, from all over the United States and from around the world to hear Hegseth in an event

that could last just 30 minutes according to two officials. why don't you put it like a Zoom call just put them up on the big board and make all the generals listen to you talk about whatever like fruity new of spree decor that you're trying to promote he has nothing to do

he just gets to rename stuff and say we're saying war in the way in addition to that one of the things he did this week was officially restore the medals of honor bestowed upon the soldiers who did the wounded knee massacre which and it's just like

like shit like that like I know he's like got the crusader tattoos and he's just like I'm a warrior not a soldier we need battle hardened men I can't think of a single even like of the most right wing cynical historians in matter general

who would ever describe the wounded knee massacre as anything other than just a wanton massacre of women and children like in no way shape or form was it a battle thought that you could bestow medals of honor upon the men who did it And this was also, like, the medals of honor that were given out back then, you didn't, you didn't get them for like risking your life necessarily. It was just like, that was just the medal that was given out for like active duty service men.

People got medals of honor for like reenlisting when they were like seriously. They would get, they would get medals of honor for like reenlisting or like tending to a mule. That's what one of the one of the fucking guys that wounded knee like, that. That is what his Medal of Honor is for. They just didn't have anything. They hadn't invented the Bronze Star to give to, like, future congressmen and TV personalities, like Pete Hegg said. He's the most sort of comparable to Trump in that he's a TV guy.

You know, so he's, he's all about like, oh, we're not, I don't want to actually have to do anything, but let's have a ceremony. Let's rename something. Let's get the base kind of fired up by the grand ballroom. Yeah, yeah. Everything in gold. And so, and then even though it's kind of repulsive, given that we're. We are in a sense, you know, seeing history get, you know, kind of redefined into some of its, you know, most grotesque, revanchist version of American history.

But again, it's just kind of him talking about something that doesn't fucking matter, you know, as far as, like, doing anything right now. I always think, like, the thing that is so, it's so weird that his, his, the thing he did before, like, he was a TV personality, he was in the national fucking guard. I think he was in the National Guard but then I think he joined the infantry so he was in the Army at one point The infantry is in the net Like there is infantry in the National Guard And the National Guard like did get sent to Iraq

That was like a famous thing He was just in the Minnesota National Guard Yeah He might have been in the reserves too like after it But that's still like That's still like Okay if you're like a if you're like The real life version of Sam Fisher

Imagine like the National Guard guy like makes you fly across the country after spending like a weekend dangling from like an HVAC pipe snapping people's neck like I would pass a law like no National Guard guy can have any administrative position

it's such a bullshit that like he went to Princeton and like joined the National Guard as an officer because you know before 9-11 it was just like you went camping and did sit-ups four days out of the month and you would get like a grade pension or whatever.

But like imagine you're one of these like General Jack D. Ripper types, like McRaven or like one of the psycho. It's like, and then you get an order that you have to like drop what you're doing and head to an all hands retreat in Quantico so that the Secretary of Defense can give you a motivational speech for a half an hour and then you can leave. Yeah. Well, like what is that? Do you think like any of those guys, any of like the Delta 4th? psychos that are like pissed off they're having to miss like drug trafficking meetings to go to this

do you think they're like oh wow we were gonna quit until your amazing speech we were going to we were actually going to surrender he should to like hire one of those like motivational speakers that they hire to like berate and scream at like salespeople

you know right just like your wife is cheating on you right now because you're not selling enough what's wrong with you pussy I love that guy That guy is awesome And I believe I did hear something about how Like it will have to do like

He's also like instituting new standards for military grooming About like facial hair Yeah It's just it's pretty Well well like one of the one of the There used to be like an exemption for like black service men This is actually Zoom Walt reform Admiral Zoom Walt

Around like the early set It was in the book Bloods, actually. Yeah. He, Zoom Walt was, he was like, we talked about it. Like one of the,

one of the World War II veteran libs, that like, a foundational figure in modern American liberalism. But he, like, he had a bunch of, um, advice,

like, uh, black officers who advised him on stuff like this. And previously, uh, the Navy's standards on facial hair. They like, they would, they wouldn't account for, like, how, like, I think it's what, like, over, like, 60% of black men get the, get that skin condition when they shave.

Oh, right. Yeah, yeah. Like, the bumps. And they, should, they created an exemption because of that skin condition. Right. Okay. And Higsef is, like, rolling back these now, like, 50-year-old fucking reforms that, like, just make a ton of practical sense that you wouldn't, like, it wouldn't make sense to just, like, kick, like, perfectly able. body people out of the navy

because you force them to have a skin condition. Yeah. That they could otherwise avoid by having like the most like, um, the most, the most inconspicuous goatee possible. Yeah. Yeah. Like the, like, like less,

not one of those like, um, what are the Van Dykes. Just like short enough where it like doesn't fuck up their skin, but he's rolling it back for like, God knows what fucking reason. Well, you're right back because he's like nothing to do. Yeah. What the fuck is he up to? I really don't see him. He's like doing push up

challenges with troops and stuff like that. But it's like, but he's also, then you see that like the right wing people being like, well, I liked it. He's just kind of chilling out and being a fun American guy instead of taking us to war. It's like, well, he also did, he had no problem with bombing Iran, which you seem to think is a bad thing. I guess the Tucker wing. He also has no problem with Israel bombing Qatar, like an ally where we have a giant military base in the process of a negotiation that, like, we want to succeed. But, but also, like, none of that is up to him either. Yeah.

So he's not making decisions or anything. He's, yeah, like, apparently Stephen Miller is the guy behind all these Venezuelan boat killings. It's all, it's, it's, it's, it's a pageantry. It's all pageantry. And he just wants to be. And he wants our sailors, airmen, marines, and army soldiers. He wants him looking cute and tight. Yep.

So, I mean, it's not, I, I'm glad it's not something apocalyptic, obviously. But it is so. I'm sorry like every time I think about this I have to bring it back to the Trump military birthday parade yeah that was that was a real low moment for this country yeah that was

that was really bad I consider that the official started the American century of humiliation yeah that was awesome that was so like what did they think it was gonna look like I loved it I loved it how like they so they had like Rangers

and like Fifth Special Forces guys, like, trying to march in formation. And of course, like, they don't know how to fucking do that. I was shocked at how bad the marching was. If there's one thing you got to do in those, it's march, march well. And it was uninspiring. And of course, people rightfully put up, like, the Chinese parades, the North Korean parades, even some Europeans.

And our guys just did not, did not measure up. It was bad. Wasn't Hegsteth, like, on his phone during that? Yeah. They were looking at their board as fuck. He doesn't care about it. It's got to be about him, like, doing something symbolic that Monday that makes him feel like, you know, he's earning his keep or whatever.

But also, is it like calling all the generals and making them come to the meeting in Quantico? Like, isn't that, like, high-key drunk behavior? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, the thing where you grind, like, you bring the party that everyone was joined to, like a grinding hole, but be like, listen, I've been friends with. this guy for three fucking years it would be so funny if like

all of them like for whatever reason they all have to like go to the base proper on Ospreys and he just he just takes out like every officer in America above like lieutenant colonel level it's just completely like the joint chiefs like the new

joint chiefs are all like 22 year olds he just ruins the American military He could be, because, I mean, he's going to be, he's going to be sipping before this, you know, to feel himself. Sure. This could be like. It's about, you know, just three morning gin and tonics just to get, stop your hands from shaking. This could be like if Frank Drebben did the Saddam Hussein.

Like, by accident. Yeah. Like, he slips and Nordbergs, you know, a gun into killing all of our high command. It could happen. The one thing that I will, like, I, I, I will. hand it to Pete Egg Sethon that I do actually find impressive about him. I think it's admirable how much he's able to work out while being drunk like all the time. Like that's hard to do. Yeah. Like try, try waking up and immediately drinking like some,

you know he's drinking the stupidest cocktails. He drinks something called like a trucker's Manhattan that has like red gate rate in it. It's too. It's too. It's venom and knob creep. He drinks that, and then he immediately, like, he does these idiotic workouts. Like, he'll do, like, he does workouts that have, like, names called, like, like, the, the hero's thrust. And it's, you do the same number of steps that all the firefighters who died on 9-11 days. And it's at least, like, he's at least able to hold together enough to, like, not vomit on camera. Yeah.

And it's like, that is. to the extent that anyone in that administration is sacrificing, he kind of is more than anyone. Like, I would like to know what his secret is, because he also does not have the alcoholics bloat. You can't say that. Not yet.

I don't know how old he is. He's like 45. Okay, so. Drinks for my friends. All my friends are generals. Drinks from my friends. Oh, my God. Imagine after he kills all the officers, then he's he's gonna find a way to like use military technology

to send a text to every phone in America and you'll just you'll wake up in the middle of the night it'll be like louder than any Amber Alerter than any Amber alert and we'll just be like are you mad at me? Listen, listen I know it's late but I just want I say how much I fucking love all of you and I'm really fucking sorry if I had all the genies in the world

I would fucking put myself in the place of all the guys who died 13 different ospreys Collide with each other while trying to land in Quantigo It could happen I don't know you can hear a lot Really bad shit about me

But I just want to let you know I just want to let you know I fucking love you I hope you don't believe it I'm just some bad shit But I'm still a good guy Getting two Amber alerts And the one is like that

and then like 30 minutes later after you don't respond it's like well fuck you anyway cunt you've the the amber alert the next day in the morning

just trying to act like nothing happened I've actually been sober for three oh wigs it's like gentleston fighting oligarchy for several months now oh god

he you know that me and Andrew got obsessed with Blue October you know that song hate me yeah yeah yeah that's whenever the guy in the song goes I'm sober now for three whole months

it makes me think of Hex has so much like he's so blue October yeah that's probably his like that's his alarm clock probably hate me that'll be it through the PA system at this meeting of the generals you should come out to pyro technics like the you know

beat Hexas kills the general military command of the Pentagon with a great white style pyrotechnics incident and his warrior ethos uh fucking motivational speech the first accidental purge of the military command is still just like a great idea that could happen he's gonna he's gonna kill a four-star general like how maud died like he's gonna shoot his t-shirts yeah all right well uh i got i got one more one more uh one more thing today. And I've been sitting on this story for a week or two, but I really wanted to do it with you guys.

You guys are familiar with Peter Thiel, right? You're familiar with his sort of sweaty and confusing public appearances as of late. Yes, I am. Particularly the one where Ross Doubt that interviewed him and was like, are you the Antichrist? And he was like, you know, you know, and he was like,

and then, dude, that was like, now, to be clear, you would like the human race to continue, right? And he was like, uh, and he paused for like 30 seconds as you saw like, you know, he's like sweating like Patrick Ewing at the foul line. Who is telling him to do though?

Like, yeah, he needs to just not, I mean, I guess it's good for, for us to see it and for people to be creeped up by him, but whoever's telling him to do these interviews is got to go. I saw him, I saw like Joe Rogan and like,

Rogan was like, well, it's not like you met with Epstein, you know, after the convention. And Teal was like, actually, I, it was, I met with him in 2014 after some moral failing. It's like, why would you agree to do something where you talk for four hours? Like, he's, there's never been like a more, like, a more, like, alarming public figure.

Like, you know, one of his major hobbies are interests now, aside from creating, like, a, you know, global surveillance state, a murder machine, is that he's obsessed with the Antichrist. I actually didn't know this. Okay, yeah, no, he is obsessed with the idea of the Antichrist. And apparently, like, he gave a series of lectures in San Francisco on the Antichrist. Okay. It's all for you, Peter. I mean, this is from personal experience.

And this is from the San Francisco standard. This is their account of, like, this is their account, like, I mean, it was off the record. So they were, like, talking to people coming in and out of the Peter Thiel Antichrist. lecture. This is what they had to report. It says hundreds of people lined up on Monday night outside the Commonwealth Club, braving a line of protesters sporting demon masks and blasting death metal in order to see Peter Thiel deliver a lecture on the Antichrist. The off-the-record talk was the first in a four-part series that the PayPal co-founder and venture capitalists sold out

within hours of announcing last month. An online invite said vaguely that he would be addressing the topic of the biblical Antichrist and its theology, history, literature, and politics. Despite the lack of details, the event drew a passionate crowd. Dozens of protesters swarmed the sidewalk, carrying signs emblazoned with the billionaire's face, and reading, not today, Satan. A lecture attendees, meanwhile, lined the block, bearing their noses in their phones as protesters heckled. The crowd was largely white, male, and clad in some form of button-down attire,

appropriate for seeing their high priest deliver his sermon. Surprisingly, few in the crowd counted themselves as true fans. I'm personally ready for horns to grow out of his head in the middle of talking, said one attendee who identified himself as Dick Gay. That would be great. Mr. Gay, who had flown in for the event from Los Angeles. Is this the New York Times? No, this is the San Francisco Standard.

Okay. It says Mr. Gay, who had flown in for the event from Los Angeles and said he was one of the investors of, said he was one of the investors of sperm racing, which is an actual thing wherein men compete to see whose sperm is fastest under a microscope, said that he attended the, the University of Austin, or UATX, an anti-woke college reported to be partially funded by Teal and built his career around the principals outlined in Teal's book, zero to one. So, living your life, this is a guy who's dedicated his life to being taught, going to school

by principal Barry Weiss, and then dedicated his life to the principals in Peter Thiel's book, and he's the founder of an investor in sperm racing. How did, like, is it a sport? I think, It just says he was one of the investors of sperm racing, which is an actual thing where when men compete to see whose sperm is fastest under a microscope. So I guess like, how do you get money from that? Like, I guess like, do you get sponsors? It's like, you know, like I'm jacking off in the bathroom with one of those like NASCAR like suits like Marlboro, Mountain Dew.

Just like, well, don't use Mountain Dew. A team comes in and like takes one of my nuts off. He goes to... They're like, Willis Flaggin, and the pit stop he's going to do a finger up in his ass in 1.5 seconds. Wait, but so he's a student at Barry...

Yeah, he said he attended the University of Austin. Bovine University. He ended Bowvine Barry University. And it said, still, he said, he had difficulty squaring the idea as Tio espoused with his track records, specifically his co-founding of the defense tech company, Palantir.

Palantir makes the AI technology that decides who lives or dies in a battlefield, which seems exactly like the Antichrist Steele describes in all of his lectures, he said. I'm very curious what he has to say about that or what excuses he might make. Oh, oh, whoops, I've wasted my life, said, gang. Okay.

Wait, I'm just realizing all the shit I like is, like, stupid and evil. This is the section that really fried me, though. Attendee Justin Park said he just wanted to pitch teal on putting a seven and a half foot cross on the moon. That's the ninth configuration. I knew I wanted to have you to talk about this because when I talked to, when it got to the guy whose only thing as he's seeking investors to put a seven and a half foot cross on

the moon, I'm like, that is the film, the William Peter Blatty film, the ninth configuration starring Stacey Keach. Yeah. I think it's a great idea. It's a great poster. Yeah, it's awesome poster. It says, wearing a blue banana republic blazer with a red. prolescent pin engraved with a cross,

the 43-year-old said his company, Cross-on-the-moon coalition. Come on. Come on. His company, once again, a company is something that makes money. Yeah, well, theoretically. I mean, like, it was the Cross-on-the-Moon Institute,

a nonprofit dedicated to putting a cross on the moon. Sure. But this is, like I always said, the Cross-of-the-Moon Coalition. It says, his company, the Cross-on-the-Moon Coalition. And the titanium alloy cross, it hopes to erect on the lunar surface, is meant to glorify and evangelize Christ through space exploration.

It's like, so the only way you could make money off that is like if your company just like, it borrows money to put in a bet on like one of, unpredict it. Like they buy all the chairs for will there be a cross on the moon? Yeah. And then you try to make, when the cross on the moon happens, that's the end of your company. Exactly. Park said he's hoping to find something meaningful to learn from teal, but made it clear he's also interested in having the billionaire evangelize his company's goal. Putting the cross on the moon would cost around $40 million, he said. That's a steal to like put something on the moon, I would imagine. 40 million. That's 40 million. That's nothing. That's like, yeah. We could, if we started saving,

we could, we could contribute to this. Yeah. I see no reason not to. We should, we should, I mean, that should be a secondary, uh, goal. To your subscription. Well, no, well, well, I do have that dream of the $10,000 a month subscription where you get all the forbidden conversations. Yep. But I meant for the Lighthouse Institute. Yes. That's it to reclaim the moon for Shinto.

Yeah, that all kind of goes together. It says, yeah. He could be the rock this project needs, he said. Is that a pun on moon? Yeah, I was going to say, the moon's already a big ride. That's the rock that you should be interested in, buddy. Don't worry about whatever rocks are in Peter T. teal's fucking head worry about the rocks in your head yeah he says at least one man waiting to get in

who declined to give his name your profession was a true believer he called teal a very intelligent person and said he was almost prophetic in supporting trump before any almost any other mainstream figure the man who was in his 30s said he wasn't a teal fan until last year when he became a trump supporter after seeing the president survive an assassination attempt in butler pennsylvania i misunderstood teal he said i used to watch the nn and think he's a nazi but now i'm attending his lecture on the Antichrist sitting next to the cross on the moon and the sperm racing guy yeah dick gay I mean like I know Peter Thiel's big idea is to um enslave and exterminate humanity but like do any of his fans like have any no but not them yeah yeah they'll be valued members of his

inner circle cross on the moon coalition yeah I mean if only them yeah like in a doctor strange love situation where like only the best are going to be like the breeding horses for humanity deep in the minds, you want the cross on the moon guy. And you obviously want the sperm race this guy there. You gotta find out who sperm is the fastest. Yeah.

Go back to the sperm racing. Okay, for a second. So I'm imagining it's like, like, you me and Brendan, we're like, we've argued about this as long as you've been friends. Sure.

Whose sperm is the fastest under a microscope? Now we can know. So then we pay the sperm racing company to do a sperm race for us. Yeah. So I think you like you go to their facility or maybe you just mail them

your comb or something like Elon does. You mail them your comb. And then they put it under a microscope. But is there like a live stream where they're like, and coming around the bed, we've got Will's DeVesson, Will's sperm is a fast, and then in the street, it's Britney James, but sperm is going to be.

I'm picturing it like a Mario party. He couldn't go all the way. Minigame. Yeah, yeah. Just press A really fast as your guy goes, but then slow down around the corner. Yeah. I would be so proud if my sperm was like Sennah.

Like he's tragically, Felix's sperm died when it loved doing the most. Yeah. Racing under a microscope. Yeah. I mean, he inspired everyone. Yeah. Seaman biscuit. Well, now he says, I used to think, I used to watch CNN and think he's a Nazi.

Now he understands the billionaire is talking about something bigger. If you read the Bible, there's a whole spiritual warfare, he said. It's not about left versus right. It's about God versus Satan. It's about good versus evil. It's about right versus wrong. It's almost like angels versus demons. Got it.

See, this guy, he gets the concept. Okay, this guy, he gets the concept, but he's just like, it's not really about left or right. It's about angels versus demons. It's about good versus evil. Like the minions of like the minions of Satan versus like, you know, all the angels of heaven. And the guy I'm convinced

is on the right side of this dispute is Peter Teal. Who can't even really give a straight answer that he's not the Antichrist. Yeah. When non-video. Or that he thinks the survival of humanity is something to be desired. It is an odd bunch here. He gets like, you can't even call them softballs.

Like Joe Rogan will be like but you think it's wrong to like hold up a baby with a quadritch's robotic mech suit from Avatar and sort of rip its spine out and slurp up the stem cells like an oyster right and he's like uh in some situation against doing that but i haven't seen all the cases uh teal has been speaking for at least a year about the antichrist who for the uninitiated is a biblical figure who will rise before the last judgment and attempt to turn it people against Jesus. But Teal's comments on the subject received greater attention after a June interview on New York Times columnist Ross Doubt That's podcast, in part because a stuttering Teal failed to fully rebutt to

do that's assertion that actually it is Thiel himself who is ushering in the coming of the Antichrist with the technology is developing. In the podcast, he'll explain that he believes the Antichrist will present itself as an advocate for regulation. Oh, wow. But pushing to slow technological and scientific progress in the name of safety. He suggested with a straight face that the antichrist could look a lot like 22-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Oh, right. So, I mean, like, this is, like, the thing that's sort of pressing about this is just, like, the poverty of these people's imaginations. Because, like, I know, like, with all the fucking drugs he does, like, I mean, like, of course he's into, like, he's into the antichrist, but he's like, this is where you end up. But he's like, okay, I'm imagining the antichrist in the 21st century, like, you know, he's alive in the world today, like Damien.

And he's pushing for government regulation of singular. Lacan Valley. What a fucking shock. Wow. That works out great for me. What are the odds of that? I like, I think like if you believe in, like if you seriously think like in your day to day life,

you are contesting like devils and ghouls and the fucking candle jack and all of it, you're an asshole. Like you're a fucking idiot. But I mean, I kind of hope it's true. Because if you get fooled. by Peter Thiel into thinking he's like

fighting the Antichrist you deserve like you have you have earned your stay in hell like that is that is real bumpkin shit yeah during the course of his lecture

Teal closed after warning about the dangers of the antichrist rising to usher in Armageddon by selling attendees on his latest product a number and sign that will be engraved into your hand or forehead

well I was thinking like this is like how now the guaranteed sign you're getting a fraudulent call is if they say they are your bank looking to protect your account. That's how you know you need to hang up and not give them any information. So him warning about the coming of the Antichrist, you know, it's coming from inside the house. It says, the consensus was that the talk largely repeated the points that Peel had made in previous interviews on the subject, namely that the antichrist would use the threat of Armageddon or some looming crisis in order to consolidate control and create a one-world government.

Like he's doing? Sort of like he's doing right now. In the speech. That's also like, that's such a shitty prediction because then that's like any, watch out for someone who warns about a crisis. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

Thanks. You're paying yourself into a bit of a corner there. But yeah. One attendee recalled Teal specifying that this figure could not be a state figurehead like Chinese President Xi Jinping because it needs to be more global. He couldn't recall if Teal suggested Thurnberg would make the cut. so it's like president g can't possibly be the antichrist because it's because it needs to be more global so only only the president of like the largest country on the planet yeah and then pretty much as global

one guy could get like a Swedish uh like a Swedish woman who's like you know wants people to stop dying in Gaza it says one attendee revealed that teal's discussion of the antichrist was more about a scenario than an individual teal's antichrist scenario is one in which a unified government suppresses technology to impose order or armageddon wherein AI takes over and ushers in the end of the world will either have the one government that destroys technology and takes over or you have an AI that destroys everything he said another guest when asked about the talk

shot back a single word mid you went to it asshole like you don't get to complain yeah sorry if you're in this audience you're a rube in one way or another but yeah that that's pretty funny it's either going to be an AI or the people who try to stop the AI

I mean what is being communicated here at all I don't get it I think it's I think this is just to set up like a year from now after there's another like you know 26 year old Instagram model

mysteriously falls 40 stories from his penthouse yeah Peter Till will be like actually this is so crazy but this guy who I did not at all kill he was actually going to be

the antichrist I paid a team of of Vatican witch doctors and the real Helsing and they figured it out and he was the antichrist and I got rid of him It's not really about an individual, but a scenario.

Like, there could be a, like, an anti-crace scenario involved, involving a prominent and wealthy individual who has young paramoys, young paramours who continually swan, yeah, yeah, if we'd continually swan dive out of penthouse apartments owned by me and sort of suicides, we'll call them. Yeah, a scenario, like, a scenario, like if we were, say if I was, I had certain tastes and part of my branding was to encourage people not to go to college and in fact encouraging gifted 16 and 17 year olds to just skip that step directly and come work in my field and sort of enter my social circles hang out around me and my friends well he said the antichrist

will use like under the guise of a threat or safety like that would be the mechanism for which you did say that so like you know like just be wary out there or be people warning saying like, oh, like, you know, don't go in Peter Thiel's Bedhouse apartment. You know, that's the worst thing they could be saying. Yeah.

As far as their guilt and if you're there, like, be careful of any banana peels near the edge of the balcony. I hate to be the bearer of bad news. If your parents say, no, you're only 15, you can't live in his ziggurot. They might be the Antichrist.

They really might be. You should turn it into more of a Foxworthy list of things. It'd be more entertaining whatever the fuck he said at this stupid speech with these gentlemen the people who like

were like actually really sucked piss me off so bad. It's like yeah, poop found a diarrhea fast. Come up with a better with a better suggestion. Don't just knock him, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. If you're, hey, if you're a 19 year old Instagram model is about to talk to a reporter from Gawker, you just might be into grass.

Closing out here about other people who are not impressed with the four-hour antichrist lecture of like the ramblings of a drug-addicted bad man says here a group of three French men all living in San Francisco and working in tech gave the talk a seven out of ten because of repetitiveness.

They did appreciate some of Teal's jokes including apparently saying it would be a travesty for Elon Musk to go to therapy because it would make him less productive. Woo! What if you actually went there and like an hour of it is like it's like Eddie Murphy he's just like he's so funny. He's just to bring that death comedy.

I'm just crushing the crowd is like they're ripping up the seats. He's like he's no one has ever killed like this. I take my shit out this whole room going to get late. Yeah. And he comes out wearing a wearing a wearing. a buttoned up shirt and jeans that are like airbrushed with his face on it.

The first hour of the talk. Step kids always know you be fucking on their mama. And then after he'd then like exactly an hour mark he's like, okay,

enough of that. It just gets into boring anti-crash shit. He, this is one of the French guys. He was really anti-introspection, one recall. I wonder why.

Okay. It's what we're saying. He sort of, he counseled against looking in the mirror. Remembering things you did? Staying away from mirrors in general. Don't be freaked out when you don't see anything in it. He said we are very selfish and we care a lot about ourselves as individuals.

And the therapy and yoga and stuff like that is not good for the world. We should not care so much about ourselves and care more about the world. Another attendee said the talk revealed a less well-known, more scholarly side of teal. He noted that teal is different from his expectations of a tech and investor, pointing the billionaire's cynical view of technology's impact on the world. The part about Teal that's interesting is he breaks your expectations about what a VC tech should be. I'll say.

Yep. I know, yeah. Certainly. Yet another said he missed the majority of the lecture because he was at dinner with his mother. Is this one of the French guys? No, this is just yet another attendee. He said he heard the rumblings about the lecture being repetitive, but he hoped the series would get spicier and spicier as it progressed.

But would he be back for the next one? I hope so, he said. But if my mom's back in town, you've got to prioritize. Okay. At least someone in this article wins the good son away. Absolutely. Yeah, I like that that young man, whoever he is, God bless him. And he was there for as little of the speech as possible, which is also a plus to him.

Yeah, he wasn't really there for it. I like the thing about him being, he'll being actually skeptical of technology. Yeah, it's like you put, when. when you put, like, cameras in certain places, they're supposed to work. Yeah. Yep. All right.

Well, I think I does it for today's episode, but I got just two things I want to do at the end of the episode. Well, actually, first of all, Brendan, you're here. I'm here. The new season of Blowback just dropped. It just dropped if you want to. What places are we visiting this year on Blowback?

What characters will be encountering? Some fun stories from American history will we be examined. this year. Some cookie characters, but the subject matter in general, for those who are listening alongside Felix and my Metal Gear miniseries, we're going to Angola, which features heavily in the fifth game of that series. So really, if you want to have fun listening to the Metal Gear thing, you have to listen to Blowback Season 6 in order to understand the historical context. But it's a really good season. I think we are proud of how it turned out. It's the Cold War

Showdown in Africa, the largest Cold War showdown in Africa, in which South Africa, apartheid South Africa, a local warlord and the United States tried to overthrow the government of Angola, which was partnered up with the Cubans and the Soviets. And it's kind of notable because the revolutionary Cuba sent tens upon tens of thousands of soldiers to fight directly for the Angolans. And we're really the difference between apartheid South Africa knocking down that country and not. And so there's a lot of different kind of stories at play. and we kind of run you through in the first episode, the highlights and the characters,

but please go sign up, listen to the whole thing, if you like, blowback. Show, and it's 10 episodes, add free if you sign up, as well as 10 more bonus episodes. And we make a special effort to, in a bonus episode and throughout the main season, to flesh out Israel's connection with South Africa because I think that's a point of interest for a lot of people for obvious reasons.

And it is extensive. It's, you know, all the way to their nuclear program and stuff like that. So we thought it was a pretty fascinating season. Blowback, Angola, check it out. Links will be available in the show description. And then just one final bit of podcast promo here. This comes courtesy of Chapo Foreign Affairs correspondent, Derek Davidson,

who would like to let you know that him and Danny Besner's podcast, American Prestige, is a finalist for the 2025 Signal Awards in News and Politics. Now, there is a link where you can, this is listener's choice compliment to the award. So you can show your support for Derek and Danny's show American Prestige by voting at a link that we'll have in the show description. Now, they're up against some heavy hitters, which include Pod Save America and the Daily Wire. So they were very tough to just be nominated. So I'm beginning my campaign here to vote early and often for Daniel Bessner and Derek Davidson's American Prestige podcast, a 2025 finalist at the Signal Awards. Look for that link to vote in the show description.

Finally, the last thing I would like to talk about before we leave for today, I'm sorry to end on a mournful note, but I do feel compelled to note the death of a man who, you know, Felix and I both knew and admired a great deal. Over the weekend, we heard the news that sort of shockingly and out of nowhere, the writer Caleb Orton died. Caleb is a guy who was one of like the first real writers whose work I became familiar with through Twitter and I was aware of his work way back when I was working at Live Right Norton

and I really wanted to do a book with him his writing was his writing on basically like music California a lot of things but like he had a very very sparse a very funny and a very elegant elegiac literary style that like I described it as

it's a style that many people copy but only a few people achieve, and Caleb was really one of them. And just personally knowing him, he was a very thoughtful, soft-spoken, and kind person. And I just would like to use this moment on the show to encourage you, if you're not familiar with any of Caleb's writing, to seek it out because he really was a really, really gifted prose stylist. Like I said, he wrote about music and his native rural California in a way that was really, really, just really striking. And And his loss is just unbelievably senseless. It came out of absolutely nowhere.

And I would just like to take this time to express my condolences and my heartfelt sympathies to his family, friends, and everyone who was close to him. Yeah. Long-time listeners will remember Caleb from, I think he was one of our first 20 or 30 guests ever. But he, you know, everything that Will said about his writing is completely correct. And the thing that always surprised me the first few times that we ever spoke with him

or encountered him in real life was just how it's so rare for someone who can write in the way that Caleb did and about the subject matter that he did to appreciate and understand humor in such a natural way. It's not that anyone expected him to be humorless per se

but it's much less talented writers have been far more difficult to hang out with than Caleb was a gigantic gigantic loss it's sort of

eerie that this happens in such close proximity to Jordan Breen's death because with both men I sort of think there are two people who were born in the long time. In Jordan's case, he was born far too early. He's someone who would have succeeded had he had a YouTube channel or a podcast of his own, whereas with Caleb, he was just not fit for

such a shitty media environment that would not properly remunerate his talents. Yeah, absolutely. And like I said, I would just really recommend to check out the piece he did on Merle Haggard. The piece he did on Charles Portis when he died recently. I mean, I'm just thinking even back to like his sort of like the remix Dilbert cartoons that just became like

existential horror. Like just a really funny and unique voice and like it's a really, it's a terrible loss. And it's just, it's senseless. And I don't know what else to say other than like once again

sending all my love to his friends, family and just like anyone who knew Caleb and cherished his writing. that does it for today's show everybody uh we'll talk to you again soon bye bye bye adios Thank you.