Cognitive Dissonance - Episode 722: Gaza, Santos Charges, Lindell Broke

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

Show Notes

This episode of Cognitive Dissonance is brought to you by our patrons. You fucking rock. Be advised that this show is not for children, the faint of heart, or the easily offended. The explicit tag is there for a reason. recording live from gloryhole studios in chicago and beyond This is Cognitive Dissonance. Every episode we blast anyone who gets in our way. We bring critical thinking, skepticism, and irreverence to any topic that makes the news, makes it big, or makes us mad. It's skeptical, it's political, and there is no welcome mat. Today is Thursday, October the 12th, and that is important. And it is important because by the time you hear this, the first thing we're going to talk about will certainly have changed. Yeah, for sure. So we would be remiss not to lead off the show

following with some at least brief discussion of the events that are taking place in Israel and across Palestine, the Gaza Strip right now. And I think that we have some things we want to say, but I also recognize that by the time this show releases, that situation is likely to have drastically changed. Yeah, for sure. So I think knowing that, and I was thinking about this on my drive up, you know, knowing that, I guess the thing that I want to acknowledge, we got some emails saying, you know, we're looking forward to like some, some input from us on the situation. I have spent this week knowing that this would be a topic that I would want to talk about and need to talk about for the show. I have spent this week trying like hell to find some multitude of

sources, podcasts, articles, anything. I've consumed so much this week. I've consumed so much, Cecil. And I don't feel any better for having consumed it. I don't feel any more properly equipped to provide anything to you as an audience that feels insightful or nuanced or would pass for analysis. And I feel really struck. And I just want to acknowledge the feeling of vulnerability I have here. I feel really struck that even offering commentary in this situation feels so fraught. It really feels fraught. For sure. And I think it's because the sources on all sides are very biased. They're so bad. I think that there's, there's, it's so hard to be somebody trying to dig through this and not be able to find something that feels like it's objective. It always feels like no matter how

it's telling you something, it is telling you something that is very slanted and very one-sided. So, so, so bad. And so I do want to say that for me, when I read about the invasion into Israel and the attacks on the civilian population in Israel, I will say it is a high bar for me to sympathize with Israel when it comes to the situation in Gaza. It takes a lot for me to be like, I sympathize in this moment with Israel. But in that moment, I absolutely have to say, you can't do anything other than decry those attacks. Sure, yeah. So, and I think it's interesting because I have seen that in places across America and other places in the world, but I did see many stories that there were rallies that were pro-Palestinian rallies that were celebrating this attack. That is appalling to me. That's disgusting. I think you can hold in your mind

the absolute rejection of apartheid, the. The support for a Palestinian state. And you can hold that in your mind at the same time that you reject Hamas. Yeah. And that you reject violence and atrocities against civilians. And I do find it really fucked that people can't hold those things

or don't want to hold those things and instead are like, yeah, the solution to this problem was definitely murdering women and children and gunning people down at a fucking music festival, et cetera. That simply cannot be the solution. Like if you can't find that morally objectionable

in an absolute sense, then I don't know that I can find a point of agreement. You know, what's interesting is the people who I paid attention to are some of the people who I'm connected to that are secular Jews and even famous secular Jews like Bernie Sanders. Sure.

And I found that their responses to this were very reasoned, very measured. Like the same thing you're talking about, reject both things here, reject terrorism when terrorism happens. And sometimes that happens when people invade another country and they kill people. And sometimes that happens because of 30 years of apartheid. Both of those things are terrorists and both of those things should be decried. And it doesn't feel that that's a big, you know, ask for people to do, but people get caught up. And it's also very hard, I think, too, to be someone who's not involved in any of this, right? Like we are very far away from this problem. This is not, it doesn't include us.

Right. And so to be so far away from it and so removed from it, I can't put myself in the position of somebody who's lived in the Gaza Strip for years. I can't put myself in that position. I don't know what that feels like. So I try to have as much empathy as I possibly can, but I can't, it's so difficult to, like I say, to put myself there. And then to see the terrorist acts, like we say, on both sides. I mean, you're talking about killing kids. There's killing kids happening on both sides. Absolutely. This, you know, like from the reading that I've done and the thinking about it that I've

done this week, they'll, the, yeah, I think, I think on the Israeli side, you've got a hard right wing, weak leader in Netanyahu, who is a hard populist, who for the last several years has been focusing most of their time and attention in the West Bank and expanding, I think illegally, expanding settlements across the West Bank and taking land away from the rightful owners across the West Bank. And they've diverted a lot of their time and attention over there. I think that seeing that weakness at the same time that like a lot of Arab states have been working with Israel toward like capitalist normalization of those relationships, I think Hamas was like, well, we got to do something to force the hand of this weak but violent leader. And I think this attack was designed specifically

to create this exact response. In exactly the same way, I'm reminded of like after 9-11, when Osama bin Laden was like, yeah, like the intention here was to attack you, so you'll attack us and attack here and to bring you here where where we can have this political effect i think this feels very very very much reminiscent in

the same vein yeah and the worst thing that we did after 9-11 was go and attack these other like so pissed off you wanted to fight something right and. Right. And we saw the impact of that was a net negative to the United States, right? Net negative to the world. Net negative to the whole world. Net negative to the world. That's way better, right? But I guess I'm saying it's a net negative even to us. Yeah, sure.

And I think that Israel's response into Gaza, which will be by their own talking. Which already has been horrible. And it's going to get way worse. They're saying, we're going to make this hell on earth. They've already cut off all food, water, fuel, medicine, anything. You can't get in and out.

So I don't know that I have anything to say that is anything you can't read somewhere by smarter people. What I would suggest is keep reading as much as you possibly can. I know I'm struggling to find things that make me feel like I really understand in a deep way what's going on. But I think we also should talk about the reality that this is a religiously motivated moment in history and a religiously

fraught geographical reality, geopolitical reality. Yeah, you can't pull religion out of this. There's no way that you can look at this and say, this is only social. This is only economic. This is all things. And religion is a huge part of that.

Like these things would not be happening if religion, you know, if religion wasn't involved, I don't know that all this stuff would be happening at the level it's happening. Religion is fueling this fire. A thousand percent. And I don't think you can pull that away from it.

You can't look at it that way. The other thing too is, you were talking about Netanyahu and there's also been a sort of pushback from some of the people who are in the reserves over there. They were protesting Netanyahu for a while. And this galvanized them behind Netanyahu. So there already was some

division in Israel between Netanyahu and the people who had signed up to, I guess, be reservists and their fight back and forth because they did not like how he was running the government, how he was in many ways turning it into a fascist state. Yeah. And they didn't like that. And they were fighting against it and like basically protesting,

striking in some ways against it. And he, this now, they immediately got called up and they were all, yes, I'll do it. Yes, I'll do it. And that is terrible because you were in some ways,

maybe going to fucking pull Netanyahu down or at least expose him as more of a weak leader. And now it's just a giant fuck, just a fucking mess now. Yeah. This feel again, you know, when these, when these events occur, these are opportunities for leaders to unite the government behind their leadership. Look at what happened with George W. Bush. He was a weak, stupid, shitty president. He got so much. And he got reelected after 9-11 in a fairly easy vote because he was a wartime president, right? It was easy. It was easy.

Everybody rallied behind their leader. And right after it happened, nobody had a bad word to say about Bush. No. Nobody had a bad word to say about Bush. All the people who were critical of George W. Bush thought he was exactly who he was, thought his government, the neocon government that he had put together

was a fucking train wreck of like pseudo-fascists. And we were right about all those criticisms, by the way. Yeah, no, absolutely. But all that falls away because all of a sudden that feels unpatriotic, right? It feels like you're not, it feels like by retaining that criticism, you're somehow not like part of the country's

grieving moment, right? And it feels like crass in some way to do that. But I think we should reject that, right? I think you can hold both ideas in your mind at the same time. It's cognitive dissonance. But I think we should reject that, right? I think you can hold both ideas in your mind at the same time. It's cognitive dissonance. We have to, yeah, exactly. Like these moments where we want there to be good guys and bad guys, we want there to be heroes and monsters. This is one of those really important moments to be like, okay, well, one, there's two monsters and there are no heroes here. And there are no binaries.

And we need to throw away those ideas of good and evil. We need to try to hold two ideas in our heads at the same time. And the problem with monsters fighting over this is the blood in the gears

is innocent kids. A thousand percent, man. The blood in the gears is innocent people who are constantly getting trampled over and just murdered. Murdered.

Just fucking murdered. By both sides, man. By both sides, man. By both sides of this. They are absolutely murdering children and innocent people, people who just want to live. Yeah. And the apartheid state for decades,

putting these people in massive poverty. It's a giant, it's an absolute population center, 2.2 million people. 2.2 million in 140 square miles. They live in a tiny space in comparison to many of these big metropolitan areas. And these are 2.2 million people stacked on top of each other with very little social services, 60% unemployment rate. And for decades, they've lived like this. And they can't get out on either side. They can't

get out from Egypt. They can't get out from Israel. They can't get out. And they're stuck there. And I do think that it is worth noting, and I don't know what to say about it other than saying it's worth noting, that the Palestinian people have not democratically voted for Hamas for a very, very, very long time. There was a vote that put Hamas into power, but that was a long time ago and there has not been a vote since. And it is worth noting that on the southern border with Egypt, Egypt doesn't want Hamas either. Hamas is not a representation of the Palestinian people, right?

Or of the people in Gaza. They are not representative. They are terrorists. It's a small percentage of people who even approve of them. Yeah. Yeah. It's something like, what I read, it's something between like 20 and 30%. So they don't enjoy popular support across Gaza.

But you're exactly right. Like everybody, all the civilians are the ones who eat shit. They eat shit all the time. across Gaza. But you're exactly right. Like everybody, all the civilians are the ones who eat shit. They eat shit all the time. In Gaza, like they eat so much shit in Gaza. Like Hamas hides their forces in and around civilian infrastructure intentionally. And then Israel bombs the shit out of that infrastructure. And then you have to be like, well, I mean, clearly nobody's hands here are even remotely clean. This is again, it's just, it's just worth saying again, like this is one of those situations where there's no good guy. There's no one to root for.

Everyone's wrong. And I have no idea how this plays out in a way that isn't tragic. No, it's going to be a tragedy. On like a generational level, Because I think this also will damage or destroy the normalization of Israel in the Mideast. And that's a fucking problem too. Everybody eats more shit because of that too. It's just keeping it more.

It's like poking that fire, constantly poking that fire and never letting it sort of settle. It's always trying to stoke that flame. And you're talking about how hard it is to get information, Tom. We have a couple stories right now that are very much in that vein. This story is from NBC News.

Verified accounts spread fake news release about a Biden $8 billion aid package to Israel, which was a faked document that somebody started posting online. And then false claims around Israel attacks include recycled video videos and a game clip. That's from the New York times. Both of those what's happening is, is bad actors are, are using the, uh, the sort of quick share of social media to dump misinformation, blatant misinformation, to paint the other side as a monster so they could get their narrative out there faster and get more people to share it

because they see it and emotionally react and share it. And it's not true. Yeah. We've talked for a long time about how fantastically dangerous disinformation and misinformation is and how the proliferation of these easy-to-use tools are and how these platforms have a responsibility. They have an absolute humanitarian responsibility to do better, and they hide behind this absolutist free speech bullshit. These platforms are hiding. And in that hiding, they are furthering humanitarian crises. And they are absolutely responsible in part for the fanning of these flames.

Bad actors, to your point, bad actors are absolutely going to seize upon this and they are going to make their own political hay out of this. And that political hay will turn into galvanized action. Absolutely. We know that it will will turn into galvanized action. Absolutely. We know that it will. Sometimes that galvanized action will be fundraising that supports one or both sides.

Sometimes that bad acting will galvanize people to show up and vote in a particular way. Sometimes that bad action will galvanize people to literally go to these places and engage physically with their own bodies in this violence. But this misinformation is not like cute shit about like how your uncle Frank is, is wrong about shit at dinnertime. Yeah. This is like world responsibility, humanitarian crisis stuff. And like the, we have to reconcile, we have to, we have to reckon with, stuff and like the we have to reconcile we have to we have to reckon with i should say the fact that these tools are not these tools are not morally sort of middle ground tools these tools have a moral component now we they're they're too powerful yeah they're the same as guns right

guns are not some like like moral middle ground where they're just like amoral like they don't they don't live on either side of the equation. You can just look at a fucking AR-15 and be like, well, until someone picks it up, it's not a problem. Some people use an AR-15 for good stuff.

Some people just like using AR-15s. Sure, I garden with it every year. Right, yeah. I shoot the peppers right off. I dig trenches with it. That's I just, yeah. I really do think that these tools, these AI tools,

these social media tools, we need to think about them in the same moral responsibility terms that we look at like fighter jets and AR-15s, they're that powerful. And we pretend they're not. We pretend that because they're fun,

that they're not like a big fucking deal. Yeah. And also, I mean, you can't look at this and not recognize it doesn't come from a place of maliciousness, right? Yeah. Like this is not something that someone got wrong. Somebody didn't accidentally find something online and look at a recycled video game fucking footage and be like, oh, well, this clearly is something that needs to go out now and be labeled about the current conflict. Yeah. Like it's, there's no way that somebody did that. There's no way somebody's recycling videos from years and years and years ago to say this is about the, cause you're trying to incite people. This is, this is a place of maliciousness

on, in, and this is also too, when you're doctoring up, because the, the one document talks about how Biden's going to be giving aid, uh, $8 billion aid package to Israel. They just doctored up the Ukraine one. They just took the bill that were the, the statement that was written about that. And they just chained a Photoshop. Like you can't accidentally, you don't fall on your computer and accidentally Photoshop something and then share it maliciously. Yeah.

This is made to deceive people. Yeah, it is. And there's no repercussions for it. I really do think that the creation, not the spread, like I don't want to talk about people hitting share. The people who create misinformation, that should be a felony.

Yeah. That should be a big time fucking felony, right? And we also should require by law that Adobe for Photoshop and that all of the rest of these tools, I know Photoshop is just like a brand name at this point, example, right? But like that the creators of these tools must be required by law to digitally watermark their images when they are altered. So as soon as you alter an image, it should be digitally watermarked as altered so that we have a way for these systems to immediately flag that things have been altered.

We need to, like, this is something that we are urgently need to regulate and pass laws around to protect ourselves. That we are not doing these things, that we are not holding people accountable to the law, and we need to create laws to do these things, is going to create more death and destruction. There's more and more problems down the road, because the more of this that gets out there, the worse off we're going to be if we don't start paying attention to it now. It's like, you're just waiting for it to pile up on you. Yeah, and it's going to get harder and harder and harder for us to know what's real.

And it's going to be harder and harder for, the thing is like, if it's hard for the end user to know what's real, at some point in the not distant future, it's going to be hard to the point of impossibility for journalists to know what's real too. And you have to also remember the way that the capitalist system has crunched journalism down into a 24-7, 365, there's less journalists producing more material under more pressure.

Clickbait. And clickbait. Yeah. And that's the result. So at some point, we can't rely on journalists to do the work of vetting this stuff because they're under so much fucking pressure to put out a new story and put out a new story and scoop the next guy. Like the pressure is intense. It's ridiculous. It's unsustainable.

And now we're saying, well, now it's up to the end user. Well, it should be up to these tools. I don't understand why it's not up to the tools. I don't disagree. I think that there needs and I think there needs to be up to these tools. I don't understand why it's not up to the tools. Yeah, I don't disagree. I think that there needs, and I think there needs to be, on social media companies, they're starting to do it in some places,

but Twitter is really bad about this and they're pushing back constantly. Twitter just said, fuck you. We're not doing that. Twitter just said, fuck you to the EU. The EU was like, hey man, you need to be better about this thing. Your thing is spreading misinformation.

He's like, we'll deal with it right here, right now. Tell me what's wrong with it. Like post all your stuff here. And it's like, no, that's not how it works. We're just going to ban your fucking platform in the EU because we can do that. And that's what they're going to do. Good, good, good.

The moment he starts getting dropped out in different countries, the moment that's faster, that just falls into the fucking abyss. Yep. Look, an eagle has gotten into the cavern. Bye-bye, birdie. Freedom?

You ain't cooking my friends, goose. Shit. They must have spotted us. No sense being subtle now. No, Joe! G.I. Joe! We're under attack! No!

So this story comes from Reuters. Let's talk about something funny. Wow, this guy. This is great. I couldn't believe it when I was reading this. It's a lot, man. This is Congressman Santos.

How many charges? It's like 21? It's like, yeah. This is Congressman Santos. How many charges? It's like 21? It's like, yeah. So that fucking lying liar that lies his lying liar pants off all the time. Congressman George Santos faces more campaign finance charges. 23 counts.

23 counts. Dude, he just straight up stole some donor's credit card and then charged his own shit on it. What the fuck, man? Seriously, I was reading that and I was like, are you serious? He got people's credit cards

that donated to his campaign, and then he was like, cool, I'm just going to, like, buy a coat. Yeah. Are you serious? I cannot believe that we have gotten to the point in history, after looking at sort of the stuffed suits

of the 80s and 90s that were in those halls of power and all these very stuffy people. And then to see where we are now, where a guy who is like a Kevin Trudeau, hucksters type. Yeah, man. Somebody who is clearly a fraudster.

These are the laws they don't want you to break. Unbelievable, man. Homeboy is just like, whatever. This is a type of fraud. This needs to be a MasterCard commercial with like Congress, priceless or whatever. You know what I mean? Like there's got to be something. Access to your congressman, priceless. Yeah, exactly. This is the dumbest fraud too. The thing that struck me so much when I was reading this article is there's nothing sophisticated about this scam. Right. This is just, I used your credit card for myself. That's it. That's it.

That's it. That's the extent of it. This is like, you know, like stealing your dad's credit card and like running up internet porn charges on it. Yeah. There's nothing sophisticated or complex. There's no like hidden machinations of this thing

and that thing. It's all just like, yeah, I'm pretty much just a grifter grifton. And he is right now hilariously. So,

the house is in turmoil because there's no leader. They were going to pick Scalise. Yeah. They got, they went behind a closed door smart on their part to go behind a closed door. The Republicans decided

they were going to go behind a closed door to decide who the next one is because they ousted Speaker McCarthy. He said, bring it. They brought it and he had to leave. And so now there's no speaker. They've been rudderless for the last week and a half and they decided very smartly to hold

a series of votes to try to see who's going to be able to come out on the main floor. Secret votes. And they were going to do it like, they were fucking going to like, do it like the Pope. And like whoever got the most gray smoke

was going to be the guy. And so they did it all behind closed doors and they're like, it's going to be Scalise because it was Jim Jordan and Scalise. And now they're in disarray. They don't know because Scalise is like now they're in disarray. They don't know because Scalise is like David Duke without the baggage

is what he called himself. What he called himself was David Duke without the baggage. And then you have Jim Jordan who's been accused of covering up sexual assault of wrestlers at Ohio State University.

So you have, like nobody's hands are clean at all in the Republican Party. But the best part is, is that this guy now I saw today, he's using his vote now as a way to stall because they can't kick him out because nobody can call the vote to kick him out. So he's going to keep he's going to keep them out of power. So as long as it's possible, because he's just like, fuck your face. I'm just going to do what I want. And and what a absolute implosion of the Republican Party because of this. Well, it's because it's a party full of like Nazi sympathizers and grifters.

Yeah, it like I mean, you you could not assemble a more absurdist, fascist, racist clown car. It's like comical. It's like they're G.I. Joe villains. They're all from Cobra. Like, I wouldn't be surprised if the next house speaker

was fucking Serpentor. I'd be like, yeah, man, I saw that coming. Bulbert looks like the Baroness. Yes, she does. She kind of looks like the Baroness. Yes, she does. She kind of looks like the Baroness. So if, if they start shooting red lasers,

that never hits their target lasers. Yeah. Yeah. I would be like, I would only, I wouldn't even blink at it. I'd be like, whatever,

whatever. You know what? They'll parachute out of it. They're really bad at shooting too, for being, for talking about guns for so long. They're real bad at it. It's when you're best guy that you float,

when you're like, all right, who's the best guy we can find? David Duke without the baggage. Why don't we find an election denier who's also David Duke without the baggage? And the thing is, their second best, best, second best, Jim Jordan, is also a hard Trumper. He's also a

Trump-supporting maga lunatic. This week, I was watching the news and they were interviewing a guy. Ken Buck, his name might be something like that. Sure. I think Buck was his last name for sure, but I can't remember his first name. No, that's his last name, Tom, not his first name.

Buck Wilde's a different guy. I think that wasn't the news. But in any case- Was everybody naked? I've seen that one. Homeboy is getting interviewed and he's interviewed and he, he's talking

and he seems completely reasonable. He's a Republican congressman. He seems completely reasonable. And so he's talking and he's like, you know what I'm going to do is I told them

I won't give them my vote unless whoever comes out of this door says, I believe, I don't believe the election was stolen. They have to say that out loud

on the floor or else I will not give them my vote. And I was like, who is this guy? I was like, where did this guy come from? And then I looked him up and he's a monster.

Like he's an awful human being. He's like, I don't believe it. I don't believe in abortion. I don't believe in abortion in cases of rape or incest. Jesus Christ. And like, there's like 20 things that I was reading and I was like, I hate you believe it. I don't believe it. I believe in abortion. I don't believe in abortion in cases of rape or incest. Jesus Christ. And like,

there's like 20 things that I was reading and I was like, I hate you so much, but he's right about one thing and it's the election. The rest of it, he's the worst on.

He's the worst. And I forget where he was from too. He was from Colorado. He's from Colorado. His last name's Buck. Of course he is. There's like 400 of these guys. So I don't know who he is.

Bucked off. But I'll tell you, I thought at first when he said this, when he made this comment, I thought at first, oh, he seems like a reasonable guy. And then I looked up his platform and I was like,

he's not reasonable at all. He's a terrible human being. But he's right about one thing. Yeah. The thing is like, the thing that he's right about, think about how crazy this is that we are still,

that there are still people who are like, hey uh that election three fucking years ago that's like we're on to the next election still not willing to say it wasn't stolen there it's so insane that it's like all right i'm just look i'm i'm a fucking insane person on everything i just need you to say the sky is blue. And people are like, it's a high bar. It's a high bar over here. We're just asking for you to be,

you just need to be in touch with reality on one thing. That's all he's asking. He's seriously like, look, three years ago, can you just say that three years ago, Biden was elected president? That's it.

That's all I want. I'm a fucking absolute madman on everything else. I'm a climate change denier. I'm anti-abortion at all period. And you know, like all these things

that are just horrible. But the thing is, is like their entire party is there. So it's not like, to me, it's a shock. But to them, he's like a, he's a fucking average Joe in their party.

And he's hard right. Yeah, and he's, I'm sure that in his party, he is a pariah. He's a leftist to them. Right. He's a leftist to them. He's essentially Karl Marx. One thing that he believes

is something that they hold onto so dearly. A demonstrably true thing. He's all, all he's asking too is like, hey, look, I just want you to say that a demonst A demonstrably true thing. All he's asking to is like, hey, look, I just want you to say that a demonstrably provable true thing is true.

And he's not good with demonstrably true things because he's a climate change tonight. So he's not good with it. He's bad with demonstrably true things. He just happened

to fucking fall face down on one of them. That's how bad it is. It's not even like he has to be morally right or right about a policy position. He just has to be right about a historical fact. I'll tell you what though, the absolute destruction of this party,

and I'm terrified of what's going to happen in a couple of weeks, because in three weeks, the government runs out of money. Oh, I know. And who knows where they're going to be in three weeks. This is- They can't, they're not going to get somebody, I don't think who knows where they're going to be in three weeks. They can't.

They're not going to get somebody, I don't think. We talked about this before when McCarthy was kicked out. It is tempting to schadenfreude this and to be like, ha ha, and have a little bit

of that feeling. But there's urgent fucking work that needs to be done. We're talking about 11 months without a government. It could be 11 months without a government because nobody will do anything.

That's terrifying. What are we supposed to do? We need a functioning government. The rest of the world also sees our dysfunction. Yeah. It's not like any of this is happening

and only Cecil and I and you guys listening get to know about it. The rest of the whole world sees America as less than. You know, our credit rating as a country,

our credit rating was downgraded because our politics are so dysfunctional. Sure. That's fucked up. I mean, like, at some point, it's like, holy shit, guys, we have lost credibility here. Like, people aren't going to let us buy a car, you know? What the fuck? We're going to have to call some guy who's like a bankruptcy hotline guy or whatever. You're going to be driving to the dealership and making your payments in cash every month.

Like, what the fuck is happening? I mean, that's fraud. Like, that's not okay. Like, as a company operates. That's not fraud. That's not fraud. that's not fraud that's not fraud that is uh i would call that uh false advertising all right this story comes from the new republic trump organization executive admits he considered fraud part of the job this is part of the job and guys he really did he really genuinely he really did. He really genuinely did. He really did. He was talking about how he had to overstate the value of assets

because if he didn't do that, he thought, well, they'll fire me if I don't overstate the value of assets. And to the tune of, at one point, they're talking about this article, they're talking about a series of homes, I think seven homes. It was just land. It never got built. And they valued it as if the construction had been completed. Yeah, it was just land. And not only was it not completed yet, they ended up not completing

at all and donating it and getting a tax write-off. For the home stuff. They kept the price as if there were homes built on it. There was no homes. That's just imaginary homes, man. That's like... The ones you get from Monopoly are more real. Yeah. Than the... If Theta went out there with the little red houses, red hotels from Monopoly and set one on each land,

that would have been worth more money than what they actually did. It is exactly the same as this. Cecil, in my hand, I have an imaginary 12-carat diamond. Okay. So the value of my palm of my hand is easily a million dollars. And then somebody coming along and being like, the value of his hand is $11 million. But I don't have anything in my hand.

It's the same thing. Homes you didn't build are homes that are not built. Are we sure that it isn't behind somebody's ear? No, I guess not. He just reached back like, oh, there's a home back there. Oh, there's another home back there. Oh, there's another home back there. Oh, another home. Oh, there. Oh, there's another home back there. Oh, another home. Oh, wait. That time you took my nose. That time you took my nose. He's just pulling them out of his pocket.

He's pulling homes out of his pocket. They're just flying out of there. Deeds. Deeds. Is this tied together? Deeds as they shoot out of there. When the auditor comes, spray him with your, help him sniff your flower. Spray him with your flower.

And spray him with your flower. Wonk, wonk. Honk his nose and then run away. Holy shit. What a fucking clown car. He's going to,. Wonk, wonk. Honk his nose and then run away. Holy shit. What a fucking clown car. He's going to, like, look, Cecil. That fucking guy's going to jail. I'll tell you what.

This feels real, real, real, real, real bad for him. So going to jail. Real bad for him. Like, and genuinely, he's getting grumpier. So you know it's worse. He's getting grumpier. So you know it's worse. But genuinely, it does not. He's getting grumpier. So, you know, it's worse, but genuinely

it does not feel good for him at all with this stuff that's happening. And I cannot wait because they're going to live stream. They're going to live stream from Georgia. They're going to live stream, uh, Paul's case on YouTube. Oh, they're going to live stream. I know. Can you quit your job? I want to quit guys. I'm, I want to apologize to the audience that I have it. I'm so sorry that I have a day job and that I can't just watch this. Wow.

Comment live. Wow. God damn it. Ian, you're going to have to watch this. I might just do it myself. I might just come up here on my own and just, and just comment and just talk to chat for a while if it's going on,

because man, how fucking amazing is that going to be? I kind of want to watch it live. I kind of want to watch it live. When does it start next week? I don't know. We'll find out. We'll figure it out. Here's the thing. I can't, I don't know what my days are ever going to look like, but if you're watching it live, when I can squeeze some time and I'll call in. There you go. Just call in, put you on the phone. I'll call in. That'd be great. I'll call in from home. I'll be like, I got a half hour between meetings.

Let's watch it. Let's watch this shit. Let's watch it together. Bitch better have my money. All right. So speaking of, this is delicious schadenfreude though. This is from the Daily Beast.

See now this one, this I love. See now this one, this is just, it's like pure schadenfreude. It's like layered, wafer thin, just perfectly.

Yes. It's got a beautiful sauce over the top. They lit it on fire and brought it. And they sang happy birthday while they clapped. This is salted caramel shot. Beautiful. I love this so much. So this is from the Daily Beast.

Mike Lindell's entire legal team quits in mass because he hasn't paid them. And Cecil, there's actually like a clip, I think of him complaining about it. Oh, is there really? Cause I missed this. I think it's down at the bottom. I didn't see, I just read it. Maybe, there's actually like a clip, I think, of him complaining about it. Oh, is there really? Because I missed this. I think it's down at the bottom. Oh, I didn't see.

I just read it. Maybe I just read it too, but isn't that a clip? Oh, it is. Let's see what happens. Tom, let's watch Mike Lindell on the Steve Bannon show. All right.

Because I'm totally confused now, sir. Well. You see he's got like Jesus and what is that, Judas behind it? What is that? What's Jesus and... I don't know. It's Jesus and one of the guys. What I want to know is what his weird quote is.

That's like half cut off. Stephen something, right? Yes. It's a quote from Stephen something or other. I don't know what. It obviously deals with conspiracy because the word conspet is there. And the only thing is like to see it, you'd have to zoom off of Steve Bannon. Yeah, you'd have to zoom away from Steve Bannon a little bit

and see more of him and nobody wants that. Nobody wants that. You get a full body view of that guy? At this point, he's half covered by the chyron and that's good. How far do you think you have to zoom away from Steve Bannon to see the entire shape of him? Like, in terms of the number of Utahs. I feel like you got to zoom in closer to see his real shape,

because I think he's made of a different material than normal humans. Steve, 10 minutes ago... Look at his background. God. Okay, so guys, fucking Mike Lindell's background he went to fucking Hobby Lobby

and got an amazing grace thing to hang up behind him he's got one of those like eat pray love signs that just says amazing grace on it and it has like

the cords or whatever oh god from it underneath it how embarrassing he's got an eagle a folded up flag I don't know a canoe or something

I think that's the It looks like the canoe or something. I think that's the last supper. Canoe. Shows how religious I am. Is that the last supper or is it a canoe? It's Jesus's canoe trip to the Boundary Water. He's like on the cross floating in the Boundary Water. Here we go.

I'm really hoping to see a bear while I'm up here, guys. I'm really hoping to see a bear. A bear comes and he like hides behind his hand and he can still see it through his hand. If it can't see me, I can't see it. Jesus would be perfect

for that kind of trip because when you're on that trip, you have to string up all your food in a tree and he's already strung up. Maybe he wasn't crucified. Maybe they were hiding him from bear i just hold them up in a tree it's amazing all the lawyers we have for my pillow and uh myself in the lawsuits with the lawfare with dominion and smartmatic they uh just filed in federal court that to drop to drop us as our attorneys.

And and this comes from the lawfare, basically, and from the media, the attacks on my pillow, what American Express did to take it just devastating our credit. And we I we have to I can't pay the lawyers. We can't pay. There's no money left to pay them. And I told you, you know, the attorneys, these are great attorneys. They were courageous, came on a year and a half ago or two years ago, and they need to get paid. They have families and stuff too. And I told them, I have to protect my company.

I have to protect that. I can't keep paying into this lawfare. And so they've had to drop us. I don't know where that leads us, but I wanted to get out in front of it before the media. Let me tell you where it leads you, Mike. You're fucked, bro.

You're fucked, bro. You don't know where it leads you. That's where you're at. You're at the place... Mike, I know it's probably going to be hard to remember, but there was a time where you weren't a millionaire. Now, think about that. That's where you are now.

I have a suggestion, buddy. Take one of those MyPillows and a belt and wrap it around your ass because you're about to get fucked. You're about to get spanked. You are about to get fucked, dude. You're going to get spanked. Yeah, and wrap one around your face too You are about to get fucked, dude. You're going to get spanked. Yeah.

And wrap one around your face, too, so when you scream... Yeah, yeah. You know, it's... You know, actually, that's actually a good point. Wrap the pillow around your face and then tighten that belt real tight.

I'm just saying, see what happens. Just, yeah. Just see what happens. You might like it. You know, maybe do that and jerk off a little. Hey, you're a good face.

You want to talk about a jerk off, though. This guy... Oh, God. Here's the thing, man man fucking this guy ran his mouth ran his mouth ran his mouth about these voting machines tried to tried to fucking be the lynchpin that caused the election to get overturned or whatever he he inserted himself in this. You did this to you, man. Yeah, man. Nobody did this to you. You did this to you.

There's a line from a movie called Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead where they look at each other and they say, I think there was a time where we could have just said no, right? These are the two guys who are going to get killed or whatever. And they're like,

I think there was a moment where we could have just said no and we fucked it up. And you fucked it up too. There was many moments. Many moments where you could have backed out quietly and said, you know what? I fucking fucked up. I'm losing money hand over fist.

People aren't buying my pillows. I'm getting a bad credit. Something happened with American Express. Whatever happened there. You know, you had every opportunity to back away and try to rebuild and you did none of it. You kept on going forward and now you fucking, you're going to fucking eat some shit because of it.

Yeah. It's fucking delicious. Look, nobody knocked on the fucking my pillow door. Nobody's like all this fucking hullabaloo was going on. And somebody was like, wait a minute. Hold on. Did we check with the pillow guy? My pillow guy think all this.

And he was like sitting in his office just selling pillows and minding his own business and he was like no, no I don't want to get involved. No, you came looking

he's an attention whore. Yeah. Right? He wanted the attention. He's a fucking crazy person. He clearly wanted and reveled in the attention. Remember when he had that

like digital fucking conference that he had where everything went wrong? Yeah, he had like a digital conference online and he's had his own like he had like a digital conference online. And he's had his own like little show for a while where he gets on and talks. He wants to have this.

He wants to be important in this moment. He's been, and he's had so many like just about a moments, right? Where he's just about to, you know, do this thing and just about to show off the whole conspiracy. And none of it's ever happened because he was always making it up. So he's not somebody we can see that we should feel sorry for. He was not misled. He was the misleader, right? He is somebody who was just making shit up out of whole cloth. And now all of a sudden sued for it.

Right, right. And so like, he wants to know where he's at. Well, I don't know, man. Like Dominion took Fox to court. Fucking Fox. $750 million. Got three quarters of a billion dollars, and they didn't run out of money to pay their lawyers.

Yeah. So whatever you have, you don't have anymore. That's not yours anymore. You're gone. There's going to be a guy who's going to be sitting in your seat running your pillow factory in a little while. Is there a MyPillow desk? There must be a MyPillow desk. Holy shit, can we get the

MyPillow desk? Hey, Dominion, look, here, I know we've been on the same side, Dominion, for a long time. This is me to you. Send us the MyPillow desk. I will, I don't know, do something. Whatever it is, back alley,

it's a handshake. It's a hand job. A hand job. Whatever job whatever whatever it takes I will do for the mind pillow desk I'll do hand stuff only though hand stuff hand stuff maybe beard stuff

here's the thing man what a fucking idiot you have to be to roll this up on you throughout the whole time and then play the victim on Steve Bannon's show fucking A man

are you serious I think he's trying to use this maybe to try to fundraise, to desperately fundraise. So underneath, if you were reading, there was a website we can go to, electioncrimebureau.com. That's the, so do you want to go to electioncrimebureau.com? I'm certain there's a place for me to donate. I'm certain that if you go there, you can donate.

Let's just see. But while you do that, I also want to make note that not only is he fucked from the lawsuit, but he also owes millions of dollars in legal fees. So it's not like he had a retainer and they used up all the retainer and now he can't afford more retainer. He's already in hock.

So what's going to happen is the lawyers aren't just going to be like, well, we'll forgive these millions of dollars of the fees. They're going to sue him. Yeah, they still get that money. They're going to sue him. They're going to happen is the lawyers aren't just going to be like, well, we'll forgive these millions of dollars for the fees. They're going to sue him. Yeah, they still get that money. They're going to sue him. They're going to get a judgment. They're going to get a judgment against him for the... He's going to get sued by his own lawyers.

So Mike Lindell introduces Election Crime Bureau. I almost feel like we've got to watch this. Thank you all for your interest Okay we've got to pause it already We've got to talk

Guys I'm sorry I'm sorry we will play this That fucking picture behind him Is everything I've ever wanted This fucking photo It's the same The same credenza or bureau is behind him Right?

As in the other one But he swapped out His fucking live, laugh, love Fucking amazing grace thing Guys he's got an enormous right? As in the other one. But he swapped out his fucking live, laugh, love, fucking amazing grace thing. Guys, he's got an enormous, enormous painting behind him of Jesus.

As a silhouette. As a silhouette. And then a lion superimposed over the Jesus side view face thing. So it's a lion face and a Jesus face. Kind of like, I don't even know how to describe this better.

Lions for lambs. I'm not sure. I don't know. I love too. So if you look up in the corner, you see the cross. He has a bureau that he bought that either has a cross that he put in it

or somebody built it into that bureau. True. There's a cross that's wood. it or somebody built it into that bureau. True. There's a cross that's wood. I don't know if it's in there or if it's one that he just bought. Also, he's got a certificate, right? And like, I don't know what his certificate says. I said certificate on purpose.

But it looks like it says certificate of completion. Certificate of completion. And like, I don't care what your professional- Like potty training or something. Did he go to like some kind of pillow? Yeah. I mean, did you go to pillow school? Like pillow in school?

I went to fluff in school. That's different. That's a different school. That's very different. Different school. Very different. Very different play. Different part of town.

I know we're only two seconds. It's a different part of town. I like that he has a cross though. Like so many crosses. He's got one on his lapel. It's just great. This guy doesn't want you to be mistaken about who he is. In the new Election Crime Bureau, I've worked on this new platform for months now to help save our country.

Think of the Election Crime Bureau as an umbrella that brings everything together, all the efforts that are going on across our country to fix our election platforms. The Election Crime Bureau consists of a massive cyber unit that includes cyber technology and cyber experts all across our country. Cyber what? Cyber what? Cyber what? Cyber what? Say it again, Mike. Did he say cyber accurate? Look, this isn't live. This is an edited video. This is an edited video, sir. Here we go. Okay, Mike Lindell, take 362. Take two, Mike. Here we go. Cyber Accurates all across-

Again, not live. What did you say? Cyber Accurates. What is Cyber Accurates? Cyber Accurates. Hold on. That includes Cyber Technology and Cyber Accurates all across our country. Next, we have our-

It's like you got a shot of Novocaine before you started talking. I just got back from the dentist. Sorry, I had a root canal in your mouth. Cyber experts. Cyber experts. Who taught Mike Lindell the word cyber? What does it mean? Who taught him this word?

Is he saying cyber accuracy i think he's saying cyber experts oh is it i think so but hold on real i know you're gonna play it again i want you to i want you to but but also i love it he's like we got a cyber unit and it's gonna have and they just describe cyber stuff basically listen to him it's so great he has to say again the crime bureau consists of a massive cyber unit that includes cyber technology and cyber experts all across. Accurates? No, he's saying accurates, Tom.

He's not saying experts. That's not even close. Maybe it's cyber. That's not even close, man. Come on. It could be cyber accurates. Who knows? It's like a truck.

It's like a cyber truck ran into an Acura, and then you get one of those. Look, our cyber unit's going to include cyber technology. Really? Mike, what do you think cyber is? No way! Get out of here! We got an information technology platform. It has some technology with respect to information

and some information that is technological within its very nature as a platform. If you know what it is. Synergy. With respect to the informational technologies, the technological informations. Synergy. What? Synergy time. Maybe you take your cyber Acura on the information superhighway.

This motherfucker's getting passed on the information superhighway this mother is getting passed on the information superhighway let me tell you i need one more time because i know i know it's the thing guys i just need to air it one more time crime bureau consists of a massive cyber unit that includes cyber technology and cyber experts all across the country, we have our legal unit. Not anymore! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha!

Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Oh, you're an absolute unit. Well, okay. So, all right, so there's openings.

This is what I'm hearing. unit well okay so all right so there's openings fighting to fix our election platforms through the courts there are currently over 60 lawsuits going on throughout our country just in general at any one time at any one time in the Tom, there can be up to 60 lawsuits bouncing around in the courts. Up to. It's about like 1.2 per state. Corey, you don't overload the court system. Let's not be crazy. We're going to help write our election platforms from things that were put in illegally by the Secretary of states and governors who use the China virus as an excuse.

The legislators make the laws and we have to get our country back where we follow the constitution and the law. You know what's so funny is there's so many of these fucking crazy, fucking far right places that gerrymandered, knocked out fucking polling stations, took away mail-in ballots, knocked out fucking polling stations, took away

mail-in ballots, restricted mail-in voting, restricted early voting. They did everything they could. Basically, everything that he's complaining about, they are the ones who did. Oh, absolutely. The guys who made it, that's exactly what he wants. He's like, look, we don't want to make it easier for people to vote.

And we got to go into all these states that made it easier for people to vote and roll that back so that we can't want to make it easier for people to vote. And we got to go into all these states that made it easier for people to vote and roll that back so that we can't make it harder for people to vote. And I don't want to say like black people, but winky, winky face. I do mean black people. What I mean is if you're black, maybe stay home. Mike Lindell. I'm just saying.

Which brings up our next unit, which is the legislative unit, which we have our lawyers all across the country going state by state and finding out where we're at with each. Yeah, they're going state by state being like, pay me. Yeah. Pay me, bitch. Pay me. They should have stayed in a fucking Holiday Inn Express. Fuck you, pay me.

Fuck you, pay me. It's footprint and how far apart we are from getting to the best elections possible or our current corrupt elections. Then we have the communication division of our platform, the Election Crime Bureau. And under that, we have the Cause of America, which has already been established in all 50 states. This is a communication hub that connects all the states to give them the most up-to-date information on election crime. Wait a minute. What is he talking about? Wait a minute.

What is he talking about? The cause of America? What did he say? Does he think the states were not connected to one another before this? I need to know what he said, though, ahead of time. I believe he's strung tin cans from state to state. That's what I believe right now.

He's got one of those fucking cat's cradles that's all across the nation. Now all the states can communicate thanks to Mike Lindell. Has this ever happened to you? My buddy moved to Indiana. I'll never talk to him again. Hey! How are you?

What the fuck? We're already connected, dipshit. You got like a fucking phone tree. Like it's like 1988. He's like, Mabel, give me the, give me the president,

Mabel. He's a lady on a switchboard. There's an Ian that works for him. That's pranking him. You're going to need a, yeah, look, all the kids have cyber units and communication trees and information technology,

cyber excerpts. Hold on. What did he say here that he had? Communication trees and information technology. Cyber excerpts. Cyber excerpts. Hold on. What did he say here that he had? Because he said there was like a communication something. The cause of America. Let's see. Yep. Yep.

Cause of America. Okay. I don't know what that means. Let's just go back. Go all the way back. Outformed Election Crime Bureau. And under that, we have the cause of America, which has already been established in all 50 states. This is a communication hub that connects all the states to give them the most up-to-date information on election crime and election.

It's a fucking email newsletter, man. Probably what it is. The cause of America. It's a fucking email newsletter. I'll bet you're right. I'll bet you're right. Yeah, you're right. God, it's so boring.

It's like the most boring marketing in the world. Jesus Christ. It's like you got fucking campaign manager, man. Yeah, you're right. God, it's so boring. It's like the most boring marketing in the world. Jesus Christ. It's like you got a fucking campaign manager, man. Good for you. ...integrity efforts. Lastly, and very important, is our needs management unit of the Election Crime Bureau. Needs will be vetted all across our country, and grants will be given to them to help... There's all your

lawyers like we need to be paid yeah every single lawyer is like every time you try to give a grant the lawyer like swoops in real fast grabs the money runs away everywhere so please submit your email here so you can get important newsletters and updates. Also, download the Frank Speech app now at the App Store. This will be your one-stop shop for the cause of America, Lindell TV, and connections to anything and everything that you should be posting daily to all your social media platforms. This will help save our country. And finally, we need your help.

Please donate whatever you can now to help save our country. And finally, we need your help. Please donate whatever you can now to help save our country. Everybody keep the faith. Thank you and God bless. Tom, you didn't even add it out. Okay, so at the end, I want people to listen. Whoever's listening, I want you to listen really close and you'll hear his suit move.

So listen to this. To help save our country, everybody keep you to listen really close and you'll hear his suit move. So listen to this. To help save our country, everybody keep the faith. Thank you and God bless. That sound is not Mike Lindell stopping. That's Mike Lindell literally stopping the camera himself. He's reaching forward, guys, and turning off the camera. He's got a cyber unit. Here's the thing. What happened to his cyber?

I just want to say, I recognize why he's so incompetent. He's his own Ian. Dude, for real. Look. I'm kidding. I love Ian. He's not that bad.

First of all. Brutal. I, Cecil, I know how to edit. Enough of a video. I know how to like take a fucking iPhone video. I know how to take a fucking iPhone video. I know how to take a video enough to cut the ends off. I can cut the ends off.

Holy shit. Holy shit. This is... Which means you get to do that whole thing in one take. You were right. They were cyber experts. You were right. They were experts.

Cyber experts. They sound like cyber axers. I don't know what I mean like that didn't sound like Frank Speech Media Network Lindell TV other media Cause of America

what oh I can click on it yeah you gotta click on Cause of America had enough get involved today this website guys

this website looks like what year 19 it very much looks like it kind of to be honest it looks like what year? 19? It very much looks like it kind of, to be honest, it looks like that. Remember we were clicking on that one guys who had the Epoch Times? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very much looks like that to me.

Yeah, it's just, it's like a bad WordPress site that they have set up. It's a really bad WordPress site. It just looks old. It looks old and dated like... Yeah. It's just... All it is is a website. So the cause of America is a website. Well, I mean,

it's cheap to have a GoDaddy account. Yeah, well, I mean, probably even that'll get canceled soon because he's just fucking out of money. Can you imagine the terror of working for this guy? You're just some guy. I'll tell you what. You just got a job at a company. Especially somebody who's been in this pillow industry for him for a while

and you see, man, our pillows are selling a lot. I've been working a lot of overtime. And then this guy can't shut his fucking mouth. It's like when the people who own Tesla stock are complaining to Elon Musk

to shut the fuck up because you're ruining our stock. You're ruining our stock. You're ruining my fucking 401k or whatever. You too can become financially independent in just a matter of months. So this story comes from

Newsweek. RFK is a lesson for MAGA world. Be careful what you wish for. So RFK just recently, like yesterday or today? A couple days ago. Like announced that he was pulling out of the Democratic primary and he was going to run as an independent.

And I am not sure who this will draw voters from. It's going to draw voters from the left and from the right. I think so. I think the right are more inclined, I think now, the average person on the right is more inclined now to be anti-vax. Yeah. I don't think that's always been the case. No. But I do think now,

the current climate that we're in, there is a better chance if you're like a straight Republican to be anti-vax. And that is his only real selling point. His only real selling point is anti-vax and anti-war. Those are the two things that he is.

And his last name. And his last name. And his last name. And his last name. But I think genuinely he's got, he's something of a, he's kind of like a person who I think has a lot of pull behind him. But whenever he spoke to me, he always seemed like somebody who was on the right. So it never really struck me. I know. But I don't know that there are people out

that are on the left that are all 100% educated on what he has to offer. And so they might, again, just see name recognition and follow him. And that's the problem, is that our voting populace isn't as informed as they could be because we make it hard enough to vote in this country

where some people don't even know if they will vote. Yeah, I am a little nervous about this. I am a little nervous about the RFK wildcard. I don't know who he will pull from more. You know, part of me thinks that what he might do is galvanize people who weren't going to vote to vote for him. That doesn't matter, right? Yeah, those people don't matter. Everybody who wasn't going to vote, vote for him. That doesn't matter, right? Yeah, those people don't matter.

Everybody who wasn't going to vote, you know, and there's a non-zero number of people that are, you know, like, I'm not voting for Biden another time, you know. If you weren't going to vote for him, this also now doesn't matter. As long as you weren't going to vote for Biden, and you're now not going to vote for Trump, like, that's okay. That's fine. You're net zero.

It zeroes out. Yeah. But I do think that there are going to vote for Trump. Like, that's okay. That's fine. You're net zero. It zeroes out. Yeah. But I do think that there are going to be people who are like, yeah, I want something different. And they're going to go for that third party. Third parties are weird fucking wild cards. Third parties are weird wild cards. I remember Nader in the 2000 election.

I remember Ross Perot in the 1992 and 1996. Jill Stein didn't do us any favors. Jill Stein didn't do any favors for Hillary Clinton in 2016. So, you know, and there's been, there hasn't been any real successful third parties. There's been one or two in the very long past. Ross Perot is one of them who was mildly successful, won some states and got enough of the vote

to be considered for the next presidential debates to be on the stage. I mean, he got enough of the vote where people were interested enough to see him again. So Ross Perot was somebody who did well there, but he was Trump before Trump existed. He was doing the Trump thing before Trump existed. And I'll admit, I was pulled in by his infomercials and the things that he was doing. I was a young kid at the time and I was watching TV and being like, man, I don't know. I mean, seems like politicians fucked my parents' life up. So why wouldn't it be okay for somebody else to step in and do this? And he was different than the Republican party at that time. It wasn't a

Republican in the, as a businessman running. It was a guy who was running against a Republican as a businessman. So you got to understand it's a different animal back then. So it's just different. But genuinely, you're not going to get a lot of ground, but you get enough ground to fuck things up, to knock the top off and to move it, you know, to get the gyro moving enough so it wobbles. And that can wobble badly for different parties. So it could, you're right to be afraid of this. Third parties, unless they pull up and do that groundwork ahead of time, really just pull enough votes to be annoying. Yeah. And I don't know how worried to be about RFK.

I really don't. I'm not not worried. Like when Kanye entered the race, that was just such a joke. Sure, the birthday party is not a... The birthday party was never going anywhere. The candles were already blown out when he showed up. And he was barely on, he wasn't even on a lot of the ballots. It will matter where RFK gets on in terms of balloting, because he may

not be able to get on. He's got a lot of work to do. Like, there's a lot of signature gathering. There's a lot of work to do. You have no machine running behind you. You have to assemble the whole fucking thing, start to finish. There's not even, like, a green party behind him. There's nothing behind RFK except for his raspy

fucking voice. That's it. You can galvanize anti-vaxxers i will say that that's easy so he could feasibly get i think enough people behind him to i wonder if the people who were anti-vax because of trump will be pulled in by this i don't mean yeah i don't know i because i do think that a lot of the right-wing anti-vax people are hard Trumpers. I feel like that overlap is really, really high. I feel like they're definitely in bet. They definitely are.

If you are an anti-vaxxer and you're on the right, chances are you were against the mandates. Chances are you were against any of the other things that happened during. And Trump tried to walk a weird line of being both responsible for it and also decrying it. Yeah, right. So he did a weird and these people are easily

fooled, so they think he didn't have anything to do with it. Yeah, well, it was weird because he was obviously braggadocious about his role in Operation Warp Speed. Still is. Still is. Still is. Still is. And then at the same time, absolutely did not want any public health measures taken.

Essentially no public health measures taken at all. Everything just left up to the whims of the individual and then kind of shit on anybody who was like pushing other people to get the vaccine. Right? So, yeah. Trump spoke out of both sides of his mouth so that people could hear and embrace the message they wanted. Right? So as long as you just constantly gave messages, you could just like go fucking

Bible it. Just pick and choose the verses you like best. The news about Taylor Swift and Kelsey is going crazy right now uh-huh and uh but i think it's so cool because it's like she's gonna help him she's gonna like help put him on the map you know help put him on the map yeah like it he doesn't need help being put on the map right no he's travis kelsey the guy's like the best tight end in football, maybe ever. I don't think many people know who he is.

Uh, I think a lot of people know who he is. Travis Kelsey. I'm pretty sure she's the one that's like making his career go crazy right now. You're joking, right? No. You're joking. So this story comes from Newsweek. Taylor Swift and Travis Kels.

Kelsey. Kelsey, thank you. Should be executed, says Christian commentator. Literally says this. Yeah. So I want to, I want to read, um, what he says, because I will say, uh, well, all right. He says, I think these people should be publicly prosecuted and hung. I'd love to be hung. I am. I'm not Taylor Swift is with Travis Kelsey. Maybe

he's already hung. Maybe he's already hung. Maybe he's already hung. So you, I gotta just read what this fucking lunatic says. He's a Christian commentator named Morgan hung. Maybe he's already hung. So you got to just read what this fucking lunatic says. He's a Christian commentator named Morgan Ariel. And he said this on the Stu Peters show, whatever the fuck that is. Whatever it is, it gets a half a million fucking Twitter and Rumble followers. What the fuck is Rumble? Rumble is the alternative to YouTube, I think. Oh my God, I hate it all.

All right. So he also said, I think we need justice in this country. I think the celebrities that are pushing it, they should be tried and they don't have any conviction because their God is Satan and they value money instead of human life. When he says push it, he's referring to the vaccine.

Yeah. Because Kelsey did a commercial for Pfizer. Yeah. So that's what he said he was flipping out about. Then he said, Peter said people like Kelsey and Swift are responsible for murder and selling their souls and knowingly killing children

This is a strong point in favor of the rumors that Taylor Swift is actually a lesbian or even asexual Because with a history like that and all these death jabs, it's pretty clear Kelsey has no dick said Peters And I actually when I read this part of what I wanted to seize on is that language where he says it's pretty clear that she's a lesbian or even asexual. And I thought that's really telling language when you're talking about a woman. Yeah, for sure. For sure.

Absolutely. Because he's saying like, or even asexual. Because asexual is worse than a lesbian. That's what he's saying. Because what a woman is is something to be sexualized. sexual is worse than a lesbian. That's what he's saying. Because what a woman is,

is something to be sexualized. And he's saying like, look, she can't be sexualized and for the pleasure of men. And she can't even be sexualized and second tier in a misogynist mind for the pleasure of women.

She is not for the pleasure of anyone. And isn't that the worst thing a woman can be? Is to be sexually useless. That's embedded in that language. For sure. That is 100% right embedded in that language. For sure. That is a hundred percent right there in that language. And it just popped out like a fucking neon sign.

They're flipping out about this because Travis Kelsey is a tight end, Caliente. So is Taylor Swift. From the Kansas City Chiefs. So Travis Kelsey is the star player for them. And he has been sort of very vocally dating Taylor Swift. She's been coming to the events

that he's playing at. So she's flying to go see him and sitting in the press box or whatever, one of those owner boxes. And the camera loves Taylor Swift. I mean, Taylor's just a. Right. And the camera loves Taylor Swift. Sure. I mean, Taylor Swift's a beautiful young lady and the camera loves her. So, and, of course,

the NFL wants to push that she's at the game so that people, because genuinely, after she became public knowledge that she was dating Travis Kelsey, his jersey sales went through the roof because of Swift fans.

I'm sure. Because of these Swifties. Yeah. They wound up going out and buying these things because, and this could get them involved or interested even the most cursory way to the NFL. And to them, that's money to be made.

That's money in the bank. What do you think about that? I mean, genuinely, they are excited about this. So they keep showing her and they keep playing up this relationship between the two of them. And what's happening is

the people on the right who are football fans are upset because she is clearly not on the right. Right. And that makes them very upset. And then him also doing something like

being pro-vaccine is against what they think too. And so again, he's getting shit on because of this too. And so the sort of far right people who enjoy football are really upset by this. And so they're just trying to find a way

to make a wedge, any wedge they can between football and these two. And so that's what's been playing on behind the scenes for the past two or three weeks. And this is another guy who's frustrated by it. He's mad because now he can't just talk about football. He's got to talk about Taylor Swift and he's got to talk about vaccines and he doesn't want to have to have that in this portion of his life. Yeah. I think for a big part of this country, football is a national religion. Yeah, it really is. And it is, it is like a national religion that the right feels a sense of ownership for. And they're like, yeah, now I got, now I got this fucking person in my church. Yeah. Now I got this person, you know, in my fucking

pew and they don't, they're not part of my fucking truck nuts gang or like whatever it is. I'm not saying that football is exclusively the purview. And I want to be clear about that. I'm saying it goes the other direction, that the right has embraced football and they lay sort of a weird ownership claim to football that football doesn't lay to them. Right. And it's weird to me that like, they're going to try to swim uphill against Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift. If you don't follow it, like

I like Taylor Swift, but like Taylor Swift is by far, and it's not even close, the most popular musician in America right now, right now, she may be one of the most popular musicians ever. Like when, when her concerts go on sale, they break every record just immediately. There's actually a thing going on, I think this coming weekend or maybe the next weekend, where in movie theaters, her concerts will show. You can't even get tickets to those.

Those have broken all the records. They're breaking websites for people to buy tickets to see a film of a concert. So like swimming upstream against a cultural force, that intense. She is an absolute icon when it comes to this. She is. It's a crazy thing. The money behind Taylor Swift, the cultural celebrity behind Taylor Swift. And you got this fucking guy, Morgan fucking Areola or whatever his fucking name is, complaining that like she won't fuck him or whatever his whining and whinging is all about.

Just like falls so flat. She's so, like on her worst blink, she is more powerful than all of her critics. Oh yeah. Combined. Absolutely. Combined. And we're, you know, both of us are looking at it like how do you have 500,000 followers? Right. She has like 40 million on Instagram or something crazy.

Like it could be a hundred million. I don't even know. She can get 500,000 people to like make her a sandwich every day. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Like it's, they would mail her sandwiches. It's crazy. But again, it's hyper misogyny.

And it's like you said, it's very much their ownership of the NFL because look at what they did when black guys were kneeling. Look at what they did then. Look at how they treat, and look at how Trump talked about it too. I wouldn't be surprised if he talks about this. I wouldn't be surprised.

I would be shocked if he didn't. I would be absolutely shocked if he didn't. I love watching the right-wingers lose control over something they never had a right to control. Yeah. Which is the minds and the bodies and the thoughts of the employees of the NFL. Like, these team members are just employees. They can do whatever the fuck they want, you know?

If they can take on an endorsement deal for Burger King, they can take on a fucking endorsement deal for Pfizer. I want them to take on it. Yeah, I know. You know, like, I don't give a shit if somebody sells another shoe. You know what I mean? Fucking sell a shoe. I don't give a fuck. Sell a shoe, don't sell a shoe.

I want everyone getting a goddamn vaccine, though. I definitely want everybody to be in the same restaurant I'm in, I want everybody to be vaccinated. Right. That's going to wrap it up for this week. We're going to be back this upcoming Thursday for a patron special, patron-only special on Patreon.

You can join them. Go to patreon.com slash dissonancepod or dissonancepod.com. Become a patron on a per-episode basis, and you can join in on not only that one, but all the ones in the past, all the shows, the extra shows that we've put together for the patrons,

all the extra videos that we put on there. You can go check that out. It helps pay salaries. My salary and two other salaries, it very much helps pay our bills. So if you like the show and you enjoy the show and you think it's worth a buck a show, go ahead to Patreon and become a patron. All right, that's going to wrap it up for this week. We're going to leave it like we always do, though, with the skeptics creed. Credulity is not a virtue. It's fortune cookie cutter, mommy issue, hypno Babylon bullshit. Couched in scientician, double bubble, toil and trouble, pseudo quasi alternative, acupunctuating, pressurized, stereogram, pyramidal, free energy, healing, water, downward spiral, brain dead, pan, sales pitch,

late night info docutainment. Leo Pisces, cancer cures, detox, reflex, foot massage, death in towers, tarot cards, psychic healing, crystal balls, Bigfoot, Yeti, aliens, churches, mosques and synagogues, temples, dragons,

giant worms, Atlantis, dolphins, truthers, birthers, witches, wizards, vaccine nuts, shaman healers, evangelists, conspiracy, double-speak stigmata, nonsense. Expose your sides. Thrust your hands. Bloody. Evidential. Conclusive.

Doubt even this. The opinions and information provided on this podcast are intended for entertainment purposes only. All opinions are solely that of Glory Hole Studios, LLC. Cognitive dissonance makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information and will not be liable for any errors, damages, or butthurt arising from consumption. All information is provided on an as-is basis. No refunds. Produced in association with the local Dairy Council and viewers like you. you