Knowledge Fight - #1109: January 4. 2026

Episode Date: January 16, 2026

In this installment, Dan and Jordan discuss Alex's new understanding of "gunboat diplomacy," and Dan does a bad job of hiding how excited he is about The Bone Temple....

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:01 I know, no, no, no, knowledge fight. Dan and Jordan, I'm sweating. Knowledgefight.com. It's time to pray. I have great respect for knowledge fight. Knowledge fight. I'm sick of them posing as if they're the good guys saying we are the bad guys. Knowledge.
Starting point is 00:00:29 God. Dan and Jordan. Knowledge fight. Be money. Indie in Kansas. You're on the air. Thanks for holding. Hello, Alex.
Starting point is 00:00:50 I'm a huge fan. I love your word. Knowledge fight. KnowledgeFight.com. I love you. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Knowledge Fight. I'm Dan. I'm Jordan.
Starting point is 00:01:02 We're a couple dudes like to sit around, worship at the altar of Celine, and talk a little bit about Alex Jones. Oh, indeed we are, Dan. Jordan. A quick question for you. What's up? Which bright spot today, buddy?
Starting point is 00:01:11 Well, it is January, so as is tradition, you go first. I guess my bright spot is today, I would say, for the first time in a while, I finally feel like I'm over the sickness. That's great. Like I've kind of still got a little bit in my throat. I got a little bit in the back of my head. But I was doing my full exercise this morning.
Starting point is 00:01:31 I didn't suddenly go. So that was great. I feel back at it. So you're basically the reverse of, uh, I am, I am now, Owl, uh,
Starting point is 00:01:42 uh, right. Yep. Congratulations on being Owa, uh, uh, Ock, o'clock.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Ock, indeed. Up with the health. Yeah, I'm feeling, yeah, no, feel good. Yeah. Got the, I took my little bandage off my tattoo finally. Got to watch that. Have you shown the good people of America, the tattoo? Because I know that some people had wanted to see it.
Starting point is 00:02:02 No, I don't have, I don't do social media. Yeah, I know, but some people wanted to see it. I mean, do you want to show people? I don't know, that's, it's your body. It is my body and my choice. I know that some people online are like, I want to get a look at that piece. You talk so highly of this artist.
Starting point is 00:02:19 Sure. Share. You're the tack guy. We'll figure something out. Okay. I mean, eventually, I feel like someone wants to see it. Yeah. All right.
Starting point is 00:02:26 Cool. All right. Well, I'm glad you're feeling better. What do you got with your Haribos? Well, it is January. So as is tradition, we're going to have to consult this Haribo Advent calendar. There we go. Dan eats the bear.
Starting point is 00:02:44 Thank you so much to Zachary for that. I apologize. This is from the band Mermatron. I like it. So thank you so much, Mermatron. Good work, Mermatron. I appreciate that. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:59 Direct to the point. And I eat the bear. You do eat the bear. And unfortunately, too many of these are bears. Yeah. So we're going to the 16th. All right. Here we go.
Starting point is 00:03:09 What do we got? It looks different. Does it? It is a, oh, it looks like a now and later kind of thing. Can they do that? Or a. It's a gummy. It's a gummy.
Starting point is 00:03:19 me laughy-taffy? It's M-O-O-W-M-A-O-A-M. I noticed that some of these things are labeled that is like a brand, maybe an offshoot brand of Haribo. All right. Yeah, but this looks like a happy raspberry. Interesting. Is there a joke? Oh, I got you. Here you go. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Look at you, Mr. Fantastic. I'm quick. I'm quick. Bendie. I don't see a joke. But I'm going to open this up and try it, and here's the part when you vamp. Then my vamp today is going to be about the traders. Now, obviously, there's the main traders, the U.S. traders starring the great Alan Cummings, who's fucking killing it, of course. But also concurrently, there is the UK traders with just regular-ass people, hosted by a woman who is famous in Britain for being a raven or something.
Starting point is 00:04:11 And I was thinking about the difference between the two of them and the great part of the traders in the UK, the real people traders is that like they don't know what they're allowed to do you know they don't understand that there's that there's no real rules yet you know like the the people on the u.s traders so many of them have their self-created personas is kind of their job like who am i i'm the person who does this this is what i do they've played other reality tv shows so they kind of understand what producers are going to like what lines are going to be like you can't cross this line they're aware of editing and yeah and these people are just baby birds.
Starting point is 00:04:49 Just baby birds and some of them are there to play the game, but they are not really aware of the reality TV game around the game, you know? They're not really aware of the like, well, maybe I want to be back on season 20 of the traders, you know? Yeah, or I'm going to launch a brand
Starting point is 00:05:05 or I'm going to continue my brand through this appearance. Yep, yep. All these US people, mm-hmm. It's a little annoying. Yeah. I know that you were, we were talking about it and you were saying you fucking love this rapaport guy, though. Fuck off You said you're pulling for him
Starting point is 00:05:21 The worst It is so funny Whenever you know Like I knew he was the worst And my wife had no idea She was like Oh he's from movies And I was like you're
Starting point is 00:05:31 And then he is the worst When I saw that casting decision I was like this is a mess What are they doing And it lived up to it And it was So that's fine Yep
Starting point is 00:05:40 I don't know Yeah It's different I will give it credit That it is different Than all the rest of the gummies and stuff that have been in this.
Starting point is 00:05:49 But it's, I don't care. Not in its favor, but otherwise. Faint praise. So, Jordan, today, we have an episode to go over. And it might be a little bit shorter. And that is because today's a monumental day. We got to go see the Bone Temple. We got to get tickets to the first screening of the Bone Temple.
Starting point is 00:06:08 It's a huge day. I've been waiting for quite a while for this because I love that 28 days later. Do love that 28 years later. You do. Love that bone temple. We're about to find out how much we love the bone temple. Yeah, yeah. I think that it's really critical that this be decent.
Starting point is 00:06:27 Yeah. Because I think it could really ruin the first one if it's a mess. Yeah. I really think that it's a... But the first one's good enough that I have high hopes. Yeah. Yep. So we'll see eventually when we...
Starting point is 00:06:40 You know, future episodes if I am... Perhaps my vamp will be very heavily focused on. The bone simple. And how wrong I was for having hope. But we'll see. We'll find out. But until we know, let's do an episode and let's start by saying hello to some new wontz. That's a great idea.
Starting point is 00:06:58 So first, Rory Magnus, we're proud of your work. Don't forget the shy pot L sauce. Thank you so much. You're a policy wonk. I'm a policy wonk. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next, I too find my phone navigation too convenient to not use and it has destroyed my sense of direction.
Starting point is 00:07:13 Thank you so much. You're an eye of policy won't. I'm a policy won. Thank you very much. Thank you. And Dan, I saw you. You're literally above me waiting for the dollop. Like right now.
Starting point is 00:07:24 Thank you so much. You are now a policy wonk. I'm a policy wonk. Thank you very much. Yep. I probably was spotted in the lobby of the... What theater was that? The Vic?
Starting point is 00:07:36 Is it the Vic? Yeah, sounds like the Vic. Yeah, I think so. Well, anyway, I was there. Yep. We were. Thank you for seeing me. We also have a technocrat in the mix.
Starting point is 00:07:44 So thank you so much. Touch two, Evan and Brent. Don't trust Paul. Thank you so much. You're an Iowa technocrat. I'm a policy wonk. Four start. Go home to your mother and tell her you're brilliant.
Starting point is 00:07:53 Someone, someone, Sodomite sent me a bucket of poop. Daddy Sharp. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bam. Jar Binks has a Caribbean black accent. He's a loser, little, little titty baby. I don't want to hate black people. I renounce Jesus Christ. Thank you so much.
Starting point is 00:08:10 Yes, thank you very much. Also, we can timestamp things a little bit about that sighting because, you you were also there. Yes. But you showed up late. I did. So the fact that they didn't say that both of us were there means I was spotted before you arrived. Right.
Starting point is 00:08:23 When I was just hanging out with Angela Lampspary and her partner. Or that it is a enjoyable and exciting experience to see you and a, let's hope, non-talk-aboutable. I can't imagine that. I can't imagine. So today we're going to be talking about January 4th. This is Alex's Sunday show after Trump has. taken Maduro. Sure.
Starting point is 00:08:47 And obviously it's time that we rationalize this and we live in the world post. Of course. Post regime change. Sure. And so Alex starts off the show with that being his main focus. That's why when Hegsteth came out and a reporter's like, this is like Iraq regime change. He says it's the opposite. Because the previous regime change was about destabilizing the Middle East.
Starting point is 00:09:15 and balkanizing it, the United States wants to go in and have free and fair elections and turn Venezuela of its own power back into the most wealthy country in Latin America. But you have to know the history. You have to know the Monroe Doctrine. You have to know what gunboat diplomacy is. You have to know the Barbary policy of Thomas Jefferson.
Starting point is 00:09:38 You have to understand all of that to understand this is a no-brainer. So one thing that anyone listening to Alex's show could not help but notice is that in the past six months or so, he's been constantly making references to Thomas Jefferson and his Barbary Coast precedent. This is a reference to the Barbary Wars of the early 1800s where Jefferson sent Marines to fight against pirates
Starting point is 00:10:03 in the waters near Tripoli. The idea is supposed to be that these pirates posed a national security threat, so Jefferson was within his right to attack and kill them at sea, which is then used as an argument that Trump has the right to do this with the Venezuelan boats. Okay. It was part of the justification. of Trump's militaristic action. Sure.
Starting point is 00:10:21 This idea is combined with references to the Monroe Doctrine, which is a bit convoluted. The Monroe Doctrine essentially says that the U.S. has control over everything in the Western Hemisphere, so any hostile powers trying to take over countries on our half of the world can be seen as enemies. This has nothing to do with Jefferson's actions during the Barbary Wars because that was centered around North African states, which are in the Eastern Hemisphere. Sure. The point I'm making here is that Thomas Jefferson, Barberian, Barberian,
Starting point is 00:10:48 Barbary War stuff is a talking point, and I'm pretty convinced that he's been told to push this by someone else. It's not a point that he ever brought up before 2020, and even then it was in the context of an interview with a historian talking about Jefferson's actions in the Barbary Wars. Sure. It was not to defend sinking boats. It was a fun fact back then, and now this is a piece of information. And precedent and shit.
Starting point is 00:11:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Typically, when the Barbary Wars were mentioned on Info Wars, it was because. someone was trying to insist that white people weren't the only ones who ever engaged in slave trafficking. That context changed on September 4th, 2025, after which point Alex began consistently repeating this new talking point about Jefferson's actions in the Barbary War as a justification for Trump sinking Venezuelan boats. What I'm getting at here is I don't believe this is organic. If Alex truly felt like Jefferson's attack on the Barbary Pirates justified whatever military actions a president could argue were meant to protect the American people,
Starting point is 00:11:50 then it would have come up in conversations about things like the invasion of Granada or Clinton's planned attack on Haiti. Probably. I would bet that someone like Roger Stone or General Flynn advised Alex to start justifying the boat attacks using this language because the increase is just too much to be a coincidence. And he didn't come up with this on his own. Yeah. The same thing is happening now more recently with the term gunboat diplomacy.
Starting point is 00:12:15 Alex is starting to use that expression more. as a way to justify Trump's belligerent actions against other countries. Peace through strength was an acceptable maxim to throw out until you had real military actions and overthrows that you needed to spin, and it feels to me like this appealing to gunboat diplomacy is the way Alex is trying to escalate that. The problem is that gunboat diplomacy means a number of different things to different people. For political science types, it usually refers to a country replacing their diplomatic efforts with threats, so the international agreements they make aren't based on shared self-interest,
Starting point is 00:12:50 but rather on one party knowing that the other will kill them if they violate the agreement. Or even more to the point, it involves more powerful countries using displays of their superior maritime weaponry as a means of coercing less powerful countries to make those agreements in the first place. Alex fully understands and opposes this practice, as he's made clear repeatedly about China's actions in the South China Sea. He cannot actually support the principle of gunboat diplomas, without giving up any reason why he should care about the idea of like China invading Taiwan. From my position of having listened to a ton of the show, I don't believe that Alex supports gunboat diplomacy as a concept, but there's a larger issue.
Starting point is 00:13:30 On Info Wars, gunboat diplomacy is not a concept that involves a state intimidating another state using a show of strength. On Alex's show, the term has a specific meaning, and it is about corporate imperialism. Here is him explaining this to a caller from April 2004. Don't you remember gunboat diplomacy over the last 150 years? If a third world Latin American country didn't let our corporations basically own them, how the Marines would be landed and they'd burn whole cities down, you never read about that? Not a lot of history now.
Starting point is 00:14:04 Oh, yeah. I mean, our troops would burn entire cities all over Latin America. And that's history. And they didn't even say they were commies back that, oh, their commies were going to kill them. They were just going to level cities and say, okay, we run things and appoint a dictator. Go ahead. Huh. The way Alex is using the term gunboat diplomacy in 2026 doesn't match how he's always used it in the past.
Starting point is 00:14:30 In the past, the term has always meant something specific. The only context Alex ever used the term gumboat diplomacy is captured here in this clip from 2011. I briefly wanted to point this out. that growing up, you know, you're taught in school and college, that third worlders are a bunch of idiot, savages, basically. I mean, it's done with a velvet glove, but, oh, those people, they just can't get themselves together. And ha ha ha ha, ha, ha, well, that's not what's going on. The colonial areas of Latin America, Africa, and Southern Asia and other areas have been overrun by the more advanced technological militaries of the West repeatedly in the last 300 years. and systems of tyranny are put in.
Starting point is 00:15:14 And then the last 100 years, and this is mainline history of your research. This is not my opinion. And major white papers were written by the British government, the U.S. government deployed gunboat diplomacy, where they would give a dictator or give a thug, say in Venezuela or Guatemala, this goes back over 100 years, the U.S., they'd give them a $20 million loan.
Starting point is 00:15:35 And openly it would come out, tell them, don't pay this back, leaving one year with the money to Switzerland or to New York. That's why you have a lot of Mexican presidents actually moved to New York after they steal a bunch of money. Just a few decades ago that happened or in the mid-90s. So it's the same system. Or they go to Switzerland. That's kind of the place where they nest and it's a free zone they allow. And then the public's told, well, with interest, it's been 10 years.
Starting point is 00:15:59 You don't owe us 20 million in 1905. You owe us 300 million. And the country says, you know, back then, that was before the inflation we have. It was equivalent of 300 billion or something. They said, we don't even make that in 20 years. We can't pay it. Oh, that's fine. From the shores of Montezuma, from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli. And the Marine Corps top general, two-time congressional medal of honor winner,
Starting point is 00:16:26 Smendley Butler finally quit and went public and said, look, it's all about money. These people don't owe it. We invade them. In Infoars language, gunboat diplomacy refers to the practice of the IMF and World Bank, giving corrupt leaders in struggling countries huge debts that they know can never be repaid. The leader plays ball and gets to be rich in Switzerland, but they've sold out their country, which goes broke because of their inability to pay the loan, at which point the globalists come in and buy up all their infrastructure.
Starting point is 00:16:53 If their leader doesn't play ball, we send in the Navy and the military. This was the only context Alex ever used the term until December 2025. After that point, he started using it to mean the more traditional definition of the expression, which is to use military and particularly naval intimidation to force American foreign policy objectives. And he started presenting this as a positive thing that is good that Trump is getting back to. If Alex thinks the U.S. should impose its will on the rest of the Western Hemisphere through
Starting point is 00:17:24 murder and threats of wars, then he should just say that. He probably feels like he can't because he spent so much of his career pretending to love freedom and hate empires, but he needs to get over that hurdle. This is just bullshit. I understand that no villain ever really just comes out and says, hey, I'm the bad guy, but if you pay any attention to Alex, notice the language that he's using, the way things are changing, he's sending the message pretty fucking clear. It does seem pretty obvious.
Starting point is 00:17:49 Yeah. Almost stark in its alteration making it even clearer. Mm-hmm. You know, like at least, again, but that's what makes him so much better than everybody else is he doesn't bother with subtlety. No. No. You want me to say this?
Starting point is 00:18:04 Now I'm going to say it all the fucking time. And I always did. I always said it. Sure, you can see a transcript of everything that I've said for the past 30 years and I didn't say it. Right. But didn't I, though? But have you seen the white papers? Ah.
Starting point is 00:18:18 Montezuma. See, what's wrong is that I should have said it back then. So why don't we moving forward just assume I did say it back then? Mm-hmm. See, that makes more sense. It's cool. Yeah. I find this to be sloppy.
Starting point is 00:18:33 on his part, and I don't think he should use these expressions that have loaded histories for himself. Yeah. But, oh, well. It's funny to me how many different expressions we have to just avoid saying extortion. Yes.
Starting point is 00:18:49 Yep. We want your show. We are going to take it. That's the end of this story. How do you want this conversation to go? It's up to you. We use however many euphemisms you like. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:02 We got things that go, Absolutely. And you are susceptible to things going boom. Let me try and explain this. It's illegal when the mob does it, but we're a country. Yeah. So Trump, he is going to get in there and he is going to fucking run this Venezuelan shit. He's going to be so good.
Starting point is 00:19:21 Great. And it's so in line with Alex's beliefs. Like, you can't even believe it. That's nice. And if you look at every point, richest whole country in the world, production down 95%. The communist just can't even. run anything. They're people starving to death. Absolute hell. Trump doesn't have to spend US money. The oil companies will go in. He oversees it. He makes them redistribute the majority
Starting point is 00:19:46 of the wealth of the people. You've already seen him do that policy-wise here. Where he told oil companies when he got in a year ago, he said, all right, you're not really getting any profits, national security, slash prices, massively increased production. He got the Saudis increased production at the same time. He said, I want to help the whole world. We have to lower inflation globally, which is true. If you pay attention to Alex, you cannot possibly believe that he believes anything. Every single thing about his political ideology should strongly oppose Trump telling oil companies how to do business. The idea that Trump could tell companies how to manage supply and demand so he can manipulate prices is a state-run economy, which is a critical piece of what he's
Starting point is 00:20:28 supposed to hate about communist countries like China. Trump telling us, Trump telling us, oil companies to slash their prices and that they can make no profits is a horrible transgression of what Alex's worldview is supposed to be based on. But he can pretend Trump is doing it and he reports that to the audience as a positive because he knows that even his audience kind of wants socialist-leaning policies. Even if they don't know the words. Right. Everyone except people who profit from oil companies hate oil companies.
Starting point is 00:20:55 Everyone except people who profit from insurance companies hate insurance companies. everyone kind of gets that the game is rigged and the smug libertarianism of the late and mid-2000s. It isn't fun for teens anymore. So no one's doing it. It's not edgy to be that libertarian dork. No, you got to go full Nazi if you want that. Right.
Starting point is 00:21:16 Yeah. Yeah, and it's easier. It is so much easier. Yeah, the kid who probably would have been like, I read the Mesa's website. Like, that kid's just racist now. Yep. He doesn't have to try.
Starting point is 00:21:27 Yeah, that's the good stuff. This stuff that Alex is saying, like in that clip, it isn't true. But even if you pretend that it is, he should declare war on Trump for doing it. Yeah, absolutely. He should be horrified. Yeah. You know, it is something that has become more and more clear in our present time that I misunderstood how the world works based on how words work, right? Like, to me, a principle was only really confirmed when it sucked.
Starting point is 00:21:57 Yep. You know, like. That whole idea of free speech, protect speech you hate. You know what speech you like? Fuck me. It sucks to do this. That is, but it's a principle, so I have to, right? It feels like that is something that other people did not particularly find interesting.
Starting point is 00:22:14 Like, every time people find a principle and they're like, oh, it sucks to have this principle right now, they just change it. True. And I think that a lot of the people who are busy off changing their principles are a lot of the people who would rant and crow at you about how principals are so sacrosanct. They're only important when they're inconvenient. Sure, I would love for kids to be safer in schools, but
Starting point is 00:22:38 what about the guns? Oh, what about the guns? What if we encroach on the right of people to have guns? We can't, yeah. So fucking principled. Yeah. So fucking principled. I think that is a form of gaslighting that did exist on a large scale for most of our lives. Yeah. It's
Starting point is 00:22:54 bullshit. Yeah, because it is it is something that I'm listening to him talk and it's like, I guess people will listen to the reasons, maybe, I guess, and think like, oh, this is a good reason to do this thing. But in my head, it's like, oh, you can give me all the reasons you want, but you can't do the thing. So because you did the thing, none of your reasons mean anything to me. You fucked up, right?
Starting point is 00:23:20 Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, there's probably some edge cases where somebody does something that you instinctively think and maybe no is wrong. and then you can be persuaded by reasons to understand. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Like, there may be some cases like that, but yeah, generally, the actions are, you know,
Starting point is 00:23:36 it's pretty tough to justify when the action is the action. Yeah, sorry, man. Yeah. Weird. So through those actions that Trump is taking. Sure. There is an argument that can be made, I believe, that the rules are changing. International rules changing.
Starting point is 00:23:56 Sure. To the point of non-existence. maybe. Well. And so Alex celebrates this return to chaos. Okay. So by Trump grabbing $18 trillion in oil that's now on the U.S. ballot sheet, and that's damn right what it is, what do you think we did until the globalist era after World War II?
Starting point is 00:24:16 You think the U.S. didn't go around grabbing stuff before? I think we didn't grab Cuba from Spain and then turn around and give it to them? But as long as, you know, they let us have a. military base there for God. I mean, the U.S. has been the partner to have that won't screw you over and let you run things. Just don't screw us until the end of World War II and then the CIA and we become globalists. And then all the things that came out of them because we're working for globalist interest, British Empire interest, New World Order interest, not the people's interest.
Starting point is 00:24:50 But if you think in this world that we can have our country and just hide in it and can't be engaged or can't be involved, well I got a bridge I'm happy to sell you so we're going back to U.S. policy here. The bridge that he's sold you is his career. Yeah. Like he's already done it if anyone is listening. You've actually purchased quite a few bridges over the years. Yeah, the Info Warriors, good for you. So this is a fine position for Alex to have, and I want to be clear that I respect him saying it explicitly.
Starting point is 00:25:19 I wholeheartedly disagree with his position, and I think it's delusional to pretend that this doesn't just benefit giant corporations and tyrants. but I think it's closer to what Alex sincerely supports. In 2008, when he was trying to boost his career by latching on to Ron Paul supporters who were mostly mad about the war, do you think he would have said anything like that? Not getting involved in foreign wars was a central piece of the messaging back then, so Alex pushed that. Alex was positioned against the system, and regardless of whether Bush or Clinton or Obama was in office, they were representatives of the system, and they were doing the wars. It's super easy to be opposed to their wars and then convince your audience that you're principally opposed to all war and you're not.
Starting point is 00:26:03 Make no mistake about it. Alex built his career on the illusion that he was opposed to things like colonialist adventure and regime change because of principles that he believed in about things like freedom, sovereignty, and non-interventionism. He presented himself as the alternative to the hawks like Rush Limbaugh and the Fox News crowd, and without that fiction, he never would have been able to sell himself to a larger audience. People who weren't extreme right-wingers and racists were drawn to him because they were pissed the fuck off about the Iraq war and he was giving them a message that they could get behind and it seemed to transcend politics.
Starting point is 00:26:40 People like Tucker would get in their bow ties and argue on TV about how Bush was right to attack Iraq and Afghanistan, but Alex told the audience that you were more likely to get struck by lightning than ever meet a terrorist and that the war would. being sold to you on false pretenses. The people who were pissed off about the war agreed with that, and because Alex was saying it, it made him look like he was more honest than his competitors. But how many of the people who marched with no blood for oil signs would have gotten on board with Alex saying that the U.S. should take stuff and plunder freely, like how things
Starting point is 00:27:13 were before the World War II International Order? How seriously could any of these people ever have taken him if his argument against the war wasn't that it was happening, but he was. didn't like the people benefiting from it. The argument for why the globalists are bad is supposed to be that they do bad things, like carry out regime change wars in order to steal resources. By accepting and celebrating Trump doing the exact same thing, Alex has an effect removed the whole reason to oppose them.
Starting point is 00:27:41 Because the guy who made millions of dollars as the anti-system guy now has to be a cheerleader for the system, he can no longer keep up the shraid that any of the stuff that he used to care about matters. the principles used to mask as his mask, they're all destroyed. And what's left of it is the shit that was there all along and was the real motivating factor, which is white nationalism, Christian identity, protection of business interests over people, and colonialist exploitation of Uighur countries' natural resources. Yeah. It's really what this is all about.
Starting point is 00:28:12 Yeah. What a weird, what a weird team to join? What a weird team to have secretly been on? Right. Yeah. What a, yeah. It feels like. like it wasn't worth it.
Starting point is 00:28:24 But maybe I mean, just going by everything that he's done said how he's lived all the things that I know about him. I would say it's not worth it. But, you know, maybe somewhere in his head it was. At least Alex finally freed the children.
Starting point is 00:28:41 Yes, that is nice. That was nice of him. Fucking prick. Yeah, no, I find his it's this weird mix of fuck you and also like thanks thanks for just saying this yeah like kind of no there is there was there was the part that was annoying in like you know oh five oh six where it's like oh we're we're helping the people of iraq we're we're there for the people it's because sadama's evil and
Starting point is 00:29:12 we're there for the people but man they didn't even give them that one they didn't even give us that one they were just like buddy we're going to steal their oil yeah But now it's in reverse. Right. Like what's happening is essentially, you know, Trump is immediately being like, I'm going to steal it. I'm going to steal their stuff. I'm stealing their stuff.
Starting point is 00:29:32 And now is a part of rationalizing that. It's Alex's job to explain to the audience. It is good for the people. Right. For us to steal all of their stuff. We're going to give the money to the people of Venezuela. They're going to be great. That sounds true.
Starting point is 00:29:46 Right. Based on things we've done in the past. It's just a silly mirror of the example. exact same shit. Yep. Same kind of excuses and arguments being made. It's just the main difference that we've experienced so far is that there isn't like a giant insurgency that's happening right now in Venezuela.
Starting point is 00:30:05 Yeah. Although who knows what happens down the road. Yeah, exactly. So anyway, Alex immediately like yesterday on this show, he was like Trump looks at this shit and he's like, I could build a lot of hotels down there because he's a hospitality guy. So great. He's the hospitality guy.
Starting point is 00:30:22 Yeah. And so some people laughed at him about that. Sure. Because it was crazy. Yes. And now he's a little defensive about how people were making fun of him. I've also seen, I'll get to this.
Starting point is 00:30:32 It's not about me, but it's an example of propaganda. All these big Democrat talk show hosts taking a clip out of context yesterday, like a 30-second club, where I'm saying Trump loves to see golf courses and Trump towers and everybody happy and a future for his kids and that got translated into
Starting point is 00:30:53 Trump's doing this so he has Trump golf courses and towers and so his kids can make billions. No, I explained how when he went and met with Kim Jong-un and showed him a videographic of, look how wealthy South Korea is, you can be that way with all these factories and businesses and golf courses and hotels. And Kim Jong-un reportedly cried and said China won't let me.
Starting point is 00:31:17 Oh, my God. So I was explaining Trump does it. like war, he likes prosperity, he's a hospitality man. He doesn't like plunging economies. That's not good for business. But the headline is, Jones can't wait for corporations to loot Venezuela
Starting point is 00:31:34 and fantasizes about Don Jr. making billions. Didn't say Don Jr. didn't list a company. None of that. Trump said we're going to go in there and get their people production up and get them jobs and get them their money. Is that what he said? And we've seen him to that.
Starting point is 00:31:52 is it? No tax on tips. And all the other things he's done to try to, every policy is what he does. And the Democrats try to stand the way of that. So Alex did literally say that Trump looks at a country like Venezuela and just sees the potential to build Trump hotels and golf courses there. He can pretend this was taken out of context all he wants, but he's fucking lying. It was on our last episode.
Starting point is 00:32:14 Larger issue, though, the explanation of the context here that Alex is doing doesn't make it better. Alex is just explaining that Trump likes to do whatever work. works best for corporate interests, and he demands on getting a cut himself. Everything Alex brings up is an example of something that's meant to benefit the corporations, including the no tax on tips thing. It's great for working people not to have to pay tax on tips, but that's also part of a larger negotiation that involves employers not having to pay
Starting point is 00:32:42 tipped positions fair base wages. It looks like a huge win for the workers when you only consider the no tax on tips part, but when you look at the bigger picture, this is a perfect pressure release valve for the corporations to continue making more money. They don't have to pay their tipped employees anything more than they did before, but the employee theoretically walks home with more money. Collected tax revenue goes down, but the business makes the same amount. Consider that the alternative to this would be raising the minimum wage for tipped employees,
Starting point is 00:33:13 and you can see how no tax on tips is a program that's friendly to workers, but even more so to corporations. Currently, the federal minimum wage for tipped workers is $2.00. and 13 cents. They're allowed to use $5.12 of any tips that they make as credit towards a $7.25 an hour minimum wage, so in some ways, you could look at any shift as starting about $5 in the hole that you need to work off to your boss. Only six states in Guam require tipped employees to be paid their state's normal minimum wage, while 15 use the federal minimum of $2.13. No tax on tips is good for the workers in a direction. sense, but the reason that someone like Trump or Alex can support it is because they understand that compared to the alternative, this is a very good option for big business. Also, I'm not the person to get super into the weeds about this, but Trump's shit can only apply to federal taxes, so tips can still be taxed at a state level, and companies can still apply payroll taxes to
Starting point is 00:34:14 some forms of tips, and there's a $25,000 cap, so it's not as worker-friendly as this catchphrase name is meant to imply. Sure. Anyway, I, I agree with Alex's motivation in that clip. He was speaking a bit too loosely in the previous few days about his excitement for Trump resorts on Concord Lands. So he's probably feeling like he needs to moderate that a little bit. Sure. And I get that.
Starting point is 00:34:37 I agree with that motivation. It's a smart move. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's being a worm tongue and then there's being a straight up toady. You know, at least the worm tongue gets to whisper and, you know, King what's his face is the ear and be like, ah, yeah. But man, if you're just like, it's okay if he steps on my nose.
Starting point is 00:34:57 I like it. If bleeding makes your nose bigger and stronger. He secretly loves me. Absolutely. And sometimes, sometimes I whisper his name in the dark and I bet he hears me. Yeah, like at least worm tongue, like you can be seen with the king. Yeah. The king, you're right behind him.
Starting point is 00:35:15 And worm tongue gets him in the end, you know. Yeah. Yeah. It's different. He's not getting worm tongue talent. Yeah. Nope. So anyway, Alex, I think, just wants Trump to just fucking take over everything.
Starting point is 00:35:27 Sure. Trump said, we're returning to the Monroe Doctrine and the model used by William McKinley. And if foreign powers are projecting their power into our hemisphere and setting up states and governments to manipulate our internal operations, we are going to smash your ass. You know how many times we've gone into Latin America and to Mexico before World War II? hundreds of times. Because of foreign powers coming in trying to manipulate and control. We built the Panama Canal. We had it for eternity in the deal.
Starting point is 00:36:08 Carter signed it away. Obama finished it. Trump came in with Heggsett and told Panama, hey, the Chikoms are pushing in, make a deal with us, or we're going to come in. They said, nope, we'll push the commies out. Come right in, please. And Trump said, good.
Starting point is 00:36:25 We'll invest $500 billion. I'm sorry chow. Weird. Sounds chill and cool and awesome. Alex should tell his audience the truth. Like, Trump made a lot of noise last year about how Chinese companies ran ports around the Panama Canal and how that wasn't good for American national security. This involved a Hong Kong-based company called C.K. Hutchinson Holdings, who owned controlling interest over these ports. Trump demanded a shake-up, so C.K. Hutchinson ended up agreeing to sell their interest in these ports for 22.
Starting point is 00:36:57 $2.8 billion. The group that ended up with buying that controlling interest is a consortium that's run by BlackRock. That seems like it should be relevant to Alex because they're one of his big villains. Nah. Weird. Nah, I mean, it seems fine. It's almost as though it didn't really matter too much for national security interests as it did for who's friends with whom at what point in time. No, yeah.
Starting point is 00:37:24 And, yeah, I mean, I think that it's obviously very easy because they both start with the word black. But like, sure. The way that Alex was able to make friends with Eric Prince who ran Blackwater. Hey. After they being the huge villains in the Iraq war era. Sure. Kind of, I think we're going to see the same thing with Black Rock. It does feel.
Starting point is 00:37:48 Trump works with them and is totally cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, once you've a statement. established yourself as evil. Fucking go for it. Murder the younglings. Once you've done,
Starting point is 00:38:01 once you're already there fucking, I'm Darth Vader. I don't give a shit. Oh, I'm murdered younglings. Buddy, I'm well past that, right? What are we doing with this? Like, oh, is it okay for Black Rock? I think you can only really have the confidence
Starting point is 00:38:13 to do that if your boss can shoot lightning. And this is something that you keep forgetting. I mean, it helps. It definitely helps. I think morale or at least like, uh, following the leader. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:38:26 It's inspired by lightning out of the hands. Yeah, I mean, you know, we give Trump a Tesla coil. We give them a big enough one. I bet that sounds like enough. Give that asshole a musk coil. I mean, listen, did you see the weather a couple of days ago? I'm willing to go with weather weapons at this point. I'm willing to accept that that sleet storm that just popped up out of nowhere, that's fucking real.
Starting point is 00:38:48 That's weather weapons. Sure. So, you know. Like some sort of pulse. Why not? All right. Angels don't play that? that harp. Now they don't.
Starting point is 00:38:57 So Maduro's been arrested. He's taken to New York. Weird. And Alex has fantasized a little bit here about how he's going to flip. But the fact that Maduro is in New York and is now in law enforcement custody and you know
Starting point is 00:39:12 that they are going to be meeting with him. You know, it's already happening and saying, look, give us the networks, give us the groups. They already have his former intelligence chiefs and others. and confirm this, go public, and you can walk. And it will dismantle completely Democrats, money laundering operation.
Starting point is 00:39:40 And then if Trump can get a real A.G. And some real people to actually prosecute, this is the death blow. See, we kind of have to understand is Alex's framing of this relies on his understanding of gunboat diplomacy. He fantasizes about this idea that Trump will have Maduro in custody. Yeah. And he'll be able to intimidate him into pointing the finger at his political enemies.
Starting point is 00:40:06 Yeah. And if you agree to this deal, we will let you out of prison. You can be rich in Switzerland. That's how it works. That's how it works. Yeah. That's what Alex is fantasizing about. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:40:16 Is that, like, Trump would use Maduro in order to, you know, roll over on the people that he needs to take power. away from. And I think it's pretty obvious. You know, I was thinking about this, right? And I think the story of the emperor has no clothes has been misunderstood for its actual power, right? Now, you say, oh, the emperor has no clothes and then the kid laughs at him. But I say instead, the emperor walks around naked with his dick swinging around and then
Starting point is 00:40:51 hires a bunch of people to scream at you that he's wearing clothes. And then if you say anything about him not wearing clothes, he murders you. Now, that is a good emperor has no clothes story. Well, you know how, like, I think, you know, you watch movies from, like, the 90s and stuff. And it's like, well, this whole plot would be solved by a cell phone. Like, if there just were cell phones, this is not an issue. Yeah, that's definitely true. And I think that the emperor has no clothes.
Starting point is 00:41:18 I think it's hurt by the fact that there's no media. Yeah. If the emperor has a propaganda network, he doesn't even need clothes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I think that it's one thing to have like, oh, yeah, there's a lot of people who are going along with the, you know, the fiction that the emperor has cool clothes. Yeah. But, like, if you had an internet.
Starting point is 00:41:38 Yeah. No, if you could 3D print a new Humpty, fuck that nursery rhyme. Yeah. Yeah. Let him fall all he wants. I'll make a new one. Yeah. Tomorrow.
Starting point is 00:41:46 Yeah. And I think that we need new lessons. We have to start new. Our nursery rhymes are useless. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think that. I've talked...
Starting point is 00:41:56 That lady has to live in that shoe. That's the only place she can afford, man. That's where we're at. I've talked a bit about how, like, Alex's world kind of requires a new Bible. Yeah. And I think that our world also now requires new nursery rhymes. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:42:10 We need a new ASOP. We need a new brother grim. Just a series of reasons to stay off the internet. That's what we need. There's a witch. Exactly. If you get on the internet, you'll get eaten. Next one.
Starting point is 00:42:24 If you get on the internet, you'll get fucking bitten by wolf next one somebody's going to chop your head off next one finding accidentally finding sex criminals or Nazis or all the things that are on the internet apparently isn't scary enough not enough yeah we need to create a monster yep that's what's going to happen but then it's gonna get slender man we're gonna get slender band yeah that's what's going to happen fuck yeah so if the globalists were doing this uh taking over venezuela sure they would just give that oil to China. Why is Trump is good.
Starting point is 00:42:59 Sure. Because he's taking it. That makes sense. And then he's going to give it back. That makes sense. If this was a normal globalist operation, they'd go in there. A normal. Iraq and the China's given the oil fields. With Trump, everything he goes and does literally is maximized to pump as much
Starting point is 00:43:19 money into the average person's pockets as possible. It doesn't feel true. It doesn't feel true. If the little guy ain't making money, you're not going to have an infrastructure. pressure to spin yours. Henry Ford was the guy that innovated this. He said, I'm going to pay my employees three times what other car companies do.
Starting point is 00:43:37 I'll have all the best workers. And I'll give them discounts on Ford vehicles. And then almost every employee bought the vehicles. Yeah. That's grow the pie model. Not the great reset, make everybody poor model. Not the New World Order communist model, but the American model. Not the only thing that Trump and Henry Ford have in Canada.
Starting point is 00:44:02 I was going to say there's quite a few things about that. For real, though, this is an insane level of bootlicking that almost can't be put on a chart. The way that Alex is justifying Trump's geopolitical military actions relies on assuming a super corrupt but benevolent motivation from a business standpoint. And that alone should be a problem. Yeah. If Trump is kidnapping world leaders and seizing oil fields, that should be bad. But he's doing it because he wants everyone to have a bunch of money. so that should be good.
Starting point is 00:44:30 But he wants everyone to have money because he's a hospitality guy who only makes money if everyone has money to spend, so that kind of makes his motives look suspicious again. It's good to want people to have money and be able to afford things in life. But if your reason for wanting that is so you can sell them things, then your ability to afford something is really a means to an end this person is after, which is them selling you things. It's great to give people more money so that. they can afford to buy, you know, raising wages.
Starting point is 00:45:01 What's even more effective than that is giving them company bucks. Yep. And selling them all the things that they, that's super efficient. It is, it's so great. You can raise their wages so high when that money is just coming right back to you. Yeah. It's great. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:18 Yeah, it would be, you know, it feels like at the very least, right, Caesar could be like, hey, listen, I will bring back plunder. I'm just going to plunder shit and I'll have too much I don't have a place to store it so you'll get some Now it's all in the cloud Like it's on the screen you can't get any of that He's plundering all this shit
Starting point is 00:45:39 And then just keeping it on a screen You're not getting a little fucking jewel From Carthage or whatever You're getting shit Nothing It's just on a screen man Brutal Remember NFTs
Starting point is 00:45:52 Do you mean the thing that was going to last forever and be super awesome for art. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, if Trump can make 50 bucks by getting you a dollar, he's cool with that. That's fine. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:46:07 But if the alternative is him getting 51 bucks and you get 10 cents, he'll always choose that. He will choose that one 100%. Always. 100%. So would Henry Ford and so would BlackRock and all the people that Alex fucking loves. Yep. World views based on industrialists and rich corporations trying to fleece
Starting point is 00:46:26 fucking workers. Yeah, it's hard not to see very clearly that they exist to exploit the space between labor and profit. Yes. And they have no actual value whatsoever. And it's becoming too transparent now. Because they're too powerful. Yep.
Starting point is 00:46:45 So we have one last clip here, and it's Alex, how he wants to spend his time on such a, you know, it's the Lord's Day. Yeah, absolutely. It's Trump has just overthrown Maduro and ended the, globalists. Well, so here's where he's at. We'll get to Hanksstaff talking about this being the opposite of destabilization.
Starting point is 00:47:05 This is a stabilization in a moment. But let's look at white, liberal women fuming the following United States saying, how dare you violate somebody's sovereignty? Well, how dare them send their prisoners here and eight million people displaced? And how dare them starve by it does? And how dare them steal our elections? How about that?
Starting point is 00:47:21 Got them. Yeah. I mean, this show, if, like, he talks about how God tells him what to do and how he's like the most important person in the world and has shaped the tides of history and stuff and like great you should be doing something else with the time then you know the show shouldn't be a meme recap show and you trying to puff your chest out at tic-tok videos yeah like that seems incredibly trivial for god's chosen soldier it does feel that way yeah yeah yeah i mean there weren't there weren't a lot of apostles writing stories about Jesus getting into a flame war
Starting point is 00:48:00 you know like it was mainly like hey I'm gonna go to this mountain give a little talk maybe I'll get into I'll get into a dust up at the temple get those assholes out of here but at no point in time was there like back and forth like uh uh I how about this one oh what about this guy yeah even when he's spending the days in the devil in the desert with the devil nobody's recording that shit yeah It's too bad they didn't. We don't want that. No, because imagine, it was probably like a nonstop roast battle.
Starting point is 00:48:31 Oh, my God. They're just nitpicking back and forth. But like good lines. It would have to be literally the best lines in all of history. Can you imagine if like the devil and Jesus. Sure. Out of the middle of nowhere. Right.
Starting point is 00:48:45 Like if that was on kill Tony. Like, The Zingers. You're right. I think the world should end. That is a good point. You have argued correctly for the end of the world. I give up.
Starting point is 00:49:08 Anyway, we're doing, you know, this is a little bit of a shorter episode. And part of the reason is because obviously what comes right after this is the Minnesota shooting. Yeah. Yeah. Ice shooting. Yeah. Shit's going to get real. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:23 That's going to take a while. and the bone temple calls. Yeah. So I didn't want to have that energy going into the bone temple. I mean, it's hard to want that energy going into anywhere. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:49:35 I mean, it's something we can't ignore, obviously, it must be dealt with. But the bone temple. Anyway, we'll be back for that on pleasantness. But until then, we have a website. Indeed, we do. It's knowledge fight.com. We have a bone temple.
Starting point is 00:49:50 We'll be back. But until then, I'm Leo. I'm Leo. I'm Dio. Clark. I am the mysterious professor. And now here comes the sex robots. Andy in Kansas, you're on the air. Thanks for holding. Hello, Alex.
Starting point is 00:50:05 I'm a first-time caller. I'm a huge fan. I love your work. I love you.

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