No Agenda - 1625 - "Call me Bill"

Episode Date: January 14, 2024

"Call me Bill" Executive Producer: Scott From Newcastle Australia Associate Executive Producers: Steven Peterson Baron Sir Pursuit of Peace & Tranquility in the Lands of the Red Clay and the Cherry Trees Jewel Wicker Rick Bunch Danny Petty Linda Lupatkin Pamela McLain Become a member of the 1626 Club, support the show here Boost us with with Podcasting 2.0 Certified apps: Podverse - Podfriend - Breez - Sphinx - Podstation - Curiocaster - Fountain Title Changes Sir Pursuit of Peace & Tranquility in the Lands of the Red Clay and the Cherry Trees > Baron Art By: Capitalist Agenda [e-mail] End of Show Mixes: Tom Starkweather - Prof J Jones - Sir Michaelanthony Engineering, Stream Management & Wizardry Mark van Dijk - Systems Master Ryan Bemrose - Program Director Back Office Jae Dvorak Chapters: Dreb Scott Clip Custodian: Neal Jones Clip Collectors: Steve Jones & Dave Ackerman NEW: and soon on Netflix: Animated No Agenda Sign Up for the newsletter No Agenda Peerage ShowNotes Archive of links and Assets (clips etc) 1625.noagendanotes.com Directory Archive of Shownotes (includes all audio and video assets used) archive.noagendanotes.com RSS Podcast Feed Full Summaries in PDF No Agenda Lite in opus format Last Modified 01/14/2024 16:32:02This page created with the FreedomController Last Modified 01/14/2024 16:32:02 by Freedom Controller  

I'm going to turn into a TV network. Adam Curry, John C. DeVore. It's Sunday, January 14, 2024. This is your award-winning Give on Asian Media Assassination, Episode 1625. This is No Agenda. Tracking the dream team and broadcasting live from the heart of the Texas Hill Country here in FEMA Region No. 6. In the morning, everybody, I'm Adam Curry.

And from Northern Silicon Valley, where we're wondering why anybody cares that much about Iowa, I'm John C. Dvorak. It's Craig Vaughn and Buzzkill. In the morning. Well, it's record cold in Iowa. That's why everyone cares. Record cold everywhere. Record cold in Texas.

It's 22 degrees in the hill country. Is that what it is there right now? Yeah. And you know, such a scam. So this cold front, yeah, everyone knew the cold front was coming. And immediately we get this, um, this warning, freezing rain, freezing rain, Sunday, Sunday night, freezing rain. It's going to be horrible. Oh, everything's going to break. You'll be without power, freezing rain. And I'm looking at the aviation weather, which 24 hours ahead, you can have a pretty good idea. But even now, I'm still checking the terminal area forecast, the MATARs. I mean, this is what pilots, their life depends on it and those of passengers. And there's just no rain, no precipitation predicted.

But, but... Well, that's a far cry from freezing rain. Well, but in anticipation of this, ERCOT, you know, where all the old Enron people went to go scam everybody, ERCOT immediately jacked up the per megawatt price hour of gas turbines to 400 bucks. So, you know, it's a money-making scam. And then all people can do is say, oh, the Texas grid's no good. We have a great grid.

It's just, you know, they don't turn on any other power systems. In fact, last night, so we're unincorporated. We're out here. We don't have any city services. We're right on the edge of the city. We have no city services, so nothing else is arranged. We have our own propane.

We have electricity from- We have a garbage pickup. No, we have private service that picks it up Gillespie waste services hey Gillespie literally these guys you can call them and say I got a really heavy

rolled up carpet no problem these are great guys or if I miss the pickup it's happened oh crap I forgot to put it out Monday morning. I can text them. They'll come right back or at the end of the day. It's commercial service.

You guys are great. Anyway, so it turns out, well, here's what happened last night. We get a text. It was on the group text. And Larry and Jeannie, who live in Fredericksburg, and they're a little bit older. They're, I think, in their 60s, late 60s, maybe 70. Still very active. They got business.

But she had a bad fall a week ago, so she's kind of, you know, a little bit bedridden. Larry gets the flu. And then it's going down to 19 degrees, and the city, apparently they have, I think it's they have a nest. The city limited their heat to 70 degrees automatically. So I'm running over with space heaters for them, but this is crazy. You know, they, oh, we have to conserve gas or whatever. Sadly, it's the future. Yeah, you're right uh your temperature is a little

high we're going to turn it down from here from central uh we're also going to take uh hundred dollars out of your bank account if you don't mind that's right for your carbon credits your offset i have other friends and they um they live in wimberley uh and they have city water wimberley is small. It's maybe 3,000 people. Sounds small. It's very small. Paul Simon lives there.

It's small. He does? Yeah. Go over and say hi. I don't know if he's kind of in the community. I think he and Edie keep to themselves. Go over there and say hi. All right. He used to be in the biz.

He hates me. Oh me oh well never mind and I know because at the rock and roll hall of fame dinners I go hey I say hey Paul and he say I hate you because you know he's 4 foot 5 he said I hate you yeah with a wink but he's 4 foot 5

you know it's very awkward for me to say hi to Paul Simon. He's like, eh. He has to yell at you. Yeah, exactly. Hey, I hate you. I hate you. Get in line. Anyway, so our friends there, they have her parents live there and they have a daughter and sometimes their sisters were there.

And so they have more people in there than the previous residents when they bought the place. And they've got the water company calling saying, you're using a lot more water. Well, yeah, there's more people living here. We need you to use less water. What? I mean, don't I pay the bill? Yeah, but we need a lot more water. Well, yeah, there's more people living here. We need you to use less water. What? I mean, don't I pay the bill? Yeah, but we need you to use less. And they're constantly calling and harassing.

That's the future. You're right. Yeah, well, yeah. It's not good. No, you don't want it. Not a good development. Well, speaking of not good, a new Fat Leonard. You you thought fat leonard was

bad we've got an update we have something new new at 10 a san antonio woman is indicted after she allegedly stole more than a hundred million dollars in army funds from fort sam houston a federal grand jury returned the indictment today jan Janet Yamanaka Mello reportedly stole the funds while working as a civilian financial program manager at the Post. The indictment says she used the money to buy millions of dollars worth of jewelry, clothing, vehicles, and real estate. She's charged with 10 counts of fraud and faces up to 20 years for each charge audit the pentagon people this is this is ridiculous that is i didn't know this story that is ludicrous a hundred million ludicrous that someone could steal a hundred million dollars right from under the army's nose it should have

been spotted when she was up to 10 million well that's just the tip of the iceberg, of course. I'm sure it is. I'm sure there's billions being stolen. Well, there's this. Tonight, it's a critical moment for U.S. support in the war. A new report accusing U.S. officials of failing to account for more than half of the sophisticated weapons supplied to Ukraine in a sample that was under review. sophisticated weapons supplied to Ukraine in a sample that was under review. The Defense Department's inspector general investigating whether nearly 40,000 items such as Stinger missiles and night vision. Wow, nice nat pop. Did you hear that? That was great.

The Defense Department's inspector general investigating whether nearly 40,000 items such as Stinger missiles and night vision sets, were properly tracked just before and in the months after Russia invaded. The report found that more than a billion dollars worth of $1.7 billion in military items under scrutiny were delinquent or not properly accounted for. But the report finding no evidence that any U.S. military aid to Ukraine has been misused or stolen. At this time, there remains no credible evidence of illicit diversion of U.S.-provided advanced conventional weapons from Ukraine.

At this time, no evidence. It comes with Congress still not agreeing on continuing to support Ukraine. Now these frontline troops are running low on ammunition. Well, you could really feel the force of this American gun. But these Ukrainian artillery units are now having to limit the amount they fire because of the scarcity of ammunition. The unit showing us their stock of just 20 shells. They had around 200 a day just a few months ago. And David, a top US defense official reacting to that report saying the accounting procedures for weaponry sent here are, quote, not practical in a hostile, dynamic wartime environment. Dude, it's not practical.

The accountants don't like it. It's not practical to count. And why is this abc and why do we have a brit doing this this is this is always baffling to me always about now so but there's always bothered you yeah a little bit so there's um there's a sales job underway for the military industrial complex pick this up from deutschewelle and yes in this it is Deutsche Welle. I made a mistake on the last show. Marina Miron is a defense analyst with King's College London. If you could just help us understand what's actually taking place in the sky. Ukrainian officials said just eight out of 40 missiles in this latest barrage were actually shot down. They say others were disabled using electronic warfare. What does all that mean? Well, first of all, the missiles that were shot down, they were shot down by the air defenses. But we see that Ukraine is lacking

air defenses. And as far as electronic warfare is concerned, it's a Russian specialty, actually. It is basically operations in the electromagnetic spectrum where a system would send out a signal in order to confuse the missile, so to prevent the missile from detecting the target, sending wrong measurements to it. It's also used to suppress radars, to jam GPS signals, and this goes also for drones, for instance, as well. So these are these kinds of systems that the Ukrainians have been asking for in the United States. But this is sensitive technology. So Ukraine has to work with what it has in order to try to jam Russian missiles

and to prevent them from reaching their targets. And just briefly, this new technology, is Ukraine trying to develop its own while it waits for American and other supplies? The Ukrainians have captured some electronic warfare systems from the Russians and handed them to NATO in order to study. But I'm sure that they kept some part upon which they can work because Western allies um export this technology to ukraine so ukraine is on its own when it comes to the development of electronic warfare systems able to jam russian radars and russian missiles yeah all right kings cross college good sales job lady we need uh we need an order of those uh missile confusing uh things they've got a giant magnet in the sky or something?

Sounds bogus. Well, of course, they're not getting any money from us just yet, but the UK just pledged 2.5 billion pounds. What is that? Almost $3 billion, I'm just guessing. A little less, $3 billion. 25 cents and 25% higher. And Rishi Sunak went over to Kiev and announced the deal.

And I have a little clip of him standing there in Parliament. And Volodymyr was there and everybody's all jacked and all happy. President Zelensky, you are an inspiration. And Vladimir, I'm proud to call you a friend. President John F. Kennedy said of the great Winston Churchill that he mobilized the English language and sent it into battle. Well, Vladimir, you have done the same. And English isn't even your first language.

No leader this century has done more to unite liberal democracies in the defense of our values. So let me say to you, on behalf of everyone, thank you. Thank you. Very good. How about that? He's comparing him to Winston Churchill churchill and himself to jfk and himself to jfk which is even even funnier yeah even weirder so he went on for the whole you know like a whole session like we're gonna win you're gonna do it for us go volatimir and i can already tell you

who's gonna gobble up that money because there was a very interesting move made by BlackRock. And BlackRock bought GIP, which I didn't know what GIP was, Global Infrastructure Partners. They bought it. And I didn't know that BlackRock bought companies. I thought they only took shares in companies of every company. companies. I thought they only took shares in companies of every company. So now they bought this company $12.5 billion. And I think that they're just sitting there waiting for this billion or whatever billion the US Congress will approve to gobble it up. Here's Larry Fink, the Finkster, the CEO. We believe infrastructure is only at the beginning of a real major asset class.

There are some structural demands that are going to increase the issuance of more and more infrastructure. I've said all along, and Bloomberg has been talking about it for a number of years, that deficits matter. It's going to be harder and harder for countries to continue to deficit finance. And at the same time, there's a giant need to rebuild and build out infrastructure, whether it is the digital infrastructure, as we are all trying to become more engaged with AI and other forms. We have a decarbonization process. More and more countries are more interested than ever before in energy independence. And one of the ways in countries that do not have available hydrocarbons,

they're going to be doing it through wind and solar, maybe other forms of decarbonization. And when you think about BlackRock and the roles we play with many governments, our continuous ownership in stock and bonds of every major corporation in the world, more and more companies are coming to us. And over the last few years, we did build up a very large and really successful infrastructure team. He's not bashful. More infrastructure is going to be needed.

Infrastructure asset class. I thought that was interesting. Beautiful. That's beautiful. Yeah. Well, that means that you can, I guess you can commoditize. You can gouge. You can get the infrastructure, get the sewer system, and then overcharge everybody.

Yeah. Yeah. It's got to be about gouging what else would he do that's what his that's what they do yeah season of unveiling there you go they're decloaking hey we have we we have shares in every every big company in the world company we own your water company yeah we own that and what airports because these guys build airports i think gip built Gatwick. And so they'll probably build a nice new airport in Ukraine.

Something nice there in Kiev. And then just overcharge for the landing fees. Of course. I mean, the rubbleization is almost complete. It's not even the landing fees. It's the retail. Retail is where you make the money. Retail, parking. fees it's the retail retail is where you make the money retail parking it's it's and and they also do fiber optics so they'll be wiring up ukraine ukraine will be great for data centers you can

see it coming that 300 million from russia is going to be a joke compared to what these guys are going to scoop up. Give it all. That's a good start. Have you seen any more CES coverage? No. In fact, I ignored all the CES coverage after our last show. It was the latest. It just seemed pretty dull to me. No, it's so

dull. And people, they just have no ideas outside of the... And someone who pointed that out, that the fridge that detects your tomato freshness and gives you recipes, I think, and I wanted to ask you about this, should you even have tomatoes in your fridge? Yeah, you want to put tomatoes in the fridge. You want to put them in the fridge?

Yeah. How about eggs? Well, I mean, you can leave them out if you want them to ripen a little more. Yeah. But they'll rot pretty quickly if they're left out. How are you with eggs? Are you fridge eggs guy or not in the fridge? Well, Mimi's the expert on this and I'll tell you what she says.

Because this comes from TooManyEggs. TooManyEggs.com, the book that everyone should get at least a free copy of. Better hurry. Eggs, when they're laid and they have a coating on them, they're pretty impervious to any problems. So you can keep them unrefrigerated just in a big pile. Until you wash them, right? Well, washing them is one,

but also when you refrigerate them, the first time they have to stay refrigerated after that. Oh, once you go, you can't go back. Yeah. Right, right. Hmm. And something I get from the HEB, I should probably just refrigerate that

because that's probably going to be... Yeah, it's been refrigerated already. all right anyway so that's why most refrigerators have a little egg area where you can put eggs yes an egg thing so everyone's out of ideas everything is ai you know it's the sony guy had an ev drive out on stage that he supposedly was controlling with a with a playstation handset okay okay i mean it and yes this is too funny that these demos because most of them are fake of course so the siemens ceo this was interesting or siemens i learned it's siemens siemens siemens from deutsche wella so the siemens ceo had a keynote who who would have expected that you know as far as i know siemens does uh well i thought maybe washing machines you know wow you'll have a cool washing machine they do

pretty much everything electronics somebody sent me a graph have a, it wasn't a Siemens. It was their washing machine and it's connected. And it had transferred 10 gigabytes of data in one month. And what is it doing? Is it hosting movies? Maybe it's doing some processing on one of those one of those uh mesh nets is it mining bitcoin there you go mining bitcoin doing seti you don't need bandwidth really for the bitcoin is a punchline but what is the washing machine doing that it's transferring 10 gigabytes i'd

really like to know it's got to be stealing movies from the internet it's got to be like a tour server or something would you like to see a movie while you do your laundry there you go so the zeeman's guy comes on stage now he's probably my age about 60 bald balding so not completely bald you're not Bezos, cool bald, but just bald. And he's wearing blue jeans, white t-shirt, black leather jacket. Oh, brother. Like a Steve Jobs mode. I'm like, you're the Siemens guy? And here's the big unveiling.

2024 is a turning point. Today, we can build and use technology faster than ever. Because we can combine the real and the digital worlds. And here's what I mean. You need highly trained engineers to build and run things in the real world. Infrastructure, manufacturing, transportation, you name it. Design cycles take years. Deploying new tech in the real world is expensive.

And mistakes cost billions, sometimes even lives. But this is changing. And the change has a name. The industrial metaverse. With generative AI and the industrial metaverse, building and using technology is becoming easier and faster. A lot easier and a lot faster. Yes, faster. We will be able to accelerate innovation, accelerate sustainability, and accelerate access to new tech.

and accelerate access to new tech. Tonight, I will share my vision for how AI and the industrial metaverse will redefine reality and transform the way we live, work, move, or make. So you're going to be able to sit at home. You won't have to come to work, slave. Sounds like I'm listening to Hogan's Heroes, by the way. The industrial metaverse.

Did he not get the memo that the metaverse is out? No, he missed out somehow. And he throws in generative AI. Okay. That's new. So you're going to sit at home and you have your data glove on. Oh, man. I still have my Nintendo data glove.

Maybe I can be able to use that in the future. So you get your data glove, and you'll be putting together parts on the assembly line, and everyone will be able to code. He said that later. Oh, yeah, that's for sure. Oh, yeah. Because everybody wants to code.

Yeah, well, you know, it'll be business applications. Hey, I need to send something to a mailing list. And you can code it up. And the tech bubble is expanding. Except for maybe, well, actually, yes, X. Linda Iaccarino, who is Elon's CEO, she gave everybody an update, not in audio or video unfortunately she gave everybody an update about what she calls x the x everything app here we go oh there you go exactly as we predicted i let me read because it gave us some interesting insights

she says this week we made it clear. The everything app is closer than everyone thinks. Nothing can slow us down. X is part of a constellation of companies working for the betterment of humanity. Of humanity. We're moving fast for our communities, creators and businesses. Big themes for X this year. Freedom of speech. A new video X this year, freedom of speech,

a new video ecosystem, and the power of AI. It's all coming to life in plain sight and in real time. Here's what we discussed this week. X is an app for everyone. We're building an information independence that's essential for society. From our live stream collaboration with CES to new content partnerships with

tulsi gabbard don lemon and jim rome how about that and and you were right i was wrong they paid don lemon a lot of money according to carish swisher who hangs out with don lemon apparently and so i guess jim rome as well and Tulsi Gabbard. Got plenty of money to spend. We're expanding perspectives on X and unlocking new commercial opportunities. We're building a new ecosystem, video ecosystem with our partners. There's never been more economic opportunity on X.

New shopping experiences, financial partnerships for payments, AI collaborations, and a recruitment product product just the beginning. You know, they're changing the name again. They are? They're going to change it to America Online. Yeah, you know, it's funny you say that.

That's exactly what AOL tried to be, isn't it? Yeah. Except they ruined it by letting everybody into the Internet. Now they're trying, this is, I guess, a reverse osmosis version of it. Well, it looks like it's just the opposite, to go in the other direction. Well, let's see if we can wean them from the Internet. Yeah. And create a new AOL. It's very's you know how that's gonna go yeah they're gonna and they're gonna buy uh where can they buy can they then reverse

merger and buy discovery and buy all of that well i could if you make it and the trouble is the net to value the book value of the company keeps going down. So it's going to be tough. Yeah. Well, I mean, when AOL bought Time Warner, Time Warner was much bigger than AOL. Yeah, but AOL was, the book value was going up, up, up. It was going through the moon, AOL. So it looked like a good idea at the time.

Whenever an online thing starts to get into show business, like hiring Don Lemon, that's usually where things go wrong. Good point. This is what happened with Yahoo, if you remember, when Terry Semel was running it. Terry Semel, right. I'm going to turn it into a TV network. But wait a minute, there already are TV networks.

You've got something special, something different. Why don't you like maximize what it can do? No, TV network. Yeah, very similar to, like Spotify did the same thing. Oh, we're going to be a podcast. We're going to be the biggest podcast network in the world. No. Do you have any experience with podcasting or podcasters?

No, it doesn't matter. And they brought in Hollywood people. I think Joe Rogan was probably a good hire for them. I'm sure he brought a lot of people over, although I don't know if they all signed up for the $5. I wonder about that. I personally doubt it i think that rogan was the guy who made out on that oh no doubt but you know supposedly his contract i think that we're going to see that don lemon's going to make out yeah and we'll see somehow yeah and jim rome and And Jim Rome, who's already got more properties than he needs.

Yeah, I would say get your money up front, Don. But it's going to be great. I can't wait for Don's show. You know it's going to be a clip bonanza. Yeah, you're probably right. Yeah, I'm excited for him, honestly. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited.

I'm excited for him, honestly. I mean, we all know how we've just excoriated him at every move he made. But, you know, so I think it's pretty, it's either bold and brazen or completely oblivious to his position. Musk did make the comment that he likes it. to uh well his position musk did make the comment that he likes that he thinks that this is proving that he's on both sides of these arguments uh that he could put something like that on yeah and of course the guys who already quit twitter all these journalists they've gone off to mastodon uh they and they call it the dead bird you know they they bird it's unbelievable how they've uh because there's various opinions on twitter now they had to leave well since you bring that up i wanted to talk about uh activity pub for a moment i don't know i don't know if anyone knows what activity pub is

i don't. So you don't have to have Google in between these disparate applications. In fact, we're actually using ActivityPub to decentralize the podcast index. Because if there's one weakness of what we set up with Podcasting 2.0, it's the actual index. If they come after that or whatever, I mean, there's lots of copies around, but you want to decentralize it so that there's no one way to ruin podcasting. So what ActivityPub is, it allows messages to be exchanged in what is commonly known as the Fediverse. So servers federate with each other. That's what Mastodon runs on. And this was known as GNU Social before that. And of course, six years ago, I set up No Agenda Social, was running it from, I think I had it on Amazon AWS. And it became a big project, technically.

I couldn't handle it anymore. The updates, the infrastructure, it was becoming very expensive. And I think maybe, did I run it for a year or two, I'm thinking? I think it was becoming very expensive um and i think maybe did i run it for a year or two i'm thinking i think it was something like that uh matt hamilton one of our producers stepped in and took over noagendasocial.com in that in the very beginning and i was very excited about the technology very excited about the federated nature of it. So you can have an account on one server. You were jacked up. I was.

I was very jacked up on it. It was great because, you know, you can connect to someone else and send, you know, post messages, basically a social network. You could have a little server with just yourself and your family. Everybody could communicate. The mistake I made, which I didn't know, but I fully own it, is my choice of domain name, noagendasocial.com, which, of course, identifies with no agenda. So any messages posted on no agenda social could always and can always be seen by this world of federated servers. could always and can always be seen by this world of federated servers.

So even though if you're on your own account, say on No Agenda Social, and there's stuff you don't want to see, you can block it, everything that's coming from No Agenda Social from us is always visible outside of our server and, of course, associated to the outside world with the show. So very quickly, we became the outside world with the show. So very quickly, we became one of the most blocked instances. We were called Nazis, KKK, quadroons, free speech zone, which I kind of like the free speech zone because there was no censoring. No one got kicked off except for actual illegal stuff.

And there was some of that in the beginning. And it was funny, but the initial culture you know and even the fediverse itself is very very um dimension b so you can know why you can understand why a lot of people got very triggered just by our general thinking uh so matt took it over upheld the same policy that I initiated, no censorship, freeze peach. Over time, and this has been going on for, you know, this, I've been having this conversation on Noage and the social for months. This became a problem. I think likely because of the purges, you know, we capped it at 10,000, inactive accounts

would get purged, more people could come in. I think partially because of that, partially because the nature of social media, which is obviously a societal failure, content was being posted that you could block, that you didn't have to see, but to the outside world, it certainly did not reflect the nature of our show or the producers of this podcast. And I was really getting fed up. I didn't want to tolerate it anymore. So I'd advocated many times that people move to smaller servers. You can get one out of the box, five bucks a month. You could share that cost with a couple of people. But it

was so bad that hosting companies that host Mastodon instances wouldn't even let people set them up with no agenda in the name because of our reputation so it would be easy if we could just change the name and have everybody go on their merry way because i just i don't know about you but i didn't like the association that we were having with a lot of the there was a lot of garbage there's hundreds of accounts just posting garbage and that's visible to the whole outside world so unfortunately you can't change and i own the domain name then you know just always let that go it's fine we'll just run it but you can't change the name the domain name without breaking federation and that's that's i didn't realize that early on because well now you know so i would

suggest having gotten into more than a few beefs with some of the losers on the No Agenda social, that we kill the instance and start afresh. Well, that is exactly what Matt decided. He took, I think, a brave stand. He made the decision. It's better to start a new server and it's at no authority dot social and you can migrate your account to it that way you can keep your fediverse followers it's going to break stuff no doubt about it and he's going to allow time for people to migrate over and i

just wanted i wanted to take this moment and thank matt hamilton for being such a great kind generous and a good steward of no agenda, and for all the years of his time, talent, and treasure that he put into maintaining it, he's a real solid guy and deserves a lot of praise and gratitude. Where does Aaroner fit into the picture? That's Matt. Aaroner. Matt is Aaroner. Okay. His name is Matt Hamilton. Aaroner. You busted him. You've doxed him.

No, he says it right on his account, Matt Hamilton, at Aaron Herc. No doxxing. So now, so everyone can move over there and that'll be fine. It sucks that we can't keep the name or that we can't change the name and keep the server intact. That's really what bums me out because it just breaks everything. That part really sucks. But we'll have a new home. So the No Agenda Social will be no more

at what drop-dead date? I don't know. Matt will figure that out. But people can already move over today. So you can start migrating your stuff over. And we hope to see you there, John. If I can figure it out, it might be too hard for me. I'm sure you'll be able to figure it out.

All right. What you got? Yes? While we're talking about major changes, I want to play a series of clips that I thought were fake to begin with, but it was confirmed by the CEO of Cloudflare. Oh, this video. I stopped watching after about two minutes because it was... I have the whole thing because I think it's valuable.

Now, I thought it was... Can I just say something? It was uncomfortable for me because I have fired friends in my companies. I fired you, I think. Didn't I fire you? No, you never fired me. I demoted you. I had to half your salary or something. No, no, you didn't demote me either.

I kept the job. What I got was a cut in pay. Yes, and I had to say, dude, I'm sorry. I got to cut your pay and i had to say dude i'm sorry i gotta cut your pay i hate these calls but but i didn't at least i didn't chicken chicken out and have hr do it or whoever well this was this reason i was attracted to this clip is because it was a reenactment almost per almost word for word of the script of Up in the Air with Clooney. Now, if anyone hasn't seen that movie,

I think it's one of the best movies done by Clooney. It's just a beautiful film. And it's about a guy who is a professional at firing people. And they were going to hire this girl who is going to be the, she's the new young kid that was going to change it all so nobody's going to hire this girl who is going to be that she's the new young kid that was going to change it all so nobody's going to be fired in person anymore it's all going to be done over the over the computer exactly the way this was happening so this was right out of up in the air and i said well there's got to be a fake because it was well miked you

could hear her oh you really i mean it looked to me like she just had her phone set down. It was very, I thought it was too professional to be honest. Yeah, I'm skeptical. I'm very skeptical of everything. Yes. So I'm skeptical of this being just a fake. But then they had Cloudflare, and I had to rationalize, well, was there any slander to Cloudflare? No, not really.

I don't think they could be sued, but they could be sued for reputation or there could be some SEC action. But anyway, once the guy from Cloudflare came out and said, well, we're sorry this happened the way it did, but we fired 40 people. We fire 40 people every quarter from the 1,500 sales people that we have. It's a great company. Every quarter, 40 go. Isn't that stacked ranking? but we fire 40 people every quarter from the 1,500 sales people that we have. It's a great company. Every quarter, 40 go. Isn't that stacked ranking? Isn't that what that is?

This is an interesting point because stacked ranking never came up in the conversation, but stacked ranking does stuff like that. Yeah. And stacked ranking is, I believe, is going on at Boeing, and that's why Boeing's having these issues. Because they brought these GE guys into CEO Boeing. Yeah. And they're all stacked ranking guys. Yeah.

And then they fired 900 quality control guys. Yeah. That was during the, that was because of the VACs. Yeah. One of our producers wrote a whole list, and I put it in the show notes. Beautiful list. Yeah. Under trains good, planes bad.

A whole list of all these things, and he thinks it's definitely Boeing's mistake. The most recent Mac's kerfuffle. Yeah, he basically takes Boeing to task. But yeah, 900 quality control guys, which is these guys you don't want to fire but okay so we go to this so this woman found out in advance that that she's going to get fired from her friend who got fired a few minutes earlier or a few hours earlier and so she got ready got prepared and and taped the whole thing and i want to go over it with it in mind that you and i both have enough experience in the in the corporate world that we can take these both sides to task and some of the mistakes that were made along the way.

I just think it would be nice to deconstruct. Good. Construct it or deconstruct it. Deconstruct it. Yeah. Let's go with clip one. Hey, Brittany. Hi.

Yes. I'm so sorry. My name's Rosie. I'm just joining the call. Nice to meet you. I'm on the HR team. Hi, Brittany. Hi.

Thanks for meeting with me and Rosie. We have an important meeting today. Script. We finished our evaluations of 2023 performance. This is where you have not met cloudflare expectations for performance we've decided to partner with you yeah i'm gonna stop you right there um so i started august 25th i've been on a three-month ramp okay so first of all script obvious man and woman this is and this isn't'm going to bet it's an outside HR firm. I don't even think it's in-house.

I have the same feeling. I think the mistake immediately that these two boneheads made where she stopped them from reading the script. Yeah. Yep. I'm going to stop you right now and took over the place that is not in their script there's no there's probably in there if employee starts crying stuff like that but not i'm gonna stop you and i'm gonna get in your face with this no

probably not and so did so that's a screw up on their part. I think the guy or the woman, one of the two should have said, well, let me finish first. Yeah. And then finish the script. I agree. I agree. But they didn't do that. They, oh, okay, whatever. And so this girl went off on him, which means to me that she probably is a good salesperson

to be able to pull this off. Oh, good point. And I looked at it and watched, and I worked with a lot of different salespeople, mostly in publishing, but I worked with, you know, they have to go out there and sell stuff. And I can recognize a reasonably good salesperson, kind of, but she never,

she says herself that she never closed anything. She was only there for three months. I don't know how big these contracts are. And she's trying to close over the holidays. Yeah, yeah. She made a big point about that. But she called it a ramp, which I kind of like, I'm on my ramp, on my sales ramp. And our guy who sent us the insight on this said that, because I asked him about some of these terms.

I didn't hear a few of these. The ramp to him meant onboarding, which is probably what was going on. So she was only really working there for a month or two. And the CEO later says, well, when we fire the 40 people, we can tell right away if somebody's no good. And I'm not convinced of that, but okay, let's go on. And then it was three weeks of December and then a week of Christmas. And then here we are.

I have had the highest activity amongst my team since I started. I have had three contracts out, done a really great job managing my deals up until the very end that decided not to close last minute. So I don't think that that makes a lot of sense. And when she says decided not to close last minute, to me that means these are dead deals. I mean, it won't matter to these HR people, but it sounds like she just didn't close. It's not like they're going to close.

No, she didn't close. And she had three, I think, three deals. She couldn't close them, which is a problem. But at the same time, we're dealing with Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. That whole period is impossible to do any work. Nobody's around. Yeah, even from November. You're right.

Okay. That makes a lot of sense for me and my Cloudflare journey here so far. I love the Cloudflare journey. Yeah, I love the journey. This is Zoomers. It's great. Also, every single one-on-one I've had with my manager, every conversation I've had with him, he has been giving me nothing but I am doing a great job. I have had great activity.

I have really great meetings. I'm picking up the products very quickly. By the way, what all this sounds like, great activity, that's all coming out of Salesforce. Salesforce is showing her activity being great. You know what I mean? Oh, that's a good point. That's how they track that. I'm picking up the products very quickly, and things have been going really, really well.

I make really great relationships with my clients. So I disagree that my performance hasn't been, I haven't met performance expectations when I certainly have just because I haven't closed anything officially. Officially? I hear you. I hear you.

Also, why are you doing this and not my manager? Not, you know, we've never met. So this is a little odd that my manager has no idea that this has been happening and the director has no idea that this has been happening. So I'm just definitely confused. And, yeah, I would love like an explanation that makes sense. I'm confused. Yeah, I would love like an explanation that makes sense. I'm confused.

Doesn't every salesperson, I mean, I've hired lots of salespeople. You've been around. I don't know if you've hired salespeople. I'm sure you have, actually. You give someone a certain amount of time to close something because a salesperson usually comes in with a Rolodex, even if they're just starting out, you know, it's like, you're going to hire someone who has a contact. So maybe it was her three contacts. These were the ones and she couldn't close them. Now, then I'd say, you know what? You didn't close on the things you said you should close. We need to find somebody else.

But if there could be some, and she could be lying about the her interaction with her boss could be oh yeah it could be the one-on-one we don't know yeah and i get the sense she's honest but i i could be wrong because some of these zoomers you don't know i mean you had they have the reputation of not wanting to work at all or coming in late and doing all this stuff she didn didn't seem like that. She seemed like a go-getter. No, she seemed like a conscientious person. Yeah. And she also seemed detail-oriented, the fact that she recorded this. And by the way, this is your future nightmare for all corporations who think they're going to get away with firing people over a Zoom call. You're not going to get away with it.

Oh, you are taking the Zoomer side here. I am taking the Zoomer side. You have to stop. This has to stop immediately because this is good. This is the way Zoomers think. Wait a minute. I'm getting fired.

Let me record the whole thing. I think I'll document this. Oh, I just did. Let me post it. Yeah, good point. This makes Cloudflare look like a bunch of douchebags. Total douches, yeah. No, I agree with that.

But that's, I mean, that is Silicon Valley. And it's interesting that this is really one of the few phone recordings we're seeing because this happened constantly, constantly. Yes, it's one of the few. This is, she is setting a new, she's setting the bar. Yeah, yeah. This is not going to be the first that we hear of something like this until they stop it. Because this, this is embarrassing.

No, I hadn't even, you know, this video was posted kind of like, look at this crybaby Zoomer. And I think you're making some valid points here. Oh, there I am. Yes. That's why there's two of us. Onward. Yeah, I would love like an explanation that makes sense. 100%.

Okay, you got me. 100%. Yeah, I would love like an explanation that makes sense real quick let me carve out the two threads um a ladder of why i'm on this conversation i'll put that one the second half and rosie might be better to explain he should have said let's put a pin in that. That would have been another boring moment, but he messed it up. Yeah, he let it carve out.

Carve out, let me put a pin in that. Let's circle back. Which is your feedback and notes about your performance so we add a little context to that so um just for clarification you are not being singled out in this your peers are also being collectively um performance this is a collective calibration for cloudflare collective calibration for cloud for cloudflare that Ooh, collective calibration for Cloudflare. Mmm. That sounds like an annual report. Sounds like bullcrap.

I should have put the boing in there, too. Collective calibration for Cloudflare. Assessed on performance. This is a collective calibration for Cloudflare. So I just want to clarify that piece. I won't be able to add any kind of specific numbers or wait. Yeah. No.

Can you explain for me why Brittany peach is getting let go? I won't be able to go the way great porn name. I'm sorry. I hate to say it, but Brittany peach is a great name. It's a fun, it would be as peach. It would be,

but her name is actually P I E T S C H EastS-C-H-E kind of thing. It's a complicated name. Even better! Well, I think, no, I think Brittany Peach, P-E-A-C-H-E would be a good stripper's name. It's also a good name for a radio show. Hey, midday,

is Brittany Peach with you? Here's Berlin. There's a weather girl on the Fox Weather Channel whose last name is Freeze. Oh, no. Hello, I'm Brittany Freeze Peach, everybody. Brittany Peach is getting let go. I won't be able to go into specifics for numbers. Wait, why though?

I just started. I've been working extremely hard just because I haven't closed anything that has nothing to do with my performance on a three month ramp with just one month with two major holidays in the middle. I don't think that has anything to do with why peach is getting let go not why claude flair decided to hire too many people and are now actually realizing that they can't afford this many people letting that go if that's the real answer i would rather just you tell me that instead of making up some bullshit and telling me that right before i lose my job from someone that i've never met before if you can respect okay first of all um she shouldn't have dropped the bullshit thing that's too bad that kind of kind of ruined everything the way she did it and i i have to give it to her though when i had to fire and everyone and we literally lost clients and this was think new ideas is before i knew you and but it was the same with Podshow.

We don't have enough money. I said, we have to cut back. And I literally said, we lost clients. We don't have work for you. I'm sorry, I got to let you go. But that was the real reason. And I would just guess that's the real reason Cloudflare is letting people go. I would say yes to that too.

And I think she was right when she nailed it. I don't know. I don't object to the way she presented it personally with the bullshit. It doesn't bother me, no. But I think that's what is going on. And that's what she pointed out. And she said, I'd rather you fire me for that reason which is hey we hired too many people sorry you're at the bottom of the list here you gotta you gotta

go we can't do anything about it yeah that would be fine and she's i think she would be happy with that but not the nonsense well happier i mean it's not joyful well no she's not gonna be happy at all but happier. Yeah. Or less disgruntled. Just be honest. Be honest. I mean, I've fired people. I was like, you're fired.

Here's why. I'm not going to pussyfoot around. It's like, you're fired. I got to let you go. And here's why. But, okay. God, I hated that so much. I hated that so much.

But I certainly didn't pussy out and let HR do it. Yeah, you have to do it yourself. Okay, onward. Yeah, I can totally respect that. And I don't think Dom or myself today is going to give you any clarity or answers. It's going to meet the expectations that you're communicating to us, Brittany. So I can't speak to... Am I getting let go for no reason? If you guys can't give me a reason? I'm happy to follow up with you separately to give you the data that was calibrated. I'll need to speak with revenue leadership specifically

to see if we can get that for you. Can you share that with me now? I cannot share that with you right now, unfortunately. No, because she doesn't have that data. Yeah. It's understandable how you feel, and your frustration cannot stress that enough. I have been working extremely hard. Sorry, I just knew that this meeting was coming after knowing what's been happening with my peers

and how extremely frustrated and upset everyone is. I know you guys must not be able to understand that given the positions that you are in and it must be very easy for you to just have these little 10 minute, 15 minute meetings, tell someone that they're fired, completely wreck their whole life and then that's it

with no explanation. That's extremely traumatizing for people. If you can imagine that and i don't well now back to the zoomer position if these people truly were thinking about the people they're firing being quote-unquote humane knowing that this generation and even the generation before her, I'm just guessing, have always had participation trophies and, you know, you're doing great. It's okay. Don't worry about it. It would have been much nicer to have just blamed it on the company's position,

which is ultimately always the truth. Like, you know, it's not working because we need more money and you can't deliver it. But not this, you know? Yeah, I wonder where this evolved from. I mean, again, I refer back to the movie Up in the Air, which was not about a tech company, but it was the same kind of thing where you had these... It was a big corporation that had to do a lot of firing. And I'm trying to think, I didn't get fired a lot, but I have been.

Now that's surprising. It's not surprising to me. Well, because you brought in the numbers. You brought in the moolah, baby. You are the cash cow. No one ever went broke advertising next to a Dvorak column. Right. That's what I'm talking about.

But now I'm talking about when I was younger and working in factories. And I was almost fired from International Harvester one year. And I was taken in to my direct supervisor, and he told me it was wrong. And he said, you have to stop that. And so I went back to work, but there was this idea. What I'm interested in is this third party, which again goes back to the movie, this third party that comes in is the hatchet man.

And the hatchet man comes, and we had one of these at IDG when I was working for InfoWorld. There was a hatchet man known in computer world, because Pat McGovern had to be loved by everybody, and he was a nice guy, slap on the back, everything's fantastic. And he had a hatchet man named Walter Boyd, who was kind of a gay character that wore an ermine coat, and he was very flamboyant.

And he'd go in, and he just loved firing people, and he would be the hatchet guy. And he'd come in, and if you were having a meeting with Walter Boyd, you were out, and everybody knew in advance, which is kind of what this girl is going through, because she knew in advance that she was going to get fired by these nudnicks, and nobody knows who they are. I just where this professional i forget i forget the name of the company but i always hear it advertised on cnbc oh it's it's like it's on tip my tongue and you hear these uh you hear these people calling it's like oh we have an employee

who has horrible body odor and i just don't know how to talk to him about it you know then yes we have an employee he was always late and you know so all and and then it's the payoff is don't worry we'll come in we'll take care of it for you i don't know this oh oh man it's on the tip of my tongue i should uh yeah it's an hr company and interesting yeah well somehow along the lines this happens. What are we on? Clip three? We're still four. We're still four. I don't think that

this is... It's just very, very shocking. Very, very shocking. I've really given my whole energy and life over the last four months to this job. To be let go for no reason is like a huge slap in the face from a company that I really wanted to believe in. Can absolutely

understand how you feel that way, why you feel that way. And I'll be honest with you, there's nothing that we're going to say in this call in the time that we have that's going to undo the way that you feel right in this moment back to the script the way you feel right at this moment i love this that part of it and this the time we have in other words you got your 10 minutes was what she said at the beginning of these 10 minute calls yeah and this this call was nine minutes in the time that we have in other words shut up so you can get fired so we can go to the next to fire somebody else. We got to wrap this up, people.

We're on the clock, too, lady. Peach, Brittany Peach, we're on the clock here. Yeah, pretty much is what it amounted to. This is the last clip. I personally will do everything that I can to give you as much specific information as I can after this call. I can't make any promises. I understand where you're coming from. I can tell you that Dom and I do care. I understand the feeling that you have right now. And I can't change that. So I'll just be honest. But why can't so but there you guys have still not given me a reason why I'm being let go.

Despite constant positive praise from my manager, great meetings that I'm having, the amount of activity that I have has all been positive. I have not received any negative inclination. I have not been put on a performance improvement plan. Nothing. any negative inclination i have not been put on a performance improvement plan um nothing so i i cannot good point performance improvement plan i'm sure i'm sure that's a real thing yeah yes in fact our guy who sent us uh our producer who sent this stuff in was mentioned that performance improvement plan is is code for it is a real thing and it's done when you're screwing up and now they're going to start documenting it so they can fire you with cause there you go and they didn't do that with her but again before you finish it you have another clip

after this by the way that you have a six this is five oh and then i'll stop because it's going to take forever no i want to hear them all now yeah what i was going to say was it seems to me that britney's future zoomers you know when they're hired and if they have the reputation that they have of being super sensitive uh it's possible that their managers are are kind of alerted to this and have to treat them with kid gloves. And so you never get the kind of feedback you need to say, hey, hey, you're not working hard enough. I mean, so I'm at a crossroads at this part of her discussion

as to how much of this is her fault by virtue of her peers and peer group of Zoomers who are not known for being hard workers she seems and may but think they are is she deluded let's let's get back to the tape i cannot speak to what your manager has communicated to you directly but that should be the indication of poor performance based on your attainment and leading indicators of data that is that is the rationale but i've been here for only a month after ramping and that was during a holiday so i don't understand what those can you

explain what those performance metrics are or is that just like a a vague term to give to everyone that you're speaking to today. I'll say that the performance indicators and the force metrics are, well, they are. What did he say? Did he say force metrics? I don't know what he said. I think it was force metrics. That's probably Salesforce metrics.

This is how your future is determined. Oh, you're right. It has to be force force metrics sales force it would be it would be yes that's exactly what it is to give to everyone that you're speaking to performance people are saying we're mishearing it performance let's hear again i'll say that the the performance indicator performance no he says force metrics i'll say performance based on force metrics he says performance based on force metrics i'll say that the performance indicators and the force metrics are, well, they are, we're not able to go into specifics and there's no situation where we will be able to go into specifics. Do you guys even know? Do you guys even know?

No. Like why, like who you're talking to each day? Like every single 10, 15 minutes, do you guys even know who you're talking to? Like why you're letting these people go when you don't even understand like the kind of work and everything that they've put in? I hear you and what you're saying. No, no, no.

Wow. I wonder what this costs for them to hire this team. They could have probably kept her on for another six months for what it costs for these two. Now, going back to force metrics, this is kind of what happened with SAS. What was the other, the big system? Bon? Bon? No, it was SPS.

The other, the big system, the big. Bon? No, SP, it was SPS. It was another big, it's a big personnel software system. Somebody should. I only know Bon. No, no, this is you. I keep thinking SAS, but it might be something else, but it's like three letters or a couple of letters.

And they're the ones who have built. SAP, SAP. SAP. Thanks, Ned. Thanks, C. Mike. couple of letters and they're the ones who have built sap sap thanks net nerd thanks c mike uh sap has built it which is a system like another system that you you implement it and then you don't have to do any thinking because you don't have to meet i really understand your employees you did sap does the work for you and sap is incorporated within it i don't know if it's from Jack Welch or they're the ones who first came up with it. Rank, stack ranking. Stack ranking, right. Yeah.

And so SAP would create the stack ranking situation and you'd get to fire people without having to really do any. any you it's no surprise that microsoft stock and the company has just skyrocketed once they seemingly eliminated stack ranking from its from their they don't do it anymore as far as i know oh interesting when balmer left out it left with it i think balmer actually may have canceled it while he was there but he didn't get the benefit from it and uh this is a very bad system because what it creates is stacked ranking creates and i think that this may be incorporated into the salesforce thing um stack ranking creates a environment that is very similar to the tv show survivor where people scheme against the one guy they want to get rid of yeah it's a scam it's not useful no no you end up getting rid of your best people by accident or by schemers was a hero for stuff like this people

he was yeah jack welch guy yep pretty much right the worst the worst all right we have one more here okay i hear you what you're saying. It just doesn't make any sense that you guys have still not been able to give me a reason why I'm being let go. From a process perspective, your questions are valid. This isn't going to be the

full script in the situation where we're able to go into the detail that you're looking for. But then when? If it's not right as I'm getting fired, it's certainly not going to be after when i'm no longer part of the company no no so i don't think there's anything we can say in this moment or today britney that's going to change the way that you feel and it's under again like understandable i'm taking notes and feedback yeah i know You definitely asked me to. It's not going to change the outcome of the situation today.

So it may be best if we, I do get into more of the specifics of what the next steps are, because I think it's clear that you have questions that we cannot give answers to. And if you'd be open to it, I'd love to move into what the next steps are so that you're not um any further blindsided than you already feel wrap it up okay thank you don't okay and i'm again i'm really sorry that you're having this experience and feeling this way i'm one of the things that you want to confirm is your ex-spouse or future ex-spouse i'm really

sorry you're having this experience it's really the way to go it's really the way to go i i found this this little bit to be that's why i clipped it it and i wanted to discuss it because i think it's it it portends for a lot of interesting situations down the road the least of which is this this idea that you're going to get somebody on a zoom call and fire them and get away with it yeah i i think those days are over well the troll room is all over they're saying that they know all kinds of people are getting fired by Zoom. It seems to be the standard. Yeah.

Start recording this. This is good material. A little long. I could have done with a little less. But thank God you tracked it up. I tried to cut it down, but I decided to put the whole cloth because I did have commentary. Back to some news because it's flu season. Flu season is and runny noses listen to these nat pops flu season is raging fever aches and runny noses especially in the south we had a very early start to our flu season dr andy shane is the head of

infectious diseases at children's health care of at Atlanta, where cases of COVID and both flu A and flu B are up. She says the flu vaccine appears to be working this year. The problem is people aren't getting the shot. Vaccination rates of children are much lower this year. Uptake of vaccination has been less. The CDC says numbers of outpatient flu cases decreased last week, but they have remained higher than expected since November. Altogether, this flu season, there have been 14 million cases and nearly 10,000 deaths.

Numbers back to pre-pandemic levels. Deadly illnesses are hitting even those young and healthy. What does that mean, levels back to pre-pandemic levels? Does that mean it's just back to normal? That's what it sounds like to me. But she makes it sound like it's back to pre-pandemic levels. Does that mean it's just back to normal? That's what it sounds like to me. But she makes it sound like it's back to pre-pandemic levels. Yeah, normal. That sounds good.

Numbers back to pre-pandemic levels. Deadly illnesses are hitting even those young and healthy. Deadly illnesses. Like Quentin Thomas, a 27-year-old father of three. Dead. He died last week after his family says he contracted flu A and B at the same time. Your son was otherwise a very healthy young man, right? It's a hard-working young man.

I mean, it's hard to believe. It's too fast. It's too sudden. His distraught father, Robert, telling us Quentin was unvaccinated. Are you going to go get vaccinated now? Yeah, I'm going now. I got grandbabies around. I love them.

They're going to follow. Vaccines remain the best defense, according to doctors. They really are the optimal way and the sort of foundation of all of the efforts that we recommend to prevent the transmission of flu and COVID. So keep the vaccines coming for everything and anything. It's all great, even though the flu shot really doesn't work at least 50% of the time. Now, here's the thing that bothers me, because I was watching some news this morning, and the newscast was bragging about all the good work they do for the community, but never about covering news. The news here that needs to be covered is why all of a sudden out of the blue, the vaccine hesitancy has become so inculcated within the population as a whole.

People are very skeptical about these vaccines now, thanks to who? How did that happen? How about an explanation for that? Oh, I have the explanation. Well, we both have. The show has the explanation, but what do you have? It's because of the Dark Horse podcast.

Brett Weinstein. Which I have to talk about him in a second but first uh this continues because doctors are very alarmed this is the first time i have known the flu to be horrible mary stein and her three-year-old son james have spent the last few nights in a dallas hospital his cough got so strong and so hard. We've been here since Wednesday night, diagnosed with flu A, and then that turned into right side pneumonia. Coughing kids have kept Dr. Stephanie Atiyah with Dallas Medical City Children's Hospital busy for months. We're seeing more flu this year than we did last year or the year before. Nationally, the number of flu cases has decreased,

but in southern states, flu activity is still high, including in Dallas County, where almost 20% of tests are positive. One thing that's a little unusual this flu season is that we're seeing both flu A and flu B more or less at the same time. Lower vaccination rates could be to blame. Less than half of adults and children

have gotten the latest flu vaccine, the lowest in five years. I think there definitely is some vaccine fatigue out there from the last couple of years. He sounds pretty good. Stein says she missed getting her son's flu shot this year and urges parents to take the flu seriously. I would definitely go with your gut, listen to your instincts, and either get the flu shot or be very proactive in your treatments. Doctors say it's still not too late to get the flu shot. And they also say if you're sick, don't go to work. If your kids are sick, don't send them to school. Staying home could help stop the spread.

Nora? We know the flu is deadly. Oof. We know the flu. Now, so. Can I just interject something here? Of course. Because I haven't taken the flu shot for, I don't know, 20 years.

And I did in 2017 catch something that appeared to be the flu. And what I always have at the ready and every time i mention this to a doctor they say oh yeah that's a pretty good idea you od on vitamin d3 no no oh uh tamiflu tamiflu and relenza right right that's true these are two uh products that stop the flu in its tracks literally and they work uh i think relenza might work a little better than tamiflu and supposedly relenza works against bird flu nobody why is this not even mentioned in these reports that if you catch if you have a hint that you're catching the flu you would take one of these products if you weren't maybe weren't vaccinated because the getting endless flu vaccination seems futile anyway.

Well, I'm just going to guess that Tamiflu is generic. They didn't get any money from GlaxoSmithKline. I'm just going to guess that it's generic. Would that be crazy? I mean, Tamiflu seems like... Tamiflu is generic at this point, but not Relenza. I think it's still only available through uh galaxo tamiflu was generic as of 2018 yeah so so screw them yeah uh screw the public for

actually educating people tamiflu so i you know everyone would say well i get a get some more tamiflu because it does it has a long shelf life but it has an expiration date that I think is bogus whatever and the doctor always says oh I said what do you need Tamiflu for I said just in case if I get the flu I like to have some Tamiflu around so I don't have to you know hustle around to get oh that's a great idea they always say that oh yeah that's a great idea huh and America's favorite doctor Dr. Dvorak, everybody. Yeah. It's America's favorite doctor.

The doctor telling me it's a great idea. It's America's favorite doctor. I'm an idea man. So. I have a question. I have a question idea, man. I got a question. I got a question.

Isn't it rare that, what I always understood is the flu vaccine, vaccination was always kind of a guess, but they, they had some data and say, well, it's either going to be flu A or flu B this year. I thought they had three choices usually. But it was always like, okay, you take, okay, flu A, B, or C, but I think A or B is what I remember. And they would make the vaccine with A, and they would guess wrong and everyone, you know, the shot would be worthless. Oh, it happens all, it happened about, oh,

during the show era. Yeah, a couple of times. I think about five or six years ago, they had these, all the, they had all these shots and everyone's getting the shot. And then there was some California variant. I specifically remember this.

And everybody got sick. But have you, I don't recall a time when the A and the B was out. I thought it was always A or B. I don't remember a time when both. No, no, my understanding that there's three blended in there at all times, three of them. And they get them from Australia. Oh, yes.

Because Australia is outside of of china and then they go and they say well what what do you think is going to be what's the most popular well everyone seems to be getting sick from this one so let's manufacture a vaccine oh because they are six months ahead yeah so they're like they're like they're like a crash test dummies yeah so i don't know what they do so anyway well speaking of australia do you remember when australia had a vaccine for covid yeah and it contained hiv remember this well i thought that wait a minute i thought if you remember when this all began and that french guy the french nobel prize winner came out and looked at the construct of the virus.

And he says, oh, he's the one who said there's HIV in it. The virus or the vaccine? The virus. The virus, okay. He said there's HIV in the virus. He saw HIV in the virus. And his supposition was they were trying to create. He didn't have a positive attitude about it.

He says this looks like they were trying to create a vaccine that could because it was impossible to get HIV vaccine doesn't exist because they can't crack some wall or something and they were thinking this might be a a kind of a half-assed way in to get people um uh immunized for hiv yeah that's what his theory was and so there were and so he's because and everyone said there was hiv and in the in the created the COVID, the first batch that went through. Well, Deborah Birx, Commander Birx, Rear Admiral Birx. Your buddy. Who, she aged dramatically. Just a couple of years, I mean, her face is just i think with the public you know i think there's something to the the idea of a of a i don't know what to call it a vibe or a or a hate vibe or something that

goes through through the black matter and black energy of the universe and it goes and it lands on somebody eats you up and it eats you up yeah well i'm almost convinced of this well that's what she looks like and she was on news nation with the cuomo kid and this clip left me with more questions than i could ever have comparisons to hiv you've done a ton of research in this uh Do you believe this is a false flag? Is there something that contextually people need to understand about that comparison? Or is this much darker a potential reality than we knew? The reason the comparison to HIV is important is because HIV was also asymptomatic.

I mean, you couldn't see the virus through symptoms because people were infected for seven, eight, nine years before they developed symptoms. But HIV quietly destroyed our immune system. And we learned a lot about immunology from HIV, and it's changed completely our cancer therapy. We're learning now about mitochondria and viral impact and brain fog and the changes in our neurons and the cells that nourish our neurons that really allow us to think and move. And we're learning that because what a long COVID has done. And so there's two sides of this coin every time. There's a lot of destruction that mild and moderate COVID can do that is on scene, just like HIV was destroying our immune system. But what came out of that is brilliant science

that changed how we treated HIV. And if you're diagnosed today, you can live a very normal lifespan and people not only survive, but thrive. We need to get to the place where people with long covid we've done the research so that people with long covid can not only survive but thrive i mean first of all the cuomo kid starts off with false flag i don't know the context of that but then she ended up with survive but thrive which sounds like a marketing slogan to me oh and it sounds like there's some prep medication coming out for long covid or something that you can take every day kind of like a statin so even if you're infected for seven eight years with covid and don't know it you'll survive and thrive the whole thing stinks and she does not not you bring it up

as a marketing phrase although they could it would be funny if the drug was just ivermectin in a capsule i mean she also i mean first of all she says we didn't you know hiv people had it i mean i and she was on the hiv team with fci. So these people are experts in all of this stuff. And, you know, and I was close to a lot of that. And, you know, there was no seven, eight years. It was like, oh, you got AIDS, you're going to die. And then they went into the hospital. They gave him AZT, a cancer, failed cancer drug, which is what she said.

We learned a lot about cancer from AIDS. Yeah, we learned that AZT is a cancer, failed cancer drug, which is what she said. We learned a lot about cancer from AIDS. Yeah, we learned that AZT is a bad drug. It killed people. It was killing people. So this whole thing stinks. We got to keep our eye on Burks now. I thought we were done with her. I'm surprised.

And maybe because she's involved with death that she looks like that. You know, you think it's the black energy from people hating her, but I think she's just around death medicine all day, around death ideas. Maybe. It's disturbing. Okay, I need to talk about Brett and Heather. Because I got...

Did you get the note that somebody sent to notes? Oh, dude, I got 20 emails and i have to say 19 of them very nice saying hey you're wrong about brett and heather this is the dark horse podcast um yes they had we weren't wrong because we said you know hey dude you were all in on everything in the beginning well you know he just yesterday he just at least i have i have the clips don't worry just stick with me well okay all right so as the tweet is in there yeah yes go ahead yes yesterday he tweeted slashed on x whatever i'm deleting this tweet about masks being great exactly because uh people keep retweeting it

and it makes me sound like a douchebag okay fine and he did the right i think that's the point that people were making they were saying hey you know they had maya couples all over the place they were wrong they're wrong although i believe they were pro j and vaccine, they were definitely anti-mRNA, and they woke up along the way. So, you know, there was only one person who was like, stop shooting another podcast, or whatever. Fine. I also want to point out, people may not know,

but when they were demonetized on YouTube, I called Brett, I spoke with him, I set him up on Podcasting 2.0, I set him up with streaming payments, everything, and he didn't care. So that's okay. And I'm not insulted by that. But I said, look, dude, I just want to set you up. You're doing good stuff over here.

He was thankful. He has a Bitcoin note at home. All that stuff was set up. I did that for him because I like them, even though we make fun of them. I mean, how can you not? Because, you know, Heather's just is fun to listen to so then a whole bunch of as as these emails come in i'm like i i want to i don't want people to think that we hate them no we don't we love amy goodman too you know we just it's fun to make fun of her. So they did on their most recent episode called The Dream Team.

She had a mea culpa. And here's a clip. I have a long bullet list of various of our positions with links to where we first talked about them, as far as I as I can find in our long list of Dark Horse episodes since May of 2020. Here are a few of the other things that Brett and I have given voice to these last three years, conclusions that we came to through observation, checking of our assumptions, analysis, and reanalysis. Be careful, though. Consider these ideas, and who knows what could happen. And I begin with what I see as two of our big mistakes. Early in the pandemic, we thought that masks were broadly effective. We were wrong. First, we spoke about the importance of masks, and as new evidence came in, our position changed.

We spoke about that too. We also thought that short, early, and strong lockdowns had a chance of stopping the spread of SARS-CoV-2. We were wrong about that. I don't think lockdowns could have worked, in part because I don't think lockdowns could have worked, in part because I don't think sufficient worldwide compliance was possible to stop the spread. And as much as I am disappointed to have landed here, I no longer trust my government to borrow any of my freedoms. So it goes on and on and on. Now, the reason why I'm doing this

is because you brought up Brett's interview on Tucker the other day, and I watched the whole thing, and I do have some comments that I'll come back to. Now, the one thing that is interesting is Brett is not 100% against lockdowns. He has a caveat. You just heard Heather say, I don't trust my government. Well, welcome to the club. We're all on board with that. Now, I'm not a biologist, but I still vehemently disagree with any type of lockdown for any reason.

And Brett has caveats when it comes to severe lockdowns. So maybe this is the point to talk about what my current position is on lockdowns and what I regret and what I don't regret. Good. My current position, first of all, I do not believe that given what SARS-CoV-2 is, that there was any potential to control, certainly not control spread. And my focus has been actually driving the pathogen to extinction. So the reason

that I will not just simply say lockdowns could never conceivably work under any circumstances against any pathogen is that there, remember, I'm a biologist. Here's what I'm focused on. A novel pathogen that were to jump by human meddling or some other mechanism into the human population from some animal source. From the wet market. That therefore starts out at some low level but has significant virulence. I'm just painting a scenario here. So I'm just painting a scenario here. Were there to be a novel pathogen that leapt into people, but had not yet become endemic to humanity, if one could drive it to extinction in that early phase, the value to humanity would be incalculably large.

And I choose that phrasing very carefully. The reason that it would be incalculably large is that the alternative of allowing it to run its course and become endemic is for it to continue to inflict costs on humans for as long as humans continue to exist. All right, so that's his prelude. And by the way, if you don't know, Brett Weinstein, he's a famous guy. He was famous at Evergreen University. He took a stand against

wokeness. He got run out of the university. And there's a lot of people who got a lot of good information from them during COVID once they had figured some stuff out. But this lockdown thing bothers me because what he just described there is, again, like it jumping from a bat or from a pangolin or whatever. Oh, then he's not against lockdowns. And he clarifies that he thinks that lockdowns will be OK. His caveat is what's interesting. There is a value to taking a pathogen that there is still the potential to drive it extinct

and doing so rather than running out the clock and letting it become endemic. If one had the ability to drive a new human pathogen to extinction, that the value of doing so would be very high and would be worth a significant but small cost. And that is why I have said short, intense lockdowns. However, I do not believe there is a government on earth today, at least not at any large scale, whether a city government could have some alternative scenario, I don't know. But the idea that there's a national government or an international body on earth today that could be trusted with this kind of power is preposterous,

nor do I expect to live to see a government worthy of trust in this regard. But the point is, when I have presented this idea, I have set it as a brief, intense lockdown accompanied by high-quality testing. some short period of time and where in those rare cases where for some reason it was able to bounce around for long enough to escape that period of weeks you would be able to find it with the testing that would allow in principle some properly organized body to figure out how to drive a pathogen to extinction and benefit humanity tremendously and here's where I want to raise a red flag. Because when you say, as a biologist, I believe that with a certain type of pathogen that comes from the pangolin, whatever, short, severe, intense lockdowns with testing,

but it should only be ordered by a group that is not a government, I immediately think, hey hey he and his brother were that remember the intellectual dark web remember all that bullcrap yeah oh yeah and i'm like well what kind of group are we talking about now we go to his tucker interview at the very end he has two interesting comments we are living some crazy story in which things that are perfectly obvious are um still somehow have not lodged themselves in the official public record and you know i think that has a lot to do with frankly the death of journalism yes a lot of us are doing jobs that we didn't train for heather and i are doing some journalistic job that we certainly

didn't train for we trained to think about biology and you know we do that in front of a camera and so that functions as a kind of stand-in for journalism but you know the handful of journalists who still exist um i think without exception are not scientifically trained. Right? You know, Matt Taibbi, Glenn Greenwald, you, we don't have very many people doing investigative journalism, and the ones who are doing it, they don't have the skill set that would make this a natural topic to investigate. So we have to boot up some kind of new institution that will allow us to do this job well. And presumably that will involve taking the few investigative journalists who remember

how to do that job and the few scientists and doctors who are willing to still do their job and, you know, put us together, right? Podcast isn't the right place to do it. and put us together. Podcast isn't the right place to do it. If that's all we got, that's all we got. But there's got to be a better method. Okay, so I think podcast is exactly the right way to do it. He says we need a new kind of group.

We need a new kind of institute. As you know, I've got my eye on all of these, the information mavericks, the info maververicks they're all going on each other's shows they have the westminster declaration these are the new journalists and and they're all great no doubt about it but be careful because people get compromised and i don't think he's a bad guy but when he starts talking like that or in the flex clip but get a little worried about who's talking in his ear if everybody says it's too dangerous to stand up um you know i'm not suicidal i'm i can't do it then not enough people stand up to change the course of history whereas if people somehow put

aside the obvious danger to their ability to earn and maybe to their lives of saying what needs to be said then we greatly outnumber those we are pitted against they are ferociously powerful but i would also point out this interesting error so i call the force that were up against goliath just so i'm i don't remember what the battle is just that he's going biblical but this is his version of they it's goliath is they goliath made a terrible mistake and it made it most egregiously during covet which is it took all of the competent people, took all of the courageous people, and it shoved them out of the institutions where they were hanging on. And it created, in so doing, the dream team. Created every player you could possibly want on your team to fight

some historic battle against a terrible evil. All of those people are now at least somewhat awake. They've now been picked on by the same enemy. And yeah, all right, we're outgunned. It has a tremendous amount of power, but we've got all of the people who know how to think. So I hate to say it, or maybe I like to say it, but I don't think it's a slam dunk, but I like our odds. So he's talking about a dream team. And he's gotten a lot of pushback from people like, who determines the dream team? I don't care.

But I also got a couple of notes from people. And remember, the word institute, boot something up, dream team. People are starting to point me towards the santa fe institute you ever heard of this outfit the santa fe institute what do you know about them what do you know about the santa fe offhand i can't tell you but i do know about them i've looked into them before and every time i do something about them i don't like well they have 89 80 to 90 billion a million dollars a year coming in that's nice that's a nice money it's run by this krakow guy who is a evolutionary biologist that's the same discipline as uh as brett so i'm going to the

home page i'm just looking around you know omidyar's in there lots of people on the board from um banks uh big venture funds a lot lot of money coming in. Have you cross-referenced against the Council of Foreign Relationship? I didn't do that, but on the homepage it says, a dream team of scientists, prize-winning ecologists, physicists, biologists, and others from Harvard to Vienna. And so I'm thinking, he's being sucked into something. Yeah. It sounds like it to me.

And it looks like a bunch of transhumanism people. Yep. You know, and I don't like it. I don't like it. I don't like it. Don't like it. So I'm just,

you know, and again, it's not a slam against them. These people are not, these are very fine people. This is my thing. They're very fine people. They're very fine people. This is my thing. They're very fine people on those sites. They're very fine people.

Now the only other, and so that's all I got to say about them. I got my eye on them. Be careful what you're doing, Brett and Heather. The only thing that breaks my heart, breaks my heart, is they got demonetized.

They were counting on, you know, they were in growth mode. They're doubling and they got screwed by YouTube basically. Now I think they have some half deal on you know they were in growth mode they're they're they're they're doubling and you know they got screwed by youtube basically now they have i think they have some half deal with rumble and locals like everybody it's the same by the way it's the same the same thing where grand greenwald goes everybody goes to rumble and locals rumble bought locals so there's all that cabal

going on yeah that's where the Russell brand, everybody goes over there. Podcasting is not going to do it. Okay, that's fine. I'm a little heartbroken because they, remember, two intellectuals, they are evolutionary biologists, smart people who think podcasting is no good, podcast 2.0 you know don't go for value for value what breaks my heart is what they're actually doing to make money okay speaking of things to eat sundays is our next sponsor this is maddie's all-time favorite it's one of our favorites too uh it is dog food uh and the reason it's one of our favorites is because when you make your dog this happy while giving her amazing food that's good for her, what's not to be thrilled about?

So Sundays, as longtime listeners will know, makes dry dog food. But it's not your usual dry dog food. Do you want to make your dog happy with her diet and keep her healthy? Try Sundays. We've got a special deal for our listeners. Receive 35% off your first order. Go to SundaysForDogs.com slash darkhorse or use code darkhorse at checkout. That's S-U-N-D-A-Y-S-F-O-R-D-O-G-S.com forward slash darkhorse.

Switch to Sundays and feel good about what you're feeding your dog. Now, of course, you really want to make the advertiser feel happy about the read, and this was a very good read, Heather, dog food, but we really want the sponsor to know that we really love their business. Not only that, but in some sort of mini collapse scenario, if you ended up having to share your dog's food, you would be so glad it's Sundays. I speak from experience.

I mean, not from the mini apocalypse experience, but from having tried it, and that's good. And not also from getting down on the ground and eating from her bowl, which is gross. Oh, also undignified. And not also from getting down on the ground and eating from her bowl, which is gross. Oh, also undignified. I mean, just really bad. That doesn't necessarily stop you. Call her around his neck and make some meat from the dog's bowl?

That's true. But I mean, that was more dignified than you would imagine. Yeah, much better, much more dignified. I mean, it was a little badass at some level, right? And I mean, we're only taking your word for it. I guess that's true. Yeah, I didn And I mean, we're only taking your word for it. I guess that's true. Yeah, I didn't see it.

Well, I might have to repeat it. You might. On camera, even. All right. All right. Oh, my God. But here we go. I mean, I have not tasted it, but it looks edible. It is.

Yeah. It is edible. It's delicious. Oh, jeez. It's delicious. Okay, I'll give you a clip of the day for dredging that up. Clip of the day. Dredging being the operative word here.

That breaks my heart. Breaks my heart. Go value for value, people. Stop right away. Stop it. Well, these insincere reads reads because that's a big deal you know you have to have the host read host read ad it's supposed to yeah which by the way i've always thought to in my opinion a professionally produced ad by an ad agency who knows how to sell

as opposed to a host reading a script is always the way to go. But no, no, no, no, not in these audio context and radio, podcasting, the rest of it. Oh, no, host read ad. There's some big thing about it. You would know better than I. Why did this ever come up in the conversation?

I can tell you why because Code Bongino. You can track it. Code Bongino. It's DR. It's direct response. It's not the same as an ad. You can do a direct response ad. Yeah. Well, believe me.

Infomercials are that. The answer is the CPM is much higher if it's a host red ad that's the answer has that been documented oh extensively the cpm for a host red ad for these guys i'd say it's about 20 bucks so per 1 000 people um they have a million subscribers about uh 40 on that ad no no that i'm sure they're doing okay. But, you know, they're talking about eating dog food, which gives me a whole new insight into their private life that I didn't need to know.

Yeah, I don't think anyone needed to know any of that. Anyway. And then they went on and on about it. That's when it was bad. I cut out most of it. Believe me. I made another mistake. It's a week of mistakes um confusing uh ian bremer with paul bremer sorry about that you know what and i keep doing this i don't i this

mistake i thought was acceptable because it's a mistake that is easy to make yeah but i've done it before and i just and you've done it you you do it yeah i'm feel dumb just you just say bremer don't even use well but i went in bremer but i went into he's the guy that had the stacks of cash in iraq and that was paul bremer paul bremer but ian bremer of the eurasia institute whatever he's now all over the place can't get away from him and he was on cnn talking smack about the president. The Iranians are now, have several of their proxies in the region that are engaged in escalating war against the United States and Israel. I mean, that's the big concern.

I mean, oil prices up 4%, but they're still under 80 bucks. The concern for the United States is what happens if we end up in direct conflict with Iran. Then we're talking about 150 or 200. Then it's a global recession. Then Biden is going to lose. But it started with nuisance strikes in response to what were seen as nuisance attacks. That's what the White House was privately saying. Now we have, you know, more significant target attacks against. Anyway, so his whole thing was if oil goes up, he says Biden will lose. Well, I don't see how oil is going to be the determining factor in Biden losing or winning. I'm just telling you what Bremer said.

That's some sort of a threat. Well, I'll just keep that at climate change for a second, because we have lots of climate change news, by the way. Well, before you jump to climate change, how about staying with the Middle East, because I have a 3x3 that refers to exactly what he was talking about, which was the attacks. Time for 3x3, baby, baby, baby, experiment by JCD. We're comparing, comparing stories from ABC, CBS, and NBC. The never-ending 3x3. Never-ending 3x3, which to me looks like we have an anomaly today. I suggested to... The Joneses.

The Joneses. Our Jones. My Jones. The clip collector. Yes, Steve Jones. Yes. Steve, that we add a one foreign element to see if the internationalization of the bogus same script news actually goes overseas and shows up at the BBC or shows up on Deutsche Welle or shows up on France 24. I thought that would be interesting.

It ruins the jingle. No, it's a three by three plus. You just say the word plus. How about threex3? 3x3 extra. Extra. Extra. Extra.

Extra. Let's start with NBC. Oh, NBC today. Okay. Wow. Tonight, after the Pentagon says a punishing series of U.S. and British strikes destroyed more than 60 Houthi military targets in Yemen, the first sign of retaliation. The Iranian-backed militia saying they won't stop attacking ships, firing an anti-ship ballistic missile into the Red Sea, but hitting nothing. President Biden was pressed. What would

he do if Houthi attacks don't stop? We will make sure that we respond to the Houthis as they continue this outrageous behavior along with our allies. President Biden has been under pressure to act following months of Houthi attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea, through which the U.S. says 15 percent of global sea trade travels, including oil supplies. And some companies had begun avoiding the Red Sea, a costly disruption. Last night's operation included U.S. and British warplanes, British dropping bombs, and U.S. Navy ships, including a submarine firing Tomahawk missiles, more than 150 precision-guided bombs and missiles in all. The White House says they demolished Houthi ballistic missile launchers, ammunition warehouses, air defense radars, and more. The targets we chose were all valid, legitimate targets that went right

at the Houthis' ability to store, to launch and to guide. President Biden writing, the strikes send a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or that imperil freedom of navigation. But tonight, Iran, who supplies the Houthis with money, weapons and intelligence, condemn the strikes, saying they are fueling instability in the region. Meanwhile, President Biden criticizing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for keeping his hospitalization secret. Austin did not tell the president or the public for days that he was off the job and in intensive care for prostate cancer treatment yes okay long report too long but

these are all kind of long but uh have we seen austin since but yet No, I need to see him on the balcony. Don't you think that's peculiar? Yes. Two bits of data there. One is it was likely not a full-on butt operation, prostate removal, but a partial. So they probably went through the urethra to uh to do that operation that's how we likely got the uti that's one piece of data and the other piece which is kind of interesting um oh i i don't know this is kind of a book by the book guy as we know from his stellar military career um was that most men up to four-star general in the military, they have some kind of

code where they don't talk about their issues, their medical issues or any kind of issue. And so it would not be, although I think it's incorrect for the Secretary of Defense, and I'm not defending his action, for him to not talk to anybody about it because, you know, us tough guys, we just bear down, do it, get it done with, and go back to work. Yeah, he seems like a tough guy with his double masking and the big shield over his face. You're a tough guy. Okay. Again, not defending, just giving you the info let's go to mary bruce she's on a abc giving the exact same report tonight new video of the massive u.s led strikes against iranian backed militants in yemen

more than 60 houthi targets hit across 28 locations. It's the largest U.S. strike in the Middle East in years. A wave of 80 Tomahawk cruise missiles launched from Navy ships and a submarine backed by fighter jets. Tonight, the Houthis vowing revenge, firing a missile towards another ship today, but missing as a sea of protesters took to the street in Yemen's capital, burning American and Israeli flags. British forces joining the U.S. assault, releasing video of explosions destroying Houthi facilities. The Pentagon saying they degraded the Houthis' capabilities, taking out weapons depots, radar and surveillance systems, as well as attack drones, hoping to cripple the militants' ability to continue terrorizing the Red Sea.

New satellite images revealing the aftermath. Buildings flattened. Clearly the intent here is for the U.S. and the U.K. to take out any military capability that the Houthis might have to continue to harass shipping in the Red Sea. Since mid-November, the Houthis have launched at least 27 attacks, claiming they are retaliating for Israel's war against Hamas, disrupting one of the most vital shipping routes in the world. President Biden today saying the strikes were successful. Adding Iran, the Houthis backers got the message. I've already delivered the message to Iran. They know I'm not going to do anything. But the attack is exactly the kind of escalation the White House had been hoping to avoid. But the president says he's not

ruling out taking additional measures. And tonight, President Biden is standing by his defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, who, as this attack was being planned, was hospitalized, being treated for prostate cancer, something he concealed from the president for several days. But tonight, the White House says Austin was fully engaged and that he participated and that it was seamless. So the same thing. Why do they structure both stories exactly the same with the Austin little kicker at the end?

If they're not in collusion. Or if they're not just lame and getting all their information in one package from one place. No, I agree that, in fact, yes, that's been well established. They're getting their packages from one place. But that doesn't account for the structure of the story. Why the Austin kicker at the end of both stories? Nothing to see here, people. Don't be afraid.

He's alive and well. And I can't come up with a reason for it. I may have a reason, but I don't want to interrupt your three by three. Well, let's go with CBS. Then this is our, we always end with CBS. Repeated ultimatums game.

Is that the exact same? The exact same beginning with the same missiles. Let me hear the, and let me hear the ABC again. Let me hear ABC. Tonight, new video. Let me hear the NBC. Repeated ultimatums gave way to military action overnight

as F-18 fighter jets and support aircraft led the way in a bombing campaign against Iranian-backed Houthi militants, including the use of U.S. warships and a submarine. British typhoon fighters took off from bases in Cyprus, covering a distance so long they needed refueling aircraft. Cockpit footage is set to show airstrikes aimed at degrading Houthi capabilities and weapons stocks. U.S. military officials say more than 150 precision-guided munitions struck over 60 targets at nearly 30 locations, including command centers, missile and drone launch sites,

and air defense systems. Today in Yemen, thousands of demonstrators turned out in the capital, burning U.S. flags and chanting, God is great. Death to America. Death to Israel. Houthi leaders have already said American aggression will not go unpunished and that attacks in the Red Sea will continue. And the U.S. government has confirmed that Iranian forces themselves seized an oil tanker off the coast of Oman, carrying U.S.-sanctioned crude oil, raising tensions even further between American forces and adversaries in the region, setting the stage for more confrontations to come. With that in mind, National Security Spokesman John Kirby said we're not interested in a war with Yemen or a conflict of any kind. And yet, Charlie, clearly this is a widening conflict. What do we know about Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin? I know he is still hospitalized here in Washington, but what about his role in this operation? Yeah, well, Nora, the White House has made clear that Austin was fully engaged in ordering the strike. President Biden told

reporters today he remained confident in his defense secretary, but he agreed that Austin displayed a lack of judgment in not informing the president about his hospitalization or cancer treatment. You know, this is just so peculiar to me. Well, I want you to complete the extra part of the three by three, and then we'll see if we can come up with some answers. But it's obvious. Now, the BBC is going to have to be different because they can't be dealing with the exact same people, and they don't produce, overproduce the news like we do.

And so will there be any pops and bombs and jets taking off? Well, let's find out. We know White House officials informed Congress. Oops, sorry. By night, the U.S. and Britain, supported by Australia, Bahrain, Canada, and the Netherlands, have carried out missile strikes on Houthi targets, reportedly hitting the capital Sana'a and the port of Hodeidah. The White House confirmed the strikes in a statement.

These targeted strikes are a clear message that the United States and our partners will not tolerate attacks on our personnel or allow hostile actors to imperil freedom of navigation in one of the world's most critical commercial routes. Our Washington correspondent told me more about the Allied military strikes. We heard in that White House statement that these strikes were, according to the president, successful and a direct response to what he called unprecedented Houthi attacks against international shipping. We shortly thereafter heard from the US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin. He said the strikes targeted the Houthis drone and missile capabilities, as well as coastal radar and air surveillance systems. And the Reuters news agency said that there had been a number of explosions, quoted witnesses

saying they had seen and heard explosions. But I think the narrative that we're going to see play out in the next few days is that this is a defensive mission. Indeed, we've just heard from a senior administration official here in Washington who said that we have no doubt that ships would have been struck, perhaps even sunk, including in one case, a commercial ship full of jet fuel, which is quite a frightening prospect, isn't it? So I think that that's going to be the messaging from the white house from the pentagon in the next few days that the u.s was forced into this in order to protect itself and its allies wow that was really boring it was boring didn't have any nat pops they had nothing zero not pop no swooshes no but but they had a quote they did some analysis and but they wouldn't we did he say we talked to lloyd nobody's talked to lloyd austin he said he did i heard him say it liar you

think he's a liar it has to be i think this thing may have something to do and austin being on the scene or not may have something to do with the war powers resolution the president has you know you can't the i know this will shocker everybody but only congress can declare war but the minute the president sends uh a force into you know an active enacts force at this level certainly we go that he has to notify congress within 48 hours and then you get 60 days the clock starts ticking and i believe during that time the president is fully in charge and and and he can can call all the shots you don't need austin for anything so anyway here's a cnn had a little bit about the war powers we know white house officials inform congressional leadership

in advance of these strikes that they were going to be happening however you did hear from some democrats house democrats in particular who are raising serious concerns about the legal authority behind this i think using the words retaliatory and defensive were very intentional we We'll see the legal rationale soon from the administration. Take a listen to what Ro Khanna, the congressman from California, had to say. The Constitution requires that if there is not an imminent threat of self-defense, that he has to come to Congress. And here we know, by your own reporting, that this has been going on since December. He's assembled an entire international coalition. He certainly should have come to Congress so that we can discuss whether this actually could put more American troops at risk. I'm concerned about retaliation in Iraq

and whether it could draw us into a Middle East war. We could have a six hour discussion about war powers and how this has been operated over the course of several decades moving away from Congress. But do you think those concerns have merit? There is some merit to them, but the fact of the matter is the War Powers Act has very rarely been used in advance of these things. What you'll see is the president issue a notification probably in the next two hours about why he engaged here. I don't think the president's going to have a hard time making a case because it was just a week ago that we saw some of the Houthis open fire on U.S. Navy helicopters, and they responded by sinking those three ships.

And then there were a barrage of 21 missiles and drones that came in the direction of American forces. But I think the president's going to be able to establish a pretty good case for why he took these out on the ground. Well, first of all, the BBC in the three by three mentioned self-defense emphasized it. They did. So, yeah, there was a mention. Yeah, they did.

Yeah, they did. Yeah, they did. Well, so that so the self-defense thing is fine then you can just use that and you don't have to deal with any of this which i think is what they're going to do how about this one more thing wasn't the ship the tanker whatever the hell it was captured by the Houthis. How come we just don't go take that back? We got battleships there. Why don't we just, well, we don't have battleships anymore, but we have plenty of firepower.

We could go surround that ship and take those guys off of it. Why don't we do that? It's that short. It's a tourist attraction. Because it's bull crap. Hey, man, it was a GoPro with horizon correction. Listen, how about this? Just for a scenario.

Lloyd Austin is actually a by-the-book kind of guy. I'm just throwing it out there. We can laugh all we want. Diversity, hire, et cetera. It's all fine. He was definitely respected within the ranks. He actually got a... You're supposed to have a civilian running the U.S. military. They got a special exemption from Congress so that he could become the defense secretary.

What if he is the guy that, yeah, you know what, I got, I'm going to have, I got butt cancer, prostate removal. I'm just going to bear down, do it. I'll be home in a day. It's like, I can do this. It's what we military men do. Maybe he's a by-the-book guy, and there are elements who are like, we need to have this war. We need to be striking the Houthis. We don't want to deal with stupid Congress.

We don't want anybody in our way. The president is brain dead and probably a little bit worried that one of these days his his advisors his consultants are going to say hey you know you're genocide joe you got people outside the white house thousands of people protesting you're going to lose the election we're going to lose our butts here uh you got to stop this or do something and the mic comes in and says, get Austin out of the way. Boom. Get him out of the way. So we can just go, go, go, go, go, fire. Who knows who gave the order for this? We could be under complete military industrial complex control at this point doing whatever they want. That's just another scenario scenario i'm not saying that i i wish i had a strong argument against it well there is always of course peace um i'd love to make peace profitable again it's crazy i know i'd love to make peace profitable again and i have thoughts but that's not for this show um that we have uh the two- solution. We also have something new,

which Fox 21 News came up with. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is pressuring both sides in the Gaza conflict to come together as the war grinds on with no end in sight. Blinken is pushing for an agreement to a political solution that would lead to a Palestinian state

with significant changes to the current leadership. The two-state solution is also a key demand. Come significant changes to the current leadership. The Jew state solution. Is also a key demand. Come on man did you hear it? The Jew state solution. The Jew state solution. To the current leadership. The Jew state solution is also a key demand.

That's the best gaffe ever. There it is. The Jew state solution. That's the answer. Poor girl. As always. the jew state solution that's that's the answer poor girl as always i'm definitely not one to pick on people for that sort of thing in the middle east we know the argument really is only about one thing oil pipelines no that's two things no juice no no who makes dates who makes better hummus hi guys for two orange hummus in san francisco's south of market neighborhood

proudly serves israeli cuisine but friday morning when the general manager opened up shop he was greeted with this message do you condemn your your hummus? Spray paint it on the ground at the front entrance. And on nearby utility poles, flyers were posted. They called for a boycott of six eateries that are being described as Israeli food and sinus businesses in San Francisco. We were very shocked, right? We're very shocked. And the main thing is we're concerned about the safety of our team and the people that work for us. General Manager Randall Conner says he has 45 employees at this location. He tells me three weeks earlier, similar flyers were posted on the windows of the restaurant's Palo Alto location.

Conner says while this is a Jewish-owned business, the focus is solely on food, not politics. Orange Hummus was created just to share the food from the region, right? We serve great hummus and we do it well. The flyers are posted in front of other Jewish-owned businesses in various neighborhoods, including Chinatown. People tell me off-camera that they saw a large group of young people participating in a pro-Palestine demonstration against Israel, posting these flyers along various streets on Wednesday. We saw city workers removing some flyers Friday night. Condemn your hummus!

I've had good hummus. Yes, I've had good hummus too. I was taken to a restaurant in Jaffa, specifically to have the hummus, which is made daily by a bunch of old ladies in the basement grinding away by hand and mortar and pestles to get the consistency that's perfect. And I'll say that good hummus is pretty

spectacular. No argument. You should do a hummus book. This had a good hummus in los angeles at a i think it was a palestinian restaurant i'm not absolutely sure but it was a very obscure little place that was near a b&b that we were all staying at. And the hummus there was just like this stuff I had in Israel. And it was, geez, it was just, I want to, if I go to LA,

I'm going to drive past there and get something to go. Hummus from the Region should be the title of the book. Hummus from the Region. Let's stay in the San Francisco region for a moment. Nancy Pelosi's backyard. She's out and promoting and talking and for Biden against Trump. And she's on CNN. And it's always fun because Nancy's just a bundle of laughs. And the president has been working very hard over the past three years to do what is necessary to meet the needs of the American people. Now he can go talk about it.

And he has a lot to say. People have to know because their kitchen table needs are what are important to them. And the democracy message relates to the kitchen table. Democracy is a personal issue. Freedom of choice to have when and if you have a family. Freedom to enjoy your work, knowing you have a pension so that your family will be secure. The education of your children, the safety of the environment in which they live. He scores very high on all of those points. And many people are appreciating

and enjoying it. They just are not giving him credit for it. And this is what we have to do now is to make sure that not only the president, but other validators come forward to say what he's done. But what's really important to people is what he is going to do. Nobody votes for you for what you've done. They want to know what comes next. In what universe is that? Everybody votes for what you've done. How does she even come up with this bogus nonsense? What he's going to do. If you look at the legislative record that you were detailing that the president had in the first two years and the way that on individual basis, every single piece that you laid out there pulls quite well. And yet this is a neck and neck race and no one feels very

comfortable on the Democratic side of things that Donald Trump isn't going to be the next president. Well, I don't think that nobody feels. I think many of us know that it is impossible for him to be the president again with what he is proposing. Well, because when you're talking about what he's talking about now is more tax cuts for corporate America, taking them down so low to the detriment of our budget and meeting the needs of people. But people have to know. I have said over and over again, President Lincoln said, public sentiment is everything.

With it, you can accomplish almost anything. Without it, practically nothing. But public sentiment has to be informed. People have to know. So we can talk more about what he has done, what it means at the kitchen table for people to have lower costs for prescription drugs, lower costs for health care, because it's not just about their good health.

It's about their financial health and security as well. This is so wrong from a consultant standpoint. First of all, kitchen table? I mean, is this the days of Roosevelt? No one cares about your kitchen table issue. Is this the days of Roosevelt? No one cares about your kitchen table issue. Second, bringing up the racist Abraham Lincoln. How can they be using him?

That makes no sense. She's just a rambling. She's lost it. There is, however, an important change. We have a hero coming to the rescue to help joe biden u.s climate envoy and former secretary of state john kerry is leaving the biden administration later this winter to join the president's re-election campaign kerry who ran for president in 2004 was instrumental in helping to broker the 2015 paris climate agreement yeah and you know what I'm thinking I'm thinking he's I'm

going to help Joe and uh you know I might have a shot in 2028 Kerry wants to be president he's he's getting in he's getting in the game well I'm sure you're right about he wants to be president. Yes. But nobody wants him to be president except him and his wife. Yes, of course. But the only problem is we have a moratorium. We can't do anything with the guy.

We can't play clips. He's boring. He has nothing good to say. You have busted the moratorium more than a few times i'm trying to keep keep myself away from it well it's too bad we'll miss him on the climate stage he's all he's always the guy who buys the drinks at the cop you know he's he's got the money he's got the credit card he's got he's got the white house credit card big uh urban credit card and his fancy jet so i found two individual stories on let me see i'll make it right one about germany from deutsche wella and then another one from france 24 and i just thought this was very peculiar they're both like eight minute pieces I just took the intro from each

and we start you know Germany is losing their industry they shut all the coal plants they have no way to they shut down the nuclear plants everything so you know they have the hochofen so they have the

furnaces they make steel all this stuff is a very energy intensive so they have the furnaces, they make steel, all this stuff is very energy intensive. And they have a solution. It is a massive industry that needs phasing out. Over the next few decades, the global fossil fuel industry will change. And changing with it, opportunities, jobs and even prosperity. But one region in Germany could be a poster child for how to do this transition. And if I can contribute to driving

this hydrogen production, I'll be extremely proud of myself. If it doesn't work in the Ruhr region, it won't work anywhere. The Ruhrgebiet used to be Germany's powerhouse, with coal mines and steel manufacturing. Now, it turns to hydrogen to transform its local

economy. That costs a lot of money, that's for sure. So, the idea now is we're going to use, as we predicted, as we've been on this tip, we're going to use clean hydrogen to power the furnaces

of Germany, the industrial engine of the European Union. Where will we get this hydrogen from? That's so Union. Where will we get this hydrogen from? That's no good. Where will we get this hydrogen from? France 24 has an answer. Buried deep underground, an unexpected source of carbon-free energy. In France, scientists have uncovered vast deposits of natural hydrogen,

one of the cleanest fuels in nature. The discovery could be the biggest of its kind so far, spurring a global energy race for the fuel of the future. So, how about that? The guys who fight the world wars, France and Germany. Germany needs the hydrogen. France apparently has just discovered the mother load of hydrogen. I would like some chemist out there or somebody that's in the business of steel making

to tell me how hydrogen can get to the temperatures of coal and coke, which just get to enormous temperatures when they're burning, as opposed to hydrogen, which is actually kind of a mild flame. This is why there's two of us. I just want somebody to tell me how they're going to do it. I don't know. Got an emergency alert this morning, just sticking on the climate change tip. Emergency alert from Alberta, Canada.

This is an emergency alert issued by the AEMA. This alert is an effect for AB, Alberta. Extreme cold resulting in high power demand has placed the Alberta grid at a high risk of rotating power outages this evening. Albertans are asked to immediately limit their electricity use to essential needs only. Turn off unnecessary lights and electrical appliances. Minimize the use of space heaters. Delay use of major power appliances. And do not charge your electrical vehicles. Don't charge your car.

That way, if all hell breaks loose, you won't be able to go anywhere. You're dead. And by the way, if you're in Texas, enjoy your EV. They don't have the same range when it's this cold. They have no range when it's that cold. They have some range. You can get to the next plug.

You can maybe get to the next plug charging station if you're lucky. Hertz is going to sell 20,000 EVs because customers don't like them. Yeah. You can get a good deal though. You can get a Tesla for 18 grand. Oh, it's not bad. Yeah.

Is it a three though? Those things are ugly. And the EPA finally set out the rules for proposed methane fee for waste generated by oil and natural gas companies this is a scandal um oil and natural gas companies for the first time would have to pay a fee for methane emissions that exceed certain levels under a rule proposed friday by the biden administration and this is because they presume or maybe assume that these companies always leak methane, which is not true. And I talked to the oil baron.

I sent him this link, my buddy, the oil baron. He says, oh, yeah. He gave me the numbers. He says the EPA wants to fine them $8 million. He says the EPA wants to fine them $8 million. He says, I'm able to talk it down to five, but we can't. Show me where we're leaking. It's just an algo.

They just said, oh, it's this big. You're leaking this much. You have to be leaking. You have to be leaking? Well, that's what the algo says. Oh, yeah, exactly. Yeah, you have to be leaking. Well, we're not leaking. Well, you have to be leaking.

Well, we're not. You can't find any leaks. No,'re not leaking. Well, you have to be leaking. Well, we're not. You can't find any leaks. No, no, no. That's not what the computer says. Yeah, the computer says no. I mean, that's nuts. It's the future. Yeah, definitely the future.

We had the Taiwan election. I have some clips. The Taiwanese did not elect the chinese guy the chinese well they're all chinese but the chinese guy who's pro china even though this may or may cause a problem it's like they elected a guy who's who's anti-china right well yeah but he's not that anti-china nobody's really anti-china they just don't want to be if you're anti-china you're dead is basically the idea yeah they're just china skeptic in terms of china taking over the place okay they actually enjoy after all these years having a little democracy there that seems to work and they're also much more uh the per capita uh income and the per capita capita wealth in that country is higher than it is in China.

Let's go to Taiwan election PBS. Elitist voices of America. This is NPR or PBS. Taiwanese voters rebuffed China by electing as president a candidate who rejects China's claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. The victory of Lai Chengde gives the ruling party an unprecedented third presidential term. In his victory speech, Lai promised to safeguard Taiwan's autonomy. We are telling the international community that between democracy and authoritarianism, we stand on the side of democracy. Taiwan will continue to walk side by side with democracies from around the world. China responded with a statement saying Taiwan is China's Taiwan. This election will not change the basic landscape. The Biden administration congratulated Lai, but responding to a reporter's

question this morning, President Biden said the United States does not support independence for Taiwan. Why is to be inaugurated in May? Ruh-roh. Okay. Well, it turns out that that's what he's been saying all along. But the Taiwanese, if you do some reading, they seem to think that they got, they're already independent. They don't need anybody's, you't need anybody saying they are. I mean, to me, it seems like China is pretty clear

they want to have a very nice, calm integration of Taiwan into China. Eventually. That's what my guess is. But let's go to, now we have some analysis from the same PBS station. What that says is that the... I'm sorry. Oh, yes. Here we go. What that says is that the i'm sorry oh yes number two here we go what that says is that the kmt itself is not speaking this is one or two

uh oh i'm so sorry i put him in the wrong order two here's one the taiwanese presidential election has big implications for both beijing and washington president-elect lai ching-teh also known as william rejects bes Beijing's claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. Hold on a second. That was great. The Taiwanese presidential election has big implications for both Beijing and Washington. President-elect Lai Ching-te, also known as William, rejects Beijing's claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. Earlier, Ali Rogin spoke with Bethany Allen Abrahamian, the China reporter for Axios, who's based in Taiwan. What were the issues that Taiwanese voters were most concerned with?

And what do those issues say about the fact that William Lai has won? Well, Taiwanese voters in this election, as with every presidential election, were concerned about cross-strait relations in Taiwan's presidential elections. The relationship with China is always a key issue, and that was certainly the case this year. Over the past year or so, the Chinese government has been increasingly aggressive in its coercive actions towards Taiwan. And so voters and the parties themselves made that a key issue. The KMT cast this election as a choice between war and peace. A vote for the KMT is a vote for peace with China. They said a vote for the DPP is a vote for war. Whereas the DPP cast this as an

election that was a choice between democracy and authoritarianism, with a rising China, you know, a sort of specter of authoritarianism looming over Taiwan. But those weren't the only issues, you know, basically on the ballot this year. The economy, unemployment, and high home prices were also very much on voters' minds. Now, the fact that the DPP won, part of that has to do with the fact that this year, for the first time, there was a very significant third party on the ballot. That's the Taiwan People's Party and their candidate, Ko Wen-je. And Ko Wen-je got more than 20% of the vote which is unprecedented now he was pulling mostly from the kmt so if the tpp had not run then it's it's possible we would have seen a kmt victory

um lie that was a reference to what's going to happen when kennedy runs what do you mean he's going to take votes away from one of these two candidates but which one uh lie chung lie ching tea also known as william but you can call him bill willie okay we have this the second part of this and wrap it. What that says is that the KMT itself is not speaking to Taiwanese voters. They still think that they still say that a close relationship with China is the best way to guarantee Taiwan security. Most Taiwanese voters or many Taiwanese voters just don't feel that that's true anymore

well i it's i mean we clearly can't we don't want a war with china we don't want that it's not going to happen we're not selling anything taiwan's not buying much a couple f-16s i mean it's much better in the region. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, sorry. I think that the whole idea that there's going to be a war any minute is overblown. I think that's just done to sell more stuff. No, we're just going to continue blowing stuff up

in the region. In the Red Sea. It's great. And then, you know, just have to make sure oil doesn't go up. But it doesn't even matter because it doesn't matter. It just came out of my mouth but i think the military industrial complex is running everything right now they're not going to waste their time in taiwan against china no too risky way too risky no all right well um should we take a break? Well, I want to play my one clip from a congressman bitching about the TSA just to get into the clip.

This is Wesley Hunt. Yes, it was created after 9-11 to oversee security and all modes of transportation, including aviation safety. As an American, you know, we have to go through security screening and border playing just like everybody else. And what you also may know is that the TSA has an entirely different standard for illegal immigrants. Yes. That's right. Yes. There's a different set of rules for you, the American public, and illegal immigrants. Yes.

You've all seen the TSA check line, of course. Well, I have news for you, the American public, and illegal immigrants. Yes. You've all seen the TSA check line, of course. Well, I have news for you. Biden's DHS has created another line, and here is the picture to prove it. This is a line in the Tucson airport, specially made for non-citizens. And as you can see, the sign says, non-US citizens without passports, enter here. Without passports, that is the tip of the iceberg. These illegal immigrants may go unvetted with no verifiable photo ID at all. And I guess Biden and Mayorkas want us all to trust that these people are going to say who they are based on just their honesty and their word alone. You know what a valid form of ID is for an illegal alien, according to TSA today? An arrest warrant.

I'm not making that up. You could get on a plane with an arrest warrant. And if an arrest warrant can get an illegal alien on domestic flight, then why can't it get them a one-way ticket to jail where they belong? This is not only an assault on an American citizen, but a grave threat to our national security. I'm a member of Congress. I have TSA pre-check and clear. And when I get screened by TSA, I have to prove that I am who I say I am with an official government ID. For the record, my name is Wesley P. Hunt, as in Parrish Hunt.

But if my airline ticket says Wesley J. Hunt, this United States congressman ain't getting on the plane. The TSA is tasked with airline security, but they're letting illegal immigrants on our planes with unverifiable identities. Well, this is not unknown to the show, but I like this presentation. Yeah, it's ridiculous. Not half of it, bub. Here's Maine. You want to talk about skipping the line? Dozens of people showed up this morning to the grand opening of new apartments at the Brunswick Landing. These units were built specifically to house asylum seekers as they wait to receive their work permits, which can take months. There will be 60 apartments total

here serving this purpose. 24 of them are ready now. State government will essentially pay the rent for two years. After that, the buildings will convert to market rate and affordable housing units. Some asylum seekers have already moved in and say this option of transitional housing is much better than living in a hotel or at a shelter. This is a very unique solution to a very exciting opportunity in our state. We have thousands of folks coming to Maine who want to make Maine home. We're doing everything we can to help that situation. This is what makes people crazy, and I've seen it for 20 years in Europe. 20 years.

You have people who want to send their kids to the university in Amsterdam. There's no housing available because it's all filled up with asylum seekers, which is a nice word for illegal immigrants, while they're waiting for their work permits. This is what is going to determine the election. Here in Iowa, a top issue of concern for Republican voters is the future of immigration and border security. The issue is a longstanding concern for Republicans, but there's increased worry among Democrats and independents. long-standing concern for Republicans, but there's increased worry among Democrats and Independents. The reality here is that Iowa's three million residents are overwhelmingly white,

and the state's strong economy needs immigrant labor. Iowans, especially here, would have a very difficult time having anything to eat at dinnertime without immigrants, because immigrants Because immigrants are the ones who process the meat, who farm the fields, who... We just want slaves! Cook the food. Brenda Rodriguez, who fled an abusive relationship in Mexico, has lived in the state for nearly 30 years. We did so many years being under the shadows, and I'm done. So when you hear these candidates who are running say that people who come illegally have to go home,

what do you think of that? I deserve a chance to stay. If I'm paying my taxes and I'm not doing anything, I don't think I'm a, you know, a bad person that the people from Iowa don't want me here. Could Iowa run without immigrants like you? I don't think so. Yeah.

Don't worry, your kids will have CBDCs and UBI. It's all going to be great. UBU, U, UBU. Buddy, you get UBI. UBU, UBI. We'll have immigrants to come in and wash your clothes and wash your car. That is not the American dream. No, I mean, the American dream is available.

No, that's an elitist look at things. Yes. And you elitists, take a look at your homeless situation and why don't you do something about that first? Oh, well, there is something that's going to happen and it's not good i got a note from rob our constitute constitutional lawyer and um oregon you'll remember oregon is where where uh was no it's idaho where all of this started in idaho the homeless started camping it's called camping It's called camping, not being homeless or unhoused. And they were camping everywhere in downtown Boise. And when the cops went to move them, then a lawsuit was started saying that this is cruel and unusual punishment and that is a constitutional

violation and then the I think it's the ninth circuit they said all right you know what they got a point so we can't do anything all these cities including Austin took on that same mantra oh this is great so now it's all based on that one case in Idaho. Now the Supreme Court of the United States has granted cert to the city of Grant Pass, Oregon. This is an important lawsuit. A homeless woman sued the city under the Eighth Amendment, the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause, and the Fourteenth Amendment for equal protection, because the city fined homeless for camping on public property

removed park benches from that property very cruel and unusual failed to supply warming and cooling stations it also voted against affordable housing but here's where it gets nuts the federal district court certified a class action suit against the city class action so the ninth the full ninth circuit affirmed that decision without being familiar our lawyer says it seems to me that the supreme court is poised to reverse the ninth circuit but who knows so we can have all kinds of cities now the homeless can file a class action suit against the city for for moving their homeless encampments this will be interesting to see how it happens but yeah you're right that's something they could look at but they don't care they don't care they don't care they don't care but we care

and i'd like to thank you for your courage in the morning to you the man who put the seas in the collective calibration of cloud flare say hello put the seas in the collective calibration of Cloudflare. Say hello to my friend on the other end, the one and only Mr. John C. DeVorek. In the morning to you, Mr. Adam Curry. Also in the morning to all ships at sea and boots on the ground and feet in the air and subs in the water and the dames and the knights out there. Let's check out our troll room. Hello, trolls. How are you doing?

We count you for a second. The trolls have been counted. We're late today. 21-19 on the troll count. That's how many we've got listening in the troll room. 21-19. Well, that's down about 300. It was 23-57 20 minutes ago.

Oh, they're bailing out. Yeah, you know why? Taiwan. I mean, you know why? Taiwan. You might as well play Africa Clips. Africa Clips, that's the way to clear them out. Africa Clips always screws it up. Yeah, well, we want to welcome

all of these trolls. You can join in at... Oh, hi, Pheebs. You can join in at trollroom.io. That's where you can listen live. join in at, Oh, hi Pheebs. You can join, join in at troll room.io. Uh, that's where you can, uh, listen live. Of course you can listen live many different ways and you can get into the

troll room through just an IRC client. Even it's been around for a long time. It's the longest standing interactive part of the no agenda show. What's the room called? What network is it on? it's, um, um,

the, uh, void zero.net. And the room is hashtag noagenda. It's been around forever. I mean, there's ways to find it. There's ways to find it. It's easy to get into. Voidzero.net is a network?

That's the server. That's the IRC server, yeah. You can use any IRC client to get in there, but... Oh, wait, Void Zero is saying no. Zerono.net, I'm sorry. Oops, Zerono.net. How could I have gotten that wrong? Well, at least he's monitoring the situation.

Of course he is. He's Void Zero. He doesn't mess around. He's 24-7, that guy. I was making sure everything's running. Love him. Of course, you can get a modern podcast app. Now, there's an idea. He's 24-7, that guy. I was making sure everything's running. Love him. Of course, you can get a modern podcast app.

Now, there's an idea. If you get that, then you'll be assured that you can always listen to the Dark Horse podcast, even if it gets tossed off of Apple and Spotify, which it's cruising for a bruising, I'm telling you. Podcastapps.com. And you can also get alerted when our show goes live. You can listen to it live there. Some of them have the troll room built right in the chat. And 90 seconds after we publish our podcast,

you'll get notified. Don't wait an hour on Apple. Why would you? We run this on Value for Value because we don't like eating dog food. Let's be honest. We don't want to have to taste it. We don't want to have to promote the product.

We just don't do that. We love talking about products that people, our producers make. And if they're any good, if not, we probably just won't talk about it. But when someone has an outstanding product, we don't have to worry about it. about it but when someone has an outstanding product we don't have to worry about it but we accept time talent and treasure in return for the value that we bring you twice a week with our three plus hours of content and media analysis and deconstruction so we very much appreciate the work that many many people do as aforementioned. Matt Hamilton, of course, but we also have Sir Paul Couture, who does the art generator.

We have many. We've never built a website ourself, and that used to show until, oh, goodness. Now, Tim, Tim Codemonkey, he built the noagentashow.net website. I mean, this is really valuable to us. This is incredibly important stuff. And if we had to go pay for that, I mean, we'd be broke like Spotify. You can't do it. You just can't do it. So this is why we developed this model and everybody helps out by producing. That's why you're called producers. And along those talent and time offerings comes the art for the show. Every single show, we have a different piece of artwork. This comes from our artists. They are top-notch. They are professionals. We always have a hard time choosing because we have quite an assortment

every single time. We do want to thank the artist who brought the artwork for us for episode 1624. We titled that one Bub. And Matt Boisvert, or Boisvert, B-O-I-S-V-E-R-T. I know he's told me how to pronounce it, but I'm just going to say Boisvert. Brought us the artwork that we chose. It wasn't like a stunner. It was good. It was something about it that we both liked.

I didn't like the lack of drop shadow on the no agenda and our names, but there was kind of a cool crowd picture with someone holding up a sign that said, Podcast Repent. What else was there that we did not select? Well, we didn't really like any of the art and that's not to be mean but you know we're discerning clients so we've looked and looked and uh i can't think of anything else that was it was noteworthy let me see well people had uh let's see. There was... There's a green-legged woman. Well, the one we discussed, the green-legged woman,

the one we discussed the most was I Won't See You from Darren O'Neill, which was, of course, a callback to Lloyd Austin. Yeah, that was cute, yeah. But the Curry... I pointed out that it's a negative image. it's a negative image it's morbid it's morbid it's morbid morbid morbid yeah so morbid image forget it's not going to be it would have won if it wasn't morbid yeah i think the morbidity factor was a little bit too high and there was uh

airplanes with holes in it uh We also discussed another matte piece, which was the M5M flow chart. Yeah, I liked that piece a lot. Yeah, to me, it was just too PowerPoint-y. It just looked like PowerPoint. I don't know. Well, I just liked it. I mean, yeah.

I know you liked it. I think that Podcast Repent was a better piece to choose. Yeah, yeah. And I saw that you used uh shoota inks um ham radio art for the newsletter i believe yeah that came in for this this show it was early 1625 oh i didn't even see that so when people i will say this to artists if they want to know this if you if you get your art in with a show number on it, which is hard to get picked for the show itself,

but if you do that, it's a good chance I'll pick it. Yep, that's right. He's a pushover, people. Pushover, I tell you. You can follow along with these wonderful pieces of art at noagendaartgenerator.com, which is fast now.

I love it. So fast. Blazingly fast. Thank you. Thank you, Sir Paul Couture. Thank you, Matt, for bringing us the album art. It's a very important piece of our overall marketing. It gets people interested.

They see it in the podcast app. They see it posted around like, oh, this is good. I want to grab that. I want to see what's going on with this. It's funny. It makes people people laugh at least we hope so and we appreciate all of our artists as always and especially matt boisvert of course today for the album art for episode 1624 now we're going to thank the people who delivered us treasure for episode 1625 no executive producers today now does that do we still have a rule where no executive producer the top associate

becomes an exec or yeah he becomes the exec but let's say this um say this we haven't had this situation since since 2018 during covid it never happened it didn't happen last year didn't happen the year after that this is the first time that this used to be a common event, a common occurrence in the early days of the show. But now it's rare. And this is particularly rare because that means nobody wanted to be the executive producer promoted in the newsletter. And everyone knows about it. And no, nothing. So we ended up with Scott here in Newcastle uh who's going to get bumped up to the executive

producer level okay and scott comes in with 233.33 which is a beautiful number we love the magic number uh scott from newcastle australia here oh i wonder if it's australia dollary dues so he would have been an exec anyway 233 maybe so he'll get but but he does get bumped up no matter what i got hit in the mouth in the mouth late 2019 by a youtuber named the illusion and if not thank you this is a youtube donation first of its kind have not missed an episode since please de-douche hold on a second let me get you you've been dedouched um please dedouche accept this donation of 233 33 your media deconstruction has been a real eye

opener while keeping my amygdala in check please put me on the birthday list for the 19th well we have them on the on the birthday list of course um as i begin my 50 second trip around the sun for jingles may i request the uk foamer oh there's one i haven't heard for a while uh keep up the good work gents regards scott from newcastle australia Castle, Australia. Hello, 158. Oh, God. You got it. You got it. All right.

Steven Peterson in Kingaroy, Queensland, Australia. We got two Aussies right in a row. 220, 222. Greetings from the bubble wrap nanny state socialist utopia of Australia, where everyone is safe, fully boosted and inclusive. Almost thanks for your ongoing humor as we circle the socialist drain. No jingles, no karma. Good. Now we have Sir Pursuit of Peace and Tranquility from Midland, Georgia. It says, see attached note. I do not have said attached note. It was on the email.

No. Let me double check. I got the same email you got, and it's right there. Let me see. Do I? No. I just have a title change for him. Well, could you read it for

me because I do not have it this is weird yeah it's under note yeah I came here with a second I'm sorry let me check well this note does have the title change on it yeah I have the title change but it is no note oh

I see oh here's the PDF I'm sorry for some reason I missed the PDF but let me do this I some reason, I missed the PDF. But let me do this. I got it here. I shall read it now. I've opened it. I found it. Crisis averted. It's loading.

I don't know why it's taking... Oh, my God. Okay. 222.22, row of ducks. In the morning, boys, please accept this short row of ducks for the month of January to keep myself current

and advance me to the title of Baron. Thank you for last month's jobs karma for our youngest human resource. She has already landed her dream job and expects to start this month. And the keeper truly appreciated the biscuit on her birthday at the risk of expecting too much.

Our oldest human resource is finishing his PhD this spring and needs some jobs karma in the coming months. So please extend him some Pelosi jobs. Karma won't do it in a moment. Thank you in advance for fulfilling of my above request. And as always, I really appreciate your deconstruction of the media,

the issues of the day. It keeps me saying, keeping it brief, sincerely, sir, pursuit of peace and tranquility in the lands of the red clay and the cherry trees, jobs,

jobs, jobs, and jobs. Let's vote for jobs. You've got karma. David Weicker, or Wicker, in Jacksonville, Florida. Is it Wicker? It's Wicker, and he is, sir, by his grace, he's a knight.

A switcheroo to my red-hot mama, Jewess. Wicker. A.C., can you kick? It's Jewels. hot mama Jewess wicker. AC, can you kick... I think it's Jewels. It's Jewels. Oh, what did I say? Jewess? Jewels.

It's Jewels. Jewels. Jewels. That's Mimi. Can you kick in Jewels the penny? Yeah, I got your penny right there. I want to use our platform to celebrate the life of Brian Hipp. He is face-to-face with our Lord and Savior as of 2 a.m. 11324.

He's not an avid listener, but was an amazing friend, and he fought the good fight. Get donation. None of us are guaranteed our next breath. Own this. You're a curious lot searching for answers, lest you not be part of this amazing movement, and you are here for a purpose. I am sure by his grace. Jingles, Obama, you might die, and F Cancer, please. Please, peace be with you. K-Y-B-O,

and let's go. K-Y-B-O. Keep your buckets overflowing. You might not. You've got karma. I'm going to read the next one for reasons you'll soon will dawn on you. Yes. Rick Bunch in Laverkin, Utah. 2-0-2-0-2. Thanks, bro. Laverkin, Utah, 20202.

Thanks, bro. Here is the first ducks and eggs for the year from Ricky, Bobby, and Splash Cadillac. Keep doing what you are doing. You are the best. Boom, nothing. Thank you. Then we have Danny Petty from Churchville, Pennsylvania, 233. And I have kind of an issue with this we don't do scripts and stuff um you want me to read this all in a game show voice uh he's here's what he says

in the morning dan petty here financial advisor helping gitmo nation find and fund their exit strategies with the exception of adam and john c of course instead of notes on my quest tonight who'd have decided to have a little fun along with the way with a brand new Gitmo game I call Value for Value Trivia. He says, yes, that's right, Value for Value Trivia, where the questions, answers, and winners are found only by those who listen to the full donation segment of each show.

So what is he going to do here? He says, contestant today's... Oh. Okay, he says he's going to... Yeah, this is not working. This is not a good idea. No, it's not. But what he wanted to do was,

if you have the right answer and you email him, which is danpettynewton at gmail.com you'll get 50 dollars from his next donate donation towards your knighthood yeah i love you man i love you it is the idea is cool but it's too complicated i will do his question um and the question is what were the three descriptive words adam used to describe the traumatizing shirt he wore as a child? Dude, I wouldn't even know that one. I'm going to give you a double up karma for that, brother. Thank you so much, Dan Petty.

You've got karma. That was the see-through shirt. Yeah, but what were the three descriptive words? It was the... See-through is two words. Traumatizing. Three. Traumatizing see-through body shirt.

Linda Lupatkin, meanwhile, from Lakewood, Colorado. She knows how to do it right. She keeps it short and sweet. Jobs, karma is all she requests. And she wants to say that for a resume that gets results, go to ImageMakersInc.com. It must work for all your executive resume and job search needs. That's ImageMakersInc with a K. Or find Linda on the producer list.

My husband wants to know who John is. Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs. Let's vote for jobs karma yep yeah there's a problem in paradise who's this john guy that you keep talking about i'm not digging that hey what's up with it was i want to knock his lights out Thank you very much to our executive one. You're not done. I'm not? No, you've got one last one to read. Oh, I'm sorry.

Pamela McLean, Fort Worth, Texas. Pamela, I'm sorry. $200. No note. Double up karma for you. You've got karma. And now I'd like to thank our one executive and the associate executive producer for episode 1625 um we bring you the value you send back what it's worth to you if everybody did it we'd be uh

we'd be just fine we do have lots of people who come in under 50 which we appreciate highly usually for reasons of anonymity and the um the ongoing sustaining donations are really appreciated particularly on a day like this which you can find more about more uh you can go read it devore act.org slash na or no agenda donations.com we got some meetup reports and we have john taking us through to the 50s right now yeah let's go with go with starting with Brian Schumacher in Boyd's, Maryland. 1-4-6-4-6. Shelly Winky, I think, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Switcheroo, this is actually,

happy birthday to your smoking hot husband, Jared Smith. I love you, she says. 1-14-75. Rita Harrington in Sparks, Nevada. 1-14.33. Dakota, Dakota Welker in Boise, Idaho, 113.86 with a birthday. Jesse Uanino, Uanio, Uanino, something along those lines. Hicksville, New York, 100.

Sir Chris in Berkheim, Norway. And he said, I'm going to have to read this. $100, he's $100. He says, I'm saddened that Adam Fields NAS has done its job. Okay. John Wynn in Austin, Texas. Sad puppy prevention. $100 is not working. Anonymous in Bent Mountain, Virginia.

$100. Sir Brath in Greenfield Park, New York. $866. Jobs Karma coming at the end of this list. For him and his wife, he is a knight to escape New York for New Hampshire. You got it. Good luck.

Kevin McLaughlin in Concord, North Carolina, 8-0-0-8. He is the Archduke of Luna. Christian Gruelich in Lakeland, Ohio, 8008. He says for the last time. Robert Ross, Richmond, Virginia, pointy boobs, 7007.

Ross Coorey in Regal Park, New York, 6969, birthday coming up. Donnie Eubanks in Canton, Ohio, 6666. Christopher Dector, 5678. Also, Sir Beeboop in New Brighton, Minnesota, 5678. Eli the Coffee Guy at Gigawatt Coffee Roasters.

Bensonville, Illinois, 5510. Type in ITM, 20. Alexander O'Neill in Mississauga, Ontario, 55. Alex... Wait, wait, wait. That's a first-time donor from Scandinavia. Wants a de-douching. You've been de-douched.

He needs a de-douching. Alex Boites, B-O-I-T-E-S, in Citrus Heights, California, 5333. Scott in Lynchburg, Virginia, 5222. Wait, Scott says please call out Attorney Dave as a douchebag. Douchebag! Anonymous Cop in Redwood City, California, 5150.ine hines in manchester new hampshire 51 23 viscount sir economic hitman in tomball texas 50 01 and that takes us to the 50 donors i'm just going to read off their names and locations and it's not that many but there's enough. Gary Mao, Woodland Hills, Stephen Ng in Box Elder, South Dakota,

Douglas Mook in Cochranton, Pennsylvania, Dame Patricia Worthington in Miami Beach or Miami, Real Deals Now in San Antonio, Texas. I wonder what their deals are for. Jared Yaw in Nashville, Tennessee. Brandon Savoie in Port Orchard, Washington. Carrie Oakey in Freehold, New Jersey. And there's a birthday coming up for her. Greg Olskamp in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Kevin Dills in Huntersville, North Carolina. Christian Freeman in San Marcos, Texas.

Diane Schwanabek in Johnsburg, Illinois, Gerald Preston in Bennington, New Inc., Nebraska, Wesley Stewart in Mesa, Arizona. And last on our fabulous list is Baron of Belmont in Belmont, North Carolina. I want to thank these people for making this show a possibility and a reality. Here we are. And here is the Jobs Karma for those who needed it. Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs. Let's vote for jobs. You thought karma.

Thank you all very much. You are the producers of this show for episode 1625. We appreciate it. Our formula is this. We go out, we hit people in the mouth. Order. Order. Squirrel.

Shut up. It's your birthday, birthday. On no agenda. Tracy Sullivan wishes her birthday, Sir Johnny Bananas. Happy one. He turned 47 on the 13th. That's yesterday. Dakota Walker also celebrated yesterday.

Karaoke will be turning 56 tomorrow. Is that a real name? Karaoke. Your parents played a mean trick on you. Russ Coorey turns 69 on the 16th. Sir Tony wishes his daughter, Sienna, a very happy 8th on the 18th. Scott from Newcastle, Australia,

turns 52 on the 19th. And Shelley Wanker wishes her smoking hot husband, Jared Smith, a very happy birthday. As do we. We say happy birthday to everybody here in the back office of Stafford Manor's Road,

the best podcast in the universe. Happy birthday, yeah. Title changes. Turn and face the slaves. Nice changes. Don't want to be a douchebag. And we do have that one title change. I'm very glad we found the note from Sir Pursuit of Peace and Tranquility in the lands of the red clay and the cherry

trees. Because of his additional support in $1,000 or more, he can now claim the title of Baron, and we are very, very happy to have you here. Thank you very much, Sir. And that's it. No knights, no dames today, but of course, we do have a couple of meet-up reports. No agenda

meet-ups. And our first one comes from Los Angeles. The Flight of the No Agenda, Leo Bravo, does them very regularly. I've lost count of the number of meetups he's organized so far. These, of course, are the meetups you can find at noagendameetups.com. This is where you go and find your clan, your tribe, your community. Hey, everybody, it's Leo Bravo

at Fly Does It Know Agenda meeting number 48. My friends here have things to say. Hey, B. Dizzle from Altadena. In the morning. It's Sir Leah Kim Fopal from Lakewood. That's true. It's the evening, but in the morning. Hey, it's Stephen Ng.

In the morning, John and Adam. In the morning! 48 already phenomenal got a report a written report from a snipper he says in the morning Adam meet up report from S.V. Ama at Lombok

hmm can be summarized as all by myself to the tune of Eric Carman but we will keep hitting him in the mouth and we try in Langkawi. Langkawi? Where is this place? I don't know where this is.

Where is Lombok? Oh, is that some island? Some crazy island in Indonesia or Bali or something? All right, Jeroun, let me know. I got to promote this better for you. Give you a little more lead time. And we'll do that for any of the meetups because it is the companion to the No Agenda podcast.

This is where you truly can hang out with people that you would be surprised that these people are No Agenda listeners. You'll have so much in common, especially in these dark days of winter when big freezes can come and weird things can happen and your ev won't uh won't drive and your phone runs out of juice you want to have a place where you can hang out and know people that you've hung out with that's a no agenda meetup it's connection that brings you protection just like the big

arcade party in fredericksburg virginia hello this is happy in virginia at the f in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Hello, this is Happy in Virginia at the Fredericksburg Arcade Party. We got spruce and skee-ball. This is Tom Starkweather. I'm meeting people that went to my high school when I was there. It's wild. Hi, this is Roundy. We're having an arcade meetup in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Everyone's here.

If you're not here, you're not full like me with my weird hat. Hey, DC girl in the morning. Sir Gabe, the blue-collar knight representing FEMA Region 7. I was expecting more spooks here. This is Dame Trail Chicken from Locust Hill, Virginia, OTO. This is Amy in the morning. ITM, Sir William is definitely a spook. Hi, this is Marshall, 60 miles from Spook Central.

Please don't sit in the exit rows. Hi, in the morning, this is Jamie. A lot of noise here. Hi, this is Sarah from Richmond. Life is a scam. exit rows. Hi, in the morning. This is Jamie. A lot of noise here. Hi, this is Sarah from Richmond. Life is a scam. This is Rob from Richmond. In the morning. Other Chris from King George. In the morning. This is Sir William at Fredericksburg.

Hey, want to put a shout out for the Kernersville, North Carolina meetup January 20th. Trains good, planes bad. This is Ben here at the No Agenda meetup. Love the No Agenda people. And happy belated jingle bingle. In the morning!

Ah, great group and a very beautiful group they are indeed. That is the Fredericksburg, Virginia meetup. Thank you, Tom Starkweather, for putting that one together, especially the report. We have a meetup taking place today. The Indy NA New Year Resolution Revolt Meetup, which is underway as we speak at Grand Junction Brewing in Westfield, Indiana. Mark and Maria hosting that for you. It's always a party with them. The next one will be on January 18th. It's a Thursday.

The Denver Stock Show Meetup, 630 at Lincoln's Roadhouse, 1201 South Pearl Street in Denver. And the Charlotte's Thirsty Third Thursday Meetup, 7 o'clock, Ed's Tavern, Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday, January 18th as well. Those are just a few of the meetups. There's many more available. Go find one. It's called noagendameetups.com. If you can't find one near you, start one yourself. Start small, but you'll have a party. Sometimes you want to go hang out with all the nights and days. You want to be where you want to be. Drink it all, hell's a lame. You want to be where everybody feels the same.

It's like a party. Like a party. Like a party. Like a party like a party like a party all right um i have two isos why don't i play mine first i think i have a winner i mean this is one so important such a great explainer thank you it was a little too fast for you yeah no good this is the. We know the flu is deadly. I mean, that's just a killer. I mean, it is a killer. Can you top that?

I think so. I think all three of mine are better than that. Let's start with thanks being. Well, thanks for being with us. No, it's too fast. Just like the other one. That's no good. Okay.

How about this one? Blah, blah, blah. Blah, blah blah blah blah blah okay i guess this is your killer the one you got at the end here yeah think think about it i mean it's like we know the flu is deadly think about it how about that you just like think about it. How about that? You just like think about it? No, I think that combination would work. It's short and sweet.

Let's do that combo. I think it's a good idea. May I, I have a 46 second good news story. Oh, you want to bump my good news story for yours? Well, you're always doing the good news stories. Well, you gave me that assignment. You specifically told me to do this and I've been doing it. Mimi's been helping. We got other producers

in on it and now you're going to jump because it's so successful. You've decided to steal the bit. Stolen valor. Stolen valor. Go. Play the good news story. Now it's time for Good News with JCD. It's a short one. And if it's no good, I'll never do it again.

How about that? Is that a deal? For one thing, I don't think you'll stick to that promise. For starters. Well, let's hear it. I'll play mine, and if you feel like it, we can do yours, too. Here we go. Well, we have talked about flying the friendly skies, but this takes it to a whole new level.

Hoboken natives Kelly and Jake Levine were thrilled when their five-month-old baby decided, Nah, I'm not going to cry on this flight. It was her second flight ever. Instead, she watched the woman across the aisle crocheting. That woman, Megan Rubin, noticed and she got an idea. With just one hour left in the flight, she crocheted a hat for sweet Romy. And that hat was a perfect fit. Look at it there. Romy was just mesmerized watching Megan crochet. And now they've all become fast friends.

And Megan says up next she is going to crochet a baby dress for Romy. I love the way she's. Her big eyes. Watching. What is going on? It's a crochet. Oh, my goodness. Love it.

Come on. Come on. That is the most banal. That's a great news story. Good news story about some woman. Okay. I think that there's nothing I can reject to the point where you'd stop doing these.

I'm going to let you. That'll be the good news for this show. Do you want to do yours? I can bump it. People are calling for yours. They want both. They love the segment so much. They want two good news stories.

Well, this one here is about a woman who retires at 84 from a job that she's had since the 1970s at a location we're all familiar with. This is quite interesting. Today is something good. We've been talking about Katie Kay's 75th anniversary and our coworkers like Patty Cobb, who worked here for 40 years or more. Well, guess what? A Gibsonian woman tops us all. Her name is Dot Sharp, and she started working at the McDonald's in Gibsonia all the way back in 1978. I mean, Happy Meals hadn't even been invented yet.

Happy Meals hadn't even been invented yet. Well, tomorrow at 10 a.m. after 45 years as a drive-thru cashier, Dot will serve her last order. I wonder what it's going to be. Is it going to be the double? Oh, it can't be the double patty Big Mac. No, but it could be chicken nuggets. It could be. Dot celebrated her 84th birthday last month and is looking forward to retirement.

We wish her all the best. Congratulations, Dot. Think of all the friends she made. All the people that are used to getting their breakfast or whatever from Dot at the window. It's so funny because as soon as I heard fur, I thought we were going to say French fries. Oh my god. A native ad.

I can't believe you let a native ad into the good news segment. What kind of positive image is it that McDonald's has an 84-year-old woman? Yeah, exactly. into the good news segment. What kind of positive images that McDonald's has an 84-year-old woman? Yeah, exactly. Now everyone wants to go get a Big Mac. Oh, my God.

That's horrible. Native ads are not allowed to be good news stories. It was about Dot. No, Dot. Her name is, what was her name? Dotnet? Dot Sharp her name? Dotnet? Dot Sharp? C Sharp Dotnet?

It was a total native ad. Oh, I'm sorry. There we go. A good news story from JCD. Happy vibes for you and me. Unbelievable. And we all feel better now he's done his bit. So back to reality, that's turning to shit

i'm glad i brought the crochet baby because that was just you had to bring another one next show well i will since you topped me as a matter of speaking and it has to be just as... Banal? Banal? Banal's the word, yeah. Banal, yes. Banal. It's a good word.

It's a great word. All right, everybody. Well, I'm sorry for that native ad at the end there. At least it wasn't for dog food. Up next on the No Agenda stream, Trollroom.io and the modern podcast app, That Larry Show. Stay tuned for that. And we have end of show mixes from Tom Starkweather, Professor Jay Jones,

and the Maya is back, Sir Michael Anthony, on the wheels of steel. And that will do it. We will return on Thursday for another media deconstruction just for you. We're looking forward to it. Until then, coming to you from the heart of the Texas Hill Country here in FEMA Region No. 6. In the morning, everybody, I'm Adam Curry. And from Northern Silicon Valley, where I recommend you back off on the coffee. I'm John C. Dvorak.

And remember us at Dvorak.org. We'll see you on Thursday, everybody. Until then, adios remember us at Dvorak.org slash NA. We'll see you on Thursday, everybody. Until then, adios, mofos, a-hooey, hooey, and such. Relax. The computer is processing the data. I will be notified as soon as there is any information. And I want to be careful here.

Any advertiser or campaign, I know we're working with, I believe. Its goal is to sell everything to everyone. Why am I seeing this ad? Well, that's a great question. Your user agreement sucks. We see more passive listening and passive monitoring in our own homes with the information we've accumulated on Twitter. We provided support to the Trump campaign and he's been terrific. He may be a globalist, but I still like him.

He was calling those things that was not as though they were is what he was doing then. Yes, he is seriously a globalist. There's no question. But there has never been a company quite like Amazon. Kin to a game of whack-a-mole. Goodbye and fuck you. The biggest global risks of 2024. Possible Trump victory come November. All pity Trump. I'll be risk number one.

Domestic fury and fierce civil strife. Vengeance on anyone who opposes him. This is World War III. Wow. And create havoc. Cry havoc! civil strife. Vengeance on anyone who opposes them is World War III. Wow! And create havoc. Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war! Wow! I'll be risk

number one. Over thy wounds now be I prophesied. Vengeance on anyone who opposes them is all pity chopped. The strong have been sapped by the whimpering propaganda of the weak. Wow. And create

havoc. Cry havoc! And let's flip the doves of war! Just to perform Shakespeare's stuff like that. Possible Trump victory come November. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war.

Thou art the ruins of the noblest man that ever lived in the tide of times. Wow. World War III. All pity choke. And create havoc. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war! Wow! Y'all don't need no edumacation.

Y'all don't need no mind control We put in migrants in your classroom So get out and go back home Hey, students, get out and go home All they all tell Biden, it's time to finish the war All y'all tell Biden we gots to finish the war If y'all keep eating meat, you can't have any pudding How can you have any pudding if you keep eating meat?

The best podcast in the universe. Mopo. Dvorak.org. Slash N-A. We know the flu is deadly. Think about it.