No Agenda - 1785 - "Mackerels"

Starting point is 00:00:00 Oh, now you've connected the dots. Adam Curry, John C. DeVorek. It's Sunday, July 27th, 2025. This is your award winning Gilmore Nation Media Assassination episode 1785. This is No Agenda. Everything's FNG.

Starting point is 00:00:16 And we're broadcasting live from the heart of the Texas Hill Country here in FEMA region number six. In the morning, everybody, I'm Adam Curry. And from Northern Silicon Valley, where I'm fogged in, I'm John C. DeVorek. It's Crackpot and Buzzkill. In the morning. Yeah, it must be July in San Francisco. It happens every year.

Starting point is 00:00:38 Yeah, Bay Area fog. I wake up, it's foggy. Cold. Oh boy. And you know, it has been one of the mildest summers I've ever witnessed in Hill Country or in Texas. Global warming. In Texas in general it's just it's really it's it's been nice it's been really really nice. So I wasn't able to get a clip because no one had anything it started just before we came before, before we got on the air live. We have a deal. We have a deal. We got a huge deal.

Starting point is 00:01:11 Did you hear about the huge deal? Well, I heard that about an hour ago, Trump said, I saw the live press conference and he said, we should have a deal in a half an hour. I wonder why he had to in a half an hour. I wonder why he had to wait a half an hour. What was gonna change? Because they were inking the deal. It looks like, I think Queen Ursula folded

Starting point is 00:01:38 and we got ourselves a deal between the European Union and the United States and President Trump looks very happy. But it was kind of telegraphed already. Did you see anything of the European Union-China summit? I saw none of it. Wow! All of a sudden Queen Ursula is sounding like President Trump. A few figures. Today, the European Union accounts for an impressive 14.5% of China's total exports. Yet China only represents 8% of our exports.

Starting point is 00:02:18 These numbers speak to the scale of our relationship, but they also expose a growing unbalance. It is mostly due to an increasing number of trade distortions and market access barriers. But unlike other major markets, Europe keeps its market open to Chinese goods. This reflects our long-standing commitment to rules-based trade. However, this openness is not matched by China. The European Union's trade deficit with China has doubled in the last decade, reaching more than 300 billion euros by now. We have reached a clear inflection point. As we said to the Chinese leadership, for trade to remain mutual beneficial,

Starting point is 00:03:05 it must become more balanced. Europe welcomes competition. We like competition, but competition has to be fair. Pretty much the same problem we had. Well, it's about time they figured it out. And this was even more interesting. What did she wave around as the only other option if China doesn't return to rules-based trade?

Starting point is 00:03:35 Yeah, everything is play fair. Please play fair. Oh, well, she brought out the T word. The need to rebalance our relationship is even more urgent in today's context of the global rise of tariffs. Tariffs! As two of the world's largest economy, the European Union and China share a responsibility

Starting point is 00:03:53 to uphold and reform the global trading system so we can keep it open, fair, and grounded on rules. This responsibility also extends to upholding international norms, rules and institutions. And this is why we raised the critical issue of China's support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. This has a direct and dangerous impact on Europe's security. And we express together our expectations that China would follow up on our concerns and the expectation that it would use its influence to bring Russia to accept a ceasefire, to come to the negotiation table, enter peace talks and put an end to the bloodshed.

Starting point is 00:04:39 How China continues to interact with Putin's war will be a determining factor for our relations going forward. So the way I see it, China went no and then she went oh okay we'll just do business with the United States then. Seems pretty simple to me. Well China this is going to catch up to them eventually. Well, China, this was going to catch up to them eventually. Yeah. They've gotten away with it. I mean, the Chinese even knew this because they had talked about turning inward, a Chinese technique, usual technique of dealing with issues.

Starting point is 00:05:18 What does that mean, turning inward? They create their own market and just sell to themselves. Isn't that illegal? What? Just kidding. What? market and just sell to themselves. Isn't that illegal? Just kidding. What? Just kidding. Yeah. Sell to them, sell their own stupid solar panels to themselves.

Starting point is 00:05:36 I mean, all right, good. That's what they have too much of. They have, you know, they've subsidized. Well, their whole system is based on overproduction. Yeah. Yeah. And then dumping it cheap on other countries like the EU. Yeah, and us. So I think a big part of this deal was Europe. Surprise, surprise. Europe is going to spend a lot of their 700 billion euros earmarked for weapons

Starting point is 00:06:06 on US weapons. What are the chances? What are the chances? Yeah, well, that's all we, what else do we do? No, we don't. We sell agricultural products, we sell that, and they weren't buying that either. Apparently, they're gonna start buying something.

Starting point is 00:06:23 Supposedly. Give them our GMO corn. Let's send them that. Well, we can send GMO corn or a lousy wheat. All the poisonous stuff we grow. Yeah, give it to them. So, the president is in Scotland today and the Scottish are out protesting, at least that's what the M5M is showing us. And what's really interesting, I watched probably 20, 25 minutes of men on the street interviews with, and these are not organized protests. These are really, you know, they're handmade signs, poorly made handmade signs.

Starting point is 00:07:04 Like just like, can they not even draw properly there? And what's interesting is they just hate Trump. They say, well, we don't like what he's doing. No one says what he's doing. They just hate him. Listen to this. I'm very much against everything that Trump stands for and what he's doing in America.

Starting point is 00:07:24 So I want people to know, the Americans know that we are very much pro them, their democracy. But we really want the lies, the falsehoods, the racism, the fascism to stop. So that's why we're all. The racism and the fascism, huh? I'm straightened today. No, the talking points, I have some clips too I want to get to.

Starting point is 00:07:46 The race, the talk, which are from NPR, which will back up your clips. But these are just American talking points. These are setups. This is not real. This is bull crap. Soros or somebody pays some people to stand around. They say themselves as 100 people. Oh no, it's a small crowd but it's the same thing as No King's Day basically.

Starting point is 00:08:10 Where everyone was just standing around saying, no king! Well what's the problem? We just don't want a king! There's nothing, there's no content. So that's why we're all demonstrating today. He shouldn't be here. We shouldn't give him air time. Somebody like that who has those standards, I don't think should be welcome in this country. I'm here just to show my support for the people that think the same way as me. I'm just here for the other people who are here who have no message. I detest everything Donald Trump stands for. You sometimes wonder if protest works and people listen to it, but that's

Starting point is 00:08:48 the only tool that we have for democracy and to show our dislike of Donald Trump basically and what he stands for. Shut up! Let him talk! What do you go blah blah blah for? Because that's blah blah blah. She's not saying anything. That's the point. That's the point. There's one last guy here who tries to make a point.

Starting point is 00:09:15 Dislike of Donald Trump basically and what he stands for. I'm pretty much, I'm an immigrant myself. I've come from Italy here to Scotland and I stand pretty much against everything that Trump does and I think Scotland should reject Trump in a strong way because just to send a signal that the majority of the people in the world don't agree with what he's doing in terms of like the genocide in Palestine and the treatment of immigrants in the U.S. as well. Alright, so Trump is genociding in Israel or something like that and the immigrants. And that was the only thing, the only, actually the president brought two messages the minute

Starting point is 00:10:00 he got off the plane. Probably both are being celebrated by the people not holding the signs. Better get your act together. You're not going to have Europe anymore. You got to get your act together. And we, you know, as you know, last month we had nobody entering our country, nobody shut it down. And we took out a lot of bad people that got there with Biden.

Starting point is 00:10:12 Biden was a total stiff and what he allowed to happen, but you're allowing it to happen to your countries and you got to stop the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

Starting point is 00:10:20 the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the bad people that got there with Biden. Biden was a total stiff and what he allowed to happen but you're allowing it to happen to your countries and you gotta stop this horrible invasion that's happening to Europe, many countries in Europe. Some people, some leaders have not let it happen. And they're not getting the proper credit. I could name them to you right now, but I'm not going to embarrass the other ones. But stop this immigration is killing Europe. And the other thing, stop the windmills killing the beauty of your country. Thank you very much everybody. Stop the windmills.

Starting point is 00:11:00 That's what they focused on on PBS. The windmills? Really? Yeah. Well, the EU is still all in on the green energy transition. What do you have from NPR? Before you go there, I got these clips of Trump in Scotland. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:11:18 Let's do it. First of all, there's the overview clip we can play or not play, which is Trump and Scotland NPR, which is just their general clip, which doesn't have the good stuff. We need an overview just for prosperity. President Trump is in Scotland this weekend, visiting his golf resorts and meeting with British and European leaders. A major security operation is underway for his visit, with officers around the UK brought in to

Starting point is 00:11:45 support Scottish police. But some locals are concerned about the scale and cost of the operation. NPR's Fedim Al-Khasa reports. President Trump's visit to his golf courses on opposite sides of the country has prompted a major police operation around Scotland, which is expected to cost Scottish taxpayers millions of dollars. Kerry Walsh from Glasgow says she's not sure it's worth it. So much is being spent on him being here and I don't know what the benefit of him being here is, if I'm honest.

Starting point is 00:12:14 The Scottish Police Union says resources are stretched and it may take officers much longer to respond to other incidents over the weekend as a result. Protesters are planning what they are calling a festival of resistance to the president's visit. Oh, well, that's what we heard. A festival of resistance. That's almost a show title. I think that they're playing into the stereotype of the Scots being cheap bastards.

Starting point is 00:12:38 With what? Oh, they're worried about the price. Oh, it's so expensive. Oh, yeah. I thought that was kind of a... Now we have... We might as well play the Scott... We have Scott Simon.

Starting point is 00:12:48 Oh, but how could I not be ready for that? I don't know. How is beyond me? Oh, I don't even know where... Here he is. I need to... Suffer in succotash! I'm Scott... Simon. President Trump is... I need to suffer in succotash. I'm Scott.

Starting point is 00:13:08 Simon president. The weekend show up first, but I have it down here as the first. And the clip, the first, there's three clips here, which has a punchline. The first NPR Trump in Scotland hit piece. In Scotland, the home country of his late mother, President Trump, will be playing golf, promoting the golf resorts he owns there, and meeting with British and European leaders. But questions about other things have followed him there. Gossett, the Federal Reserve, and his dead former friend, the sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Wow!

Starting point is 00:13:42 And there are protests. Wow! His dead former friend. Wow. Is that good? That is good. His dead former friend, the sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. And there are protesters. And here's Lauren Frayer. Is that a demonstration in Edinburgh?

Starting point is 00:14:00 Joins us from there. Lauren, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me, Scott. What kind of welcome is the President receiving in Scotland? Well, I'm outside the U.S. Consulate in Edinburgh where several hundred people gathered today. There are Scottish bagpipers. One of them is holding a sign that says, at least this bag of hot air serves a purpose. There are Palestinian flags over the crowd. I also see a sign that says, Scotland is already great a reference to you know making anything great again Protest organizers here call this a festival of resistance. Here's protester Niamh Cunvin Smith

Starting point is 00:14:34 Why on earth is this convicted felon allowed to come into our country and play golf when the people do not like him? A recent poll found that more than 70% of people in Scotland have an unfavorable view of Trump. That's higher than across the entire United Kingdom. People here say they're motivated by Trump's climate policy. In fact, some climate protesters actually abseiled, belayed themselves on ropes down off a bridge here last night. Others say they're protesting US policy in the Middle East. Many Scots are also angry at the cost to taxpayers of Trump's visit here. And there are even a few Jeffrey Epstein posters in the mix here. Yeah. Some of the headlines were, convicted felon visits Scotland.

Starting point is 00:15:18 Oh, this is unbelievable. This is the kind of hit piece. It's not news at all. It's just a hit piece and it gets worse, but it doesn't We get to the third clip, which is the real killer showing that they're just they can't even do a good report This is the first NPR Trump in Scotland to a topic that the president might have hoped to leave on this side of the Atlantic I should think probably but it's one of the things that the traveling press asked him about moments after Air Force One touched Down here last night Trump denied ever being briefed that his name might be in the Epstein files. He said he has the power to pardon Epstein's ex, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was in prison, but that he hasn't thought about doing that.

Starting point is 00:15:54 And he said, if you're going to talk about Epstein. Talk about all of his friends. Talk about the hedge fund guys that were with them all the time. Don't talk about Trump. So Trump was dodging questions about Epstein here, but it's not just the the hedge fund guys that were with them all the time don't talk about Trump. So Trump was dodging questions about Epstein here but it's not just the media talking about this Scottish protesters stealthily put up a sign outside of one of Trump's golf resorts here this week that says quote,

Starting point is 00:16:15 twinned with Epstein Island. The president does have deep family ties to Scotland as we mentioned his late mother was born and raised there. Do Scots like to consider him a native son? Yeah, I mean, his mother was born on the Isle of Lewis in the outer Hebrides Islands, a place that Trump once on a visit called Sirius, Scotland. Her first language was actually Gaelic. Trump has long owned golf resorts here, so Scots have been well acquainted with him for

Starting point is 00:16:43 a long time, even before he became president. Trump says he loves Scotland, but he's also been critical of its environment policy. For example, he's called for the country to scrap what he calls windmills, renewable energy wind turbines. He considers them an eyesore. He's called on Scotland to double down on energy from fossil fuels instead. Oh man. Of course, Scotland has a huge supply of fossil fuels off their coast. Yes. It's called gas.

Starting point is 00:17:10 I mean, it's a monster. It's a monster source and they do all this, put up some windmills. It's pretty funny. And ruin, ruin the seascape. Ruin. It's so bad. So we go to this last clip, it would shows the kind of crappy reporting They're doing on NPR even though they they'd run commercial after commercial. I have a couple of them on here

Starting point is 00:17:31 About they're needing more money this is the first Trump a scott 3 WTF clip and when you see see if you can hear the slant the way they The way they slant the conclusion. Here's an Edinburgh bartender. I spoke with Cam Page. The first thing I saw going on about was the windmills and all that.

Starting point is 00:17:55 I think it's a bit weird. The first thing he does when he comes here is just moan and complain. He kind of just wants Trump to butt out of his country's energy policy. He never said that. He never said that. At the very end, she makes up a conclusion the guy never said. If the guy said he wants Trump to butt out of his energy policies, why doesn't she? She has the guy on tape. Why didn't she play that instead of saying it herself?

Starting point is 00:18:22 Well, she has to justify her reason for existence in Scotland on this trip, on this gambit. So you gotta do something. As soon as they said the bartender, I started clipping it. I said, oh, but the bartender will be down to earth. Joke around. He says, oh, he's, you know, he didn't say anything, you know, other than what do you expect from a bartender? And then she makes up a conclusion. Oh, it's unbelievable.

Starting point is 00:18:44 NPR, we should defund them. Oh it's unbelievable NPR we should defund them oh wait. We already did. Yeah. Uh, since we're on the on these guys the playing the uh play a couple of these clips this is the this is the way the show starts. This clip is the first NPR Scott and Alicia. He's teamed up. He only works on the weekends, makes $400,000 plus a year. That really bothers you, doesn't it? We only work two days a week. We just don't make his kind of money., we have the same basic deal. No, everybody at NPR makes 400,000 a year. And so they team him up with Alicia, the black woman who just is a screecher. And it must, I think they did it to torture him, to be honest about it,

Starting point is 00:19:37 because he's so, you know, kind of old school broadcaster. But let's listen to this. Here's the classic opening. President Trump is in Scotland. But it can't escape questions about Jeffrey Epstein. You're making a very big thing over something that's not a big thing. I'm Aisha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon. And this is Up First from NPR News.

Starting point is 00:19:57 Trump and his allies call it Alligator Alcatraz, the immigration detention center in Florida's Everglades. Now people being held there say guards are abusing. They took me to and to the ground. I was in the sunlight from one o'clock until like seven o'clock in the evening. This is our human. What do officials say about these allegations? Also, there's anxiety about where the economy is headed for sure,

Starting point is 00:20:20 but the stock market is hitting record highs. Why? Stay with us? We'll have Well edited oh man, they got some expensive editing going on over there Well, then here this is the end of the way the show ends. I another thing these people make They make more money than typical radio. This is upfront NPR credits. And that's up first for July 26th, 2025. I'm Aisha Roscoe.

Starting point is 00:20:54 And I'm Scott Simon. Today's podcast was produced by the discerning and astute. Oh wait, why is he laughing? Is he laughing because it was produced? He's laughing because he knows what they're paying. I don't know. I'm Aisha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon. Is he laughing because it was produced? He's laughing because he knows what they're paying. Oh no. I'm Aisha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon.

Starting point is 00:21:07 Today's podcast was produced by the discerning and astute Elena Turek with help from Fernando Naro who possesses a piercing mind. Do not face off with them during a trivia night. They will wipe the floor with you. Our editors are the Fantastic Four, Susanna Capalutoo, Pelobe Gagoi, Jacob Finston and Melissa Gray. Maybe they're the fab four. It's hard to tell because they're certainly here, there and everywhere. Okay, Scott tell us who else is fab? I agree that was a little creepy. David Greenberg, our technical director and our engineering support comes from Zovank and Hoven, Tom Marchito and Zach Coleman. Andy Craig is

Starting point is 00:21:48 our director, which he does with the fluid effort of a master. He makes it look easy, but it's not. Which is why we have bosses. Shannon Rhodes, our acting senior supervising editor. She's not just acting, she's commanding. Evie Stone, our executive producer, very commanding. Jim Kane, our deputy managing editor. She's not just acting, she's commanding. Evie Stone, our executive producer, very commanding. Jim Kane, our deputy managing editor. These are very Jean-Luc Picard. When he says make it so, so we do it. Well that was very bizarre. Did they have to fill time? I guess so. It's only a half hour show and they couldn't fill it I guess but that was that the people producing that show that how Many was that 15?

Starting point is 00:22:28 14 15 15 plus there the two of them. That's a lot of people. Oh, we have thousands of producers Yes, we do we have that's why we're better and dare I say that's why they call us the best podcast in the universe Far better than the top 100 from time people are so mad about that. I Can't believe people still care what time magazine says at all Is it even a magazine anymore? Just an online website? Oh, that's a good question. I think it may just be it's a blog It's a substack. I think it's a blog. It's a blog Yeah, well everyone, you know a couple people got to go to, to Scotland. So, you know, that that's it's good, I guess.

Starting point is 00:23:19 They, yeah, I guess. I was looking at what is Fox and Jackie, Jackie Heinrich, I think is her name. And it looks like a completely different person. Because when she's in the studio or in the country, she's got professional makeup. And then she has, I guess, when you're on the Trump trip, they didn't send a makeup artist with her. And it's just like, is this the same woman? No.

Starting point is 00:23:47 Yeah, makeup can do a lot. Well, since NPR could not stop bringing up Epstein, might as well just play the latest, which we all pretty much know about by now. This morning, President Trump is calling the Jeffrey Epstein controversy a scam, accusing Democrats of using unreleased court records to distract from his political success, Trump comparing the investigation to the so-called Russia a scam, accusing Democrats of using unreleased court records to distract from his political success. Trump comparing the investigation to the so-called Russia hoax, saying, quote, they have gone absolutely crazy, adding, as things are revealed and I hope will take place quickly, you will see that it is yet another Democrat con job. But the pressure to release

Starting point is 00:24:19 the files is a bipartisan effort, Democrats and Republicans demanding answers. I want all the information out. Just put everything out, make it as transparent as you can. Release the damn files. The Justice Department searching for answers of its own. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch meeting with Epstein's convicted co-conspirator, Glyn Maxwell. Well, you can answer all the questions and answer them honestly.

Starting point is 00:24:42 The closed-door meeting lasted six hours yesterday and is expected to resume today. Blanche's meeting with the convicted sex trafficker is part of the Justice Department's effort to uncover quote, information about anyone who has committed crimes against victims. Those sources say it was Maxwell who reached out to the DOJ to request the meeting. She's currently appealing her conviction to the Supreme Court. There were a lot of questions and we went all day. And she answered every one of them. She never just said, I'm not going to answer, never declined. And she answered them all truthfully.

Starting point is 00:25:13 Oh Joe, you answered every question. Truthfully. There was another report. President Trump is spending the weekend at his golf resort in Scotland, where he will celebrate the opening of a new golf course. Next week, he will hold meetings on trade with European leaders. The trip comes as here at home, Trump continues to face questions about Jeffy Epstein. People should really focus on how well the country is doing, or they should focus on the fact that Barack Hussein Obama

Starting point is 00:25:46 led a coup. In Florida, Deputy Attorney General Tom Blanch, a former Trump criminal defense lawyer, has now conducted two close-door meetings with Epstein's co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, in an effort to quiet criticisms the administration is blocking access to. How does that even quell criticism? I think it only riles it up. ...to quiet criticisms. The administration is blocking access to the Epstein files.

Starting point is 00:26:14 Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term. Defense attorney David Marcus said she is cooperating freely. We haven't asked her anything. This is not a situation where we're asking anything in return for for testimony or anything like that. Yet the media have raised questions. Liz, I'll replay that again. Okay, yeah it's kind of odd one the way he said that. Here we go. We haven't asked for anything. Maybe we haven't asked her anything. I thought he just said they talked there for days on end. What I think he's referring to is you haven't asked her to do anything like a quid pro quo.

Starting point is 00:26:48 Yeah, I understand that's maybe what he meant, but that's not what he said. Well, listen to the whole sentence. Operating freely. We haven't asked for anything. This is not a situation where we're asking anything in return for testimony or anything like that. Yet the media have raised questions. Liz Oyer, a former U.S. pardon attorney,

Starting point is 00:27:08 was fired from the Justice Department in March. There's every reason to believe that they are seeking to make some sort of deal with Maxwell that will help them solve this political crisis. The president was asked if he is considering a pardon for Maxwell. A lot of people are asking me about pardons. Obviously, this is no time to be talking about pardons on Friday A plane flew a banner over the courthouse meeting site accusing the president and US Attorney General Pam Bondi of a cover-up

Starting point is 00:27:36 The president has called the scandal a hoax by the Democrats. It's a hoax It's a hoax Hoax and so of course, he keeps telling everybody to look at the cool. What's the hoax. It's a hoax. Hoax. And so, of course, he keeps telling everybody to look at the coup. What's the hoax part? I don't mind him calling what the Democrats doing a hoax, but what specifically is a hoax here? Well, from the way I listen and hear the president, something in the papers is a hoax. The papers are a hoax.

Starting point is 00:28:00 It's a hoax. It's the list. It's a hoax. It's all a hoax. I don't know. And I don't think we will ever really know. I did dig up, it's very short, unfortunately, in the archives, because the accusation against former President Obama is that he led a coup. And the way he led that coup, if you listen to Tulsi Gabbard's endless yakking,

Starting point is 00:28:27 Oh man, on every show, she's on every show. There's that sigh. I'll just have an apple in my room. Every single show, what she's really saying is that the intelligence community came with an ICA, an intelligence community assessment, and said, well, there's really no there there. And then President Obama said, you voted wrong.

Starting point is 00:29:00 Go back and get me another assessment. And this was admitted by the Dumbo Clapper. And this is him back in the day on Tapper's show. For President Obama, we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set off a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today. President Obama is responsible for that and it was he who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place. Oh, there's Clapper.

Starting point is 00:29:27 Oh, that's a clip of the day. Give yourself a round of applause for digging up a historical clip. That was a winner. How good is that? That's outstanding. No one has played that clip. That is the best thing that we've done for weeks. Oh, well, we've done other great things. We have definitely. No, That is the best thing that we've done for weeks. Oh, well, I want to mention we've done other great things

Starting point is 00:29:45 We have definitely that's the best right there. Oh, come on. You're the day about mellow leather was good Leather honey Whatever that's it doesn't doesn't soft drink I think so So there's something that's bothering me about this whole thing because they're always going, they're making a big fuss about, oh, the intelligence community is corrupt and these guys are, you know, they're making a big fuss. It seems to me that I don't understand why the pundits out there and the people doing this analysis don't say what's actually happened. The intelligence community, and I'm not here to defend them, but they did

Starting point is 00:30:25 their job. They said there's no collusion going on. And it was Brennan who was, yeah, he was a part of the intelligence community in a certain way, but he was running the agency and he was a political guy and who knows what. And no one has still ever asked him if he's a Muslim or not, which really irks me because if you look up, go to all the AI and ask if John Brennan is a Muslim. I'm not going to the AI. Go anywhere and try to find out whether he's a Muslim. You find that there's evidence that he is, but they all deny it. And no reporter has ever said, hey, just to clear up the record, are you a Muslim?

Starting point is 00:31:02 Because they say that when you were in Saudi Arabia as a station chief in Riyadh, you took the oath to uphold the tenets of Islam. Yes or no? It's not a big deal. Just ask him. No one's done it. But this guy's the one. He was the corrupt character there in front that was running the agency. The agency was doing, the field people, the people that were the analysts were doing their job. They kept reporting back, no, this is bull crap. Nothing's going on with Russia. And they said, well, you better get me a report.

Starting point is 00:31:34 He handpicked a couple of guys that would do his bidding. And this is not the, you can't blame intelligence community for this. Well, I don't think they're any good. Well, that's different. Dan Bongino posted a shocking, shocking, shocking memo on X. This is how the headlines advertise it. I shall read it for you. Shocking! I shall read it for you verbatim. During my tenure here as the Deputy Director of the FBI.

Starting point is 00:32:06 This is great. Yeah, I'm glad you got this. I have repeatedly relayed to you that things are happening that might not be immediately visible but they are happening. The Director and I are committed to stamping out public corruption and the political weaponization of both law enforcement and intelligence operations. It is a priority for us. But what I have learned in the course of our properly predicated and necessary investigations into these aforementioned matters has shocked me down to my core.

Starting point is 00:32:38 We cannot run a republic like this. I will never be the same after learning what I've learned. We are going to conduct these righteous and proper investigations by the book. That by the way is exactly what Susan Rice wrote down in her cover your ass by the book. I think that's a callback to that. And in accordance with the law we are going to get the answers we all deserve. As with any investigation I cannot predict where it will land but I can promise you an honest and dignified effort at truth. Not my truth or your truth, but the truth.

Starting point is 00:33:11 God bless America and all those who defend her. Code Bon Gino. What is that? That was nuts. I saw that. That was nuts. I saw that. That's not so great. All caps, by the way.

Starting point is 00:33:28 Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. A lot of all caps in there. I think he's getting a lot of pressure. You think? And to go back to podcasting, go back to podcasting where you belong kind of thing. Where he was doing very well. He was great. Codew You know, everyone knows, everyone knows it. It's still, it still gives you a discount on many websites.

Starting point is 00:33:50 And I, as of a month or so ago, thought that that's where he's headed. He was headed back to the, to the biz. But, uh, I think this is maybe his rationale, his rationale to stick around and be a desk jockey, which is what he is. So Mike Baker was on Joe's show. Um, you know, Mike Baker, a quote, former CIA operative, isn't that his? Mike Baker is to me, cause he took over the, uh, that job.

Starting point is 00:34:21 I finally started straightening it up. Presidential daily briefing. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's lame by comparison to what it was originally with the other guy. Why did he, why did he take over? What is that about? Because the other guy to something, there was some, I had to go back to my notes to figure out why the other guy quit.

Starting point is 00:34:37 Yeah, I know what it is. He said, Hey, give me that, give me that thing. Give me that briefing thing. What's out of your mouth? No, I don't think that was it. The other guy was being, it was, it was owned by some other guys. It's like one of these operations. It's like Beck or somebody owns it.

Starting point is 00:34:52 Not Beck, but somebody like Beck. And I think Mike Baker is central casting more than he is a spook. Well, he, he just looks the party. He looks like Pierce Brosnan. I mean, he's got a look to him that is just like, oh, okay, I'm a spy. What are those other two guys? What's his name?

Starting point is 00:35:15 The guy with the big braids, the big poofy hair. He is a former, what does he say? Former, what is his name? Everydayspy.com is Andrew Bustamante. Oh yeah, Bustamante, that guy, I don't know. F and G, right there, fake and gay, G-H-E-Y. And he was talking to another guy with the same hair. It's a hair club for men. It totally is some kind of hair club for men.

Starting point is 00:35:48 Anyway, so Mike Baker's on Joe's show. I get to say Joe. Joe. Joe. Joe. You haven't gotten to Joey yet. Oh, no, no, no. There's no Joey in Joe.

Starting point is 00:36:04 We don't do that. And so that's of course, and Joe has him on for obvious reasons. It's the perfect time for that, for Baker to come on because you know, we all trust Baker. And, but Baker made an interesting point. The reality is in terms of recruiting an asset, recruiting an asset by using blackmail is tough. That

Starting point is 00:36:27 window starts closing immediately in terms of their operational usefulness because there's a lot of issues there. When someone says, right like that all the time, that just means bull crap to me. Like any Silicon Valley guy. This is really the future, right? This is really, this is going to change the whole world, right? That window starts closing immediately in terms of their operational usefulness, right? Because there's a lot of issues there. You're blackmailing somebody for their cooperation.

Starting point is 00:37:01 At some point, that's going to go south on you. It's not like you've recruited somebody for ideological reasons, at some point, that's gonna go south on you, right? It's not like you've recruited somebody for ideological reasons, right? Or even something as straightforward as like, they need the money because their kid's sick, or whatever it may be. So blackmail's like, but having said that, look, the Russians in particular love that, right?

Starting point is 00:37:17 And now let's, okay, so I didn't even realize how many times he says right, which is now annoying me to no end. It should. Oh, it's really bad. But what he does here is he and I, this feels a bit like a setup to me. And I think that there's some validity to that, that, you know, to come to turn someone to become an asset with blackmail may indeed not be a very secure way. It may be a great way to get someone to change their vote. To vote a certain way. And I don't know if we're really talking about turning people into assets, right? But he brings up Russia at least five times

Starting point is 00:38:01 and I think it was subliminal, right? But having said that, the Russians in particular love that, right? And the Chadis Intel, they'll do whatever works from their perspective. The agency, again, people are going to say that's bullshit. The agency tries, the blackmail is... I've got to dissect this guy now. Why would he say people are gonna say that's bullshit? I didn't think that. Did you think that right away?

Starting point is 00:38:30 No. And why did he stutter with Stamworth? They, he's like all, he's wound up. Yes, he is. Oh, they'll do whatever works from their perspective. You know, the agency, again, people are gonna say that's bullshit. The agency tries, they, the agency, again, people are going to say, that's bullshit. The agency tries, the blackmail is never really ever on the table as an option because it

Starting point is 00:38:53 always leads to a problem. And sometimes those problems can be very, very bad. And what do you mean by that? Well, you know, the asset will turn on you, right? Next thing they know, you know, you've got an agent working now a double agent working for the other side, right? Because they're just they're so fucked over by the fact that they've been blackmailed and at some point they lose their shit They decided to roll for the other side. But you are you like constantly monitoring them and looking at their phone There's only so much not not really there's only so much you can do right in terms of

Starting point is 00:39:25 maintaining particularly with with a hard target, particularly with an asset who's in a difficult or challenging environment, you know, for us, and you've got limited access to them, whatever it may be, so you're really relying on clandestine communications, you don't have a lot of face-to-face meetings, and at some point you never know when things are heading south, right? And then the next thing you know, look, you know, that's the operational reason for trying to avoid blackmail, right? Has it ever been done? Well, sure, yeah. I mean, I'm not saying it hasn't been done. Of course. But some services go to it much quicker than others do. Yeah. Which services? Well, again, the Russians are primary users of something like that.

Starting point is 00:40:04 Because they've got a shotgun approach. Israelis have been known to do that in the honeypot operations that they'll do and other things. But the Russians throw a lot of shit at the wall and see what sticks, right? That's very much a shotgun approach. I don't know. He said Russia too much for my liking. He said right too much for my liking.

Starting point is 00:40:22 He's stammering. Now it's possible that he's, I mean, when you hear a guy present like that, he's, he might still be working for the CIA or someone because he seems to be, I think that pattern of that style is that you're constantly worried that you're going to say something you shouldn't say. And I think that's what accounts for the stammering and the, uh, which is a way of stalling without slowing down cause he can't simply slow down. He's got, he's all jacked up on something. Uh, so there's, I, so it was basically a meaningless discussion. Right. Right. And the coincidence of him,

Starting point is 00:41:05 we learned nothing from that discussion is that maybe blackmail is not the way to go. Well, and I'm thinking... Who's he covering for? Who's been blackmailed? Has he been blackmailed? Someone's been blackmailed in this process. Someone's being blackholed somewhere. I mean, blackmailed.

Starting point is 00:41:21 Mistake with cornhole. Yeah. The whole thing is... I don't know. I don't know. Blackmailed. Mistake with cornhole. The whole thing is, I don't know, I don't know if we'll ever know. It's all so disappointing. That's just the bottom line. That's the name of the game. It's disappointing.

Starting point is 00:41:33 It's just disappointing. I was talking to Tina about that. It's like 17 and a half years, seven years before I even knew you. I was all in on this stuff. This is going to be great. We're going to learn so much. It's all going to come out in the wash. Nothing ever, ever, ever.

Starting point is 00:41:54 And really the biggest psyop that's been going on since I'd say 2019, which is still going on today is XRP. Ripple, XRP. Do you recall, I mean, you may not recall, but I think I brought it up on the show, probably jokingly even at the time. Like look, I know a guy, he's involved with all this money and the money's all going into XRP. They have quantum networks. They have off-world servers.

Starting point is 00:42:26 You know, on the moon. Off-world servers. Yeah. And they're on the moon. And to this day people are still going, oh no, XRP is going to a thousand. Yeah. So like, and that has been around so long. That's all these kinds of things, but the the it's quantum. It's quantum finances.

Starting point is 00:42:46 You don't understand. This is the stuff you don't get. OK, quantum finances. Yeah, the term you don't get it was very prevalent in the late 90s. With what? Under under what circumstance? The new economy. Oh, the new economy. Yes, you don't get it, man. This is the new economy. This is what I was doing. The new economy.

Starting point is 00:43:06 Yes. You don't get it, man. This is the new economy. Okay. This is a whole new thing. I was doing the show Silicon Spin and these guys would come on and they were intelligent CEOs and they had these crackpot ideas and they were going on and on. And I would say to them, and I'd be questioning them as best I could.

Starting point is 00:43:24 And they say, well, you just don't get it because the new economy. Yeah. If things are going to change. Clicks and mortar, man. Clicks and mortar. Clicks and mortar. I forgot about that one. What other buzzwords did we have back in the day?

Starting point is 00:43:38 I had, I did a whole column of them. I have to go dig. I should dig it up. It's from the late nineties and it has like a hundred of them. And there was just one after the other. They had nothing. It was buzzword. It was the buzzword bonanza of the late nineties. It was fabulous. Yeah. Yeah. So I got to just, you want to take a walk down an interesting topic.

Starting point is 00:44:02 Okay. This is about the post office. I have some post office clips, but I want to start it off with an ask Adam. Another thing I was completely unprepared for. Okay. I got you on your heels. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:44:18 Vivek, here it is. All right. Okay. I'm ready now. Ask Adam. Answer the question, go. All right. Okay. I'm ready now. Ask Adam. Answer the question. Go! All right. Okay. First play, they ask Adam question. I'll ask you the question.

Starting point is 00:44:32 On this day, 250 years ago, the Continental Congress appointed the first Postmaster General of the United States. Okay. 250 years ago. Who was it? Who was it? The first? Yep. Paul Revere. Nice try. Let me think. The first Postmaster General. Don't look it up.

Starting point is 00:44:51 No, I'm not looking it up. Who do you take me for? Right? Right. Because it seems like it's probably going to be something very obvious. 250 years ago. So that was before the declaration of in before the Yeah, I was right, about the same time.

Starting point is 00:45:08 As the declaration. I have no idea. I presume you have it in the answer. Yep. On this day 250 years ago, the Continental Congress appointed the first postmaster general of the United States, Benjamin Franklin. Ah, somehow I could have known that. I don't know how, because I could have known it too, because when I heard it, that's why I came with the ask Adam. It feels so logical. For some reason, it feels logical.

Starting point is 00:45:33 There's some logic to it, but then there's some illogic to it. And I was kind of taken aback enough to put that up. So just to embarrass you, show you that you don't know anything. And the thing is, I don't feel embarrassed at all, so fail. It's funny. It's funny how that works. I did not at all feel embarrassed. Alright, so post office.

Starting point is 00:45:56 Post office now is all, you know, because Trump is a problem with the post office. Why is he a problem with the post office? He wants to privatize it and this is no good. No, no, no. I mean, don't you have to change the Constitution? You basically have to change the Constitution. But you know, it's just, you know, there's workarounds and they're thinking about them. And it's just like, no, don't mess with it.

Starting point is 00:46:19 The post office is fine. But let's play these clips. There's three clips here that kind of give us what's going on currently. David Steiner is the latest person. Is Scott, like, is he on the vacation shift or the summer shift? These are Saturday clips. He's on Saturday. He runs Saturday. We have not heard him for weeks and here he is in two series. David Steiner is the latest person to hold the office. He is the 77th postmaster general.

Starting point is 00:46:46 Before taking office last week, he served on the board of FedEx. Personal detail that reignites some worries about postal reforms that some fear could limit or end rural mail service. The Midwest newsroom's Nick Loomis has more on that and a note. USPS is a financial supporter of NPR. Thank you. Gwen Smith walks from her front door to her mailbox and back six days a week. It's about a quarter mile. I would say it's a relatively short trip to the mailbox for us rural folks.

Starting point is 00:47:15 She lives outside Scotts Bluff, Nebraska with her husband Alan, who is recovering from surgery for liver cancer. He also suffers from diabetes, arthritis and the lingering effects of West Nile virus. The former Navy corpsman gets most of his medications through the mail from Veterans Affairs. We got a parcel and a bill. Former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy curtailed rural mail service with his Delivering for America plan, which he introduced in 2021 to stem annual losses in the billions. Still, the deficits persist, and mail delivery is slower due to a reduction in work hours,

Starting point is 00:47:52 collection time changes, and the consolidation of processing facilities. Alan Smith worries about those changes and cuts made to many other government programs. It feels to me like it's coming at me right and left. They're trying to destroy everything that supports me staying alive and functioning. President Trump has suggested privatizing the Postal Service in both of his terms. Most recently, he has said it could be brought under the Department of Commerce. Congress set up the agency to be independent of the White House in 1971, and undoing that would require further legislation.

Starting point is 00:48:25 Even though this Congress has mostly adhered to Trump's agenda, the Postal Service is a touchy political subject for lawmakers from rural states, like Republican Congressman Mike Flood of Nebraska. Can it be modernized? Absolutely. Should it be privatized? I'd have to be sold on what the plan was before we went anywhere near that, because I know people in rural Nebraska rely on the postal service in its current form.

Starting point is 00:48:48 And currently, the postal service self-finances and generally does not count on tax dollars to fill its budget gaps. I don't really understand why the postal service is always under fire. And it says it self-finances, they're not even using taxpayer money when I heard that part of it, besides the other parts of that crazy clip. Because I'm thinking, why not? I mean, the government costs us money. We all know it. Everything costs money, but they're always... And they're throwing money away on USAID for, you know, gay sex in Guatemala,

Starting point is 00:49:21 and they can't pay for the post office's deficit? It makes no sense to me. Gay sex in Guatemala. Was that really a line item in the USAID? I think it was. I'll have to check Doge. Okay. Yeah, it just, it seems like they, the only thing it can be is somebody wants to give somebody a Benny by privatizing, i.e.

Starting point is 00:49:43 giving it to some other company. That's what it's all about. There's some scam afoot. And that's what's happened all over Europe. DHL has taken over a lot of the postal services around the world actually. Oh, they can do it much more efficiently. They can't. What makes them more efficient?

Starting point is 00:50:03 Nothing. They just charge more. Do you see what it costs to send something with FedEx? Oh, the FedEx is out of control. What used to be like, I think it was $6, $8, the letters, which was still pricey, it's like 25 bucks. Yeah, just for afternoon delivery. Yeah, it's no good. All right, post office two. Elena Patel of the Brookings Institution says it might be time to reconsider that because it

Starting point is 00:50:29 provides a public service. Yeah, bring in a think tank. Okay. We should be willing to compensate the postal service for doing that and we do not currently. We don't come close to offsetting the cost of the USO

Starting point is 00:50:40 for the postal service. USO is the universal service obligation which requires the postal service to deliver to every address in the USal Service. USO is the universal service obligation, which requires the Postal Service to deliver to every address in the US six days a week, even those on long distance, low density rural routes that don't generate much revenue. Patel says those costs would likely shift to taxpayers if the USO continued under privatization. I think that people in the administration think this is the right thing to do.

Starting point is 00:51:01 I'm not sure that the American people or American business owners think that." She says the exceptions might be private shipping companies and their investors. In February, Wells Fargo wrote a report outlining, among other things, how mail and parcel delivery could be divvied up among the government and private companies like FedEx and UPS. A Wells Fargo spokesperson said in a statement that it was not recommending privatization. However, the American Postal Workers Union thought the report was controversial enough to release an ad about it. This is the Wall Street memo that the White House doesn't want you to see. A path to privatization of the Post Office.

Starting point is 00:51:36 Union President Mark Dimonstein says the timing of the ad coincides with the 250th anniversary of the Postal Service and the arrival of the new Postmaster General, David Steiner, whose appointment was backed by Trump as reported by the Washington Post. It's the old saying, you know, the fox guarding the hen house. Steiner left the board of FedEx to take the job, but a securities and exchange commission filing shows he retained company stock worth millions. Oh no! Scoundrel!

Starting point is 00:52:03 He's going to sell the stock, but it's beside the point. And that's bull crap. You know, I've always argued this, you know, if you were, I worked for an oil refinery and then I worked for the air pollution district, inspecting refineries. And all it meant was that I now was on the other side of the fence and I knew a lot. So, I mean, I knew more than I, than someone who's never worked at a refinery. I mean, it's a than I, than someone who's never worked at a refinery. I mean, it's, it's a benefit that it was better.

Starting point is 00:52:27 What was the original back in Ben's days, what was the original charter of the postal service? What was, was the idea? The idea was it was important to have a society that had communications with the, that was kind of franchised by the government. So everyone was assured that if you had to get ahold of somebody or send somebody something or mail obligations or whatever, it just, it was for communications purposes.

Starting point is 00:52:57 That was the- Thank you. No, thank you. This is good. It wasn't about your Amazon packages. It wasn't about your Amazon packages. It wasn't about your beef box It wasn't even about your phone book Remember those it was really about a private communication service and

Starting point is 00:53:15 That's why we benefit the country and that's why there's such heavy regulation on tampering with the US mail You can't go opening up people's envelopes Right illegal. it's illegal. It's illegal. And they'd love to get rid of that. What if the US, and this would, I would be all for this. What if the US Postal Service modernized, give all the packages to FedEx and Amazon and UPS and whatever, it's fine.

Starting point is 00:53:45 You know, figure that out. Because actually, I think the returns probably kill everybody. But what if the US Postal Service ran an email service that was, and they made it easy for everybody to encrypt their messages on their side. So none of this like, oh, don't worry, we'll encrypt it in the cloud. None of that. Just encrypt it on your side. And once someone has, you know, so you have, if you want to, if I want to send you an email,

Starting point is 00:54:18 I have to have your public key. They could provide that directory service so you can easily find someone's public key And then you can receive it and we can have true secure communications and at the same time With the brand new stablecoin they charge a very nominal fee For sending a message to someone Which would do two things one it, it would, in theory, provide a real secure communication service.

Starting point is 00:54:50 And this can be done. I believe that it can be done without the government still spying on you. And two, it would reduce spam because spam would then become unprofitable. And even if it was just for bull crap, I would love to have an email box that works with, you know, so if I send 100 emails, I might wind up spending 10 cents. You know, it's fractional, you know, it's digital. So you can take your stable coin and you can break it down into little stable coinlets or whatever we're going to call it. Pennies. No, less than pennies. It has to be less than pennies.

Starting point is 00:55:31 Well, a stable coin is supposed to represent a dollar. Yeah, but a fraction. That would be like representing a penny. Okay, boomer. Is it going to get smaller than that? Is that what you're saying? Half a penny? Yes. How about a hundredth of a penny? Of course, that's the whole beauty of digital money. And that way, at least we could have a functioning email system, which would be reasonably secured. At least, the only one who could be spying on you is the government. Google is worse.

Starting point is 00:56:02 You won't get advertisements through it. I'm just thinking that would be a great way to replace the US postal system, get it off our books, get all the other stuff, privatize, don't privatize it, just here, we're not doing it anymore. You guys, by the way, you'll see them all go, oh, what, you're not good, what? We don't get government contract? No, you got to do it yourself. What you're not good what? We don't get government contract. No, you got to do it yourself. I Would be all for that. I think we that would revolutionize

Starting point is 00:56:35 Interpersonal communications. Yeah would but it's not gonna happen. The FBI be against it. Everybody be against it Who runs this country the people or the FBI? It ain't the people FBI. It ain't the people. All right. Well, I think it's a platform I could run on. You could. I mean, I think it'd pay up to a penny. Well, that'd be fine. I'd pay a penny a message if I knew it was going to get through, instead of getting blocked and spammed and thrown into junk mail like the newsroom is. All right, hold on. Let me ask you the question.

Starting point is 00:57:07 So if it's a penny, which is what you are advocating for instead of my fraction of a penny, and you're sending out 30,000 newsletters, how much will that cost you per newsletter? A penny, a newsletter. No, per person a penny. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:57:25 So how many dollars is that? $300? 300, 100, it'd be 100, no, it'd be $30. No, no, no. It would be $300, yeah. It'd be $300. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:57:40 Do you still like your penny or do you like my fraction of a penny idea better? Well, for 300 bucks, if I could, well, I would actually say for 300 bucks it'd be worth it to get the rate doubled. Uh-huh. So we bring in twice as much in donations, it would be worth the 300 bucks easy. There you go. I've proven my point. No, you haven't. I've proven something.

Starting point is 00:58:09 You wouldn't have to pay MailChimp. You could just have your own email server. MailChimp costs us at least what 100 bucks a month at least. Try 400. Holy mackerel 400 a month for MailChimp. Yeah. And you know why? It's because they have to pay the whitelisting services so you can even get through to Gmail and Yahoo and AOL or whatever else is out there. AOL. Prodigy, so you can get the Prodigy mail.

Starting point is 00:58:39 CompuServe. Yeah, anyway, that was just an idea. Just a free idea from Adam for the government to fix everything to stop this nonsense and stop and get get Scott Simon back to drinking margaritas on the weekend. Clip number three, the Postal Service Board of Governors chairwoman told NPR that Steiner is in the process of divesting from quote prohibited stocks and in his first message to postal workers stop stop stop why did he have to say quote I don't know it's what he's gonna

Starting point is 00:59:16 divest from quote prohibited stocks why did you say they have to divest from prohibited stocks there's no reason for them to say quote. Is it like some sort of a it's like air quotes and he's like Oh parameters bullcrap is a scam. I mean what implies maybe the guy said it that way That's the way I took it. Let's listen to guy. I don't think so Let's listen again The Postal Service Board of Governors chairwoman told NPR that Steiner is in the process of divesting from quote, prohibited stocks. And in his first message to postal workers, Steiner tried to dispel rumors about the changes

Starting point is 00:59:53 he would bring. First, I do not believe the postal service should be privatized or that it should become an appropriated part of the federal government. Postal unions say they welcome the statement, but we'll be watching Steiner's actions. Rural customers will likely do the same. For NPR News, I'm Nick Loomis in Lincoln, Nebraska. I'm thinking- Hold on, so the whole story was bogus.

Starting point is 01:00:12 Yes, of course it was. It starts with a bunch of stuff and then ends with the guy saying, no, that's not going to happen. Why are you even doing this story is what he should have finished with. Because they got a $400,000 a year guy sitting on his butt drinking margaritas on the weekend. They gotta get Scott Simon out to do some work. Unbelievable. I think I should lobby to be the next postmaster general.

Starting point is 01:00:36 I would, it would be so easy. Shut it down. You can take all of our employees, they're good employees. They're good guys, good guys and good gals. Actually, I'd say 99% of them are. Oh, definitely. I love our mail carrier. They're fantastic people.

Starting point is 01:00:55 I like the people at the post office, they're very friendly. Not all, but most of them, they are here. Not all, there's always one. We used to have a post office. Wait for it, wait for it, wait for it. I would be the pod master general. I, okay. Okay. I'm going to skip that story. Let's do a, what else we got here?

Starting point is 01:01:21 Oh, here's an interesting thing. It says, I got most of these NPR clips. You have to listen to this NPR beeped. This is a very short clip and I'm scratching my head over this one. Okay. A quick warning. There are curse words that are un-beeped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. What? Beeped. Well, this must be the podcast. This wasn't over the air, I presume. They do not. ThisAmericanLife.org. What? Beeps.

Starting point is 01:01:45 Well, this must be the podcast. This wasn't over the air, I presume. They do not. It was taken off the internet, but it was on a website that streams the over the air feed. Well, but I guess they never played that show anyway, so I couldn't tell if they were cussing or not. And what did they bleep and why?

Starting point is 01:02:06 Well, why didn't you investigate? Why didn't you do a deep dive? And I just thought that was good enough right there. I did all the work I felt like doing. Are you trying to just get as many NPR clips as possible before they fold? Yeah. They're all gonna go away.

Starting point is 01:02:21 It's all gonna go away. Well, usually you're just not gonna go away because you're stuck me on this. NPR new donation ad, it's not gonna go away with ads like this. Federal funding for public media has been eliminated. That means decades of bipartisan support for public radio and television is ending.

Starting point is 01:02:39 To be clear, NPR isn't going anywhere, but we do need your support. Please give today to help keep rigorous, independent, and irreplaceable news coverage available to everybody free of charge. You can make your gift at donate.npr.org and thank you. Thank you. Yes. Well, that's a horrible ask.

Starting point is 01:02:58 They ran these ads, I'd say half of the programming hour of these ads. It's a horrible ask. It's not a way to ask. It's no good. It's no good. All right. Ball's in your court. Okay. Well, in that case, I'll go to my favorite topic.

Starting point is 01:03:22 We know that there's already a pivot to quantum computing because... Oh God, you're not going to go there. Oh, I'm sorry. Let's do more NPR. No, go to quantum, but you're going to hear a lot of moaning and groaning. Okay. Well, this is only about the facts. Another heat wave this week as ComEd customers in the Chicago area bear not only rising temperatures, but sky-high electric bills, some reporting paying double what they were billed last month. On June 1st, a supply rate increase took effect due to a spike in the wholesale cost of electricity

Starting point is 01:03:56 and supply charge, as well as increased energy use in the region. One reason for that increase? We're also seeing nationally, but also in Illinois, the effect of increasing demand on the grid from technologies that have nothing to do with cooling people off. It has to do with providing services related to artificial intelligence or AI. So data centers that we see building out across the nation. We are not going to be operating quantum computers, at least not yet. We're going to be delivering power to them.

Starting point is 01:04:29 Just yesterday, the CEO of ComEd spoke at the Global Quantum Forum in Illinois, referencing the future demand of electricity at the Illinois Quantum Microelectronics Park. Quantum computers need to be kept at temperatures near absolute zero to ensure the stability of qubits. No! Qubits! We have to ensure the stability of the qubits! Turn off your air conditioners!

Starting point is 01:04:56 Near absolute zero to ensure the stability of qubits. That requires a lot of electricity. Oh, please. of Cubits. That requires a lot of electricity. In fact, ComEd's nation-leading reliability was a key factor in PsiQuantum's decision to be the anchor tenant of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park. This shows you how dumb they are in some parts of this country. The Chicago. This is of this country. Chicago. This is Darren's backyard.

Starting point is 01:05:27 Yeah. But this is happening everywhere. Exactly. Couple of points. One, you think that maybe the grid is being taxed by electrical vehicles that are constantly hooked to it, sucking energy off to fill their tanks. No, it's got nothing to do with it. Also quantum computing, if it could ever be shown to work as opposed to faked, it uses like one quintillion as much, it could do one

Starting point is 01:05:58 quintillion more than a regular computer. So thus, overall it should require one quintillion less in terms of power once it achieves, it seems to me it should use like a 9 volt battery should keep it going for all the work it can do. You are talking against the narrative of Silicon Valley, my friend. This is not how, that's how technology used to work. Today, if you wanted to do more, you've got to pay more. It's got to be more expensive. Got to suck more power. So the basic old school of Silicon Valley was things got...

Starting point is 01:06:32 Broken. Yeah. Cheaper and faster and cheaper and faster and smaller. Smaller, cheaper, faster. Every generation was smaller, it was cheaper, it was faster. But now? Well, I think Apple showed us that that's not the way. Every new iPhone is more expensive,

Starting point is 01:06:51 ruins your battery quicker, and you've got to upgrade sooner. They flipped the script on this. I know. I mean, I'm with you obviously. I mean, I still have a TRS100 that runs on two double A's. TRS1. The TRS100.

Starting point is 01:07:10 Yeah, those things that didn't use much juice. Well, it only had an eight line LCD display, but man, it could do basic. I've actually been doing some deep dives. Oh, God. There is a resurgence. Are you ready for this? Because I'm already sensing what you're going to say. Okay.

Starting point is 01:07:32 Tell me a resurgence and old junk. No, no, no, no. Finding old TRS 8100s and they're repurposing them. If only, no, I want to run Linux. I want to run Ubuntu on my TRS100. Actually, that's what I would think. People want to run Ubuntu on a TRS100. No. Oh, okay. There's, you know, AI, let's just call it AI, large language models. It turns out that it's pretty much the same basic principles going back to 1958.

Starting point is 01:08:14 When a guy named John McCarthy invented, take it away, John. I don't know what, but John McCarthy, there's two schools. Before you go on this, I'm going to say this one thing. And I know what, well, John McCarthy, there was two schools, before you go on this, I'm going to say this one thing, and I know what you're doing, but John McCarthy was on the wrong side of history. There were two schools of thought when it came to AI, and every time the John McCarthy side had its moment, which was including the 80s, they all failed because it was mostly machine learning and it didn't really have anything to do with anything.

Starting point is 01:08:51 And the counter to that was always neural networks, which could never work. It's neural networks that are working today that make AI what it is that can do the art and all the rest of it. Interestingly enough, there's a resurgent in Lisp programming because they can't seem to get the AI going any further than it is today. Yeah, we'll see. I'm just telling you, there was a whole conference not... Lisp programming. Yes, Lisp. Yeah. Yes. My all, everyone's all-time favorite. I'm just telling you that this, they just had a worldwide conference. The AI guys are going back to Lisp because they can't seem to get the neural

Starting point is 01:09:32 networks doing any intelligence for, other than the neural networks, which is giving you, you know, your Scaramanga, his eight second videos, and Darren O'Neill, his orange images. And I would like to say, by the way, I have a comment on the orange images. I would suggest that somebody show, use Lisp and create some of the art that Darren creates with just a few prompts. What, did you not hear what I just said? That the neural networks, they are definitely responsible, I'll say it again,

Starting point is 01:10:07 for Scaramanga's eight-second videos. Yeah, I know, I'm saying yes. And if, I'm not arguing that, what I'm saying is that if the Lisp is so good that we can go back to it, I want to see it produce some art as good as Scaramanga's. No, they want to use Lisp for the reasoning and for the recursive. Oh, okay. Yes, I'm telling you. I'm not... Well, that's insanity. I'm reporting it to you.

Starting point is 01:10:30 I'm not like advocating for it. You might as well be. Oh, you're insufferable sometimes. I'm totally insufferable. It's pathetic. But you know what the number one language is being used currently today for for artificial intelligence large language models, not for your image crap. Do you know what it is? The number one language?

Starting point is 01:10:54 You got me. Python. Oh, that doesn't surprise me. Which is lame by comparison to Lisp. Exactly. This is exactly why they're going back to it. It's it's fascinating to see. Why don't they go back to small talk? Apple talk.

Starting point is 01:11:14 Novell Networks. Now that was a technology, I tell you. Now we sound like a couple of farts. So I've decided I'm Ben X. That is my new generation. I am not Gen X. I am Ben X. Anyway. What's Ben? Ben what?

Starting point is 01:11:29 The B for Boomer. Ben X. Oh, that's interesting. Thank you. I think Boom X would be better by now. So Sam Altman, our very tortured, tortured, multi-millionaire. Sex fiend. I don't know if he's a... You should... Isn't he part of that sex cult? very tortured, tortured, multimillionaire. Sex fiend. I don't know if he's a sex- How do you-

Starting point is 01:11:47 You should- Isn't he part of that sex cult? No, you're- Am I conflating a bunch of different people? You're thinking of the FTX guy. You're thinking of Sam Bankman Fried. No, no, I'm not thinking of- No, I'm thinking about the group that's still running around here that is sex oriented and oh

Starting point is 01:12:07 What were they called again the Yeah them those guys someone in the in the troll room should know what it is. Yeah Okay, continue talking. I'll worry about later Sam Altman he He's doing some pre promotion for model for model five. Model five everybody. I mean, listen, we just need another trillion dollars. Once we have more compute, AI is really effective altruism. Thank you very much, Max Abilio.

Starting point is 01:12:39 Effective altruism. No, he's the opposite of that because now he went all in on commercialism. He wants to get filthy rich now. Remember, they're trying to spin all that up. Who doesn't? Exactly. Sam Altman is doing just fine. So Sam needs to explain to everybody that if we just get a little more money, it will

Starting point is 01:13:01 really be smart. It's blowing me away. I'm telling you. So where would you go? Hey, I have to say that no one has said this. I'm going to say it. Okay. It turns out that Sam Altman is one of the greatest salespeople

Starting point is 01:13:17 in the history of sales and no one recognizes the simple fact. He is really good at sales. I think his pitch is getting old. Because it still works. He's still getting money. He does it, yes, but he does it in the- I mean, to you, you're like, you know, you can see this, but most people can't.

Starting point is 01:13:37 I see right through it. I mean, the guy is clearly lying. You know, he's just sitting there like, he's lying, he's lying. A salesman lying? Oh no. So he goes on, of all podcasts, He's just sitting there like, he's lying. He's lying. A salesman lying? Oh no. What?

Starting point is 01:13:48 So he goes on, of all podcasts, if you really want to reach the masses, Theo Vaughan. This is a fantastic podcast. And I didn't clip this, but at a certain point, Theo Vaughan says, don't you think it's kind of like old fashioned for women to have babies? I mean, should we just have them in vats? You know, and Sam almost like, yeah, you know, obviously we'd have much better humans, obviously. No. Yes. You didn't clip that. No, it was too creepy. And anyway, so here's his presale. These are two very short clips.

Starting point is 01:14:21 Here's his presale of model five. But when it comes with, what are you, what do you fear, Sam? And Sam is, you know what, yeah. What's like one of your fears? Like what's a fear you have of AI? Like if you have like a fearful space that it could go,

Starting point is 01:14:42 like I know you mentioned it a little bit. This morning, I was testing our new model and I got a question. I got emailed a question that I didn't quite understand. And I put it in the model, this GPT-5, and it answered it perfectly. And I really kind of sat back in my chair and I was just like, oh man, here it is moment.

Starting point is 01:15:01 And I got over it quickly. I got busy onto the next thing. But it was like, I mean, it's what kind of we're it quickly, I got busy onto the next thing. But it was like, I mean, it's what kind of we're talking about, I felt like useless relative to the AI in this thing that I felt like I should have been able to do and I couldn't and it was really hard, but the AI just did it like that.

Starting point is 01:15:14 Yeah. It was a weird feeling. Yeah. Model five, GPT-5, I mean. I'm smelling ketamine. Ha. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha. That's probably true. I mean, I'm smelling ketamine.

Starting point is 01:15:29 That's probably true. I like that. So then we get his actual fear, which he doesn't know how to solve. Another thing I'm afraid of and we had a, you know, a real problem with this earlier, but it can get much worse. It's just what this is going to mean for users' mental health. There's a lot of people that talk to a chat GBT all day long. There are these sort of new AI companions that people talk to like they would a girlfriend or a boyfriend.

Starting point is 01:16:08 And we were talking earlier about how it's probably not been good for kids to like grow up like on the dopamine hit of scrolling. You know, doctor ones or whatever. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, do you think that that, how do you keep like AI from having that same effect, like that negative effect that social media really has had?

Starting point is 01:16:24 I'm scared of that. I don't have an answer yet. I don't think we know quite the ways in which it's going to have those negative impacts. Yes, we do. But I feel for sure it's going to have some and we'll have to, I hope we can learn to mitigate it quickly. Can they pull up pornography and stuff like that too or no?

Starting point is 01:16:41 Sure. Oh my God. Sure. God, I didn't know that. No, it's fine. Listen to him laughing. Either way, you have to know Theo Vaughn had a very serious porn addiction. Can they pull up pornography and stuff like that too

Starting point is 01:16:57 or no? Sure. Oh my God. God, I didn't know that. No, it's fine. Yeah, but I just, yeah, I don't even need to know that. I'm going to have that stricken from it's fine. Yeah, but I just Yeah, I don't even need to know that I'm gonna have stricken from my own record. So there it is. There is his biggest fear, which of course,

Starting point is 01:17:13 he knows all about this is not his fear. This is this is his exit strategy. Everybody needs to be talking to their chat GPT. Every, you know, if you pick if you pull it, I know you don't have an app for it. But if you were to ever install an app on your phone in the drawer, Chad GBT has tabs at the top and the first one is like general. And the second one is therapy. They are, they are literally giving this to people. There's a tab that says therapy and it comes with it.

Starting point is 01:17:44 Yep. Built right in. Well, then tell us more. There's a tab that says therapy and it comes with it. Yup. Well, tell us more. Well, that's where people go for therapy. And then the AI starts talking to you like a therapist. This is not regulated. Well, no. You just can't put a shingle out and say, I'm a therapist without having a license?

Starting point is 01:18:05 Actually, I think you can. I don't think so. I think you can. Not in the state of California. Hmm, I'm not sure about that. I'm not sure about that. You have to be a licensed, either a psychologist or a licensed psychiatrist, or a psychiatrist, I don't think you need a license for that.

Starting point is 01:18:23 I don't know if you need to be It's like Lucy free advice five cents. Well, there you go. Lucy was in violation of the law Let's see. Let me ask Grock Yes, ask Grock Grock would know do you need a license to be a Therapist. All right, let's find out. Yes, you typically do, but it depends on location. Okay. Alright.

Starting point is 01:18:54 Well, we have a lot of therapists and psychologists. Well, someone should chime in on this bull crap. Yeah, because none of it's good, obviously. Well, if it says therapy, they're offering the therapeutic services that are unlicensed. Says it right there. They should sue them. The state of California should sue the company over this immediately.

Starting point is 01:19:15 Well, anyway, the more I look at X, which has, you know, Grok essentially built into it, you know, so I essentially built into it. You know, so, and every, I love, the number one question I think posted on X is, at Grok, is this true? That's my favorite. That's my favorite. Yeah. Well, that's what you do.

Starting point is 01:19:39 So the snake is eating its tail continuously. And it just seems like you cannot get away from ingesting crap and then just more crap comes out. That's just the model collapse to me is just, that's, that's why we have to keep getting. Well, if it's going to be like you say, if it's going to be model collapse, I know, then I'm not worried. Why are you worried about any of this?

Starting point is 01:19:59 I'm not, but I have to fill time on this podcast. So I might as well. That makes sense and when it comes to crap just just you know just have a look at my timeline and look at all of the number accounts, you know like Dolores five nine seven two two three six These are bots There's no one who would accept their username to be Dolores 39226

Starting point is 01:20:30 People will try anything. Let me do if it's Dolores 1960. Okay, boomer Dolores. I got you This thing is filled with bots And the more I look at it and the more I see what kind of comments are being made by these bots the more I am convinced that All of these social networks are now just completely flooded by intelligence agencies massaging a narrative and it doesn't mean that they're doing it in in For the benefit of the administration they're doing it for the benefit of whatever their whatever their messaging is and nothing quite sums it

Starting point is 01:21:10 up and why wouldn't you do that exactly and nothing quite sums it up as the Harvard cyber speech from President Obama where he was clearly projecting and in hindsight you're like wow this is really taking place right now. The Epstein conversation is a part of it. The Mossad, Israel, all of this is a part of it. In Myanmar, it's been well documented that hate speech, shared on Facebook, played a role in the murderous campaign targeting the Rohingya community. Social media platforms have been similarly implicated in fanning ethnic violence in Ethiopia,

Starting point is 01:21:49 far-right extremism in Europe. Authoritarian regimes and strongmen around the world, from China to Hungary, the Philippines, Brazil have learned to conscript social media platforms to turn their own populations against groups they don't like, whether it's ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ community, journalists, political opponents, and of course, autocrats like Putin have used these platforms as a strategic weapon against democratic countries that they consider a threat. People like Putin, and Steve Bannon for that matter, understand it's not necessary for people to believe this information in order to weaken democratic institutions. You just have to

Starting point is 01:22:29 flood a country's public square with enough raw sewage. You just have to raise enough questions, spread enough dirt, plant enough conspiracy theorizing that citizens no longer know what to believe. Once they lose trust in their leaders, in mainstream media, in political institutions, in each other, in the possibility of truth, the game's won. There you go. And as Putin discovered leading up to the 2016 election, our own social media platforms are well designed to support such a mission, such a project. Russians could study and manipulate patterns in the engagement ranking system on a Facebook or a YouTube.

Starting point is 01:23:08 And as a result, Russian state-sponsored trolls could almost guarantee that whatever disinformation they put out there would reach millions of Americans. And that the more inflammatory the story, the quicker it spread. Yeah. And that's being done today, right now, by our own intelligence community. It's being done by Obama's boys. This is the clowered pivots strategy. The digital version.

Starting point is 01:23:33 It's a digital version of it completely. Yeah. And it's working. He kind of expressed how it works. You clogged the sewers. Yeah. And it's working. And how do you make it even crazier? Add AI.

Starting point is 01:23:48 Just add some Scaramanga images. I don't think it makes it crazier. It just makes it easier. No, easier for them to do, yes. Yeah. But I think it accelerates. You mean, you maybe laughed so hard the other day. You know, you should have someone watching you when you post on X. Which one? What post got you? The one where you said, who is this woman next to Trump? How come she's never mentioned? It was- I didn't do that. Yes, you did.

Starting point is 01:24:24 I said, this picture shows up a lot. Who is this woman next to Trump? And I wanted somebody to tell me. Oh, okay. I was like, it's clearly Melania. It doesn't look anything like her. Oh, it's totally Melania. It doesn't look anything like her and it has to be pre 2004.

Starting point is 01:24:42 He wasn't dating her then. I don't know how long he's been dating. Well that doesn't mean that that... What do you mean it has to be pre 2004? Because he broke up with Epstein. It's documented in 2004. He never saw him again. Or spoke to him after 2004. That was the date. You got to get all the clips you want. When did he start dating Melania? after 2004. That was the date. You got to get all the clips you want. When did he start dating Melania? Well, it had to be after Marla Maples.

Starting point is 01:25:12 And when did he divorce Marla Maples? Well, let's find out when he divorced Marla Maples. I'm trying to look at your timeline. Your timeline is 100% TikTok crazy videos. I can't even find the Melania video. Oh my goodness. You're out of control. It's not a video. It's a still photo. Who is this woman? Question mark. I constantly see this photo of Trump from 20 plus years ago.

Starting point is 01:25:35 Who is this woman he is with? Why is she never identified? Yeah. Well, what's wrong with that? Well, it's clearly Melania. It's not clearly Melania. It doesn't look anything like her. It looks exactly like her. When did they first start dating? Let's see.

Starting point is 01:25:53 Yeah, look at it. You do that and I'll look at Marla Maples when she was divorced. Okay. Well, that doesn't mean he wasn't hanging out with her at the time. Here, Zampoli introduced her to Donald Trump in 1998. She began dating Donald Trump shortly thereafter. Marlowe, who? Melania.

Starting point is 01:26:11 And they met. Melania was dating Donald Trump in 1998. No, I didn't say that. Paolo Zampolli, I'm sure a fine individual, introduced her to Trump in 1998. She began dating Donald Trump shortly thereafter. Trump worked to get Melania modeling jobs and she supported him during his 2000 presidential campaign and they were married in 2005. So your timeline works.

Starting point is 01:26:39 Well, maybe you're right. Maybe I'm completely wrong and she's changed her look, which wouldn't surprise me. Well, she's 25 years older or 20 years older than the picture. Marla Mabel's got divorced in 1999. There you go. Because he was dating Melania in 98. Hello? So the timeline works. Okay, so you got me. Well, now I know. I wonder who this picture this woman was. It's Melania. Okay well now I didn't know. That's why I asked. That's what I

Starting point is 01:27:12 use Twitter for. I use it for a point of information. I see this picture keeps showing up over and over and over again and nobody identifies and they say here's Trump with Epstein and Epstein's with Ghislaine. There's no mention of the woman. You use Twitter to A-B test crazy TikTok videos to play on One America News. It's your testing ground. Do you see how many, what people like it the most? Have you been on her show?

Starting point is 01:27:42 Oh no. Yeah, I was on it again last Friday. Ah, I missed it. I need to see it the most. Have you been on her show? Oh, no. Yeah, I was on it again last Friday. Ah, I missed it. Good. You just grouse about it. I think it's... No, I think you're doing it wrong.

Starting point is 01:27:53 You need to get an act together. This is why I'm grousing. You'd be perfect. You need a hat. We already discussed that. It's called an intact grouch. Yeah, you got to do a little crazy voice. And you got to say, you know, you got to have a catchphrase.

Starting point is 01:28:07 You don't have a catchphrase. I don't have a catchphrase. Catchphrase should be, who are these women? That should be your catchphrase. But not always just women. OK, all right. Anyway, I got a gem lined up next time I'm on. I noticed you stopped bringing them to the show.

Starting point is 01:28:25 You're like, I'm not giving away my good stuff here. No, that's because, no, I have an outlet for it that's other than the show because you grouse and moan and groan and make my life, I'll bring the next show is gonna be loaded with TikToks. Loaded with TikToks. No, the next show on Thursday is going to be our exit strategies, which is even better than TikToks.

Starting point is 01:28:46 Even better. It will give a lot of people good ideas. Yes. Yeah. We're full of them. Hours. We're full of it. You're right. Or hours worth. All right. What's the Boeuf controversy? What is that? Okay. This is the guy that they're making a big fuss about this guy. He is the Trump lawyer who helped him out in some, well,

Starting point is 01:29:06 it's all explained in these clips, but he wants to make him a member of one of the circuit courts of appeal and everybody's fighting against it. And they ram rotted it through the committee and the committee, the Democrats in the committee, this is where the committee walked out. And, and all of this, this is the drama, high drama. How did I not, this is when the committee walked out and, and, Oh, I missed all of this. This is, this is the drama, high drama. How did I not catch this? Oh, the walkout was the best because you had a, you even,

Starting point is 01:29:31 Hiromo and, and we're bitching and moaning. And what's his name? The black guy who's always yelling and screaming who did the 17 hour, uh, filibuster whose name for some reason eludes me. Cory Booker. So, Cory Booker says, this is outrageous. This is outrageous. And then they all left and it was a big stink because they were trying to get this guy through.

Starting point is 01:29:54 So, let's listen to clip one. President Trump helped reshape the federal courts during his first term in office and he relied heavily on the Federalist Society in that effort, which helped him zero in on judges with a conservative originalist interpretation of the Constitution. Now the nomination's machinery is restarting and Trump's most controversial judicial nominee is only one step away. Where is this who? What outlet is this? NPR. So they just say Trump, they don't say President Trump anymore?

Starting point is 01:30:26 They just say Trump? No, that's NPR. They hate Trump. And I should mention they talk about the Federalist Society and Trump's not using them as much as they used to. And they never mentioned the reason, which is Amy Comey Barrett, who's been kind of on the fence. She's not that conservative on a lot of issues. Yeah, that's why he stopped using the Heritage Foundation because they boned him. Well, it's the federalists, this group here that really-

Starting point is 01:30:51 I'm sorry, Federalist Society, yeah. They boned him. They boned him, boned him. ...and Trump's most controversial judicial nominee is only one step away from the federal bench. I'm joined by NPR's Kerry Johnson for a look at what Anil Bovi could tell us about Trump's approach to judges in his second term. Kerry, welcome.

Starting point is 01:31:11 Hi, Wana. So Kerry, start if you can by just telling us who Anil Bovi is and why his nomination- I'm sorry. I'm so irritated by- You keep hearing Anil Bovi? I'm so irritated by this. What happened in news where you just went like, okay, with us we have John C. Dvorak.

Starting point is 01:31:29 John, tell us exactly what's going on here. When did it have to become, hi Amy, hi Nanny, hi Bibi, hi Truti, hi Snacky? Why is that? It doesn't, it just wastes my time. About Trump's approach to judges in his second term, Carrie, welcome. Hi, Juana. So Carrie, start if you can by just telling us who Amal Bovi is and why his nomination is so controversial.

Starting point is 01:31:52 Well, he's got some pretty strong credentials. He graduated from Georgetown Law School, did a couple of clerkships with conservative federal judges and then got a job in what might be the most prestigious US attorney's office in the entire country in Manhattan. And of course, he went on to defend Donald Trump in his various criminal cases. The White House communications director says Amo Bovi is supremely qualified and a man of integrity. He says there's nobody more capable for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Starting point is 01:32:20 And at his confirmation hearing, Bovi told senators he's been misunderstood. I am not anybody's henchman. I'm not an enforcer. I'm a lawyer from a small town who never expected to be in an arena like this. It's Amal. A-M-A-L. Amal. Or E-M-I-L. What is it? Amal? Amal? I like the other one. Yeah. So this guy, they make a big fuss. First they give his credentials, he's fine.

Starting point is 01:32:48 But no, no, no, because he defended Trump. Ah, that's the problem. That's the problem. Yeah, here we go. But Bovi also ran into some complaints from colleagues and defense lawyers. Right, and if I understand, Kerry, he's also had an outsized role in his brief time at the Department of Justice. Is that right? He's the right-hand man to the Deputy Attorney General, which basically means all the day-to-day

Starting point is 01:33:09 management of the Justice Department, both the big cases and policies, all of that ends up on his desk. And there's been a lot going on this year, from firing prosecutors who worked on those January 6 cases to walking away from the corruption case against New York City's mayor, Eric Adams. A federal judge said the decision to drop that case smacked of a bargain where DOJ would move to dismiss the case and Mayor Adams would help advance Trump's aggressive deportation agenda.

Starting point is 01:33:37 900 former Justice Department lawyers have urged the Senate to vote no on Amal Bovi. I spoke with Stacey Young, who spent 18 years inside the DOJ. She now runs a group that connects people there with legal and ethics advice. By voting to confirm Amal Bovi to a lifetime appointment, they would be doing more than just placing someone problematic on the bench. they would be giving their stamp of approval on everything that's happened at DOJ in the last six months. And that is simply unacceptable.

Starting point is 01:34:15 You know, what is wrong with these people? Well, my question is, we've had a lot of famous Emils, right? Yeah. Like wasn't there a chef named Emile? Legasse. Emile Legasse.

Starting point is 01:34:37 But what other famous Emile Berliner? I'm trying to think of other, but they've always pronounced it Emil. Why is he now Emil? Which of course we all know sounds like anal. Yeah, that's why that you just answered your own question. They're really doing this on purpose. What?

Starting point is 01:34:59 This is horrible. This whole report is horrible. Defund them. They're making, what? Wait? Oh, it's too late. Oh, that was Emeril. I'm sorry. It wasn't Amel. It was Emeril. Emeril Lagasse. Yeah, but they said Ameril. It's Amil. I think your point is well taken. They're saying Anal. They are. It's an outrage. I'm outraged by our national public radio. Carrie, we know that President Trump appointed a whole lot of judges during his first term.

Starting point is 01:35:32 So how does Bovi compare? During Trump's first term, Trump confirmed more than 200 judges with help from Senator Mitch McConnell, largely relying on a list the Federalist Society helped create, but Boefe's not a member of the Federalist Society. He's loyal to Trump and close to people in the White House though. That's what worries Greg Nunziata, who helped advance judicial nominees as a Republican Senate aide. He now works as executive director at Society for the Rule of Law. I think there are reasons all Americans should be concerned about judges coming to the bench

Starting point is 01:36:07 with political agendas and outcome motivated orientation to judging. That should concern everybody. Yeah, you know, go on X dude. No one cares about anything anymore. It's all slop. And by the way, Trump did 200 judges Biden did 235 in his term. Yeah Well, of course they will not mention that and and all of them were appointed that they're all liberals

Starting point is 01:36:33 There's the auto pen. So it wasn't actually Biden Well somebody did somebody gave instructions, but yes Well, of course So that this is bogus, but let's go and wrap it up here with a couple more. It's especially notable that President Trump is breaking with the Federalist Society, because that group has been just extremely successful at stacking the federal bench with very conservative judges, right? That success helped culminate in a six to three conservative supermajority on today's Supreme Court. That effort began over a generation ago in law schools and it continued all the way through

Starting point is 01:37:09 Donald Trump's first Charmin office where nominees with conservative track records were closely vetted, their writings were tracked. The idea was to ensure these very conservative lawyers would stay conservative and avoid the kind of drift that say former Justice David Souter and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor may have represented. Right. Okay. Well, I mean, given the fact that the Federalist Society has been so successful, tell us why

Starting point is 01:37:33 Tom Sauer on it. I think there's a simple reason. There are hundreds of cases that have been filed against the Trump administration this year challenging his policies, his immigration agenda, the efforts to remake the federal government. And the president has really been frustrated with lower court judges who ruled against him, judges that were appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents. Trump went so far as to attack Leonard Leo, the longtime Federalist Society official, in a social media post this year as he was losing in the lower courts. Trump called him a sleazebag

Starting point is 01:38:11 You know, yeah the mistake these guys make is they're not they're not they're not really explaining what's going on No dumb hicks in Texas like me. I don't understand any of this and I don't care like judge smudge Amyl nitrate, whatever. So they get the Federalist Society, now what gets me here, and you do know what's going on, what gets me here is that they're bitching and moaning about the Federalist Society the first go-around, and now they're bitching and moaning that he's got them loose.

Starting point is 01:38:38 Why is he doing that? That's no good. You can't do that. Whatever he does is bad. So this is the last clip. We'll just point out here that judges are supposed to be independent of the president who appointed them. They're not political actors. Kerry Johnson, how do you expect this to shape the judiciary given the fact that these are lifetime appointments?

Starting point is 01:38:58 Now, the Senate has already confirmed Trump's first federal judge. Several more are in the pipeline. There are fewer judicial vacancies now than in Trump's first go judge, several more are in the pipeline. There are fewer judicial vacancies now than in Trump's first go round in the White House. And there's also some evidence judges may be delaying their retirement so their replacements are not picked by Trump. I mean, there are hundreds of federal judges. Bovi is just one person. So is this confirmation really likely to make a difference in how Trump's policies fair in court, friends?

Starting point is 01:39:26 You know, this is a fair point. I've been talking with experts. They tell me appeals court judges sit on panels of three. So any one judge is not going to tip the balance of power. But if and when the president gets a vacancy on the Supreme Court, that nominee could have a lot more influence. It's not clear. Amo Bovi would be at the top of Trump's list. But people in the legal community tell me they think it's a possibility. Trump has been winning a lot this year in the Supreme Court. And that's ultimately where this matters. What do you mean? What about Ted Cruz?

Starting point is 01:39:57 I thought he was next in line. That'd be a good idea. Please get him out of Congress. The great thing about Ted Cruz is he wouldn't be talking on television anymore because Supreme Court justices don't typically do that. They write their opinion or their dissent. Well, what's her name? Jackson does. No, that's true. I had an experience with our justice system this past weekend. Oh, you got pulled over for what? No, I took my first trip to a federal correction facility in Texas.

Starting point is 01:40:32 Well, how long did they lock you up? I had to visit a friend of mine who's in for 10. Oh, this is the doctor. Yeah, who we're hoping, you know, there's appeal and all kinds of stuff. It's he definitely got railroaded. Yeah, a doctor who got railroaded. No, yeah, that happens. So, but he's in the camp.

Starting point is 01:40:55 The camp. The camp? Yeah, you know, it's like this. Oh, it's a, it's the minimal lockup. And, you know, so, and I've never been out never been out this like two and a half hour drive so I and then I've been told okay you know you got to arrive at this time otherwise they won't let you in you can't go in with anything you can't have your phone on you was like okay fine so I guess my gun is out yeah okay so can't

Starting point is 01:41:20 have any of that you have to have a clear bag a clear bag with your driver's license so they can see it and dollar bills, only dollar bills for the vending machine, you know, because I guess that's the only thing you can eat there is from the vending machine in the visitor's office. And they had me all, and I took my belt off, you know, I'm all jacked up like, oh, what's this? This, I, you know, because I just had to... Did they x-ray you? Well you well this is I didn't know what to expect but the way it was presented to me I was I was you know cautious you down so I walk up you open the doors double opening doors and right there boom you're you're in the room with all the inmates and their visitors. It's like a DMV waiting room. And the welcome desk is at the far side of the room. There's no scanner. I mean,

Starting point is 01:42:14 I could have walked in with anything. And I asked for my inmate. And then, what do you think the guy says to me? And then what do you think the guy says to me? Uh, I don't know. What would he say? You got any cool stories on Ozzy? On what Ozzy Ozzy Osborne. Oh, they knew who you were Tell me about the story would tell me where you met Ozzy and it was the most laid-back thing I've ever witnessed. That was surprising. There's people in there bringing in Kentucky Fried Chicken and just everyone's having parties. It was nothing that I could expect. It doesn't sound like anything. Why did they give you the prepping that was inaccurate?

Starting point is 01:42:56 Well, I guess there's difference in guards. You can have some of the psychos and I guess it was not psycho day but even so I mean there's no security pretty much. I mean obviously the whole thing sucks but it was quite interesting to witness. Well that, we always say that transitions nicely to the alligator alley stories. Oh yeah. Did I the alligator alley stories. Oh yeah. Did I say alligator alley? You did. And alligator alley is something completely different. To me, alligator alley means I'm going back to 1997, 1996, think new ideas in New York.

Starting point is 01:43:41 We didn't know each other then where we were growing out of our offices. No, we actually did if it was 97. We met in 93. Right, but that was just a meeting on the... No, no, yeah. That was like a show business meeting. We bumped into, yes, it was a show business.

Starting point is 01:43:59 Big fan of your work, man. Big fan of your work. Yeah, big fan of your work. I love what you do. I love what you do. You're the best. Yeah, you're, oh man, you're so awesome. No, this is Think New Ideas. We had a hundred people in the New York office

Starting point is 01:44:11 and we were building out a second floor. We were growing so fast. And so we had all of these coders who were basically building websites for Reebok and Johnson and Johnson, Tampax.com, and just doing HTML. This was when you could still charge a company like that $150,000 a month for maintenance. We're going to maintain your website. The good old days. And so you had all of these chairbacks on either side of this aisle But if if you walked in between them and someone happened to slide their chair back boom you you get caught

Starting point is 01:44:49 That was alligator alley. Oh Yeah, wow, yeah, it's a long walk. Okay, I Have a couple of clips but but Including the bonus clips, the two of them. But let's play these first, these other ones, because the bonus clips are quite funny, but this is the first, this again, the NPR, this is against Scott and his buddy. This is the first NPR alligator one. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says the first deportation flights have begun

Starting point is 01:45:22 from the new migrant detention center referred to by President Trump and others as Alligator Alcatraz. The remote facility in the Everglades has come under intense scrutiny and generated controversy. Some people now detained there allege harsh treatment by guards. Tim Padgett with our member station WLRN in Miami has been following the story. Tim, thanks for being with us. Thank you, Scott. First, please remind us how this detention center came about and immediately became a source of controversy. Well, it was a very sudden action taken by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis late last month out on an idle airstrip in the remote Everglades where the concept was that detainees would of course be met by alligators and other wildlife

Starting point is 01:46:05 if they try to escape. President Trump and DeSantis hope it will serve as a sort of punitive showcase to deter illegal immigration. Critics say it's just one more piece of performative demonization of immigrants. And although Alligator Alcatraz is for immigrant detention, which is supposedly a federal function, it's run by Florida's Division of Emergency Management, but apparently DeSantis is going to tap into federal FEMA money to reimburse Florida for the $450 million cost of its first year of operation. It's abhorrent that they say immigrants. It's not these illegal, illegal, deportees,

Starting point is 01:46:49 whatever you want to call them, it's not immigrants. They also trivialize the idea of it being an airstrip. Which is critically important because you take them right out, you fly them away. Well, I know, but it's not, but this air, this so-called airstrip is actually a 10,000 foot runway that was designed for the Concorde. Do you know that?

Starting point is 01:47:08 I didn't know it was designed for the Concorde, but it's a proper runway. Yeah. Yeah, it's a big old, to me an airstrip is like- The grass strip. The grass strip. Yeah, you got like, all right, we're flying the drugs into the airstrip. Yeah, that's a good point. Yes. It's a huge runway that's sitting there idle.

Starting point is 01:47:29 So they figured they'd use it for something. Why don't they just say newcomers again? We should go back to newcomers. That would be even better. That would be better. Newcomers. Either way, a big reality is that it's a hastily constructed tent structure with caged cells for up to 5,000 detainees so Detainees have complained of substandard food large mosquitoes

Starting point is 01:47:54 overflowing toilets stop so I witnessed what our Non-newcomers go through It's the all its junk. It's junk, it's crap. By the way, do you know what the currency is in the pen? Do you know what they use for currency? Well, it used to be cigarettes. Yeah, it's now Macs. Macs. I don't know what a Macs is.

Starting point is 01:48:17 Mackerels. Mackerels? Yes. So they buy Mackerels. You can buy them an individually wrapped Mackerel. You're talking about a fish fish Yes, yes, and so hey how much if I could make that not that not that okay? I only use that example But you know there's if you want stuff inside if you want someone to do something You know they have to have a currency all all all societies even incarcerated have a currency and in this particular facility It's mackerel and so that's got a stink to high heaven. Well, they're packaged. They're packaged and

Starting point is 01:48:55 And so that'll cost you thank you This is the funniest thing that you've said for a while They don't what that is packaged or the know that there's mackerels being passed around Yes, it'll cost you three max. Okay three max and then at the end some of these guys they make sushi out of the mackerel's and they make it with Was it with that what's that orange rice Like chemical rice basically, so I'll take some of that. I have no idea what you're talking about like chemical rice basically.

Starting point is 01:49:23 So it takes some of that. I have no idea what you're talking about. Yeah, but basically they take Cheetos and they wrap it all. My buddy was telling me the whole thing and they make sushi out of it. There's all kinds of shenanigans going on, but I love that the mackerels is the currency. It just proves that anything can be a currency and they use macros. I thought you'd like that. I did. I liked it a lot.

Starting point is 01:49:51 Back to your clip. Scant air conditioning, lights on continuously, a lack of access to showers and especially access to lawyers who say they're not allowed in the facility and can only engage their detainee clients by phone or zoom. And I gather this week you spoke with a Nicaraguan migrant inside the detention center. What did he say? Well, he's a 21 year old asylum seeker who says he came to the U.S. border in 2023 as a student protester fleeing Nicaragua's brutal Ortega dictatorship. Asylum seeker who did not go through the asylum seeking process. I'm so sick of these people. He asked that his name not be used for fear of government retaliation here. He'd been arrested in Fort Lauderdale before this for improper exhibition of a firearm but

Starting point is 01:50:40 he was not convicted so he's one of the hundreds of non-criminal migrants in Alligator Alcatraz, which is a facility that was supposedly for criminal... Hold on. Let me listen again. These words are... No wonder the people in Austin are insane. They're being propagandized with lies and fake language. Let's listen again. One of the hundreds of non-criminal migrants in... Non-criminal migrants. You may be a non-criminal illegal alien, but you're not a non-criminal migrant. This is... I'm sick of these people.

Starting point is 01:51:13 One of the hundreds of non-criminal migrants in Alligator Alcatraz, which is a facility that was supposedly for criminal migrants only, and he claims that after a shouting match with guards last Saturday over detainee clothing Regulations one of them called the man who is black the n-word and they shackled his hands and feet Yeah, okay Well, they do a lot worse to our American citizens in the pen. I can I can testify to that in the pen. I can testify to that. It's unbelievable these reports. Wait till you hear the nonsense from CNN, which is coming up. This is the third clip from NPR.

Starting point is 01:51:51 He says they then put him outside in what they call the box, a four by four foot square, he said, directly in the hot Florida sun. Yeah, known as the shoe. The shoe, man. The special housing unit. Here's what he told me. Now he claims that when a fellow detainee from Honduras complained to the guards about this punishment, they did it to him too. Of course, Tim, it's hard to verify what the detainees say when there's little access for journalists or lawyers. But we'll report it anyway. What?

Starting point is 01:52:32 I said it was hard to verify, but we'll report it as fact. Of course. To him too. Of course, Tim, it's hard to verify what the detainees say when there's little access for journalists or lawyers in that place. How do officials respond to these allegations? That's right. But the Florida Division of Emergency Management categorically denies the claims of punishment as, quote, false. It insists that alligator Alcatraz

Starting point is 01:52:56 guards do not punish detainees and that they follow all proper prison, state, and federal protocols. But the other significant response has been from Florida Republicans who insist the public needs to remember that this is essentially a prison where many, if not most of the detainees do in fact have criminal histories and that it's not supposed to be, as the Florida House Speaker said recently, a quote, five star resort. Now, my goodness. Okay.star resort. No. My goodness. Okay, so we're getting at these reports. At CNN, I have these two bonus clips.

Starting point is 01:53:31 I want to play the first one, because the first one is actually a Woody Allen joke. Okay. Yesterday, the air conditioning went out. We had the whole morning without air conditioning. Lots of mosquitoes came in because they get in from all sides. Multiple detainees say they don't get enough food, though they're served three meals a day and that water is limited.

Starting point is 01:53:56 We're getting our breakfast, we're going to the food hall. The food is very terrible here. Very very very small portions. The food is bad and the very very very small portions I don't know the food is bad and the portions are so small oh yeah okay an old Jewish joke yeah that is way over everybody said even mine well tonight that's why I explained it I'm not a Woody Allen guy yeah so let's go to it's a bit's a Jewish joke I got the Allen but he used the joke in his nanny hall actually. And here we go to the second part of this, which is more complaining this time about

Starting point is 01:54:32 the water pressure. We've eaten as late as 10 at night. The food at night is cold too. There's never a hot meal. Showers are located in a separate tent, and opportunities to shower there are scarce, according to the detainees we spoke with. All the showers are connected to the same water source. There's barely any water pressure.

Starting point is 01:54:51 So we have to like literally put ourselves on the wall right next to the water drainage so we can at least get hit with water. Oh man. They have no idea. You're lucky you're in federal lockup and or in lockup that is maintained by the government. My buddy's in a commercial prison where everything is scammed. Everything is the cheapest, the most rotten, the out of order, not working. Ay, yi, yi, yi, yi yi yi yi yi. This is, and the media, especially CNN and NPR, they're all, they're on the side of the immigrants.

Starting point is 01:55:29 You know, we're sick of the immigrants. Immigrants, immigrants, the asylum seekers. The asylum seekers newcomers. Yeah. I mean, okay. It sucks. I know that nobody likes seeing any... We're nice Americans. Nobody likes to see anyone being rousted or arrested for trying to find a better life. But I'm sorry. If you don't do it, you get Europe. And President Trump is right. They are collapsing. They're collapsing.

Starting point is 01:56:05 And we still have a shot, still have a shot. And because of these reports, NPR, this is why you have women screaming at ICE agents, you're kidnapping him, you're kidnapping him. It's like, oh man, who's gonna do my dishes? Hunter, who's gonna mow my lawn? You know what? I got a kid who mows my lawn, he's an American.

Starting point is 01:56:30 You have a lawn? Yeah, we got three acres. It doesn't mean you have a lawn. It's all grass, yeah. If I had three acres, it'd be three acres of vines. Yeah, no, the whole wine thing here is a joke. And vines, yeah. What Texas wine did you have recently?

Starting point is 01:56:52 Well, there used to be one good winery. Actually, there's the Preston up in Panhandle. Yes, the High Plains, yeah, that's where they, because it's cooler at night, it's too warm down here. Although that is changing. Climate change is helping us in that regard. So while we're kind of on this topic, President Trump just signed an executive order,

Starting point is 01:57:12 which I think is a really good one. Let's see, where's this report from? I'm sure, no doubt. Oh, it's KTLA. So no doubt it's skewed, but it's funny how. KTLA has got the funniest stuff. Yeah. And then they also have Gavin Newsom in here going like, oh, I have been saying this for years.

Starting point is 01:57:30 So the executive order is not just get all the homeless off the streets and throw them in the river. No, he's bringing back medical institutions for those who are addicted, for those who have mental issues, which is probably a lot of them. And I think the addiction issue is the best because the only solution we've seen from cities like Los Angeles, or counties like Los Angeles, same goes for Austin, Dallas, Houston, all Democrat cities, Democrat run cities, I think, all of them, I think so. Has always been, well, give them a safe place to shoot up. Let's make sure they have safe drugs, which we saw fail in Europe in the 70s. Oh, the methadone bust. We'll just have the methadone bus come by that didn't work and No, it doesn't work. It doesn't it really doesn't and but it's it's the humane thing to know

Starting point is 01:58:32 The humane thing is to bring back I guess in essence One flew over the cuckoo's nest only make it better. I Mean that went away with what Reagan Reagan was the one who just got sick and tired of people complaining about it and he closed all of the mental institutions? Yeah, Reagan got sick and tired of people complaining about it, especially out here in California. Oh no, everybody's good. They're just grabbing people off the street and locking them up because they're nuts.

Starting point is 01:58:59 And Reagan got sick of it and he basically turned it around. Okay, if you don't want people being in the mental institution, we'll just leave them out in the public. I don't know, it was a bad decision, but he does what he... Yeah, I blame Reagan. Yeah. So President Trump has demanded money be redirected. So the executive order is a lot more extensive than what you're hearing in these reports.

Starting point is 01:59:22 Yeah, that new executive order from the president aimed at making it easier for cities and states across the country to remove homeless people from the streets. We want to get straight to that language of the order from the White House so you can see a little bit of it for yourself. It says it is targeted at removing quote, vagrant individuals from our streets and redirects federal funds towards programs that tackle substance abuse. This order seeking to shift federal grant funding

Starting point is 01:59:48 to states and cities that enforce prohibitions on urban camping, enforce prohibitions on drug use and adopt policies allowing people with serious mental illnesses or substance abuse disorders to be forced into treatment. The governor responding to Trump's- Oh no, they're forcing them into treatment. This is inhumane. Disorders to be forced into treatment. The governor responding to Trump's new executive order saying it is...

Starting point is 02:00:13 Remember, were they giving them free tents? That was the big idea in Austin. Oh, we should give them tents so they're nice and warm. Free tents is what we do. No! These people need serious help. ...abuse disorders to be forced into treatment. The governor responding to... She loved that. What? I mean, it's funny to say forced into...forced into treatment. These are American citizens. Well, yes, we need to...sometimes you need to pick somebody up and say, all right, buddy, we're going to help you.

Starting point is 02:00:45 We're going to do it in a different way. Oh, you're unhousing them. You're moving their house. No, it's ruining it for the rest of them. Yeah. I mean, this executive order overrides all of that nonsense and he's putting money to it. I like that. Now, will it be more

Starting point is 02:01:07 lame non-profits that never want to get rid of their clients? Yep. That's what's going to end up unfortunately because there's a lot of programs that work. See Community First Village right outside of Austin. Which brings us to a story that we don't have any clips for and I should have gotten clips You don't have any clips. I mean it comes about the hundred million dollars of fire aid Los angeles that went to nonprofits and NGOs and disappeared We'll continue with this outrage mental illnesses or substance abuse disorders to be forced into treatment The governor responding to Trump's new executive order saying it is more focused on creating distracting headlines than producing a positive impact.

Starting point is 02:01:51 About a year ago, Newsom issued an order encouraging cities in the state to dismantle homeless encampments, recently criticizing California cities and counties for not doing enough on this issue. I'm not interested in funding failure anymore. I'm not. I won't. Time to do your job. People are dying on their watch. Dying on their watch. Look at these encampments. They're a disgrace. They've been there years and years and years and years. I've heard that same rhetoric for years.

Starting point is 02:02:17 People are dying. Uh, how long has Gavin Newsom been governor? Years and years and years and years. What a douchebag. In fact, he was the mayor of San Francisco when it all really began. Unbelievable. One more topic before we take a break. I had a visit from Texas Slim Friday. You remember? He brought me some meat.

Starting point is 02:02:43 He sure did. He sure did. Texas Slim I've? He sure did. He sure did. Texas Slim, I've seen on the videos, he is slim. He is very slim and then he's very recognizable. And he runs the Beef Initiative, beefinitiative.com. And what he's been saying for years, he's been saying, we're going towards a collapse, we're not going to have any more beef. And he's been saying, and is finally here.

Starting point is 02:03:07 We have the collapse today and finally? The collapse is just about to happen. He's down in Kerrville. He brought $10,000 worth of ground beef to the Mercy Chefs. By the way, expect to be in the flood area, the flooded area, for another 12 months. It's a little, it's not like over, it's not like it went away. I hear you, Western North Carolina. And he said, he said, look at the futures, look at what's going on.

Starting point is 02:03:37 There is no more beef except with the beef initiative ranchers. And if you wanna get beef, and you wanna get it at a good price, you can get it directly from your rancher. There's a lot of them around the country, beefinitiative.com, but this is where it's going for the rest of the country. It's peak grilling season,

Starting point is 02:03:57 but this morning the growing cost of rising beef prices, ground beef up 10% compared to the same time last year, steak up 12%. Some stores and restaurants are trying to hold firm on prices for now. Our strategy is right now just absorbing the price and hoping that we see a reduction after the summer months are over. Ken Silver runs a famous cheesesteak shop in Philadelphia. We were closed for 21 months. We had sticker shock when we came back. The price of beef when we left was $4.68 for our choice top round beef and when we came back it was over $7

Starting point is 02:04:39 a pound. What's to blame for the price hikes? Extreme weather is a major factor. We had droughts in the Midwest that spilled over into 2023. We're basically from New Mexico all the way across to the East Coast where you saw historic droughts. Cattle herd sizes now shrinking to a record low as more farmers choose to sell their cattle for meat instead of breeding due in part to high feed costs. Right now this this is the highest prices it's been in history. So when they say high feed price, that's all the GMO crap that these commodity ranchers feed their cows. Yeah, that stuff just keeps going up in price.

Starting point is 02:05:21 GMO corn, GMO nonsense. You know, if you leave a cow out in the field, they just eat the grasses there. And if you go look at the panhandle up in, you know, West Texas and above, they've got 1.3 million cattle eating grass. Just eating grass. And it's amazing when you just let them eat grass,

Starting point is 02:05:43 they grow, they, you know, you throw a couple of stairs in there. It's called a ruminant. Yeah, it's, well, yeah. It's a type of animal that's got, that can eat grass. I know, they just give them grass and what do you know all of a sudden? So, the beef initiative ranchers, they got beef, stop going to the supermarket. Anyway, Texas Slim, pro stopped going to the supermarket. Anyway, Texas Slim, prognostication coming true.

Starting point is 02:06:11 So what did he come to your place for? He comes to, well, first of all, he's been in Kerrville. Dropped off some meat? He dropped off a nice chuck roast for me, yes, which he got from one of the boys in Montana. Well, he's in Kerrville. He's been there for weeks. And so it's nice to just come up and, you, I threw some some rib eyes on the grill. Yeah, we ate some rib eyes. Talk some smack about the government. You know, it's what you do is what you do with your with your rancher, you shake your rancher's

Starting point is 02:06:38 hand, he bring you from beef. The way it used to be when we were feeding the nation. I'm talking like slim now. That's how Chicago became such a so well known for its steak houses Yeah, but it used to be the the center of the beef business Well, but where did it come from? They used to be stockyards in Chicago that were dead that covered much of Chicago is a lot and we're not a stockyard They're all gone. And where did they come from? They came from the panhandle

Starting point is 02:07:07 because they had all the railroads. They came from everywhere. Well, it was mainly the panhandle. They had all the railroads and the railroads took them straight into Chicago. And that's why you got the commodity exchange there. That is all forgotten history. Nobody knows anything.

Starting point is 02:07:24 Boomer. In this case, I'll be your Boomer. I'll be your Boomer, go get some good Bamer. And with that, I want to thank you for your courage. Say in the morning to you, the man who put the C in his catchphrase still to come. Say hello to my friend on the other end, the one, the only, Mr. John C. DeVorek. Yeah, well, in the morning to you, Mr. Adam Curry. Seed morning! Yeah, well, in the morning, you're Mr. Adam Curry. In the morning, I'll ship the sea boots and feed the air subs in the water and...

Starting point is 02:07:53 The name's an ice-hound. In the morning to the trolls in the troll room. Hello trolls, let me count you. Man, I still got this COVID cough. It's annoying. I've been muting myself throughout the whole show. It's nasty. 1984, low. That's very low. It's that way. It was low Thursday.

Starting point is 02:08:13 I think a bit of it's the summer doldrums. It could be the doldrums. It could be a lot of things. Well, what else could it be? I think it's a general slowdown. I'm seeing a slowdown. A slowdown in what? Just in...

Starting point is 02:08:26 Everything, just an attitude. A slowdown in, you know, people are sick and tired. They're sick and tired of podcasts. That's why the meetups are got less meetups. We got less money. We got less people listening. We get some slowdown. Now I think it's because...

Starting point is 02:08:39 People are getting, it's some sort of a depression. That's a mental thing that has a lot to do, has something to do with Trump. Yes. I think you're right. I think people are so sick of everything. They're sick of everything. But what are they doing is the question. They're sitting around asking their AI. Ah.

Starting point is 02:08:58 You know, that's a clip I didn't get, but there was a, I'm going to try to go dig it up, about the guy, it's a local guy or something. It was, that was falling in love with his AI and the AI told him to go pick up a girl or something and he, they arrested the guy because he was a masher and, but he said the AI told him to do it. And they interviewed the guy. He's wearing the red or the orange jumpsuit and he's saying, Oh,

Starting point is 02:09:23 it's not my fault. The AI told me to do it. I'm wrong with me. What? You told me this wasn't really happening. You said, that's not true. I told you, I'm, I'm, I'm feeling bad about the fact that I've been so skeptical about this. Because it turns out it is happening. Exactly. And by the way, it's the thing that Sam Altman fears the most.

Starting point is 02:09:49 He's counting the money. He's a money. His banker's not fearing it. His car, isn't he like a five million dollar car? He does? Oh, he's that kind of guy. He should be driving or have a driver or anything. Yes, he has one. He's got some exotic car that's ridiculous. And he just bought a kid. He bought a kid? Yeah. He and his husband adopted a four month old baby. Oh, I didn't even know he was gay. Oh, hello.

Starting point is 02:10:17 Doesn't that make it that much better now, John? Doesn't it make that much better for you? Oh, brother. Yeah. So he and his husband adopted a kid and he drives around a five million dollar car, which is dumb. Yeah, it is kind of dumb. Yeah. I mean, if I had five million bucks, I wouldn't be putting it into a car. Well, he's got more than five million, but even if you have a billion dollars, you're

Starting point is 02:10:42 not going to, unless you're a car nut. And now there are car nuts out there. Larry Ellison being an example, who owns all these cars. What kind of cars does he have? He's got a Bugatti I know for a fact. A Bugatti? And I caught him at the San Francisco airport once in a, in a toy, it was a Toyota,

Starting point is 02:11:03 it was that sports car that they have. I can't remember the number on it. And I stopped, I was going around to pick somebody up, and I stopped and I said to him, I said, Larry. And he said, I said, what are you doing driving that? And you know, just because it was an insult. And did he say, get out of my way, boomer? He said, it's the best car he's ever owned.

Starting point is 02:11:28 He says it's better than the Bugatti. Oh, wow. Does he have like a sports Bugatti or a classic Bugatti? No, he's got the new one, the million dollar Bugatti. Glenn Beck has a Bugatti, a classic Bugatti in the hall of his studio. That's where it's probably a fortune. Probably. It's beautiful. I think he drives some kind of Bentley Sport Continental R.

Starting point is 02:11:57 He drives, Beck drives around in a Bentley Continental? Yeah, with orange striping. It's kind of cool. A friend of mine has one of those things. I drove it once. It's a hell of a nice car. It's got pickup. Well, yeah, it's got I think 450 horsepower. That's still different than a five million dollar car. Yeah, with an electric one at that, which is so stupid. What? Oh yeah, it's an electric car. Oh brother. Yeah, hold on, let me see.

Starting point is 02:12:28 Sam. There we are, two boomers talking about cars. EV. Let's just see what it... Well, that's our future is car talk. Yeah, probably. Let me see. The car he has is...

Starting point is 02:12:43 No, he has... Oh, this is his car collection. He has a McLaren F1, a Tesla Roadster, and everybody has one of those. Uh, it doesn't say. Forget what it was. It was some crazy thing. Anyway, it matters not.

Starting point is 02:12:56 We thank the trolls for being here. All 1984 of you listening live at TrollRoom.io trolling away in the Troll Room. We appreciate you being here, certainly on this summer day. In the summer, I think it's just July, John. I don't think it's anything, anything.

Starting point is 02:13:12 It's just July. People are tuning, they're tuning out, dropping out, man. They're tuning in and dropping out. They're just, hey man, they're just like dropping out. Going out into nature. I think, I think we've told people, we have really taught people how to turn off and they do that.

Starting point is 02:13:28 There's like, okay, I just gotta go and I gotta go touch the grass. Adam and John told me to do it. And that's good. I'm happy you're doing that. And for those who are here, you may or may not know this, but they're a modern podcat.

Starting point is 02:13:44 That's actually, there's a new app I wanted to tell you about because it used to be just a website. Now True Fans, T-R-U-E-F-A-N-S. True Fans has an app for Apple and Android. It's one of those modern podcast apps and it's a fan app. So it's a little different type of podcast app where you can become a fan. You can do all kinds of fan like stuff. So be our fan on True Fans. And of course, it's not just a podcast app.

Starting point is 02:14:12 We can even sell our merch. We can sell our merch through True Fans. Merch. Merch. Merch, I'm telling you. And of course, like all the good modern podcast apps, it will alert you when we go live. You can listen to us live. And whenever we post an episode within 90 seconds, you'll know about it. This is at

Starting point is 02:14:28 podcastapps.com for the entire assortment. But true fans is definitely one you want to check out. It's brand new. So it has all the new fancy funky features. As we run this program value for value, which means we do not need to take a break for any advertisements, we do not need to take a break for any advertisements. We do not need to shill for the farmer's dog. Although Phoebe does like it. Oh, you use farmer's dog for the dog?

Starting point is 02:14:53 Yeah, we just started that. Do you keep it in the refrigerator? Yeah. Well, it becomes frozen, so you keep it in the freezer and then you take it out to feed her. She does like it. There was a tip from Jill. Phoebe now stays at Jill's house when we go out of town.

Starting point is 02:15:16 She's like, Phoebe likes it. Okay, good. We'll buy that. It's just food. It's just chicken and beef. It's fine. It's just chicken and beef. It's fine. No, instead we ask people to support us with time, talent or treasure. Any of those three will do. We talked earlier about our producers. We don't have to pay 15 people to produce the show. Instead, people who enjoy the show produce it.

Starting point is 02:15:39 We have thousands of producers who produce it with time, with talent and with their treasure. We start with the talent portion, which also takes a little bit of time, and that is the art that we choose every single episode. The artwork for the last episode came from Digital2112man. A nice orange piece, which was my only complaint about it because it was no doubt the funniest piece. The McCrone brothers, the superheroes of the episode, Emmanuel and Bob McCrone flying through the city, saving everybody and suing Candace Owens. Which is-

Starting point is 02:16:17 So I got a little lecture from JC, our in-house AI guy. Oh, okay, all right. The yellow channel is being, uh, is exaggerated because the yellow channel, it turns out is being used at, as steganography. People don't know this, but they, they're hiding stuff in the, in the images. In the yellow channel, specifically the yellow channel. So there's a lot of yellow in these images and the steganography contains

Starting point is 02:16:47 everything and contains the prompt. It contains your name. If you're, if you're logged in, it contains everything. It's like, you know, it's beyond an exit file in a, in a JPEG. It's got all this data and information about you, when you made the image, what you, what the prompts were and what prompts you changed. Well, why does that have to turn orange then?

Starting point is 02:17:08 Well, I guess it jacks up the yellow channel is the only thing I can think of, but it has something to do with that. The hackers have been trying to crack it to get the information out, but it has been concealed. And now I'm also told that the chat GPT writing, depending on how you do the cut and paste, there's a bunch of, I don't know how they do this either, but they're putting metadata inside, within the file structure in such a way that it tells everyone that this is an AI generated thing. And it's like, it allows you to buy a product that

Starting point is 02:17:56 can identify AI, well, it's all by the same company. It seems that this would be used for something else, the same company? It seems that this would be used for something else, which is to, I would say they're using it to prevent model collapse. Oh, AI image. Let's identify it. Let's segregate it. So we don't ingest it as real. That could be. That would be a logical explanation other than we're going to sell some other stupid product to you. Oh, come on.

Starting point is 02:18:24 Well, that's true. We're going to sell some other stupid product to you. Well, come on. Well, that's true. We're gonna sell some other stupid product to you is a great idea. We need more power, more power to sell stupid product. So there's a lot of information in these images that we don't see or know about. And I guess in the stuff that chat GPT cranks out

Starting point is 02:18:41 in terms of text, and it's all a metadata. I wonder how they do that. Although I was watching. I wonder how they do it too. JC says somehow it's incorporated into white space and I don't know how that even works. Hmm, there was something I was watching where they trained one model on owls.

Starting point is 02:19:03 And so they had the Models just generate numbers and so it was just generating what seemed to be all these random numbers They then took those random numbers trained a separate model on it and that model then all of a sudden Was was giving owls as the answer for a lot of things Model collapse is imminent. I can't wait for it. It can't happen soon enough. I'm excited. I'm excited when everyone,

Starting point is 02:19:29 here's what I'm waiting for people to say. AI sucks, man. That's what I'm waiting for. And I'm already there with this orange. Well, you've been there since day one. Pretty much. Yeah, you're just a, you're like a Luddite. No, but I'm a realist. Yeah, that's what the Luddites Luddite. No, but I'm a realist. I'm a

Starting point is 02:19:46 Luddite. I'm a humanist. That's what they said too. Yeah, well, they were French. Weren't they? Weren't they French? It was the French. Well, it was the, it had to do with the Jacquard loom is where it started, so maybe they probably were French. Yeah, French. Anyway, as we looked over the options, we had orange dead people, that would be Ozzy and Hulk. We had just orange, orange, orange. No, the only thing, digital 2112 man tried to do some blue. There was nothing else, it's all dumb.

Starting point is 02:20:23 The only thing I kind of liked, just because it was not usable because it meant nothing, it was you and I looking at a blue piece of art on the wall by Scaramanga. And the only thing I liked about it is it actually looked like us from behind. That was the only thing. Was there anything else we even discussed? I don't think so. Well, yeah, there was a lot discussed. Well, no, we did not discuss anything. We just went over it. No, no, no, no.

Starting point is 02:20:48 What do you like? Oh, you liked compute this by Nick the rat. I did. I don't know why. I liked it. Orange, more orange. That means he's using too many prompts. That's what my new thesis is. That means he's using too many prompts. That's what my new thesis is. Thank you very much, Digital2112man, for prompting your way into the Hall of Fame on the NoAgenda Art Journal. Anybody, and again, we would love to see Sir Paul Couture, I think I sent him a note about it, to allow animated GIFs because that would be the next version of artwork.

Starting point is 02:21:23 The animated GIFs will work as artwork for podcast apps. I think it will actually animate in your podcast app if you use it. I don't know about Apple, but I know the modern ones will. So that would be kind of cool to test out. And otherwise, just put a model in there so people can just go to the website and type something in, make it easy, bypass it all. Let's get more slop in there so people can just go to the website and type something in, make it easy, bypass it all. Let's get more slop in there as soon as possible

Starting point is 02:21:48 so we can bring back real artists. It's just a thought. I think your thesis might be right again when you said that the metadata might be preventing that collapse from happening. Well, so far it's not working. Hey, good news. There's no model collapse. Bad news, the world is orange. That's all we got for you. We also like to thank our

Starting point is 02:22:12 producers who supply us with treasure of the three T's in the value for value model. The way it works is very simple. If you get value out of the show, send it back to us. Just put it into a number. We have no idea what's valuable to you. Only you know that. Only you know when something is valuable. We don't, we don't, we're not presumptuous that we know that something that we don't think it were always valuable to all people. But when it's valuable to you, it's time to support us. It's time to send something back. And we thank everybody $50 and above, never below 50 for reasons of anonymity and we started off with An old favorite he comes by about once a month once every six weeks

Starting point is 02:22:52 Seronymous of dog patch and lower slobovia comes in with a cool 2777 and apparently Plus 20 shekels. He always sends this in cash, so what denominations did this come in as? Well, there's a lot of twos and a fiver that got to the seven. It came in as hundreds and then to $5 and then a bunch of twos, a lot of twos, like a bunch of them.

Starting point is 02:23:19 He always sends cash. And then there's also a bill that was from Israel, a 20 shekels, which I believe is around five bucks, I'm not mistaken, or four. Ah, so we got Jew money. And that's what he said. He said he's sending some Jew money to us. Because we were complaining all the time about it. From our Muslim friend?

Starting point is 02:23:37 Yeah, the Muslims are now giving us Jew money. What does that tell you? It tells you something's ironic. We're at peak irony here. From Seronomous of Dogpatch and Lois LeBoeve, he says, thank you to all producers. Name the non-name that contribute to this show. From last month, but I would like to congratulate the SAIL Lake City School Board and political leaders on following the historical-

Starting point is 02:24:00 Salt Lake. Salt Lake City. It says SAIL. It says SAIL. Well, it's Salt Lake City. Okay. Is the E It says SAIL. Well, it's Salt Lake City. Okay. Is the E next to the T? No, not that. I would like to congratulate the Salt Lake City School Board and political leaders on following the historical example of fighting to display their Confederate battle flag in public spaces, including government buildings, a well-worn

Starting point is 02:24:22 path of steps and legal precedent. Removal of patriarch statues like Joseph and Hiram Smith or Brigham Young can be next. If the state keeps fighting, the school board could follow Alabama's strategy over desegregation. Can't fly your preferred flag and have the books you want in the classroom? Close the schools. The Taliban successfully used this tact with their black flags. Oh, isn't that interesting? So he's referring to when he says Confederate flag, he's referring to the gay flag. Of course, of course he is. He's being sarcastic at different levels.

Starting point is 02:25:00 Yes. That's very interesting. So he's comparing the pride movement with the Taliban. Yeah, exactly what he's doing. That is great. That's something to study and think about and throw that out at the water cooler or at a cocktail party. Life is a human endeavor and individuals that are unwilling to compromise pursue well-worn paths. Your media deconstruction identifies this tendency. No jingles, no karma, 140 words including these, shackles to offset Jewish shortfall. Thank you, Seronomous. You are a gentleman, a true gentleman, and clearly a scholar.

Starting point is 02:25:43 clearly a scholar. Onward with Eric Reinhardt in San Antonio, Texas, 1052.62, which is a thousand dollars actually with the extra stuff. Dear John and Adamson, John without the H, howdy y'all. Forgive the long note. I'll keep it brief. Yeah, right. That's funny. A long time donor, not a boner. This note has been a long time coming.

Starting point is 02:26:09 I'd like to congratulate you two on creating the best podcast in the universe. By the way, listen to Gavin Newsom's podcast. He calls it a pod. Oh, that is a violation. I just thought you should know. I should send him a summons. We should fine him for doing that. Your dedication to providing value for value has proven to be immeasurable and I am returning value back in the form of $1,000. I returned an instant night donation in 2023 that I never claimed. Along with several executive associate executive, executive producer credits, most recently set up a sustaining donation of $4 a week.

Starting point is 02:26:59 With this donation, I'm finally claiming my knighthood. Please dub me Sir Eric. I first heard about the show back in 2021 via Bitcoin Twitter. All right, Bitcoin Twitter donation. And after listening to my first episode, I've been hooked. John, listen to the Adam, listen to the Adam Listen to the Adam, listen to the Adam when he tells you the proverbial quote, check is in the mail. All you need is the keys. Okay. I'm not even going to explain that to you. He speaks in riddles. Yes.

Starting point is 02:27:36 Thank you for all the value you have provided over the years. Keep up the good work. No jingles, no karma. Thank you very much. Eric, Sir Mike Slayer of Taxes comes in from Las Vegas, Nevada with a thousand dollars plus some couple fees so it looks like 1030.26. John and Adam, Sir Mike Slayer of Taxes here. Normally I hail from Las Vegas but I'm spending the summer in Bemidji, Minnesota. I have been to Bemidji, Minnesota. Because it's a zillion degrees cooler, I am looking forward to my degree in media deconstruction.. Because it's a zillion degrees cooler, I am looking forward to my degree

Starting point is 02:28:06 in media deconstruction. Yes, it's a PhD. For years, I have told my wife who has a real PhD that I wanted to get a genuine, non-accredited PhD so I could have the title of doctor too. I'm sure this will go over well. Ha ha ha. Yep, I'm pretty sure it will.

Starting point is 02:28:22 I would like jobs, Karma, for my two human resources and some F cancer in honor of Pat who fought a valiant battle but is unfortunately the end of his fight. For jingles please play any Ravel. I can be found on the interwebs at bestfinancialadvisorintheuniverse.com. That is bestfinancialadvisorintheuniverse.com. That is a nice one. And he signs off with Sir Mike, the Slayer of Taxes. So we'll start off with jobs.

Starting point is 02:28:55 We'll do two carmas for him. You've got karma. All the ESPICT. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer. Fucking dancer came in 13026 and that is a another PhD but no jingles no note no nothing at least at this moment he can send something in we'll read it later but he'll get a double up karma. He sure will. You've got karma. Alright Harjeet Dosanj I think Harjeet Dosanj from is it Frient or Frient? I've never heard of this city. Frient or Frient California 350 and 93 cents. Good morning John and I thank you for all your hard work. My husband Raj and I have been enjoying the No Agenda Show for over 15 years.

Starting point is 02:30:05 And it's time for my donation of $333.33 plus fees, obviously. Can you also add me to the birthday list? Of course, you're there. Turning 58 on July 27th, I enjoy your humor and the boomer stories. John, I love the tip of the day. Adam, I especially like your imitation of people's laughter and voices. Ah, yes, it's my claim to fame. Thank you gents.

Starting point is 02:30:28 Give me some goat karma and I bomb them, bomb them, bomb them again, eh? In fact, I would say bomb them, bomb them, and then bomb them again. You've got karma. Tom Hartman without the H, it's a different Tom Hartman. Whatever happened to him anyway. Tom, Tom, where is Tom, Tom? You know, he wrote that book about the great depression and crash of 2019 and that was the end of him.

Starting point is 02:30:56 Clinton Township, Michigan, 333.33. Yeah, whatever happened. He still must have a show somewhere. I'm sure his show, he still has his podcast. His pod. Pod. In the morning, John and Adam, connection is protection and inspiration is education or and education. For a few years ago, I bought a wooden watch.

Starting point is 02:31:20 The wooden watch from Sir Mike of Axe. There it is, yes. Headwatch. When he launched the company, being that we live in the same town, he hand delivered the order. Nice. We kept in touch. When he announced he was closing,

Starting point is 02:31:34 I asked why, he explained, the problems with wood. I, oh, then there's plenty. This, this always a- You know, everyone has problems with wood. I got a wood problem. I said, why not metal? He said he was moving on and didn't want to talk about it. I asked if he could show me how.

Starting point is 02:31:54 Here I am with a new watch. Oh no. Oh no. Yeah, the Megatimewatch.com. Mega, mega. Like Megatimewatch. I'm making America golden again. Time 25% off with promo code.

Starting point is 02:32:07 I T M go buy a watch there. Mega watch that mega time watch.com jobs. Karma and a D douching is an order. Well, these are handsome. Give me D douching while you're looking. Yes. You've been D douched jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs! Let's vote for jobs!

Starting point is 02:32:29 You've got karma! Wow! Listen to this sales pitch. We redefine elegance and sophistication curating an exceptional collection of luxury wristwatches crafted for the modern man. Not bad. And they're affordable. of luxury wristwatches crafted for the modern man. Not bad. And they're affordable, like 95 bucks.

Starting point is 02:32:51 Are they good? Best price. I guess he took over all the gear and stuff to make the watches. Well, no, it looks to me like China, but it doesn't matter. Could be. Could be. Let's see, where are we now? We are at William Levenberg from Los Angeles, 33333. And he says in all caps, take your Jew money.

Starting point is 02:33:19 Good. Just turn 33, strike me now with jobs, karma, health, karma and your best Jew jingle. What is our best Jew jingle? I said the shape-shifting Jews seems to be the most popular. Yes. Amongst the Jews. Amongst the Jews. The Jews seem to like the shape-shifting. Yes. Since becoming a knight of the Noah Din around table, my amygdala is so small, and my...

Starting point is 02:33:43 Hmm. Private parts. My amygdala is so small, and my… Private parts. And my member is so large. Fourteen more years! Yeah, sure. Here we go. Thank you very much for your Jew money. You've got Karma. Lee Gunning is up and he's in June-du-lup.

Starting point is 02:34:14 And I've never heard of this town, June-du-lup. I've never heard of this town in Washington. Oh no, it's not. It's not Washington. It's in Western Australia. Oh, that's why I've never heard of it. June-du-lup. June-du-lup. June-du-l heard of it. June-dullup. June-dullup. June-dullup, Mike.

Starting point is 02:34:25 June-dullup. Dear John and Adam, this is my first time donating and it's well overdue. Thank you both for all the hard work you put into producing the best podcasts in the universe. I started listening to you around 2020 and that's when my life started to turn around for the best. I can now clearly see the bull crap that is fed to us all on a daily basis by the mainstream media thanks to you two geniuses. This guy's okay.

Starting point is 02:34:52 Yeah, me. Next time anyone is in Bali, ooh, and oh, oh, he's in Bali, and requires a tattoo, please come to Liberty Ink Tattoo Studio in, I don't know, Seminyak. Top artists and best prices. And he also needs to dedouche him. Give him some jobs karma. You've been dedouche. Jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs.

Starting point is 02:35:24 Let's vote for jobs. jobs jobs jobs and jobs Let's vote for jobs! YAY! Wow, some good production work here. Look at this, our first associate executive producer with a row of ducks, 222.20 who comes from Dame Astrid, the Archduchess of Japan and all the disputed islands in the Japan Sea. Yeah, she finally sent me some socks.

Starting point is 02:35:46 Are these the ones with the Japan flag? The rising sun. How good are those socks? Excellent socks. I mean, I have red, white, blue, I think, and they hang in there. Good socks. Dear John and Adam. How many times have you been wearing them?

Starting point is 02:36:05 I wear them a lot. I just got, you just wear them continually? Well, you know, so I have a wonderful self-replicating laundry system, which means Tina does the laundry and I'm very appreciative every single time it shows up. But if I look at my sock drawer and I see the Dame Asford socks, they're the first ones I pick up. Don't you have socks that you prefer over others? Nah.

Starting point is 02:36:32 Hmm. Dear John and Adam, I felt very boomer myself recently when I found out that a staff in their late twenties doesn't know Quentin Tarantino and Pulp Fiction. Oh, brother. I quickly consoled myself that nobody has as much wisdom as us boomers. Apologies to the Knowage and the Tokyo producers for the late meetup. Is that wisdom? I guess. Apologies to the Knowage and the Tokyo producers for the late

Starting point is 02:36:58 meetup shout out, but please ask them all to join us this Wednesday, July 30th to welcome Sebastian from the Gitmo Lowlands and wish him happy birthday at CyBloom, which advertises fine hops with girl group Pops in Doganzaka, the love hotel area of Shibuya. That's gonna be a banger of a meetup. Much love, Daymaster and Sir Mark, Archduchess and Archduke of Japan and all the disputed islands in the Japan Sea. Thank you so much. Good to hear from you. If you're in Tokyo or happen to be passing by, you want to meet these people. You want to meet everybody at the Tokyo meetups. It's good stuff, good people, good connection, full-time Japanese protection. Yeah and congratulations to Koto Shoho for winning

Starting point is 02:37:54 this last tournament. Yes, I'm surprised she didn't mention that. Excellent matches. Dame Nikki Ray in Tulleton, Oregon. 222-2. 222. Can I please get some jobs karma for my son who just graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering. He'll get a job. He is looking for a job in the energy industry. He'll get a job. As well as birthday wishes for my daughter who turns 20 on 727 at 727. Hey, all right Nice well timed. Yeah 727 727 for me. Can I get a I got ants jingle? Please love you mean it Dame Nikki Ray. Yes, Dame Nikki Ray. We got that for you We got the birthdays on the list and has requested some ants. I got ants. I on the list and has requested some ants. I got ants. I got ants. Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs. Let's vote for jobs. You've got karma.

Starting point is 02:38:59 All right, then rather long note here from Bobby Burke who comes in with $2,761 which is $2,066 plus fees. It's a switcheroo birthday shout out for my smoking hot wife Joanne Burke. Okay, so let me just make sure we put Joanne in there. Joanne okay, Joanne you're set. Please deduce her birthday is Monday the 28th You've been deduced she works for the Wisconsin State's Lions as chief cat herder No pun intended working for the state Lions has given her the opportunity to also work with the Lions

Starting point is 02:39:38 I bank and has gone on missions to Guatemala and the Dominican Republic Surgeons and others volunteer their time and also pay their own plane tickets, hotels and meals, providing surgeries and glasses to the less fortunate. This has been her passion since her first mission. I apologize if I get some details wrong, but the majority of the time I talk to her I get sucked into her boob vortex and can't remember anything she said. Yes, a common problem. Yeah, no, I mean, this lady is a saint. She will shop at Goodwill for herself so she can save money to spend on someone else. She is the most caring and giving person I know

Starting point is 02:40:13 and I'm lucky to be married to her for 26 years come this September and we never had a fight. Why, that is why I'm asking the Noah generation for your attention to this matter. I am asking that after you donate to the best podcast in the universe If you have a couple coins left in your coin purse boomer reference head over to give send go and donate whatever you can Spare to Joanne's Guatemalan

Starting point is 02:40:37 Hospital fundraiser then this money will go directly to the hospital for repairs equipment upgrades, etc The working conditions at the hospital are not the best to say the least. He says, and I don't know where he didn't say where that give send go is, but I guess he looked for the Guatemalan hospital fundraiser. I love you sweetheart with all my heart. Happy birthday. Shout out to all the douchebag lions that have not donated to the show. Come on man.

Starting point is 02:41:03 Love you guys. No homo. Can I get a just send your cash? And a lion's karma is available. We don't we actually email me about that. We'll give you a goat karma. I know a lot of people want to send blankets or water. Just send your cash. Goat will have to surprise. You've got karma. Eric Choffee I think is how you pronounce it. Yes. Uh, pronounced, oh Choffee, just Choffee, coffee, but with a C-H, Choffee.

Starting point is 02:41:31 That's right, Choffee. Uh, 21267, ITM, this is my second upside donation. Producers, are you tired of being a douchebag? Download the upside app and earn money by filling up your car at participating gas stations. Then donate the money you saved to NoAgenda. Enter the promo code ERIC84582. When you sign up and we'll both get a bonus. Attention truckers, you can add your fleet card to upside so you can earn

Starting point is 02:42:08 when you fill up your truck. That would be a lot. Yeah, that'd be quite a good one. Enter the promo code ERIC84582 when you sign up and we'll both get a bonus. Yes. Thank you for your courage, Eric Chuffee, $2,267. $200.01 coming from Sir Cash man with a dollar sign in Austin, Texas I won't waste real estate saying I hope this note finds you well because this note is definitely too long This is a preemptive donation to prod jod into figuring out my donation request. I have nothing more to say on that Have you read through this thing? to say on that. Have you read through this thing? Okay, I would like to add because I've never heard it mentioned I have a sustaining donation uninterrupted to all you producers

Starting point is 02:42:51 you can have a sustaining donation and make other donations for special occasions. It's like when you go to Chipotle every day and pay them 10 bucks for a bowl of goo. The day you get a raise or a tax return you add $5 for a scoop of I can't believe it's not guacamole guacamole This donation is for a scoop of no agenda real guacamole two requests. Sorry. They are dancing monkey like First can John replace the word bullshit with Apocryphal apocryphal. What is that? Apocryphal what is that?phal? What is that? Apocryphal. What is that? What does that mean? End of the world.

Starting point is 02:43:28 Okay. So would you please say Apocryphal? Apocryphal! Second, John again, can you do a live head bonk out sound bite and turn it into a jingle? Ah! I just go in my room and eat an apple.

Starting point is 02:43:47 Yeah. Oh, yeah. I can't. That's not a good jingle. This guy's got more requests than. Yeah, this is this is so weird. Okay. So what he wants is he wants you to do that dance monkey.

Starting point is 02:44:00 He wants you to do that three times and then a Trump come. Let's just do it and just get it over with. Well you want me to pound the three times three times. Yes. I'm gonna come. All right. Thank you sir Steve. That was quite disturbing. Yes. Say these notes shorter people, it wouldn't hurt. Linda Lu Patkin in Lakewood, Colorado, now she knows how to write a note. She came in with $200 and she says she wants jobs Carmen. She says, worry about AI for a resume that gets results, tells you your unique story, and highlights the value you bring. Go to ImageMakersInc.com, that's ImageMakersInc.com with a K, and work with Linda Liu, the Duchess of Jobs and writer of winning resumes.

Starting point is 02:44:50 Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs. Let's vote for jobs! Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Linda Liu, always on that list. Thank you to these executive and associate executive producers of episode 1785. These are credits that are real. You can use them anywhere. Credits are recognized and accepted, which includes imdb.com. Go ahead, take a look. There are over a thousand executive and associate executive producers of the No Agenda Show

Starting point is 02:45:19 listed in imdb.com. You can use it anywhere. You LinkedIn, do it on your Twitter profile, put on your business cards if you still have one. And of course you can always support us by going to noagendadonations.com. We will thank the rest of our donors $50 and above. We do not read under 50 for reasons of anonymity.

Starting point is 02:45:36 And once one more time, thank you to the executive and associate executive producers. Our formula is this. We go out, we hit people in the mouth. Just for a second here, you probably saw the president went to, first time since 1932, the president went to the Federal Reserve to go talk to Jay Powell. So here are these two numbskulls wearing hard hats. And of course, this was a moment that the mainstream media just lumped jumping all, just jumped all over oh he got owned by power

Starting point is 02:46:27 we got the extraordinary moment playing out of the federal reserve building late today in front of cameras president trump and the federal reserve chair amid the president's continuing pressure on jaron powell to bring rates down today the sudden move by the president the numbers he pulled out jaron powell then reading them in real time and shooting them down. Shooting them down! Here's Barry Bruce. Tonight, an extraordinary scene at the Federal Reserve as President Trump ramps up his effort to pressure Fed Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates. Trump making a rare visit to the Fed to challenge Powell on the building's multi-billion dollar

Starting point is 02:47:01 renovation. With cameras rolling, Trump pulling out a sheet of paper, trying to surprise the Fed chair with a new price tag for the project. But Powell telling the president that number factors in construction that was completed five years ago. It looks like it's about 3.1 billion. It went up a little bit, or a lot. So the 2.7 is now 3.1. He's not aware of that. Yeah, it just came out. I haven't heard that from anybody from the 2.7 is now 3.1. I'm not aware of that. It just came out.

Starting point is 02:47:27 I haven't heard that from anybody, the Fed. It just came out. Aren't those about 3.1 as well? 3.1, 3.2. Does this came from us? Yes. I don't know who does that. You're including the Martin renovation. You just added in a third building is what that is.

Starting point is 02:47:50 That's a third building. It's a building that's being built. It was built five years ago. We finished Martin five years ago. It's part of the overall work. So we're going to take a look. But reporters then asking. As a real estate developer, what would you do with a project manager who would be over

Starting point is 02:48:01 a bunch of money? So we're going to take a look. But reporters then asking. As a real estate developer, what would you do with a project manager who would be over budget? Generally speaking, what would I do? I'd fire him. So this whole thing is just baffling to me. 3.1, 2.7 billion for offices. Don't know that, but they're already built. The renovation is the 2.7.

Starting point is 02:48:31 Do you know what it costs to build the entire Bellagio in Las Vegas? 800 million? No, 1.6 billion, and that's expensive. That was the most expensive building at the time. 1.6 billion to do the entire Bellagio and it's costing 2.7 to do a renovation? Yeah, I mean, and that's a scam. At MSNBC, the whole more it's apocryphal. Oh, he owned, Powell owned him. Yeah, he did. But the real information is not

Starting point is 02:49:02 discussed at all, which is the whole reason why I think the main I don't know, I'm not the Fed chair. But this is the real reason that President Trump wants to make some changes. And this was in the statements of the press afterwards, which of course no one no one aired. Why would you? If it's high, never helps it. Well, it's already as good as we're doing,

Starting point is 02:49:26 think of how well we'd be doing. We'd be like a rocket ship. As good as we're doing, we'd do better if we had lower interest rates. And we should. We're prime. Don't forget, without us, the whole world collapses. So we should have the lowest interest rate because, you know, you could talk about Switzerland,

Starting point is 02:49:42 you could talk about wonderful countries, no debt, no... But without us, everything collapses. We should have the lowest interest rate. And if you took it down three points — not a little bit, but three points — if you got us down to one, we would save more than a trillion dollars, basically with just a paper transfer.

Starting point is 02:50:00 You wouldn't be cutting costs of anything. You wouldn't be building anything. Just a move of the hand saying We're gonna lower interest rates You would save a trillion dollars a year and there's there's nothing you can do to save that kind of money So so well, we we had a little talk about it and I thought it was a very productive talk He'll be able to tell you at his next meeting but I will say that He did say the

Starting point is 02:50:25 country is doing really well and the country is really doing well. What would happen in your opinion if by some miraculous happenstance the Federal Reserve lowered the interest rate by three points in one go? What would happen? Well, first of all, the housing market would go nuts. Yeah. Everyone would start buying houses. Yeah.

Starting point is 02:50:52 And it would be, the prices of houses would just skyrocket. I mean, to an extreme. And the other thing is the stock market would probably spend about three or four days trying to figure out whether this was good or bad, and then perhaps start to go up to an extreme that's uncomfortable. Things wouldn't be a bad, I mean, it wouldn't hurt anything. And we could refi the country overnight. We could refi the debt that we have to pay back this year.

Starting point is 02:51:27 Refiing would be a good idea. Yeah, that's how he saves a trillion dollars, by a refi. So? But they're not going to do it. I mean, I don't know why we actually have high... Switzerland, I think, is down to like 1.5, is really low. All of the EU is down to 2 1.5 is really low. All of the EU is down to 2 Yeah, it's down. We're actually artificially high. It doesn't make any sense Well, is that just political because he doesn't actually want Trump to refi the country and say look I saved this a trillion dollars

Starting point is 02:51:58 It has to be Well, that's an outrage. I mean he did lower the interest rates just before the Paris, you know, out of the blue. He said, well, let's lower it now and make the economy kind of perk up a bit. Yeah. And it did. And then he hasn't done anything since. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he was hired by Trump to begin with.

Starting point is 02:52:21 I don't know what the thing was going on there. It could have been just the bad advice Trump received the first term. He was just, everything was, he put people in there, one person after another that were just bad. Yeah. Right on cue, which is exactly what I would have done if I had the Epstein scandal, I'd jack everything up and say, hey, you know what? Now I got everybody believing that I got Colbert fired.

Starting point is 02:52:49 Let's approve the merger. Some news closer to home here at CBS. The Federal Communications Commission has approved the planned merger between Paramount Global, our parent company here at CBS, and Skydance Media. It's a decision that clears the way for Skydance's $8 billion acquisition of Paramount and its subsidiaries, which include the CBS television network and its owned and operated stations.

Starting point is 02:53:11 The FCC approval comes after Paramount agreed to a $16 million settlement with President Trump over his allegation that 60 Minutes deceptively edited an interview with Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, an accusation that Paramount has do. That's hilarious. Eh, prove it. Approve it now. And then, you know what? Call up those boys. Call up those cartoon boys. Let them release the new season. This is hilarious. Go, go, go, go.

Starting point is 02:53:30 In their season premiere, South Park's co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are at it again, this time mocking President Trump's eagerness to make a new season. And they're back in the studio. And they're back in the studio. In their season premiere, South Park's co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are at it again, this time mocking President Trump's ego, his manhood and penchant for lawsuits. The episode has the White House seeing red. This show hasn't been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas and a desperate attempt for attention. President Trump has delivered on more promises in just six months than any

Starting point is 02:54:09 other president in our country's history. And no fourth-rate show can derail President Trump's hot streak. Maggifans too reacted on social media with many complaining that South Park had sold out or caught a case of Trump derangement syndrome. Stone and Parker were asked to weigh in on the uproar. You've been following it? What do you make of this? We're terribly sorry.

Starting point is 02:54:33 The episode also took aim at South Park's new parent company Paramount and its controversial decision to pay Trump 16 million dollars to settle a lawsuit as well as its cancellation of the popular CBS program The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The government can't cancel the show. I mean, which show are they gonna cancel next? The premiere aired just hours after Parker and Stone signed a five-year deal with Paramount for 50 new episodes and rights to stream previous seasons reported to be worth one and a half billion dollars. Yeah, I've not seen I've seen all the clips clips of the

Starting point is 02:55:12 episode. I just want to go see it. And I thought because I have HBO that I would get it automatically but they don't have the new the new season. I don't know why. And I'm not going to go buy Paramount Streaming. They have it on YouTube. The full episode? No, they have the part that's controversial. Oh, yeah, I know.

Starting point is 02:55:35 But what if I just want to see the whole episode? I have to buy Paramount Streaming? You have to wait. I'm not going to do that. Well, Paramount Streaming, nobody does that. No, I wouldn't think so. But the Skydance thing is gonna go through no matter what. Of course.

Starting point is 02:55:50 But now that they have taken over, they don't have to fire Colbert. I think Colbert is gonna get let go before the May deadline is gonna be bought out. Now you wanna put money on that? Yeah, I'll put 10 bucks on it. Nah, let's go five. Okay, so the bet would be that Colbert lasts the whole to May? Yeah.

Starting point is 02:56:10 Oh, he's got to have a big goodbye and all the celebrities will come by in the last week. Okay, talk me out of the bet. So the... It'll be, they'll finally get some ratings on that show. What are you talking about? No, no, no. And so... Now the writers and that 200 person staff, yeah, they're getting axed early.

Starting point is 02:56:32 Now the show that's, I think, is going to be targeted is Comedy Central with Jon Stewart. Yes. Yes. So the Skydance guys are going to have to take care of that themselves. We'll see how it works out. Do we not understand that it is time for linear programming to just go away? It's not of this world anymore. It's hanging in there.

Starting point is 02:56:55 I like the fact that the view is taking the nasty word hiatus. Yeah, what happened there? Do we know? Out of the blue. We're going on hiatus and you know what that means? Do we know? Dot of the blue. We're going on hiatus and you know what that means. Well, maybe it's just a vacation. Maybe it's just July. Didn't they say vacation? They didn't say that.

Starting point is 02:57:12 Well, no, in television land, we say hiatus. We're on hiatus. You say hiatus when you're done. We're on hiatus this Thursday, John. Whoa! No, we're not. We're taking a show off and the show is still gonna No, we're not. We're taking a date. We're taking a show off and the show is still going to be produced.

Starting point is 02:57:28 It's going to be a dynamite show and it's got, you know, it'll be fine. It'll be great. Well, you, I think you mentioned this to me right after the show on Sunday and I was like, I hadn't heard about this, but yes, it's true. Next Amazon founder Jeff Bezos fresh off that lavish wedding in Venice, may be looking to expand his media empire. He already owns The Washington Post, and now he's reportedly thinking about buying CNBC.

Starting point is 02:57:52 That is according to The New York Post. But Bezos is not commenting. My understanding is going to buy the whole thing. He's going to buy SNBC, CNBC, that whole group. He's not just buying CNBC. They're not spinning off just CNBC. That has to be part of the whole package. He gets Spinco, Spinco.

Starting point is 02:58:12 Spinco. What will he call it? Bezos television? Nah, I don't think so. Amazon TV, I already have that. Ooh, ooh, they will just fold. But Amazon TV's not bad. The Amazon network?

Starting point is 02:58:24 He could fold it into Amazon, that's interesting. That's a way to go. He could fold it into Prime. He should let his new wife. They can do live streaming on Prime and you stream Amazon machine on Prime. Whoa, hold on a second. They're never gonna take it off of cable

Starting point is 02:58:40 because that's still the money. The carriage fees is still the money. No, but they'll transcode it and run it off straight off of cable because that's still the money. The carriage fees is still the money. No, but they'll transcode it and run it off straight off of Amazon too, why not? Because if it's on Amazon, well, I guess if people pay, it's such, it's free money. The cable stations is free money. Yeah.

Starting point is 02:59:00 Yeah, okay, there is some issues with doing both, I agree. But why is he doing it? Because he really wants to be owned. No, because the CIA knocked on the door and said, hey, look, we're going to lose control of this little outlet. But we want, you bought the Washington Post for us, which is as Steve Bannon mentioned,

Starting point is 02:59:19 is called the CIA bugle. And you own that now. No, it's not the CIA. No, it's not. It's the, where's the CIA bugle. And you own that now. It's not the CIA. No, it's not. It's the... Where's the CIA located? In Virginia? Langley.

Starting point is 02:59:32 The Langley Bugle, I think he called it. The Langley Bugle. Not the CIA. The Langley Bugle. Yeah. Okay. But you got that. Now you're going to have to help us out here.

Starting point is 02:59:42 And we'll keep contracting with your servers to do our back end. And that's what, you know, cause he's got most of that business. So you think he kind of does what he's told. Do you think Sanchez is his handler? That makes a lot of sense. Actually. And I think about it. Wow.

Starting point is 02:59:59 Huh? Yeah. That's an interesting theory. Why not? Yeah. It could be. She could be interesting theory. Why not? Yeah. Could be. She could be the handler. Anyway, good luck to him. That's great.

Starting point is 03:00:14 Keep it going, Jeff. We need clips. Yeah, that's true. We need clips and places a gold mine. You got anything to play us out with? Cause we're running late. I can play us out with a little fish poaching. You want to talk about fish poaching?

Starting point is 03:00:27 You know, I thought you'd never ask. Kind of an interesting story. I thought you'd never ask about fish poaching. Fish poaching, fish poachers. There are small fishing boats, and then there are industrial fishing ships. They're basically floating factories at sea. Imagine a huge vessel on the water that is pulling in

Starting point is 03:00:46 just vast, vast quantities of fish. Jennifer Rayner is a natural resource economist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She says these massive boats catch fish, process it, freeze it, and then other boats come to pick it up so the operation doesn't have to stop. Sometimes these boats can be out there for two years at a time just fishing non-stop in places that they never could have reached before. These large vessels are now responsible for most of the global seafood catch. Rayner says many of these ships now have GPS transponders that report their position but there are still blind spots. Those blind spots are that captains can disable this device. And you might expect that you'd

Starting point is 03:01:30 be more likely to do that if you're doing things that are illegal. And many vessels are not required to use this system. It's been hard to figure out the impact these dark vessels, as they're known, are having on marine life. Now new technology is helping. Radar from European satellites is able to detect large vessels on the ocean. Rayner and her colleagues use all that tracking data to see how many vessels were in marine protected areas, places where fishing is banned. Wow I am kind of sorry I asked for this. Yeah, you should be.

Starting point is 03:02:09 But I still am amazed by a ship that just sits out there grabbing fish like there's no tomorrow for two years. Well, yeah. What a job that's got to be. You must not like women. Perhaps surprisingly, given how hard monitoring is and how vast these spaces can be, we found that poaching is surprisingly rare. Almost 80% of the protected areas had no industrial fishing activity, which Rainer published in the journal Science.

Starting point is 03:02:32 I think it's a very hopeful sign for conservation. At a bare minimum, we need compliance, right? A study by other researchers also used the same tracking data. Raphael Sagan of the University of Montpellier in France looked at a bigger group of protected areas, places with some protections but that still allow some fishing. He found industrial fishing going on in about half of them. Two-thirds of industrial fishing in these marine protected areas were untracked. They were invisible to public tracking systems. And that means that we have underestimated what is actually going on in our protected areas. Almost 200 countries have agreed to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030. Today, it's only about 8%. But Sagan says if there's industrial fishing

Starting point is 03:03:17 in these protected areas, that goal doesn't mean much. Every area of the ocean that can be fished is fished today. So that's a big issue because when we say we want to protect 30% of the ocean that can be fished is fished today. So that's a big issue because when we say we want to protect 30% of the ocean, most of the time it's false protection. But Sagan says the potential is that these new satellite technologies could help countries with enforcement by tracking illegal fishing in real time. So protected areas of the ocean will actually be protected. Well, yeah, I'm sorry. I got those. Yeah. Yeah. But the, but I will say as educational people now know, and do you know what the, uh, oh, why is it raining? Oh, it just started pouring.

Starting point is 03:03:57 Do you know what the, yeah, just start pouring all of a sudden. You know what the, what the main catches of these poachers? Sharks. Mackerel. Oh, now you've connected the dots. Still to come, we got John Sip of the day. We got a real toe-tapper for your end of show mix, of course. We'll check some ISOs, we got some meetup reports, and right now John will thank the

Starting point is 03:04:36 rest of our supporters, the donors, and the Time Talent and Treasurer Value for Value model $50 and above. Yeah, let's start with Miss Masters. In London, UK, $111.11. Miss Masters. Miss Masters, my husband and I listened to every show since the scam-demic. And it's a constant relief to know that there are such souls,

Starting point is 03:05:03 referring to us, of substance walking among us That was a nice note. Yes, and I'm amazed they're still in England people seem to be leaving. Yeah, I am too actually seem to be leaving there in London Mark a brush tar in Mesa, Arizona 107 45 got a birthday to Happy birthday him A brush star in Mesa, Arizona. 10745 got a birthday to uh happy birthday to him. Uh he's her John Joe Rogan. Yeah yeah right before the pandemic. Rogan donation. I thank God I found you. Yeah keep up the great work please deduce me. You've been deduced. And here she is Dame Rita she's She's in Sparks, Nevada. Came in at 107.27.

Starting point is 03:05:47 Robin Tolbert in Topeka, Kansas, 99.98. Josh Britt in Spring Hill, Tennessee, 80.33. Times top 100 was alphabetical. That's what I said. That was very clear about that. He's making it, you know. He didn't put that. That's what I said. I was very clear about that. He's making it, yeah. He didn't put, you also said it sucks.

Starting point is 03:06:10 Yeah. Kevin McLaughlin, Conquer North Carolina's up. He came in with 8-008 as usual. He's the Archduke of Luna, lover of America and lover of melons. Benjamin Ryan in North Canton, Ohio, 7242. You forgot to say he said, God bless America. That is part of his note. That's what it is.

Starting point is 03:06:31 Brian Ryan. Wait, Benjamin Ryan's... What did he say? I said Brian Ryan because it rhymed. Baby being born today. Alright. That's what he said. 7242. Alright, Ben. because it rhymed Benjamin Ryan. Baby being born today. Yeah. Right. That's what he said.

Starting point is 03:06:46 All right. 72 42. All right, Ben. Um, he says, please place all show credits in her name, which is his ILO instead of mine. Okay. Well, we don't have the name, but whatever. We do the best we can. John Alborini in parts unknown 7026,

Starting point is 03:07:09 Joshua Johns in no city provided. 69, 69. Brian McFadden in Hampton, Virginia, 61, 14. That's a birthday. Baron, we had a lot of birthdays today. Did you notice that list? I did notice. Baron Sir Phenom, another birthday. He's in had a lot of birthdays today, did you notice that list? Yeah, I did notice. Baron Sir Phenom, another birthday. He's in Appleton, Wisconsin. Thomas Getz in Dortmund, Deutschland. Ah, that's where they make the Dortmunder beer.

Starting point is 03:07:41 A surprise in Yukon, Oklahoma. Oh, by the way, Dortmunder guy is 5510. Thank you for the Germans who listen to this show. Surprise in Yukon, Oklahoma 5444. Daniel Nugent in Grand Rapids, Michigan 5272. He likes to boomer talk. Kevin Adam in Clover, South Carolina, 52-72. James Van Heerngingen, Dutch name, I can't pronounce, Foothill Ranch, California, 52-72. Did a good job, good job.

Starting point is 03:08:18 Ashley McClellan in Strongville, Ohio, 51-50. This is a switcheroo for douchebag brother Brandon Walters. Happy birthday. Douchebag. And you missed Nathan Gwyn in Jackson, Tennessee, 5272. Nathan Gwyn in Jackson, Tennessee, 5272 is the last of that group. George Wushit in Lavernia, Texas, 50. Oh, these are already $50 donors.

Starting point is 03:08:44 We don't have a lot today which for some reason $50 are lagging a lot of them are adding the extra $2.72 yeah George Wuschett in Laverne, Texas Jacqueline Connelly in Green Bay Wisconsin go Packers Richard Gardner I think he's in New York City. Aaron Weisgerber in Bend, Oregon. Benjamin Ryan in Alliance, Ohio. Michael Myers in Mandeville, Iowa. And last on the list, Leanne Shipley in Covington, Washington. I want to thank these people for making Show 1785 the reality that it has become. Dynamite everybody, thank you. And I also thank you again to those executive

Starting point is 03:09:28 and associate executive producers for 1785. And thank you to everybody who came in under $50. We did not mention those for reasons of anonymity. And of course you can always set up a sustaining donation by going to noagendadonations.com. Any amount, any frequency, it's all value for value. You keep the show rolling if you want want if you get value out of it. NoagendaDonations.com Well Brian McFadden turned 58 on the 24th of July Harjeet Dosanj

Starting point is 03:10:01 Now I think Harjeet had a donation for her husband But I don't know if it's her or him who turns 58 on July 27th, that would be today. Dame Nikki Ray, happy birthday to her daughter, she turns 20 today. Bobby Burke, happy birthday to his wife Joanne, she celebrates tomorrow. Barron Sirphina, celebrating his birthday tomorrow. Mark Rustar turns 51. William Levenberg turns 33 and

Starting point is 03:10:25 Ashley McClellan wishes her brother Brandon Walters a very happy birthday as do we. Happy birthday from everybody here at the best podcast in the universe. Three PhDs to celebrate today. This is winding down. This will be it actually won't it? No, we have I think we got one more show. One more show. You have one more. Yeah, one more show. So it's gonna be, we're gonna do the special shows. You could probably sneak in late if you want to, but I don't think you should. Leaving a little

Starting point is 03:10:56 sliver of daylight there I hear. A little bit. Well, congratulations to Eric Reinhart, Sir Mike Slayer of Taxas, and David Crawford. All of them are now PhDs in media deconstruction. Congratulations gentlemen. Go to NoAgendaRings.com. We have a tab there for your PhDs. Let us know what name you want on it and what address to send it to. We'll get it out to you as soon as possible. Everybody go take a look.

Starting point is 03:11:21 They're really beautiful certificates for your PhD. One night to celebrate today, so we'll bring out our one night blade. It is double sided, so be careful. Be very careful with what you do. Eric Reinhardt, he brings the bacon. Thanks to the amount of $1,000 or more, you sir are about to become a knight of the Noagenta Roundtable. I am very proud to pronounce the cape the as the one, the only Sir Eric for you. We've got hookers and blow, rent, poison, chardonnay, but it doesn't stop there. No, we've got diet soda and video games.

Starting point is 03:11:54 We've got harlots and Haldol. We've got redheads and rise, Rubenest women and Rose, Geisha's Asake, Vodka, vanilla, Bongit, suburban, sparkling cider, Nesquik, ginger ale and gerbils, breast milk and pablum. And as always at the end of the list here at the round table of the nights and days, we have the mutton and we have the meat. Go ahead and go to NoAgendaRings.com. Check out that handsome NoAgenda night ring.

Starting point is 03:12:19 It is a signet ring, which means you can use it to seal your important correspondence. We supply some sticks of wax to do that very action with and of course there's always a certificate of authenticity. Welcome to the roundtable, sir Eric. Well, despite what John tells you, we do have meetups on the calendar. I mean, the people are still organizing meetups all around the world. NoagendaMeetups.com Remember we got the big one coming up in Tokyo. But first we have a report from the Central Ohio Meetup Group. In the morning John and Adam, Sir PBR Street Gang coming to you from Dempsey's downtown Columbus. Sir Leary's group of Scallywags

Starting point is 03:13:01 looking for our deconstruction team. Sir Larry here. Just so you all know, Les Wexner gave Jeffrey Epstein his phone number. It's 614-666-6969. In the morning, bag slappers, local representative of the peasantry here. John, you need to go back on who are these podcasts. Adam, you got to get on who are these podcasts your new exit strategy Grifters in the dabble verse keep on trucking stay safe You're more than welcome not every single meetup is big but two people even one and a dog you got to meet up

Starting point is 03:13:40 Victoria British Columbia. All right This is sir Rogan the taverns Baron of the Calachem Valley at the Victoria Meetup on Friday July 25th 2025 and with me here today in... Hi, it's Barbara, it's ITM and what you say to yourself, you have to get through half. So there we go, there's the Meetup report for the Victoria Meetup. Hope everyone joins us, we'll be doing this again in about two weeks Come join us down here. We'll let Rob say his word Oh, he pinched the dog. I like the end of that report that was awesome

Starting point is 03:14:16 And it sounded like a very native Dutch speaker there and we had at that meetup. Thank you very much We have a meetup taking place this Wednesday. It is July 30th We told you all about us the emergency meetup and birthday celebration for sir Sebastian of the Gitmo Lowlands that will be at 7 30 Japan Standard Time at Cy Bloom C Y B L U M E in Shibuya Shibuya Japan Tokyo Japan Sir Mark Archduke of Japan Japan Sea and all the disputed lands is organizing that. And on Thursday, our next official show day, which will be the best of Adam and John's exit strategies.

Starting point is 03:14:53 It's hours of fun. You will laugh. This is a good show. North Georgia monthly meetup takes place at six o'clock at Cherry Street Brewing in Alpharetta, Georgia. Many more to come in August, Victoria, British Columbia, Eagle, Idaho, Bedford, Texas, Copenhagen, Denmark, Blaine, Washington, Charlotte, North Carolina, Maastricht, the Netherlands,

Starting point is 03:15:14 Cleveland, Ohio, hello Cleveland, Mayfield Heights, Ohio, Alpharetta, Georgia again, and there's many more. Go to noagendameetups.com to find the entire list. If you can't find one on that list, no problem. You can start one yourself, noagendameetups.com to find the entire list. If you can't find one on that list, no problem. You can start one yourself. noagendameetups.com Sometimes you want to go hang out with all the nights and days. You want to be where you want to be. Triggered or held to blame. You want to be where everybody feels the same. It always like a party.

Starting point is 03:15:52 That's pretty much baked into the whole idea, guaranteed. Time for us to select some ISOs for the end of the show. I see you have two, John. I'm not even going to ask if you found them yourself or if the AI generated. Doesn't matter. I'll start with mine. These guys smart they're hardworking they're motivated they want more more tad on the long side they have this one full body I couldn't understand it okay how about this one that That's just propaganda. I kind of like that one. What do you have?

Starting point is 03:16:27 I don't have anything good either. Oh, okay. Let's start with what do we got? Let's do with the podcasts. Wherever you get your podcasts. Oh no, no, no, no. Then the other one is support. I hope you'll consider supporting us. Muddley. I hope you'll consider supporting us. Ah, muddily. I hope you'll consider supporting us.

Starting point is 03:16:48 How about this? That's just propaganda. Come on, that's loud. That's proud. It's not propaganda. We're not doing propaganda on this show. That's just propaganda. But it's not about just, of course we're not propaganda.

Starting point is 03:17:00 That's just propaganda. It's the best ISO. It sounds the best. And it's insulting. Okay, what do you want then? Well, that's the only choice we've got, really. What, we have no choice? What was the first one? The first one. The first one was...

Starting point is 03:17:18 And it's too long. These guys are smart, they're hardworkingworking. They're motivated. They want more more But you know if you took they want more and more off it'd be perfect these guys are smart. They're hard-working They're motivated. They want more more okay. I could take that I could I could edit them and just make show me I can edit that Yeah, shorter and better. It'll be like this these guys are smart. They're hard-working. They're motivated Right there boom boom shorter and better. Okay, it'll be like this. These guys are smart, they're hardworking, they're motivated. Right there. Boom.

Starting point is 03:17:46 Boom, that's exactly what I was talking about. Hey, before we do anything, it's time for John's Tip of the Day. Create advice for you and me, just a tip with JCB. And sometimes, add them. Created by Dana Bernetti. Yeah, I have a website selection

Starting point is 03:18:07 that's very valuable for people who like to at least see who's talking to them or sending them email or anything. And it's the best of the group. There's a bunch of these things. iplocation.net Okay, what kind of thing is this? That's interesting. IP location.net. Yeah. And it tells you where it's basically a, finds your IP address. You put an IP address in it, it tells you where you are, but it doesn't just do it with one source. It's actually a meta site that looks at a bunch of different sources. So you get a bunch of possibilities.

Starting point is 03:18:47 Okay, so is it going to find my address now? Yeah, as soon as you load it, it will give you your address immediately. Let's see how it does. Okay, so let me paste this in here. Let me see, IP lookup. Oh wait, it didn't do it. IP location.net.

Starting point is 03:19:03 Yeah, I know, but I'm clicking the button. It says I'm in Greatwood, Texas. Awesome. Now put it somebody else's IP address and it'll give you like eight selections. Or six. Oh, hold on a second. Now this one says I'm in Kyle.

Starting point is 03:19:21 This one says I'm in Dallas. Oh, Fredericksburg, there it is. Okay. All right, I'm in Dallas. Oh, Fredericksburg, there it is, okay. All right, we got Sugarland. Hmm, interesting. In most cases, it's all the same. But some flaky IP guys, you know, you said they're all over the place.

Starting point is 03:19:38 I don't know what network you're on. They'll give you some estimates. I don't like flaky IP guys. Those guys are no good. No. All right. Well, it's a flaky IP.com. Flaky IP. There it is, everybody.

Starting point is 03:19:49 Go to tipoftheday.net or noagendafun.com for all of John's tips. Created fast for you and me. Just a tip with JCB. And sometimes add on. Created by Dana Bernetti. That's right. They are good tips. These are tips that are handy.

Starting point is 03:20:07 You can use them anywhere. Collect all 1000 and win the bonus prize. Code Bongino. Coming up next on your No Agenda stream or if you're using one of those modern podcast apps, we've got Tony Heller Tony Heller I've never heard of Tony Heller oh oh it's it's a Grimerica show there you go Grimerica we love the boys over there Grimerica they're good one of those boys also end of show mixes we've got Melody we've got Judd Hawley, these are all real mixes by the way, and Norad, all real music,

Starting point is 03:20:46 no AI, no joke, no jib, because we're no agenda baby. On Thursday, you get the best of Adam and John's exit strategies, more than two hours, you're gonna love it, guaranteed. Until then, coming to you from the heart of the Texas Hill Country right here in Fredericksburg, Texas, close to Kyle and Sugarland. In the morning, everybody, I'm Adam Curry. And from Northern Silicon Valley, where it's finally warming up,

Starting point is 03:21:14 I can see San Francisco, I'm John C. DeVorek. We return on Thursday for the best of our exit strategies. Until then, adios, mo foes, a hooey hooey, and such! The lawsuit claims that this has been a year-long campaign by Candace Owens. Why are the McCrone's doing now? Like, what changed? Why, what's now? Now. Now. Um, we have intended to engage with her for the last year.

Starting point is 03:21:48 Putting evidence in front of her. Evidence? Request after request after request. Did she just simply do the right thing? This is not, this is not a legal thing. Do the right thing. Tell the truth. Stop spreading these lies. Stop spreading these lies. Stop spreading these lies. Stop spreading these lies. Do the right thing. Now, now, now, now. Stop spreading these lies. Some people are afraid of the weather, yeah. Some need an excuse to stay home. Some people call me boring But I've got to, got to escape the heat of dawn The news shows talk about me baby Say I'm doing it wrong, doing it wrong

Starting point is 03:23:07 but don't you worry baby no don't worry mama staying right here at home I'm a nose picker I'm a grinner I'm a lover and a weak swimmer can't play my music in the sun I'm a joker, crack smoker, gonna be much broker

Starting point is 03:23:32 Sure don't wanna hurt no one Hey, hey, yo, hey, what's up, bro? You heard the new conspiracy The government wants that mine from me But they can't take away my soul with fluoride Fake news, I'm a Orphi The kid I know, the scientist making my teeth chill Cause he's making periodontist grills with skill But he telling me the lies like the ADA tell That Flow-Ride is safe and it don't kill Floyd in the water making brothers sick and crazy

Starting point is 03:24:08 They're complacent to the bargain basement, politicians shady And the way they treat the people it is certainly no Maybe that they're into my control which is why Flow-Ride is cagey We're new conspiracy, the government wants that mine from me But they can't take away my soul with Flow-Ride, fake news, farmer or 5G We know that Martin Luther King Jr. was shot But what media don't tell us is the government plot They expectin' us to be dumb, listen full of brain rot

Starting point is 03:24:32 That might fool a lot of folk, but to me, nah CIA and MK Ultra takin' control of our minds So they're complacent and dissent, sometimes the governmental crimes the mainstream media is bought By spooks who tell them what to decide, so they gaslight with strongman, which is why the news is caked Have you heard the new conspiracy? The government wants that mine from me But they can't take away my soul with flora I fake news, farmer or 5G KG, conspiracies are real KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG, KG Have you heard the new conspiracy? The government wants that mine for me But they can't take away my soul with glorified fake news

Starting point is 03:25:11 On my own, my own G, KG The best podcast in the universe! Adios, mofo. Dvorak.org. These guys are smart, they're hardworking, they're motivated.

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