Some More News - Even More News: Wait, Are Some Members of the Supreme Court Secretly Christian Nationalists?

Episode Date: May 24, 2024

Hi. Walter Masterson and Maximilian Clark from the podcast "We Are Not Journalists" join Katy and Cody to talk about Samuel Alito's fun flags, Trump's rallies and crimes, and Scarlett Johansson's voice. Go to https://ground.news/SMN to stay fully informed. Subscribe through our link for up to 40% off unlimited access this month only. Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://shopify.com/morenews to take your retail business to the next level today. Hungryroot is your partner in healthy living. It’s the easiest way to get fresh, high-quality groceries and simple, healthy recipes delivered to your door. Right now, Hungryroot is offering our listeners 40% off your first delivery and free veggies for life at https://Hungryroot.com/MORENEWS 0:00 - Intro and Holidays 6:37 - Chatting with Walter and Maximilian 12:52 - Samuel Alito, Flag Fanatic 26:32 - Trump's Trial 41:54 - Scarlett Johansson and OpenAI 47:26 - Wrapping up (also, slipping, slopping, and slapping) Follow us on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/SomeMoreNews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/SomeMoreNews/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomeMoreNews/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@somemorenews Check out our MERCH STORE: https://shop.somemorenews.com SUBSCRIBE to SOME MORE NEWS: https://tinyurl.com/ybfx89rh Subscribe to the Even More News and SMN audio podcasts here: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/some-more-news/id1364825229 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ebqegozpFt9hY2WJ7TDiA

Hello and welcome back to Even More News, the first and only news podcast. My name is Katie Rae Stoll. Hello Katie Rae. Thank you for joining me and letting me join you. I'm Cody J. How's it going? You're Cody M. Yeah, but I wanted it to rhyme. Oh, I see.

It's my last name. My last name is Johnston. It's like the first principle of this is yes and you not to say no. Come on, come on. That's wrong. Okay. Boy, we have some fun guests joining us today. The co-hosts of the podcast, We Are Not Journalists, Walter Masterson and MaxMillionClarke. Thank you, Kathleen.

Also, I feel like we never say it like that. We're never like, what you goose, we are not journalists. I know I really pronounced it, didn't I? I mean, it's more like it's more of like a defensive, like, we're not journalists, okay? Like, come on. Well, I would argue that's a contraction right there, right? We're doing comedy.

You know the best and highest form of comedy is the type you have to explain to people afterwards? Oh, absolutely. What you're not, yeah. Oh, no, no, no. We're being very funny right now. Yeah, we're professional comedians. Do you want me to take it again? I can do it better. Co-host of the podcast. We're being very funny right now. Yeah, we're professional comedians. Do you want me to take it again?

I can do it better. Co-host of the podcast, we're not journalists. How about that? Perfect. Yeah, nailed it. That was nailed it. Oh my God. Looking forward to our chit chat section because you guys are fun.

But first. We've got some holidays to celebrate. Okay, this one's weird. Friday, May 24th, Don't Fry Day. At first, I read that and I was like, don't fry your foods? No, this is about skin cancer. It's created by the National Council on Skin Cancer Prevention as a reminder for everyone to protect their skin as they usher in the summer and prepare to enjoy the great outdoors. The motto for it is, slip, slop, slap and wrap. Don't Friday.

It's too late. I already got burned. You did get burned. I got burned on my shoulders pretty good and I peeled once and I think it's about to peel again. Do you want to explain what that means? Oh, sorry. I got distracted by how- They got distracted by how horny they were, so they wrote slip, slop, slap and wrap. Now, obviously, it's for like putting on So they wrote slip, slop, slap and wrap. Now obviously it's for like putting on like suntan lotion, right? Or sunscreen. Yeah.

Slip on a shirt, slop on- That's not what I thought it was. Slip on a shirt. It's slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen with the appropriate SPF 30 plus, slap on a wide brimmed hat and wrap some cool shades around those eyes. You know, in my day, we just used to call it hit in and quit it. Straight to the point. Hit that body with some sunscreen and then quit exposing yourself to UV. Hey, that works. We should pitch that to them.

Or, you know, just use it, you guys, when you're out. Just use it. Just use it. Either one. Certainly don't use slip, slop, slap and wrap. I'm going to use slip, slop, slap and wrap. Also, like, I feel like it should be wrap, then you slip, slop, slap, and wrap. I'm going to use slip, slop, slap, and wrap. Also I feel like it should be wrap, then you slip, slop, and slap, right? That's a safer way to do it.

Does anyone else feel that slop on some sunscreen makes it sound like you're eating it? Yeah. No, it's the wrong word. You slop on some sunscreen, then you start digging in. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could see slap on. It's been established that sunscreen does nothing to stop, it actually causes cancer.

The sun doesn't harm you at all. The people that don't believe in vaccines explained all of the night at an RFK Junior rally. Oh, do they? Is this like- Oh, no, this is a real thing that we have been told by people. Oh. Yeah, that's depressing. My vibe settled a little bit.

We're not depressing guys, we're doing fun holiday. Oh, fun holiday. Sorry, that's depressing. My vibe settled a little bit. We're not depressing guys. We're going fun holidays. Oh, fun holidays. Sorry, sorry. Forget I said anything. It's so perplexing. You need a subtitle for your podcast. We're not journalists and also we're not depressing.

No, no, no. We try to make things light. Though I do think that is a slap in the face to our servicemen that the start of Memorial Day weekend is being monopolized by Big Sun. That's the slap part. That is the slap part. Slap the troops in the face.

Wait until you get a load of this next one because it's even more offensive than that because Saturday, May 25th is National Cody Day. Disgusting. Disgusting. Wait, more like National Nicodem Cody Day. Disgusting. Disgusting. Wait, more like National Nicodemus Day. That's right. Thank you so much. Oh, there it is. Cody's fake real name.

My fake real name. Yeah, when I was a younger person than I am now, somebody asked me if my name was short for Nicodemus because they knew a Cody and it was short for Nicodemus. I'd never heard that before and I've never heard that since. I don't think anyone else has ever done that. And for the questioning audience, we figured this out at length. Nicodemus. Codemus, yeah. It's um, Nico is right there. I don't know. There are other options. Okay, you know what? It is a real name. Nicodemus is a biblical boy's name of Greek origin.

Oh, that's a real name. Yeah. It's also the name of, I believe, Rat of Nym. So it's a real name. I just never heard anyone go by Cody when they were named Nicodemus. Yeah. I mean, I guess they don't want to go by Nick. Yeah. I know. Well, I would just go by Nicodemus. For the rats of NIMM, it says Nicodemus, like Parenida Cody. You know? The rats first day of school, it was like, I mean, I'm sorry. Do you want me to call you Cody? Is it Nicodemus?

Is that my spelling? Is it C-O-D-I? That's Cody. I forget how he sounds. That's slightly less popular Renaissance era prophet. It's like on the cover of Teen Beat. It's curious that the motto for National Cody Day is also slip, slop, slap and rap. That's how we roll. That's what we do.

Also, so this, I actually almost put this in a recent episode of the show. Here's some little Cody lore. I was actually named technically after a dog, like Indiana Jones. Yes, that's correct. Everyone's saying Indiana Jones. That's right, I am Indiana Jones. My parents had friends and they had a dog named Cody and like, oh, that's an interesting name. We love that name. Then they just remembered it and used it later. A guy I dated named his firstborn child after my cat, Henry. That's weird. Yeah. Well, probably not after him. But he did ask me. Well, he before he was born, he's like, I'm thinking of naming him Henry. Is

that okay? I'm like, we haven't talked in three years. Well, of course you haven't talked. He stole the name. Stole the name. I knew his intentions. We're gonna ask you some questions now. As we've established, your podcast is called, we're not journalists. I really got it now. Why do we need to know that? Why is that? What?

Tell us about that. Explain your show. We go and we document extremists, right? And it was, this is for the purposes of comedy, right? And then it, we travel across the entire country, QAnon rallies everywhere. And we do it for comedy, but then it just wound up being journalism. Yeah, just because we kept getting all this,

these primary interviews. I mean, Walter has footage that was used by the House Committee on January 6th, right? But then people in our comments are like, where are your journalistic standards? And we're like, standards, excuse me? We were trying to get them to poop their pants. We're trying to get them to say the quiet part out loud, or the loud part even louder for the idiots in the back that are like, I mean, both sides really. That's fine. Yeah. But I think that

in 20 years time, people will come back and realize that TikTok influencers were the real journalists all along. All along, yeah. And the heroes, yeah. You know, I don't even think it'll take 20 years. But speaking of all that, you're heading to a Trump rally literally right after we record. I kind of just want you to talk about that experience. But my leading question will be,

how do you prepare for something like this? But you know, dish on it. Your experience is there. Slip, slip, slap, slop. Slip it, slap it. We're trying to do a bit right now and we're trying to work it out. So like, we work out like a lot of people are like, we script these because we're gauging what their reaction is going to be. And most of the time, we nail it. We nail the reaction head on, right? Like

we know the whole point is we know what they're going to react with. We are pleasantly surprised a lot of the time. We always have two or three bits in our heads. We're like, this is going to kill. And we're almost always right. So right now we're trying to do this one. I'm going to go up to them as MAGA and say, oh, this gender ideology is out of control. My son's basketball team has a golden retriever. They're just going to give the plot of Air Bud and see how angry they get over this? We went to the liberal school board and they said there wasn't a rule against it. Yeah, there's no rule.

There's no rule in the book. There doesn't have to be a rule. It just shouldn't be allowed. This is ridiculous. Hey there, little fella. Don't be allowed. This is ridiculous. Hey there, little fella. Don't be scared. I just want to tell you about Ground News,

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What they're doing is more important today than ever. And I encourage you to check them out. So the link is in the description. Did you hear that? That's the universal sound of money and bikes, bikes and money. And I'm Katie. Hey, Shopify is the thing that we are here to talk about, folks. Did you know that along with helping millions of

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We've got a job to do, folks. We're not journalists, but we are going to talk about the news. No, yay. Wait, how am I supposed to go like this? Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me story, what's been happening? Well, there's there's more flags showing up every minute. There might be another flag while we're recording. So Supreme Court Justice Samuel. A second flag has hit this. It's true.

Yes. So photos from neighbors show that an upside down American flag, which of course is emblematic of the Stop the Steal campaign, flew outside of Samuel Alito's home. That's a Supreme Court justice, by the way. Samuel Alito's home. That's a Supreme Court justice, by the way. On January 17th, 2021, two journalists, he blamed his wife for flying the flag. He said she did it after she gotten into an altercation with a neighbor who was initially hanging a fuck Trump flag outside of his property, which Mrs. Alito objected to because there's kids around. Wait a minute. That's such a bullshit excuse. Sorry.

Well, but then the neighbor called her a C word. So that escalated it. But that's why you're going to hang. I mean, ridiculous. Okay. That's why she hung the flag that suggests that she liked January 6th. To protect the kids. She was actually protesting the homeowners association for allowing the other flag.

Right. This is not America just hoisting it up. Well apparently the neighbor, this is according to Sam Alito, the neighbor then put up another flag or a sign suggesting that Mrs. Alito likes January 6th. And so the argument is perhaps ironically she then hung up the flag suggesting that she likes January 6th. And so we were all prepared to just talk about this. But then last night, another article comes out that showed that Alito had an appeal to

heaven flag outside his Long Beach Island home in 2023. This is also called the pine tree flag. And it is now it now shows support for Donald Trump. And it's a Christian nationalist flag, essentially. So now he's just, and it's, if you, I don't have the address, but apparently it's visible on Google street view. Wait, hang on.

Are some members of the Supreme court secretly Christian nationalists? Wild. Seems like it, right? Maybe, maybe. Wait, what? Maybe, we're not journalists. Maybe. Seems like it, right? Maybe. Maybe. Wait, what? Maybe. We're not journalists.

Maybe. Let's be honest. If Samuel Alito showed up to court in a trucker hat that said, hang Mike Pence, would there be any consequences? No. And I guess that's the problem. I mean, there'd be bleams, I guess. That's a consequence.

Yeah, concern. But it is upsetting to have people that are on the Supreme Court who are supposed to be neutral, who are supposed to be, you know, where these cases end up, and to a neutral body. And we, of course, know that it's not neutral, obviously. But there's just no even fucking pretense between Clarence Thomas and his fucking wife. Exactly. What's with these wives? All out the window. I was going to bring up the wives, but I don't know. It's relevant. It is?

Apparently. All these insurrection wives, I know. Like, like, like. Yeah. Samuel Alito's wife, take her leave her, but Ginny Thomas should. It's extremely relevant. Yeah, she did at least one January 6th.

Yeah. But just one, it's a little treat. I just want to say, you know, we went to Clarence Thomas's house and others justices and we went there with a Bible and when the police came up to us, we held up the Bible and said, we're just here to do a prayer. And the police in riot gear, they left us alone. There's actually video of them just pulling away, being like, oh, okay. And then we just did our thing.

So I don't even know why I'm saying that. I think it's just like advice for everybody listening, just always carry on the pocket Bible. No, no, no. If the cops, you know. Like, this is not a joke. If you're protesting anything, get the biggest American flag you can find

and just hoist it as proudly as possible and protect that flag, you can say whatever the hell you want. Upside down, preferably. It confuses the police so much. Like, I mean, that's, that's how we get away with stuff. We just dress like we're Christian nationalists. And everyone's like, Oh, okay, we've done clinic defenses, whatever you want to do. Yeah, we've done that with a they are

specifically, like telling the police that these people are not with us. Like they don't represent us. We're having chance being like we hate women, you know, and the police are like, oh someone told on us to the event organizers like, Hey, these guys aren't with us. They walked up to us 20 minutes later say like, Hey, there was this lady complaining about you said that you guys were trolls here to make people look stupid. Don't worry. We had her escorted away, which are our proudest moment. So optics, like seriously, American flags, giant crosses, just go out there and say that black Lives Matter. It's the best way. That's our helpful advice corner. Though, if you're going to Clarence Thomas' house, he's in a very private neighborhood,

so you can't get to his house. It's just a ticket. It's like, oh, you'll get arrested. The best they can do is give you a ticket for being on a private road. There's trespassing if you're like... They could escalate it if they wanted to. They just didn't for us. Clearly the Thomases are pro trespassing anyway.

So sorry, that Google Street view tidbit is so fucking funny to me that the fly actually like what are the odds? Unless you've had it out for a long time. Yeah, it was it was a whole summer thing. He's not going to recuse himself, right? No, he will not. Okay, surprising. There have been calls for him gonna recuse himself, right? No, he will not. Oh, okay, surprising. There have been calls for him to recuse himself

from all Trump-related cases. The immunity one is a huge one. I like how the big club that we have to threaten these guys is to make them feel bad. It's like, yo, you should really do it, or else we're gonna say that you're a bad person. It's so embarrassing. The consequences are like the idea of shame,

which they don't feel. So like you can't shame them. I mean, technically the Constitution allows a Supreme Justice to serve in times of good behavior, I believe is the line from the Constitution, which is pretty vague. What does that mean? Exactly. In times of good behavior, I believe is the line from the Constitution, which is pretty vague. What does that mean?

Exactly. In times of good behavior? It's the same language for letting someone out of prison early. It could mean whatever you want it to mean. Well, anyway, 50 House Democrats have called for him to recuse himself. Senator Dick Durbin said he should, but he said, quote, I don't think there's much to be gained, end quote, from a hearing. there's much to be gained and quote from a hero. So funny 50 is such a low number. The House of Representatives is is big. There are a lot. It's 50 is so low. What a low bar. It is. You're right. That's a small number. All you got to do is

say yeah, you should you know he's not going to just say he should. It's fine. Like we're all we're all about signaling and not doing anything, so at least do that. And one thing Alito is signaling is you can racially gerrymander as much as you want, because this morning he wrote the majority opinion on a decision that basically said, no, no, no, South Carolina's gerrymander, it was just because of partisanship and politics. They just knew that those 30,000 black people would mostly vote for Democrats. It wasn't racially based at all. That's what it is. That's how it works. That's like how words work. That's absurd. Yeah. So courts aren't going to be able to strike down heavily gerrymandered maps based

on these. I mean, as long as those black people don't get water while they're waiting in line to vote for eight hours, then I think we can all, we'll know that we've upheld freedom and liberty. Yeah, exactly. The important thing is we've gotten done. No free rides here, y'all. You can pay for your water, your water that you need to survive. Maybe hopefully one day, you'll have to pay for your vote. Charge people to vote.

Oh, that's a great idea. Why don't we charge people to vote? Oh my God, like a poll tax. Like a, yes, thank you. I don't like that. I don't like that. It makes me feel uncomfortable. The word tax, can we call it a poll freedom fee, a subscription? A freedom fee.

Freedom pass. Freedom pass. Freedom pass. Yeah, freedom pass is subscription, $200 a year, right? Easy, not too much. Freedom plus, just an extra couple bucks and you get two votes. Oh my God. And you want to make sure that no one else uses your password, right? You got to clamp down on that.

Oh, yeah. Did you all hear about Freedom Summer in Florida? Oh, yeah. DeSantis declared it's going to be Freedom Summer in Florida. And one of the stipulations of Freedom Summer is that you can, if you're going to light up a building or something it can only be red white and blue. So what it's gonna we're gonna celebrate freedom summer by banning a bunch of color bunch of colors.

But if I mix the blue and the red that's purple right can I make purple then if I'm mixing think you can make pink if you really want if you want to get dragged away. You could you can make trans I think, with the proper... With proper shades, a little pastel. They didn't say not pastel, you know? I can just imagine De Santis... Walter and I talk about this a lot. De Santis sounds so much scarier in print than he does out loud when you hear him, because he has just like the worst voice. But you know, like he'll say the most fascist things,

and you read it in the New York Times, you're just like, oh my god, I can't believe he's preventing anyone with any Hispanic heritage from owning a car. But the actual transcript is like, here's what we got to do. You can't own a car if you're a Latino. It just sounds such a weenie. He's such a funny miscalculation of like a politician like you can't be Trump Obviously no one can but you especially can't if you're that guy like if you're this you like you can't do that

It's not gonna work. No matter find your own thing man, and the shoes just like every step of the way It's like buddy. Just like be stay in Florida be there. You're perfect there. The most refreshing group of interviews I did were when I was in Miami, Florida, around just full-on conservatives. For the Trump trial, right? Yeah, the Trump trial. I said, do you like DeSantis? And to listen to them talk about DeSantis, suddenly their cognition kicked back in and they actually had valid reasons for not liking him. Yeah, they probably recognized hypocrisy and various things or policies that they don't

agree with. They were just like, we have an insurance crisis, we have this, we have flooding, and then where is he? Yeah, he's never here. He's campaigning for president and he knew he was going gonna be campaigning while he was running for reelection. That's not okay. And, and- Valid concerns.

That's so funny. But, but to be fair, this was before, what was it, Florida summer of freedom? Summer of freedom. This was before freedom summer. Freedom summer. They gotta love it now. It's, it sounds like a Six Flags theme

where they would just hang up. Oh, it does. Here's a couple of streamers. It's, you know, we themed it as Freedom Summer. Grab your hot dog. Well, we have freedom. I don't know. We got to pivot to some ads real quick.

We have freedom to go to an ad. Is that what you're going to say? We are free to go to some ads right now. Let's do some capitalism real quick. And then we'll be back for more news. What's up, Boneslice? Do you like food? Do you get the urge to consume it three,

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You gotta tell them that we sent you, please. And we are back for even more of that news. Just like we said. Oh my God. During the ad break, I actually went back to school and I got a degree. It was great. Hell yeah. Journalism, you're a journalist now? Fun. Well, okay then, as a journalist, would love your thoughts.

It was moments for you, but years for us. Yeah, time is wild like that. We're going to talk a little bit about this Trump trial, our guy. Did he do it? We don't know yet. So here's the latest. Trials take such a long time because when I was putting some of this stuff together and pitching ideas for this week, I was like, oh, the defense is resting on Tuesday. We might get a verdict by the time we record. That will be huge. Now, it's like, no, next Tuesday's closing arguments and then the jury deliberates.

The trial portion, the witness portion is over. Again, this is in the Stormy Daniels hush money falsifying records trial. So hard to keep it all straight, but yeah. Well, this is not dealing with any of the presidential crimes. This is a campaign crime. This is standard Trump crime stuff. This is, yeah, this is the kind of crime. This is career stuff. Exactly. Yeah. We were talking about how like it's funny because he all the big defense that everyone makes of him this thing well you know you need discretionary powers when you're leader of the free world which is you know a valid conversation.

However all of these things that he's being indicted for were things that happened before and after he was president. The only discretionary power he was basically asking for is the power to bring in fake electors and start a riot. Right. He was still technically president when he was doing all that stuff to ensure he could still be president.

But that's kind of the one power you don't get. He could be launching bombs against everywhere. But like, you don't try to, you don't call the Secretary of State of Georgia. No, I mean, I mean, that came up during the Supreme Court arguments. That's like, like, Obama, drone strikes was the Trump team. I can't remember which might have been so to my ear was just like, well, I mean, you know, do you have a problem with Obama doing that? He's like, No. Love it. And they're like, they're like just like, well, I mean, you know, do you have a problem with Obama doing that? He's like, no. I love it. And they're like, they're

like, yeah, well, I mean, the Department of Justice, we looked at it, and we determined that there wasn't criminality there. Whereas it seems like there these are crimes. And the Trump defense was like, shut up, you but what? Yeah, his defense is so not you. Yeah. Yeah, that's the kind of legal defense that Trump prefers is what he prefers. But also, like, I feel like what he can get at this point. Well, he's so good at it. But yeah, I mean, I have a problem with Obama and his drone strikes. But let's focus up on your crimes, my man. It's hard when I talk to people about this. This is the one where people focus their attention and

say, like, well, but yeah, but all the so many people do this, it doesn't fair that it's just all on him. I have a problem so many people doing. Well, I would, I would imagine that there are lots of bullshit, shady shit things that have gone on with many of our elected officials. And we are paying attention to it. But yeah, it's wrong. Katie Ray, have you been paying off a porn star and calling a campaign? Who among us? Who among us? Well, none of us.

And it's such a nothing charge that that's why Michael Cohen went to jail for over a year and had an ankle monitor. That's why the Trump team forced him to fall on the sword over this. It is a dumb trial to be the first trial because no one understands, including Walter and I have talked to lawyers about this. We talked to Tristan Snell, who successfully sued Trump over this. We've talked to a bunch of people to try to explain exactly what the criminality is. And we still

are getting it wrong when we say it back. It's like people don't get it. Liberals think that he's going to jail for a million years, which is not on the table. It's not happening. No, I would agree with that in terms of the... I mean, you can't really... I remember saying this at the beginning. I'm like, this isn't the one we should lead with because it it sucks up the most a lot of attention. And people are like, and what? Well, it's also like easiest to like be like, salacious, you know, like the porn stars involved and like everyone's focusing on like her testimony of and it's like, that doesn't matter. Like what happened even between them actually,

like while the trials going on, we're getting more information about like, oh, he knew there were cameras in certain places in Mar-a-Lago, so he had them wheel the documents in a circuitous route around the place to get around the cameras. Like, we're finding out about other obstruction crimes while the one trial crime is going on. But tell us, I want Jonathan to keep setting up some of the, because we've barely, the information of where we stand here. And I do want to talk about their main witness. Well, right. So the defense, Trump didn't

take the stand in his defense, of course. The defense's main witness was this guy, Robert J. Costello, who was a former associate of Michael Cohen's. And it was just to attack Michael Cohen's credibility. But the story, like, I don't even know what his testimony was because the story immediately became how the judge had to admonish this guy Costello because he kept rolling his eyes and Like if there was an objection he'd be like god geez You know and the judge had to clear the courtroom and be like dude, would you shut up? This is like a trial but this man dude, would you shut up? This is like a trial. But this man, this guy is a former federal prosecutor. And I'm like, this reads like a fucking episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine or something, like the clownish person on the stand this trial, like it's just a cartoon to me. Oh, it's everybody he knows everybody who's willing to associate with him is going to be some version of a cartoon character. Like, obviously, the what Four Seasons total landscaping is like

the prime example of this kind of thing. But like everybody forgot about it. I mean, I had forgotten about it. But I hadn't thought about Four Seasons. But anyone who's like on board with this guy now is going to be just not a real person. Yeah, when you think like we've already passed the Rudy Giuliani tier of competence, like we've gone lower. We've burned through so many of like the basement. Normal people, yeah. Yeah.

Who himself did not have a great week. No, he didn't. No, we don't. No, we don't. And like also, who cares? One of the things I'm worried about with this trial going first is if the penalty is low, which it might be, like even if he's guilty, the penalty might be low. It will be. Or if he's somehow found innocent, the right will use this as complete vindication and they'll

use it to push the witch hunt narrative. Oh, no matter what, yes. Right. For sure. Either way. Not only is it the most meaningless case, it's also the thinnest of them, and I, not a fan, not a fan, not a fan of it. No, I know, I agree with that. I mean- Yeah, there's no, I mean, there's no outcome- Jonathan's laid this out for us.

What could happen if he's convicted? Well, there's a wide range of things that like legally could happen if he's convicted, because he's charged with 34 felonies that come with a Maximum sentence of four years each but the judge even if he's convicted he's not being sentenced to over a hundred years in prison Since he's a first-time nonviolent offender that kind of thing normally gets You know probation and a fine now objection Jonathan, Jonathan? First time offender? Oh, geez. First time offender?

First time offender in the legal system. The man who routinely has forged documents and committed crimes. I could make that same objection non-violent, but legally speaking. Oh yeah, didn't he slap his son around at one point? It's legally speaking. And also rape? Yeah, right. Exactly. Violent.

I did not mean to suggest that I believe that Trump has No. committed zero offenses in the past. Jonathan, this is disgusting apologia from Jonathan today. Yeah. The rest of the show is a huge mea culpa for me. I think that we just articulated everybody's thoughts, but please continue, Jonathan.

Well, if he gets probation, he would have to regularly report to New York City's probation department. And if he doesn't do that or commit some other crime, he could be jailed immediately. Again, not likely to happen since he's just wandering all around saying like, this judge is a fishy, you know, nonstop trying to get around the gag. Such a funny guy. He's like talking about the judge's daughter. He's like posts about the judge's daughter. He's like post about the judge's daughter. God, what a freak.

And also like bringing people to the court to get around his gag order, just like whispering in their ear and then they say mean things. Like he's like a middle school bully with parents like this. Just being like, call me a nerd, call me a nerd. I can't wait to watch the SVU ripped from the headlines episode about this. They've probably done two or three already. So prison, yes? Well, yeah. Past all the crimes, not considering all the crimes, people are very mad at Trump

this week about a video he posted to Truth Social, which included this kind of video graphic with the phrase unified Reich on it under the word. Oh my God. In big old. I would hate for people to get the wrong idea about the MAGA movement. Yeah. Yep. You can imagine like they see that and they're like, wait, what? Like I had no idea that this had anything to do with fascism. At his Wildwood rally in his speech, he literally said out loud that he would hunt down his

political opponents and meet them with violence. His speeches are always riddled with Nazi shit. This is no exception, but it is a wild thing to see and a wild, in my opinion, jump. Let's put this- It's a lateral move. Let's make this branding. Let's put this out there. It's insidious because that's how those words stop being associated.

Yeah, that's the thing. I do think there's like, some of these people are just incompetent and some like, Groyper intern might have done it on purpose. It's like one or the other. There is, I think, plausible deniability here of like, well, we pulled the thing. There always is, isn't there? There always is, isn't there is I think plausible deniability here of like, well, we did pull the thing. There always is, isn't there? I know. Well, I mean, the real way they do that is something that Walter picked up on when he was in Arizona. Oh, you're talking about the, with Paul Gosar?

With Gosar with, not Giuliani, the other- Mike Lee. How like these politicians will, they won't say anything bad, but they'll have rallies where the guy before them talks about like, you know, in my days as grand wizard of the cute cucks gun. Oh, yeah, totally. That's, I mean, Kerry Lake did it in Arizona, I would sat through multiple speeches and rallies of hers, where the person before or after her would say the most awful things.

And then she would come up like, but she wouldn't give the soundbite, they would. And you can't really, I mean, the media never like picked up on this. Lee Zeldin did it here when he was running against Kathy Hokel and in New York. And it was, and it was like, how is the media not connecting the dots? Like they're standing right next to each other. Right? You just- Oh, yeah, the associations and like, like I said, like all their staffs are like these gripers and stuff and like people who want to slip this stuff in and then have that plausible deniability. Have you guys noticed recently, I would say,

maybe in the last eight months that the dog whistle that has been so popular with the alt-right over the last 10 years is sort of dying and they're just kind of saying it? There's no, yeah, there's no mincing words at this point, I don't think. And like, Katie, to your point, I think it's like, it is a like, no matter why this was in this moment of this video, the effect is what you're saying where you're softening

this language because any every everyone defending it is like, well, right means this. So now we can start now we can start saying it right, like, right, we'll start saying it in right? Like people will start saying it in this new sort of warped definition. Even if this wasn't intentional, the effect is going to be like, yeah, we're just gonna talk about the hell we're gonna have a unified right.

That's just how words work. It's the same like people drilling down into all of these conversations and you start to get like, well, but yeah, Hitler did bad shit, but he did all this good things for the country and what they really need is that, but I mean, it is a part of that whole fucking thing. Like, well, what's wrong with a strong man?

It doesn't mean that they have to do bad shit. Oh, have you seen what they've done everywhere else? Everyone gives, I mean, I've seen these conversations play out and you're like, take a step back and listen to what the fuck you're saying right now. No, my our favorite one is the but the Nazis were socialists, right? Of course and then they're like, yeah, but they were socialist because the name of the party. Yeah, they're Democratic Socialists They're there. That's all you need to know. That's all you need to know

so that's why they took you know, they took all this property from people and They didn't redistribute it. That's why the word privatization literally came originally from the Nazis and that's why they killed all the socialists and also banned trade unions and made one unified trade union where all the bosses were in charge because they're so socialist. Well, deregulation, killing the press, isn't that what socialism is? Exactly. But yeah, no, it does normalize. It's really insidious.

Even if it's not on purpose, that's the thing where it's like, I don't even, we don't even talk about like, oh, they, who made the video and where'd they find the thing? I think that it's pretty well established that there's some elements of fascism here. It is also entirely possible that, you know, it's truth social, there's a lot of Nazi stuff up there. It is extremely possible that some idiot just retweeted a thing or whatever they call it on truth social. I think it's truth. I think retruth is what it is, I'm pretty sure.

Retruth-ing. If you share some of that, isn't that kind of gossip? Retruth is just the perfect Orwellian term for it. Half the stuff that people can name that Trump did, like, is actually kind of benign when you really look at it like Republicans to a certain extent do have a case sometimes where they're just like yeah I gotta look at the full context, but it's the stuff that is not covered by the press That is the really devastating stuff because it's just it's hard to pin down right like like it's a it's a he rambles It's a two-minute sound bite Like you can't reduce it down. That's a frustrating thing.

I mean, so it's, you know, obviously Trump would love to have a right. Oh yeah, well that's the thing. He says these things, he says these things out loud and then like you have this argument, you know, we've talked about this before. What was that quote where he's talking about like the auto industry and it's like the bloodbath line

or whatever, and it's like we can focus on that I guess, but then you have this pars auto industry and it's like the bloodbath line or whatever. And it's like, we can focus on that, I guess, but then you have this parsing back and forth of like, well, you meant the auto, you meant this, you meant this. He's saying that immigrants are poisoning the blood of our nation. Like, we don't need to- Yes, it's right there.

Well, right, this video has 15 million people deported in big text in it before the right thing. Why are we talking about the maybe it was an accident? He literally said that everyone on college campuses protesting for Gaza is a terrorist and needs to be met with force Yeah, he says these things like we don't need to we're gonna have we're gonna do the little camps and round everybody up Like it's just he says these things out loud. Yeah his policy positions by themselves Yeah, he doesn't need to be a name brand Nazi. Like he doesn't have to get the officially licensed merch.

He has his own merch. Yeah, exactly. It's a, he can express himself how he wants to. What else do we have in the news today, Jonathan? I know there's more. I'd love to spend the last few minutes talking about open AI and Scarlett Johansson. Let's lighten things up a bit. It's not lightening to me, but yes, I am up for it.

It's a little lighter. So according to Scarlett Johansson, nine months ago, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI contacted her to ask her to provide her voice for the company's new AI voice chatbot, bullshit, whatever. She considered it, but said no. And then two days before the launch of that chatbot, Sky, Altman contacted Johansson's agent again, asking if she'd reconsider. She said no. A few days later, they introduced it, and it sounds just like Scarlett Johansson. Sam Altman also tweeted the word her on the day of the launch, which

is a clear reference to the film her or Scarlett Johansson does the voice of an AI thing. So OpenAI last night sends a bunch of documents to the Washington Post that the Washington Post analyzes and says, well, this is clear that they hired a different actress to do the voice for Sky months before that Johansson was contacted. And that actress' agent says that neither Scarlett Johansson nor the film Her were ever mentioned and those reference points did not appear in the casting notice. And the Washington Post says that they listened to recordings of that actress' original voice test and that Sky sounds identical to it. So they still wanted Scarlett Johansson and they just found someone who sounds. That's some bullshit excuses, all of that. As an

actress, if I get a breakdown, there's all sorts of ways you can describe the Scarlett Johansson type and specifically they're looking for, they probably describe the quality of her voice They probably described the quality of her voice and described, and we understand that it's for an AI, that is the reference. Her is the reference. It doesn't matter. That's the reference. He treated it out. Yeah. Also, you're asking for her the day before. Obviously Obviously you want a Scarlett Johansson. What were they gonna do if she said yes? They would just have her record it. They paid that woman.

Yeah, well, I mean, they're not gonna push it. This has all the trappings of them really thinking she'll say yes. It's like, no, we'll offer more money. They probably had posters made. They're just like, she'll say yes, it's fine. I don't think that it would take too long to take the new audio of her whatever recording and... But even if she said, if she said yes, they might have been like, okay, well, we have, we had an actress record, uh, that sounds like you. So you didn't even have to do anything. We

can just use that. Or they probably just stole her voice. Like, I don't know. I'm not convinced. Also, couldn't you just do AI version of her voice? Like, did you have to hire an actress at all? I mean, I guess I think we're almost in the point here. The day that an artificial intelligence system starts stealing from creatives, I mean, is the day that I don't want any part of it. Can you even imagine what that would be like if an AI took the body of work of another artist and just used it without permission? My mind is blowing out

of my nose right now. I can't. I don't want to think about that. Wrap my head around it. I can't, but I can type it into Mid-Journey and see what that would look like. This is like that book I never read called 1984. I never read it, but I've heard. It's've heard. It's just like the same thing. Exactly. You should read it. It's a classic. They have this line in it. This is just like 1984. It's one of my favorite lines from 1984. So meta before meta was a thing.

I mean, the basic core concept behind AI is we will steal things and repurpose them. I think it's interesting that it is finally facing some form of consequences because they picked on someone who has money as opposed to just a bunch of internet Tumblr artists. Yeah, I'll see that more and more, I think, people pushing back on this and like... It's an important part of this because this is something that is new and unregulated and different. The actors kind of shit the bed in terms of the actors contracted in AI. We'll see. It seems like they're just very arrogant at open AI.

It seems like Sam Altman's like you said, oh, she'll say yes or doesn't she want to be part of the future? This is the future that we're building. Imagine what it'll be like when any of it works or it looks good and is not embarrassing. I don't love that she considered doing it. It was probably a lot of money. I know, I know.

I'm just saying my personal reaction. She said no twice though. She did, but I was like, she considered it. Kathleen. Maximilian, I'm just being real. We keep it real here. That's our tagline. I don't want to attack you for having a personal opinion on this.

And class solidarity is important. I do understand it's a lot of money it probably offered. And she's got team and agents saying, you should really think about this. Didn't she sue Marvel and get a lot more money for Black Widow and all that a few years ago? Yeah, because they buried her movie. Yeah't she sue Marvel and get a lot more money for Black Widow and all that a few years ago? Yeah, because they buried her movie. Yeah, she won. But also I feel like there's part of it is probably just like, yeah, I considered it, but ultimately said no,

it's the thing you say. I know. I know. It was just a flippin' side comment. No, we're going to work this out. We're going to figure this out now. All right, bring out Scar Joe. We're going to talk to her about it.

All right, good. Good. You guys, this has been really All right, bring out Scar Joe. We're gonna talk to her about it. All right, good, good. You guys, this has been really fun. Thank you for joining us. You gotta get going to your rally soon. Do we miss the chit chat? Was that the chit chat? We chit chatted at the beginning. Oh, we chit chatted all over this place.

We chit chatted a lot. We slipped, we slapped, we slopped, we rapped. What's the, rapped? It's slip, slap. Slip, slop, slap, and rap. Slip, slop. Slip, slop, slap, and rap. Slap, slap, slap, we wrapped. What's the first... Wrapped? It's slip, slap. Slip, slap, slap and wrap. Slip, slap. Slip, slap, slap and wrap. Slap and wrap.

Slip, slap, slap and wrap. Slip, slap, slap and wrap. Slip, slap, slap and wrap. Slip, slap, slap and wrap. That's how you... Oh yeah, that's the Drake-Kentrick thing. We're just inserting ourselves into their beef. Will you guys tell our listeners where they can find you and check out all your things,

etc., follow you, all the things. The pluggables. You guys are listening to a podcast right now, so you have the technology. I almost don't want to say the name of our show again, because I feel like Katie has been doing it better. We're journalists. That's not it. Damn it. Come on. You have one job.

I thought you went to college and graduated over ad break. Well, still would be true, Walter. So it'd be like, I am not journalist. But I like that I said it like a question. I was, thank you. Scholarship. No, we are not journalists. We are not journalists.

Also, Walter Masterson is at Walter Masterson on all the platforms. And I'm Logic Max, or that Logic Max on platforms. But yeah. Max is a former US history teacher and he teaches, you know, logical fallacies. So it's a great combo. Well, Walter, what do you get to be a comedian? I've been writing comedy for 15 years. He's also a comedian and he also taught AP history and he also teaches logical fallacies for a living. So much more interesting than a comedian. You know, we're white,

we have podcast mics. I'm trying to add... It is. No, it's good. He's being your hype man here. Have you ever wondered what the sound of white men talking is? Well, come on down to We Are Not Journalists and get it right from the source. Walter Joseph Masterson IV is as white as a winter field. And he has opinions. Classic white thing. And he says those opinions. Yeah? Oh yeah, no, on the podcast!

Oh yeah, I didn't mention that. Not only do we have him, but we say him out loud. Heck yeah. Nice! It's not a news podcast. Yeah, and again, if you want to hear what QAnon actually sounds like, it's worse than you think. Oh boy.

But you make it fun. Well, thank you guys so much. This was fun. We covered some territory. We had some laughs. We got some slips. We had some slops. Slaps and raps.

And bips and bops. Follow us. You follow us. All the things. Do you like the show? All the things. Leave a comment. All the things. Leave a comment if it's a nice comment.

Yeah, leave nice comments. This show is great. Did you review it on Apple Podcast? Did you do that? Because if not- Did I? You're a monster. No, no, your audience. Not you guys.

Oh, our audience. Yeah. But only the good ones. All you monsters out there. No, because this your audience. Not you guys. Oh, our audience. Yeah, but only the good ones. No, because this show's a lot of fun. Get there. Yeah, you love it. You love it. Let the people know.

We'll be back next week. And in the meantime, just remember, we love you very much. There, I said it. I got it off my chest. Now they know. Now they know. I got it off my chest. Now they know. Now they know.

Some time in the early 80s, REO Speedwagon's airplane made an unannounced middle of the night landing. This is my friend Kyle McLaughlin, the star of Twin Peaks. And he's telling me about how he discovered a real life Twin Peaks in rural North Carolina, not far from where he filmed Blue Velvet. What was on the plane was copious amounts of drugs coming in from South America. Supposedly Pablo Escobar went looking for other spots,

quiet, out of the way places to bring in his cocaine. My name is Joshua Davis, and I'm an investigative reporter. Kyle and I talk all the time about the strange things we come across, but nothing was quite as strange as what we found in Varnum Town, North Carolina. There's crooked cops, brother against brother. Everyone's got a story to tell,

but does the truth even exist? Welcome to Varnum Town. Varnum Town is available wherever you listen to podcasts.