The Daily Zeitgeist - How Do You Say Facebook in Russian, GOP Smoke Bombs 11.1.17

Episode Date: November 1, 2017

In episode 18, Jack & Miles are joined by writer & show creator Reed Agnew to discuss Russian Facebook ads, Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Sarah Huckabee Sanders deflection tactics, Robert Mueller possibly getting fired by Trump, & more. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry.

Kaitlyn Clark versus reese on the iheart radio app apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast presented by capital one founding partner of iheart women's sports k hasn't heard from her sister in seven years i have a proposal for you come up here and document my project all you need to do is record everything like you always do what was that that was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister, or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams.

Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, the internet, and welcome to season four, episode three of the Daily Zeitgeist for November 1st, 2017. My name is Jack O'Brien, a.k.a. Potatoes O'Brien, a.k.a. Young Jackfruit, a.k.a. I didn't say Jack O'Lantern on Halloween because that shit is too easy.

Oh, no. That's not true. I just forgot. And I'm joined by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray. Yes, your boy Young Fuckery is in the building and it's the first ever month. And we are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by Reed Agnew, creator of Son of Zorn and the showrunner of Wilfred. Well, I'm happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Hey, man. We're thrilled to have you. Are you related to Spiro Agnew? I'm not, as far as I know. Oh, damn it. I kept saying that every time we brought you up. I just go, oh, yeah, Spiro Agnew? Spiro Agnew's grandson?

Yeah, I get that. Usually I get that from more old-timers. Yeah, well, I showed my hand. Miles is 56 years old. He looks a lot younger. 56, but I have a lot of cosmetic surgery done. I'm impressed. Thank you.

What's something that you've searched in the last couple days that is revealing about who you are as a human being? Well, sea slugs. Or otherwise? Sea slugs. Yes. Those are gross. No, they are not gross. That's what I meant.

If you do an image search for them, they will cheer you up. Sea slugs? Do a Google image search for sea slugs and you will see. I was thinking of sea lice. Not that horrible. Oh, damn. Yeah. Those look like acid trips come to life.

Yes. I don't do acid anymore, but I Google sea slugs. You crack your back and get a little flashback. What do you think is one thing that is overrated? Locally, like In-N-Out Burger is so overrated. Interesting. Tell me why. What's going on?

I mean, it's good. It's great. I'm not going to like – I'm not – but the way – it's like people – it's like fish fans. They're like, dude, In-N-Out Burger. I might – I would move away from L.A. except I would just miss In-N-Out Burger. It's like not that big of a deal. Yeah, that's true. It's good, but Wendy's is better, I think.

Wow. And it's right down the street. All right, what's something that's underrated? Well, I'll say, you know what? This day and age, I will say people. People are underrated. You know, I hate people as much as anybody, but, you know, the people that, you know, the people that make the news are always the loudest, most obnoxious version of people. And so you start to think that people are bad, but, you know, people are crazy and weird and hilarious. And, you know, they're, you know, most people are good.

Most people are good. And don't forget that. And they're also – everybody is super weird. Right. You just have to dig in. And I will also say underrated is eavesdropping, especially as a writer. If you just listen to what people are saying, you will be – that's the best thing any comedian or comedy writer, anyone can get. That's the best thing any comedian or comedy writer, anyone can get is just like your average person is insane with weird ideas that they're not doing stand up, but they're just talking in line at the grocery store.

And it's like bizarre. Where do you do most of your eavesdropping? In line at the grocery store. I've found cafes in Los Angeles to be particularly fertile. fertile uh you you can often catch like a life coach advising somebody and the life coach like yeah knows less than nothing about like what they're talking about yeah the nice thing about eavesdropping is you can you can do it anywhere you know you can go outside right now and eavesdrop but people are also always surprising me with just they're good they want to be good everything wants you know like uh so yeah peoplerated, especially this day and age.

Because I think bad people win a lot, too. Well, and so much of the news is focused on the bad and not taking into account that there are great things happening. Good people are just quiet. They're just like, you know what, I'm just going to go home. This isn't a party. This party's not fun anymore. Yeah. That was a great answer.

It's one of my favorites we've gotten. Unconventional. I don't agree with it. I think people are shit. No, I'm just kidding. phone anymore yeah that was a great answer it's one of my favorites we've gotten unconventional uh i don't agree with it i think people are shit no no that was great some days i think uh all right let's get into format uh where we try and tell you what's going on the zeitgeist we're trying to take a sample of the ideas that are out there changing the world whether you are looking or not we talk about politics and news. We also talk about movies and supermarket tabloids. Today, I think, is going to be a little bit news-heavy because the political world just does not quit.

And we're going to start out with this news that Facebook released yesterday. While everybody was talking about the indictments. Facebook was like, oh, yeah, 126 million Americans were exposed to our ads that like were served by Russians trying to influence the election. One hundred and twenty six million people. So the population of the entire country is 323 million. So more than a third of these United States, as it relates to our population, were exposed to Facebook ads, which is pretty incredible. Incredible. You know, I think when the story first hit, they were talking about that it was like something like $100,000 or something like that. It was like nothing. Yeah. Maybe $10,000've talked before about how much we think, you know,

just being exposed to an idea can influence you, whether you realize it or not. You know, just walking past the tabloids, I think, you know, you can you changes how you think about people, whether you want it to or not. Well, that's why I believe Queen Elizabeth actually killed Ron Goldman. Right, exactly. And I think that's just the truth. National Enquirer, hey, don't roll your eyes, Producer Anna. Real shit. But so this is, I mean, this is a problem, I would venture to say.

And I think Facebook testified in front of Congress along with Twitter and Google. Is that what it's called? I think that's what the kids are calling it. Yeah, they all testified in front of Congress. But this was kind of the number that jumped out to me. Yeah, because it seemed like everything before was like 2 million people saw something or only 3 million. And now to know it's roughly a third of just over a third of the country that makes this whole thing even more upsetting because i think i don't know

i feel like there needs to be more outrage over the fact that russia is what is trying to fuck around and try and influence the course of our elections and we're getting so caught up in these other details. It just shows you what the new sort of form of information warfare is. And I think it's safe to say at this point they were not just merely trying to. They actively fucked around and changed the course of U.S. history. And so Sheryl Sandberg has said of Facebook's responsibility, she said Facebook hoped to set a new standard in transparency in advertising, which sounds good. OK. But then she also said if those ads from the Russian accounts, the Russian hacker accounts had been linked to legitimate Facebook accounts, most of them would have been most of those ads would have been allowed to run, which kind of gets into a gray area of like, how do you stop this without asking Facebook to invest billions of dollars into controlling the media environment that they're providing for people,

which, you know, the they have been actively messing with the news feeds on people's Facebook pages for many years. Like when when Facebook first started, Cracked was huge on Facebook. And then we but we weren't like spending money to be featured on people's pages. And so slowly, we just got phased out because they were bringing in, you know, people who actually paid for placement. So they they do have some control over, you know, what you see on Facebook. over what you see on Facebook. So it's weird to me that she's like, we can't – I think her argument, she said, the thing about free expression is that when you allow free expression, you allow free expression. Cool quote, Sheryl Sandberg. But I guess her point being that there is a blurry line between limiting political advertising and limiting people who are advertising their views, but they might not be officially connected to one campaign or another around an election.

So if you're paying for advertising, why don't you just – if you're going to buy an ad on Facebook, make it about goods and services. Like don't – you can't – why don't they just eliminate the ability to sell an ad that's pushing opinion or like a point of view? Because that's essentially when you start getting into like the political sphere. Like if it's just like, hey, I'm a plumber and here's my number. You got like a clogged toilet? Great. Call Ralph. But like when you start doing like, Hey, all lives matter.

Can I buy that ad? Right. Like, why don't we just say, nah, like we don't, we don't do ads like that. We can, we'll do traditional ads to promote your business. Or just anytime somebody tries to advertise in that voice that you were just using. I think that's a good indicator that they probably are up to no good. Facebook. I'd like to pull out an ad for.

Why are you calling us? Just use our interface. I'm not sure how this works. I'm not sure how this works. Yeah, I mean, other countries have ways of, you know, dealing with this. France has a 44-hour timeout ahead of the polls opening and closing. I guess it's timed to when the polls close on Sunday. Everybody votes on Sunday, 44 hours before the polls close.

There's a complete media blackout where TV news is not allowed to talk about or cover anything related to the election. Anything. Anything. So that's like completely eliminated from their run of show. It's like, we'll do sports, we'll do the movies, we'll do whatever human interest piece. It's over. And then boom. Yeah.

I mean, this past French election that was between Macron and Le Pen, they like I think Russia, but WikiLeaks like leaked a bunch of Macron's emails and or something leaked a bunch of documents that would have like hurt Macron's chances. But they did it within this 44 hour blackout. So it didn't affect the election as much as people think it would have. I feel like the way around Facebook, the way to defeat Facebook is and Twitter and all that and Instagram and all that stuff is just to teach kids. It's like it's like cigarettes. It's like, don't do like, it's not real. It's bad for you, you know?

Right. And it's not real and it's not important. And it's like, everybody is their own little ad agency now. And when you say like transparent advertising, there's like the whole definition of advertising is like, you're trying to get people to buy something that they wouldn't buy. Right.

Without this ad. Modify their behavior. So it's like, you know, it goes far beyond politics. And yeah, Facebook, Instagram, it's a generation of kids who are going to grow up really caring about what strangers think about them. People that they'll never meet. There are 30,000 Twitter followers, whatever. People that will never exist in their universe say shit on one of their comments. And then pretty soon you're in this angry situation.

It's like that person doesn't even exist. Yeah. There's nothing of value, really. I mean, aside from the connectivity of social media, I think that's great. But I think, yeah, when it begins sort of influencing how you think or behave, that's the slippery slope. And let's be real. Facebook is just trash. I don't use it.

I get in trouble all the time because people are like, you didn't get my – I used to use it, and I know what it's like to be like, ooh, I hope – I'm being a hypocrite here because I know the feeling of like, oh, that girl I went to high school with likes my family. But I get it. It's a little thrill, you know. The absolute thrill of that girl from high school. You know, it's how are you supposed to, like, teach kids to be, like, selfless when everything is about, like, promoting yourself? Yeah, because, look, I'm tired of looking at your fucking baby or your fake-ass diamond engagement ring. Miles is looking at me right now.

Are you talking to me? No, I'm talking to everybody. I'm just saying, like, I like to make eye contact. Fuck you. My kid is precious. Dude, you're not spamming your Facebook feed because you're like an actual human being. You're not one of these people who lives for the likes. Right.

And those are the people who are the most vulnerable people are the people who live for the likes. Those are the most vulnerable people are the people who live for the likes. I have noticed that younger people, people who are maybe in their 20s right now, are almost more aware of Facebook as a vice because they've had it their whole life. I have younger cousins or younger friends who almost all of them have been like, yeah, I quit Facebook for the last two years. So I don't know. I feel like maybe just having always had that there like keeps them a little less like blind to it. They're like aware that it's kind of a fuckery. Yeah, I hope.

I mean, I see hope in this like younger. I mean, I'm 42 now and I still a of the times, I feel like I'm a kid. And then I used to live around the corner from the Supreme store. Well, I used to eavesdrop on these kids. Right. And you know what? They're like, the kids are all right. You know, cigarettes are not cool anymore.

Right. I feel like getting wasted isn't cool anymore. These are like young kids who you're like, turn down that music you're like these kids are all right they're smart they're the same as every generation yeah right the thing that's different is that technology moves so much faster now than it ever has i do think a turn is coming where these uh huge monopolies like facebook and google are at least viewed with more skepticism than we have viewed them up to this point. I think we the way we viewed them up to this point is remarkably sort of oblivious to the fact that they're somewhat evil. And I think once kids start viewing them as less cool and they become like less profitable, then like we can't just

count on Facebook to do the monitoring themselves. We're going to need either the market to change or for the government to step in. But yeah, it's like it's a it is a big change because it's like that. It's like with cigarettes, like realizing the Marlboro man died because he smoked cigarettes. Right. And you're like, oh, shit. All right. We're going to go to a quick break and we'll be back after this.

Hey, I'm Gianna Prudente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Sanner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get

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They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the biscuits i was a lady rebel like what does that even mean i mean the boone

county rebels will stay the boone county rebels with the image it's right here in black and white and prints a lion an individual that came to the school saying that god sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch is a leader you choose hills that you want to die on why would we want to be the losing team that just i just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot.

You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. So we did want to talk a little bit about the fallout from the indictments. Also, the Papadopoulos, the Papadopoulai, the story about kind of went under, flew under the radar a little bit and for the first 24 hours. And now people are like, oh, yeah, that's the kind of undeniably crazy, important one. But let's talk about how this story is being covered on right wing media. They're basically saying, like, it's a nothing burger because this all took place in the

past. But, like, read the indictment. The indictment itself talks about how Manafort's crime was from approximately 2006 through at least 2016. Manafort and Gates laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations. But I think, again, what people have to understand, even though the charges don't have anything to do with the Trump campaign, it's clearly a setup move because I don't think Paul Manafort is down to die in jail. Right. So by having these charges, they're going to coerce cooperation. And we talked about how the fact that Trump hired somebody who was in the business of getting a Ukrainian puppet for Putin into power is pretty damning. That's also crazy or interesting is that Manafort, like Russian propaganda, has a history of basically doing illegal deals with people who they then like have leverage over so that they can then kind of fuck with them.

So they had leverage that essentially compromise on Manafort going into his relationship with Trump. Right. on manafort going into his relationship with trump right uh that that's another sort of angle to the manafort thing is that he had this uh illegal history with the kremlin yeah well you know like i said the people who have been defending trump and the idea that there has been no collusion there's nothing to see here they are fucking spinning out because right some of these like distraction stories they're trying to push yeah so bush league and so like empty so what are they covering instead oh my god so i mean last week was the steel dossier right was trying to discredit that which is just basically opposition

research but sarah huckabee sanders was like no we need to talk about that because they paid for they paid millions of dollars for fake information to try and smear the president and make it look bad. Okay, so let's first address the idea that the Democrats were even behind this dossier. That is patently false. Paul Singer, who is a very wealthy GOP donor, actually is the one who paid for the dossier or this research to even occur because at the time he was backing marco rubio as a candidate and then once trump got the nomination he was like fine it is what it is and stopped funding it and

that's when the democrats stepped in to continue this investigation because the stuff inside of it was pretty fucking disturbing okay next why are you gonna pay millions of dollars for fake information it's called lying and you can do that for free. So fuck out of here with that. The other one is, oh, Mueller should resign. He's too close to the FBI, and the FBI may have been influenced by the Steele dossier. Again, that really doesn't hold much water. There's the Uranium One deal,

which is what they really love right now because they get to talk about Hillary Clinton. I mean, just really quickly, Hillary Clinton could not have approved or vetoed this sale it required explain what the uranium uranium one deal is essentially that like uh hillary clinton received money from someone who was involved with this company uranium one this is the theory yeah that she received money from this company russian company uranium one uh who basically wanted uh to mine like 20 of our uranium deposits for nuclear energy.

This is not weaponized uranium. This is purely for straight-up energy uranium. And so basically they're trying to say it was like a whole pay-for-play scheme. But let's be real. The person that they're trying to say gave her all this money, he divested from the company years before. These sales have to be approved by many departments, the department of defense uh you know the state department and so they they all agreed that this deal was fine it had no national security implications right um and also this story like the timings of the donations don't match up and the story was like came out of a book that it like is called clinton cash i think

and that was like funded by like a Breitbart think tank. And it's just a non-story, just something to bring up again to try and just conjure up the, oh my God, the Hillary thing. And again, Sarah Huckabee Sanders up there on the podium when she's having to take fire for these really shitty looking indictments. She's like, well, the real story is, is this Uranium One deal? I don't know why they're not looking at that. And we've talked about this.

Let's assume that, let's just even assume that these lies are real. That doesn't change the fact that what's going on with the campaign is absolutely happening and is absolutely real. Also, the Steele dossier, not a single thing has been debunked. They've only been able to prove things. So to say that it's like mendacious or spurious. Right. When the Steele dossier was first introduced, they were like, nothing in there is true. It's all bullshit.

And then slowly but surely, like different details are being proven accurate, including some of the stuff that came out in the indictment. So. So and then so then the last one is they were trying to just distance themselves from these people saying like, oh, I don't know. We don't know Paul Manafort. And I mean, that was before and he didn't really do much. And with George Papadopoulos, who really like let's not forget, this guy basically pled guilty and confessed to colluding with Russia, maybe to not the extent of what we want to say is colluding. But he was the one interacting with Russian agents for the sake of getting dirt on Hillary for the campaign. So Papadopoulos was this 30-year-old guy who was not like a super impressive professional

when it came to being like a D.C. operator. His LinkedIn page at the time that he was hired by the Trump campaign featured his work with a model UN in high school. So he's that's low. Right. So the Trump administration is now trying to argue that, see, he was just like a volunteer who went out and got coffee for everybody. And I don't know. I think I think we have clips. Yeah. So I them making that claim, right? Yeah, so the first clip is when Sarah Huckabee Sanders is asked at the briefing, hey, what the fuck is going on with this Papadopoulos guy?

This is her distancing themselves or trying to mitigate what his actual role was. This individual was the member of a volunteer advisory council that met one time over the course of a year, and he was part of a list that was read out in the Washington Post. I'd hardly call that some sort of regular advisor or, as you want to push, that he's like a senior member of the staff. He was not paid by the campaign. He was a volunteer on, again, a council that met once.

Okay. First of all, let's hold up sarah hold up because you look mad nervous up there and we can hear in your voice uh this wapo list this list that was read out is that she puts it impersonally yeah though when he was was then candidate trump they were saying like oh you got uh you got a little foreign policy team going together like you got some people advising you on what your foreign policy will be as president. Right. And he's like, yo, I got some great people.

So it was Trump in an interview with the Washington Post trying to explain to them who he was going to hire for his foreign policy advisory team. Waleed Farris, who you probably know, Ph.D., advisor to the Assault Representatives Caucus and counterterrorism expert. Carter Page, Ph.D., George Papadopoulos. He's an oil and energy consultant. Excellent guy. Excellent guy. Excellent guy. I would be insulted if I were Manafort or Papadopoulos or who's the other guy?

Gates. Oh, Gates. Gates was the other guy? Gates. Gates. Gates is the other guy. Gates, right. Because I know that cops, when their first round of arrests are always based on the fact that they think you're a pussy and you're not gangster. Right. You know, you got to get the like little weak mice. You don't just arrest John Gotti.

Right. You know. So by definition, the first round, they're already like, this guy is going to get scared easily. First of all, he's in a photo of this foreign policy advisory board of, they want to say a volunteer thing, with Trump at the table, with Jeff Sessions at the table, who basically that would have been his advisor, essentially. Right. basically that uh would have been his advisor essentially right um and then for you know if you remember jeff sessions when he was confirmed like al franken was like do you have any knowledge of anyone from the campaign trying to communicate with russians he was like no not that i can recall right meanwhile cut to this photo directly for sessions right well i mean i don't know if he

worked for him but like that foreign like Sessions was heading that up. So basically – And he was on that. That's in his purview basically as being on that council. But yeah, to say that he doesn't know, that photograph and even in the indictment is the meeting where Papadopoulos brought up that he had an in with the Russians. So I mean – The whole thing stinks like shit. The whole thing stinks like shit. Well, I will also say the second thing I gleaned from this is Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Watching her give that speech, I like her taste in fashion. I think that string of pearls and that sweater she's wearing is probably cashmere. Yeah, it's like a lilac or something. It looked like a really beautiful sweater and a nice choice in jewelry. Classic, probably from Cartier. Right. And she's very good at her job. Like the way that she described the Washington Post thing was a Washington Post list that was read out.

Right. So that makes it impersonal. Like it makes it almost sound as if the Washington Post read a list that this guy's name was on. No, the president, when asked by the Washington Post who you are going to have advise you, gave this guy's name. That was maybe the second or third, fourth that yeah uh so yeah he he and i i'm guessing he wouldn't call out the coffee boy but i'm just i just did a little research and i just realized that those uh those were fake pearls no god not real not you sarah i tried i do think that i mean where is there for Trump to go from here?

I don't think he's going to be able to kind of sit back and let this go on for too much longer. I think he's probably going to fire Mueller if – because – Can he – I mean I was thinking – I read – I heard something about that. Can he – he cannot do that. He can. I heard something about that. Can he he cannot do that. He can.

But but I don't think even from a political standpoint, you can't fire the cop that's investigating you like it just seems. I did that once. And we let him get away with that. But it wasn't a it wasn't a grand jury investigation. Yeah. Now, that's why. So, like, you can't. The president is not above the law. And that's a I don't think anybody in Congress can support.

That's the problem, because I think when. And honestly, I don't think anybody in congress can support that's the problem because i think uh when and honestly i don't know no maybe you can't uh lindsey graham the senator from south carolina when they asked him they're like you know what would the response like what do you think would happen if trump actually fired muller and he's like he quote he said there will be holy hell to pay if he does that and he's a republican senator so they even know to defend that would just be just a totally it would just it would kill your career like you couldn't you you can't defend that it's really like at what point do these people that enable trump yeah trump is a monster and a little baby so he is just a pathological narcissist and he is what

he is and but it's the people that are enabling him in a way that are worse. It's like, at what point are you like, no, this is insane. And at what point are you like, my legacy is going to be this. Horrible thing. And that's the point they're

slowly approaching as they're all in the convertible together approaching the cliff's edge being like, when are we going to get off this thing? Or are we betting, are we going to bet the farm that this car will fly once we hit the edge of the cliff and we'll just fly off into it? Well, if you worked for Trump, wouldn't you, and you were part of his cabinet, you were one of his advisors, Would you really want to protect him? Like working for him is fucking hell and utter chaos.

Like wouldn't you just be like, yeah, dude, just fire me or like whatever just so that he's gone and you can work for Pence then? I don't know. I don't know. It's like when you're a Jets fan and you're like, I hope we lose all the games. Right. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean I will also say this. I think the genius thing about Trump, and this is just coming from like human psychology, is that like he has made it so that he is so crazy that everything that the other side says is reactive and angry. It's so easy to say like this is wrong this guy's evil this guy's bad and that is an emotional angry response and i and i and look i'm i'm politically uh i'm very very very liberal i'm probably i'm like left of obama yeah your nails are painted blue no those are that's just my circulatory problem. Oh, no. No, the – but I wish I heard more of the other side, like, okay, not just this guy sucks, but here's what we wanted. Here's the hope.

Here's – you know, like – Yeah, that's the messaging problem we have. Like, forget about – okay, eyes on our own paper. Like, what do we have to offer? Right. What if it was this? What if we did this? And there probably is that, but it just gets buried beneath the like – it's just complaining about what you should complain about, but it becomes too much complaining and less like, okay, he does that, but this is what we're going to do. This is the guy that's going to save us.

Who is that? A lot of Democrats are just looking – Who is that person? Well, we'll see. Yeah, a lot of Democrats are just looking. Who is that person? Well, we'll see. I mean, that's a much bigger question.

But I think the Democrats just have a messaging problem because they're looking at this Mueller thing as like the thing that's going to save the country for the moment rather than kind of like looking ahead of like how will we actually wrest power back after this and begin to actually create some movement and direction. I see Mueller as like Robb Stark in early Game of Thrones. It's like Joffrey's doing all this shit, but like Robb's coming. Right. And then hopefully – Robb's the good guy. Hopefully Mueller won't have a red wedding. Very well could be. Yeah, the red wedding will be when Trump fires him or something.

Yeah, but luckily there are investigations going on. Or someone stabs something. Yeah. But like, luckily there are investigations going on. Someone stabs him. Yeah. In like New York and Virginia, the attorney generals there are also building cases against these people. So even if Trump, if, if let's say he pulls a plug on Mueller or tries to pardon people,

there are state investigations going on. So if you're charged by the state, the president can't pardon you. So there, but he, he, he, Mueller is definitely playing as the,

uh, Donald Trump supporters love to say he's playing 4d chess-D chess right now and has created a few trap doors. So we'll see. I mean, again, we don't know the extent of any of these investigations quite yet, but it seems like Mueller is pretty – So the speculation is that he's doing that. He's building up these state departments because they could prosecute if he was fired essentially. Yeah, well, if these attorney generals have the same information, they'll be like, well, if we can't charge him federally, then we can.

These are crimes within our state. And again, if you're charged with like these kind of like money laundering and other stuff, like, you know, it's basically saying Trump, like, look, either way, you're probably things will come to light. So it's up to you how you want to do it. Right. Yeah. All right.

We're going to go to a quick break and we'll be right back. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.

And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do. Like resume specialist Morgan Saner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered.

There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session.

24 hours. BPM 110. 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out?

I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams.

Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean?

The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County rebels with the image of... It's right here in black and white in print. They lying. An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch. As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies.

When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. So we're kind of running out of time. We wanted to talk about General John Kelly, a.k.a. the artist formerly known as the Good One, who is no longer the Good One. Went on Laura Ingram's show on Fox News and defended Robert E. Lee and called said the Civil War was about a failure to compromise. Ta-Nehisi Coates had an amazing Twitter thread that you should go read right now.

That's your homework assignment. That's your homework assignment. You can actually just on my Twitter, I retweeted the thread Jack underscore O'Brien, or you can go directly to the source at Ta-Nehisi Coates, T-A-N-E-H-I-S-I, Coates with an E, C-O-A-T-E-S. But we will talk about it tomorrow. We're just running short on time. So we're just going to go out talking about the probably the stupidest decision that anyone's made with regards to travel and cocaine use in the past, I'd say, a couple of weeks at least. What was our last cocaine story? Yeah, it's been a while.

There are so many. So the kid who plays Will's older brother, Winona Ryder's eldest son. Jonathan, right? I think Jonathan. Jonathan. Yes. Who I think perfectly pulls off that unwashed kid who kind of smells bad in school. Like, look, he has that sort of like always just a glaze of, you know, night sweat on him. And he apparently was earning that look because from cocaine use, possibly. He was arrested at LAX with cocaine, flying in from Heathrow.

Apparently he is a British, a British, as we call them. And Miles, you were pointing out that this was a poor decision. Come on. Charlie Heaton. Charlie Heaton. That's his name. Okay, yes. Charlie Heaton.

That's his name. Okay, yes. He basically, I think what they found were traces of the drug, and he admitted to using cocaine or whatever. I'm not sure exactly how much they found, but come on, my man. You're bringing cocaine to America? Yeah. Do you bring sand to the beach?

The fucking cocaine is here. In Los Angeles. If anything anything you go home with the cocaine right from here uh but i'm just yeah he looks like he was definitely method acting to get that look of like a strung out dude have not slept in weeks well because that whole family like they did a good job casting it like from winona white uh winona rider to the kid who plays will to this guy they all look like like they they are dealing with some shit. And this season has been interesting because essentially it's funny because at the end, Will went missing and then he came back and now people are like, what's wrong with Will?

It's like, motherfucker, this dude has PTSD from being trapped in another dimension. Right. And I don't even know how you explain that to another 12-year-old kid. What's wrong with Will? Will's being a dick. You heard of the upside down? That's right. I'm like, what's wrong with Will? Will's being a dick. You heard of the upside down? That's right. I'm fucking 12 years old dealing with this shit.

That's why I'm zombie boy. And again, I like just to say I don't want to spoil anything. I like the season so far. I'm a little mad at Dustin's character. He's making some decisions. Dustin is which kid? Dustin is the curly-haired kid who had the missing teeth. He's got teeth now. Okay.

But now he's back in it. he's got teeth now okay uh but now he's uh he's back in it he's got a nice grill on uh and you know i'm it's it's it's getting it's getting more interesting they're revealing more we're starting to understand more so uh i don't without without spoiling anything i'm just gonna leave it there but yes dude worth watching dusting up yo i'm not i'm not and i'm only in like episode seven i'm just like there he's he's doing that thing where like you you get mad at the character because they're making decisions that like, even if you were writing the show, you're like, this isn't what the character would do.

Right. And also like in terms of the narrative of the show, you're like, this is not, you just, yeah. Anyway. Is that something that's on your mind as a showrunner or a writer read like the, this is let's avoid having a character behave in a way that nobody would ever behave. Yeah, that's a – yeah, that's always a big concern. Like why would he do that?

I remember I tried to watch American Horror Story and like with the woman who lived next door to the family the first season, they would like turn – the main guy would like turn around in his house and be like, oh, you've got to stop creeping up on me like that. And it's like, get out of my house. That's the first thing. You wrote that line wrong. You look scared. You should be throwing her out of your house and be like, don't ever come in my house. You can't do that.

I don't care who you are. Even if you're not creepy as shit like you are, you can't be in my house. Right, right. Neighbors can't just, oh, jeez. What are you doing even if you're not creepy as shit like you are. Right. You can't be in my house. Right, right. It's like, neighbors can't just, yeah. Oh, geez. What are you doing here? Okay, how can I help you? No, sometimes he'd like apologize.

Like, sorry, sorry. You just scared me. Right. You're in my fucking hallway. We're ignoring a really big thing here. Reid Agnew, thank you so much for coming on, man. This was a lot of fun. Thank you.

It was fun. Thanks for having me. Where can people uh follow you on they can't they can't there you go uh all right what's your address if they want to call me uh my phone number eight six seven five three oh nine uh for me uh guys please just just follow me uh just philosophically i'm not even gonna plug anything just follow my. Just philosophically. I'm not even going to plug anything. Just follow my way of thinking. All those times that you thought Miles had abandoned you, it was actually that Miles was carrying you on the beach. Oh, my.

That's why there was one set of footprints. Exactly. Ha-ha. I'm Jesus. You can follow me at Jack underscore O-B-R-I-E-N. And you can follow us at The Daily Zeitgeist on both Facebook and Instagram. Daily Zeitgeist, just Daily Zeitgeist on Twitter.

You can find the footnotes for The Daily Zeitgeist on dailyzeitgeist.com. We put up links to all the articles that we are pulling our facts from. And, yeah, we're going to go out on one of my favorite passive-aggressive questions from a reporter of the past couple weeks. Want to play us out, Nick? Did he remember anything about the beginning of his interaction with Papadopoulos, given that he's talked about his great memory?

I don't believe so. Whoa! You burnt. Bloop, bloop, bloop. Shots fired. I bet she smells really good. I can imagine that sweater smelling really good. Hey, I'm Gianna Pardenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.

There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Carrie Champion, and this is Season 4 of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game.

Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry. Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project.

All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister, or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.