The Daily Zeitgeist - Reefer Madness 2.0, New Trump Book Is Messy AF 1.4.18

Episode Date: January 5, 2018

In episode 57, Jack & Miles are joined by comedian Kaseem Bentley to discuss the raw water, plus they call Ben Reccius, a lawyer specializing in cannabis business law to talk Jeff Sessions plans to end legalized weed, the Trump tell-all book & more. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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. 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.

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Hello, the internet, and welcome to Season 12, Episode 3 of Das Daily Zeitgeist. you get your podcasts. once his name mentioned with that one, but we're doing it anyway. And I'm joined by my co-host, Mr. Miles Gray. That's right. It's your boy, Mr. Miles Gray. It ain't so. Your boy is a blunt smoker. And that, a.k.a., comes from At Trip Tonight. Thank you so much for the creative use of my name. You know, keep them coming.

You really went up to me there, man. I know. Look, it just felt the guitar. It just has to be there if you're going to do say anything. And we are thrilled to have in our third seat, the hilarious standup comedian, Kasim Bentley. The crowd goes wild. Please people sit down.

Kasim, what is something from your search history that is revealing about who you are as a human being? Okay, I saw this last week, and this blew my mind. You know, like, white people, the majorities, whatever they like to be called, is that it seems to be sometimes there's fascinations they have with white people to the point they actually try it and i saw a white guy in burbank and he had a full head of waves whoa full head full really three six this might be something that might not i think you you seem

like you have you have stances on i think you know all right now they're patinaed but their senses is that you know full head 360 head of waves. He's keeping the wave cap on at night. He's really tending to his waves. Here's what the crazy part was. I don't feel like he was full-blown wigger. I think he was in Wigger Anonymous. You know what I'm saying? He was trying to get his steps back to whiteness, like six degrees of whiteness.

Before that, he had cornrows. Oh, just full-on feather lines. You know what I mean? Just like straight backs. He had like NBA jeans the whole night. Just straight. Oh, mind you, he was also about my age. I'm 40.

I know, Hollywood, you shouldn't say your age, but I don't care. I'm a rebel. Right? So I sit there. And he was about 37, 38. So this was like great. But here's the part about it. Full head of waves.

But they weren't waved out. They were cut in waves. it. Full head of waves. But they weren't waved out. They were cut in waves. Wow. So feathered waves. And I Googled immediately. I'm at a Del Taco. Because, you know, hell, I sit there.

Because you're doing well. I'm sitting there. I was in front of Del Taco getting Wi-Fi. That's how bad I'm doing. I couldn't even walk two blocks to Starbucks. I had to say, let me get this Del Taco Wi-Fi popping. And the dude had seen me before. He's just like, I don't know what the hell he's doing.

And I Googled, can white people get waves? I just Googled the same thing. What did you find? I found like two articles. And one was like in a waving forum. Oh, wow. And that's the whole thing. If I go on my end, it's like that kinds of,

and then like things right before that I was putting, Oh, uh, appropriating, uh, bean pies. Right. Cause Martha Stewart was,

was selling bean pies. How do we have anything left? We have not. I mean, the bean pie is the blackest thing since most black names in the NBA. You know what I mean? It's right there. And she's selling artisanal bean pies.

You know what I'm saying? Was she selling it with the last call, too? Dude, I think it was a newsletter. It's like some weird. To go fully appropriate, you've got to have the newsletter with the bean pie. Which is very odd. You ever think about that? with the bean pie,

which is very odd. Like you ever think about that? Like, he's like how people can get away with racism or like discrimination for certain senses is that the nation's own has really done a great thing because they, they give you the whole baggage. They give you a brother with a, he's got a nice haircut.

He's wearing a suit, right? Always match a suit. Don't matter if it's a hundred degrees in Slauson, doesn't matter. He's done it. And he's got baked goods. Right.

Like, well, who doesn't want a pie? Even if you're a cake guy. They have cake. They got everything. They got, dude, they got, dude. And the food is delicious.

That's how they get you. Yeah, it is. And that's the thing. The food is delicious. But then you read the final call. And I've seen, I've brought him to work. I used to do this. This is horrible.

Is that in my effort to get to study white people like a whiteologist i would sit there and i would bring my daily like interest you know because you know they think about the world of black people you don't know what happens so i would bring i brought a bean pie every job i've had i've had brought a bean pie and i always just see them like hovering around it like some kind of like weird white culture vultures you know you get sitting there and i guess like what is that what i mean they're like some is that and i was like oh he gets sitting there, and I guess like, what is that? What, I mean, is that like some, is that like, and I was like, oh, it's a bean pie. And they're like, what's it mean? Well, white navy beans,

you know, and carrots, and you know, and racism. You know what I mean? I think it was right there. But they do it, and, because I think that the Klan could probably take a page out of that. And it starts on baked goods. Yeah. Like, what do white people like? Blueberry muffins?

Mm-hmm. Carrot cake. Carrot muffins. Carrot cake. Yeah, carrot cake. A carrot, a cake, a carrot cake.

Ooh, cake, a carrot cake. There it is. Don't give these ideas away for free, man. It's like consulting. Like the carrot and the cake

would be spelled with capital K's and then the second K in cake would also be a capital K and then you got it. There we go. And the last thing I Googled also be a capital K. Oh, wow. And then you got it. There we go. And the last thing I Googled was bringing cryptocurrency to the hood.

Is cryptocurrency coming to the hood? And then I had like two articles, you know what I mean? Because there's like a couple of rappers. It's finally getting real. Because I heard on a mixtape a rapper bring up Bitcoin. Really? Yeah. It wasn't fabulous.

It was Uncle Murder, right? Which is the right person, right? And so, yeah, that's been my general interest. Nice. Good to know. There's a bunch of cryptocurrencies that are just coming out, coming all over the place. There's like ChristCoin. Yeah, ChristCoin and shit.

They're like satirical ones that people are actually buying. Yeah, because they all sound ridiculous. Ripple. Right. But the thing is, people are being like, yeah i they all sound ridiculous yeah right but the thing is like people are being like yeah i'll sell you this it has no actual value because they're like well this is christ-based like for your sins and i'm like okay but you're gonna give me like i'll sell these two for five thousand dollars they will do nothing but okay are you are you guys getting into it uh i am not but uh is that more of a producer anna, Anna Hosnier, did pretty well.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait. Is she about to announce she's leaving the show? She actually bought the network. Yeah, she is my boss now. Kasim, what's something that's overrated? Overrated? Well, here's one thing. I'm from the Bay Area, from San Francisco specifically,

and there is a thing that happens when people move, San Francisco people usually move to become the person they were afraid to be in their small shit town or wherever they're from or where their parents want them to be, right? So you come there,

it's kind of like this gas station pit stop. People stay there for a few years, you know, maybe like, you know, same-sex relationship, maybe, you know, they'll be with a brown person and then all this but then they also come for the food it's like the victim's thing is burritos yeah i don't care about burritos if y'all are thinking of moving to san francisco just for this

tube of culture you know i mean the mission burrito the mission people will walk down the streets sperry's walking around no socks rocks, rocks in their shoes, running around, gets J.Crew models. Or like for me, in the hood, people come and they come and they want to get in. They'll come get a burrito. And it's like now, I used to spend a lot of time in the mission because I went to the boys club there, I had friends there. So I would see people line up. And this is for the wave of gentrification, right? So people come in and then they try their spanish you know what i mean you know like uh can i get some uh lingua you're like i'm my name is steve i actually

economics majors i was gonna say i don't need to do and it's like they do it and they have gentrified burritos now where you can get like pad thai in your burrito and you know what I mean and like you know forage you know root vegetables but it's disgusting it's disgusting people it's like sandwiches you know what I mean sandwiches are stupid you know they sit there

sandwich no you can mail me you can eat cassine bentley joan bentley gmail whatever I'll argue all day how How sandwiches are, get stacked up stupidness, right? Cause they get sit there and you get this soggy bread. Then you got to put some mayonnaise,

which isn't good for you. It's horrible. It's disgusting. It's nasty. You got to put mustard and all that. Then you got to take all the good things that are separate. I'm a separatist, right?

Right. I'm a total separatist. This is like my racism. You know what I mean? I want them looking at each other from across the train tracks. Don't go over there. That lettuce will get you. My sister's dating lettuce.

It's fucking horrible. You can get away with a lot lower quality ingredients by, like, stacking them all and then slathering them in mayonnaise. And then you put the beans in the meat. Or if you're a veggie or a vegan, which is even though vegan burritos is so sad. It's like Lifetime movie sad. You know what I mean? And they get all eaten.

They all think they're doing a good thing. But it's horrible. Separate your food. Like an adult. That's why I go to Boston Market. Because that's a goddamn meal. So is your underrated Boston Market? No.

Underrated. Because if you're going to Boston Market, you're trying to eat and sit there and just think about what's important. Like dying or am I gay? You know what I mean? Or something. Or why didn't I finish college? You know what I mean? Because you ever go to Boston Market?

Non-holidays. You sit there and you'll see like at-risk youth oh yeah runaways pimps you know i mean guess uh guess you know like people like just like the not homeless people but people on the verge you know i mean like i need one last meal before i live in my corolla you know i mean those are people who need a home-cooked meal because nobody wants them in their home. You know what I mean? So I love it. I love it.

It's the realest place on earth. Real. This episode of The Daily Zeitgeist brought to you by Boston Market. Now, all right, let's get into format. We're trying to take a sample of the ideas that are out there changing the world. We talk about pop culture, the news, usually American news, and just trying to take the temperature of the global shared consciousness of the human species. Miles, where are we at today? We're hot.

We're hot. We're running hot. Jeff Sessions coming for my weed. Get the fuck out of here. Are you a big-time weed stalker? You know, I'm from L.A. Wait, what does that mean? I don't like when people do this thing where where I'm from dictates the behavior.

Because California, it's like weed is like it's second nature. You know why you do single weed smoking? Because I have this theory running that like when people get into weed, they know. People who are good weed smokers who are successful, you seem somewhat successful. Thank you. I'm not wearing shoes, but thank you. No, but that's a sign. No, that's a sign for a brother.

When he stops wearing like, you know, really starts, like, stop wearing stuff like socks. You know what I mean? You know, really out there. The watch I'm looking at, the dad. You're really, you're like a thousandaire, man. You know what I'm saying? Thank you. You're doing good, you know?

The way we like to open up is by asking our guests what a myth is that is out there in the culture uh that they they want to bust for our audience oh i heard one this was a really funny myth i swear i've heard it a few times but i didn't hear it i only heard it until like a few days ago is this myth running around that black people are really good at parallel parking what dude i'm around some really funny racists. Hilarious, right? So I'm at the improv, and one of these comics has one of these. You know, I hate it when you have a friend. Like, you guys are funny. You guys be down to kick it.

Like, y'all are good. But sometimes you get these people who stand in line at shows, and they get the funny bug. You know what I mean? It's like real stupid. And one guy, I could tell he listens to stuff like Chapo Trap House or Comptown or stuff like that. You know what I mean it's like real stupid and that one guy I could tell he listens to like to like like stuff like Chapo Trap House or Comptown

or stuff like that you know what I mean and gets like gets like blown he's like hey whatever you know whatever I talk about anybody

right he was sitting there and he's like yeah I was parking with Don Trail first of all and he gets had exactly brought it in

because you know you know brothers they be parallel parking you know what I know, brothers, they be parallel parking. I turned around like, and my brain imploded for like a little bit, you know what I mean? And I was,

I walked over to him and say, Hey man, I don't mean to, I'm sorry. I don't mean to interrupt you, but I'm very nosy. And I'm just, and this angered me. And I told him, I said, what did you just say?

He said, brothers be parallel partners. Yeah. Like, so that's your thing? You think black people get known as parallel partners? Yeah, man. I mean, isn't that like, like he went to the meetings. Like he's like, he's been there. And you know, we all agreed on this.

And I started asking like in a big black people group text, like, I mean, is that a thing like we do? And it was like, a couple of people were like, yeah, man. And then the rest, like, in a big black people group text, like, is that a thing we do? And a couple people were like, yeah, man. And then the rest were like, no. Because I've seen my mom parallel park. It is literally taking her five minutes in a space where it's been huge cars. It doesn't even need to be parallel parked in. Yeah.

Yeah. It's just like, whatever. It doesn't matter. I think it's a weird thing I think about all the time. Like, I kind of want to like to find out more. It's sort of like this race and gender and age. Like what weird, you know, what weird myths people have about each other. Yeah.

One guy, I heard one guy say at a concert, he was not, he was kind of in the bag. He really believed that Native Americans can fly. No. Wait, you're saying that's not true. i knew that i knew that um yeah uh why you tech who are you texting right now it's not true shut it down shut it down um yeah i had one of my favorite uh things i learned in my time at cracks was that uh the stereotype that white people don't dress for the weather and don't use washcloths, which is true. Yes. I couldn't stop seeing that.

What is it with? Is it like, what is it with the washcloth? Is it like Benjamin Button, y'all, or something? Or what is it like? I don't know. You don't, why don't you just use soap to your body? No, I use a. One of those bath puffs?

Yeah, bath puff. Oh, you use the spongy. But what did you use in, the bath puff was like a 90s thing. Before I just used soap to body. Irish spring straight on your body? Soap straight to the body. Yeah. That's some madness.

Yeah. I only knew the washcloth. See, that's. The washcloth. The washcloth. Now here's the big thing on your washcloth. How many times would your family or yourself wash it? Would you just go every wash cycle or would you just kind of change and change out?

You know, it's hard for me to know because as a kid, it was like, I feel like it was probably pretty frequently because I would see like a new one there. Right. Did you grow up like nice, nice? Yeah, I wasn't. Yeah, it wasn't too bad i mean like i'm half black and half japanese so i think i have my mom's japanese fastidiousness being like well we can't have old ass washcloth right so yeah you see how great that is how that sounded black and japanese even if you didn't know he was fine you knew he was fine you know but no the worst thing about the washcloth is like when you have a washcloth house is that

you need to kind of admit to yourself like you either going to be a clean house or a dirty house. Yeah. Because I've been to some houses where the washcloth looks like a sun chip. You know what I mean? Yeah, right. Exactly. And it's like. It's like sitting there hard like an old chicken nugget.

You know what I mean? It's got bagel spice on it. Yeah, yeah. Flattened out starfish. It smells like every meal and every passing. Every member is like, your grandma used this. You know what I mean? It's horrible.

All right, we're going to go to a break real quick. And when we come back, we're going to talk about a very specific group of people from Kasim's hometown. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16, 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. 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.

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Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. 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. Señora Sex Ed is not your mommy sex talk. This show is la plática like you've never heard it before. We're breaking the stigma and silence

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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 wanted to talk about this trend that is generally emanating from Northern California, or I guess I'm just assuming

it's coming from Northern California. I mean, it's all over. I mean, there are people doing it in Maine and the Pacific Northwest, but a lot of vocal people in the Bay Area. Right. And it is a health craze sweeping the harebrained idiots of America into raw water. Miles, can you explain what raw water is? Yeah, so raw water is for people who feel like drinking tap water is full of poisonous fluoride and shit like that.

So they want to just drink unfiltered, untreated water that comes from springs and rivers to just really get back to earth. Because they feel like there's probiotics, which I think the FDA would call those pathogens. But yeah, they just feel like there like health benefits to drinking this raw water and like one of the most vocal people about it has been that guy who started that juicero company that was just like those bags you scan and like it was like a total sham like you just squeeze the fucking juice out of the bags it wasn't really like it was just a bag of juice that you had to buy a juicer to squeeze the bag yeah That was the thing. I'm 40, so I remember being in college when Odwalla hit.

Right. And that was a big thing to see a person walking around with a 12-ounce big old green drink. Oh, right. And it wasn't pasteurized. Right. So everyone was just thinking, like, you're just getting the best. You're taking two poops a day. You know what I mean?

You got to stop. You're feeling good. But then you got somebody and your friend's sick. And then you're like, well, why do you miss chemistry do you miss chemistry because yeah he's in the hospital you know he has a tapeworm you know there's always this interesting thing about um about water where i feel like the like we're all getting duped and most people won't challenge it because it's natural they'll say it's water it's fruit it's something for the earth it's not man from the earth it's like drinking from mother nature's teat yeah exactly it doesn't get more pure than that uh which is not true by the

way and uh having filtered water is a fine thing and actually in some places considered a luxury right would not be drinking from streams right exactly let's reevaluate i think that's where all that water is going to go after it doesn't sell or you're just going to go over there just dump it out in the fucking sally's from the park with a pallet full of water so you really the fluoride things like an ancient uh not ancient but a really old american uh conspiracy theory that right you know the fluoride is a mind control chemical wait when did that come about because i heard that it's It's gone as far back as when the government first started putting fluoride in our water, which I think was early 20th century. The only difference now that most of the water people drink is bottled water or a lot of the water people drink is that Americans have way worse teeth than they used to.

Is that? worse teeth than they used to is basically like that. That's why the fluoride was put in there in the first place is because, uh, like people were suffering from horrible dental health. And so we started putting fluoride in the public drinking water and we had some of the best teeth on the planet. Well, there goes that one.

Yeah. And now, and now we have gone all the way back to drinking and streams uh but you you have to look at the pictures of the people who are like spearheading this they're pretty pretty awesome yeah just like almost two on the nose like the they've got like beards and weird uh you know robes and shit homespun clothing yeah homespun clothing uh so we want to move on to uh the trump administration has announced that they're going after legal weed and uh so that that was fun while it lasted weed was legal yeah i guess we'll have to throw it away um so uh miles one big fire man hang out by the fire

bro it'll be like burning man because people gets just driving in, you know what I mean? Big camps to breathe in this big pile. So the government is coming after weed. Yeah. So basically Obama put out a memo saying the federal law and the state law are in conflict. And that's sort of the way the U.S. government works is you have one law that's one thing and local law that's another and they just like clash and you never get anything accomplished and that's sort of by design um but so obama came out was like let's just let the states do what they want to do in this case and uh trump has is expected to dissolve that statute or whatever uh in the in the next 24 hours, which isn't totally surprising because

Sessions, his attorney general, has always come out and said the only bad thing about the KKK is that they smoke weed at one point. That's like a quote on the record from him. So he thinks marijuana is like heroin, basically. Yeah. So this has gotten a lot of people, especially in the legal cannabis industry, like, oh my God, what's going on? A lot of the reporting is like, oh my God, they're going to take away our weed. So a friend of mine, Ben Rexchus, he's a California attorney. He practices law at Rexchus Law here in LA, but he's a criminal defense and cannabis business

lawyer. So we want to bring him on really quick to get his take on exactly like how lawyers are actually looking at this memo. So we're going to call him right now. All right, Ben, are you there? I am there. Thank you so much. So Ben, as a lawyer working in the field of cannabis, you know, what can you tell us? I mean, like, I feel like a lot of people are, you know, kind of freaking out about this, but I feel like from a legal standpoint, it's not going to be as easy to just sort of eliminate all the recreational weed that is occurring in this country, right? Absolutely. And it's especially on the scale that it's grown to in the past couple of years. We have more and more states legalizing.

We have states like Colorado and Washington that have been doing this since 2014 and have well-established programs. So, yeah, to dismantle this would take a feat that I'm not sure that the Department of Justice is up to it. But, again, I'm not ruling out anything because if there's anything that the last year has taught us is that anything is possible. Anything that the last year has taught us is that anything is possible. So to you, like what are sort of the big impediments or obstacles that the Department of Justice would have to overcome to really sort of cause problems in these states with recreational weed laws on their books? Well, you know, the first issue is one of funding. funding. And, you know, there's the Rohrabacher-Farr, which is now the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment, which prevents Congress from appropriating funds to the Department of Justice to go after states with state medical marijuana programs. It's not anything certain. It's part of a budget that's supposed to be approved later this month. So we're not so

sure that that's going to be, you know, approved again. And that's kept the government from going after medical marijuana, but it doesn't cover recreational marijuana. And the other issue with recreational, although we call it adult use in these states, is that, you know, what allows these states to, you know, have medical marijuana is that it's not, states to have medical marijuana is that it's not to get too much into constitutional law, but preemption, because the Controlled Substances Act, which is a federal law, deals with recreational drug use. So if a state has medical marijuana, it deals with a separate issue, and it's not preempted by state law. So we need to see what's going to happen with the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment. So there's the issue of funding.

We also need to look at the memo, the new Sessions memo, a little one-pager that was released today. And the language is very interesting. And without getting into the details, And the language is very interesting. And without getting into the details, basically what it appears to do is it gives basically U.S. attorneys the discretion to go after medical and recreational cannabis businesses. But it's not an absolute green light. But in combination with rescinding the coal memo, the Ogden memo, and a bunch of other memos, which basically told the government, the federal government to keep out absent any concern, there being any issues with

minors getting cannabis, it's all up in the air. And also, do you foresee, for example, DEA agents coming through a medical marijuana dispensary and arresting people? Obviously, the optics look bad, but it sounds like, too, there are a lot of states, like AGs, attorneys general, that are also talking real crazy. They're like, yo, don't come in here with that because we will, we will, we will fight for this. Absolutely. You know, and the DEA has not been raiding dispensaries for a while. Um, and there's a big difference now, back when these raids were going on in 2007, 2008, these weren't licensed businesses, right? We now have in states like Colorado and Washington licensed businesses.

So, you know, the optics are never good when you have the DEA coming in and crushing little businesses. But, you know, it's especially bad when, you know, it's state sanctioned business. And these are businesses that are paying taxes. And so you not only have the business owners being aggrieved, but you now have the state itself being aggrieved because they're going after businesses that are providing them with tax revenue and are licensed through a state program. So yeah,'s a big big difference here yes it seems like it's an uphill battle how many states is uh marijuana like legal recreationally by the way so i i haven't done the exact count i forget but you know it's colorado washington now california

um i think it's about 12 but we have more and more on the way. For instance, in Vermont, it's going to be the first instance of a state legal marijuana program being instituted by the legislature. Most of these have been through voter initiatives, exactly, ballot initiatives. So now we have states taking this issue by the reins and adopting it themselves. So the momentum is picking up. That's the big point for legalized marijuana, both adult use and medical.

So, you know, this is just something that goes completely against the will of the people of the United States. And, you know, the real big issue is that this is a state's rights issue and which states rights is a huge conservative issue. Yeah. Don't tread on me. Yeah. And I mean, I have I know somebody for whom this was the line like they were were down with Trump up to this point. And then they're like, no, fuck this. They cannot do this. Yes. So, yeah. Don't tread on me. Don't tread on weed. Exactly. Absolutely. And I've been saying, you know, all along that this is going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back. And, you know, I've said that Jeff Sessions doesn't have the political capital to do this.

You know, he's all tied up in the Russia investigation. So what's very interesting is that, you know, not too long ago, about a couple of weeks ago, the Department of Justice rescinded a number of guidance memos. But the Cole memo and the Ogden memo were not one of them. So it's very curious that he's just now rescinding them. It really speaks to the possibility of this being some type of political ruse to detract attention away from the really, really bad news that's coming down on the Trump administration, you know, regarding Steve Bannon and, you know, my goodness. Yeah. Basically everything that's happening. Where do you even begin? It looks like, and the pun is intended, a smokescreen. So, yeah.

It's good to know. It looks like, and the pun is intended, a smokescreen. It's good to know. I really feel like a big reason for this is that CNN did that story. CNN was like the person who couldn't hang and went to a party, and the woman had marijuana earrings on and was holding a bong, and then Fox News was outraged about it, and that's where the president takes all of his guidance from on policy. So absolutely.

As you should. Right. Yeah. No, they're they're brilliant. Well, thank you so much, man. This was absolutely all right. And, you know, it's my pleasure to be of any assistance in these complicated and tumultuous times. But, you know, the will of the people will persist,

but we have to keep fighting and fight for what's right. All right. Awesome, man. Thanks, Ben. You got it. Take care. All right. All right.

So it seems like just basically after that conversation and sort of what we've been reading, like, yes, this is a change of policy or a shift in sort of what the directives are, but this isn't going to be an overnight thing. Like, they already opened up Pandora's box, a great strain, by the way, and they're not going to be able to close it. So, yes, there's more to come, and obviously it would be so unpopular. The sentiment for legalizing weed is at an all-time high,

so I just can't – it's hard to imagine this being a very popular battle. Yeah, that was very enlightening to me because I had that memory of, you know, dispensaries being raided and, you know, he, he made it seem like this is all way too embedded in the state's governments now. And, you know, a huge bringer of tax revenue, not to mention, it's like, you're not just going to kiss those hundreds of millions of dollars goodbye like that. Right. All right. We're going to take another break and we'll be right back. 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 unhearts 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. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti.

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Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture, we learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. Señora Sex Ed is not your mommy sex talk. This show is la plática like you've never heard it before. or wherever you stream podcasts. Everything from body image to representation in film and television. We even interview iconic Latinas like Puerto Rican actress Ana Ortiz. I felt in control of my own physical body and my own self.

I was on birth control. I had sort of had my first sexual experience. If you're in your señora era or know someone who is, then this is the show for you. We're your hosts, Diosa and Mala, and you might recognize us from our flagship podcast, Locatora Radio. We're so excited for you to hear our brand new podcast, Señora Sex Ed. Listen to Señora Sex Ed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. So there is a big book that just dropped

that we really wanted to talk about by Steven Seagal, his new novel. But we're not going to have time to get to that because there's another book that I guess people are talking about, about the early days of the Trump administration by Michael Wolff. And this is one that I don't know. Like we were just watching the press secretary kind of field questions about it.

And she was like, I don't know why you guys are focusing on this like garbage piece of like gossip journalism and miles you were kind of kind of agreeing yeah this guy i mean this guy michael wolf i mean the book is called fire and fury and great um but michael wolf has like doesn't exactly have like the respect of other journalists like there are other journalists on twitter being like please don't treat this book as journalism this guy deals with gossip and like loves to simply just take ideas around him and then begin writing a narrative based on what he's heard and sure like i think that that is a good thing to consider because they're sure there's a lot of juicy shit in there that you just want to believe that like ann coulter had to pull trump aside and be like, hey, you can't hire your kids. You know, you just can't do that. Right.

Who knows if that happened? I do remember like because she did it in response to him wanting to hire Jared Kushner as his chief of staff, even though Jared Kushner had never worked in Washington before. Yeah. And like there's another one that it's like, oh, he didn't know who John Boehner was like when he was mentioned as a possible chief of staff. I mean, look, they were golfing together. They've been golfing together.

He talked about him on the campaign trail. They're both orange. Yeah, exactly. There are both many things in there that are – there are other things that just sort of, okay, sure, maybe that happened. You don't know if you can chalk that up to maybe Trump's memory loss. They didn't know who John Boehner was or that's just a total fabrication. So, yes, great. There are things that we already know, right? memory loss they know john bainer was or that's just a total fabrication um so yes great there are things that we already know right like these are just sort of i guess reinforcing things you

already knew that trump kind of didn't really want to be president to begin with he wasn't really fit to be president uh he doesn't have the wherewithal to be president now and his staff just doesn't know how to deal with it yeah like we already knew all this but there's there's some good detail on the you know how the trump family responded uh which sounds a lot like how my household responded as it became clear that Trump was actually going to win this election. Donald Trump Jr. was saying that his dad looked like he had seen a ghost and Melania was in tears and not of joy. and not of joy. There's something really enjoyable about getting that sort of detail, but unfortunately it's not really that trustworthy.

And if anything, this could be, I mean, priorities. We need to focus on what is actually going to have an impact, and I don't think a gossip book. Well, but here's the funny thing, is that with all the books that are going to come out this year and in probably after his presidency you know have to have a writer come out and say do not listen do not read this salacious book full of rumors it's you know it's a little pompous because as i fact there's room for all this you know i mean just because this guy's writing like he's like the super head of books you know i mean i'm sitting here and it's like you know you know i'm saying like

putting his life on the line right i think the thing people worry about is like one of these things could be true you know yeah but i think most of these things have been like they're all very adjacent to the truth like we already know that people like hr mcmaster and rex tillerson have called this dude a fucking idiot so like when you hear that other people's may have too whether that's specifically true or not it's i think it's just something that like oh sure we already knew that people talk shit about behind his back but this is days we're living in too where the journalists or the you know the pundit or the actual commentator on politics or culture if there's somebody that fits in now that's a hot take and there doesn't have to be any context, there doesn't have to be any explanation.

I think that's the fear that a lot of people have right now. It does make sense for a person to go ahead and say, hey, I can't back all this. But I've tapped into the minds of people people especially people who are addicted to social media the fact of the matter is i think i when i get to meet other writers and other journalists they're always fearful that this is what journalism is going to become and i think that matter is like it is going to become this i always feel like if it's already started if the tooth is already starting to hurt you you know i mean it's already it's already horribly infected i feel like this is what it is this guy's is going to become a star. He's going to write another book. The fact is people want to be excited.

We all know this is a circus. Yeah, yeah. But I think it's – a lot of people are like – I feel like just in this age, right, because they want so horribly for the truth about Trump to come out. A lot of people hinge all their hopes and like for the future on certain things like this, which sure, that's your prerogative to do that. But also I think it's also, we have to also be careful of how much we know. I mean, not that this book is necessarily doing anything that's explosive.

But it would be funny if this was the one. Oh, I love it. It's like, what? But he does claim that he has receipts. He says, I have people on tape saying a lot of this shit. So that's really what I want. let those mixtapes drop you know like i like the i like the tweets before the yo i'm in the lab let me here's like a little snippet of the new track yo drop the fucking album yeah like i want to hear i want to hear the track list if it's

you know where the girl america is the girlfriend funding the boyfriend with the bad mixtape you know i mean i think it's like when this drops i'm telling you i'm gonna start paying rent you know i mean i'm telling you right now it's like so i get it we want to see the tape no one cares about all this other stuff yeah i mean but then also it's sad too when we have journalists and we have authors wanting to become the next superstar writer at any cost i mean you know i mean like we all would love to see the next christopher hitchens but it's like you can't do it. And people just go ahead and just go lie. And I mean, this guy's been around for a while, kind of doing he has a reputation.

Does he have a does he have another book he's written that's been like a hitter? Yeah, yeah. So he's been a journalist for a while. And you had that quote, Miles, from somebody who had worked with him, who had edited him. Yeah, like a lot of his editors there just sort of say that the quote, the scenes in his columns aren't recreated so much as created springing from Wolf's imagination rather than from actual knowledge of events. Even Wolf acknowledges that conventional reporting isn't his bag. And that was written about him like 14 years ago. Yeah.

So this is kind of his M.O. This is all in the subtext. Like today, The Daily, the New York Times podcast that comes out every day, was talking about this book. And Michael Barbaro, the host, was talking to a journalist who's covering it for The Times and was like, well, good luck getting through the rest of this book. Kind of like a bitchy comment about how bad the book was. But I think what you're talking about, Miles, the fact that this guy has a reputation for being a shitty journalist is good information for people to have. Like that's all I want is for all the journalists who are covering this like it's an actual story. He's not a poet. Keep in mind, this guy is full of shit a lot of the time.

And then tell me all the details because I fucking want to hear them. Now, it is having an impact in one big way right yeah because it's so uh trump's lawyers have already hit uh him michael wolf and steve bannon with like cease and desist things because of all the things that have come out uh saying like it's libelous or whatever i think this is the same lawyer the peter teal lawyer who destroyed gawker uh who they have on this case now. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh. Because that's another addition to the Trump legal armada is this fucking guy. Oh, this guy. Yeah.

But also the thing is, they're sort of like cease and desist that probably won't actually end up in lawsuits because most people are not going to be able to, they can't really prove much of anything here. But yeah, it's caused all this fracturing in the GOP because now it forced Trump to clap back on Bannon being like, oh, he lost his mind the day he left here. He had nothing to do. Like, you can already tell Trump is in his feelings like crazy. And then Bannon this morning, though, he's sort of like, oh, you know, he called and he's like, the president is a great man. And, you know, I stand by him.

Right. So Bannon's like a guy after he talked spicy at a party and was like a little drunk now being like, oh, you know, I'm walking it back a little bit. Yeah. You realize you need him. Right. Like he needs Trump. Drudge this morning, Matt Drudge, who runs the Drudge Report, was tweeting in a way that made it seem like Bannon might soon be out at Breitbart, which is a huge turn of events. Wow. If true. Yeah, if true. Because I guess, yeah, that is a very dangerous thing to have the president basically dictate this clap back to Steve Bannon that is really intense. Because that definitely probably changed people's view of Steve Bannon after the president was sort of like, fuck this guy.

But he's getting into politics himself. Yeah. I mean, he's still trying to be like a kingmaker within the, I guess you want to call it the Republican Party or whatever the fuck it is now. I wish Bannon, I wish if he listens, I'm pretty sure he's listening. Yeah, he is. You know, this is a sidebar about Bannon. I really love about this because I was in Breitbart and I was in this article and I really feel like it's funny about them.

It is a scary group to anger because it's like – Oh, you were in an article that Breitbart – you were written about in Breitbart? I was in an article about gentrification. And they had a reply back, right? And when you get into the Reddits, into their forums and stuff, it's just like – it's scary to think that how many people who are liberal in effect is that when they want to exercise their opinion, it's basically nine to five. You know what I mean? It's just like they get in and get out. They feel like it's all going to wear out.

But these Reddit guys and these guys, Breitbart guys, it is all day. It's like they're Uber. You know what I mean? That's like their second job. You know, they're running around. It's going to go around. But the thing about it, it's funny. I really always pray that if we could just, the people in Hollywood, if they could just take the hit, come to Steve Bannon.

Because Steve Bannon had a play in Seinfeld. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. He could make a hit. That's where he made a lot of his money. Well, it was about the legal rights of Seinfeld. He didn't have a creative hand in it.

Oh, no, no. No, he's in the writer's room. We need a character. He walks in any time. Hey, Larry, what do you think about this Festivus idea I just came up with? You're saying, like, let his Hollywood dreams come true a little bit and get him on our side? Just bring him in. It's like, look, you know, get it.

You want a seat at the table? Here, come sit down, man. Yeah. What do you got? I bet you. You know what's so funny? I always really feel that could happen is if The Rock and Steve Bannon met. They would either make the biggest movie ever or the movie would be the presidency.

You know what I mean? Because The Rock is going to be president. You really believe this? At this rate, why not? I know we're joking. I know a lot of people joke about it. But I have that black spidey sense. And the right back of my afro.

And I'm telling you, is that he's got... But in terms of Steve Manning, because he's... What does he want to become? He just wants to be the most powerful dude in the country and create an ethnostate, basically. I think he wants to be what the media was treating him as when he first... Yeah, it was Darth Vader. Right, exactly. He wants to be what the media was treating him as when he first – Yeah, it was Darth Vader. Right, exactly. He wants to be the emperor.

I feel like The Rock, that whole thing with him becoming president, people were like, no, that's crazy. But he has that right type of sociopathy. He's got that just glazed look of just I'm going to succeed at all costs that Schwarzenegger had, that Reagan had. And he talks like he only knows 500 words. You know what I mean? He just says kind of... The Rock has always been presenting himself.

Because I looked at an old tape of him at the RNC. And this is when he had hair and he had the vest and all that stuff. Before it all, the plastic surgery and all that stuff. Like, he's put himself in this weird position to at least, if not try to become president. He will back it. It blew my mind that he's a Republican.

You know what I mean? But it kind of makes sense for him to try to become the biggest president in the world. So for The Rock to become president, which is going to happen, people. People, no, after I saw that movie where it was like the biggest earthquake in the world. So for The Rock to become president, which is going to happen, people. People, no, after I saw that movie where it was like the biggest earthquake in all of America. San Andreas? San Andreas. Saving all those people in that helicopter?

And grabbing white women and children and running around. And that black woman, you know, he carried her for like a few seconds. You know what I mean? I knew something was up. And he talks presidential. And he suits a president,

except for ballers. Even in ballers, even in ballers. It's like, if you really watch it, I can see him thinking like he's a Republican doing all the right things. He's like, I'm taking all these kids and I'm showing them how to make a property and, you know,

check and handle their money and get them up. But it's like, but I should put this, you know, I guess I feel like his stance will not be around race it'll always just be about economics and i think with him and he does the presidential thing like you ever look at him he's always like uncuffing his shirt you know or this and all that he's always like looking at you just like he's about to say something that's about to change your life and i was like but

he's an idiot right he's a carmel ice sculpture of a man. It looks like 18 jars of caramel Nutella. And that's the sad thing about it. It's like before you'd say, hey, Biff from Back to the Future is going to be president in about 10 years. You're like, bro, put the weed down. You're an idiot. Now he's president. The fact that The Rock has never said anything really offensive. Right.

He curses. But we're at a point where you could, you know, people curse on cable and on stuff. Any I mean, he's an adulterer. That's the only thing. Right. Yeah. That's it. But what president isn't right.

I mean, except for maybe one. You know, just one. Kasim, it has been a pleasure having you. Where can people follow you on Twitter? Oh, I'm not. No. Where can people follow you on social media? My Twitter is trash.

I never got into that. I knew that I wouldn't be these guys with a million, you know, all that stuff. Follow me on Facebook. Follow me on Instagram. Kasim Jamal Bentley on Facebook. That's where it goes down. All right. Also, KasimBentley.com

Also, I have a show if you're in LA. Every month, it's called Blame Social Media. It's at the Hollywood Improv Lab. You can just follow me there or follow the improv. You see that. Next show is on February the 23rd. We have some very special

guests. And you blame social media in what sense? What we do is we take comedians, they do a set. And then what we do is we comb through all their social media. Oh, shit. Very interesting things we like to discuss with them. It's a very Christian comedy show, people. It's very big.

I wear like an eight-button Steve Harvey suit. It's all great. Yeah, so yeah, do that. And yeah, if you like what you hear, man, Venmo me, man. You know what I'm saying? I'm broke out in these streets, man. I'm sitting there.

I live in a box. What's your Venmo name? Kaseem Bentley. Okay, perfect. Send me a dollar. I need it. Or Bitcoin. Buy me a Bitcoin.

This man is in front of Del Taco's trying to get Wi-Fi. Miles, where can people follow you? You can follow me to Popeyes because I heard they have ghost pepper wings that I'm about to try. But if you want to follow me on social media, I'm at MilesOfGrey on Twitter and Instagram.

Yeah. That's the blackest thing I've heard. You can follow me at Jack underscore O'Brien on Twitter. You can follow us at The Daily Zeitgeist on Instagram. We're at Daily Zeitgeist on Twitter. We have a Facebook fan page. You know how to search Facebook. And we also have a webpage,

dailyzeitgeist.com, where we post each episode and our footnotes. Footnotes. Where we link off to the stories that we used as sources for all the shit we talked about today. Because we don't lie.

We don't lie. We don't make this shit up. And that's going to do it for today. Miles, you have a song you're going to play us out on. Yeah, you know, it seems like there's a lot of, you know, just anti-American sentiment out there. You know, some people might think our show is against the country, but within that theme, I would like to just hit everybody with a classic Jay Dilla song called Anti-American Graffiti. You know, it's on the Donuts album. It's gospel for anyone who likes beat music. So check it out. It's beautiful. I who likes beat music. So check it out.

It's beautiful. I love it. And you should love it too. And that's going to do it for today. We will be back tomorrow because it is a daily podcast. Talk to you then. Bye. Hey, baby. Yeah. Hi, baby. Hi, baby. You made your life, baby.

That's right. I'm down here with the world's most popular drinking areas. You understand? What? What? What? Yeah. What?

What? Everything is nice. What? And they do it right. And everybody here is waiting for the million dollar jackpot number to come up, man. And you know there's a lot of... You didn't get what you did of about just what the doctor said. Too much to do.

Yeah, yeah. We'll be right back. It's a great time like the end of the world or over again, man. Six to five unawakened people, I promise you. Try to know who's going to take the responsibility, big gun. Say it, say it. Too much to do. Say it again. Say it again. Say it again. Oh, God! 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. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. 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. 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. Hi, I am Lacey Lamar. And I'm also Lacey Lamar. Just kidding. I'm Amber Revin. Okay, everybody, we have exciting news to share. We're back with season two of the Amber and Lacey, Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network.

This season, we make new friends, deep dive into my steamy DMs, answer your listener questions, and more. The more is punch each other. Listen to the Amber and Lacey Lacey and Amber show on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen, okay? Or Lacey gets it.

Do it.