The Daily Zeitgeist - Weekly Zeitgeist 33 (Best of 7/16/18-7/20/18)

Episode Date: July 22, 2018

The weekly round up of the best moments from DZ's Season 40 (7/16/18-7/20/18.) 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. There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre. Join us for the new podcast, Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts.

How do you feel about biscuits? app, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you stream podcasts. is that even me it's right here in black and white and prints they lie bigger than a flag or mascot listen to rebel spirit on the iheart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts hi i am lacy lamar and i'm also lacy lamar just kidding i'm amber reffin 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 iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Just listen, okay?

Or Lacey gets into it. Hello, the internet, and welcome to this episode of the Weekly Zeitgeist. These are some of our favorite segments from this week, all edited together into one nonstop infotainment laugh stravaganza. Yeah. So without further ado, here is the weekly zeitgeist. What is something you think is overrated? Something I think is overrated is the Bar the Griffin.

I would say the Los Angeles Bar the Griffin is very overrated. Yeah, so I was there on Saturday for a friend's birthday party. Oh, yeah? And I was sitting in the nook that's towards the entrance with my back to the bar. And then suddenly I hear that sound of shit going down at a bar because you hear the chairs go, and just all the furniture moving. And I turn around, and I just see people rush each other. Then I'm like, wait, hold up.

There's a lot of broadly dudes like American shit on. Wait, there's some Fred Perry shirts. Wait, there's some MAGA hats. And I said in a split second, I went from having my back to a bar and I go, oh, this shit became what looked like a Proud Boys meetup. Yep. And then as we're leaving, I see Josh Androsky over there. And I said, oh, you're gonna be on the show Monday, huh?

Well, this would be something to talk about. So yeah, the Griffin. Always creating content. That's what I like about you. You were like, got to have a scoop for the zeitgeist. So tell us what happened. So I was texted by a friend who was like, yo, there's a giant Proud Boys meetup. And by giant Proud Boys, I mean by the number of Proud Boys and the girth of the Proud Boys.

There were some corn-fed hogs in that group. Real sweaty guys. The type of dudes that are never not moist, you know? And they met up at the Griffin. And so I got some folks from DSALA, which I'm a member of, Democratic Socialists of America Los Angeles, and some folks from Nolympics Los Angeles and Defend Northeast Los Angeles. And we were like, let's go, because as like socialists and activists, one of our main

jobs is to make sure that Nazis don't have fun in our city. We're sort of like in that scene in in pulp fiction where marcellus wallace is like you've lost your los angeles privileges that's us we're the ones who say to the nazis you've lost your los angeles privilege now what about these guys i mean they just sound like they're proud to be boys what what are proud boys uh so okay so you know how nazis suck uh now imagine if nazis didn't just, but were also super fucking annoying. Right. So you add a layer of frat culture onto people who are yearning for a white ethnostate, and you've got yourself a proud boy.

Right. They are run by Gavin McInnes, the former creator of Vice. Yeah. So they're built on a pile of cocaine and underage models um and they do this a lot where they'll they'll go to a bar and try to harass and intimidate and provoke people into fighting uh and then they because uh the american conservative especially the white male american conservative has it all you know what i mean they it all. The one thing they don't have is victimhood. So they want that because it's not enough to have power in all three branches of government.

It's not enough to have white supremacy systemically, like allow you to have more opportunities than people of color. What they also need is everybody to like them. And so the fact that people don't think they're cool drives them fucking nuts. Especially when you get jumped in, you know, when you go to the third degree. Yes. And you got to recite your serials and get little tummy punches. Yeah.

I mean. We were watching. So these are a couple of details about the Proud Boys in addition to them. So they say they're anti-racist. So how could they be bad? They're also anti-racial guilt so yeah those two things do not they don't vibe well and yeah but uh but a couple things about them they think that they get uh like superpowers from not masturbating yeah so uh

they just like brag about how little they've come in the last like month and when you think about a bunch of angry young boys right the main thing that you want to think about is um just fucking jerk off dude just jerk off once right jerk off one fucking time and then maybe just maybe all of that, you know, jump you in. One big difference. Yeah. So they give you little tummy punches. Miles showed me a video of one of them.

And the guy is literally giggling as he's being beat in. And this is a phrase I feel like I wouldn't say. This is almost disrespectful to gang members. It is disrespectful to gang members. I mean, like, getting jumped in is, you get fucking stomped out. Like, the whole point is, like, can you endure this shit because you're down for the set or whatever? And this was, anyway, suffice to say, this was not what I would call jumping in. It was some sort of physical contact.

It's more like bounce housing in. Yeah. Anyway, so cut to the Griffin. You're there because your whole thing is, you know, you want these people to know that society does not accept their presence, especially not in this city. Right.

And but mostly, so we didn't want there to be like a big giant confrontation. What we wanted to do was to alert the bar, you know, like, hey, these aren't just guys that voted for Trump. The Proud Boys are identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center

as a hate group and rightfully so. Right. This is a neo-Nazi organization. Kessler, Jason Kessler, who did the Unite the Right movement, he was a Proud Boy member, but then I think that Gavin McGinnis tried to disavow him and distance himself and the group as much as possible from that, even though there were many of them. And there still are a bunch. It is a hate group.

It is a white supremacist group. And I'm sorry if there are a couple Latinos or a couple Jews, like I'm a Jew, and there were Jewish Nazis and there were black slave owners. And the reason why is power, safety. And I think also, you know, these are some weak-willed people who are not given any solutions by the liberal leadership, especially of Los Angeles, when our mayor is out campaigning in Las Vegas instead of watching over the city. And so when you're not given any,

when liberalism fails you and you're not given any solution and liberalism takes all its time fighting socialism, which offers practical solutions like free college, free healthcare, all that shit, then you're going to try to go for somebody that offers you a solution. And the right the solution is, oh, it's women.

Oh, it's gay people. Oh, it's Jews. Oh, it's people of color. You know, it's trans people. And so for weak willed people, this scapegoat gives them a reason to keep going because there's no other solutions being offered to them. And so they you know, we went there in order to just sort of explain to the bar staff. These guys are Nazis.

They wear a fucking uniform. And let me just make a quick distinction because there's a shit ton of the dumbest people in the world are tweeting at me right now um saying we're not nazis we're not from the the 1940s in germany and it's like yeah dude i get it you're not national socialists from germany from the fucking weimar republic baby like you're not okay babe you're not himmler's fucking nephew cha-cha yeah uh but here in america we have a handy term to call right-wing hate groups that practice fucking discrimination and violence and it's nazi right the word works and it's also super funny that these people are the ones that are like what do i have to call a trans woman a woman why can't i call it him a him right but don't call me a nazi you know what

i mean it's like yo uh a trans woman was born a woman like a trans woman it biologically is a woman uh and you chose to be a nazi and you're more precious about your identification you know what i mean like it's it's such fucking backward shit so we go to the bar we implore the bar staff multiple times like yo these guys are nazis these guys are racists literally one of the bouncers goes um the only color i see is green right oh cool yeah right yeah and so that's a donald trump jr line so you know it's smart so fucking like you know we're just trying super hard to make sure that the the bar kicks these people up before something goes down. And sure enough, they ignore us multiple times. Multiple bar staff members told us that they

alerted the management to this. Nothing happened. And I'm sitting with a group of maybe seven or eight people. There's about 20 Proud Boys. And I see them in circle and sort of like a semi-circle, a couple regular bar patrons, just normal folks who were there for a different birthday party. And that's when I'm like, okay, it's my job now to go in. I have experience dealing with fascists everywhere from like shitty LAPD officers to, you know, just your garden variety Nazi fuck. And so what I do as a Jew who reads white, in this moment, and I encourage anybody else who's listening to this

to do this, use your privilege in this moment. I used my privilege to go over and distract them from the normal bar patrons who were getting very agitated, being harassed and circled by the Proud Boys. What were they saying? I didn't catch it all, but you can guess what they're saying.

Yeah, just like getting around them. Yeah, getting around them. And basically, I'm sure it had to do with the fact that they were flaunting their Make America Great Again hats and yelling about fucking, you know, whatever the fuck Proud Boys yell about, their white ethnostate dreams or whatever. And that's when I was like, well, let me be a distraction. I'm an idiot. What I do is I'm, let me be a distraction. I'm an idiot. What I do is I'm a dick, right?

Like I'm an asshole. Right. But I'm a dick to people who deserve it. And so I just go out and I be a dick to Nazis. And so I was a dick. I was like, hey, take off that stupid fucking hat. You know, shit like, oh, hey, when's the last time you come? You know, like maybe if you came into the hat, like it would grow an actual boy.

Now, to be fair, that was the first question you asked me when you walked into the studio this morning. When's the last time you come? Yeah. I mean, it's kind of like it's on my business card. Josh Andruski, when's the last time you come? Yeah. So I was just kind of fucking with them. And then before I know it, they've all now circled me.

Right, right, right. And my girlfriend, Madison, fucking charges in and gets in between. Because what she sees is there's another proud boy coming around them to kind of like rush me and sucker punch me. kind of like rush me and sucker punch me and uh she then which by the way great move when you've outnumbered somebody 20 to 1 is to hide behind your bigger friends go around them and sucker punch the person that you're up against but they didn't know no one punched you right well so madison puts her hand on one of the that guy that was like gonna you know rush me and then that guy fucking shoves her like two hand shoves her and she's a very small woman you met her yes um she's not uh she's not a large american yeah no she is a small one so they shove her like to the ground and then i lose it yeah and then one of them

fucking takes a swing at me and knocks off my glasses. But, you know, he either tried to slap me or he was so drunk that he missed. Right. And then finally, after the woman had been shoved, the security stepped in and pulled me aside. Right. As though I was the one who started all of this. Right. When in reality, we had been at the bar for about 45 minutes trying to get the bar to

kick out the Nazis. Right. Before something just out the Nazis. Right. Before something just like this happened. Right. And so at that point, you know, all hell broke loose. I may or may not have allegedly in the scrum grabbed one of the Proud Boys MAGA hats and chucked it out into the street. That's assault, brother. I mean, look, allegedly I may or may not have done that

after they shoved my girlfriend to the ground and knocked my glasses off my face. Oh, it's a guy with glasses. Right. You wouldn't hit a man with glasses, would you?

Well, glasses are, as we know from the Khmer Rouge, are a sign that you are a dissident who, you know, can't be trusted. Exactly. So at that point then, the bar staff is like

yelling at me. And I'm like. That's where I like. Clearly, I noticed it once Madison got pushed over. Right. That's when it really kicked off. That's when shit really went down. Yeah.

And yeah. And it wasn't clear to me. It seemed like the bar staff was yelling. I don't know who they were yelling at. It seemed like at times they were yelling at you or the other people. It seemed very. So there were two dudes. one of them was like the manager i assume because everybody was like following his lead he was like a big tatted

up dude who was like visibly drunk and like i don't drink i just go to bars to hang out with friends and make sure nazis don't have fun um and so this drunk fucking asshole is like yelling at me he's like how am i supposed to know they're nazis and i was like you could have googled it when we told you 45 minutes ago before they shoved a woman. They're wearing a uniform. They're wearing their Nazi cosplay uniform. And then he's like, yeah, but man, I'm a liberal. I'm from San Francisco.

Why am I defending them? And you see that in a video. And then I go, I don't know. Why are you defending them? Right. My other favorite moment from the video footage of the night. Was outside? Yes, outside.

They're like, the Proud Boys are still like yelling, threatening things. Yeah, somehow the Irish were slaves. Yeah, the Irish were slaves. So what's your point? And one of the more, you know, angry and, more angry and tough acting gentlemen, his mom walks up behind him and is like, we are going. It is time, honey. It is time to get out of here. So I have no confirmation that it's his mom.

But that was mom energy. That was some real BME. That was an Uber drive. Big mother energy. Big mommy energy. Yeah, it was definitely not Uber. It's not like, fam, I'm going to just cancel your shit and go like that's like right we have to go i'm watching your kid right and you got drunk right we have to go i mean no i yeah exactly it's like i'm grandma

but i'm a real mom to your son you know like uh like and that that plays into like the whole thing of like mommy taking them home because they're all from fucking Orange County. They're all from Simi Valley, Orange County, like around then because there's just not enough of them here. Well, a lot of them outside were trying to puff their chests up like, oh, I'm from East LA or whatever. I was doing all kinds of shit like that. And I was like, I don't feel like it. The one Mexican dude that was in the Proud Boys is, I guess, a pretty famous Proud Boy because he is Mexican. And Gavin McInnes likes to show him off as his little toy.

His name is Levi Romero. And he there's a lovely video that surfaced after the incident of him. I guess somebody from the Orange County Gazette or some Orange County paper wrote about the Proud Boys. And he recorded a video of himself threatening to murder that guy and rape his wife cool um and so you know like these are those these are the people right like they say oh we're not nazis they say all this shit in order to try to engender some sort of sympathy uh but in reality that's who they really well yeah and then even after i know some people were trying to go to bigfoot up the street and they got kicked out they were like, but they were also harassing other people that I know, using gay slurs

and for whatever reason saying, this is Nigeria or some shit. It was very... They were not there to just have a fun, convivial evening with themselves. They went out to fuck shit up and harass people. Right. And that's what they do. And I want to make a point. They try to hide behind the First Amendment a lot and say, look, we have the right to

peaceably assemble. There's no such thing as a peaceable assembly of Nazis. Like literally any action that's done to a Nazi. If I would have gone up and just sucker punch one of those Nazis, which I'd never do because I've got very Jewish bones. But if I would have gone up and sucker punched one of those Nazis, that would be self-defense because they're a Nazi, which is why it's okay to always punch Nazis.

Yeah, I think the response from the bar was like, well, we were trying to kill them with kindness and just serve them so they would leave, and that's how we've done things in the past or whatever. And a part of me is like, they obviously fucked up in not handling the situation properly. At all. Handling it at all. It was just a lot of chaos. And then, you know, it's a good reminder, though, too,

especially because, like, living in cities like L.A., normally very insulated from that kind of overt, sort of like in-your-face kind of provocation. But it's out here. Well, and here's the problem with trying to kill nazis with kindness what you're doing is you are allowing people inside your establishment to harass and intimidate oppressed minorities right you are you are by being neutral you are in effect siding with the nazis right you're not resisting that yeah you need to either resist the nazis or get the fuck out of my city like like

that's why like i was like i'm never going to the griffin again because you know they their their policy of trying to kill nazis with kindness is the most backwards fucking bullshit thing in the world uh that guy was from san francisco how yeah right how could it be crazy i don't get it and and and like later on as you mentioned the bigfoot Lodge, like I'm friends with one of the bartenders there and she texted me. Yeah, the Proud Boys tried to come in here and we said no. It's that fucking easy. Right. You know, I have I have a friend who manages a bar in L.A. and you can be proactive about this. First of all, if you're a bar owner in Los Angeles, you should be in touch enough with your community to know who the Proud Boys are,

to know who like these groups of neo-Nazis are that are trying to hang out, especially because they've done it multiple times. And they also organize online because there's not enough of them in Los Angeles. They have to reach out to Orange County, Simi Valley, and places like this. So my friend got tipped that they were trying to come to his bar that he manages. And he just sent them a message that was like, hey, if you come, you're not going to be let in. We have the right to refuse service to anybody. You're not going to be let in like we have the right to refuse service to anybody you're not going to be let in and what happened they didn't come in and that's that's what that's what the griffin

needed to do is to be in touch or at the very least listen to the patrons who are pleading with them that these guys are nazis right uh and and now their fucking response is like oh we're gonna put up a sign that says no ableism like fuck off okay like yeah they they've done they fucked up you're given a choice in life and oftentimes you don't know when this moment will be and and oftentimes this moment happens more than once or it'll only happen once where you decide do i want to be against the forces of evil or do i want to be complicit with the forces of evil and clearly this guy because he wanted to be neutral or he wanted to fucking make money which i think is what it was uh just let nazis fucking cavort in his bar yeah well i think it's hard to a lot of

people it's uncomfortable too because i think most people aren't used to being in a position where they have to confront something directly right and and a lot of people you could tell too like there was a lot of from looking at the other patrons in the bar i saw a lot of shook people who were just sort of like whoa like is this happening like do i say something or whatever it's and yeah it's uh that's a lot of people i think and that's when the moment where a lot of people try and sort of logically argue away. Oh, I'm not being, I'm not, I'm not complicit because I'm just doing this or that. But yeah, it's a. If you're in a position of power and you control a space and there are Nazis in your space, not kicking out hate groups is complicit.

Yeah. And there's nothing else. And that's why the Griffin is overrated. Yep. What's something that's underrated? I think we got an underrated and a myth all tied up in there. Yep.

All right, we're going to take a quick break. 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 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. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds. Sword Quest. This wasn't just a new game.

Atari promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared. And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. My reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes.

We'll follow the quest for lost treasure across four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago, when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that

a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Substance use disorder and addiction is so isolating. And so as a Black woman in recovery, hope must be loud. It grows louder when you ask for help and you're vulnerable. It is the thread that lets you know that no matter what happens, you will be okay. When we learn the power of hope, recovery is possible. Find out how at StartWithHope.com. Brought to you by the National Council for Mental Well-Being, Shatterproof, and the Ad Council. And we're back.

So the big story of the moment is that Trump met with Putin in Helsinki, and then they made remarks to the media that were pretty remarkable. Treasonous? Some people are calling them treasonous. The front page of the Drudge Report, as everybody else was like, oh, he just committed treason, I think. The front page of the Drudge Report was, go with a picture of Trump catching a soccer ball that Putin threw to him. So they were just like, nailed it. But not everybody is agreeing with them.

And even Fox News is not psyched about that. I mean, one of the hot takes out of there was he was like, well, I believe Putin and not the intelligence apparatus in this United States in terms of describing if there was any meddling. What did he say? He's like, I mean, he was pretty strong with his defense of it so i think i want to believe him on this one yes it's like the third time i think he's he said well i asked him and i believe him uh and yes he said he doesn't see why russia would hack the election and that he wants to see the servers uh because he thinks the

intelligence community is well first of all he thinks he's better at diagnostic digital forensics than the intelligence community. I gotta see these for myself. As a man who eats 40 hamburgers every day, I think we can agree that Donald Trump's pretty good at computers. Oh, yeah. But yeah, he's just not buying it.

And he's like, he denied it pretty strongly. And this has always been his thing, is that he trusts his gut. He trusts his gut he trusts his personal relationships it's why everybody who works for him are his kids and like family uh and it's why he thinks that he can just you know be like i looked into his eyes and we're cool yeah meanwhile putin just big dicked him the whole way he like showed up late was like slouching during the meeting with

like his hell yeah like made his legs wider i've never seen a man spread like that like that was a fucking arrest it was it was amazing like he had to do like groin stretches before you get his man spread that wild uh and trump looked like he was about to see the principal yeah he was like right and just with his hands like this he i mean again i think we're past the point of being like what does he have on him and just be like yo dude he's not willing to hold rush accountable for a fucking thing but who cares like like my question about all of this is who cares like how does this materially affect your life well i guess it doesn't it will it will affect my life down the road.

I think if more and more elections are being meddled in and we get more of this right-wing kind of Congress stepping in. But the elections are being meddled by the right wing of the American political parties. So like the Russian hacking or whatever, it's arguable how many votes that changed, right? Sure, sure, sure. Like, if any. There's no proof yet that there was, like, legitimate. Nobody's been like, look, 100,000 voting machines.

They were fucking. Right, added this many votes. Like, nobody's done that yet. The right wing is kicking people off of voter rolls. They're creating voter idea laws. They're dismantling the Voting Rights Act. And to me, it's just like I understand that this is hilarious. I understand that this is interesting. But like the fact that this is on the front page of the news all the fucking time, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia, Russia.

It just it's it's distracting us from what's actually going on in this country. And I just can't state how little I pay attention to it and how much it doesn't affect my life or anybody else's life. Trump will never get impeached as long as the Republicans are in power. Right. The Republicans are going to be in power as long as the Democrats don't offer any solutions to poor Americans. And so we're just in this weird feedback loop where the Democrats are blaming Russia, the Republicans are blaming the Democrats, and all the people are just not voting because it doesn't fucking matter. They're not being let, they're not being allowed to vote, or they just don't fucking care because their eyes glaze over when they hear fucking one of the Johns from Pod Save America go,

oh yeah, well this guy Struck is a household name now. And they're like, who the fuck is Struck? No, but you ask anybody who works for minimum wage who struck is and they're like uh is that a verb like i struck out yeah right no i understand i of course 100 when you look at sort of what the direct threats are to american people they're not coming from russia no but what is what is important too is especially in this upcoming midterms, if there is going to be any kind of fair shot at trying to vote some of these Republicans out to try and get candidates in, which there aren't that many that are fully, I think, on the same platform that I would be on. Right. But I think that is that is that is the existential threat

for me. But do you honestly think that Russians are meddling with voting ballot boxes? I know that they are, based on what has been written, that they are trying to access as much of that infrastructure as possible. Right. And trying to access, right? Well, in certain cases did, because I know there are a lot of secretaries of states that, for whatever reason, months after, were quietly alerted that, hey hey, like hackers accessed your your system. Sure. And blah, blah, blah. Sure. I mean, and that's part of just generally trying to assess weaknesses in a system. Exactly. And to me, it's like, OK, well, we do it. Other countries do it. That's that's a given there. People try to fuck with our elections since day one. And I think a lot of it is in response to us fucking with their elections. But that's neither here nor there.

Like there's always going to be a threat of people trying to other countries trying to uh get what's best for them out of america right like so if we say that's a constant which it is you know like israel is getting america to do what israel wants in in so many more outrageous ways than Russia is. And yet nobody's talking about the fact that Israel is exterminating the Palestinians right now with our tax dollars. And I would argue that Israel is a worse influence on America than Russia is as far as getting what they want out of Americans. But we talk about Russia because it's what the Democrats use to shift the blame off of their horrible strategy during the election.

Yeah. And it just frustrates. Well, yeah, I don't buy the whole thing that Russia is to blame for all of this. I'm more interested in like understanding and people being aware of the fact that there is this bizarre relationship with a country that is so anti-democratic and now this country is even like is now just sort of out in the open showing that oh we're we're joining this wave too and i and i know and i know that the u.s has been anti-democratic from jump street right what i'm saying is to then be like yo

winking at putin and shit and like when you're like, oh, the homies are Xi Jinping and Putin and Duterte or whoever else. Like that's when you're like, this is the direction that they're trying to move it into. Full kleptocracy. Yeah. And when also to know that this is a person who executes political opponents or journalists or whatever,

that's where you're like, it's so unclear to the president like what, how everything works, that that's where I'm just, to me, it's the optics of it that are just disheartening. It's not to say, hey, Russia is the reason why wages have completely stagnated or whatever. That's not the case. But it's part of understanding the history of this country and like, oh, now we're seeing the pendulum swing the completely other way towards anti-democratic solutions. And now, and we're up their front page on like we're part of that now so i have a question i have i just thought of something is there something to this what if putin actually has nothing on donald trump but donald trump just thinks putin's really

cool that's entirely that's also entirely possible right yeah he's just jealous. I mean, he thinks all strongman leaders are cool and he... Duterte or Duterte. Yeah. Well, that's why... And he's like... The thing that he wants most in the world is to be able

to execute journalists and to have his political opponents arrested. Yeah, Vanity Fair. That would make him so fucking happy. Yeah, he wants to

see Graydon Carter in solitary. Graydon Carter, you wore shorts to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Miami Beach. And for that crime, you will be executed. I will say for people who are interested in finding out more about how Israel is fucking with the Palestinians using U.S. tax dollars, somebody who is talking about that is super producer Anna Hosnier on her

podcast, Ethnically Ambiguous, almost weekly. So you guys should check that show out. I think the two interesting things about what we're seeing now is basically that there is, like it started with them dropping the 12 indictments on Russian intelligence agents at the end of last week because they knew he was about to meet with Putin and wanted to force his hand. And now there's just like an open antagonism between the president and the intelligence community. And I just think, I don't know, we've never seen that before. It'll be interesting to see what happens from here and it's also forcing

people on the right I think even to and this is very early stages and I think they you know in the aftermath of the Access Hollywood tape and shit like that they were like well I can't support this guy and then eventually like once people got over there families apart they're like, I like this dude.

I mean, we have audio. Or they got those tax cuts. Yeah, exactly. We have audio. This is like Neil Cavuto on Fox. I guess this is the thing, too. Like you say, Jack, there are optics things to consider. But this is the first time you see more and more like there's part of this old Russia hawk conservatism where people are like, ugh.

Right. I'm down with everything, but like, yo. we're trying to paint these guys as communists. Like, what's going on? So this is Cavuto on Trump's performance at the press conference. That's what made it disgusting. That's what made his performance disgusting. I'm sorry, it's just the only way I feel. It's not a right or left thing to me.

It's just wrong. A U.S. president on far and tall talking to our biggest enemy or adversary or competitor i i don't know how we define them these days is essentially letting the guy get away with this and not even you know uh offering a mild a mild criticism that that that that sets us back a lot why is russia our biggest enemy In terms of just trying to become... Like that guy just said, Neil Cavuto just was like, Russia's our biggest enemy.

He said it like it was just a fact. It's very anti-democratic. And they're trying to destabilize, like, you know, they want to break up the Western alliance and become the real power broker on that continent. I mean, do you think that they're... They invade other countries and, you know...

But like more so than like what the Saudis are doing to the Yemeni, what, you know, like, horrible countries in, you know, like, okay. So what the Saudis are doing, like, is, to me, I would say Saudi Arabia is America's biggest enemy based on the fact that they're going through, like, one of the biggest genocides right now. And we're, like, kind of helping them. And by kind of, I mean a lot. And by a lot, I mean Obama started it. of helping them and by kind of I mean a lot and by a lot I mean Obama started it but like to me like Russia just

seems like you know how like in the in the spy movie there's the red herring who's like the really loud guy that's like yes you think that one's the villain but then it was the quiet one that was inside the whole time you know like I feel like like well the benefit is that the Saudis got in early enough that we're like

okay so we like doing business with you so then like I mean that's the I mean.S. has so many problematic relationships with other countries. Like the Saudis like maybe did 9-11. You know what I mean? Like if we're talking about like real enemies of America, like it just seems so weird to just be like, well, obviously Russia, number one enemy. Right. I think just in this instance, because I think his thing, his quote is taking a little bit out of context. Because what they're saying is he had the opportunity to speak to Putin and say, yo, what the fuck is going on?

All the intelligence people were saying the GRU is behind all this massive sort of attempt to completely undermine the election, whether that was through hacking the DNC and disseminating that information or trying to get into secretary of of states sort of voting systems and things like that, that that was an opportunity as the leader of the country to say, yo, it was good about that. And it didn't happen. So like that, I think in this, I don't know if this guy generally views, I mean, it could be just for the sake of preserving, you know, America's appearance of like, well,

let's not talk about that because Russia is the real enemy because it serves us to distract people from that too but i think the more i think the thing was coming off of what he was talking about was the idea of like you know this you're the president you don't even have anything to say to this guy like and that's what's just sort of eerie is that you're you know as the leader you're just letting all this shit happen and you're just kind of like what do you think he did say to Putin? They had a two-hour meeting. It was, I don't know.

So is Natasha and Boris coming? I want to meet that moose. I want to meet the moose. I love mooses. I have a fabulous moose at Mar-a-Lago. It's a chocolate moose. It's great. Natasha Badenoff.

I don't know. Natasha, take your bra off off if you know what I mean it's just locker room talk it could be like them Putin being like yo like now we know how to fuck

with those like voter systems or whatever I mean also too when you see those I mean are you sure he's like do you know how to do

cocaine on jet ski like I feel like that's what he would say it could be yeah or it's like he's like I want to talk about Syria and then Trump's like

look I don't care I don't care show me that show my friend your watch Syria hereia thereia who cares It's like, he's like, I want to talk about Syria. And then Trump's like, look, I don't care. I don't care. Show me that. Show my friend your watch. Syria, hereia, thereia, who cares? That's an $80,000 watch. Have you seen that?

I mean, Putin does his research on people, like, to the extent. Well, he's a KGB spy. Right, right. He knows what your upbringing was, what your psychological, like, weaknesses and strengths are going into a meeting. So, like, I'm sure nothing caught him off guard. If Trump wanted to talk about watches, I'm sure he knew that before Trump knew that. I don't know. Or Putin had set the agenda and Trump was just there to go, uh-huh, uh-huh. Or Trump was just like, I could only imagine, we've set up Putin to be this mastermind,

even though he's also going through dementia like Trump is. It's kind of proven that both of their brains are dying. I'd love to imagine the hypothetical mastermind who's practiced everything on Trump. And then he's like, okay, I know he's going to talk like this. I know he's going to say this. I know he's going to say this. And then all he talks about is Tracy Bingham from Baywatch. He's like, so ever since I've been in Russia, I've noticed there's a lot of sevens here.

There's more sixes in DC, let me tell you. There's only sevens and eights here. I haven't seen a single 10. That's like what he would fucking say. All right, so let's talk about the latest trend that is apparently not the latest trend. No, definitely not. It's been happening forever.

But I think we reached a new level, at least as I'm aware of, in white people calling the police on people of color. We have a guy in a L.A. fitness in Virginia who got screened in a pickup basketball game, fell to the ground in dramatic World Cup player fashion like he had just stepped on a mine, and then immediately walked to the front desk, said he was calling the police, and did call the police, and then just waited patiently for the police to come, and then said, I got screened hard, and I want you to do something about it. So tell me, the cops come and go, okay, sir, you're the one who was calling for us? He's like, yes. And he'll say, the police officer will say,

okay, so what happened? Yes. And what do you think he said to the police officer? He assaulted me, I think, is probably how he put it. And then the guy's like, which one? He's like, well, this black guy. Right. And then what happens?

He's like, bro, I just put a pick on him. You know what I mean? Right, yeah. And he ran into it because that is basketball. Why would a human being call the cops on this? No, it's staggering. because that is basketball. Why would a human being call the cops on this? No. It's staggering. Wait.

Did he say, like, he threw an elbow and, like, broke my chest? I have Marfan syndrome. I have a weak chest wall, like, putting me at risk. How do we take this beyond, like, logically that it was anything more than you're in your feelings because you probably ran into the screen. But wouldn't first step be maybe you complain to management hey that guy's playing a little too rough on the court right yeah as opposed to you know you know what i gotta call the authorities that's my question is are they seeing these videos going viral and thinking that we're proud of like the white people who are

calling the cops they're like see we can apparently call the cops on this. No, because they're the heroes of this narrative. You don't see Drudge being like brave man of Virginia gym ends the scourge of blindside picks. Like, you know, that's not what it is. It's just we live in an era now where people have access to video cameras on their cell phones. They can document things and spread that information much quicker because of social media that it's just being more apparent. So this was happening all along i mean there is no shortage of people from my dad as a child to me even even in my teen years of having experiences with police that were unnecessary because people being at a park see you through a window and they're like there's people of color at the park

at night right and then they pull up and they're like what's going on you're like we're playing basketball and they're like all right well someone called the cops and they thought you were doing something. And that's nothing new. So I think now it's just people are, for whatever, getting even more bold. So they're willing to be. I mean, because really what they're doing is they're treating the police as customer service for their waning white privilege. Right. You know what I mean?

They're like, excuse me, I would like to, the only people that can sort this out is the police because you have the guns. Right. And you can put your foot down on this. And then most of the time when they come up, it's incident free. And other times it can be fucking fatal. Right. So to me, it's like, it's nothing new. We're just seeing it more and it's being documented more.

And I think there could be maybe a slight uptick, but this is not a new experience for, you know, you know, like getting pulled over because you're black. And maybe there's, yeah, there's this new element of now, you know, we're seeing people just calling the police for any old reason. Like even in Canada now, I read a story about a black family getting the police called on them because they were at the pool or a Muslim family because they were wearing cotton at the pool. I'm still not sure what exactly their grievance was with that aside from probably the kids. I think one of the kids may have had hijab on or something like that. Right. So it ain't nothing new. Right.

What was the fallout here? What did the police do when they arrived? The police showed up. The athlete who screened him was asked to step outside of the gym, and the cop talked to them. And this is the photograph you see of it, where the cop is standing between them. And it's like a preschool, like, you know,

rivalry where the teacher is just talking to them, telling them how you handle your feelings. And the guy who called the cops is standing on the other side of the cop with his arms crossed. Like, ha ha. Now I got you, man.

And, uh, everybody was just like, this is bullshit blown away. Yeah. And everybody was just blown away. I mean, anyone who grows up playing pickup basketball, you know there's always that friend who everything is a foul. Right. And you're like, oh, that's a foul.

That's a foul. You reached in. That's a foul. You blocked me. That's a foul because it's my ego that you fouled. Yeah. But I don't know what happened to this guy that he didn't get the constant foul calling shamed out of him by playing basketball enough.

As a five foot four and a half man, I would spend a lot of time on the bench at the pickoff basketball games. Should I have called the authorities? Yes. I have not been picked. I haven't been picked. I think it's racism. They're like, these guys are all white, too.

I don't know. I don't know. I just thought I should blow in a call to an ancestry test. We should look deeper. But yeah, it's just, I mean, at some point, I don't know. I don't know. I just thought I should blow in a call to an ancestry test. We should look deeper. Yeah. But yeah, it's just I mean, at some point, I think I think obviously the conversation now is shifting towards what is the proper protocol for police officers to handle these kind of situations when they're unnecessarily brought in to intervene on behalf of people who are just have some kind of implicit bias. on behalf of people who are just have some kind of implicit bias. Because like, you know, there are people who I remember there was a story about the group of black women playing golf and the owner of the country club called the police because they're playing too slow. Yes.

Insanity. You know what I mean? And that's when the police have to be like, I'm sorry, this is not a priority for us as police. Like we're here to stop like real crime. And if I'm out here trying to mediate you because you don't like the the speed at which these women are playing golf and something happens and i'm here then then we have problems but i don't know if like because you know that 9-1-1 can't be i'm sorry that's not heavy enough right that's

just because then you get into a slippery slope of like being because what if something does happen exactly all of a sudden there's violence of yeah one person said right and i think that's where maybe the police have to begin having to mediate these in a way that they're like, so let me tell you how I'm seeing this as law enforcement. You have no standing. You look like this feels like harassment to me. Right. Or whatever. And I don't know how they're going to begin.

There should be some like official form of harassment or something like a fine at the very least to like like when you waste the police's time you know what when my alarm goes off at my house i'm sorry i interrupted you but i was just adding to what you said when my alarm accidentally goes off and they can't contact my wife or i the cops show up and it's like oh nothing happened here i get 150 fine yeah so that should happen here if you're wasting time on the 14th green saying those ladies are too slow, let's go. Pay a bill. The other thing is, I mean, because there are laws about like calling 911 falsely or whatever, like unnecessarily, but those are rarely enforced. I mean, I think the permit thing is because the alarm thing is because that they think they're responding to something much more serious.

Of course, they show up and yeah. Yeah, but I think that's where these police associations or community groups or whatever need to really figure out or just people just need to realize people of color are not a threat to you. Right. I'm sorry that we're out here trying to exist too, but I'm not at the pool being like, I'm going to turn this place into all black. Right. Y'all going to have to wear koofies and start celebrating Kwanzaa. You know what I mean? It's not like that. So come on. Just let us live. All right, it's not like that. So, come on.

Just let us live. All right, guys. We're going to take another quick break. We'll be right back. 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. In 1982, Atari players had one thing on their minds. Sword Quest.

This wasn't just a new game. Atari promised $150,000 in prizes to four finalists. But the prizes disappeared. And what started as a video game promotion became one of the most controversial moments in 80s pop culture. I just don't believe they exist. I mean, my reaction, shock and awe. That sword was amazing. It was so beautiful. I'm Jamie Loftus. Join me this spring for The Legend of Sword Quest, a podcast about the fall of Atari and the disappearing Sword Quest prizes. We'll follow the quest for lost

treasure across four decades. It's almost like a metaphor for the industry and Atari itself in a way. Listen to The Legend of Sword Quest on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president. One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman.

The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer. This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, fam. I'm Simone Boyce.

I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the daily podcast from Hello Sunshine that is guaranteed to light up your day. Every weekday, we bring you conversations with the culture makers who inspire us. Like our recent episode with dancer, actor, host of Dancing with the Stars, and now novelist Julianne Hough. I feel really whole. I feel like the last few years, I've really unraveled a lot, which is part of what this book is about. And I really feel so content, which is a word that used to scare the crap out of me. And I love that word now. Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Miles, you were saying that you're hearing in your Intel communities that you... Yes, in my Intel communities. Oh, is that what you were saying? Oh, yeah no no no i have no connection to the intel okay i mean you know just based on like twitter and reading different think pieces from diplomats or people inside and outside of intelligence there have been a lot of people talking like i can't say name names but this is a diplomat who's serving right now. And like the quote is like crazy. It's like, dude, I don't know what the fuck's wrong with Trump, man.

Like either he's totally under Putin's thumb or he's a pussy. And you're like, whoa, like this is how this guy is talking. And no, because right now a lot of these people are like looking at like, yo, this guy is really, really trying to fucking fuck the game up with his leadership. And now we're seeing like you know it's clear that the intelligence community has clearly had their eye on this thing for a while and they have not been able to say anything because they're just there to provide the executive or the government at large with information this is what we know and do what you need to do because that's

what our job is but now it seems like they're trying to really wave their hands and be like, no, no, no, hold on. You guys need to start seeing what we know. For example, like Dan Coats, DNI, Dan Coats, he had an interview with Andrea Mitchell yesterday at the Aspen Security Conference, and he was out here with his chest out, like not really giving a fuck about what the president would think. Throughout the interview, Andrea Mitchell was asking him like about the Helsinki thing and how he handled that. And he was just like, I would have done it differently. You know, just openly sort of questioning the president. Right.

Because he's the director of national intelligence. And then you can really tell, like, he did a fucking, like, literal double take when the news broke that the White House was going to invite Putin to D.C. in the fall. This is a clip from that moment. We have some breaking news. The White House has announced on Twitter that Vladimir Putin is coming to the White House in the fall. Say that again? You... Vladimir Putin coming to the...

Did I hear you? Yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I heard about this, but... That's gonna be special it that's gonna be special that's gonna be special that's the fucking

acting director of national intelligence right there he's just like this fucking guy yeah and they can't believe it and I mean luckily for him

he's a solid like he's a full on Republican you cannot question his like Republican credentials and he's like Jim Mattis' mule roller

like the whole gang is no right but I mean like in terms of criticism from the White House to be like this guy's a hack or whatever like yeah dude this guy isn't and like Jim Mattis rides for him there to Dave's point that's exactly what we were saying about Mueller when they were like well they're bringing in Mueller everyone was like and this guy's unimpeachable he's like the biggest Republican nobody's ever gonna question I guess more in terms of like it'll be harder for him to fire Dan Coats because he also has a lot of support like within the cabinet already too.

Like he's from Indiana. He's like Mike Pence really likes him. Anyway, but I know. But to that point, of course, anyone who begins speaking truth to power will immediately be painted with your hack or whatever. This whole thing, I mean, I've been trying to really comprehend the level of devotion. I think a lot of people, if you're a Spurs fan, people love Greg Popovich. He has won you championships,

meant something to you specifically in your life, and then when he starts talking about the president, some people in San Antonio go, oh, fuck that guy. I hate Greg Popovich. I never really liked him. Never really cared George Clooney

people like that you'd think like oh people know them they're just as ubiquitous people turn ah I fucking hate those movies this guy

have you seen Icarus yes and then did you see the Trump documentary series on Netflix it's like four parts I started watching it

I didn't get through all the whole thing though if you know his whole life then it's probably not that interesting. But I was pretty unfamiliar with his life in the 80s in New York and Roy Cohn and suing the city and all this. It's bananas. It's such a great glimpse into exactly how he's operating currently

because you kind of see him be birthed into this thing that he is now. Originally he has different teeth. He's obviously younger. But he's talking about Citizen Kane and he's kind of eloquent and he's obviously younger but he's talking about citizen kane and he's kind of eloquent and he's weirdly like endearing where he's painting this picture of a guy who's you can't trust people because of money and kind of how do you know what true love is he's like i can relate to that yeah and then you just see this twist where like when he first starts

cheating on ivana and the press knows about it and they know he's cheating on her with marlo maples and he's just like oh it's crazy and that's when he invents they know he's cheating on her with Marlo Maples and he's just like, oh, it's crazy. And that's when he invents characters that he's calling in and be like, oh, it's me, John Miller. And then they start recording it. Like, this can't be real. And he just lies. I mean, they're on ski trips

where legitimately he takes the family to like Aspen and Marlo has a hotel across the street. It's fucking crazy. And people, he just keeps lying. Like, no, no, no, she's just a friend. I don't know why she's here she's after me they're married

the biggest one is Taj Mahal like it's all the analysts are like hey dude this is nothing personal but we've run the numbers a bunch of times

this can't sustain itself oh it's crazy it's fake news you're idiots you're a bunch of and they're like oh I wasn't and then right up until the end

until it went bankrupt he just I think it's going great we're making tons of money so those two things icarus and that to me are like everyone should see that just to get a good sense of oh that's what we're dealing yeah this is a group who knows how to work this way here's a person who only knows how to operate in this sense right put it together yeah yeah yeah and i i just think that people are Trump supporters first and Americans second at this point. I think

another example of what you were talking about with the Popovich thing is when De Niro said fuck Trump at the Tonys, there were all these great videos of dudes from New York who were like, Bobby, I fucking loved you man. Goodfellas, greatest film of all time.

I modeled my life after you. Go fuck yourself. I'm like tearing up your picture. This is where we part ways. I've had this Goodfellas poster since I was in fucking community college, bro. I'm fucking torching it. And then also, to just sort of go along with the intelligence community kind of doing their own thing, after when denied that he well when he said full throat he's like oh i believe putin over the intelligence community they then leaked information essentially to the new york times saying this motherfucker knew it

was putin since like before he even came into office we had top secret briefings with him we showed him fucking emails texts showing that these orders came from the fucking top. And he can't act like he didn't know. We put this shit in front of his face and said, this is what the fuck is going on. And a lot of people were like, whoa, that's new. For you to suddenly be like, oh,

he knew. And clearly coming from the intelligence community, dead that. And a lot of people... And they burned a source. That information is based on a source close to Putin. So the fucking intelligence community like you know like dead that i know a lot of people burned a source they like that information is based on a source close to putin so the fucking intelligence community had a source close to putin and were willing to like burn that right and a lot of people were saying well like oh my god you just put that source in jeopardy i mean that source probably dead but that's the thing there i think nine people died mysteriously since the steel dossier came out that had connected to the r government. A lot of quote unquote heart attacks, heart attacks falling out of

buildings accidentally. Yeah. And that's what they're saying. Like, I think the reason that the Intel community even leaked it was they probably suspect because we already know Michael Flynn and Jared Kushner were trying to talk to the Russians the whole time that that source was probably burned a long time ago, which is why they're like, fuck it. Like, it's not like we're putting this person in jeopardy again. But it just shows you there's clearly a group of people who you can maybe call actual patriots who are looking at the information before them,

that their expertise is intelligence and counterintelligence, and being like, yo, how long till you guys do something about this? There was a, I think, I want to say South Dakota Republican congressman that goes, I think he was playing him. He was showing the upper hand. He was going out there saying, I know, and you know that I know, but if you want to keep playing this game, go ahead. But I'm going to hold you to it.

And then the press like in this meeting goes, is that what you think? And he goes, that's the only logical conclusion I can come to. Like, so they're just doing these mental gymnastics. Like Trump's a genius and he's working people. That is a given. Trump is definitely a genius. It's this whole thing of being confronted with truth. And the second that that doesn't jibe well with your like skewed worldview, then you have to find the next available life raft off of that thing because this one's sinking.

And yeah, I just don't know. It seems like the Helsinki thing was clearly a red line for, like, a lot of shit's changing. I think we all do it in the smallest ways. You know, your team loses a pivotal game midseason. Say you're watching football, and you're like, they run the table from here. They do it with their third-string quarterback.

It's been done before. And people are like, you're crazy. Just move on. Watch something else. No, been done before. And people are like, you're crazy. Just move on. Watch something else. No, no, no. And they lose the next game. They're mathematically eliminated. Nah, but I think.

You just keep sticking. Well, the refs were cheating. I get all the Breitbart emails, like the daily recap of what's going on. And they had a recap that Rush Limbaugh is now saying that this is how Democrats are going to do away with elections. So by using the Russia story to cast doubt on the outcome of elections, the Democrats are going to take over and never let Republicans win an election again. So that's how they're going to explain the blue wave. How far they can go in a different direction in interpreting something that seems fairly straightforward to us.

What we want to talk about is important stuff like that. Michael Jackson was chemically castrated and I called it seven years ago. So you called it seven years ago. So we did on Cracked. I've never heard somebody celebrate someone's chemical castration like this. You've got to watch Game of Thrones more. Oh, yeah, well. Did somebody get castrated in there?

So, yeah. Oh, yeah, a little. What show? Game of Thrones. That show's lousy with castration. Lousy with castration. It's not done chemically, I don't think. Nah, they lacked the technology.

This is a horrifying conspiracy theory that we wrote about in an article by Christy Harrison and Adam Todd Brown on Cracked back in 2011. But it made too much sense. I don't know. I felt like it was probably true at the time. And now we're getting confirmation from his doctor. The idea is basically that when Michael Jackson, as a 12-year-old, started showing signs of puberty, he started getting acne, and his voice started changing. You know, we didn't know at the time

who was kind of making this happen, but apparently his dad encouraged him to take this thing called ciproterone that is basically an anti-male hormone. It knocks the man right out of you, as was written in the article. Wait, what? A doctor said that?

No, no, that's from the article. It basically blocks puberty, so you just never go through puberty. And it makes sense given that it affects your bone growth and that looking at what Michael Jackson ended up looking like. And also just the fact that like this isn't invented by this conspiracy theory. This is a thing that they did throughout history to men who sang soprano. Until 1870, this was a common practice.

The people were called castrati and they were just literally castrated in order to maintain their singing voices. Damn. Yeah. Anyway, so the theory was, based off the article it cracked, is that the theory was he was being chemically castrated. Yes. Interesting. And was that based off of just like, how's this man's voice like this forever? Or there was like a moment that they saw.

I think there was a doctor who had put the theory forward based on appearance and based on all the problems he was having. And Christie, I think, dug that up in a book about Michael Jackson. And it just seems like, I don't know, it made too much sense. And also like mentally, if you never go through puberty, like you want to hang out with a bunch of kids. Right. It would stand to reason that like you would turn your house into an amusement park and like just still be interested in things. And even on top of that, never got to experience a childhood. Right. As even when you were even before puberty, you're like, God, imagine that. Like what a horrible prison to be a child forever, but never experience childhood.

Right. That sounds like the worst thing you could do to somebody. And who was this? The Michael Jackson's doctor? So Michael Jackson's doctor. Vladimir Putin. Who is currently serving time for manslaughter because he was the guy who gave him the drugs. But he was in the position to give him the drugs because he was like his most trusted, you know,

medical advocate. And like basically his entire job was being Michael Jackson's doctor. And he like traveled with him and, you know, gave him the drugs that ended up killing him. Uh, he said that, you know,

among the people I think were asking him about it, it's coming out now, I think because, uh, Joe Jackson passed away. Uh, the reference, because Joe Jackson passed away. The reference, he was like, yeah, the abuse that Michael underwent when he was a kid is just

terrible, and he was like, I mean, and the chemical castration thing is just incredible. Oh, so Michael confided in him or something? Yeah. Yeah, it seems like that's what he's saying, and also just as his doctor, I guess you would know that sort of thing. Right. I know my doctor asks me that every time I go in.

Right. Have you been chemically castrated? Yeah. Check. No. Not yet. There's a not yet box. All right.

That's going to do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show if you like the show. It means the world to Miles. He needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to you Monday. Bye. Thank you. Turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere 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?

It's right here in black and white and print. It's bigger than a flag or mascot. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre. Join us for the new podcast

Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of lucha libre. And I'm your host Santos Escobar, Emperor English, and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream 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.