So, is there anything you've been reading lately that you found interesting that I can say that you're wrong about.
This goes back to late April twenty twenty two and Marjorie Taylor Green right, she claimed that the Catholic Church is controlled by satan And then she went back later and clarified that she believes the Catholic Church is controlled
by Satanic Catholic bishops. The issue she had was that they were providing aid and assistance to people who didn't have money or housing, like, you know, the things that Jesus preached on dis Sermon of the Mount, you know, like helping people who are who are poor and disenfranchised. And she didn't like that particular group because she felt
that some of them were undocumented. But my question though, and what sticks in my craw and John, let me ask you, is she said the Catholic Church is controlled by Satanists, right, Okay, where's the proof? And then let's run with that. So, like you're a young novitate and you want to join the church, and like you're pulled in by the Satanists and then you become a priest and you worked your way up, and I mean if Satani it's controlled the church, John, how would they do it right?
I mean, first of all, there's an assumption, I think, based on your question, that there are Satanists like well, I don't know.
I've never met one, but I did grow up Catholic. I was an altar boy. You know. I spent my entire young life around priests, and I never saw anything with the child molestation stuff. Personally, I never saw any of that. I mean the priests I saw where genuinely most of them were really nice if you were stuck up, but none of them were Satanists. And most of these guys, or if they were really well. But I want to go back to Marjorie Taylor Green and say, well, a,
how do you know this? What's your proof? What bothers me is people make this claim the church is run by Satanists. If that's true, If what she's saying, she's a member of Congress. So I want to know where's the follow on, betw We call her office and ask her to prove this. You know, are they still Satanists? What's their agenda? I mean, she basically makes this claim and then she just walks away from it. And I
don't think she should. I think she should either say I was wrong, or here's my proof, or here's my research. I think you should know better.
What is she gonna do, How's she going to follow up? Where's her evidence? It doesn't work that way. You know that now, I know. I'm just throw shit out and see what sticks and just keep going.
That's all it is.
And you know that.
Why does she get a pass?
I think that's what's expected of her, and I think that's what gets her elected. And she is probably one of the best fundraisers in the Republican Party because the cruelty and the fact that it gets people riled up, and it gets their political enemies riled up. To the hardcore right wing Republicans, that is a good thing. And
so she's getting tons of money. She's helping out a lot of the other right wing maga Republicans get money because because she knows that this kind of stuff gets people like you and me and the rest of us worked up. Has become not about governing anymore. You are judged on how often you can get clicks on social media, how often you can get on Fox News or one of these other newsplaces, and how much money you can raise it enter. It's sort of angertainment if you will.
And does everybody accept this or just some people because I don't. In our past world, facts mattered, right, Facts will get you killed in Afghanistan. If you got a report that said Taliban is going to attack tomorrow night. If you said, like, well I don't believe that or that's a conspiracy, and they do, you're like you're dead.
Yes, let's hope that there's a professional class that still follows facts. But that post truth world, that's something our former boss, General Hayden, who was the head of CIA in NSA and the d and I Director of National Intelligence, wrote a book called the Post Truth World, and it really goes against sort of the culture that we grew
up in. Certainly, so what you bring up with Marger Charlie Green and how people are pushing call it what you will, just crap into the system, disinformation, misinformation, just trying to create chaos. Fascinating article I read, I think it was in the New York Times about this guy named John Mark Dugan. He was a former deputy sheriff in Florida, then got kicked out of there, went to Maine.
Was some sort of police officer and eventually got kicked out of there, but he's been masquerading online as a Russian tech worker. He defected to Russia. He lives in Moscow since twenty sixteen, and he's been very, very prolific in writing misinformation and disinformation on behalf of the Russian state. He creates these fake websites that mimic and look just like US news websites, and he does it in the
United States, Britain, and France, you know. And apparently he's just pumping these news articles and social media articles out with this kind of stuff mixed in, so it'll look like it's the San Francisco Chronicle and it'll have like regular stuff, and then in there will be some propaganda
and disinformation themes. And apparently his stuff as being seen by tens of millions of people, and he's got all these sort of fake websites and a lot of the things that we've seen, for example, around the Ukraine War, saying that Zelenski is corrupt and he's smuggling drugs and the US is involved in bioweapons, and saying the CIA
is working with Ukrainians to undermine Trump's campaign. All of these things are created by this American who fled to Russia in twenty sixteen, and he, even because he has such good English, he uses the phone to call into the United States, impersonating the FBI officer, and a number of other things to try to create havoc inside our system.
So we've discussed two different kinds of conspiracies here, one which I think we all agree was thrown out for effect. Right, I don't think anybody really believes the Catholic churches run by Satanists. And then you're talking about real conspiracies. Where's the line between the two is as conspiracy theories for fun and entertainment and for shock value, and conspiracies that actually try to change people's mind.
But the shock value raises money in our political system. But for bad actors overseas that see the United States's enemy, they understand that that same stuff that can hurt our polity, that can hurt our politics, that eventually people just see so much of this stuff they don't know what to believe. They understand the Russians, that is, the Chinese, Iranians and others that it weakens us. And the problem is we keep biting at it. Let's take a break, we'll be
right back, and we're back. But you know it's not just here, not just Russian. Like I think you shared an article with me about the amazing amount of conspiracies around the death of the Iranian president and the Iranian foreign minister who died in a helicopter crash a couple of weeks ago. There's stories suggesting that the Israelis might have been involved, that there was space weapons that could have been down that the US purposely, you know, because
of sanctions. You know, the thing fell apart when people don't understand how things work, or something big happens that they dis can't find an easy explanation for. Conspiracies follow right behind.
There's this famous story you may know it better than I do, where Stalin got up to make a speech back in the thirties and he had just taken control. He was the strong man, now he had no rivals. He gave this speech which was full full of bullshit. Right everybody knew it was wrong. And when he was done in this big hallway with thousands of people, everybody stood up and applauded, and they applauded and they applauded, and everybody started looking everybody else and realized, shit, who's
going to be the first one to sit down? Because all the KGB guys are watching. And it went on for eleven minutes, and it wasn't just a polite clap. This was like incredible applus to the maximum, mistent and cheers, and it was like, who's going to die of a heart attack first? And finally there was this really old guy and I understand he ran a paint factory and he finally like just sait it down because he physically
couldn't go anymore. And as soon as everybody saw one guy sit down, they all immediately stopped and they all sat down, and then the KGB guys came over and they escorted the guy out, and it was like not seen again. Everybody got the message you keep applauding because that can happen to you. And with a lot of the conspiracy theories, you know, like stolen elections, you got to say it even if you don't believe it.
But we see it now, don't you. I mean Donald Trump? You know it says gangster mentality and you know, making people complicit around you, and it seems like that he takes special pride in the people who were against him, the Marco Rubios of the world who read against him, S Cruce, Yeah, Ted Cruz said things that you know against him that have now come around, and they are so fawning that they've they've got under his thumb. And
I think that's a strong men mentality. It's like I have broken that person so much so that they've thrown away all their credibility now that they can never get it back. And therefore I own them and I will do what I want them to do. If you're going to be part of the new administration, you have to say, I actually put your hand in there. I believe that the election was stolen, and I believe the sky is red or whatever have you.
So I spent a lot of time in Zimbabwe with Mugabi, who was a leftist right, or at least he said he was, and they really did have a make Zimbabwi great again right. They would go back to the time where they won the war against Rhodesian got their independence, and he would continually go back to those days. And yet the statistics were clear that a independence from Rhodesia life expectancy for the average Zimbobbi and was sixty two.
Life expectancy when Mugabi left office was thirty eight, and yet he kept saying, I'm going to bring back those great old days. The facts were clear. They had over a million percent inflation, and yet nobody in Zim, if you wanted a government job or you didn't want to disappear, you had to say no, no, things are better now that he's making Zimbabwe great again, even though we've almost halfed our life expectancy and our currency has disappeared. And
yet such was a beautiful country too. It is I've been to Zimbabwe. It's fantastic, it is it's look, I love it. Great people. But what happened to them was a strong man said you must follow my You have to like basically lie for me. You have to do whatever I say, and you have to like believe what I say is true. And everybody knew it wasn't. And an entire country and an entire civil servants either they were fired or killed or the vast majority they just
went along with it. And I really worry that this could happen in any country, and to including our own. And so you have to tell a lie, You have to sell a little piece of your soul if you're in the club, and yeah, I'm looking at you, Ted Cruz. He said, your wife is ugly. He said your father helped kill ca entity. And it turns out he was working with David Pecker to come up with these lies, working against it was a conspiracy to make Ted Cruz
look bad, and it just came out. David Pecker has admitted under oath that he conspired with Trump and his people to come up with this fake story that Ted Cruz's father was a Ted Cruz.
Right, but now Ted Cruise has come around.
Ted Cruise has like sold his soul.
Now listen, Frankly, if anybody was going to sell her soul, I think would we would have bet on Ted Cruiser.
Well, that's true.
How about Joey for example, Just we just saw this with Nicky Haley, right, So that's right. If you go back and you look at the things she said when she was running against him, they were quite sharp, quite clear, like you know this this person is unfit for office. They should never be in this position. But then of course when it comes to will you vote for him, yes, she says yes she will, And so that's part of the game.
Yeah, he pulled the there was the birther Or conspiracy that he did with Obama, he pulled on her as well. And when her husband was serving, his.
Sort of denigrated her husband who worked in military.
That's right, her husband was serving in the military abroad, and he was laughing and saying where's her husband, as if he wasn't supporting her. And I don't know, I'm going to ask where's Milana with his during his trial?
All right, So I'll keep trying to look for interesting stories. We will try to find things that are a little more critical of the left wing politically. If we're going to talk politics, you know, if we can avoid politics, all the better. But in the meantime, please join us next time for a full episode of Mission Implausible.