1747 - "HiFi Intel"

I get it, you're a boomer. Adam Curry, John C. Dvorak. It's Sunday, March 16, 2025. This is your award-winning Gimbal Nation Media Assassination Episode 1747. This is no agenda. Lightly toasted but not burned and broadcasting live from the heart of the Texas Hill Country here in FEMA Region Number 6. In the morning everybody, I'm Adam Curry. And from Northern Silicon Valley where I should take the phone off the hook, I'm John C. Dvorak. One more still. In the morning. Was it ringing?

Was that the problem? It was ringing? Ring-a-ling, ding-a-ling? Probably will. Ring-a-ling, ding-a-ling? I was thinking the phrase phone off the hook. Oh, no one knows what that means. Boomer? Even my friends, my friends. Do you know what it means? Well, of course I know what it means. Even my friends are calling me boomer. What's the derivative? The derivative? What do you mean? I mean what, phone off, what, OK. OK, well back in the day you had a phone that had the mouthpiece hanging on a hook.

On a hook, yes. On a hook, and when it was, you hung it up on the hook, then the phone was disengaged from the network and ready to accept calls. But if you take it off the hook, it would engage and you would get a beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. I don't even remember what the busy signal sounds like. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do, something like that. Yeah. Yeah, everybody, welcome to Boomer Talk with Adam and John. I am literally, people who are my friends are now calling me boomer.

It doesn't even matter when you were born. At a certain point, it's just like, oh, he's 60, he's got to be a boomer. Boomers should just be 60. It's because you're so knowledgeable. That's what it is. Thank you. Yes, good point. But it kind of ruins the show. How do you know all these things? Oh, I get it. You're a boomer. That's a good point. Oh, wow. I'd never thought of it that way. You've once again changed my perception. Thank you. That feels much better. You're very welcome.

The, well, I don't know if you heard the news. Tonight, we're continuing our coverage of the massive Crab Apple Fire burning in Gillespie County. That's 10 miles north of Fredericksburg. According to the latest update, the wildfire is over 8,600 acres and is 0% contained. The Zion Lutheran Church on Main Street in Fredericksburg is hosting all evacuees. Crews are encouraging everyone who lives between Highway 16 North and FM 1631 in Ranch Road 1323 and Ranch Road 2721 to evacuate.

Well, this was rather exciting. Yeah, I got a couple of notes. We're hoping you're going to be okay. And then I hear it's 10 miles away. And somebody says 9,000 acres on fire. To me, California, that's a minor nuisance. Get out the garden hose. Yeah. And 10 miles is a long haul. Yes. Now, had the wind shifted, we would have been in trouble. But this really started, this even started on Friday. We've been under red flag watch. Do you have a lot of brush around your house?

You know, we have the grass is dry. We still have all over Texas a lot of dead trees from the snowpocalypse. You know, removing a dead tree is not cheap. No. It's several hundred dollars per tree. You can get some good burning wood. Yeah. So there's good burning wood literally sticking out of the ground. And the wind was, you know, 40 gusting 50. Luckily, it was going eastward. Otherwise, we would have been in trouble. Now, many of our friends, many people we know had to evacuate.

Most have been okay. We're not exactly sure of the damage. But some homes have burned down. I've always, whenever I drive through Texas and I see, you know, like 45 acres for sale, I'm like, I don't know if I'd want to live there with my farmhouse. For this very reason. But man, it started on Friday because we have pretty good, you know, the church ladies group text group is pretty good. So Tina says, oh, this is Friday. Tina says, oh, man, there's smoke over by Laura Logan's place.

Now, that's just down the road from here. So I grab a fire extinguisher like I know what I'm doing, jump in the car, speed over there. There's her husband, Joe, kind of like walking around sheepishly. Oh, yeah, yeah. Something caught fire and we put it out with the hose. But that's how kind of ready I was for something to happen. And then we were coming home. We went actually went shopping yesterday near San Antonio. And we start, you know, the phone starts blowing up.

And as we're driving and now we're miles away from home and you could see the smoke. It was quite large. And I didn't have to worry because, of course, our roof was painted blue. So I had no fear of anything. But, man, small-town America is great in these situations. There were kids, you know, like 19-year -olds putting horse trailers onto their truck, you know, hooking them up to their trucks, going out there, getting horses out. Cattle was being herded away. But it was pretty significant.

Austin was blanketed in smoke. And that's 80 miles away. And so, yeah, so we're okay. And I appreciate everyone asking. And kudos to the not just the helicopter pilots who do with the big bucket, but they have these water planes where the whole plane is basically one big bucket of water. And they were taking off three at a time from our airport. That's pretty gnarly if you've got, you know, 40-knot winds, crosswind gusting 50.

And they would go out, dump their water, come back, fill up again, go out. So it was pretty intense for a little bit there. But, yes, 10 miles is quite a ways away. So we were safe. But, you know, it's typical. Everyone hears Fredericksburg and they think, Curry's on fire. You've been on fire for years. Yeah, there it is. There it is. So, but I'll have more of a report on Thursday if there's anything to let people know about. But it was not, you know, we don't need FEMA.

Everyone else jumped in and just worked together. Oh, except for the 50 delusional Dems who throughout the whole afternoon were still protesting Elon Musk on the corner across from City Hall. They're like, get out of Ukraine, help Ukraine, go away Elon. Meanwhile, people are rolling up to the fire station with water and all kinds of stuff. And they're just out there protesting, like completely delusional. It was really quite interesting. Elon. Yeah. The delusional Dems, man.

It's something to behold, it really is. So, yeah, there's, you know, there's a lot going on. Yeah, well, let's talk about, first of all, they're bombing the hell out of the Houthis. Yeah, I got some clips. What you got on the Houthis? I got the BBC clip and then I've got two analysis clips from the BBC. All right. From a different report. This, again, is the BBC World Service. Ah, yes. Which I've been booked on because it's the short wave stuff, you know. Let me see.

Coming to you live from London, this is the BBC World Service. Toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot, toot. Yeah, that's it. And actually, they do make that did it, did it, did it song. I know they do. The United States has launched large-scale strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. Donald Trump said... Wow, where'd this guy come from? Isn't this the guy? Dude, he's got the biggest balls in the business. Yeah, this is the guy. I heard this guy.

He's not on all the time, but when he's on, he's, like, giving it to you. Whoa. BBC World Service. The United States has launched large-scale strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. Donald Trump said he had ordered decisive and powerful military action. The Houthi-run health ministry said at least 13 people were killed and nine more wounded. Merlin Thomas reports now from Washington.

The American president warned that hell would rain down on the Houthis unless they stopped attacking commercial shipping routes in and around the Red Sea. He also warned Iran that he would hold it fully accountable for the actions of its allies. The Houthis have been targeting maritime routes, saying they're acting in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza.

This latest move to target the group in Yemen appears to be Donald Trump's opening salvo to try to force Iran to the negotiating table over a nuclear agreement. President Trump has previously said that he'd like to make a deal with Tehran to limit their nuclear capabilities. Now, before we go to the analysis, you want to hear Rubio from This Morning on CBS Face the Nation?

Yes. Mr. Secretary, for our audience, just to explain, this Red Sea area is a really important transit point for global shipping. The Houthis out of Yemen have been disrupting transit there for some time. President Trump cited these concerns when he announced the strikes. I'm wondering, how long will this campaign last and will it involve ground forces?

Well, first of all, the problem here is that this is a very important shipping lane and in the last year and a half, the last 18 months, the Houthis have struck or attacked 174 naval vessels of the United States, attacking the U.S. Navy directly 174 times, and 145 times they've attacked commercial shipping. So we basically have a band of pirates with guided-precision anti-ship weaponry and exacting a toll system in one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.

That's just not sustainable. We are not going to have these people controlling which ships can go through and which ones cannot. And so your question is, how long will this go on? It will go on until they no longer have the capability to do that. I'll just play one more. This is my favorite thing. Rubio cracks me up. He'll crack you up even more with this because we're doing the world a favor, people. Well, what does U.S. intelligence tell us at this point?

Because the U.S. had been conducting strikes for some time but has not stopped the Houthis. So what's going to be different right now? Do you have more fidelity in the intelligence that would make this more successful? Well, those strikes were retaliation strikes. So they launched one missile, we hit the missile launcher, or we sent something to do it. This is not a message. This is not a one-off. This is an effort to deny them the ability to continue to constrict and control shipping.

And this is not going to happen. We're not going to have these guys, these people with weapons, able to tell us where our ships can go, where the ships of all the world can go, by the way. It's not just the U.S. We're doing the world a favor. We're doing the entire world a favor by getting rid of these guys and their ability to strike global shipping. That's the mission here, and it will continue until that's carried out.

This is an effort to take away their ability to control global shipping in that part of the world. That's just not going to happen anymore. So this will continue until that's finished. It could involve ground raids? Well, those are military decisions to be made, but I've heard no talk of ground raids. I don't think there's a necessity for it right now.

I can tell you that as of last night, some of the key people involved in those missile launches are no longer with us, and I can tell you that some of the facilities that they use are no longer existing, and that will continue. Look, it's bottom line, easy way to understand it, okay? These guys are able to control what ships can go through there. They've attacked the U.S. Navy 174 times. They've attacked the United States Navy. We're not going to have people sitting around

with the missiles attacking the U.S. Navy. It's not going to happen, not under President Trump. I particularly like the constant use of these people or those people. And I want Pete Hegseth. He's othering. He's othering. He is othering them. Can you play the beginning of that clip again because there's a little phrase in there I got to kick out of? Yeah. The president also referenced Iran in his statement. Iran provides some— Oh, sorry, that's not it. This is it. Here we go.

Well, what does U.S. intelligence tell us at this point? Because the U.S. had been conducting strikes for some time but has not stopped the Houthis. Why is she laughing? Did you hear her laughing? There's a little laugh tale in there. Hold on a second. Conducting strikes for some time but has not stopped the Houthis. So what's going to be different right now? Do you have more fidelity in the intelligence that would make this more successful? Yes, we have more fidelity.

Fidelity in the intelligence. It's hi-fi. What kind of code is that? We got hi-fi intelligence, baby. Hi-fi. Hi-fi intel. Hi-fi—why don't you put that as his show title? I just wrote it down. Hi-fi intel. Hi-fi intel. I knew I'd get it eventually. Fidelity in intelligence. Yes, hi-fi intel. So that's one of those—it's like a Silicon Valley phrase, only this is for that community. That's in line with—ah, what's that phrase that Buzzkill Jr. was using all the time? Oh, right.

I forgot what that is, too. The movement, the direction of travel. Yeah, the velocity or something. No, it wasn't velocity. Vector. The thought vector. Thought vector, some crazy crap. There's another one I've got to write down. Thought vector. Thought vector. I like thought vector. We should just use it. Yes, because it sounds— How's the fidelity of your intelligence today, Adam? Well, the thought vector of this boomer is really deep, John. Let me just tell you.

Wow. The direction of my thinking that—I can't remember what the directionally— I know, I called him out on it at the dinner table, too. I wish I remembered. Oh, well. Yes, we're— The trolls are asleep. The more boomery you get, the more you do this stuff. The more you forget. And you forget. It's too much. I forget all those things. So, let's go back to the BBC and start the analysis part one. That ceasefire, of course, is now becoming much more— Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. This is part one.

The defense analyst, Jonathan Marcus, told us about the strikes. They seem to have involved jets, armed unmanned aerial vehicles, drones. They've been striking, according to the Americans, radars, weapons stores, missiles, air defenses, that kind of thing. But also a clear indication from the Americans that this could be just the start of a mini air campaign, if you like. This doesn't seem to be just a one -off set of strikes.

Mr. Trump seems to be serious about really delivering a significant blow. But one also has to say that the Houthis have obviously been struck many times before. In the Biden administration, the United Kingdom and the United States attacked Houthi targets a number of times in response to the Houthis' strikes on commercial shipping in the Red Sea. And whilst they hit targets and the damage, I'm sure, was done, it didn't seem to deter the Houthis from sticking to their guns, as it were.

So we'll have to see now whether the different administration, an administration that is perhaps less predictable, perhaps more erratic in some ways, whether that concentrates their minds any better. As you say, this is a different administration, the biggest U.S. military operation in the Middle East since Donald Trump took office. Why now? Well, it's the biggest military operation since Trump took office, full stop. I think now for a number of reasons.

The Houthis are firm allies of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Now, those attacks against commercial shipping largely halted in the wake of the ceasefire, if you want to call it that, in Gaza. Hmm. I like the erratic nature of people's understanding of our president. Like, the guy's crazy. You don't know what he's going to do next. That's actually an image. It's a plus. It's a plus. It is a plus.

In fact, if you follow it closely enough, I think that we, as we do, and others, it's nothing surprising about any of it. No, no, it's right on cue, really, if you think about it. Anyway, onward with part two. That ceasefire, of course, is now becoming much more afraid and much more uncertain. But also, particularly in the last few weeks, the Houthis fired on an American F-16 jet, missing it. It looks as though they probably downed a

U.S. Reaper drone, unmanned aerial vehicle, a couple of weeks or so, 10 days, a couple of weeks ago. I'm not entirely sure the precise date. And it seems to have been those attacks against American weapon systems that focused mines in Washington, and President Trump ultimately signed off approval for these attacks that have taken place overnight. How does this fit in with Mr. Trump's Iran strategy? Well, it's very much, as he sees it, part and parcel of that.

I mean, to the American administration, really all American administrations, the Houthis are seen as in some sense acting, if not at the behest of Iran, certainly clear allies of Tehran. I think many analysts would argue that the Houthis are, to some extent, a much more independent actor than just simply a stooge for the Iranians. But Mr. Trump pulled no punches.

I mean, in one of his usual sort of capitalized pronouncements, he turned to Iran after dealing with the Houthis and said that support for the Houthi terrorists, as he put it, must end immediately in capitals. Don't threaten the American people, their president, or worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, beware, capitalized again, because America will hold you fully accountable.

So not just a threat to the Houthis by these air attacks, but an implicit and direct threat to Tehran that Washington holds Iran in some way responsible for the Houthis' future actions. I think this also may be a part of bringing down the cost of living, because that shipping lane, a lot of ships have said, no, we're just not going to do it. We're going to go around the long way. Yes, this is true. You know, the Jones Brothers syndicate is starting doing something new.

Steve Jones, Sunday is a pretty important day in mainstream media in America, because everyone, oh, we got these important Sunday shows. Oh, it's a very important Sunday show. So he recorded some more about this. Mike Waltz, he's the envoy, is he not, to the Middle East? Waltz, isn't he the negotiator? I should have a chart hanging here of all these guys. With yarn and sticky pins. Yarn and pins. He was on with Martha Raddatz.

And Mr. Waltz, let me read from what President Trump said on Truth Social. He said, to Iran, support for the Houthi terrorists must and immediately do not threaten the American people or worldwide shipping lanes. If you do, beware, because America will hold you fully accountable. Does that mean direct military action on Iran is possible? Oh, yeah. Everyone loves this. What they need is a national security adviser. What we need is someone. I don't think it's in this sport.

Someone has to say Iran is only two weeks away from the nuclear bomb. I'm just waiting for that. All options are always on the table with the president. Another phrase. Yeah. All options are on the table. Iran needs to hear him loud and clear. It is completely unacceptable and it will be stopped. The level of support that they've been providing the Houthis, just like they have Hezbollah, just like they have the militias in Iraq, Hamas and others.

The difference here is the Houthis have incredibly sophisticated air defenses. And they also have anti-shipping, cruise missiles, drones, sea skimming types. Anti-shipping drones? This is a new thing. Anti-shipping or anti-ship? I think he meant anti-ship. And they also have anti-shipping cruise missiles. We have free shipping and anti-shipping. Which option do you want? Free shipping here at Amazon. Sea skimming types of attack drones and other ballistic missiles even.

They've launched dozens of attacks on multiple warships. Dozens of attacks. Over 175 on global commerce. Sank multiple ships. I just think the American people need to understand what has happened here. The previous administration had a series of feckless responses. President Trump is coming in. Overwhelming force. We will hold not only the Houthis accountable, but we're going to hold Iran, their backers accountable as well. And if that means they're targeting ships that they have put in to help.

They're Iranian trainers, IRGC and others. Intelligence, other things that they have put in to help the Houthis attack the global economy. Those targets will be on the table too. You hear that? The global economy. There it is. There's part of it. Let's bring down the prices everybody. Let's shorten up those shipping lanes. It fits in with the message from Rubio. Yes, it does. I got one more here. The president has said Iran will not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.

A week ago, warning that Iran. Something is going to happen very, very soon that will solve the problem if there is no peace deal. Talking about nuclear weapons. So what is he talking about? Is he talking about a possible strike on the nuclear facilities by Israel? And would the U.S. join in that? Yeah, the Jews are going to do it again for us. Well, what the president has repeatedly said is that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. All options are on the table to ensure it does not have one.

And that's all aspects of Iran's program. That's the missiles, the weaponization, the enrichment. They can either hand it over and give it up in a way that is verifiable. Or they can face a whole series of other consequences. But either way, we cannot have a world with the Ayatollahs with their finger on the nuclear button. We cannot have a situation that would result in an arms race across the Middle East in terms of nuclear proliferation.

And President Trump is determined, one way or another, Iran has been offered a way out of this to make sure that we don't have a world that can be threatened by a radical regime. Not only our ally Israel, but the entire world that would be threatened by a radical regime that could destroy not only Israel, but its neighbors and have the capability to hit the United States. We cannot imagine a situation like that, and we're not going to have it.

We always have to take into account that we hear from our Iranian friends that America and Iran pretty much always work together. The Iranians always like, well, it's a big show. This could be maybe a saving a face in a way, and also shutting down those annoying Houthis. Yeah. You know, it's like... It could be something. But, I mean, there's something that seems to be triggered by the fact that nobody responded to Trump's letter. Right. Didn't they say that they didn't even receive it?

Must have gotten lost in the mail. Lost in the mail, yeah. When the President of the United States sends a letter, does that go through USPS? Because that could take months internationally. Well, it's usually... Our side is pretty quick. It's when it hits the overseas mail system. Yeah. Something's very long. Usually stuff gets stolen. No, I mean, we have not received Willow's Christmas card, which she sends in November, before February ever. So it takes three months. More than three months.

Yeah. Why is that? I don't know. Now, we have enough mail carriers and USPS professionals that we might be able to get some information from. Yeah, maybe one of them will tell us, but definitely something happens. Yeah. Are we maybe looking at each individual piece, or we don't have enough people? Well, it's also possible that it's because of the privatization of the European postal services that they just suck when it comes to international. It's been pretty... Yes, I think they did.

Well, they've never... Our postal service has always been the best in the world. From what I can tell, I've never heard of... I mean, even in Canada, it's a problem up there. There's jokes. I mean, it's like running gags about how long it takes for something to happen. Except for Newman. Okay, that fell flat. You don't remember Newman? Newman was the postal carrier in the Seinfeld show. Yeah, he was horrible. But he wasn't a Canadian. No, no, no, no. That's where it fell flat.

No, you said ours is the best in the world. I said, except for Newman. Oh, except for Newman. Well, actually, there's also those nasty Federal Express commercials, if you remember those from about 20 years ago. No. Where they had the two people yakking, the two postal service people yakking, and then the mail kept flopping onto the floor because they were talking, because they didn't care. And somebody says, are you anybody here? You know, that sort of thing.

So it has been derided, but in fact, it's still pretty good. Well, I will say, you know, we got that big box from noagendachocolates.com, from the Frankenmuth people. Yeah. And it was there for a couple weeks at the post office. We just hadn't been. And we picked it up, and we opened it, and the mice had definitely gotten into it. Mice? Yeah. From the post office? Yep. Yep. Now, it didn't matter to us. We were just like, oh, this one still looks okay. We'll keep that one.

We're not throwing any of this stuff out that hasn't been nibbled at. It's still good to go. Well, mice love chocolate. Chocolate, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know, there's been a decloaking of sorts that happened, of course, on MSNBC of these town hall issues. The Republican town halls. Yeah, with the fake protesters. Yes. So I'll play the set up first. MSNBC? I thought they'd stick with the program, which is that all these Republicans are hating on Trump all of a sudden.

No, no. Well, first I'll play the ABC report. This is the messaging as we're supposed to receive it, that Republicans are outraged at Doge. A Republican congressman's town hall erupting into chaos. Put out. North Carolina congressman Chuck Edwards getting an earful on everything from President Trump's tariffs to Elon Musk's downsizing of the government. Massive scale. The town hall contentious from the start.

A man identifying himself as a veteran was escorted out, screaming profanities at the congressman over federal job cuts. That right there is the clue, of course, that these are not Republicans because they are screaming profanities. Right, because right now- That's what they do. Exactly. That's a giveaway now. It is. And remember, profanity is the sign of a weak mind trying to express itself. The crowd often booing when Musk or Trump was mentioned.

Like him or not, Elon Musk has brought a lot of really smart people to Doge. And- Yeah, that's Republicans, all right. 2,000 people showing up. Fewer than 400 were allowed in. Some seemed banging on the door. Republican leaders have encouraged members not to hold in-person town halls because of frequent disruptions. They say Democrats are hiring outside agitators, which Democrats deny. Okay, so this is what is so crazy about this decloaking.

Because the accusation is they're bringing in outside agitators who they're paying. And enter on MSNBC with Steele, the former Republican, Leah Greenberg from the Indivisible Project. And she is literally going to sit and say, well, no one's getting paid, but we're doing it. Democrats in and out of Congress are outraged at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

After he supported a key procedural vote that eventually led to the passage of a Republican spending bill, a bill supported by Donald Trump. Now, the move has exposed fissures in the Democratic Party as it faces the crucial question of how to use its limited power to counter Trump and MAGA Republicans' efforts to remake the federal government.

New polls show the public beginning to sour on Trump's policies, and some Democrats see Schumer's decision as a missed opportunity to win back voters and capitalize on the disappointment many Americans are already feeling. Well, we're going to get into it with the co-founder and co-executive director of the Indivisible Project, Leah Greenberg. So you're going to be astounded by these admissions here. We represent grassroots groups all over the country, thousands of them.

They are in every community, small areas, big cities. Some of them are center-left, some of them are progressive. Where they are united is that they understand this is an emergency and they want to see people fight back using every tool they've got in the toolbox. And frankly, there's been a huge disconnect over the last few months.

Democrats on Capitol Hill have been having one conversation about how do they break through on lower prices, and they have not been listening to all of their constituents who are expressing the kind of alarm, fear, anger about what is happening and want to see them fighting back in the moment. And it's not that lower prices isn't a crucial part of the story that we tell.

It's not that that's not an important part of how we're going to break through and win back more people, but it is really tone-deaf to only focus on that in a moment when Donald Trump is taking a chainsaw to the federal government. Okay, so we have grassroots, thousands of them, grassroots, but no one's getting paid. All the way up to the president say that these folks who are showing up to town halls in the Republicans' district, they are activists or they are actually not constituents.

They're paid. What do you say to that? They're paid! They're paid! Not their actual constituents that are coming there. Well, this is just a transparently ridiculous claim, right? These are people who are rooted in their communities. We often will have a local indivisible group that's making sure lots of people know about a town hall, right? But the people who come, they're people who just got their benefits cut. They're people whose, you know, their son lost his job.

They're people who are furious about what's going on because they are being directly impacted by all of these negative consequences and they want to see their representative fighting back. And, you know, what I've seen with this claim, we had this in 2017 when we first got started. Republicans said, oh, all those people who are mad about the Affordable Care Act, they're paid protesters. They stopped that eventually because you know what really makes your constituents very, very mad?

Is if you're calling them paid protesters while they're coming to you with their incredibly heartfelt concerns. And so it's a claim that's ridiculous and it's a claim that always backfires because it makes you look like you're not listening to your real people. Well, the backfiring is the Indivisible Project at Indivisible.org, a joint website of Indivisible Project and Indivisible Action. Indivisible Project is a registered 501c4.

That means they are a, you can't actually deduct your contribution to them because they're political. Indivisible Action is a hybrid political action committee, a PAC. And indeed they, according to GuideStar, in 2022, because they haven't filed their 23 or 24 paperwork, or at least it's not on GuideStar yet, they have $12 million they raised this year. And what do you know on the website? Charitable donations made through this form are received and processed by... ActBlue. ActBlue, yes indeed.

I said a few weeks ago, y'all don't need your member to call a town hall. You just said you're organizing town halls in red districts, blue districts, purple districts, every district you can. Talk about that organization. How do people feed into that? How does that word get out to them, particularly in those communities in some of the reddest parts of the country, like Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, etc.? They are literally explaining what they're doing. Okay, they're not paid.

But this is an entire Democrat Party operation. If those members don't hold a town hall meeting. Absolutely. So what we tell our folks is, your representative should hold a town hall. It is part of their job to interact with the public. Some of them are not doing it. They've decided that they would rather take the hit for being out of touch, for avoiding their district, than get out in public and get yelled at by their angry constituents. And so, you don't actually have to wait for them.

Yelled at by an organized group. Yeah, completely organized, completely coordinated. District, then get out in public and get yelled at by their angry constituents. And so, you don't actually have to wait for them. You can hold that town hall. You schedule it, you invite them. If they come, that's great. But if they don't come, have an empty chair. We used to say, have a live chicken on stage. We don't say that anymore because of avian flu.

But if you've got a chicken suit, then yeah, bring the chicken suit. Chicken suits incoming. And represent what they are actually doing in Washington. What we're seeing when we do this is that these are sold out. People want to come. People want to be involved in the process right now. People are incredibly eager to hear from their representatives. And if they cannot hear from their representatives, then they're incredibly eager to make their representatives hear from them.

Okay. So, it is AstroTurf. That's what it is. I'm sure people are mad, but it's organized madness. And just to accentuate— Well, the Democrats are mad. So, you bring in—you have a Republican who won the area. The Republicans aren't going to go to this thing. They already won. The guy's doing fine. They like Trump. They're happy. They're going on and on about how the Republicans are turning on Trump. There's no evidence of this at all.

No. But if I'm an irked Democrat and I'm insane and I like to cuss a lot, I can just go into it and say, Yeah, I'm a Republican, and F-you, F -you, F-you. I don't like what you're doing, and I don't like Doge. F-you, F-you. And to accentuate the delusional Democrat profanity, here is Senator Mark Kelly. Hey, folks. Mark Kelly here in Washington, driving to work for the last time in my Tesla. When I bought this thing, I didn't think it was going to become a political issue.

Every time I get in this car in the last 60 days or so, it reminds me of just how much damage Elon Musk and Donald Trump is doing to our country. There are some things I really liked about it. There are things I didn't like about it. But that doesn't matter. What matters is doing the right thing. I think it's time to get rid of it. Elon Musk kind of turned out to be an asshole, and I don't want to be driving a car built and designed by an asshole. There you go. Oh, so mature.

Remember, this is democracy, and we must always remember the wise words of Ranish, also known as Osho. Because democracy basically means government by the people, of the people, for the people. But the people are retarded. I love that guy. The people are retarded. That's true. That's true. Since you're talking about Schumer, let's go over the Schumer thing, because this became a big... I mentioned the newsletter.

Schumer said, you know, we should vote for this thing, because otherwise it's going to get worse or something. They have all these different reasons. And then all the Democrats turned on Schumer. Pelosi said he should be hung by the yardarm. Did she say that? Did she say that publicly? No, I don't think so. She publicly condemned him. Okay. So we can play Schumer passes continuing resolution bill, which is the NPR clip, I think.

The Senate has passed a short-term spending bill that avoids government shutdown and pays for government operations for six months. NPR's Elena Moore reports. Senate Republicans hold a majority in the chamber, but they needed Democratic votes to overcome a filibuster and get the measure to a final vote. For that procedural vote, a total of 10 Democrats sided with Republicans to advance the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer was one of them and argued that allowing the GOP to pass their bill was a better move than shutting down the government. The CR bill is a bad bill. But as bad as the CR is, I believe that allowing Donald Trump to take even more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option. But that decision has caused rifts within the Democratic Party. You know, the CR, I mean, this was a setup from the get-go. I mean, everybody knew this was going to pass.

Johnson sent the Republicans home right after they voted and the Democrats didn't vote until the next day. You don't send them home if you think it's not going to make it. This was set up. I mean, I'm not sure why Schumer is doing it other than shutdown suck. Or what's that in your mouth? Hey, Chuck, what's that with you and Anthony Weiner? What's this picture about? Possibly. But he did get eight other Democrats to vote, didn't he?

Yeah, they were going to get a few anyway because, I mean, Fetterman was going to vote for it. And then there's some people in swing areas that could be ousted by Republicans that were fearful. Fetterman is the most interesting guy to me. He is pretty funny. He doesn't care. Well, but the thing, in the beginning, people like his wife is moving his mouth. He can't even operate. And now he seems to have regained his functions. And you're right, he doesn't care.

And he's kind of like a secret weapon over there for the Republicans. Yeah, they don't know. The Democrats don't know what to do with it. They just ignore him. I mean, they're trying. I mean, Pelosi still got her influence, but they got all kinds of issues. But let's just do the analysis of this Schumer promotion. Another spending cycle. Another barely-avoided government shutdown. Another shutdown is very logical. After the Senate just... Just... Oh, man. I want to hear that again.

The Senate just managed to pass a partisan stopgap spending bill. But that was only possible with help from a few Democratic lawmakers, which has riled up their congressional colleagues. And our congressional correspondent Barbara Sprint joins us. Barbara, thanks for being with us. Hey, thanks for having me. This was an abrupt shift from the minority leader, Chuck Schumer. What happened? That's right.

Schumer had said Republicans didn't get input from Democrats when drafting this bill, and so they wouldn't get the Democratic votes they'd need to advance it. Instead, he wanted to pass a one-month funding bill to give them more time to negotiate a deal. But on Thursday, he made a U-turn, and he said he was going to vote to advance the bill. Schumer and the nine other Democrats who ultimately voted alongside him argued the bill was bad, yes, but a government shutdown would be worse.

They said it would enable President Trump and his top advisor, Elon Musk, to further gut federal agencies. And their support enabled Republicans to ultimately pass the bill largely along party lines. Barbara, would it be fair to say that Senator Schumer's colleagues just didn't see this coming? It would be fair. I was at a conference in Virginia with House Democrats when Schumer made this announcement. I saw jaws drop. I saw heads shake. Is she a journalist, or is she a party member?

What is she doing over there? I would think she's a journalist, but I'm glad you caught that, because what she's talking about, that she was at that closed... The off-site. They had a big off-site. The closed off-site where the Democrats are trying to strategize what they're going to do. So what's she doing there? Yeah, she's helping them strategize. Hey, we're here. NPR's all for you. Go, go, go. It would be fair.

I was at a conference in Virginia with House Democrats when Schumer made this announcement. I saw jaws drop. I saw heads shake. Members were really upset. They said they felt betrayed because they had voted on this same bill earlier this week, and all but one voted against it. It was a tough vote for a lot of members, particularly those in vulnerable districts, but the caucus banded together to present a united front and make a strong show of opposition.

They said that the bill was essentially a blank check for Trump because it doesn't rein in the administration's efforts to cut spending that was previously approved by Congress. Yeah, but isn't this the blank check that Biden and Johnson put together? It's just a continuation of what already was, no? Yeah. They were happy with it. A little extra dough for the Defense Department. A little extra. A little extra dough. 700 billion extra. Just a little. Just a little extra.

It wasn't that much extra. No, the whole thing is about 800 max total. Oh, total. So some extra dough. They're trying to keep it under a trillion. Even though the Chinese can do the same amount of work for 200 billion. It's interesting that the Chinese are more efficient than we are. Doge has not yet gone into the Defense Department. Once they do, it'll be interesting. Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. I don't know about that. Here's the last of it. No, you have two more. This is your second one.

Here's New York Congressman Joe Morelli reacting to Schumer's comments. I think they're going to rue the day they make this decision. I think this just gives license to Republicans to continue to dismantle the government. They now have the acquiescence of Senate Democrats. Members told me they were calling and texting their senators, imploring them not to vote alongside Schumer. So a lot of frustration and anger among House Democrats.

Barbara, what's the implication of this rift among Democrats at a time when after all, Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. You really have to label these clips when the sky is coming on? Because I need to know ahead of time. I really do need to know. Barbara, what's your problem? You know what? By the way, they discuss it a little bit or it's kind of an undertone, but the subtext, I think, of the anger on the House side is that, hey, we could have voted.

You're going to just pass it. We're in a couple of districts over here that we can get kicked out by some upcoming Republicans. It would make us look a little better if we voted yes on this after you guys screwed us. Oh, interesting point. If you listen to the subtext, that's all they're complaining about is that, oh, wow, you guys screwed us. I would have voted yes if I had known you were going to do that. Who were the people who voted yes? One guy in the House voted yes. That's a Democrat.

Now he's looking good. Yeah, yes, Rebecca Scott. House Democrats felt that they finally had some momentum as the opposition party. The vote over the shutdown was a rare and big piece of leverage for them. To have unity in the House and then have the Senate Democrats shift course at this late stage is a breakdown in strategy. And New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that it has implications, in her view, far beyond this one vote.

There will be a day where the Senate will need the House to move on something. And if there is an erosion of trust and a breach of trust, such as what is being considered right now, it will make cooperation difficult. After the vote, she posted that the Democratic votes in the Senate were a, quote, fear -based inexplicable abdication and that the Senate owns what happens next.

You know, I talked to Democratic strategists about this yesterday and they said that Senate leadership really misread what constituents want. For Democrats to hold the line, even if it means a shutdown. There's concern that this emboldens the GOP, makes it harder for Democrats to present a unified message. Now, Congress is on recess next week. I expect Democrats will be getting an earful from constituents. Okay, so Schumer voted for it. Fetterman voted for it.

Cortez Mastro of Nevada, Nevada, Nevada, Nevada, Nevada, voted for it. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Gary Peters of Michigan, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Jean Shaheen of New Hampshire, and Angus King of Maine, who is independent but he's kind of on the Democrat side. This was also, in an interesting way, a moment for AOC to shine. I don't know if you noticed that. But she was everywhere.

And it would be fun to watch but there's a lot of noise now. Oh, AOC, she's going to run for president in 2028. Yes! And you know what? I have to tell you, she's got a shot. You predicted this when she first showed up on the scene. You made this idiotic, and I'll say it. Yeah, you can say it all you want. You said the same when I said about Trump. I also said Trump would win. That this bonehead is going to run for president. Yep, she's going to run.

Yes. I said she could do it, just like I said Trump could do it in 2015. And let's always remember, I predicted the Pope, so you know, Pope. Well, if you predict the next Pope, then I'll defer a little bit more. A little bit more? A little bit more? Well, first of all, this Pope isn't dead yet, so a little respect, please. According to what we know. Well, this is true. We don't really know. We're not actually sure. We're not sure he's alive. Here's your final anal clip.

Donald Trump owns the chaos in government. He owns the chaos in the stock market. He owns the damage happening to the economy. But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer may end up owning some political pain from the shutdown that wasn't. And our senior contributor Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks so much for being with us. Good to be with you, Scott. What is in the spending agreement to keep the government funded, and why might it come back to haunt the minority leader politically?

It's already haunting him. First off, this is not the main event for this year in spending and policy. It's not the package Trump calls his one big beautiful bill. That showdown is coming later. Last night was a vote on what's called a continuing resolution. We sometimes call it a stopgap spending bill. It's a hangover from last year's failed budget process, and it keeps the government running even though the regular spending bills were not enacted last year.

We've been running on these stopgaps since last October. They extend the budgeting resolutions of last year with relatively small changes for defense and domestic spending. So the real fight this week was over what this resolution did not do. It was written by Republicans in the House and Senate. It did not put up a stop sign or guardrails for Trump and Elon Musk. So the current assault on federal agencies and their employees will continue, with the only pushback really coming from the courts.

And a lot of Democrats, certainly the House Democrats, thought the Senate Democrats ought to vote no and confront Trump here, even if it meant a shutdown. Here's House Democratic leader. By the way, this guy's, uh, his, uh, his fake teeth are clacking. You notice that? Yeah. Listen, listen carefully. You'll hear it. It's like clicking and clacking. Coming from the courts.

And a lot of Democrats, certainly the House Democrats, thought the Senate Democrats ought to vote no and confront Trump here, even if it meant a shutdown. Here's House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, yesterday being asked about Schumer's future. Is it time for new leadership in the Senate? Next question. Yeah, no. Next question. Like, no comment. Yeah. Look, Schumer and nine other Democrats decided voting for a resolution they hated was the lesser of two evils.

They know Trump will see it as a green light, but they believe a shutdown right now would be worse, like waving a red cape in front of a bull. Um, you know what I'm missing in this report? Did they ever talk to Republicans ever at NPR? No, why bother? There's not even, not even the... They bring Mike Johnson in once in a while to put you to sleep. It's a sonambulistic style. Sonambulistic. That's a good one. What does that mean? Sonambulistic? Sleepy. Sleepy. Sleepy.

Or putting you, he puts you to sleep. He's a soft-spoken guy. I'm going to set you up for your Khalil clips. Oh, yes. Good old Khalil. Muhammad... Muhammad... And I'll set you up with Secretary of State Rubio. Got a couple clips from him this morning saying everything but what it's really about. I want to ask you about a decision you made to revoke a student visa for someone at Columbia University this past week.

The Wall Street Journal editorial board writes, the administration needs to be careful. It's targeting real promoters of terrorism, not breaking the great promise of a green card by deporting anyone with controversial political views. Can you substantiate any form of material support for terrorism, specifically to Hamas, from this Columbia student? Or was it simply that he was espousing a controversial political point of view? Well, not just the student. We're going to do more.

In fact, every day now we're approving visa revocations, and if that visa led to a green card, the green card process as well. And here's why. It's very simple. That's a new version of epiphora. Instead of saying why, he says, and here's why. It's kind of a new take on doing it. That's probably a better way of doing it. Oh, it's much better. The reason I say that is because Horowitz does this. He does. You're talking long, and then you pause, and then you go, why? So it lacks smoothness.

This is smoother, which Rubio is a smooth character. Visa led to a green card, the green card process as well. And here's why. It's very simple. When you apply to enter the United States and you get a visa, you are a guest. And you're coming as a student, you're coming as a tourist, or what have you. And in it, you have to make certain assertions. And if you tell us when you apply for a visa, I'm coming to the U .S. to participate in pro-Hamas events.

That runs counter to the foreign policy interest of the United States of America. It's that simple. So you lied. You came, if you had told us that you were going to do that, we never would have given you the visa. Now you're here. Now you do it. So you lied to us. You're out. You lied! You lied. Okay. Okay. Well, they're not giving up easy there at Face the Nation. But is there any evidence of a link to terrorism, or is it just his point of view?

Hey, we all know that in America, even soccer moms can be terrorists, okay? I mean, come on, CBS. Yeah, they take over, I mean, you should watch the news. These guys take over entire buildings. They vandalize- We covered it! We are the news! I'm asking about the specific justification for the revocation of his visa. Was there any evidence of material that the spokesperson was the negotiator? Negotiating on behalf of people that took over a campus that vandalized buildings? Negotiating over what?

That's a crime in and of itself, that they're involved in being the negotiator, the spokesperson, this, that, the other. We don't need these people in our country. We never should have- This is one of my pet peeves. I'm hearing this a lot more. This, that, and the other. It's... Maybe it's just me. Well, you know, I have the same pet peeve with Mike Levin. Does he say this, that, and the other?

He's always saying, and so forth, and so on, and so forth, and so forth, and he'll just, he says, and so on, and so forth, and he says, and so on, and so forth, all the time. I've been wanting to put a super clip together of it, a super cut, of it just going, and so forth. It's just annoying. Yes, this, that, and the other. Well, Rubio is now making a point that negotiating, taking over a building and being the negotiator is a crime. That is a terroristic crime. That vandalize buildings?

Negotiating over what? That's a crime in and of itself, that they're involved in being the negotiator, the spokesperson, this, that, and the other. We don't need these people in our country that we never should have allowed them in in the first place. Now that you point it out, by the way, now I'm going to be hearing it. Yeah, you're going to hear it everywhere. It's everywhere.

If he had told us I'm going over there, and I'm going over there to become the spokesperson and one of the leaders of a movement that's going to turn- Well, of course he's not going to tell you that, Marco. One of your allegedly elite colleges upside down. People can't even go to school. Library buildings being vandalized. We never would have let him in. We never would have let him in to begin with.

And now that he's doing it and he's here, he's going to leave, and so are others, and we're going to keep doing it. And by the way, I find it ironic that a lot of these people out there defending the First Amendment speech, alleged free speech rights of these Hamas sympathizers, they had no problem, okay, pressuring social media to censor American political speech. So, I think it's ironic and hypocritical.

But is there any- So, before we continue with this, and it sounds like the Secretary of State is saying, well, he lied on his application, you know, it's like, are you going to be disruptive in America? No! No, of course not. So he lied on his application, and the taking over of a building is in of itself a crime. So, a lot of people all across the political spectrum are very upset by this. They feel that you have a right to the freedom of speech, or as some say, free speech!

And I shall read an email that we received, which I think kind of kicked off your- Before you do that, before you read the email, I want to point out something because it will go into my analysis coming up. Is that when Rubio is full of it, and he's promoting the narrative that's in play, which is what we're hearing. He talks fast. Oh, that's a good tell. That's his tell. He speeds up. Rubio starts going like a maniac. He just goes crazy. You're right.

And there is a difference between a visa and a green card. A green card is a version of a visa, but you would think it's rather extreme to take someone out for this. Especially a student. Of course, as we're about to learn, the student is 31, been married, has a kid coming up, so it's valid student. At 31, you can be a student. If any of our daughters were students at 31, I'd tell them to get their act together.

So here's the email we received, which I think started off some searching on our part. Subject. Useful idiot for Israel! Oh, this one. This is a good one. If you're going to bring this into the show, it's a good one. It's too good. You are a pawn to perhaps the greatest human atrocity of our lifetime. You defend Israel as they bomb hospitals and aid stations. And by the way, before we continue, I have looked at this guy. He's not a donor to the show. No. He's a drive-by.

His name is Blockman Bing. I mean, come on. Yeah, he's a drive-by. He's a drive-by, but I guess, I don't think we've ever defended bombing hospitals and aid stations. No, not that I can recall. What he's saying is, you don't call it out as genocide. That's really what he's saying. But instead of saying that, he says, you defend. And you defend the censoring and deportation of permanent residents for thought crimes and speech issues! Okay. I don't think we defended it, but all right.

You claim no agenda, but your agenda is Zionism! They are coming after a permanent resident today for thought crimes and supporting terrorism. Tomorrow, they'll be droning citizens for supporting terrorism just like Obama did. I tried to listen to the show because I don't want to be the person that can't see beyond an issue or two, which tells me that somehow this show is, for some reason, important enough for some outfit like, I don't know, ActBlue to send people along and, email these boomers.

They've got influence. don't want... It's like, why are you wasting your time? I don't want to be the person that can't see beyond an issue or two, but to hear you and John so cavalierly dismiss Mahmood Khalil shows me that you two really don't support the freedom in America that I believe in. Sincerely, Blockman Bing. So, and we shared this. I shared this email with John and then for some reason, John started to dig in and I think you came up with some interesting ideas.

It didn't take much work. But let's play two clips first. I got two clips. I got genocide and Muhammad. Muhammad. Part one and two. And these are good preliminary clips that just build onto the problem we have. The Israeli government denies that its campaign against Hamas in Gaza amounts to genocide. South Africa is arguing in the International Court of Justice that it does. The case is yet to be decided. It's an accusation that rang across the campus of Columbia University last year.

We should give this guy just the executive producer credit. I mean, he is on the show constantly. The case is yet to be decided. It's an accusation that rang across the campus of Columbia University last year. Mahmood Khalil was a prominent part of those protests as a student there. And for his role in those protests, Khalil has been taken into custody by immigration agents and is now facing deportation.

His wife, Noor Abdallah, who is pregnant, gave her first broadcast interview to our colleague, Morning Edition co-host Leila Fadel. Thanks for having me, Scott. Tell us about the scene. Noor Abdallah was with her husband when he was detained last weekend. That's right, she was. Oh man, do you know what this reminds me of? Pillow talk? No, well, close. Let's see. What was the guy's name again? Oh man. Hold on a second. I gotta find it. Charlie Rose, that's what it is.

Oh, Charlie Rose. Tell us about the scene. Noor Abdallah was with her husband when he was detained last weekend. Tell me about this sexuality. It's in your DNA. Same guy. Beautiful. Tell us about the scene. Hi, hi, hi. Noor Abdallah was with her husband when he was detained last weekend. That's right, she was. And she said they were coming home from dinner, and as they unlocked the door of their apartment building, a man held it open behind them and asked her husband, are you Mahmoud Khalil?

And I'll just play you a bit of what she says happened next. We were both like, what is happening, you know? And he says, I'm with the police, you have to come with us. I think at that point, honestly, my heart sank. I want to say Mahmoud tried to prepare me two days before. He told me, do you know your rights if ICE comes to your door? And I brushed it off. I was like, what are you saying? That's not going to happen, you know? But he was like, no, you need to know.

And so at this point, your heart is sinking. And what is happening in front of you? So Mahmoud is trying to ask the officer, well, first he asked him, who are you with? He said Department of Homeland Security. And then he asked him, can I see a warrant? The officer said he has one. He's like, it's on my phone, but never really showed it to us. And then Mahmoud was holding the keys that he had just used to open our apartment. And the officer was like, give the keys to your wife, basically.

And I turned to the officer, I was like, I'm not leaving him. And the officer goes, I'll arrest you too. Not one to speculate about personal finances, but for a student at Columbia. He's got an apartment. I presume his wife is not working at this moment as she's about to give birth. She's a dentist. That explains the apartment. And of course he mentions that he told her about this two days before it happened. Interesting. How did he know that?

Well, let's play part two and then I'll tell you what I think. But she's a U.S. citizen, right? Yeah, I mean, that's part of the reason she didn't take Mahmoud's warnings that he might be deported Seriously, she was born here. He's a lawful permanent resident. He has a green card. This, by the way, is quite the meme. Lawful permanent resident. Lawful. This is very important that they keep saying this. Seriously, she was born here. He's a lawful permanent resident. He has a green card.

And she says, as most Americans do, she believed they had the right to say whatever they wanted. And he was using that right to speak up about the treatment of his own people. He's Palestinian. And now, Nora's in this position she never could have imagined facing the possibility that she's going to have this baby while her husband is detained in Louisiana or possibly deported. The government is accusing him of supporting Hamas, which could amount to a violation of U .S. law.

What does she say about those accusations? Well, she says they've provided no evidence of that accusation. No evidence. Because there isn't evidence. He's also never been charged with an actual crime. That would be a crime if he provided support to Hamas. Here's more of what Nora said. I just want to be clear that the smears against Mahmoud are exactly that. They're smears. He has and always will stand up for what's right. And the way that he was taken from his family was not right.

The government's actually arguing they can take his green card under a rarely used immigration provision, not because of a crime. I also asked her if her husband were allowed to return home tomorrow, let's say. Would she feel safe in the U.S. after what's happened? And here's what she said. I love this apartment. And I love the place that we live. But I think, unfortunately, they took away that sense of security and that sense of safety, at least for me.

And I wasn't sure if she'd lost her sense of safety in the apartment or the country. So I asked, and she said both. Thank you so much for being with us. Thanks for having me, Scott. Oh, thank you. It's in your DNA. Thank you so much. The law is on the books, by the way. Yeah. It's a good bit. It's a good bit. This is a scam. Hold on. Let's just read the law.

Removal procedures under section 237A-4C-I of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which permits deportation of lawful residents if the Secretary of State believes that their presence risks a potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequence. It's a real law. You may not like it, but it's a real law. This has been known for a long time. This guy's a spook. And this is either an extraction of Khalil, which I think it is. I think it's an extraction, but it could be other things.

The fact of the matter is, let's look at this guy's background. And this is easy to discover. It's not hard. Yes, because I pointed it out to you. I would kind of condemn the intelligence agencies for allowing this to be so easily discovered. I did it on two searches, and I got very deep. It didn't take anything. It's all public int, as they like to call it. Human int. OS int. OS int. Yeah, open source int. That's right. OS int. OS int, yes.

Khalil, I thought he was a Syrian, but it turns out he's an Algerian. He was born in a refugee camp in Damascus, Syria. Two Palestinians. They say, oh, he's a Palestinian. He really never lived there. They fled to Lebanon. He was in Lebanon after the civil war began. Then there was a report on him from this journalist, Lauren Bone. B-O-H-N. You should look at her. L-A-U-R-E-N B-O -H-N. She's got something to do with the Atlantic Council. She's a journalist.

You take one look at her, and you go, oh, okay. There's a honeypot if I've ever seen one. She met Khalil. This is right on the wiki page. Met Khalil in Beirut while reporting on the refugee crisis, and he referred to himself as a double refugee, blah, blah, blah. Goes on to report she reported that he taught himself English. He's fluent, by the way. It turns out, if you look into it, he's a polyglot. He can speak a lot of languages.

He supposedly, through the American educational non-profit, Junsor, which I've been looking into, but I haven't gotten too far, and I don't care. Simultaneously, he earned a bachelor's degree in computer science. He then worked for the British government Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, managing a scholarship program that's very similar to the Rhodes Scholarship, from the British Embassy in Beirut, and supporting diplomats with his language skills and local knowledge.

He immigrated to the U.S. on a student visa to attend SIPA. Stop, stop, stop. Stop at SIPA. Do you know who is the Shelby Column Davis professor in practice of the International Diplomacy Directorate of the International Fellowship Program for SIPA? Who? Look, it is really very, very important that in this period... This is Victoria Newland. That's who it is. She's at SIPA. She's a professor at SIPA. I looked at the website. The whole thing says spook.

Yes. In fact, I ran a, through one of the AI systems, I ran a search on this. SIPA at Columbia University have any connections to the intelligence agencies. One, the curriculum and faculty, SIPA offers courses related to intelligence, such as intelligence and war, taught by faculty with backgrounds in intelligence, a former deputy assistant director of the CIA for Europe and Eurasia, guest speakers and events.

SIPA frequently hosts events featuring prominent figures from the intelligence community, such as John Brennan, the former director of national television, Jim Clapper, career paths. Many SIPA graduates pursue a career in U .S. and foreign government agencies, including intelligence roles, recruitment.

Anyway, it goes on and on and on, and it turns out that it's so obvious that what was going on, because a guy gets a degree in computer science, doesn't all of a sudden be attending SIPA at the age of 30, allowed to get his degree before he's all of a sudden kicked out of the country. Now, either he was, what agency he works for, we don't know. He could be intelligent. I think MI6 is what I'm thinking. I would think MI6 sounds the most reasonable.

Because Victoria Nuland, you know, she's a five -eyes girl. So she's there, not on the behest of the CIA anymore, I'm just presuming. But she pops up everywhere. You know, she's ambassador to the National Endowment for Democracy, she's in USAID, she's in the Council on Foreign Relations, and then she shows up at SIPA? Come on now. This has got to be a five-eyes type counter-intel op from MI6. So they had to get this guy.

So this guy, it looks like you pull him out, make a big fuss like they're doing. And by the way, again, I condemn the intelligence people for not being able to cover this up better. In two searches? You can find all this out? I mean, you can just imagine what the Chinese can do. And I mentioned something that happened at the dinner table last Friday. JC, who is in AI, said that the Chinese AI stuff, it's not what you think. It's a lot better. It's better than this.

He looked at the algos and he looked at the neural networks they're creating. They're superior to what we have. So if I can find out about SIPA and this character with a couple of simple searches, the Chinese already know. And he says that the Chinese are ahead of us by a number of years. He says, luckily for us, for the Americans, the Chinese government has all of a sudden taken note of this and they've screwed up.

They've decided this is so important that they're not going to allow their scientists, their AI scientists access to it. No, they've got access to it in China. They won't allow them to go to the international conferences and there's a big confab coming up in the next few months where all the world's guys, all these guys come together because they've got nothing but money except the Chinese.

They're not going to show up and so they're going to lose out because of the way you've been to these things. It's groupthink. Everyone gets together and they all exchange information. They all think the same afterwards and they're all ahead of the game. It really works well. So this guy is working for someone, MI6 probably, I would agree. And this is an extraction that makes him look good. He can be reassigned to something else and he looks legit.

And I have one other report here which shows that this is not about... And by the way, to the guy who wrote us the note about the Bing guy or whatever his name is. Blockman Bing. This is the kind of stupid stooge that is out there in the public that believes everything they're told without thinking twice about it. And it took me no time to figure this out. Yeah, I mean, you just sent me the wiki page and I didn't get past the first paragraph and went, oh, SIPA.

And then Pure Providence, I get that video from Victoria Nuland speaking at SIPA about weapons for Ukraine, this and that. And so then here's a clip from ABC, and I think they're cleaning house. They're cleaning house of all of the spooks. There's a couple more, some just fleeing the country, and it's not just Colombia. We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government.

The United States President Donald Trump is targeting DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. U.S. Education Secretary Lindsey McMahon on Friday. I'm sorry, that's the wrong one. This is the one I meant to play. This is cell phone video of the Saturday arrest of Mahmoud Khalil. It was all his eight-month pregnant wife could do when ICE agents showed up at their front door. Mahmoud is not here on a student visa. He was previously, but he had become a lawful permanent resident.

When I mentioned this to the ICE agents, he said that the Secretary of State was revoking that too. Now a second student has been arrested, Lika Cordia. She and Khalil accused of supporting the terrorist activities of Hamas. Lika Cordia, who first entered the U.S. in 2016 on a tourism visa, obtained a student visa the next year. In 2021, it was terminated because she never showed up at school. That's funny. That reminds me of the agency show where the African woman never shows up at school.

I want to mention one other thing. Let me finish this. There's 49 seconds left. There's more. Supporting the terrorist activities of Hamas for taking part in the Hamilton Hall takeover last April. The Ivy League institution announcing today that 22 students have now been sanctioned for the events of last year, ranging from multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations, and expulsions. The disciplinary action that has been taken against these students is coming far, far too late.

A third student, Ranjani Srinivasan, is seen rushing to catch a flight at LaGuardia Airport back home to India. Her visa revoked a week ago by DHS. We have to draw the line here at Columbia to say they cannot get away with this, and we have to mobilize people from within the university, from within the community. Protests continue outside the gates of Columbia University, not backing down, despite the latest escalation by the Trump administration.

I don't need to play it, but I think they're using DEI to root all this out and to cut funding to these universities. Johns Hopkins, more than 2,000 people fired. The federal government has been paying these universities, and that's what's been supporting a lot of this nonsense. I think that the whole Hamas protest movement may be a government op. Could very well likely be. And let me mention this guy's wife, the dentist, Khalil's wife.

I want to just read this, and if this doesn't sound like something dubious, I don't know what does. The couple had met in 2016, this is the dentist woman, when Abdallah was her name, joined a volunteer program, she's an American, she's an American, joined a volunteer program that Khalil was overseeing in Lebanon. Oh yeah, that's what students do. That's what students do.

They're expecting their first child in late April 2025, so they're having a kid, but okay, so they had a long distance relationship while he's in Lebanon, she's over here. This is just bullcrap. I spot the spook, spot the spook, everybody wants to spot the spook. Yeah, yeah baby. So along these lines, along these lines, something else happened, which is kind of almost like the other shoe dropping.

President Trump went to the Department of Justice, oh, no president ever speaks there, that you're supposed to show independence, it's not good, what's he doing?

They found out about Operation Arctic Freeze, I don't have any clips of it, but Operation Arctic Freeze is where during the Biden administration, they seized the cell phones of at that point, former President Trump and a couple other people, and the FBI was just rooting through it, just looking at whatever they wanted to, so they could, you know, that's how the whole Jack, what's the guy's name? Smith.

I want to say Jack White, Jack Smith, you know, that's where that all came from, from stuff on the cell phone. But the president wrote up another executive order, and this is a bit of a prelude to it here. This is the Voice of America's continuous... Trump now, as part of instructions for certain federal agencies to reduce their operations to the bare minimum, has taken on publicly funded broadcasters, signing an executive order aimed at the U

.S. agency for global media, which houses Voice of America and other radio stations. On Saturday, former news anchor Carrie Lake, Trump's senior advisor to the agency, posted on X that employees should check their email. That coincided with notices going out placing Voice of America staff on paid administrative leave. Reporters Without Borders says that the Trump administration's decision is the latest abandonment of the U .S.'s historic role in championing press freedom.

If America steps away from free press and abandons all the outlets that were broadcasting abroad, we will see the increase, which we're already seeing on social media, of propaganda. And America's geopolitical enemies are just waiting for that. This is the biggest present Donald Trump could ever give to Vladimir Putin. Voice of America is an international media broadcaster that operates in more than 40 languages.

The agency for global media also funds Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Asia. The reductions are especially provocative because the agency is independent, chartered by Congress, which passed a law in 2020 limiting the power of the agency's presidentially appointed executives. Washington, D.C. I was already wondering, why do they make Carrie Lake head of the United States government media organization? I have two Voice of America clips.

Hold on, let me just read, I just want to read something. The reason, so you recall the Smith-Mundt Act, which meant, hey, the government can't propagandize our own people in the United States. You know, gee, isn't it great that we have Voice of America to propagandize other countries? It was overturned in 2012 under President Obama and that was shoved into the National Defense Authorization Act.

Just a reminder, what that what the change was about and just one paragraph, the Act was developed to regulate broadcasting of programs for foreign audiences produced under the guidance of the State Department and it prohibited domestic dissemination of materials produced by such programs as one of its provisions.

The original version of the Act was amended by the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, which allowed for materials produced by the State Department at the time, Hillary Clinton, and the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which is Voice of America, Voice of Europe, and at one point was run by Tucker Carlson's dad, to be made available within the United States.

This was propaganda that was being bestowed upon people in America by a rather large media organization filled with nut jobs or as the White House wrote, the Voice of Radical America! President Trump's executive order on Friday will ensure that taxpayers are no longer on the hook for radical propaganda! So yes, this is a very good thing. Get rid of it.

And I think that's why President Trump keeps saying, you know, MSNBC, what they're doing is illegal, although they're not part of the, unless they're being paid by the government. Well, you never know. It's USAID money.

Well, the, this executive order defunded and does away with, see if you catch anything, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the United States Agency for Global Media, that's the Voice of America, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in the Smithsonian Institute. Isn't that that former Republican lady who runs that, the Woodrow Wilson Institute? I didn't know anything about that. Ah, yeah, yeah, she's, I forget her name. I can tell you I forget her name.

Woodrow Wilson. No, I can't, I guess, Wilson. Anyway, it doesn't matter. I can't remember her name. The Institute of Museum and Library Services, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, there's a good one, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Minority Business Development Agency. So these were all defunded. And probably with good reason. Yeah, they didn't do anything except pass money around to their pals. So I have two clips.

I have the BBC clip, which is unfortunately says V instead of VOA. And I think probably the shortest clip, they just throw it out there, is the NPR clip. Let's play that first, then the BBC clip. Okay. Employees of the Voice of America showed up at work today to learn they've been locked out. President Trump last night ordered its parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, to eliminate all activities not required by law.

More than a thousand full-time workers at the Voice of America and radio and television, Marti, were affected. What? A thousand. A thousand people work at Voice of America. Doing what? A thousand people. That's a lot of podcasts, baby. So, I did a Voice of America broadcast once. Oh, really? Yeah, some years back when I had my telecommunications book and I was doing a media tour. Now that I think about it, I think I was, when podcasting was popping, I think I was interviewed by Voice of America.

Yeah, I was actually in their studios. Oh, no, no. It was a phoner for me, baby. Just a phoner. In fact, the studios were so cool because they were just, every time I go to some public radio thing, they're throwing stuff out. This is the Voice of America broadcasting propaganda around the world. So, they were throwing out these IBM clocks. I grabbed one. I have it still. The synchronized clocks? Yes, exactly. Oh, those are beautiful. The synchro clocks. Oh, those are beautiful.

And it's a big clock and it says IBM on it because IBM used to make them and they don't anymore, obviously. It's like the IBM butcher scales used to make those, too. And the clock goes click, click, click. And you have to get a little adapter for it because it works on 50 cycles or something. It's very screwy. And they're all synced throughout the building as they had a big pile of these. I said, what are these? They said, oh, those are the synchro clocks. We don't use them anymore.

We've gone digital and they have these digital clocks now. And so, I said, what are you going to do with them? They're going to get thrown out. I said, can I have one? Yeah, sure. But you didn't get the synchronizer though, did you? No, I didn't. No, but I got the plans for it. And 30 years later, we still have to heat up the soldering iron. But it's coming. But you have the clock and it's like click, click, click, click.

I know the Dutch Broadcasting Corporation had the same I don't know what it was from. It must have been from Siemens, probably. They had the same system. Big clock, huge second hand click, click, all synchronized. Click, click, click. Yeah, it was really cool. Yes, so that was interesting. Big studios. They definitely had money to spend. So, here's the BBC's version of the same, you all got fired clip. President Trump has taken steps to slash the U.S. government's foreign broadcasting effort.

More than a thousand Voice of America journalists are being put on administrative leave and funding for its sister services is being halted immediately. More from Peter Hyatt. VOA and its sister services aimed at Europe, Asia and Cuba were set up to spread American values and accurate news to societies which didn't have them, especially during the Cold War. They have an estimated 400 million listeners. But some Republicans say the stations are biased against conservatives.

And now their new ultimate boss, Carrie Lake, has said they're being streamlined to what the law requires in order to eliminate waste, fraud and abuse. The U.S. government isn't saying whether the stations, which are broadly equivalent to the BBC World Service, are being closed down completely. But the director of VOA says he and virtually his entire staff of 1,300 people have been put on indefinite paid leave. Oh, paid leave? They're going to be podcasting. They're going to be podcasting.

Yeah, well, you're on paid leave there, you might as well go podcast. Just about clocks for a second. Researchers at Edinburgh University have tested the ability of seven well-known multimodal large language models. And it turns out, if you give them, if you give these multimodal, because that means they can look at pictures, if you give them a picture of an analog clock and ask it what time is it, it can't tell you. Oh, it's just like a millennial.

Exactly. Or Gen Z. It's the Gen Z's that can't read clocks. It can't tell time. Which I thought was kind of poetic somehow. It is kind of poetic because it's so screwy. Yeah, it can't... No, if you think about time, dialing time, if you really think about and you understand that the Gen Z's call it, you know, reading clock, it is kind of screwy.

They fed the models different images of analog clocks, timekeepers with Roman numerals, which really screwed it up, different dial colors, even some missing the second hand, as well as 10 years, they can't even figure out calendar images. It can't look at a calendar and then parse next week from it. Just what you get when you train it on Reddit, I guess. Before we move on, just because I have it, let me just play this SIPA clip from Victoria Newland that might lead us into another topic here.

This is her as the professor of international diplomacy, director of international fellow program at Columbia SIPA. Look, it is really very, very important. I don't think we ever explained what SIPA stands for. Okay. It's the school of international... Now I forgot. Now I can look it up. I have it here. School of international public affairs. Yes. International public affairs. Which is code for spook. Spook school. Why would a computer scientist go there? It makes no sense. Spook school.

Look, it is really very, very important that in this period that Europe not only be able to step up but step up fast because as the artillery shells run out, as the air defense interceptors run out, as the ability to produce drones at scale which have made the difference for Ukraine on the battlefield gets harder, Europe has the capacity not only with these proposals but conceivably collateralizing against frozen assets that they are holding of Putin's at least for a short time to do more

and to do it fast. The thing that's concerning me most today is the cutoff of intelligence streams from the United States and pressure on allies like the UK not to use US intelligence for their own weapons. The primary purpose of US intelligence has been to help the Ukrainians see Russian attacks coming and have advanced warning. There are also key weapons systems that do not cue and do not hit their targets without support from US satellite cueing and the military GPS system.

So people are going to die. Ukrainians are going to die. More of them. If this pause lasts significantly longer. It is dangerous and it's not a capability that Europe can replace with any kind of speed. That's correct. Imagine my delight and my joy Friday as I'm sitting down to do the podcasting 2 .0 board meeting podcast and I see on my quad screen Mark Ritter in the White House. Hello Mr. President. This is great. I am your number one sales guy.

First of all thank you so much Mr. President dear Donald again for hosting me. Dear Donald dear Donald. Hey dear Donald Dear Donald thank you dear Donald. For hosting me and also for taking time in Florida a couple of weeks after you were re-elected. And of course our phone call a couple of weeks ago. You see he had phone calls with Mark to talk about the sales program.

And I must say Trump 45 you basically you originated the fact that in Europe you're now spending when you take it to aggregate 700 billion more on defense than when you came in office in 2016, 2017. But that was Trump 45. But then when you look at Trump 47. It's going to be hard to tell. What happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering. Staggering! It is staggering Mr. President. I cannot believe the numbers. What happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering.

The Europeans committing to a package of 800 billion defense spending. The Germans now have potentially up to half a trillion extra in defense spending. And then of course you have Keir Starmer here, the British Prime Minister and others. All committing to much higher defense spending. We're not there. We need to do more. Oh we need more? We need more? I'm going back out soon Mr. Donald dear Donald. Get more. All committing to much higher defense spending. We're not there. We need to do more.

But I really want to work together with you in a run up to the D -Day summit to make sure that we will have a NATO which is really reinvigorated under your leadership. And we are getting there. Yes we are getting there. Almost achieved my goals. We also discussed defense production because we need to produce more weaponry. We are not doing enough. Yes. Not in the US. We're not we're not doing enough. We had to do more. Much much more. Use more weaponry. We are not doing enough. Not in the US.

Not in Europe. And we are lacking behind when you compare to the Russians and the Chinese. And you have a huge defense industrial base. Huge. Europeans buying four times more here than the other way around. Which is good because you have a strong defense industry but we need to do more there to make sure that we ramp up the production. And kill the red tape. So I would love to work with you on that. And finally Ukraine. You broke the deadlock. As you said. All the killing.

The young people dying. Cities getting destroyed. People dying. You did that. You started the dialogue with the Russians. And the successful talks in Saudi Arabia now with the Ukrainians. But wait. Here it comes. I have an invitation for you. I really want to commend you for this. So well The Hague is my hometown. I'd love to host you there in the summer. And work together to make sure that that will be a splash. A real success. A splash. Come to The Hague. I will host you there.

And we will make a big splash. I really want to commend you for this. So well. The Hague is my hometown. I'd love to host you there in the summer. And work together to make sure that that will be a splash. A real success. Projecting American power on the world stage. Yes. Power. American power. This guy is our slab. He's fantastic. So all that money that Ursula is raising, Mark Rutte is going to make sure that it's spent here. That's what I'm good at. I can't believe it.

I love other presidents saying that. Mark was a great prime minister for the Netherlands. The Netherlands went, what? What are you saying? The guys suck. He was an HR admin for what's the British Unilever? Unilever. For soap. For shampoo. The soap guy. The soap guy. But wait. Wait, wait. Germany is really serious. Welcome back to World Affairs in Context everyone. Thank you so much for being here.

After laying off thousands of employees and closing several factories for the first time in its history, Volkswagen made a quite shocking announcement. The company's CEO said that it now welcomes an opportunity to produce weapons as part of the EU's multi-billion euro militarization plan. Huh. Where have I heard this before? Where have I heard Volkswagen doing weapons?

A Germany idle production capacity in the struggling car industry is likely to be repurposed, is likely to be converted for the defense industry, or if you'd like to be more straightforward and honest, for the offense industry. In early March, Ursula von der Leyen announced the need to rearm Europe and to create two separate funds of up to 870 billion dollars in total. And so this is just part of the plan.

I will remind you that during World War II, Volkswagen produced military vehicles, and they also produced bombs. They produced flying bombs for the Wehrmacht. Or in other words, for Hitler's armed Nazi forces. So Volkswagen is going back in time, in a sense. We're getting the band back together, baby! We're gonna do V2 flying bombs! This is really great. This is amazing. This is amazing. I mean, it's like, they're not I mean, all this money, I mean, now it's over 10 years, so what is it?

We've never been able to extract ourselves from this completely. That's the problem. No. No. We always get suckered into it. The bankers get us. I mean, if we had not gotten involved in World War I, I think it would have been a different situation. I think it would be a much more peaceful world. So in the European Union, I'm sorry, in Parliament, we have what's this guy's name? Barry Andrews. I think he's one of the Irish members of Parliament. Troublemaker. He's a big troublemaker.

We need some money. We know where to get it. President Commissioner Hansen, I want to add my voice of support to the argument for the use of immobilized Russian assets for Ukraine. At the very least, we should assert the legal right to seize those assets and apply them to the reconstruction of Ukraine.

I have to say, I find it very hard to take seriously the sovereign right argument made by Russia and its sympathisers in circumstances where Russia has demonstrated a complete and consistent disregard for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of its neighbours. It would be a proportional response by the EU to apply these assets to Ukraine, given the estimated €5500 billion in damage done to Ukraine's economy.

I have to say that I am informed that the Irish government will bring forward legislation in the next two weeks called the Criminal Justice Violation of EU's Restrictive Measures Bill. The legal basis for the use of these assets is sound and made out by other speakers. All that remains is for us to send a strong political signal reinforcing the international norm against aggression. Thank you. So no, the actual troublemaker is Luis Alviz Perez Fernandez.

He was elected to European Parliament on behalf of Spain in 2024. Before that, he was an influencer on social media and he's the troublemaker. Bueno, bueno. It starts with bueno, bueno. You know it's not good. Bueno, bueno. Well, well. If you're Russian, we can take stuff away from you. We can do it with redheads next. What's next? Alluding to the Irish Parliament member. What's next? Redheads? We can do it with redheads next. What's next? What are we going to do?

Give more power to the bureaucrats in Brussels, the Eurocrats that decide what happens to everyone's lives. We've faced with an economic crisis and what we're saying is more control, more centralization. Bring everything to Brussels and who cares about the blood which has been shed in Ukraine or anywhere else. Let's just make more arms dealers and arms manufacturers, millionaires. Von der Leyen knew that they had had weapons in Russia for a long time.

Now we say we have to defend ourselves from Russia. They've got four times less tanks than the EU. These tyrants, we're talking about 20% of Ukrainian territory. Let's do away with this circus, this bellicose circus that we call the EU. It's extremely dangerous leaving everything in the hands of Eurocrats and murderers. Now, what could possibly go wrong? No, no, no. And then in the UK... It's the new Farage, that guy. Yeah, well, unfortunately, it's only in Spanish.

In the UK, another influencer, Jasmine Brittles. Jasmine is just astounded by the money that's available all of a sudden. We can sacrifice young people, whereas during COVID, remember, we all had to stay indoors in order to save granny. But now, suddenly, that doesn't mean anything. Because we can send out young people, boys and girls, to go and fight in another country. And also climate change. Isn't it amazing that suddenly nobody's talking about the effects of war on climate change?

Net zero's not mentioned. No. I mean, taking all sorts of horrendous weapons into another country, blowing things up. Can you imagine what that would potentially do to the climate, to pollution levels? Nobody mentions that. I'm not hearing Greta Thunberg do anything. She's not saying a word. The Greens are entirely silent. Nobody says anything about that because everything, everything is pushed aside for some crazy war in Ukraine. How marvellous. How marvellous.

Oh, no. Oh, everyone's all in on the coalition of the willing. A group of countries, led by the UK and France, stepping up efforts to ensure Ukraine and Europe's future security as a peace deal with Russia could be on the cards. The virtual summit was hosted by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and was organised in order to exert more pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin into accepting a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the US and backed by Kiev.

We agreed we will keep increasing the pressure on Russia, keep the military aid flowing to Ukraine, and keep tightening restrictions on Russia's economy to weaken Putin's war machine and bring him to the table. The meeting follows a dramatic rapprochement between Moscow and the Trump administration and comes as a gesture of support from Europe for Ukraine in the wake of the United States foreign policy change.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly expressed his country's support for the proposed ceasefire urging allies to put pressure on Russia. I ask you to talk to America, to President Trump to help bring peace faster. This can happen through full sanctions for ensuring that the aggressor gains nothing from this war.

The coalition have proposed a strategy aimed at increasing military aid to Ukraine as well as boosting their own defense spending in order to ensure security on the continent while also deploying European forces to Ukraine in the case of a ceasefire in order to deter future Russian attacks. Military leaders from around 30 countries will meet in London on Thursday as the coalition moves into the operational phase. I don't know what's happening anymore.

Are they going to give the money to us or are they going to give it to Volkswagen? I don't understand. Both? Both. I have more. I don't know if you have anything on Ukraine. Do I have anything on... Well, I do have the encirclement thing because now there's a controversy over the encirclement of Kursk. I have it listed under Lursk in this particular... And this is interesting because it contradicts what we talked about in the last show.

Ukrainian forces are on the defensive in Kursk, the region of Western Russia they invaded and occupied six months ago. Russia's defense ministry said it had retaken two more villages from retreating Ukrainian forces. But are they surrounded? Well, Donald Trump's claimed thousands are and pleaded with Vladimir Putin for their lives. Russia's president has in turn said Ukrainian troops would be given decent treatment if they surrendered. But President Zelensky said this was not right.

What exactly about Ukrainian troops? The encirclement of the Ukrainian military is a lie of Putin. There is no encirclement of the Ukrainian military in the Kursk region. What kind of signals are these coming from the Russian side? I think that Russia wants to surround the Ukrainian military in the same way, but on the territory of Ukraine.

The respected US think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, said it had observed no geolocated evidence to indicate Russian forces had encircled a significant number of Ukrainian troops. It said Mr. Putin was seeking to present himself as a merciful leader and distract from his refusal to agree an immediate ceasefire. I think this is a new one to use. No geospatial evidence. Not just no evidence. There's no geospatial evidence.

I have similar reports from Andrew Rassoulis, who's the Canadian former defense guy. He's actually in Poland now. I think training with the Polish, the Canadian troops are training with the Polish troops, getting ready for something that sounds like a really bad idea. That's most of our show. The first question is really, it seems like Ukraine is all in. They're good to go. Why is Putin resisting? What is happening?

What do you think could be the reasons behind Putin's reluctance to fully accept a ceasefire under these terms? The first part of the but and the big part is the Russians will not agree, in my opinion, with a ceasefire until they have pushed back all of the Ukrainian forces that entered into Russia proper in the Kursk Oblast last summer. At that time, Putin was very clear.

He made a statement saying the Ukrainians, by doing this incursion, are trying to get a negotiating bargaining chip to leverage off the territories that Russia has in Ukraine. And he said that's not going to happen.

And basically the Russians have been increasing the tempo of their counter-offensive operations throughout the fall, and we're now at the point where the Ukrainians are holding on to certainly less than 50% of the territory they took last summer, and it could be down to maybe 20 or 30%. I mean, Putin has said that they're surrounded, but thus being disputed. But the point is, he wants to push the Ukrainians out.

No bargaining chip for Ukraine to leverage that salient against what the Russians hold in Ukraine. So, he goes a little bit deeper on the are they surrounded or not. You mentioned these kind of conflicting reports, whether Ukrainian troops are in fact encircled in the Kursk oblast, in the Kursk region. Ukrainians are denying it. They're saying Putin's claims are false. How do you interpret these differing reports?

Based on the various sources that I've been able to access, it would seem that the Ukrainians are being pushed, but they're not surrounded in the sense that they still have an exit route back to Ukraine. So, they're not completely surrounded, but they are being pressured in a cauldron. You can call it like that, but it's not completely closed at the other end toward the Ukrainian border. A cauldron? Hmm. So, there's holes in the plan. Holes in the plan. There's a lot of area, so I can see that.

Yeah. That's believable. So, the real question is, will President Putin accept the coalition of the willing, or will it have to be something else? And once again, I think I've predicted the answer. Yeah, he's not going to agree to a Western European Canadian peacekeeping force, which he sees as basically a NATO light. He'll look at more like a UN force of neutral countries that are not providing assistance to Ukraine as an eventual peacekeeping force. But also, he's looking beyond 30 days.

You know, what's going to happen after 30 days? So, he wants to make sure that Russia's position going into a ceasefire, whenever they're ready, and one day they will be ready, but they're going to make sure that they're in an advantageous position to then have the ceasefire and then negotiate from a position of strength the follow-on peace agreement, because the Russians are very keen to make sure that they have a comprehensive peace settlement that's bolted on to the ceasefire. Blue helmets!

Blue helmets incoming. That would make sense. That would sound like a negotiable thing. Well, we won't do this, but we'll do that. Because he has to give in on something, because he said he doesn't want any security forces in there, but I bet you he'd go for that. Yeah, because there's blue helmets. Because they're a bunch of boneheads, and they're going to give the fact that if it goes according to form, every Ukrainian will get cholera. Cholera. Cholera incoming.

Sheryl Atkinson had to sit down with President Trump. Are you speaking to Putin in the last days or hours personally? Well, I don't want to say it, but we are dealing with him, and I think What is this, I don't want to say it, but we are dealing with him? I don't want to say it, but. Let me hear that again. Are you speaking to Putin in the last days or hours personally? Well, I don't want to say it, but we are dealing with him, and I think it's going reasonably well.

It's a very complex situation. It's a bloody terrible war. And I do think it's going well. As you know, we have a ceasefire agreement with the Ukrainian group, and we are trying to get that with Russia too. And I think thus far it's gone okay. We'll know a little bit more on Monday, and that'll be hopefully good. I'm not understating the complexity of all this, but as a candidate, you said you would have this war settled in 24 hours. Well, I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that.

I was being sarcastic. A little bit sarcastic. That's a funny definition of the word sarcastic. That is an incorrect definition of sarcastic, Mr. President. We're not buying that one. Well, I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that. What I really mean is I'd like to get it settled. I'll hold on. The word he should have used instead of sarcastic, which was a mistake, I think he may be getting old. He should have said hopeful.

If you substitute the word hopeful, which is a great political term to use because hope is a big deal according to a lot of research. If he had said, well, I was just being hopeful, then it would have been soft and it wouldn't have been subject to our ridicule or anybody else's for that matter. I think it's very damning. It's no good. I don't think you or I thought that he could fix it within 24 hours, but then to say I was being sarcastic. Yeah, I know. He screwed up. That was a screw up.

These are not the words of a Wharton School of Business graduate, Mr. President. This is no good. Well, I was being a little bit sarcastic when I said that. What I really mean is I'd like to get it settled and I think I'll be successful. What's the plan if Putin doesn't agree to a ceasefire? Bad news for this world because so many people are dying, but I think he's going to agree. I really do. I think I know him pretty well and I think he's going to agree. Okay, we shall see.

He thinks he's going to agree. We shall see. There was a term that I heard on the Bloomberg surveillance podcast from HSBC. These tariffs, the on again, off again, which I believe is meant to and I'm seeing this everywhere now. It's like, has everyone listened to the show or was it so obvious? I'm seeing a lot of people saying, oh, Trump's doing this to bring the economy down. Now they all also say, and then the Fed will have to cut rates. I don't think that's that easy.

And also the market is up and down, up and down. Yeah, the market was up again. Pre did a bunch of shows for NPR for the weekend and they're going on and on about the market being down, but it went up over 2% on Friday. It rocketed back. Wait a minute, you guys screwed up that one. Yeah, so here's the Bloomberg surveillance podcast and they have a term which I think maybe a DH Unplugged could use.

I think we're still tactically quite cautious on equities overall, particularly, of course, in the US. We've just put out a note this morning. I think this is the kind of time where you need to update your framework, your indicators pretty much on an hourly basis because like you guys were just discussing, of course, even yesterday things were changing pretty much three times during the day.

So when we look at our indicators at the moment, particularly from a systematic perspective, of course, yes, there has been quite a bit of systematic selling, but what we're not yet seeing is this sort of final puke. So when we look, for example, at our momentum slash CTA indicators, they are bearish. They flipped from maximum bullish to bearish, but they're only at sort of medium bearish levels until now.

So we need, I think for us to be comfortable to go back in and to buy the dip, I think we need a bit more sort of a puke moment in equities to really say, right, this is the all clear, now positioning is clear enough. Remember what Powell was saying on Friday. We're in no hurry at all to do anything in rates. Max, a lot to unpack there. Let's start with the technical term puke. What does the cathartic puke look like?

We had a 10% decline at one point in yesterday's session, so entered correction territory briefly. If it's not that, what is it? I think what we need to see is broader-based. I think what you would want to see is sort of the final broad-based puke, where it's not just tech and the high multiple stuff that gets hammered, but really the broader market, where perhaps even the equal-weighted S&P underperforms the cap-weighted S&P.

We're really playing use recession fears, and that should spill over into global equity markets. Once we've got that, I think that is then sort of the final puke. I think this conversation needs a bit of antacid. Okay, I have to chime in here. This was a bet. This was inside broadcasting info. It's a podcast. It's a podcast. There was a bet involved. I am going to introduce the word. Can you use the word puke?

I'm going to not only use the word puke, and I'll bet you a hundred bucks I'll use it ten times in different ways, and it's going to catch on. This is bullcrap. I can't wait to hear Andrew Horowitz talking about the market's final puke. We need a big puke. Final puke. I like final puke. That's kind of cute. We need a projectile puke. We need something really good to get this market back in its spot so we can update our indicators. I don't know, man. I just love the financial guys.

They don't know what they're doing anymore. They never have known what they're doing. It's all been smoke and mirrors. No kidding. If it goes up, you have the same reason they went down. Bye. Bye. Just bye. Yeah, if you're on CNBC, it's bye, bye, bye. And with that, I want to thank you for your courage. Say in the morning to you, the man who put the sea in the Ukrainian cauldron. Say hello to my friend on the other end, the one, the only, Mr. John C. DeMora.

Now, in the morning to you, Mr. Alan Curry. In the morning, all ships and sea boots on the ground, feet in the air, subs in the water, and the dames and knights out there. In the morning to the trolls hanging out in the troll room. Let's stop. Stop moving. Let me count you. There we go. It's been 20. I think it's around average 2535. 2,535. That sounds right. And well, let me just check the averages. Last Sunday was 2,452.

It is below the 10 show average, but above the last 100 show average, which is 2,291. So, yes, I love these averages. Yeah, you do. I really do. Sucker for bull crap. It's bull crap. By the way, I do want to say that I was very egotistical just talking about the fire here in Fredericksburg, in Hill Country. The tornadoes have been pretty bad across Alabama, Tennessee. What do you mean egotistical? Well, because I... You gave a factual report.

Yeah, but I only talked about our strife and not about other people's strife. Yeah, well, that was what people wanted to hear. Yeah, I know. Okay. Well, there you go. So, I was spot on the money. You were. Screw you. I was very worried. The tornadoes are terrible. It's got nothing to do with you. And you know what the first report was? I hate to say it, but it's always some poor guy in a mobile home. It's like, it's just always the mobile homes. They're magnetic.

They attract them for some reason. Yeah, Louisiana, 34 people killed yesterday, according to Jeremy the Dell dealer. So, it's not good. It's not good. Anyway, those trolls, I don't know if anyone is from Louisiana, but the trolls are hanging out in the troll room at trollroom.io. They might be listening on a modern podcast app. I checked, actually. You'd think that Fountain was a leading app. It turns out 17% of people listen to this show on Podverse, which I was surprised by.

How did you get that number? Oh, at op3.dev? This is another... Sorry I asked. Op3.dev. This is an open source download system, which the numbers really don't matter as long as everybody uses it, and a lot of people are starting to use it, so you can all kind of see what you're doing. We have, in the month of February, which was a short month, we had 875,000 unique people downloading the show, whatever that means. But Podverse, you know how many people listen at noagendashow.net on the website?

Just take a guess. Lots. 11%. Yeah, that didn't surprise me. I listen to most podcasts online like that. You know, it's surprising. I think the concept of a podcast app is kind of a little outdated. Well, not if it's only 11%. That means that 90% of people are using it on an app. Oh no, all kinds of different things. That's just noagendashow.net. People who listen to it from other places, it's amazing. Well, what's the number of people using it on an app?

Because an app is the original podcast concept. The total number is less than half. Well, that's still a good number. Is it growing or shrinking? There's the question. The apps are shrinking. What is the vector? The vector directional I don't have another word for it, is down on apps, and I think it's because, well, first of all, back when we created podcast apps, there was no bandwidth. You had maybe always on computing, and you had one device. It was the iPod. You didn't have a smartphone.

Now you just tap on something, it plays right away. The whole point was it downloads your podcast when you're sleeping or whatever, and you pick up your iPod and you got your new shows. I think really what it is, it's the inbox fatigue because you look at your podcast app and you're like, oh, I got 57 as shows I haven't listened to. I think it's depressing people. That's just my thinking. I don't know.

Well, I know Mimi listens when she listens streaming, and if she misses it, she's like, oh, maybe I'll catch next show. She sent me a note. She sent me a note. Drat the luck, she says. There goes my leverage over John. Oh, about the fact that you discovered my 11 labs trick. Yes. I guess she was lording that over you like, take out the garbage or I'm going to tell Adam. What? Do the laundry. I'm going to tell Adam. Was she doing that to you, man? Was she doing that? Yeah, that's all she does.

Aw, this is horrible. Points of leverage, and it's like, it's a normal marriage. This is what you do. Maybe after 35 years. How long have you guys been married? I don't know. That's my favorite. I don't know. You're celebrating your birthday coming up in April. You don't know how old you are. Like 65. What are we this year? I don't remember. Yeah, something. 73, I think. I don't think so. Way too old. Way too old to be a podcaster. Yet they call me the boomer. I don't know. It's horrific.

Anyway, the reason why you do want one of those modern podcast apps like PodVersus is because you can just keep it in your pocket, and then when we go live, the bat signal fires, and you get a notification. Boom, you tap in. You're listening live. You'll never miss it. Mimi should try that because then she won't miss it. She can listen to it. It's too much work. It's not too much work.

PodcastApps.com The entire podcast, one of the genius things we did, considering all the hate we've gotten throughout the years, I mean, just COVID itself. Remember in the beginning with COVID, you guys are horrible. I can't believe that you think this is bullcrap. This is the worst disaster ever. We're all going to die. I can't believe it. And then, remember when the Ukraine war kicked off? People left the show. They rage quit.

Yeah, we lost a lot of listeners because we weren't in support of this stupid war. Oh, man. I mean, there were even Ukraine flags all over Hill Country at the time. So, you know, yes, but we weren't in lockstep. And we never will be because that's our nature. If we had had advertising, we definitely would have lost advertising. Oh, we'd be out of business. We'd be podcasting for free, that's for sure.

So instead, we decided, you know what, why don't we just, the people who come at this moment in time for such a time as this. And some people come and some people go. I'm reminded of when I was doing that research on this Khalil guy. I was reminded of our, we had a guy who was a genuine economic hitman who listened to the show. And he was great because he would tell us or at least give me certain... He never wanted to talk to me.

He would give me some insight onto what was, especially Africa, what was going on. He went to John Hopkins. He was working there for some office. And then all of a sudden, he started dating a Russian girl who turned out to be working for that State Department, that little creepy State Department Intelligence Service. And she just said, stop listening to those guys. And that's what he did.

And the reason I was looking at it, because I looked at the State Department, this agency is called the Bureau of Intelligence and Research, which is, INR is referred to as a small group. INR? Is that what it's called? INR? Yeah, INR. It's between 300 and 500 people. They don't know for sure because it's the most secretive of all our intel agencies. And I think that the reason Rubio is acting so cocky is because they put this guy in who's originally a Trump guy. He's got a Blum or BLOM or BLOM.

This guy runs it. He's Undersecretary of State temporarily. But this intelligence agency, I think it's got so much good stuff that it opened Rubio's eyes and he was just basically pissed all the time because of what's going on, that he now knows what's going on, but he can't really say. Which is why I think he does have that tell of talking too fast, which has got to be corrected when he's got information. I think that's why he was going too nutty about this Khalil character.

They've obviously known about the guy. Now either this is an extraction, as I suggested, or it could be some guy's gone rogue and they had to get him out of there. But they let him get his degree from his master's from SIPA so that it wasn't that bad. But yes, there's a bunch of this. The whole government is too spooky. And then October 7th when we defended Israel. We didn't blame the Jews. No, but we did talk about the possibilities of what? That it was a setup.

They were lured in to make this attack. Oh, I still believe it was a setup. Totally discussed. Even the guy in charge says, oh, we screwed up. Yeah, all right. But that's not the point, you see. You have to hate the Jews because the Jews have everything on Epstein, and Epstein controls all of Congress and the Senate and Trump. There were people on X the other day asking Grok, does Adam have Jewish ancestry? Really? Yes. This is how unhinged.

And luckily Grok came back and said, no, it doesn't seem like it. Well, his dad was a high-ranking CIA official. Maybe my uncle, but no. I mean, people are nuts, John. They're nuts. They're nuts. They are nuts. They're nuts. And they're stupid. Yeah, there's a lot of that. They're suckers. There's a lot. Well, I also think there's a lot of bots on X still. There's a lot of bots. So, and I think that Blockman brink, that must have been some kind of op. I would think, yeah, it sounds like it.

I think we get tested once in a while by some of these guys to see how we react to it. Good luck, guys. You've got to get up a lot earlier to stir a problem with these boomers. Yeah, we're all boomers. I'm the old boomer. You're the young boomer. I can't give into it. It's hard for me to admit. 64. I don't think you need to admit it. You can be whatever that one crazy moniker was. Generation Jones. Generation Jones. Oh, brother. Generation Alex Jones. I mean, what kind of generation is that?

So we decided to run it on a system we call value for value. And that means very simply, if you get anything out of this show, send it back to us. Send the value back. Time, talent, treasure. People have done a lot of things for us throughout the years. Back in the day, one of our producers, I forget who it was. I don't know if he's still around. He jerry-rigged the SEO for No Agenda. And we still have the first two pages, I think. If you just search for No Agenda, aren't we still...

Yeah, we're still dominating the search. Yeah, No Agenda Show. No Agenda Podcast. Oh, on YouTube. We're on YouTube. Oh, really? Yeah. No Agenda News Network. Yeah, there's still... EULA for you. I mean, yeah. So that kind of stuff has been very, very helpful. Now, we also appreciate the work that our artists do. I think this also does help to some degree with search engine optimization. They must confuse the AI when they're scanning through our system, like, oh, I'm ingesting something I made.

Blah, blah, blah. I'm going to puke. And that's probably what Gunmonkey did, who brought us the artwork for episode 1746. We titled that Bedtime Hygiene, which is what TikTok now delivers to your kids. And he created a Canadian cow. Yeah. Yeah, it was cute. Well, cute is the right word. That's exactly what it was. It was just cute. And Gunmonkey has only been around for a month. Yeah, but he submits quite a few pieces. He's got AI chops. He does have some AI chops. And this is no agenda.

This was an AI piece. There's no question about it. All his pieces are AI. Let's see. Now, the one you wanted, of course, was Darren O'Neal's red-headed cheesecake holding up the sign, JCD was right. Yes, that would be the best one to use. And then you said, let's just use Snow White. I'm like, you want a lawsuit from Disney? I forgot about that. Yeah, that didn't make any sense. What else? There's a big F-U-C-K I was also the one who pushed the cow. You did push the cow.

Because you were kind of pushing back against the cow. You didn't like it at first. Well, there wasn't much else. There wasn't anything else compared to the cow. You pushed the cow. You were right. You were correct to push the cow. And I can tell you, looking right now, there's plenty of opportunity to still win the coveted slot of artwork for the show, just from what I'm seeing being submitted. I guess we haven't come up with anything good yet. It's always our own fault.

Yes, the content determines the art. It does, it does. NoahJennerArtGenerator.com thank you very much. Gun... what was his name? Gun... Gun... Gun Monkey. Gun Monkey, yes. Good job, Gun Monkey. Of course, many of these pieces of art show up in our chapters, which are available in many podcast apps, even PocketCast, which is a very big app. They now also have chapters, the 2.0 chapters. They have a web-based player now. So, you can get your art seen far and wide.

Now, as a part of our time talent, we have the treasure in Value for Value, and that means we're going to thank people who support the show financially, critically important. And we always thank everybody $50 and above. Anything under $50, we will not mention. There's a cut-off there for reasons of anonymity. And as an extra bonus, if you support us with $200 or more, you get a credit, an official Hollywood credit.

This can be used anywhere, including IMDB.com, the credit title of Associate Executive Producer, and we will read your note. $300 or above, then you go up to the upper echelons, you become an Executive Producer, and we will read your note. Same criteria applied to Executive Producer. Anywhere credits are recognized, it will be accepted. That is one of the cheapest Executive Producer credits you can buy. No kidding.

Most of the time, if you're an Executive Producer of a movie, let's say, there's millions of dollars involved. You're in for millions. Millions. You do get the bang the actress, but hey, what do you want for $200? Yeah, that's true. And we kick it off with Sir Mike, who's in Las Vegas, Nevada, 51538. Let's see. Oh, that is the number he supported us with. ITM amigos, with this donation of 51538, I've achieved the titles of both Commodore and Baron. Last I saw the peerage map, MIA as of today.

Oh, really? Hmm. Clark County, Nevada was not taken, so I'd like to claim that, since I do not technically live in the city of Las Vegas. I never received an official title, so I'd like to be known as Sir Mike Slayer of Taxes as a financial advisor who works to save his clients from the taxman. I can be found at BestFinancialAdvisorInTheUniverse.com. Well, now there's one you can remember. BestFinancialAdvisorInTheUniverse.com. I would love some jobs karma for my two human resources.

How about the original Nancy Pelosi jingle for them? Well, isn't that the one we play? Yeah, that's the regular. Yes, the normal one. Yes. And throw in a random Sharpton for me. You can never go wrong with a little AI. Oh, a little owl. I thought AI. Can never go wrong with a little owl to brighten my day. Well, now there is a fact. Let me see. Do I have? Yes, I got some little owl. Thanks for creating a bit of sanity in this crazy world, and he will be a Commodore as well.

Sir Commodore Baron Mike of Clark County, Nevada, Slayer of Taxes. Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs. Let's vote for jobs. You've got karma. R-E-S-P-I-C-T Aaron comes up from Colorado Springs, Colorado at 515 .38, same amount. The last six months have been a complete excrement show for us. I'm trying not to curse for Lent. While I rely on Jesus Christ for most of the support we need, I'm reaching out for heathen jobs karma. We got a whole helping for you. A helping of heathens.

We got a lot of heathen jobs karma for you there. Yes, we do. For my smoking hot wife, myself, and the No Agenda community. As this is my first donation, hopefully this de- douches me. You've been de-douched. And is still in time for a Commodore ship. Yes, you got it. I would like to give anyone, there's still time people, I would like to give value for the sanity you provide over the last several years. Please give me the following jingles. You're going to need a bitcoin.

They're eating the cats. Little girl, we're all going to die. The F-35 scream followed by jobs karma for all. Oh my goodness, that's a lot. Please call out Brennan and Joanna as douchebags. One more. God protect you. Four more years. Aaron in Colorado Springs. Colorado. They're saying that all hell is going to break loose and you're going to need a bitcoin. They're eating the dogs. The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating They're eating the pets. We're all going to die.

Jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs. Let's vote for jobs. A lot there. Corey D. Wright, Ellensburg, Washington, 333.33 Without a doubt our favorite donation amount. Hello, Crackpot and Buzzkill. This is a first time donation. I've been saving up the pennies and this is a make good for past douchey transgressions. A dude named Ben, who is a good friend and suspected douchebag, hit me in the mouth a while back. In turn, I hid Big Head from Georgia in the mouth and he beat me to a de-douching.

I couldn't let this stand any longer. My family all enjoy the show and want you to keep up the great work. A de-douching and a Donald loves Nazis jingle pretty please from C-Dub and the family in Ellensburg, Washington. You've been de-douched. Donald loves Nazis. Donald loves Nazis. CNN say that he's KKK and he shouts a sick hail with it. Wow. Hey! Ray Salmon in Madison, New Jersey, 333. He wrote a note in as it came in as a check.

ITM John and Adam encloses my contribution of 33333 which gets me to knighthood status. He's got the accounting. Please dub me Sir Woody the Phantom and serve serve and serve Widow I can't read Yeah, I saw it earlier. It's Widow Jane 115 year whiskey and home -baked Nestle Toll House cookie chocolate chip cookies. Okay, then you've already ordered them. Looks like pookies by the way. Well, I ordered those too.

I would like a little girl, yay, Jobs Karma Trump version for two good friends that need it. Thanks again for all your work. Ray in Madison, New Jersey. Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! You've got Karma. And that brings us to Sir Proteus in Newark, Delaware. This is a donation on behalf of my wonderful wife Avis for her birthday on the 16th. So just that's the name. That's an interesting name.

Avis, yeah. Spelled A-V-I-C-E Avis. With this donation she reaches Damehood and she'll become Dame Avis, Hugger of Hounds. Avis, you are the best mother, friend and wife. You are aging like a fine wine so each year with you is better than the last. Bro, here's a pro tip. Pro tip. Aging like a fine wine is not something you say. We know you mean well. We know you mean well. Jingles, biscuit on my birthday in Karma, Sir Proteus. They always give me a biscuit on my birthday. You've got karma.

Sir John in Heber Springs, Arkansas 3-17 -25. Sir John, Knight of St. Patrick shouts Happy St. Pat's. Oh yes. Happy St. Patrick's Day. The St. Patrick's Day is tomorrow I think. Is it today or tomorrow? I think it's tomorrow. If it's today you probably made a donation. I got drunk on the wrong day. Oh no. Also a shout out to Sir Slartibartfast. I'll meet you at the restaurant at the end of the universe. Code. There's code. Douglas Adams material.

3-14-15 from Sir Facetension and he requests a random Sharpton. I'm donating on behalf of my late mother Ann Stedman, born on March 14th. We with her are happy belated. I'll have the executive producer credit as she hated the show. Great. Rest in peace, Ann. After a few years, I'll award her a damehood out of spite. A spitehood, if you will. Play me out with some... Ooh, a spitehood. A spitehood. This is a good one. People should be doing that all the time. A spitehood.

Play me out with some Sharpton, please. R-E-S-P-I-C-T Beautiful. Spitehood. And here comes Sir Scovey, our buddy in Charlotte, North Carolina. 3-14-15. The content in the donation segments of late has been outstanding. Amen. Thank you. Yes. This donation brings me to Archduke. The usual roundtable fare will do, plus a round of Pabst Blue Ribbon for the trolls in the troll room. Thank you for your courage, Sir Scovey, the Archduke of the Piedmont. Very nice.

3-13-50 from Anonymous in Omaha, Nebraska. It could be Warren Buffett, for all we know. Adam and John, in honor of the new the ball is in your half of the court day, which is now forever March 13th. 3-13th. Yes, 3-13. The ball is in your half of the court day. I send to you 3-13 and one extra half a dollar to drive home the point that this is now your half of the court. John is right. What an absolute BS nonsensical saying.

Add this to the list of other idioms that are trashed but still repeated. And he has a list. The proof is in the pudding. That's a good one. Bite the bullet. Reigning cats and dogs put a sock in it and you can have your cake and eat it too. I'll take reigning cats and dogs for 300, Alex. If you could write 100 pages on how wrong these are I could write 100 pages on how wrong these all are, but I won't. I know you guys are busy. I struggle with brevity. Jingles 9999 in WTC7 and a Jobs Karma.

Anonymous in Nebraska. Bye Bye Bye Bye Bye WTC7 won't go away. Jobs Jobs and Jobs. Let's vote for Jobs Jobs Karma. Onward with another regular Doctor Sharky. Sir, Doctor Sharky in Jackson, Tennessee, 22905. And he says, John and Adam, with this donation, I have officially passed into dukedom. Wow. If approved by the No Agenda Peerage Committee, I'd like to be known as Duke Sir Dr. Sharky, Lord of Mars. Oh. That's fair game, fair game. I want to claim it before Elon gets there.

ITM, karma for all. Yes, karma for all. You got it. You've got karma. And that brings us to Bensonville, Illinois. It's Eli the Coffee Guy. He's back, 20316, Associate Executive Producership for him. And then he says, shout out to the Millennial Media Offensive Podcast. I initially found them on the No Agenda stream and have been listening ever since. They're on point with their news analysis, especially breakdowns of international events.

I would suggest all No Agenda producers give them a listen. I would also suggest that all producers visit gigawattcoffeeroasters.com and grab some amazing fresh roasted coffee today. Remember to use code ITM20 at checkout for 20% off your order and stay caffeinated, says Eli the Coffee Guy. Which brings us to our last donor. Linda Lou Patkin in Lakewood, Colorado comes with $200 even and says, jobs karma.

And for a competitive edge with a resume that gets results, go to imagemakersinc.com for all your executive resume and job search needs. That's imagemakersinc with a K. And work with Linda Lou, Duchess of Jobs and writer of resumes. Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs. Let's vote for jobs. You've got karma. Yeah, and that wraps up our executive and associate executive producers. By the way, Professor Jay Jones in China made a sitar karma in case everyone wants that in the future.

Here's the, you can request that now. You've got karma. Woo! And with a goat, in case you're needing some sitar goat karma. We thank these executives. Worst sitar ever. As sitar goes, it's pretty bad. We appreciate you, executive and associate executive producers. The credits are real. They last a lifetime. You can put them on imdb.com and we will be thanking people. $50 and above in our second segment. We always thank everybody. Tell you how much they supported us because we enjoy it so much.

It is good for us. It's good for the show. It keeps us going for another three years and nine months approximately. We just shorten it to four more years. Knowagendadonations.com, set up a recurring donation. Check if you had one. It may have expired. Any amount, any frequency. Knowagendadonations.com. Ow, I didn't mean to do that one, I mean. I meant knowagendadonations.com and thank you again for supporting the show. Our formula is this. We go out, we hit people in the mouth.

Get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out. Get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out, get out. You, murder, order, shut up, shut up. I want to run this clip. This is a, you played Scott earlier with another woman. The clips I had earlier were Scott. Oh, Scott from MPR. Those were both from the show called Up First. And Up First is described the following way. It's three stories in 15 minutes. Wow, the things people have time for.

So they do three stories in 15 minutes. I want to play the credit role. Okay. And you want, you know, you wonder about doge and government waste and fraud and abuse. Yes. I want to play the credit role for this show, Up First, which is three stories in 15 minutes. This is the credit role. And that's Up First for Saturday, March 15th, 2025. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. And I'm Scott Simon. Martin Patience produced today's episode with help from Ryan Bank and Phil Harrell.

Our editors are Dee Parvez, Shannon Rhodes, Ed McNulty, Kelsey Snell, and Arizu Resvani. Andrew Craig is our director with support from technical director, Andy Husser. And the engineers who help us out, David Greenberg, Zach Goldman, and Arthur Halliday-Lorent. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor and Sarah Lucy Oliver is our executive producer. Jim Cain is our deputy managing editor. I counted and they actually have more producers than we had for this show.

I counted it a couple of times to get it right. 16 people were mentioned. Yes. Not including those two for a total of 18 people to put together a 15 minute show of three stories. Yes. And we do three to three and a half hours with 12 executive and associate executive producers who did nothing for the content except for the funny content in their notes. Yes. They wrote a note saying, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. They should doge that place. Oh, is that a verb? Is that a verb yet?

They should doge that place? It should be. Doge it. Doge it. So speaking of boomers, I think I forwarded this to you. Several of our boomer producers reached out and said, hey, an old joke from John made it into the AARP magazine. Oh yeah. Yeah, I did get that. Let me see. Where is it here? Hold on a second. Yes, I used to do for PC. April Fools, yes. For both Mac user and PC computing. And I started doing this at InfoWorld early, but I started doing it every year.

I would do an April Fools gag and about three or four of them were classics and got into various halls of fame. Yes. And this was one of them. And it was, and here it is. No drinking on the web as the internet was just gaining popularity. The April 1994 issue, where were you in 1994, of PC Computing ran a column by John C. Dvorak about a non-existent Senate bill designed to prohibit anyone from using a public computer network while the computer user is intoxicated.

Dvorak said some clueless senators thought the so -called information superhighway was an actual road. Did that work in 1994? It worked to such an extreme that Senator Pat Leahy got so much grief that I got feedback from his office. No. Yeah. Wow. Because I said he was co-sponsor of the bill or some dang thing. Where they called you up and said, don't do that, please, computer man. Well, it was the way it was framed. You have to read the whole column.

The way it was, I should try to find it and then put it on one of my columns. It's in the closet. On Substack. But it was framed in such a way that it made him look like an idiot. Is he still with us? And so it didn't take a lot. It was not well-received by the government. Is Leahy still around? Is he still with us? Yeah, I don't know. He was the last term. I don't know if he's still there. I mean, his voice, he lost his voice.

So there was a little snafu in the appointment in one of President Trump's appointees Weldon, Weldon, Weldon. Dr. Weldon was supposed to become the director of the CDC. And his nomination was pulled. So because he, apparently he didn't have the votes. This is Mary Holland from the children's defense, health defense thing. That's the thing that Kennedy has nothing more to do with. And she explains what happened. He was too outspoken on vaccines is what it really looks like to me.

Which is, vaccines are the magic sauce that keeps the chronic disease epidemic going. And I think Dave Weldon understood that perfectly. And my guess is there was some kind of an alliance between Pharma and Senator Cassidy and some of his compatriots in the Senate to kill the nomination. No real explanation at all why the Weldon nomination was pulled.

But Senator Cassidy at the very beginning sort of talked about distrust in health agencies and the context of measles, which would seem to be a lot of what was going on. It was pretty clear that they didn't have the votes for Weldon on the health committee. And I can tell you that I and many people who were there and on text threads that were on are just tremendously disappointed.

Weldon was perfectly credentialed having been a member of Congress and a physician and a Republican to take that job. And he was outspoken about vaccines. He understands vaccines candidly better than any of the other key appointments that Bobby was proposing. According to, is it Senator Ron Johnson? He's a Senator, isn't he? Yeah. Yeah. He thinks it had something to do with big Pharma. Oh no, you don't say.

But again, the fact that they were able to defeat the Weldon nomination, it's really tragedy because I spoke with the doctor. He's got a very open mind. He's certainly not anti-vaccine. Vaccines is patients, okay? He just has some questions. Like, you know, maybe just maybe 85 doses on the childhood schedule, you know, vaccines given in what? Three to six different vaccines at the same time to very young infants whose immune systems are just developing. What's wrong with that?

That might be a problem, but we can't even ask the question. So again, I give Donald Trump and Bobby Kennedy all the credit for taking really a giant leap forward in terms of addressing this problem, but also demonstrating how we're gonna heal and unify this very divided nation. It seems to me like Dr. Weldon doesn't even know exactly what happened when the White House pulled this nomination. He said sort of that big Pharma may have had something to do with it.

He said it's the concern of many people is that big Pharma quote was behind this, which is probably true in a statement today. Do you know if pressure from big Pharma had anything to do with that? No, but I think you can pretty well assume that. Again, they couldn't get by, they couldn't bring down Bobby Kennedy because what he was doing is so politically popular, completely non-partisan fashion.

So Republican senators couldn't vote against him, even those that might've wanted to, but Pharma doesn't go quiet in the night, so they got their scalp. They got their scalp. It could have been a quid pro quo, it could have been something else, it could have been Pharma not involved, we don't know, but we're never gonna find it. Got an update. They get another guy. I got an update from one of our producers.

We had the best producers in the universe, of course, much better than those, gosh, producer Scott, regarding your COVID insurance clip. And if I recall- Oh yeah, yeah, it'd be interesting. If I recall, the life insurance company did not wanna pay out because the person had taken this vaccine voluntarily and therefore it was considered suicide and we don't pay out on suicide. Am I, am I- More or less. More or less, right. Close enough. Sir Nasty Nate here, I love our guys.

I'm a life, Sir Nasty Nate, he's a life and health insurance agent. The company he works for is Bankers Life, Colonial Penn Life Insurance. And he says the company has to pay out after two years of having the insurance for suicide. So if you commit suicide, don't do it during the first two years of your policy, your beneficiary won't get the benefit. Oh, that's interesting, I've never heard this.

Yeah, I got more people saying, that's bullcrap, but this is actually- Well, no, it wouldn't be bull, in the case of the COVID shot, these people were dying within two years anyway. Exactly, exactly. And it was claimed to be suicide. And that's interesting, because I know someone who lives in town whose husband committed suicide and she got an insurance payout. And I was like, that's interesting. But it must've been after the two-year period. Yeah, it sounds like it.

And then bombshell, bombshell, bombshell intelligence. Bombshell, everybody, it was just the hugest bombshell. Bombshell. Bombshell that COVID was lab made. God. This is a Trump administration was given bombshell intelligence from an ally. Well, who was the ally? The ally was Germany, that's right. Germany gave us this bombshell information. Very keep up, dudes. Well, on health. Yes. I got a couple of tips about seed oil. It's no good, I hear.

Well, this is the thing, it's questionable whether it's good or not to me, because I even, in fact, I was reading about pumpkin seed oil, which is good for prostate health, but it's a seed oil. And indeed, the real controversy is over the linoleic acids that are in seed oil, and you read, I'm telling you, you can do a research on this yourself. You can read about, oh, good for the heart. Oh, bad for the heart. Good for the heart, bad for the heart, good for the heart.

I mean, this is one of these things that it's like, is there agreement on any of this stuff? But if you're anti-seed oil, there's agreement, yeah, it's bad for you. But if you're not, then it's great, because it's low poly, it's polyunsaturated, blah, blah, blah. The whole thing is ridiculous, but there's a report on it I picked up, and I thought it was at least educational. Steak and Shake says it has recently switched from frying with seed oil to beef tallow.

It credits U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the change. He says using so-called traditional ingredients will make America healthier. But as Sarah Bowden reports, traditional doesn't always mean nutritious. Wait a minute, so RFK Jr. comes out and says, these seed oils will kill you, and then all of a sudden there's a report about seed oil that it won't kill you? Hmm, well, that's interesting. For decades, Americans have been warned against fast food.

So it was striking to see the country's top public health officials sit down to a burger and fries on Fox News. Kennedy was joined by host Sean Hannity, who ordered a Coke. RFK wants more restaurants to follow Steak and Shake's lead and stop using seed oils, which he claims are fueling the obesity epidemic. We are poisoning ourselves, and it's coming from principally these ultra-processed foods. But researchers say seed oils aren't the real problem. It's French fries.

For God's sake, it's French fries. Ha, ha, ha, oh, it's not the seed oils, it's the French fries that are killing you. So now hearing that, I said, no, this is great. I mean, this guy is French fries. Just stop eating French fries, we'll all be fine. Christopher Gardner is a nutrition scientist at Stanford University. People should eat fewer French fries, whatever they're deep fried in. Which is why Gardner is concerned that Kennedy went to a fast food restaurant on national television.

The secretary has a big platform, and fast food is high in saturated fat, which leads to more clogged arteries and heart attacks. And if people are eating more hamburgers and more French fries, even though they're now in tallow instead of seed oil, more people are gonna die. We're all gonna die! Dr. Daryush Mozaffarian is a cardiologist at Tufts University. He agrees with Kennedy that processed foods are driving up rates of heart disease, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses.

But Mozaffarian says the real villains are too many refined grains, starches, sugars. An overload of salt and other preservatives, hundreds of chemical additives, contaminants from packaging. And while seed oils are found in processed foods, he says it's guilt by association. Seed oils are actually the bright spot. Seed oils are healthy fats, healthy monounsaturated, polyunsaturated fats that are really good for our bodies. Mozaffarian is glad Kennedy's concerned about ultra-processed foods.

That's why he'd like the secretary to focus on helping low-income Americans afford fresh groceries that are rich in fiber and nutrients. NPR reached out to Kennedy's team for comment, but did not hear back. We also reached out to Steak and Shake. It turns out its food manufacturers still use seed oil to prepare the food before it's frozen and shipped to stores. Oh, no! There goes my shake and bake snack or whatever that place is called. This report is just the worst. You know, Bobby came out.

I call him Bobby now. Bobby came- Bobby. He came out and he said, you know, grass, we're changing grass, which is the acronym generally regarded as safe, which initially was only for baking soda, I think, and, you know, like salt maybe. And now it's just been used as everything. Oh, it's all generally regarded as safe and he's going to change that.

This is going to change the face of - Well, you know, I talked about this on the show years ago about the Merck Index, which everyone should have a copy of. Yeah, mine is very outdated. I have one, but I think it's- They're all outdated. I don't think they brought this thing out for years. It doesn't matter because the information is generally not outdated, but grass is used effusively within the Merck Index.

Everything you look it up, grass, grass, grass, you see it's G-R-A-S, all caps, is commonly used to describe various chemicals and poisons and other things. Mainstream media is generally regarded as safe, but we're all going to die. Yeah, it's crazy. I need to do a little bit on bird flu because I'm going to end it up with McCullough, the latest from McCullough, which is interesting. But first, we need to tug at the heartstrings because it's killing a kitten.

A warning is going out about raw pet food now that new cases of bird flu are being reported in two New York City cats and one of the pets. A little kitten died from the infection. The virus has already spread like wildfire in chickens. The city is investigating the outbreak and warning pet owners to avoid using raw foods and milk. A vet says the sick kitten was fed savage cat food. The kitten had to be euthanized. So first they said the cat died, but then basically they killed the kitten.

That's two different things. It's clearly shown that raw- Well, hold on a second. That is two different things. They fed the cat some, this is bull. Yeah, they fed the cat some raw cat food and then it got sick. Which is what you do if you can, if you can get raw food. Jay used to work at a raw pet food company in Oakland. Very cool operation. All the hoity-toities in Piedmont and other areas around the Bay Area would use this kind of cat food because the cats love it.

So then the kitten got sick and then they euthanized it. They chopped its head off. The kitten had to be euthanized. And her head is gone. It's clearly shown that a raw chicken can, if it's infected with avian flu, which unfortunately it is, some of it is, can make cats very sick with avian flu. And here comes the brand. Savage Cat Brand Food issued a statement saying they're incredibly saddened to hear that that kitten has passed. They are working with the FDA and gathering information.

Died, euthanized, has passed. Okay. But CBS is not letting up on the bird flu in cows. It's killing the cows. John LePoup, the doctor, comes in to help. Texas and New Mexico today reported 38 more measles cases. Oh no! That brings the nationwide total this year to more than 300, which is already more than the number for all of last year. I don't know why they have to start it off with measles. I'm sure that's some kind of neuro-linguistic programming. I'm noticing this too.

I pointed out some other clips, usually NTD does it a lot, where they bring in one topic to get you kind of jacked up about something, and then they slide into what they really want to talk about. I find it's got to be NLP of some sort. It's exactly what's happening here. CDC also reports that in the past year, there have been 70 cases of bird flu. Bird flu! And one death. Death! On the farm, it has been devastating, not only for poultry, but cows. Cows! Here's Dr. John LePoup. Hello, doctor.

Tyler Ribeiro, a fourth generation dairy farmer, woke up to a world turned upside down. I went to bed at 11 o'clock at night, and by the morning, we were in the middle of it. In just two weeks last September, bird flu ripped through the fourth generation farmer's herd of 1,500 cows. Dozens died. They were sick. Their ears were down. They weren't hungry. And I was up against a force that I really didn't know how to fight. By the way, I'm not so sure the cows died from the bird flu.

They might have been sick. Most of the cows, I've talked to the ranchers, yeah, they get bird flu, they get sick, they get better. I wonder if they were euthanized. California has more than 1,100 dairy farms. Two-thirds experienced an outbreak caused by a deadly virus that, for the first time, spread from poultry and wild birds to cows, then from cow to cow. A leading suspect is contaminated milking machines. So a deadly virus for the first time.

We've heard about the sick cows from bird flu for months. But OK, so I don't know. It's all just... What's the milking machine doing? Well, let's find out. I love these animals. Dr. Michael Payne is a veterinarian at the University of California, Davis. The spillover of avian influenza, bird flu into cattle has never occurred before. It's a new disease. While human infections are rare, 38 people in California, nearly all of them work with cattle, have been diagnosed with mild bird flu.

But now a different strain that has caused more severe illness is circulating widely in North American wild birds and spilling over into poultry. Some scientists have said to me they are very concerned that we're getting closer and closer to that virus mutating to a point where it could spread more easily from human to human.

Understandably, our public health colleagues are concerned additional mutations will occur in this version of the virus or other versions of the virus that will be easily transmitted from one person to another. So I have bad news. Dr. McCullough was hanging out with Dell Big Tree or as Tina calls him, Big Dell Tree. I don't know why she does it. And yeah, it turns out that this is actually happening. And surprise, it was created in a lab.

Our research at McCullough Foundation and Nick Kulsher, the lead, this strain of bird flu is different. This looks like it has actually come from serial passage research done at the USDA Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia. Serial passage is when there's a blend of viral strains that's intentionally put, in this case, in a mallard duck. They were trying to see which strain would pass to the next mallard duck.

And the mallard ducks are studied because their gullet is where the virus attaches, but it doesn't go into the lungs. And indeed, they found clade 23446 that looked like it transmitted. And sure enough, that's where the first cases were around Athens, Georgia. Now, the unique aspect to this clade is that it was very mild in the mallard ducks. They could spread it all over another migratory waterfowl. It quickly spread into mammals. We're now up to about 40 different species of mammals.

And so what the USDA and other public health officials have done over the last several decades is what's called biosecurity. So biosecurity would be this idea that, well, if one chicken has bird flu, if we sterilize the whole farm, they won't get it again. Again, these ghouls, these ghouls experimenting with nature, with God's creation. And it turns out that this is peer -reviewed and it's real.

You're essentially saying that this is a lab -grown clade, that this was something made in a lab, that it's, I mean, are we talking about a lab leak again when we're talking about bird flu right now? Yeah, we're so sure that we've published this in a peer-reviewed paper titled The Proximal Origins of Clade 23446 Avian Influenza. It was published in the peer-reviewed journal Poultry and Wildlife Sciences. And it hasn't been disputed by any of the public health officials.

We cite the USDA research, research done by Dr. Karakawa at University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine and Dr. Ron Fouchier at Erasmus. So yeah, it looks like this, mankind brought this on. Now, the twist that we've seen is the major strain of this clade, the clade is the original source. This restrain that was so mild that was just causing pink eye in humans, in mild cases in animals was B3.13. Now we've seen the emergence of D1.1 and it's a totally different ballgame.

There's a teenager in British Columbia who gets D1.1. She gets severe human bird flu, ends up on the ventilator, needs ECMO for life support. Thankfully, she survives. A man down in Louisiana gets it. He dies. He had some birds in his backyard. And now a toddler in Cambodia has died. It is a different form of what we call genetic reassortment. And now what I've concluded is, you know, this culling has caused this outbreak to last so long because of virgin flock after virgin flock.

Now the virus has had enough opportunity to reassort and mutate. And I think it's taken a turn for the worse. It's almost April. Time to flatten the curve. Timing is perfect. It's unbelievable. Well, with the initial bird flu in some years back, I noticed that there was a the prophylactic was discussed. And it turns out to be relenza, which is the Tamiflu competitor. Oh, really? Relenza is the Tamiflu. It's not cheap, by the way. It's 100 bucks a prescription. I have a few.

I always keep backed up. Now, but you take it when you feel the onset or you take it? Yeah, it's just the same as Tamiflu. Only you breathe it in. It's a powder. And it takes a little getting used to how to use it with a straw. No, you breathe through your mouth. It's a funny device you have. And you put it's got a little thing. You pop the pop the capsule and it releases the powder and you breathe the powder in through into the lungs. And that's how it works. It's very inconvenient to use.

And it's not very popular, but it's very effective. It is, I think, is slightly more effective than Tamiflu, because Tamiflu is you when you take it, it's a whole body phenomenon, whereas the Relenza goes right to the lungs, which is where the flu or any of these influenza type diseases, that's where they reproduce. It just goes right after him. It's a very good product. So we should all get some Relenza. That's what you're saying. I'm not a doctor.

Well, my ivermectin, is that not going to help me? Probably not. It would help me get rid of worms. Hey, final clip for me is yet more disappointment. Pam Bondi, Merle Haggard in a wig was on with the money, honey, Maria Bartiromo. And of course, the question came up about the all the files we were going to get all the information it was all coming out.

I heard this is good take on something else, which a lot of people were emailing me about and talking to me about when they heard that you were coming on the show. The MAGA group is mad that we don't know more about the Epstein files. The MAGA group is mad that they don't know more about the January 6th investigation. Are you going to give us any more information on these two issues? Sure. And first to the Epstein, I'm mad that I didn't have more information on Epstein.

I was given 200 pages of documents. I've asked Director Patel. He came in after that. Of course, I'd asked for those documents prior to Cash coming in. Cash is going to get me all the information. I've asked him to find out why I didn't receive all those documents and he didn't receive all those documents. We've now found out, of course, that they were in New York. We've received truckload of documents of evidence.

Cash is going to give me a deadline on when he can go through that to protect, of course, the victims of sex trafficking who are wrapped into this. And he's going to give me a deadline on when he can get this and we will get out as much as we can, as fast as we can to the American people because they deserve to know. Same with January 6th. We're all working on JFK right now. We will be working on Martin Luther King. All of these things that the president promised we will be doing.

They can try to hide documents from us, but they can't. Might take a little longer. We will find them and we will release them to the American people because it's transparency. Weak. Very weak. I have to conclude the following. Okay. With both the JFK and the Epstein stuff, it is so terrible what's in there that it would bring down the government and it would collapse the United States. What could be so terrible after 60 years that it would collapse the United States?

I don't know, but it's got to be something and to use the profanity, it has to be an, oh, shit, kind of thing. When you look at the data, you go, oh, shit. You can't say you can't bring this out. Well, then it may be they're right. Maybe it is Israel responsible for everything. That could bring it down. It could be anything. It could be Great Britain. It could be France. It could be our own people. That wouldn't bring down the government and be like, you stupid limeys, you frogs. I agree.

It could be Russia. I mean, it could be, I don't know. I have no idea. It's just beyond my comprehension what it might be. You can't deconstruct it because there's not enough information. It could be that the entire U.S. government has been run by the mafia for the last 40 years. We don't know that. That could be a problem. Well, this is not helping the situation, Pam. And then, of course, you had the guy who was the head of the FBI in New York who quit.

Is there something very suspicious about these Marines? He's another, I think, ex-lieutenant colonel or colonel in the Marine Corps that became this head of the FBI in New York office. And I'm reminded of John Kelly, the Marine who was running the White House. It set poor Trump up with John Bolton and got rid of Steve Bannon. What is with the Marines? What are the Marines doing at this moment? I mean, why are they working against the president of the United States? You know what's going on?

You know, the only thing that could really, really bring down the entire government is as if it turns out that they're all pedophiles. Like the whole thing has been run by nut jobs. That could be. That could really, because then it would be like everyone would be suspect and everyone would go. No one would want to work there. I don't know. Whatever the case is, I don't see this stuff coming out because they're freaked. Somebody is freaked out because the Kennedy thing is way overdue.

It's not even close. So what's the connection between Kennedy and Epstein? There has to be a connection because they won't release either of those two. They'll probably bring out the J6 invest. So who cares? You know, this other stuff that we don't care about will be released and they'll just sit. They're just going to sit on it. You know what I think? Or if they bring it out, it's going to be so massaged that it'll be a phony. It'll be a fake. I think it's Adrenochrome. Adrenochrome. Could be.

Well, the one thing you know for sure is your favorite podcasters are not on the Adrenochrome because we're boomers. Otherwise we'd be looking young and svelte and we'd be just fantastic. But no, no, no Adrenochrome for us. Instead, we have producers who we're going to thank. $50 and above. We have John's tip of the day coming up. We got end of show mixes. There's all kinds of stuff happening. A lot of good meetups and meetup report.

But right now, John, take us through the 50s, if you will, please. Yeah, and we're going to start off with we have, I can't pronounce his name. He's Irish. He's from Glasgow. Let me give it a try. Cherian, Cherian, Doherty. Cherian, yeah. I'd say Cherian, Doherty. Cherian, Cherian, Karen. Maybe it's Karen, Kieran. Could be Karen, could be Karen. Yeah, could be. Kieran Doherty. But he's in Glasgow. He, she's in Glasgow. $185.88 with a yearly bonus, the yearly donation. Thank you. So that's nice.

We don't hear enough from our UK folk. No, but they're all afraid to donate. I'm surprised. Yeah, he'll be knocking on the door in a minute, you know. What are you giving to those guys for? Open up. Sean Homan in Noblesville, Indiana, $148.48. Martha Sharp in Lexington, South Carolina, $123.45. Van Newman in... Newman? Newman in Bernalito, Bernalito, Bernatillo, Bernatillo, New Mexico, $105.35. Sorrel, which is a vegetable. Sorrel Cooper in China, Michigan. Made in China. Michigan.

I could have a double meaning. $101.14 and he's got a happy birthday shout out to her husband, Sir John of the St. Clair Lowlands. They're going to move to Arizona. Uh, Sorrel. Interesting name for a woman. Thomas Burns, $101.01. Lucas Williams in Roswell, New Mexico, $100. Sir Mike, $44.00. In Beth... Bethalto? These places. Bethalto, Illinois, $100.00. He wants some yak karma. If you give him that, he'll give you a Bellamy salute, he says. Whatever that is. I don't know if I want one.

I don't know. Dame, uh, Melivation. Melivation in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Came in with $100. Sir Sterling in Boise, $81.95. Uh, oh, he's sent in the JCD. He's the one that sent in the red hoodies. I also got a couple of some other people to thank, which I'll do in the next show. Ohio Staters, who sent more hoodies in. I got a lot of hoodies now. I also got a note from somebody telling me to be careful if I wear the Ohio State hoodie, because I'll be swamped with Ohio State nut balls.

Aren't we the best? Curtis Kuhl in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, $80.17. Which is Irish boobs. Or smiling. $17. The Irish boobs are smiling. It's a birthday for him. Kevin McLaughlin, Concord, North Carolina, $8.008. He's the Archduke of Loon, a lover of America, lover of boobs. Dame Rita, our friend in Sparks, Nevada, $76. She says we're doing a great job and she loves our style. She never writes a note. Jackie Horn in Plainfield, Indiana, $67.

For her hunk-a-hunk-a-burning love, John. All right. It's a birthday. David Hall, $63.31. Peter Hulrigel in Konigsberg, Austria. An Austrian, good. And he's never been deduced, he says. You've been deduced. You're deduced now. He came in with $72.63 and he says he just found new work. You helped me through that hard time. Well, that's what we're here for. Elliott Lang, $6.006. Sabode Peth in Metairie, Louisiana, $5.809. This is his Blofeld donation,

$5.809. Everybody's coming in with Blofeld donations of $5.809. James Edmondson in South Plainfield, New Jersey, $55.10. Sir Luke Rayner in London, UK, $55.10. Karma for all. We'll give some karma at the end. Michael Eager in North Bethesda, Maryland, $52.76. This is Mike from the Outer Swamp meetup, a reminder. Kevin Dills in Huntersville, North Carolina, $50. Oh, the rest of these are 50s and here we go. Uh, Kevin, Diane Schwanebeck in Johnsburg, Illinois, Greg Mackey in Medford, Oregon.

Philip Blue in Louisville, Kentucky. Oh, I'll get it at the end for him. Yeah. Easy Landscapes in North Stonington, Connecticut for you people who need landscaping. Chris Lewinsky in Sherwood Park, Alberta, a citizen in Bensonville, Illinois. And last on the list, Sir Jerry Wingenroth, our pal there, a regular contributor from Saugus, California. Ah, wonderful. Thank you all so much.

No one under 50 mentioned because it's all for reasons of anonymity, but we do again want to thank our executive and associate executive producers for helping us out. What are you drinking? Just polar seltzer. Okay. And you can set up a recurring donation. Please consider doing that at noagenda donations.com. Check if you had one because it may have been expired. It does happen around this time of year. noagendadonations.com. Any amount, any frequency, jobs, karma with the app.

Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs. Let's vote for jobs. You've got karma. That's right. noagendadonations.com. Donate today. It's your birthday, birthday. Jackie Horn wishes her hunk of hunk of burning love. John, happy birthday. He turned 67 on March 4th. Sir Face Tension, happy birthday to his late mom, Ann Stedman. She would have celebrated on the 14th. That is a, what do you call that? I forgot the term he used. I have to remember this.

The Ides of March. Sir M and Dame Drea wish their son Hambone a happy birthday. He celebrated, he celebrates today, 15 years old today. Sir Proteus, happy birthday to his wife, Avis, celebrates today. Curtis Cool celebrates his birthday tomorrow. Savannah Schoenecker wishes her amazing boyfriend, George Hernandez, or maybe it's Jorge, a happy one, turning 28 on March 21st. And Sorrel Cooper, happy birthday to her husband, Sir John of the St. Clair Lowlands.

And we wish all of these people a very happy birthday from everybody here at the best podcast in the universe. And now we're going to start with our Commodores before we get to our knights and then we have an upgrade. So we'd like to welcome the following people to the podium. Commodore Sir Baron Mike of Clark County, Nevada, Slayer of Taxes, and Commodore Aaron. Both of you will be receiving that wonderful certificate. Go to noagenerates.com, give us the address. And we say Commodores arriving.

We have a layaway knight from Michael Sikora who says, I'm writing to claim my knighthood. It was a layaway. It happens. People do this months and months, sometimes years, but you can get there. Henceforth, I'd like to be known as Sir Mumbly Peg. Sir Mumbly Peg. My mother, Linda Sikora, told me about the game of Mumbly Peg last summer and I knew immediately I needed to make that my knight name.

Mumbly Peg was born long before the internet, when kids had nothing better to do than throw knives at their feet. John, can you explain the game of Mumbly Peg? Uh, I always thought it was done with the hands where you had, you push in, put their hand down. Chuck, chuck, chuck, you do the... Yeah, with knife going back and forth. But I think maybe it was before my time, actually, to be honest, which is a long time. So I don't think anyone living today knows, ever played this game.

Well, people who played it may not be living anymore because it involves knives. I think you also threw knives at somebody's feet and they had to duck or something, I'm not sure. Not a great idea. No Agenda is truly the best podcast in the universe. I enjoyed listening with my human resource. Future Miss, Little Miss Mumbly Peg. For all of you in Gitmo Nation, knighthood is easily achievable with sustaining donations. Set it and forget it, but remember to keep them running.

And for the round table, he would like some... I don't know what that is. With pan-fried walleye and venison pork tacos. Okay, Michael, you're about to be knighted right now. In fact, I'm going to grab the blade. We have three knights and one dame, John. I got it right here. Very nice. Okay, Avis, step on up. Michael Secora, step on up, as well as Ray Samori and Mike Keeler. All three of them. Four of you about to enter that exclusive club, the No Agenda Knights and Dames.

I'm hereby happy to pronounce the K-D as Dame Avis, Hugger of Hounds, Sir Mumbly Peg, Sir Woody the Phantom, and Sir Mike. For you, we've got hookers and blow, rent boys and chardonnay, but also we have window gin, 15-year-old whiskey, and home-baked Nestle chocolate chip cookies. Cate Frati, Frati Laguna, Italian wine with pan -fried walleye and venison pork tacos, and some Pat's Blue Ribbon for the trolls.

Along with that, we've got some ginger, lingerville, sparkling cider, escargot, sparkling suburban, and as always, the mutton and meat. All four of you head over to noagendarings .com. You can line up behind the Commodores, and that means that all you have to do is give us your ring size. It's not that hard.

There's a ring sizing guide on the website, and send us an address, and you will get that handsome knight or dame ring, along with a certificate of authenticity and some wax to seal your important correspondence, because it is a Cignet ring. And now we've got some title changes. Title changes, turn and face the slayers. Title changes, don't want to be a douchebag. So we have that upgrade we talked about earlier, Sir Mike, Sir Commodore Baron Mike of Clark County, Nevada, slayer of taxes.

Sir Scobie will become Sir Scobie, Archduke of the Piedmont, and Sir Dr. Sharkey becomes Duke, Sir Dr. Sharkey, and he claimed Mars, so he will become the Lord of Mars. Wow, that's amazing. Thank you all very much for your additional $1,000 support of the best podcast in the universe. No Agenda Meetups. Yeah, the No Agenda Meetups, they are producer -organized. You can find an entire list at noagendameetups .com. This is where you get the connection that gives you protection.

The people you meet there are the people who will be the first responders in an emergency. I know because they all responded and checked on me when the fire was raging here. Here's an example of a meetup. This is a meetup report. This is the Snow Homo One Ball Meetup. Oh, yeah. In the morning, ladies and germs, this is Jorge reaching out from the Snohomish area. I'm here hanging out with a group of fine people. I'm going to pass the phone around. I've got one ball. Just thought I'd mention that.

Sorry. All right, moving on. In the morning, this is Savannah. Happy to be here. We're at the recovery center for the whiplash. The ball is in your court, John. This is Jack Ash, recovering from what apparently was a genetically predisposed engineered virus for Saskatchewan. I can't speak. But we're here at beautiful Snohomish at the Sound of Summit Brewing. And we're all wondering why bigmike2028.com redirects to infowarsstore.com. All right, that's all. Take care. Alex got it. There you go.

No wonder we missed out on it. There's no meetups today, but there is one coming up on Tuesday. The North Idaho Sanity Brigade, the March meetup, 5 o'clock at Trails and Brewery and Brick Oven Pizza in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. And then our next show day, Thursday, Central Wisconsin, Wausau, 3.33 p.m. Skanas in Schofield, Wisconsin. And you can go to Tucson, Arizona for the It's Cold, It's Hot Tucson meetup, 4 o'clock at Canyons Crown.

Also on Thursday, the Denver Spring Equinox meetup, 6.30 at Lincoln's Roadhouse in Denver, Colorado. Man, they got a lot of meetups going on there. And Charlotte's Thirsty Third Thursday. It happens every third Thursday of the month at 7 o'clock. Ed's Tavern in Charlotte, North Carolina. Many more to be found, including Osaka, Japan, if you happen to be there. Culemborg in Gelderland, the Netherlands. A lot more in the United States.

And there's even one in Oakland on your birthday, John, April 5th. I'm figuring maybe you should go check it out. You might get some gifts. You might get some presents. I might get some presents. You might give it a shot. Ohio State hoodies. You need more of those. More hoodies for John from Ohio State. Oh, Ohio State definitely beat Michigan when it came to the hoodies. So go to noagendameetups.com to see the entire list. There's a calendar. You can look them up. You can search them.

I think they even have meetup reports. And you can file one after you've done your meetup. You can find it near you. Wait a minute. It's not near you. Oh, why don't you start one yourself? It's really easy to do. noagendameetups.com So now we have somewhat of a conundrum. The conundrum being, I don't believe for a second you stopped using 11 Labs AI to create your end of show ISOs. No, now it's obvious. So I'll just, I'll bring the real ones. You bring the fake ones.

Oh, you're not going to, you're not going to cheat? No, I'm no, I'm not a cheater. I'm a lover, not a cheater. I don't do these things. No, I'm not a cheater. It doesn't make any sense. Here's my ISO. At the end of these four years, how do you see our relationship? Cheater. All right. Let's just go with yours. You know that you're going to win. The game is not even fun anymore. Well, I'll tell you this. It's it. Well, the gate, the gate, that you're probably right.

But you could go there and try to compete with these. I got, I've got, I got four here. Yeah, you manufactured four. You made one of them. One of them is an apology. I use Jessica the whole time, but let's play this one. The ISO love. I love these two guys. And Adam is so handsome. Huh? That's my apology. Yeah, no, you're going to have to work a lot harder than that, son. A lot harder. Okay, well, there we go. The ones that are possible here, just start with great show.

How was that for a great show? This is the way she cracks her voice at the end. This is unbelievable. Yes. Here we have, what's the hour, I guess. I love these two guys. Do another hour. Oh, God. Now it just becomes sickening. I'm sick to my stomach. Well, I stayed with the same voice. You make me nauseous. She's got a sickening voice. You make me nauseous. Over and by. No agenda is over today. Bye-bye. See, now they just suck. They're just no good. They're all great. They're no good.

Well, I'm not going to tell you which one I'm going to use. I'm just going to grab one at random because they're all fake, phony, fake news. And now it's time for the one and only real news of John's tip of the day. Okay, so this is a top-rated cleaning product. This is going back because Mimi came up with this one. She's irked that she never knew about it before. Up in Port Angeles, we have hard water. And anyone who has hard water knows that toilet bowl cleaning is like impossible.

Don't you have a salt dispenser? Like one of those. We have this here in Texas. With this hard water, we don't have a water softener, if that's what you're talking about. Yes, we call it the salt. Yeah, water softener. So cleaning certain things is difficult. But if you can imagine a product that's the number one top-rated, 70,000 reviews on Amazon, 70,000 reviews on Amazon, all five stars. All AI and phony. No. She says this stuff's unbelievable.

Of course, it should be because it's hypochloric acid. It's very dangerous, but it's a hell of a cleaner. So can you clean your coffee pot with it? Will that help? If you wash it out thoroughly, probably no problem. But toilet bowl cleaner from Lysol. It's a Lysol product. Lysol toilet bowl cleaner, maximum strength, bathroom cleaning. It's $3 and something. It's dirt cheap. And it's got nothing but fabulous reviews. This is the product to get for cleaning toilet bowls.

Especially most of the countries got hard water, and this is the stuff you want. Here in Texas, we just use Dawn soap for everything, John. We use Dawn soap. We kill our... You'd be using a lot of Dawn soap. We kill our wasps with it. We kill our red ants with it. And we deter the illegal aliens with it. We don't need no fancy baloney 70,000 review stuff here in Texas. We had a fire. We put it out with Dawn soap. Yeah, well, that probably does work in Texas.

But anyway, there's Lysol toilet bowl cleaner. Lysol toilet bowl cleaner. Ladies and gentlemen, can we get any higher than that? Oh, we're so highbrow. Go to tipoftheday.net to find all of John's tips of the day. The show is in the toilet. Oh, yeah, I'm full of them. I don't know. I'm still bummed about these fake ISOs. It kind of ruins the game. I'm not feeling good about it, John. You shouldn't feel good about it either. I feel great about it. Yeah, typical.

Hey, coming up next on noagendastream.com, trollroom .io, or if you're listening on one of those modern podcast apps, we've got Everything's an Argument. This is the isms episode. This is Midas and his daughter Layla. And they argue, which is kind of fun to listen to. They are, and they're podcasting 2.0 compatible all the way, so boost them. Boost them big.

Also, end of show mixes from Jesse Coy Nelson, Professor Jay Jones, and David Kector with a live drum of aluminium, which we forgot to talk about. Coming to you from the heart of the Texas Hill Country, right here in somewhat scorched Fredericksburg in the morning, everybody, I'm Adam Curry. And from Northern Silicon Valley, is it supposed to rain? I can't tell. I'm John C. Dvorak. We'll be back on Thursday with more media deconstruction just for you. Tune in and fix your amygdala.

We're happy to help. And remember us at noagendadonations.com. Until Thursday, adios, mofos, a-hooey-hooey, and such. It's a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years. When I first came to office, one of the first meetings I had was at the Pentagon with generals. Evil minds that plot destruction. Bolton has always said, let's go to war, but he's not the one who's going to go in the forefront. He's a coward. Sorcerer of death's construction.

The leaders of Iran are racketeers. Behind every problem is Iran. I love what you said in 2016. I liked it when you said, no more stupid wars. We've got a rogue president in the White House surrounded by these uber-hawks that thirst for another war with Iran. We don't need no war. The International Atomic Energy Agency has never found Iran in contravention of stipulations in the deal. We don't need no war. If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran.

Never threaten the United States again. I'm not somebody that wants to go into war. In the United States, heading towards another Middle East showdown, this time with Iran. And he says the ball, the ball is in Putin's court. But what does ball in court mean? You can't be serious, man. There is no such thing as a ball in a court. It means the responsibility is now yours. But you can't be serious, man.

Origin and meaning really became popular in the 1970s around the time that Billie Jean came here. But you can't be serious, man. And I asked Billie Jean. But what do you mean I am the one? But you can't be serious, man. Get the ball out of here. That phrase has always bugged me. And I asked Billie Jean. Who would dance on the floor? The ball is in her court. The European security order is being shaken. And so many of our illusions.

After the end of the Cold War, some believed that Russia could be integrated in Europe's economic and security architecture. In danger, an escalation in President Trump's trade war. The President now firing back at the retaliation in Europe of what he just posted. Quote, the European Union has just put a nasty 50% tariff on whisky, placed a 200% tariff on all whisky. Al-Qaida number 50. The British love calling it Al-Qaida. Al, you've been on Trump's lorries.

And the lorries just came to the market. It seems to be on alert. The best podcast in the universe. Adios, mofo. Dvorak.org slash N-A. I love these two guys. And Adam is so handsome.