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Aug. 21, 2024 - Doug Collins Podcast
54:06
Hi It's Me, I Might Be At The DNC.
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You want to listen to a podcast?
By who?
Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins.
How is it?
The greatest thing I have ever heard in my whole life.
I could not believe my ears.
In this house, wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule.
It has been said today, where is bravery?
I'll tell you where bravery is found and courage is found.
It's found in this minority who has lived through the last year of nothing but rules being broken, people being put down, questions not being answered, and this majority say, be damned with anything else.
We're going to impeach and do whatever we want to do.
Why?
Because we won an election.
I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
Alright, welcome everybody to another edition of the Doug Collins Podcast.
My name is Chip Lake.
I will be your guest host today.
And we will be joined right after the break by James.
And we got a couple things to discuss today.
We are going to talk DNC convention in full swing in Chicago.
So we're going to talk about that.
We're going to talk about the Hollywood aspects.
Of the DNC confession.
The Hollywood elites have descended upon the Windy City and they are taking it over in droves.
We'll talk about that.
We will do a follow-up on the breaking federal lawsuit filed in the state of Alabama on Friday that was just breaking.
As James and I were doing Friday's Finest last week, because some of the information I gave the listeners on that podcast wasn't quite accurate.
I didn't know it wasn't accurate when I said it, so I'm going to clean a lot of that up.
Also, breaking last Friday, but not before we recorded Friday's Finest, was the indictment of six individuals.
In the overdose death of Matthew Perry in California.
And the more details that seem to come out of that story, the more fascinating it is.
And so stick with us right after the break.
We'll welcome James and we'll get started.
We'll talk over all of those things and many, many more.
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All right, folks, thanks for sticking with us.
James, welcome to another edition of the Doug Collins Podcast.
It's good to have you on the show again, man.
What's new in the Pacific Northwest?
Oh, you know, I went to a really weird one-horse town yesterday.
And I mean that because I literally just saw one guy on a horse.
And there was one movie theater in the entire town.
It was a little trashy, but it was fun.
I went out with some people.
It's a weird place because it feels like you're either in the middle of nowhere or you're just surrounded by these beautiful trees.
I love it here.
This is definitely a checkmark on place to live.
However, and I stand by this because I'm an East Coaster, I am really sick of the no bagel thing that's going on in these states.
Let me ask you something because I don't know anything about Georgia.
When I get there, we're going to have a good time, but...
Do you guys have bagel shops every 10 feet like we do in the East Coast?
Because they don't have that.
We have bagel shops.
Now, again, Doug and I live in the suburbs.
We live what we call outside of 285. For those of you who don't know and aren't familiar with the geography of Atlanta, Interstate 285 is basically a circle around downtown.
Even though Atlanta is the least dense area, Metropolitan area in the country, meaning it spreads out a long, long way, especially on the northern suburbs.
You either live inside 285 or outside 285. So inside 285, yes.
Everywhere you live, Buckhead, Morningside, Virginia Highlands, there's bagel shops everywhere.
But that doesn't mean you can't get a good bagel outside the perimeter.
But that's the way it should be.
You should be able to get a bagel.
A bagel should be every 10 feet.
You shouldn't be able to turn without looking at a bagel.
And it is so frustrating.
And here's the thing.
Here's how I work, right?
I used to work manual labor.
I used to have one of those jobs.
Wake up, 5 a.m., you get an egg and cheese covered in hot sauce.
You house it like a campground raccoon.
And then you drink a giant thing of coffee with what only in my thing is like an arrestable amount of coffee creamer.
And then you just move on with your day.
And that's how you start your day.
And it's filled with terrible, your gut's feeling terrible.
But that is how America should be.
And I'm sick of the West Coast not having it.
And I'm told...
That San Diego is different.
San Diego is bagel town.
Yeah, I'm surprised.
I'm really surprised to learn that the West Coast doesn't have bagel shops.
Maybe because I haven't ventured a ton into Seattle, but even in Seattle when I was there, there wasn't a ton.
But I'm in Tacoma, but it...
They have like a bunch of coffee over here.
Obviously, Starbucks is like God over here.
But it's just really, it is strange.
And I know we have plenty of other stuff to talk about, but this couldn't wait because it's infuriating to me.
I want to wait until 6 a.m.
and still get a bagel.
And look, I'm not a coffee drinker.
My wife is.
But I've certainly enjoyed a good bagel every now and then.
And I get a Diet Coke in the morning.
And the reality is that every bagel shop, you can get a fresh coffee and you can get a Diet Coke with ice in it.
That's right!
You can do all those things.
It's got the options.
But there is more important stuff to talk about.
I think there's an election coming up.
I'm not sure if anybody knows about it.
We do want to talk about that, but I do want to correct something that I said on Friday when I saw on Twitter this federal lawsuit, which we talked about at the end of Friday's Finest last Friday, about a young lady.
I don't know that she's really a young lady, but we're going to call her a young lady.
Because I think it's the right thing to do.
The young lady filed a lawsuit in federal court against Lane Kiffin, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, and J.D. Vance.
And I said on the show on Friday that she was suing them for six gazillion dollars.
Which is a lot of money.
That's a lot of money, but I was wrong.
This I printed out from ABC 3340 News in Birmingham this week.
According to court documents obtained by ABC 3340 News, the woman who they are not identifying...
Probably good because it'll only encourage her to file more frivolous lawsuits.
Filed the suit last Thursday in federal court.
We've already talked about the defendants.
The plaintiff is asking for one million gazillions.
Not gazillion dollars.
One million gazillions.
Quote, unquote.
I couldn't really understand what the suit was for.
But she's doing them for labor and pay.
That she claims was taken from her employer.
Chip, what is that?
No, for reference, comma, as if we didn't know, gazillion is not a real number.
What is one million gazillions?
Do you know who asks for that kind of money?
Dr. Even from Austin Powers.
And she may have a good lawyer, and I imagine if she's asking for a million gazillions, Her lawyer is probably pretty expensive.
She also says she is owed homes, cars, gifts, and money.
Much of the woman's narrative is not legible, but she addresses concerns that someone who had access to her bank account stole money.
Court records show the plaintiff is facing criminal charges in Jefferson County connected to criminal trespass and criminal mischief.
She was arrested in May.
You'll be surprised to hear this, James.
Both cases remain active.
There is no clear connection between her criminal charges and the lawsuit that she has filed.
She's an American icon.
That's the only way to describe her.
Anna Marie Kellner.
Yeah.
I want to marry this woman because I genuinely believe that.
If she doesn't have a podcast, she needs one.
So I'm going to work to get in touch with her.
What is one million gazillions, Chip?
One million gazillions?
It wasn't even dollars.
It was just one million gazillions.
Well, what I do know is it's a lot.
It's a lot.
A lot.
You know what's really funny, though?
I think we've all had a good time partying in our college days.
I don't think I've taken anything that would make me write one million gazillions on a piece of paper that is a lawsuit against the son of a president, Blaine Kiffin, for some reason, and the hopeful...
Vice President of America.
What we do know is there are four plaintiffs that are listed in the lawsuit, and so it very well could be.
It was hard to ascertain from the original lawsuit, but I'm sure it will be amended at some point in time.
And it could be that that's the total amount of compensation that she is asking.
And what she might believe that each defendant is liable for is only 250,000 gazillions.
Because that would limit the exposure to each one of the defendants.
In any event, moving right along, Moving right along.
And I'm sure Lane Kiffin and his attorneys would really appreciate that.
I mean, I'm sure Donald Trump Jr. and J.D. Vance and Ivanka Trump are used to frivolous losses.
Lane Kiffin, probably not so much.
He's like, did I just get sued for gazillions?
Yeah, but Lane had to go.
Lane had to think for a minute.
Anna Marie Kellner.
Anna Marie Kellner.
Yeah, it doesn't ring a bell.
It doesn't ring a bell.
Oh, man.
That's the again, though, it is the beauty of this country that you can essentially do whatever you want all the time.
And it doesn't happen.
I also learned is in order to file a federal lawsuit, you really don't need a lawyer.
And you don't need a law degree and you need to know nothing about the law other than you just need to answer seven questions.
You just need a pen and PCP and you can do whatever you want.
And you file the original suit.
What it does is it gets it on the docket, it gets it on the books, and then you can accompany that suit with more supporting documentation, as good plaintiffs I'm sure do.
Which I'm sure she has plenty of.
That's right.
But I don't know that this plaintiff is going to be doing that.
I also found out in my legal research that she filed a lawsuit last fall against the Department of Homeland Security.
And that case was summarily thrown out for what the judge called, and I know this is going to be a surprise to maybe a lot of people listening, a lack of merit.
A lack of merit.
The way you're talking about this right now, I can't stop laughing.
She's probably hoping for maybe a different judge to review this case.
Maybe the one from the Young Thug case.
They seem to be a little corrupt.
Yeah, that's right.
They'll be like, did you say you want gazillions?
We got you.
Why don't you come here?
We can work something out.
Step right up.
We're good to go.
We're good.
I have a quick question.
There was something you wanted to talk about, and I know we want to get the Matthew Perry thing.
Yes.
I was honestly curious about this because I don't know enough about it, but I know that people tried to scam this man.
Yes.
They did.
They did.
I'm so curious.
This pisses me off.
So this story broke on Friday.
It broke Friday.
I believe it was...
Well, I'm sorry.
I guess it broke Thursday.
We really didn't get any of the details until Friday.
But the details are fascinating.
And I am reading from a story here on CNN because, I mean, six people got indicted with this.
And you had to be thinking...
I mean, you know, I mean, how do six people get indicted in kind of an illegal prescription drug ring?
But I'll read a little bit of it and then we can talk about it.
James, two doctors, Salvatore Placentia and Mark Chavez worked to supply Perry with ketamine.
Defendant Placentia saw this opportunity as a way to profit off of Mr. Perry.
Last September, one month before Matthew Perry's death, Placentia learned that Perry was interested in perching ketamine.
So he reached out to Mark Chavez, who was the other doctor who was indicted.
So it doesn't look like there was a connection between the doctor supplying him ketamine and And Matthew Perry until a month before his death.
But in a September 23rd text message, Estrada said, quote, Placentia Estrada was the individual from the Department of Justice who was holding the press conference.
Placentia wrote, I wonder how much this moron will pay?
Question mark.
Placentia also wrote that he wanted to be Perry's sole supplier.
Over the next several weeks, Placentia purchased ketamine from Chavez.
He sold vials of ketamine to Perry's assistant and taught the assistant how to administer the drugs.
Placentia also went to Perry's house to drop off ketamine and even injected the drug for Perry in the back of a vehicle in a parking lot.
On October 12th, Placentia administered a large dose to Perry that, quote, caused an adverse medical reaction.
Perry's systolic blood pressure spiked and he froze up unable to speak or more.
By mid-October, Eric Fleming, another person close to Perry, started reaching out to an alleged drug dealer to buy additional vials of ketamine on Perry's behalf.
So now all of a sudden, Matthew Perry's inner circle now has dialogue with two different sets of illegal prescription drug dealers.
From September to October 2023, Matthew Perry was given approximately 20 vials of ketamine.
It cost him roughly $55,000.
Jasveen Senga, who is better known as the Ketamine Queen of North Hollywood, ran what was essentially a drug-selling emporium.
Fleming said he obtained ketamine from the Ketamine Queen Senga and administered that period.
I'm going to skip down to this portion here because it's just fascinating what went on and really sad, James, to be honest with you, what went on the last week of his life.
During the final week of Perry's life, Kenneth Iwamasa, who was Matthew Perry's assistant, kind of right-eared guy.
That's the guy I saw first.
Yeah, he injected him with at least 21 shots of ketamine, according to the indictment.
Authorities say Iwamasa performed multiple injections on Matthew Perry on October 28th, the day Perry died.
Perry's assistant injected him at 8.30 a.m., Again at 1230 p.m.
on the day of his death, according to Iwamasa's plea agreement, because Iwamasa took a plea agreement and is not indicted because he pled to some charges, pled down to some charges.
About 40 minutes later, Perry asked Iwamasa to prepare a jacuzzi and said, shoot me up with the big one, he said.
After Perry's death, Fleming and Sangua tried to delete messages showing them they had sold drugs.
Now, here, it's sad, but it's also kind of funny.
It gives you a little visual into what the defense of the doctor said.
Who was indicted is going to be, because if you remember, Salvatore Placenti and Mark Chavez were the two doctors.
Chavez took a plea.
He knew what he did was wrong.
He took a plea, came to an agreement with prosecutors.
Salvatore Placentia looks like he's going all in on his defense.
He pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, seven counts of distribution of ketamine, and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation.
His attorney told CNN affiliate KCBS in Los Angeles that there was no evidence to substantiate the allegations against the doctor.
This is a quote from his lawyer, James.
Quote, He was medically supervised and medically prescribed.
And while the U.S. attorney may disagree with Dr. Placentia's medical judgment, there was nothing criminal at the time.
Now that's something else.
You get called...
And to basically prescribe ketamine as what is essentially to be used for recreational purposes, certainly doesn't look like it was used for medicinal purposes.
Right.
And then after you get caught texting about how much the moron will pay, when the moron shows up floating in a jacuzzi, now all of a sudden your defense is going to be, well, I was really providing...
A legitimate medical service to Mr. Perry.
And what I also don't understand, and I'm not a doctor, but I did say at a Holiday Inn Express last night, and I googled ketamine.
And certainly, you know, ketamine is a lot like a lot of drugs where, you know, side effects are going to be different for one patient than they were another.
So if you and I were both subscribed to ketamine, you might respond to the drug differently than I would.
It happens all the time.
But one of the most frequent responses to the drug ketamine is you get very sleepy and very lethargic and euphoric.
And that's probably not something you should do before you get into a jacuzzi, especially if you've had an injection.
It's not like you're popping Advil, James.
This thing's got to enter your bloodstream through a needle under your skin.
And it looks like the day that Matthew Perry died, that happened at 8.30 in the morning, at 12.30 right after noon, and then again at 4.30.
And I just got to wonder, with all of that happening, You know, what Iwamasa, who was the...
Look, he wasn't the drug deal guy.
He was the guy that got paid by Matthew Perry to help him, probably clean his house, go get his groceries, wash his car and do his laundry and feed his dog.
And also, it looks like another one of his responsibilities was to inject him with ketamine.
And because that's what Matthew Perry wanted.
Unfortunately, it resulted in his death.
So very, very strange story coming out of L.A. over the last four or five days.
I know people personally who have used ketamine for their mental health, and I know for a fact I've seen it work for some, but I also know that there are people who use it because They're an addict in something else, and they know it's essential.
I think we're a little lackadaisical in some of today's stuff, but I think that in their mind, this is a legal way to keep my addiction rolling for something.
To me, the biggest crime here is that a doctor prescribed an addict ketamine.
I understand that, or even, I don't even know if he should be a doctor, but yeah, you got the text messages that basically are calling him a moron and saying, like, we can just get away with whatever.
But the idea is that Matthew Perry is a known addict.
He made it clear he's an addict, and he's been trying to help people who are addicts.
But he's obviously not a perfect human being like all of us aren't, and he fell to his addictions.
And he found a legal way to get it.
However, it was not being done the correct way.
And they knew they were abusing someone with an addiction.
So I know that that's not how courts work.
But I don't know if there'll be a jury for something like this.
But if there is, this guy is going to prison.
One, everybody loves their friends.
Two...
He made it very clear, like, I am abusing this person's addiction to profit.
And that's that.
That's what the text essentially says.
Yeah, and in many ways, I think this is worse than the Michael Jackson situation.
Because in that situation, it wasn't necessarily a drug addiction.
It was an individual who had a very tough time sleeping.
And while the doctor should not have been giving propofol to Michael Jackson to help him sleep, that's actually outside.
It was working.
It was working for him to sleep, and the doctor would administer the drug, get him to sleep, and then he would leave, right?
I mean, propofol, it helps you sleep, right?
We've all been under propofol.
Anybody, you probably don't know you've been under propofol, but if you've gone in for any procedure, there's probably a 75% chance that the anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist gave you was propofol.
I was on it three times last year with, you know, lung surgeries and, you know, 50-year-old man surgeries and, you know, all that.
I mean, you get on it.
And so I think this is worse.
It was, you know, it was a way to help Mike.
And that doctor lost his license and spent a year and a half in jail.
And he wasn't propagating an addiction.
And so, yeah, I can't fathom that the doctor decided he wanted to take this to trial.
Yeah, I mean, I know someone personally, and I'm not going to get into the details of it, but they went to jail.
This is a good, this is a man I know is a good person.
He was doing things for the right reasons, but he was just renting out a part of his doctor's office for lab work, and he did it incorrectly and went to jail.
Now, he knew he was doing something wrong, but that person went to jail.
This person has to go to jail.
Like, they have to go to prison.
And that was a, yeah, much different in this, certainly a much different scenario here.
And it doesn't look good for the doctor who's going to claim in his defense that he was really, that he really was.
How many doctors do you know?
Well, let me just ask you this.
When you get a prescription, don't you get a prescription from a pharmacy?
Correct.
I get a prescription from a pharmacy.
Looks like he paid this doctor directly.
Well, why is that?
My guess is because it was going to be off the books.
Because I've never gotten ketamine before from a doctor.
But if I do get ketamine from a doctor, he's probably or she's going to prescribe it.
I'm going to have to go to...
To a drugstore to get it.
To a pharmacist to get it.
And I'm sure it's going to be a lot cheaper than what that doctor sold that to Matthew Perry.
Well, that's the other thing.
The amount of money he was spending doesn't add up in my mind.
It was almost like They said, hey, no one will know you're getting this if that's how you want it.
By the way, it's going to cost you this much.
And he's like, well, I have unlimited funds, so whatever.
But in a regular situation, they would probably prescribe him the ketamine and then he would go either pick it up at where...
I don't know if it's somewhere you pick up at a pharmacy.
Maybe you do.
But you pick it up at a pharmacy and use that stupid little RX card for the discount and...
You know, you're paying, what, 50 bucks on your insurance on a $1,000 thing, right?
Whatever the crazy insurance is.
I'm sure Matthew Perry is good insurance.
He's a millionaire.
Yeah, I'm sure Matthew Perry probably would have wanted it on the insurance.
It would have been a lot cheaper for him.
But I think that was the idea is that they probably promised it'd be discreet.
And for someone who's an addict, you know immediately.
Your first thought is discreet.
No one can know.
Because remember, when he passed, all of his friends, and not jokingly, but the actual cast of friends also, were like, yeah, he was recovered.
Like, he was happy.
He was doing good things.
So, like, this also sucks that we're finding out that he couldn't fight his addiction.
And that's how it ended.
And it was two scumbags that took advantage of that addiction.
Not only scumbags, but if you are a doctor and you know that you're going to have a tremendous and rightfully so amount of liability, if anybody that you're prescribed, even if you're a doctor, let me back up for just a second.
If you're a doctor who is providing care, to a patient in a legitimate clinical sense you're careful about what you prescribe your patient then because you know if you prescribe your patient A drug that they could possibly take advantage of and overdose on and kill themselves,
even though you are not with them as a physician 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you are the reason that they overdosed and killed themselves.
And I would imagine there's There's a tremendous amount of scrutiny on decisions and liability there because I would imagine the first thing that happens is the family's looking at the doctor that prescribed the medication.
And so, you know, doctors are hesitant to do that.
I always say this.
Look, I've had a lot of surgeries over the past two years.
I had cancer that thankfully has kind of gone away, but I had two lung surgeries.
I've had upper GI. I've had a colonoscopy.
I've probably been under anesthesia maybe four times in the past 14 months, which is a lot.
You know, most people don't find themselves there, but I had trouble getting pain medication and I was coming off for surgery so I needed opioids because ibuprofen alone wasn't strong enough to get rid of the pain and the hoops that I had to jump through with the doctor to get some prescribed even 10 pills that possibly could be addictive over time And I'm sitting here with my side cut open because I lost a lobe of my
right lung.
And they're giving me ibuprofen.
And I'm sitting here going, you know what in the hell?
I'm sitting in a hospital room.
I have a nurse come visit me every 15 minutes, won't let me sleep.
And I can't get a doctor.
Now, I did get a doctor to give me something a little stronger, but it's not as easy and...
It's not as easy and automatic as you would think.
If I'm looking to make a few more bucks as a doctor off of a celebrity like Matthew Perry, in the back of your head, don't you have to be thinking, I bet I'm not the only doctor who's giving them ketamine.
I bet there's got to be another doctor off the market or another dealer off the market, especially in LA. It's not like he was in Topeka, Kansas shopping for ketamine.
I mean, this guy's in LA and he's a movie star.
So you know he's going to have the ability to access this substance and material.
So if you're a doctor in LA, don't you know that?
Well, yeah, that's a lot of paperwork that says he's not taking it from anybody else.
I mean, Chip, I don't know about you, but, you know, I've had a lot of things.
When I see dollar signs, sometimes my mind makes poor decisions, you know?
Right.
And I think everyone is guilty of that from time to time.
And I think this doctor literally saw a dollar sign and said, the risk is so worth the reward.
But I also think this, and I could be wrong about this, but I think we're going to find out that this doctor was recommended to Perry by someone, which means this doctor probably does this with other people.
I think this is going to open up an absolute monster black hole of, well, this celebrity gets from this doctor and this celebrity does this from this doctor.
And you said a ketamine queen pin was mentioned, right?
Yes.
Yeah, but separate from the documentary.
Right.
That person's not going to go away either, so there's another person.
Like, this is going to open up a really ugly thing for everyone.
Yeah.
I hope it doesn't, but at the same time, as someone who loves drama and needs it for our show, I am curious.
I mean, we're going to find out what celebrities are doing ketamine is basically what's going to happen here.
Yes.
Yes.
Here's the deal.
I just, for everyone ahead of time, it's probably most of them because everyone is fine.
People, I mean, there's a famous comedian, Gary Goldman, who I believe actually took ketamine but as a mental health tool and he did a whole thing about it.
So that's going to be the excuse for a lot of these people.
But I think we're going to find out there's a lot of people using it off the books, if you will.
Even though it's prescribed.
Yeah, I think so.
And I tell you, James, a terribly sad story, especially when you know, I mean, all of us know somebody who struggled with addiction and struggled with mental health issues, too.
And, you know, those are taken advantage of.
I know I've said it 50 times, but it drives me up a wall that there are people that are fully willing to live that way.
Yeah, that's right.
I mean, it's not like you're giving a guy a shot of Red Bull and vodka and saying, hey man, you're going to be good for the next couple hours, right?
It's much more serious than that, you know?
And doctors would even say that having, you know, I mean, I have a Diet Coke in the morning, every now and then I'll have a Red Bull in the morning, and You know, when I do and I go to a doctor and they take my blood pressure, I pay for it, right?
Because it does.
I mean, and that's something you can get at any rum-dum gas station up the road.
You don't even need to be subscribed for it.
You can see what it does to your body.
So it's just terrible.
Hey, moving on.
Look, we're not going to talk about this a lot because on Friday's finest, we're going to look back from this week and we're going to talk about what happened in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention.
At the time that this comes out, it'll be Wednesday.
We have two days down.
J.D. Vance, he's on the other ticket, not the Democratic ticket.
But Tim Walls will speak tonight, and then Kamala Harris will accept the Democrat nomination on Thursday.
Hollywood, James, has descended.
upon the Windy City and this is from a New York Times article that actually posted on Monday.
Not since the Obama years has celebrity enthusiasm been so high for a convention merging the world of pop culture and politics As the race kicks into high gear with the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago.
John Legend, who performed at the 2008 and 2020 convention, is set to headline a show for Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker on Wednesday afternoon, which will be this afternoon because this will air on Wednesday.
Veep star Julia Louise Dreyfus is hosting a panel.
With the country's eight female Democratic governors.
And then tonight, Wednesday night, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts will be performing a benefit concert thrown by the Creative Coalition.
Do you know what the Creative Coalition is, James?
I didn't know this.
I learn something every day.
Do you know what the Creative Coalition is?
I imagine it's...
Never mind.
Go ahead.
It is a Hollywood advocacy non-profit.
As if Hollywood needed a nonprofit to advocate for them.
But notable actors expected to attend the convention, Tim Daly, Anthony Richardson, Ian Armitage, Yvette Knoll, Nicole Brown, David Cross, John Cryer, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Richard King, Busy Phillips, Cheryl Lee Raff.
Yes!
Isn't that nuts?
That nuts?
I was like, are you kidding me?
I didn't know half the people on the list.
I don't know why that struck me so late, but I was like, why is he there?
So, high-profile speakers are still being finalized.
Still got two days left, and nobody really rolled out.
Multiple sources told the New York Times, adding that a slew of actors We'll speak on the convention's main stage, but speculation has run rampant about two stars in particular, and I bet you can guess one of them.
Do you want me to guess?
I do.
Is it the most famous person on the planet right now?
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, the gentleman is correct.
Taylor Swift and, and, speculation about this performer, She has one name.
Oh, the Beehives.
The Beehive!
With no major performer announced, fans of both Beyonce and Swift are hopeful that the women...
Look, James, I do not believe, and if I were a delegate to the National Convention, I would not be holding my breath that Taylor Swift would show up.
I think you're going to get Taylor Swift's vote.
I think she's good.
She's good for the Harris Waltz ticket.
But I think her last show in London just ended a couple hours ago.
I'm trying to picture Taylor Swift on the Democratic National Convention.
Tell me if I'm wrong.
And maybe I am.
I hope I am.
I find it so cringy, either side, when celebrities get involved in the politics.
It eats me up inside.
And it's not because I don't believe they should have a voice.
That's not the issue.
It's not it at all.
No, you're right.
I just don't care about your opinion because I just want to see...
Nobody wants to see Michael Jordan do something else.
It was proven nobody wanted to see that when he played baseball.
And I love Michael.
Michael's one of my heroes.
But I want to see Michael play basketball.
And you know what he did back then?
He didn't get into politics, and people killed him for it.
They tried to strangle MJ for not getting into politics.
They didn't.
But why does that matter?
Why should it matter who he votes for?
You should be able to just make your own decisions.
Taylor Swift's vote should not sway.
Now, they know it will, though, which is, by the way, that is a fact.
Those Taylor Swift fans are crazy, especially the young ones.
But if they're like just turning 18 or they're 19 or 20 and this is the first time they're going to vote, they could use her.
I'm not saying it wouldn't work.
I'm just saying I hate it with a passion because I want people to be like, I hear the issue and I'm going to make my decision based off that.
That's it.
Well, and...
And look, you know, Doug, even though Doug is not in elected office right now, thankfully he's not.
That's why he's able to do this podcast.
One of the reasons he's able to do it.
But I think Doug would tell you he's still in politics, right?
I'm still in politics.
And the reality is...
Yeah, you're right.
I like, you know, I don't like it when LeBron James talks about politics.
And so, oh, everybody's like, well, shut up and dribble.
Well, I mean, it's not that I'm saying shut up and dribble.
It's just I'd rather think about what you do on a basketball court is to think of what you do.
And it's the same for Curt Schilling.
And of course, Curt Schilling is probably a bad example.
He's been retired a few years, but You know, I really...
You're right.
He went crazy.
He got booted off shows because of how nuts he went.
Chip, it has nothing...
I don't like the shut up and dribble thing at all.
I thought that was a really stupid remark.
It was kind of pointless, to be honest.
It just felt like, why go with it?
But I don't actually care what LeBron thinks outside of his basketball opinion.
And if I met him, I'd want him to be like, hey, I like you or I don't like you.
It's not about...
And I don't not respect his opinion.
Great.
If you want this person or this person, fine.
That's awesome.
And I'm happy for you.
Now, if you think that whatever message you're going to give is going to be...
Like make a change, then I understand you doing it.
But I just it's just so awkward to me.
They're like, you have to get out and vote.
You have to do this.
You have to do that.
I don't have to do anything.
I know.
I can just be happy and I'm going to I'm going to vote.
And but I understand that there are people who don't.
And that sucks.
But, you know, it's just like the whole point is that I don't want I don't want to hear it from I don't need it from you.
I want it from professionals.
I want it from you.
I watch tennis a lot, so maybe a lot of the listeners of the podcast might not know who Victoria Azarenka is.
She's a female professional tennis player that's won a few major titles.
And I think it's pretty clear that her politics lean conservative a little bit more.
And I think she answered it better.
At one of the Grand Slams last year, she was asked a question about some sort of geopolitical issue.
And she basically said, you know, I'm not going to answer that.
She said, I just, you know, because you want me to talk about this.
And if I answer it, then I'm talking about this.
And it's not what I want to talk about.
I'm here to talk about tennis.
I'm here playing and, you know, and so I'll answer any questions about tennis and I have my opinions on that.
But I just don't feel my opinions are really relevant here.
You know, I feel like you're trying to kind of bait me into the...
And it was absolutely...
I ask anybody that is really interested to kind of look that up.
And the left went nuts on her saying, she really does believe in blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
No, she told me...
No, what?
If she does...
Depending on this, it doesn't end up believing so...
I mean, look, it's one thing for a sports star...
You know, like a LeBron James.
I mean, his contract is...
He's in a different stratosphere, right?
He is in a very different stratosphere.
So I do understand.
It might have been the wrong example, but...
No, no, but it is because he's very active politically.
So I think it's a good example.
The only reason I brought that up is he works for the LA Lakers Harrison Buckner, the kicker from Kansas City, found himself in a situation too where people were saying you gotta cut him.
Well, guess what?
I don't think the Kansas City Chiefs really care what his views are politically as long as he can continue to kick 54-yard field goals in the cold weather.
I mean, let Greg Hardy play football again and he threw guns, his wife on a bed with a pile of guns and beat her.
You know what I'm saying?
Your political views should never...
I also though, I do feel like your political views, unless it's our show considering that's what we do, but I don't think your political show, your views should ever enter the workplace in an unnecessary way.
Unless somebody literally asks you, Who are you voting for?
And you're comfortable answering it.
Fine.
But like my mom, this is how she raised us.
And I don't know.
She said, I said, I would always ask her as a little kid who you're voting for.
She goes, I'm not telling you.
And I was like, why?
And she goes, because I don't want to form your opinion.
And I was like, and she, that, but that's how she would do it.
She was like, and I was a kid.
And she was like, if you want to know, watch it, watch TV, learn about it, read about it, and then form your own opinion on who you want to vote for.
And as we got older, we've shared that.
And then we've talked.
And obviously, when I got older, she told me who she would vote for.
But it was a really interesting way for me to understand how to care about voting.
Maybe that's why I care about it as much a little bit more that way.
It's like, just form your own opinion.
I don't need the famous person to tell me.
I need the governor to tell me what his plan is so I can say, oh, that makes sense for me.
Yeah, that's right.
If you're an athlete, it's one thing if you're a performer like a Taylor Swift or Beyonce.
It's a little bit different, right?
Because you're not under a five-year contract with the Kansas City Chiefs or guaranteed money, the Los Angeles Lakers.
I mean, you make money based on how your brand is at that time.
And while I think Taylor Swift's brand is strong enough To survive, certainly, when she gets into politics.
But, you know, Taylor Swift will receive a lot more criticism than she does right now if she were to decide to show up in Chicago at the convention.
And she just doesn't need that.
Her publicist doesn't need that.
And I know Taylor Swift's not worried about paying her bills.
I get all that.
But, you know, why deal with that if you don't?
Why put that on the biggest plate in America right now?
Yeah, Beyonce, a little different story.
I can see Beyonce kind of showing up.
I mean, you go to a Beyonce concert, there's probably going to be a lot more Democrats there than Republicans, I would assume.
I don't think that's the case with the Taylor Swift concert, right?
I think Taylor Swift is either even or more right.
Could be, absolutely.
Now, I know that Taylor Swift's politics go left.
That's fine.
You know, I mean, we know that she endorsed Obama in 16. Is that going to stop you from listening to her music?
Well, in fairness, I don't have daughters.
I've never really listened to her music to begin with.
But it would not.
We've got to delete that segment, dude.
They're going to come for you.
It would not.
I don't have daughters, so I've never really gotten into the Taylor Swift deal.
But all of my friend dads who do have daughters, they're all into it whether they like it or not.
I don't...
I will...
Okay, you know how people have that conundrum with Michael Jackson now that they know some of the stories of his abusiveness and all this other stuff, right?
That is a reason not to listen to someone's music anymore.
Because it's illegal, it's disgusting, it's terrible.
Someone's politics, if they're a good singer...
I mean, like, I'm sure, and I know, I think we've tried to get him on the show, and I hope we do, because I think he is...
I like him, but I'm blanking out.
Cat Scratch Fever.
Why am I blanking out his name right now?
Oh, I know who you're talking about.
I can't believe I just forgot his name on this show.
I'm literally going to have to delete this so we don't get in trouble here.
Ted Nugent.
Yes, yes, yes.
Ted Nugent is an example of something that makes sense to me.
He is a hunter.
He lives a hunter lifestyle.
He loves it.
So that was part of his reason for voting for being on the right.
But that was a cause for him.
So he went for that.
So So he made himself a little political, but he didn't run around constantly doing it.
He did it for a little bit to try to get, you know, his view on his actual, like, I want this because of hunting, right?
Now, if you're going to tell me that the reason LeBron is going up is because he wants to support an advocacy for black rights, then that makes sense to me.
But the problem is sometimes it doesn't feel that way.
It just feels like he's like, I'm voting for that and that's it.
And then somebody calls and says shut up and dribble and that's it.
Nobody's telling Ted Nugent to shut up and play the car.
Right.
Like, you know, and that's the difference.
And like, that's the part that I get.
But anyway, I hope we get him on the show because he is awesome and I just love the idea of him.
I think he's like a little out there.
Not quite Nicolas Cage out there, but I just feel like when I see him...
Yeah, he'd be a fascinating subject to have on.
Yeah, and I hope we do get him on, because he really is the man.
But I told my dad we were thinking about it, and he goes, you gotta get him on.
You don't have a choice.
He's like, whatever it is, you gotta get him on, and you gotta play the music.
I'm like, I'm gonna play the music for Ted Nugent, man.
But anyway, yeah, so I just...
Well, the good news is just like the delegates right now in Chicago, when we come on the show on Friday, we won't need to be speculating because we will know at that point in time if Beyonce or Taylor Swift show up in Chicago.
I'm going to, you know, I'm going to go.
Is there somewhere we can bet?
What's that?
Is there like a betting app we can see who shows up?
I'm sure.
I wonder if it exists.
I would gamble on that.
Predict It is a betting app that takes political bets up to $1,000 per bet.
You can't bet any more than $1,000.
Really?
You can do political bets?
Yeah, it's called Predict It.com.
Now America's complete.
Predict It.com.
Well, the reason it's legal is the reason what they had to do to make it legal is it's not a betting site per se.
It's a market share site.
So you're taking a share of Who you think is going to win the presidential election?
And you can sell that share at any time based upon how, like for example, six weeks ago, Donald Trump winning the election was trading at 68 cents.
Joe Biden was trading more than 100 because the house always wins, right?
But now Trump is down to 45 cents per share.
Right, because things happen.
Yeah, things happen.
So that's how they get it.
It's a market trading site.
Whoever did that, I just want to congratulate them on being a genius.
Well, I'm going to tell you who did it.
They are genius.
It was a group of people who started the software company called Aristotle.
And for those of us who were in this business long before the software as a service days, back in the 90s, if you had to file a campaign report, you needed to get software in order to do that.
And I don't mean go download it off the internet.
They needed to send you a CD and you needed to put it in your computer and download the software.
And the company was called Aristotle.
And then they got into the voter file and data.
And, and then the guy that started Aristotle said, Hey, I think there is a market that we can make legal to do this type of thing.
And by the way, they have kind of cashed out and done really, really well.
But it is.
It's fascinating.
And there's no insider trading.
I mean, it's not governed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, largely because it caps out, I think, at $1,000.
But if you could go on and buy 2 million shares, it'd probably be a little more heavily regulated.
But at only $1,000 a bet?
I mean, come on.
Yeah, they're not losing.
They can't lose.
Yeah.
And also, I just want to say for our younger viewers, a CD is when Apple Music takes 12 of your favorite songs and they put it on a round disc.
Oh, yes.
And then you put it into a slot that used to either be in your car or your computer.
God, I hate saying that.
It's how we used to download software.
Yeah.
It used to be the only way we were able to get software.
Yeah, when you needed a new update on your computer, they literally gave you a box with a disc in it.
And you had to put it in, and it'd be like, welcome to Windows, blah, blah, blah.
That's exactly right.
And then it told you, and then if you had a really fancy disk and computer, it told you whether you had enough space in your hard drive to download it.
Correct.
And sometimes it didn't, and then you broke your mom's computer and had to go to the computer store.
The memory sizes in computers today compared to what they were 15, 20 years ago.
Oh, my word.
I mean, it's not even close.
And even these software sizes and file sizes are a lot smaller.
But in any event, we digress, James.
Our time's flown by.
We're 50 minutes into the show.
We are going to wrap it up, and we'll be back in a couple days.
Don't know if Doug's going to be able to join us or not, but Kip will join us, I think.
And we're going to have a good time on Friday looking back into the week and just kind of talking over everything that happened at the Democrat National Convention because there's going to be a lot to unpack there and there's going to be a lot to talk about.
So James, I'll give you the last word and we'll sign off.
Yeah, I mean, if Taylor Swift shows up at the Democratic National Convention, I'm just going to put it in the coffin.
Harris 2024. Yeah.
No, look, hey, that's a gutsy move.
I think if Taylor comes out publicly for Harris, she will do so in the last 14 days and not 87 days out.
Actually, we're 82 days out now.
I'm sorry.
That is still too close in my brain right now.
James, enjoyed it.
Thanks, everybody, for listening.
We'll catch you in two days for Friday's Finest.
It'll be Friday, August 21st, and we'll recap the Democrat National Convention.
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