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Oct. 27, 2023 - The Muckrake Political Podcast

01:00:46

The Johnson Who Would Be Speaker

Jared and Nick discuss who Mike Johnson truly is as the GOP finally elected a new Speaker Of The House. They then go through the latest in the Israel/Gaza conflict and what boots on the ground truly means. And unfortunately, there's yet another mass shooting to talk about. Visit http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast to become a member and be part of the best community out there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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	Hello, I'm Nick Hauselman, co-host of the Muckrake Podcast.
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	That sound, Nick Halseman, means that I am back in my recording studio.
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	Nick Halseman, I don't know.
	I've been watching the horizon.
	I've been waiting for the telltale smoke.
	You know that when it's black smoke, that all of the ballots in the House, that a new speaker has not been elected.
	When the white smoke rises above the lowlands of the swamp, You know that there's a new Speaker of the House.
	That's right, everybody.
	Get ready for the next person in the presidential ascension list.
	Louisiana Representative Mike Johnson, who is, let me check my notes, a real piece of shit, is the next Speaker of the House after Minnesota Rep Tom Emmer and Ohio Representative Jim Jordan were both defeated.
	We ended up with a complete and utter monster in the seat.
	It's been a wild ride, Nick, but here we are.
	Yeah, well listen, I'm glad that we're not going to talk about the Pope with that imagery that you are casting about because that would be another interesting conversation, but there is something connected to that.
	I don't know if you even meant it that way because Mike Johnson doesn't necessarily believe in separation of church and state.
	And he's got some weird thing about, um, is that a thumbs up he just gave me?
	Yeah, you have a, I've been seeing this lately.
	There's a lot more of the, this is not great for an audio podcast, but I've noticed recently in like FaceTime calls and video time calls, people are giving thumbs up and there's like a floating thumbs up that shows up.
	It always scares the living hell out of people.
	Yeah.
	Alright, well that's just what happens.
	Some floating thumbs up just came up, so I guess they agree with my point about Mike Johnson, but certainly, you know, there's a process thing with him that he likes to hide behind that makes him sound reasonable.
	And those are the guys you really gotta keep your eye on, you know what I mean?
	Mike Johnson puts a professional veneer over the extreme right wing.
	If you haven't heard about this guy, I don't blame you.
	He's one of these mutants that just like hides behind everything else and just says some of the worst stuff that you ever could possibly imagine being said by an elective representative.
	I didn't think there was a possibility that he was going to become Speaker of the House.
	I thought he was too extreme and also didn't have enough clout within the party.
	But guess what?
	At the end of the day, they went through all of the losers and all of the retreads and they said, you know what?
	This extremist, let's do it.
	Why not?
	What could it hurt to put in a position of major, major power?
	Someone who doesn't believe in democracy, who hates women, who doesn't believe in the separation of church and state.
	Like, what could possibly come from that?
	Right, well no, they knew that they could pick him because people would be like, Mike who?
	Like, there wasn't name recognition enough of him so they could like, you know, go under the guise of this strange unknown.
	But he is known, we know who he is.
	You know, he was one of the architects of trying to get rid of the Electoral College votes on January 6th.
	And again, it's the process thing when you hear these inane arguments from the Republicans that he is like the king of, because remember back, there was something going on during the 2020 election.
	I don't know if I can remember.
	You can maybe help me remind myself.
	But there's something was going on in across the country that would lead us to maybe alter somewhat of the various normal ways we would vote.
	Can you remember, what was that?
	What was going on?
	It doesn't jog a memory.
	I can't remember anything that happened back in 2020 that had any major influence over our politics or culture.
	I'm looking, okay, right.
	It was, it was COVID.
	So, you know, they had a couple of accommodations for COVID, right?
	Just so people wouldn't get sicker by having to vote.
	Uh, but because, uh, they were able to, you know, no one cared about that until the election actually happened, all of a sudden now the process was violated because it wasn't exactly how it was explicitly written in the Constitution, so we have to throw out every single one of those votes no matter the fact there's no evidence that they're forged or faked or whatever.
	That's what the kind of shit that he would do, and, you know, under the guise of some reasonableness, he pretends he's a lawyer, uh, and that he had, you know, a law background.
	People might listen to that.
	And that's what's so dangerous about these are the guys.
	These are the, you know, the nefarious people who have a little bit of a brain doing all the little machinations in the background that are like pulling strings.
	That's what's so scary about this whole thing.
	Yeah, Johnson's a really upsetting individual.
	And this is one of the reasons why I said, you know, after January 6 took place, you know, when you attempt a coup, when you try and overthrow in elections, there should be consequences.
	And I don't just mean for Proud Boys.
	I don't just mean for, you know, 3 Percenters or, you know, whoever in the hell was at this thing.
	Like, I really... Oath Keepers.
	I couldn't remember.
	All I could see was that idiot leader of theirs who, uh, yeah.
	Okay, so that's why there needs to be consequences.
	Why the people who voted against this stuff, who created this stuff, and now he's third in line for the presidency!
	And you have a president who we have to talk about later who is not in the best of shape.
	And, you know, so that puts him a couple of heartbeats away from the presidency.
	A person who tried to overthrow the government and who, by the way, has made part of his political platform that he hates democracy, he hates the separation of church and state, and he basically hates everybody except for white evangelical men.
	Well, does it also make you a little bit concerned that the guy like this would be in charge of Congress as we move into a presidential election?
	No, that doesn't even bother me a little bit.
	Why would that possibly bother me?
	Right.
	Now, granted, it's the vice president who's going to count the electoral votes this time, so Democrats are, you know, that's a Democrat.
	I don't know, there might be some weird shit that they're studying the 1789 version of our Constitution, and now that he's in power, there's something that they might be able to pull off.
	It just scares me to the nth degree.
	And by the way, this is just Jim Jordan 2.0.
	There isn't anything different between him and Jim Jordan except that he wears jackets.
	Yeah, I would go so far as to say he's actually a more dangerous politician than Jim Jordan.
	You know, and by the way, I want to introduce him to our listeners, Nick, before we get into a couple of things behind this, because listen, it was absolutely silly season in the coverage of what happened with the speakership.
	And I want to talk a little bit about that in a second.
	But before we do, Nick, Why don't we let these people hear for themselves a little something from Mike Johnson.
	Let's hear how reasonable this guy is.
	And just forgive us from the sound, but you know, when you record in Satan's lair, they don't have great mics, apparently.
	You know, we don't live in a democracy, because a democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what's for dinner, okay?
	It's not just majority rule.
	It's a constitutional republic.
	The founders set that up because they followed No, that's not right.
	That's not even close to being right.
	That is a complete bastardization of what happened.
	The founders created a constitutional system and a liberal democracy because they were so afraid of what religion had done, creating genocides and mass slaughters and instability.
	So that is not only incorrect, it's also just offensive and dangerous.
	Especially because, you know, if you're not a Catholic or if you're not a Christian, you know, how must you feel when you hear someone like that?
	Because he clearly wants to use the Christian version of his religion to impose on everybody else.
	And that's a real problem.
	I mean, listen, the Bible is a real hoot, right?
	The New Testament, man.
	There's some stuff in there that would make your toes curl if you want to use that as the way to, you know, Yeah, it's really stupid and also incredibly dangerous.
	You know, Johnson is the kind of guy who, it's not like he was elected Speaker and he became real humble about it.
	He told members of Congress that he had been ordained.
	Like, that's the type of person we're talking about.
	Like, immediately went to, oh, I've been touched and chosen by God.
	Like, that's who this is.
	And it's not bad enough that this is a person who doesn't respect the boundary of church and state.
	I wanted Nick to play this thing because I think it actually reveals a lot of what's going on and what we've been talking about now for the past couple of years.
	Here is, again, Representative Mike Johnson.
	This was in the Judiciary Committee.
	Roe v. Wade gave constitutional cover to the elective killing of unborn children in America.
	Period.
	You think about the implications of that on the economy.
	We're all struggling here to cover the bases of Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid and all the rest.
	If we had all those able-bodied workers in the economy, we wouldn't be going upside down and toppling over like this.
	Listen, I will not yield.
	I will not.
	Roe was a terrible corruption of America's constitutional jurisprudence.
	Wow.
	Yeah, Nick.
	So if that follows, and this is something we've talked about, one of the reasons that Roe v. Wade was overturned wasn't just to control women, which was a large part of the reason that that happened, because they wanted to change society back to the pre-sexual revolution, but also that, you know, you need to make a bunch of women have children that they don't want to have so that we can have more workers.
	So that we can go ahead and stock our factories and stock our jobs.
	Like, this is a person who subscribes to that ideology.
	And, Nick, you and I both know this.
	We've covered politics for a while now.
	We've spent a lot of hours doing this.
	Most Republicans don't understand that that's at the heart of a lot of this.
	Right?
	Most of them are just saying like the traditional Pat things.
	This guy gets it.
	And not only does he get it, he believes it.
	So again, this is a more dangerous type of Republican.
	This is a really, really dangerous guy.
	Right.
	And it's also just a twisted notion of, like, able-bodied people who are going to work and then contribute more to society because, in theory, the racism that's coming out of what they always sort of gravitate towards would indicate, well, we have more of those kind of people being born that we don't want and we don't care about either.
	So how does that connect with that?
	Well, you need to basically have a permanent underclass, which involves people of color, women, and poor people.
	Which is what the Republican Party sees as the natural hierarchy.
	They're at the top.
	Those wealthy, white, evangelical men are at the absolute top.
	And then underneath them, you have an underclass that you can exploit.
	And that's what they believe.
	That's why they think America has gone wrong, is because that natural hierarchy has been overturned.
	So they exploit it, exploit it, and then every so often, somebody sneaks up out of that situation and becomes part of their group, right?
	That's the proof of the concept, right?
	It's called the noble lie.
	The meritocracy.
	Like, yeah, it's not fair, but I promise you, we are picking out the best people.
	If you deserve it, you'll make it.
	That's what Mike Johnson stands for.
	And that is now one of the most powerful people in government.
	That is enough that it really should concern you.
	This is a really dangerous guy with a lot of power now.
	And here's what's so funny.
	I believe they haven't changed the rules.
	One person can get him out if they wanted to.
	But here's what's weird.
	Everyone in the Republican Party is so embarrassed by this last three weeks that, like, that's his cover.
	No one is going to do it because they just simply don't want to go through it again.
	No matter what he does or what he stands for, how much they don't like him, like, he's basically got cover for the rest of this term because they simply would never want to have to go through that again.
	And that's almost worse.
	I can't even believe that he would even, you know, take this job without getting rid of that.
	But I believe it's still in.
	I'll be honest, man.
	I am a little bit worried.
	Like, and I could be completely wrong.
	By the time we record Tuesday's episode, he might have already been booted out.
	They might be, you know, moving on for another search.
	He's kind of the perfect candidate in this result, in this regard.
	He is such an extremist, and he's such like a MAGA New Right Republican, but he feels better.
	Do you know what I mean?
	He's cleaned up.
	He can speak.
	He's articulate.
	And that's a lot of what the traditional Republicans are looking for.
	They don't care that Matt Gaetz and the Freedom Caucus are, you know, like that they're authoritarians.
	They're fine with that stuff.
	They don't like the way it's presented.
	They don't like Marjorie Taylor Greene making a fool out of herself.
	They don't like Lauren Boebert doing Lauren Boebert stuff in theaters.
	They don't like Matt Gaetz going around showing people pictures of his dates on his phone.
	It's that type of stuff that they have a problem with.
	Mike Johnson might be a really powerful speaker.
	He is set up in this position to succeed and that is like something that it didn't look like they were going to be able to find.
	Yeah, okay, fair enough.
	And again, it kind of boils down to this notion of whoever they were going to pick, that's who they're writing.
	This is the guy.
	I want to take a second, Nick.
	I think this is really important because, again, when we talk about these subjects, we want to go deeper than other shows, deeper than other sources.
	We want to show people how this stuff works.
	Nick, this is an opinion column that was in the Washington Post.
	This was from the 25th.
	We're recording this on Thursday, October 26th.
	This is from the editorial board of the Washington Post.
	Opinion.
	Democrats should help elect a credible Republican speaker.
	To which, before I read another word, Nick, say what?
	Huh?
	Huh?
	Right.
	Why?
	What?
	Oh, okay.
	Cool!
	Can't wait to read some of this.
	Quote, Another day, another failed Republican Speaker nominee.
	Majority Whip Tom Emmer ended his bid on Tuesday just hours after his GOP colleagues tapped him for the House's top job.
	As with previous candidates, Mr. Emmer got a majority of Republican House members to support him, but he could not sway ultra-right lawmakers to vote for him on the floor where he would need a majority of the entire chamber, including Democrats, to become Speaker.
	Later Tuesday, Republicans nominated the less appealing Representative Mike Johnson.
	Whoops!
	Guess they got that one wrong.
	Quote, "This is Republicans' mess, but it hurts the whole country.
	If Republicans change course, for example, by nominating a better candidate, Democrats should be willing to help them clean it up.
	The best, and given the three weeks of paralysis, perhaps the only ways to unfreeze the House involve Democrats doing more than watching Republicans fail.
	This would require at least some tacit understandings between the two parties, which neither side has seemed eager to develop.
	That has to change." I have my thoughts on this.
	What are your immediate reactions?
	Well, okay.
	Let's just take it at face value and like, okay, would it be nice to reach across the aisle and say, let's get this straightened out so we can function and all these things we have to get done before, you know, the country goes bankrupt.
	You know, After all that's been said and done, though, from the Republican Party to the Democrats, yeah, there is simply no incentive for them to help, and they would probably simply want them to continue to implode, and it will help the Democrats.
	I think they believe that in the long run, with guys like Mike Johnson in power, like that's probably, in all those swing districts in Congress, will hurt the Republicans, and that's what they're going for.
	So then again, there's no incentive for them to help at all.
	I want to point out what has happened here.
	And in the midst, and I know you and our listeners have also seen this, it's all over social media.
	It's just like one Hill reporter after another chasing down Republicans in hallways for days on end, sleepless nights.
	Who are we voting for?
	What are we doing?
	Whatever.
	I haven't seen the list.
	We have a silly country.
	The real story here Is that the Republican Party, as we have documented, has been torn between its two wings.
	It's neoliberal, conservative, libertarian, traditional wing, and the MAGA, New Right, authoritarian wing.
	They don't know how to work together.
	They don't know how to form a caucus together.
	The only way that this could get fixed is someone like a Mike Johnson who drags the party even further right.
	Also drags American politics to the right.
	The Washington Post thinks it's trying to find a consensus.
	That's not what it's doing.
	It's making an argument to liberals and moderates That we need to move further right in this country.
	We need to accommodate in order to reach across the aisle.
	These are the types of signals and messages that are being consistently sent in our politics, and all it's done has been to move us further and further into this mess of an abyss.
	And that is what is always happening, is that the middle is always being moved further and further to the right.
	And congratulations, we got there everybody.
	Right.
	Are you for, you know when sports teams play and the upper levels and then they're done and the game's over, they all shake hands?
	Are you against that?
	I mean, are there human beings out there starving because one team won and another team lost?
	No.
	Okay, shake hands.
	I don't care.
	Yeah, okay, good.
	Um, yeah, you know, it's this kind of an article, it almost is like that, like, we, you know, we have good sportsmanship here.
	And when you're talking about the other team is trying to, it's almost like the one team is not trying to win the game, they're trying to, you know, wire the building with explosives, and the other team is trying to stop them from doing that.
	That's American politics.
	That's literally how American politics expresses itself.
	The Republican Party is a reactionary force that just continually pushes things to the right using cultural agreement, racism, and white supremacy and patriarchal energies.
	And the Democratic Party says, we really wish you wouldn't.
	We really, we really wish you wouldn't.
	And then meanwhile, what ends up happening?
	It's like, well, in the interest of bipartisanship, we're going to have to wire the building with explosives.
	Like, that's what ends up happening!
	And that doesn't work.
	That doesn't form a functioning democracy.
	Well, or actually, it's almost like they're going to wire it, and you need to lay the last piece of the cord down for it.
	Screw the little thing in there so that it works.
	Yeah, the little detonator.
	Yeah, screw the wire to the detonator, and maybe even plunge it if you need to.
	That's where they're at.
	So yeah, it's nonsense.
	And again, just flip it the other way, right?
	If this was the other way, Republicans would never be like, okay, just pick somebody in the Congress that we can handle, and we'll help you with that one.
	Nick, I'm so glad you brought this up.
	Would the Washington Post publish an op-ed asking the Republican Party to help the Democrats elect a speaker?
	No!
	They wouldn't do that!
	Yeah.
	No one would write it.
	No one!
	No one in their right mind in an editorial room would ever even propose it, right?
	Right, right.
	That's the issue there, is that there's an absence and there's nobody who would write it and no one would think that you couldn't get it done.
	Nobody in their right mind would ever believe it!
	What's happening is that you have a group of people who have no interest in governing whatsoever and everybody's just like, I know they're kind of unreasonable, but we really need to try and work with them.
	And it's this bias towards the right.
	It is a conservative leaning that happens with the moderate and the centrist part of America, and it just keeps happening.
	Well, yeah, it's taking advantage of progressives.
	Who, you know, traditionally would be the people who would want to hug everybody and reach across and make things right, right?
	So that's what they're doing.
	They're manipulating that, those heartstrings, I suppose, to try to make that up.
	But it's not happening.
	At least the Democrats in Congress are completely united, you know, behind McCain's referees at least.
	They're voting for him every single time.
	So that's not going to happen.
	No, it's... It's a waste if they did that, right?
	I think the Democrats would lose if they were on record voting for some moderate Republican.
	Yeah, nobody wants that.
	Nobody wants anything to do with that.
	And one of the reasons that they cite in this is obviously that we have worsening situations around the world.
	We have to get an update, Nick, unfortunately, in the Middle East, where it has come out recently that as we had guessed, the United States had talked Israel into delaying its ground invasion in Gaza.
	I had hoped That it was in favor of trying to limit the bloodshed so that we might find some sort of a ceasefire.
	It sounds like now that the U.S.
	has done so in order to move weaponry and defenses into the region and also to prepare evacuation plans in case this turns into a regional or worsening war.
	It is an absolute mess.
	Uh, an absolute tragedy.
	I have gotten to the point, Nick, I'll be honest with you and we can talk more about this.
	I've had some moments over the past few years as Joe Biden has been president of the United States of America.
	I've lost all faith in him and his ability to lead people out of this.
	I don't see it.
	I don't feel it.
	I just feel like everything at this point is just throwing things at a wall and hoping that something will stick or maybe somehow or another we can work our way out of this.
	I don't see any imagination, any ingenuity.
	I don't see this moving in the right direction.
	And quite frankly, I'm disgusted.
	Well, you know, Biden is supposed to be the guy who has all the foreign policy knowledge and knows how to manage these things.
	I don't think he helped himself the other day when he kind of tried to cast doubt on the death toll that the Palestinians are reporting.
	It's not the forum to be doing that at this point either, whether or not you want to believe or not what's coming out of that in the region.
	So, you know, yes, it would be nice to have a feeling that he was maybe a little bit more involved, although There is this notion that they're there, he was there, and he's trying to give, you know, force the Israelis to have some, a little bit more sense of humanitarianism.
	And so that's not, we can't criticize him for that, I don't think.
	I mean, listen, over 7,000 reported Palestinians have died, thousands of children, thousands of people.
	It is an absolute atrocity what has been happening.
	And I thought, I really hoped, Nick, as we were covering this and discussing it, I really hoped that what was happening was that there was an attempt to find a way out of this without an invasion.
	That there could be a ceasefire in some way, shape or form, and that something might happen where, and I said this on the last episode, where we might be able to figure out some sort of a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian situation.
	I thought, and I still stand by that, that's the only way that this ends well.
	Because what has happened is the Axis of Resistance with Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, you name it, that whole group, they're ready to go.
	And the moment that all that gets involved, not to mention the fact that the war crimes and the atrocities that are going to be carried out, once that kicks up into high gear, the United States is going to have no choice whatsoever except for to bring in those plans, the weapons and the defense and the evacuation plans, all of that.
	There is no imagination taking place right now.
	It feels like everybody is sleepwalking into a situation that's only going to get worse and is only going to lead to mass tragedies.
	I have no faith in Biden right now.
	I have no faith in him.
	And by the way, I don't think the American people do either.
	If you look at the numbers, it's across the board.
	Like, the majority of Americans want a ceasefire here, and they want Biden to push for it, and instead we're getting this slow walk into this absolute tragedy, and it needs to stop.
	Well, you know, we do talk about how Israel doesn't seem to have an endgame here.
	None!
	But they do have the singular focus, which is they want to get rid of Hamas, right?
	That is their focus.
	They were attacked in a horrible way, and they now want to get rid of it.
	Now, we talked about this before, you don't just get rid of these kind of organizations.
	You cannot get rid of it.
	They disappear.
	But they probably also feel like, and again, I'm not necessarily ascribing to these thoughts, I'm just, you know, giving you the take that the Israeli government would have, which would be, you know, they could dismantle it so much that they'll never be able to do what they did on October 7th again, you know, and again, it's all part of security, but
	The problem is that they're so firmly ensconced in Gaza amidst all the civilians that yes, it would have to require boots on the ground to go in there if you really want to, again, target Hamas and root them out, at least from there.
	And again, we've seen this in all other manner of venue where it's a brutal, horrible thing and innocent people will suffer from this.
	I don't think that Biden thinks that he has any, he'll be able to stop them from carrying that out.
	I don't think he, I think Biden says, you know what, Israel is, they're focused on doing this.
	I can't stop them from attacking Hamas.
	And so all I can do is try and delay, try and figure out ways to maybe get people in, you know, safe places where they're not in the middle of a gunfight.
	But I don't know if he feels like he can have any effect on that.
	I if they think in some way, shape or form that an invasion of Gaza, first of all, won't result in massive atrocities and mass ethnic cleansing.
	If they think in any way, shape or form that that's not going to happen, they're wrong.
	Also, like, we're not so old that we don't remember what happened in Iraq with Fallujah.
	Like, we know.
	We know what happens when you do this stuff.
	Not to mention the airstrikes that have done this.
	I mean, hospitals, homes, families just absolutely destroyed.
	Then on top of that, Nick, The moment that this starts, like, Iran is ready to go.
	Like, Hezbollah is ready to go.
	Yemen, Syria, you name it, all of these places.
	We've been watching over the past few days, like, we're trying not to pay attention to it.
	Like, U.S.
	forces have been attacked all throughout the Middle East.
	Like, this thing is heating up.
	There's no way around this if you go in there If you go in there, it's going to result in God knows how many innocent people being killed, but also it's going to lead to a toppling of dominoes, the likes of which I don't know if Biden and his administration and the entire military industrial complex, they understand it because it is it's primed for this right now.
	Well, here's a couple of things I'll introduce your reaction to.
	So, like, the surrounding countries don't seem to care about innocent Palestinians much either.
	Egypt doesn't seem to care.
	They're not letting people come into their country.
	Saudi Arabia.
	I don't think Iran does either.
	And so, I think that Hezbollah is, they're itching to fight no matter what.
	So, they're, because they want to get rid of Israel, right?
	I don't know if it's in the name of Palestinians in Gaza.
	They're just looking for an excuse to start fighting again on the Northern Front.
	Now let me ask you this because if Iran does decide to get involved in this and I really it seems the indication so far it seemed like they really don't want to have anything to do with this is part of the problem would be Do they want anyone to know whether or not they have nuclear weapons?
	I think that might be a calculation from Iran, but what do you think about that?
	I don't know if Iran has nuclear weapons.
	I mean, like, all we've heard from, you know, it's like John Bolton every now and then would ride in on a rocket, you know, an inter-ballistic missile in order to yell out, we need to strike Iran, they've got a bomb.
	We don't know.
	I think when it comes to this, I think that you have a situation, I was just talking to Daniel Moody about this earlier today, you have a situation where the world order, the American world order that has been in place since the end of World War II, and particularly took over after the end of the Soviet Union, It has never been more perilous.
	We're funding two major wars now outside of the United States of America.
	Which, by the way, it's not like Ukraine has nothing to do with what's happening in Israel and Gaza.
	It's all interconnected.
	It's all part of that whole opposition of Russia, China, Iran, you name it.
	Like, we are way, way out over our skis right now.
	And the question is whether or not the people who would like to upset the American world order, you know, and change things, they really want to change things.
	Are they going to get the opportunity?
	Is now the opportunity?
	And the notes out of Iran, depending on what day it is, they're either ready to go or they're not.
	And you cannot tell because, my God, it has to be a frightening thing to think about.
	Like, is it the go time?
	Right?
	Is it the possibility of seeing, like, you know, is this major war going to break out?
	I wanted to say, Nick, on that note, I got, we haven't done questions for a while because I've been on the road and you've been on the road.
	I got a question from Nathan, and I wanted to pose it.
	I think now is a good time to ask it.
	Nathan had written me for the show and asked, What do we think the odds are that this turns into a world war?
	And that is a that's a grim question, but I think now is a good time to pump the brakes a little bit and even like sort of address the possibility.
	What do you think?
	What are your initial thoughts there?
	You know, I think they're a little bit low.
	A, Russia is involved in Ukraine and kind of distracted on that front, and I don't think they would be that excited to have to open up another war there with, you know, even if they joined forces with China and North Korea and Iran.
	I don't know.
	My impression, and it just could be a hope and a flight of fancy, but my impression from looking at everything I've been looking at is that Iran doesn't want to get involved because of that.
	I feel like they feel like they're the fulcrum here.
	And I think that makes sense.
	It's not a hot take to think that if Iran becomes full-throated, a million man army involved in this thing, that dominoes start to fall pretty quick.
	So it's, it feels to me like that's, that's the holding the dam here.
	And I think that we're, we're okay for now.
	I don't feel like we're that close.
	So if I had to put a, you know, is it like 10% chance?
	Like maybe I'd put it around there, I guess.
	10% still sucks.
	Yeah, 10% still sucks.
	I, I want to highlight something you said, and I think you're, you're right here, which is like you, when you're starting to like piece together, like you have this war over here and will this war or will this country, do they want to do this?
	I hate that we have to do this math.
	Like, this is the problem.
	And, you know, when you take a look at one of the reasons I keep talking about American hegemony and the American empire is I've said this forever.
	Like when this stuff starts to go in decline, especially a major empire like the American empire, like things start getting pretty fucked up pretty fast.
	You know what I mean?
	Like that things weird things start happening.
	And like if you all of a sudden are like wondering, like, is this going to happen or what this is going to happen?
	Like, I'll tell you this right now.
	I'll be completely frank with you.
	Like if somebody comes back from the future and tells me that China is like a few weeks away from going to Taiwan, I wouldn't be that shocked.
	You know, I really wouldn't because these people have coordinated over and over again.
	And you basically are taking America apart at the seams.
	You're overextending it and taking away, like, all these different deals.
	And by the way, we are completely divided politically and culturally and socially.
	We just are.
	So, I mean, it...
	It would make sense.
	It really would.
	And also, the part of that would be, so Hamas clearly had a decision to make when they were going to do this attack, right?
	They knew that Israel had protests every night for months and months, and there was a lot of unrest in the government in Israel.
	They also knew what was going on here and how tumultuous that was, and that we were already mired in Ukraine.
	So all these things factor.
	So China is now looking at that, right?
	And realizing, okay, now there's Israel, there's Ukraine.
	Yes, we could do Taiwan, knowing that the response by America would probably be muted because of all the other places.
	So you're right.
	This is when it becomes very tenuous and you start to wonder whether or not, you know, JFK was correct in anointing us the, you know, the police for the democracy across the world.
	Well, first of all, we didn't need to be.
	And I'm so glad you brought this up because I actually, I want to take a second, I want to go through history and swing back around.
	I know probably somebody listening to this rolled their eyes because this is what I do.
	I apologize.
	We didn't need to be the world's policemen.
	That was a decision.
	It was a decision that was made that America was going to determine this stuff.
	We were going to have France and England and these Western powers that were going to have our backs and, you know, capitalism was going to sort of, like, make things happen.
	It didn't need to be that way.
	And it wouldn't probably had been that way if FDR hadn't died and Harry Truman would have taken over, and then the Cold War would have broken out.
	The plan was for a policeman strategy, the United States, Russia, Great Britain, and China, and possibly France.
	France was a little iffy now and then during the wars, right?
	Well, the idea was that these countries were going to basically have spheres of influence and work with each other.
	They were going to maintain the peace together.
	It was going to be a shared burden.
	Well, we ended up not doing that.
	We wanted an American hegemony project, and it didn't need to be like that.
	It did not need to extend to this moment.
	Also, along the way, we made a shit ton of mistakes.
	This Israel-Palestine situation should have been taken care of a long time ago.
	It should have been.
	And the fact that people kept kicking the can down the road was it's completely unconscionable.
	It shouldn't have happened in the first place.
	It should have been figured out.
	But instead, of course, Western powers just kind of figured out what they were doing or whatever.
	But you get to this point now where, you know, we have completely alienated the world.
	Our response to September 11th, by the way, wasted so much goodwill and international cooperation.
	We struck out and did all these awful things that alienated people and ruined people because of people like Dick Cheney and the Project for a New American Century that wanted to have the American Century, the 21st century.
	Here we are in 2023 and things are unraveling.
	Guess what?
	When you try and do that shit and when it comes back around, it's a bitch.
	It sucks.
	It doesn't work.
	It did not need to be this way.
	And I'll tell you this right now.
	I want to answer the question.
	If this invasion happens, first of all, I think it's almost impossible to imagine how much tragedy there will be.
	Like, how bad this will be.
	It is wrong.
	It is awful.
	It's unconscionable.
	It shouldn't happen.
	But I also don't see how America and Israel in what they're doing right now, how they don't do it.
	They don't have any other plan.
	There's no conversation right now.
	America is just trying to react to it and try and buy time.
	There is no ingenuity.
	There is no imagination.
	There's no attempt whatsoever to actually, like, make sure that this thing doesn't happen.
	If they go ahead and invade Gaza, I don't know.
	It's going to be a human tragedy on levels that it's almost hard to fathom.
	And then on top of it, strategically, it's the bad choice.
	It is ethically, morally, and strategically wrong.
	It's all three all at once, which is a hell of a thing, a hell of a way to be wrong.
	Right, but that said, doing troops on the ground going in is quote-unquote less destructive than just throwing missiles all over the place like they've been doing anyway, right?
	So there is some notion of that, but again, if one person innocently dies, that's one too many, right?
	So we're already at a deficit on that end.
	So again, the goal is going to be they want to dismantle Hamas as much as they possibly can.
	And if you're talking to anybody in the military, they're going to that.
	This is it.
	There is no ingenuity.
	There's no other plan.
	This is what the plan has been for centuries.
	And it's horrible.
	All that is horrible.
	Now, you know, it's interesting, though.
	Well, I don't know.
	Do we want to talk at all about?
	I was thinking about I read the Wall Street Journal article.
	It was interesting about the notion of colonialism and how the pro-Palestinian argument.
	there is a pro-Pelsian argument that references the colonialism Do we want to talk about that at all or is that something that's going to be It's so here's the thing.
	I do think that there needs to be a decolonialism here.
	I do think that that the Palestinian people need to be decoupled from Israel.
	I the apartheid state needs to end.
	They need to have power over themselves.
	I do not and personally and listen, I I'm sorry if this is going to step on people's toes.
	I don't think calling for Palestinians to be free and have their safety.
	I don't think that's anti-Israel.
	I am anti Netanyahu.
	I am anti what Israel has done to the Palestinians.
	I think there's absolutely an argument to be made that there needs to be a decolonialization.
	And you don't have to go much further than to look at settlers shooting people in the streets and the violence that has happened over the past few years, not to mention decades.
	Like, I think there is something has to give here.
	And the problem is that entrenched power doesn't give easily.
	Do you know what I mean?
	Like it's not...
	It's not easy for a group to say, shit, we just went through an awful tragedy, but we also need to take a look at what we've done.
	Like, America failed that test.
	I mean, 9-11, we failed that test, and we failed it in one of the most generationally, if not historically, worst ways possible.
	It's really hard to do.
	But I have to tell you, that's the only way that any of this gets better.
	Well, the only problem is, and we see this on the protests on some campuses across the U.S., is that the colonization argument, and then, you know, you'll hear, combined with that, from the river to the sea, which I think everyone needs to understand means there is no Israel.
	Everyone is gone in Israel.
	And the Israeli state itself is illegitimate.
	And the problem with that kind of argument would be, okay, well fine, so is the United States.
	So is every country, you know, and Nazi ideology, where they wanted this pure blood in the living there only people that were from that area or whatever.
	And that's that's what's concerning again.
	And then it brings up all the other issues we've had with like with what America did to Native Americans.
	And so there is these parallels.
	But at some point, I think if we can't agree that Israel deserves to be a state, I'll be honest with you, Nick.
	I reject the dichotomy.
	becomes a really interesting dilemma in the argument in favor of Palestine.
	I'll be honest with you, Nick.
	I reject the dichotomy.
	I don't have to ascribe to phrases and slogans that either Hamas or the Palestinians have used in order for me to say that they deserve to live or that they deserve determination over their future or That they deserve not to live in an apartheid state?
	Is there stuff out there that has been terrible and offensive and all that?
	Absolutely!
	And by the way, you know what?
	It's the weekender, and on top of that, I'm a little hot over this right now.
	I'm glad you brought up America and the Native Americans.
	You know why?
	Because a lot of people, they like to go out and they say, hey, we acknowledge that this land belonged to people before us.
	That's great.
	That's really good.
	That's a good start.
	What now?
	What do you do now?
	Because we live in a time, and I want to say this, and I think it's important.
	We live in a time where a lot of the things that people have said for a lot of years that didn't have anything behind it, a lot of these espoused ideas and principles, we're living in a time of real principles.
	I think that's why it's uncomfortable right now.
	I think that's why it's so hard right now.
	I think there is an argument to be made that America probably does need to look at Native Americans, the indigenous people that it ran off, and start thinking about how do you make that right?
	How do you make it right for people of color that you've completely broken their backs?
	How do you make it right for the poor people that you've completely oppressed?
	I think that those conversations are absolutely necessary, but I don't think, and I'll be frank, anytime that people start talking about a college campus or people protesting, first things first, I didn't see it.
	I don't know.
	It's really easy to pick out a sign that showed up on Fox News or on social media and say that represents all of them.
	Also, young kids are very passionate, and sometimes they say things that are a little bit cringy and aren't great, but I'm not going to judge the Palestinians based on that.
	Like, the Palestinians deserve a right to live.
	They shouldn't live in an apartheid state, and there shouldn't be thousands of them dying, and there shouldn't be hundreds of them dying every day.
	That is all correct.
	That is true.
	That is right.
	That's how it should be.
	And I feel like it just worries me because it's a creep.
	You can creep into the areas where all of a sudden you're basically advocating that Israel doesn't deserve to be a state and that's the only problem.
	The whole world voted on it, they had a war, they had a few wars, and they fought and they won, and that's how civilization works, you know, these days.
	If you win a war and you have that land, that's your land.
	But even if you wanted to say, okay, you know, the Palestinians were there, well, you could keep going back farther.
	Like, that's what's so arbitrary about this whole thing.
	The Jews were there before that, you know, way back in the day, so it's like, where would you ever end if you wanted to argue that anyway?
	That is an argument that, like, You know, what you're bringing up, actually, and I'm glad that you did, what you're bringing up is the larger stuff that we don't actually want to talk about.
	We don't!
	Like, that is not the actual stuff that anybody wants to discuss because it's not easy.
	It's a whole lot easier to have like a black and white cut and dry opinion of what's going on in the world.
	It doesn't take much.
	Do you know what I mean?
	Like it's a gut reaction.
	It's what do you feel about the thing right now?
	And it leads people astray.
	We're living in a time, Nick, I'm serious.
	I didn't, I didn't give an answer on the World War III question.
	And, and because I don't want to, you know, I I'll be honest with you, Nathan, I appreciate the question.
	I don't want to say my answer here, but we are living in a time.
	That it's not enough to just sit back and commentate.
	It's not enough to just watch it go forward.
	We've talked on this show for years.
	I think that we have been pretty open and obvious about where we stand politically, what we believe in, what we want to fight for, what we want to talk about.
	We believe in human dignity.
	We believe that people over profit.
	We believe that like fascism and authoritarianism are on the rise and they have to be defeated, you know, because they are existential historical threats.
	But it is a possibility right now that we're not just sitting in a time period where we're looking back to the 1940s and talking about fascists and Nazis and the Holocaust and the oppression of people.
	People are dying.
	People are suffering.
	There is a rising threat in this world right now.
	There is right and wrong.
	And I'm sorry, but America and Israel versus China and Russia is not a clear cut thing.
	Like there's a lot of shit on both sides.
	Like, like, I'm sorry, but like sitting back and just saying that America and Israel are the good guys in this one doesn't work.
	That is because it's not a good situation.
	Like it is very, very much nuanced and the good is the people.
	The humanity is fundamentally good and deserves freedom and liberty and deserves to live in peace without war and terror.
	Like, that's what humanity deserves.
	And that's the good side.
	All of this is fighting over the bullshit.
	All of this is fighting over resources.
	All of this is fighting over power.
	All of this is about, like, harnessing the worst parts of ourselves and hurting others.
	And that's the bad part.
	That's the bad side.
	The good side is humanity.
	And I don't think it's even close to being arguable.
	So why did Hamas do what they did on October 7th?
	Because people commit terrorism because they feel powerless and also because they've been completely radicalized by awful ideology.
	They've come to believe there's no other way, and as a result, they've become evil themselves.
	What Hamas did to Israel was fucking evil.
	I'm sorry, but you can't... I don't support terrorism in terms of decolonization.
	You know, I can, you can talk about, uh, defending yourself.
	Uh, you know, I, I look at what happened between, uh, you know, in the French-Algerian situation.
	Like, you know, sometimes you fight back, but I don't think you go in and kidnap innocent people.
	I, but I'm also, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I don't support the Palestinians or that I support the Israeli government.
	I think, I think Bibi Netanyahu is an authoritarian piece of shit.
	And I think Israel's worse off for it.
	I think the Israeli people are worse.
	And they agree!
	Right.
	Like, the vast majority of Israelis understand that Netanyahu is a piece of shit.
	And so you don't have to support him.
	You can simply say, that's wrong, and this is wrong, and here's what's right.
	And what's right is that people deserve to live with dignity and in peace.
	And he did come out and almost insinuate that they're gonna He'll have to think about stepping down, but he said, right now, because we're in the middle of all this, you know, strong leader, yada, yada, which just makes you worry.
	He's gonna start, you know, believing more of his shit.
	And then after, after it's through, just, you know, stay on and never leave.
	Well, that's what he's been doing.
	Like, like, like Netanyahu, the amazing thing about this, Nick, because it's not simple.
	Netanyahu looks up to like people like Victor Orban.
	You know?
	And by the way, Viktor Orban is anti-Semitic.
	Viktor Orban is like one of the biggest spreaders of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories in the world.
	But he looks at how he ordered the government.
	Same with Vladimir Putin!
	Netanyahu has played footsie with all of these assholes.
	And you're exactly right.
	There's no limit to what Netanyahu would do.
	He is an absolute authoritarian piece of shit.
	So you're right.
	He does need to go.
	And I think it would be better for everybody if he went.
	And I'll go ahead and say what I was starting to say a while ago.
	I think America would be better with a different leader than Joe Biden.
	I don't know who that person is.
	I wish that there was a primary where we could make that decision and actually, you know, struggle through it.
	We need somebody else.
	Do you agree?
	Do you feel similarly?
	In specifically with this or just generally overall it's time?
	I think this has shown that having someone like Joe Biden in power at this kind of a moment, like I'm glad Trump's not in power, I'm glad a Republican's not in power, but I do think that we need somebody new.
	I agree.
	I agree.
	I feel like it's just it's a cringe fest when you try and watch him speak.
	It's awful.
	If you wanted to do it on looks and you know on sounds.
	Yeah.
	We would be better off if we had somebody Better.
	Well, we need somebody with a vision, and we don't have it.
	Like we keep saying, everybody says, even within the United States, within Biden's administration and the military, Israel doesn't have a plan.
	Even if they go into Gaza, they don't have a plan after it, you know?
	And the U.S.
	doesn't have a plan either.
	The U.S.
	has basically just been begging for time.
	There's nothing on the board.
	Nobody anywhere says that there's any kind of a plan.
	They lack imagination.
	They lack a vision for the future.
	And it's going to be disastrous if it continues like this.
	Well, the plan needs to be they have to rebuild Gaza.
	That would be what they would do.
	Oh, God, I'm telling you, if they go in there, I it breaks my heart.
	It absolutely breaks my heart, the idea of it.
	And not only is it going to be an atrocity, it's it's strategically it's even the wrong move.
	I just see this thing getting real bad if that if that ends up happening.
	Right.
	I just don't know how the other the alternative for Israel.
	They want to maintain security.
	They can't do nothing.
	You know, and by the way, we haven't even mentioned the hostages in all of this, right?
	This is another reason why... Who have been killed?
	If you want to talk about getting the hostages back, the reports are that at least 50 of them have already been killed in airstrikes.
	Oh, really?
	I didn't see that.
	And there's no question if the ground invasion happened, then you put all the rest of them in severe jeopardy as well.
	Yeah, the only rumors that I've been hearing are that there's a plan to use nerve agents to disable all of the tunnels.
	Which is a war crime, for the record.
	It's just one bad decision after another.
	And Nick, I, you know, when you say, what can you do?
	I know that this is, let's join hands around the campfire, but I honestly think it's the right thing.
	I don't think that you do anything.
	I do not think that lashing out at terrorism is ever the right answer.
	It plays right into the hands of terrorists.
	And like killing all these people, it only makes the situation worse.
	I do not think that any of this is right.
	Uh, fair enough.
	I mean, you know, listen, it is a fact that, you know, when you, when you retaliate like this, it almost never goes well.
	And you can look at everything we've done since 9-11.
	Oh God.
	You know, but I also feel like, I don't know, you'd probably be hard pressed to find too many people that would be like, well, yeah, don't do anything.
	Can I make an argument for that, by the way?
	One of the reasons, and you brought this up earlier in terms of like how you know our government and justice were structured, We created a legal system to keep people who are grieving and hurting from enacting violence on others.
	Like, if someone kills a relative of yours, you can't just go kill them.
	You can't just go enact your revenge on them.
	There is a process by which those things are taken care of.
	The reason is because everybody understands that when you are hurt, you are irrational.
	And in this entire situation, that's the problem.
	It's a trauma response.
	Oh, they hurt us.
	We have to hurt them.
	And that cycle just gets worse and worse and worse.
	And again, if nothing else good comes out of the war on terror, because it's one of the worst things that's ever happened in the history of modern history, if nothing else good from it happens, please, God, learn from our mistakes.
	Learn from the fact that the United States of America could not help itself and lashed out in cold-blooded violence and killed well over a million people, well over a million people, and destabilized the entire world in ways that we're only beginning to recognize the consequences of it.
	But no, I understand, it's probably not easy to look at people that you love and care about having been hurt and not want retribution, but that brain, that mindset doesn't work.
	I, I, I, listen, I can't argue with that.
	I, I, I just, I, it's so fucking tragic and I just, I, I, my heart breaks for anybody who was killed on October 7th.
	It's fucking awful.
	I hate that these thousands of people have been killed in Palestine.
	I, I just, I don't, I don't see how this gets better if it goes on that road.
	All right, listen, we were going to talk about this thing in Maine.
	I have nothing else to say about it except for we need to ban assault rifles.
	Do you have anything to say besides that?
	No, I mean, you know, again, there's the mental health thing, you know.
	Actually, we don't even hear thoughts and prayers much anymore.
	It's just mental health.
	No, we're not worried about thoughts and prayers.
	Don't worry about it.
	And by the way, this shooter in Maine, you know, had already exhibited severe issues that should have triggered, you know, his guns being taken away from him.
	His guns should have been taken from him.
	And on top of that, just for the record, he's also seemingly a right-wing extremist.
	And we need to understand that these are asymmetrical terrorists and a far-right attack on Americans.
	That's all there is to say about it, but guess what?
	We're living in the United States of America.
	We need to take the semi-automatic weapon.
	There's another shooting somewhere else I just saw.
	Is that right?
	Yeah, somewhere else.
	Dude, I'm so fucking tired of this situation.
	I'm so... I'm hot now.
	I'm really, really hot now.
	I don't doubt that you're right, but that's disgusting.
	Yeah.
	No, it is.
	It's... Well, listen, it's a daily occurrence, practically, when you have more than four people getting shot and...
	Yeah, it just reminds me again, the interview I did with Erwin Winkler, who's a UCLA professor on the Second Amendment, was, I asked him, I said, if God forbid we had just the worst attack of all time, and we finally all banded together and Congress passed a law that banned AR-15s, and somebody decided to challenge that in the Supreme Court, what would the Supreme Court do?
	He's like, yeah, they'd strike it down.
	So that's what we're living in with anyway.
	So even if it did happen and we had this moment where we all came together and we all, you know, even the Republicans, Democrats, we figured this out and got a law, the fucking Clarence Thomas would lead the Supreme Court into striking it down.
	Yeah, he'd drive his RV over there that was bought for him by Harlan Crowe.
	Beep, beep, motherfucker.
	All right.
	On that note, Nick, let's end this on a lighter note.
	What have you watched?
	It ain't so light, Jared, but as we're moving into Halloween, I suppose, I don't know, it was suggested to me on one of these things, Prime or whatever, to watch The Exorcist.
	Oh yeah, the original.
	Yeah.
	So I fired it up.
	I haven't finished it, Jared, unfortunately, but I've started to watch it.
	I don't think anybody remembers, like, this thing extends about maybe 10 or 12 minutes in northern Iraq in the beginning with very little dialogue.
	Yes, it does.
	And the structure of the movie is effed up to the point where I don't understand, you know, was this, is this recognized as a great movie or is this like a scary whatever crazy thing?
	Well, so The Exorcist is largely recognized as a, um, how do we put this?
	It's seen as a classic, right?
	And one of the reasons, so William Friedkin, the director of The Exorcist, who just recently passed away, this movie was made to not feel good.
	Do you know what I mean?
	Like it was made to not follow normal sort of plot expectations.
	It's not, it doesn't give you anything easy.
	It doesn't like make you feel better as a viewer.
	Like one of the great tropes of horror movies is you get something bad and then you get a little relief.
	You get something bad, you get a little relief.
	This thing's unpleasant and it's considered a class.
	I think it's a, I think it's a classic, but it is, it's not a fun watch.
	Well, okay, fair enough.
	And it actually reminded me that it was traumatizing as a kid.
	I must have seen her at some point, and when I'd be home alone, I can remember just being sometimes paralyzed with fear, thinking that Reagan's going to pop up and turn her head around in front of me.
	You know, the scares are kind of cheap.
	You know, the guy where she's walking in the attic and then there's this random noises.
	And then, you know, what they missed, I think, would have been more interesting to me, would have been exploring the notion that she might end up simply being either... Well, first of all, the hilarious notion of going to a psychiatrist was like, oh my god, that's like, you can't do that.
	That's a taboo thing but I would have liked to explore a little bit more of maybe they're trying to prove this with some normal things going on like medically or scientifically first.
	You know maybe she's she is having episodes whatever but like and she also goes from being you know normal to sort of there's something with it because scenes were missing in my mind that they jumped right to this thing maybe they realized it was getting long they had to cut some stuff out But it got to Reagan just sort of being already possessed in a way that I think I would have preferred a little bit more of a through line to that point.
	And it just all of a sudden the bed was jumping up and down and she's possessed.
	So I'm not ruining it, right?
	Everybody knows.
	No, no, you're not ruining anything.
	Um, you know, and it's very, uh, lascivious, which I suppose Satan is into that stuff, so hey.
	Uh, and by the way, we probably had never seen that before, right?
	That was what was the groundbreaking thing.
	We had never really dealt with, especially as a young woman, young girl, you know, doing the saying, the things, and whatever.
	Did she get nominated?
	Because I feel like she needed to have been, but... That I'm not sure.
	I'm gonna look it up while you talk, but anyway, that's what I'm watching.
	I'm gonna finish it, I guess, although, you know, it does get a little crazy and scary and, uh, But I still want to prove that I can watch scary movies.
	I've been participating in Spooky Season as well.
	I watched Hellraiser, which was Clive Barker's first film.
	I've seen it probably 10 times.
	It always surprises me just how, like, bleak and also disturbing it is.
	Man, that's a really, really messed up movie right there.
	I also watched Messiah of Evil, which is a movie from the 1970s.
	It's a little bit of a cultish thing.
	It's kind of weird.
	It's kind of artsy at the same time.
	I recommend it.
	It was actually pretty enjoyable in that regard.
	And then I finished it off last night with Unfriended.
	Dark web, which is there's there's a type of movie You know, there's like found footage horror where it's like people took videos and stuff This is what I guess would be called like a desktop horror It takes place on like a like a laptop during like chats and zooms and and meetings and stuff Pretty creepy.
	I'll be honest with you.
	It was not my like it didn't make me feel comfortable is what I'll say It's all just screenshots?
	It's just on, basically it's on one guy's laptop the entire time.
	Wow, that's an interesting way.
	And it keeps engaged the whole time?
	Yeah, yeah.
	It moved pretty fast.
	It was pretty good.
	But it's a sequel to, there's another one called Unfriended, I think.
	I don't know if it had a subtitle or not.
	But yeah, I'm okay with those every now and then.
	They're usually about an hour and a half.
	Get in, get out, you know?
	By the way, Linda Blair did win for Best Supporting Actress, which is also interesting because I suppose the mom is the leading... Wait, wait, time out, time out.
	Linda Blair won Best Supporting Actress for The Exorcist?
	Right, supporting.
	Is that why you're surprised?
	No, I'm shocked that she won an Oscar.
	Oh, well, I'm looking here and... Are you sure?
	Well, I'm going to click on here, and then the awards on IMDb, and it says, uh, Linda Blair, uh, let's see, what's here?
	Billy Friedkin, um, uh, got nominated.
	No, she got a nomination.
	Nope.
	She didn't win.
	She got a nomination.
	Um, she got a Golden Globe.
	It says she won.
	I'm sorry.
	No, she won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting.
	Woo!
	You think this is just, oh, just nominations?
	All right.
	I wish it, yeah, I guess it doesn't specify.
	It's weird.
	It's underneath it just says Academy Awards and it's just listed.
	Yeah, she was nominated for Best Supporting, um, but she won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting.
	Wow.
	Wow.
	That's a lot.
	I'm shocked she won a Golden Globe for that.
	That's, that's... Oh, yes.
	Oh, you know what?
	I misread it.
	Yeah, it's right.
	Nominee.
	It says... She was nominated for an Oscar.
	That's... Yeah.
	But it's interesting.
	It's a supporting role.
	I suppose they do it by number of lines or whatever.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	It's screen time.
	Wow.
	Got nominated for that one, it looked like.
	So, again, a groundbreaking movie.
	I get that part.
	I think, but I don't, I think there's some flaws.
	Yeah, I don't think there are arguments there, but yeah, it's a deeply, deeply unpleasant viewing experience.
	All right, everybody, on that note, we're going to bring this plane in for a landing.
	I sincerely hope you have a good weekend.

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