Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool

All Episodes

Previous Next

June 5, 2014 - No Agenda

02:59:56

623: Fact Pattern

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	It's Karula Saeed Wally Karakwa.
	Adam Curry, John C. Dvorak.
	It's Thursday, June 5th, 2014.
	It's time for your Gitmo Nation Media Assassination Episode 623.
	This is No Agenda.
	Dedicated to our sacred mission!
	And coming to you from FEMA Region 6, here at the Traverse Heights, hideout in the capital of the drone star state in the morning, everybody.
	I'm Adam Curry.
	And from northern Silicon Valley, where I'm burned out, watching committee meetings, I'm John C. Dvorak.
	It's crack, blood, and buzzkill in the morning.
	Oh, man, how many did you watch?
	I only watched about three, but...
	Yeah, but that's ten hours.
	That's ten or twelve hours right there.
	Well, the problem is...
	Okay, here's what happened.
	And this is gonna be bad.
	Do we need bad music?
	Do we need...
	Hold on.
	Let me see.
	Yeah, I wasn't thinking about that, but...
	It's bad music.
	Yeah, that is kind of bad music, yeah.
	So, I'm watching the big...
	They're trying to push an amendment through to knock down the First Amendment of all things.
	Oh, yeah, that little ditty.
	Democrats.
	I'm doing your music here.
	I'm doing your music.
	I'm convinced that they're clinically insane at this point.
	So I'm listening.
	I hear Jeff Sessions go on with it.
	He's got a really good little spiel.
	In fact, I may have a clip of it.
	Do you have Sessions there?
	I think so.
	I remember it coming through on my Google Drive.
	No, wait, I don't have Sessions.
	I have...
	Oh, yeah, Jeff Sessions.
	Yeah, got that.
	Play this.
	I just left simultaneously with the essay an environmental committee hearing in which one of the witnesses, a professor, said he was severely damaged as a result of his questioning of some of the global warming arguments that are made out there. said he was severely damaged as a result of his I think we're in a period of time when speech is being threatened more than we would like to admit.
	Political correctness has often run amok.
	Where's this guy from, Sessions?
	Alabama.
	Right.
	But I like what he's saying already.
	And it's fundamental.
	It's actually, this is his little talk at the First Amendment.
	This is in the Senate, yeah?
	This is in the Senate.
	And so, anyway, play the rest of it, because it refers to two things.
	That Americans be able to express their views without intimidation.
	I think the great Democratic...
	Did he just do a line of coke?
	I have no idea what that was.
	What was that?
	A line of coke.
	I think the great...
	Hold on a second, I'll be right back.
	The Democratic Party that was so classically liberal is now becoming the party of the progressives.
	And progressives tend to believe that little things like tradition, procedures, rules, even sometimes I think honesty can be subjected to the agenda that they believe is best for America.
	And I'm telling you, I think this is serious.
	And I feel it repeatedly in our country and in the debate that we're engaged in.
	I just think tradition and constitutional order should be respected.
	And in the long run, We'll be better off if we don't try to muzzle somebody who happens to have money and to keep him or her or this business from being able to express views that they think are important to the public and maybe even their own interest.
	Okay, so I hear this, and I say, oh, and I want to stay on this topic before we, actually, I want to, there's three or four topics today that are going to be a little over the top.
	It's very bothersome to me.
	That's why I'm grumpy.
	I wouldn't mind reading the actual Senate Joint Resolution 19.
	I think I sent you a link to it.
	I have it.
	It's in the show notes already.
	It's very simple.
	Yeah, it's Very simple.
	I'll just read it to you.
	There's two parts to it.
	Actually, there's four parts, but two parts.
	One for federal, one for state.
	Here it is.
	To advance the fundamental principle of political equality for all and to protect the integrity of the legislative and electoral processes, Congress shall have power to regulate the raising and spending of money and in-kind equivalents with respect to federal elections, including through setting Congress shall have power to regulate the raising and spending of money and in-kind equivalents with respect to federal elections, including through setting limits on, one, the amount of contributions to candidates for nomination for elections to or for election to federal office, and two, the amount of contributions to candidates for nomination for elections
	And that is so broad that if I decided to open a, you know, just give some money to some kids to run around and hold up signs, that could be legislated by Congress.
	Right.
	Yeah, that's a problem.
	Well, that's what everybody who's got any sense knows.
	Yeah, this is a big problem.
	But if you listen to the opening, let's listen to a couple of these things and get them off my list.
	The only one I have, the one I thought mattered, was Cruise.
	I got a couple of Cruise things.
	The long Cruise dialogue...
	It's five minutes, but he explains everything in that five minutes.
	Go with your flow.
	I have a funnier scenario, the way it goes.
	First, let's start off by getting the thing off to a bang with the Harry Reid open.
	See what this is all about.
	This is fantastic.
	Let me just give it to him up front, okay?
	Is there any member of this committee who really believed the status quo was good?
	Although he opposed billionaires using their own money to run for office, Sir McConnell now supports a billionaire's ability to fund today's campaigns and independent expenditures.
	In fact, he even declares today, quote, in our society, spending his speech, close quote.
	How could everyday working American families afford to make their voices heard if money equals free speech?
	American families...
	Can't compete with billionaires if free speech is based on how much money you have.
	My Republican colleagues attempt to cloak their defense of the status quo in terms of noble principles.
	They defend the money pumped into our system by the Koch brothers.
	I wasn't ready for it.
	I should have known.
	I should have known.
	Mr.
	President, I defy anyone to determine what the Koch brothers are spending money on today politically.
	I'm not ready for all this.
	They have all these phantom organizations.
	Now they've got a new one on veterans.
	They've got one on senior citizens, another name.
	They must have 15 different phony organizations that they use to pump money into the system.
	This should be a song.
	You got 15 phony organizations.
	To hide who they really are.
	The two wealthiest men in America.
	Wrong.
	Interested in their bottom line.
	Really?
	Are they the wealthiest men in America?
	And all of a sudden, I don't believe that.
	Not for a moment.
	He's number one, and he's been that way for a while.
	And Buffett, I think, is two.
	Yeah.
	I had a very different clip from Reed.
	Oh, okay, play it.
	In 1998, I had a very close election with John Ensign.
	We each spent about 10 million dollars.
	And we were allowed to do that because the Supreme Court again had left an opening that said you could divert money into the state party.
	And that money could be corporate money, could be any kind of money, and that can be used for denigrating the other person or building the person who had the money up.
	So what's he complaining about?
	Wait, wait, wait.
	Listen to the complaint.
	This is the complaint.
	You almost stepped on it.
	The only thing that counts.
	It was a bad situation.
	I felt so...
	Unclean, for lack of a better word.
	I felt unclean.
	What a dick.
	Well, while he's being unclean, we can jump around.
	This is kind of like, here's some performance art using these clips.
	Listen to this.
	This is Cruz.
	This is the clip.
	Cruz outlines major donors.
	He outlines the major donors.
	They put a little...
	Let's get some perspective on this and some honesty on this.
	And then he also excoriates Reed for being a dick about the Koch brothers.
	You know, it's interesting.
	If you look at the Open Secrets website, which I would note is a nonpartisan group.
	Man, this Cruz, he's got a lot going for him, but his voice is not one of them.
	My God, he sounds like he's talking through his clenched up butthole.
	He needs to work on that.
	His erudition is good and his points are good and his stuff is well written, but he's got that squeaky voice.
	And he comes across as swarmy and sticky and icky.
	Because he needs an eye job or something.
	You just want to get him off of you.
	It's like a slimy slug.
	The top 16 donors.
	To campaigns from 1989 to 2014, 100% of them support predominantly Democrats who are on the fence.
	The top three donors...
	Our Act Blue, which has spent over $102 million, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, which has spent over $61 million, and the National Education Association, which has spent over $58 million.
	Those are the top three Koch Industries who we've heard so much about.
	They're number 59.
	You know, there's a pattern in politics where when governments try to take the liberty of the citizens away, they try to distract them with shiny objects.
	So we've seen the majority leader repeatedly slandering two private citizens, the Koch brothers.
	On the floor of the Senate, there's a rule in the Senate that once one senator attacks and impugns the character of another senator, you can rise on a point of personal privilege.
	And I would note, there is unfortunately no rule in the Senate that allows a private citizen whose name's being dragged through the mud by the majority leader of the Senate for partisan political purposes to rise on that same point of personal privilege.
	You know, isn't there also a Koch brother that is completely separated from two?
	There's a third Koch brother and he's like a complete democrat?
	I don't know.
	Yeah, I think there is.
	I think there is.
	All I know is that the main two Koch brothers, most of their giving away goes to public radio.
	Yeah, exactly!
	Yes, the ballet and the arts.
	The arts.
	Fun stuff.
	Yeah, good fun stuff.
	The thing I have...
	I think we should just take one second, because this is so obvious for us when we read a joint resolution like this, or a bill, or an amendment, that it's like, well, why wouldn't you want to get money out of politics, or restrict that?
	And while there's validity to campaign finance, and this is a campaign finance joint resolution, in fact, it's called...
	Here, it's a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution.
	So this would be part of the top things, like freedom of the press and freedom of speech and freedom of worship and religion and right to bear arms and all this against search and seizure.
	This would be one of those.
	It would be a big one.
	And it's an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relating to contributions and expenditures intended to affect elections.
	But when you say, and they have it both at the federal and they're making a provision for the state level, that Congress...
	I'll just repeat it.
	It's important to understand exactly what's being said.
	Otherwise, a lot of people will try and shout you down if this comes up in conversation.
	And they'll say stuff like...
	That seems to work for some reason.
	But when it literally says, Congress shall have power to regulate the raising and spending.
	So that's how you raise money and how you spend it.
	And in-kind equivalents, blowjobs, hookers, anything like that, with respect to federal elections, including through setting limits.
	So congressional limitations on how much money you can raise or spend.
	Specifically for the amount of contributions to the candidate, which I think there's some validity to regulating that, but...
	To regulate the amount of funds that may be spent by in support of or in opposition to such candidates, which would mean everything else.
	That would mean me organizing a rally.
	Of course, it's intended to slow down commercial spend and advertising spend on television and radio and newspapers and interwebs.
	But that...
	That literally would, and I hate saying literally all the time, but it is the literal meaning that it would not allow you to speak above a certain...
	Level of money.
	Well, let's...
	I do have a clip for another cruise.
	Or am I misinterpreting that?
	That's what it sounds like to me.
	No, no, no.
	You're actually...
	You're downplaying it, in fact.
	If you listen to Abrams, this guy who is the free speech attorney that was there testifying.
	But...
	So you're not exaggerating, is what I'm saying.
	Play the clip.
	This is Cruz again, and he was really on his game at this thing, except for, like you said, his voice.
	But play the money is speech clip, and this is Ted Cruz.
	Okay.
	The second canard that's put forth is money is not speech.
	He shouldn't use words like canard.
	You know, duck has nothing to do with it.
	I like the word canard.
	Canard is not a good word.
	It's not.
	Americans go, what?
	If you want to communicate to people, then don't use French.
	If they hired the DeVore Consultant, we could change that.
	I would turn him down.
	I'm sorry, he's beyond repair.
	I don't think we can help him.
	He does have good points.
	Here he comes.
	That's been repeated over and over again in this hearing.
	I would note, any first-year law student who put that as his or her answer on an exam would receive an F. Because it is...
	Obviously, demonstrably false, and it has been false from the dawn of the Republic.
	Speech is not just standing on a soapbox, screaming on the sidewalk.
	From the beginning of the Republic, the expenditure of money has been integral to speech.
	The Supreme Court has said that pamphlets...
	The Federalist Papers and Thomas Paine's Common Sense took money to print and distribute.
	Putting up yard signs, putting up bumper stickers, putting up billboards, launching a website.
	Every one of those requires the expenditures of money.
	I guarantee you every person in this room.
	If you think about it, disagrees with the proposition that expending money is not speech.
	Publishing a book is speech.
	Publishing a movie is speech.
	Blogging is speech.
	Every form of effective speech in our modern society requires the expenditure of money from citizens.
	Shut up, slave!
	Yeah, that's the whole point.
	Shut up!
	And by the way, how come he didn't mention podcasting?
	This is why the guy's beyond repair.
	He knows nothing.
	The canard.
	Oh, bonjour, Jean.
	Oh, I made a canard this morning.
	So sorry.
	I didn't mean to do that.
	He does have this issue.
	Anyway, so Harry Reid comes on.
	He does his spiel.
	And then Mitch McConnell does the follow-up.
	I have a short...
	I think this is short.
	I hope so.
	The Mitch McConnell...
	No, no.
	This is 7 minutes and 43 seconds.
	That can't be the short one.
	This one is designed to only play until I say stop.
	Very quickly.
	Thank you, Mr.
	Chairman.
	Given how incredibly bad this proposed amendment is, I can't blame my friend, the Majority Leader, for wanting to talk about things like the Koch brothers.
	Or what I may have said over a quarter of a century ago.
	I'm going to confine my remarks to what's before us, and I want to start by thanking Senator Grassley for an absolutely outstanding observation about what the First Amendment was supposed to be about.
	And at the very core of it, of course, was political speech.
	Americans from all walks of life understand how extraordinary, how extraordinarily special the First Amendment is.
	Like the founders, they know that the free exchange of ideas and the ability to criticize their government are necessary for our democracy to survive.
	Benjamin Franklin noted that, quote, whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness, as he put it, the freeness of speech.
	That's enough.
	He goes on and on.
	He makes some good points.
	But what Cruz, again, the guy, he's the one who comes out with this.
	That's the long speech.
	I took just a little bit.
	He made this long plea.
	It was very emotional.
	It was very good.
	Yeah.
	I have the first part, and you have to endure this.
	This is the bit.
	Cruz comes out, and then he has to go.
	These guys are coming in and out and out doing voting someplace else.
	Cruz comes in, and then he goes out, and then Schumer comes on and excoriates him, pretending to be talking to him.
	But he's not there.
	Yeah, but he's not there for...
	I mean, he doesn't say he's not there at some point later, but he's looking over as though he's talking to me, and this is solely for sound bites, not sound bites, but video bites.
	Yeah, just to get it on the news.
	And I... I'm sorry.
	Well, I was going to also say, at the very beginning of the hearing, which was packed, packed hearing, there were a bunch of people with signage.
	You know, get the Koch brothers out, basically.
	Koch brothers!
	And so the news media, there's about 25 camera guys there, and they all flocked into the aisles and had these people hold up their signs and then shoot pictures.
	Oh yeah, just to file it quickly.
	Alright, let's get that in.
	Alright, good.
	But it's against the rules to have signage during the hearing, and so they all put their signs away immediately.
	You know what that is?
	That's a farce.
	It's a farce!
	It's a farce, which is the beginning of a canar.
	Well, I don't know about the Kennard part.
	But let's listen to the end of Cruz.
	Oh, you don't want to play Schumer?
	You want to go straight to Cruz?
	I want to play Cruz first so you get a little feeling for the emotions he's got going.
	This is Cruz Part 1.
	Then we play Schumer.
	Then we play Cruz.
	This amendment, if adopted, would give Congress the power to ban books and to ban movies.
	And by the way, Citizens United was about fining a movie maker who made a movie critical of Hillary Clinton.
	Mr.
	Chairman...
	Ray Bradbury would be astonished.
	Because we are seeing Fahrenheit 451 Democrats today.
	The American people should be angry about this.
	And Mr.
	Chairman, the senators who put their name to this should be embarrassed that they have signed up for repealing the free speech amendments of the First Amendment.
	I have the entire speech, which I'll put in the show notes, and people can go listen to the whole thing.
	But I didn't know that Citizens United was, that that's what that case was about.
	I didn't realize that.
	There's also another explanation here that the guy, what's his name, the one character from Utah, the older guy, he had a little, in fact, we can take a little aside here and play the, this is worth listening to so we can get people straightened out on Citizens United.
	This is the explanation, explain Citizens United, just quickly.
	And he's asking Abrams and the other guy to testify about this.
	His prepared statement, Professor Raskin, says that the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United versus FEC eliminated the statutory provision, quote, that kept trillions of dollars in corporate wealth from flowing into federal campaigns, unquote.
	I think that's a misleading description of the case.
	As I read it, the Citizens United case involved a non-profit organization, not a wealthy for-profit corporation, and the case did not involve campaign contributions at all.
	Am I right?
	Yes, it did not involve contributions at all, and it left standing the contribution section.
	Also, have we seen a flood of corporate wealth flowing into federal campaigns since the Citizen United decision?
	We have seen a lot of individuals giving money.
	That's where the big money has come from.
	We have seen an increase in the amount of money from what I'd call Main Street rather than Wall Street.
	What we've not seen is precisely what was predicted.
	We have not seen enormous sums, let alone trillions of dollars, from the biggest companies in America flowing into the electoral process.
	That just hasn't happened.
	Oh.
	My time is up, Mr.
	Chairman.
	Oh, okay.
	Well, no.
	Well, there you have it.
	I've been misinformed.
	You've been misinformed?
	Everyone's been misinformed.
	I've been misinformed.
	Now, here comes Schumer.
	This is like a few testimonies after.
	Cruz is gone.
	Schumer steps in just to do this.
	Senator Cruz says that we should be embarrassed about this amendment.
	I'll tell you, Senator Cruz, I'm embarrassed about how our system is distorted by literally now billions of dollars coming into this system undisclosed, unregulated, and unanswered.
	And Senator Cruz, maybe he fancies himself to be a constitutional expert.
	He knows that no amendment is absolute.
	He's a constitutional lawyer!
	His rhetoric, his over-the-top rhetoric here makes it seem like if you support this amendment, you're against the First Amendment.
	Well, I want to ask you, Senator Cruz, are you against anti-child pornography laws?
	He's not here.
	But would he be against anti-child pornography laws?
	Does that make him against the First Amendment?
	Is he an absolutist on the First Amendment?
	Wow.
	He's now comparing pornography to campaign support?
	Interesting.
	Is he against the ability to falsely scream fire?
	Does he think everyone should be allowed to falsely scream fire?
	What is he trying to say?
	He can't get it out.
	He's doing like a false double negative.
	He's upset.
	He's upset.
	I want to hear what he's trying to say.
	Is he against the ability to falsely scream fire that you should?
	Does he think everyone should be allowed to falsely scream fire in a crowded theater?
	Falsely scream fire?
	Well...
	And if anyone's opposed to that, are they opposed to...
	Well, okay.
	No, I think he's got a point.
	I think that you should not be allowed to yell fire in a theater, but you should be, in the middle of a love scene, be allowed to yell...
	Koch brothers!
	The whole First Amendment?
	And against free speech?
	Libel laws?
	If you're for libel laws, does that mean you're against free speech and you're against the First Amendment?
	Absolutely.
	What?
	There's a bunch of...
	Anyway, you can stop that.
	It's almost done.
	I like it.
	I want to hear the rest of it.
	It's good.
	It's good.
	We have always had balancing tests for every amendment.
	Some of my colleagues on the other side I know don't believe there should be one for the Second Amendment.
	I believe there should, but I believe there's a right to bear arms.
	What?
	What did you just say?
	When did that just happen?
	Hold on a second.
	When did that happen?
	The Second Amendment.
	I believe there should, but I believe there's a right to bear arms.
	Oh.
	And I don't like seeing it through a pinhole, but that's neither here nor there.
	We've always had balancing tests for every amendment.
	Won't somebody please think of the children?
	That's what he's doing.
	He's nuts.
	So I think he's behind this amendment, by the way.
	He's one of the first signatories.
	He's not one of the later signatories.
	Let me see.
	Let's take a look.
	He's the first group, which they're all by date.
	You can look at them by date.
	Yeah, so this is from Udall.
	Yeah, Tom Udall, the dumbest guy in Congress.
	He was used as a front man.
	I think Schumer used him.
	Let's see.
	Picture that I put in the newsletter of him.
	The guy looks like his IQ is 90.
	Okay, so the first to sign up were Harkin.
	Yep.
	And Schumer.
	Yep.
	And Shaheen.
	She's from Delaware.
	White House.
	You're so judgmental today.
	White House.
	Oh my gosh.
	White House from Hawaii.
	We've heard her talk about the interwebs.
	Yeah.
	Tester.
	From Massachusetts.
	Oh, and our favorite, of course, Boxer.
	Your girlfriend there from...
	Where is she from now?
	Minnesota?
	Boxer, she's our California one.
	I'm sorry, California.
	I don't know why I said Minnesota.
	California.
	Then we have Coons, Delaware, and King, Angus King.
	These were all on the 18th.
	Murphy, Wyden, Franken, of course.
	Frank is on the wrong side of this one.
	Klobuchar.
	Amy.
	And then of course we have Udall.
	And after that came Johnson, Menendez, Jack Reed, Blumenthal.
	Are there any Republicans on this?
	Or just all Democrats, right?
	Yeah, so actually two independents.
	So all these people should be They need to be...
	What's the word you use?
	Voted out!
	Excoriated!
	Excoriated.
	Yeah, excoriated.
	About five minutes later, maybe longer, Cruz comes back.
	He sits down, and I guess he was briefed on what Schumer had said, and this is the short part of it.
	Here's what Cruz has to say.
	I'm going to recognize Senator Cruz.
	I think Senator Hatch has already asked.
	I'll recognize Senator Cruz and ask Senator Franken if he would come up here and preside.
	I like the vote.
	And if Franken gets to hold the gavel, he loves that.
	He loves being the boss.
	Oh, gosh.
	He gets all beamy and stuff.
	Thank you, Mr.
	Chairman.
	I recognize you.
	At the outset, I'd like to say I understand that in my absence, Senator Schumer very kindly gave a lecture on civility.
	Encouraged me not to go over the top, while he then, in the same breath, accused me of supporting child pornography.
	So I appreciate that demonstration and senatorial restraint from the senior senator from New York.
	Let me say to the members of this panel, welcome.
	Thank you for joining us.
	He's a good lawyer.
	He's a lawyer.
	His wife's a Goldman Sachs-er.
	I mean, the guy is, he could not be more perfect GOP, but he's just, he makes you feel so icky and swarmy and blah, blah, blah.
	But that long speech was good.
	I was listening to his voice after you pointed it out.
	You know who he sounds almost exactly like?
	Although most people, we don't have it close at hand in Eclipse.
	But Joe McCarthy.
	Joe McCarthy, the guy who had started all those hearings about the communists and waving empty sheets of paper and doing all this other stuff.
	He has exactly the same voice.
	I'm going to have to find out.
	From the...
	The 50s.
	Really?
	Well, but wasn't that just...
	I think that's because of the microphones back in the day.
	I think so, too.
	He's doing it naturally.
	We have a little bit of Joe McCarthy that I can play for you.
	This is June 9th, 1954, at the Army McCarthy hearing.
	You're right.
	Cruise sounds like he's talking through a 1950s microphone and broadcast system.
	It's very hard to emulate.
	That's what it is.
	It's nothing else.
	Interesting.
	So I got one more cruise clip if you want to play it.
	I'd like to point out that I have had CNN here on the desktop throughout the, what are we in now, we're 29 minutes into the program, and not a single peep about this hearing, not a soundbite, not a lower third, not a nothing.
	It's all about, what, a gunman was dressed in fatigues.
	It's all about other distractions of minor infractions.
	Yeah, it sucks when someone gets killed.
	This is not good.
	But these are very important issues that are just completely and I would believe purposely being ignored.
	Yeah, I would say so.
	So welcome to your podcast.
	Well, I mean, Mitch McConnell did say, even though they have all these co-signers for this thing, he says this is not going to ever get passed.
	I mean, the House will block it for sure.
	But there's a number of Democrats that are too sensible to vote for this thing.
	So they'd probably lose 10 of them.
	Because they don't have all the Democrats.
	They only have...
	42.
	Yeah, 40, because two of them are independents.
	Right.
	Anyway, I just want to play one more Lil' Cruz thing, because he was on a roll, and I thought this was good, because this is one of the few things where he actually finishes it off with a blogger thing, and I'm thinking, is that really a good thing?
	The third canard is that corporations have no rights.
	That gets repeated an awful lot.
	Again, you'd get an F in law school if you embrace that position.
	The New York Times is a corporation.
	CBS is a corporation.
	Paramount Pictures and Simon& Schuster are corporations.
	The Sierra Club is a corporation.
	The NRA is a corporation.
	The NAACP is a corporation.
	La Raza is a corporation.
	None of the people who say corporations have no rights would possibly suggest that, well, Congress can then prevent the NAACP from speaking, can prevent La Raza from speaking, can muzzle the New York Times.
	That position is obviously false.
	Nobody has disagreed with the litany of harms that could occur if Congress passed this bill.
	The ability to muzzle citizens, to muzzle labor unions from organizing, because that's an in-kind expenditure.
	The ability to silence bloggers.
	Oh my God, that is amazing!
	No, I was thinking about this.
	He actually makes an interesting point, because when you watch Democracy Now!
	or any of these shows, they go on about the evil corporations, but they don't discuss...
	They never bring up the non-profits and the...
	If you really boil it down, the only thing everybody's pissed off about or irked by are the Koch brothers.
	That's what it's about.
	That's what it's about.
	So, here's my suggestion.
	I've been thinking about this.
	We should kill the Koch brothers.
	Just arrest them, kill them, and be done with.
	I mean, I'm sure we can come up with some kind of amendment or stick the IRS on them.
	I'm sure they've done something illegal somewhere.
	Like Al Capone.
	I'm sure we can get them on something.
	Go ahead and do it.
	Just please go get the Koch brothers.
	Throw them in the dungeon.
	So he don't have to hear this anymore.
	Oh, man.
	It would just be so nice.
	I'm going to call you back, John.
	I can feel the thing is like cutting out a little bit.
	You're giving up on your head.
	Yeah, just a little bit.
	Yeah, we'll just do this.
	Coke, brother!
	There we go.
	And...
	And...
	Lost my mouse.
	Well, there's no evidence people want to use that thing anyway, so...
	That's true.
	It's a fact.
	Yeah.
	Well, that was a good rundown.
	I was too deep into this thing.
	This is a little shaggy dog story because I began it with the Sessions thing saying, so when Sessions mentioned the guy being excoriated in front of a subcommittee, I called Sessions' office.
	Ah, as you would do.
	As I would do.
	And I asked for one of the assistants to answer some questions about...
	And it's funny, they're very amenable.
	The senators not so much as the representatives.
	The people in the House, I believe, never get called.
	They're so happy when you...
	Oh, John's calling again.
	Oh, yeah.
	When anybody's calling, they think it's great.
	The senators are busy.
	And I think many of them are cheap, so they don't have big staff.
	Here's how it goes.
	Hold on.
	Jeff Sessions' office.
	Yeah, I have a couple questions.
	Yes, how can I help you?
	Oh, you sound like Mr.
	Dvorak.
	The C stands for caps lock.
	How you doing, John?
	I'd like to know what the thing...
	Pretty good.
	I'd like to know what the meeting was that Sessions led.
	He was talking at the amendment meeting for the...
	Could you get to the point?
	You're really confusing me.
	No, no, no.
	He was at this campaign finance, and he mentioned that he was at something else, and he came running in.
	And I want to know what that other subcommittee was.
	Oh, okay.
	Yeah, what was it?
	And?
	Well, that's what I want to know.
	What was the committee name?
	I don't know.
	Well, can you find out?
	Yeah, sure.
	Can I get back to you?
	No, actually she says, can I put you on hold?
	Oh, that's nice.
	Now, normally when you call up one of these offices, they have a bunch of assistants.
	And one of them says, oh, Jerry would know about that.
	And then Jerry will call you back.
	But no, apparently this one girl in Washington was doing everything.
	So answering the phone, doing research.
	So she didn't really help me as much as a representative.
	Right, right, right.
	She turned me on to something I didn't know about.
	Which is that all the major committees...
	You need to back off from the mic one hair.
	You're just...
	You're overdriving.
	She pointed out that all these committees and subcommittees have a website...
	Which is very much like the Google website where you have voice.google.
	So you do...
	Yeah, you do sessions.house.gov.
	Not sessions.
	It would be like subcommittee name.senate.gov.
	Oh, okay.
	And you get there, and there's a...
	They have, over the years, I suppose, cataloged all their meetings with video.
	Oh no!
	Are you kidding me?
	And it's not video that C-SPAN plays.
	It's just raw video of these meetings.
	All of them.
	Huh.
	Like the dipshit meeting of the year, there is a video of it.
	You just have to know when it happened.
	You can look them up by date.
	Huh.
	So I ran over and this is a problem now.
	Because there is a plethora.
	Is there an index somewhere?
	Is there a searchable index of these sessions that you can find?
	Not that I know of, but if you know what the subcommittee is or the committee that owns the subcommittee, you can get there.
	You can get to any one of these things that they've done.
	I think there's ways of looking it up with Google Search, possibly.
	Whatever the case is, there's a ton of stuff that never gets played.
	Thank you.
	And?
	You went and recorded something for us?
	I've been watching some of these things.
	It's like, it's a gold mine!
	Good.
	Alright.
	I'll play some of this stuff later in the show when we get off of these topics.
	Which was an environmental committee about the coal.
	And it was four guys, only four guys, two Democrats, two Republicans.
	These are small committees, but they bring these experts in.
	And these experts yak away, and it's all there.
	And so this is now a bottomless pit of new material for us.
	And I have a clip here from one of the sessions?
	Sometimes fascism benefits.
	I don't know where that came from.
	Anyway, back to the...
	There was...
	Maybe I have one or two.
	I mean, I got too many clips on this freedom of speech thing.
	Franken went off the deep end.
	Franken's thing was disingenuous.
	I don't mind listening to him because I like laughing about him.
	Okay, well, he comes on.
	At first, he does some shh.
	Well, it's time to reiterate for people who are too young to know, probably, that Al Franken was a comedian, an actor.
	I would say comedian more than actor.
	Yeah, he's a comedian.
	And he most famously was on Saturday Night Live for many, many seasons, I think.
	Years and years, wasn't he?
	Yeah.
	For a long time.
	And he had the Stuart Smalley bit, which was kind of cute.
	And sometimes he would be...
	If you give him the right lines, he's good.
	But he kind of thinks he's funny.
	He does think he's funny, but he does possess...
	And at the beginning of this, I think you have that back and forth with Sessions that...
	You talked about your reference, but we haven't played a clip about.
	He does a little back and forth with Sessions.
	Because he's been a professional comic, he may not be funny per se, but he will have an absolute sense of timing.
	So he can get laughs that way.
	Oh yeah, no, he's got the timing.
	This is Franken, I played that one.
	Franken.
	Thank you, Mr.
	Chairman.
	Thank you.
	I recognize myself.
	You recognize yourself?
	I do.
	If you look in the mirror, I recognize myself.
	See, and now he's doing the smallie bit.
	And I'm capable.
	He was a writer.
	The chat room points out correctly that he was mainly a writer on the show.
	Which makes sense.
	And I recognize myself here.
	I knew you would handle that deftly.
	And of course the other guys are all like, hey, I'm doing improv.
	I'm doing improv with Franken, look at me.
	Don't do it.
	This is the definition of a canard, right there.
	And you did.
	Thank you, and so did you.
	Ah, painful.
	Ah.
	It's good to see you, Mr.
	Abrams.
	You actually defended me on a First Amendment case.
	So I did.
	And you won.
	It was brilliant.
	Thank you.
	I remember what you said to me after I won.
	What did I say?
	Even a chimp could have won that case.
	Hey, they're doing shtick.
	This is pretty good.
	That's alright.
	And I was right.
	Wow.
	Okay, good.
	He wins back points with me on this.
	How about you?
	You're a brilliant lawyer.
	And I noticed that in your testimony, in your written testimony, Professor Raskin, I want you to speak to this.
	Mr.
	Abrams says that it, quote, appears that Citizens United has not caused a flood of new money in politics.
	He says twice, actually.
	He uses the word twice.
	It appears that way.
	Now, from my experience, I know Mr.
	Abrams is an excellent lawyer.
	So I know he chooses his words carefully.
	And he says that it appears that way because there's really no way that we know.
	There's really no way that we know, and Mr.
	Abrams himself has said that he is for getting rid of all limits entirely.
	And we're talking about intimidation about speech.
	Suppose a corporation comes up and there's no limits and says to a senator, If you vote this way on this bill, we will spend $100 million to defeat you.
	It's fine.
	Isn't that fine?
	I mean, it's according to this logic.
	Yeah.
	Isn't that okay?
	That's just free speech.
	Look, on the empirical question, let me just say this.
	No, no, and then they can either put the $100 million in or not.
	They don't even have to put it in to intimidate you.
	That's right.
	The numbers that I've seen have gone up dramatically, and the numbers that we haven't seen, the 501C4s, the social welfare groups, the C6s, the trade associations, the dark money, you know, the estimates.
	Okay, that's Raskin who just wants to...
	Can I ask you a question of conscience?
	Well, can I make one observation before you ask the question?
	Of course, of course.
	Which is, how is this any different than what happens today when the Sierra Club goes up to you and says, if you're not for global warming, we're going to defeat you?
	Right, the only thing that's different is that he's saying $100 million instead of $10 million or whatever.
	And that is the question I'm going to ask because I believe that if the system works...
	As I think it does, and our representatives in Congress are indeed our representatives, and money represents voice and speech, etc.
	I think, you know, if there truly is some rule that is so egregious to put into place, you would have to buy off votes for hundreds of millions of dollars?
	Yeah.
	This would be something of such magnitude and outrage if you couldn't just get it done.
	I mean, you know how much money you have to make to make $100 million back?
	This is not easy.
	This is a bogus argument.
	This is a specious argument.
	This is what he's doing.
	Yeah, it makes some logical sense in the...
	Remember the clip we played, I guess it was two shows.
	In Fantasyland, or in Candyland, because it doesn't...
	Why can't people think the worst?
	Remember that clip from Bill Moyers?
	I don't understand why people can't see the worst case scenario and live by that thinking.
	Alright, can I transition us here from this to something else?
	Anything.
	Okay.
	So, why do we have to listen to these arguments about $100 million when not a single second is spent on a promise...
	And the promise has a name.
	I'm going to give you the name.
	The European Reassurance Initiative, also known as the ERI, which our president said, oh, I'm going to go get a billion dollars to put war crap here in Poland.
	I've come here, first and foremost, to reaffirm The enduring commitment of the United States to the security of Poland.
	Enduring commitment!
	You know, I'm sorry.
	I like Polish people, but when did I become responsible for them?
	We're on track with our missile defense program, including interceptor sites here in Poland.
	Yeah!
	Yeah!
	As we saw this morning, our American Aviation Detachment, here is the first regular presence of U.S. forces in Poland.
	We continuously rotate additional personnel and aircrafts into Poland and the Baltics.
	We will be expanding our exercises and training with allies to increase the readiness of our forces.
	Bring it on, bro!
	I know President Komorowski is a great champion of the effort to modernize the Polish military, and we welcome the announcement that he just made about an even greater commitment.
	Bring it home!
	We'll increase the number of American personnel, Army and Air Force units, continuously rotating through Allied countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
	I'm calling on Congress to approve up to $1 billion to support this effort.
	Yeah!
	$1 billion to put war machinery into Poland.
	And meanwhile, we're screaming, not a single person is even bothered by this.
	Even bothered.
	Show it to him.
	Show me the report.
	You had to get this off of C-SPAN just to get a clip.
	And then we have, oh, I'm trying to contain myself.
	Victoria Noodleman.
	Alright, Newland is what she calls herself.
	How many times have I said she's married to Robert Kagan, Frederick Kagan's brother, the peanut guy, one of the people who got us into Iraq.
	I have to keep reminding people.
	Yes, you do.
	And she goes up on stage, and she's got a little suit on, her little sailor suit, you know the one, with the blue, with the white stripe.
	Yeah, it looks good on her, by the way.
	The sailor suit looks good.
	She looks good with the sailor suit.
	She does.
	And Carrie's off to the side, beaming with pride.
	And her husband...
	You wave.
	But her husband, Robert, is on stage with her.
	Wow.
	And Carrie.
	Now, Robert Kagan is not a politician.
	He is a professor.
	What's he doing on stage?
	Well, he's her husband.
	Oh yeah, oh yeah.
	And he works for the FPI, the Foreign Policy Institute, I think, which is a, you know, it's like the Project for a New American Century.
	It is the think tank that will get us into Eurasia or thwart anything that our evil guy is doing.
	So first, just a little quick montage of her about how, you know, she just, oh, this is a renaissance scene.
	It's a renaissance in Europe, everybody!
	It's the European Reassurance Renaissance Initiative!
	And then she thanks her husband.
	What's required is a transatlantic renaissance.
	A new burst of energy.
	Woo!
	Can you feel it, Europe?
	We're giving you a burst of energy!
	We have to be that beacon.
	Wear your beacon!
	Together we must lead, or we will see the things that we value and our global influence reseed.
	Oh, okay.
	We have to lead so we don't reseed.
	Oh, interesting.
	It means funding, equipping, and training our militaries to be ready to defend our freedom and advance our security interests wherever they are needed.
	Fuck it!
	Fuck Hillary!
	Make her president!
	Defend our freedom!
	Our military must be at the ready for the, uh, for, uh, oh, it must be!
	And while you're at it, go get the coat, brother!
	And abroad, there is no place where our generosity and our experience and our ideals are more needed today than on Europe's own periphery.
	Hello Europe.
	Hold on.
	She actually said Poland.
	Hold on.
	Hello Europe.
	You need us.
	We're coming to help you.
	Alright, and now she thanks her husband.
	And finally, my Kagan...
	He's my Mars, he's my Venus, he's my planet Earth.
	What?
	I'm so in love.
	Wait, wait, wait, wait.
	Hold on a sec.
	Rethink this.
	I know.
	She says she's my Mars, Venus, and her planet Earth.
	Her planet Earth, yes.
	What is she then?
	Is she God or is she the sun?
	What is she?
	Yeah, a good question.
	What is she in relationship to the planet Earth?
	Let's listen again.
	Finally, my Kagan.
	Mike Kagan.
	I think we should...
	You're my Dvorak.
	I am your curry.
	He is my Mars.
	He's my Venus.
	He's my planet Earth.
	He is my Mars.
	He's my Venus.
	He's my...
	So Mars, Venus, planet...
	What are we missing?
	Mercury.
	She might be Mercury.
	There's no relationship between Mercury, planet Earth, Mars, and Venus.
	I know!
	She either has to be the moon...
	Or the sun, or God, in some way.
	Maybe she's thinking of song lyrics, like, I'm your Venus.
	I don't know what she's thinking.
	But would you listen to that whole spiel?
	By the way, I don't want to dwell on this, but I will.
	Yeah, please.
	Why would there be three things?
	Why can't he just be, he's my beacon, or he's my sun, or he's my light?
	I don't know why she's even being this corny, but she is.
	Why does it have to be Mars and Venus and planet?
	Why does it have to be three things?
	What is the deal with that?
	Well, obviously, she's MKUltra.
	Obviously, Kagan has her completely under his control, and she is the assistant...
	I think that you address her as ambassador, actually.
	She is the assistant or deputy secretary of state.
	I think you have to address her as ambassador?
	I don't know.
	Hold on, let's check.
	If we're going to make fun of her, we might as well make fun of her properly with her proper title.
	I believe she is deputy...
	No, Assistant Secretary is what it's called.
	But not just Assistant Secretary, she's Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs.
	That's a big deal.
	And we know that she is.
	How does she go from spokeshole to that?
	Yes, that's a very short path.
	But it's obvious.
	We already knew she was the...
	I mean, every Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs does stuff like this.
	Fuck the EU. Fuck the EU. Yeah, that's right.
	That's how you act as an American.
	And she's being controlled by the Kagan.
	Her Kagan.
	It's not my husband, my love of my life.
	You know, we're accepting an award.
	And why is she even doing that?
	But okay.
	She just said, I'm going to bring the bad and nasty to Europe.
	I'm bringing it.
	I'm bringing the army.
	I'm bringing force.
	I'm bringing a renaissance.
	A burst of energy.
	And it's all thanks to my Kagan.
	Periphery.
	And finally, my Kagan...
	He is my Mars, he's my Venus, he's my planet Earth.
	If I ever win an award, that's what I'm going to say.
	And finally, Mike Hagen.
	He is my Mars, he is my Venus, he is my planet Earth.
	Mike Hagen?
	No, his name is Robert.
	It's Mike Hagen.
	Maybe his nickname is Mike.
	No, no, no.
	Mike Hagen.
	Mike Hagen?
	These people are all insane, John.
	You're absolutely right.
	Really?
	Are you sure?
	Wait.
	The Mars-Venus thing, come on, I can't top that.
	I got tons of clips, but there's no way to top that.
	What if I topped it myself?
	I might top my own clip of the day.
	Well, alright.
	You know, if you think the Americans are...
	My Kagan, my sun, my moon, this woman is clinically insane.
	These are the people running this country.
	No, no, no.
	The person who's clinically insane is Hermann von Rumpoy.
	Well, that too.
	And he is still...
	This is an interesting topic because he is still the president of the EU. These are unelected positions.
	And right now there is a battle between...
	What's his name?
	The banker guy.
	The German banker.
	Junker.
	Yeah, Junker.
	So, Junker.
	But then we have Angela Merkel saying she would like Christine Lagarde.
	Right.
	Her name's been brought up way too much.
	And Tony Blair is also starting to...
	I don't think he'll make a move.
	Gotta go to a woman.
	But I think Lagarde, can you imagine?
	And they joked about it, that we would have Hillary in America, Lagarde in Europe, and it's not hard to see how she would be better than this guy.
	This is, and as you recall, we have a nickname for him.
	Do you remember his nickname?
	Haiku Herman.
	Haiku Herman, because he likes writing and reciting haikus.
	And he recently received the Prime Minister of Japan.
	I will greet you with a beautiful haiku written by Yamaguchi Sodu some 300 years ago.
	I see the surprise in the eyes of your ambassador.
	Yeah, no shit!
	I see the surprise in his...
	Yeah, the guys are like, what are you doing?
	What?
	I will quote in Japanese.
	Now, let me tell you something.
	I learned in our short journey to Tokyo that if you're not nailing the pronunciation, the Japanese pretty much don't know what the hell you're saying.
	If you're not absolutely nailing it, they'll look at you like, what?
	So it's not like you can speak with a British accent, an American can kind of figure it out, or a Cockney accent.
	It's a little harder if you're not completely nailing it.
	I don't know if he is!
	But I have my doubts.
	And he's going to translate it, though.
	Yes.
	I'm hard now.
	What's the point of that?
	The season's first bonito, which is a tuna?
	What is the point?
	I don't know.
	It was written 300 years ago, and apparently the Japanese loved his rendition of it.
	Yeah, I'm sure they did.
	Well, chuckling amongst themselves.
	I think I should keep this as an evergreen.
	Meniwa Aoba, Yama Ototo Gisu, Hatsugatsu.
	I think we should keep that. - Yes.
	No, no, no.
	We should just keep it.
	Someone's going to want to hear that as a donation.
	I don't think so, but it's possible.
	Anyway, I would like to thank you, John, for wrapping all of that up for us.
	The blatant attack on the First Amendment of the United States of America.
	So I thank you for your courage and say in the morning to you, John C. Dvorak.
	Well, in the morning to you, Adam Curry.
	As he looks for the spreadsheet.
	And in the morning to all the ships at sea out there, boots on the ground, feet in the air, subs in the water, and all the dames out there.
	And the knights.
	And I'll say in the morning to everyone in the chat room, our human resources there, noagendastream.com, noagendachat.net.
	And in the morning to all of our artists.
	Thank you, comic strip blogger.
	For the episode art for 622.
	There were a number of good ones.
	Nick the Rat had a pretty good one.
	Was it Nick the Rat or Martin JJ? He threw everything in there.
	I think it was Nick, yeah.
	And he kind of threw everything in there.
	And I want to remind people that I have to shrink the art down by 50%.
	I'm having a problem with the album art in general now, again, trying to figure that out.
	It's not showing up on all players and all podcatchers.
	But when it does, it's going to be smaller, and also it's smaller in the show notes.
	We always have the big, large, blown-up version.
	But bear that in mind when you're putting little letters at your punchline.
	It's very hard to read often in all forms.
	So it really has to be pretty visual in order to see what you've got going on.
	And of course, artgenerator.com is where you can find all of our submissions.
	We use many of them for newsletters and other purposes, and we appreciate all the work our artists do.
	I think we've said many times that the show really does not do as well with shitty art.
	Fact.
	No, it's a fact.
	It's a fact.
	Well, the art is a big element, but the fact is not showing up on the iTunes thing is weird.
	It's partially...
	It's a long story.
	The system is deteriorating.
	I get grief from people that say, I love this app, it works perfectly, but no, it doesn't really.
	They added all these...
	They changed the way they do things.
	They used to take the album art out of the mp3 file itself, and now you have to put it into the channel itself.
	But in order for the feed to be valid, it also has to be hosted on the same URL. There's a lot of crap that comes into it.
	I don't want to bore you.
	And I'm trying to make it automated so I don't have to do this stuff by hand every single time.
	Because when I do it by hand, when you're editing an XML file by hand, let me tell you, after three hours of show, this is when mistakes come into play.
	And really dumb shit happens.
	And I don't want that.
	So I'd rather...
	I'm still figuring it all out.
	So we're working on that.
	Yeah, it'll eventually get fixed.
	Of course it'll get fixed.
	We have a lot of executive producers and associate executive producers to thank.
	Well, this is good news.
	Yeah, it is.
	Philip Fautenhauer, P-F-O-T-E-N-H-A-U-E-R, in Tampa, Florida, $1,450.33.
	Wow.
	He wanted to be an Insta Knight right to Baronet.
	So he's an Insta Baronet because he's already given us enough money to...
	He's an Aquanet.
	He received a promotion and figured it was time to donate.
	I would like to finish off my knighthood and toss in an instant knight to Baronet for good measure.
	Wow.
	Would like to know what John thinks of Glenn Fittich as an everyday Scotch.
	I prefer the 18.
	Special thanks to The Shill for helping me square away the accounting.
	Please give me a Huntsman, a D-Douche, and a Jobs Karma.
	Keep up the good work.
	He ringsize 11.
	I told him about the rings.
	Yeah, noagendanation.com slash rings.
	Well, thank you very much, our Instanet.
	Philip, this is fantastic.
	I'm sorry?
	Before you do the sequence, it's by Glen Fittich, which I like a lot myself.
	It's a very good Scotch, the 18.
	I think the 12 is acceptable.
	The 18.
	18-year-old most Scotch brands are all good.
	I got really hooked on that Santori stuff.
	What is it?
	Santori, yeah.
	The stuff they make in Japan.
	12-year Santori, doesn't matter what it is.
	I like all of it.
	Yeah, well, the 18s are all across the board outstanding, and the Glenfinish is particularly good.
	I was really blown away by it.
	I'm like, wow, I haven't tasted this.
	I'm just a simple bourbon guy.
	Jim Beam.
	Actually, I've decided...
	There's a number of good bourbons.
	We should talk about this sometime.
	Well, do it now.
	Well, I don't want to talk in too much detail, but I have to say, the 12, not the 12, but the Reserve Old Crow...
	Which is in a liter, and it's a black label, and it's cheap.
	It's like $13 a liter.
	Old Crow, you say?
	Old Crow Reserve.
	Which is not that easy to find, turns out.
	But Old Crow Reserve, straight up shots, it's absolutely bourbon.
	Does it get you hammered?
	Well, if you took enough shots, but one shot's not going to get anybody that's normal hammered.
	But it is absolutely bourbon-esque.
	A lot of people would argue about Old Crow versus other cheap bourbons, but it's 86 proof, which you shouldn't...
	80 proof bourbons are considered a violation of the bourbon law by bourbon experts.
	Oh, really?
	So you need to have at least 86 proof.
	The Council of Bourbon?
	Yeah, but this Old Crow Black Label Reserve, straight shots.
	Mickey's writing it down.
	I know she's writing it down.
	It's not a sipping bourbon.
	It's a shot bourbon.
	Shots, and not on rocks, nothing straight down.
	No, straight shot, then you can maybe have a glass of water or something afterwards.
	I'm really a barbarian.
	I do three cubes, some Jim Beam, and then sparkling water.
	I'm sure that's wrong in so many ways, I'm sure.
	Well, you know, it's not wrong necessarily, but it's not getting the full impact of the bourbon.
	Right.
	But I'm telling you, get a shot glass.
	Shot glass.
	Let me write this down.
	Shot glass, yes.
	Shot glass.
	Old Crow Reserve.
	Old Crow Reserve.
	Okay.
	And do I do this in my HEMA underwear, or can I wear anything I want?
	Anything you want.
	Just make sure you're pointing south.
	Yeah.
	You've been deduced.
	Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs.
	Let's vote for jobs!
	You've got karma.
	Oh, there you go.
	Another tip.
	Another tip.
	From the best podcast in the universe.
	Sir David, if you have a glass of water nearby, it actually even enhances the flavors.
	Sir David Foley, 623.
	He is so close.
	623.33 Los Gatos.
	He has no note.
	He sent a...
	I didn't find a note from him in my email either, so he's getting to the point where he...
	He's just like, I want to be Grand Duke.
	He's going to go to Grand Duke.
	I don't care what else happens.
	I don't know what to tell you.
	Good.
	Good on him.
	David Brneisen.
	I'm thinking that's how you pronounce his name.
	Anyway, he's a pseudonym.
	I'm sorry, he's going for the pseudonym.
	Oh, I should mention that Eric was on the road when he did this, and so you keep an eye out for birthdays.
	Okay, gotcha.
	Spoon collection.
	Stonation for 333, almost 300 shows late.
	I've decided I would match my money spent on marijuana or marijuana accessories with a donation of the same amount.
	Was this a stonation or what?
	It's not.
	It's not.
	It has to be the 420.33, right?
	Yeah, the best podcast in the universe I recommend with every drug of choice is alcohol, tobacco, painkillers.
	If people ever learn to donate to ad-free educational software, I will send even more.
	This is an interesting topic.
	Not just educational software.
	But, you know, I use...
	There's lots of open-source software that, in fact, the show runs on AudioRackSuite, and I'm preparing my whole...
	It's a whole multi-camera production to show everyone how this is now running.
	And these guys do open source.
	And I sent them, I don't know, a hundred bucks two years ago.
	And then they did another release and I sent another hundred bucks.
	People, you need to support your independent software developers.
	Unless you want to be stuck with just fucking apps that steal your stuff.
	Support your independent software developers.
	And if you're using a program and you're using it for a while and you like it, send them some money.
	Think about the value you're getting out of that program.
	You need to do this.
	Do you remember when there was shareware?
	Yeah, now it's all scamware.
	Here's what bothers me.
	So you're looking for some free editor or a free backup program or something that you can maybe support, as opposed to these horrible commercial products that you get with these hard drives when you buy them at Costco.
	These things don't even work.
	Those Costco guys, I'm telling you.
	It's the drive makers.
	They put this crappy backup software.
	Oh, you can back up.
	And it's like crappy backup software and you don't even get the full version.
	You have to pay money.
	It's just terrible and the stuff doesn't work very well.
	But nowadays, because the people aren't donating enough or the shareware business is not working well or the scammers themselves have ruined it, you go to a download site and it says, you know, Oh, no, I know.
	And it says, click the download button, and you get some.exe file.
	Yeah, just open that.
	That'll be fine.
	You get some other, or it says, or they have all these different, you know, try this, try that, try this, and, you know, or you go to it.
	The one that really bugs me, and I've written about this, is you want to get a copy of OpenOffice for a machine you're building, let's say.
	And so you go, and you make some mistake, and instead of going to OpenOffice.org...
	I just need to set this up for a second.
	So, we have to understand that you are now, at this point, you've got your green visor on.
	Hey, I'm building a machine.
	You've already got your motherboard in.
	Now I want to load some open office on this machine I'm building.
	Yeah.
	Go.
	And I'm going in there and I find that I get to some scam site.
	It says Download OpenOffice here.
	You click on it, and it starts, it says, and during the download process, and when you actually execute the file to install it, it says, would you like this product?
	Because this is good for you.
	Right, or it installs a toolbar or some other crap.
	It installs a toolbar and it installs some other crap, and you get a bunch of weird stuff contaminating your machine, and now your browser doesn't work right, and all of a sudden Twitter's got ads all over it.
	You know, it's unbelievable the crap that they try to scam you with.
	By the way, I want to mention something.
	If somebody's trying to trick you into using their product, these are not honest people.
	I would never give them money.
	Right.
	This is not typically how I come across software.
	I'm not searching that way.
	Right.
	Or I'll look at communities and look at things that are, you know, if you just go to Google, which I'm no longer using, although I have to say if you're searching for news stories, you still have to resort back to Google if you want something au courant.
	I'll look around, I'll talk to people, someone will give me a pointer, you know, GitHub and stuff like that.
	You gotta do a little work.
	I love that CNET. CNET has a download.com or whatever.
	That's one of the biggest scams.
	No, it's horrible.
	CNET download.com used to be one of the best places.
	No longer.
	No longer.
	Now they've got a bunch of, oh, try this, try that, and they have the big download button, which is not to download what you're looking for.
	That's what bothers me.
	Yeah, no, I hear you.
	But when you find something that is not a scam and it's useful and someone's making it, pay them!
	And don't go searching for codes.
	I hate that.
	Anyway, Spoon Collection 33333.
	HMFIC in Montpellier, Vermont.
	This is the head mofo in charge.
	He's back.
	Oh my gosh.
	This is our...
	He kicked off our coverage of Bo Diddley, which is a new name we're using.
	He's in...
	Following Sunday's show, it's been interesting to watch the Bo Bergdahl, Bo Diddley scandal blow up in the face of the administration.
	I'm extremely proud of the warfighter community.
	It's interesting that's a word.
	The warfighter community for not letting the facade of Bo, the returning hero, stand.
	In fact, the returning hero, I do have, did you get the Susan Rice clip?
	I have an entire theory on this.
	I do.
	I have one, too.
	But at least play the Susan Rice Club.
	It's short and sweet.
	This is that idiot, twerp Susan Rice.
	He served the United States with honor and distinction.
	And we'll have the opportunity eventually to learn what has transpired in the past years.
	But what's most important now is his health and well-being, that he have the opportunity to recover in peace and security and be reunited with his family.
	Yes.
	All right.
	You get to do that.
	And I did not make this montage.
	I have the original in the show notes.
	I forget where I got it from.
	So there's a little music track underneath it.
	Besides the honor and distinction meme...
	We had the sacred duty.
	President Obama on a global stage this morning defending a sacred mission to return U.S. prisoners of war.
	We don't leave people behind.
	It's a sacred duty to bring them back, etc.
	And there's a sacred bond with our men and women in uniform.
	That is a sacred obligation.
	The president pushed back by saying he has a sacred trust.
	I think he actually said it very well, what I just heard, which is a sacred principle.
	We still have a sacred obligation to bring that person back.
	We have a sacred obligation that we have upheld since the founding of our republic.
	I love the way they come up with this stuff and then they slip it into the mainstream consciousness.
	Sacred.
	Let's look at the definition of sacred, shall we?
	Yes, please.
	Alright, sacred.
	Adjective.
	Worthy of religious worship.
	Very holy.
	Relating to religion.
	Highly valued and important.
	Deserving great respect.
	I'm sure they mean that, clearly.
	Clearly, clearly.
	Dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity.
	So this sacred thing, man, that's...
	It's out of control.
	I have a theory.
	Let's talk about that after we get done with this.
	We'll move into that subject.
	The response was immediate, visceral, and deafening, says the sergeant.
	While I'm happy America is hearing the truth, I'm also deeply saddened as the media coverage of Bo did just what I predicted, bumped the VA scandal off the news radar, and some people have noticed this, but they haven't noticed it with much enthusiasm.
	As usual, thanks to the best podcast in the universe.
	The No Agenda Nation was ahead of the game, and the lamestream media was scrambling to catch up.
	I'm on the edge of my seat to hear your analysis and deconstruction of this saga on Thursday's show.
	That's today.
	I was so worked up when sending the note for Sunday's show, I forgot to ask for a de-douching and shot of karma.
	Yeah, and I'm quite frankly, I'm dismayed that we didn't think of it ourselves.
	We were probably all worked up about it.
	I didn't think he needed a dedouching.
	Well, he does now.
	Here comes his dedouching and a big-ass karma coming your way.
	You've been dedouched.
	You've got karma.
	And thank you to the head mofo in charge, HNFC, Hotel Mike, Fox Indriot, Charlie.
	Stanyezewicz.
	I'm going for Stanyezewicz.
	Stanyezewicz.
	Thomas, as it were, New Market, New Hampshire, $333.33.
	That was a check sent by the bank.
	So he went to his bank.
	And so there was no charge.
	No one took any money in the middle.
	No, we get the whole amount.
	The bank pays for the postage.
	And the next thing you know, you have a check, which we encourage.
	People go talk to your banker.
	You can set these things up.
	This may be a monthly for all I know.
	It's new, though.
	Salt River Studio, 31150 from Austin, Texas, up the street.
	Oh, I know who this is.
	I'm continuing to work toward a knighthood.
	I just made a donation of 31150.
	Adam, we're neighbors.
	I'm living in the Heights now, too.
	I know who this is.
	Watching your every move.
	This is the Jamaican in Austin.
	Yeah.
	And for the next few days, though, I'll be hanging out in Amsterdam.
	Is there anything I shouldn't miss?
	Anyone I should meet?
	Oh, send an email to mickey at curry.com, M-I-C-K-Y. And she'll be happy to hook you up.
	She is the mayor of the night.
	If you're in jail, that's when you reach out to me.
	I got people for that.
	If you want to get in trouble, you call Mickey.
	Jamaican in Amsterdam.
	Miss Mickey, if you're nasty.
	Sir Guy Boazi.
	Boazi.
	Boazi in Rehovet, Illinois, 246.
	He's in Israel.
	Illinois.
	It says Israel behind that.
	Yeah, I see that.
	It's PayPal.
	He's in Israel.
	He's our Israeli knight, sir.
	We have a number.
	We have a number.
	We have Sir Jono.
	Another donation I make to the best podcast in the universe, and thanks for the great service that provides me news analysis, entertainment, media assassination, now a small request as a Windows Phone user at a lousy podcast experience.
	As I updated to Windows Phone 8.1, it improved greatly, including the album art finally being shown.
	Go figure.
	Apple, who were the first to incorporate podcasting into their ecosphere, They broke it, and now Windows, it works.
	There you go.
	Anybody who had two weeks ago broke, can you check?
	My baronet title will never officially be given to me.
	He needs to be called baronet.
	I think he's a baronet, is he not?
	Yeah, he is, but he wants to, because we never acknowledged it.
	I will acknowledge that in our acknowledgement segment.
	Okay, here we go.
	Incognigro.
	Hey, he's back.
	In Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, $200.
	A shot of donor karma and the collective well-wishes of the Noagenda family are an unbearable combination.
	Unbeatable, not unbearable.
	Unbeatable.
	There's a Freudian slip for you.
	Good one.
	That is bad, yeah.
	Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.
	Uh-huh.
	Shout out a donor, come and click the well-wishers, no agenda family right now.
	Unparable.
	Nice working with you, John.
	Yeah, unbeatable combination.
	Back to work soon for this slave.
	Three months out, and never better, boys.
	That's amazing what those bipolar meds can do.
	Needless to say, just take your medicine, slave.
	Lord Dvorak, oh, you will obey.
	Dr.
	Kiki, shut up already.
	It's science.
	Okay, but he also wants medicine.
	Is that what he wants?
	No, we'll have it.
	There's no problem.
	Shut up already.
	Science. - I will obey.
	You will obey.
	You've got karma.
	Okay.
	Jackie Priester down there in Monterey, California, $200.
	And she sent in a check to the post office box 339.
	And a note, another card.
	It's a nice little card, a handwritten note.
	I'll read it.
	Nice.
	It curses?
	No.
	But very readable, high-end printing.
	Oh, nice.
	You know what I mean?
	Yeah, I know what you mean.
	I'm donating this money in the name of my mom, Diane Holst.
	I want to wish her a very happy 60th birthday on June 6th.
	We have to put that on the list.
	Oh, I think it is on the list, is it not?
	Let me check.
	I don't think so.
	Hold on.
	Hold on.
	Just give it to me again.
	Diane Holst.
	Diane Holst.
	60.
	And it's from...
	From Jackie Priester.
	Okay.
	I want to mention that I lost a birthday.
	When I was in Detroit, we got a bunch of handwritten notes and somebody scribbled on one of them.
	Give me a birthday call out on June 5th.
	Oh, good work.
	Which was weeks ago, of course.
	I want to remind people.
	Yeah, at LIFO. Yeah, everything's LIFO, but we spend a lot of time, and I don't want to excoriate anybody for thinking that we could do this, but we spend most of our time doing the show as opposed to bookkeeping, and we don't even do the bookkeeping.
	Eric does it.
	So these things, if you're going to have a birthday call, send us an email, and then with the...
	Subject line, birthday.
	Yeah.
	And you'll get your call out, but asking us to remember that on October 15th, you're going to have a birthday.
	No, that doesn't work.
	It doesn't work.
	It doesn't work.
	It would like it to work.
	So whoever the Michiganian was that has the birthday, we'll give them a call.
	John at Curry.com.
	She is making her voice be heard and running for Scott County Board of Supervisors in Iowa.
	Oh.
	The primary was June 3rd.
	Whether she got the votes or not, I couldn't be more proud of her and a team of friends and family she has supporting her, many of whom are NA fans.
	All right.
	Interesting.
	Listeners, check out DianeHolst.com.
	Amazing content.
	Although my mom and I are separated by miles, she is my best friend and we talk on the phone frequently, often laughing or hashing about no agenda.
	Oh.
	That's a conversation.
	That is a podcast in itself.
	I wouldn't mind hearing.
	I bet you would be.
	How about some karma for her and her three grand human resources on the way?
	A Hillary, what difference does it make for dad and a John's mac and cheese for me?
	You guys are amazing.
	Thank you for your courage.
	Wow, there's a lot there.
	Okay, so I will add in a little extra because she said it.
	So here we go.
	What difference at this point does it make?
	Mac and Cheese by Ayn Rand.
	You've got karma.
	And I had the Hillary clip!
	Yes, you did.
	That was a piece of production, pre-production, that actually worked.
	Oh, you did this in advance?
	You sent me a note.
	You said, we need the Hillary, what difference does it make?
	Yeah.
	And I went out and got it, and then we have it.
	Because every single time previously, I mean, oh, I don't have that one.
	People are asking for it, so we have to...
	We have to.
	We will obey.
	Anyway, that is our contribution list, or is it?
	Yes, Jackie is the last one I have on the list.
	And that is for show 623.
	I want to remind people we do have a show 624 coming up on Sunday.
	And devorek.org slash NA is the place to go to help us.
	Also, channeldivorek.com slash NA, noagendashow.com has a donate button, as does noagendanation.com.
	And I want to thank Chris, who created another forward.
	I guess these new top-level domains are coming in.
	Noagenda.club.
	Which I guess is something we could use.
	Hint, hint, wink, wink, nudge, nudge in the future, John.
	You never know if the club gets resurrected.
	Oh, yeah.
	Oh, you mean the club.
	The club, yes.
	Alright everybody, thank you very much to our executive and associate executive producers.
	These are actual credits.
	You can use them anywhere credits are valid.
	A lot of people seem to put them on their LinkedIn page.
	That gets you a lot of views.
	People do like them.
	What is this?
	And apparently sometimes it actually helps as a karma for getting jobs.
	So there you have that.
	And as John said, for the Sunday show 624, go to...
	Dvorak.org slash N-A And we always appreciate you going out there and doing some very important work and propagating our formula!
	Our formula is this.
	We go out, we hit people in the mouth.
	Water!
	Water!
	Shut up, slave!
	Shut up, slave!
	All right.
	Okay, so here we go, because I have a thought on this fiasco.
	But you have the clips.
	I have very few.
	I do have one funny clip.
	You know, I was listening to...
	What's the name of that lesbian on...
	Chris Hayes.
	Yes.
	The lesbian Chris Hayes.
	Chris Hayes actually brought something up that was interesting.
	He did have an old clip from Fox.
	Here's what's going to happen.
	Someone will tweet.
	People are now tweeting quotes from the No Agenda show.
	Have you noticed this?
	Yeah, I did.
	I'd be like, what's the name of that lesbian on MSNBC, Chris Hayes?
	No agenda show, Dvorak.
	You watch.
	Yeah, it's a stolen joke.
	It's funny.
	I like it.
	But Chris Hayes, I realized something.
	I never thought about it.
	The name of his show is about what it is.
	All In.
	Oh yeah, I know.
	So he's All In with the Obama administration.
	So he brought on This is the clip Chris Hayes.
	We should probably play it.
	Seems like a long clip you got here.
	It's a little long because what it is is that this is the apologist clip.
	And our staff sergeant will be amused by this.
	This is what they did to assuage the whole thing.
	And this is pre-sacred.
	This is the pre-sacred.
	Pre-the-sacred?
	Oh, really?
	Right away.
	This is right after it all began.
	This was the first putting out the fire...
	A clip I could find.
	If you need to rely on the vast audience of MSNBC to put out the fire...
	Well, it didn't work.
	No.
	But what they did...
	What I think why this clip is good is besides the intro, which shows a clip from 2009 where somebody came out and bitched about this guy being a deserter back then.
	And that, by the way, which he doesn't mention, is that's the point where the non-disclosures were distributed to tell people to stop talking about this.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Yeah.
	But then Chris Hayes is all in, all in with whatever the industry.
	And so he brings in the Pentagon spokeshole.
	Some guy.
	Yeah, why not?
	And he never asks him, he never does a follow-up question.
	He just, he obviously had a script in front of him.
	You can listen to the script.
	If you get sick of this, you can kill it.
	But it's a script.
	It's a very scripted interview, all saying everything's fine, don't worry about it, don't look over there.
	And here we go.
	This isn't new.
	On Fox News in 2009, not long after Bergdahl was captured, retired Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters called the soldier a liar and suggested the Taliban would be doing the U.S. a favor by killing him.
	If he walked away from his post and his buddies in wartime, I don't care how hard it sounds.
	As far as I'm concerned, the Taliban can save us a lot of legal hassles and legal bills.
	Joining me now, Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby.
	And Admiral, let me begin by asking why now?
	I know negotiations have been ongoing for quite some time on this matter.
	What was the breakthrough that allowed Bo Bergdahl to come home?
	Well, I think the way I put this, Chris, was there was a lot of effort, a lot of effort over years and certainly recent months and weeks.
	But the real impetus to move as quickly as we did here was concerns that we had over Sergeant Bergdahl's health and his safety.
	So we knew that there was a brief window coming, and we took advantage of this as quickly as possible.
	Largely, the speed and the urgency with which we moved was a lot driven by his well-being.
	Can you be any more specific about his health?
	Yeah, so you're right.
	This was all about his health, his health, his health, his health.
	But it morphed.
	And I'm sick of this.
	Can I move on?
	Yeah, let me just summarize a couple of things he brought up.
	up, he asked him about the desertion claim.
	You should probably kill it after the desertion.
	- All right, let's listen.
	- You mentioned numerous times, any sense of what kind of health challenges you were concerned about?
	- Yeah, I'm really not able to, because he is an active duty living soldier.
	He has privacy rights that we just can't violate.
	But I would tell you that through a series of indications, we became increasingly concerned about his well-being and, of course, his safety in general.
	That we weren't always concerned about is safety and captivity, but in particular as things got to just recent weeks here.
	And without going into much more detail there in terms of the indications and intelligence, I can tell you that we had very good reason to be so concerned, and that really is what drove the speed with which we moved.
	There's been two lines of criticism in reaction to the announcement.
	The first has to do with the negotiation itself.
	There are politicians and others saying that the administration has negotiated with terrorists.
	It has violated some important American precedent.
	Stop, stop.
	This is actually worth listening to because it seems to me that if you follow the logic, you have to listen to this clip because I didn't think this was going to be their excuse, but Oh, anyway, just keep playing it.
	I mean, this is the most stupid thing I've ever heard, and Chris Hayes says nothing about it.
	What's your response to that?
	There was no negotiations with terrorists in this case.
	Oh, yeah.
	Because they talked to the Qataris, right?
	Our friends.
	It was all...
	All the discussions were done.
	What kind of logic is this?
	I got a lot of pushback from many people on this.
	We didn't negotiate with terrorists.
	So in other words, we had zero to do with this whole thing.
	In other words, if I am working on a divorce settlement and I'm working through my lawyer, I'm not negotiating with a terrorist?
	Of course you are.
	Your ex-wife is by definition a terrorist.
	The whole thing is ludicrous.
	It's like I'm using the phone.
	I didn't actually talk to these people.
	Did you talk to that man?
	No, I didn't.
	The government of Qatar, we're greatly appreciative for that.
	But there was no direct talks with the Taliban, no direct talks with the Ghani network.
	This was an arrangement, a transfer.
	Alright, I'm sick of this.
	I'm sick of this.
	Alright, let me move on.
	Because this went to the sacred duty.
	That was the script.
	I don't know where that meme comes from or how that just goes.
	Everyone was using it.
	Sacred duty, sacred missions.
	It's all sacred, sacred.
	Okay, sacred.
	Now we know that according to the news reports, and this could all be one elaborate statement, I mean, maybe there's something still to come, and we just haven't seen it yet.
	But it appeared that the administration was caught off guard, and here is Chuck Todd on the Today Show.
	I truly think this was just going to be a celebratory moment, the release of Sergeant Bergdahl.
	Did they not see any of this backlash coming?
	Were they caught flat-footed?
	They were caught flat-footed.
	Every aide I've talked to said they expected there to be controversy involving the decision to release five members of the Taliban from Gitmo.
	And the fact that this would then escalate that debate, which of course has been simmering for a good five years, which is what to do with those detainees.
	How do you release them?
	Where do you release them?
	They did not expect this backlash on Bergdahl himself.
	I've had a few aides describe it to me as, we didn't know that they were going to swift-boat Bergdahl.
	And Matt, of course, that's a reference Right.
	So whether this is true or not, that is the meme that is being put out there.
	The White House was not expecting this backlash.
	Now, Susan Rice, the twerp as you call her, she went out and she went on a number of shows.
	She was on Candy Crowley's show, but I like Candy.
	I think she's she she somehow she gets to ask some real questions.
	And I had noticed that CNN is changing somewhat.
	And here's where she comes with the meme that I think plays into my my theory, which I'll get to when you were having these discussions amongst yourselves.
	Did you worry that this deal would encourage other terrorist organizations like the Connie Network to seize Americans?
	be they military or civilian Americans, in order to get more folks released from Guantanamo Bay.
	No, Candy.
	The fact of the matter is, Sergeant Bergdahl is the last of the Americans that have been held in Afghanistan.
	And we felt that as the war is winding down, it was our sacred obligation, given the opportunity to get him back, that we do so.
	And we did so in a way that has brought him back safely into American hands.
	We did so in a way that resulted in the Taliban prisoners being...
	Okay, so what you heard there is the war is winding down.
	He's our last man out there.
	And this, I think, is what the idea was.
	Here's Rice on Stephanopoulos on ABC. We already heard her do the honor and distinction clip, which you had.
	Here she is again about, I think, prisoner of war.
	Well, George, this is a very special situation.
	Sergeant Bergdahl wasn't simply a hostage.
	He was an American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield.
	Oh, she's really trying to propagate something which we now know is factually, and there may even be some video evidence, not true.
	We have a sacred obligation that we have upheld since the founding of our republic to do our utmost to bring back our men and women.
	Huh?
	Since the founding of the republic...
	...who were taken in battle.
	And we did that in this instance.
	If for some reason we took a position now in the 21st century when some of our adversaries may not be traditional state actors, that we would not do our utmost to bring our prisoners of war home, that would break faith with the American people and with the men and women who serve in uniform.
	So here we have...
	Remember, the president went to Afghanistan on Memorial Day, And he stood there with the troops and everything, and we're winding down the war.
	And he comes back, and then, you know, oh, we've got our last man.
	The war's winding down.
	Last man.
	We're bringing him home.
	Let's begin with how Bo Bergdahl is doing right now.
	We know he's landed in Germany.
	What more can you tell us about how he's doing his health?
	Well, George, first of all, this is a joyous day.
	A joyous day.
	The fact that he is now safely in American hands.
	It's a joyous day.
	He's safely home now.
	Let's get it straight from the horse's mouth.
	The guy who resigned over this, but he still has to do a couple of quick hits.
	Here's Anderson Pooper with Jay Carney, the last man standing theory.
	You do not have the luxury in a situation like this of opening a window and hoping that in 30 days it's still going to be open.
	This was touch and go and has been touch and go for years.
	And when you have the opportunity to execute this recovery of the last uniformed member of the military, Last man standing!
	Now, I was already in that this was their idea, this was their plan, but then when you get Chip Gregory coming on and defending it as last man standing, then you know that's the plan.
	The question that I have that I think is a question for this debate for today and moving forward is whether the circumstances matter or whether the United States or any commander-in-chief will always be committed to To rescuing a soldier from the battlefield, no matter the circumstances.
	So the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Martin Dempsey, said, look, this is an American citizen who's a soldier, who's presumed innocent in this circumstance.
	He was held prisoner.
	This war is coming to an end.
	That's not what he said, but I'm saying this is the truth.
	The war is coming to an end.
	There was an opportunity here to get that soldier off the battlefield.
	And that's just a So we could have the big homecoming parade, which is just now today, has been cancelled.
	Here's what I think, John.
	And I'm going to presume that these guys in the White House aren't all that smart.
	There's hubris.
	They think all that, that they're that and a bag of chips.
	I believe that the military is no fan of the Obama administration.
	We know this.
	There's a lot of pruning and people have been getting kicked out and all kinds of crap is going on.
	I believe...
	That someone laid out the strategy, hey, I got a great idea.
	Valerie, probably to Valerie Jarrett, this has her ickiness all over it.
	Yeah, I know it does.
	I agree with that.
	It's like, hey, Valerie, he'll go to Afghanistan, stand there with the troops, Memorial Day, he'll come home, and then we bring home the last uniformed soldier!
	Everyone will love him!
	Mission accomplished!
	Parade!
	Beautiful!
	And they fell for it.
	I think this was a set-up.
	I think someone set the Obama administration up, and the media, that's all the media is talking about.
	So, this feels like a setup, hubris, idiocy, and I think people are just chuckling, but...
	I think that element exists.
	But I have another thesis that I'd like to present.
	Sure.
	And I believe that it fits in with your thesis.
	Maybe take some assumption that the CIA has a hand in this by maybe suggesting the idea to Valerie.
	Oh, and by the way, didn't the CIA guy get outed when the president went to Afghanistan?
	No.
	This is all before Bo Diddley.
	Yeah.
	Were you going to out our guy?
	Oh, you know what?
	You should go rescue this guy.
	But the CIA is practical, too.
	They just don't do gags.
	True.
	So my thinking is that if you ever watch, there's a good dramatic, you see it in movies and you see it in TV shows, the idea where a murderer goes out and kills ten people to cover up a hit.
	Right.
	In other words, one person was actually targeted and they obfuscated by...
	Yes, we've discussed this on the show previously as a theory.
	And I'm thinking, because the CIA knows it's going to be, because the Afghanistan thing is winding down, this is not untrue, and they're going to try to get everybody out of there within the next couple years.
	Somebody's got to run the drugs for the CIA, because this is like a big money-making operation in Afghanistan.
	That's what a lot of soldiers are guarding poppies, right?
	Yep.
	Well, one guy of these five, and there were 15 initially, and they picked it down to five, carefully chose five.
	One guy was...
	Was the poppy guy?
	Was the big poppy guy.
	Oh, wow!
	Great find!
	Only in the news for the first day.
	Which guy was it?
	It's this guy.
	Are you holding up a picture to the microphone?
	No, I'm going to try to read his name.
	Taliban poppy guy.
	It's Karula Saeed Wali Karakwa.
	The one that's got Saeed in it.
	S-A-I-D. That guy.
	That funny looking guy.
	Bald guy with the big beard.
	The meanest looking of the three.
	Of the five, I mean.
	That guy.
	Hold on.
	Taliban Saeed.
	Okay.
	I just want to see if I can find him.
	I want to see what he looks like.
	And a secret defense department memo that was published by the telegraph, because you can still find this reference.
	The tainty was identified as a narcotics trafficker and probably used his position and influence to become one of the major opium drug lords in Western Afghanistan.
	Datingy probably used profits from drugs to promote Taliban.
	So that's our guy.
	Yeah, this is the guy.
	He was the governor of Herat and a military commander, but he was also the big drug guy.
	I believe that they did a deal with him.
	Very good.
	And he's going to take over the drug business.
	He'll stay in Qatar.
	He doesn't care.
	And then he'll go right in.
	And right now, I'm sure his people are setting up shops so they can run the place.
	And he's going back.
	The other guys are all inconsequential, all four of them.
	And this guy here is a big deal.
	This is a great find.
	I congratulate you.
	Thank you.
	Hold on, let me just...
	Hey, baby!
	So what we'll probably see in the next, uh...
	John, hold on, just one second.
	Just enjoy that for a moment.
	That is fucking great.
	I mean, I completely bogued on looking at these guys.
	Good work.
	Alright, so that makes total sense.
	Yeah.
	Now, I had another, just a brain fart about this.
	Do you think that maybe, this was ongoing, that maybe they would have used a couple of these Talibani guys to trade for Ambassador Chris Stevens?
	Maybe.
	It's always a possibility that all that deal went south.
	Could have been, right?
	It wouldn't have surprised me.
	But I think the botch was, I think it was a double screw job because the CIA gets their guy in there to run the drug business when they're ousted.
	There's some people in there to watch over, but then they also get to embarrass Obama.
	Is this a great day or what?
	The drugs keep coming.
	Every soldier in the country is bent out of shape over this.
	No kidding, man.
	What is this?
	HMFIC sent this to me.
	Let me read this article to you.
	An Obama administration official on Wednesday suggested members of Army Sergeant Bo Bergdahl's platoon who have criticized him for allegedly deserting his unit might be psychopaths.
	There you go.
	So Brandon Friedman...
	Oh, this was...
	I heard this.
	Deputy Assistant Secretary of Public Affairs at the Department of Housing and Urban Development tweets...
	What's he got to do with anything?
	I'm not quite sure.
	Housing and Urban Development.
	He says, what if his platoon was long on psychopaths and short on leadership?
	By the way, he had the platoon leader on.
	I had to listen to this guy.
	He was on Hannity's radio show.
	Oh, no.
	And he went on and on about how everybody knows this is going on.
	And the guy seemed like anything but a psychopath.
	Of course not.
	That said...
	Bo Diddley may have been the psychopath.
	At least I thought...
	I watched O'Reilly grill some guy.
	And of all the people that asked an obvious question, I just thought this was a gem because, well, it's always possible.
	This is O'Reilly's...
	Bill O'Reilly asking about this.
	So if you're a U.S. soldier and then you slip under the wire with water, food, and a knife, not even a gun...
	And a compass.
	You've got to be insane, right?
	Maybe this guy's crazy...
	It's very possible there's a lot of problems with Sergeant Bergdahl.
	Yeah, that's very possible.
	I give O'Reilly credit for asking that question.
	From what I understand, there's video of him walking off the base.
	They have security cameras everywhere.
	Apparently there's video of him just walking away.
	Well, they had a secret hearing, a confidential hearing from the Defense Department with many of the U.S. Senators went to it.
	And they all came out of it to a barrage.
	This was on C-SPAN. A barrage of reporters asking them each, you know, what would they talk about?
	And everybody comes out and says, they didn't really talk about anything.
	They showed a film of him.
	A guy looked drugged.
	Right, right.
	This is a long clip you can cut off.
	You can just get a gist of it by playing the Saxby after secret meeting clip where they're grilling this senator.
	He's obviously being reviewed from a medical situation.
	And as to his medical condition, that's going to continue for a period of time.
	You can imagine somebody who's been in incarceration for five years.
	He has the potential to have health issues.
	We were told that there is no intelligence that indicated that, from a medical standpoint, his life was in danger.
	So he is being analyzed from that standpoint, and there will be further reporting coming out of the Pentagon as that develops.
	What is your sense of that?
	No, you nailed it.
	I'm done with this.
	You've nailed it.
	This makes so much sense.
	It is a twofer.
	They had the kind of cute, kind of milfy mom, the kind of wacky, hippie dad, and they were right there with the president when he announced it.
	Yo!
	Nothing is by accident with these people.
	So it was set up.
	They had the big homecoming parade.
	Everything was good to go.
	And I think you're spot on.
	And we gotta spring this guy so we can keep the drugs flowing.
	The poppy's gotta keep coming.
	This is it.
	We're done.
	Yeah, I think so.
	Except for...
	Our band camp girl.
	We have to play two clips from Marie Harf, who they threw to the...
	So when these things happen...
	Yeah, they threw to the wolves.
	Oh yeah, like, let her do it!
	Screw it!
	Send Harf out there to defend this crap!
	I'm not gonna do it!
	Does the State Department consider such a bird doll to be a deserter?
	The State Department?
	No, Lucas.
	Look, what we've said is we are going to learn the facts about what happened here.
	We said very clearly in a statement from the Secretary on Saturday that Sergeant Bergdahl was a member of the United States military who volunteered to serve his country.
	We don't know the facts about what happened yet on that day.
	According to those randoms, but two mates, a squad mates, a couple mates, they said he walked off.
	Some of them, there are other, there are conflicting reports out there about this.
	Are there?
	There are.
	Go Google it on the web and you'll find a ton of.
	Fuck, Google it on the web quickly.
	In this one time at band camp, I stuck a flute in my pussy.
	The fact is we're still establishing a fact pattern about what happened.
	And the fact is the fact, you know, when I was watching this, I'll admit to you right now, I Googled Marie Harf naked.
	I really did.
	Of course, there's nothing.
	You're sick.
	I'm like, I hope there's some shot of her naked.
	Photoshop.
	You can Photoshop her head on anybody.
	But there was not even a good Photoshop of her naked.
	Because they had that close-up and she gets all flustered.
	It has a crush on her.
	I have a crush on her.
	I want to just flick that hair back and whip off the nerd glasses.
	how he ended up in Taliban captivity.
	So when he is able to share those, as Chairman Dempsey said today, he will.
	He also said, like any American, he is innocent until proven guilty.
	Our army's leaders will not look away from misconduct if it occurred.
	In the meantime, we will continue to care for him and his family.
	So I think people need to be really careful about believing every second or third hand report out there.
	And also what the president, what the secretary, what Chairman Dempsey have said, regardless of how he went missing, it is our responsibility to him to bring him home.
	Period.
	When you say second, third hand reports, when his squad mates...
	This guy is not letting up.
	It was like raw meat and wolves.
	And none of this makes it on the air anywhere except for C-SPAN, which is where we get it from.
	Lucas, I'm sure some of them...
	I mean, look, there's a lot of rumor and telephone game that's being played here about what happened.
	The guys on national television last night, his squad mates, the two mates were...
	Wait for it.
	I'm saying we don't know the fact pattern yet here.
	Fact pattern is a new one.
	The fact pattern.
	I'm flying in flack pattern.
	Nobody knows exactly what happened that night.
	As the facts emerge, as he's able to discuss them with the Department of Defense, we will see where that takes us.
	It happened five years ago.
	She's had all this time, five years, to determine whether he was a deserter or not.
	That's a long time.
	He's been in captivity, Lucas.
	I think he's probably the person who knows best what happened on that.
	Well, I think his squad mates have the best indication what happened on that.
	I don't think that that's the case.
	They don't know.
	There's his squad mates.
	They don't know anything.
	They don't know nothing.
	And so now, just one more short clip from her.
	It's just so funny.
	Hold on, I'm just imagining her naked again.
	Okay, here we go.
	Obviously we're not going to get into the specifics of the agreement, but this is an agreement between the head of the government of Qatar and the President of the United States.
	I love this.
	So whatever you do, this was high level, baby.
	Just tell them what was high level.
	Hey, this was between our commander and effing chief, yeah?
	The President of the United States?
	You don't question him!
	Who are you, press boy?
	A very high-level agreement.
	High-level agreement?
	Very high level.
	About working to mitigate the notion that these five guys will be able to return to the battlefield.
	Five guys.
	Some of the detainees that have left to go to their, to be expatriated to third countries or to go to their home countries have been put under some kind of house arrest.
	So here's the press just trying to figure out what the deal is, right?
	Yeah, nobody really knows.
	That's a high level deal.
	Shut up, you're not allowed another deal.
	Perfect.
	We're not going to get into the specifics.
	Are they able to roam three throughout Qatar?
	We're not going to get into the specifics of what the agreement with Qatar looks like.
	Why?
	Yeah, because it's about the drug.
	I don't know.
	Anyway, the government of Qatar has been very clear, again, to the highest levels of this government.
	Highest levels?
	You don't question the highest levels of this government?
	That there are going to be severe restrictions in place on them.
	I'm not going to outline what those are.
	I'm just curious, and if you can't answer this, maybe you can take the question.
	Why wouldn't the State Department or the Obama administration be public about the terms of the agreement with the Qataris?
	Good question!
	Thank you very much.
	There are good journalists with good questions.
	It never makes it into the front page or on air for some reason.
	Obviously involved very sensitive diplomatic negotiations.
	Oh, very sensitive.
	Here, involving the government of Qatar, who was the one negotiating with the Taliban, and getting to a place in a very short time window, as I've said, as General Dempsey said, the last best opportunity to save his life, where we could get an agreement here.
	So there are reasons not to put out all of that, I think for probably very good reasons.
	Probably.
	Maybe.
	I don't know.
	It's the highest level.
	Probably.
	You know, as more details are able to be shared, we will.
	But surely if everything was on the up and up, the Qataris wouldn't care for the details.
	That's not a fair assumption to make.
	We don't talk about that.
	That's not fair.
	No, that's not fair.
	It's not fair.
	And this, by the way, plays completely into your theory, John.
	Because the deal is, hey, those four guys, fuck them.
	That one guy, let him go.
	The details of many detainees we send back to third countries for a variety of reasons.
	But these aren't as high-profile cases as this one was.
	Again, we feel assured by the agreement we've put in place.
	Poor Marie.
	I bet she popped a valiant right after that one.
	Or before.
	Or during.
	Holy moly.
	That's rough.
	That was terrible.
	That was mean to her.
	That was just mean.
	She deserves it.
	She could have dealt with it much better.
	She could have said...
	We don't have all the facts right now.
	As soon as I get them, I'll come back.
	We'll have another briefing, and then you can ask the other girl.
	I mean, she could have begged off.
	Ask the other girl.
	I like that.
	You know, she made a mistake by trying to take this on.
	Could you just ask the other girl, please?
	She's dumb.
	Please ask the other girl.
	I don't want to...
	I can't do it.
	Oh, man.
	There's a couple of memes that came out of this I thought were interesting.
	One of them, and this is only just bubbled up, and by law, to do this deal, Obama had to ask Congress he didn't do it.
	Right, they're making a big stink about this.
	Well, some people are.
	And what law?
	Is that the NDAA law?
	I have no idea.
	I think it is.
	I think it's a part of the defense authorization.
	Whatever the case is, Obama's been pulling this stuff, this slight little maneuvers here and there, even though nobody's really making a big deal about that.
	Well, again, he thought...
	He's screwing up, so let's let him go.
	Well, they thought it was going to be slam dunk, big celebration, mission accomplished, war is over, that we're playing John Lennon, you know.
	Yeah, well, they didn't get that.
	War is over.
	So there's an impeach meme going around.
	I put it here and there.
	I heard Judge Jeanine, that woman on the weekends, bring it up.
	She brings it up a lot.
	And then when Marco Rubio came out of the Senate hearing, unfortunately, I have the clip of it, but you can't quite hear it.
	But this woman sticks the mic in front of him and says, is what Obama did an impeachable offense?
	And Rubio, if you listen hard, you can hear it, but you can hear Rubio's answer.
	Rubio kind of weasels his way out of it by refusing, pretty much refusing to discuss it.
	Well, I'm not talking about that, right?
	I mean, that's not something I've called for.
	Quite frankly, we're not at that level at this point.
	I think right now the most immediate concern that we have with regards to this is what danger does this now pose to other American men and women in uniform around the world?
	Yeah, you know, I don't see the point of impeachment.
	Why go through it?
	Why spend all this time?
	Who cares?
	I think, whatever.
	You always want to impeach these guys near the end.
	It's somehow saying impeachment gets people all riled up and stuff, but it's useless.
	Didn't we impeach Clinton?
	Yeah, we did.
	No one even remembers that.
	All they remember is what he did.
	It doesn't matter.
	I think it's completely pointless.
	All these people are douches.
	The whole system is douchified.
	It's pretty douchey.
	Yeah, it's very douchey.
	Hey, Syria had an election.
	Yes, I understand that there was a landslide.
	Yes, Bashar al-Assad was re-elected.
	And I did want to point out that we have many listeners all over the universe, and several in Syria.
	And one of our producers there, his...
	Hold on a second, I have it here.
	If you go to syriavote.noagendanotes.com, syriavote, one word, you'll see this is our producer Sub7Zero, and he sent in a couple pictures from the news.
	Noagenda what?
	So it's syriavote.noagendanotes.com.
	And you'll see celebrations, Damascus, fireworks, people on the street, everybody happy.
	There's also a little video down there at the bottom, just a link to the video, of Syrians in America celebrating.
	And the way I understand it from our producer is the Syrians are very happy he was re-elected.
	That's from our guys.
	From our guys, yeah.
	From our guy in Syria.
	They had a lot of...
	Nice fireworks.
	Yeah, nice fireworks, a lot of people running around.
	And just so you know, and this is what I was kind of looking for, there were international observers at the election.
	You won't be told this.
	Let me tell you who was in Syria for the first multi-candidate presidential election.
	Observers were Eva Bartlett from North America.
	Joseph Lussbaker from Chicago.
	He's with the Anti-War Committee.
	The United National Anti-War Coalition.
	Judith Bellow from the Administrative Committee of United National Anti-War Coalition.
	Elias Hazaneth, Palestinian-Canadian entrepreneur and activist.
	Scott Williams, International Action Center, National Coordinator of the Anti-Imperialist Youth Organization from the U.S., from Fight Imperialism Stand Together.
	Dr.
	Paul LaRudy, former Fulbright-Hayes lecturer.
	The list goes on and on and on.
	A lot of international observers.
	But you will not hear this from anybody.
	And the way I read it, if I'm just listening to what our producers say, and could this be some kind of, you know, co-intel being put on us?
	Yeah, maybe.
	But I think the Syrians see it for what it is, that it's obviously the United States and probably Israel and Turkey, Who have been messing around, training Al-Qaeda, sending them in, trying to mess it all up for this damn pipeline deal.
	And they won.
	And they're kicking them out.
	And they like Assad.
	Otherwise they wouldn't have voted for him in this number.
	And I'm just going to say I kind of have to believe that this was a reasonably fair election.
	As fair as ours are.
	Hanging chads.
	Well, as fair as ours are, we have a situation here in San Francisco where I think the guy got 70% of the vote.
	I think his name is Jack Lew.
	He's in jail.
	Yeah, there you go.
	He got more votes than everybody else running for one of these offices.
	He's a corrupt guy.
	He's been found out and all the rest of it.
	He's still got all his votes, which makes some people think that these elections are just...
	that they've got access to the computer data or something and they're back-ending these things and whatever's programmed is what the results are.
	There's a real problem with some of these.
	This is the electronic voting.
	In Syria, they dip your finger in ink.
	We should go back to that here.
	We need to.
	I'm way against computer voting.
	I think that's very dangerous.
	I've never liked the idea.
	I mean, anyone who thinks, oh, it's going to be so much easier, we can vote on the internet.
	Oh, please.
	And sometimes I'll hear, like, where are these polling stations and some guy's backyard in his garage?
	Let me tell you, in New Jersey, my polling station was in some guy's garage.
	This is not abnormal.
	Somehow we make this No, most of the time it was always, it tended to be, especially in the Bay, or I think everywhere, it would be in a guy's garage.
	Yeah.
	And people would go there, you'd probably trust the guy that's running, the guy's in the house there.
	I mean, it's not going to be, it's harder to corrupt that than it is a machine.
	Anyway.
	Um, I, hold on, category.
	The drone again.
	Just to switch gears, Dick Clark, Richard Clark with an E, was on Democracy Now, and I rarely watch the show.
	That's kind of your beat, if you will.
	Did you see this particular episode with Richard Clark?
	I missed it.
	I was too busy watching hearings.
	He has, well, of course, Richard Clark, now, he has a consultancy, right?
	I'm sure he's, isn't he a consultant?
	Oh, yeah, yeah.
	He has an all for cyber.
	Yeah.
	Well, he has just written a book, and it is called The Sting of the Drone.
	And he was on Democracy Now!
	for an hour, an hour, promoting this book.
	How can Democracy Now!
	not see through this guy?
	Because they're all in.
	Come on.
	They're all in.
	And he said something, and I just went...
	And they said I was crazy.
	You also talk, Richard Clarke, about the drone disintegrating.
	Are you talking about real technology here?
	How these drones, I mean, you yourself, were the one that suggested arming drones, arming surveillance drones.
	But is this real, a drone disintegrating so that no one could detect it after the attack?
	It's not a program that I know about.
	It may be a program that exists, but certainly not one that I know about.
	Which means he knows about it, obviously.
	There are several things in the novel where I am stretching the existing technology to where I think it's going, so that we can see in the near future what kind of things we might be faced with.
	And clearly one of them is if you want to do a drone attack that leaves no trace.
	That looks like a gas explosion.
	That looks like a car bomb.
	Could you do that?
	The problem today is if you use a drone attack there's going to be fragments of the missile.
	Well, what if the missile were designed to totally disintegrate and disappear so there would be no fingerprints?
	And would look like, I don't know, like a gas explosion, like a house exploded out of gas, which even the guys from Mythbusters couldn't make happen.
	Michael Hastings into it while you're at it.
	Yep.
	Well, the technology does exist, and I think it could be used, and probably is being used, in the U.S. Marshals that are on airplanes.
	They are armed, and you know you can't shoot a bullet through a...
	Through an airplane.
	It can be annoying.
	They use these special bullets that are called fractal.
	They fracture.
	Aren't they just rubber bullets?
	No, no.
	They use bullets, but when they hit something, they essentially dissolve.
	I'll get a link to these types of bullets, but they exist specifically for uses, so you could actually kill somebody in an airplane with this bullet, but it would not, as soon as it gets into the guy, it's just a bunch of pieces.
	I think it's controlled fracturing bullets, is that what they're called?
	It could be.
	You can look it up, it's on Google.
	Google it on the web, bitch!
	And a lot of criminals have decided that these are good bullets, because you can use them in crimes, and the bullet, there's nothing left, the bullet's gone.
	So you can't look at the bullet and say, oh, it came from this guy's gun.
	Now, I don't see why this same material, which is a composite of some sort, which upon impact does strange things, can't be used for a missile.
	That would be used for just exactly what he described.
	Maybe he's telling us something that we should be knowing or pay some attention to.
	He always has a reason for saying something.
	This guy, he's a piece of work.
	I just thought it was interesting to specifically call out my theory of the exploding houses that blow up into smithereens, which Mythbusters has not even been able to replicate.
	No, Mythbusters, which, you know, I don't think they're 100% on the money on everything, but they have not been able to do that, and this always seems sketchy to me.
	You need a perfect oxygen-gas combination to get a good explosion.
	And the kind of explosion you have is still limited by the amount of hydrocarbons that are within the explosive material.
	In other words, if you don't...
	I mean, you can have an explosion, but it's not going to be an atom bomb.
	No.
	And some of these things blow up like it's ridiculous.
	I mean, it doesn't seem right.
	And, of course...
	You know, when we talk about these things, obviously, it all falls under the crazy conspiracy theories.
	Crazy conspiracy theories!
	And wouldn't you know it, NPR... It has a whole piece running this week about conspiracy theories.
	I think we should listen to this.
	And our social science correspondent Shankar Vedantam often drops by with Juicy New Research.
	He's here with us again.
	Juicy New Research.
	Juicy New Research.
	He's a scientist with Juicy New Research.
	What's on your mind?
	I want to talk about conspiracy theories today, David.
	And by the way, if you have a British voice or Scottish, then it sounds so much more authentic.
	And you can say words like canard and farce.
	And this is everything from whether the U.S. government was secretly behind the 9-11 attacks to whether President Obama was actually born in the United States.
	No.
	What proportion of the U.S. population would you say subscribes to one of these theories?
	Oh, John?
	I don't know.
	I have no idea.
	Half, at least.
	Wow, you're good.
	10-15% maybe?
	I don't know.
	Yeah, I would have guessed at most 20%.
	And that's why this new research by Eric Oliver and Thomas Wood at the University of Chicago took me aback.
	They find that 50% of the country subscribes to at least one of these conspiracy theories.
	You're good, John.
	It's what keeps the show going.
	But consider that our national treasure, and this is, they marginalize everyone to such a degree, they're like, no, just morons, 18%, maybe 10%.
	Oh yeah, the marketing department must go nuts when they get real numbers.
	Oh yeah, of course, they're like...
	How about those no agenda guys?
	Can we get them on?
	We'll just bleep out the curse words.
	So 19% of Americans believe the U.S. government was behind the 9-11 attacks.
	25% believe the recent financial crisis was caused by, you know, the small cabal of Wall Street bankers.
	11% of people believe the government is mandating a switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs because the light bulbs make people obedient and easy to control.
	Ha ha!
	Now, I hadn't heard that one, but I'm in.
	I'm in, but it only works if the water's also fluoridated.
	You have to have that combo.
	Oh, wow.
	I wonder if it's worth reminding people exactly what a conspiracy theory is.
	That's how I think about it.
	Now, this is interesting.
	So, what is a conspiracy theory?
	That's a good question.
	Well, so the word conspiracy, conspire, stems from breathe together.
	Which means that the conspiracy theory, in general, the way it's applied, is that I, as a conspiracy theorist, would theorize that there are people conspiring, breathing together to do something on some level.
	That is the definition of conspiracy theory.
	But they're going to take this into a whole new level, these scientists.
	A conspiracy theory is where you believe in a theory where no matter how much disconfirming evidence comes in, you somehow convert that disconfirming evidence into part of the conspiracy.
	Now, I'm just going to have to call big time...
	Bullshit!
	That is not what a conspiracy theory is!
	This is a scientist.
	This is about global warming.
	So with Barack Obama's birth certificate, for example, the moment the birth certificate came up from Hawaii, the people who believe that Barack Obama was not born in the United States would say the Hawaiian hospital now is in on the conspiracy as well.
	Conspiracy theories have been around for a while.
	I mean, there are questions about whether Pearl Harbor was a way to get the United States into World War II. I mean, there are questions about JFK's assassination.
	You're not saying that 50% believe in all these things, but just 50% of Americans believe in at least one conspiracy theory like this.
	Yeah, I think what this research is suggesting is that the willingness to believe in one of these theories is really widespread across the spectrum.
	And different groups of people might believe different theories, but the propensity to believe seems really widespread.
	Where's that propensity come from?
	Well, that's what the research was trying to address.
	And, you know, the stereotype about people who believe such theories is that they are poorly educated or superstitious or that they are political partisans.
	It turns out the consistent predictor of such beliefs is something that you might almost call an all-American attitude, a belief in individualism, distrust of authority, and together those things translate into a desire to avoid being controlled by large secret forces.
	So, in other words, I'm a patriot.
	That's it.
	It's an American thing.
	Well, you know, I'm surprised you didn't catch this.
	After you gave me all the kudos for the drug guy, I'm going to have to tell you something.
	It's just very slightly annoying, but at the same time, it doesn't really surprise me.
	The Lancet.
	Yes, yep.
	The Lancet came out with some studies not only condemning the use of fluoride in water...
	No, I very specifically talked about this.
	Harvard even has this research.
	Well, they're now telling people to get it out of their water systems as fast as they can.
	Yeah, no, we did talk about this on the show.
	Well, I didn't pay any attention.
	Harvard, it's a...
	The Lancet and a Harvard study say...
	When the guys were protesting over the winter, this is when this came out.
	This is when we were talking about it.
	But no one cares.
	This is the March 2014 thing, so it's newer.
	No, it's newer, but it's later than the Harvard study.
	Okay.
	But it's irrelevant.
	You can say this a million times.
	It's the people in Austin.
	Say, you know, we fluoridate our water, and according to Harvard study, and now I'll say the Lancet, it's no good.
	Ah!
	Conspiracy theory!
	Oh yeah, they're going to control your brain!
	No, I just don't want to be medicated without asking for it.
	That's not unnecessary.
	And it's very bad for people with thyroid issues.
	Very bad.
	It's alright.
	In the UK... It's like all they're finding in their water over there is cocaine.
	Everyone's snorting coke and it's in all the wastewater.
	What's the main ingredient?
	I had it in the show notes last week.
	Of course, the main ingredient in cocaine, I'm sure, is not cocaine.
	I'm sure it's some stupid chemical they put in there.
	Hold on, 622.
	Let me see what that is.
	You're a chemist.
	You should know these things.
	I don't know everything.
	Yeah, you do.
	No.
	Not even close.
	Yeah, you do.
	You know, lots of things.
	Here, maybe I have it in here.
	Euroland.
	Yeah, London is the cocaine capital of Europe.
	That explains the pound being $1.67.
	European Drug Report 2014 analyzed the sewage system of 42 cities for traces of the drug and found the English capital, London, had the highest cocaine use of any city tested, with consumption of the drug appearing to peak on a Tuesday.
	Yeah.
	Notice that is right in between no agenda shows, by the way.
	I'm tweaking, man.
	I got no show.
	The samples which were taken and tested during the week in 2013 to provide a forensic snapshot of drug use found London was one of the cities with the highest use of ecstasy as well.
	London sewage water contains 711 milligrams of benzo...
	Benzo...
	Benzo...
	Benzoilegonine.
	Yeah, I'd have to look at it to read it for you.
	Yeah.
	Did you get it?
	Benzo...
	I don't...
	I didn't...
	I'm sitting here just listening.
	I don't have it in front of you.
	Benzoilecogonine.
	Whatever.
	The main chemical in cocaine.
	Huh.
	Why isn't cocaine the main chemical in cocaine?
	Cocaine is just kind of a brand name.
	Oh.
	Really?
	So it's benzo-like go-go cocaine?
	I guess.
	Yeah, I can imagine.
	Hey, man.
	Let's do some benzo-like go-go cocaine.
	Yeah, no one's going to be able to use this stuff because you can't pronounce it.
	In general, cocaine and ecstasy were more popular drugs in Western and some Southern cities, while crystal meth remained the most popular in Eastern Europe.
	Go Ukraine!
	However, overall use of the drug has continued to decline in countries such as Denmark and the United Kingdom after a peak in 2008.
	Well, yeah, that's after all the bankers got fired.
	11 out of the 12 countries also reported falls in cocaine use.
	Interesting.
	Also a lot of illegal...
	This is not boding well for anything.
	People shouldn't be all geared up, wired up on cocaine.
	This is not a healthy product.
	No.
	Well, then there's the UK as well.
	Prominent GP Des Spence says, in response to the UK Happy Pill Prescriptions, top 50 million, we do over-prescribe pill prescriptions.
	Yeah, and I think your theory, again, I'll give you another more kudos, which I... I bring up in conversation at the dinner table.
	Do you bring up my name in relation to this?
	The only reason the buck 67 in the pounds were the buck 67 is because the banks are all being propped up by drug money.
	The British banks.
	Which is why they have to put it on the GDP now.
	Right.
	We know that the American economy was saved, essentially, by the drug money.
	And it's legal and illegal drugs.
	It's both.
	Yeah.
	And has it ever been any different, really?
	Well, I don't know.
	Isn't that what the East India Company was about?
	I mean, okay, so yes, coffee may not be the biggest drug, but coffee, cocoa, tea, everything, the trade is always based on happy stuff.
	The real reason you have tea time in the afternoon at a certain hour is for your opium.
	It's for you to get over the little circadian cycle hump where you get kind of drowsy around 3 o'clock.
	Right, after your benzo is wearing off.
	Before we go to the ecstasy, have a little bit of tea.
	If it's not that, it's alcohol.
	Commerce is, I think...
	Old Crow Reserve.
	Yeah.
	All economies revolve around drugging people because that's the one thing that is guaranteed.
	Well, that's the only way they can get by.
	Yeah!
	That and our show.
	Yeah, that and our show.
	Ah, there you go.
	They're both very addictive.
	That's exactly right.
	Oops, sorry.
	Wrong.
	I don't know why I hit that one.
	I meant this.
	I'm gonna show myself a little by donating to No Agenda.
	Imagine all the people who could do that.
	Oh yeah, that'd be fab.
	Yeah, on No Agenda.
	In the morning.
	Even Coca-Cola at one point.
	That was cocaine, wasn't it?
	It was cocaine, yeah.
	That's why it was called Coca.
	Yeah.
	Trevor Lewis in Langley, British Columbia.
	We want to thank some people for helping us out for show 623, including Trevor.
	And this is where we'll find that we missed a birthday.
	$104.20 from Langley.
	It's a very long note.
	A year-long boner.
	Inaugural mini-stonation, 104.20, is...
	Nah.
	Otherwise, I'll be reading...
	I can only do...
	That particular voice, which I like to do, makes me cough.
	Yeah, and it's hard to do, and it needs to be part of a proper...
	Major.
	Yeah, it needs to be part of a proper stonation, otherwise you just can't...
	But we'll give you a...
	He does have some interesting...
	Rise Up Shit of Sins considers the worst pun.
	And Philip's a super important low-effect vaccine.
	Oh, he's working...
	There's a Crohn's disease vaccine being tested in Canada.
	He wants to alert people to this because apparently...
	I don't know if you already have Crohn's disease.
	I don't know how a vaccine can do anything.
	It's got to be some sort of a curative.
	Whatever the case is, look into it if you've got these problems.
	Benjamin Fields in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
	Nine, nine, nine, nine, nine!
	First time donor would like to request a mandatory dedouching.
	You don't need a dedouching.
	You've been dedouching.
	Being the first time donor doesn't mean you've been a douche.
	The douches are the ones who have been listening to the show for years and years and years and get called out for it.
	If you just started listening to the show like six months ago and you finally give, that's pretty much the model.
	But if you feel dirty...
	Like Harry Reid.
	If you feel unclean...
	I can accept that.
	Maxwell Fry, 69.42 out of Brooklyn, New York.
	I write to you stoned and drunk, hence the Drone Nation amount of 69.420.
	Pretty cool, huh?
	And he doesn't sound that drunk or stoned in this note.
	I was surprised there were not a lot of double nickels on the dime that came in today.
	Yeah, I know.
	It was weird.
	He says he thinks there's a drone been circled around his house.
	I don't go outside anymore without disguises.
	So the drone doesn't know where...
	Did you see there was a second...
	People should know this.
	I didn't take any clips from it because most of it was repetitive.
	But there was a second interview with Snowden.
	Yeah, Brazil.
	A Brazilian producer sent us.
	And it was pretty much the same stuff, except there was a number of different things.
	One, he still says he works for the government, and he didn't correct it.
	And the other one, they asked him if he uses disguises when he roams around, and he says he'd rather not say anything.
	And the third one, which there was actually three things, the third thing was he was literally begging the Brazilian moderator for asylum in Brazil.
	Well, that's the only part that got out.
	Snowden would love asylum in Brazil.
	That's the only thing.
	But I think his Russian asylum was extended.
	Yeah, oh, I had to be, or he'd be out.
	It was over this month.
	Maxwell Fry, Brooklyn, New York, 6942.
	Matthew Karavitis in Medical Lake, Washington, 6464.
	Francis Lambert in Zabak, Croatia.
	Nice.
	Hey, nice, Croatia.
	How's the water level doing there?
	Let us know.
	Best Podcast at the University says.
	Ben Hink in Orland Park, Illinois.
	The newsletter inspired me to make my first ever Double Nickels on the Dime.
	These are Double Nickels on the Dime.
	I'll read them off.
	Christine McPhillips.
	We put her into the...
	Birthdays.
	Birthdays.
	She's already in.
	Robert Dimoff in London.
	Hold on.
	Let me just read this for a second.
	I would like to dedicate this donation to my uncle Steve Vienemann of Genoa, Illinois for his birthday.
	I want to thank him for introducing me to your show.
	Thank you both for your courage and dedication.
	Okay, so that's important.
	Robert Dimoff, yes it is.
	London, UK. He's headed to the Grand Canyon via Vegas, so proceed winnings will come.
	Well, we're not going to get anything.
	Proceed winnings in Vegas.
	He does have a douchebag call-out.
	We have to make it.
	Douchebag call-out to Mr.
	Kippers.
	Oh.
	Douchebag!
	He doesn't know if any of his people made it out of Club 33 alive.
	John Aitken in Babson Park, Florida.
	Now there's something, the Eindhoven guy, did you get his name?
	It's V-V-V-V-V-Lo.
	It's V-V-V-V-Lo.
	Nicholas Zumas from Parts Unknown, double nickels on the dime.
	Matthew Fuller, San Antonio, Texas.
	San Antonio!
	Charles Eves in Lake Zurich, Illinois.
	Stephen McConnell in Cortland, Ohio.
	And that, I think, ends the double niggles on the dime.
	Kevin Payne, 5069, comes in commonly.
	I think he's a sir.
	Sir Kevin Payne?
	I believe so, yes.
	Sir Martinez Rivera in Florence, South Carolina, sent in a note by hand, a handwritten note.
	Literally, it's longhand.
	Mm-hmm.
	I haven't donated this year, so this humble donation will hopefully take care of the boner.
	That's why the meme area of the check says, oh, memo area, it says, sexual favors.
	What is that?
	Is that for his taxes or something?
	Yeah, you put it in the memo.
	You know, a little note that our lesbian rights insanity.
	Uh-huh.
	Show 621 was awesome.
	I must confess, I never really thought to show these about Snowden.
	Didn't care about Snowden.
	Okay, anyway.
	It's a nice note.
	Thank you.
	Matthew Baganara in Ascot Vale, Australia.
	These are all $50.
	Chad Inman, Los Angeles, California.
	Christopher Walker, Parts Unknown.
	Michael Zumas, again.
	Again.
	$50.
	Matthew Januszewski in Chicago, Illinois.
	James Butcher in Western Australia.
	And finally, our regular Sir Brett Farrell in Oklahoma City, OKC. And that will conclude our donors segment for show 623.
	We're reminding again, reminding again people to go to Dvorak.org slash NA. Yes.
	Thank you very much.
	We do have, well, we'll get to that in a second.
	First, we'll do this for a moment.
	Dvorak.org slash N-A.
	For the birthdays.
	It's your birthday, birthday.
	Uncroward Genoa.
	Christine McPhillips, as we just heard, says happy birthday to her uncle Steve Wienemann of Genoa.
	Genoa.
	Genoa, Illinois.
	And Jackie Priester says happy birthday to her mom, Diana Holst, turned 60.
	Happy birthday from all of your buddies here who you like to gossip about so much on the phone at the best podcast in the universe!
	Sir Guy Boazi becomes a Baronet today.
	We're very happy to have him on board.
	And Philip Fotenhauer is...
	Ow!
	Are you okay?
	I'm fine.
	Oh, right.
	I almost clipped you there with that thing.
	I'm sorry.
	Yeah, I know.
	I've got a little cut here under my earlobe.
	I'll just pull that thing out.
	Why, what's the deal with this high-sticking?
	I'm sorry.
	No high-sticking with the sword.
	Philip Fodenhauer, step forward as you have become an Insta Baronet Knight thing.
	And we welcome you to the round table and pronounce the hereby...
	Are you okay?
	I don't know.
	That sounded like you were crying during that segment.
	That's what I heard.
	Thank you very much.
	Go to knowintenternation.com slash rings to pick up your well-deserved ring and thank you for supporting the program.
	Last night as I was prepping around 10 o'clock, And I'm typically in my office.
	I got this corner thing of the office studio.
	It's the corner thing under the tree.
	So I got windows on all sides, which as we know are kind of open and all the pollen and stuff comes in.
	And I see a police vehicle going by with his lights on.
	And he stops at the corner like he's waiting for somebody.
	And maybe it's just me.
	But at what point did someone on the police force say to themselves, you know, that regular flashing blue light, that's just not enough.
	I mean, he had flashing blue and red and his blinkers are alternating and he's got like strobes and little landing strip.
	I mean, do they think that we didn't get the idea of the regular flashing blue lights?
	Well, it used to be red lights.
	Red light and sirens.
	I mean, the blues knew.
	But the whole car was like a Christmas tree.
	Texas has a lot of these cars.
	What is the point?
	The whole car lights up like a light show.
	What is the point?
	In fact, I'm not even intimidated anymore.
	I'm like, you look like a dick.
	I mean, you need spinning rims on that thing.
	It's the crazy...
	What thinking goes into that?
	It's very strange.
	I find it very annoying because at night it actually blinds you.
	It's unsafe.
	Yeah.
	And they're just sitting there on the corner, because we're in a corner house, right on the corner for 10 minutes with all these lights.
	Flip, flip, flip, flip.
	What was the point of that?
	I guess they were waiting for somebody.
	Did the guy ever show up?
	No.
	The donut truck, maybe?
	The donut truck didn't show up?
	After 10 or 15 minutes, it just drove off.
	And I like the Austin PD in general.
	I mean, I've only had good experiences with them.
	Yeah, you know, they're okay.
	Yeah, so far.
	Well, of course, there's douches everywhere, but I find them to be quite...
	They fit in with Austin.
	They're quite helpful.
	Of course, they could be dicks, too, as with everything.
	But I'm not against them.
	But this is...
	I'm against this.
	This is stupid.
	And I think it makes them look less authoritarian.
	Like, pfft.
	Is this like the circus coming to town?
	Really stupid.
	So today is June 5th.
	That's Eve.
	That should be...
	Now you can play your theme.
	I could play it.
	It's not a big theme.
	It's a minor one.
	Minor one.
	Today is June 5th, and I've been receiving these emails for weeks.
	And the same outfit that was doing, what were they?
	They were for Net Neutrality, FFTF. They are fightforthefuture.org.
	I'm sure you didn't know about it, but this is another fine non-profit.
	Of course, I tracked them down to see where the money's coming from.
	Today is...
	Let me grab this clip.
	Today is Reset the Net Day.
	Did you not know this, John?
	I did not know this.
	Here's their little commercial.
	It's animated.
	We use the internet to be ourselves, but governments are building a prison around it.
	We have to stop them, but how?
	Is this...
	Oh, stop, stop.
	Is this one of those things where they're drawing on the screen?
	No, not.
	But it's similar to that, except they're stick figures that are already pre-drawn and animated.
	Okay.
	It's almost as bad.
	They seem so vast and powerful.
	But government spies have a weakness.
	They can hack anybody, but they can't hack everybody.
	Folks like the NSA depend on collecting insecure data from tapped fiber.
	They depend on our mistakes.
	Mistakes we can fix.
	The plan?
	I think right there, what they just said, folks like the NSA depend on...
	Let me just roll that back, because that gave it away for me, who was going to be behind this.
	Spies have a weakness.
	They can hack anybody, but they can't hack everybody.
	Well anyways, like they get it from tapping fiber.
	Okay.
	Folks like the NSA depend on collecting insecure data from tapped fiber.
	They depend on our mistakes.
	Mistakes we can fix.
	The plan?
	Reset the net.
	Together, on June 5th, one year after Snowden's first NSA story, we all take one powerful step to turn off government spying and turn on freedom.
	The call is simple.
	Find some territory of the internet that you can protect from prying eyes.
	Seize it and hold it.
	Are you a developer?
	Promise to add one NSA-resistant feature to your app.
	Are you an internet user?
	Promise to try one NSA-resistant privacy tool.
	Got a website or Tumblr?
	Run our splash screen on June 5th to show the world we're resetting the net.
	This is our moment to rally and realize our power.
	Without needing anyone's permission, we can decide our future.
	One that's safe, open, and free.
	It won't be easy, but if we work hard now, the internet will never be a prison.
	Reset the net.
	Are you in?
	Sign up.
	Now, I'm looking at this and I'm like, where is this coming from?
	And why?
	Well, so this is from the fightforthefuture.org.
	I won't bore you with the details, but you go to fightforthefuture.org.
	If you contribute to them, you'll be giving to the Center for Rights, which is fully funded by the New Organization Institute Education Fund, which you can find at neworganizing.com.
	Yes,.com, not even.org.
	Neworganizing.com, which this...
	This is clearly part of a Silicon Valley push who are freaking out That people are starting to understand what privacy really means.
	It's no accident that Google comes out with some promise of maybe somehow going to do what they call end-to-end encryption, which I don't think is going to be exactly what we think it is, but we'll wait until we see the implementation.
	The Silicon Valley is seeing that people are waking up to their business model.
	And they're starting to catch on to it, and they're not really liking it.
	And they've sent this big letter, you know, Obama, the NSA is making us look bad, and it's true!
	And now that they're losing overseas business for sure.
	Big time overseas business.
	Yeah.
	And quite honestly, it's because your business model of stealing information, I won't even say that, of trading, but in a nefarious way, not really being super upfront, but hiding it in your terms of service and all this bullcrap.
	People are figuring out, you know, I don't really need Google.
	I don't really need all this stuff.
	Maybe I need some pieces of it, or some pieces are good, but I don't really need to have your whole ecosystem and have you suck up every piece of me.
	Mark Andreessen was on CNBC, and I kind of liked this piece because he's one of the few guys that will just go out and say it, and he's really pissed.
	Snowden is a traitor.
	And by what happened to Mark Andreessen?
	I remember when he sent me, you know, back when he's in school, he sent me the first HTTP, it's like version 1.3 or something.
	What happened?
	You're talking about his being very large and bald?
	Yeah, and just like a...
	And creepy.
	Yeah, creepy.
	Creepy.
	Yeah, creepy.
	We're here in Silicon Valley this morning.
	We caught up with Marc Andreessen and talked about the NSA and Edward Snowden.
	Obviously he's a traitor.
	If you look up in the encyclopedia, a traitor, there's a picture of Ed Stoughton.
	Alright, yeah!
	Okay, Mark, go!
	He's like a textbook traitor.
	They don't get much more traitor than that.
	I will say I'm in the distinct minority out here.
	I think most people in Silicon Valley would pick the other designation.
	And you think he's a traitor because?
	Because he stole national security secrets and gave them to everybody on the planet.
	Did you know what was happening, though?
	Do you feel that he had...
	Pay attention here, because he doesn't think...
	Mark Andrews doesn't really care about what he did.
	He cares about what he did to Silicon Valley.
	And how he basically broke the whole, shh, shut up already.
	Yeah, we know that we're giving stuff to the feds, but it's all part of the deal.
	It's working out perfectly.
	That's why Andrews is angry.
	Expose something that you didn't know about?
	So I think people...
	This is something I've got.
	People have gotten very upset at me for saying this.
	I think that...
	He likes people being upset at him, too.
	He likes to say that people are upset at me.
	He's a loner.
	He's a maverick.
	I think if you actually followed the NSA, I think if you actually read the books and the articles and understood the history, I think you generally assume that they were doing pretty much everything that's come out.
	And so the big surprise for me was that people were so shocked, because I thought...
	Hold on, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.
	Let's just look at that logic for a second.
	If you read all the books and the papers and all the rest...
	Everything that's come out, you already assumed.
	So how is he a traitor, then?
	He's just bringing out information that everybody already knew.
	Because he stole documents.
	But what Andre said means, the subtext.
	Yeah, I know.
	What you're saying, I think, is correct.
	But I'm just pointing out the illogic of what he's saying in terms of his conclusion.
	And his head is so big.
	Yeah.
	And it also has, like, he has cellulite on his head.
	All that's missing is big boils all over this place.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Nailed it.
	...for 50 years that has tens of thousands of employees and spends tens of billion dollars a year.
	So you're not...
	Well, I'm sorry.
	I thought that was you, John.
	I'm sorry.
	Oh, my God.
	I'm hearing voices in my head.
	You've been funding this agency for 50 years that has tens of thousands of employees and spends tens of billion dollars a year.
	So you're not uncomfortable.
	I thought they were spying.
	I mean, that was my impression.
	Yeah, because they've been...
	Well, I just thought that that's what they were doing.
	I mean, I thought that that was the...
	I thought everybody knew that.
	And so I gotta say, I am surprised that there is such a high level of shock.
	Some of the shock, I think, is fake, right?
	So, like, foreign governments getting all upset.
	Like, I think that's for domestic political consumption.
	I think the Germans knew full well what was happening.
	The Brits knew full well what was happening.
	The Russians knew full well what was happening.
	And, of course, they do either many or all the same things themselves.
	Here it comes.
	I think there's no question, though, that a lot of Americans were very surprised.
	And its implications out here vis-a-vis trying to do business abroad?
	Yeah, very serious and very worrying.
	And I would say in two categories.
	So first is just American technology companies get a huge amount of revenue from outside the U.S. In fact, some of these companies get up to 70% of revenue outside the U.S. And there's a big open question right now how successful our companies will be when they go sell products overseas.
	And I think there's a lot of foreign countries that are very envious of Silicon Valley and America's domination of tech and wish that they could implement protectionist policies and are going to use this whole affair as a reason to do that.
	As an excuse?
	Yes, as an excuse.
	What should President Obama do?
	And you have been very critical of him.
	Well, that's the big issue.
	Right now, as far as I can tell, there's no plan.
	There's no plan.
	There's no strategy.
	There's no tactics.
	There's no nothing.
	Like, the Snowden reveals just keep coming out.
	The administration is just letting the NSA, I think, hang out to dry.
	I think they're letting the American tech industry hang out to dry.
	Like, I've not met anybody in the American technology industry who feels like the White House has a plan.
	It's just happening.
	I think it's about time.
	It's about time y'all got knocked down a few pegs with your business model that is...
	Sketchy at best.
	It's time.
	That's why I like most of what Apple does, because they just charge you a lot of money.
	They charge you a lot of money, and this is our model.
	They may have shit built in the back end, or I don't know what they have to do.
	Since Steve died, all cards are off the table, but in general, I think Apple, our business is to sell you expensive stuff.
	And now they're trying to build in some other things, whatever.
	But here is Mark Andreessen's nightmare.
	This is the nightmare because kids are figuring this out.
	And they're figuring it out in two steps.
	One, they learn about the NSA and the spying and what's legal and what's not legal.
	And then the logical conclusion is, hold on a second, this is happening through these companies and they're giving it away.
	And, oh, we have to give it away.
	And then one day they might wake up and say, hey, I could run my own mail server.
	I don't have to use Gmail.
	What a concept!
	Here is a teen...
	Caught on video talking to Nancy Pelosi.
	And she is not prepared to answer these questions.
	Why do you support the NSA's illegal and ubiquitous data collection?
	And this is one of these tours, you know, where they'll come and look at my office.
	And all of a sudden this kid, why do you support the NSA's illegal spying?
	Well, I have questions about the metadata collection that they were collecting unless they had a reason to do so.
	So I didn't support Amash.
	That resolution, I didn't think that was the appropriate resolution.
	But I do think that the burden is on the department and I have fought them for years, on the community, fought them for years on the wide spot that they have put out there.
	You did vote for a bill to continue funding for the NSA bill.
	I don't know.
	Is this one of those Breitbart kids or something?
	Like, hey, kid, go ask these questions.
	It's good, though.
	Of course, I don't think we should not fund the National Security Agency.
	No, they do many, many things.
	Isn't the NSA a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment?
	No, no.
	Some of what they do should be subjected to scrutiny in some of the things.
	But they perform many other functions as well.
	And we hold them to a high order.
	And I've had my biggest fight here in the intelligence community with the director of the NSA. Hayden, when he was the director, I don't think he was on the level with us.
	But that doesn't mean that there aren't other things that are there that are good things that are necessary for us to have.
	But from 9-11 on, the Bush administration went too far Ah, yes.
	It's the Bush administration, of course.
	Blame it on Bush.
	We have the correspondents back and forth to prove or to demonstrate that they were just doing the wrong thing.
	Yeah.
	All right.
	So she doesn't really have an answer.
	But she leads us into our next topic.
	Which is the brand new director of the NSA, we have not really seen him in public, Admiral Mike Rogers.
	Interesting, his name is Mike Rogers.
	Yeah, I know, I like that.
	And he's either on Coke, Adderall, or both.
	It looks like he hasn't slept in five years.
	And he's jumpy, and he's...
	And he is invited on, and it's interesting that this was on C-SPAM, a forum moderated by Bloomberg.
	And I was actually...
	I like this a lot.
	The girl who was doing this moderation, a young woman, I should say, what's her name?
	Trish Regan.
	Oh, Trish.
	Yeah, I used to work...
	She used to be a regular at Market Watch.
	Well, first of all, she is...
	I mean, this is...
	If we were putting together a television channel, she would be number one.
	She's very good.
	She's fantastic.
	She had CNBC and then she moved on.
	And she was CBS. She was at the CBS Evening News, I guess, and contributed to Face the Nation.
	And now she's at Bloomberg.
	I mean, she must have done something wrong.
	They gave her her own show at Bloomberg, and I used to try to watch it, but every time I tuned into it, she was never on the show.
	It was some guy.
	So I think she got a good deal, went to Bloomberg naively, and then I think they fucked with her, because I don't know why.
	Well, she handles herself really well with it because there was a whole bunch of people she was interviewing on stage.
	And I have to point out, smoking hot.
	And she plays it well.
	She got the skirt on and everything.
	Lots of leg, which probably made the Admiral nervous because these guys, you know, and he's in his uniform and he's actually in an Admiral uniform.
	This is the thing that gets me.
	So he's like a sailor.
	It's all white.
	He's wearing his dress for whites.
	Yeah, his whites.
	There's an awards ceremony?
	What's wearing that for?
	Well, I don't know.
	He's wearing his whites and he's got his braids and everything and the whole thing is decked out and good to go.
	And I pulled two clips from this just to give you a little bit of a feel about what our new director of the NSA is about.
	This is his take on Snowden and the law.
	Yeah.
	I spoke with your predecessor, Keith Alexander, just yesterday on the phone, and he expressed the concern that he thought Ed Snowden was, at some point, it's a question of when, working for someone else.
	Possibly the Russians.
	He might be working for them right now.
	I mean, do you think that's a theory that's important to explore right now?
	There's plenty of theories.
	Clearly we're going to need to run it all to ground.
	You know, my comment would be, be part of the dialogue.
	If you believe in this, Use the power of the law and the structures of our society to make your case.
	The answer is not for any one of us to unilaterally decide that I'm the all-knowing oracle who knows everything, that I'm in the best position to decide what is right or wrong.
	Be leery of a society in which everyone unilaterally can do that.
	Wait a minute.
	Isn't that the whole point that anybody can say, hold on a second, this is wrong?
	He's saying be leery of a society?
	Hmm.
	What's he talking about?
	Well, the law.
	To quote the Constitution, that document provides a framework for us as to how we're going to organize as a government, as well as how we're going to settle disputes through this framework we call the law.
	I'm not quite sure what he's saying here, but something Constitution, which means shut up about everything else.
	And I urge all of us as citizens, use that framework.
	If there's something that you feel strongly about, make your case.
	Make an argument.
	Get thrown in jail if you do that.
	This would happen to all the NSA whistleblowers.
	This is exactly the point, but he must have read a different document or something.
	I don't know.
	Maybe he doesn't know who she's talking about.
	Make your case.
	Make an argument.
	Articulate your viewpoint.
	This guy's nuts.
	But do it within the framework that we all have to use if we're going to exist as a society.
	If we're going to function as a nation.
	Beware of the chaos associated with all of us unilaterally deciding what we want to do, what we don't want to do, what laws we're going to obey, what laws we're going to choose to disobey.
	That just comes across to me as incredibly arrogant.
	Shut up, slave!
	This guy is really weird.
	Let me just play one thing in the middle, which is a bunch of the NSA whistleblowers who were Benny and all these other guys that we've heard about, we've heard from, that say, don't talk to the FBI. They make your life miserable if you try going through channels to do whistleblowing, which he's advocating.
	And Obama does the same thing.
	He says the same thing.
	And these guys have all gotten screwed who tried to do it.
	They brought up this.
	The clip is hidden.
	Oops.
	Did I lose you?
	John?
	Hello?
	Oh no!
	Jean-Claude!
	You have made a canard!
	Uh...
	Actually, that sounded like a power outage on his end, to be quite honest.
	But what I will do is I will play his clip.
	Hidden government and hopefully he'll come back by the time we're done.
	They took our computers, anything, written notes, any records that we had in hopes of finding something that they could use against us.
	The two resigned from the NSA, but say the retaliation continued.
	As high-level security contractors, each time they were hired by a government agency, they said their contracts were terminated.
	It was years before Edward Snowden provided proof through LEAF documents the U.S. government was conducting mass surveillance on ordinary Americans.
	A severe crisis point.
	So the pair is now part of a group launching a website, exposefacts.org.
	Its aim is to shed light on hidden government activity.
	Yoo-hoo!
	And we definitely didn't get him back.
	I'll try calling him.
	That...
	Yeah.
	That was weird.
	I just finished the clip.
	Yeah.
	Of the hidden government.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, you can't do it.
	Nobody knows anything about this either.
	But anyway, that's the hiddengovernment.org.
	That's the site.
	If you're a whistleblower, a wannabe one, you're probably better off going through them than you are going through any of these channels.
	So I have one more clip of Admiral Mike Rogers where you can hear him lying.
	This is always fun.
	You kind of got to watch this guy.
	If you see him, you'll see.
	He's got big, dark circles under his eyes.
	And his head's going from left to right.
	He's drugged on something.
	He's just speedy and hard to explain.
	But he doesn't come across as a stately, military guy in his whites at all.
	And so here we have Trisha.
	Trish.
	God, if you ever die, I'm getting her on the show.
	Sorry.
	She was the one who was the host of the marijuana special that they did on CNBC. I don't care.
	She'll look great on the album art.
	Crackpot and hottie.
	And she pushes, although unfortunately she leads the witness, which is something I hate doing.
	I hate seeing someone do, especially of her stature.
	I don't feel she needed to do this.
	She'll hear it in the clip.
	About the facial recognition, which was exposed by our friend Poitras in the New York Times, although...
	I'm not quite sure what was really exposed, but the inference was the NSA slurps up images all day long and throws them through the facial recognition system.
	Which I will point out, Google slurps up images all day long.
	They host copies of images on their image search.
	And Facebook has facial recognition working as we speak.
	Mickey uploads a picture of me.
	It automatically tags me in the picture.
	Another good reason not to use Facebook.
	I'm hating this.
	Actually, I say, Mickey, please, no more.
	I just don't want to be uploaded anymore.
	Screw this.
	That's really frightening.
	Anyway, so Trish is going to talk about this very topic, and she leaves the witness and gets the expected answer, although the lie is apparent.
	So let me ask you about new reports that show the NSA is using facial recognition technology to monitor people.
	How does a program like that work?
	We use facial recognition as a tool.
	Fable recognition.
	I know he did.
	To help us understand these foreign intelligence targets we work.
	Counterterrorism is another big area.
	This has probably had more impact for us than the counterterrorism.
	So it's a big deal.
	Where we see entities through our signals intelligence capabilities and we will know them digitally if you will.
	But we want to see if we can try to understand them more broadly to help our enable our broader efforts to bring them to justice and to forestall their ability to conduct attacks against ourselves and our allies And friends.
	In other words, yeah, we use fable recognition everywhere to track people.
	And the world around us.
	What is he talking about bringing them to justice?
	If they committed a crime, why don't they just go out and arrest them?
	Because it's made up.
	It's made up.
	Bringing them to justice.
	Stuff is just made up, man.
	That doesn't do anything.
	All their ability to conduct attacks against ourselves and our allies and friends and the world around us.
	We do not, if I could just finish one thing.
	Shut up!
	Trish.
	Trish.
	I'm suspicious now.
	Trish.
	We do not do this in some unilateral basis against U.S. citizens.
	We do not access At one point I saw someone say, well, they must be accessing Department of Motor Vehicle data.
	You don't, actually.
	At the state level.
	Oh, Trish, really?
	You didn't have to do that.
	Why are you defending the NSA? I liked you so much.
	Did you notice his wording?
	Oh, yeah.
	It's going to get better.
	It's going to get better.
	The wording gets even better.
	Citizens, we do not access...
	At one point I saw someone say, well, they must be accessing Department of Motor Vehicle data.
	Well, you don't actually.
	At the state level, we don't.
	I'm like, no, we don't do that.
	We have very specific restrictions when it comes to U.S. persons.
	We have to operate under a legal framework.
	But you don't have access to driver's license.
	You don't have access to passport photos.
	You would think that the NSA would have access to some of those things.
	I mean, wouldn't it be helpful?
	We're talking about for U.S. persons.
	He has to say it three times.
	We're talking about for U.S. persons, right?
	For U.S. persons, right?
	For U.S. persons, right?
	In other words, yeah, they have access to the DMV and the passport pictures.
	He's just saying we don't use them against U.S. persons without permission, but they have total access.
	Correct.
	I think the most still, the best phrase is used, is we do not do this on a unilateral basis.
	Yes.
	That means he's in bed with Facebook, Google, whoever else has a huge cache of photos and pictures.
	Explain to me the exact meaning of unilateral basis.
	That means we're doing it on our own.
	We're doing it by ourselves.
	Unilaterally means I'm just going to do this.
	Screw any of my partners or anybody else.
	I'm doing it.
	And if you're not unilateral, that means you're multilateral, meaning you have other people involved in the process.
	And it would only make sense, seeing as the director of FBI has an office at Facebook.
	Right.
	Anytime somebody uses the word unilateral as they're out, then that's a scam.
	Let's back it up a little.
	Let's hear that again.
	We do not, if I could just finish one thing, Trish, we do not do this in some unilateral basis against U.S. citizens.
	Which means we do it on a multilateral basis against U.S. citizens by having our partners, Mark Andreessen-funded companies like Facebook and Google and Uber and whatever else they're into.
	This is the connection that people have to start making.
	This is the connection, people.
	Access.
	At one point I saw someone say, well, they must be accessing Department of Motor Vehicle data.
	Well, you don't actually.
	I'm like, no, we don't do that.
	We have very specific restrictions when it comes to US persons.
	We have to operate under a legal framework.
	You don't have access to driver's license.
	You don't have access to passport photos.
	You would think that the NSA would have access to some of those things.
	We're talking about for U.S. persons.
	Don't do this for U.S. persons.
	Why is she saying correct?
	Again, why?
	Our mission, as the NSA, is very explicit.
	It's foreign intelligence and information assurance.
	Foreign intelligence.
	We have to do anything involving a U.S. person.
	We have specific legal constraints we must comply with.
	We just don't unilaterally decide, hey, today I'm going to go after citizen X, Y, or Z. We don't do that.
	We can't legally do that.
	But there are people that you know you want to target.
	And there are.
	Let me finish one thought before I forget and then we'll get back.
	Shut up.
	Clearly in the digital age, we will encounter American persons in the wilderness out there, so to speak.
	Hey!
	Hi, I'm an American person out here in the wilderness.
	I hope you don't bump into me.
	This guy is real old-school Navy.
	Oh, yeah.
	I mean, the Navy guys, the commanders, the ship captains, there's a whole group of them.
	They're the Navy elites, the ones who are in position, commander position.
	You can be an admiral, but not be in command position.
	And these guys are...
	I was told this when I was working for the Air Pollution District, and we used to go from ship to ship to give these guys tickets.
	And for blowing their smoke out of their stacks...
	So to speak.
	And you go in there and you meet the captain.
	He's usually a commander or maybe sometimes captain in rank.
	And I was told this by some of the ex-Navy guys that worked at the district after my first experience.
	And they said, these guys are the most arrogant pricks ever.
	You have ever run into these guys that are in these certain command positions in the Navy.
	They have a certain quality about them that is just what this guy is exuding.
	A kind of an arrogant prick that you just hear it coming out of him as he's trying to have a conversation.
	Yeah, and American citizens, you might encounter them in the wild.
	You know, there's only 300 million of us.
	We might encounter them in the wild, so to speak.
	We have specific restrictions about what happens once we do encounter U.S. persons.
	In broad terms, we gotta stop what we're doing.
	In broad terms.
	That's actually a very narrow term, but okay.
	If we come to the realization that somebody that we're monitoring, that we're tracking, is a U.S. connection that we were unaware of, in broad terms, we have to stop what we're doing.
	We have to assess the situation, and if we think there's a legal basis to this, then we have to get a legal authority or justification to continue.
	Oh, illegal justification.
	Yeah, this is the same bull crap we've been hearing from the beginning.
	He's just somehow, they're testing to see if he's up to speed with his...
	I don't think he's going to last, John.
	I don't think this is a guy, he's going to mess it up.
	He's not going to last.
	Well, if he's as arrogant as it sounds like he is, he's not going to last because he's going to act the same way.
	You know, you can do it with Trish Regan or anybody, any reporter, you can act like a jerk.
	But if he goes in front of Congress, at least these other characters in front of Congress are reticent.
	You know, they seem to be on Valium.
	If this guy goes in front of Congress and starts talking like this in front of John McCain, they're going to eat him alive.
	They're going to kill him.
	Yeah, they're going to just go on and on and on.
	It's going to be ugly.
	It'd be gray for us.
	But, yeah, no, this guy, you might be right.
	I don't think he has the chops for it.
	He doesn't know how to back off his kind of brazen, arrogant quality.
	It's ludicrous.
	It just comes right through the clip.
	And I like Trish so much, but when she started leading him on with it, you don't even have that.
	You can't do that.
	You don't have that, right?
	Correct.
	Trish.
	So, Trish.
	That affair is over.
	Do you know Cheryl?
	I don't know a Cheryl.
	Cheryl Atkinson?
	Maybe.
	Yeah, she's the journalist that quit CBS, I think.
	I'd have to look.
	Yeah, so she quit CBS. She said, I wasn't allowed to do my stories.
	Oh, yeah, I've heard of her.
	I don't know her.
	Well, she's older, so she's more milfy.
	No, this woman.
	Yeah, this woman.
	Yeah, I've always liked her.
	Me too.
	And I think I like her even more, although she now is doing something for...
	Let me see.
	Some organization.
	Hold on, I wrote it down.
	Which I'm like, oh no.
	I'll tell you what it is here.
	Well, she was interviewed because she has a book coming out.
	Florida Girl.
	Is she a Florida girl?
	Oh yeah, born in Florida.
	She came through the ranks.
	She worked hard to get to where she was.
	She's also a third degree black belt in taekwondo.
	I like a woman that can kick my ass and break my neck.
	And here she's being interviewed about her book and where she wants her career to take her.
	And let's listen to this in one minute.
	What I hope to do with Stonewald is explain to the public how images that they see every day, not just on the news, but including in the news, but on social media, on television, on billboards...
	How these images are manipulated in covert and surreptitious ways by political forces and financially backed forces that they have no idea about.
	If you can become savvy to this manipulation and sometimes outright propaganda, you can learn to recognize it and sort of filter through it, which I think helps people make up their own mind about what's really going on in the world.
	There is a movement in Washington, D.C. to affect public opinion in ways other than direct lobbying.
	People know about campaign lobbying, contributions given directly to members of Congress.
	Now there's a whole industry set up around manipulating public opinion or swaying public opinion in other ways, through social media, maybe setting up blind accounts or accounts through pseudonyms, through editing Wikipedia in certain ways, through posting on Twitter and Facebook.
	There are all kinds of ways.
	People's opinions are being shaped through forces that they don't know are behind the shaping of those opinions.
	And I really think it's important that people know who's behind the efforts.
	I'm like, yeah!
	Right on the money.
	Yeah.
	The only problem is she's now working independently part-time for some quasi-news thing that is financed by the Heritage Institute.
	She's got Al Jazeera written all over her.
	You watch.
	But you know, if you want to be independent, why go to get your money from Heritage?
	I mean, isn't that completely partisan on the right?
	Yeah.
	Totally.
	I think the Koch brothers are beautiful.
	No, it's serious.
	Yeah, but I was just like, that breaks the whole thing.
	All of this goodness that I heard from her.
	I just can't find a name of that outfit.
	The name of the...
	This is pissing me off now.
	It's not in her wiki.
	No, but it's brand new.
	Oh, I know how to find it.
	Hold on.
	I know.
	Where was it?
	Cheryl, Cheryl, Cheryl.
	Atkinson.
	Here we go.
	Life After CBS. Link to article.
	Here we go.
	Was it just a YouTube video that I had?
	The Daily Signal.
	Oh, God.
	I mean, you're going to leave CBS, you got this great rap, you go to the Daily, let's find out, the Daily Signal.
	It's not even hidden.
	The Daily Signal, Heritage Foundation, new site seeks mainstream impact.
	Well, they got a lot of, maybe they're at least paying her network salary.
	Oh, I'm sure.
	She doesn't look worried, I'll tell you that.
	Bloomberg even says the Tea Party gets into the news biz.
	I mean, it's completely one-sided partisan.
	Why would she do that?
	Disappointing.
	I think I'm going back to Trish.
	I think Trish is savable.
	Yeah, maybe.
	Whatever the case.
	Okay.
	I have a few clips I want to save for Thursday.
	How about for Sunday?
	Okay, I can move it up.
	Exactly.
	Which will be the environmental stuff with these guys.
	I do want to do a reprise of the early discussion of the First Amendment to amend the First Amendment.
	Yes.
	I did catch this, which is very...
	This is just a little bit.
	This is Harry Reid again, when he's giving his speech, his opening.
	This is just the end of it.
	Because he says something.
	I wish I could boost it, or maybe I'll re-edit it and boost it.
	It is just...
	This is the one.
	Reid has places to go.
	He ends up leaving the whole thing...
	With this lame, I got places to go, things to do.
	I just found it hilarious.
	I got flesh to press, babies to kiss.
	Free speech shouldn't cost the American people a penny, a dime, certainly not a dollar.
	So, Mr.
	Chairman, Mayor of the Committee, I'm happy if you have questions that you want to ask me to wait, and I'm happy to do that.
	Otherwise, I would ask your leave, and I will leave.
	I've got places to go.
	Thank you.
	I've got places.
	I've got things to do.
	I've got no time for you.
	I've got places to go.
	You morons.
	I was laughing when I heard that.
	And he left.
	He got up and took off.
	Of course.
	Of course.
	Lovely.
	Anyway, I think that gets everyone up to date.
	Yeah, I think that can conclude our show for today.
	I'm keeping track of the MERS meme, which seems to be just another version of SARS only for Middle Easterners, which is pretty much, I guess, the same thing.
	Yeah, that's what it sounds like.
	Yeah, it's just, what, 200 people are dead.
	Okay, big deal.
	SARS had the same thing, and it never panned out.
	Right.
	So I don't know what that is exactly.
	Oh yes, I did want to say that you thought that Bitcoin was the beanie babies of the financial crisis or the financial industry?
	No, of this cycle.
	Of this cycle, right.
	So now that Halsey Miner is starting a Bitcoin company, don't you think that means that basically the end is near?
	Well, yeah.
	Me too.
	It's like Bitcoin's the last refuge.
	And people say, like, it's being accepted everywhere.
	Let me just tell you.
	You're converting money buying it, and you're converting money selling it.
	I don't see how it's so great just yet.
	It's not an economy.
	It's wampum.
	It's beads, you know?
	It's like Club Med.
	You're converting on the way in, you're converting on the way out.
	It's worse than PayPal.
	But okay.
	They're accepting it in your pub, I get it.
	I get it.
	That's fine.
	Anyway.
	It's fun.
	Yeah, oh, it's lots of fun.
	We will be, uh...
	Working hard for you once again.
	And we'll come back on Sunday to bring you more analysis.
	You can't get anywhere else.
	It is part of your healthy news diet.
	It is not for nothing the best podcast in the universe.
	And coming to you from FEMA Region 6 here in the Travis Heights Hideout.
	In the morning, everybody, I'm Adam Curry.
	And from northern Silicon Valley, I'm plain and simple John C. Dvorak.
	We'll be back on Sunday right here on No Agenda.
	What difference at this point does it make?
	Um.
	As you know, you know, in Germany, you know, the trains ran on time.
	Sometimes fascism benefits.
	And by the way, Ben tells me in Germany the trains never run on time.
	Well, look, they don't now.
	That's the point.
	I'm Joe Biden, and thank you for taking the time to listen.
	Oh my God, that is amazing!
	The best podcast in the universe!

▲