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Jan. 5, 2020 - No Agenda

02:43:39

1205: Death Bus

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Time	Text
	You just walked away.
	You just walked away from the show.
	Adam Curry, John C. DeVore.
	It's Sunday, January 5th, 2020.
	This is your award-winning Gitmo Nation media assassination episode 1205.
	This is no agenda.
	It rained down under and broadcasting live from Opportunity Zone 33 here in the frontier of Austin, Texas, capital of the drone star state.
	In the morning, everybody.
	I'm Adam Curry.
	And from northern Silicon Valley, where there'll be no record set today because we missed the Zephyr.
	I'm John C. Dvorak.
	It's Crackpot and Buzzkill.
	In the morning.
	Well, to be fair, the Zephyr was just earlier than normal.
	We didn't really miss anything.
	Well, I saw it go by.
	Okay.
	Anyway.
	Gee.
	I guess some stuff happened.
	Yeah, always on a show day.
	Show days is when it always takes place.
	But before we go...
	Into Iran.
	I do want to make mention that Thursday, by request from Sir Chris Wilson in Australia, we were requested to give yet another massive shake of our rain sticks, which are...
	Precision instruments.
	These are not just some phony baloney tourist thing.
	These were made by Sherry Osborne in Utah, and they work.
	Conditions have eased on the far south coast of New South Wales after fire threatened the town of Eden.
	Live now to our reporter Trudy McIntosh, who's in Eden.
	Trudy, take us through what's happened.
	Anna, we're starting to see a sprinkling of rain here in the town of Eden, but as you can see behind me, there's certainly still plenty of smoke blanketing this area.
	Plenty of people who have camped here for the night at the Eden Wharf after what has been a pretty difficult few days in this town, it must be said.
	People are staying here because this morning there was an emergency level fire that had been coming from the Victorian border towards this town.
	I spoke to one local resident, Joanne, a short time ago.
	She tells me about what it was like to be in the town as this fire came towards it.
	I thought I'd have to come down here tonight, but with this rain, it's heaven sent.
	And I went home and washed my hair.
	My hair was that dirty.
	Oh, I couldn't believe it.
	And the birds come out and they started singing this afternoon, so we figured that We're right.
	Not out of the woods yet, but heaven sent birds and rain in Australia.
	Did you see this morning's report about the rain?
	No.
	This was caused by the intense heat.
	No!
	Look, bullcrap.
	It was caused by rain sticks.
	We all know how this works.
	Intense heat.
	And I'm thinking, well...
	We never get credit for anything on the show.
	Ever, ever.
	Now, we need a lot more rain to fall, but it's a good start, and they're predicting a lot more.
	So, hopefully things will...
	I sent out a note on Thursday to all Australian producers.
	How are you guys doing?
	And everybody kind of had the...
	Kind of had the same feedback.
	It's like, yeah, it's bad.
	It's been worse.
	But, you know, there was a lot that could be done.
	And, oh yes, some of this may have been set by arsonists.
	Which I think is, with 85% of all forest fires, there's some chance of arson involved.
	They're crazy people.
	Arsonists?
	Well, I have a report.
	They actually know where the arsonists are, apparently, in Australia.
	Well, listen to this.
	The fire's destructive force was fast and furious.
	Now the meticulous investigation will soon be pouring over the devastated firegrounds all along the south coast.
	Vital work for the coroner who will probe all aspects of the fire.
	There's an enormous amount of work to prepare for the coroner, not just with the burnt out buildings and structures, but also clearly the deaths of people that have occurred as a result of these fires.
	And a more sinister consideration were the fires intentionally started.
	Police have formed Strike Force Indara, comprising detectives from homicide and arson squads, plus drawing on insights from officers with local knowledge who will lead the work.
	We'll make available any other specialist resources in terms of our Forensic Services Group and other criminal investigators...
	Arson squad detectives are also part of this strike force responsible for tracking down firebugs, known to be responsible for lighting deliberately lit fires like this one at South Taramurra last November.
	Part of their charter is also proactive, knocking on the doors of known arsonists when conditions get this bad.
	Hey, Mr.
	Arsonist!
	Hey, just want to check, make sure you're not starting any fires.
	That sounds just kind of weird.
	Well, it doesn't happen so much in this country because we find ways to throw the key away with an arsonist because it's been determined it's beyond a sickness, it's a sexual perversion.
	Oh, I didn't know about the sexual perversion part.
	Well, it doesn't disgust a lot.
	But in Australia, you know where they are, you just go knock on the door.
	They're registered arsonists.
	Hey, is there any fires lately?
	Hey, don't do it, okay?
	Don't do it.
	Steve, knocking on the doors of known arsonists when conditions get this bad to prevent them from getting up to no good.
	Well, 7 News has been told...
	That's unbelievable.
	I find that very lackadaisical.
	Yes.
	If you have a tinderbox country, maybe you should keep a real, just not happenstance, just drop by and knock on the arsonist door.
	It's like when I was in Tuktoyaktuk.
	I was in the North Pole years and years ago.
	What?
	What's your name?
	Tuktoyuktuk is the name of it.
	Yes.
	It's a little bit above Inuvik, the northwestern territories.
	And this was the Molson Ice Polar Beach Party with Metallica and Hole and Veruca Salt.
	And we cybercast it.
	This is a long time ago.
	So we're up there.
	How did you cybercast it?
	Oh, we had a mux.
	We had 24 phone lines that we combined in a mux with 9600 baud modems.
	And so that's how we did the cybercast.
	Anyway, at the time we were there, it was 23 hours light during the day.
	And, you know, you're up there and it's kind of like an oil rig area and, you know, just kids are driving around on their bikes midnight because, you know, the sun's out and the whole crew is looking for something to drink, which, of course, is not allowed in that area or in those territories.
	And so you kind of side up to a kid and say, hey, do you know any chance?
	And the kid immediately will go, oh!
	You want the drug dealer or the booze guy?
	Is that house or that house?
	That's kind of like the arsonist in Australia.
	Oh, he lives over there, mate.
	Yeah, just like that.
	But not only are we helping with the rain stick, apparently the Australian government even listens to our show.
	Well, that would be different.
	Yeah, the Prime Minister.
	Not only does he listen, he's taking our material.
	Boots on the ground.
	People lifting our material and not crediting us, I'm absolutely sure of that.
	Well, here it is.
	Boots on the ground, planes in the air, ships at sea, and trucks rolling into communities that have been impacted.
	Just taking our material.
	Well, there's no subs of the water.
	It's not going to help much with the fires.
	Anyway, we wish Australia the best.
	We hope everything is going very well.
	So some guy got shot or blowed up, apparently, right after our show.
	Yeah, thanks.
	And it was a guy, I don't know about you, but I made the claim that no one's heard of this guy.
	Now all of a sudden he's the most famous guy in the world.
	And you have people protesting.
	People protesting in San Francisco.
	Suleiman's unfairly.
	It was like, they don't know who this guy is.
	They can't identify Iran.
	I mentioned this in the newsletter.
	You couldn't find it on a map.
	I think we need to open the segment properly.
	We've done this segment about Iran probably since the third year of the show.
	And we have jingles whenever we talk about Iran.
	Bomb, bomb, Iran.
	Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran.
	The country's got a feeling, really.
	Just feeling bomb, Iran.
	Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran. - Woo! - Woo! - Woo!
	The war machine is rolling once again.
	Everybody loves a little bit of war with Iran because we all get to talk.
	Talk.
	And pontificate and talk and threaten and be smart.
	Carry signs.
	Carry signs and be smart and tweet.
	And tweet.
	Well, if I knew about that thing in San Francisco, I would have had it over there because there had to be a lot of collectible signs.
	I have an M5M compilage, a short one, of their immediate assessment of Soleimani.
	As you know, a revered man, John.
	Soleimani, an iconic military leader, a revered figure.
	Soleimani is, it's difficult to convey how revered he is.
	He's regarded as personally incredibly brave.
	The troops love him.
	I was trying to think of somebody, and I was thinking of De Gaulle.
	A brilliant man.
	He was the Cardinal Richelieu.
	He was the Machiavelli.
	Even many of Soleimani's enemies admitted he was a military genius.
	Let's assume for a minute that he was at the Baghdad airport and deserved this, okay?
	Let's just stipulate that.
	Let's just say maybe it was the right decision to take him out.
	But you have, in that case, right decision, wrong commander-in-chief.
	Yes, that was actually a good point.
	How does all this jive with Thomas Friedman's column, which I actually had excerpted in the newsletter, Where he starts off by saying Soleimani was the dumbest guy ever.
	He's a bonehead.
	Nobody liked him.
	Oh, shoot.
	Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.
	I've got to play this CIA analyst who was on the BBC. So, again, he was the dumbest guy?
	That's what Friedman said?
	Yeah, dumbest guy, and they're going to name a street after Trump because he killed him.
	Listen to this.
	Obviously a dramatic development for a complicated region.
	Here to break it all down is Kenneth Pollack, a former CIA intelligence analyst who's now at the American Enterprise Institute.
	Thanks for being with us.
	It was a pleasure, Laura.
	So you wrote that General Soleimani was like a combination of Lady Gaga, James Bond and Rommel all rolled into one.
	How significant is the moment of his death?
	Very significant.
	He was hugely important for Iranians.
	He was extremely popular within Iran.
	He was a critical element of the Iranian leadership, arguably perhaps the second most powerful man in Iran.
	Yes, just like James Bond and Lady Gaga rolled up into one.
	So we're getting mixed messages from the CIA the way I see it.
	Yeah, no kidding.
	And I'm guessing that Freeman's probably better connected than that guy.
	Yeah, I've heard he's a go-to guy for the BBC. Well, they should go to someplace else.
	Well, let's listen to some regular readings.
	Just the normal, straight-up reports.
	It's funny that one of the most objective ones, and I'm going to play it right away, is the Democracy Now!
	They actually did, I think they were more even-handed than ABC. Let's listen to...
	This is Suli.
	Suli.
	They're all called Suli.
	And this is ABC's intro.
	Oh, you want to do ABC first?
	I'm sorry.
	Yeah, I want to do it first.
	Then we'll get to Amy.
	Amy took it.
	They all took it to 10 minutes.
	All the networks and Amy too.
	Okay.
	Big segment.
	Okay.
	Here's Democracy Now.
	ABC. As we come on, President Trump has now addressed the nation about that major escalation in the conflict with Iran.
	The U.S. drone strike targeting an Iranian military chief minutes after he landed at the airport in Baghdad.
	General Qasem Soleimani, the architect of Iranian intelligence and military operations across the region for decades.
	A revered figure in Iran, today thousands mourning and protesting in Tehran.
	Iran's supreme leader vowing harsh retaliation and revenge for the death of the man he called a martyr.
	But President Trump blamed Soleimani for the killing of hundreds of Americans and claimed he was actively plotting to kill more when he was found and terminated.
	The president saying he did not order the strike to start a war with Iran but to stop one.
	And yet tonight some 3,500 more troops are being sent to the region and others put on alert.
	ABC's chief global affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz leading us off with the timeline And the swift reaction.
	All right.
	So there was something.
	I stopped it there for some reason.
	Timeline swift reaction.
	And by the way, the swift reaction.
	This was obviously not Trump's operation.
	No, no, no, no, no.
	Because Trump's not driving drones around following guys.
	Well, hold on.
	Let's just stop there for one second.
	About the drones.
	I looked up some of the statistics, and at this point in his presidency, under President Trump, there have been more drone killings than under Obama.
	And Obama was kind of the drone king.
	Now, granted, you don't hear about them much anymore.
	I think a lot of them are taking place in Yemen, and that's paid work for the Saudis.
	But I, personally, I despise drone killings.
	And the reason is, first of all, it is absolute terror that you have drones flying around.
	Everywhere in the world except America, a drone flies and people duck and they're freaking out because that usually means you're going to hear something next and then someone gets blown to smithereens.
	I do not like this type of warfare, and we've got to be very careful of being all jitty about it, because we already have unidentified drones flying over Colorado.
	Now, granted, they're not the same platform as what we're talking about here, but these drones can carry some weaponry.
	And one day, one day, we will have drone strikes on Americans.
	Oh yeah, there's no doubt about it.
	So I'm just saying, don't get all too happy about this, because it's fucked up shit, drones.
	I don't like it at all.
	Well, that's one way of putting it.
	Let's play.
	I'm going to back off from the ABC report.
	Oh, there's a switchback coming.
	Never mind.
	Play ABC switchback dead end weird.
	This is the weird clip here.
	I wanted to separate it out.
	Mary, most members of Congress were not given a heads up about the president's action against Iran.
	And tonight, lawmakers from both parties are demanding more information.
	Whit, both sides are eager to know what comes next.
	What's the broader strategy here?
	And what's the plan for if and when Iran retaliates?
	We do expect the full Senate will receive a classified briefing next week.
	And Speaker Pelosi is demanding the same over in the House.
	Whit?
	What exactly was the switch back there?
	I think it's because he started off with the assertion that nobody knew what was going on and they wanted to find out more and then they never even addressed it.
	Well, let's just talk about that response for a moment where all of a sudden Congress has some kind of conscience and that...
	It's like, well, you can't do that.
	The Congress needs to declare war.
	Let's just set it straight real quick.
	Ever since September 11, 2001, a little bit after that, we've had the authorized use of military force.
	As long as you can use the words terrorist in a sentence, you can operate under that and do anything you want.
	How do you think we got into Syria under Obama?
	Yeah.
	Congress didn't authorize a war in Syria.
	If anything, Congress needs to shut up because we've been conducting acts of war against Iran with the sanctions.
	I consider that to be actual warfare.
	Actually, they did condone it.
	Congress is just beside itself.
	They don't know what to do because this is affecting their whole strategy for the election.
	Now, while you mentioned the part about Congress should shut up, let's go to the CNN version of this report.
	This is an analyst who came on CNN who mentioned, who didn't think much of Soleimani.
	He thought he was a moron for going into, he just blows into a rock on his own after the embassy attack.
	Just shows up like, you know, hi, how you doing?
	I'm here to see my boys.
	Anyway, just play this so you get it.
	Officials in France say that today we wake up to a more dangerous world.
	Democratic Senator Chris Murphy asked the question, did America just assassinate, without congressional authorization, the second most powerful person in Iran knowingly setting off a potential massive regional war?
	So, is America safer without Solani this morning?
	What I would say to Senator Murphy is, why don't you just be quiet?
	When has Iran ever demonstrated self-restraint?
	I mean, that's the question I have.
	So is the world more dangerous today?
	Maybe it's more dangerous, but when has it not been dangerous?
	When have we not been a target of a regime like exists in Tehran?
	I mean, it happens as a matter of routine.
	What I find amazingly brazen is the fact that Soleimani felt comfortable And he felt somewhat naive that he could simply show up in Baghdad and in his role as the leader of the IRGC and the Quds Force, he shows up and he says, hey guys, how's it going?
	How's this attack on the U.S. Embassy going?
	Absolutely brazen.
	And at that moment...
	In advance, we had built up intelligence, which was pattern of life, different forms of intelligence.
	And so we had this target folder on Soleimani, and this opportunity presented itself.
	And I'm certain what happened was we decided the president made the determination, let's pull the trigger now.
	And it was, I would say, not causally linked to what occurred at the U.S. Embassy a couple of days before, other than he happened to be there checking up on what was taking place.
	He's so smart.
	He's a genius.
	I mean, all you need is one of those drone target locator devices in your pocket, also known as a smartphone.
	That's how you target a guy like that.
	I got a lot of briefings over the past two days, so we can get into that in a moment.
	I want to hear what other clips you have.
	I do want to play one brief one here from Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
	She's a congresswoman from Florida.
	Not well liked here on the No Agenda show.
	And of course, she had to go where you mentioned just a minute ago.
	Oh, well...
	We all know what this is really about.
	We know why Trump does these things.
	What I think is going on here, frankly, is that this action was taken more in President Trump's self-interest rather than our national interest.
	We had damning developments in just the last day where emails came out that made it very clear that They covered up the real reason behind the withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars to Ukraine.
	Donald Trump was just impeached a week and a half ago.
	And we need to get to the bottom of how and who helped him carry out this illegal cover-up.
	To allow him to withhold aid, to help him politically and personally, allow Ukraine to interfere in the presidential election 2020.
	That's outrageous, and I think that has a lot to do with what this is about.
	Somebody get W. Wasserman the latest memo, please.
	She's way off message here.
	Well, you know, she used to write those messages and pretty much...
	I think she still has the ability to go freelance.
	She's gone rogue!
	We'll do it live!
	Alright.
	Okay, let's go.
	Let's just skip the rest of the ABC stuff.
	It's not that good.
	Let's go to Amy and this will be The United States has assassinated the Iranian commander Major General Qasem Soleimani in a major escalation of the conflict between Iran and the United States, which now threatens to engulf Iraq and the Middle East.
	President Trump authorized the drone strike that killed Soleimani at the Baghdad International Airport.
	It killed also four other people, including a high-level Iraqi militia chief.
	This happened Thursday night, U.S. time, Friday morning in Baghdad.
	General Soleimani has long been one of the most powerful figures in Iran.
	He was the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, Iran's powerful foreign military force similar to a combination of the CIA and U.S. special forces.
	Iran called Soleimani's assassination an act of international terrorism.
	Yeah.
	Did you hear what she said?
	What part?
	She said that Trump called the assassination of Soleimani an act of international terrorism.
	Let me hear that again.
	Powerful foreign military force similar to a combination of the CIA and U.S. special forces.
	Iran called Soleimani's assassination an act of international...
	No, Iran, not Trump.
	Iran called it that.
	Oh.
	Well, I misheard.
	I'm hoping for the best.
	Okay, you're right, Iran.
	What are you doing, Dvorak?
	I'm losing the plot.
	Let's go to Rundown 2.
	If the Islamic Republic decides to challenge and fight a country, it will do so unequivocally.
	We're strongly committed to our country's interests and our peace.
	We're strongly committed to the dignity of our country.
	We're strongly committed to the progress and greatness of our country.
	And if anyone threatens that, we will, without any hesitation, confront it and strike it.
	The rocket assassination came after members of an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia and its supporters attacked the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and set fire to a gatehouse in response to a slew of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria that killed two dozen members of the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, Qatayb Hezbollah.
	These strikes were in retaliation for the killing of an American contractor in a rocket attack in Kirkuk, Iraq, a week ago.
	You know, I don't know about you, but it seems to me that the Iraqis have no control over their own country.
	All this action is Iranian.
	Oh, yeah.
	Oh, yeah.
	Well, there's...
	I mean, I have a bit of an analysis.
	I want to wait and see what clips we get out of the way first.
	All right, we'll play clip three of Amy.
	We'll get her rolling here.
	The head of Qaeda Hezbollah, Abu Mehdi al-Mohandas, was also killed in the drone strike.
	The New York Times reports General Soleimani had flown into Baghdad from Syria in order to urge Iranian-backed militias in Iraq to do more to stop the wave of anti-Iran protests that have swept Iraq in recent months.
	The militias are already accused of killing and disappearing protesters and human rights activists.
	The Pentagon has sent more than 14,000 U.S. troops to the region since May.
	The U.S. is now warning American civilians to leave Iraq immediately.
	The attack has sparked fear and alarm in Iraq and across the world.
	France's deputy minister for foreign affairs said this morning,"...we are waking up in a more dangerous world." Tensions between the United States and Iran have been escalating since President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the landmark Iran nuclear deal and imposed crushing economic sanctions on Iran.
	In response to the assassination, protests are planned Saturday in at least 30 cities across the U.S. as part of a National Day of Action U.S. troops out of Iraq.
	Now, as usual, Democracy Now!
	and ABC, and I'm sure most mainstream networks in the United States, really had no analysis.
	It was just regurgitating, blah, blah, blah, and a protest.
	No one really went into it.
	Well, there was no analysis, which I actually prefer, especially for democracy now.
	The analysis they do is so poor.
	Okay.
	Well, the BBC, the CIA basically went straight to BBC. They had all their guys out there.
	Everybody was talking to the BBC. Yeah, okay.
	Well, I mean, I think that they were trying to...
	Well, you got to do it as part of the system.
	I mean, you want to plant the information overseas and then point to it.
	I mean, otherwise you're going to get Tom Friedman going on and on about the guy being a moron.
	So I have a couple of clips from the BBC News Hour regarding, well, the whole, really the whole sequence.
	So first about, you know, the actual reasoning for doing this.
	Well, here's the clip.
	I've spoken now to two officials who were briefed on the intelligence that led to the strike.
	And what they're both saying is that the claim that there was a human attack that would have claimed...
	What?
	I said, is she in a library?
	Why is she whispering her report?
	It's a very serious matter.
	What they're both saying is that the claim that there was an imminent attack that would have claimed hundreds of lives is razor thin.
	In fact, the intelligence showed three things.
	Number one, there was a pattern of travel for General Soleimani that showed that he had been in Iraq, in Lebanon, and in Syria, meeting with Shia proxies that are known to have a confrontational relationship with the U.S.
	Number two, there was chatter of a conversation between this general.
	Yeah, this chatter word actually popped up a couple of times in emails that I was sent from people.
	Hey, there's chatter.
	Whenever someone says chatter...
	I'm thinking you're a spook.
	Unless you're copying something from a spook verbatim in the news.
	Two, there was chatter of a conversation between this general and the supreme leader of Iran, where the general said something on the order of, I would like to have approval for this operation.
	And the leader of Iran asked him to come to Tehran for consultations.
	Basically not giving a go ahead.
	And thirdly, there's been a pattern of increasing bellicosity towards U.S. interests in the area that we saw with the attack on the walls of the embassy.
	But what the officials are telling me is that even though 1, 2, and 3 are worrying, it is not evidence of what we have been told, which is this imminent attack.
	So there was a conflation, if you like, of these three bits of evidence and a deduction that something big was planned and that the targets were American.
	That's right.
	And as one official put it, it was an illogical leap.
	So, this I thought was interesting, because what it implies is that there was a difference of opinion between the supreme leader of Iran, I guess that would be Khomeini, and Soleimani.
	And Khomeini didn't want him to go ahead with this, didn't want him to do this big strike, which is apparently what we counterstruck.
	I thought that was interesting that there may have been some disagreement in the ranks there.
	Trump was subsequently presented with a smorgasbord of options of things he could do.
	And mind you, I think that the president's coming into a room and the only people he might be able to trust there are his daughter and her son-in-law.
	But then again, no, probably not.
	Everybody there hates Iran.
	Everybody wants to bomb the shit out of them.
	So he chose the extreme option.
	As I understand it, the assassination of General Soleimani was one of many options being discussed as retaliation for the attack on an Iraqi airbase which killed an American contractor on December the 27th.
	That's right.
	So the discussions appear to have begun with President Trump on the 27th of December, following the strike that killed this American contractor.
	And at that point, he was presented what one source described to me as a menu of options, where the killing of selling money was basically the far out most extreme measure that could be taken.
	At that point, on the 27th, the president himself did not choose that option.
	He chose a more moderate path, which was a strike on several bases that were linked to this Iranian backed militia in Iraq and in the region.
	However, soon after that, what we saw was an attack by Iranian backed elements on the wall of the U.S. embassy.
	And at that point, President Trump decided to go for this much more extreme option.
	Yeah, I'm going to call bull crap on that.
	So Agent Orange, military intelligence, he actually called me.
	Friday.
	Rarely does he call.
	He called me to explain what he thought was happening.
	I got a lot of different briefings from people.
	You know, there's some Pechenik information as well.
	But I think that something else is going on here and that this may have been a very interesting move by Trump.
	Although, again, I'm against all drone killings.
	I don't like it at all.
	So, Tulemani, a little bit of background, which I don't think anyone gave any proper background, he's a hero of the Iran-Iraq War.
	He was promoted to division commander when he was 23.
	Well, we've all heard he was Mr.
	James Bond, all superstar, he's fantastic.
	So he becomes the commander of the Revolutionary Guard, and then commander of the Quds Force, which is...
	It's kind of like special forces, but it really has a different position from what I understand.
	It's above the Iranian armed forces, so they have kind of their own special status.
	So when Ahmadinejad was in power...
	The Revolutionary Guard, there was a privatization scheme that got underway, and the RG, the Revolutionary Guard, came in possession, really, or control of a lot of important organizations.
	They had economic power.
	They were given control over border regions, the Secret Service, the Straits of Hormuz, all the Revolutionary Guard, but also they had smuggling networks, money laundering, Really, proxy wars, that's what this guy was doing.
	And he was the master of the proxy war strategy.
	Close ties to Putin, which of course ties into everything that happened in Syria.
	So this guy, in short, formidable force.
	He had, what they say, 50,000 troops.
	Armed and trained, shutting down the Gulf of Hormuz, making us shoot down our own drones over the Straits of Hormuz.
	Whether they shot it down or we didn't doesn't make any difference.
	But because of this, this guy is also a political force to be reckoned for.
	And once Khomeini started tweeting back at Trump, which we saw with the so-called breach of the green zone and the embassy, which, you know, you and I, this thing, it's a fortress.
	You cannot get in.
	You can get in through the first wall if you have a pass.
	And you'd only get that far if they let you.
	Yeah, and you got a pass and you can come in.
	There were special forces there.
	I have pictures of special forces there as that was taking place.
	So no way was there any danger of anything really happening.
	So that may have been part of a setup.
	And I think when you see Khomeini and Trump...
	Tweeting back and forth.
	Well, we're going to kick your ass.
	Well, we'll kick 52 of your asses for every one of those people you had in 1979.
	Then I knew it.
	The show is on.
	Everything's determined.
	It's all over.
	This was something that benefits...
	Khomeini.
	It benefits him to have this guy out of the way.
	Trump has wanted to have a deal with Iran, and now they're just playing the game back and forth to make it all look real.
	I think that this may have even been done in cahoots with the mullahs and with Khomeini.
	Well, that's an interesting thesis because...
	If it's true that he didn't want this Soleimani to do some plan, and Soleimani's probably pretty much of an independent contractor at this point, he could do it anyway?
	Very much so.
	He has to be taken out.
	Yes.
	So, there could have been some back-channel action saying, yeah, it's okay, why don't you just blow him up and we'll deal with it later.
	Now, and mind you, Soleimani was in Iraq.
	Let me just get my notes here.
	He was in Iraq because there was bad blood with al-Amir.
	Al-Amir is the leader of the Badr party in Iraq.
	So there was already all kinds of strife.
	And I think Al-Amir actually...
	So Al-Amir was supposed to have a meeting with Soleimani.
	He cancels, sends his deputy, who also got iced in this drone strike.
	So he took out his own possible political foe or adversary, second-in-command in Iraq.
	You know, I'm not going to say Trump is the genius mastermind behind this.
	I think it would be more something that Khomeini himself came up with.
	But to me, and every Iranian you would speak to, and I know many of them, they always say the same thing, but...
	Khomeini and the Americans are all playing together.
	It's one big game.
	And they know it.
	But this guy, who they got rid of, I think he may have been a real problem.
	And it may actually change things for the better.
	A deal could be possibly in the future.
	I certainly don't think we're going to see anyone.
	We're not going to see retaliation.
	We already had a sorry-ass, lame, fake news bullcrap.
	They hacked one of the United States government websites.
	Did you see this?
	Yeah.
	Of some division I've never heard of.
	There's a question that has never been asked.
	It never crops up.
	I can't find the answer to it.
	And it seems somewhat important.
	It's the progenesis of the whole thing.
	Which is...
	They keep talking about the American contractor.
	Who was this guy?
	Yeah, that's a good question.
	Was he a CIA guy?
	Was he an NSA guy?
	Was he some bonehead from Bechdel?
	I mean, who was he?
	What's his name?
	Well...
	Yeah, we don't know that.
	At least I haven't found it.
	But 30% of all activity is done by contractors.
	This is why these a-holes love war.
	It's because it's commercial business.
	All this big money.
	It's been completely outsourced.
	Before we continue, let me just give you a few choice sound bits here of who people think will get killed in retaliation or who the possible targets could be.
	Oh yeah, we're going to turn this into a really big super shit show.
	Yet, previous U.S. presidents, when given the opportunity to kill him, passed on it because they were fearful of what it would unleash.
	So what could the consequences be this time?
	Well, this is the problem, Laura.
	We don't know.
	But you're absolutely right.
	Previous administrations certainly thought about, may have had opportunities as they characterized that they passed on those opportunities because they didn't know how Iran would respond.
	It's dangerous business for states to start killing off each other's highest level leaders.
	We probably wouldn't like it if the Iranians killed off someone like a Mike Pompeo, who's more or less equivalent to Qasem Soleimani in their system.
	Okay, there's one vote for Mike Pompeo.
	Let's go to Senator Tom Udall.
	And I think what the President has done here, killing this major general that is a part of the defense establishment in Iran, is the same thing as if they had attacked us and assassinated our Secretary of Defense.
	On a foreign trip someplace.
	This is getting us into a very bad road and putting us on a very bad path.
	Secretary of Defense, of course, no one knows Esper, so it wouldn't even make the second page of the newspaper.
	Let's talk to the U.S. NATO Admiral James Stavridis.
	Potentially raising the stakes for American military planners.
	Military to military, how would you expect the Iranians would fare against the U.S.? They would fare badly.
	They cannot match us in conventional forces, but they are masters of asymmetric warfare.
	The Iranians may turn around and attempt the same kind of activity against a U.S. ambassador.
	And then they would say this was a proportional operation.
	I got news for you.
	Nothing's going to happen.
	No retaliation.
	This is a stupid show.
	And it's, you know what, this was even to some degree predicted by our buddy, unfortunately he's no longer with us, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the grand chess game, the architect, the master, the man who knows all, the man who fathered Mika Brzezinski, and we're still pissed off about it.
	In 2008, he made the following statement on a C-SPAN show about Iran's relationship to the United States and Iran's relationship with Iraq.
	So the three countries that are in play right here, right now.
	Iran, Iraq, and the United States.
	We can certainly take another look at some recent historical experience.
	After 9-11, we decided to go into Afghanistan.
	For obvious reasons.
	To eliminate Al-Qaeda.
	Which country was close to being most helpful to us when we undertook that task?
	Iran.
	This is completely ignored in any public discussion of Iran, which is consistently painted as a menacing enemy of the United States.
	They're no friends of ours.
	I have no illusions about that.
	But because of their own national interest, they chose to be helpful to us in Afghanistan in a very significant way.
	Why shouldn't they be helpful to us in Iraq?
	They have mixed interests.
	They don't like the Iraqis, Sunni Arabs, previous rivals, but at the same time they don't like our presence there.
	I think we could discuss some arrangements in which perhaps, emphasized perhaps in capital letters, we could reach some understanding.
	But we'll never know the answer to that possibility unless we try.
	But there certainly is some communality of interest here in a stable Middle East.
	And let me add one more dimension which should be of importance to most Americans.
	We are in the midst of a growing energy crunch.
	Have we spent any time publicly discussing what would be the consequences for energy of an American-Iranian accommodation?
	What would happen to the price of oil if there was this dramatic increase in Iranian flows?
	What would happen to the objective of energy diversity for Europe?
	If Iranian oil and gas could flow through Turkey to Europe, these are strategic interests of ours which are being completely ignored in a kind of blind antagonism or self-perpetuating.
	So there's all kinds of reasons for us to be working with Iran.
	Secretly.
	Of course.
	It's important that that's the most important part because Saudi Arabia, who's our big buddy, they hate Iran.
	And for a whole bunch of reasons, not just oil, something about religion.
	They disagree on stuff.
	And we're their pals and we have to, to an extreme.
	Yep.
	And...
	We can't be doing the bidding of Iran, which is what we have done on the basis of your theory, by blowing up this character, who they maybe wanted dead, because he's getting to be uppity.
	Well, he's very annoying.
	He's causing a lot...
	Well, he's a big dog on campus.
	So, yeah, I think that this is much more devious than we're seeing.
	It definitely benefits Trump by getting everyone off of impeachment, talking about something else.
	There's no doubt that that helps.
	You know the funny thing about Trump's reputation?
	The right-wing talkers don't see it the way you do, or I do for that matter.
	They see it as the following.
	Obama, you know, he had a shot at this guy.
	He never took it.
	And Clinton could have killed Osama bin Laden two years before 9-11.
	They had a shot at him and they wouldn't take it.
	And so everybody had these shots at these guys.
	And history would have been so much better if, like, for example, Clinton had killed Osama bin Laden when he had the chance.
	Of course, that doesn't include the possibility that Osama bin Laden was working for us all along.
	Yeah.
	And may not even be dead.
	But that's beside the point.
	Clinton had a shot at him, didn't take it.
	Obama wouldn't take a shot, even though Obama's shooting everybody out of this drone list.
	Let's kill this guy today.
	Yeah, well, he had the kill list Tuesday.
	The kill list.
	But Trump, again, under Trump, there's been more drone killings.
	Very disappointed in all this.
	And to top it off...
	Oh, I can't believe the President said this.
	As President, my highest and most solemn duty is the defense of our nation and its citizens.
	No!
	It is to defend, uphold, protect the Constitution.
	That is your oath.
	That is your highest order of business.
	That is your duty.
	Oh, God, I despise that.
	So, what it will do, for sure, is set the machine rolling.
	Everybody gets to tweet.
	Everybody gets to say something.
	Do you see what Rose McGowan said?
	Oh, she's nuts, that woman.
	Dear Iran, the USA has disrespected your country, your flag, your people.
	52% of us humbly apologize.
	She speaks on behalf of 52% of the country, apparently.
	We want peace with your nation.
	We are being held hostage by a terrorist regime.
	We do not know how to escape.
	Please do not kill us.
	Wow.
	And she actually issued an apology, or not an apology, an explanation of what she meant, and she did it in a video.
	I don't support Iran over America.
	I want America to be better.
	I want rape to stop.
	And I want Harvey Weinstein to go to jail.
	See, she can't let that go.
	They're not wrong.
	Like Trumpers and right-wingers, and they're like, Hollywood's a bunch of fake liberals.
	I'm like...
	Yeah, they're not wrong.
	They aid and abet many, many criminals.
	Here's the thing.
	I do not believe governments.
	I don't believe Iran's government.
	I don't believe American government.
	Clinton, on the eve of his impeachment, launched rockets at Iraq.
	I mean, and this is the weirdest part.
	I became so disenfranchised with the Democrats after learning to the extent and knowing how closely Weinstein worked with the Democratic Party for years, how interlinked he was.
	Now I said he was Hollywood's cult leader.
	But he was protected by the Democratic Party, for sure.
	So I grew so disenfranchised and disgusted with him.
	And I'm somebody who, like, when I first moved to America, when I was 10, I was handing out Vote Dukakis cigarettes in little cellophane bags.
	Like, I would knock on doors.
	Like, a cigarette, Vote Dukakis.
	When I was 11, I was handing out anti-Iran pamphlets, like opposing Sharia law and their treatment of women and children in Iran.
	I come from an extremely political family, and I was raised this way.
	Yeah, well, she's cuckoo.
	I don't think that made anything better for what she just said, because all she can do is, you know, then bring it around to herself and Weinstein, etc.
	Kallen Kaepernick tweets, There's nothing new about American terrorist attacks against black and brown people for the expansion of American imperialism.
	America has always sanctioned and besieged black and brown bodies both at home and abroad.
	American militarism is the weapon wielded by American imperialism to enforce its policing and plundering of the non-white world.
	Thanks, Cap.
	What an idiot.
	You know, he makes a mistake.
	It's brown people who live in sandy areas, okay?
	It's not just brown people universally.
	If you live in sand and you're brown, then you've got to watch your back.
	But these types of responses is unhinged.
	And the whole thing is unhinged.
	But the whole thing...
	Anyway.
	Now there's a back and forth between Steve Kerr, who's condemning Pence.
	For being a liar and then trumps it by him.
	It's the basketball guys.
	It brings us right back to your basketball analysis where that guy from FS1 accused the entire NBA of being in China's pocket.
	Well, the tweet that Pence put out there saying, well, you know, this guy is related to the 9-11 attacks.
	Pence is full of crap.
	That was totally bullcrap.
	He's like, yeah, they came from Iran.
	No!
	I don't understand where Pence was allowed to make this tweet.
	And I think that if anyone's going to make up some bullcrap retaliation list, put Pence on the top.
	He's the number two guy.
	He's the guy that should be watching his back.
	Whatever he was tweeting, that was not approved.
	He was not read in.
	I don't know why he did that.
	It makes no sense.
	Factually, it made no sense.
	What has Steve Kerr got to do with it?
	Everybody's part of the machine.
	If you're on television, if you have a platform, you're part of the machine.
	And this was the reddest meat you can give the machine.
	Everybody loves it.
	And honestly, it's good for our show.
	We get to talk about something different for a little bit.
	But what a piss-poor analysis from everybody.
	It truly looks more like Wag the Dog than any kind of scene.
	Yes, very wag.
	In fact, it started with...
	It started with the death of the unknown contractor.
	Right.
	And it's been wagged a dog ever since.
	Yeah, with the green zone, with people walking around with brand new flags, lobbying.
	Even the so-called protesters were saying, look at these gas canisters Americans are shooting at us.
	There's nothing.
	Because it wasn't anything.
	It was not intended to be anything.
	But, I guess we'll, maybe we can crack down at the airports, maybe the TSA. I mean, this is not over yet.
	This is just beginning, and I think we'll see the security state getting all jitty.
	We've seen the stocks are up.
	Everybody loves that.
	Oil's going to go up.
	It's fantastic for everybody.
	Oil's going to skyrocket.
	Except for the schmoes.
	Although it should, because Iranian oil's not even on the table.
	But, they figure that, well, maybe this will escalate and it'll affect the other oil-producing regions.
	Some historical context for this.
	We all know the Wesley Clark, General Wesley Clark, Seven Countries in Five Years clip.
	In fact, I'll play it just so we can remember what it is.
	Seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finishing off Iran.
	So these were the seven countries that we were going to attack in five years after 9-11.
	This was given to him in a verbal briefing.
	No.
	No, he handed him a sheet of paper.
	He had to hand the paper back, but he read through the paper.
	He tells it a little differently in a new version of the story, which I've come into possession of.
	It's a little different.
	The sheet of paper was not the actual order, and I wanted to play this clip because it explains very clearly when this really started and where this is all coming from and who the players are that are involved, and that there's an entire faction in the media, in academia, of course in the military-industrial complex, and in the U.S. government who want this still today.
	And then I came back to the Pentagon about six weeks later.
	I saw the same officer.
	I said, why haven't we attacked Iraq?
	Are we still going to attack Iraq?
	He said, oh, sir.
	He says, it's worse than that.
	He pulled up a piece of paper off his desk.
	He said, I just got this memo.
	See, he didn't hand it to him.
	He's reading it to him.
	From the Secretary of Defense's office, it says we're going to attack and destroy the governments in seven countries in five years.
	We're going to start with Iraq, and then we're going to move to Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.
	Seven countries in five years.
	I said, is that a classified memo?
	He said, yes, sir.
	I said, well, don't show it to me.
	He was about to show it to me.
	I don't want to talk about it.
	Now, listen to what he says, though.
	Listen to what he says, why he doesn't want it.
	Seven countries in five years.
	I said, is that a classified memo?
	He said, yes, sir.
	I said, well, don't show it to me.
	He was about to show it to me.
	He said, because I want to talk about it.
	Apparently, if you haven't actually seen the memo, then you haven't seen the classified information, I guess?
	This is an interesting question because this brought up some people in the intelligence community that can't look at WikiLeaks.
	Yeah, right.
	You can hear about it, but if you actually see the actual document, then you've been read it.
	I'm not sure.
	This is a question that somebody needs to answer for us because we don't know the answer to it, which should be phrased as following.
	If you know something's top secret...
	But you don't know, but you've not seen any, you have not personally seen the memo, the top secret information, or you've never been actually shown it.
	But you know it's top secret because somebody told you it was.
	And you're in the community, right?
	Well, according to Clark here, yes.
	I said, is that a classified memo?
	He said, yes, sir.
	I said, well, don't show it to me.
	He was about to show it to me because I want to talk about it.
	And I couldn't believe it would really be true.
	But that's actually what happened.
	These people took control of the policy in the United States.
	And I realized then, it came back to me, a 1991 meeting I had with Paul Wolfowitz.
	You know, in 2001 he was Deputy Secretary of Defense, but in 1991 he was the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
	It's the number three position in the Pentagon.
	So I called and...
	Up there, he was available, and he brought me in, and I said to Paul, and this is 1991, I said, Mr.
	Secretary, you must be pretty happy with the performance of the troops in Desert Storm.
	And he said, well, yeah, he said, but not really, he said, because the truth is we should have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein, and we didn't.
	And he said, but one thing we did learn, he said, we learned that we can use our military in the region, in the Middle East, and the Soviets won't stop us.
	He said, and we've got about five or ten years to clean up those old Soviet client regimes, Syria, Iran, Iraq, before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us.
	It was a pretty stunning thing.
	You mean the purpose of the military is to start wars and change governments?
	It's not to sort of deter conflict?
	We're going to invade countries?
	And you know, my mind was spinning.
	This country...
	Was taken over by a group of people with a policy coup.
	Wolfowitz and Cheney and Rumsfeld and you could name a half dozen other collaborators from the Project for a New American Century.
	They wanted us to destabilize the Middle East, turn it upside down, make it under our control.
	And that's what's going on here to this day still.
	With these jagoffs who do this stuff.
	Well, that's interesting.
	Let's try to reanalyze the idea that this Soleimani guy had to be taken out because he was working against those interests.
	Because he was...
	He would have led to the possibility...
	The real proof of the pudding, whatever, of some other pudding is, is whether or not at the...
	End of this whole series of events.
	Iran gets rubblized or not.
	Oh yeah, I guarantee you it's not going to happen.
	Guaranteed it's not going to happen.
	What happened here is someone went too far.
	If you kill American boys and girls in the military, okay, that's just what happens.
	You kill a contractor?
	Like part of an American business?
	Now we're pissed off.
	That's what I'm seeing.
	That's what I'm seeing.
	This is disgusting.
	Like what?
	You're hurting our company now?
	This is bottom line stuff.
	No, no, no, no.
	We can't have that.
	Now, how complicit Trump was in this, I don't know.
	He was at Mar-a-Lago, behind closed doors.
	The press pool didn't see him come in or out, really.
	This is during the New Year's celebration and thereafter.
	So he might have been a big part of it.
	Most of the reports that I have, I still have a lot of clips which we don't have to play.
	I'm interested if there's anything good in there.
	But there was mention of Trump during the whole thing.
	Playing golf!
	I thought he was eating ice cream again.
	Wasn't that the report?
	He's eating ice cream!
	He's playing golf, but playing the golf didn't match the timeline because generally speaking he plays golf in the morning while we're doing our show.
	Right.
	And this happened later.
	It was in the Early morning over there, but he wouldn't be playing golf after it gets dark.
	Nobody plays golf at night.
	You lose the ball.
	Yeah, it's not a great time to play golf.
	I don't know how complicit he was, but just looking at the show that's unfolding, This is 21st century warfare.
	This is 21st century stuff.
	We're used to it here, Trump tweeting around, blah, blah, blah, whatever.
	But for Khomeini to tweet back, that was the tell for me.
	That's like, okay.
	He's like, hey.
	Hey, Khomeini, guy, listen up.
	Tweet back at me, man.
	Come on, clap back.
	I'm going to say something, you say something, and then we'll talk about stuff.
	And you threaten, I'll threaten.
	And meanwhile, let's work on a deal, man.
	Let's work on a deal.
	Work something out.
	You stay in power.
	You stay big.
	I think the analysis, my analysis is clear.
	But complete wag the dog scenario, and we'll see how long the media can run with it.
	They'll take it as long as they'll try to scare the public as best they can.
	But the problem is, for them, it's detracting from impeachment talk.
	So there are agendas here at home that need to be satisfied.
	Oh, I'm sure they're hand-wringing over this.
	The more we talk about this, it's going to make Trump look good.
	You can't have that.
	There's no doubt about that on my mind.
	Now, let's play this.
	This is Amy.
	She goes on and on with a very long explanation of everything.
	But she does bring this guy on, you know, to discuss it.
	They never bring anybody on that's balanced.
	They bring some socialists on.
	But they did bring this guy on.
	And I just want to play a little bit of this.
	He's from the Quincy Institute, which is some new think tank.
	And by the way, this is where you make money.
	These think tanks, they just get a bunch of money.
	In this case, I don't know who he gets the money from, or him and the Quincy Institute.
	Do you name it after some...
	Like some founding father's kind of name, Quincy, John Quincy Adams.
	So you give us some name like that, the Hamilton Institute.
	Yeah, you either use that or you put the word freedom in there.
	Yeah, freedom.
	Freedom, heritage.
	It's all good.
	All good.
	So this guy comes on, he's got absolutely nothing to tell us except he just doesn't like Trump.
	Welcome to Democracy Now!
	Trita Parsi, your response to the assassination of Soleimani.
	I think a couple of former Obama officials on TV yesterday put it best when they said that this is an act of war.
	And it's an act of war that took place without Any consultation with Congress, any approval from Congress, any authorization from Congress.
	It's fascinating to see that the last couple of days Pompeo has been spending a lot of time talking to the foreign ministers and the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Israel.
	Not until today did he actually start making phone calls to the Europeans and others.
	So this is something that is going to be a major point of escalation.
	It's a decision that I think ultimately has made America less rather than more safe.
	I think that's clear from the decision by the State Department today to urge all Americans to immediately leave Iraq.
	Rather than ending these endless wars that Trump promised his base that he would do, he's sending more troops to the Middle East, he's doing things that is further destabilizing the Middle East, and that will probably trap American service men and women in the Middle East for a longer period of time.
	So we have the same memes over and over from all the reporters and from every analyst on this side of the water that it makes us less safe and Congress wasn't consulted.
	That's it.
	That's all they got.
	That's all they got.
	Congress wasn't consulted and as you pointed out and everybody really knows this, Congress doesn't need to be supported.
	I'm sorry, informed about a drone hit on someone?
	No.
	When have they ever been informed of it?
	When Obama had his hit list, was he calling Congress up and saying, what do you think, Nancy?
	Should I kill this guy at the wedding?
	We went into Syria without a declaration of war.
	Come on.
	But that's just grasping at straws.
	But more importantly, did I hear you say that there's real money in these think tanks?
	Is that possibly the exit strategy we should be looking at?
	There's real money in these think tanks if you know how to manage one.
	We need somebody out there who can do grantsmanship.
	So I think we should have the Curry Dvorak Lincoln Washington Consortium?
	Don't you think so?
	Doesn't that sound official?
	Consortium group?
	No, what do we need?
	Curry Dvorak Lincoln Washington Confab.
	No.
	I'm looking for the right one.
	I think Lincoln-Washington is just a good beginning.
	Curry and Dvorak, who are those guys?
	So just put Lincoln-Washington Consulting?
	Washington-Lincoln.
	Lincoln-Washington.
	Yeah.
	Lincoln-Washington-Washington.
	You'd have focus group this baby.
	Can we just throw JFK in there for good measure?
	No, JFK's out.
	He's out.
	Okay.
	So I think the Lincoln-Washington Consulting Group.
	Yeah.
	Okay.
	It might work.
	Lincoln-Washington.
	Who's Lincoln?
	Who's Washington?
	Well, you know.
	We have to...
	Greatest president ever in the founding father.
	How about strategy group?
	That's better.
	Lincoln-Washington strategy group.
	People can watch this in real time as we develop this.
	And with that, I'd like to thank you very much for your courage and say in the morning to you, the man who put the sea in the Lincoln, Washington Strategy Consulting Group, John C. Dvorak.
	Well, in the morning to you, Mr.
	Adam Curry.
	In the morning, strips of sea, boots on the ground, feet in the air, subs in the water, all the names of nights out there.
	That was quite a stretch.
	In the morning to the trolls in the troll room, noagendastream.com is where we love to see you hang out on our live show days.
	Currently 1,376 trolls on the stream.
	We know why, because it's a big day.
	We had an event on a show day, and the next show day we break it down.
	I think we've delivered at least a reasonable deconstruction of what is taking place here.
	Certainly better than the amygdala enlarging crap you're going to get on the mainstream media in the coming week, or the coming days or coming weeks.
	So trolls hang out in the troll room to feed us information, to throw out one-liners, and basically to troll the host of any show that's playing live on the stream.
	Which is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
	Check it out for yourself.
	NoagendaStream.com.
	Also, a big in the morning to the artist who brought us the artwork for episode 1204.
	We titled that one Hunt the Wumpus.
	If you don't know what that means and you didn't listen to the show.
	And it was, I think by far, the best popping piece of art.
	It was thought about.
	It was a nice piece.
	Comic strip blogger returns.
	With the album artwork for episode 1204.
	It was a concept piece.
	It was the jail, someone hanging on to the bars of a prison with Chinese fireworks.
	And it was Chinese because the stars looked like the Chinese.
	Yeah, it was dynamite.
	The whole thing was nice.
	It was a very good piece.
	And Comic Street Blogger kicks off the new year with the first win for artwork.
	You can find all of the entries.
	They're already stacking up as we speak.
	Artists like to...
	They kind of have to listen to the show in real time to put this art together.
	Because right after the show, once we're done...
	Round of applause for Count the Strip 1.
	Once we're done, we choose the art pretty much within 10, 15 minutes, depending on whatever things we're doing to ship the show out the door.
	Noagendaartgenerator.com.
	And there still seems to be some issues with people signing up.
	They don't get their sign-up emails, and I've sent another email to Sir Paul Couture about this.
	So it seems like it's kind of hit or miss, people who are able to sign up and continue.
	The whole thing is falling apart.
	I hope not.
	Internet.
	It's the microservices of the No Agenda show that are falling apart.
	And boy, are we built on microservices.
	We barely run anything ourselves.
	It's all part of our value for value network, which is the great thing about it.
	The briefings I received, clips, producer notes, personal experience.
	It's because the people who listen are the producers.
	And many of them check in every single show as an executive producer or an associate executive producer because they supported us financially.
	And we'd like to thank some of these people.
	Now, we think we have the whole list.
	Eric the Shill was back in Tumbleweed Terror.
	In the Pacific Northwest.
	Now, is this a storm that's going on that the power keeps going out up there?
	Windstorms.
	Windstorm?
	I've not heard of this happening.
	Well, that's what happened with the tumbleweeds.
	No, I mean, it's happened twice in a week, but is this something historically that takes place?
	This is what bothers me about you.
	Me?
	Yeah.
	We have the fires in Australia.
	We have these crazy windstorms that make no sense.
	and not once, not once have you brought up the idea of a weather machine.
	I've been waiting.
	It's not.
	Well, I call it as I see it.
	Australia is clearly the arsonist who they just knock on their door and say, hey, time to go.
	And I don't know what's going on with Eric the Shill.
	The wind is a problem in Australia, too.
	I mean, the reason those fires are out of control is because of the wind.
	And when we had these fires in California recently, the Paradise Fire and all the other ones last year, the year before, It was all wind-based.
	Now they're shutting down our power, and PG&E shuts down the power of the wind.
	Wind!
	Oh!
	It's like we never had wind before.
	What's causing this wind?
	All this new wind.
	I'm sorry.
	I was focused on Wag the Dog.
	From the wag to the wind.
	I'll take note.
	I'll work on it.
	I feel like a bad crackpot.
	I've been waiting and waiting and waiting, so I had to bring it up now, so I look like a nutball.
	Let's thank some of our executive producers.
	Well, let's start with Sir Obi-Wan.
	Obi-Wan of Weakapog, I guess.
	And he came in with the $371.20.
	And...
	He sends us a copy of War and Peace.
	Thank you.
	Well, we can skip some of this.
	Well, it says, Happy New Year's podcast has been top-notch recently.
	You recently inspired me to raise my daughters to be as woke.
	No agenda woke, which is different.
	It's a very different woke.
	Very different woke.
	My wife, who is a mere...
	$150 away from being Dame Cara of Wikipog.
	Gave birth in November to our second little girl.
	She's healthy as can be.
	And we could use some new baby goat karma to keep the journey smooth.
	Excellent.
	Yes.
	Now, he's sending a lot of stuff about DNA testing and specifically 23andMe.
	I will read this part.
	It's part of my effort to keep my girls woke...
	I've decided to drop the letter T from their lives entirely.
	I figure this will only get them ahead in life as they grow into society that's slowly eliminating one of our letters from existence.
	I have been busy whiting out the T's in all their books and on all toys.
	We completely cut out the burnt and burnt the T section of the dictionary and the T edition of Encyclopedia Britannica.
	It sleeps with the fishes.
	You with me?
	Yes.
	And suddenly he goes into this whole thing about how some people have had wonderful experiences with 23andMe, finding out that their family was not their family, but they got a new family.
	I don't know.
	I don't like surprises like that, personally.
	It's not for me to say.
	And he signs off with a note to the two of us, as it will be written in my house, he says, from this day forward, He really is her best podcast in her universe.
	Keep up her good work.
	You see?
	He's dropping all the T's.
	Yeah, I get it.
	Wow.
	He wants the baby goat human resource karma.
	You've got karma.
	I'm calling you Mr.
	Reader's Digest from now on.
	Good work.
	Sir Mad Hatter, Baron of the Broke State of Connecticut.
	Uh...
	Of the Connecticut gents, I guess.
	33333.
	Refer to me only...
	Okay.
	Baron, yeah.
	The show continues to be the only beacon of sanity in a world full of M5M bull poop.
	When I last donated, I mentioned I was involved with one of the current Democrats running for president.
	I got quite a chuckle at how both of you went right into the gutter.
	I should have specified I was involved with the campaign, not the candidate.
	That said, I will again request job karma.
	It's working.
	When my wife, Dame Jamie, made an unsolicited request for jobs karma, I got an interview request out of the blue.
	When I made my last donation, I got a follow-up for a second round.
	January 6th, I had an interview with the CTO hiring manager, and I want to make sure that the karma is fresh.
	Remember, And remember me with a new job.
	What?
	And remember...
	A new job means I can dish on the campaign without fear of consequence.
	As always, keep up the great work deconstructing the M5M. Jingle request, don't eat me.
	Don't eat me, Bo Biden.
	Oreos are more addictive than cocaine.
	And any combination of Rev.
	L. and Manning.
	End of show request.
	Ring doorbell hacks on you.
	Hey, Sir Mad Hatter, would you like me to come to your house and scratch your back?
	Anything else you'd like me to do?
	Don't eat me, Bo Biden.
	You're scary, sir.
	Oreos are just as addictive as cocaine.
	That's a show-nuff money shot!
	Woo, Jesus!
	Woo, Lord!
	Look at that!
	That's a money shot!
	Ken Ann Conway in a money shot!
	R-E-S-P-I-C-T Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs.
	Let's vote for jobs!
	We've got karma.
	I want to make a note for people out there, the donors especially in this category, the highest category.
	And actually all of them.
	First of all, the end of the show is typically sacrosacked and pre-produced by Adam in advance of the show.
	Thank you.
	So slopping in a request for something at the end of the show usually doesn't work.
	Usually.
	Especially since we played this one on the last show at the end of show.
	Yeah.
	So don't push into the end of the show because it changes things drastically.
	Thank you, John.
	And it's not something that we've normally done.
	It's only been recently that people have been putting stuff at the end and Adam tries to get it and a lot of times he's simply forgotten.
	I always write him about it because he promises to do it.
	But it's better not to request end of show stuff.
	Now, if you come in with $2,500, obviously, you know...
	Move to the front of the line.
	But, generally speaking...
	I'm going to come to your house, I'm going to bring my boom box and play the end of the show for you in front of your house.
	But, generally speaking, it interferes with the way the show is...
	Structured.
	A little bit, yeah.
	Thank you.
	Not always, but sometimes.
	But, Sir Mad Hatter, Baron of the Broke State of Connecticut, Jen, thank you for your support, for your production, and for your courage, of course.
	Sean Newcomer in Clinton, New York, 33333.
	My team, gents, all the best to you and the entire No Agenda family for 2020 for my outpost in central New York.
	Please give me a crazy train guy and jobs karma as I seek to pivot.
	Pivot, I tell you, into cyber security.
	Oh my god!
	Woo!
	Listen to that horn!
	Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs.
	Let's vote for jobs!
	Sam Leung in Toronto, Ontario, 33333.
	ITM gents consider this a contribution to Adam and Tina's fund to tour John's studio.
	Hopefully it'll cover some of Adam's breach of the non-denigration agreement as well.
	Well, I've gotten a lot of comments about your request for a non-disclosure if I were to be allowed by God's grace to see your studio for once in my life.
	And a lot of people responded immediately by saying that they were shocked.
	I mean, shocked, they tell me, that you of all people who considers non-disclosures to be an incredible breach on First Amendment rights and freedom of speech, it's quite odd that you would take this as a tool against your colleague.
	I can see that.
	I can see somebody coming up with that.
	Sure.
	And I agree.
	I think the last guy should be demanding non-disclosures, non-disparagement documents to be signed.
	Right.
	You're right.
	Everybody out there is exactly right because I hate these things.
	They're stupid.
	But yet you're going to make me sign one so I can't talk trash about your studio.
	Even though I would only say nice things.
	You've already given it away.
	You gave it away right there.
	You couldn't help yourself.
	Without even seeing the studio, you said you're going to talk trash about it.
	No, that's your insinuation that I would talk trash about it.
	You said it.
	Why are you worried?
	What are you hiding?
	What do you have to hide?
	Do you have something to hide?
	You must have something to hide.
	Is there something you don't want to tell us about?
	What's going on, John?
	You got something to hide?
	Headline.
	Former MTV VJ crushed in collector's home.
	The pile fell over.
	The pile of wooden Indians fell and crushed him.
	Onward.
	Thank you very much.
	By the way, Sam Lang and his wife, I believe they had a brand new baby resource.
	He's not claiming it here, but I think they might have a new resource.
	I'll say congratulations.
	He's one of our oldest supporters.
	He's one of our oldest supporters.
	He's one of our long-term supporters.
	He's always been supporting us.
	So just in case, I'm going to give them a little new human resource karma.
	You've got karma.
	Meanwhile, we have a second edition of War and Peace, this time from our associate executive producer, Sir Dave, Earl of America's heartland in Saudi Arabia.
	This is Fugus Odo.
	Yep.
	But his stuff is always interesting because he floats around somehow, magically from place to place.
	He's an interesting guy.
	He's an interesting guy.
	Many of our producers are a very interesting kind of guy.
	This is my first donation of the new year and offset by a week from the first 2020 show.
	By the way, he gave $220.20.
	Nice.
	Which is a lot of 20s.
	Just in case here's a good holiday, in case there's a post-holiday slump, and indeed there was.
	Dame Melody, Dame Isabella, and I had a lovely 25th of December here in Riyadh.
	And I had an opportunity to show them around this fascinating country.
	They left yesterday, and despite Saudi Airlines' best efforts, actually got home to middle America a few hours ago.
	So now he can talk.
	Because now he's alone again.
	They can't be kidding me.
	Now the countdown begins to our next meeting.
	Regarding Dr.
	Bronner's Castile soap, I'm a couple of years younger than Adam, but when I was a Boy Scout, Dr.
	Bronner always came along in my backpack on camping trips.
	While it was somewhat effective as soap, it was exceptionally aromatic, which after a few days on the trail was also appreciated.
	According to the Microscopic print on the bottles.
	Have you ever seen one of these bottles yet?
	Yes, I did.
	And I love his little rundown here of what's actually on the bottle in the microscopic print.
	Yeah.
	He says, Dr.
	Bronner can serve as a shampoo, body soap, dog soap, dishwashing soap, laundry soap, toothpaste, mouthwash, deodorant, massage oil, and ice cream topping.
	Yeah.
	Mucilage drinks, mixer and degreaser, personal lubricant, motor oil, refreshing beverage, laxative solvent, antiseptic, bug repellent, etc.
	This is an outstanding product.
	It's really a great product.
	It does all those things poorly.
	Truly a miraculous product.
	Everyone should keep a bottle close to the hand.
	And surprisingly, despite its many uses, it's not on Saudi Arabia's prohibited list.
	So everyone's soap up.
	I was mesmerized by the multiple, you know, when I was in the Middle East at one time, it was before 9-11, you couldn't even bring up a cell phone or a camera into Saudi Arabia.
	Oh, no, no.
	I was mesmerized by the multiple usages, but was smart enough even then to know that despite its useful nature, the political rantings of Dr.
	Bronner's manifesto was BS. Hopefully, the millennial fascination stops at the doctor's cleansing properties.
	Certainly, listening to the No Agenda show, a.k.a.
	the best podcast in the universe, is an antidote enough to counter any of these multi-purpose, more corrosive effects, which he's talking about the messaging on there.
	It's a bunch of communist stuff.
	Anyway, here's to another year of No Agenda continued...
	Presence of the cornerstone of my amygdala management program.
	May we, the No Agenda community cult, find blessings abundant in the new year.
	I like the amygdala management program, also known as AMP. Kind of like that.
	Amygdala Management Program.
	A lot of amps going on.
	Yes, for sure.
	Karma from both of us and for Isabella and Melody.
	You've got karma.
	Thanks a lot, Dave.
	Sir Pippen of the Space Coast in Louisville, Texas, 202. 02. 20202.
	ITM.
	Happy New Year's, gentlemen.
	I beg you for a dose of contract buyout negotiation karma.
	I could really use it.
	Please feel free to edit for brevity.
	I would add my input to the ongoing dissection of millennials and our sad idiosyncrasies.
	I'm a 28-year-old full attack developer.
	No, full stack.
	Full attack.
	Full stack.
	Full stack.
	He's a full stack guy.
	Full stack guy, full stack guy, full stack...
	Developer in Irving, Texas.
	John hit me in the mouth through Twit more than a decade ago.
	I've never heard of anyone using Venmo to pay their bills, but is widely used as a replacement for cash.
	I've only seen it.
	That's right.
	Venmo is a millennial thing.
	I don't have it on the list.
	We talked about it because Venmo had an outage and people were freaking out because they could not pay their bills.
	They definitely pay bills with it.
	Yeah.
	Fact.
	Fact.
	I've only seen it ever being used as Dr.
	Bronner's grandma.
	Pine tar soap for years.
	Extensive use of subtitles is...
	Oh, yes.
	That's another one.
	Subtitles.
	Too real.
	As a small get-together...
	You know, I talked about this Nick, Jay's fiancé.
	I said, well, I come in the TV room.
	He's there watching something and he's got the subtitles on.
	Ah!
	I said, subtitles?
	There's subtitles.
	And he claims...
	He's a musician.
	He claims that the subtitles are on because their sound is poorly mixed.
	You know, John, we've only talked about this for 50 days subsequently.
	I don't know why it's coming back up.
	As a small girl, as a small get-together of millennials, a girl asked, I'm reading again, to turn on the subtitles because she couldn't understand the Boston accents of the departed.
	Wow.
	I wouldn't allow it, Adam.
	I... So, two things.
	One, yes, we've discussed quite extensively the abundant millennial use of subtitles.
	A lot of this is because of distracted, second screens.
	A lot of it is definitely because of the 5.1 sound mix that is being jammed through a shitty-ass sound bar.
	That's another issue.
	Big problem.
	In fact, maybe one of the main ones.
	And there's also a cognition issue that is taking place because people are so used to reading little short bits of text.
	It's just like a tweet.
	Each of these subtitle cards that pops up, people are losing the actual ability to translate sound into something that they can recognize in their brain.
	We're all going to be deaf eventually.
	We'll just be reading subtitles everywhere.
	Well, what's interesting to me is not understanding the really mild Boston accent or any Boston accent.
	It's not that hard.
	Well, I think another problem is when you're not exposed to accents.
	You see this a lot with Love Island UK, which was really big during the season, which is a stupid reality show, but everyone's speaking in a very British accent, very slangish as well.
	And you've got to focus and listen, and having lived there, I know a lot of the slang, but I think when people use crutches continuously, then you lose the ability to understand what someone's saying through an accent or even in a different language.
	I can hear someone speak in any language, and I can pretty much pick out what they mean if it's a simple thing, just because I've been around language and I've had to decode it by listening to it.
	I think people, you lose that ability.
	The brain is very good.
	You're very good at parsing stuff if you have some exposure to some, you know, maybe a little bit of French might help, a little bit of Spanish.
	You can understand a lot of different languages.
	But not if you're just always reading a translation or a subtitle.
	I think you lose it.
	You don't use it, you lose it.
	Onward.
	So did he want any karma?
	Give him a little karma for all that work.
	You've got karma.
	Which brings us to Sir Schwartz, $202.
	And he says, forgive me, podfather, for I have douched.
	Please accept this humble donation.
	All I wish is a de-douching.
	You've been de-douched.
	And he wants some divorce karma.
	Ooh.
	But hey, life is great and when you keep debunking the corporate media, it makes it even better, Sir Schwartz.
	You've got karma.
	Thank you very much, Sir Schwartz.
	Sorry to hear that.
	And finally, we got Anonymous from Brooklyn, New York with 200 bucks and no note.
	And Ryan Black from...
	Wauxhall, North Carolina with no note.
	I can do a quick look up on him to see if he's in there.
	I thought I recalled something from Ryan Black coming in.
	Now, we don't know because Eric the Shill may have not been able to put everything into our spreadsheet because of the lack of a microgrid.
	Let's just call it what it is.
	He needs a microgrid up there.
	You should get that installed.
	All right, let's see what we got here.
	Ryan Black.
	Here it is.
	There you go.
	Right there.
	Payment received from Ryan Black.
	Okay.
	Hello, Noah General of the Day.
	This is just a thing from...
	No, this is just a...
	This is just a receipt?
	Just a receipt, yeah.
	Okay.
	Alright.
	Alright, well we would like to thank these executive producers and our associate executive producers for episode 1205 of the No Agenda show.
	I was looking through some of the profiles on LinkedIn.
	You should see Nussbaum's profile.
	Talking about putting one of these credits into your LinkedIn profile.
	Nussbaum and Melanson.
	Oh man, Melanson, he has a LinkedIn profile that lists every single No Agenda show he's been an executive producer of.
	All the different specials, it's all in there.
	And this guy, you can look him up, very successful in his field.
	Extremely successful in technology.
	And I attribute a lot of that to the titles he puts into his LinkedIn profile.
	That's what gets you hired.
	Ask him.
	Ask him about it.
	I'm sure he'll agree.
	So, yes?
	Well, I was going to say, it doesn't cost anything.
	It's free.
	Yeah, you can put anything you want in there on that LinkedIn profile.
	You can load up, and that's what he did.
	He really did load up.
	Check him out.
	But above all, know that you have contributed towards keeping the show on for yet another episode.
	We've been doing it for 12 years.
	We hope to do it for at least a couple more.
	I don't know about 12 more.
	I don't know if we'll live 12 more years, but...
	Man, do I love my job.
	I gotta tell you, I wake up Thursdays and Sundays.
	I don't always know what day it is, but I love my job because I know that I get to do this and you've made it possible.
	You, all producers of Gitmo Nation.
	Thank you.
	And remember, we'll do it again on Thursday.
	Please consider us at...
	And you can tell everybody you know what's going on with Soleimani.
	Wag the dog!
	Our formula is this.
	We go out, we hit people in the mouth.
	Water! Water!
	Yay!
	Shut up, spray!
	Shut up!
	The goat slipped in there.
	There was the other big story, in my opinion, which wasn't covered as much, but I thought was much more intriguing, is the Ghosn story.
	Now, this is the automobile executive who was, I guess he was kicked out of his job and arrested.
	He was in house arrest, and he was going to come forward on some unspecified financial...
	Shenanigans, charges, which I looked and tried.
	The only thing I could find, and maybe you have an answer here in these clips, from what I understand, the only thing that was a problem was his apparent wish to have a merger between Nissan and Renault?
	Is that right?
	No.
	Oh, no.
	There's more to it.
	This story is really interesting.
	Yeah, I'd love to know what's happening.
	Well, let's play a couple of clips, and then I'll discuss what I think is going on.
	Okay.
	Let's play Gosen Through Turkey 1.
	So far, what Turkey has said is that it has launched an investigation.
	The Istanbul prosecutor's office is looking into it now, and they have detained seven people, as you mentioned, four of them pilots.
	One is a manager at a private aviation company, as well as two ground staff service workers.
	So the Istanbul police now is going to be going through their testimony, trying to piece together what happened.
	And what we know about this mystery, this puzzle, is that there was a flight that took off from Osaka, Japan, and landed in Istanbul.
	A little while later, another flight took off from Istanbul and went to Beirut.
	That all coinciding with the timeline of Ghosn's mysterious disappearance back to Beirut.
	And the Istanbul police now are trying to figure out what happened on the ground in Istanbul's Ataturk airport.
	That's not Istanbul's main international airport.
	It was decommissioned just a while ago and now only services cargo planes and private jets like the one that Ghosn is suspected of having fled on.
	Maybe some of the testimony that the Turkish police gather from these seven detained suspects will shed light on the mystery of what's happening.
	And the international, the Interpol, the red notice that has been issued is basically going to make it a bit more of an international issue for Gon, but there is no extradition between Lebanon and Japan, so the likelihood of him being returned to Japan is very low.
	And that Interpol red notice, of course, is...
	Just a request to international law enforcement, and it's not an order.
	So what will happen, what will come out of that is something we just don't know at this point.
	But we do know that here in Turkey, at least, one small part of the puzzle now is in the hands of the Istanbul police, and perhaps they will be able to shed some light on how Gon got away.
	Again, everyone focusing on how he got away instead of why he had to get away in the first place.
	Yes.
	In fact, there's a bunch of crazy stories about this, which is like he was put in a double bass cello case and hauled out of there and all the rest of it.
	And then there's another story where he escaped his house.
	What happened was he was actually in jail.
	So let's start there.
	I thought he was under house arrest.
	He was in jail.
	And then he had a lawyer that begged and begged and begged.
	There was no reason to keep this guy in jail.
	He should go to his house and they could keep him there under house arrest and under surveillance.
	And so they gave him bail and let him go home.
	And supposedly, one of the stories was the cello case, which makes no sense.
	But it's funny.
	The other one, he put on a mask and a hat and a beard and just walked out of there and went straight to the airport and took off under all this elaborate surveillance.
	I'm thinking, first of all, they wanted to...
	This is an embarrassment to the Japanese.
	I thought you promised me you were going to tell me why.
	Because he understated his income tax.
	That's the reason why?
	That's the main reason why.
	And then they started digging into it and apparently the company, they lied about how much they paid him and it's all about income.
	And so then the company wasn't making a lot of money.
	They didn't know what to do with this guy.
	They wanted to get him out and I believe the following.
	This guy was trying to orchestrate, and there was a fallout between Renault and Nissan, because the Japanese can't work with the French.
	Let's be fair, nobody can work with the French, really.
	So that didn't work out, and Nissan was losing, they weren't losing money, they were still in the profitable company, but they weren't making the billions and billions they were supposed to make, because Toyota's making all the money.
	I think the following...
	They didn't want this guy to stand trial.
	And he still claims he's going to spill the goods on Nissan.
	Maybe it's a corrupt organization.
	He claims he's going to have a press conference and tell all.
	But they had to get rid of him.
	They couldn't bring him up to trial.
	So they let him walk out of there.
	Oh, he's got a mask and a...
	Oh, yeah, you can go.
	Ah, because the embarrassment of whatever was happening with the merger or not happening with the merger or what kind of crap might show up.
	The embarrassment of what's going on with Nissan.
	Ah, okay.
	And also the one I think is even more primary...
	The Japanese, and you can talk to people who have been involved in the 80s, especially when the Japanese were kicking everybody's butt economically, and there was a riot.
	We should all do what the Japanese do, you know, because the Japanese economy is going to kill us.
	They're so much better than we are.
	Sony was going to own the world, I remember.
	Once the Walkman came out, we were like, that's it?
	They got Betamax, they got the Walkman, they're going to own all of us.
	So the Japanese, if anyone...
	You know, has worked for a Japanese company in the United States during that era.
	There were these things called the death buses.
	And I had a guy explain it to me in great detail.
	Death buses.
	Yeah.
	You'd be running a Japanese operation here in the United States.
	It was mostly Americans.
	And then once you started making profit, you weren't getting profitable and everything was going well, the so-called death buses would come in.
	And these were your replacements.
	Oh, who you had to train.
	Yeah, all Japanese.
	Right.
	So the death buses.
	So the Japanese do not like...
	And remember Stringer, that guy who ran the Sony...
	The Sony Music Group or the Entertainment Group, yeah.
	The Japanese do not like to be shown up by foreigners.
	Right.
	So they have a guy running one of their basic major companies, Nissan Motors, And they didn't like, I think they just didn't like this guy because he was probably moving them in a direction that was not Japanese-y enough.
	And they railroaded him and then finally got him out of town.
	He got himself out of town.
	And he's going to talk about it eventually.
	But this whole thing stinks.
	And yeah, the guy does look a little like Mr.
	Bean and the whole story, this spooky story is kind of interesting.
	Could this somehow also be related to another merger with, I think it's Peugeot and Citroën?
	Is it not Peugeot and Citroën who are merging?
	I just heard this the other day.
	Well, that could be, but this would have nothing to do with it.
	This is a Renault, which is different.
	Well, it's French.
	It was French.
	Yeah, it was French Renault.
	Now it looks as though the deal that was going to come down, it looked like, well, this guy was still there, was that since the Renault thing wasn't working out, it looked as if Chrysler, which is privately owned, Was going to buy Nissan and Renault and do the whole thing itself out of town.
	Right, but now we have Chrysler agreeing to merge with Peugeot and Citroën.
	Yeah, well they gave up on this because there's something up and it's got to do with the Japanese culture.
	And I think they didn't like this guy.
	He ran him out of town.
	He's introducing foreign ideas.
	I don't know.
	But the whole thing is suspect.
	And he escaped They let him escape.
	There's no way he was going to get past the surveillance and all the rest of it.
	And now the story still continues to unfold.
	I just thought it was the funnier story of the two.
	What's in the second clip?
	The second clip is more of the same.
	You can play it out.
	On that Carlos Ghosn investigation, now reports just out in Lebanon say the government has received an Interpol arrest warrant for Carlos Ghosn.
	Now the former Nissan chairman arrived in Lebanon on Tuesday after jumping bail in Japan where he was awaiting trial.
	Meanwhile, police in Turkey have detained seven people, including four pilots and a private airline, on suspicion of helping Ghosn escape.
	Ghul Tzusouz now is live for us in Istanbul with the latest.
	I mean, Ghul, look, the plot thickens here.
	Turkey is demanding answers.
	We now have this Interpol alert.
	Do officials there have any idea how Turkey was implicated?
	It's clear that certainly Ghosn thinks he's free and clear now, especially as he remains in Lebanon.
	He will likely speak to the media in the next few days.
	But in the meantime, the Japanese are trying to piece this together as well.
	So embarrassing for them, considering this was supposed to be a man who was under surveillance.
	Absolutely.
	I mean, this is quite an embarrassment for the Japanese.
	This was a very high profile individual for them.
	And their legal system was working to basically bring him to justice.
	And instead of that happening, he's now fled in this audacious escape.
	And we don't have a lot of answers for it, but Gon is expected to speak.
	And so far, what he said has been very, very critical of the Japanese justice system.
	He's called it rigged.
	He said that it's discriminatory.
	All in all, a very embarrassing moment for Japan and at this point, now that he's in Lebanon, there isn't much that they can do to bring this man to justice in front of their own legal system.
	Well, regardless of what's happening here, and it seems like the media is only focusing on his escape and how he escaped, and did he get into a musical instrument case, or did he take covert charter jet flights, but no one's focusing on the real news.
	And I thought, honestly, from your tease in the newsletter, I thought we'd get a little bit more about what actually is going on with this guy and with Nissan and this supposed merger or failed merger.
	But there's another backdrop, and that is that Japan is now our ally in the Strait of Hormuz, and they're moving their fleet in there, so maybe there's some embarrassment that's taking place.
	Well, I don't know if there's any connection at all.
	This guy, by the way, I should mention that he's kind of spooky.
	He's got passports from France, Lebanon, and he's got a passport from Brazil.
	Yeah.
	Which is another place.
	If you want to go hide out somewhere, they have pretty much non-extradition with everyone.
	We should all have a Brazilian passport.
	We should.
	We both should have one just in case.
	Well, you inspired me on the previous show with your retrospectives and the big stories of 2019.
	And I wanted to follow that up, and I was actually planning on peppering this throughout today's episode, but we're already halfway through.
	Here are some of the big stories that were not recapped.
	At the end of 2019, the one that you mentioned specifically, and I think really these would go as the big media missers of 2019.
	Let's just remember how accurate your M5M stations were in the past year.
	We start with the story that no one wants to talk about anymore, Jussie Smollett.
	Empire star Jussie Smollett was the victim of a vicious, racist, and homophobic attack.
	His attackers hurled racial and homophobic slurs.
	Not only homophobia, we're talking about racism, we're talking about hate with steroids.
	They are looking for two suspects who are apparently wearing Make America Great Again hats.
	The offenders uttered, this is MAGA country.
	This is stomach-turning, mind-boggling information.
	This is a horrible story.
	Horrendous and unacceptable.
	This is America in 2019.
	So let me see, did they get that one right, John?
	That Jussie Smollett story?
	Were they right on the money with that?
	Wrong.
	Let's try another one.
	How about the Covington High School kids with the Native American war hero?
	Outrage over this now viral video showing high school teenagers harassing a Native American elder.
	The Native American man who was beating the drum, Nathan Phillips, and those kids in the Make America Great Again hats that were kind of smirking at him and kind of looking down their noses at him.
	A smirking high school student blocks the elder's path.
	The video appears to show dozens of youths wearing Make America Great Again hats, mocking Native American elder and Vietnam veteran Nathan Phillips.
	A veteran, a Native American man, had a standoff with students who were mocking him.
	We feel that President Trump is giving license to some of this behavior.
	Let me see, were they right about that one, John?
	About the kids smirking and...
	Were they?
	No.
	Wrong.
	Wrong.
	Joe Biden likes to touch people, sniff their hair, especially children.
	Let's remind ourselves how the media handled this story when people first started to get creeped out by him.
	He's very affectionate.
	I find it oddly affectionate.
	He kisses people on the mouth.
	He's always touching people's shoulders.
	I've seen him rub the shoulders of women and men.
	Joe Biden calls them expressions of affection.
	He is an affectionate, old-school politician.
	He's a really nice, generous, funny, connecting guy.
	Uncle Joe, as we affectionately call him, he's a very affectionate, very likable person.
	You know, he's just an affectionate guy.
	I've known Joe Biden a long time, as have many others, and have always found him a very emotional man who is very, very affectionate.
	He's touchy-feely.
	He's been doing it his entire life in an affectionate way.
	I think the next time I see Joe Biden, if he doesn't hug me and give me a kiss and hold my hand, that's not the Joe Biden I knew.
	He's a nice guy.
	He's not a predator.
	And this is ridiculous.
	So, do they still talk like that about Joe, or are they a little more creeped out about it now?
	Wrong!
	This is why you listen and why you help produce The No Agenda Show.
	Because this is the bull crap that the media puts into your head 24 hours a day, if you allow it, and it goes through your eardrums, into your brain processing, and then swells up your amygdala.
	And then you become insane.
	Let's check another one.
	Remember the Trump meme where he was shooting all the media, was killing them, which was from the movie, what movie was that, In the Church?
	What was that again?
	Did you just walk away?
	You just walked away.
	You just walked away from the show.
	It's like, here I am.
	I'm looking for my wingman.
	He's just gone.
	Well, that's because you are introducing something.
	I had to go get a sheet of paper from the desk.
	And then you threw it to me for some unknown reason.
	I don't know the movie.
	Kingsman.
	Yes, you do.
	Kingsman.
	Oh, Kingsman.
	Yeah, you know, I never got to see the second one.
	Well, but you remember the meme where they had all the mainstream media logos on the people in the church and Trump was there with his head killing them all in the church?
	Right, right.
	This video, do you remember how horrible that was, how it was going to kill everybody in the media?
	Yeah.
	So this insanely disturbing fake video was shown at a conference of you-know-who supporters.
	It's about so much more than a single video.
	It's about a president and his supporters who are sowing seeds of hate and division.
	There's something very ugly at the heart of Trumpism, and we saw that id in this video.
	It's vile.
	It's horrific.
	Some of his supporters would think this might even be somehow funny.
	You know, there are real people's bodies and lives on the line.
	How easy for all of you judging me that I'm offended and upset by the video.
	You try doing this once a member of your family is continued to have this happen over and over and over again.
	Now, did anyone from the media die?
	Anyone assassinated?
	No, not happened.
	Did anyone at the end of 2019 wrap up the Mueller report about how right the media was and how spot on they were with their analysis?
	Oh, you mean how it was that he was doomed because of the Mueller report?
	He's going to be delivering what I think are going to be his indictments, the final indictments.
	This is suborning perjury.
	I think there's no question it's an impeachable offense.
	And at that point, we are in high crimes and misdemeanor and we are an impeachment.
	The spirit of what Trump did is clearly treasonous.
	There's outright treason.
	I think he's feeling the noose around his neck.
	The noose is tightening.
	He feels the noose is tightening.
	The noose is tightening.
	People might go to jail.
	You're exactly right.
	For the rest of their lives.
	I think they're all going to jail.
	Well, I think they're all going to end up together in prison, and maybe that's a good thing.
	He has no idea that he's going down.
	The investigation is over, and according to a senior DOJ official, there will be no further indictments.
	How can they let Trump off the hook?
	Did everyone go to jail?
	Were the indictments imminent?
	Was the Mueller report of any significance?
	No.
	Apparently not.
	Now...
	I have one more.
	Last one.
	Okay.
	Last one.
	This has got to be my favorite.
	Because it's been so many...
	It's been years since they first laid this smack on us, and it's good to remember how incredibly wrong the media were, or was...
	About the Steele dossier.
	Parts of the now infamous dossier on Trump have proven to be true.
	Your intel community has corroborated all of the details in there.
	When the president just refers to his fake dossier, that is false.
	I don't think that's an accurate characterization.
	Investigators have corroborated part of the dossier.
	We do know that parts of it have been corroborated.
	It's not been corroborated, but it hasn't been disproven.
	No major thing from the dossier has been conclusively disproven.
	To date, none of it has been disproven.
	And whole big parts of it are holding up.
	The dossier holds up well.
	It's a fact that none of it, not one word has been disproven.
	In fact, a lot of it turned out to be right on the money.
	The FBI would not have just taken a dossier to the FISA court and use that as their predicate for the surveillance.
	They had to corroborate it themselves.
	That's how they operate.
	So if you're wondering or someone in your family is wondering why you listen to this podcast, that's why.
	Bye.
	Thank you.
	And I'm sure we can do the same thing with this Iran-Iraq-Solemani thing at the end of this year.
	You know, the funny thing about that dossier story is that, although we didn't document it specifically, is the way the dossier story kept changing and morphing.
	In regards to the FISA court.
	When it first came out, they said, well, it wasn't that important to our FISA request.
	And then it became important to the FISA. Then it apparently was the only thing that the FISA request was based on was the dossier.
	This dossier was a I don't understand how it got as far as it did, because it just looked phony from the get-go.
	It stunk.
	It just didn't smell.
	It passed the smell test.
	I might get a clip for Thursday.
	It's an interview with the author of the book.
	I think it's The Plot to Bring Down an American President.
	I forget exactly what the title of the book is.
	And this guy has done all the research, and his assertion is that the dossier was not used for the FISA warrant application.
	It was written specifically for the FISA warrant application by slipping in one or two very pertinent lines which literally say, Trump is compromised by a foreign power.
	But that was written in specifically...
	That's interesting.
	That would make sense.
	That it's exactly reversed.
	That the Steele dossier was not the genesis of the warrant, but they knew they wanted to get this warrant, so they created this through Steele, and there's lots of implications as to who was complicit in writing this.
	Anyway, I digress.
	I'm reminded, this is what I just ran into because I was going through some of my old files, and I forgot about it.
	This was from a year earlier.
	This was classic because everybody bought into this, and they bought into it hook, line, and sinker, and they've all since forgotten about it.
	Donald Trump's guerrilla channel.
	Donald Trump liked to watch television, but he was...
	The Gorilla Channel.
	You're right.
	I forgot about that.
	He had to watch gorillas.
	And so they created a fake channel for him so he could watch gorillas.
	And so as he watched the gorillas, he was always bitching and moaning about they weren't fighting enough.
	The gorillas.
	Yes.
	So everybody passed this around as fact.
	Donald Trump and the Gorilla Channel.
	That's a good one.
	epitome of the stupidity of the left and the basic audience out there that are suckers for this sort of thing.
	And that was promulgated by everybody.
	There was a lot of TV stories on it and it was all over the network and the internet.
	But the Gorilla Channel, yeah.
	A classic.
	Do we have any clips about that?
	I'm sure we...
	Probably.
	They go back probably 2017. 2017.
	I don't see anything offhand.
	I should probably put together a little compilation of that, of the Gorilla Channel.
	That was hilarious.
	The Russian pranksters, as they're known, I prefer to call them the podcasters, Volvan and Lexus, they struck again.
	Now, previously, they had gotten through to Congressman Adam Schiff's office, claiming that they had compromat and compromising pictures of Trump.
	If you remember, we had some of that phone call.
	And these guys, they're like radio guys, like weenie in the butt of Moscow.
	So they have a new gambit, and they went after Maxine Waters, And pretending to be Greta Thunberg and Greta's dad.
	And they made up this, they made up the name of an island, Changa Changa.
	I think that's literally what it's called.
	And they decided they're going to call into Maxine Waters' office, get her on the phone, and say, well, listen, Maxine, you know, it's Greta and Greta's dad.
	And we're here in, I think it's, what did they say?
	They were South Carolina.
	And, you know, we're here to garner support, to save the island of Changa Changa.
	And could you please help us out?
	We'll put you on speakerphone.
	And I pulled the pertinent clip from this YouTube video.
	And, you know, this used to be what Americans did.
	We used to be the phone pranksters.
	We've let Russia grab that away from us.
	Congresswoman?
	Yeah, I have Greta and her father, Savante, on the line.
	Thank you very much.
	Congresswoman, this is Greta's father.
	And here's Greta.
	Hello, Congresswoman Rogers.
	Hello, I'm very happy to talk to you.
	Well, thank you both for calling me, and I'm very anxious to hear from you.
	Yes, I know that Jos called you Aunt Maxine.
	That's so sweet, I think.
	Is that true?
	Brilliant, brilliant.
	Butter her up first by calling her Auntie Maxine.
	She'll love that.
	Butter her up.
	Very good.
	By the way, these guys sound nothing like Swedish Greta and her dad, but still Maxine is falling for it.
	Absolutely!
	Yes!
	That's so nice.
	We have a wonderful climate strike to support the ecology of Chunga Changa Island.
	Thousands of people came to meet me.
	Well, thank you, and I'm so glad you came to my state.
	And, of course, I know all about you.
	You have made quite a big, big, big time.
	Thunder, on this issue, I am really, really very proud of you and the work that you're doing.
	We're now in North Carolina, so we are in a climate strike here, in a meeting.
	Okay, so you're in the meeting now?
	The meeting has started?
	Yes, yes, already.
	Yes, yes.
	We're here now at the meeting, and if you will allow me, I will put you on a speakerphone.
	So, yes.
	And we will let you say to people who is around here, which island are they targeting?
	This is the part I like the best.
	All these politicians are like that.
	It's like, if I can get anything out of you...
	And of course, typically these calls are about money, but right now it's like, oh shit, I can align myself with Greta Jimberry.
	This is fantastic.
	This is good for me.
	And they can roll out some bullcrap script just right off the cuff.
	Even Maxine.
	And she's up there in age, but she's a pro...
	At rolling it out.
	So she has a little bit of information.
	She knows it's North Carolina.
	She knows it's Greta, who's a thunder, apparently.
	She knows it's Chinga Changa Island, which doesn't exist.
	And she's going to do a little promo.
	And we will let you say to people who is around here.
	Which island are they targeting?
	Chinga Changa.
	Chinga Changa?
	Yes.
	Hello, everybody.
	This is Congresswoman Maxine Waters, and I am so pleased to be on this telephone call with Greta Thudberg.
	I am just so proud.
	I think she says Thudberg, which is a new one for us.
	So pleased to be on this telephone call with Greta Thudberg.
	I am just so proud of her and her father, Cervante Thudberg, and the work that they are doing.
	As you know, Greta is an environmental activist and she took part in the United Nations Climate Summit in New York recently and she has been traveling and she has been the greatest advocate For what is happening with our climate and the environment.
	And I'm very pleased that she's with you in North Carolina, where you're focusing on protecting the very important island of Tula challenge.
	I'm so happy she's supporting the very important, the critically important island of Chimichanga.
	You, Greta Thudberg, and your dad, Devante Thudberg.
	Come on!
	Well, I believe these two comrades deserve a medal for this work.
	This is really very good.
	Well, let's give them this clip of the day.
	You know, I wonder what that...
	We should do a Russian version so we can know how good they were.
	Clip of the day!
	Comrade.
	Now, both of them sound like a couple of Russians.
	Which made it even more ludicrous.
	It's a 15-minute call.
	There's more in it, but I thought that was the funniest one, especially the Thudberg.
	What a moron.
	Now, that should be on the normal news, don't you think?
	Yes, it should be, but no, we can't...
	It's a member of Congress so stupid to fall for this.
	I mean, if she was keeping up with anything, she knows that Greta boogie back to home base, and she's not in North Carolina.
	She didn't go to North Carolina after the event in New York.
	No.
	The whole thing is just ludicrous, and it should be regular news.
	That's regular news story.
	I agree.
	No, no, no, because the news media is so fraught with Democrat left-wingers, just to be honest about it.
	They can't bring themselves to do these stories.
	Yeah.
	Oh my god, it makes it look so stupid.
	I refuse to run that story.
	Wow.
	Hey, we did have kind of a crappy story here in Austin on Friday.
	Was it Friday or Saturday morning?
	We had a stabbing.
	One person died on South Congress.
	I mean, really, like 10 minutes from my house.
	Let me see if there's a...
	So, here's what happens.
	It's at a burrito joint, and this is right on Riverside and South Congress.
	This is really where I've lived for a lot of the years in Austin, this general area.
	And so first there was an altercation in a coffee shop.
	Then this 27-year-old suspect was detained by people because he was harassing a woman.
	So there were civilians, I think, and they detained him.
	The guy broke loose.
	The cops arrived.
	The cops run after him.
	The cops can't catch him.
	He runs into the burrito joint, stabs two people, wounding one cook there fatally.
	Then he runs up onto the roof and swan dives while the cops are trying to, you know, are ordering him to come down.
	He swan dives off the roof onto his head and people could hear his neck bones cracking.
	He's in critical condition and, of course, in the hospital but in custody.
	And you know what people in Austin think right away is who is this guy?
	Everyone thinks he's homeless or transient.
	That sparked an immediate row between the governor of Texas, Abbott, and the mayor of Austin, Mayor Adler.
	And Abbott...
	There we go, 21st century diplomacy.
	He tweeted and said, holy crap, I'll bet you this guy was homeless once again.
	The mayor of Austin is not protecting the people who put him in office.
	And then our mayor turns around and tweets back, how dare you!
	How very dare you!
	Assume it was a homeless person!
	Or, as he would say, how dare you assume it was a person experiencing homelessness!
	And, of course, it turns out that that's exactly what it was.
	Tonight, Austin police say the man accused of carrying out a deadly stabbing attack Friday is homeless.
	That information being shared as the governor continues his attack on Austin's policies toward people living on the streets.
	He most recently tweeted today, quote, the city's top job is public safety and they are failing.
	KXAN's Caitlin Karmut talked to Austin's mayor who's pushing back.
	People realize that there's not a link between homelessness and criminality.
	That's like suggesting that all immigrants are rapists.
	It's just not true and it is...
	This is Mayor Adler's response to Governor Abbott's tweets.
	We talked to him while he's in a New York hospital waiting for his daughter to give birth.
	He felt it necessary to respond to the governor's attacks on Austin policies towards homeless people.
	This comes after a 27-year-old man attacked three people at a South Congress shopping center, killing one.
	Shortly after, Governor Abbott suggested that the suspect would likely be a homeless person.
	Mayor Adler called that suggestion irresponsible.
	And today, APD confirmed the suspected killer is homeless.
	Today, Governor Abbott had a series of tweets suggesting that the city must ensure its homeless policies doesn't endanger innocent people.
	And Mayor Adler's response?
	Most of the crimes in this city are not committed by people experiencing homelessness.
	So to demonize people that way, to make us scared of people, does a real disservice to the community.
	Mayor Adler says instead of a Twitter feud, he'd like to speak to the governor face to face.
	I want the state to be our partner, to be working with us.
	Well, I'll tell you, not a lot of credibility left for the mayor here in Austin.
	Yeah, well, vote him out.
	I really like the way he sticks to the memes.
	Experiencing homelessness.
	You can't just cut it down to homeless.
	No, you can't.
	You have to say neighbors experiencing homelessness.
	But the problem is, just like California cities, here now as well, there's no prosecution for small crime.
	There's no prosecution for small assault.
	There was a woman, and it could have been the same guy, for all I know, a couple weeks ago, was assaulted on the South First or South Congress Bridge.
	And, you know, it's become violent because these are not just...
	You're right, he's right.
	Homelessness or people experiencing homelessness, that's not necessarily the issue.
	But Austin has become a mecca for transients to come through because everything's free here.
	Free money, camp where you want, do what you want.
	Just because you can't camp downtown, every median of grass now outside of the downtown area is filled with tents, barbecues, people parking their cars on the median.
	Our mailbox was broken into yesterday.
	As you know, we don't have mailboxes.
	We have one up at the top of the street.
	Broken open, all the mail stolen, packages ripped open.
	Which is a federal crime, I might add.
	Thank you.
	Thank you.
	Yes, that's not just some petty crime.
	Where's the ring doorbell now?
	Where's all that?
	But, you know, you don't see the cops running around now saying, oh, do you have any ring doorbell video?
	Any video?
	No, they don't even show up for it.
	Well, we have a still, California versus Boston, we have a new issue.
	And the left media, left-leaning media at least is on this one, and it's not quite the same as what you just described.
	But it's an issue because it's going to cost somebody, it could be anybody, a lot of money.
	Yes, I heard about this one.
	It's another money grab.
	And here's a report from one of the stations, I think, in Southern California on the new California water law.
	All right.
	So many laws get considered each and every year.
	They're discussed and then they're passed.
	All right.
	This one, I'm not sure how I feel about this.
	You're not going to be allowed to shower and do a load of laundry in the same day.
	I had the same misgivings.
	Doing a load of laundry takes about 40 to 50 gallons of water.
	Taking a shower for about 8 minutes takes about 17 gallons of water.
	Well, there's a limitation on your daily use of water of 55 gallons per day.
	So that means if you are taking a shower and you're doing a load of laundry, you can't do both without being in violation of the law.
	There are some exceptions about this.
	You can't do both without being in violation of the law.
	There are some exceptions about this.
	There are some caveats.
	For instance, if you have a multi-person household, if you have four people in your household or three people in your household, that 55-gallon limit per day applies for each person.
	So you could do a load of laundry if you have a multi-person household.
	Who's going to police that?
	Who's going to cuff Mark Kriski?
	What's going on?
	Who's enforcing this?
	Well, you can actually see your water uses on a daily rate with your water meter.
	Now, there are actually fines available for this as well.
	Your violation is $1,000 per each day that you are in violation.
	Wait, who made this a law?
	Let's talk to them.
	It's the state legislature.
	The governor signed this into effect.
	It goes into effect January 1st.
	Now, there's also another caveat.
	If we're in drought conditions and the governor declares an emergency, that fine can go up to $10,000 a day.
	So be careful.
	You know, you can change your word to serenity to anger now.
	Wow!
	You're not going to be able to shower in 2020.
	You know what?
	I'm going to pick doing laundry over showering.
	So all of a sudden, I can smoke marijuana as much as I want, but I can't take a shower.
	Yeah, it's a whole new world.
	Yeah, absolutely.
	That's where our country or state is going.
	Yeah, I saw this, and I clipped it as well.
	It's KTLA, the very famous Los Angeles station.
	What was most fascinating to me is the female anchor says...
	Well, who made this law?
	Excuse me.
	Hello, news lady.
	You're supposed to be on top of this.
	This was a state legislator, and it was signed into law.
	And they can completely track this right down to your micro-gallon.
	They know exactly how many people live in there.
	Two people.
	That's 110 gallons a day.
	Don't go over it.
	Oh, yeah.
	Fines are coming.
	Yeah.
	Well, luckily you don't bathe that much, so you won't have much trouble with the law.
	I never bathe.
	I just use Dr.
	Bronner's.
	I'm going to show my school by donating to No Agenda.
	Imagine all the people who could do that.
	Oh yeah, that'd be fab.
	You know, you don't need to bathe if you use Dr.
	Bronner's.
	Doesn't it require some water?
	No, the stuff doesn't...
	It's unbelievable.
	Fabulous.
	I had no idea.
	Just wipe it on.
	And wipe it off.
	Use a squeegee.
	Yeah.
	Let's start off with thanking a few people for show 1205.
	Starting with Mike Nikolaychuk.
	Nikolaychuk.
	Nikolaychuk.
	He says...
	He's, by the way, one of my...
	One of the guys that tracks the newsletter...
	I got a lot of people that didn't get the news.
	Oh yeah, I got a second email from you.
	So we had another problem with the email reaching its intended destination.
	I'll give you a little background on this.
	I'm trying to figure out how many emails just aren't getting to the place at all, which I think is a problem with MailChimp.
	And so I've been discussing this over various secondary mailings and everyone writes in, I got it.
	I don't care if you got it.
	So this time I came up with the bright idea, which was...
	Email me if you didn't get it.
	No, I always say that.
	The problem was everyone emailed me anyway, whether they got it or not.
	But this time I added the stupid easy thing I should have always done, which was use the subject line.
	I didn't get the email.
	So that way I can sort out the people who just want to chat and people who actually didn't get the email.
	It made it a lot easier.
	Now I can see it was like 20 or 30 people, which means it's just the tip of the iceberg because not everybody's even going to bother.
	But...
	So they're not getting the mail out or something.
	There's something amiss, the way I see it.
	Because if you're not getting it at all, even in your spam box, then there's something wrong.
	Well, you know what?
	Because I've been working with a lot of email with my workflows on Linux, I've noticed that, in particularly Google, Gmail is being very, very stringent with the DMARC. Are you familiar with DMARC? No, I'm not.
	DMRAC? Yeah, it's like a policy.
	What does DMARC stand for?
	Domain Message Authentication Reporting.
	That's DMARC. And they've tightened that up.
	I've only just started looking into it because I know that I don't have my DMARC set up properly on curry.com.
	So if MailChimp doesn't have that set up properly or if there's one small anomaly, immediate, non-delivery, I don't even know if it sends a bounce message.
	So once again, it's mainly Google, but I'm sure the others are following suit.
	Whatever Google does, everyone does.
	Yeah, that's right.
	Well, let's...
	Anyway, he is actually Sir Rawl SK of the Paris of the Prairies.
	He's from Saskatoon, obviously.
	Yes.
	And let's give him a dedouching.
	Okay.
	You've been dedouched.
	John Robinet of 100 bucks.
	Sir Gott Nate in Sebastopol, California, 6969.
	Barron Mark Tanner twice a month, Whittier, California, 6789.
	Sir Tom Dari, 5510 from DeForest, Wisconsin.
	Francisco Tejeda, 5432.
	Stephen Sandoval, 5333.
	Michael Gates, 5280.
	Oh, there's another news item, Michael Gates.
	So Bill Gates makes a big stink.
	Yeah, I think we should have, you know, Washington State is one of the few states like Texas, Florida, Nevada, there's a few, that have no personal income tax.
	Yes, no state tax.
	They have other mechanisms.
	In Washington State, they use speed traps and they catch their dummies.
	Here we use property tax.
	Well, they use property tax too.
	But it seems to be better run than states.
	When you start getting the state income tax...
	These states get corrupt, and California's the worst example.
	So Bill Gates comes out with a big statement.
	Washington State...
	Now this is after this guy's already shut the lid on the submarine.
	He's in.
	Washington State should have...
	Because he has no personal income anymore at all.
	He's got zero.
	All his money is just money in the bank that he spends.
	The state of Washington should have an income tax.
	This is...
	This is ridiculous for a guy like this to say that.
	Just butt out.
	They've got everybody all up in arms.
	So, our producer Michael Gates should call his family member and tell him to shut up?
	Is that the connection?
	That's the reason I stopped.
	Michael Gates came with $52.80.
	Eric Hochul in Mulderose, Doisland, $52.00.
	Brian Burgess in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota.
	5033 says it's an honor to help produce this show.
	It provides in-depth analysis.
	No one even attempts.
	That's right.
	Robert Stotz in San Diego, California, 2020.
	Matthew Grice, 50.05.
	And he's got a happy new year to us, and he's got a birthday for someone.
	He has a...
	Well, first of all, this was 73 didgeridollarydoos, which comes out to 50.05.
	And...
	Oh, his daughter Freya on the birthday list.
	Yes, January 20th.
	She'll be 12, so we're a little bit early, but she's on the list.
	I think she's on the list for today.
	And the following people are $50 donators, starting with Matthew Haynes, Matthew Januszewski in Chicago, Chicago Sir Matthew, Andres Dominici, Dominici, Dominici.
	Domenici, I think.
	Domenici.
	Yeah, Domenici is in Puerto Rico.
	He's in Puerto Rico.
	Send us a boots on the ground report, Andres.
	I'd like to know what else is going on there.
	Yeah.
	Paul Dubois in Kirk Hunkson, New York.
	I don't know.
	Sir Brett Farrell in OKC. Baron Alan Bean in Oakland.
	Jeffrey Zinneman in South Euclid, Ohio.
	And last but not least, Sir Brian Watson in Raleigh, North Carolina.
	Short list today, very disappointing in that regard, but I want to thank all these folks for helping us and produce show 1205.
	Yes, and everyone under $50, we see you.
	We see you there.
	In fact, I think a lot of those didn't even come through on the spreadsheet, John.
	I'm looking at...
	There's nothing under $10.
	We always have fives and fours.
	I don't see them on the list today.
	So, I'm not certain...
	This is part of the power outage, the tumbleweed terror that Eric the Schiller is going through.
	So if we missed you, which is possible, then please just email us and we'll make sure we fix that.
	This is one that...
	Just blame it on the tumbleweed.
	We can't help it at all.
	But we do thank everybody who came in as a producer today.
	Thank the execs and the associate execs earlier.
	And again, under that $50, many people use that for reasons of anonymity.
	Understood.
	But there's programs you can join in.
	There's subscriptions that are just smaller amounts at certain dedicated times.
	So it can be once a month, once a week, once a show.
	Whatever it is, go to Dvorak.org slash NA. Select one if you haven't already and know that we very much appreciate it.
	Appreciate your courage and for producing the best podcast in the universe.
	Dvorak.org slash NA. I'm sure someone needs a karma.
	You've got karma.
	We did get a small list together, luckily, for this fifth day of January 2020.
	Scott of the Tall Corn will turn 39 years old tomorrow.
	As I said earlier, Matthew Grice says happy birthday in advance to his daughter Freya.
	She turns 12 on January 20th.
	And Brian says happy birthday to Eri Kiyogi, who celebrated on January 1st.
	Happy birthday for everybody here at the best podcast in the universe.
	As far as we know, we have one title change for today.
	Circumference has upped his support to the show in another $1,000 and has changed his title now to Baronet as he moves on up the peerage ladder.
	And you can always check the status of...
	Of all of our peerage at itm.im slash peerage.
	There should be a map in there somewhere as well, which I'm thinking I should put in the show notes more regularly.
	And thank you very much, Circumference, for your support of the show.
	No agenda.
	Pia.
	It's not your party.
	It's just like a party, only it's a non-triggering event.
	Everybody is welcome at the No Agenda Meetups, where producers from around the world get together in all corners of the earth.
	Here's an overview of what's coming up in the near future.
	On Tuesday, the second biannual Knoxville Meetup at 4 o'clock, Sir Seatsitter.
	We'll be waiting for you at Barley's Knoxville, upstairs at the pool tables.
	Next Thursday, a No Agenda Tune Man Tour.
	This is Jesse Coy Nelson, his Beirut stop, 6 o'clock European Standard Time.
	Meet Jesse at the Rabbit Hole on Makdisi Street in Beirut, Lebanon, one of the West Clark Seven.
	Make sure you get there before they rebelize.
	Then next Saturday, we'll have the Long Island Meetup.
	Long Island, New York, 730.
	Excelsior Slaves, come one, come all.
	It'll be at the St.
	James Restaurant and Bar.
	Andrew Grasso is your host for that.
	Let me see if we have...
	Well, I gotta keep reading because I have to read this note from Mimi.
	About these meetups.
	Well, I'm reading the note from Mimi, so what are you talking about?
	No, I'm talking about a separate note.
	Well, why don't you do that then?
	Well, I have to find the notes, so keep reading.
	That's what I said keep reading for.
	Now, this is interesting because I see here's a secondary Long Island meetup on the same Saturday.
	No, this can't be right.
	The St.
	James...
	No, I'm sorry.
	This is a doubling.
	So there is one Long Island meetup.
	There you go.
	That's the one at the St.
	James Restaurant and Bar.
	Then next Thursday, the 16th, so now we're already a Thursday, a week and a half away, will be, once again, the Austin Local 512 meetup.
	It'll be at Doc's Backyard in Sunset Valley.
	And that is, of course, Sir Scott Baronet of the No Agenda Archives.
	And his wife, Christine, will be organizing that.
	And if you did not hear something that is coming up near you, go to NoAgendaMeetups.com.
	You can find out more information about it.
	You can start your own.
	And a reminder, February 21st, Adam and the Keeper will be in Florida at the meetup, which is being scheduled for Delray Beach, and we look forward to...
	Yes, and this is the problem.
	So what happened, and nobody seems to respond to Mimi on this, and she's got a mess on her hands, and she says no one can make a decision, and she's not going to do it because she's going to get blamed, and she says you're going to have to do it.
	There are one, two, three, four, five competing Delray meetups.
	There's the Saltwater Brewery at 6.30 by Scott.
	There's the Saltwater Brewery at 7.30 by Matt Pez.
	There's the Saltwater Brewery at 6.00 by Organizer Crystal and David Culpa.
	There's Brew's Room Sports Grill at 6.00 by Lou Purse.
	There's the Saltwater Brewery again at 6.00 by Nick B. Sounds like the Saltwater Brewery is the place to be.
	Yeah?
	Yeah?
	So let's make it the Saltwater Brewery.
	Which one?
	6.30 to 7?
	7.30?
	6?
	Can I ask you a question?
	Why are you so angry at me?
	What do I have to do with this?
	I have to do this.
	I'm being firm with the organizers.
	Somebody has to make a decision about which one.
	You're going to pick Saltwater Brewery, but which one?
	6, 6.30, 7.30?
	By the way, somebody else has one that he wants to go to 4 in the morning with.
	Okay.
	So it's going to be at the Saltwater Brewery, and it'll be around 6.
	And everybody who's organizing that, except for the one person who had a different one, I'll see you there.
	The organizer, we're going to stick Crystal and David Culpa are going to be the organizers.
	Scott, Mez, and Nick B have to contact them and then maybe you can switch ownership of this thing if you want to.
	But Adam has decided.
	That is the Saltwater Brewery, 6 p.m., organizer Crystal and David.
	Yes.
	There you go.
	That wasn't so hard.
	I'm sorry there was so much angst in the Dvorak household about this.
	We had meetings.
	What?
	An actual meeting?
	No, no, no.
	This will not stand.
	Yeah, that's why we had to go to the go-to guy, which is you.
	Okay, let me see.
	Do I have any of those?
	And Lou, come up with something else.
	Oh, I do see the note here.
	Finally.
	Oh, yeah.
	Okay.
	Oh man, I love it when Mimi gets all upset.
	It's all for the 21st of...
	It's February 21st and Saltwater Brewery.
	I like that everyone chose the Saltwater Brewery except for Lou.
	Lou, don't go to Brew Room Sports Grill.
	We'll see you at the Saltwater Brewery.
	The Saltwater Brewery must be a good place for a meet-up.
	Yeah, if everyone's thinking that way.
	It's going to be a great meet-up.
	I think Horowitz might show up.
	Oh, and by the way, because he was very concerned about this, if Horowitz shows up, everybody pretend you don't know who he is.
	Who?
	You do a podcast with who?
	You do a show with John, too?
	Never heard it.
	So make sure you do that, because he's very concerned that people wouldn't know who he was.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, and you being the kind gentleman who already decided to set him up.
	Exactly.
	I'd probably do the same.
	What else are friends for?
	So that is a current overview.
	I did want to mention the 25th of January as an additional.
	That'll be in Moscow, Russia.
	So make sure you gear up.
	Man, I would love to go to one of those.
	We've got to do more traveling this year, I've decided.
	Then a...
	I know you're laughing.
	You say that every year.
	That's exactly what Tina says.
	I want to remind you, every year you tell me we need to travel more.
	We now have a map with pins in it.
	It was a Christmas gift.
	So I've got a big map with pins where we're going.
	Yeah.
	I have a meet-up report, an audio report.
	This is really the only kind that works best for a podcast, so I appreciate Sir Roderick Velo.
	We all know Sir Rod.
	He is knight of the No Agenda Roundtable, also host of his own podcast in the Netherlands, which is very successful.
	He organized the Amsterdam meet-up and recorded everybody in attendance.
	This is Sir Rod on the No Agenda meet-up Amsterdam, and this is Sir Paid, with the protectors of Friesland and North Holland.
	I'm Tim Gauriaan from Roermond.
	Hoi, Adam!
	I'm getting lots of drinks, so that's really cool.
	Hi, I'm Sir D of Holland's Riding.
	This is my second meet-up in one week in the Netherlands.
	I'm Arno from Amstelveen.
	Goest Kedave.
	Hi, Adam and John.
	This is Jacob from Wisconsin, coming to you from Amsterdam.
	I'm Jacobina.
	I'm the name of the Doomsday Deniers.
	And we're not talking about impeachment.
	Hello.
	I've been Andre Peters Esquire.
	And soon I will be Sir Andre Knight of the empty PayPal account.
	Hello John and Adam.
	This is Entrepreneurio from Amsterdam.
	Jeroen Jansen.
	Hi.
	Maarten Teiniger here.
	Just dropping in.
	Sir Herco Knight of the PayPal Thiefdom of Utrecht.
	Second meetup in one week.
	Not too much.
	Never enough.
	The bitter balls are excellent.
	Now that's a meetup report.
	I live how they talk, too.
	I think that that was one of the best meetup reports you've had.
	I think it was Dynamite.
	Just introduce yourself, get it out of the way.
	Yep, Dynamite.
	Well, it's also Rod, you know, Roderick, he produced it, so he cut it up nicely, made it all work.
	I love the guy, the future knight of the empty PayPal account.
	I think that's a great knight name.
	That's a good name, yeah.
	Thank you all very much.
	And remember, noagendameetups.com is where you can, hey, we need some more people to organize a meetup on the 21st.
	Let's see if we can find some other locations.
	It'll be fun.
	Or just find something near you and go attend.
	It's a great opportunity for a triggerless conversation about anything, good drinks, across boundaries, across age groups, race, creed, religion, background, age, you name it.
	We're a crazy cult.
	Go find your meetup.
	I have a stink bug update.
	We talked about the stink bug.
	Yes.
	And now nobody knew about anything going on, but apparently these stink bugs have invaded a good part of Washington State.
	This is the marmorated stink bug, I believe, is the full?
	Yes, exactly.
	I got a lot of emails from people about your story.
	Apparently, yes, they're everywhere.
	Brown marmorated stink fog is something Daryl Beetham of Paratex Pest Control has plenty of experience with.
	They're a seasonal invader, and they come in right about now.
	But now and again, and particularly now, homeowners call in with little clue about this critter, wondering what it is, where it came from, and whether it's harmful.
	I do all the multi-care.
	There's like six hospitals and 40, you know, outpatient centers.
	Originally from Asia, the stink bug first crossed our border in 2010.
	Since 2012, it has spread quickly from Clark County to 20 others, working its way across Washington.
	They wait out the winter in cracks and crannies of heated homes, and then they get busy.
	I mean, they propagate.
	Over the past month, the emails and phone calls have flooded into WSU researchers, more than 300 so far.
	Most of those sightings in King, Pierce, and Thurston counties.
	So what do you do?
	Once they're inside, don't squish them, because they will stink.
	Either vacuum them up, throw away the bag when you're through.
	Throw away the bag when you're through vacuuming, because your vacuum will...
	We can reek for weeks.
	The real threat is outside, where they're ready to gorge on trees and shrubs, and they don't discriminate, they decimate, which is why agriculture experts hope you will help them keep track.
	In Seattle, Greg Copeland, King 5 News.
	So a question.
	Just looking at these pictures, how big is a mar...
	We don't have them in Texas, I don't think.
	How big is one of these stink bugs?
	How big are they?
	They're the size of a thumbtack.
	Okay, so relatively small.
	Hmm.
	Maybe I... I mean, that's what I could tell, if I'm the size of a thumbtack.
	Now, do you remember...
	Because this is, I think we maybe went to two cycles of these bug stories, bug-a-get-ins.
	It was probably two years ago, maybe three, bed bugs.
	Yes.
	It was story after story about bed bugs in hotels and bed bugs and bed bugs and bed bugs.
	And that, what happened?
	Did all the bed bugs die?
	How come this story just dropped off to just nothing?
	It wasn't scary enough.
	Apparently these stink bugs are now the story.
	So, it's always some bug.
	Now, can you eat them?
	Are they tasty?
	Of course not.
	If they stink and they make a vacuum cleaner reek, apparently it's a nauseating smell.
	That's why it's called a stink.
	Yeah.
	I've definitely seen this type of bug.
	It looks familiar, but I don't think I've ever seen one here in Texas.
	You're right, yet.
	And I'd like to know a little bit more.
	Maybe we should send you a few mating couples and you can examine them for yourself.
	No, maybe we won't do that.
	That's not a good idea at all.
	Updates.
	Epstein updates.
	Apparently, FBI is now officially looking to talk to some people.
	Like, wow, they figured maybe it'd be a good idea to go have a chat with Ghislaine Maxwell and see if she had any involvement in any of this stuff.
	Financier Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
	But the case isn't closed.
	Reuters has learned the FBI is investigating people who may have been accomplices to Epstein's illegal behavior.
	Two law enforcement sources told Reuters the principal focus is British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, seen here in 2013.
	Maxwell has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing.
	Her lawyers did not respond to a request for comment.
	One of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Gouffray, said in a civil lawsuit that Maxwell recruited her into Epstein's circle.
	So she introduced you to Jeffrey Epstein?
	She did, yeah.
	So you were hired to be a masseuse for him?
	Initially, yeah.
	Maxwell has called Gouffre's allegations lies.
	Gouffre claims Epstein forced her to have sex with friends, including Britain's Prince Andrew.
	Andrew, 59, also categorically denies the accusations and has said he has no recollection of meeting Gouffre.
	Law enforcement sources said the FBI's focus is on people who facilitated Epstein and that Andrew does not fit that category.
	Somehow, I think they're just never really going to talk to Ghislaine Maxwell.
	Or as they say, socialite?
	British socialite?
	No, she's protected.
	She's protected.
	She's protected.
	She's a spook.
	She's protected by multiple intelligence agencies and will never know anything else.
	However, tonight, 60 Minutes is promising something new.
	Sharon Alfonsi has investigated Epstein's death for five months and reveals what happened in the moments after his body was found.
	What did the prison guards do with Jeffrey Epstein's body?
	So immediately after they discovered him, they took him to the hospital.
	They were trying to do CPR on him.
	About an hour after he got to the hospital, they declared him officially dead about 7.30.
	And then he was taken to the morgue where they did the autopsy the next day.
	What do we know about what was found in Jeffrey Epstein's jail cell?
	So it's interesting.
	You would think that it would be sparse, right?
	This is a federal prison, high security.
	What we have learned through our reporting is that there was multiple sheets in there, lots of bedding, an electrical cord, prescription medicine.
	There was actually notes and a paper he had written a note.
	So in the piece you were heard saying that a guard was saying, breathe, Jeffrey, breathe.
	So this was widely known, what was happening in the prison, or we aren't sure?
	Well, we know the way that the prison was set up.
	He was in a secure area where there were about eight cells.
	And so we have heard, and our sources tell us, that the guards could be overheard saying, breathe, Epstein, breathe.
	And what's kind of eerie is that after that, the prisoners that were in that secure area all started chanting, breathe, Epstein, breathe.
	So the prisoners, other prisoners, were aware of what was going on.
	Well, they knew something was going on.
	It's, you know, the doors are blocked.
	They probably couldn't see that much, but certainly they heard the commotion.
	Was there video surveillance in there, in that area?
	It's a great question.
	We know that there was video surveillance facing the guard's desk, which is outside of the area where he was.
	We are told that the video facing the cells, the video that might have seen his cell door, was corrupted.
	Corrupted meaning?
	We don't know.
	Okay.
	Good question.
	No problem finding ring doorbell video of anything in the fucking universe, but oh, this one's corrupted in the jail.
	And he had electrical cords and she had everything.
	This is an abomination.
	It truly is an abomination.
	And it's insulting to people's intelligence.
	Yeah, but then again, what's new?
	What's new with this story?
	I didn't know he had all that stuff in his cell.
	Well, even so, but...
	That's kind of pertinent to how someone kills themselves.
	They never saw the cord wrapped around his neck.
	I always imagine somebody in there choking him, saying, breathe, breathe.
	That, I actually think, is the best theory ever.
	The guy standing there saying, breathe, Epstein, while he's choking him.
	That, I think, is something to look at.
	Yeah, you can imagine it.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	I don't expect much.
	Not expecting much.
	I'm not even going to watch it.
	I'll watch a football game instead.
	Well, you do that.
	I'll watch.
	I have an old clip that I wanted to get out of the way.
	Is this going to be our last clip?
	Yeah.
	Okay, well then we can go back to 2016.
	I never heard this clip.
	We never played it on the show that I know of.
	This is before Trump was...
	Even elected.
	He had just been nominated president.
	And there was a discussion with Harry Reid.
	Wait, wait, wait.
	He hasn't been elected.
	He'd been nominated president?
	What did you just say?
	He's not been elected yet.
	This is before the election.
	Oh, yes.
	The nomination.
	He was the nominee for the Republicans.
	Got it.
	So he's just a new nominee, so he's not any big thing, but there he is.
	And this is the kind of thing that was going on during that era when Trump just got nominated.
	Here's what the Democrats were doing.
	It's obvious that he doesn't know what he's talking about.
	It's obvious he can't control his mind or his tongue.
	And what I've suggested, if now, because he's the nominee for the party...
	And he gets his entitled briefings from the CIA, for example.
	I said publicly, give him fake briefings.
	Pretend you're briefing.
	Don't tell him anything that you don't want to get out.
	And that's how I feel about it.
	I think that the man is a loose cannon.
	I think he's done so much to hurt our country.
	With our international relations already.
	But as a Republican nominee, isn't he entitled to get those briefings?
	Give him fake briefings.
	What does that even mean?
	It means they'll tell him stuff.
	He won't know the difference.
	You're basically telling the intelligence community to lie to him.
	No.
	I'm not going to lie to you, but I just don't have to tell you everything.
	I hadn't heard that clip.
	Is that one of ours?
	No!
	I found it on the interwebs.
	I was surprised when I heard it.
	I had no idea this was gone that far back.
	He's already ruined the relations with the world.
	The guy just got nominated.
	And this is where they're headed with it.
	This is where it began.
	I think this predates even, you know, stuff that was just prior to the election.
	Well, just before the new year, Al Green, Representative Al Green of Texas, who has put his foot in his mouth multiple times when it comes to impeachment, he is, of course, the man who said, well, if we don't impeach him, he'll win.
	He'll be re-elected.
	Which is, I think, kind of the money quote for 2019.
	But just before the New Year's, he's on with Chris Hayes on MSNBC talking about the genesis of impeachment.
	And when the decision was really made that, you know, this guy needs to be impeached.
	And leveled against Democrats during this entire affair, particularly since September when the formal impeachment happened.
	Inquiry started.
	And you play a starring role in those charges.
	I mean, the argument goes like this of House Republicans and Trump and his allies, the president and his allies, is basically the Democrats wanted to impeach Donald Trump from day one.
	They cast about looking for a set of facts that they could plausibly use to do it.
	And all of it was pretextual and reverse engineered to get to this point.
	Exhibit one, Congressman Al Green, who's been calling to the man's impeachment for two years now.
	What's your response to that charge?
	Well, the genesis of impeachment, to be very candid with you, was when the president was running for office and he had members of his own party to talk about his unfitness to hold office.
	So when he was running, before he was even the nominee, we knew we had to impeach him.
	That pretty much says it all in this Harry Reid thing.
	I mean, these Democrats are not going to let this guy...
	Oh, wow.
	It's pretty astonishing, actually.
	It's a great time to be alive and even better time to be a podcaster.
	Would you agree?
	I would say there's nothing else that you could do.
	If you want to get information out, you have to be a podcaster because the media is not going to, or the mainstream is not going to pick up on it.
	Nope.
	They just won't run with it because it's against some narrative that, unspoken narrative that I guess everybody internalizes and then you end up with what you get, which is crap.
	So if you're looking for non-crap but a whole lot of stink bug, check in with us Thursday right here on No Agenda.
	Noagendashow.com, or if you want to listen live, noagendastream.com.
	We will deconstruct anything that happens between now and the next show day.
	You never know.
	A lot seems to happen on show days.
	And please remember us for support at dvorak.org slash NA. Coming to you from Opportunity Zone 33 here at the frontier of Austin, Texas, where people are being knifed to death.
	In the morning, everybody, I'm Adam Curry.
	And from northern Silicon Valley, where people are being pooped to death.
	I'm John C. Dvorak.
	It's great to be podcasters.
	All right, everybody.
	We will see you on Thursday right here.
	No agenda.
	Dvorak.org slash NA. Please remember us.
	And until then, adios mofo.
	Stay tuned for the grumpy old Ben.
	They'll be grousing about air travel and such.
	Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb.
	I ran.
	Good evening, everybody.
	The United States is once again attacking Iraq.
	Iraq sort of is like a big boulder sitting in the middle of the road there.
	Yes, Bill?
	We're hearing a series of very loud...
	The aftermath shows an attack that was deliberate and sustained.
	With around a half dozen explosions, the Americans firing with...
	T-Land missiles.
	They want us to declare war.
	We took action last night to stop...
	A war.
	Prevent another Gulf War.
	We did not take it.
	Because we're acting today, it is less likely that we will face these dangers in the future.
	He was plotting attacks against Americans, but now we've...
	To increase America's ability to prevent future acts of violence and aggression.
	Last night, at my direction, the United States military executed a flawless strike that terminated the terrorist ringleader Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq.
	Ladies and gentlemen, I know I sound like a broken record to many of you the last six years speaking so much about Iraq.
	If you're a Sunday morning junkie, you've had to hear me almost every Sunday morning.
	To demonstrate once again that reckless acts have consequences.
	And I am ready and prepared to take whatever action is necessary.
	Take him out?
	Well, um, uh...
	Well, how are we going to do that?
	Tell me how this ends, Charlie.
	Let me close by addressing one other issue.
	That the serious debate currently before the House of Representatives would distract Americans.
	Or weaken our resolve to face some doubt.
	Other Democrats are questioning the timing of the strike, which comes as the President faces a looming impeachment trial.
	I'm the first person to ever get impeached and there's no crime.
	I feel guilty.
	While the Congress was voting to impeach the President, the U.S. military was bombing Baghdad.
	This could escalate.
	It could lead to a cycle of violence.
	It just got more dangerous.
	No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
	I mean, that's, you know, I don't know about that.
	Now, are you going to be with me, Charlie?
	I hear the zephyr coming.
	See if I can turn that into a song.
	It's coming, it's coming, it's coming, it's coming.

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