Speaker 1: What's going on. Thank you so much for listening to
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your support. Years ago, when Obama was president, he called
it Sinco di quatro. At some speech on Cinco de Mayo,
he called it Sinco de Quatro, and I used to
play the sound bite every year of him saying it.
It wasn't until about six months ago when I got Christy,
my wife, to watch the series' Arrested Development. That was
the name of the annual party in that comedy series.
They it was like it took place in like San
Diego or something, and they set up a Cinco des
Quatro party in order to try to draw the crowd
away from the Cinco de Mayo party. And I realized,
I think Obama was a fan of Arrested Development. Maybe
that's that's why he said it anyway, Happy Cinco de
Mayo to all who celebrate. I may be a little
punchy here. I'm I've been popping the leaves like their
pezz because, uh, over the weekend. I don't know how
you spent your weekend. I hope you had a good
time and uh, you know, spent it in a productive fashion.
My weekend was productive. We uh we shoveled five tons
of rocks. Christy and I did around are all of
the the planter beds because you know, the HOA was
cracking down on everybody not updating, freshening up their mulch
in the garden beds and such. I was like, you
know what, I'm just so tired of having to keep
going back every six months and putting down mulch and
pine needles and everything else. So I just got a
massive delivery of rocks and I thought this is going
to be the way to go. And now I am
in pain. Oh my gosh, I'm in pain. So I
feel like I just got multiple COVID booster shots or something.
It's just every muscle. I did not get the booster shots, no,
so I don't even know, but that's what that's what
I heard happened. Anyway, Let's start with science, actually some
COVID related stuff. But first you remember the science doctor Fauci.
Do you remember one of the programs. No, no, no,
not the way he fought the AIDS people that were
trying to get like different treatments for HIV AIDS at
the time. Not that and not the not the COVID stuff.
But you remember the beagle experiments. Remember that stuff that
all came out a couple of years ago. So get this.
The National Institutes of Health director Jay Badacharia recently announced
that the agency has closed its last in house beagle
laboratory on the NIH campus. The announcement comes just days
after Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk posted on
Twitter formerly known as X, that he would investigate funding
beagle experiments. A report from the White Code Waste Project
the WCW detailed the lab's history of allegedly pumping pneumonia
causing bacteria into more than two thousand beagles lungs, bleeding
them out, and forcing them into septic shock for deadly experiments.
Shortly after the Trump administration took office, the FDA announced
in April that it would phase out an animal testing
requirement for antibody therapies and other drugs in favor of
testing on materials that mimic human organs, which seems like
a more humane way to go, right, Like, it's just materials.
It's it's not on. It's not on like a living animal.
More importantly, it's not on a cute living animal. Right,
and cute by the way, when it comes to animals
and pets, it's basically it's due to eyebrows. I think
if the animal has eyebrows, that's what makes it cute.
Generally speaking. During Trump's first terms science, look, I don't
make the rules. That's the Yeah, that's the rule. During
Trump's first term in twenty nineteen, the administration closed the
government's largest cat lab. Twenty nineteen. I feel like this
should be I don't know, like this should be what
Donald Trump is truthing out on the truth social right,
why not highlight the fact that you're saving cats and dogs,
like I feel like that would be a bit of
a pr win. You know. PETA People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals in twenty twenty one highlighted the science
doctor Anthony Fauci's alleged approval of funding for tests in Tunisia,
where beagle puppies were drugged and their heads were locked
in cages filled with hungry, infected sandflies. Is that really
science or is this just torture? Like? Are you just
torturing animals? Because I feel like that's one of the
precursor steps to serial killing, right, don't you always see
that in the TV shows and such? It's like, oh, yeah,
that kid down the block, he killed some people's pets
and then lo and behold he stepped up to humans.
You know. The Indiana based company that bred the beagles
for the research a company called Nvigo and Bigo and Vigo. Anyway,
they pleaded guilty in twenty twenty four to neglecting thousands
of dogs that it's Cumberland, Virginia breeding facility, and will
be required to pay more than thirty five million dollars
in fines. According to the American Veterinarian Sorry, the American
Veterinary Medical Association PETA is awaiting information about the condition
of the dogs that will be released and if they
are in good enough shape to be placed in a home.
They say they stand ready to help, see so they're
not just about the wacky protesting too, like, yes, they
will strip naked. Well, actually they don't even do the
naked stripping anymore. Like they used to strip naked, spray
paint the body as like an animal, and then you know,
put to put the person in a cage. They usually
we get like hot models, you know, and they would
paint them up and they'd be nude in the They
don't even do that anymore. Now they make fake cow
robots that like shame people if they're wearing leather. In Greenville,
South Carolina, downtown. It's just so no. But they are
going to help with the beagal replacement operation, which is good.
That's very good for them. That's good news. Not so
good news. The Department of Health and Human Services has
implemented a pause on research at one of the country's
most highly secure research labs following repeated safety incidents. So
they're doing tests on like COVID stuff, SARSKOV two, the
Ebola virus, lass of fever, eastern equine encephalitis. This is
a yeah, this is up in DC. This is at
Fort Dietrich's Integrated Research Facility And according to Fox News
Digital Report, these incidents have been occurring for the last
few years. So the facility is now put on pause
as they so they cannot conduct their risky research on
the deadly infectious diseases. It's one of only a handful
across North America and it's part of the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases once again, and is located
at the US Army Base Fort Dietrich outside of Washington, DC.
The research there studies treatment and prevention of deadly, high
consequence diseases. Okay, so what happened, Well, it may or
may not have something to do with a lover's quarrel.
I will give you the details in a moment. Here's
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So the Department of Health and Human Services has issued
a pause on all research at one of the country's
most highly secure research lambs for Dietrich's Integrated Research facility
outside of DC why Well. According to an HHS official
who was willing to speak on the matter under the
condition of anonymity. The pause stemmed from a lover's spat
between researchers at the facility. The spat resulted in one
of the individuals poking holes in the other's personal protective equipment.
You're working in an infectious laboratory and now you're stooping
your colleague. Things obviously go sideways and you attempt to
murder them and oh maybe like a couple million people too,
because that's what would have happened. Right If you're you're
poking holes in their ppe, they're going to get sick,
they're going to contract something that they're working on, and
then they're going to go spread it. So that individual,
the whole poker has been fired. I think they should
also be charged attempted murder. And if there's some sort
of a charge I don't know, like from the anthrax era,
maybe you know, like biological terrorism something, throw that at
them too. This is this is unbelievable. I mean, I
thought that the astronaut wearing the diapers traveling across country
to go attack her lover's wife or whatever it was, like,
I thought that was a crazy story. This, The AJHS
official said the incident is just the latest example of
safety incidents at the high risk Lab, which this person
blamed on a poor safety culture at the lab that
was enabled by the previous administration. I don't know if
that's true or not. It's an anonymous source, but like,
that's yeah, the whole poker needs to be charged tempted
murder at the very least. Meanwhile, Trump is ordering the
FEDS to look at reopening Alcatraz. I have a proposal.
I have a proposal. How about we relocate the lab
to Alcatraz Island. Let's because that's that Look, that thing
is not going to reopen. I don't think that's I
don't think they can reopen it. It wasn't even open
that long. I watched Escape from Alcatraz, Like all you
need is a couple of paper mache heads and you're out. Like,
I don't know, I don't think it's going to reopen.
It's also a big tourist thing, so you got to
find some other way to, you know, I don't know,
make the island profitable. But Donald Trump is calling for
the Notorious prison. Are there any prisons they called the
Seacod prison down in El Salvador, They called that one
the Notorious prison. This is a notorious prison. Also, are
there any prisons that aren't notorious? It's now historical landmark
right off the coast of San Francisco in the in
the bay there. He wants it to be rebuilt. He
wants it to be rebuilt bigger, obviously, and reopened so
it can house the country's most ruthless and violent criminals.
Trump made the announcement in a truth social post on
Sunday evening, which is how we legislate now. Alcatraz opened
in nineteen thirty four, but the prison located on a
twenty two acre spit of rock. I don't know what
a spit of rock is. It's an island, right, It's
a okay anyway. It was closed after twenty nine years.
It was only open twenty nine years. It is one
in a quarter miles one and a quarter mile, yeah,
one and a quarter mile from the shore. The Bay
area island was considered practically escape proof, although there were
fourteen documented attempted escapes, The most notorious one from the
Notorious prison was the June eleventh, nineteen sixty two escape
by John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris, which inspired
escape from Alcatraz. It remains a mystery whether the three
reached the shore and survived, although the FBI says no,
they drowned. But it's the FBI, so I don't know.
The three prisoners chiseled an escape route from their own
jail cells and built makeshift paper mache heads. The final
attempt to escape from the prison almost six months later,
inspired what has become the swimming route of the Escape
from Alcatraz Triathlon. See now, you're not going to be
able to do a triathlon if you reopened the prison.
The final attempt to escape. Oh I already read that. Sorry,
It's most notorious inmates include gangster's Whitey Bulger, Al Capone,
George machine Gun Kelly, who married Megan Fox if I
recall correctly, also the infamous, not notorious but infamous Birdman
of Alcatraz, Robert Stroud, and Public Enemy number one Alvin Karpis.
Alcatraz ultimately closed in nineteen sixty three. You know why
not because of the attempted escapes. No, the island operations
proved far more costly than mainland based prisons, which kind
of makes sense, right, I've heard everything is more expensive
on an island. You got to ship everything in. Everything
has to come over by boat. It's just a very
expensive operation to run, particularly compared to the compared to
the prisons on the mainland. Alcatraz Island today is a
popular San Francisco tourist attraction operated by the National Park Service.
I doubt it's going to happen, all right. So spring
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create a video dot com. Right. So I got ideas
on Alcatraz Islands. Make that the lab island this way.
You know, if you got lovers that are poking holes
in each other's PPEs, then it's just it's on the island,
you know, and then we'll know, Oh, something bad happened
at the land, right, because the whole island is now dead,
and then it's not gonna it won't get over to
the mainland. You know, you could do like quarantines and
stuff very easily around that island. And speaking of labs,
North Carolina is looking at stricter rules for lab grown meat. Well, see, okay,
I may actually try it. No, see, I got texture
issues with food, Like I won't eat peaches because they
got hair on them that fuzz. I don't like it,
And so I don't know, Like I guess I would
have to see the meat and I have to like
kind of i'd have to poke it with the fork
and see what it does, like cause if it if it,
if it jiggles, I'm not gonna eat it, you know. Yeah,
I don't think I'm gonna eat No, how might I
don't know. I don't know. But the Annual Farm Act
is making its way through the North Carolina legislature and
agriculture as wral's Will Duran reports. Agriculture is North Carolina's
largest industry, pumping over one hundred billion dollars a year
into the state economy, but the industry also faces a
number of headwinds. They talk about the bird flu, the
tariff policies, a lot of uncertainty. So one of the
things they're looking to do is to ban raw milk
enact stricter rules for lab grown meat. By the way,
did you see like that robot in China started attacking
the human robot builders. Could the same happen with lab
grown meat? I don't know, Like if you make this
meat and then it like it could go crazy. Maybe,
I don't know. I'm not a scientist. Ooh, how about
putting the lab grown meat on the robots? Like you?
You could grow the meat around the robot's skeleton, you know,
you can make them look you can make them look hilarious. Actually,
but now they also want in the farm bill they
were also in some of the other pieces of legislation.
They also want to make it harder for solar companies
to expand onto farmland. They also want to make it
harder for people to sue pesticide companies for making them sick.
And they want to ban certain foreign companies from buying
up farmland inside our state. So there's a whole raft
of bills. This is I forgot to wish you happy
happy crossover week. That's what's happening this week at the legislature.
Got the deadline coming up where all the bills from
the House have to be filed and in and all
the bills in the Senate have to be filed and
into the system, and then everything crosses over. So all
the House bills go to the Senate and all the
Senate bills go to the House, and they put the
deadline on there. So this way you don't get you know,
people just constantly throwing new bills while they're trying to
wrap up the session, and they're doing the budget too,
so but the Farm Act is a regular thing. So
they're always making changes to the farm policy. All right,
So first off is the raw milk ban because of
the bird flu threat. The New Farm Act proposes banning
raw milk. Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler is pushing for the change,
saying raw milk has always been dangerous for people to drink,
but needs to finally be banned now because of the
evidence that it transmits bird flu. I did not know this,
But then again, I do not drink raw milk. I
know some people I don't. Actually well, I know one
person who I think tried it for a little while
a couple of years ago. I don't even know if
she still drinks it. She's not dead, nor does she
have bird flu, so maybe she stopped. I don't know.
I was unaware that bird flu spread with the raw milk,
but I guess it kind of makes sense. It's raw,
like that whole Louis pasture process that it seemed like
a beneficial thing, so raw milk. According to Will Duran
at the WRL TV station, raw milk is popular among
some conservative social media influencers and politicians, however, including Trump's
top health official Robert F. Kennedy. Jr. Noted conservative Robert
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Yeah, so he's a fan of
the raw milk. I did not know that. I do
know he not a conservative. I do know that. Also.
The friend that I had that drank it was not
a conservative either. So I'm not aware that that the
raw milk thing is limited to conservatives or conservative social
media influencers. I'm not saying there aren't some that are
out there that are saying that, no doubt, I have
no doubt there are. This is like the the anti
vax stuff when we would see these outbreaks of measles,
mumps or whatever, and it was always in like these
crunchy granola communities or private schools. It wasn't like the
anti vax stuff from the right is a new thing
like this is pretty as far as I can tell,
it's been a pretty recent development, and I think it's
mainly due to COVID and the disillusionment of a lot
of people about you know, the ex birds telling us
what the science and data is all about. So I'm yeah,
I'm not so sure about that line there in this story.
But Troxel are acknowledged to his fellow Republicans in the
legislature this week that the proposed band could be pretty
controversial even if it would protect public health. But nobody
came and spoke against it or for it, for that matter,
so maybe not. I like, how many people are actually
drinking raw milk? Like it hasn't even registered on my
radar as like a fad. I just know it's like,
I don't know, there's always been like gross, I don't know.
I watched the documentary series Boardwalk Empire, and some women
drank a bunch of raw milk in order to miscarry,
So like ever since then, I was like, nope, I'm
I don't want to miscarry. All right, if you're listening
to this show, you know I try to keep up
with all sorts of current events, and I know you
do too, And you've probably heard me say get your
news from multiple sources. Why Well, because it's how you
detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed
with ground News. It's an app and it's a website
and it combines news from around the world in one
place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You
can check it out at check dot ground dot news
slash Pete I put the link in the podcast description too.
I started using ground News a few months ago and
more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate
because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered
and by whom. The blind spot feature shows you which
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I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to
every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast,
but it also supports ground News as they make the
media landscape more transparent. Go on over the Farm Bill
and some of the farming relates legislation that is making
its way through the legislature the General Assembly. They want
to the Farm Act would make it harder to sue
pesticide companies for health harms, which bill sponsor Senator Brent
Jackson from Samson County Republican said is a direct response
to the lawsuits over Roundup and its alleged links to cancer.
Roundup's current manufacturer, Bayer, paid nearly ten billion dollars to
settle round Up lawsuits in twenty twenty. I have not
done a deep dive on any of this. I'm just
giving you the headlines here, just giving you the info
from WRAL. It would also the bill also increases penalties
for people who steal crops or who skirt regulations for
shellfish farming. It's a big problem. Require schools to grant
excused absences for students who want to compete in equestrian
events or attend livestock shows. One of the more contentious bills,
House Bill seven twenty nine, would repeal the property tax
credits that are given to solar energy companies. AG Commissioner
Steve Troxler and other Republicans said too many farmers have
been selling their land to solar companies. By the way,
do you know what solar companies do to put up
those solar farms? I mean just complete environmental devastation, Like
they will clear cut acres twenty thirty forty fifty acres
and they just bulldoze it all flat and then burn
all of the trees and stuff for the earth. Obviously,
this threatens large farming corporations, which typically get this do
not own their own farms. They contract out to individual
farmers around the state. So those farmers work their own
land and then they have a contract with the farming corporation.
But if a solar company comes in and gives them
a bunch of money, then it's like, hey, we'll just
put up these panels and now I'll get paid without
doing all of the farming, and it's a steady source
of income you don't have to worry about, you know,
like oh we had a bed you know, dry summer,
and so I lost the crops or whatever. The fewer
farms there are, though, the harder it will be for
the big companies to find subcontractors to grow their products.
That could lead to higher prices, fewer goods, or both.
Republican lawmakers are proposing to keep in place. Here's the key,
the tax credits for farmers, but repeal the tax credits
for solar companies. The solar industry, you might imagine, opposes
this bill, and so do Democrats. They point out that
if Republicans are really concerned about saving farmland, they would
also repeal tax breaks given to home builders, which, well,
that is one way to get more homeless people. See,
they say, you got to make it less lucrative to
turn the farms into new subdivisions. Democrats asked Wednesday if
Republicans planned to also repeal the home builder tax credits
as well as the solar tax credits. They were told
that wasn't on the table. The home builder industry contribute
substantial amounts of money to Republican politicians in North Carolina,
and to be fair, they have contributed large sums of
money to Democrats as well. They spread the money all around,
particularly when the party in power right has a majority
and they can pass bills. So you've right you want
to donate to them, so you can lobby them, get
access to them and let them know, hey, this isn't
a good thing. Hey you should keep my tax breaks.
So they're going to phase out the tax credit that
the solar companies get for their assets for the panels
that are on the farmland, and so the idea there
is that without that subsidy, it will become less financially
attractive for the solar companies to compete with the farming industry.
Joel Olsen, a solar developer, said the proposal will hurt
rural county's ability to fund schools, jails, and other parts
of the local budgets, since counties collect far higher property
taxes on solar farms than on many other rural land uses,
including agricultural farming, and finally, lab grown meat. House Bill
one thirty four would put stricter labeling rules on lab
grown meat. That passed one oh six to eleven and
is now sitting in the state Senate. Last week, the
House also pushed forward House Bill one thirty five, which
would ban public K twelve schools, community college and public
universities from purchasing any lab grown meats in the future.
So they don't want the lab grown meats to be
given to the kids. You shall eat the pink slime,
but not the lab grown meat. I'm just kidding. I
don't think they serve. They don't serve the pink slime
in our schools. I don't think that was a big story,
remember that, Oh the pink slime. That was quite the scare.
That was like growing up, we thought we were all
going to die of, like like drowning in quicksand that
was our big fear. It's just, I don't know, it's
like a it's a panic and it just sweeps across
the country. And for some reason, when we were kids,
we all thought we were going to get you sucked
down into some sand pit. All right. That'll do it
for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I
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thank you so much for listening, and don't break anything
while I'm gone.