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Speaker 1: The thinking atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,

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an idea.

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Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through.

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Speaker 1: The rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If

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I tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth,

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not because.

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Speaker 2: I put my hand on a book and made a.

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Speaker 1: Wish and working together for a more rational world.

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Speaker 3: Take the risk of thinking, feel so much more happiness.

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Truth Fusian wisdom will come to you that way.

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Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the

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Thinking Atheist podcast, hosted by Seth Andrews.

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Speaker 3: So this is the classic content creator's dilemma, and it

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just happened to me. I had a show that was

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prepped and cute and ready to go out, and it

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had to do with, first of all, Pete Budages, our

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former secretary of Transportation who is now sort of on

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the speaking circuit, who is trying to spread a little

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good sense out there. Whether or not you like Pete

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or would support Pete. I thought the stuff that he said,

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and I had sound bites. I thought it was relevant.

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It would be maybe a jumping off point for larger

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conversations about how do we fix the freaking country, and

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so that was the first segment, and then I read

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this letter from two hundred and fifty journalists, some of

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them very high profile here in this country, in advance

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of the White House Correspondent's Dinner, this big annual sois rae.

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Speaker 4: It's a multi day event.

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Speaker 3: And major, major, major league journalists, whether they are print

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journalists or media broadcasters or whatever. They show up. There's

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usually a roast. Trump does not go to this thing.

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He just doesn't, except this year he did. So I

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read the letter and we were talking about the responsibility

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of the free press in this country and why in

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the world are they sanewashing and soft selling the crazy

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twenty fifth Amendment qualifying shit that has been going on

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in this country for years and years and years. And

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this is what the journalists said in their letter. They're like,

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stop being afraid, stop sitting on your hands, do your

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freaking job, and hold his feet to the fire. You

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have a responsibility to your profession in the public.

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Speaker 4: So that's what the letter was.

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Speaker 3: But of course now we're talking about the White House

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Correspondence Dinner for a very different reason. Here's the timeline.

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Roughly about eight thirty five pm on Saturday, guests were

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gathered at the Washington Hilton when shots rang out, but

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long before the Secret Service activated, they rushed toward Donald Trump.

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They grabbed him and escorted him and his cabinet from

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the ballroom. A sole gunman had rushed a Secret Service

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checkpoint in the line be somebody had written I want

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to say it was a journalist who said that there

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were no metal detectors installed. I can't imagine that's the case.

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But apparently this guy charged the checkpoint in the lobby.

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He had a shotgun, a handgun and multiple knives, and

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he was intercepted after he got some rounds off. He

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was intercepted by the Secret Service. One agent was injured.

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I guess a bullet struck him and the bulletproof vest

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protected him. That's the story that is being circulated right now.

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The suspect tackled to the ground and handcuffed. Donald Trump.

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Then around nine to twenty comments about the shooting, and

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he says law enforcement acted quickly and bravely. The shooter

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has been apprehended. Twenty minutes later, Trump posts on truth

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social that the Secret Service wanted to shut everything down.

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We got to cancel the night. We are complying, we'll

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reschedule within thirty days. Ten to thirty, Donald Trump has

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a press conference at the White House. He's got the

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director of the FBI and the acting US Attorney General.

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Other law enforcement officials are there. They say it looks

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like a lone shooter. The story being circulated or the theory,

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was that he had his targets, his literal site on

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Donald Trump and or members of the Trump administration. The

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guy's name is Cole Thomas Allen, thirty one years old,

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out of California. Actually it might be Tomas Teomas. He's

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from the Los Angeles area. But the intident itself, of course,

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was pandemonium. It was chaos, gunshots ringing out right after

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the appetizers were served. At eight thirty five, Donald Trump

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expected to give a speech after an award segment. Now,

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why was Donald Trump and his cabinet there? He didn't

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go last year. I'm not sure if he went the

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years before, especially after he had wailed and railed and

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thrown his tantrums about being so unfairly treated by the press,

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this treason, his press, anti America, anti Trump, fake news.

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You know, he's threatening lawsuits. Hell, he's filing lawsuits against

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members of the press. He's calling members of the press

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piggy and telling people you're the worst, and your ratings suck,

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and everybody hates me, and it's a conspiracy and the

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woke radical left want to tear this country down. Me first,

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blah blah blah, and then he what gleefully, voluntarily gleefully says,

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I'm going to go and attend the dinner, and I'm

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going to take my wife, and I'm going to have

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the vice president there, members of my cabinet. It's going

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to be a wonderful event. This bugs me. This is

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where I have to say it. And everybody who starts

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to wonder about a conspiracy theory starts with this because

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it's supposedly, you know, it's a way to get in

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front of the fact that you are spreading a conspiracy theory.

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But I have to say, I'm not that guy, right,

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I don't usually lean into this kind of thing, but

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I will tell you there are so many red flags

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and it just bugs me. It bugs me that he

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agreed to be there and to do so so gleefully.

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The demeanor of many of the people when the gunshots

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were ringing out really bothers me. And you know what

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he did right after, right after this incident happened, He

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said he wanted to continue the dinner. Are you shitting me?

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You just had a potential mass shooter go in, try

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to get through security, and your first instinct was let

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the party continue. This does not sound like Donald Trump.

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Then he has this weird press conference with everybody grinning

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like an idiot all around him, and all of these

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people and more MAGA Incorporated start to follow his lead

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in saying that this particular incident is why we need

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that fancy new White House ballroom. Are you shitting me?

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It bugs me, It doesn't feel right. And I will

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tell you I put nothing past Donald Trump and his people.

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A few years ago, I might have said no, no,

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he would have never done it.

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Speaker 4: Nah, Nah, It's impossible.

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Speaker 3: And now I think this guy he would do anything,

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He would say anything, He would sacrifice anybody, he would

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stage anything. He has no bottom, no center, There is

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no ethical compass, there is no there is nothing. So

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now he's desperate to distract us from all the other

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shit that is going on, especially Iran in the Epstein files.

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And he loves to play hero victim.

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Speaker 4: Right, I just I hate.

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Speaker 3: The fact that I have these thoughts because part of

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me is like, you sound like an idiot, You sound

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like a tinfoil hatter.

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Speaker 4: You sound like one.

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Speaker 3: Of the people that you're always ridiculing or at least

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questioning or being skeptical of. And now you're saying what

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the whole thing was staged. I'm not saying anything. We

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don't know enough. I don't know if we will ever

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know enough about what happened. But I will just tell

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you that the pieces for me do not fit together.

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Man who hates press gladly and gleefully attends press party

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before party is underway, and you notice it's before anybody

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has a chance to say anything about him, or roast him,

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or do any of the stuff challenge him. Sometimes the

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roasts that these parties can be pretty good, pretty intense.

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So it stands to reason that somebody would have targeted

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Donald Trump with a nasty punchline, and I mean nasty

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in the best way, like a barbed punchline directed right

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at him. I think that would have happened. They didn't

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even have time to do that. They're sitting there over

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the appetizers when shit goes down before you know it.

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Speaker 4: There's drama.

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Speaker 3: The photos from this thing are crazy. I saw one

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of Steven Miller. He's using a woman as a human shield.

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Somebody said Carolyn Levitt was saying, well, there will definitely

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be shots fired tonight whenever she was teasing the event.

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Speaker 4: I think she was.

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Speaker 3: Talking about, you know, the verbal jabs shots fired. Did

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you say it in the colloquial sense, But there are

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many who were latching onto that and saying Carolyn Levitt

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new there would be literal shots fired. I don't think

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you can definitively make that connection, but it sure doesn't help,

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you know, and then it happens. Donald Trump, the biggest

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fucking coward on the planet, says, I want.

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Speaker 4: To continue the event.

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Speaker 3: I just well, if he felt that the venue was

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that insecure or unsecure, and that's why we need a ballroom,

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why would he stay in the venue that is not secure,

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and why would the Secret Service have ever let him?

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He should have known that, and yet he publicly says, well,

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doesn't bother me. Let us press forward with this celebration

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of America's great journalists at the White House Correspondent's Dinner.

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This makes no logical sense to me, makes no logical sense.

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As I sit here at the microphone, there was so

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much that is not known. There was so much speculation.

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The conspiracy versu is going crazy. There are photos and memes,

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and there are claims and hypotheses, and it's just a

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white noise out there. The responsible thing at this point

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is to sit back and to you know, see what investigators.

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Speaker 4: Come up with.

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Speaker 3: The problem is, you and I live in a culture

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where investigators aren't investigators. Many of them are propagandists. And

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we've seen this through Ice, after the Ice murders in

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the streets, where's the investigation there?

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Speaker 4: Right?

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Speaker 3: We've seen investigations happen, but only in regard to Trump's

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political enemies, and those investigations were unwarranted. Those were genuine

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witch hunts.

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Speaker 4: You know.

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Speaker 3: The Department of Justice is no such thing. It's been weaponized.

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It's supposed to be this apolitical organization. It's totally been

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weaponized by dear Leader Donald Trump. State power or many

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of our courts have been stacked with Trump friendly judges,

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by the Trump administration or Trump himself. They've decided, hey,

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we're going to go in and protect Trump at the local, regional,

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and even national and certainly the Supreme Court level. How

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the how can you and I be expected to expect

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that an investigation is going to be done responsibly, honestly,

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confidently and produced information we can rely on.

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Speaker 4: And this is where we are.

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Speaker 3: So I have this show about Pete Budages and a

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letter which was written by journalists encouraging their peers to

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conduct themselves responsibly and demand accountability as journalists, accountable to

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the people. I don't know what to do with the

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rest of this show. I feel like if I air it,

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it just sounds totally tone deaf because people are buzzing

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about the shooting. But if I don't release it, have

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I missed an opportunit unity to have some still relevant

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ideas out there in the mix. Well, I'm going to

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go ahead and play it for you, and as you listen,

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we will know that all of the other things that

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are happening in this country right now, all of the

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other stuff regarding the shooting, there is still the fog

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of war, there's still speculation, there is still hypothesis, there's

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still conspiracy theories, there's still lies. Who knows what the

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hell's going to be coming out in the next several

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days before we move on to the next piece of theater.

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Speaker 4: If it is theater and there's the conspiracy, theorist in me.

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Speaker 3: Doesn't make sense to me, I'll quit saying it, except

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it doesn't make sense to me anyway. Anyway, I'm just

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going to play for you the show as it was

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supposed to air, in the hopes that you will be

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able to partition the shooting off. I start with some levity,

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we talk about some life stuff, we get into Pete,

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and then we actually get into the tech of the letter.

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You got to keep in your mind that the letter

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was written before this incident. My comments about the letter

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were uttered before this incident. The tone is going to

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be pre incident. That's a relevant conversation. It'll be relevant

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in a few weeks, it'll be relevant in a few months.

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And I just think, fine, I'm gonna throw it out there,

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and then we may come back later in the week

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and talk a little more about this nut bar scenario

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at the White House Correspondent's dinner.

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Speaker 4: Okay, so I.

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Speaker 3: Do appreciate your patience, but the rest of the show

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will air as intended, and we'll do that next Okay,

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you have my full attention, right, I'm here for you.

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We are here together. I'm engaged. But I do have

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a confession to make because right now under my studio monitor,

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my phone is propped up and I have streaming phone

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video and on my screen are.

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Speaker 4: Birds.

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Speaker 3: Here's the story. Four years I've been telling my wife,

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not really in jest, but I've been telling her. Look,

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did you know that they make these little Wi Fi

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camera bird feeders and you can sit them in the

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backyard and then the little birds come up and they

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and they land on the perch and they peck away

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at the bird seed, and then it sends a feed

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to your phone. You can bird watch from wherever you are.

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You don't have to be in your own living room.

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You can be in another building, you could be in

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another country and you can watch the birdies. And Natalie

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just rolled her eyes, not because she doesn't like birds,

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but because she was like.

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Speaker 4: Are you kidding me?

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Speaker 3: There's gonna be bird shit all over the place. They're

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going to get the feed everywhere. The dogs are going

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to go out and get all up in the mess,

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and do you really want to do that?

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Speaker 4: Come on?

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Speaker 3: And she was giving me so much grief. But on

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my birthday there was a big box. And when I

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unwrapped the package and opened the box, low and behold

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there was a Keiwi bit camera bird feeder. And this

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thing is amazing. Like I knew they were cool, but

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in the age of four K cameras and everything, I

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just didn't know what the options were.

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Speaker 4: Let me just indulge me. Come on, tell you about it.

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Speaker 3: And oh, look, I've got a couple of mourning doves.

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Oh oh, and a sparrow. They're all three on the

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perch and they're sharing.

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Speaker 4: That's so sweet. Okay.

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Speaker 3: So it sends to my phote and I can choose

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do I want a standard definition or a high deaf

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or a four K feed or whatever my bandwidth will allow.

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And then it identifies the birds, so it shows me, Oh,

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now you've got a sparrow, and now you've got a

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whatever it is. I'm still learning what the birds are, oh,

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a cardinal something else. And when you save the photos,

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you can then save it with the identifier embedded in

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the photograph and then you send it to your friends

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or post it on social media. Oh lookie, who my

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visitor was today. Now some would call this an old

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person hobby. I don't think so. I think bird watching

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is universal across the human spectrum. Birds make us happy,

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or most of us happy. And so I opened up

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my package.

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Speaker 4: There it was.

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Speaker 3: I assembled it all. I put the battery, the chargeable

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battery in and got it all. Put the post in

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the backyard in a strategic location, filled it up with

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bird seed. And then the conversation becomes, well, what kind

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of bird seed? What's the best kind? Yeah, I want

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a certain brand or is there a certain type of

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seed that serves specific birds in my area? What are

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the birds in Oklahoma? Besides you know, sparrows and crows

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and hawks. You know, I got to watch for hawks,

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having small dogs, hawks and owls. You got an eight

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pound dog. You cannot leave your dog outside unattended for

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any length of time because I shit you not a

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hawk or an owl could come down and your little

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dog will disappear. So I'd be very careful about it.

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I haven't seen any hawks or owls, but I mean,

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what are the birds in Oklahoma? So I'm doing a

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little research there we buy the seed. I am obsessed.

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And here's the funny part. My wife, who was like,

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oh my god, it's gonna be a mess.

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Speaker 4: It's gonna be a pain in the ass.

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Speaker 3: I cannot believe you want this.

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Speaker 4: What a lame gift.

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Speaker 3: Blah blah blah. She indulges me. She surprises me, Happy birthday.

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Here's your WiFi four K camera bird feeder. You know

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00:17:49,839 --> 00:17:55,480
who's obsessed with it, Natalie. I got a text a

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half an hour ago and she said, did you see

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this bird or the dove is hogging the tray. He's

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actually sitting on the tray and he's blocking other birds

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from coming in. He's owned the tray. That's not fair.

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On the app, you can enable the audio so you

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can hear all the chirping and the pecking if that

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00:18:18,799 --> 00:18:22,880
zends you out. But there's also a microphone, so if

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there's something going on on the tray you want to

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scare somebody off or whatever, you just you hit the

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mic button and you're like, hey, get off the tray,

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or maybe you make cat noises. I don't know what

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you're supposed to do with a microphone. And then this

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is wild. There is an Unwanted critter mode, so the

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camera can recognize non bird animals that are getting into

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your seed. Oh look it's a squirrel or a raccoon.

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This is not wanted. The device will automatically recognize what

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it is and it will set off an alarm to

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00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:07,519
scare the shit out of the squirrel and the raccoon. Ostensibly,

330
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I don't know if that works or not. We don't

331
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have really any squirrels around here. There's not a lot

332
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of trees in my neighborhood. But what kind of world

333
00:19:16,319 --> 00:19:18,759
do we live in? It used to be hung the

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00:19:18,799 --> 00:19:21,240
little house on wires, stuck on a post. You sat

335
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back on the porch and bird watched, And we do

336
00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:25,759
a little bit of that. But why would you sit

337
00:19:26,279 --> 00:19:29,880
fifty feet away when you can get a literal bird's

338
00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:34,720
eye view, bird's eye view, eye to eye, face to face,

339
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up close and personal with identification. So now we're watching

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and learning birds at the same time. And I started

341
00:19:42,279 --> 00:19:46,160
to post photographs online. And there's a whole culture of

342
00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:50,359
people in this audience, tons of listeners and viewers and

343
00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:55,079
people in this community who have these and didn't bring

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them to my attention. For some reason, I'm almost defended

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that you didn't tell me this existed in this way.

346
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So I started posting photographs, and they start posting their photographs.

347
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It's bird a palooza. It's like a bird community, a

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sub community of this particular group, and I am so

349
00:20:16,720 --> 00:20:19,640
there for it. So if you are a fellow bird watcher,

350
00:20:20,359 --> 00:20:23,640
post your photos and let me know, let me see

351
00:20:23,799 --> 00:20:25,720
your birdies, let me see what kind of birds come

352
00:20:25,759 --> 00:20:31,400
to you. So anyway that's running, that's.

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Speaker 4: Running under my monitor, and so with.

354
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Speaker 3: What my periphery has birds in it. But my focus

355
00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:41,519
today is on you, and it's kind of a one

356
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two punch. I want to talk a little bit about

357
00:20:44,720 --> 00:20:46,640
a recent event in town, and I'm going to get

358
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into a larger conversation about the media in the United States.

359
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:55,519
All Right, I'm already preparing myself because some people are

360
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going to get pissed thinking I'm dedicating this monologue to

361
00:21:00,599 --> 00:21:01,559
a candidate.

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00:21:01,759 --> 00:21:03,359
Speaker 4: Hey, get over it.

363
00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:06,359
Speaker 3: I'm just talking about one guy, and I don't know

364
00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:10,279
who the presidential nominee is gonna be for twenty twenty eight.

365
00:21:10,519 --> 00:21:13,640
I'm just talking about an experience that I had in

366
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my hometown. Pete Budages was in Tulsa, white bread, corn fed,

367
00:21:20,480 --> 00:21:26,400
red state, evangelical. Trump love and Tulsa and Pete came here.

368
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And what's interesting is that the day before Natalie and

369
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I went out, it.

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Speaker 4: Was a big deal.

371
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Speaker 3: They had it at will Rogers' School in a gymnasium auditorium,

372
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which is weird because it wasn't really advertised.

373
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Speaker 4: There was a social media.

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Speaker 3: Campaign, but there was no billboards. I didn't see any

375
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TV ads or anything. So I was like, if you

376
00:21:45,279 --> 00:21:48,240
had really advertised this, and you've done it not a

377
00:21:48,319 --> 00:21:52,279
week before, but maybe a month before, we could have

378
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filled probably the Bok Center. There are a lot of

379
00:21:55,759 --> 00:21:59,599
Pete fans in this area, and I really discovered that

380
00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:02,279
when I all the line wrapped around the building. Fact

381
00:22:02,279 --> 00:22:05,359
it was all around the building and then blocks down

382
00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:07,480
the road. Natalie and I were standing out in the

383
00:22:07,519 --> 00:22:11,319
sun for almost two hours to get in to see Pete.

384
00:22:11,720 --> 00:22:14,000
But the day before I was talking to a few

385
00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,839
people on my tennis team. I was like, Oh, we're

386
00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:20,759
going to see Pete Budajes tomorrow and they looked at

387
00:22:20,839 --> 00:22:27,559
us blankly, and they said, oh, who's Pete Buddhasje And

388
00:22:27,599 --> 00:22:31,319
I looked blankly back at them. Now, I try not

389
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:34,640
to be too judgy, but I realized that these are

390
00:22:34,680 --> 00:22:38,400
people who vote, but how do you vote without having

391
00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:42,359
an informed vote? This guy was the Secretary of Transportation.

392
00:22:42,640 --> 00:22:45,799
He's been on TV every six minutes. He ran for

393
00:22:45,960 --> 00:22:49,039
president several years ago. I mean, the guy's been around.

394
00:22:49,640 --> 00:22:52,240
So how unplugged do you have to be to not

395
00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:56,039
know who Buddhaje is. I'll give you a pass if

396
00:22:56,279 --> 00:22:58,720
you are maybe out of the country, but if you

397
00:22:58,799 --> 00:23:02,599
live here, you need to know who Pete is. Okay, fine,

398
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:06,359
I'll give you just a quick premer just so everybody's

399
00:23:06,400 --> 00:23:08,519
on my page before I share some thoughts.

400
00:23:08,559 --> 00:23:11,599
Speaker 4: This is unprepared. I'm just talking about something that happened

401
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:11,880
to me.

402
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:17,440
Speaker 3: Pete Budajet. He was born in Indiana, went to Harvard,

403
00:23:17,680 --> 00:23:22,359
was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, he became a management consultant,

404
00:23:22,519 --> 00:23:26,319
went into the United States Navy as a lieutenant. He

405
00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:30,200
was deployed to Afghanistan and he served there during the

406
00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:34,200
Afghan War for almost a year. That was in twenty fourteen.

407
00:23:34,680 --> 00:23:38,440
He'd already been the mayor of South Bend, Indiana in

408
00:23:38,559 --> 00:23:41,839
twenty eleven. In fact, the residents there just knew him

409
00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:46,680
as Mayor Pete. Now, right after he came back from Afghanistan,

410
00:23:46,799 --> 00:23:49,480
I believe he went right back into politics. Forgive me

411
00:23:49,519 --> 00:23:52,039
if I get that one wrong. But in twenty fifteen

412
00:23:52,079 --> 00:23:56,160
he came out as a gay man. This was a

413
00:23:56,200 --> 00:23:59,680
big deal. Then it unfortunately remains a big deal in

414
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:03,200
this country because if you are a gay person in

415
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:08,279
a position of leadership in this country, the evangelical bigots

416
00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:12,720
lose their minds. Oh, he is now an aberration. He's

417
00:24:12,759 --> 00:24:16,519
a pervert, he's a sodomite. He is in contradiction to

418
00:24:16,720 --> 00:24:21,799
God's ordained model for the nuclear family, one man, one woman.

419
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:24,839
It was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. And

420
00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:30,400
this rhetoric continues today. But in twenty twenty, Pete Budages

421
00:24:30,839 --> 00:24:34,480
ran for president and he was all over town halls

422
00:24:34,559 --> 00:24:37,480
and debates and he was on TV. He of course

423
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:40,079
didn't even come close to winning, but he did make

424
00:24:40,119 --> 00:24:44,200
a splash. And after Biden won, he named Pete as

425
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:49,400
the Secretary of Transportation and it was almost a unanimous vote,

426
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:53,200
and he was the first openly gay cabinet secretary in

427
00:24:53,319 --> 00:24:57,319
our history at the age of thirty eight. He was

428
00:24:57,400 --> 00:25:01,119
considered a possible running mate for Common Harris when she

429
00:25:01,319 --> 00:25:04,400
ran in twenty twenty four. But as I understand it,

430
00:25:04,440 --> 00:25:06,960
I think the vibe was, Okay, wait a minute, so

431
00:25:07,279 --> 00:25:10,039
we're going to try to get a woman of color

432
00:25:10,559 --> 00:25:13,759
and a gay man elected on the same ticket. This

433
00:25:13,839 --> 00:25:17,240
may be a bridge too far in a country that

434
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:22,279
is this screwed up and this homophobic and racist. And

435
00:25:23,079 --> 00:25:27,440
we've already seen what Trump culture has done, empowering the

436
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:30,240
bigots to step out of the shadows. The roaches are

437
00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:32,359
out in the light. We've seen the you know, the

438
00:25:32,400 --> 00:25:36,359
Clan rallies in Charlottesville and the Proud Boys and everybody else.

439
00:25:36,359 --> 00:25:37,839
So a lot of people said this is going to

440
00:25:37,920 --> 00:25:42,319
be too much. Even Pete probably thought that. So after

441
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:46,240
Trump was elected the second time, Pete Budages has pretty

442
00:25:46,319 --> 00:25:49,319
much just been on the circuit and he goes on

443
00:25:49,839 --> 00:25:54,319
Fox News. He is invited on what is essentially dear

444
00:25:54,440 --> 00:25:57,880
Leader state television for Donald Trump. I wrote a whole

445
00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:02,880
book about this network, the origins of the network, the

446
00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:07,640
hosts of the network, this cross pollination between Fox News

447
00:26:07,640 --> 00:26:11,519
and the Trump White House. And it's remarkable how many

448
00:26:11,559 --> 00:26:15,480
Fox News hosts or producers went over to become part

449
00:26:15,519 --> 00:26:19,200
of Trump's administration, and how many people who were in

450
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:23,480
the Trump administration have since gotten jobs on the air

451
00:26:23,839 --> 00:26:29,960
at Fox News. It is an incestuous relationship. So Fox

452
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:32,680
News says, okay, well, let's have Pete on and we're

453
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:34,680
going to try to paint him into a corner, and

454
00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:36,880
we're going to make him sweat, and we're going to

455
00:26:36,960 --> 00:26:40,200
do all this. And the more they attempt to corner Pete,

456
00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:45,480
the more he with an even voice and a prepared nonscript.

457
00:26:45,519 --> 00:26:46,759
Speaker 4: He just has recall.

458
00:26:46,920 --> 00:26:52,759
Speaker 3: He just knows he destroys them. And what I really

459
00:26:52,920 --> 00:26:56,240
like is that he very often will not respond to

460
00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:59,039
the host who is challenging him as much as he

461
00:26:59,279 --> 00:27:03,039
will talk to the viewers. He's like, Okay, Fox newsers

462
00:27:03,079 --> 00:27:05,640
are in a bubble, right. I think of a sixty

463
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,400
percent of the people who watch Fox News don't get

464
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:13,039
information about the world from any other source. They are

465
00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:17,480
locked into that disinformation silo. So what Pete does is

466
00:27:17,519 --> 00:27:19,799
he goes into the lions Den and he will kind

467
00:27:19,839 --> 00:27:22,759
of turn to the camera and say, if you're watching,

468
00:27:24,000 --> 00:27:27,519
you know, I'm gonna let me say something or state something,

469
00:27:27,599 --> 00:27:30,000
but don't take my word for it. Go and check me.

470
00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:33,519
Pull up the video, read the transcript, watch the speech.

471
00:27:34,079 --> 00:27:36,319
I want to make sure that you are seeing and

472
00:27:36,440 --> 00:27:40,160
hearing the information for yourself. And he does this all

473
00:27:40,519 --> 00:27:42,720
the time. So I pulled up a clip. Now this

474
00:27:42,920 --> 00:27:47,920
is back from twenty twenty. John Kelly was chief of

475
00:27:47,960 --> 00:27:53,079
staff under Donald Trump. And John Kelly comes forward after

476
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:56,440
the fact and he talked about how behind closed doors,

477
00:27:56,559 --> 00:28:00,680
Donald Trump was really shitty about our miss and women

478
00:28:00,799 --> 00:28:05,440
in uniform who were wounded and or killed in combat

479
00:28:05,640 --> 00:28:09,759
because they were suckers and losers, a bunch of weaklings.

480
00:28:10,079 --> 00:28:15,759
He insulted John McCain, Vietnam war pow. He was behind bars,

481
00:28:15,759 --> 00:28:19,039
he was in a torture prison for years, but he

482
00:28:19,119 --> 00:28:23,079
was a war hero. Donald Trump said, you know what

483
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:26,759
I like men who weren't captured. And then John Kelly,

484
00:28:26,839 --> 00:28:30,160
who was part of the Trump staff, comes forward and

485
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,200
he said this to a journalist for The Atlantic in

486
00:28:33,240 --> 00:28:37,119
twenty twenty. He said, quote talking about Trump, he said,

487
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:41,240
a person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform,

488
00:28:41,759 --> 00:28:45,400
or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or

489
00:28:45,480 --> 00:28:50,480
spend years being tortured as POWs are all suckers because

490
00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:53,960
there is nothing in it for them. Kelly said of Trump,

491
00:28:54,599 --> 00:28:56,559
A person that did not want to be seen in

492
00:28:56,559 --> 00:29:01,039
the presence of military amputees because quot quote it doesn't

493
00:29:01,079 --> 00:29:05,359
look good for me. A person who demonstrated open contempt

494
00:29:05,400 --> 00:29:09,279
for a gold Star family for all gold Star families

495
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:13,200
on TV during the twenty sixteen campaign, and rants that

496
00:29:13,240 --> 00:29:16,599
are most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's

497
00:29:16,680 --> 00:29:21,680
defense are losers and wouldn't visit their graves in France.

498
00:29:21,759 --> 00:29:24,039
In fact, I think on that day when they were

499
00:29:24,079 --> 00:29:28,680
going to honor our fallen soldiers, I believe Trump went golfing.

500
00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:33,079
That's what we're talking about. Okay, So Fox News says, Hey,

501
00:29:33,119 --> 00:29:37,000
wait a minute, how do you know Trump actually disparaged

502
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:41,400
the members of our armed forces. We should be distrustful

503
00:29:41,680 --> 00:29:45,720
because Trump really might love our military. Let's talk to

504
00:29:45,839 --> 00:29:50,759
Pete Budaget. Here's just a clip from February of twenty twenty.

505
00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:55,759
Speaker 5: Pete, you have tweeted some pretty strong words about the president. Well,

506
00:29:55,799 --> 00:29:58,480
about the article about the president today in The Atlantic,

507
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:02,720
you wrote, there are no wars for how disgusting and dishonorable.

508
00:30:02,759 --> 00:30:05,279
Speaker 2: This is my question to you is how do you

509
00:30:05,279 --> 00:30:08,599
know it's accurate? How do you know it's true? Oh,

510
00:30:08,640 --> 00:30:11,039
that's easy. I mean, this is a pattern we've seen

511
00:30:11,119 --> 00:30:13,839
from the president throughout his life. When he was a

512
00:30:13,839 --> 00:30:17,039
young man, he faked a disability so he could avoid

513
00:30:17,039 --> 00:30:19,880
serving when it was his turn. We've watched him refer

514
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,000
to prisoners of war like John McCain as losers with

515
00:30:23,079 --> 00:30:25,160
our own eye. Look, if you're watching this at home,

516
00:30:25,519 --> 00:30:29,640
here's how willing Donald Trump is to insult your intelligence.

517
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:32,880
Today he denied that he ever called John McCain a loser.

518
00:30:33,039 --> 00:30:35,519
Now again, if you're watching this at home, grab your phone,

519
00:30:35,599 --> 00:30:38,079
go on Google. You can see video of him doing it.

520
00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:40,440
You can see a tweet of him doing it. So

521
00:30:41,119 --> 00:30:45,079
I think it's pretty easy to figure out who to believe.

522
00:30:45,680 --> 00:30:48,359
And indeed, again I'm looking at the internet right now.

523
00:30:48,920 --> 00:30:52,440
Fox News itself has confirmed many of the details of

524
00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:56,160
this story. So here's the bottom line. The president thinks

525
00:30:56,240 --> 00:30:58,759
people who play by the rules or people who sacrifice

526
00:30:58,799 --> 00:31:02,480
for other other are suckers. He thinks people pay their

527
00:31:02,519 --> 00:31:06,279
taxes are suckers. He seems to think Christians are suckers.

528
00:31:06,599 --> 00:31:08,920
He'll just hold up the Bible as a prop without

529
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:11,279
ever seeming to look into it. This is part of

530
00:31:11,319 --> 00:31:15,319
a clear, consistent, repeated pattern of behavior. Although I will

531
00:31:15,359 --> 00:31:19,240
say these revelations about just how much this president disrespects

532
00:31:19,279 --> 00:31:21,359
the military do represent a new love.

533
00:31:22,039 --> 00:31:23,440
Speaker 3: I got to hand it to him. I mean, I

534
00:31:23,440 --> 00:31:25,480
don't know if I could do that. I don't know

535
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:27,440
if I could sit in a chair on Fox News

536
00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:30,279
and not just look eye to eye with whoever the

537
00:31:30,319 --> 00:31:34,039
host is, especially Sean Hannity or even some of the

538
00:31:34,079 --> 00:31:39,079
ex foxers, Tucker Carlson, Megan Kelly, those people. I mean,

539
00:31:39,079 --> 00:31:42,039
if Kaylee mcananey was looking at me on Fox, I

540
00:31:42,079 --> 00:31:44,200
don't know how I would keep from looking at her

541
00:31:44,240 --> 00:31:48,599
and saying, how do you sleep at night? You psychopath?

542
00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:53,359
Because these people, I swear to you, whether they're transactional

543
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:56,039
or whether they truly believe it, and I'm not convinced

544
00:31:56,079 --> 00:31:59,400
they're true believers. I tend to think, and this is

545
00:31:59,599 --> 00:32:04,079
just the yes, I tend to think there's psychopaths. I

546
00:32:04,119 --> 00:32:06,960
think they are willing. They would sell anybody and everybody

547
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:10,680
down the river. I think they are in the business

548
00:32:10,839 --> 00:32:16,279
of outrage, porn for fame and millionaire money. I think

549
00:32:16,319 --> 00:32:19,559
they know that the Fox News brand is a gravy.

550
00:32:19,240 --> 00:32:20,079
Speaker 4: Train for them.

551
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 3: I just who was it who went on Sean Hannity

552
00:32:24,039 --> 00:32:27,960
and they were arguing and debating a spirited debate, and

553
00:32:28,079 --> 00:32:31,960
right after the cameras went dark, Hannity looked at him

554
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:35,319
and said, Wow, that was really good or that ought

555
00:32:35,319 --> 00:32:36,160
to get some attention.

556
00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:38,319
Speaker 4: Who was he debating.

557
00:32:39,799 --> 00:32:43,559
Speaker 3: I can't remember, forgive me. It was somebody like Pete

558
00:32:43,720 --> 00:32:46,359
or Christopher Hitchens or somebody like that who went on,

559
00:32:46,839 --> 00:32:49,319
who was very much on the side of humanism and

560
00:32:49,359 --> 00:32:52,880
liberal values. But after you know, the segment was over,

561
00:32:53,599 --> 00:32:56,039
Sean Hannity was like, oh, man, that's going to make

562
00:32:56,079 --> 00:32:59,240
for great television. That kind of thing, I think is

563
00:32:59,279 --> 00:33:04,359
indicative of how that network works, remaining the most popular

564
00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:09,640
quote unquote news network in the United States. They bring

565
00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:12,880
Pete on, he says yes, and he mops the freak

566
00:33:13,039 --> 00:33:16,359
and floor with him. He comes to Tulsa and he

567
00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:20,519
blows us away with a refreshing combination of smarts and

568
00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:25,799
empathy and charm and intelligence. He's a bit kinder to

569
00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:30,400
the quiet quitters of MAGA. He was addressing people in

570
00:33:30,519 --> 00:33:33,799
the audience. You know what, I've got the town hall

571
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,119
audio right here. Let me just play you a few clips,

572
00:33:37,359 --> 00:33:39,440
and this is what he had to say to some

573
00:33:39,519 --> 00:33:41,599
of the people who may have sort of snuck in

574
00:33:41,759 --> 00:33:45,640
under the radar, who voted for Trump in twenty sixteen,

575
00:33:45,759 --> 00:33:49,400
maybe again in twenty twenty or twenty twenty four, but

576
00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:53,200
they're looking around having an O shit moment, and now

577
00:33:53,319 --> 00:33:56,839
they're pete curious, and so that's why they're there. This

578
00:33:56,920 --> 00:33:57,799
is what he told him.

579
00:33:57,920 --> 00:34:01,039
Speaker 2: Maybe you're here because you've never voted for a Democrat

580
00:34:01,119 --> 00:34:04,559
in your life, but you're looking around asking yourself some

581
00:34:04,680 --> 00:34:07,799
questions based on what's going on in the world right now.

582
00:34:08,039 --> 00:34:10,599
And if that's why you're here, I'm very glad that

583
00:34:10,639 --> 00:34:12,679
you're here and thankful to be able to be in

584
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:15,639
dialogue with you. Maybe don't think of yourself as political

585
00:34:15,760 --> 00:34:18,000
at all. You don't think a whole lot about Democrats

586
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:20,840
and Republicans, but you can't help but notice the gas

587
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:23,159
is going through the roof, diesels going through the roof.

588
00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:23,880
Speaker 4: Can't help.

589
00:34:23,880 --> 00:34:25,840
Speaker 2: But notice that we were told a year and a

590
00:34:25,840 --> 00:34:28,400
half ago the prices were going to go down, and

591
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:30,880
instead they are up compared to what they were a

592
00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:34,559
year and a half ago. Maybe never mind left and right,

593
00:34:34,599 --> 00:34:37,000
you're just bothered by a sense of right.

594
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:39,480
Speaker 4: And wrong now. I really appreciate that.

595
00:34:39,599 --> 00:34:43,679
Speaker 3: And those of us who understand how to deprogram people

596
00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:47,960
out of cults know that you're not gonna deprogram them

597
00:34:48,079 --> 00:34:51,280
by putting them on their heels and insulting and calling

598
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:53,639
them names and saying you're an idiot and all those things.

599
00:34:54,239 --> 00:34:56,320
But I will say that in my own mind, I'm

600
00:34:56,360 --> 00:35:01,159
not there. I'm not as generous. I don't feel that

601
00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:03,800
level of empathy. And Natalie and I were talking about

602
00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:07,320
it on the drive home. We're still pissed. We're pissed.

603
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:09,840
Speaker 4: We're like, you should have known better.

604
00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:14,119
Speaker 3: I heard somebody phrase it this way, and it's such

605
00:35:14,159 --> 00:35:17,559
a good way to put it. Trump was an open

606
00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:22,599
book test. There were no surprises. Everything was right there,

607
00:35:22,639 --> 00:35:24,679
and this is not what you voted for. I just

608
00:35:25,559 --> 00:35:29,639
have a hard time buying that. Either you're lying to us,

609
00:35:29,679 --> 00:35:32,440
maybe you're lying to yourself, or are you just that

610
00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:37,760
dangerously stupid that maybe we should consider having some sort

611
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:41,320
of a qualifier, maybe a test, before you are allowed

612
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:46,760
to vote for our leadership. So I don't have that

613
00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:50,840
much charity in my heart, but I get it. Whether

614
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:54,239
he believes it behind closed doors, you know, maybe whenever

615
00:35:54,280 --> 00:35:57,719
the cameras are off, he's like, fuck those people. Yeah,

616
00:35:58,159 --> 00:36:01,119
he right, he's a politician, but I'll tell you when

617
00:36:01,119 --> 00:36:05,760
he's in public, he is very much the olive branch guy. Strategically,

618
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:10,119
it does make sense, right as he moves forward into

619
00:36:10,199 --> 00:36:15,039
what some think might be a presidential run, and I've

620
00:36:15,039 --> 00:36:18,480
been having this conversation about whether a gay man is

621
00:36:18,719 --> 00:36:22,840
electable in this country. We saw the racist come out

622
00:36:22,880 --> 00:36:25,400
of the shadows when it came to Kamala Harris. It

623
00:36:25,559 --> 00:36:29,239
sexism and racism. It was a one two punch. And

624
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:31,880
it didn't matter what her qualifications were. It didn't matter

625
00:36:32,159 --> 00:36:34,599
what her education was, it didn't matter how long she'd

626
00:36:34,639 --> 00:36:37,800
been in public service, it didn't matter. It was, oh,

627
00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:41,079
I'm not going to vote for that black woman. And

628
00:36:41,119 --> 00:36:44,079
we saw a hell hired people in my own zip

629
00:36:44,119 --> 00:36:48,239
code say that shit. So now we're talking about a

630
00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:52,320
gay man and a culture that talks about how marriage

631
00:36:52,639 --> 00:36:55,719
is only one type of thing, and gay people are

632
00:36:55,719 --> 00:36:59,400
in rebellion against God, and they're already selling Satan on

633
00:36:59,679 --> 00:37:03,760
Fox News and at every fundee church around the country.

634
00:37:05,880 --> 00:37:06,800
Speaker 4: But I had this thought.

635
00:37:06,840 --> 00:37:10,280
Speaker 3: I thought, what if Pete saw this as an opportunity.

636
00:37:10,880 --> 00:37:14,719
What if people are so disenfranchised and so pissed off

637
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,920
and so grieved and scared and absolutely thinking what in

638
00:37:17,960 --> 00:37:20,239
the world are we going to do? That they would

639
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:23,599
vote for almost anybody I'm talking about, even moderates and

640
00:37:23,639 --> 00:37:28,559
moderates conservatives. They would vote for almost anybody who could

641
00:37:28,639 --> 00:37:33,280
hit the stop button on the runaway train. In that context,

642
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:36,840
then would this be an opportunity for somebody like Pete,

643
00:37:36,880 --> 00:37:41,960
a liberal gay man, to run for president. I'm not

644
00:37:42,039 --> 00:37:45,400
an expert. I have no idea, but I had the thought.

645
00:37:46,079 --> 00:37:48,920
There are others who say, well, it's still a bridge

646
00:37:48,920 --> 00:37:52,360
too far. Our country is still too bigoted to ever

647
00:37:52,599 --> 00:37:56,000
go there. And there are still others who say that

648
00:37:56,079 --> 00:38:00,039
maybe he's strategically waiting for a Democrat to win the

649
00:38:00,079 --> 00:38:03,159
presidential election in twenty twenty eight, and then he would

650
00:38:03,199 --> 00:38:06,840
get an appointment in that administration and then run for

651
00:38:07,079 --> 00:38:11,800
president in twelve fourteen years. You know, he's a young

652
00:38:11,920 --> 00:38:15,559
enough guy, He's got plenty of time. Now the Supreme

653
00:38:15,639 --> 00:38:17,679
Court came up. I'm just going to play one or

654
00:38:17,679 --> 00:38:21,320
two more soundbites because they are opportunities for discussion here.

655
00:38:21,320 --> 00:38:24,280
But you know, what do we do if the Supreme

656
00:38:24,320 --> 00:38:28,679
Court is essentially the victim of a hostile takeover, and

657
00:38:29,320 --> 00:38:32,320
you know, if let's say Clarence Thomas or somebody else

658
00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:36,480
kicks off tomorrow, the president who would appoint the next

659
00:38:36,519 --> 00:38:40,360
Supreme Court justice is still a freaking psychopath, What in

660
00:38:40,400 --> 00:38:41,880
the world do we do about the court?

661
00:38:42,039 --> 00:38:44,039
Speaker 2: Back when I was running for presidents seven years ago.

662
00:38:44,079 --> 00:38:45,880
When I said that we ought to do structural reform

663
00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:48,719
to the Supreme Court, people looked at me funny. Nobody,

664
00:38:48,800 --> 00:38:52,719
even Bernie wouldn't talk about it back then. Now that's

665
00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:55,000
become a mainstream position in this country, and I think

666
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,440
it's because we've seen what that court has become. But

667
00:38:58,519 --> 00:39:01,079
as far as Congress look right now, one out of

668
00:39:01,159 --> 00:39:04,400
ten House races is actually competitive. Think about that. In

669
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,119
a fifty to fifty country, only one out of ten

670
00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:10,960
races is actually a contest. The rest the other nine

671
00:39:11,000 --> 00:39:13,440
out of ten you pretty much know what the outcome

672
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:15,159
is going to be before the first vote is cast.

673
00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:16,079
Speaker 4: That is nuts.

674
00:39:16,519 --> 00:39:18,719
Speaker 2: Some of the things we take for granted as core

675
00:39:18,840 --> 00:39:22,280
to the Constitution. It's right in there. It's first Amendment,

676
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:24,280
second amendment. The word amendment means it wasn't even in

677
00:39:24,559 --> 00:39:27,719
the original text. Amendments have always been a critically important

678
00:39:27,760 --> 00:39:30,079
part of how our constitution is supposed to work. We

679
00:39:30,159 --> 00:39:34,199
just forgot about it. We amended our constitution for prohibition.

680
00:39:34,280 --> 00:39:36,599
We changed our constitution so you couldn't have a beer,

681
00:39:38,440 --> 00:39:40,360
and then we thought that's a bad idea. We changed

682
00:39:40,360 --> 00:39:43,920
it back. Don't tell me we can't change the Constitution

683
00:39:44,039 --> 00:39:45,239
to get money out of politics.

684
00:39:45,639 --> 00:39:47,840
Speaker 3: I mean, he's got a point about the Constitution and

685
00:39:47,960 --> 00:39:50,280
change and how we can amend an update. But at

686
00:39:50,280 --> 00:39:52,559
the same time, I mean, we're talking about a nation

687
00:39:52,679 --> 00:39:57,559
that refuses to update the Second Amendment or at least acknowledge.

688
00:39:56,920 --> 00:39:57,559
Speaker 4: What it is.

689
00:39:58,039 --> 00:40:01,559
Speaker 3: This is a glacial beer rock receive. And I don't

690
00:40:01,599 --> 00:40:04,000
care what he says about the Republican Congress. So I'm

691
00:40:04,039 --> 00:40:06,880
not convinced that even public pressure is really going to

692
00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:09,159
push them in the right direction. I think a lot

693
00:40:09,199 --> 00:40:13,159
of these people, like a huge number dozens and dozens

694
00:40:13,480 --> 00:40:18,360
of conservative Republican Christian congressmen, have just decided they're not

695
00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:20,760
going to run during the mid terms. They're just I

696
00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:24,039
want to go spend more time with my family. Well,

697
00:40:24,079 --> 00:40:27,280
this is code for I need to save face. I

698
00:40:27,320 --> 00:40:30,239
know I would get my ass kicked. I'm embarrassed of

699
00:40:30,599 --> 00:40:33,360
you know. I'm on the losing team and I know it.

700
00:40:33,719 --> 00:40:36,400
So I'm going to go and spend more time with

701
00:40:36,519 --> 00:40:40,440
my family and enter the private sector because God has

702
00:40:40,480 --> 00:40:43,000
told me it's the right time. I just don't think

703
00:40:43,079 --> 00:40:46,159
that they give a shit really about what we think

704
00:40:46,559 --> 00:40:49,519
enough to change their position. While they're in the Congress,

705
00:40:49,559 --> 00:40:52,719
so that's kind of a utopian view. But the court,

706
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:55,960
could we pass a constitutional amendment? Do you think we'd

707
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:59,400
ever get there to expand the court? That's what constitutional

708
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:01,840
attorney is, and brew Sidel says, we need to do.

709
00:41:02,199 --> 00:41:05,000
Why in the hell do we just have nine Supreme

710
00:41:05,079 --> 00:41:07,880
Court justices? And how did we end up with a

711
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:11,960
court that isn't representative of the three hundred and sixty

712
00:41:12,039 --> 00:41:15,440
or three hundred and eighty million American citizens and the

713
00:41:15,559 --> 00:41:20,360
laws that ostensibly protect them. It makes no sense. And

714
00:41:20,400 --> 00:41:23,079
then what do you do if the Supreme Court goes rogue?

715
00:41:23,079 --> 00:41:25,559
And it's the highest court in the land, right, who

716
00:41:25,599 --> 00:41:30,480
watches the watchers? This is one of the dilemmas. The

717
00:41:30,519 --> 00:41:36,119
strength in numbers, right, strength in numbers. And finally, American

718
00:41:36,199 --> 00:41:39,880
journalists and I think international journalists are included as well,

719
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:43,400
have come together, or many frontline journalists have come together

720
00:41:43,599 --> 00:41:49,239
to add some pressure to their peers in reporting, TV, prints, radio,

721
00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:52,480
et cetera, to say, hey, what the hell, it's time

722
00:41:52,639 --> 00:41:56,119
to put the fire to Donald Trump's feet and quit

723
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,559
socking up to him, or at least quit being afraid.

724
00:41:59,679 --> 00:42:03,079
And they issued this open letter and it's gone viral,

725
00:42:03,119 --> 00:42:05,079
and I'm gonna read for you the letter, which I

726
00:42:05,159 --> 00:42:17,039
found refreshing. I'm gonna do it right after this. On

727
00:42:17,079 --> 00:42:21,840
the subject of journalism, our media, the press's responsibility to

728
00:42:21,960 --> 00:42:24,880
report accurately what is going on, and I think the

729
00:42:24,960 --> 00:42:28,800
media is largely failing us. There was an open letter.

730
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:32,239
It was signed by two hundred and fifty American journalists,

731
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:36,599
many of them heritage journalists, to big names like Sam Donaldson,

732
00:42:36,719 --> 00:42:43,400
Dan Rather and others photographers, reporters, TV commentators, etc. And

733
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:47,440
they published this letter to their journalistic peers before the

734
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:50,480
White House Correspondent's Dinner. And this dinner is put on

735
00:42:50,599 --> 00:42:54,480
by the White House Correspondence Association, which is supposedly a

736
00:42:54,639 --> 00:42:58,159
separate entity from the government. Just a bunch of journalists.

737
00:42:58,199 --> 00:43:02,840
They get together and have this thing. The president usually attends.

738
00:43:02,880 --> 00:43:06,639
I don't believe Trump went last year. They get together

739
00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:09,719
and it's cocktail parties and dinners and just a big

740
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:13,079
party goes on for several days. Well, because this is

741
00:43:13,159 --> 00:43:18,119
the White House Correspondent's Dinner, some of these correspondents in

742
00:43:18,239 --> 00:43:23,400
American journalism said, Hey, we're putting our fellow journalists on notice,

743
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,360
would you please. In the wake of what's going on

744
00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:30,760
around us, do your goddamn jobs.

745
00:43:31,199 --> 00:43:32,599
Speaker 4: And I thought, okay.

746
00:43:33,119 --> 00:43:36,559
Speaker 3: Finally, in April of twenty twenty six, there is an

747
00:43:36,719 --> 00:43:41,519
organized effort by American journalists to shore things up. The

748
00:43:41,639 --> 00:43:45,599
letters said, in part we the undersigned call upon the

749
00:43:45,639 --> 00:43:49,639
White House Correspondent's Association to use the occasion of the

750
00:43:49,679 --> 00:43:55,400
White House Correspondent's Dinner to forcefully demonstrate opposition the President

751
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:59,800
Trump's efforts to trample freedom of the press. The dinner

752
00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:02,519
is long served as a symbol of the vital and

753
00:44:02,679 --> 00:44:06,760
irreplaceable role of a free press and American democracy, and

754
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:10,440
a celebration of the First Amendments and the journalists who

755
00:44:10,519 --> 00:44:16,119
uphold it. President Trump's systematics, sustained and unpress idented attacks

756
00:44:16,159 --> 00:44:19,000
on the free press render his presence at such an

757
00:44:19,039 --> 00:44:24,320
event a profound contradiction of its purpose. The collective weights

758
00:44:24,360 --> 00:44:31,320
of the administration's actions retaliatory access bans, coercive regulatory investigations,

759
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:37,000
frivolous lawsuits against the press, defunding of public broadcasting, dismantling

760
00:44:37,039 --> 00:44:43,000
of international broadcasting, physical restrictions on journalists, personal verbal attacks

761
00:44:43,039 --> 00:44:46,599
on reporters, assaults on the media in official White House

762
00:44:46,599 --> 00:44:51,159
press releases, and social media posts. The arrest of journalists

763
00:44:51,480 --> 00:44:54,519
and the pardoning of those who committed violence against the

764
00:44:54,639 --> 00:44:59,280
press represent the most systematic and comprehensive assault on freedom

765
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:03,360
of the press by a sitting American president. There's a

766
00:45:03,400 --> 00:45:08,679
long tradition of presidents attending the White House Correspondence Association dinner,

767
00:45:08,719 --> 00:45:12,119
but these are not normal times, and this cannot be

768
00:45:12,400 --> 00:45:15,880
business as usual with the press standing up to applaud

769
00:45:15,920 --> 00:45:19,440
the man who attacks them on a daily basis. We

770
00:45:19,639 --> 00:45:23,800
understand that some journalists plan to wear pocket handkerchiefs or

771
00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:27,119
lapel pins with the words of the First Amendment, and

772
00:45:27,239 --> 00:45:30,679
continuing in that spirit, we believe the White House Correspondence

773
00:45:30,760 --> 00:45:35,239
Association should take stronger action by issuing from the podium

774
00:45:35,519 --> 00:45:39,440
a forceful defense of freedom of the press and condemnation

775
00:45:39,599 --> 00:45:43,119
of those who threaten that freedom, followed by a standing

776
00:45:43,199 --> 00:45:46,880
toast to the First Amendment and a pledge to continue

777
00:45:46,960 --> 00:45:52,000
upholding such a critical cornerstone of our democracy. Speak forcefully

778
00:45:52,320 --> 00:45:55,079
in front of the man who seeks to undermine our

779
00:45:55,119 --> 00:46:00,079
country's long tradition of an independent, strong and free press.

780
00:46:00,079 --> 00:46:05,320
We also urge the WHCA to reaffirm without equivocation that

781
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,800
freedom of the press is not a partisan issue, and

782
00:46:08,920 --> 00:46:13,199
that the association will not normalize this behavior, but instead

783
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:17,480
fight back against any office holder who has waged systematic

784
00:46:17,559 --> 00:46:21,840
war against the journalists whose work the Dinner celebrates, and

785
00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:26,320
it lists specific examples of Trump's attacks on freedom of

786
00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:28,320
the press. Let me just roll through some of these,

787
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:33,320
they're interesting. February twenty twenty five, the Trump administration banned

788
00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:37,000
Associated Press reporters from pooled press events of the White

789
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:40,199
House and a board Air Force one after the ap

790
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:44,719
declined to alter its long standing editorial style guide to

791
00:46:44,800 --> 00:46:49,639
replace the internationally recognized name Gulf of Mexico with the

792
00:46:49,679 --> 00:46:54,760
president's preferred term Gulf of America. In early twenty twenty five,

793
00:46:54,840 --> 00:46:59,280
the Trump administration stripped office space at the Pentagon from CNN,

794
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:02,360
The Washington and Post, The Hill, NBC News, The New

795
00:47:02,480 --> 00:47:07,199
York Times, NPR, Politico, and other outlets whose coverage the

796
00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:13,800
administration deemed unfavorable. The Trump administration implemented Pentagon press rules

797
00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:18,320
in September twenty twenty five, prohibiting reporters from reporting any

798
00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:22,639
information not cleared by the Defense Department, a move the

799
00:47:22,719 --> 00:47:27,480
court ultimately ruled violated the First Amendment. President Trump has

800
00:47:27,559 --> 00:47:31,400
engaged in a sustained pattern of personal verbal attacks on

801
00:47:31,679 --> 00:47:37,320
individual reporters, including calling ABC reporter Mary Bruce a terrible

802
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:42,199
person and a terrible reporter, calling Bloomberg News reporter Catherine

803
00:47:42,280 --> 00:47:47,960
Lucy piggy, calling CBS reporter Nancy Cordes a stupid person,

804
00:47:48,320 --> 00:47:52,079
calling New York Times reporter Katie Rodgers a third rate

805
00:47:52,199 --> 00:47:57,440
reporter and ugly both inside and out, calling CNN anchor

806
00:47:57,559 --> 00:48:02,559
Caitlin Collins the worst reporter, calling ABC reporter Rachel Scott

807
00:48:02,679 --> 00:48:09,239
obnoxious and a terrible reporter, a pattern disproportionately targeting women journalists.

808
00:48:09,840 --> 00:48:14,280
Trump also threatening to revoke ABC's broadcast license when the

809
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:18,880
network's reporters ask questions he disliked. In a speech at

810
00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:22,760
the Department of Justice March fourteenth, twenty twenty five, President

811
00:48:22,800 --> 00:48:28,760
Trump publicly called CNN and MSNBC corrupt and illegal, and

812
00:48:28,840 --> 00:48:34,039
broadly attacked the independent reporting of major news organizations as illegal,

813
00:48:34,440 --> 00:48:38,440
using the bully pulpit of the presidency to delegitimize and

814
00:48:38,519 --> 00:48:43,000
intimidate the free press. In November twenty twenty five, the

815
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:46,639
White House launched an official government web page titled Hall

816
00:48:46,719 --> 00:48:52,159
of Shame, naming and targeting individual journalists and news organizations

817
00:48:52,159 --> 00:48:57,159
for reporting that the administration disagreed with. In December twenty

818
00:48:57,199 --> 00:49:01,599
twenty five, Trump publicly accused The New York Times of treason,

819
00:49:02,320 --> 00:49:06,320
labeling it the Enemy of the People, rhetoric that press

820
00:49:06,360 --> 00:49:12,360
freedom organizations worldwide have identified as characteristic of authoritarian governments.

821
00:49:13,000 --> 00:49:18,079
President Trump, through FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, launched politically motivated

822
00:49:18,119 --> 00:49:25,519
investigations into major broadcast media organizations, including ABC, NBCCBS, and

823
00:49:25,639 --> 00:49:30,880
San Francisco radio station KCBS, for matters ranging from their

824
00:49:30,920 --> 00:49:36,320
coverage of immigration enforcement to editorial decisions, using the coercive

825
00:49:36,360 --> 00:49:40,280
power of broadcast licensing as a weapon to threaten and

826
00:49:40,480 --> 00:49:46,679
suppress unfavorable journalism. In January twenty twenty five, FCC Chairman

827
00:49:46,840 --> 00:49:51,159
Car launched an investigation into NPR and PBS over their

828
00:49:51,280 --> 00:49:56,119
underwriting practices, threatening the federal funding of public broadcasting, which

829
00:49:56,159 --> 00:49:59,719
serves more than ninety nine percent of the American population,

830
00:50:00,079 --> 00:50:04,639
including rural communities that rely on public media for emergency

831
00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:09,639
and disaster information. The Trump administration filed the lawsuit against

832
00:50:09,639 --> 00:50:14,719
the Des Moines Register, its parent company Gannettes, and pollster J. N.

833
00:50:14,960 --> 00:50:19,440
Selzer over a pre election poll, and the Pulitzer Center

834
00:50:19,719 --> 00:50:24,039
using personal and governmental litigation as instruments of pressure and

835
00:50:24,119 --> 00:50:29,599
intimidation against news organizations. The president has also sued The

836
00:50:29,639 --> 00:50:33,199
New York Times in The Wall Street Journal for billions.

837
00:50:32,639 --> 00:50:34,840
Speaker 4: Of dollars for alleged defamation.

838
00:50:35,719 --> 00:50:39,440
Speaker 3: President Trump filed the lawsuit against ABC News and anchored

839
00:50:39,440 --> 00:50:45,000
George Stephanopolis, which Disney, ABC's parent company settled for fifteen

840
00:50:45,039 --> 00:50:50,280
million dollars directed to the future Trump Presidential Library, plus

841
00:50:50,400 --> 00:50:53,960
a million dollars in legal fees, a settlement that legal

842
00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:58,280
scholars warned would produce a chilling effect on network journalism.

843
00:50:58,559 --> 00:51:02,239
President Trump filed the law suit against Paramount, the corporate

844
00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:05,760
parent of CBS News, over the editing of a sixty

845
00:51:05,920 --> 00:51:11,119
minutes interview. Paramount settled, paying sixteen million dollars to the

846
00:51:11,199 --> 00:51:16,840
future Trump Presidential Library, despite legal experts characterizing the suit

847
00:51:16,920 --> 00:51:21,519
as frivolous and predicting CBS would prevail at trial. The

848
00:51:21,599 --> 00:51:26,039
settlement came as Paramount sought FCC approval for a multi

849
00:51:26,039 --> 00:51:31,280
billion dollar merger. Trump's FCC chairman threatened Disney and ABC

850
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:35,280
with their broadcast license if they didn't suspend Jimmy Kimmel

851
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:40,320
after comments that conservatives took issue with ABC took Kimmel

852
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:44,199
off the air for a week. In early twenty twenty six,

853
00:51:44,679 --> 00:51:48,440
FBI agents rated the home of a Washington Post reporter,

854
00:51:48,599 --> 00:51:52,360
seizing her phone in computers, a move the Reporters Committee

855
00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:56,840
for Freedom of the Press described as endangering confidential sources

856
00:51:56,960 --> 00:52:02,760
and undermining investigative journalism, and which penn America called evidence

857
00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:08,360
of a growing assault on independent reporting. In twenty twenty six,

858
00:52:08,559 --> 00:52:13,320
federal agents arrested journalists Don Lemon and Georgia fort while

859
00:52:13,360 --> 00:52:17,159
they were covering a news event, with two separate federal

860
00:52:17,280 --> 00:52:21,159
judges refusing to sign arrest warrens for lack of evidence

861
00:52:21,199 --> 00:52:24,719
of any crime before the Justice Department obtained a grand

862
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:29,880
jury indictment, a prosecution that press freedom advocates characterized as

863
00:52:29,920 --> 00:52:33,159
an assault on the First Amendment right to cover matters

864
00:52:33,159 --> 00:52:37,840
of public interest. The Trump administration acted against two foreign

865
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:43,199
born journalists. Mario Guavera, an Emmy Award winning Spanish language

866
00:52:43,280 --> 00:52:46,519
journalist originally from El Salvador, had lived in the United

867
00:52:46,519 --> 00:52:50,599
States for nearly two decades. It was deported by Ice

868
00:52:50,760 --> 00:52:54,400
after he was arrested while covering a no King's rally.

869
00:52:55,039 --> 00:52:59,159
As Stephanie Rodriguez Flores, a Colombian born journalist who was

870
00:52:59,199 --> 00:53:03,360
seeking Assiglum was arrested by ICE a day after reporting

871
00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:07,159
on ice raids in Nashville. She was held for two

872
00:53:07,199 --> 00:53:11,239
weeks before being released on bail. On May first, twenty

873
00:53:11,280 --> 00:53:14,800
twenty five, President Trump signed Executive Order one four to

874
00:53:14,800 --> 00:53:20,039
two nine zero titled Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Biased Media,

875
00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:23,840
directing an end to all federal funding for NPR and

876
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:28,280
PBS through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with a White

877
00:53:28,280 --> 00:53:32,119
House accusing the media outlets of receiving tens of millions

878
00:53:32,119 --> 00:53:36,840
of dollars in taxpayer funds to spread radical, woke propaganda

879
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:41,639
disguised as news. In July twenty twenty five, he signed

880
00:53:41,719 --> 00:53:47,079
legislation revoking one point one billion dollars in already appropriated

881
00:53:47,119 --> 00:53:51,320
federal funding for public broadcasting, causing the Corporation for Public

882
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:55,119
Broadcasting to shut down and placing over one hundred eighty

883
00:53:55,199 --> 00:53:59,639
public radio and television stations at risk of closure. The

884
00:53:59,679 --> 00:54:03,960
Trump administration moved to dismantle the US Agency for Global

885
00:54:04,159 --> 00:54:10,079
Media USAGM, silencing Voice of America, a journalistic institution with

886
00:54:10,239 --> 00:54:14,599
eighty three years of history, and terminating several US news

887
00:54:14,599 --> 00:54:19,679
services that broadcast to those living under authoritarian regimes. Within

888
00:54:19,719 --> 00:54:23,280
the first hours of his second term, President Trump suspended

889
00:54:23,440 --> 00:54:27,760
hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign aid specifically designated

890
00:54:27,840 --> 00:54:33,119
to support press freedom overseas. On January twentieth, twenty twenty five,

891
00:54:33,320 --> 00:54:36,719
President Trump issued a blanket pardon to more than fifteen

892
00:54:36,880 --> 00:54:41,320
hundred individuals charged or convicted in connection with the January sixth,

893
00:54:41,400 --> 00:54:45,159
twenty twenty one attack on the United States Capital, including

894
00:54:45,199 --> 00:54:49,280
at least eight individuals convicted or charged with violent crimes

895
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:53,440
against journalists present at the scene and three convicted for

896
00:54:53,559 --> 00:54:57,400
destroying media equipment, crimes that were documented on video and

897
00:54:57,480 --> 00:55:01,159
prosecuted by the Department of Justice, sending a message that

898
00:55:01,280 --> 00:55:05,920
attacks on the press will be forgiven. President Trump has

899
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:10,320
publicly expressed personal support for media owners who have demonstrated

900
00:55:10,360 --> 00:55:16,960
favoritism toward his administration, including praising sky Dance CEO David Ellison,

901
00:55:17,039 --> 00:55:22,400
whose company acquired CBS Paramount under Trump's watch, hosting Oracle

902
00:55:22,559 --> 00:55:26,559
co founder Larry Ellison at the White House for business announcements,

903
00:55:26,800 --> 00:55:30,880
and praising Fox News and its leadership. Creating a system

904
00:55:30,920 --> 00:55:36,360
of rewards for compliant media and punishment for independent journalism

905
00:55:36,440 --> 00:55:41,360
that fundamentally corrupts the relationship between government and a free press.

906
00:55:42,039 --> 00:55:45,239
The United States has fallen to a ranking of fifty

907
00:55:45,400 --> 00:55:48,559
seventh out of one hundred eighty countries in the twenty

908
00:55:48,599 --> 00:55:53,599
twenty five Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index, its

909
00:55:53,880 --> 00:55:57,400
lowest ranking since the index was first compiled in two

910
00:55:57,440 --> 00:56:01,119
thousand two. A dramatic and his way historic decline that

911
00:56:01,199 --> 00:56:06,039
reflects the documented and measurable deterioration of press freedom under

912
00:56:06,119 --> 00:56:11,039
President Trump's administration. And I see six organizations that represent

913
00:56:11,079 --> 00:56:13,800
the two hundred and fifty journalists on the signatures, the

914
00:56:13,960 --> 00:56:18,480
Society of Professional Journalists, the National Association of Black Journalists,

915
00:56:18,840 --> 00:56:23,320
National Press Photographers Association, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Coalition

916
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:28,599
for Women in Journalism, and the Radio Television Digital News Association.

917
00:56:29,159 --> 00:56:33,480
It is nice to finally see a cohesive, concentrated effort

918
00:56:33,679 --> 00:56:38,800
to call out their peers in journalism. Let's apply some pressure.

919
00:56:39,239 --> 00:56:44,079
Is it long overdue? Yes, it's long overdue. It's April

920
00:56:44,119 --> 00:56:48,199
of twenty twenty six. What the hell this should have

921
00:56:48,199 --> 00:56:51,480
happened ten years ago? Before the examples, we knew he

922
00:56:51,519 --> 00:56:53,639
was going to go hard, and we knew the journalists

923
00:56:53,639 --> 00:56:56,960
would be right there on the front lines along with artists,

924
00:56:57,039 --> 00:57:01,960
satirist comedians, commentators, anybody who dares to roast the sacred cows.

925
00:57:02,199 --> 00:57:05,159
We knew that they were going to be in the crosshres,

926
00:57:05,239 --> 00:57:07,400
So am I pissed they took this long?

927
00:57:07,760 --> 00:57:10,920
Speaker 4: Yes? Am I glad they did it? Absolutely?

928
00:57:12,239 --> 00:57:15,119
Speaker 3: Okay, it is a little bit of a shorter broadcast today.

929
00:57:15,119 --> 00:57:17,960
I must apologize to you, but I have my reasons.

930
00:57:18,480 --> 00:57:21,239
One of them, actually, both of them are kind of selfish.

931
00:57:21,280 --> 00:57:24,280
I am finishing my speech for the upcoming we Can

932
00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:29,559
Reason conference in Calgary first weekend of May. We Canreason

933
00:57:29,719 --> 00:57:30,960
dot Com.

934
00:57:30,719 --> 00:57:31,599
Speaker 4: Is the website.

935
00:57:31,639 --> 00:57:35,119
Speaker 3: There are some tickets still available, a few, I think,

936
00:57:35,440 --> 00:57:38,440
And then I'm going to fly my wife up on

937
00:57:38,599 --> 00:57:41,079
Sunday the third, and she and I get to take

938
00:57:41,159 --> 00:57:45,960
a long overdue vacation at BAMF National Park, which I

939
00:57:46,079 --> 00:57:49,079
hear and I've seen the pictures, but I hear it

940
00:57:49,199 --> 00:57:51,280
is one of the most beautiful.

941
00:57:50,840 --> 00:57:52,599
Speaker 4: Places in the world.

942
00:57:52,760 --> 00:57:54,760
Speaker 3: Now, as much as we hate to leave the two

943
00:57:54,800 --> 00:57:57,480
dogs and the cat, we have an in house sitter

944
00:57:58,039 --> 00:58:00,079
friend of ours is going to like pat them on

945
00:58:00,119 --> 00:58:02,639
the head and assure them that yes, mommy and Daddy

946
00:58:02,679 --> 00:58:07,199
are coming back. But Natalie and I we're gonna unplug

947
00:58:07,239 --> 00:58:10,840
and be together, and I am trying to get ahead

948
00:58:10,840 --> 00:58:14,199
of the game so that everything is all sat for us.

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And I don't come back to a monumentally tall inbox,

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So I guess both of those are selfish. I'm looking

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00:58:20,280 --> 00:58:22,880
forward to the conference, got to finish my prep, but

952
00:58:22,960 --> 00:58:27,719
I'm also taking a five day vacation and I am

953
00:58:27,920 --> 00:58:30,239
so ready, and then I will come back to you,

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refreshed and ready to rejoin the battle. Thank you so

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00:58:34,599 --> 00:58:37,960
much for listening. I will be back and we will

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00:58:38,000 --> 00:58:38,639
do it again.

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Speaker 1: Follow The Thinking Atheist on Facebook and Twitter for a

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00:58:42,360 --> 00:58:45,960
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00:58:46,000 --> 00:58:49,679
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00:58:49,719 --> 00:58:53,400
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and conventions. Log onto our website, The Thinkingatheist dot com.