Adam hit it.
Adam Curry.
John C.
DeVora.
It's Sunday, March 15, 2026.
This is your award-winning Cuban nation media
assassination episode 1851.
This is no agenda.
Sniffing the sleeper cells and broadcasting live from
the heart of the Texas hill country here
in FEMA region number six in the morning,
everybody.
I'm Adam Curry.
And coming to you from the Pacific Northwest
where only tourists use umbrellas.
I'm Mimi Smith-Dvorak.
Here's Crackpot and Buzzkill.
In the morning.
So I wonder how much longer John's going
to be out.
We might have to actually change the jingle.
I mean, people are complaining like you still
got John's name in the credits.
Although I'm pretty sure I put your name
in, but okay.
John's probably going to get out of the
hospital this week.
So he's well on his way to recovering
at Jane Brennan's house.
So we're hoping that he's back sooner than
later.
Well, I received a phone call on Friday
from John from the hospital.
I was like, what?
From, and here's the thing.
From Sutter Health.
So no, it's a 415 number.
I'm like, oh, that's some Google scammer.
Cause of course I don't have John's actual
cell phone number.
No, why would I have that after 18
years?
So he goes to voicemail and like, hey,
yeah, let's check it in.
Check it in.
I call him back.
I say, dude, what's up?
He's like, it was the sweetest thing.
He says, yeah, you know, I just really
wanted to apologize that I'm not there doing
the show.
I'm like, what are you talking about?
You have the best excuse ever.
This is fabulous.
He sounded really good, Mimi.
I got to tell you, he sounded upbeat.
I saw the picture in the newsletter.
Do they not let him shave in the
hospital?
No, that's his form of protest.
He's not shaving until he's out.
Oh, okay.
So when you say he'll come out this
week, do you know?
I mean, is that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday?
What's the prognosis?
I don't know.
We have to extract him somehow.
This week sometime, you know, maybe Tuesday or
Wednesday.
Oh, Thursday.
Oh, so he can do the show on
Thursday.
Easy.
We'll see.
I tell you, he was like, oh, you
know, I could do a show from the
hospital.
I'm like, this is probably not a good
idea.
He really wants to get back to the
show.
He sure does.
Yeah.
Which is fine with me.
You know, Mimi, you've been doing a great
job.
There are many people who love you.
Many people who think you're great.
And no one actually hates you.
No one.
No, not a single one.
There's like, yeah, well, you know, I need
John.
But Mimi's okay.
We got a couple of those.
But you've been, the reception is phenomenal.
People are already saying you and Tina should
do a show together, which, hey, I'm good
with.
We'll see.
There's lots of things to do.
Yep.
Okay.
So, but yeah, so that's the full update
is this week he'll be released and it'll
be, gosh, it'll be a full two weeks.
Is it more than two weeks now?
How long has it been?
Actually, it's been a week.
And on Monday, it'll be two weeks, I
think.
No, Friday.
Friday, it'll be two weeks.
Oh, okay.
Since surgery.
Yeah.
Surgery.
Yeah.
But he went in on a Tuesday.
Yeah.
Right.
So Tuesday, it'll be two weeks.
For those of you just tuning in and
wondering, where's John?
John has had some ricketyk.
We call that ricketyk surgery in the lowlands.
So he had his ricketyker.
He's going to come back.
He's going to be better than ever.
Again, I have to say, I've never heard
him sound so upbeat.
He's usually more demure.
And now there's something different.
Do you notice it?
Yeah, his heart is working.
Well, it's pumping blood.
The jury is still out whether his heart
is actually working as intended.
We'll see.
So Mimi's here.
Man, you got a lot of clips.
She's brought in the media deconstruction.
I will start us off with a supercut.
Usually, it's lame left-wing media and lame
Democrats.
For once in a blue moon, it's the
opposite side.
This is a short-term disruption for the
long-term gain.
Short-term pain for the long-term gain.
Short-term pain be for long-term gain.
We're going to have some short-term pain
with long-term gain.
Short-term pain for a long-term gain.
Short-term pain, yes, but we've got some
long-term gain.
Short-term spike for a long-term gain.
Some short-term pain for American consumers.
We may have to deal with that in
the short-term.
Short-term and temporary.
Temporary short-term pain.
It's going to suck in the short-term.
Some short-term pain.
Short-term pain.
We have to focus on the short-term.
Short-term and long-term.
Short-term.
Hopefully, this is a short-term pain.
Short-term is highly outweighed of the long
-term benefits.
Some short-term pain for the long-term
gain.
Short-term sacrifice for a long-term gain.
Yeah, baby, short-term.
Short-term pain, long-term gain.
It's all in the cards, everybody.
Do we have calci bets yet on when
this thing is going to end?
And what is actually ending?
What is the end?
What do you call the end?
I have no idea.
I kind of got a little burned out
listening to the news, so I went a
different direction today.
Oh, well, then sit back and enjoy the
ride.
I've got the Sunday morning shows for you.
Everybody came out.
Everybody had something to say.
And maybe we'll start with this little update
from ABC.
A U.S. refueling jet crashed in western
Iraq, killing all six American crew members on
board.
Officials say two KC-135 planes were flying
a combat mission over friendly airspace when one
went down for reasons still unknown.
The second plane landing safely in Israel.
Images obtained by Con-11 showing damage to
its tail section.
An urgent investigation is underway.
The Pentagon saying the crash was not caused
by hostile or friendly fire.
War is hell.
War is chaos.
And as we saw yesterday with the tragic
crash of our KC-135 tanker, bad things
can happen.
The U.S. is deploying 5,000 Marines
and sailors aboard three Navy amphibious ships to
the Middle East.
Officials stressing this does not mean ground troops
will enter Iran.
And with Iran attacking oil tankers, the Strait
of Hormuz, where 20% of the world
oil flows, is tightly blocked.
The U.S. vowing to get the dangerous
shipping lanes reopened.
They are exercising sheer desperation in the Straits
of Hormuz.
Something we're dealing with.
We have been dealing with it.
Don't need to worry about it.
More than a dozen ships have been hit
near Iran.
Oil prices climbing and gas prices rising in
the U.S. by nearly 70 cents a
gallon since the war began.
In an effort to stabilize the markets, the
U.S. now easing sanctions on Russian oil
sales.
Officials acknowledging those sales will allow Russia to
make money in the short term.
The move coming just days after sources told
ABC News Russia was providing intelligence to the
Iranians to help them target American troops and
ships in the region.
President Trump pressed on whether Russia may be
helping Iran.
Do you think Putin is helping them?
I think he might be helping them a
little bit.
Yeah, I guess.
And he probably thinks we're helping Ukraine, right?
That's actually from ABC.
That's a pretty good overview of how everyone's
talking about this.
And the president pops up in the most,
in the strangest places.
He's like, he's like, I'm going to call
that guy.
Yeah, hold on, let me call that guy.
And this was, what's this guy's name?
Brian Kilmeade.
Yeah, Brian Kilmeade.
Who used to have me on his show,
but I don't know.
It ended for some reason.
I probably said something weird about him.
So he went back and looked at, so
I had never heard of Karg Island.
Now you having lived in Iran, had you
ever heard of it?
I've heard of it.
I've never been there.
Well, no, there's nothing to see, even less
to see now.
But according to Brian Kilmeade, the president was
talking about Karg Island as early as on
record 1988.
So the year was 1988.
This president, this future president, Donald Trump was
selling a book called The Art of the
Deal.
He gave an interview to a British newspaper,
at which time you talked about Iran.
You said we have to win back respect
for America on the world stage.
And you had stern words for the Islamic
Republic.
You said they've been beating us up psychologically,
making us look like a bunch of fools.
One bullet shot of one of our men
or ships, I do a number on Karg
Island.
I go in and I take it.
Now here in 2026, you are president.
Are you thinking about taking Karg Island where
90% of the Iranian oil goes through?
And what do you think about, do you
remember that interview and that school of thought?
Never run, I can't answer a question like
that.
And you should be even asking it.
It's one of so many different things.
It's not high on the list, but it's
one of so many different things.
And I can change my mind in seconds.
No, of course.
You know, if he had asked a question,
who would answer a question like that?
I mean, you're asking me a question.
Karg Island, okay, everything.
Who would ask a question like that?
And what fool would answer it, okay?
Let's say I was gonna do it or
let's say I wasn't gonna do it.
What would I tell you?
Yes, Brian, I'm thinking about doing it.
Let me let me let you know what
time and when it'll take place.
It's not, you know, it's sort of a
foolish question.
A little surprising for you because you're a
smart man.
I am, but you were just pretty amazing
that you thought about it in 1988.
So I did, but I thought about a
lot of other things.
But you know what else I thought about
a long time before it happened one year
before it happened?
Almost exactly is Osama bin Laden.
I said you have to go out and
kill Osama bin Laden.
He's big trouble.
Kill him.
Nobody did anything.
One year later, he knocked down the World
Trade Center.
Let's talk about China.
It turns out- You know that it
was in a book.
Did you know that I wrote it in
a book?
I wrote it.
One of my many bestsellers.
Yeah.
Go get Osama bin Laden.
Because I saw him interviewed.
And I said, wow, that guy's trouble.
And I said, you better go get him.
And one year before he knocked down the
World Trade Center.
And you know that Clinton had a chance
to get him?
Yep.
And didn't do it.
And he thought he would be accused of
doing a wag the dog thing.
Nostradamus, President Trump.
Is that one of those Trump phones he's
calling in on?
Because that's a pretty low quality.
He needs to up his game a little
bit on that.
Yeah, or he's on the satellite phone.
You know, I'm sick of it.
The media is just totally pissed me off
this week.
So there's that.
Yes, well, doesn't mean we don't have to
make you even sicker by talking about it.
Oh, no, no, it's fine.
So actually, I have a clip called The
Media Lies, which is a good example of
why I'm irked.
Okay, let's take.
Let's talk a little bit about the pharma
stuff and the affordability tour that he's doing.
Because, I'm sorry, Jesse, is it over your
head?
No, no, no.
It is.
I'm sorry, talk about the Hotsy Totsy Club.
Hotsy Totsy?
That's like the strip joint and where I
come from.
Okay, anyway, so- Talk about that.
I know, that's why I said it.
What does the Hotsy Totsy Club have to
do with pharma?
Well, nothing.
That's why Jesse was the first I talked
about that.
That was pretty good.
What's Hotsy Totsy to me?
Where was that, in Seattle?
No, it's in El Cerrito.
El Cerrito, California?
94530.
Wow, man, I used to drive down El
Camino in El Cerrito.
What was I listening to?
What was that?
You were listening to the Fox on the
Five, and that was Emily Campagna, who's the
one who brought up Hotsy Totsy Club during
a break, and then they kept bringing it
back up.
Hotsy Totsy?
But here we go.
The Hotsy Totsy Club is a bar in
Albany.
It's not in El Cerrito.
Oh, oh, oh, I see.
We're fact-checking.
Oh, wait a minute.
Gambling?
The media is wrong?
Oh, no.
It's the oldest bar in the East Bay.
It opened in 1939.
It's not a strip club.
The place is so tiny that the stripper
would have to go outside and strip and
then run into the bar.
El Camino Real is in the west side
of the bay.
It's on San Pablo Avenue, and it's in
Albany, 94706.
So it was like, can't you guys like,
don't you guys have phones to like maybe
Google it?
No, no.
I'm sorry.
You're clearly thinking about something else than our
mainstream media, especially the Fox and Friends.
My goodness.
I can't believe you watch that.
Well, then there's the entire thing that the
whole, the Lobster Gate.
Wait a minute.
You're going away.
I want to stay on Iran.
You're going to lobsters?
What is this?
The lobsters are relevant to Iran.
Okay.
All right.
Let's start with the first, which one?
The National Desk.
I don't know what I have CNN.
What is the National?
Oh, I see it.
I got you.
I'm Christine Frizzell in Washington with tonight's Waste
Watch report.
Any day now, we expect the Trump administration
to ask Congress for a lot more money,
additional funds to assist paying for the war
with Iran.
Which reportedly is costing about $890 million a
day.
Well, it turns out some of the money
they're asking for will go to fill a
hole created by the Defense Department at the
end of the last fiscal year with spending
on items many people would see as wasteful.
Among the Pentagon's most shocking purchases in a
single month, $6.9 million on Lobster Tail,
$2 million on King Crab, and $15.1
million on Rib Eye Steak.
No, is this now some kind of scandal
that you've uncovered here?
Well, let's go to Schiff Post Video, and
it actually has Colbert in it.
Last year on fruit basket stands, where the
Pentagon spent $12,000.
That's a lot of fruit basket stands, but
that's not all.
They wasted a whole lot more money than
that, take a look.
So far, this war has cost over $6
billion, but burning through cash is nothing new
for Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, because a
government watchdog discovered that he blew billions on
things like $5.3 million for new iPads,
$60,000 for Herman Miller recliners, and $12
,000 for fruit basket stands.
Wait, you're ordering what?
That's what I think, what?
So anyway, $12,000 for fruit, okay?
Wait, you're ordering fruit?
This is my emotional state, right?
Okay, you're ordering fruit baskets so fancy they
come with a stand?
Come on, Pete.
If you need fruit at work, do the
normal thing.
Put a clementine in your tote and find
it three weeks later when it's a furry
gray golf ball.
Hegseth also went all out on the buffet.
Reportedly, the Pentagon spent $2 million on crab
legs, $6.9 million on lobster tail, and
over $15 million on ribeye steaks.
No, no, no, no, no, boo.
They're just hearkening back to our founders.
As Paul Revere declared on his famous ride,
one if by surf, two if by turf.
Is that really the material they're doing?
So they can't even come up with something
better?
They have to harp about the Department of
War budget, which of course we know has
always been inflated and out of control?
Well, let's go to CNN.
Welcome, everyone.
I'm Cole from Cole's Ants, and today we're
going to be trying- No, no, no,
wrong, wrong, wrong.
No, CNN, I'm sorry.
I got it, I got it, I got
it.
There you go.
He has spent $15 million in one month
for ribeye steak, $6.9 million for lobster
tail, $225 million for furniture.
He spent more in the month of September
than most countries on Earth spent in their
defense.
Paul, do you believe- All for himself?
Lobster tails?
Do you believe- No, no, no, no,
no.
Lobster tails?
Do you believe the Secretary of Defense is
personally eating all the lobster?
Well, he can't eat the troops.
Oh, really, the troops are getting lobster.
Frequently in theater- Oh, my God.
Troops who are going to war.
Oh, my God.
Great meal, you know that.
That getting lobster, you are so full of
it.
You are so full of it.
You're going to get killed over this, Internet,
do something.
Oh, brother.
One more, that would be the Times of
India picked this up.
Oh, goodness.
The cost of living crisis in the United
States may be ballooning, making life for most
average Americans rather difficult.
There's clearly no such problem for the country's
Defense Department.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hexett approved spending
at the Pentagon worth more than $93 billion
in the month of September alone, including on
luxury food items and iPads.
A new analysis published by Government Watchdog opened
the books, found that from September till the
end of 2025, Pete Hexett reportedly burnt through
cash, including spending a staggering $9 million on
just crab and lobster dinners.
All this in the run up to the
Iran war.
According to military.com, an increase in military
officials eating pricey meals has traditionally been viewed
as a sign that something may be brewing,
such as President Donald Trump's war in Iran.
Though it appears Hexett has been dining well
at the Pentagon since at least last spring.
These people are nuts.
Yep.
So all over the web, there were so
many pushbacks to this.
Well, it explains it.
And the one I have is Will Kane
about steak and lobster.
All right.
In 2010 in Afghanistan, I was working with
two other Marine EOD techs, Brian Smith and
Chindo Mesa.
We had been out all day long working
some ideas as difficult day.
We had a few really close calls that
day.
When we got back, we sat down and
I've got this picture of us just sitting
on a ledge, a patrol based karma.
And there's a stack of MREs behind us.
And I remember Mesa looking at me and
saying, man, I just hope I don't get
that chicken Tetrazzini or something like that.
Like we've been out all day is a
tough day.
It's like, man, I hope we get a
decent MRE.
And then somebody comes around the corner like,
hey, guys, it's steak and lobster.
Not it's surf and turf.
A lot of train had come in, which
was insane because the route was littered with
IEDs.
And now I've got another picture of the
three of us eating steak in the room
that we lived in later that night.
What's funny is the look on our faces
from the one picture to the others about
the same because we're in war.
But after that day for weeks, we talked
about steak and lobster nights.
The only one I've ever gotten overseas.
It was in the middle of a really
tough summer.
Brian got blown up a few weeks later.
He's not with us anymore.
He died of stomach cancer last year.
And I got blown up a couple of
months later.
You see these tweets about Pete Hegseth has
spent $15 million on steak and lobster.
Are you serious?
That is the only thing about home.
That's the only thing that makes you feel
special for the entire time you're there watching
your buddies die.
And you're mad about that.
The fact that people aren't smart enough to
even look up what that's for before they
criticize it.
And I guarantee you, none of them said
a word when Biden surrendered Afghanistan, killed 13
of us.
Or when the whole DOD spent tens of
millions of dollars on going woke.
Come on.
It's really something when CNN and Colbert, when
they're not talking about the actual war, but
they're talking about the lobster budget.
What kind of call must have gone out?
Someone sent out a message somewhere.
Like, don't do it.
It's gotta be.
And I never thought I would say ABC
was a little more serious.
But the morning news shows, the Sunday morning
news shows, at least they got down to
some actual topics about what's happening.
This is Martha Raddatz, and this is about
the thing that affects people probably more than
the lobster budget is the price of oil
and the prices at the gas pump.
Let's bring in our experts on the economic
fallout, the strategy inside Iran, and the lessons
learned so far.
Let's start with Diane Swank, the chief economist
and managing director at KPMG, one of the
largest accounting firms in the world.
And good morning, Diane.
I want to ask you right away, we've
already seen rising oil prices, gas prices.
What's your read on what's happening?
Well, the longer this lasts, the longer the
tail of it are in terms of higher
prices at the pump.
But more importantly, disruptions to global supply chains.
We know that from the pandemic and from
our sources in the Middle East, when you
shut production down and idle production, it's easier
to turn the lights then ramp it back
up again.
It could take weeks to months to get
much of- This lady is hyperventilating.
Yeah, that's currently been idled in the Middle
East back online again.
And that means it's compounding the disruptions to
supply chains the world over.
We're now looking at a scenario where we
expect oil prices to hover above $100 a
barrel and maybe even spike in the weeks
to come.
That will show up as much as soon
as four to six weeks from the initial
shock in things like food prices at the
grocery store because of transportation costs.
It starts rippling through the economy fairly quickly
and we're already three weeks in.
So we're very concerned that this is much
more of a stagflationary shock than what we
saw in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine.
That's because we don't have the backdrop of
creating hundreds of thousands of jobs each month.
And remember, with the inflation that we saw
back then, we also saw most Americans feeling
that the US economy was in a recession
even though we were generating hundreds of thousands
of jobs a month.
So the strategy for keeping oil prices within
reach has been to have 30 countries release
strategic petroleum reserves, and then the one that
is most irksome to people like your friend
Adam Schiff is the easing of Russian sanctions.
Let me ask you about these Russian sanctions.
You obviously supported Russian sanctions.
The administration has scaled some back arguing removing
them on Russian oil experts will ultimately help
lower prices for consumers.
My question for you, Senator, with Americans feeling
pain at the pump, as you know, is
easing pressure on Russia, which is temporary, worth
it?
I think this is a terrible decision, but
it is one of the things that comes
about as a result of the unpredictability of
war.
We are now giving Russia essentially $140 million
a day by releasing these from these sanctions,
$140 million a day when Iran is providing
intelligence to better when Russia is providing intelligence
to Iran to better attack and kill American
troops.
And you're darn right when you ask the
secretary about this.
It is rewarding Russia and it is punishing
Ukraine.
And for the president when he's criticized about
lifting the sanctions on Russia to somehow turn
around and blame Zelensky, blame Ukraine.
No, Russia is the problem here.
And we are enriching our adversary Russia at
Ukraine's expense because the administration didn't properly foresee
how much this war with Iran was going
to raise oil prices and gas prices for
Americans.
So terrible and tragic decision.
Tragic.
Which only empowers Russia to make war more
fully against Ukraine.
I'm still trying to get confirmation, but everyone's
talking about how many dollars worth, how many
dollars worth.
Oh, Russia is selling this.
And from what I understand, the stable coin,
which is backed by U.S. treasuries, is
a digital U.S. dollar not used in
the United States.
There may or might not ever be used,
except for Shopify, I think uses it or
allows you to use it, probably for international
customers.
The volume has gone to $33 trillion.
And I'm thinking, yeah, I'm thinking that part
of the deal, although not explicitly mentioned anywhere
is, yeah, OK, but as long as everyone's
buying it with our stable coin, that's OK.
And I think that's happening, which is part
of the, I think, a much bigger strategy,
which a numbnut like Adam Schiff doesn't see.
He's just pissed about Putin and Russiagate.
Here's our energy secretary, Chris Wright, with Manhans
Welker, about these temporary purchases.
Mr. Secretary, let's talk about Russia.
The Treasury Department temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian
oil this week amid reports that Russia is
giving Iran intelligence to target U.S. assets
in the region.
Why is the United States rewarding Russia?
So this is not rewarding Russia.
I understand that it can be seen that
way.
How else can it be seen?
But Mr. Secretary, how else can it be
seen if the U.S. is lifting sanctions
on Russia?
It can only be rewarding.
Can't be anything else but a reward for
him.
Because the oil we're lifting sanction on is
already on the water waiting to unload in
a Chinese port.
But it'll wait there for six or eight
weeks.
So instead of letting that oil sit there
idly, we told the Indians and then the
broader nations of Asia, go ahead and buy
that oil, bring it into your port now
and keep your refineries running.
That oil was already exported, already going to
be sold.
We're just changing the destination of where it'll
be sold.
And by doing that, we're keeping a little
bit of a lid on oil prices and
helping our allies across Asia.
I don't think anybody really sees what's going
on.
It seems so obvious to me.
OK, what do you see?
The city of London has had a lock
on oil shipping, insurance, etc.
Lloyd's of London, the entire Persian oil system
was set up by the Brits.
It was the British-Persian oil company.
British Petroleum, right?
Became BP.
And as far as I'm concerned, the Brits,
after they kind of, you know, lost their
colonies, you know, they turned to a financial
colonization and they funded all kinds of nonsense
in the Middle East to keep everybody busy
and everybody fighting, including the creation of the
state of Israel.
They funded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt when
the Suez Canal was in danger.
All of this happened after Churchill switched the
British Navy from coal to oil.
And they've been in control of this.
And Trump is now, as far as I
can see, he's going in and saying, look,
look, we're going to ensure that this is
working.
And we're going to be escorting ships, which
is not the first time we've done it.
It's happened many times.
Did a lot when the Houthis were acting
up.
And we're going to offer insurance.
And we're going to protect the global oil
trade.
And we're going to take the benefits from
that, unless you guys jump in and help
out.
And that's what this continuous call is.
It's like, other countries need to come in.
And he's doing this on purpose because he
knows they're not going to.
So be like, all right, we'll take the
risk.
And we're going to take all the financial
benefits and screw you.
In that planning, we see right now the
president is seeking help in opening up that
straight from other nations.
He says that many countries will be sending
warships.
Can you tell me who those countries are?
And the president said, hopefully, China, France, Japan,
South Korea will send them as well.
Was this not done before?
Why is it happening now?
And who are those countries?
Look, broader dialogues about energy security have been
going on since the Trump administration arrived.
For example, my engagement with the International Energy
Agency.
But dialogue about this specific military operation did
not happen broadly right in front of it.
The element of surprise was essential so that
we could as quickly as possible destroy their
military capabilities and their ability to project power.
But yes, all nations of the world depend
on products that come from the Straits of
Hormuz.
China top on that list, Japan, Korea, all
the Asian nations is where the energy that
comes out of the Straits of Hormuz flows
to.
So those are the nations that most immediately
impacted by this.
So of course, it's quite logical to have
a broad coalition of the nations of the
world, work to reopen the Straits.
But first and foremost right now, is to
finish to destroy Iran's ability to project military
force in the region and around the world.
Chris Wright was getting around this morning.
He had the same story with everybody, ABC,
NBC.
President Trump told me on Saturday he's reaching
out to other countries to enlist their help
to secure the Strait of Hormuz.
And then in a post later in the
day, he named some of the countries, China,
Japan, UK, France, and South Korea.
He told me some countries have committed to
aiding the United States.
Could you be specific with me, Mr. Secretary?
Which countries specifically are going to help secure
the Strait of Hormuz?
So I won't get in front of the
president or announcements on that, but I've been
in dialogue with some of those nations.
So I know that to be true.
But I'm not gonna leak any news in
front of the president.
But the world depends on the flows through
Hormuz, and most importantly, the Asian nations.
Japan, Korea, China, Thailand, India, a meaningful part
of their total energy supplies come from the
Straits of Hormuz.
So of course, the whole world will be
united on the need to open Hormuz.
And clearly, we will have the support of
other nations to achieve that objective.
But in the short term, we have to
end Iran's ability to kill American soldiers, terrorize
their neighbors, and continue to put global energy
supplies at risk, as they've done for 47
years.
47 years.
My favorite 47 years.
I know.
You know, the whole thing here is I
love the way that it's this constant pounding
on the same questions.
And you know what?
If you listen to the European news, I
don't hear that anybody's feeling all that engaged.
Like certainly not England, if you listen to
Starmer.
No, they don't want to be a part
of it because they want it to be
the way it is.
But it benefits them.
That's why Lloyd's of London is saying, can
we get in on that insurance deal, you
know, that you're providing, Mr. President?
Because we really don't want to lose all
that revenue.
This is, this strategy, if it is what
I think it is, and if it works,
will take away probably $5 to $15 per
barrel of oil in just risk.
That has always been the premium for Wall
Street on oil.
And mainly the City of London.
They're the guys that have been running this.
Yep.
You know, and if we then somehow are
able to keep the petrodollar scam going with
stablecoin, it could be, we could have, you
know, at least 10 more years of prosperity
until everything falls apart.
And then here's the best China.
China was one of the names mentioned, which
got a lot of attention, notable because they're
a strategic partner of Iran.
Is the US prepared to share intelligence with
China for helping to secure the waterway?
The United States is always in dialogue with
the Chinese.
They're the second largest economy in the world.
And they're a very important nation in the
world.
Opening the Straits of Hormuz is even more
important for China than it is for the
United States.
But we care about the global economy.
We care first about Americans.
But Americans live in a globalized world.
So we care about all the nations.
So there, of course, are tensions with China
as well.
But we will continue a productive dialogue.
And I do expect China will be a
constructive partner in reopening the Straits of Hormuz.
That would be interesting.
What I find kind of fun to watch,
and I see it in the troll room,
because Mimi, you and I were old, John,
we're all old.
And we've been around, and all people see
is the war aspect.
They don't understand how bad it's really been
in the Middle East.
And that all of this has always been
about oil.
And you can't have an actor like Iran
working in cahoots with other foreign entities controlling
all of that.
And so people focus on, ah, we're always
war, America's war.
Yeah, that's what it's always been, always.
The country was founded on war.
But people somehow don't want to see that.
Like, oh, I don't like it.
I just want to be, you know, let
everyone take our money.
We used to be the muscle for the
Brits and for the Europeans.
They would take all the profits, and we
fight the wars.
And Trump is turning that around.
There's that.
And there's also the entire thing that people
seem to want to forget, besides the oil,
is the IRGC was pushing a lot of
money into terrorist organizations.
Everywhere.
So they've done so much disruption in the
world, not just the United States, it's everywhere.
And, you know, it had to be stopped
at some point, because it was really destabilizing
the world and also changing the, you know,
do we want to all start speaking Chinese?
I mean, there's always that aspect.
Well, I'm not too worried about that.
But if you really objectively look at it,
and, you know, it's very difficult for people
because they see this, everything is through the
lens of Epstein and AIPAC.
And, well, Israel is doing this.
Israel is taking the incoming missiles.
And Israel was created by, well, it all
started off with the, what is it?
Pike's, you know, Sykes-Picot agreement.
That's when Britain and France, after World War
I, took out the map and went, okay,
you guys take this part, we'll take this
part, name the countries.
What do you want to be?
I call that Jordan, call that Syria, whatever.
And then they created the state of Israel,
literally so they could have control over the
waterways, Suez Canal, be close to Egypt.
They funded Muslim Brotherhood to overthrow, was it,
who was that at the time?
Habas?
No, that's not his name.
You know, the guy who was, all of
a sudden he just said, oh, no, the
Suez Canal is ours.
They've always been the troublemaker.
Always.
Well, yeah.
And, but the other thing is that the
entire Middle East is not, like, if you
say, oh, you know, Turkey.
It's not, it's a bunch of different tribes.
Yeah, well, it was the Ottoman Empire was
one huge thing.
But it was a million different tribes that
had been conquered.
You know, everywhere there.
Thank you, Manohla.
Nasser, that's who it was.
Nasser, yeah.
But so, you know, we're dealing with tribal
elements.
We're dealing with different religions.
We're dealing with all this.
When one group stands out as being the
real troublemakers, you got to put, I mean,
historically, we've always crushed them.
Everybody's crushed them.
That's what we do.
You know, we're humans that don't like to,
we don't like one group to get too,
to cause too much trouble for everyone else.
So in the Middle East, you know, the
IRGC definitely started causing trouble for everyone.
And, you know, oil is just, I don't
know.
I mean, I lived through the oil crisis
when the Arab nations decided they were going
to raise our oil prices.
Right.
And they did a really good job.
So, but here's the difference.
And I, and, you know, John and I
agree that this plan was in motion, maybe
even during Trump one.
Abraham Accords, he got Saudi Arabia, he said,
look, you Saudi guys, this is not going
to fly for that much longer.
You're going to become the technology hub.
Qatar, you'll be the banking hub of the
Middle East.
And we're all going to play together.
And they are.
That's what people are missing.
They are.
Everything's going to be redone.
And, you know, our part of the deal
is, all right, we got to stop this.
And notice that Trump is not, he's not
blowing up the oil facility on the island.
No.
No, that would be stupid.
That's the prize.
And when you look at the fact that
in Tehran, there have been like, I don't
know, in all of Iran, I think there've
been like 1,500 civilians, although it's not
sure if it's actually civilians or IRGC, have
been killed.
Well, how many bombs have we dropped?
I mean, with the amount of bombs that
you'd think it would be flattened like Dresden
in World War II, but these are so,
it's very surgical.
And, you know, it is doing exactly like,
it's actually the cleanest war I've ever seen
in my life.
It's clean.
Look, no blood on my hands.
It's clean.
Well, I mean, so as a kid, we
went to, as we were coming back for
the Middle East, we stopped in Lebanon.
It was a beautiful, beautiful city.
It was completely intact.
It was gorgeous.
What year was this?
This was before the Civil War?
It was in 1966 during the international airstrike.
So we could only do little hops on
local airlines.
And we stayed about a week and a
half in Lebanon.
It was beautiful.
And then the PLO came in and ruined
everything.
Absolutely flattened everything.
I mean, just horrible.
So, you know, from my perspective, I'm looking
at what's going on in Iran and I'm
going, God, they're leaving a lot of buildings
up.
You know, they're just, they're just taking out
one apartment on one floor of an apartment
building.
That's kind of cool.
All right, Mimi Warmonger laughing about coolness of
buildings.
Okay.
So, well, no, but I think you're right.
And I also lived through the oil crisis.
We had car-free Sundays in Holland and
it wasn't like car-free.
It was car for boating.
So you could not drive on Sunday.
Well, we had the every other day, depending
on your license plate.
If your license plate ended in an even
number, you could only go to a gas
station on an even day.
And if it was an odd day, you
could only go on an odd day.
And lines around the block and gas prices
that tripled in the course of just a
few weeks.
So, I mean, you know, this happened.
You know, to me, oil's always been unstable.
And yes, the way I see it, this
president and people like, yeah, you just, all
you do is lick Trump's boots.
Now I see it for what it is.
He doesn't, he knows what's coming with the
midterms.
He's trying to get the SAVE Act passed
and it probably won't happen.
So the House will be lost to the
Democrats through that Washington state mail-in voting,
California state mail-in voting, all the scams.
And he may even lose the Senate.
So he's just going balls to the wall.
He's like, I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this now.
It's short-term pain for long-term gain.
But I think that's probably true.
Oh, I think so.
And it will change everything.
And everyone's investing in American production.
The plan is clear.
Whether he's going to pull it off, I
don't know, but at least I see the
plan.
And I think that these, the mainstream media,
that they, you know, they're focusing, oh, lobster
dinners.
They're lost.
Or they see it and they know and
they're told to shut up about it.
I don't see why it's so difficult.
I see, all I see that the mainstream
media is doing is pushing talking points that
they are over and over and over again.
I mean, the lobster thing is part of
it.
No one remembers.
No one, nobody looks into it far enough
to say, oh, well, gee, you know, this
is something we've done for years and years.
And it's increased morale in the military.
We have, you know, all the numbers that
keep flying at people about, oh, oil barrel
this much.
Who can grasp exactly what they're saying?
You know, it's really like it.
They're talking, they're either talking down to people
or talking over their heads.
That's all I see in the media.
It seems like it's a nonstop barrage of
just nonsense.
You know, it's like saying, you know, the
media lies.
The media doesn't tell us the full story.
They.
What?
Yeah.
And so I started kind of looking at
like that.
Like, I guess the other thing that's been
going on is.
The president has gone after Antifa, Antifa, whatever
you want to call it.
And and, you know, I guess.
Well, he's he's classified them as a terrorist
group.
Which is insane because they aren't a cohesive
group.
But what?
OK, well, how about the black flag or
whatever?
I mean, it comes from Europe.
The what?
Yes.
And actually, I have.
This last week, one of the things that
went on was Newsmax went on and on
and on the right squad, which I thought
was supposed to be pro Trump.
I have a series of parts where they
were going after a, you know, they're talking
about an Antifa and.
And then I actually have this lovely history
of the history of Antifa, which kind of
for me, puts things in better perspective.
Antifa is short for antifascist or antifascist and
has its roots in Weimar Germany during the
1920s, born as a militant response to rising
fascist movements, particularly the Nazi Party.
In 1932, the German Communist Party or KPD
launched the Antifaschistische Aktion, a paramilitary street movement
to fight the SA or Sturmabteilung, the stormtroopers
and other right wing paramilitary groups.
Soon the movement spread all over Europe.
This early Antifa was Marxist, Stalinist in its
ideology and controlled by the Soviet aligned KPD.
And its goal was to eliminate political rivals
on both the far right and democratic left,
including social Democrats.
It was a true communist movement.
After Hitler came to power, he imprisoned or
killed political rivals, especially the communists.
In fact, despite modern myth, Dachau concentration camp
was not built for Jews.
He was specifically built in 1933 to hold
political and social criminals with a focus on
the Antifa communists.
After World War II and the defeat of
the Axis powers, Europe's Antifa groups disbanded or
simply rebranded.
Anti-fascism was absorbed into mainstream democratic institutions
coming to the United States as a pro
-Marxist movement.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, they don't have a headquarters, but
I think the minute you say, I'm Antifa,
you're a terrorist.
Well, let's go to the next two clips,
the rest of this history.
So there's two more.
They're both short.
Antifa arrived in the US in the 1980s,
growing from the punk and anarchist subcultures like
Anti-Racist Action or ARA, which started in
Minnesota in 1987.
Through the 1990s and 2000s, chapters spread to
major cities, often aligned with other anarchist and
anti-capitalist groups.
After 2016, Antifa exploded into public consciousness following
the election of Donald Trump.
What is it about Minnesota?
Why is this such a hotbed for organizations
like this?
I wondered about that myself.
Like what?
So then part three kind of wraps it
all up.
Trump repeatedly condemned Antifa, labeling it a domestic
terror group, although Barack Obama holdovers in the
FBI and Department of Justice never formally did.
The political left, including the mainstream media outlets,
refused to label Antifa as a criminal or
domestic terror organization.
This was despite the billions of dollars in
property damage, physical harm and loss of life.
While they continued to claim that far-right
groups were committing the major crimes.
And here's where myth and reality diverge.
Antifa was never a centralized organization as it
had no national leadership, no bank accounts, no
headquarters and no official membership cards.
It operates as a loose, decentralized network of
activists, often organizing through affinity groups, social media
or encrypted messaging apps.
There are no known formal leaders and that's
by design.
In fact, Antifa prides itself on being leaderless
and horizontal in structure.
There are key figures, many anonymous.
Wasn't this exactly why Scott Besson said, we're
following the money, we're going to find out
who is funding them, which we all know
eventually comes back to Open Society Institute.
It has to.
Well, if you, so there was a, so
if we go to the Newsmax right squad,
they talk about Antifa funding and enabling.
And I find it really interesting the way
you hear it.
Just listen, it's really kind of, it is
four parts.
The third one, I really can't stand, but
it's okay.
So let's go through the Newsmax right squad,
which is talking about Antifa.
But President Trump's latest move in his crackdown
on crime is designating Antifa as a major
terrorist organization, writing, I am pleased to inform
our many USA patriots that I am designating
Antifa, a sick, dangerous, radical left disaster as
a major terrorist organization.
I will also be strongly recommending that those
funding Antifa be thoroughly investigated in accordance with
the highest legal standards and practices.
So Mercedes, I'm really interested to see what
comes out of the investigation as to who
is funding Antifa and actually enabling this group.
It's about time.
I'll tell you right now, Matt's at CPAC
Australia.
And I would say about two or three
years ago, Antifa showed up to the CPAC
event, threatened violence, threatened to kill them, tried
to get into the room.
It was a major security issue.
Antifa is a worldwide organization that spends time
with intimidation and violent tactics that it's been
unchecked for far too long.
So we need to get down to the
bottom of who is funding Antifa.
They have caused so much destruction in this
country, but let me tell you, they're in
other countries as well, as we've seen in
the case of Australia.
Interesting comment from the troll room that Minnesota
borders on Canada.
Yeah, there's that.
That may make it easy for elements to
come in first stop.
Yep, there's that.
But I'm on the border too.
And...
Well, yeah, exactly, exactly.
It's a horrible state with a horrible governor.
Yeah, exactly.
Yes.
So if you go to the next...
Are you on the train tracks?
What do I hear out there?
Oh, that's my grandfather clock.
Sounds like a train going by.
Okay.
It's like an 1800s grandfather clock.
The thing is lovely, but it is noisy.
So the next in the series of this
Newsmax we get a guy who I think
totally wimps out.
And this is what I hear in most
media is this guy.
Good thing that we're designating this hate group
as a major terrorist organization.
Well, I'd like to see who the leaders
are.
Who are they?
I don't know.
Bring them out, let's look at them.
Again, there are some questions about what Antifa
is, who they are.
So if we're going to designate them a
terror organization, we should know who they are.
Before we even get to who's funding it
and all of that.
And as far as attaching it to the
political violence that we've seen recently, there's no
connection.
Tyler Robinson isn't connected to Antifa.
He's not connected to anybody.
Well, I don't think that has anything to
do with the terrorist organization.
Fair enough.
But if you're using that as a jumping
off point, which it seems like, then it's
clearly because you're worried about political violence.
The political violence we've seen recently has not
been from anybody connected to any global organizations,
at least as far as law enforcement just
seems like something that's law.
And who is this guy?
Oh, I forgot to get his name.
I don't think they ever identified him.
He's this black guy who just is completely
an apologist and coming up.
He's supposed to be the voice of the
other side.
And we know that it doesn't have leaders
and we know that it doesn't have clear
things.
Why is he making this big excuse?
I have the last one, which is final,
which just annoyed me even more.
Well, you missed number three.
Number three is the one you hated.
We just heard number three.
No, that was number two.
Oh, was it?
Okay, well, number three is also another wimp.
Well, it is definitely long overdue.
Look, Antifa was founded in Germany in the
1930s, and they're a left-wing terror group.
And they have been from the very beginning.
They've been terrorizing Germany for years, home invasions
and kidnappings and a great deal of violence
by them.
And I said, you know how the Democrats
are all upset that federal agents might wear
a mask when they're on a raid like
a surgeon to conceal their identity from the
gangs that are here from Venezuela and Mexico
and El Salvador because of the Democrats.
Honestly, these Antifa people were looting and burning
Portland and Seattle with their black uniforms, their
black ski masks, their black masks to conceal
their identity.
And you notice that the Democrats never said
a word about them wearing masks and covering
up their identities when they're burning cities to
the ground and looting.
I just got a note from the constitutional
lawyer, Rob, he says conspiracies don't need to
have a leader to be illegal.
Thank you, Rob.
Good point.
Yeah.
Conspiracy is conspiracy.
So you can be a terrorist conspiracy.
Well, these guys are all, it's all so
blah, blah, blah, chat, chat, chat.
We can play part four.
It's final.
I think it's short.
And then I will get to my point.
The Antifa for the past, I mean, specifically
10 years in the United States has been
showing up to every protest, whether it's creating
their own protest from the left wing or
showing up to right wing protests, including even
a libertarian free speech event in Massachusetts a
few years back and assaulting people, causing terror,
taking over state buildings, federal buildings, tossing rocks
at police officers.
And if you ask people who have covered
these riots over the years, they tell you
that no matter where they are in the
country, seemingly these same Antifa people with the
same hats and the same t-shirts show
up at every single event.
So somebody's paying for them to fly around
the country.
All right.
Agreed.
Somebody's paying for it.
So meanwhile, there's these great guys on YouTube.
You know, Nick Shirley is the one who's
become the most, you know, well known.
But there's other guys, you know, like Tyler
Oliveira, although he does more long form.
But the best of all of them that
I found is called Nate Freedman.
And Nate Freedman mostly goes to, I mean,
he just goes to these different events.
And he's actually laid out everything on who
these people are.
He's identified people.
He's taken pictures.
He's got this.
He has a rundown of the protest money.
It's kind of a long clip.
It's two minutes, but it's just like, how
come our news sources can't do this?
Let's not ask the hard questions.
If he has answers, I'm interested.
They hosted a vigil for Ayatollah Khomeini in
Washington Square Park in New York City.
I plan on interviewing the people who set
it up.
What ended up transpiring was something else entirely.
To follow the money, we see that this
vigil was endorsed by the World's Worker Party.
The World's Worker Party was founded in 1959
as a Marxist-Leninist organization that wants to
dismantle capitalism.
WWP leaders helped launch one of the most
visible protest coalitions in the country, the Answer
Coalition, the group you see printed on almost
all the protest signs you see across the
country.
They get a lot of their money from
Soros through their fiscal sponsor, the Progress Unity
Fund, which gets their money from the Tides
Foundation.
And George Soros gave $25.8 million to
the Tides Foundation in just one year.
According to reporter David Korn, by 2002, the
Answer Coalition was widely described as operating as
a front for the Communist Workers World Party.
Korn noted that several leading figures within Answer,
including spokesperson Brian Becker, were members of WWP.
He also reported that many Answer chapters operated
out of Workers World Party offices, and that
speakers at Answer press conferences were frequently WWP
activists.
Brian Becker has a long resume within the
far-left activist network.
Not only is he the national director of
Answer Coalition alongside Sarah Flounders, another figure we'll
expose in just a second, he previously worked
for the International Action Center and was a
member of the Workers World Party, before later
splitting off to help co-found the Party
for Socialism and Liberation, another name that you
see printed on so many signs.
Today, Becker hosts political education classes at the
People's Forum in New York City, while calling
the shots at mass protests across the country
through Answer Coalition and PSL.
You remember the People's Forum, the one that
we just exposed, where they were putting signs
into two vans?
Well, his lectures at the People's Forum include
Lenin and the path to revolution and history
of the Communist Manifesto.
We know those educators at the People's Forum
can be paid close to $80,000 to
protest.
Sarah Flounders, who we were just speaking about,
has spent decades cheerleading America's enemies.
Here she is in a group photo, proudly
standing in front of a PFLP flag, and
protesting with Sammy Doon, alongside another protester that
you know quite well.
So this is just a little bit about
what's behind this vigil, more to come as
my investigation is ongoing.
All right, so it's, we're back to the
same old, same old people.
Exactly, nothing's changed, but if it's common knowledge,
how come everybody's like, oh, we don't know
who they are, and what are we going
to do, and how do we follow the
money?
I mean, hello?
I mean, and so if, I've got a
gut feel that's basically, where he makes a
comment about Waltz and Nick Shirley, and I
think this is, sums a lot of this
up for me.
First, I got to talk about Waltz first,
because he said we're only hearing about it
because of the prosecution.
No, you tried to silence the whistleblowers.
Yeah, you tried, you smeared people who wanted
to investigate, because you caught any look into
the Somali fraud, you were considered racist.
The only, there are two reasons why we're
hearing about this, because Kamala picked him as
VP, because she felt he was less gay
than Mayor Pete, when in fact he makes
Mayor Pete look like Chuck Norris.
And also, we know, we really know about
this stuff, because some 23-year-old Mormon
named Nick decided to do what journalists used
to do, and hit the pavement.
He actually went to the story, which myself
included, nobody does.
You know, it's like we sit, we surf,
now Nick Shirley's doing the work for me.
Hey, hey, hey, click, click, click.
And he did the work, he did the
work for everybody.
I mean, and I think that's why you're
hearing about the hospice stories in California.
It's a fitting story for California, because California
is in hospice.
Just make the state comfortable.
Yeah.
But at the same time, in Washington anyway,
we are having our independent journalists under attack.
And I have a clip, Washington State Journalism,
and this is Brandy Cruz, who does a
really nice podcast for Washington State.
There's clearly something also going on in Washington
State with some of these Somalis who are
supposed to be running daycare organizations.
And so they're out there doing the work
that the legacy media won't do.
And look, sometimes journalism is uncomfortable.
Sometimes journalism means going and knocking on doors.
That's what you do.
And it used to be a widely accepted
practice.
And I know that because I was in
TV and I hated it.
So knocking on doors and surprising people or
chasing them down to ask for comment, that's
something journalists do or they did.
And so if your complaint is that Jonathan
or Cam Higby or Nick Shirley are putting
a camera in people's faces, journalists haven't been
putting cameras in people's faces for as long
as journalists have had cameras.
You're an idealist.
Now I get it, Mimi.
You really have this feeling that people can
be independent journalists on YouTube, which is probably
the stupidest thing ever.
Ask Andy Ngo.
Where's Andy Ngo?
He basically got de-platformed and annihilated after
he got his ass kicked.
What she's talking about is our state has
actually, they're pushing two different bills to make
it illegal to record anybody in either a
public office or harass people with a camera.
We can't have that.
No, we can't have that.
No, no, no, no.
The system is a lot bigger and a
lot tighter than people realize.
Well, there's also someone who's come up with,
locally, who has a substat column and he's
actually exposing some of the judges and judicial
things.
And his articles are good.
You know, they're fairly well-researched.
I mean, you know, it's a fun read.
But now one of the judges is suing
him, demanding that he take down all of
his articles or face $2,000 a day
in fines.
And it's like, our judges are elected as
a public figure.
He should be able to write anything he
wants about him.
But there is this move to like, oh
God, we have to crack down because we
have the major media handled.
They'll say whatever we want.
But now what we have to do is
muzzle all these other idiots.
Mimi the freedom fighter.
The only thing that works is podcasting.
Nothing else works.
You'll be eliminated from all other platforms.
I see it every single day, including Substack.
Substack is on deck.
It's going to happen.
You know, the minute you bring money into
the equation with advertising or subscriptions, you're a
target.
It doesn't work.
So with the mainstream media not willing to,
because of course, they're also compromised when it
comes to the funding of groups like Antifa,
whatever else, you know, the whole World Workers
Party.
We have the socialists slash Marxist slash communists
have had quite a stronghold in America since
before I was born.
We had the Red Scare.
It turns out that wasn't all that crazy.
Now we have these groups working kind of
hand in hand.
They call it the Green Red Alliance.
So it's socialists, Marxists, and Muslim Brotherhood.
It's all part of the same thing.
And what will happen, if certainly if the
Muslim Brotherhood and people are so worried about
Islam and Muslims, that's not your problem.
The Muslim Brotherhood is the problem.
They are also deemed a terrorist organization in
America.
And they need to be taken care of
because those guys, and this happened throughout history,
they will kill the Marxists in the end.
The Marxists will be the ones who get
killed.
So that'll kind of fix that, but we
don't want that to happen.
And so what the mainstream media does, the
only thing they can do is, well, now
let's be afraid of each other.
A nation on edge this week after multiple
attacks on US soil and heightened security threats
since the start of the war in Iran.
On Thursday, a pair of incidents on a
college campus and a synagogue hours apart.
In West Bloomfield, Michigan, 41-year-old Ayman
Mohamed Ghazali, originally from Lebanon, rammed a truck
full of explosives through the doors of Temple
Israel, driving down the hall, exchanging fire with
security guards.
Yesterday's attack was anti-Semitism.
It was hate, plain and simple.
Authorities say Ghazali, who became a US citizen
in 2016, recently posted that an Israeli strike
on Lebanon killed his two brothers, a niece
and a nephew.
And at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia,
Professor and Lieutenant Colonel Brandon Shah killed by
a man with ties to ISIS in what
the FBI suspects was an act of terror.
The suspect, 36-year-old Mohamed Jalloh, who
opened fire in a classroom, was convicted in
2016 of attempting to provide material support to
ISIS, trying to acquire weapons for an attack
in the United States.
He was released from prison in 2024 after
serving eight years of an 11-year sentence.
Thursday's attacks came during a tense two weeks
since the beginning of the war in Iran,
with authorities repeatedly warning of higher risk for
the US homeland.
You made such an excellent point on the
last show that ISIS and Iran are, they
are polar opposites, they hate each other, but
here just- Mortal enemies.
Kind of gets folded into each other.
We have been in a heightened state of
alert in New York City since the start
of hostilities in Iran.
Last weekend, two teens were charged with bringing
homemade bombs to a protest outside New York
City Mayor Zoran Mamdani's house, and what authorities
deemed an attempted ISIS-inspired attack.
And at the onset of the war, a
deadly mass shooting at a bar in Austin,
Texas, where a gunman wearing a t-shirt
with an Iranian flag went on a murderous
rampage just hours after the US and Israel
- That's interesting.
He was not wearing it, he was wearing
a sweatshirt that said property of Allah.
Not a t-shirt with an Iranian flag,
but doesn't matter, you get the point, be
afraid.
Instead of the war, a deadly mass shooting
at a bar in Austin, Texas, where a
gunman wearing a t-shirt with an Iranian
flag went on a murderous rampage just hours
after the US and Israel first struck Iran.
That attack killing three and injuring more than
a dozen others.
Law enforcement officials are clear, Martha, the US
and Israeli strikes on Iran are causing a
surge in threats, particularly anti-Semitic threats aimed
at the Jewish community, and the recent pattern
of violence, they say, combined with Iran's retaliatory
rhetoric warrants heightened vigilance.
So in the 18 years John and I
have been doing this show, there's always an
old friend, an old friend that always crops
up every couple of years, and our old
friend is back.
I'm joined now by Congressman Adam Smith, the
top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee.
Good morning to you, Congressman, you heard that
report from Aaron Kutersky about these attacks on
US soil, it's something we've talked about for
years, these lone wolves, but has this war
sparked these, do you believe?
Well, it's exacerbated the problem without question, I
think it would be wrong to say it
sparked it, we've seen these attacks before this
war, and we have a long running problem
with very terrorist organizations associated with ISIS trying
to strike us here on our own soil.
We need to be prepared for those, we
need to look at what the Justice Department,
the FBI are doing to protect us from
that.
So this isn't a new phenomenon, but without
question that this has been ramped up because
of the war in the Middle East that
has brought in, gosh, some 14 countries have
been attacked in one way or another.
This war and this conflict is without question
spreading right now.
It's the lone wolf that is back, you're
not safe anywhere, be afraid everybody.
You can't keep people safe everywhere.
No, no.
But do you believe the federal government should
be doing something to help here, to help
protect people, what can you possibly do?
Yeah, well, I mean, absolutely, we have an
ongoing counterterrorism effort that's coordinated with the Justice
Department with various intelligence services, we need to
make sure that we're doing that.
I mean, I worry a little bit that
over the course of the last year and
a half starting with the Doge process, we
have driven out a lot of our talent
within the bureaucracy, within the Justice Department, within
our intelligence services.
We know a lot of Iranian experts left
the Justice Department right before this started as
part of- Trump, Trump's fault.
Part of the ongoing purge.
So I think it's worth Congress in particular
doing oversight, worrying do we have people in
those places who are doing the best possible
job to protect us?
It's more important and a tougher job right
now than it ever has been.
So, so, yes.
So, okay, there's one, okay, finish what you're
going to say, because then I have something
I want to insert.
What I was going to say is I'm
dusting off another one of our favorite jingles.
It's coming, people, it's coming, and you can
still license this U.S. government.
We have been trying to license this jingle
to you for years, and it's here for
you when you're ready.
So if we go to, I have a
clip about Phantom Fireworks, and Phantom Fireworks was
where the Philadelphia kids bought their fuses, and
that's where the West Bloomfield Synagogue came up
with their explosives.
So I'd like you to play that clip.
Recently released footage shows the suspect in the
Michigan synagogue attack, Ayman Mohammed Ghazali, purchasing thousands
of dollars worth of fireworks on March 10th.
This was just days before Ghazali drove a
vehicle laden with explosives into Temple Israel in
West Bloomfield Township near Detroit, according to the
Department of Homeland Security.
Ghazali told a store manager he was shopping
for fireworks for his family and an upcoming
Eid celebration marking the end of Ramadan.
He purchased a variety of fireworks, including aerial
fireworks and firecrackers, making two trips with the
final sale amounting to $2,250, according to
the store.
William Wymer, vice president and general counsel for
Phantom Fireworks, said in a store where purchases
of $5,000 and $10,000 are not
unusual, Ghazali did not raise any suspicions since
he explained what event he wanted the fireworks
for.
Yeah, so where'd they get the, where'd they
get the explosives?
They got them in a Phantom Fireworks that
has key showrooms in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Indiana,
Vermont, Alabama, and New Mexico.
It's our, it's our right as Americans to
buy fireworks.
It's our right.
But meanwhile, they're totally banned in Massachusetts.
They're restricted in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware,
Illinois.
You know, you just mentioned all the places
I don't want to live.
I need my fireworks, baby.
Fireworks.
But hey, but whatever you, whatever you think
about not being safe.
Yes.
Right.
Who, who, I want to know who spends
$10,000 at a time on fireworks.
I mean, what?
Oh, girl.
I got friends who spend that kind of
money on fireworks.
They're crazy.
We have...
Do they do it for the 4th and
New Year's Eve?
Or do they do it for the end
of Eid's?
No.
Hallow's Eve.
No, they do it for the 4th and
for New Year's Eve.
And we have, you know, 290 between here
and Austin.
There must be 50 of those fireworks cabins
at the side of the road.
It's, it's an American thing.
We like to blow stuff up.
It's what we do.
Good at it.
Oh, see, up on the West Coast, the
insurers have pushed to completely ban them.
Because, because of the fire danger.
And because people, you know, the hospitals get
tired of dealing with blown off hands.
But it's like when the news says, oh,
well, he had explosives.
Oh, yeah.
They don't mention the fireworks part.
No, they're legal.
They're legal class C fireworks.
Okay, guys.
And now we've got drones at the Oscars,
right?
Well, wait, wait, wait before.
I'll let you go there in a minute.
But first, we have to be afraid about
the Internet.
On the homeland.
In the homeland.
That's hinterland, the homeland.
On the homeland.
We had all these horrific incidents, including that
41 year old man who drove a car
with explosives into Michigan's largest synagogue.
He was a naturalized US citizen.
Brothers were members of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah.
Who had recently been killed in Lebanon along
with their children.
We don't know yet if the attacker was
involved with Hezbollah.
But what do you understand about the threat
picture at home?
Margaret, the diversity and volume of terrorist threats
to this country has never been higher.
We have a broad range of threat actors
in play.
Individuals inspired and directed by countries like Iran,
by foreign terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and ISIS.
And individuals motivated by domestic political grievances and
racial animus and more.
At the same time, the Internet has been
a force multiplier for terrorism.
Individuals have such easy access to content online
that can radicalize them and importantly, such easy
access to information on tactics, techniques and targets.
Which means that they can plot their attacks
more quickly and make their attacks more effective.
What that really means is we need a
whole new model for counter terrorism in this
country that includes law enforcement, but also includes
members of the public.
I think digital ID needs to happen really
quick.
Come on.
Come on, bring it in people.
I mean, it's still making people really nervous.
I mean, even just in New York, you
had the two Pennsylvania men, two US citizens
who were arrested.
They were going to protest the anti-Muslim
protest in New York, but they claim that
they had ties to ISIS.
It's not clearly directed by a state.
It's not clearly directed by anyone.
How do you protect yourself?
Well, what we have to think about today
is not just how to enhance physical security
protections at targets.
Certainly the government has a role to play
in helping synagogues, churches, mosques, schools and others
and putting up security barriers, training security officers
and those physical security enhancements.
We also really have to double down on
information and intelligence sharing.
That's a government function, but it also has
to include the public.
And what I mean by that is the
threat landscape is so dispersed.
There's so many tentacles of this.
That when individuals and communities see an individual
that may be exhibiting signs of violence, they
have to ask for help from law enforcement,
from social worker, from mental health worker.
Because the pathway and the path to radicalization
and mobilization is just so rapid.
And I do think, Johnny, that the Iranian
regime has demonstrated an incredible capacity to be
flexible and adaptive.
They played a long game here.
They have invested in propaganda and tools in
this country, as well as just hiring people
to do their dirty work for them to
such an extent that I am concerned that
they have the intent and the capability to,
if not direct attacks here in the homeland,
to inspire them.
Yeah, that's your CBS news.
Attacks in the homeland, they're inspiring them.
They're buying people head on a swivel.
And the stability of that regime.
It's funny, the regime and the command and
control over the asymmetric capabilities that Iran has
to include, for example, proxies that may seek
to do Americans harm, sleeper cells in the
United States and more.
So as we do think about the new
supreme leader, I'm thinking about from a homeland
perspective whether that individual has a command and
control over the tools that could, in fact,
harm Americans, Margaret.
These are open questions.
We're going to try to get answers to,
thank you.
We're going to get answers.
President Trump has an answer.
Here's his answer to the sleeper cells.
The war in the Middle East threatening to
spill well beyond the region as Iran is
reportedly trying to activate sleeper cells abroad.
Steve Harrigan is live at the border between
Iran and Armenia as Iranians look to flee
the chaos.
Hi, Steve.
Morning.
The US reporting encrypted messages coming out of
Iran in the wake of the death of
the supreme leader on February 28.
These encrypted messages, perhaps radio messages.
That's your shortwave ham radio message, number station.
ABC News is reporting that an alert has
gone out to law enforcement warning about the
possibility of sleeper cell attacks in the US.
President Trump addressed the risk of a sleeper
cell attack.
They've been trying for a long time.
We've been very much on top of it.
We're watching every single one of them.
Yeah, we know a lot about them.
The biggest problem we have is the Democrat
shutdown.
We know a lot about them.
But the shutdown doesn't allow us to do
what we have to do.
It's the Democrats.
They have shut down Department of Homeland Security.
And yeah, and meanwhile, a lot of things
like the two kids from Philadelphia.
You know, I mean, that's mental illness.
We don't have any facilities for mentally ill
kids.
We don't lock people up because they're crazy.
And his attorney keeps talking about how, oh,
he has a lot of compound problems.
That's why he couldn't go to school for
his senior year.
That's why, you know, he's, you know, he
withdrew from the world.
Well, OK, is this really a.
Is this really a terrorist ideological thing, or
is it the kid is suffering and he's
he's mentally ill and it's like psychotic?
I mean, that's, you know, a lot of
these things that keep happening are people who
we would have locked up.
Half of our population is mentally ill, if
not from over medication of SSRIs from nonstop
scrolling on social media.
Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely.
I cannot believe the amount of nonsense I
keep finding that's just like these people scare
me.
Good.
We even have Mimi scared now.
All right.
Well done, boys.
We got Mimi scared.
Yeah, well, there's that.
Which of your Oscars clips do you want
to play here?
I think Oscars, Oscars, Oscars is a good
place to start.
Security for the event is the tightest it
has ever been, and for good reason.
So here's what we know.
The Oscars are the first major event in
the US since the war in Iran broke
out.
There could be sleeper cells from Iran and
other terrorist entities in the US.
Could be.
And yes, there has been talk of drone
threats on the West Coast, prompting the LAPD
and several other law enforcement entities to take
extra precautions to keep everyone safe.
So you will see the area around Hollywood
and Highland closed and gated off with a
strong police presence.
And yes, all of that sounds scary.
Here's what is important.
Officials say that there is no intelligence to
suggest L.A. or the Oscars are a
target.
We are just being extra cautious.
Keep that in mind as we enjoy the
Oscars on Sunday.
Yes, on Sunday, ABC 8 p.m. Make
sure you tune in to see if they
blow anybody up.
Well, then we have extra TV.
I thought that the Oscars, Oscars, Oscars, which
I guess the president of the academy, I
thought they were sound like they were talking
down to two year olds.
You know, they're.
Yes, yes, yes.
There we go.
So the extra TV has a date.
They're trying to go with the more officious
take on it.
Uh, what am I?
What am I looking for here?
Extra extra TV.
Yeah, I found it.
Every year we monitor what's going on in
the world.
Oscars executive producer Raj Kapoor just spoke out
about the reports.
We have the support of the FBI and
the LAPD.
So did California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Drone issues have been always top of mind.
Events like the Oscars are some of the
most top of mind venues in the country.
He spoke with counterterrorism expert.
Guy can't even stop his city from burning.
Oh, drones are top of mind.
Yeah, Cohen.
The Internet is the largest pre-attack intelligence
environment in the world.
The threat monitoring online, which is happening nationwide
right now, coordination between federal and local agencies.
The goal is to detect threats early enough
and prevent them long before they ever reach
the venue.
Today, the FBI tells extra it routinely works
with local law enforcement to share intelligence and
provide resources where needed.
Man, someone should just fly a drone over
that thing.
Well, then we have the ABC7, which talks
about the preparations in Los Angeles.
Well, of course, they should be hyping that
up because it's their network.
We also spoke with the LAPD's incident commander
for the Academy Awards.
He tells us they've been preparing for the
Oscars for months.
It's an event with some 3,500 guests
in addition to all of those working in
and around the venues.
Some of the visible resources include barriers like
K-rails and fencing along Hollywood Boulevard, where
stars will arrive and walk the red carpet.
Commander Randy Goddard tells us they're coordinating with
federal agencies like the FBI, as well as
intelligence partners and the local fire department.
He also stressed there are specialized resources behind
the scenes, adding that while there is no
intelligence to suggest Los Angeles or the Oscars
are a target when it comes to possible
drone threats from Iran, it doesn't mean they
don't prepare.
We've planned for other things that we maybe
haven't seen in prior years, but we have
resources that will be on scene to address
those unique circumstances that may occur so that
they can be addressed quickly and prevent anything
from growing out of control.
And the closures here around the area along
Hollywood Boulevard are pretty significant, so it's difficult
to get really up close to see the
action on Oscars Sunday.
The commander that we spoke with also recommends
if you can avoid the area, there is
going to be a lot of traffic, so
it's best to do that.
Reporting live in Hollywood, Annabelle Munoz, ABC 7
Eyewitness News.
Lovely, lovely.
Are you going to watch tonight?
Are you going to watch the Oscars?
Are you going to check it out and
make sure you see the action?
I understand that you're like the Oscars expert.
Is this true?
No, no.
I'm more the Grammy guy to look for
the Satan segment.
That's my job, is I need to look
for the Illuminati and Satanism, which is usually
easy to find.
But you know, all the crazy things that
have happened at last Oscars events, like what
happened in 2017?
I bet this is the clip you want
me to play.
No, no, not yet.
Nope, not yet.
No, no.
This is just a question.
This is more of an Ask Adam.
I was not prepared for this, but...
Ask Adam, Ask Adam.
2017, I can't remember last week, 2017.
Who was hosting?
That might help me.
Do you remember who was hosting?
Well, it was...
No, actually, I don't care about that.
I just thought it was funny.
That was the year that La La Land
was wrongly announced as the winner instead of
Moonlight.
It was in the trades for months after
that.
Oh my God, how did they mix up?
I vaguely remember this.
I don't think I've seen either of those
movies.
And then in 1969, the Oscars had a
tie for Best Actress.
Barbara Streisand for Funny Girl and Katharine Hepburn
for The Lion and Winter both won in
the same category.
How did that happen?
Well, the Academy couldn't...
They couldn't make a decision?
Well, they could not give it to Katharine
Hepburn, but then Barbara Streisand's movie was the
one that was the most popular vote.
And then The Stir in 2000.
Do you remember The Stir in 2000?
I don't remember.
Was that the Dixie Chicks?
That's when Angela Jolie kissed James Haven, her
brother, on the lips for a long, long
time.
Wow.
Yeah, that was good.
But the absolute best to me is the
three years ago and that you can play
the clip.
You know who's got the hardest job tonight?
Javier Bardem and his wife are both nominated.
Now, if she loses, he can't win.
He is praying that Will Smith wins.
Like, please, Lord.
Jada, I love you.
G.I. Jane, too.
Can't wait to see it.
All right?
That was a nice one.
Okay, I'm out here.
Uh-oh, Richard.
Oh, wow.
Wow.
Will Smith just smacked the shit out of
me.
I've forgotten about that.
Moments in Oscar history.
Do you know how the Oscars are picked?
I mean, are you aware of how they
pick up?
Well, doesn't the Academy send in a sealed
vote?
Well, actually, screeners go out to the 10
,000 members of the Academy of Motion Pictures
and Arts and Sciences.
Right, including John C.
Dvorak.
He gets them, too.
No, he doesn't.
Yes, he does.
He always says.
He says, I got a screener.
He's always saying he has.
Is he lying about the screeners?
No, no, no, no.
The screeners, when 10,000 members get them,
they all send them, you know, they watch
the movie and they're not supposed to.
They're supposed to destroy them, but they send
them out.
I know this because years ago, I dated
Jack Cooper, whose father was Jackie Cooper.
And wait a minute, Jack.
Do I know Jackie Cooper?
This is a reference that I think is
beyond me.
The champ, the newspaper man and the newspaper
guy in Superman.
Jackie Cooper, one of the longest living actors,
won like a billion.
TJ Maxx.
Jackie Cooper was a very, very famous.
Um, uh, he was in, he was in,
um, the little, um, our gang.
He was one of the kids in our
gang.
He basically, his entire career was.
Was he Uncle Fester?
No, he wasn't.
OK, no, no, no.
Thanks, Trolls.
Well, maybe he.
Maybe I never watched that show.
I had never watched that show.
But the thing was is that, you know,
Jackie always got the screener.
So after Jackie died, I went down to
help Jack sort out his father's things.
And he just takes out this like suitcase
full of stuff.
He goes, here's all the screeners from this
year.
Why don't you take them?
Nice.
And I went, well, how does it work?
And he said, well, they vote in two
rounds.
So first you do nominations and members can
only vote for that branch, their branch of
the industry.
So, you know, if you're so.
And then all members vote for the best
picture.
So when it came to something like 1969,
the popular vote was Barbra Streisand.
But the head of the academy said, well,
we can't, you know, this is the only
time Catherine Hepburn is ever going to get
a chance to get an Academy Award.
So they it was a it was a
pity award.
I'm pretty sure these days they vote by
skin color and gender.
That would be my guess.
That's pretty much how it's determined.
I really I only like the dead segment.
That's kind of my favorite.
The In Memoriam.
Oh, yeah.
I like I don't watch.
You know, I haven't been to a movie
in a theater for a long.
I can't even remember the last movie I
saw in a theater.
Although I although I hear Hoppers is a
very good movie to go see.
It's a it's a Pixar long cartoon, but
it's supposed to be quite interesting.
Now, I think the big one this year
is Sinners, which I have not seen.
I haven't seen it either.
Not familiar with it.
No, I'm not going to see it till
it hits Netflix.
You know, let's face it.
Yeah, we just watched the Melania movie.
The movie is a big word.
Documentary.
OK, it was it was it was nice.
You know, it's completely lost on this American
public of today.
She's she's trying to she's really trying to
make something out of the White House.
And I think it's underappreciated.
And but she seems like a very nice,
very nice lady, actually.
The press doesn't cover her at all.
Well, no, she's married to the evil orange
man.
You can't have that.
Yeah.
They've been married for 20 years.
I didn't realize it was that long.
You know, this entire.
You know, I don't I really don't understand.
Again, my world is country over party, so.
Oh, how old school you are, Mimi.
I know I am so old school.
I'm showing my age, aren't I?
I'm sorry.
I had to rattle a paper.
Yes, yes.
There was an ant on it.
There's an ant on my and I'm not
used to having ants.
OK.
I'm done.
I don't have OK, then why don't we
thank a few people for supporting the best
podcast in the universe.
Currently, we have 1542 trolls who are no,
actually 1632.
OK, that's right.
I didn't scare them all away.
Well, isn't this a holiday weekend?
Do we have St. Patrick's Day once St.
Patrick's Day?
Is that this Monday?
Is it today?
When is it?
Ides of March.
When is this happening?
Don't you St. Patrick's Day?
It's the 17th.
But I think everybody started drinking yesterday.
Oh, yeah.
It's definitely a holiday weekend.
But people are in the troll room and
they're reasonably nice.
There's only one guy who really doesn't like
you.
Oh, really?
Is it John?
Hmm.
Interesting IP address I see there.
Yes.
John's like, I got to get back on
the mic, man.
Mimi's ruining the show.
He didn't actually say that.
I defended you.
It's fine.
So these trolls are hanging out the troll
room.
They're listening live on some of these modern
podcast apps, which you can find at podcastapps
.com.
And you can support us with time, talent
and treasure, which, well, the treasure part is
financial.
But then we also have different ways people
contribute with Boots on the Ground.
I got a lot of, let me find
them now.
I got a lot of Boots on the
Ground from our air traffic controllers.
Oh, good.
Yes.
And they said, Mimi's wrong.
She's so wrong.
There is no AI in the pipeline to
replace controllers, FAA or contract.
There's an increase of automation.
For example, D8 is PDC.
So that's weather.
Also, one of our producers actually is, he's
worked on the new NOTAM system.
Let me see.
So we got the, that was Sir Wags,
Knight of the Martin State Class Delta Airspace.
We have the anonymous controller.
He and his wife are both controllers.
AI in ATC, minimally based on the history
of implementation of technology and air traffic.
It'll be 10 years before ATC gets anything
because government takes so long to install things.
So he says, if you want 2026 technology,
you'll have to wait until 2036.
Contract towers, they're operated under contract privately with
the FAA.
Very strict, very strict rules on that.
They can't just do whatever they want.
And let me see.
Yeah, and another one from your servant of
the skies.
I can assure you there's no scenario in
which AI will be implemented anytime soon.
ATC needs the human in the loop, gut
instinct that AI simply can't replicate.
And I agree.
Well, I wish police departments would be more,
because right now, there's a lot of AI
routing with emergency dispatch around the country and
those, it's horrible.
I mean, they just don't understand what you're
saying.
Well, I can tell you what's going to
happen there.
It's just going to be AI answering the
phone and sending out a drone.
And then the drone will go to the
area.
Yeah, oh, no, this is happening.
This is guaranteed, guaranteed happening.
And then the drone will take a look.
I'm like, eh, do we need to send
a squad car out?
Nah, it looks like it resolved itself.
And all the rich people will have private
security.
That's what Mo actually predicted that.
And I think he's quite right.
Everybody else gets drones.
I recently re-listened to Snow Crash by
Neil Stevenson.
Great book.
I didn't realize it was a documentary.
You know, that's where the term metaverse came
from.
Yes, I know.
And I registered metaverse.com in 1994, maybe
1993.
And at the time, Neil Stevenson reached out.
He said, as long as you don't sell
anything with the term metaverse, I'm okay with
it.
And I think I wound up giving it
back to him, actually.
Yeah.
I'm pretty sure.
And he probably sold it to Facebook for
millions.
Probably.
Again, another exit strategy missed.
So that's a way that you can help
us with your time and your talent or
people make artwork.
And back on the scene as the art
pick for episode 1850, which of course we
had the title Error Bars, since we still
don't know what Sam Ullman's talking about, was
the one and only Nick the Rat, who
had a beautiful monkey licking the plate or
washing the dishes.
Of course he would.
So happy to see Nick back in the
charts, much to Darren O'Neill's chagrin, who
was about to surpass Nick the Rat on
the all-time chart.
No such luck, Darren.
Yeah, Nick the Rat, good one, brother.
Good one.
So we're happy.
It was quite a disturbing image.
Actually, it's a little odd.
So we also thank everyone who supports us
with their treasure.
You can do that by going to noagendashow
.net, noagendadonations.com.
We thank everybody who supports us, $50 and
above.
And we have a special bonus for those
who are fortunate enough to support us with
$200 or more.
We'll read your note within reason.
And we also give you an official Hollywood
credit of Associate Executive Producer, $300 or above.
That's when you become an Executive Producer of
the No Agenda Show.
Both those credits can be used anywhere that
phony baloney Hollywood uses credits, which goes beyond
Hollywood, but you can also put it on
imdb.com.
So it's a permanent record of you being
an actual producer.
You can use it in your resume.
If anyone ever asks you, we will vouch
for you.
And we kick it off with, let me
see.
I'll start with David French from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
for $333 and 33 cents.
No note though from our friend David.
No, he gets a double up karma.
You've got karma.
Sir Aditya from India, Hyderabad.
Oh, but he's somehow is in, yeah, what's
TS in India?
I wonder what TS, well, Hyderabad is Hyderabad.
That's his town.
Sir Aditya from India, not from Pakiland.
I am from India.
My best wishes to JCD and Mimi.
Please extend karma for all the keeper and
Mimi give me hope that there's hope for
me after all.
I guess that's a good thing.
You've got karma.
I figured out where the notes are.
Sir Tigger Max from Willis, Texas, $333 and
33 cents.
He says greetings to all three, both vertical
and horizontal.
Wait a second.
I don't know.
Which one am I?
I have no idea which one.
Are you laying down?
No, no, I'm not on the, John is
on the chaise.
Okay.
Prayers for JCD's total recovery.
Prayers to Adam to keep the show on
an even keel and huzzahs and thanks to
Mimi for stepping up in, stepping in, oh,
bringing a cheery smile and sharing Dvorak stories
of the strange and unusual.
She's a natural.
Amen.
Thank you.
Yes, you are.
Thank you.
Please accept this donation as an encouragement for
JCD's return, but in the unlikely apocalyptic event
that he does not survive, please use the
money to buy as much cheap Kirkland Bordeaux
as possible for John's wake.
Oh, what a sweet thought.
Stay safe.
Sir, Tigger Max, not Trigger Max, because I
guess we said Trigger and it triggered Tigger.
Chris Bowers is in Duluth, Georgia.
Oh, we're at the Associates already.
Associate Executive Producer, $2.78 and 77 cents.
ITM Gents and Lady.
John, I miss your unabashed candor.
I'm looking forward to hearing you again soon.
Adam, I think you're due for a Rogan
visit.
Yeah, that's not how it works.
It's like, hey, usually it's like Joe will
text me something and then we're texting for
about a month and then it's like, oh,
you know, you should come on the show.
Please deduce.
You've been deduced.
Please deduce me.
It's been a couple of years.
The rent is too damn high.
Also, please note that the that Avery is
a douchebag.
And Ben is a douchebag.
And then he finally says, wait, what about
Ohana?
Ohana's a douchebag.
I missed that.
Okay, hold on.
I need the, there we go.
Oh, wait a minute.
He wants to screw your freedom.
What's that?
How come I can't?
Oh, yeah, I got it here.
Everything's mislabeled.
Screw your freedom.
Oh, and an R2D2 karma.
Hooey, hooey, kindly, Chris Bowers.
Screw your freedom.
You've got karma.
Okay, next is Dame Donkey Puncher from Yorkville,
Illinois.
For $250.
Hello, donation switcheroo.
Please credit my amazing husband, Ryan George.
Wouldn't that be Mr. Donkey Puncher?
Our stupid city council just voted to move
forward on a proposal to build 14 centers
in our small town of Yorkville, Illinois.
I'm calling on our no agenda nation to
send me information on how to fight these
yahoos.
Please email me at DTGeorge17 at hotmail.com.
Love, light, and a speedy recovery to Dvorak.
Dame Donkey Puncher.
Yeah, you know, the problem is your municipality
already sold out to him.
That's the problem.
Ronald Maxodon is in Batavia, Illinois.
$250.
No notes, so he gets a double up
karma.
You've got karma.
Patrick Romeo, Santa Fe Springs, California.
$250.
Been listening to the show since I was
22 and I'm 37 now, but I've never
donated.
Oh, hold on.
You've been dedouched.
You both have changed my life and I
had a crazy, wonderful life along the way.
My heart broke when I heard about JCD.
Just need some job seeking karma and JCD's
recovery.
Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs.
Let's vote for jobs.
Rick Bunch is in Laverkin, Utah.
He says ducks and eggs for JCD.
I've never even heard of that.
I just watched Racket News implode and it
helped me realize insight and consistency rarely converge.
Yeah, do you know about this?
You know what Racket News is?
No.
That's, what's his name?
Matt Taibbi?
Oh yeah, I've watched it.
Yeah, so Matt Taibbi with his buddy, what's
his buddy's name?
I keep forgetting.
So, I don't know, something happened and I
saw it unfolding on X, but I really
don't know exactly what happened.
But it is true that, you know, it's
not easy to keep something going.
And it's quite wonderful that John and I
have been doing this for over 18 years.
Oh, it's amazing.
And, you know, you guys do a great
job and I didn't realize how hard it
was.
Tina's been talking about that.
She's, ha, ha, maybe you didn't know how
hard it was.
That's right.
It's not easy.
We just make it look easy.
That's our problem.
Well, John makes everything look easy, let's face
it.
It's just the way he is.
Yes.
Yep.
So, you're reading the next one.
I'm not reading Linda Lou Patkin.
Sorry.
You don't like Linda Lou Patkin?
No, it's just her words are too big
for me.
Hold on a second.
That's a definite opening of the show.
Her words are too big for me.
Okay.
Linda Lou Patkin wants jobs, karma, and she
writes big words.
For a competitive edge with a resume that
gets results, go to ImageMakersInc.com.
Linda applies executive level positioning to career transitions
at every stage.
That's ImageMakersInc with a K.
And work with Linda Lou.
She is the Duchess of Jobs and the
writer of winning resumes.
All the best from Linda.
Jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs.
Let's vote for jobs.
And now we have AJ of the Rocket
City, Tallahassee, Alabama, $200.
ITM to John, Adam, Mimi, the temp.
Mimi the temp.
Oh, thank you.
The back office and all the producers out
there.
No agenda is always at the top of
my podcast listening queue.
I hope John is using his recuperative time
to ruminate on the news and comes back
strong with his insightful deconstruction.
This donation brings me to Damehood.
I've been donating monthly since December 2022.
My ancestors were the original settlers in Madison
County, Alabama.
My vast extended family is still mostly in
and around Huntsville, Alabama.
In order of my heritage, and if the
peerage committee agrees, I would like to claim
the title of Dame AJ of the Rocket
City with Madison County, Alabama as my protectorate.
Shout out to the Huntsville area Knights and
Dames.
I hope to see you at the round
table.
Round table.
Oh, we'll go on to that.
We'll go to the request when you and
John.
Yes.
We're doing all knighting and damings.
We're doing in a big celebratory episode when
John returns to the show.
So it's official.
So no one can say later, you're not
really a dame because you'd only got, it
wasn't a real sword.
Wasn't a real thing.
So John's going to have to build up
to swinging around that sword.
He'll be fine.
He just needs that little heart pillow and
he'll be okay.
She wants what?
She want to double up karma?
Yes.
With smoking blues guitar lick.
I don't know if that's included in this,
but you've got karma.
I don't know about a smoking blues guitar
lick.
I'm not familiar with that.
Maybe a harp.
I don't think so.
Thank you to these executive and associate executive
producers of episode 1851.
We appreciate your support of the show, particularly
as we have a fill-in and it's
not exactly the same show, but y'all
are really helping us through it and keeping
it all positive and all of the well
wishes for John are appreciated.
I'm keeping every single email that you've sent
to him and copied me on or to
me.
So I'll make sure that he gets every
single one upon his return.
And we just appreciate it so much.
And we'll be thanking the rest of our
supporters in the time, talent and treasure value
for value model, which is very simple.
All you have to do is recognize you
got some value from the show.
When that happens, like, ah, let me give
something back to these guys.
There's no other way you need to do
it.
Just put that into a number.
Go to knowagendadonations.com and send it off.
And congratulations to these executive and associate executive
producers of 1851.
Our formula is this.
We go out.
We hit people in the mouth.
Let's see.
I still have a couple of things that
we we can talk about.
I have let me see.
We did the did the Oscars.
Yeah, I had.
Yes.
And you could ask me anything you want
about John and I sense.
If he's listening, he'll get it'll get his
heart rate up.
Oh, OK.
What other celebrities have you dated except for
Jackie Cooper's son?
Well, some of them I can't talk about.
Well, you can mention their names, can't you?
No.
And in some cases, no.
What do you what are they in the
witness protection program?
What is this?
We want we're OK.
Wait a minute.
What happened to you?
You can ask me anything you want.
That was fake news.
Well, OK, I hang out with comedians.
Yeah, JFK Junior.
Did you date him?
JFK Junior?
No, no, no candidate.
No, no, no candidates.
No, no, no, no.
All right.
But well, I was I was friends with
Robin Williams.
I mean, I met him because I didn't
watch TV and I was walking through the
Holy City Zoo.
And I he was on stage and I
just completely dissed him.
I had no clue who he was.
Was this and I was this the Mork
and Mindy days.
It was the Mork and Mindy days right
after he'd done Popeye.
And I went walking through and he said
something to me.
I was just heading back to the bathroom.
And I told him, you know, hey, I'll
talk to you when I get back.
And after the show, he comes up and
he goes, do you know who I am?
And I hate that question.
It really annoys me.
And I went, who do you think you
are?
You know what?
You tell me.
And and love.
It was love at first sight.
Well, we became friends.
We were good friends and friends.
Everybody air quotes friends.
What we do is after he'd show up
and we'd go out and play on the
playground, you know, at 2 a.m. after
bar time.
And was this when he was doing a
lot of coke or what was happening?
Well, yeah, there was that.
But no, we would go out.
It's just it's one of those things that,
you know, you have to decompress.
We went out to, you know, the coffee
shops that were open 24 hours and hang
out.
But that was always uncomfortable because people would
always come up to him and want to
talk to him and think that they knew
him because he was on more community.
And he sometimes just needed to decompress.
So I'd be like, let's go to the
playground.
And the first time he went, well, I
can't swing on the swings.
I'm under contract.
And if I get hurt, I'm like, what
kind of what kind of whimper you?
I mean, how many times did you get
hurt as a kid on the swings?
Anyone will never.
I go, well, so swing.
So we we swing with, you know, we
run around.
We, you know, at one point we have
like five or six people with us.
We do invisible baseball games and just act
goofy.
So I have a couple of questions here,
obviously.
Question number one, was he as funny when
he was not on stage or in front
of the camera as he was off?
Was he the same hyper guy?
Would he jump into voices and do crazy
stuff?
No, nope.
He was.
You would be lucky in an evening if
you got five words out of him.
He was very quiet, introvert, very introverted.
Matter of fact, when he would come, I
was a day bartender at a comedy club,
and he'd come by when he was doing
like Moscow on the Hudson.
And I love that movie.
That was a good movie.
I love Moscow on the Hudson.
Well, he was getting Russian lessons at that
point.
And but that was right after his son
was born.
The first son, Zachary.
And he said at the bar and I
would have to and I knew something was
bothering him.
And I'd go, it'd be 20 questions, you
know, you know, you look sad.
Yeah.
Uh, was he depressed?
Did you feel he was like a depressed
kind of guy?
He he was moody.
I think he was kind of moody, but
he was just an introvert.
I'm moody, too.
You know, it's fine.
So here's your choice of title for today's
show.
You can either choose Mark and Mimi or
swinging with Mimi.
It's up to you.
It's one of the two.
You should wait until till my last set
of clips.
We have a better thing there.
But the thing so that, you know, we
just saw each other here and there.
We knew each other.
We talked.
We had lots of mutual friends.
You know, Robin was a very sweet character
and he was very thoughtful.
And I always thought that, you know, he
he had a lot of depth to him.
But it was it was only when you
get four or five people in the room
that he'd turn into that guy.
You know, I'm on let's perform.
You know, really cool.
That's pretty cool.
I saw him about I don't know, it
was about three weeks before he did himself
in.
And, you know, here we'd known each other
for years.
I mean, and he he is after a
performance that he did at the Throckmorton Theater
in Mill Valley.
And I've got you know, I'm there.
We go out to dinner along with all
the other hang around everybody who was there.
There were a whole table of comedians and
I sat next to him and he leans
over to me and really quietly he says,
I can't remember you.
Yeah, really quietly.
And I went, I didn't know how to
take it.
So I went, well, that's OK, Robin.
I'll remember for both of us.
Wow.
That was when he had Lewy body disease.
What is it called?
Yeah, yeah.
Lewy body dementia.
And he didn't know he did.
He thought he had Parkinson's.
And but that but that night, the one
thing that, you know, I've talked to other
people with is he that night performing, he
actually stopped at one point like he had
lost his words.
And that would have been the worst thing
that could have ever happened to him.
To anyone, to any comedian, for sure.
But he was so, you know, I mean,
he was so dynamic in so many ways.
And, you know, that night when I saw
him, he had been doing improv, like with
Rick Overton.
And it's just brilliant to watch these things.
And Steve Pearl was there.
A lot of people were there.
And it was like when I saw that
hesitation and I, you know, I know all
these people fairly well.
It was like I saw everybody kind of
give each other looks like they all they're
like, what was happening to Robin?
And it was something.
But then he recovered really quickly.
And and it's like, I, you know, I
I don't see he had any choice.
You know, there's no way he could have
lived with a future of having no words.
So, okay.
Other people you might have dated Gilbert Godfrey,
perhaps.
That seems like a guy you might have
dated.
No, we we we hated Gilbert Godfrey.
He somehow at MTV, they always decide, oh,
we're going to bring bring Gilbert on for
some segments.
I'm like, oh, no, because, you know, we
had the segments had to be, you know,
like within two minutes, kind of.
And then he would say, you know, all
kinds of profanity.
And then the control room had to.
Okay, Gilbert, we're burning that segment.
The guy was a nightmare to work with.
A nightmare, I tell you.
Oh, that's great.
But not as bad as Paul Provenza.
He was the most stuck up, arrogant guy.
Yeah, no, he was.
They were that was they were both L
.A. comics.
I mostly hung out with San Francisco comics.
And there is a difference.
So, you know, there was I mean, comedy
was really big.
You know, I had a comedy production company
in Stockton, California.
So I hired a lot of people.
So I knew everybody.
And how about George Carlin?
You ever hang out with him?
I never hung out with him, but I
did see him multiple every time he was
even close to the Bay Area or the
Reno, I would go see him.
So I saw him multiple times.
I was a fan.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Huge fan.
He was he was I think he was
important part of my development as a human
being for a lot of people who listen
to the show.
Yeah, I saw Johnny Carson performing as a
comedian, both in the theater in the round
and San Carlos.
Wow.
And I guess was called the Circle Star.
And then in in Reno a few times,
because that's the other thing.
I was raised in Reno and they always
had.
OK, but that's really great.
Let's get back to the dating part.
Who I dated.
Yeah.
Who do you date?
Which one of these wackos?
How about did you hang out with Sam
Kinison?
And were you in the squad with Sam
and the roles?
Sam Kinison, I met a couple of times.
He was very, very nice.
Unless he was in front of a lot
of people, then he was an a-hole.
But he could go.
But he was a child preacher.
So he could just go.
He could.
And his brother, I think, is still a
preacher.
I think so, too.
He could go into that bit.
And it was just like amazing.
I mean, the control of his voice was
unbelievable.
And it was he was something to see.
And he was, you know, I mean, I
was a girl.
So he was on his best girl behavior
with me.
I say that sarcastically.
Yes, I'm sure.
Yeah.
I mean, Dana Carvey was around all the
time.
He was cute.
Who I loved to watch was Jerry Seinfeld.
He had the best command of an audience
I ever saw.
Because audiences really are hard to, you know,
audiences have an entire world of their own.
They come in, they're either in a good
mood, they're in a bad mood.
There's no predicting what an audience is going
to do.
But the one the one time that I
was because I would always watch the audience
because I thought that was interesting.
So the first night that Bobcat Goldthwait came
to San Francisco from Boston.
Bobcat, another fan favorite.
So we're in Cobbs, the old Cobbs pub.
It's this dank, long building.
And he comes in.
No one knows who he is.
And he insisted on nobody introducing him.
So nobody has seen him.
So the place is packed because rumor was
out that Robin was there that night.
And that would always pass.
I don't know where these people came from.
They there was some Robin network that went
out there.
And all these people show up whenever he
was rumored to be in town.
So the place is packed, probably double what
the fire marshal wanted it to be.
And I'm standing against the wall so I
can see the audience and see the stage.
And Kinnison, can you get me on Kinnison?
Goldthwait, you know, Bobcat just jumps on stage.
And he grabs the mic and he's completely
disheveled.
He looks like a homeless bum.
And he starts going pretty much this whole
bit right there.
Yes.
And then he starts rambling, saying all kinds
of things.
And the audience was sat stiff upright.
And you can see they're not moving their
heads, but they're trying to glance to the
people next to them to see if everybody's
like, like, are you freaking out?
Because I'm freaking out.
And the audience was absolutely silent for about
the first four minutes and four minutes is
a long time.
And then finally, he went into this bit
where he did like a Yalie accent where
he was doing some, oh, the guy on
the bus.
Then he flips into this Yalie accent, you
know, this total upper crust Boston accent.
And the entire audience exhaled at once.
You can see them just go.
He's not an insane person.
He can actually speak normally.
And then they were just, they just loved
him.
He was, and afterwards, we went to Paula
Poundstone's house, also Dana Carvey's house, because they
were roommates.
And I got to talk to him.
And he was the sweetest person I've ever,
I mean, he's just sweet and he was
young and he was, and he was like,
kind of shrugging it off.
And I'd like, I had to describe to
him what the audience did.
And he said, yeah, I get that.
I get that sometimes.
No kidding.
Nice guy.
Hold some for the next show.
I will.
Okay.
But think of some good stories.
You know, we need a little bit of
dating mixed in there to keep everyone engaged.
Okay.
Yeah.
Actors are also fair game.
That's all fine.
Yeah.
And maybe watch the Academy Awards.
So, you know, yeah, I bagged him, that
guy, just so you can let us know.
Well, well, that was the horrible thing when
I first started dating John, because he.
Every good story.
The horrible thing when I first started dating
John.
Well, well, we went, he liked, he goes,
oh, I'm really into comedy.
So we went out to a comedy club.
And of course I never pay.
We just walk in and sit down.
And he looks at the acts to come,
you know, what's coming for the next few
weeks.
And he goes, have you slept with any
of these guys?
And I went, well, I didn't sleep with
this one.
All right.
So on Thursday show, I presume John will
be back by Thursday on Thursday show.
We want to hear the story of how
you met and how John swept you off
your feet.
Okay.
And now back to real news, everybody.
Big news in AI from Google.
Google maps has announced its biggest update in
10 years with a major AI makeover right
here.
It's going to allow you to ask complex
questions that a map maybe couldn't answer before.
Like find out a public tennis court with
lights for playing at night.
Google says it will source that information from
millions of reviews and websites.
And answers will include photos and also ratings.
The company says that the power of maps
plus AI is different from anything else out
there.
So based on your activity in maps, the
prior searches you may have done maps is
what you use when you want to go
out in the physical world.
So you can turn those plans into actions
instantly.
So Google also says that you can expect
direction to sound a bit more natural and
then flow with on map highlights faster.
It will also be easier to find alternative
routes just in case there's traffic issues.
This is great.
1.3 trillion dollars invested.
And we have a better voice on Google
maps.
It's fantastic.
Well, you know, this leads me into my
clips, actually.
So what happens when you get so dependent
on the maps to tell you how to
get home that you forget how to get
home?
Isn't that kind of like an ant losing
its queen?
Are we all going to be wandering around
if maps goes out going, Oh my God,
I know I live here somewhere.
I think we're already there.
Definitely.
Let's go into my I have it says
Palki Sharma.
Oh, from from.
What is it?
She's no longer with Y and she's with
the new.
Was it Formula 1?
The India TV or something like that.
Oh, Palki.
Hello, Palki Sharma.
Our next story tonight is about smuggling.
No, not gold or drug smuggling.
We will tell you about ant smuggling.
Yes, people are trafficking ants now, mainly in
East Africa.
Kenya has nabbed four ant gang smugglers.
They captured thousands of ants.
They were planning to sell these insects in
Europe and Asia and hoping to make thousands
of dollars.
You heard that right.
Thousands of dollars for ants.
So what's behind this strange trafficking trend?
And why are people buying smuggled ants?
Well, inquiring minds need to know.
And then I have clip too.
He had ants.
All right.
Kenyan authorities arrested and charged a Chinese national
with attempting to smuggle 2200 live ants in
his luggage.
Court filings seen by Reuters say 27-year
-old Zhang Kekun was arrested at Nairobi's main
airport on Tuesday while he was trying to
leave the country.
Ant aficionados pay large sums to maintain colonies.
The arrest comes amid a rise in cases
of smuggling the insects.
Last year, prosecutors accused suspects of being part
of an ant gang who tried to move
the live insects inside plastic syringes packed with
cotton balls.
Four men were charged $7,700 each for
trying to traffic thousands of ants.
Experts said the case signaled a shift in
biopiracy from trophies like elephant ivory to lesser
-known species.
Investigators said a search of Zhang's luggage recovered
2,238 ants, including 1,948 packed in
test tubes and the rest in three rolls
of soft tissue papers.
Kenya's Wildlife Service said a similar consignment of
ants had been seized in Bangkok on Tuesday
that originated from Kenya, indicating the existence of
a widespread and organized ant-smuggling network.
There's money in these ants?
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, okay.
What they're smuggling out of there are the
giant African harvester ants where the queens are
more than an inch long.
So I started looking into this.
It turns out that keeping ants and growing
ant colonies was a thing in Asia first,
but it spread all around the world.
There are people who have ant farms that
are built into the wall, like old aquariums
used to be, and they have massive ants.
So I started looking into it even more.
So we have Kohl's ants.
These are people who probably never get dates.
Except with comedians.
Welcome, everyone.
I'm Kohl from Kohl's ants.
And today we're going to be trying something
a little different.
Ant keepers and ant enthusiasts are kind of
a growing hobby.
Still very niche, but growing.
And it's a nice community, a colony, if
you will.
And that colony must grow because the hobby
of ant keeping is just really fascinating.
And I love telling stories and bringing them
to life, entertaining the people that just like
watching ants and educating the people that want
to keep ants.
So today we're going to be talking about
the hobby of ant keeping.
And to talk about this topic with me
is my friend Nami, who turned his hobby
actually into a business.
He co-founded a site called Antlantis, where
he actually sells ants.
So hey, Nami.
Hi, everyone.
Yeah, no, in the last year or so,
I decided with the help of my business
partner, Michael, that I wanted to build a
platform allowing people to not only just get
healthy ant colonies, but continue growing their ant
colonies that they purchased from us.
So that's the vision that I see Atlantis
being.
How many ant colonies do you have?
Around 3,000 ant colonies currently around.
What?
All right.
I got to play it.
I got to play the whole thing.
Yep.
Haven't played in a while.
I don't know if we had ants.
We had ant invasion.
I was thinking if you desiccated a big
pile of ants and then ground them to
a powder, like a fine grind of black
pepper.
We were having dinner and I got an
ant somehow in the meal and I ate
it.
These things are peppery.
I got ants.
These ants, they don't need a lot.
And then you see, you find all the
ones that are roaming around.
I'm going to back them off by doing
the burning trick.
Just torch them.
And you leave them there.
The only ant, there are occasional moments where
there's an ant that you do not torch
and that's an ant that's carrying one of
the dead ants back.
Ants.
Yes.
So first, I never knew John was so
trendy.
Well, not that bad.
I have to credit that to Sir Saturday
Night Strokey Bill Walsh who passed away last
year.
He was the one who created that song.
I love that song.
But John lives on a giant hill in
Albany.
On an anthill.
And it's all Argentinian ants that have a
giant mega colony that spreads from San Diego
to San Francisco.
It is a mega colony.
So these people are bringing in giant Amazonian
ants which are an inch and a half
long.
They're bringing in the harvester ants.
They're bringing in carpenter ants that have a
thousand different species.
I don't like this.
And there's so many different YouTube guys out
there talking about their ants.
And some of them raise two different colonies
and then put them together and have ant
wars.
Like robot wars only with ants?
I don't know the difference between that.
I don't see how that's legal where cockfighting
isn't.
But whatever.
It creeps me out so much.
Oh my god.
Interesting.
I had no idea.
I had no idea there was such a
thing.
So I think we could certainly insect an
ant gang.
What?
An ant gang for the show title.
A sophisticated ant smuggling network.
Yeah.
No, I'll choose the titles, Mimi.
I still think Mork and Mimi or Swinging
with Mimi is better.
I'm sorry.
But I haven't told you about swinging, but
okay.
Next show, everybody.
Or not.
Hurry, John.
Hurry, come back.
Yes.
Wow.
I don't know.
It's hard to transition to anything from where
you just took us.
I just have one more clip because I've
been keeping my eye on the pivot from
AI to the next level.
And it appears that this IONQ outfit, I
think they had the big data center in
Chicago.
It's like the South Side or something.
So Fox Business News has the CEO on.
And listen to this blather.
Joining me now, IONQ CEO, Niccolo De Masi.
Niccolo, how closely have you been watching all
of the developments in the Middle East and
the fact that some of these missiles and
drones have managed to hit their targets?
Well, we consider ourselves a close partner of
this administration.
The Department of War, of course, is front
and center in the last week and indeed
in really driving the quantum programs, not only
up in space and up in the air,
but of course, on the ground and even
under the ocean.
We are the only quantum company in history
to reach our size.
And we operate in all war funding domains
from submarines up into the heavens.
We've obviously been closely watching the last few
weeks.
And we consider ourselves in pole position here
to not only help expand our defensive posture,
but also our offensive posture.
This is a race against our adversaries.
It's not just a race against smaller adversaries
like Iran that honestly don't have a quantum
posture, but there's bigger ones like China that
obviously recognize that after AI, quantum is the
next big technological wave.
And so the U.S. succeeding in that
is all about, we believe, IONQ supporting the
industry, IONQ capitalizing quantum foundries, the merchant supplier
business, and of course, making sure that we
lead in computing, networking, sensing and quantum cybersecurity.
Yes, there you go.
The pivot is on.
Was he speaking English?
Yeah.
Well, this is the nonsense that quantum computing
is here and it's the next step.
It's going to be the next thing that
everyone invests in after AI turns out to
be nothing more than Google Maps that has
a smoother voice and can find a tennis
court with lights for you.
Yeah, isn't that sad?
Kind of, kind of.
Well, although I have to say I do
Google to see if the laundromat, what the
busy hours are.
So there is that.
I could help you, baby.
$20 a month is good to go.
Have you heard about this gold heist in
Hungary?
No, I have not heard of it.
Gold bars and cash worth more than 80
million U.S. dollars are at the center
of the latest spat between Hungary and Ukraine.
Hungarian authorities seized the contents of a Ukrainian
state bank convoy that was making its way
home from Austria.
The assets are still being held.
Hungary says it's investigating what it calls money
laundering.
Our correspondent Ferenc Gahl has been covering this
story and joins us now from Brussels.
Ferenc, Ukraine's state bank says that the movement
of the cash and gold across Hungary was
just a regular bank transport.
Hungarian authorities are saying it could be money
laundering overseen by a former Ukrainian intelligence official.
What exactly is going on here?
The Hungarian authorities have claimed there have been
suspicions of money laundering.
It is not clear what exactly this could
be.
Now, what we know now is that the
detained Ukrainian nationals have been released and expelled
from Hungary.
Hungary has even returned the vans to the
Ukrainian bank, but it has kept the assets
within those vans.
So, you know, millions of dollars, millions of
euros, some kilograms of gold.
And from the beginning, there has been a
lot of doubt what the actual legal basis
is for Hungary keeping these assets.
Nine kilograms of gold.
Oh, that's just that's normal.
That's just that's completely normal.
We put that in a van every week.
Going to Zelensky's house.
Come on.
This is so obvious.
Don't hear anything.
Don't hear anything about Ukraine, except for there
was my boy Rutte had something to say
about how great Ukraine is.
I mean, it is a vital role indeed
because of this totally unprovoked war of aggression
of Russia.
Oh, yes.
Russia was a full scale invasion.
Against your country.
You had to defend yourself and you are
defending yourself.
And I commend you for that.
My respect.
But you also had to innovate.
Yes.
You are now one of the countries with
the most knowledge and experience when it comes
to drone technology, anti-drone technology, but also
so much more.
I every day I get reports of what
you guys are doing in terms of innovation
and what is now happening in the Middle
East.
The fact that President Zelensky said, I will
send Ukrainian teams to the Middle East to
Gulf countries to help.
Wait a minute.
He's got people left over from fighting Russia
to go help in the Middle East.
Come on.
But it comes to drone technology and anti
-drone technology, I think, is testimony of that.
And what we're also seeing is that European
countries are investing in the defense industrial base
in Ukraine.
There is still an untapped potential of 10
to 15 billion.
So a lot is being done, but still
there is room for more.
And of course, what you were doing, fighting
the Russians and keeping your country safe means
indeed that you are on the forefront of
innovation.
So thank you for doing everything you're doing.
We have to make sure you stay strong
in the fight.
That means when it comes to interceptors for
Russian missiles, when it comes to other key
and crucial defense industrial gear, we have to
support you.
And the U.S. plays a big role
here, paid for by Canadians and Europeans.
And we have also to keep that going.
I just wanted to say thank you for
your courage, Ukraine.
You're very good.
Very good with your drone technology.
You're very innovative.
It's very good.
Is he sniffing in that thing?
Am I hearing him going sniffing with his
nose?
Because it sounds like he's...
The only time I've ever heard people talk
like that is after a lot of cocaine.
You know, John has said that about him,
too.
And I'm very bad at detecting cokeheads.
The guy is such a nerd.
I mean, he goes to work on his
bike.
He used to work in HR at Unilever.
You know, with all the HR ladies.
He's an HR lady and somehow became the
prime minister of the Netherlands.
And then all the way up to the
secretary general of NATO.
It's a baffling, baffling career.
But he's a Trump sales guy.
So Trump seems to like him.
You know, that used to be the model
for salesmen.
They always did too much coke and couldn't
shut up.
The final clip after we're done in the
Middle East.
We have Cuba.
Johannes de la Bar was born in Cuba.
People that have never lived through this to
be in exile will never know what this
is like.
That's why I understand the Iranian people.
I understand the Venezuelan people.
She has mixed feelings about the headline that
came out of the press conference with Cuban
President Miguel Diaz-Canel that Cuba is officially
in talks with the U.S. government.
Sometimes you can't really negotiate with terrorists or
dictators.
But who knows?
You know, stranger things have happened in history.
So we shall see how this development truly
expands and see what happens and how the
Cuban community would react to it.
I think we're just happy that something is
finally being done.
I think that we are finally in history
at the right time, at the right place,
with the right president.
Surprised is not a word anyone ever says
used to describe the confirmation.
CBS News had already reported that talks between
the two countries were underway.
I think that they're finally stating the truth.
They can't hide it any further.
I think it's been going on for a
while, which we've been hearing that has been
going on.
Marco Rubio has been engaged in conversations with
them.
But like always, they always lie to us.
They've been lying to us for 65 years.
And I'll go a little further.
I'll tell you that what I would like
to see come out of this is that
Canel gets out and Castro gets out.
That's the only thing that's acceptable to the
community.
You ever been to Cuba?
No.
Nope.
I know there's...
Cuba's got a lot going on right now.
Well, they've got nothing going on.
Nothing works.
They have no gas.
They got no oil.
They got nothing.
Well, if I'm on the next show, I
will.
I have a bunch of Cuba stuff.
I just didn't grab it all because I
didn't finish last night.
You're holding back.
You've got stuff in abeyance.
All right.
Yeah.
Cuba on 1852.
Yeah, that's
right.
We still have a number of people to
thank who supported us.
$50 and above.
We always thank everybody.
No knights or dames, as we've already announced.
We're waiting until John returns to do all
of those knightings and damings.
So let's thank everybody.
We start off with, let's see, Chris Moore
from Indianapolis, Indiana, with $188.88. His own
special Give John a Reason to Live donation.
Amy Pousson in Jefferson, Wisconsin.
I guess this is a freedom donation.
$17,776.
We'll take it.
Grumpy Old Dames from Smithville, Texas.
$150.
Paige Holland, $125.
And she sent in a note.
Let's see what Paige says here.
Quick recovery for John.
Mimi and Adam, competitive new pair up.
Who knew Mimi had such a killer good
podcast presence.
Aw.
Yes, with the fake sexy voice, as John
calls it.
It's lovely to get to hear John's much
better half.
Prayers and love.
Paige Holland from San Antone here in Texas.
Thank you very much, Paige.
Forrest Scott Brinkley, North Canton, Ohio.
$105.44. He says, get well, John.
I get well soon, John.
Steve Brown, $105.35. A one-time get
well donation for John.
Rulof Boer is in Fincafane in the Netherlands.
$101.
He says, this is my first donation.
You've been dedouched.
Oh, actually, someone sent something along for this.
I remember this.
I was already thinking about it for a
while, about donating, but I was so pleasantly
surprised by Mimi's performance, all my hesitation shattered.
Mimi, you're a donation bonanza.
So I guess you can call this a
Mimi donation.
We got that as a bonus.
He sent it to us.
The bark is a well-meaning jab aimed
at Mimi.
Couldn't figure out how to make the bark
less loud.
Fun fact, I got hooked the second time
I listened to the show because a producer
revealed he donates with names specifically designed to
give John a hard time pronouncing them.
Yeah, like we didn't know this.
Okay.
There's the Rock and Roll Detective from Madison,
Wisconsin.
Check out the books.
Rock and Roll Detective, $100.
Albert Ray Peake from Piperton, Tennessee, $100.
David West from Marysville, Washington, $100.
And also has a note.
Do we have another note?
Didn't we?
Yeah.
Hold on a second.
Where is my notes?
No, I only have three notes.
Oh, wait a minute.
No, four.
I got it.
Okay.
What does it say here?
John, now do you believe in God?
So glad you are alive and we'll be
back.
You are a national treasure.
Adam and Mimi, good for you for keeping
the show going while John recovers.
Sergio McGillicuddy, aka David West.
Yeah, everyone's hoping John met God.
That's what everyone is saying.
Any insight on that?
Nope.
Okay.
Well, I'll ask him when he comes back.
Yes.
Oh, then we have a lot of 8888
still coming in.
Jennifer Taylor, Caddo Mills, Texas.
Daniel Posselt in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Laura Masters in London.
Hello, London.
Manuel Obando in Miami Lakes, Florida.
Wayne Thume in Preston, Maryland.
And Jason Babcock comes in with 8888, and
that pushes him to knighthood.
Please knight me, Sir J of the interstate,
and serve me Thai pineapple fried rice and
Thai iced tea at the table.
Get well soon, John.
We miss you, Jason.
And Jason, again, will be doing all of
these when John returns.
Sir Johnny, be good.
Colorado Springs, Colorado.
And let's see.
He says, along with my 8888 donation, the
following note, John, we are certainly grateful for
a successful procedure.
Glad they caught this in time.
We'll continue to pray and send this very
special donation for your recovery.
Very sweet, and thank you very much.
Coming in with 8888, Ann Dunev in Largo,
Florida.
David Fugazudo, he is the Duke of, goodness
gracious, I know it's America's heartland, the Arabian
Peninsula, Kansas City, Missouri.
John Tierney, Thompson, Connecticut.
Brian Kinnett in Powder Springs, Georgia.
MFDX of Anjou, 8888.
Ashley Karalis in Needleville, Texas.
Ernie Parton in Westchester, Ohio.
Brad R.
King in Schoolcraft, Michigan.
Joseph Wistos in Spokane, Washington.
And there's Sir John of the Techni Basin,
and he comes in with a Bitcoin donation
equaling 8888.
We're at the boobs.
Roy Peterson, Gaithersburg, Maryland, with 8008.
Kevin McLaughlin, of course, coming in with 8008.
He is the Archduke of Luna, a lover
of America and boobs.
And he says, God bless America and boobs.
Les Tarkowski, Kingman, Arizona.
Small boobs, 6006.
James Edmondson, South Plainfield, New Jersey.
Double nickels on the dime.
Lane Lamoureux in Baghdad, in Iraq.
Ho-ho, missed note, last show.
Not read with my 333 donation last show,
so I'll try again.
Lil Bro hit me in the mouth in
mountainous Idaho.
From Boise to Baghdad, you've kept me sane
through my move to Mesopotamia.
Currently on fire.
Multiple missile impacts in northwest Baghdad.
I love you guys.
And we love you, Lane.
Be careful.
$55.
Luke Mannell, Los Angeles, California, 5272.
Brian Holt in Carmel, New York, 5017.
And we're at the 50s.
Kevin Dills from Huntersville, North Carolina.
Philip Ballew in Louisville, Kentucky.
Chris Lewinsky, Sir Chris Lewinsky in Sherwood Park,
Alberta.
Easy Landscapes.
North Stonington, Connecticut.
Greg Bodak in Belvedere, Illinois.
Baron of Belmont in the Catawawa...
How do you pronounce it?
Catawaba?
No, I'm missing an A there.
It says Cat...
There's no Cat...
Well, maybe it is Catawaba.
Maybe I just mistyped.
Catawaba River Basin, Charlotte.
Meet up this Thursday.
That's right.
It will be the fifth anniversary.
Every producer in the Charlotte area is welcome.
Get well, John.
We miss you.
Pamela Bradley, Tecumseh, Oklahoma.
George Oberhofer in New Brunswick, New Jersey.
Ox Utherix in Buffalo, New York, $50.
Prayers for John's speedy recovery.
And he says, Adam, thank you for ending
the $50 donations with Ox Utherix, Buffalo, New
York, during the past episode.
A couple of times I've donated.
It's a special thrill for me.
Well, you are the last one again.
I don't know why this is, but for
some reason you seem to be the last
one.
That's amazing.
I have to ask Jay.
She's probably doing it.
They must have something going.
Who knows what Jay is really doing?
No one really knows what Jay is doing,
other than everything works out just fine.
She's my daughter.
We never know what she's doing.
She takes after me.
Let me see.
Then there was another note that I missed
from Sherry Wormager.
Wormager.
And I missed it on the last one.
She says, get well fast, John.
We miss you.
I did leave a note of 200 characters
on my PayPal donation for the show on
March 12th.
Adam didn't read it.
He just read my name.
So here it is.
Thank you both for all you do to
keep our amygdala small.
I was hit in the mouth of my
husband and son back in 2008.
A big thank you to both of them,
Eric and Cody.
Cody's a knight and we have to work
on Eric.
A dame needs her knight.
It took me until 2020 to realize this
is the best podcast in the universe.
I haven't missed a show since I started
a monthly layaway program immediately, along with a
few larger donations, including one executive and one
associate donations.
I am well over the limit to claim
my dame status.
Please dame me, dame more, more.
Let's keep up these donations.
Even after John returns to work, I'll be
doing everything I can.
Thank you both.
Plus the back office for all you do.
She's in Arlington Heights, Illinois.
Future dame more, more.
And yes, you will be a dame upon
John's return.
We have exactly zero birthdays.
I don't know how that happens.
That's happened maybe once before in the history
of the show.
Interesting.
It's so, you know, I don't get to
say, you know, I don't get to say
anything.
It's just no, no birthday.
So thank you for the support of the
show.
Go to noagendadonations.com.
Any amount, anytime you feel like it, that's
how it works.
It's real simple.
If you get value out of the show,
it's value for value.
Send some value back.
Noagendadonations.com.
Indeed, the No Agenda Meetups are for everyone
worldwide.
They take place all the time, usually around
the weekends.
Anybody can start them.
Anybody can.
It's not like, you know, TEDx.
We have to get some kind of special
license to do it.
You just go ahead, go to noagendameetups.com.
And do you have a promo for the
Charlotte Meetup five-year anniversary?
We just heard from Baron of Belmont.
And here's his promo.
This Thursday Meetup, Ed's Tavern in Charlotte.
It will be the fifth anniversary of the
Thirsty Third Thursday Meetup.
If you would please make a point to
mention this and encourage more producers in the
area to show up, it would be greatly
appreciated.
We drink beer, smoke cigars, and solve the
world's problems, or at least try.
I even had a buddy make a cigar
ashtray for me.
Picture attached.
Beautiful picture.
Thank you for your courage.
We're all praying and sending karma to John
for a speedy recovery.
Mimi is rocking it, by the way.
She's a trooper for stepping in, says Sean
Smith, the Baron of Belmont in the Catawba
River Basin.
Let's see.
We have a Meetup taking place today.
Of course, that is the Blind Owl Brewery.
That means it's Indianapolis, Indiana.
The No Agenda.
I do believe it's time for a Meetup
March edition.
That is underway as we speak.
On Wednesday, it's not often that we get
a Wednesday Meetup, but it is the Deconstruction
of the Leprechaun, 5.30 at the Barn
Restaurant in Rockaway, New Jersey.
On Thursday, our next show, the NISB Get
John Back Into the House Meetup, 5 o
'clock at Trails and Brewery and Brick Oven
Pizza in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
And also on Thursday, the fifth anniversary, as
I said, of Charlotte's Thursday monthly Meetup, 7
o'clock at Savern Charlotte, North Carolina.
For the rest of this month, on the
21st, Los Angeles, California, and Franklin, Tennessee.
Franklin's a good group, man.
It's like 80 or 90 people out there.
The 22nd, Vancouver, British Columbia, Colleyville, Texas on
the 28th, along with Fort Wayne, Indiana, and
Beachwood, Victoria, Australia.
Going into April, Osaka, Japan on April 4th,
Eagle, Idaho on the 11th, Albany, California on
the 11th.
Maybe John will be there.
We're not sure.
Lafayette, Louisiana on the 11th, and the Fredericksburg,
Texas Meetup.
I will be there with The Keeper on
the 11th.
On April 25th, Scheveningen in the Netherlands.
The Dutch group will be doing their Meetup.
Go to noagendameetups.com.
You will never regret going to your first
Meetup.
Your first is never your last.
This is where you get connection that gives
you the protection.
These people will be your first responders in
an emergency.
They keep you stable.
That keeps you able.
noagendameetups.com.
Go there.
Search by area.
If you can't find a Meetup near you,
here's the great thing about it.
You can start one yourself.
noagendameetups.com.
So I'm kind of worried because I see
not one, not two, not three.
I see that you have six ISOs and
they're not labeled.
So that means something is up.
I have two.
So I will give you my...
Well, mine are all organic.
They aren't John.
They are ones that I actually clipped.
Oh, okay.
Well, I'll do my two first.
It's crazy.
Okay.
And this one?
Thanks for the laughs.
All right.
So Mimi, you have six ISOs.
You've been busy.
All right.
Yep.
Okay.
We'll start with number one.
What the hell's going on?
Number two.
And that's the way it is.
Number three.
Folks, is this insane?
It's insane.
Who is this person?
It's the same one as this other one.
I don't know.
Some, yeah, some lunatic I found.
He showed up on my feed.
That was pretty good.
Can't, not really, not really legible.
All right.
Number five.
Bye.
That's Wolfman Jack.
Number six.
She was afraid of the dark.
She saw me naked.
Now she's afraid of the light.
Is that Rodney Dangerfield?
It is.
Yeah.
I think I kind of like this one.
What the hell's going on?
I kind of like that one.
That, I think that sums it up.
Okay.
We'll keep it at that one.
Hey, everybody.
It's time to listen to another tip of
the day.
Brought to you by Mimi Dvorak.
With JCB and sometimes Adam.
All right.
This, we'll probably get banned in Minnesota because
it's called Barra Ice.
Barra Ice?
T-H-E-R-A.
Oh, I see.
Or I-C-E.
It's a migraine relief cap.
It's about $30 on Amazon.
It's basically a bandana with eye shades.
It blocks out the light.
The cap has these gel inserts, and it's
got a Ziploc bag.
So you put the cap into the Ziploc
bag.
You put it in your freezer for at
least two hours.
And then you put it on.
And it is, it's not stiff.
It's actually kind of jellish.
So it's always cold.
It lasts for a while.
It gives a little bit of gentle compression.
And the cap is just, it fits all
head sizes.
It's a little bit of compression.
Wait, you put it over your head?
Over your head, it covers your eyes.
So it looks like a cap.
Is this for hangovers?
Or what do you use this for?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, no.
Well, it's for migraines, hangovers.
If you've got a fever, it actually is
excellent for a fever.
These are really good products.
Thera Ice also, it's good for about two
hours.
Unlike a big ice bag, it doesn't leak
on you.
And it's also a pretty even temperature the
whole time.
I think it's fantastic.
It is important to put it into the
sealed bag.
Can you walk outside and walk around the
neighborhood with this?
Or will they scare the children?
You'd walk into trees.
It covers your eyes.
Okay.
And what is the name of this product
again?
It's Thera Ice.
T-H-E-R-A-I-C-E.
They also have devices for your shoulder and
your ankle and knee wraps.
So as you get old and you start
having aches and pains, they're fantastic.
But the migraine relief cap is really...
I'm a migraineur.
I've had migraines all my life.
Oh, I'm sorry.
And it explains my quirky personality.
Ah, there it is, everybody.
Find them all at noagendafund.com, tipoftheday.net.
And sometimes, Adam.
Created by Dana Brunetti.
Yeah, I had to...
Sorry about that.
I had to put the created by Dana
Brunetti in there.
He was complaining.
Like, just because John isn't there, man, doesn't
mean I don't...
I need my credit because I created all
that stuff, man.
Just so you know.
I created all that.
Exactly.
And we're at the end of another No
Agenda extravaganza.
A special thanks to you, Mimi, for being
here once again and bringing not just fun
clips, but also fun tales from Mimi's past.
Wait till I write my memoirs.
Watch out.
Swinging with Mimi, everybody.
That's right.
And of course, you can go to toomanyeggs
.com if you want to know more about
Mimi and her eggs.
Lots and lots of talk about them.
Classic end of show mixes in honor of
the war in Iran from Jesse Coyne Nelson,
Tom Starkweller, and James Treese.
Up next on the No Agenda stream, if
you're still listening, that Larry show.
Ah, yes.
The deepest voice in podcasting.
Larry will be here.
Really?
Larry show.
Oh, yeah.
All right.
He's got an amazing set of pipes.
And that'll do it.
Coming to you from the heart of the
Texas Hill Country in Fredericksburg, Texas in the
morning, everybody.
I'm Adam Curry.
This is where you...
Oh, and by the way, and this is
Mimi Smith-Dvorak coming from you from the
Pacific Northwest, where it is not raining at
the moment.
We will see you on Thursday.
Till then, adios, mofos.
Ahoy, hoi, hoi, and such.
It's a memo that describes how we're going
to take out seven countries in five years.
When I first came to office, one of
the first meetings I had was at the
Pentagon with generals.
Bolden has always said, let's go to war,
but he's not the one who's going to
go in the forefront.
He's a coward.
The leaders of Iran are racketeers.
Behind every problem is Iran.
I heard what you said in 2016 and
liked it when you said, no more stupid
wars.
We've got a rogue president in the White
House surrounded by these uber-hawks that thirst
for another war with Iran.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has never found
Iran in contravention of stipulations in the deal.
If Iran wants to fight, that will be
the official end of Iran.
Never threaten the United States again.
I'm not somebody that wants to go into
war.
In the United States, heading towards another Middle
East showdown, this time with Iran.
And I think they were a few weeks
away from having one.
Well, I don't want to get involved either,
but I've been saying for 20 years, maybe
longer, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.
I've been saying it for a long time.
My supporters don't want to see Iran have
a nuclear weapon.
It was such a shame.
They were so close.
Iran was very close to signing what would
have been a very good agreement for them.
And maybe that could still happen, I guess.
They do want to come and see us.
They want to see me in the White
House.
That's a big statement.
I mean, they asked if they could come,
and we'll see if that happens.
It's not that easy for them to come.
They can't get out.
They're in Iran.
And in one case, I want to come
so badly, but he can't get out because
his bomb's dropping all over him.
But Iran can't have a nuclear weapon.
Too much devastation.
And they'd use it.
You know, I believe they'd use it.
I'm gonna get a tan from the land
of me Of nuclear fusion decay It's gonna
be raining all over the world I'm gonna
look so great There's gonna be a war
with Iran And I'm doing all I can
To get ready for World War III It's
so exciting to look and see There's gonna
be mushroom clouds everywhere And nobody will even
have to care We're gonna be waving bye
-bye to everyone You and me I'm gonna
get a tan from the rays of me
Of nuclear fusion decay It's gonna be raining
all over the world I'm gonna look so
great There's gonna be a war with Iran
And I'm doing all I can To get
ready for World War III There's
gonna be a war with Iran And I'm
doing all I can To get ready for
World War III It's so exciting to look
and see There's gonna be mushroom clouds everywhere
And nobody will even have to care We're
gonna be waving bye-bye to everyone You
and me I'm gonna get a tan from
the rays of me Of nuclear fusion decay
It's gonna be raining all over the world
I'm gonna look so great There's gonna be
a war with Iran And I'm doing all
I can To get ready for World War
III It's
so exciting to look and see There's gonna
be a war with Iran It's so exciting
to look and see