Episode 546 · Sunday, 8 September 2013

Munich Moment

A push for Syrian intervention masks a broader agenda of global trade negotiations, domestic surveillance reclassification, and a high-stakes energy race between Russia and the West.

By The No Agenda Show | 2h 30m listen | 48 chapters
Munich Moment cover
The No Agenda Show · No. 546

About this episode

Secretary of State John Kerry and the Obama administration face intense scrutiny for invoking a Munich moment to justify military intervention in Syria. The push for cruise missile diplomacy coincides with leaked NSA documents that reclassify the American public as adversaries and reveal agency supercomputers capable of cracking global banking encryption. While the White House frames chemical weapons as a unique red line, military analyst Andrew Bacevich argues the strategy ignores the long-term failure of the Carter Doctrine to stabilize the Middle East.

Global energy markets shift as the Panama Canal expansion prepares to facilitate massive U.S. liquid natural gas exports to Japan ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. In Europe, German MEP Elmar Brok denounces Russian energy sanctions while the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations move toward a critical October deadline in Vilnius. Domestically, the Pew Research Center reports that only five percent of Americans fear government surveillance, a statistic critics claim is being used to manufacture consent for restrictive internet legislation like CISPA.

Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak deconstruct President Obama's H-dropping speech patterns and the debut of the corporate-funded PBS NewsHour Weekend. The duo explores the burgeoning economy of the Zaatari refugee camp and the rise of small modular nuclear reactors as an alternative to Germany's failing energy transition. Urban Dictionary contributors officially define the Berkeley Hummer as a person who maximizes word duration to prevent interruption, a trait frequently observed in the current diplomatic corps.


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CHAPTER 01 / 48 Discussion

Connectivity Troubleshooting, Mumble Open Source Software Transition

Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak open the program from Austin, Texas, and Northern California, discussing their transition to Mumble for audio connectivity. They detail extensive troubleshooting efforts involving various microphones, VPNs, and hardware to resolve persistent latency and connection issues experienced on Skype. The hosts acknowledge feedback from listeners, including cable company experts, regarding potential infrastructure causes like coax temperature.

mumble· skype· connectivity· open source· technical support

00:00 It's all a great idea. With a whole new meaning for PGT tips here at the Travis Heights hideout in the capital of the drone star state Austin Tejas in the morning everybody I'm Adam Curry and from northern Silicon Valley where there are new sources of news I'm John C. DeVore. Yeah there we go we are we are connected somehow. You tagged it right.

00:40 What do you mean I tagged it right when I finished my little diddy that you hit the there's the stinger yeah For those of you wondering we are trying a mumble today Which is the open source product so nice of everyone to respond trying to help us out with our our connectivity woes we have spent countless hours over the past two days working on every possible Version of what we think the problem could be or a solution and for every email we've received no two alike Every we're talking about hundreds. I mean Everybody's an expert. That's for sure. You know if you turn the microphone and you give it a small turn to the left Response

01:30 It's your microphone needs to be turned and it needs to be pivoted. It's just like wow. But we've gotten all the way down to guys who work at cable companies and are talking about the temperature of the coax outside. And you know I actually buy that. I'm buying that this you know and thermostores are broken. There's all kinds of things that can be wrong. But I think we've pretty much ruled out that it is that it is really anything within our control because we've tried VPNs different machines different devices different microphones different microphones now of course Whatever is going on it affects Skype more than it affects mumble so we've been just you know We just decided to use mumble which has its own little interesting quirks

CHAPTER 02 / 48 Discussion

NSA Encryption Cracking, Certification Business Concept

The discussion shifts to reports regarding the National Security Agency's ability to bypass global encryption and access financial data via root certificates. A business concept attributed to "Buzzkill Jr." is proposed, involving a private firm that certifies encryption schemes for backdoors before eventually selling the company to the NSA. The hosts express skepticism regarding the trustworthiness of any security expert currently associated with major tech firms like Google.

nsa· encryption· root certificates· cybersecurity· buzzkill jr

02:24 Yes, it's not very good as a product. For instance, all of a sudden I'll make a joke and then sometime tomorrow John will get to the punchline. It's just the latency builds up for some reason. Exactly. Okay, so there's a lot of news that happened. Indeed. And I think the funniest piece of news was, and by the way this is interesting because JC works in the high-tech community as one of the coders over one of these startups. And he went over there and said, you know, the NSA has this

03:04 They've got all the encryption codes. There's no such thing. The banking community, everybody else is up in arms about the fact that they can get anything they want, any financial data or whatever. And I guess nobody else in the whole community knows about this. I'm not a security expert by any means, but it seems to me that even if you just look at where certificates come from, if you have access to the root certificate and it's been rumored that these things have been You know, hacked, stolen, whatever, long ago, years ago. It's not, you know, duh, it's not that hard. You don't even really, you know, need to do any hard work. Compromised. Yeah, it's just, I would believe that that's at the core, that it's all compromised. Sure. It's funny though to see people going, what now? No. Yeah, well, what now?

04:02 Yeah. Okay. Are we on? Have we built up a delay already? We built up our latency? Well, actually, Buzzkill Jr. came up with an idea that I think we should put a little team together. The buffer. Yeah, I think we should restart it right now. Well, that's easily solved. Let me just reconnect myself. Steve Holland of VoIP. I got back before you did. Yes, you did. Well, I have to walk across the room because I set up a whole new machine for this. Okay. So tell me what Buzzkill Jr.'s idea was. Well, the NSA was always the go-to people to verify and encryption schemes. They would be the certifiers. Right.

05:00 So you develop an inscription scheme now you've now we can't trust them so you start your own company with a bunch of experts to certify encryption schemes and make sure there's no back doors and stuff in them and then you then once you get going and you get big you sell right to the NSA I mean this Once again another great idea we will not implement for ourselves Right. It is a good idea. Yeah. It's a, you wrote, you actually, you wrote a column and, and a couple of things about this column. One, it's an outstanding product.

CHAPTER 03 / 48 Discussion

ProPublica Funding, Sandler Foundation, Media Credibility

John C. Dvorak criticizes the non-profit news organization ProPublica, questioning its independence due to its funding by the Sandler Foundation and the history of Golden West Financial. The hosts examine the ProPublica board of advisors, noting the presence of former executives from the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. They highlight a change in the organization's typical Creative Commons copyright policy for specific NSA-related stories as a sign of compromised credibility.

propublica· sandler foundation· herbert sandler· creative commons· mainstream media

05:36 To it's so much better than what you write for PC mag. This is for the the one the new domain Is that what is a new domain dotnet a new domain dotnet? Yeah, so on the stuff you make no money on is where your best work comes from As witnessed by this show yeah exactly and and you kind of pulled a Pulled a crackpot there you went into you actually saw something in the documents which was overlooked By, I think, all four of the publications who are complicit in this scheme, which now includes ProPublica, which for some reason ProPublica gets a pass. Have you noticed this? No, I didn't. Not you mention it though. Well, ProPublica is like, oh, well, this is a non-profit news organization. Oh, really? Okay. Could you stop messing with your mic? You're moving the mic or something? You're doing a lot. No, I just closed the window. Okay.

06:33 So ProPublica, they were now added to this mix I guess to somehow to make it to make the story more credible which to me immediately makes it less credible. Very interesting if you look at their, if you look at this story on their web page it even says this story does not adhere to our typical Bullcrap guidelines. No, no, the... Standards of ethics. No, the copyright. Their typical Creative Commons copyright. Oh! So you can't take it from their page like you normally can on the Creative Commons, which I think is share alike attribution. Right. Because, you know, it's all these... all these... all these jabronis are involved, but if you really look into this outfit,

07:26 Who have who get ten million dollars a year to run their newsroom their nonprofit newsroom this is from the Sandler Foundation and the Sandler Foundation was Herbert and Was herb and his wife was his wife Marion who founded Golden West Financial Corporation and of course that later became Wachovia small small Small little outfit there that I think had some problems in the financial crisis, huh? And so they they sold it for 2.6 billion dollars and they they promised that they would make 1.3 billion dollars available to the Sandler Foundation Let's see See for what is it fighting predatory mortgage lending? Which is funny

08:26 Like the asthma foundation and fighting corruption and then you and then you look at this ProPublica outfit Look at the board of advisors. I mean, why not just call it mainstream media? I mean, this is who they've got on as directors of their So obviously Paul Steiger, he's the executive chairman, he comes from the Wall Street Journal. And then of course we have the, I think by the way that the guy who's funding it should not be on the board, but okay, Herbert Sandler's on the board. Then we've got a guy from Warburg Pincus, Mark Colony, Henry Louis Gates Jr.,

09:05 You go down the line. There's you know top lawyers top venture capitalist guys and then on the we have Jill Abramson She's you know from the New York Times David Boardman from the Seattle Times It's just a whole bunch of douchebags who were all over the mainstream media and they hang out in this little club I guess and and I think they misused the ProPublica in this case trying to make it all look legit or something, huh? Well something's up with that story

09:43 Yeah, how about it's not true? How about it's just, uh, just put out there, um, to make us feel that, uh, that, you know, we're hopeless. Like there's nothing we can do. Wow. Really? Well, there isn't. Except start our own company to do a certification. Yeah, this is not working out, John. We're talking three-second delay now. What? Between me saying something latency problem is really yeah Weird it's like this thing starts off. Okay, right right right right I understand all right, so I don't I don't Yeah, I don't think our own company is the solution although This isn't this what the IETF is talking about now there or as I read everywhere a panel of internet experts has now planning to do XYZ including Vince er from Google

CHAPTER 04 / 48 Discussion

NSA Adversary Definition, Congressional Oversight Criticism

John C. Dvorak details his recent column regarding Edward Snowden's leaked documents, focusing on the NSA's classification of the American public as "adversaries." The hosts criticize members of the Senate and House intelligence committees, specifically mentioning Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, for their defense of surveillance programs. They argue that the term "other adversaries" in classified documents explicitly includes domestic consumers, effectively reclassifying citizens as enemies of the state.

edward snowden· nsa· marco rubio· mike rogers· sigint

10:47 Well, I think all... well, if anybody's from Google, they're compromised so that you can forget that. I think the real problem is the compromise, everyone's compromised. That article I wrote essentially said that Congress is compromised, the Senate's compromised, Marco Rubio is compromised. Just explain the article for a second, just the main crux, because it was really brilliant what you found and I'm sure that not everyone's read it. Well if you read through the documents that were revealed by Snowden, the word to describe the American public, the banking system, and large corporations and everyone in between, They were all called adversaries by the NSA. So apparently the American public is an adversary. When you look at the definition of adversary, it's a simple definition. It means enemy. And so they have redefined the American public as the enemy. And thus they might as well just tap everybody because we are the enemy according to the way the NSA thinks.

11:44 in confidential documents, apparently we're the enemy. And so I went off on a rant about that. And I didn't blame the NSA. They're just taking advantage of the situation. I blamed these congressional oversight committees of the Senate and the House. And they got a bunch of creepy douchebags in there like a Rubensberger, that guy, and Mike Rogers and some of these other guys. And you hear them apologizing and wanting the head of Snowden. Now I know why. So here's the beauty of what you found in the document according to the Guardian, which of course is supposedly handed to us by Snowden. These design changes make the system in question exploitable through SIGINT collection with foreknowledge of the modification to the consumer and other adversaries. That was the key. Not just adversaries, but and other adversaries. Right, we're using the word other.

12:38 included consumers because it's an inclusive word. If it said the consumers and adversaries, then they would have, then I wouldn't have gone off the deep end. But they said the consumers like, yeah, you and the other gays. Yes. Oh, I'm sorry. You have my attention. Did someone call? That would be. indicating that you're gay. Right, exactly. And that's what they think. So the consumers, the public, are adversaries. This isn't right. No. Now do you think it's actually true? They're cavalier about spying on the American public and collecting all our phone numbers, emails, and everything in between. They don't care. They do it with impunity, to use that word, floating around. And it's just, it seems like a no-brainer. So yeah, I think it is true. And I think they have to be called to task on this.

13:32 Right. Everything you read though, because what I like doing is I'll go to the Guardian, I'll go to the New York Times, the Post, and ProPublica, the non-profit independent news organization funded by bankers, I might point out. And I'll read the comments and and here's the sad thing all I read is is well It's kind of like this show where people you know there's 80% is like here's how you do it You get your VPN and you double encrypt backward flip that in through the tour browser in the under router You know I but people are missing the point and I think this is the point of your article

14:08 is we have to impeach everybody. Can we impeach all these efforts? No, no, you can't impeach them, you just vote them out. They're not impeachable. Can we kill them? Well, you can't do that either because that's illegal. Oh damn, okay, we can't do that. Off with their heads is what I want to say. Well, put a head on a stick, I mean yeah, that's also not kosher. You just have to vote them out. But people, the idiots that voted them in are very reluctant to vote them out because they're all well he's our guy you know it's just is on it did this incumbent thing is is the worst phenomenon we have in this country right but then but this is the opportunity to do this is November 2014 yeah okay so essentially we have a year and a lot can happen in a year because people will forget

CHAPTER 05 / 48 Discussion

Al Jazeera America, NSA Supercomputer Capabilities

The hosts review coverage from Al Jazeera America regarding the NSA's investment in supercomputers designed to break encryption for banking and medical records. They analyze the reporting style of the new network, noting its reliance on redacted documents attributed to Edward Snowden. The segment highlights claims that the agency legally forced technology companies to provide encryption keys for Gmail, Facebook, and Hotmail traffic.

al jazeera america· nsa· supercomputers· edward snowden· encryption

14:57 Yeah, in fact they will you have to remind them constantly in fact. I think most people haven't even noticed this they're too busy with With Syria right Syria's yes getting a lot of attention Yeah, so once you start us off at the clip while I go get my list of clips, okay Do you have something specifically? I have a bunch of clips That are kind of interesting let me well I get the list or do you just want me to play something on my own and just share it with the group all year not here Well, now that you mention it, I do have some clips. I'll tell you what, I will play something here from Al Jazeera America.

15:37 Which is a new- I got a lot of clips from LGA. The show is getting better. The production values are still off a little bit, but it's better and they got the cutest or maybe the prettiest and kind of, she's slightly voluptuous blonde weather girl. Oh, I haven't seen her. No, I have not seen her. Rebecca? No, I haven't seen her. I haven't seen her, no. Clear a clear choice by the curry Dvorak. Oh really? Well, let me let me play this little I split up into two parts. I thought there was something interesting about this About the NSA cracking all encryption messaging that they were of course Al Jazeera America and as is most news organizations is one way the other psychological warfare on the viewers and Propaganda at best the US cyber spy agency has cracked many of the codes that are meant to keep sensitive internet communications private

16:32 according to new documents released by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden which is patently not true because they were not released by him they were, parts of it were published by newspapers We don't even know if they actually got it from him and they were shown to officials and they were redacted so we're you know this is this is a really this is WikiLeaks all over again. The NSA has invested billions of dollars in custom designed super fast computers to break encrypted communications, including banking transactions, consumer e-commerce, corporate trade secrets, medical records, and other ostensibly confidential information. Now this is, I heard this, I'm like, hold on a second, where are they taking this report?

17:21 The documents also show the agency secretly persuaded or legally forced technology companies to provide it with the keys to their encryption programs. So here they're saying that they may have basically been in cahoots with companies. Now we kind of know that or have already suspected that. But now we have another one of these non-profits funded by dubious sources in my book, who all of a sudden comes into this story. The British agency reported it had developed what it called access opportunities to Google's encrypted traffic. There are over 400 million users of Gmail.

17:59 Other companies targeted by codebreakers include Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft's Hotmail. The documents collected by Snowden have been shared with the New York Times, The Guardian and the non-profit news organization ProPublica. The revelations coincide with a new poll released by the Pew Research Organization. Oh, wait a minute, they coincided? I think not! Hmm. Showing half of Americans are worried about the information available about them online. Ah, wait a minute. We're gonna spin this a little differently, John. You feel what's coming? I'm just listening. It sounds good so far. Here is the Pew Research Center report that coincidentally came out with this revelation. Anonymity, privacy and security online.

CHAPTER 06 / 48 Discussion

Pew Research Center, Online Privacy Statistics, Cyber Scam

A Pew Research Center report on anonymity and security is analyzed as a potential coordinated propaganda effort to justify new restrictive internet laws. The data shows that while users fear hackers and advertisers, only 5% express concern about government surveillance. The hosts argue these statistics are being used to manufacture consent for legislation like CISPA by framing government intervention as a necessary protection against cybercrime.

pew research center· online privacy· hackers· identity theft· cispa

17:21 The documents also show the agency secretly persuaded or legally forced technology companies to provide it with the keys to their encryption programs. So here they're saying that they may have basically been in cahoots with companies. Now we kind of know that or have already suspected that. But now we have another one of these non-profits funded by dubious sources in my book, who all of a sudden comes into this story. The British agency reported it had developed what it called access opportunities to Google's encrypted traffic. There are over 400 million users of Gmail.

17:59 Other companies targeted by codebreakers include Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft's Hotmail. The documents collected by Snowden have been shared with the New York Times, The Guardian and the non-profit news organization ProPublica. The revelations coincide with a new poll released by the Pew Research Organization. Oh, wait a minute, they coincided? I think not! Hmm. Showing half of Americans are worried about the information available about them online. Ah, wait a minute. We're gonna spin this a little differently, John. You feel what's coming? I'm just listening. It sounds good so far. Here is the Pew Research Center report that coincidentally came out with this revelation. Anonymity, privacy and security online.

18:53 Despite their precautions, 21% of online adults have had an email or social media account hijacked. And 11% have had vital information like social security numbers, bank account data, or credit cards stolen. And growing numbers worry about the amount of personal information about them that is available online. This report is not saying, hey, we want to be anonymous. No, no, no, no. This report, in fact, I will read to you what they are reporting. is about keeping your information safe from hackers. This is part of the big cyber scam that the government has been trying to pull on us and here's the right here at the top of this report

19:39 I had email social media accounts, stolen information, social security numbers, credit card information. 21% of Internet users have had an email or social networking account compromised or taken over by someone else without permission. 13% of Internet users have experienced trouble in a relationship between them and a family member or a friend because of something the user posted online. 12% of internet users have been stalked or harassed online. 11% have had important information stolen. 6% have been victim of an online scam or lost money. 6% had their reputation damaged. 4% have been led into physical danger. 1% have lost a job opportunity or educational opportunity because of something someone had posted online. Now if you go down into the report, users are trying to avoid the following and it's beautiful right there at the top. Hackers or criminals

20:28 33% the magic number. Advertisers, that's the number two that we're trying to avoid online. 28%. How that fits into the security report is interesting. Yeah, what do you think of, what do you make of that? That's kind of interesting. Well, 19%, number three. You're not giving us enough money. Certain friends. 19% number for a shared place, three and four. People from your past, it goes down to 70% for people who might criticize you. 14% for family members or romantic partner. 11% for an employer and way down at the bottom, John. The bottom two, users are trying to avoid with a whopping 5% the government and a whopping 4% law enforcement.

21:14 So for all of you those who... Oh, this is... Okay. I would give you a clip of the day, but there's no clip here. No. But this is a... Yeah. Yeah. I think you're onto something here. Here it is. Page 15. Users... Oh, we don't care about the police snooping. No. Users do not think current laws provide enough protections. Asked whether they think current privacy laws provide reasonable protections for people's privacy on their online activities. which of course is all about hackers and losing your identity and advertisers but not about the government is 66 percent. 24 percent said they provide reasonable protection. So what this is about is bringing in new laws to protect you, you see. We need to protect your privacy. Right, there's the various consumer protection, internet and these sorts of things that have been promoted by the NSA. In fact if you look at the House committee

CHAPTER 07 / 48 Discussion

Police Militarization, Public Education Decline

The discussion moves to the domestic militarization of local police departments and the proliferation of unnecessary SWAT teams across the United States. The hosts attribute public apathy toward these developments to a decline in the quality of the American education system over the last several decades. They suggest the government uses the threat of foreign hackers to distract from its own role as the primary global perpetrator of hacking.

swat· police militarization· hacking· public education· surveillance

22:09 on intelligence oversight, the one that was Mike Rogers. Right on that front page of that committee is a bunch of promotions for CISPA. Oh, of course, it's time to bring that back, isn't it? Yeah, so they want, you know, it's all part of a grand scheme to subjugate the public to government scrutiny on a 24-hour basis. And I think it'll probably go something like this. Well, look, you know, it was so easy ultimately for us, just little old us, little old NSA you've barely heard of. Yeah, we were in a movie once, you know, like Enemy of the State, but that was years ago.

22:45 It was pretty easy for us to crack everything. Don't you want us to protect you? So this can't be done by other rogue governments or hackers from China. Don't you want us to protect you? Hey, you know what's gonna happen? Everyone's gonna go, yo. Exactly. That's good. They are. Yeah, let's do that. Yeah, well that's because we've dumbed down the public with bad education and everything for the last, what, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years maybe. With just crap, you know, let's not be competitive, let's hug each other, self-esteem, oh, you're going to hurt her feelings, all this stuff, and no education whatsoever, just a lot of

23:28 feel good stuff and now this is the result you've got you got a public and I think those numbers are probably right they could probably I'm sure they're confirmable five percent and even less think that the police or any sort of a problem despite that they've militarized the police completely. Most municipalities of any size have a non-necessary SWAT team. They have military gear, they look like the military and nobody cares about that because they're worried about some hackers from China and this is nonsense when all the evidence, all the hacking that takes place worldwide

24:06 tends to be from us. We're the hackers, we're naturally hackers and the government's a hacker. And what's interesting of course is the coincidental release of this report. Now let me tell you, it's not like, you know, the Pew Research Center went, oh wow, gee, we just finalized this report and we just happened to release it at this very moment. This is not how things get released into the wild. This is not how it works. This is a coordinated effort Which to me immediately diminishes any credibility Pew had. Oh, by the way, on Friday, Friday night, Ms. Mickey was out and I was at home and I watched by recommendation from one of our producers, the President's Analyst.

CHAPTER 08 / 48 Discussion

The President's Analyst, 1967 Film Premise

Adam Curry recounts watching the 1967 satirical film "The President's Analyst" starring James Coburn. He describes the plot involving a presidential psychiatrist caught between warring intelligence agencies (CEA and FBR) and foreign spies. The film's conclusion, which reveals the phone company as the true overarching power running the country via automated systems, is noted for its contemporary relevance.

james coburn· the president's analyst· cia· fbi· satire

24:53 Oh yeah, right. This is the... it was a James Coburn movie? James Coburn, yeah. Okay, first of all, everybody, do not watch this movie because it will hurt you unless you are really into 1970s Americana bad acting, bad quality, bad everything. But the premise of the movie, which I will spoil it for you right here, James Coburn is a psychiatrist. He becomes the president's psychiatrist because the president needs to unload from time to time. And this is 1969 or 70 when this movie was produced. They have the CIA and the FBI, except they call them the CEA and the FBR in the movie.

25:38 They are at war with each other and the FBI doesn't really want the psychiatrists at all and the CEA, they're the ones that really want the psychiatrists and then the FBI wants to kill them and then the CEA wants to kill them and then of course there's all these spies, the Chinese, the Russians, the Indians, everyone's trying to get this guy to get the information out of his head. And it turns out that there really is one overarching agency that has all the information and has a bunch of bots running the whole outfit. And they have all the guns and they ultimately run the country. And that is the phone company. Yeah, I remember that now. It's hilarious. It is kind of funny when you see the movie, but you don't have to see the movie to understand the premise. And that it was kind of way ahead of its time.

26:33 Makes so much sense. Yeah. Everyone's trying to run the country, let's face it. Phone companies got as good a shot at it as any they could. They may be calling the shots of the NSA for all we know. Not the other way around. Absolutely. Maybe that's why they got the moats and stuff over at the headquarters, because they're a phone company. Anyway, okay, so we got any more on this NSA thing. Um, no, I I think that's kind of it well It does come back in my in my continuing analysis of Syria and the T-TIP, but I wanted to save that for a second and first I want to congratulate you John today is of course National Day of Prayer and remembrance Okay by presidential proclamation and yesterday. I'm sorry. We missed it yesterday by presidential proclamation was National Grandparents Day

CHAPTER 09 / 48 Discussion

Australian Election, Prime Minister Tony Abbott

The hosts acknowledge the recent election of Tony Abbott as the new Prime Minister of Australia representing the Liberal-National Coalition. They discuss the political rise of Clive Palmer, comparing his public persona to Nigel Farage. The segment includes a greeting to Australian "producers" and listeners, expressing hope for future comedic material from the new administration.

australia· tony abbott· clive palmer· nigel farage· elections

27:25 Oh, that's nice. And it shall be... I didn't get a card. Actually, I'm sorry, it's today, September 8th. Today is... You didn't get a card. And our donations are down. So I mean, what sense does this make? What good does it do? Not much. And also, I wanted to say hi to our producers in Australia who have a new prime minister. Yeah, that guy. Well, it should be interesting. This is Tony Abbott. He is the of the conservatives, the Conservatives Party. And I believe that Clive Palmer, the big mouth, that he I think he got a seat.

28:06 Oh, that's good. We should be able to get material from Australia on an occasional basis because of him. I think it'll kind of be like the Farage Down Under is what we're going to pronounce. Yeah, the Farage Down Under. So I'm excited about that. Good. And in the morning to you, John C. Dvorak. And in the morning to you and in the morning to all the Aussies out there. and we hope that you will be sending us the Clive Palmer stuff also in the morning to the boots on the ground, feet in the air, and the subs in the water, the dames and knights out there. Yes, I also want to thank the artists. Let's see who did our art for the previous episode. Thorin helped us out for episode 545 and we'll be choosing art from the No Agenda Art Generator, noagendaartgenerator.com for 546 a little bit later on today. And we're going to request all of our artists do us a Christmas card art.

CHAPTER 10 / 48 Discussion

No Agenda Art Generator, Christmas Card Project

Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak discuss a call for artists to submit designs for a special No Agenda Christmas card. They clarify that the standard Art Generator tool cannot be used for this specific project due to aspect ratio constraints. Listeners are instructed to email their submissions directly to Dvorak with a specific subject line for consideration in "Project X."

no agenda art· christmas cards· graphic design· project x· listener participation

29:03 which we're going to choose one from and use it for a special purpose. Okay. So request the artist. So but that's not, it won't be used for today. We have a special page for that or this sounds like this. I know here's what I'm thinking. You're just shooting off. I don't think we've produced this properly yet. No, no, I agree. I am just shooting off because I keep forgetting to talk to you about this project, which is project X. You should have brought it up in the meeting. We're too busy trying to make mumble work. So, I just gotta get this done in advance so if we can kill the project I don't care. It has to be emailed in because it cannot be of the square format that we use on the art generator. The art generator just won't take it.

29:47 So it would be nice if the Art Generator has more versatility, so we just put anything in there, but it's what it is and that's what it's for. So just throw it out there. Otherwise... I don't understand. Are people uploading this to the Art Generator or not? No, they can't because the Art Generator... Alright, let's do this. Hey, we didn't say anything about the Christmas album art or Christmas card art. We have no way to handle this yet. Just send it to me, Johnatdvorak.org. I love email. Good. And put in the subject line, CHRISTMAS ART in all caps. Yes, and if you send it to me, I will not open it. I will delete it. He will. In fact, he doesn't barely read his email now. Yeah. Okay, well let's thank a few producers. We'll talk about this other project later. Could you do me a favor? Yeah. Okay, let's shortlist today.

CHAPTER 11 / 48 Discussion

Producer Donations, Climate Gate Karma

The hosts read donation notes from Executive Producers, including Dame Kathy and Sir Greg Simonich, who contributed via check to avoid third-party fees. Other notable donations include a "bag of deuces" ($222.22) from Duke Sir Dwayne Melancon and a first-time contribution from Daniel Carter. The segment reinforces the show's "value-for-value" funding model and includes a "Climate Gate Karma" sound trigger.

donations· west chicago· oregon· littleton· value-for-value

30:44 Yeah, this is funny. Dame Kathy and Sir Greg Simonich gave us $5.46 at West Chicago and they have a note which I left on the other desk. Hold on. Okay, we will hold one second. Well, John gets... I didn't... He has room for two desks. That's interesting by itself. Anyway, Dame Kathy writes, as promised we are donating by check, screw, PayPal and Visa. Shows have been great lately. Sir Greg and I are co-sponsoring show 546 with this donation as we did with 513. We'll wait to get double knighted knighthoods together and become baronet and baronetess.

31:33 Is that right? Yeah. Thanks for all you do. Good climate gate karma is always welcome. Okay, I got some climate gate karma for you. Let me see. Here we go. To the gate, to the gate, to the climate gate. You've got karma. All right, thank you so much and together you will be the sole members of the 546 Club for episode 546 of the No Agenda Show. And coming in as an associate executive producer from Tiegard, Oregon, Duke Sir Dwayne Melancon, Duke of the Mystery and the Pacific Northwest of some region, Oregon.

32:18 sends a note in the morning gentlemen be mailing a special donation next week but due to the light donations lately I felt compelled to send this it's a bag of deuces it's a bag of deuces 222.22 that's interesting that's a good one I like that a bag of deuces to urge all the deuce bags who aren't donating to pony up And finally Daniel Carta who I don't have a note from for 211 33 from Littleton, Oregon. He might be in the email They take one quick looks as we apparently have more than enough time to do this Yeah, I have a problem. I keep putting the keyboard on the floor Really? Well, I lean it up against them. Are you on the Shays lounge again? I

33:06 You are aren't you? No, I'm sitting in my regular chair first donation Daniel Carter writes in first donation I just sent him my first donation I've not been listening long, but your show certainly seems like the best podcast in the universe I'll try and get my knighthood by my birthday next July keep up the great work. Oh, thank you very much And and any well, I guess the 211 33 is just magic numbers right there. So that makes sense. Yeah, I And that will be our associate producers and executive producers for show 546. We do have 547 coming up. We hope to get some... Yeah, we hope to do a little bit better on the producership side. I think particularly when you see what we've been doing, what kind of analysis we have for you today, in the PR world,

CHAPTER 12 / 48 Discussion

Urban Dictionary, Berkeley Hummer Definition

Two new entries in the Urban Dictionary attributed to the show are discussed: "Berkeley Hummer" and "Ummer." The "Berkeley Hummer" is defined as a person who maximizes word duration while minimizing spaces to prevent interruption, often attributed to elitist speakers. The "Ummer" definition references Dvorak's theory regarding the frequency of vocal fillers in speech.

urban dictionary· berkeley hummer· linguistics· dvorak hummer theory· slang

33:54 I do want to mention that echo link node 3 3 7 3 is still open and available for for all no agenda hams I check in there it kind of died off when when remember when we got exiled to to Amsterdam for six weeks and the whole thing just kind of collapsed but I'm still on it and other people still on it's not just American hams it's hams everywhere the no agenda hams echo link node 3 3 7 3 now here's the Two new entries in the Urban Dictionary attributed to the No Agenda show. It always takes a little while, but one of our hushmail producers, which means he's extremely anonymous, has entered the Berkeley Hummer into the Urban Dictionary. Yes, I saw this. This is great. Berkeley Hummer, a person often of elitist persuasion, often women, God, who maximizes the duration of words while minimizing the duration of spaces between words because a.

34:51 the person wishes to prevent interruption during speech and or b the person requires more time to create connecting sentences due to the influence of mind-altering chemicals such as marijuana okay and then we have like it it's pretty yes i think it's a good definition it's pretty accurate and then we also have another entry ummer which is a person uh who speaks at least 14 ums per minute where us are equal to half an um according to dvorak's hummer theory It's not a theory, it's a fact. And this is now in the Urban Dictionary. We are very happy with that. Thank you very much to our Hushmill producer and thank you, associate executive producers and executive producers. We've got Daniel Carter, Sir Dwayne Melanson, and of course Dame Cathy and Sir Greg, soon to be baronets. Thank you very much. We highly appreciate it. Everybody else, be careful. That bag of deuces could be flying your way if you don't help us out. Devorac.org slash N-A-V-O-R-A-C.

CHAPTER 13 / 48 Discussion

Janet Napolitano, Supreme Court Prediction

The hosts debate a prediction regarding former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano following Vice President Joe Biden's comments suggesting she should be on the Supreme Court. While Curry claims this as a successful "No Agenda" prediction, Dvorak maintains his stance that she is moving to UC Berkeley primarily to recruit spies. The disagreement is noted for the "Red Book" of show predictions.

janet napolitano· joe biden· supreme court· berkeley· red book

35:50 And of course we always appreciate when anyone goes out there and propagates the formula. Our formula is this. We go out, we hit people in the mouth. Order. Order. And I also do need to say in the morning to the chat room and the human resources there and oh John did you see that we had a little red book action going on yesterday? No. What? Yeah I'm sure you must have seen this. Everyone was tweeting it.

36:29 Vice President Joe Biden made it clear Friday how he feels about departing Homeland Security Secretary Jeanette Lucy Napolitano. I think Jeanette Napolitano should be on the Supreme Court of the United States. Yes, another no agenda prediction come true. Well, I hate to point this out, but it is my no agenda prediction. Well, okay, you can take credit for the whole thing. Even though it's the discussions between the two of us that generate the... Yeah, I think that if you actually went back on this one, you kept saying, no, she's going to recruit spies at Berkeley. And I kept saying... She is going to do that. Yeah, okay.

37:09 I won't take it all to myself. So in other words, you're claiming this is a single one-sided prediction because I was in the... because I said no. You were in the... well, yeah. Well, okay, here's the deal. Here's the deal. Okay. Just because Joe Biden says he wants her in there doesn't mean she's gonna get in there, so I'll stick with that. She's not gonna be the Supreme Court justice. Okay, you're doubling down on the bridge or going down She's gonna be recruiting spies from Berkeley. Mm-hmm. That's what you do doubling down on the Red Book nice On my side of the argument right so I I've been do you want to talk about Syria? And yeah, I've got too many clips on Syria. We should get him out of the way All right. Can I just one thing right off the bat because this watermelon head I

CHAPTER 14 / 48 Discussion

John Kerry, 2016 Presidential Ambitions

Adam Curry analyzes Secretary of State John Kerry's recent diplomatic performance in France, noting his proficiency in the French language. Curry posits that Kerry is positioning himself for a 2016 presidential run to challenge Hillary Clinton. Dvorak expresses doubt, suggesting that while Kerry may attempt a run, he is unlikely to secure the nomination.

john kerry· hillary clinton· 2016 election· france· diplomacy

38:00 This guy is amazing. He is going all out. Did you see what he did? What Kerry did in France? Yeah. Fabulous. First of all, Kerry's French is good. Yeah, it's a little flat, but it's better than mine. Yeah, and I'm impressed. And I think that this is all part of the John Kerry can beat Lucifer Clinton campaign.

38:44 I think he's gonna go for it. I think he's gonna try and stand up and he's gonna... Yes! Look at... He's really trying... I'm putting that in the Red Book as a prediction by you. Yeah, please do. Well, I'm gonna agree with you that he might try to run, but he definitely won't get nominated. Well, I mean, he's tried to go before and... He got nominated before he lost. Let's just say that he's a part of the team That makes everything happen and we get our trade agreement and all of a sudden the economy of America and it could, you know, three years is tight, three and a half years tight, but it could, you could actually have some real recovery if we don't go through the, you know, if we don't have the October crash.

CHAPTER 15 / 48 Discussion

Andrew Bacevich, Syria Intervention Criticism, Munich Analogy

The hosts discuss an interview with military analyst Andrew Bacevich on the Moyers show, guest-hosted by Phil Donahue. Bacevich criticizes the Obama administration's push for war in Syria, contrasting John Kerry's current "war promoter" role with his past as a Vietnam veteran anti-war activist. The segment also critiques Kerry's use of the "Munich moment" analogy, which equates the Syrian situation to 1938 Nazi appeasement.

andrew bacevich· bill moyers· phil donahue· syria· munich pact

39:32 and he could get credited for it. He's not gonna get credited for anything. So there's this writer named Bates Batesovich or something, he wrote a book called, a number of books, he's out of MI, he's out of, I'm sorry, West Point, he's in the military, lots of experience as an analyst, I don't know, you know, exactly where he sits in the scheme of things, I'm thinking CIA, because he's attacking the administration in a certain kind of normal way. His book is Breach of Trust, He was on, this is a very interesting interview and I have a few clips of him and it kind of leads into my serious stuff. He was on the Moyers show, but Moyers wouldn't interview him and Moyers was on supposedly on vacation and Phil Donahue filled in and to me it was because this guy is so anti-Obama and Obama policies and just I

40:24 I don't think Moyers, Bill Moyers, who's an Obama bot to the max, I don't think he could do it. I don't think he'd want to deal with it. I think he didn't want to deal with the reality of it. But I have three or four clips actually from this guy. All very interesting. He's a very entertaining talker. But let's start, since you mentioned Kerry, with his commentary on Kerry. I have to say I'm just struck by the fact that Secretary of State Kerry has become the leading proponent for war. That's our Secretary of State's job. He threw his medals back then. Well, that's why it's doubly ironic that the Secretary of State is the war promoter and that our Secretary of State happens to be a guy who came into politics basically advertising himself as the guy who, because of his Vietnam experiences,

41:12 understands war, understands the lessons of Vietnam and is therefore going to prevent us from doing dumb things. On the contrary, he's the lead cheerleader to go do another dumb thing. Before you move on with Bavish, I just have to play this one. Did you hear what he said yesterday, Kerry? No. He just made a comparison which I just have to play for you. That's defended for nearly 100 years. So this is our munich moment this is disgusting So when he says this is our Munich moment and this by the way is exactly the same thing Except they played it a little differently in Libya. I didn't have enough time to it's very hard now on the search engines to find Anything with the name Obama or anybody in it, you know before yesterday? There's too much flat. It's way too much the when he says the Munich moment. He is referring to the 1938 Munich Pact

42:14 And this is the famous pact where Nazi Germany, under the auspices of Neville Chamberlain, under the so-called appeasement, took over the border areas of Czechoslovakia and of course this was the start if you the historians will say this was really the start of the Nazi occupation of Europe and that this is our Munich moment in other words we cannot be Neville Chamberlain's and this is a direct slam of course to to Cameron oh yeah for not being able to join in the warmongering

42:50 uh... and he is a hereby also equating asad to hitler and just all of the it's a the thing that bothers me though is it exactly if you recall and of course is several years ago when when all this bull crap was going on about libya the same thing well and then it was even arguments on the same way you sound like neville chamberlain and the appeasement policy do you remember that john i'd vaguely remember that but it doesn't It didn't stick with me. I went looking through the clips, because I only heard this this morning. I'll be able to find it. And it was Obama, I think, who was talking about appeasement. But for Kerry to be talking like this, that's some pretty big balls that he's waggling around now.

CHAPTER 16 / 48 Discussion

Middle East Stability, Carter Doctrine Failure

The discussion continues with Bacevich's critique of the Carter Doctrine and the long-term failure of U.S. military power to stabilize the Middle East since 1980. The hosts agree with the thesis that the U.S. strategy in North Africa and the Middle East may intentionally favor perpetual chaos rather than democratic transformation. They question the logic of initiating another war in Syria given the outcomes in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.

carter doctrine· middle east· military power· regime change· geopolitics

43:33 Yeah, for a piece, for a piece, Nick. Yeah. So we start with the debates of it. You discuss is bombing. It's the beach of itch on bombing Syria. This is how he began his little discussion with Phil Donahue. Well, I mean, if I could have five minutes of the president's time, I'd say, Mr. President, the issue really is not Syria. I mean, you're being told that it's Syria. You're being told you have to do something about Syria, that you have to make a decision about Syria, that somehow your credibility is on the line. I'd say, Mr. President, that's not true. The issue really here is whether or not an effort over the course of several decades, dating back to the promulgation of the Carter Doctrine in 1980, an effort that extends over several decades to employ American power

44:22 Military power, overt, covert, military power exercised through proxies, an effort to use military power to somehow stabilize or fix or liberate or transform the greater Middle East hasn't worked. I mean, if you think back to 1980 and just sort of tick off the number of military enterprises that we have been engaged in that part of the world, large and small, you know, Beirut, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and on and on. Are we awesome or what? And ask yourself, what have we got done?

45:01 What have we achieved? Is the region becoming more stable? Is it becoming more democratic? Are we enhancing America's standing in the eyes of the people of the Islamic world? The answers are no, no and no. So why, Mr. President? Do you think that initiating yet another war, because if we bomb Syria it's a war, why do you think that initiating yet another war in this protracted enterprise is going to produce a different outcome? Wouldn't it be perhaps wise to ask ourselves if this militarized approach to the region may be as a fool's errand?

45:40 Well, he's not really getting into it. I'm not that impressed with what he said there. I like this first quote, but this is like, meh. Well, I'll tell you this. It plays into my thesis, which is that all we want to do is mess up the place. Now hold on, you're on board with my thesis. No, I think your thesis is correct too, but I think the basic thing, and your thesis came after we've been messing up the place a long time longer than this little thing that you've come up with. Yes, I'll agree that I think it is to the strategy's advantage if everything in Northern Africa and the Middle East is just a mess. It's even better if it's just a mess.

CHAPTER 17 / 48 Discussion

Syrian Opposition, Strike Delay Theories

A report featuring a Syrian rebel fighter suggests that the U.S. delay in bombing Syria was a calculated move to allow the Assad regime to prepare its defenses. The hosts discuss the possibility that the entire conflict is a form of "massive theater" where both sides are manipulated by international interests. This theory posits that the delay serves to balance the conflict rather than end it.

syria· damascus· rebels· military strikes· propaganda

46:23 Yeah, I think we began that before. I'm still on board with your thesis, which you might want to reiterate, but essentially is that it's about, you know, the... Well, I got a whole bunch. We'll talk about that. Okay, before we go on with any more of this guy, He did mention that the attitudes that are getting more and more common in the Middle East. Let me play a couple of off-the-wall clips. The one I'm going to explain is the real rationale for the delay in bombing. This is a fighter from the opposition, and apparently, and you know as well as I do, the Middle Easterners love

47:01 to argue about things and they'd love to come up with these damned interesting theories. And apparently now the opposition believes that we threatened to bomb Syria but didn't do it. So Syria could get their ducks in a row and it's all part of a great scheme of the evil United States. The international community knows the regime is weak and military action will give the rebels the chance to enter Damascus and take over strategic locations. That is why they delayed the strikes so Assad can prepare the army to absorb the hits. I see. Yeah, well, you know what? I'll even buy that one. So we delayed it so they could get ready so it could be more of a match.

47:43 We could volley back and forth with a little better. Yeah, oh no, I'm so it wouldn't even surprise me John this whole thing is one big massive theater It's great. So they started the new PBS Weekend right the news hour on the weekend. Okay. Here's the first irony the news hour is Is a half hour. I was just about to say, yeah. Yeah, of course. Just for an intro, let's play the opening of that and get it out of the way. And so we can hear how it starts. And there was two things that caught my eye in the opening besides all the new sounding foundations and individuals who are supporting this thing. They listed and named a bunch of them. Then they showed a bunch of them and didn't name them. They got the same music.

CHAPTER 18 / 48 Discussion

PBS NewsHour Weekend, Corporate Funding Analysis

The hosts critique the debut of the PBS NewsHour Weekend, noting its short duration and heavy reliance on corporate and foundation funding. They list various sponsors, including Mutual of America and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, while observing a "fee schedule" for name mentions during the credits. The segment highlights the shift toward feature-based content rather than hard news.

pbs newshour· corporate sponsorship· mutual of america· media criticism· wnet

47:01 to argue about things and they'd love to come up with these damned interesting theories. And apparently now the opposition believes that we threatened to bomb Syria but didn't do it. So Syria could get their ducks in a row and it's all part of a great scheme of the evil United States. The international community knows the regime is weak and military action will give the rebels the chance to enter Damascus and take over strategic locations. That is why they delayed the strikes so Assad can prepare the army to absorb the hits. I see. Yeah, well, you know what? I'll even buy that one. So we delayed it so they could get ready so it could be more of a match.

47:43 We could volley back and forth with a little better. Yeah, oh no, I'm so it wouldn't even surprise me John this whole thing is one big massive theater It's great. So they started the new PBS Weekend right the news hour on the weekend. Okay. Here's the first irony the news hour is Is a half hour. I was just about to say, yeah. Yeah, of course. Just for an intro, let's play the opening of that and get it out of the way. And so we can hear how it starts. And there was two things that caught my eye in the opening besides all the new sounding foundations and individuals who are supporting this thing. They listed and named a bunch of them. Then they showed a bunch of them and didn't name them. They got the same music.

48:33 Hello everybody! Welcome! On this edition, aid officials prepare for a new flood of refugees from Syria. In our signature segment, Israel's huge energy discovery. How it will change life there and throughout the region. That's the equivalent of taking all the cars in Israel off the road for over a year. So it's a big thing. And why were Seattle police handing out bags of Doritos? Next on PBS NewsHour Weekend. PBS NewsHour Weekend is made possible by Louis B. and Louise Hirschfeld-Cullman. Judy and Josh Weston, the Wallach family, in memory of Miriam and Ira D. Wallach. The Cheryl and Philip Milstein family, Bernard and Irene Schwartz. Rosalind P. Walter. Corporate funding is provided by Mutual of America, designing customized individual and group retirement products. That's why we're your retirement company. Additional support is provided by

49:33 And by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. From people like you. Thank you. Thank you. From the Tisch WNET studios. So who was on the screen but not mentioned? Just a bunch of people I never heard of, but it is obvious they have a fee schedule. So you get your name mentioned if you give this much. If you don't give that much, you get this other list of names that we don't, and we refuse to mention your name. They could have said something, but they didn't. Did they have black and white logos and color logos as a difference? No, no, no. So they could do that though. So anyway, on the show, the show has got the same as, I don't see it that much difference, except it's all features. Right. There's no real news. But

CHAPTER 19 / 48 Discussion

Egyptian Anti-Americanism, Suez Canal Geopolitics

Margaret Warner's reporting from Egypt for PBS is analyzed, focusing on the intense anti-American sentiment from both the military and Muslim Brotherhood supporters. The hosts discuss how the U.S. is blamed by both sides for either "coddling" Morsi or failing to label his ouster a coup. They conclude that the primary U.S. interest remains keeping the Suez Canal open while maintaining regional instability.

egypt· mohamed morsi· muslim brotherhood· suez canal· margaret warner

50:17 going back to the the guy is the rebel saying the united states a bunch of corrupt basses are not bombing and then everyone's being bent out of shape about one thing or another in the united nations there was This is the most interesting little tidbit I got is Margaret Warner in Egypt. She's been in Egypt for a while, they've shipped her off. And she reports on the anti-American sentiment to such an extent, apparently it is this Obama as the great leader that's going to bring us all together. Just listen to this report. Hari, I have talked to dozens of Egyptians in this past week. I have not met one, not one, who supports the idea of a strike against Syria despite their compassion for the people who were gassed in the chemical weapons attack. They all talk about Iraq, the fact that U.S. intelligence was faulty, and the fact that Iraq now has descended back

51:13 to sectarian strife and in fact is exporting jihadi terrorists to Syria and some they fear to Egypt. The other thing Hari is that this is exacerbated here by the strongest strain of anti-americanism I have ever felt. The pro-military ouster of Morsi camp feels strongly that that we, that is the Obama administration, coddled President Morsi as he became more and more autocratic. Morsi supporters, Muslim Brotherhood supporters, went to a rally yesterday, angrily say to me, why won't your president call what happened a coup?

51:50 And so it's coming from both sides and that has definitely made itself felt on us. We've been thrown out of restaurants, we've had people refuse to be interviewed because we're Americans, we've had our local producer called a traitor to Egypt for working with us. So there is not much of a feeling of connection right now between average Egyptians and really anything the Americans do. uh... okay anti-american thrown out of restaurants condemned and i think that but what i like again it's like to get that big guy in syria Both sides blame us. So we can't get on either one of the sides because the Morsey, the anti-Morsey military guys say that we caught them. It's our fault. And then the Morsey guys say you won't call the military coup a coup, which is we won't. And so they blame us. It's just that this is the worst kind of, we have our foreign policy, it's got to be a massive disaster.

52:49 Either that or it's all part of a scheme that just doesn't make any difference. It doesn't matter one way or the other. Yeah, we really don't care if Margaret Warner gets thrown out of the West. No, I don't think we care. I don't think anything matters as long as Egypt is just a mess. I think that's the win, John. That is the win. We need to keep the canal open, the Suez Canal. We'll keep sending them money so we've got it all in place there. And otherwise, just keep it a mess. It is the best strategy. We know what we need to do. Say we the royal we the royal we I think Let me get into this. Yeah, do you want to do part two of my right now? No, we don't need this part two of Mara, which is good though But we do have to there's a couple clips in here I still want to get back to but go on I think you'll have stuff that'll fit in okay now Because I mean I've done a lot of work on this t-tip the the so-called transatlantic foreign trade agreement We also have one by the way that we're working on with Asia and

CHAPTER 20 / 48 Discussion

Panama Canal Expansion, LNG Exports, 2020 Tokyo Olympics

The hosts connect the widening of the Panama Canal to the U.S. strategy for exporting liquid natural gas (LNG) to Asian markets, specifically Japan. They suggest that Tokyo being awarded the 2020 Olympics will create a massive energy demand that the U.S. intends to fill. The segment also touches on the economic burden of hosting the Olympics, citing the financial collapse of Greece following the 2004 games.

panama canal· liquid natural gas· tokyo· 2020 olympics· keystone pipeline

53:55 And and it's very interesting I've gotten a lot of people say hey It's very very funny to see that the you know we're reading stuff about the Panama Canal the Panama Canal has to be widened You know why it has to be widened John yeah for the dinner for the Chinese ships. I believe or something I know it's for the liquid natural gas ship. Oh right right right right? It's for our our liquid natural gas. I didn't make that But I can see with your thesis that that would make sense. Well of course now, you know, now that I have a hammer everything looks like a nail, but I'm actually... Of course that's the other reason for probably the eventual use of the Keystone pipeline, which goes... To send it back, to send it other places. Yeah, and it comes out of Texas so you don't have to go through the canal at all. You just go outside of Galveston and you're on your way to Europe.

54:42 So yeah, these tankers are huge or massive. Yeah, so and and they literally do not fit through the Panama Canal And this is people are emailing me stuff in Brazilian Portuguese saying oh wow look look what I read you know now that I heard the thesis about this it makes so much sense they're trying to widen the Panama Canal for LNG tanker so we can get the stuff over to Japan and all of this fits together because who just got the 2020 Olympics Tokyo Guess what you need when you have Olympics You need a lot of power. You're gonna be building stuff. You need a lot of energy to do this. And the choices were Turkey, Istanbul, and what was it, Mexico? No.

55:25 I think we promoted Chicago on this. No, no, no, that was the previous one. No, no, no. No, but anyway, Tokyo was just awarded the 2020 Olympics. And of course, that's exactly who you want them to have it. So by then, we'll definitely be shipping them our natural gas. Well, I'll tell you this, the Japanese are going to be sorry. Do you... I had a... Like the Greeks, you mean? Well, I had a clip on the last show we never used, but... some discussion about these Olympics and what they cost. Do you know what it cost the Greeks? They lost money on their Olympics as most Olympics do. Yeah, I think it was 10 or 15 billion or some crazy number. It was a lot of money on a per capita basis per household. It cost the Greeks $60,000 a household. It was Spain was the other country that was up. Madrid was up. Now, we can't have that.

56:19 Yeah, 60,000 per household. It tanked Greece. It was part of the tanking of Greece. Yeah, so let's tank Greece by giving them their Olympics back. Right. So anyway, so it made sense to me when they said, oh, Tokyo, you can have that. Great. You'll be using our natural gas. We're going to tank Japan. Perfect. So now we have two things going on. One, I have gotten really deep into the TTIP, as it's known, T-T-I-P, the Transatlantic trade investment partnership and that is what you have to be looking for a TTIP and and I was able to you know I if you want to find something at the European Union websites good luck

CHAPTER 21 / 48 Discussion

TTIP Negotiations, G20 Vilnius Meeting, Trade Timeline

Adam Curry presents a deep dive into the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), arguing that the Syria crisis is a distraction from these critical trade negotiations. He identifies the Vilnius meeting in Lithuania as the true site of elite coordination. Curry outlines a strict timeline requiring a finalized agreement by October to avoid interference from upcoming EU and U.S. midterm elections.

ttip· g20· vilnius· european union· free trade

57:01 There are so many websites and then you have like the EPP group is where I actually found a lot. They're the People's Party, they're the biggest party in the EU and they have their own television network and everyone's got their own thing going on. It is impossible to find anything. However, if you go to Twitter and this is like, what a revelation and you do hashtag TTIP This is where I discovered that the G20 was not the meeting, it was the Vilnius meeting in Lithuania. Everybody was there! So Obama's running cover at the G20, talking, talking, I mean, the guy is so off the radar. Here's an example of it. These kinds of interventions, these kinds of actions are always unpopular because they seem distant and removed.

57:56 And I want to make sure I'm being clear. I'm not I'm not drawing a Analogy I'm not drawing analogy. I'm not drawing an analogy to World War two. I'm not drawing an analogy to World War two other than to say oh When London was getting bombed it was profoundly unpopular wait isn't he drawing an analogy both in Congress and around the country to help the British. Oh, okay. Right. So he is off, he's completely out of his league, and he knows what he's doing.

58:37 He knows he all he has to do is just get through this because Carrie was in Vilnius So we got the watermelon head there. We got the no chin monster Baroness van Ashton she's there and if you look as you do if you go to Twitter and just in the search box type in Hashtag TTIP All the elites are like hashtag TTIP. Can't wait to meet Kerry. Gonna have a good lunch with him. Hashtag TTIP. Yeah, no, I'm looking at it now. It's pretty, pretty globalist. This is where, yeah, but this is where the meeting really was. Why? I have the timeline now. So here is the timeline. So in, and this kind of fits into Snowden's stuff as well, which is creepy when you, and again, I have a hammer now with this and just to revisit.

59:23 The thinking here is that keeping North Africa, the Middle East in shambles, threatening with Syria is all a tactic to get the free trade agreement between America and the European Union so we can start shipping all of our gas over, which will essentially save the world economy. That is the thinking. So they had their first round in June. And the second round is in October, and that's when it has to be finalized. This explains, okay, this explains exactly why everyone's in such a hurry, because we have new elections for the EU coming up in May. So if we don't get it done in October, then it won't happen.

1:00:07 Because then you know it'll be we go through Christmas and everything and then everyone's ramping up and everyone in the middle of elections And it could be a whole new bunch of people sitting at the table and that will ruin it So the idea is get it done in October Then you have the EU the elections in May then we have to get it ratified before the midterm elections in November Otherwise it can get screwed up on our side So this thing has got to move, it's really got to go. Now what's interesting about this timeline, what happened around June-July? Around June-July, everything, and this is the first round of the T-TIP talks, the talks were in jeopardy.

1:00:48 The reason was, all of a sudden, Snowden was in Russia and word comes out that the Americans were spying on the Germans, on the Brits, and everyone in Europe went, oh really? You want to be our transatlantic partners? Well you gotta stop spying on us. So I'm thinking that was a plant, that was propaganda from the Russian side to screw up the negotiations. And it really starts to make sense when you look at everything like this. Now... No, people out there should pay careful attention to this thesis because when you start watching the news, it all fits into this thesis. There's nothing that has shown up yet

CHAPTER 22 / 48 Discussion

Russian Energy Sanctions, EU Red Lines

The hosts discuss German MEP Elmar Brok's denunciation of Russia's use of energy sanctions for political leverage. They analyze how Putin might use gas prices to influence the EU's stance on Syria and the TTIP. The segment features European Commission spokesperson Pia Ahrenkilde Hansen discussing "red lines" in trade negotiations, which the hosts interpret as code for ongoing high-stakes bargaining.

vladimir putin· elmar brok· energy security· natural gas· lithuania

1:01:29 That would contradict any of this conceptually. We'll make it even better. Elmar Brock, who is the German Euro Parliamentarian for... I want to say he's... I'm not sure exactly what he is, but he denounced Russia. He said I denounced the use by Russia of trade and energy sanctions for political purposes against its neighbors and their sovereign decisions, particularly regarding Syria. In other words, the Russians have already said, as predicted, hey, if you guys are going to go in on Syria, which the EU has now said they're waiting until the report which comes out in, oh gee, October, how convenient,

1:02:22 Just when the second round of talks is supposed to start Putin is already saying, you know I might start to you know, right raise the prices a little or cut off a little bit of gas You'll make it a little complicated for you. Here is Pia Hanson the European Commission and this this really freaked me out when when I heard the phrase she used here and Because it's like this is where everything starts to really fall together. Short clip of her being interviewed. Is the Commission worried that with groups and lobbyists already saying take this off the table or take this chapter out of it, it's going to stall the negotiations before they get started or at least put a sort of a spanner in the works?

1:03:06 I think it's important to maintain the ambition but also to be very clear that we have some red lines which are never going to be touched on safety, on cultural diversity and that's very clear. I just found it interesting that red lines is now used in these negotiations as well. Before I think the president used his red line. It's code for something. Well, yeah, it's code for we're in negotiation. That's what it seems like code to me. Well, you gotta remember Obama did that almost two years ago. Oh, yeah, I know, but it's at least a year ago. Yes, but yeah, this is just a couple weeks ago, but really before the whole thing came back again. So all of this was going down in Vilnius

1:03:55 October is when the second round of talks take place. This has to get done right now. We are not going to do anything with Syria until October. The EU has said, no, we're going to wait for the weapons inspectors report, which apparently they need to compile all of this into a report and it won't be done until October. Very convenient. And we're just gonna be spinning our wheels which is great because it covers up all kinds of other crap that's going on We're gonna there's gonna be debates. There's gonna be nothing's going to happen I you can put it in the book, but nothing is going to happen and they're doing stupid stuff like this as Feinstein

CHAPTER 23 / 48 Discussion

Dianne Feinstein, Syrian Chemical Weapons DVD

Senator Dianne Feinstein's announcement that the CIA prepared a DVD of chemical weapon victims for Congress is met with heavy skepticism. The hosts question the authenticity of the videos, noting the absence of women among the victims and scientific inconsistencies regarding sarin gas behavior. They characterize the distribution of these videos to the media as an illegal psychological operation on the American public.

dianne feinstein· sarin gas· cia· psyops· cnn

1:04:34 One of the leaders of this charade gave us some inside information as to what we're doing now to convince everybody. I had asked the CIA to prepare a DVD. A DVD! Which would have specific instances of evidence. largely victims and what we see means, what pinpointed eyes mean, what the convulsions mean, a number of aspects. And we received that this morning.

1:05:11 and it's horrendous. That was quick. So we're having that DVD multiplied and we're going to get it out to every member of the Senate and possibly members of the House so that they can at their leisure go through it. At their leisure? At home on the couch just zip through it. So these are 15 different videos and of course they were leaked immediately. Jake Tapper had them on CNN. Now a couple of things I need to point out about this. Now this is supposed to be sarin gas and you know these are all videos that not a single news organization will verify because we've seen all of them. We have no idea where they were shot. The science, if I can just say,

1:05:56 The science doesn't even work out. And this may be really people who are dead, they may really have been poisoned with something, but sarin gas, okay? First of all, apparently this magic sarin gas doesn't kill any women, because there's no women in any of these videos. Zero. Not a single woman. It's all dudes and children. And apparently this is not the sarin gas that can linger and stay in someone's clothes and kill you if you come in contact with it up to 30 minutes afterwards. This is not the sarin gas that usually kills people within a few minutes. Now apparently they still have time to be dragged into the hospital.

1:06:34 This is, these videos are certainly inconclusive at best and this is what they're peddling? No, no. This is, this, and it's on cable news the same day that she has been multiplying the DVDs for the, for Congress to look at their leisure at home? Are you kidding me? This is psyops on the American people, which is also illegal, I should add. No, no, that's not true. Remember, they just passed a law. They passed a law saying you can do this. No, this is legal. You can screw with the public. Well, they think they were the enemy. Why not? So let's go over this some logic here. So there's a logic that we have to deal with. Okay. And let's just tell me if you think this is possible. All right.

CHAPTER 24 / 48 Discussion

Staged War Footage, Humanitarian Intervention Logic

The hosts discuss the potential for staged footage in the Syrian conflict, suggesting that victims could be paid actors or killed by other means to simulate a chemical attack. They question the moral logic of U.S. policy, asking why the administration prioritizes Syria over recent mass killings in Egypt. The segment argues that "peppering Damascus with cruise missiles" is an ineffective way to demonstrate humanitarian concern.

war propaganda· syria· humanitarian aid· sarin· media manipulation

1:07:22 So you've got, you're in an area and you're one of these, we saw there's a couple videos out there of these guys saying, okay, okay, cue the gunfight. Well that was Siri and Danny and that was like two years ago. Right, we know that guy was a fraud, but let's just say you've got a bunch of kids running around, they'd like to have fun. Okay, Billy, I'll tell you, I'll give you I'll give you a hundred dinar if you do the following. First, you're really good at, remember that trick you do with the snot coming out of your nose? Yeah, okay. Can you lay on your back, and we're going to film this, lay on your back and make the snot come out and then wiggle around a lot like you're just dancing or going crazy. Just do that. Ready? Okay, three, two, one, go. Oh, there's one, that's a good one. Two, just do it again, let's get a safety. Let's get a safety. There's no reason

1:08:10 that the kid wouldn't do that. Well, I mean, look, I would take it further. There's no reason these people have not been killed with cyanide or, you know, first of all, there's no way I'm not counting 1400 people or 400 children in these videos. By the way, I think the observation that there's no women because there's no need for contempt in this particular, I suppose. radical Muslim community, the radicals, they wouldn't have the women in there. So there's no, it just won't do it. And so there's no women. Okay, good work. Yeah, there's no women in there. Explain that. But regardless, regardless, what difference does a few hundred people make? If you're an A-hole elite and you're going for saving the world, which believe me, President Obama believes he's capable of that.

1:09:03 I mean he's, and I think that his handlers also are like, we have to save the world. This is, Kerry believes it. He's turned from a pacifist anti-war beatnik into the guy who's saying, you know, this is Hitler, this is 1938 all over again. But these people really believe what they're doing, John. They really believe it. And it's... It may be for financial gain, you know, in some way for all of them, but there's some real dedication here. Well, talking about... the hippie that is like on the other side of the argument nowadays. There's this report that came out, I think this was on Al Jazeera, the international news, or one of the international news sites. This is international news with Samantha. Samantha Powers has had to, she is, if anybody, is a Berkeley Hummers

CHAPTER 25 / 48 Discussion

Samantha Power, UN Irrelevance, Central Asia Waivers

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power is criticized for her stance that the UN is "irrelevant" regarding Syrian intervention. The hosts contrast her position with international law and the views of UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. Additionally, they highlight recent State Department waivers for assistance to Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan as a strategic "F-you" to Vladimir Putin.

samantha power· united nations· uzbekistan· tajikistan· vladimir putin

1:09:57 you know, pacifist, her and her husband, listen to her. It was left to the US ambassador to the UN of all people to make it clear that on the subject of possible action in Syria, the US now believes the UN is irrelevant. Not only that, but the diplomatic track is closed. Ambassador Samantha Power said that if they get the congressional vote, military action is the only option. For more than a year, we have pursued countless policy tools short of military force to try to dissuade Assad from using chemical weapons. We have engaged the Syrians directly and at our request, the Russians, the UN and the Iranians sent similar messages. But when Scuds and other horrific weapons didn't quell the Syrian rebellion, Assad began using chemical weapons on a small scale multiple times as the United States concluded in June.

1:10:50 Very different views of course coming from senior UN officials, the UN and Arab League envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, went all the way to the G20 to lobby world leaders to stress that his view is that the only solution is a political solution. He was asked about the international legality of US military action. I think the Secretary General or myself, we don't express personal opinion. We say what international law says and international law says that no country is allowed to take the law into their hands. They have to go through the Security Council. Oh please, Security Council schmouncil. It's a fact. We signed on to that.

1:11:34 We signed the document that puts us as a treaty. Nah, but... please. We have to abide by it and why aren't we? Why? Because we're gonna save the world, John! Yeah, but we're not gonna bomb anyway. I think that this whole thing is a scam. But this is exactly the same principle that Clinton used with Kosovo. This is why we had the Kosovo precedent, which also couldn't get a UN Security Council resolution, so we just go around and use the NATO side of it, you know, the war side. Yeah, but we haven't even done that much. Well, patience. We're traveling around a lot. Everyone's busy. We have done something to strike back at Putin.

1:12:25 We've given, yeah we have now with this, this is all part of the FUSAF Russia. Today three waivers of restriction of assistance came out for Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. This is section 7031b3 waiver. The Secretary of State may waive the limitation on funding on a country by country basis, based upon a waiver, if it is important to the national interest of the United States. So if you go and take a look at Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, that's a big F-you to Putin saying, oh by the way, we're going to fund these guys with anything they need. It would be like the Russians funding Arizona. You know, they can have Arizona for all I'm concerned. Take it. If it will end this facade. Jeez, did you hear...

CHAPTER 26 / 48 Discussion

Sheila Jackson Lee, Houston Redistricting

Adam Curry expresses frustration with Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, criticizing her comments regarding presidential credibility and the killing of Osama bin Laden. The discussion touches on the redistricting of Austin, Texas, which Curry claims has left the city without its own dedicated representative in Washington. Dvorak questions how Lee continues to be re-elected by her constituents.

sheila jackson lee· houston· redistricting· osama bin laden· congress

1:13:23 It's just it's getting so annoying when it's just get on with it already and it's not going to happen. It's going to be and and it makes so much sense. It's covering up everything. Now unless of course we you know people will get tired I don't think they can take this all the way through to October but we get douchebags like Sheila Jackson Lee Who get airtime. She is our representative from Texas. A disgrace. And I will be voting her out of office. I mean, I'll do my best in just one vote. But I will try to vote her out. She is... She's a congresswoman. She's not in your district. Yes, she is. Houston. The redistricting of Austin. We don't have a representative in Austin anymore.

1:14:10 So who do you vote for? This is hard. No! Yes, yes we have... Wait a minute. I'm telling you... Are you telling me the smartest people in Texas generally are either the rich folks in Fort Worth or all the, you know, the left-wing Obama bots but the intellectual college grads in Austin, because that's what the University of Texas is, you're telling me that all these people with all this brainpower vote that idiot in over and over? I'm not sure when the redistricting went into place because I've only been here, you know for a year and a half But here we go Austin who represents me districts by city. No, literally we do not send anyone to Washington anymore Austin which is the oasis the oasis of blue. Let me see. Who do I have here? I

1:15:02 She's blue. Yeah, no, she's blue alright. Let me see, I should look at my zip code. This is, I think, the Republicans who did this to you. Which is funny. Oh yeah, of course they did. Well, listen to what she said, and we deserve her. The decision will be based upon the, not the issue of credibility. And I wish we would not hold that standard up. I think America has shown itself to be credible. Our president has shown himself to be credible and I'm saddened that our memory fails us and that this is a president that captured Osama bin Laden. Oh really? Wow! Captured Osama bin Laden or killed him and dumped him in the ocean before we could see it and we still not allowed to see the pictures. Seriously? Wow. Yeah, I know. It may have been, maybe she knows.

CHAPTER 27 / 48 Discussion

Obama YouTube Address, Chemical Weapons Red Line

The hosts play and deconstruct President Obama's weekly video address regarding Syria. They mock his use of percentages (98% of the world) and his framing of chemical weapons as a unique threat to national security. The segment compares the current Syrian casualties to the 1988 Halabja gas attack in Iraq, noting that the U.S. previously assisted the regime responsible for that larger atrocity.

barack obama· youtube· chemical weapons· national security· halabja

1:16:02 Is she on one of those intelligence committees? I think she might be. Yeah, I think she is. Yeah, you're right. Maybe that was a slip. That's very possible. Very possible. Anyway, maybe just good here to wrap up my part of the segment with the president's plea to the American people, which of course falls on deaf ears and blind eyes because it's part of his YouTube show that he does every single weekend, which about 335 people watch, including me. And that's about it. It will get clipped by some news organizations. It is so good, John, we just have to comment on all two minutes of it. And of course, when he's really serious, he does not start off with a hile, everybody. More than a thousand people, including hundreds of children, were murdered in the worst chemical weapons attack of the 21st century. Really? And the United States has presented a powerful case to the world.

1:16:52 that the Syrian government was responsible for this horrific attack on its own people. This was not only a direct attack on human dignity, it's a serious threat to our national security. There's a reason governments representing 98% of the world's people have agreed to ban the use of chemical weapons. I'm so done with these percentages. Who are those 2%? I'd like to know, because we need to out them. There's 2% somewhere who think it's good. Not only because they cause death and destruction in the most indiscriminate and inhumane way possible, but because they can also fall into the hands of terrorist groups who wish to do us harm. Which of course really isn't the problem with chemical weapons. The reason you don't use chemical weapons is because you shoot that stuff and the wind blows and it can come back at you. It's very ineffective. This is not a great weapon.

1:17:44 I want to mention 25 years ago, with the help of our intelligence community, the Halabja gas attack where the Iraqis killed a bunch of Kurds using gas. expert help. It was always believed that we sold them the gas. From us, yeah. Everyone's, well the internet's bubbling about this. Yeah sure. And, but I just want to throw the number out since you know these guys like to throw numbers around. So that was the worst according to Obama. This attack killed an estimated 5,000. Oh! Which tops the Obama numbers. So this should be number two with a bullet.

1:18:25 It's not even number two I bet if you really look into it. It's down on the list. Well he said worse of the 21st century so you know he's very he's slick. Was he asleep in 21st? I thought he said the... No he said 21st. He's always got some out. He's slick, he's slick. Well you know here comes this other big one that I have a problem with. That's why last weekend I announced that as commander-in-chief I decided that the United States should take military action against the Syrian regime. By the way, he's saying it here just so you know he's saying the United States should take action It doesn't matter what Congress says not a decision I made lightly Deciding to use military force is the most solemn decision we can make as a nation As the leader of the world's oldest constitutional democracy I also know that our country will be stronger if we act together and our actions will be more effective That's why I asked members of Congress to debate this issue and vote on authorizing the use of force. I

1:19:20 What we're not talking about is an open-ended intervention. This would not be another Iraq or Afghanistan. There would be no American boots on the ground. Any action we take would be limited, both in time and scope, designed to deter the Syrian government from gassing its own people again and degrade its ability to do so. I know that the American people are weary after a decade of war, even as the war in Iraq has ended and the war in Afghanistan is winding down. That's why we're not putting our troops in the middle of somebody else's war. But we are the United States of America. We cannot turn a blind eye to images like the ones we've seen out of Syria. Failing to respond to this outrageous attack would increase the risk that chemical weapons could be used again, that they would fall into the hands of terrorists who might use them against us. And it would send a horrible signal to other nations that there would be no consequences for their use of these weapons.

1:20:20 all of which would pose a serious threat to our national security. That's why we can't ignore chemical weapons attacks like this one, even if they happen halfway around the world. And that's why I call on members of Congress from both parties to come together and stand up for the kind of world we want to live in, the kind of world we want to leave our children and future generations. Now, it's very unfortunate, but for some reason, The piece he either give this entire speech before we ran another clip that was very similar. Yeah, well the same Yes, the thing that I'm the thing that I'm bummed about is it kind of it kicked in the middle there? Because what he said is as the world's oldest constitutional democracy somehow that we talked about in the last show Because before that we mentioned Iceland's the world's largest oldest democracy, but constitutional is a weasel world

CHAPTER 28 / 48 Discussion

Syrian Ambassador, Obama Speech Patterns, H-Dropping

The Syrian Ambassador's critique of Obama's shift from a "peace candidate" to a "war president" is presented. The hosts then pivot to a linguistic analysis of Obama's speech, specifically his "H-dropping" when saying the word "abhorrent" (which he pronounces as "aberrant"). They contrast this with his over-emphasis of the "H" in words like "honored" and "humbled," jokingly suggesting the existence of "O-Twins" or different programmed personas.

syrian ambassador· linguistics· nobel peace prize· red line· pronunciation

1:21:10 yeah put in to make us different. He should say, he might as well say we're the oldest, he could say we're the oldest democracy in the entire universe based in Washington DC. Yes on the east coast of America. Well yeah, so of course this is the Obama I'm just going to call him the O-Twins now. This is the Obama that is the war Obama who goes out and sells anything he is told to you, wind him up and he goes. The Syrian ambassador actually is on to your theory about this. On purpose, whether they are Republicans or Democrats. I mean here I am referring to the hardliners in the Congress and the Senate. They want Obama to have his hands, to have blood on his hands the way George Bush had it in Iraq.

1:22:00 Barack Obama put an end to the American military presence in Iraq. Barack Obama promised to withdraw from Afghanistan. Barack Obama got the Nobel Prize laureate. Barack Obama went to Cairo to address the Arab and the Islamic world, and he said there that there will be no more wars. Where is this Barack Obama? Yes, that's a very good question. I think he is in the fridge Now one of our producers sent me an email he also tweeted about it because you know we noticed that the president in his speech in Russia said aberrant instead of abhorrent and We've noticed this H problem

1:22:39 And I went back into the archives, let me just refresh your memory. This is the president, for some weird reason, this word does not exist. I don't know why he doesn't say abhorrent instead of, he says aberrant. It is just, you never learn this word. This is very similar to Stewie Griffin's little speech anomaly and people who watch The Family Guy will get cracked up at that comment. Go on, here we go. First of all, I didn't set a red line. The world set a red line. The world set a red line when governments representing 98% of the world's population said the use of chemical weapons are abhorrent.

1:23:20 and passed a treaty. Abhorrent. Abhorrent. Abhorrent. So this Obama... Yeah, not abhorrent, abhorrent. Abhorrent. So this Obama says abhorrent because he can't say... he should be saying abhorrent. He can't say the H. Now listen to the other Obama, much friendlier, and his programming over emphasizes the H. ...balanced way by making necessary reforms and asking every American to pay their fair share. I'm honored and humbled. Honored and humbled. Honored I love that one. That's the Stewie Griffin one, but I'm telling you this honored These are the two guys right here And they the programming in the honor the chip one of them says can't do the H and the other one over emphasizes That's how you can tell them apart. We well It's we need to get more clips to prove this point if I give this these two aren't gonna do it no But it's a start. It's a start

CHAPTER 29 / 48 Discussion

Bacevich on Moral Consistency, Cruise Missile Diplomacy

Andrew Bacevich returns in a clip to challenge the moral consistency of U.S. foreign policy. He asks why the U.S. is compelled to act in Syria due to civilian deaths but remained largely silent when the Egyptian army killed hundreds of protesters weeks prior. Bacevich argues that if the concern were truly humanitarian, the U.S. would focus on refugee aid rather than missile strikes.

andrew bacevich· phil donahue· syria· egypt· humanitarianism

1:24:17 Yeah, we'll start listening for it at least. And our listeners out there will, and producers will catch these for us I think on occasion. I do have, I do have to, we skipped one of these clips before on a show where one of the, some guy Brookings or someplace else he was talking and yakking about something and he went into your similar conceptual issue that you have with gas. Right. I just want to say in the show notes I have a Brookings Institute report from 2012 about this very thing. And this Bacevich guy, he's also on your page and I think we should find this one. It's one of the last two clips. I believe it's the Bacevich answers Phil Donahue and you'll have a

1:25:06 different opinion of the guy when you hear his basic argument, which is your argument. President Obama would say to you these are children being being grossly and painfully killed. How can you watch these videos with the foam coming out of the nostrils and we've got to do something. Well, the attack is a heinous act. Now, does the fact that they were killed with chemicals make it more heinous than if they were killed with conventional munitions? I'm not persuaded. I mean, I think the issue, one of the issues here, to the extent that moral considerations drive U.S. policy, and I would say as a practical matter they don't, but

1:25:49 Let's pretend that they do. To the extent that moral considerations drive US policy, there's a couple of questions to ask. One would be, why here and not someplace else? I mean, just weeks earlier... The Egyptian army killed many hundreds of innocent Egyptians and we sort of shook our finger at Egypt a little bit but it didn't do anything. So why act in Syria? Why not act in Egypt? I think that needs to be sort of, that needs to be clarified. And the other question would be, well, if our concerns are humanitarian, why is waging war

1:26:27 the best means to advance a humanitarian agenda. If indeed US policy is informed by concern for the people of Syria, Let's just pretend that's the case. If it's informed by concern for the people of Syria, why is peppering Damascus with cruise missiles the best way to demonstrate that concern? It's fun! I mean, a little bit of creative statesmanship, it seems to me, might say that there are other things we could do to actually benefit the people of Syria, who are suffering greatly, who are fleeing their country into hundreds of thousands, who are living in wretched refugee camps. Why don't we do something about that? Because it's far better for ratings. Does he really need to know this? It's good for ratings. Hello?

CHAPTER 30 / 48 Discussion

Syrian Refugee Camps, Zaatari Economy

A report on the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan reveals a burgeoning economy within the camp, including a main street nicknamed the "Champs-Élysées." The hosts discuss the resilience of Syrian and Lebanese shopkeepers who have established hundreds of stores in the camp. They note that nearly 20% of the Syrian population has fled the country, creating a massive humanitarian crisis in neighboring nations.

syria· jordan· zaatari· refugees· champs-elysees

1:27:21 Skip right to this clip on the refugee camps that was exposed on PBS, but go to the clip that says, refugee report in French hospital, and there's a little tidbit in here that I didn't know. All along this road, shops have opened on a street where the French government opened a hospital. It's known as the Champs-Elysees. Or people here call it Shamdilize. Sham meaning Syria in Arabic. It is now the second largest refugee camp in the world. And that has put a strain on nearby communities in Jordan where water is often scarce. Sham? Sham? It doesn't get much better than that. Wait, wasn't there a terrorist group that was the Sham that were called Sham as well? Yeah, right, there was some Sham terror, the Sham... Sham the Man or something, yeah. Do they have to throw it in our face all the time? So they took some shots of this refugee camp from the air. Oh my God, it looks like the San Francisco Bay Area of tents. Oh yeah, it's huge, it's huge. It's just millions, I mean everyone who's

1:28:23 I guess anyone who's not fighting is already out of Syria. What is the total population of Syria? Hold on a second. I mean, it can't... is it 50 million? So the sham is they got streets, they got roadways, it's all done. It looks like they'll put this thing up. And she's this woman and PBS is wandering around and she's walking past anything short of a Gucci store. There's all these shops. I'm telling you, there's a whole street, the Shams Al-Isa, is a street of stores that the Syrians put up. And if you think about it, the Syrians, the Lebanese, that whole area of the world, these people are shopkeepers.

1:29:05 to an extreme and so they build a refugee camp the first thing half of them do is put up a shop. Dalal and nine others live in an unfurnished 200 square foot tin shed. They sleep on mattresses on the floor, use communal bathrooms several hundred feet away and rely on a gas cylinder to cook. They get free rations of oil, sugar, tea and rice. When we visited she was cooking something called mahshi, zucchini stuffed with rice. She can purchase vegetables and other items at shops in the camp. Yeah, but did they were they selling like? leather goods They might be but there was a lot of yet Maybe there was I there was there's must have been hundreds of those big fedora hats that you get in Italy Yeah, you know we laugh, but it's sad when 10% that actually I think for there's 4 million refugees now in neighboring countries Oh, that's terrible so that is

CHAPTER 31 / 48 Discussion

Historical Literacy, Public Knowledge of WWII

The hosts lament the lack of historical knowledge among the younger generation, claiming many Americans cannot distinguish between World War II, the Korean War, or the War on Drugs. They suggest that historical education has been replaced by pop culture and that most people's understanding of history is limited to what they see on the History Channel or in drug cartel news.

history· world war ii· education· street interviews· pop culture

1:30:04 That's 20%? Yeah. That's 20% of the population has left. And of course that would be pretty much all of the population that is not fighting in Damascus and Homs and everywhere where there's a pipeline. Basically, here's the deal. If you're in Syria and you can look out your window and see a pipeline, get the fuck out. Go away. Because you are in harm's way. Now I'm really skeptical because, you know, it's... I was hearing that John Kerry thing this morning and I gotta be careful with this because Mickey, you know, she's unicorns and rainbows, man. I can only do this once or twice a week because she gets really pumped out. And it's like, you know, remember the Second World War in the history books, if you ask kids today, what was the Second World War about? I'm afraid that the answer you're going to get is going to be something like, well, Hitler hated the Jews and he gassed them all.

1:31:05 But you know, I think it's way beyond, I don't even think that's in the lexicon anymore. I think it's like, was that what happened when they busted the drug cartels in Mexico? I don't think the kids today know anything about the Second World War. They think it's the Korean War. It's all lost. That's not true. I don't think the Jews and Hitler and the rest of it, unless they watch the History Channel, which they don't, That's all lost. It's bull. You can see it constantly when anybody goes out on the street and just interviews anyone. Yeah, they don't know. Or what World War II was. They have no idea. They have no idea. Yeah. You know, they're fighting Canada? I mean, I've heard these kinds of answers. You know, the Canadians were in Mexico, they're fighting the Mexicans, there was the drug wars, you know, the war on drugs, is that Second World War? Seriously. Seriously. No, no, no, you've not heard that.

CHAPTER 32 / 48 Discussion

NASA LADEE Mission, Moon Atmosphere Study

NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission is introduced. The probe, launched from Wallops Island, Virginia, is designed to study the moon's thin atmosphere and mysterious "glow" observed by Apollo astronauts. The hosts discuss the mission's secondary goal of testing laser-based communications between Earth and spacecraft.

nasa· ladee· moon· laser communications· wallops island

1:32:01 I bet you I could get that out of somebody if you question it. Of course they'll agree with anything when you're on the street with a microphone. But it's kind of pathetic. And here's a little twist on things. Tell me you've heard this now that we did hear a story of them they launched a spy missile off of Vandenberg Air Force Base with an Atlas 3, right? Yeah. Play the what the fuck clip at the end of this thing here and tell me if you've heard this at all. Well, you're looking at live pictures from Wallops Island, Virginia of NASA's pending return to the moon. On top of that rocket is the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer. What a beautiful sight. Clear skies, 50 degrees. Engineers call this rocket LADEE.

1:32:53 It will fly a six-month mission to the surface of the moon. The spacecraft will study the moon's thin, dusty atmosphere. What a shot. The mission will also be NASA's first test of laser communications between Earth and a spacecraft. It'll be up there for six months. Right. So I was saving this for second half of the show, but I think I have to bust it out now. You know about this then? Yeah, I know about this. This is the so-called attempt to get to the moon. We're not going to get there yet again. We're going to fly around it to see... I'm going to save this. You know what? I'm going to save this right now because... Okay, let's do our thing. Because I have a thought on it too and it sounds to me as though your thought's not going to coincide with mine.

CHAPTER 33 / 48 Discussion

Producer Credits, 69 Club, Travel Karma

The hosts read a long list of donations from "producers" worldwide, including significant contributions from Tom Schuring in Australia and Sir William Ashby. A large number of "69.69" donations are acknowledged, forming a "69 Club" for the episode. The segment includes "Travel Karma" for a listener traveling to Tel Aviv and reinforces the show's reliance on listener support.

donations· australia· 69 club· travel karma· value-for-value

1:33:39 Okay, we'll be comparing theories in just a moment. So we want to thank a few people for helping us with show 546 including Pedro Villafane in Sapulpa, Oklahoma and at the end of this we'll do this request of his which is a round of karma for all listeners to the show Tim Schuring $100 and his $100. It's Tom Tom Tom Schuring. He's he's the guy he's my my Adam Curry archivist from Australia Tom Tom Schuring. Yeah, okay Tom Schuring. Yeah, he's obviously a Dutch guy. Yeah $100 and wheelers Hill Victoria, Australia since about time he donated again, sir William Ashby at mobile mobile Alabama

1:34:39 Yes, it's like automobile, but I like calling it mobile. But I'll get a note again from him, $100. He does have a note. I was cooking and listening to Noah Jenner when I realized that you have a gold mine of an opportunity. Cookbook. Frederick Gagnon in Wasaga Beach, Ontario. And we'll just pass right over the whole cookbook idea. He does have a smoking hot Ukrainian wife. As he says it and he's never sent Adam a picture of her. Well listen, we're not gonna make no cookbook until I get a picture of your smoking hot Ukrainian wife. 8910 from Frederick Gagnol from Ontario, Canada. He was just donating the 8910 and his flight number for last week's Travel Karma. Nice, nice, thank you. The Gramerica Show in Calgary, Alberta, 8888. That's the Gramerica Show podcast. Huge fans of No Agenda.

1:35:31 That's right. There's your 8888s. Ready, Kilowatt sent a 7373 from Battlement, Mesa, Colorado. Sent you an email about the likely cause of the connections. Yeah, everyone sent us one. Everyone sent us one. The likely cause is not any of these things. Sir Thomas is the network. Sir Thomas, no one blames the network. I don't get it. Sir Thomas Nussbaum, 6960, whoop, whoop, whoop. 69! 69, dude! He wants to thank me for putting some of his art in the newsletter, 6969. Rochelle, he's in Virginia Beach by the way. Rochelle Gowan in South Jordan, Utah, 6969. Sir Sam Menner, 6969, and he's in Box Hill South, Australia. Sir Werner Bogila, or Bogila,

1:36:24 Well, that's it. That was it. We only had the three. 69! 69, dude! It's one of those Sunday shows where the donation segment flies by. 6939 from Hamburg, Deutschland. Uh, needs some serious travel karma. Just could spot a special promotional offer of the Tel Aviv hotel just across the street from the US Embassy. He's gonna go over there and do some reporting for us. So why don't you get us some travel karma to him? Absolutely. I'd love to do that. You've got karma. 6666 Asheville North Carolina sir Sam Lung in Toronto Kent O'Rourke in Frostburg Maryland sir Michael Miller in Tiburon California sir John sir no yeah maybe sir John Anderson Lafayette Louisiana Peter Peter Morris in 6666 ville David Carey in Clermont Clermont Florida and finally Peter Tagstrom in Holland Amsterdam to be exact onward 57

1:37:37 74 from EA in Woodland Hills. Sir James McSheehe Grand Junction Colorado 5555 Michael Britton in Alfreda Georgia 5555 Sir Kevin Payne Charity Chantilly Chantilly Virginia 5069 Jake Smith 5033 out of Seattle Washington and finally the $50 guys are Patrick Maycomb in Mount Vernon New York and Sir Alan Bean over here in Oakland and they just Do $50 a month and should be proud of themselves for doing that indeed. That'll be it We as we have no nightings no changes in titles today Which is always a little sad There you go, and I I also attribute our sound quality. I think it hurts people

CHAPTER 34 / 48 Discussion

Network Capacity, Birthday Announcements

Adam Curry and John C. Dvorak discuss ongoing technical difficulties and network capacity issues that affect their broadcast quality. They briefly mention the possibility of switching to AT&T U-verse. The segment concludes with birthday shout-outs for members of the No Agenda community, including Sir Craig Denniston and James Goin.

technical issues· birthdays· u-verse· community· knights

1:38:27 So we're yeah, I know I a lot of people complain about it, but some other people still say well It's still the best thing we listen to yeah. Yeah, I know it is I mean It's just that he had this issue before and I don't know if it was a year ago year and a half ago where we tried the mumble thing and it didn't work out and I think it's I'm convinced that part of this is not so much on this show but on the Thursday shows because it's the it's the nice thing to know the network is over over capacity and Well, when you have when you already have a problem in the network and then you know Then you have more capacity issues and who knows I mean it can be all kinds of things But just so everyone knows we have tried everything different machines, and we've tried everything The only thing we can't do is change networks. So the last thing we can do John is you need to order you verse I knew that would get a rise out of you

1:39:21 Alright, thank you everybody. I work. Thank you. So yeah, well different network. It's the only thing we can try We really appreciate the the 6666 the bag of sixes for our birthday celebration coming up in October conveniently timed with the t-tip I might add And of course our executive producers associate executive producers that we will need a little bit more help though on Thursday So please consider us at Sivorek org slash and a It's your birthday, birthday. Oh, don't hurt your heart. All right, we got Sir Thomas Nussbaum saying happy birthday to Sir Craig Denniston. Well, there you go. There's the Knights looking out for each other. They got each other's back. Rochelle Goins says happy birthday to Peyton, turn six, and her wonderful husband James Goin. All celebrating, and we say happy birthday from your friends here at the best podcast in the universe. It's your birthday, yeah.

CHAPTER 35 / 48 Discussion

Moon Dust Mystery, Chinese Space Race, Laser Testing

The hosts revisit the NASA moon probe, debating the "mystery" of lunar dust. Dvorak suggests the mission is a "Sputnik moment" response to China's plan to land on the moon by 2025. Curry proposes that the mission is actually a cover for testing high-precision laser targeting and secure communications to bypass satellite-to-satellite spying. They also joke about the need to "drop a golf ball" on the moon to prove the U.S. was there.

moon· nasa· china· laser· space race

1:40:20 Yeah, so I got a different report on this rocket that is going around and I got it from the CBS morning show with Charlie Rose and that crazy Japanese scientist guy who I think but the guy was the wall I'd hit you the white hair I think he tells the truth and so tonight what say what That's the string theory guy if I'm not mistaken. He has all kinds of... He's a showboater. He's... Yes. ...on everything. Yeah, that's why I like him. which will solve this old mystery of this glow on the moon. And what's the mystery? Just before dawn on the moon, our astronauts saw this glow that lit up the sky. It shouldn't be there. The moon has, quote, no atmosphere, so it must be dust of some sort. But that could interfere with a man's permanent space presence on the moon if we have a station there. And so we have to know more about the atmosphere and the dust.

1:41:20 So this probe is going to skim the moon at a distance of about 30 miles, skim the moon and give us the latest information about the dust, the atmosphere. We need a little update on the moon, everybody. Hopefully in preparation for a permanent presence on the moon one day. So after this moon skimming, what might scientists in the future learn? Well, we'll learn about, for example, the other planets, Mercury and the asteroids. How does that work? Because that's one of the goals of NASA, to go to the asteroids of Mars. But I think there's something about this dust. There's all these myths about the dust from the moon could help cure cancer or other things. What about that? And they call me a crackpot. I don't think so. I think they're just old light tales, basically. We've learned most of what we can learn from the moon. Oh, wait, well, hold on a second. Yeah.

1:42:06 How's dust on the moon an old wives tale? It's never been in the conversation normally. I've never heard of it. Back in 1500s somebody's looking up, you know that moon looks dusty, I'll bet you it cures cancer. Yeah, I've never even heard this one myself. Right. So this thing is gonna skim the surface of the moon at 30 kilometers. I mean it does nothing but add to my argument What argument? That our presence on the moon is sketchy at best. What is this 40 years now and we don't know about the dust and it's a mystery and we need to get... I've got a simpler explanation. We're getting an update from the... I mean, my thinking of moon bases makes more sense than this crap. Well, there's also the other possibility which is, I don't think this is the case but I like it.

1:43:04 is that they've got to drop some debris in that area where we landed so if Chinese ever get up there it shows that we had actually been up there 69 years ago. Well, interesting you say that because here's the last 30 seconds of his report. No, people think that we know everything about the moon but actually we know very little about the moon. We only landed there a few times in a few selected spots We don't know how thick it is, we don't know the density and if we're going to have a permanent presence on the moon, we're going to have to know a lot more about the surface. When will we have a permanent presence on the moon? Well, we don't know for sure, however, we're going to get a shot in the arm in 2025 when the Chinese put the Chinese flag on the moon. We may have a Sputnik moment at that point and that of course will spur interest in the moon once again. So NASA I think is covering its back. Yeah.

1:43:50 Yes! Thank you! That confirms the bullcrap, the crazy theory. I like your theory. We need to drop a flag. Yeah, we gotta drop some stuff down there. So it looks like we were there. A golf ball. Yes! A golf ball, an old crappy flag. Let's drop some mirrors because you know, you know, the MythBuster guys apparently shined a laser on them. Anything we can get basically. And like a golf cart. To go back to taking myself out of that realm of thinking, I think this is merely to test secure communications using a laser because we're being spied on to such an extreme and the real problem is the satellite to satellite communications which is used by us for targeting purposes and we exchange this information between satellites up there and if there is a sketchy satellite just hanging out behind one of our satellites it can pick up all the transmissions. And so we need to have something that is extremely targeted but we don't know

1:44:54 If our lasers are good enough, so if you shoot it down to Earth, will it be a 10-foot dot? Will it be a two-mile dot? We really haven't done enough experiments. So we need to get something way out there and then pound the Earth with some sort of beam. But remember, wasn't the last thing we did is we shot a... Didn't we shoot a probe into the moon and we blew it up? Remember that? Yeah, that's right. We blew said something in the moon and blew it up. Why don't we just yeah? What was the point of that? I forgot that already. Well just You're asking me Why don't we just go land there again? Okay? Just go land there do a cookout. You know dick a hole Yeah, do a fun little show you know why not do CBS morning show from the moon? It was 40 years and Anderson Cooper there. Yes now you're talking and

CHAPTER 36 / 48 Discussion

DSM-5 Updates, Psychiatric Billing Codes, Big Pharma

A report from a listener who attended a seminar on the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is discussed. The hosts highlight new diagnoses like "Restless Leg Syndrome" and "forgetfulness in the elderly," which they link to pharmaceutical company interests. They also note the alignment of DSM-5 codes with the ICD-10 for global insurance billing purposes.

dsm-5· psychiatry· restless leg syndrome· big pharma· icd-10

1:45:52 But I'd also like Charlie Rose and Gail up there. I think that would be kind of fun. Or how about Morning Joe? Yeah, let's send them all up there. Yeah. Alright. I got a... actually, whoops. I should probably preface this with the jingle. Got an email from Dame Sarah there in Shikshini, Pennsylvania. Remember the log cabin house? Oh yeah. And she has been doing some work for us. She went to a seminar and this is not, as far as I know, not for her, not for work or anything. She went to a seminar on the DSM-5, just for us.

1:46:45 I remember her threatening to do this. Yes, and she says, okay, I was note-taking during the conference and all I could do is think to myself, Adam is going to love this! Yes, indeed. So here's her notes and it's literally just a set of notes, but I think they're good. The DSM-5, she says, was supposed to be published in 2015. However, The task force ran out of money, so that's why they're publishing ahead of schedule. Now for those of you not familiar with the DSM, this is the fifth edition, and the DSM is the Bible for psychiatry. This determines the sicknesses, the new brain sicknesses that you can have, and luckily it also, as she says here, the codes for DSM-5, luckily will now match the upcoming ICD-10.

1:47:37 The only reason the codes didn't match up in the first place was because the American psychiatrist that devised the DSM thought the ICD was inferior, partly to the fact that the ICD was designed by European doctors. Oh my goodness. So now it's all, we have the same billing codes, you see. This is great. So we can have a code and then we know what to prescribe and everyone can give you the same stuff. Right, and you get, right, and you have to, it's like, it's like, Thanks, at a car repair place they look the car up and they charge X amount for changing the transmission of a Lexus for example. Exactly. And this is essentially, and then it also has a SKU aspect to it, so it's got an SKU so they can barcode that in and it all goes to the computer. Yes, and it goes straight through to the insurance and the world is beautiful. So here we go, restless leg syndrome made it into the DSM-5.

1:48:30 Yeah, baby The panel that looked at it as a diagnosis having doctors on from the pharmaceutical company that just developed a new drug for the condition So good news you can have it and we can fix it We have an actual diagnosis now John for forgetfulness in the elderly I will not make any jokes. What was the first one? The first one was restless leg syndrome. This is a joke. Yeah, and I fell for it. I Yes, you did. Yeah, I did. Let's see. We have... just skipping a little forward here. Disassociative Identity Disorder. Formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder. Now this was going to be dropped from the new DSM because it turns out the hallmark for Multiple Personality Disorder, the case I guess is Sybil. Is that a famous medical case?

1:49:36 That turned out to be a movie. Yeah, they made it to a movie that turns out to be fake. However, Oh Dr. David Spiegel who made a career out of the dis and she says dissociate identity disorder Maybe it is dissociate identity disorder diagnosis promoted himself to the task force for the DSM 5 and forced a re-evaluation of the possibility of dropping the diagnosis lo and behold it is now current in DSM 5 Even though it had a kappa reliability score of 2 when everyone else has to have a minimum of 4 or 0.2 or 0.4 The associate identity disorder is in the DSM-5 and you can be diagnosed with it So this is all very very good news for our pharmaceutical industry. Yes, very happy with that I wonder what they do to you if you have that I mean what drug would they give you? Haldol. Oh, Haldol.

CHAPTER 37 / 48 Discussion

Radiation Physics, Fukushima Misinformation

Adam Curry responds to a critical email regarding his previous comments on radiation types. He clarifies the differences between alpha and beta radiation, citing a nuclear engineer and EPA data. The discussion centers on debunking "fake" stories about Fukushima radiation levels that claim immediate death from contact with contaminated water.

radiation· alpha particles· beta radiation· fukushima· rod adams

1:50:32 There's no money in hell, doll. Mmm. Yeah, there is. Uhhh... Yeah, I'll just close it up with that. I think that's all we got. I had an email from some a-hole who was like mad at me about the fake Ashima stuff, but I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna... One of your hit that one of the atom haters. Yeah, it's a it's a real he's an atom hater Well, he is a hater, you know, it's well actually, you know, I'm gonna tell it made me so mad It's like and you call yourself an analyst is the subject get your facts straight if you like to spout off Especially when you understand nothing about a topic. Why don't you take a couple minutes and look at pretty pictures? I've sent here for you alpha radiation consists of helium nuclei and

1:51:21 and is readily stopped by a sheet of paper. Beta radiation, consisting of electrons or positrons, is halted by aluminum plates. That means alpha particles will be stopped by a sheet of paper and not beta particles like you said. Good luck with your next Google search. I understand computers aren't for the elderly, but get with it, old man. I like the guy's voice. He's got an interesting voice. So I went back to the source on this because I talked to a nuclear engineer about it, Sir Rod Adams. And I actually put in the show notes, he sent me the EPA, and it's, you know, yeah, beta radiation will get through tracing paper, but it won't even get through clothing.

1:52:03 And this relates back to the this fake Ashima story about you know if you're anywhere near this radiation these 1800 millisieverts that you will die within four hours. Yeah only if you're laying with your face in the puddle of water. Drinking, if you're drinking it. Even then you could probably get away with it. Maybe. Yeah. uh... so i'd aljazeera has been you know i've been watching it now do you have a line on the dish area on the cable i have another dish all that's not jealous because we don't have it on time warner well that figures i have to get some let's think about that too by the way you know it's nice in a hd isn't it's a good they still have a few glitches a amateur hour glitches where the guys that you know he's an interview some guy off camera and then the hosts mike is dead so you hear

CHAPTER 38 / 48 Discussion

Al Jazeera Rebranding, Rebecca Stevenson

The hosts critique the branding of Al Jazeera America, suggesting the name is a hurdle for U.S. audiences. They discuss the network's production quality and highlight meteorologist Rebecca Stevenson, formerly of Seattle's KIRO-TV, for her personable on-air presence. They jokingly suggest the network should rebrand to "AJN" or "AJA."

al jazeera· rebranding· qatar· rebecca stevenson· meteorology

1:52:51 and so then what do you think about the fact that uh... you know i can't even a crank the mic and so they're they're having some issues yeah i i i will say we're the last people to laugh at other people's technical lines of the morning to the fact that they had to do we have the the money from the monarchy of cutter financing the show at this point if we had the money i'll take we would be a Okay, so here's so I there's always one of these and I've come to the conclusion that Al Jazeera is gonna have one problem and that's their name. Play the congratulatory note that the guy's talking, he's being interviewed, and listen to what he says. From San Francisco, welcome Gary, good to see you. Well it's nice to see you and congratulations to Al Zira for putting this all together. Al Zira, hey everybody it's Al Zira. Hey, Al Gore Zira. So Al Ziro is sent...

1:53:44 Needs to change his name again because when they they're interviewing people in the field is it that he's back to you I'm Kathy Combs from Al Jazeera zero better I They're gonna have to change the name to the AJ or AJ and Oh, well how are AJA network or something like that? So this is a reporting for AJA network or AJ network or AJN. I like AJN better or AJC anything you can't keep saying the Al Jazeera thing because somebody in Qatar thinks it's a cool word. It's just a it's horrible. They've got to rebrand.

1:54:23 Why don't they, I mean, should this be our new target for the Curry-Dvorak Consulting Group? Should we now be going after them instead of RT? I mean, we've been unsuccessful getting any other work. Well, let's say, who do you think would give us the most money to help them, if we could get them to use our help? Al Jazeera. RT is a cheap operation. And they're cheap, they're cheap operation, typical Russian. They're cheap, they don't even know what the good looking women should be on the show. Even Al Jazeera has a couple of cuties. What's the name of the weather girl you were talking about? Rebecca. Al Jazeera, America, Rebecca. And she's very personable. Okay, let me see if I can find her here. I'm bummed out because I would have this thing on all the time. Rebecca Vincent? I don't know.

1:55:15 Is she blonde? Well, I'm just looking. I'm not there yet. Yes. American British. No, that's not her. She's an American British human rights activist. No, no, but I'd like to have her representing me. Let's go to the weather. Rebecca Murray, maybe this is hard, John. It's see, this is all already. I've identified a problem. We there's no website we can look up the hot babes on the channel. Yeah, it's good. Oh, Rebecca Stevenson. That could be it sounds right. Could that be her? Let me see. Yeah, let me check. Oh, there's a whole Facebook page for her. Well, she's got somebody's gonna give her some publicity. Oh, she comes from Seattle. She was the chief meteorologist on TV in Seattle. Oh, and that's why she looks so familiar. She used to be at Cairo. When I saw her on Cairo, I said, wow, this girl's the one that you'd hire for a network. She looks great.

CHAPTER 39 / 48 Discussion

Marie Harf, State Department Remix

Adam Curry plays a comedic remix of State Department spokesperson Marie Harf, blending her official briefings with a famous quote from the movie "American Pie." The segment serves as a lighthearted critique of the spokesperson's communication style and the perceived lack of substance in daily briefings.

marie harf· state department· remix· pop culture· band camp

1:56:22 Which not that she looks great in false. She is so personable to watch you just want to listen to her She's got seriously. She just yaks away and you go. Oh my god. What she's saying is so interesting And what is the weather forecast for the San Francisco? I have no idea Well speaking of dingbats here is our friend Marie Harf. I uh... the the dingbat from uh... the state department former cia spokes all with uh... her opening statement from yesterday welcome back to friday briefing and i think i think that i think that over oh and this one time at the end i don't have anything at the top today i think a few months

1:57:08 Yeah, that was a little remix we did. It sounded like her. Yes, do you know them? You kind of talked over the over the whole thing again. I was stunned. Welcome back to Friday briefings. I'm sorry that August is over. Oh, and this one time at band camp, I don't have anything at the top today. I stuck a flute in my pussy. I'm sure you haven't seen the movie. Who's the we? I did it This is why we didn't you didn't mod you should have kept the the gains It was it was very hard to do because the the bit from the movie has music under it and everything So I did the best I could it was it was the right I could do it was the best I could do but popular culture buffs who know the movie about band camp Will appreciate it

CHAPTER 40 / 48 Discussion

Jobs Report, Shadow Stats, Part-Time Economy

The hosts analyze the August jobs report, which showed an unemployment rate of 7.3%. They contrast the official government figures with "Shadow Stats" data, which places true unemployment closer to 24%. The discussion focuses on the rise of low-wage, part-time work and compares the U.S. labor market to the German "social contract" model of reduced working hours.

jobs report· unemployment· shadow stats· part-time work· germany

1:58:02 Yeah, there's a movie I've missed yeah, yeah, I think you did what you didn't miss of course is the jobs numbers This is one of your favorite topics John you probably want to get the the official numbers up on your screen there from what's our buddy there who does the Who does the actual the actual stats? What is it shadow stats? Oh, shadow stats. Yeah. Why don't you get that up while I play this report about our jobs here? There is news this evening about American jobs and the long slog of recovery for so many Americans. There were 169,000 new jobs produced in August. Pretty modest number as they go. The unemployment rate ticked down to 7.3 percent, but largely because they say fewer people are even looking for jobs.

1:58:48 And an old plot line is back again. A lot of the jobs they're finding are part-time with low wages and few benefits. So this is this of course is the track that we're on this is the only way to do it This is what Germany has done when everyone talks about how great Germany is and everyone has a job They're all you know, not part-time. They did a little smarter and they called it the the social contract where everyone just works now, what is it 22 23 hours a week? Yeah, we finally reached our goal of a 20-hour workweek. Yeah, which is exactly what you're getting. Exactly what you're getting. The problem is you're getting paid for 20 hours. This is kind of a bummer, yeah. Well, the shadow stats, the shadow stats unemployment rate is still, actually it looks like it didn't go up again. It didn't drop as precipitously as the UK.

1:59:47 which has a nice little down, but it's still about 23.5 to 24% true unemployment. Versus the 7.3 that we are being batted around the ears with. Isn't that amazing? Yeah. How do they come up with it? How can they even... It's amazing to me. Amazing. that's two uses of the word amazing in a row yes well um so i've been working on the ultimate podcast device okay um and so you know we're uh i have a new version coming i think tuesday so i'll be using that on thursday show and it's basically the same thing only you know it doesn't have like

CHAPTER 41 / 48 Discussion

Podcast Hardware Manufacturing, 3D Printing Myths

Adam Curry discusses his experience developing a custom podcasting hardware device. He details the costs of components and the advantages of manufacturing in the United States versus China, citing shipping hurdles and quality concerns. The segment also debunks the "prime time" readiness of 3D printing for mass production, labeling it a "gimmick" currently suitable only for one-off parts like napkin rings.

manufacturing· hardware· 3d printing· china· made in usa

2:00:31 Crocodile clips and broken pieces hanging off of it I'll be able to actually use this and I'll take it with me to we're gonna be in Los Angeles the week after next week and then we're going to the to revision to Which will have the digital audio converter in it and everything. So essentially you'll be able to use this you know to podcast and we've been talking to manufacturers and I've been pretty hell-bent on having this made in the USA and I have also checked because you know you'd be amazed what you learn with this kind of stuff. It's like, you know, if you have if the board has components on both sides, you know It's an extra 20 cents because it's got to go through the machine again and you pay like, you know four cents per pin of a whole through whole component

2:01:19 And if you have 200 capacitors of 10 microfarads, you have to buy a roll of a tape of 4,000. I mean, stuff like this, right? Like what? Because I've never met... Hold on. These fabricators don't have their own rolls of capacitors that you have to buy? don't they have just a bunch of them lined up because I've seen these machines they got these rolls of capacitors on this on this strip and there you know some do some do some do some do I mean it the point a point I'm going to make is that I also talked to some Chinese companies and by the time you

2:02:01 are done with shipping and import and I'm just calculating an X percent that it's just gonna suck just because it's Chinese crap. And you know, you hear all the time they substituted something without telling you or whatever. And I call one company, the CEO was on the phone first call. He had no idea who I was. He was like, oh, you know, small companies like up in Seattle. You know, they're like 25 people. And I'm like, it's going to be cheaper at the moment to do it in America. And I'll be able to put a big Made in the USA stamp on it.

2:02:42 and be contributing to the American economy. We are becoming cheaper than China. I think that's probably been true for a while. I didn't know this. This is a revelation. There's something else, there's other reasons people use the Chinese, but especially if you have to really ramp, they're really good at that. But there's all these new rules about import anyway. You should listen to Eric's horror stories about bringing some from China. Yeah, I've heard some of them. It's just like a nightmare dealing with our own government when it comes to importing. I mean, unless you're a big company and you essentially have your own division devoted to importing and they know what they're doing to an extreme, it's really hard for a small... the small manufacturer in this country has been screwed over by big corporations.

2:03:39 Yeah, but now I'm thinking that now with our cheap gas, and we should be having cheaper energy, I'm not seeing it, but we should have cheaper energy at the moment. Yeah, I'm not seeing it either. I think we're competitive again, I really do, it's nice to see. Well, let's get this product done. Hey, we should do a transistor radio next It's funny you know I've done lots of things I've done all kinds of companies, but it's been service or software But I've never done a hardware, and it's funny how people think about you have no idea what goes into this and I love the chatroom like just use a 3d printer and

2:04:25 Yeah, yeah. Now that'll be real. Are these guys out to lunch? That'll be real cost effective. The myth of the 3D printer. You couldn't do it anyway. No, no. Well, you can make the board maybe. That's about it. You can make the the pretty yeah, it would cost more to make the board than making ten of them complete pleated in a normal manufacturing you know those are for is 3d printing which is way ahead of the curve in terms of a public awareness because it's not they're not ready for prime time by any means or just kind of a gimmick right now and they're only for one-off parts and I've met it there was a 3d printer guy at the when I did the last twit and

2:05:07 And he's got a really nice little printer and he gave one to Leo and he says, you know, I know Leo's never going to use it but some of the people around here might use it. And it's just, you know, they use it to make, but they only make doodads. You mean like that? There's a little twit logo and somebody makes... Napkin rings. Napkin rings exactly is what these things are good for it No, it's good for Legos because they you know Legos of course, you know is out of patent so you can make Legos You can make napkin rings. And by the way, this is another one of those things It just you know, whoa 3d guns with it and it's just off the radar all of these news stories all of these all of these Crises that the media whips you up into a frenzy and he who even remembers Sandy Hook

2:05:56 Right, yeah. Who even remembers Aurora? We don't remember her. Aurora is still only remembered in Colorado as they try to pass more weird legislation. Yeah, but it's really, you know, this... There's an assault, an assault on your noggin. Wow, I still have this Rebecca Stevenson on my screen. Yeah, I just took her off a second ago because I was losing concentration. Yeah, I gotta do that too. Hold on a second, let me get rid of her. Go away, Rebecca. Go away. Anyway, so that was just my little contribution there. I just thought it was interesting. Yeah, well, it's gonna be a learning process. Yeah, that's for sure. That's for sure. Well, the good thing is that people want to send checks just to be first in line. They don't even care what it is. They'll send you a check. I know, why don't you wait? It's gonna be a little while longer. Great article in The Spiegel.

CHAPTER 42 / 48 Discussion

German Energy Transition, Renewable Failures

The hosts examine a Der Spiegel article regarding the high cost and technical failures of Germany's "Energiewende" (energy transition). They discuss how the shutdown of nuclear plants has led to increased reliance on natural gas and diesel-powered windmills to prevent rusting. The segment suggests the transition has primarily benefited the natural gas industry and U.S. exporters.

germany· renewable energy· wind power· natural gas· angela merkel

2:07:00 About the high cost and errors of German transition to renewable energy Yeah, this is a great article. It's in the show notes. It's a Translated into English. They always have not always but they do their international version and So if you'll remember after Fukushima Germany said that's it. We're getting rid of all of our nuclear. We're shutting it all down and which was, you know, this is actually Angela Merkel's big project. This is the, they call it the Energiewende or the energy revolution or the turnaround I guess, it wouldn't be a more direct translation, but the energy revolution. And it's so bad that they expect energy costs to rise up to 40% for Germans

2:07:49 And currently because there's everything is so discombobulated because the big thing is offshore wind. They've got they are using diesel power to keep the windmills turning so they don't rust. This is how bad it is. We discussed this before. And by the way, maybe thinking back on it, is it possible that this whole thing was to derail Germany? You know well yes in if you this is what the the hammer does when I see the

2:08:25 the big meta-ness of all of this, which you know, it is Libya, it is Egypt, it is Syria, and then Fukushima, which you know, wow, that was like one crazy tsunami, and of course, you know, there is some concern about the tsunami bombs that were tested off the coast. So whether that was man-made or not, the result was a new market for the United States with our gas in Asia, and essentially creating more demand for natural gas in Europe, predominantly in the number one industrial country, which is Germany. So yeah, and if you look at this article, I mean, it's too much to really parse through it right now, but the whole thing is that when you have no wind and no sun, then it's all going to be natural gas kicking in.

2:09:23 And by the way, you know, a lot of that is also GE. So I guess that in a way is kind of good for the United States, except for the GE plants that are in China. Which are plentiful. Yeah. But they've even shut down, they had these, I didn't know how this worked, but they had these really cool hydro plants where during the day when there's lots of sunlight, they pump water up 140 feet higher than the basin. Then at night when the Sun is down and there's no wind yeah, then the water falls down and that creates the generation But they're not they're not even investing in that they're closing these these these hydro plants down. It's crazy This is like the Greens have gotten the they've gotten their way But it's not the Greens who got in their ways, and it's the natural gas guys mm-hmm That's the which is our guys. I mean our that's a sad fact the sad fact I think it was the more I look at it

CHAPTER 43 / 48 Discussion

Small Modular Reactors, Smart Grid Surveillance

The discussion turns to small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) and the potential for "backyard nukes" the size of a grapefruit to power homes for centuries. The hosts criticize the lack of public exploration of this technology. They also discuss the "smart grid" and smart meters as tools for training consumers to use less electricity while prices continue to rise.

nuclear energy· ge· smart grid· smart meters· energy efficiency

2:10:20 The more I'm like, wow, what a scam. What a scam. And it was so well executed. Well, the Germans shutting down perfectly good at the dinner table last night, we were talking again about the backyard nuke, the little ones. Yeah. And JC just knows about this because one of his buddies, or as I can, a new guy knows all this stuff. And apparently, the size of the backyard nuke that would supply all electrical needs for your house for 400 years is the size of a large grapefruit. Yeah, yeah, football. And it's got like a teaspoon full of something in it that is the dangerous part. And then once you get the thing going and you shield it, it'll just go... it just cranks out energy for 400 years through various mechanisms.

2:11:14 And I guess, according to the sources, that General Electric actually sells a small nuke. No. Yeah, they do. They don't sell in the United States, but it's a small, small nuke that is big. I mean, it's not as big as a plant, but it's like one of these self-contained units. It's about maybe 20 feet high and about the size of a dining room let's say and tall higher and that'll power a whole neighborhood right and a small area and you could put these in like the suburbs of some town and it would just power the town right and it would again it's closed there's no waste or anything it's a closed system and it's a

2:12:02 goes for like 400 years. And then you haul it off, I don't know. I mean, none of this is being explored, either explored or talked about. And I would love to have the grapefruit sized one. I mean, we've had these small nukes. I mean, what about a nuclear sub? They have, this is a submarine, it's got a power plant in it that's a nuke. It's not that big. And I know plenty of people who listen to this program who've been on them and are still alive. Right. All the subs are powered that way. You don't have a gasoline or diesel engine pumping gas into the cockpit. We gotta get up so we can get rid of our... Yeah, well that's not gonna happen. In fact, it's even worse because, you know, the new study out now

2:12:50 We bring in the smart grid because that's really what's taking place here is we're going to give you the illusion that you're under, you know, this is all you got and we're going to put smart meters into your house. New survey here. Being watched makes electricity users consume less. So now we know that, you know, we're gonna teach you, you see. We're going to train you. The smart grid will turn things off for you. But meanwhile, your price is just going to go up because that's the game. That is the entire game, is to screw you. There's just no two ways about it. The whole thing is about screwing the public. Yeah, it's been that way. All this show talks about is the mechanisms in place to screw the public. And nobody in the mainstream media ever discusses it that way. It's all a great idea. Or it's all about World War III, which is just not.

CHAPTER 44 / 48 Discussion

US Postal Service, Christmas Card Logistics

The hosts discuss the financial troubles of the U.S. Postal Service and the potential for emergency stamp price increases. They pivot to the logistics of sending out No Agenda Christmas cards to top donors and "knights." A debate ensues regarding whether to send cards to the top 100 or top 500 contributors, involving signatures from the hosts and their staff.

usps· stamps· kwanzaa· christmas cards· logistics

2:13:48 So chill out, have yourself a great Sunday, relax. We're not gonna have World War III. This is not our Munich moment. It's not! It's just not. The US Postal Service, by the way, is in trouble. And that's another one of those bullcrap initiatives. It looks like they're going to have to seek emergency increases in stamp prices. Oh, well that verifies the need to buy those forever stamps. What is this? Well, that's what you do. You go to the post office and you can buy stamps at any denomination, but there's a forever stamp that's been out for about two or three years now. They first came out when they jacked up the price from 40 cents to whatever, whatever it is now, 45, 46, 40, I don't know, I can't keep track. Before I send anything out in the mail, I always have to look up the price. Right. Well, the forever stamps,

2:14:44 I have bought a bunch of these. The Kwanzaa. Forever stamped. No! Don't... Would you send me a... How many do you have? Can we send out our Noagentic Christmas cards with Kwanzaa stamps? I don't think I have enough of those for that. We have to send it... And we're doing... I'll find a good stamp that's like that. So I saw this email. We have Miss Mickey and Eric and Mimi, I guess. And they're splitting up the... putting the... stuffing the envelopes. We're making them do hundreds? You actually want to... Okay, what we're gonna do...

2:15:30 Yeah, let's have the meeting now. We're going to find all the donors, the people who actually, you know, not just newsletter people, but the donors, the top donors, mostly Jimmy Nights and people. Already we have a discrepancy. I've heard people want to do the top 500 and I've heard that you only want to do the top 100. No, I've never said that. Oh, I've never said that. I'm just that's a lie. Okay, all right. I've heard it was gonna be the top thousand or the top 500. Oh, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm wrong. Then, okay, I'm with the top 500. Yes, but the top 500, this requires a lot of work. No kidding!

2:16:17 and uh... assigning a lot of cards and we personalize it's possible that we personalize it's also possible we should just do the knights only knights now come on we should do the top five hundred okay we'll talk about this more anyways some people are going to get a christmas card with photos and signatures it's going to be a collector's item we're checking our list We're going to see who's been naughty and nice, if you get it or not. President Obama has a list. He has a nice list. Making headlines right now, a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan kills at least seven suspected militants. That drone firing two missiles that struck a house near the Pakistan-Afghan border. Villagers say four men were seriously injured and taken to hospital. The strike was the 20th deadly missile attack carried out by U.S. drones on Pakistani soil this year. Good work!

CHAPTER 45 / 48 Discussion

Israel Natural Gas, Leviathan Field, Noble Energy

A PBS report on Israel's discovery of massive natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean is analyzed. The hosts note the involvement of Texas-based Noble Energy and the role of Bill Clinton as an advisor. They discuss how these discoveries, including the Tamar and Leviathan fields, are transforming Israel into a major energy exporter and shifting regional geopolitics.

israel· leviathan field· tamar reservoir· noble energy· bill clinton

2:17:14 I love how they now have b-roll of the predator drone firing hellfire. Nice. It's actual b-roll they've got. B-roll. They probably got it from the White House. Yeah, we are such a bunch of horrible, horrible people. I apologize, rest of the world, for what we're doing, but it's all for the good. You know, it's all the... You might as well play the clip from the PBS hour, Gas for Israel, which discusses something, I don't know, we talked about what? A year and a half, two years ago? Was it episode 181 or something? It was way back there. We use it as one of our evergreens. And now I guess it's becoming news.

2:17:56 Yeah. And play it. Yeah, play it. It's a running joke here in Israel. Moses led the Jews through the desert for 40 years to the only place in the Middle East with no oil and no gas. So for all its 65 years, Israel has been almost totally dependent on fuel imports for energy. Costly and precarious for a nation surrounded by often hostile neighbors. Is it 230? But now that's all changing. Israel has at last discovered so much natural gas, it's heading towards energy independence, a gas exporter in just a few years.

2:18:32 56 miles off Israel's Mediterranean coast, the Tamar Reservoir started flowing earlier this year, with enough gas to supply Israel for decades. Another field nearby, almost twice as big, should be pumping in three to four years. Israel believes both fields lie well within its maritime borders, though the Lebanese government has challenged that. The stakes are high because there are also reports of huge oil deposits near the very same gas fields. Some call these new discoveries an economic miracle. Amazing, amazing, amazing story. And that joke about Moses? We proved that joke to be wrong.

2:19:10 It all began with Gidon Tadmor and his small Israeli company which began drilling for oil and gas onshore in 1991. Obviously we needed luck and God's help. We needed the resources to be underground. But I think that the unique contribution that we were able to bring is the human spirit and the belief. Tadmor, a lawyer by training, also needed partners with drilling experience willing to invest millions. He had a hunch there was gas in Israeli waters because Egypt had found some nearby and he sought investment from the Texas oil giants. But he says nobody bit. Afraid, Tadmor believed, of upsetting their much bigger customers, the Arabs.

2:19:57 Finally, a small Texas company with no Arab clients, today called Noble Energy, agreed to invest in the Israeli dream. And of course, advisor to Noble Energy is the one and only Bill Clinton. Yeah, isn't it funny? They don't mention the name Leviathan at all in that report Oh, they said there was a second one that was bigger and they never mentioned a name but on the screen It said Leviathan. Yes. Yeah, well, that's what changes the world ladies and gentlemen, that is how it works and That's why we have the Qataris now, you know building ten billion dollars worth of infrastructure in Texas and

CHAPTER 46 / 48 Discussion

Petroleum Economy, Global Rubblization

The hosts discuss the enduring nature of the global petroleum economy, noting that almost all modern products, from paint to plastics, are oil-based. They argue that the "rubblization" of the Middle East serves to maintain high oil prices and control over energy resources. The segment expresses skepticism toward electric vehicles like Tesla, noting they are also largely constructed using petroleum-derived glues and materials.

petroleum· oil prices· middle east· plastics· tesla

2:20:40 That's why the Panama Canal is being widened. These are big, big changes. And if the shale gas revolution in America is true, then we're going to see... Well, what are you laughing about? The whole thing is ludicrous because all the... and this has happened before. We saw this in the 70s. All the Arabs have to do if they want to just put a stop to all this is just turn up the weld, just crank out the oil by the ton and that will drop the price like overnight. But right now they're kind of basking in this $100 thing and think, well, it's pretty good to gouge everybody. Let's gouge them all we can.

2:21:18 And then if somebody gets into our business, these other guys will just pour it out. They just flood the market with cheap oil back to $40 a barrel. But that's the oil. I mean, they don't have the gas. They don't have the gas. The gas tends to be in Russia, United States and other places. Oil can be pretty cheap. Yeah, of course it can be cheap. But why? It's too much fun to watch people suffer. Yeah, well, there's that. and let everything burn. Let's make everything look the same and turn it into rubble. You don't think Lebanon is going to... We've rubblized the Middle East. And if you look at the map, please I encourage you to do this and go look at Israel and move up a little north you'll see you know where Syria and Lebanon are and then you'll see right there you know on the way to Greece. Okay Greece. You'll see Cyprus

2:22:19 And then it starts to become clear, you know? But that's not for a couple more years. But it doesn't matter because it's a Texas company anyway. We're in there. We're in! We're in! We rock! Team America! Yeah, well, it's good for us. You know, thinking about the petroleum economy and there's a... I'm watching, I'm like, from my... I'm on top of a hill where I can look down on the freeway, see all these cars going by, by the tons. And oh, there goes a Tesla, you know, electric car. That's a spit in the bucket. And it's just gasoline being burned by the... you just... this is it. We're in a petroleum economy. Nobody wants to admit it. Yeah. Every... I mean the paint in the house is made from petroleum products. The plastics are made from petroleum. Everything except wood is made from petroleum. Right. Yeah. Anyways. Well even the Tesla automobile is ultimately made from petroleum products.

CHAPTER 47 / 48 Discussion

Marfa Art Trip, Alcatraz Tours

Adam Curry mentions an upcoming road trip to Marfa, Texas, described as the "art capital of Texas." The conversation shifts to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco, where a listener known as "Ranger Craig" provides behind-the-scenes tours. Curry recounts his experience taking a private tour of the facility's restricted areas.

marfa· texas· alcatraz· san francisco· ranger craig

2:23:17 Yeah, I'm sure most of the glue, because it's pretty much glued together. Really? Are those things glued together? Yeah, pretty much. And I got into a beef with somebody, because I was talking about how maybe the riveting may fail on these things. We don't know. They haven't been on the road. Well, they're glued together. They're glued together like a modern airplane. Oh, really? Like an Airbus. Yeah, and they were defending this the gluing instead of riveting. I mean I far as I'm old-school I'd rather have a car that was riveted together, but you're not gonna see that no no I'm with you on the old school, but we're having we're taking an old-school road trip in the old-school Ford in the In the expedition we're going to Marfa tomorrow Marfa yeah, no arc capital of Texas oh

2:24:03 The art capital of Texas. Lori, one of our Obot friends has an expo there. And this is one of these places where if you live in Texas you'll never go unless there's a real reason so we're taking this as a reason. It's like people never go to Alcatraz. They live in San Francisco. And by the way, Alcatraz is fascinating. Yeah, and we have a producer who works there and who will gladly walk you around. Ranger Craig, I think is his name. Or Frank, was it Craig? I think it's Ranger Craig. He's on Twitter. If you're ever in the Bay Area, you can pretty much throw him an In The Morning and he'll hook you up.

2:24:44 Yeah, I feel stupid is a good tour. Have you done the tour with him? Oh, yeah, and he takes you at least with me He took me I took my daughter and her girlfriend the three of us and he took us on a back tour You know like like the behind-the-scenes tour so we were on his little cart You know a little electric thing driving around and we weren't with the tourists we were around all these secret routes in the back and we got to go into some facilities that are Blocked off and you got to see some stuff. You'd never get to see it was a cool Great great tour very cool. Very cool. All righty That's about all I've got for today John. I've I basically I spent a lot of time marking up the documents following the t-tip So unless you've got something to close. I've got to make it rid of a couple clips here. This is Oland

CHAPTER 48 / 48 Discussion

French Retreat on Syria, New York Times Propaganda, Outro

The show concludes with news of French President François Hollande backing away from immediate military action in Syria, opting to wait for the U.S. Congress and UN reports. The hosts critique a New York Times photo of rebels executing soldiers as a rare piece of contrary information in a sea of pro-war propaganda. The episode ends with standard sign-offs, references to FEMA regions, and a final comedic remix.

francois hollande· syria· new york times· fema regions· outro

2:25:33 from backed off yep from france he backed off he was gonna be the big oh shaking the fist and all that and apparently was badgered by the international community with a WTF are you doing and now he's a this is commentary as he kinda gives up on on siding with Obama unanimously agreed the chemical weapons had been used there was no agreement so on who was responsible for them And there was further this very strong argument about going to the UN, which the president addressed today before he left. Right, and so this is really the challenge for the president to try to find some other international support. And he has not gotten to the...

2:26:14 He has not gotten to this point now of reaching out to additional support from international players beyond the French. No, that's very clear. The French, obviously President Hollande was in Russia as well. He took a beating from the EU, clearly said you must wait for a UN resolution. At home, 64% are opposed. And when it came down to it, today President Hollande took the opportunity to step back. We are now going to wait for the decision of the Congress of the American Senate, the Chamber of Representatives, and then the report by the inspectors. And once we have looked at these elements, I will make a decision. Beautiful. We don't care how much Kerry speaks French. Although I got impressed by that. That was good. And then there was a piece of contrary information that makes you wonder what side the New York Times is on.

2:27:10 Because they ran this front page horrible picture that was obviously going to be used to sway votes in the Congress. But play the background on this picture, get a clip. And I want to refer to a picture that we saw in the New York Times this morning. Very, very disturbing images from Syria and this makes it difficult as well. This is a picture that comes from a screen grab from a video that the New York Times got a hold of yesterday. It shows rebels executing Syrian soldiers. This is obviously this is a civil war, horrible horrifying things happen in a civil war. But in terms of lawmakers and how they are making their decisions, this is playing into the questions about

2:27:53 who are american allies on the ground are there any good guys are there any good options and increasingly for many lawmakers the answer seems to be no but it's great for the ratings so everything's working out yeah yeah well alright you'll see i'm uh... i'm ready to go uh... jean-claude alright you should throw down some french from time to time si senor i gotta say that was impressed It would be cool if Obama just threw down some French, you know? Can you imagine? Well, if he can read French with the right accent, he could pull it off. He doesn't have to know what he's saying. Yeah, but the H is silent in French, so it might be a problem. It's perfect for the one Obama. For the one guy, yeah. All right, everybody. We'll be back on Thursday. I'm sure tons of stuff will be happening. I'll have a report from the road as we travel through West Texas.

2:28:59 Maybe I'll be able to bring you some Gitmo Nation news from FEMA Region 6, currently here in the capital of the drone star state in Austin, Texas. In the morning, I'm Adam Curry. And from northern Silicon Valley, otherwise known as FEMA Section 9, I think. Is that what we are? Region. Four. Region. I'll get it eventually. I'm John C. Dvorak. We'll talk to you again on Thursday, right here on No Agenda. The government totally sucks, you motherfucker. The government totally sucks. Welcome back to Friday Briefings. I'm sorry that August is over. Oh, and this one time at band camp? I don't have anything at the top today. I stuck a flute in my pussy. The government totally sucks. The best podcast in the universe. Adios, mofo. Dvorak.org slash n.