Speaker 1: From UFOs two, ghosts and government cover ups, histories real
Speaker 1: with unexplained events. You can turn back now or learn
Speaker 1: the stuff and don't want you to now. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the show. My name is Matt, and I'm known
Speaker 1: and I am Ben And most importantly, you are here
Speaker 1: listeners that makes this stuff. They don't want you to know.
Speaker 1: If you're listening to this the day it comes out,
Speaker 1: then we hope you had a happy Thanksgiving. Wait, if
Speaker 1: you're listening to this the day it comes out and
Speaker 1: you celebrate Thanksgiving, we hope you had a good one.
Speaker 1: That's correct. If it was just Thursday, we hope that
Speaker 1: worked out. Clear. Do you guys, have you ever this
Speaker 1: is just a question. Sure, have you guys ever deep
Speaker 1: fried a turkey for Thanksgiving? And do you celebrate Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1: I've been witnessed to send turkey deep frying. Yes, it
Speaker 1: was good. I mean, you know, it's a fried thing.
Speaker 1: I could you know, my god, it wasn't extra moist,
Speaker 1: just pretty boist. Oh head word. You have to be
Speaker 1: careful when in deep fry turkey, right, Yes, there's a
Speaker 1: there's a certain set of procedures and the tastiness of
Speaker 1: the turkey all inges on on that, and you don't
Speaker 1: want to throw a frozen turkey into oil that is
Speaker 1: extremely hot because you will be blind when you know fires. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Actually it's funny because you see this thing on my hand. Listeners,
Speaker 1: I'm holding up my right hand for the guys here,
Speaker 1: and there is a series of like four or five
Speaker 1: puncture wound looking things on the side between my index
Speaker 1: finger my thumb, and it looks like a bite, right, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's not right, No, it's it's actually from trying
Speaker 1: to fry a turkey cutlet because it's a grease bite.
Speaker 1: It's a grease bite by the grease. Speaking of grease, Yes,
Speaker 1: you know what they say about the squeaky wheel, right,
Speaker 1: it gets the grease. I put the agrease on its skin.
Speaker 1: Uh and or else it gets the vote. Again. Yes,
Speaker 1: today we are talking about something that correlates to our
Speaker 1: most recent video. Congress. We're talking about Congress today, ladies
Speaker 1: and gentlemen. Uh So, the first question? First things first,
Speaker 1: why why do we why do we have a Congress?
Speaker 1: I guess I can take this onet the mind. Um So,
Speaker 1: the United States federal government, there being real proper here
Speaker 1: was purposely separated in three distinct bodies entities, if you will, legislative, executive,
Speaker 1: and judicial. This is all kind of basic civics class stuff.
Speaker 1: Under this arrangement, each branch was given the ability to
Speaker 1: check and balance the other, so it's sort of like
Speaker 1: one hand watching the other, etcetera, so that no branch
Speaker 1: becomes more powerful than the other, which is called separation
Speaker 1: of powers um and it's the basis of the entire
Speaker 1: American system of government. Also applies in all cases except
Speaker 1: for one, which is the presidential pardon. Yeah, the separation
Speaker 1: of powers is extremely important when looking at how the
Speaker 1: United States functions, how it was formed, and how it
Speaker 1: was formed and how it functions, and the that that
Speaker 1: whole idea of the presidential pardon being one of the
Speaker 1: only things that is an exception to these three powers
Speaker 1: working together to try and make sure nobody has too
Speaker 1: much of it. That is a unilateral decision the president
Speaker 1: can make of for his own reasons. Yes, and the
Speaker 1: only situation. There have been some controversial ones. Uh I.
Speaker 1: You may have heard a couple of times, at least
Speaker 1: recently with the past three or four presidencies. People who
Speaker 1: are maybe acquaintances or friends, may even family who have
Speaker 1: been pardoned from not to mention that turkey that he pardoned.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's come full circles every years. I wonder
Speaker 1: is it the same turkey. I think it's just a
Speaker 1: stand in for all turkeys, you know. That might be it.
Speaker 1: That might be it. But there is one other thing
Speaker 1: that is kind of in a nebulous world outside of
Speaker 1: these these three powers working together, and that is the
Speaker 1: executive order, which interestingly is it's almost like a suggestion
Speaker 1: to the other uh powers, right to the other three
Speaker 1: that the Executive Office can say, hey, we we would
Speaker 1: like this to happen. But an executive order cannot be
Speaker 1: given to the actual citizens of the United States, like uh,
Speaker 1: President Barack Obama couldn't say X, and then each citizens
Speaker 1: within a state have to do that or each state
Speaker 1: has to do that. Yeah, it can and also cannot
Speaker 1: be UM cannot be directed at Congress or at the
Speaker 1: Supreme Court. So you can't say sign an executive order
Speaker 1: saying that now there will be eleven and a half
Speaker 1: justices and one of them will just do twenty hours
Speaker 1: a week. Yeah, so it's given. Sorry, just to clarify,
Speaker 1: it's given to an agency, right right. It's like the
Speaker 1: E P A, the D O T S something like
Speaker 1: that exactly. Uh. And the the reason that we have
Speaker 1: this complex sort of rock paper scissors system is to
Speaker 1: enforce a a kind of check and balanced idea. And
Speaker 1: what that means, which every again, as Noll said earlier,
Speaker 1: this kind of early civics stuff, it means it is
Speaker 1: meant to keep one branch from controlling everything. Uh. However,
Speaker 1: you know, I know there are a lot of people
Speaker 1: in the audience will say, well, yeah, that's good. That's
Speaker 1: a part of the beauty of our democracy. Funny story,
Speaker 1: you guys. Technically, the US is not really a democracy,
Speaker 1: is not a direct democracy. A democracy originally is a
Speaker 1: form of government where people decide policy matters directly. So
Speaker 1: every time the US would make a decision, all all
Speaker 1: three hundred what thirty plus million of US, we get
Speaker 1: together and say, well, you know, I guess um, we
Speaker 1: got this bill here about standardizing the size for straws,
Speaker 1: and uh, I feel like they should be a democracy
Speaker 1: like that, or a pure democracy. Even some people call
Speaker 1: it a dramatic direct democracy. That may be something that
Speaker 1: you remember hearing about when the Occupy Wall Street protests
Speaker 1: were happening, and you would actually have groups of people
Speaker 1: who would make proclamations, but they would take turns. Did
Speaker 1: you guys ever go down to one of those. It
Speaker 1: was fascinating to see it working at least somewhat working
Speaker 1: on principle, But I cannot imagine that functioning on, you know,
Speaker 1: with three hundreds something million people trying to do this right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's uh. And that's what the founding fathers of the
Speaker 1: US thought as well. But then if we're not a
Speaker 1: true democracy, what kind of government are we? Who is
Speaker 1: this tiny scamp? Well, I'll never mind. I'll answer your question, lad.
Speaker 1: The US is technically speaking a wee public because what
Speaker 1: we do is we vote or other people to go
Speaker 1: and be our representatives, right to have our opinions. So
Speaker 1: we'll say, okay, this person represents a trapload of people
Speaker 1: in for months. Yeah, but they're all kind of the same, right,
Speaker 1: so it makes sense that one person would represent them. Sure. Yes, Uh,
Speaker 1: if you live in the US and you vote, you're
Speaker 1: only really voting for that representative on and we talked
Speaker 1: about how you'd have to vote for every decision of policy.
Speaker 1: The founding fathers thought that democracy direct democracy was a
Speaker 1: terrible idea. Instability, crime, dogs and cats sleeping together, revolutions,
Speaker 1: active property. That is one of the biggest problems that
Speaker 1: could happen. I mean, especially if gosh, it's so horrible
Speaker 1: to even think about, but the disparities in levels of
Speaker 1: education and understanding throughout humans, I mean, mob rule is terrifying. No,
Speaker 1: I think we take for granted that that we have
Speaker 1: not really had to experience too much of that. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: you're right, we we really do. I don't think I've
Speaker 1: experienced mob rule in any situation. I mean, there's there's
Speaker 1: like a going to a concert, for example, where you
Speaker 1: can let this picture going to a concert and get
Speaker 1: swept up in a mosh pit. You're not into it
Speaker 1: at all, but you just you kind of have to
Speaker 1: just go limp and go along for the right. That's
Speaker 1: probably a simple version of what mob ruled. And then yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good, that's good. And then there's reddit, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: shots fired. Yeah, that's more of circle jerk actions. So
Speaker 1: we could say, if we had an adjective, we could
Speaker 1: call some different kind of democracy, maybe a representative democracy,
Speaker 1: because we elect representatives and those are the people that
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about today. Interestingly enough, though, It
Speaker 1: could also be called a constitutional democracy because the Supreme Court,
Speaker 1: according to the Constitution, appointed for life, not elected, never fired,
Speaker 1: say whatever they want, and it's a law that's a
Speaker 1: little weird. I mean, history is going to look back
Speaker 1: on that as at the very best to compromise. So,
Speaker 1: uh so, how did this all work out? These people
Speaker 1: that we you know today? Democracy is often used to
Speaker 1: describe a government that gets its power from the people
Speaker 1: and is accountable to those people when it comes to
Speaker 1: use of the power. And if that's the thing, right,
Speaker 1: if the folks that we're all sending to washing each election,
Speaker 1: our are our conduit to the hallowed halls of power,
Speaker 1: how's it working out? How do people feel about Congress? Well,
Speaker 1: then people hate them, that's true. Here's a good stat
Speaker 1: I love this with every ounce of my being. Um So.
Speaker 1: According to five thirty eight dot com in public policy polling,
Speaker 1: in Congress held a staggering approval rating. Now, if you're
Speaker 1: not into polls, that might just kind of roll right
Speaker 1: off you. What does that even mean? Here are some
Speaker 1: things with a higher rating. One jar jar banks, two
Speaker 1: dog poop, three traffic jams, four cockroaches, five completely unfair
Speaker 1: in my opinion Brussels Sprouts. I love Brussels, huge fan
Speaker 1: of Brussels Sprouts and six Nickelback. And you know, I'm
Speaker 1: almost tired of ragging on Nickelback. I think it's it's gotten.
Speaker 1: They've really been through a lot. They really have. Really,
Speaker 1: guys really didn't No one's making me listen to their music.
Speaker 1: Just look at this photograph. Look how sad the singer
Speaker 1: of nickel Back looks. I know, I feel like Sarah
Speaker 1: mclachman needs they come in on the side of that photograph.
Speaker 1: I was at a Halloween party in two thousand thirteen
Speaker 1: and there was a house mix of music that was
Speaker 1: going on, and there was a tiny little computer in
Speaker 1: one of the corners, uh in this living room area
Speaker 1: that was playing the mix, and Chandler Are, a co worker,
Speaker 1: would go over and throw a Nickelback song in the mix,
Speaker 1: and the owner of the house got so angry, and
Speaker 1: not in a jokingly like funny, ha ha, that's funny
Speaker 1: you're doing that. He was so pissed because he did
Speaker 1: it four or five times after the dude, I've never
Speaker 1: seen someone so upset about some music. And again, this
Speaker 1: guy probably prefers Nickelback to yeah, you know. And also
Speaker 1: it's strange because a lot of people don't participate in voting. Uh,
Speaker 1: every four years, people will turn out to vote for
Speaker 1: the president. However that is not that's not playing the
Speaker 1: game to the full set of rules. Right. You're supposed
Speaker 1: to vote for the person who is supposed to represent you.
Speaker 1: However a lot of people don't do that, so with it,
Speaker 1: so there is a little bit of irony in there.
Speaker 1: You know, would would people vote for Brussels sprouts? I
Speaker 1: think I would. I think they're tasty, especially if you
Speaker 1: pair them with a little honey honey preserves. So we'd
Speaker 1: like to talk about a little bit today is uh,
Speaker 1: why people often don't participate or feel like it's useless
Speaker 1: to vote, and why why Congress is so very very unpopular.
Speaker 1: So what is it? Guys? What don't people like about Congress?
Speaker 1: You're right, it is crazy that that that is our
Speaker 1: real power as a citizen at three citizens of the
Speaker 1: United States right here, and you're listening. If your sitisant,
Speaker 1: I mean, that is our at least on paper, that
Speaker 1: is our power. It's a very important right on paper.
Speaker 1: Absolutely well. One of the reasons that people don't vote
Speaker 1: and for a while there, I didn't vote is apathy
Speaker 1: because it feels like it doesn't matter, especially if you
Speaker 1: live in an area the way votes are counted, if
Speaker 1: you live in an area that is predominantly one way
Speaker 1: or the other way because we have a two party system,
Speaker 1: or if it's mander Yeah, yeah, jerrymandering is a huge issue.
Speaker 1: It honestly doesn't matter what my opinion is if I
Speaker 1: don't fall in with the majority. I mean, we live
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, which by all accounts is, you know,
Speaker 1: something of a cultural hub. There's a lot of you know,
Speaker 1: film activity that goes on here, a lot of music,
Speaker 1: a lot of interesting culture. But it is a sliver
Speaker 1: of the overall, you know, makeup of of Georgia, and
Speaker 1: we can vote to we're blue in the face, and
Speaker 1: it's not really gonna keep things from turning red. Well yeah, well,
Speaker 1: but that again, it doesn't really matter what side drawing,
Speaker 1: because you could say the same thing about certain areas
Speaker 1: in New York, right. I mean, it's just like and
Speaker 1: from the opposite direction, of course. But I think that
Speaker 1: for me, at least in my experience, and for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, I know, that feeling of apathy that
Speaker 1: you can't actually do anything in it. It's a meaningless
Speaker 1: power not personally agree that. That is definitely a factor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then another thing I think that a lot of
Speaker 1: people don't like about Congress, if we're talking about the
Speaker 1: average voter, is that here's a disconnected it doesn't seem representative,
Speaker 1: you know, like the average age. Remember the House of
Speaker 1: Representatives is around fifty seven. And for the vast majority
Speaker 1: of our listeners, many members of the House of Representatives
Speaker 1: and Congress are going to be, uh, financially in a
Speaker 1: much different place. Was that that you mentioned about the
Speaker 1: the income of a member of Congress. Yes, they're They're
Speaker 1: put in the fifth percentile, I believe, of all incomes
Speaker 1: inside the United States. And that's just what they get
Speaker 1: paid for being a member of Congress and for or
Speaker 1: you know, in the Senate in particular. Isn't that about
Speaker 1: what the president makes? I think the president makes about
Speaker 1: four thousand year because I just have this memory if
Speaker 1: when from when I was a kid and my mom
Speaker 1: told me how much politicians made, and I remember thinking
Speaker 1: that doesn't seem much, you know, like I would think
Speaker 1: they'd be jillionaires. Well turns out well, and the thing
Speaker 1: is that there are a lot of benefits. Benefits got
Speaker 1: a lot of opportunities to become Yeah, especially then if
Speaker 1: you're on the board of a couple of things, you know.
Speaker 1: I mean there's I believe there's certain restrictions on some
Speaker 1: of that, but as we're going to find out a
Speaker 1: little later, there are ways around it, which I think
Speaker 1: brings us to another point about why that sort of
Speaker 1: related to the apathy about why people are distrustful of
Speaker 1: Congress is there's I think a pretty palpable sense that
Speaker 1: these folks aren't necessarily in it for the greater good.
Speaker 1: They're in it for their quote unquote constituents, and they're
Speaker 1: in it for their special interests, you know, and kind
Speaker 1: of like for you know, to um propel their financial
Speaker 1: you know, interests, or their you know, or their career,
Speaker 1: their quest for power, their consultancy. So the yeah, this
Speaker 1: this brings us to some disquiet things, Right, who are
Speaker 1: the true constituents. One thing that we've joked about on
Speaker 1: this show before is you know how race car drivers
Speaker 1: wear sponsorship patches. That would be great if elected representatives
Speaker 1: had to wear those two you know, I remember this, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a great idea. I'm I am less and less
Speaker 1: jovial about it as we go on, because it seems
Speaker 1: like a better and better idea, just fantastic, you know. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: but the way a just this is my frame of reference.
Speaker 1: A UFC fighter or an m M A fighter has
Speaker 1: a big banner that has all their things on it.
Speaker 1: If they when they go and make a speech, you
Speaker 1: just had to be behind them at all times. Yeah,
Speaker 1: what's wrong about that? They have to really go fine
Speaker 1: with the print on something. So maybe just make a
Speaker 1: bigger banner, right, So, yeah, maybe just make a bigger banner.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the problem with this country, right, ladies. And
Speaker 1: you can create jobs doing that. I'm just saying that's true.
Speaker 1: I was just thinking about graphic designers who would be
Speaker 1: working on that. Here's the thing though, with Congress. A
Speaker 1: lot of the rank and file voters amongst uh, you know,
Speaker 1: that's a group that we put ourselves amongst. A lot
Speaker 1: of the rank and file voters see Congress as somewhat
Speaker 1: above the law. And this came to head with an
Speaker 1: insider trading scandal. For a long time, insider trading was
Speaker 1: just fine with Congress. Well, yeah, when you could keep
Speaker 1: it quiet and nobody's really talking about it. The with
Speaker 1: the nature of lobbying, you've always got hand holding, right,
Speaker 1: and negotiations going on between the congressional body, and it's
Speaker 1: just a hot tip, right, maybe I got a hot tip.
Speaker 1: But but it becomes a problem then because when we're
Speaker 1: talking about constituencies, then are they really looking after the
Speaker 1: people they represent? Are they're looking after the people the
Speaker 1: hand that is giving them some money. And that's how
Speaker 1: a lot of unfortunately, that's how a lot of voters
Speaker 1: see it. Without knowing every single congress person, I can't
Speaker 1: I say, I can't really speak to it, but it
Speaker 1: is a popular and widespread opinion that these representatives or
Speaker 1: these elected officials are not representing the people so much
Speaker 1: as the powers. And we came. We we saw this
Speaker 1: really great thing, the intercept published back in what may
Speaker 1: or something this year. UH. You may recall that, you
Speaker 1: may recall that a few years ago, UH Congress got
Speaker 1: in trouble with insider trading stuff that we were mentioning. However,
Speaker 1: H lawyers last summer filed a brief claiming that an
Speaker 1: SEC Security Exchanges Commission investigation of insider trading had to
Speaker 1: be blocked on principle because lawmakers and their staff are
Speaker 1: constitutionally protected from such inquiries given the nature of their work,
Speaker 1: because they are constantly in contact with these lobbying groups.
Speaker 1: And remember that thing about checks and balances was also
Speaker 1: because insider trading probes would violate the separation of powers
Speaker 1: between the legislative and executive branch. It seems so counterintuitive
Speaker 1: to me. It just seems like it's a rule to
Speaker 1: keep there from having to be any rules. But there
Speaker 1: was this thing called the Stock Act in two thousand
Speaker 1: twelve that was passed by Congress, and it was it
Speaker 1: meant to try and enforce some of these things right,
Speaker 1: to stop insider trading. However, at the moment that that
Speaker 1: that it actually started being acted upon, was like whoa, whoa, whoa,
Speaker 1: whall hold on, guys, we come on, now, come on now,
Speaker 1: we're Congress. So I was thinking, instead of doing an
Speaker 1: ad today, you guys, could I tell you a horrible,
Speaker 1: a horrible joke that I thought I wrote that you
Speaker 1: thought you wrote, I'll explain. Okay, knock, knock, who's there? Two? Two? Actually, guys,
Speaker 1: it's to whom you son of a I'm sorry, it's
Speaker 1: such a terrible joke. Uh, and it has it has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with what we're talking about. It's just
Speaker 1: a little bit of levity there in place of uh
Speaker 1: an ad until we hear back from what was that?
Speaker 1: What was that other group called Illumination Global Unlimited. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like I'd like to refer to them as I gu Yeah,
Speaker 1: well we'll talk about it later. I don't want to
Speaker 1: talk af air kind of thing. Okay, Yeah, moving on.
Speaker 1: Here's where it gets crazy because, as you might have guest,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, Congress is the subject of a lot
Speaker 1: of conspiracy theories, some big, some small, some I think
Speaker 1: completely true, and then some that are kind of wild
Speaker 1: and then suddenly there or somewhere in between. Yah. And
Speaker 1: these are apart from the general stories of corruption that
Speaker 1: you'll hear on a micro and macro scale all across
Speaker 1: the internet. Oh yeah, we're talking about stuff like JFK.
Speaker 1: Ladies and gentleman John F. Kennedy. Uh and the the
Speaker 1: How Select Committee on Assassinations, Right, the h s c
Speaker 1: A investigated both Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Big deal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's something that we've talked about for on numerous episodes,
Speaker 1: and it's a fascinating time when those things were when
Speaker 1: the House Committee gosh, what is it, the Select Committee
Speaker 1: Committee on Assassinations? Okay, yeah, when they were doing their thing,
Speaker 1: just because for people who are reading along at the time,
Speaker 1: again not me eight three over here, Um, they you're
Speaker 1: following along with this news and it just seems like
Speaker 1: there is information that or you're not getting all of
Speaker 1: the infra nation right, yes, or that it is changing.
Speaker 1: And yeah. So the h s c A actually met
Speaker 1: from nineteen seventy six to nine seventy eight, and then
Speaker 1: finally in seventy nine issued his final report that concluded
Speaker 1: that Kennedy was probably assassinated by the mafia and that
Speaker 1: the CIA was lacking in its investigation, right, Yeah, that
Speaker 1: the CIA did not actually in assist even in the
Speaker 1: limited role they were required to assist in and a
Speaker 1: lot of people had the here's the thing. So they
Speaker 1: did say that they believed there was a conspiracy to
Speaker 1: assassinate John F. Kennedy. They said that they did not
Speaker 1: think any anti Castro groups or necessarily internal groups were involved.
Speaker 1: They couldn't find out who Oswald was connected to. And
Speaker 1: he's got some very interesting adventures before that. Before that
Speaker 1: year when he forms the assassinations. We're traveling, yes, some
Speaker 1: very strange traveling, and many people have studied this or
Speaker 1: looked at it in either an attempt to prove their
Speaker 1: pre existing opinion or in an attempt to find out
Speaker 1: what actually happened. So this is one of the crown jewels.
Speaker 1: I would argue of the reason that historically people don't
Speaker 1: necessarily trust Congress, regardless of what political stripe you like
Speaker 1: to paint yourself with, regardless of your philosophical differences on
Speaker 1: the nature of federalism, etcetera. Uh, you know, if you
Speaker 1: get the idea that your own government is is shooting
Speaker 1: your heroes, yeah, we're going to trust them. Strangely enough, though,
Speaker 1: in this instance, this is the House of Representatives saying that, hey,
Speaker 1: your government is like may have had a hand in this,
Speaker 1: or at least said there was a conspiracy. Right they didn't.
Speaker 1: They don't give you anything. Well in the next the
Speaker 1: next thing is what I think makes the Congress seem
Speaker 1: even less trustworthy, right, Yes, because this the report in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy nine, It's not only consisted of the full report,
Speaker 1: but also twelve volumes of appendencies on both assassinations and uh,
Speaker 1: and that was published by Congress. I did have one
Speaker 1: quick question. I just was wondering if either of you
Speaker 1: know how many pages this report was. I'm just always
Speaker 1: kind of amazed at how massive some of these official
Speaker 1: documents are. And you know, when you think about how
Speaker 1: easy it is to kind of slide things in there
Speaker 1: when there's that much just absurd overload of information. Interesting
Speaker 1: that you say that, Um, they say slide slide in
Speaker 1: there because it's a it's about one page, uh simal sided,
Speaker 1: so they can slide it underdoors. It's twelve twelve twelve volumes,
Speaker 1: and then they had a single volume summary report. So
Speaker 1: without getting an exact page count for you, it's, uh,
Speaker 1: it's a dictionary, got it. You know, it's huge. Um,
Speaker 1: And I would say that in a lot of people
Speaker 1: probably didn't read the whole thing, or got someone to
Speaker 1: read it for them, or got someone to read them
Speaker 1: for them, which is pretty common. There. What I was
Speaker 1: gonna finish with with you, however, just to throw this
Speaker 1: back in just mentioning that there are there's still a
Speaker 1: lot of information that we that exists, that was found
Speaker 1: during this House Select Committee on Assassinations that is still
Speaker 1: locked away and it will be released if the sitting
Speaker 1: president decides that it will be released, and it's this
Speaker 1: date that will just continually be pushed back until the
Speaker 1: president decides that, hey, it can come out this year.
Speaker 1: How does that work? I mean, if it doesn't occur
Speaker 1: to a president to even consider it, someone just like
Speaker 1: put in front of him and say, hey, how about
Speaker 1: this thing. He's like, yeah, you know, let's keep pushing
Speaker 1: it all right, Well, what I'm feeling spunky today, Let's
Speaker 1: let's let's go ahead and let it out there. I
Speaker 1: would say it's a highly calculated decision because you know,
Speaker 1: some people know what's included in those documents, and depending
Speaker 1: on how it's going to affect things based presidents since
Speaker 1: this commission, based on what's going on politically, you know, um, strategically. Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably not the best idea to let this album. Same
Speaker 1: thing with aliens. Dude, here it is, says Matt Sprain. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's strange because we we talked a little bit
Speaker 1: about this, and without going too far into a JFK
Speaker 1: episode or something, Robert Blakely, who was the chief counsel
Speaker 1: of the committee, uh changed some of his views and
Speaker 1: in a two thousand three interview, he is he strongly
Speaker 1: comes against the CIA and says that I think all
Speaker 1: of their statements and representations are suspect, and I think
Speaker 1: the CIA was obstructing justice. And I'm just gonna read
Speaker 1: this quote if I can, and I no longer believe
Speaker 1: that we were able to conduct an appropriate investigation of
Speaker 1: the agency and its relationship to Oswald. We now know
Speaker 1: that the agency withheld from the Warren Commission the CIA
Speaker 1: mafia plots they killed Castro. Had the Commission known of
Speaker 1: the plots that would have followed a different path of
Speaker 1: in its investigation, the agency unilaterally deprived the Commission of
Speaker 1: a chance to obtain the full truth, which will now
Speaker 1: never be known. Jeez. So I don't want to go
Speaker 1: like with the rest of the quote. But Congress was
Speaker 1: fighting to Congress is an entity fighting itself, you know,
Speaker 1: because when when we talk about these reports and this
Speaker 1: secrecy and the secret interpretations of laws and stuff, there
Speaker 1: are a lot of people in Congress who are fighting
Speaker 1: against it and saying, hey, this is ridiculous. How can
Speaker 1: we hold people, um now, how can we hold people
Speaker 1: culpable for a thing that is not like they're not
Speaker 1: allowed to know about that's a bizarre thing, and it
Speaker 1: brings us to one of the last points. So I
Speaker 1: want to go on to long uh, mass surveillance, mass surveillance,
Speaker 1: because when it's decided that mass surveillance can happen, guess
Speaker 1: who makes those decisions? Guys, No, I wish I wish
Speaker 1: you was. Well, no, no, I don't who makes who
Speaker 1: makes those decisions? I gonna have to let go of
Speaker 1: this particular delusion of grandeur. Well, the laws, obviously are
Speaker 1: are decided by the Senate and by the well, by
Speaker 1: the House of Representatives and then the Senate, And it's
Speaker 1: one of those things where these are our representatives deciding
Speaker 1: whether or not our stuff is private, truly private or not.
Speaker 1: And this gets into a huge conversation about hey, Ben,
Speaker 1: what's the future of privacy? Yeah? Are you doing? I mean,
Speaker 1: we can't. I think we have several times I feel
Speaker 1: about it. Yeah, Yeah, it's it's a strange and horrible
Speaker 1: thing to think about how quickly privacy is just not
Speaker 1: going to exist very very soon, and how how recent
Speaker 1: it was historically. I would say go back to I
Speaker 1: think it was wasn't our conversation about the deep Web
Speaker 1: where we really got into some of that stuff. That
Speaker 1: might be a really good episode to listen to if
Speaker 1: you're interested in this. M agreed. I have a question
Speaker 1: for you guys. Before we closed this out, we did
Speaker 1: have another story about someone in Congress being obsessed with
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories, which which we might have to hold for
Speaker 1: a later day. There were just a lot of searches
Speaker 1: for it. Uh. But I have a question for you guys.
Speaker 1: All right, m h would you like to hear a
Speaker 1: laundry list of things your congress person won't tell you?
Speaker 1: It was up the show? Okay, I found this as
Speaker 1: we were as we were going in. All right, so
Speaker 1: this is by a couple of former senators in former
Speaker 1: House reps. In many cases, lobbyists write the bills. Yes,
Speaker 1: we've heard this right, five or ten lobbyists per congress
Speaker 1: person for a high profile issue. And then let's see,
Speaker 1: most of the staffers on the hill are in their
Speaker 1: early to mid twenties. Why is that? I guess that
Speaker 1: the people who will work the hours is that interns interns. Yes. Uh.
Speaker 1: And then as soon as someone gets to Washington, whether
Speaker 1: a Republican or Democrat, their party pulls them into a
Speaker 1: retreat and apparently tries their best to brainwash them, like
Speaker 1: all progresses built on beating the other party. Yeah, party lines, man,
Speaker 1: And you can see that happening and getting increasingly increasingly
Speaker 1: more so over the years. And your calls and emails
Speaker 1: do matter, probably more than you think. Every one of
Speaker 1: them is assigned to a database, and or there's a
Speaker 1: database that tracks everyone rather and then when somebody's going
Speaker 1: out to vote, they'll ask for that number of how
Speaker 1: many people are for it or again it um And
Speaker 1: let's see, it's against ethics regulations to make fundraising calls
Speaker 1: from a congressional office, so a lot of people go
Speaker 1: to another office just down the street. You know, I've seen,
Speaker 1: I have seen when we were in d C. Ben,
Speaker 1: do you remember seeing all of the other official offices
Speaker 1: for congressmen but not officially congressional offices, right, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: And it's it's weird because there's so much there's so
Speaker 1: much stuff going on that is accepted as traditionally the
Speaker 1: rule of thumb, but is not necessarily in an in
Speaker 1: an explicit written form in a legal document anyway. Those
Speaker 1: are just a few things that I thought were important
Speaker 1: to know. I just want to say, I'm just imagining. Okay,
Speaker 1: so we already know that a huge amount of time
Speaker 1: for any elected official is spent campaigning for the next
Speaker 1: time they have to come up for election, right right,
Speaker 1: And now I'm just imagining all of all of our
Speaker 1: elected officials having to leave the office like they have
Speaker 1: to go. It would be like taking a smoke break
Speaker 1: and having to walk, you know, to another building or something.
Speaker 1: But every time when an election season comes around, instead
Speaker 1: of focusing on what their representatives want or need to
Speaker 1: be passed, they're just in the other office doing their thing.
Speaker 1: But I guess they can do congressional stuff from that office,
Speaker 1: right Yeah. And then they're also it's true, and they're
Speaker 1: also um, they're also members of Congress who are just
Speaker 1: busting their humps to make a positive change or to
Speaker 1: accurately represent their constituents, by which I mean the people
Speaker 1: who voted them into office. And then if you have
Speaker 1: a list of those people, we would love to hear it. Well.
Speaker 1: I also think it's just it's easy to beat up Congress.
Speaker 1: You're right, it's an easy target. It's an easy target. Also,
Speaker 1: it's uh for the right person. It's it's a tremendous
Speaker 1: responsibility and it's a tremendous opportunity. But are you what's that?
Speaker 1: Are you? Oh? I would never get elected. You know that.
Speaker 1: I don't know get elected. I don't know. I know
Speaker 1: would get elected. I don't know if I would get
Speaker 1: elected for you. Yeah, I think a lot of people
Speaker 1: would vote for just to watch the world burn. See
Speaker 1: what you do up there? Man, Yeah, that'll be my
Speaker 1: that'll be my slogan. Uh, let's let's wing it right
Speaker 1: if you let's happens. I can I can imagine you
Speaker 1: being in a public office. I'm not sure how to
Speaker 1: feel about that statement now, No, like not. I think
Speaker 1: you're extremely diplomatic, and I think you could actually work
Speaker 1: with people. I think you could get your way been.
Speaker 1: I think you couldn't you could unite the aisle. You
Speaker 1: way too nice. Here's what we do, here's what we do. Okay,
Speaker 1: So I'll agree to run for office if one of
Speaker 1: you guys will help me out and run for the
Speaker 1: same office in the opposing party. Okay, so we can
Speaker 1: still get whatever we want. I'll be I'll be the craziest.
Speaker 1: Well know that it doesn't matter who gets elected, man,
Speaker 1: we can still keep what we were going to do
Speaker 1: and the other ones in the right hand. Either way,
Speaker 1: it's like donating to both parties. Okay, alright, that's what
Speaker 1: the Koch brothers do, right, it is I think it
Speaker 1: is George. Does George Soros do that? Or just pretty sure?
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's I don't know what it's like.
Speaker 1: I haven't been in that rarefied air yet. It's like
Speaker 1: any bet, right, I mean, you got a bet a
Speaker 1: little over here, a little over there. The payoff it's
Speaker 1: going to make up the difference, you know. I think
Speaker 1: you're on the right track. Yeah, for that air up there.
Speaker 1: You know, I've I've never gambled in like a casino.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's good. It's done like I've done Russian roulay,
Speaker 1: you know, just a lot. All right. You said you
Speaker 1: ran a Russian relay. I did that, ran a Russian
Speaker 1: relay and I don't speak Russian. So it was hilarious.
Speaker 1: Have been drinky. It was tough. It was tough because
Speaker 1: we're gonna get out of here. Nol. You've been kinda
Speaker 1: you've been kind of quiet too. Do you want to
Speaker 1: have the final word? Oh? Real quick, you guys already
Speaker 1: know this. We say it every time. We'll just cut
Speaker 1: past the small talk, Facebook, Twitter, conspiracy stuff. We have
Speaker 1: a website stuff they want you to know what it's
Speaker 1: where you can see all our podcasts. The last word
Speaker 1: goes to you, Mr Brown. I guess I would just
Speaker 1: you know, I would encourage people to cut through the
Speaker 1: apathy and try to do some research and figure out
Speaker 1: what issues are the are most important to you, and
Speaker 1: you know, cast your vote accordingly. Just be part of
Speaker 1: the process if you can. I mean, I understand that
Speaker 1: it's it seems futile at times, and I feel the
Speaker 1: same way. But we you know, if you look at
Speaker 1: what's going on in other parts of the world, we
Speaker 1: are very, very lucky to be in a situation where
Speaker 1: we even have the guys of any kind of voice.
Speaker 1: So take that for what it's worth. Excellent. Well, it's
Speaker 1: very optimistic, you know, And that is a pretty good
Speaker 1: way to end the episode. Uh, I think I think
Speaker 1: we're done. Hey, Matt, one less thing. If somebody has
Speaker 1: an idea for an upcoming topic, or they want to
Speaker 1: react to this or let us know where their opinion
Speaker 1: of Congress and they don't like all that social media rigamarole. Uh,
Speaker 1: where should they send the email? So what you do,
Speaker 1: go into the nearest bathroom you can find, look directly
Speaker 1: into your eyes in the mirror, and then just whisperate,
Speaker 1: were you really quietly conspiracy at house Don't Works dot
Speaker 1: com From more on this topic, another unexplained phenomena, visit
Speaker 1: YouTube dot com slash conspiracy Stuff. You can also get
Speaker 1: in touch on Twitter at the handle at conspiracy stuff.