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Speaker 1: From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is

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Speaker 1: riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or

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Speaker 1: learn the stuff they don't want you to know. A

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Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt,

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Speaker 2: my name is Nol.

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Speaker 3: They call be Ben. We're joined as always with our

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Speaker 3: super producer Dylan the Tennessee pal Fagan. Most importantly, you

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Speaker 3: are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff

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Speaker 3: they don't want you to know. Ed, we are pleased

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Speaker 3: as punch that you are joining us tonight, folks. This

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Speaker 3: is going to be an exploration of memes, an exploration

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Speaker 3: of conspiracies, and the just the ridiculous, surreal situation of

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Speaker 3: something called doge.

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Speaker 4: That's the stuff they Doze wants you to know.

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Speaker 3: We're gonna play a bit of doge ball as we're

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Speaker 3: talking off air. Okay, Department of Government Efficiency, we've heard

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Speaker 3: of it.

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Speaker 4: I love it when you like walk backwards into the acronym,

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Speaker 4: you know.

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Speaker 3: A backronym that's weird for it?

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Speaker 4: Is that really true? Yeah? Yeah, If it's not, then

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Speaker 4: you've coined it, and I do I doff my cap

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Speaker 4: to you, sir, oh man.

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Speaker 3: It's a whole thing. Uh, let's get right into it, guys.

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Speaker 3: Here are the facts. Despite the name, the Department of

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Speaker 3: Government Efficiency is not an official department.

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Speaker 4: But it has department in the name.

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Speaker 3: Man, true department in the name. And what do we

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Speaker 3: always say about innocuous names.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, isn't it of another service that did exist.

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Speaker 3: Mm hmmm in twenty fourteen. Yeah, this thing technically is

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Speaker 3: an initial from the second Trump administration. Look at it

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Speaker 3: on paper. The idea is DOZE will modernize government. It

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Speaker 3: Doze will reduce harmful spending and financial waste, and it

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Speaker 3: will at the same time cut all those pesky regulations

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Speaker 3: and fraud getting waste and fraud keeps. Yeah, maximize productivity. Right,

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Speaker 3: that doesn't sound too bad. We got to introduce one

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Speaker 3: of our first players here. Doze is the brainchild of

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Speaker 3: Ellen Musk. This guy was the largest known individual donor

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Speaker 3: to the twenty twenty four US election cycle, more than

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Speaker 3: two hundred and ninety million dollars.

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Speaker 4: This guy is fine. That seems fine.

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Speaker 3: I mean, we could have we could have done cool stuff.

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Speaker 4: It just seems interesting that the guy that you know

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Speaker 4: spent all that money on the election is the one

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Speaker 4: that then gets to single handedly gut the government.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's going to get to one of the theories

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Speaker 2: they're going to put forward today.

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Speaker 4: About the.

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Speaker 2: The real meaning and goals of doge as it was

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Speaker 2: thought about and then implemented.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, nailed it, okay.

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Speaker 3: Doge is technically the result of an executive order EO

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Speaker 3: one four one five eight, which is really a rebranding

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Speaker 3: of another thing. Also, starting an initiative like this via

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Speaker 3: an executive order means that you're already starting in a

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Speaker 3: pretty sticky place with Congress, because they're super into laws

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Speaker 3: and institutions, in theory, in theory on paper. Yes, come

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Speaker 3: election time, everybody's a good boy. Doge is to our

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Speaker 3: earlier point there, no. Doge is a purposeful backronym. A

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Speaker 3: backronym is where you take an exisiting word and then

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Speaker 3: turn it into an acronym.

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Speaker 4: Right an existing word. Also, you can refer to a

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Speaker 4: cute pupper, a doggo, a little doge. It also refers

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Speaker 4: to a cryptocurrency that was I believe named after the

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Speaker 4: shiba enu meme.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, kabosu kubasu. I don't know how to say the

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Speaker 2: actual name of the cute little doge.

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Speaker 4: I don't know that I really was in on the

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Speaker 4: original Doge or what you're talking about. Can you describe it?

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Speaker 3: Very? Wow much dog much dog? Oh, heck right, Doge.

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Speaker 3: It's a it's an adorable sheba eud sometimes doing a

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Speaker 3: very excited face. Oh, sometimes doing a very like side

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Speaker 3: eye face.

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Speaker 4: Of course I know this guy. Yeah, yeah, it's very

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Speaker 4: You've seen his word too many situations. So it is

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Speaker 4: a bit of a side eye sort of a surprised look.

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Speaker 4: But also depending on the text that you accompany it with,

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Speaker 4: could be the side eye situation.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, like a knowing look.

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Speaker 3: The things left unsaid Doge. We also know that the

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Speaker 3: real name for Doge is, to your earlier point, Matt,

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Speaker 3: the US Digital Service. This was created by the Obama

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Speaker 3: administration President Barack Obama on August eleventh, twenty fourteen. So Doge,

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Speaker 3: as it's being sold to you in the media now,

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Speaker 3: is not an original thought. It is a rebranding, or,

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Speaker 3: according to critics, it is a weaponization of an existing thing.

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Speaker 2: Yes, and interestingly enough, the department or the digital service

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Speaker 2: in this thing that was created in twenty fourteen is

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Speaker 2: a direct result of the botched healthcare dot gov launch.

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Speaker 4: Right, that was such a nightmare.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So back then they went, ooh, we should probably

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Speaker 2: get better at websites and you know, digital technology and

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Speaker 2: stuff as a government. So that's what this thing was

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Speaker 2: supposed to do. It's it was designed in twenty fourteen

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Speaker 2: to just do a better job on the internet basically.

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Speaker 3: And I want to take a moment to that excellent point.

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Speaker 3: I want to take a moment and just congratulate all

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Speaker 3: of us for being able to talk so much valid

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Speaker 3: trash about this government and not get black backed.

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Speaker 2: Bye for now, for now.

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Speaker 4: Interestingly enough, it's described on the Obama White House dot

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Speaker 4: archives dot org site as a startup at the White

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Speaker 4: Holes that pairs the country's top technology talent with the

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Speaker 4: best public servants to improve the usefulness and reliability of

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Speaker 4: the country's most important digital services.

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Speaker 3: And then everybody clapped.

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Speaker 2: Well, hey, I hear what you're saying, Ben, But I

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Speaker 2: also think that's kind of a great thing. I think

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Speaker 2: maybe we've all over the course of our years, had

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Speaker 2: to do some thing for either a local government, state government,

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Speaker 2: or the federal government online and it was just through

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Speaker 2: some web portal that was clearly developed twenty years.

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Speaker 3: For geo cities style, you know, construction, add in regulatory capture.

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Speaker 3: Like the entire reason that it is difficult to pay

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Speaker 3: your taxes is do it's because there is a industry

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Speaker 3: of middlemen. Right Look, the private public thing, as you

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Speaker 3: were pointing out there and all the private public thing

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Speaker 3: is always going to come back to bite you in

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Speaker 3: the butt as a civilization right now, Alon Musk his

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Speaker 3: role with Doge is a little murky. We were talking

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Speaker 3: about this off air. There are numerous clips memes that

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Speaker 3: went viral of the guy holding a chainsaw or standing

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Speaker 3: next to the current President of the United States in

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Speaker 3: the Oval office while they talked about Doge and wearing

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Speaker 3: multiple hats, messing with his spinners, his kid, I think stemming.

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Speaker 3: I wonder if the kid picks his nose anyway?

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Speaker 2: They all do? We all do? We all did?

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Speaker 4: What was the thing that the kid mauthed at Trump

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Speaker 4: like you're a horrible person or I hate you, or

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Speaker 4: you don't know anything. It was something very sinister like that.

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Speaker 2: We talked about it just looking at that picture though, guys,

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Speaker 2: I mean, we've often brought back the WWE imagery of

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Speaker 2: it all, you know, relating to the recent politics in

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Speaker 2: the US and that image that you're referencing Ben. I'm

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Speaker 2: looking at it. It's posted on an MPR finger and oh,

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Speaker 2: it's like an America chainsaw.

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Speaker 3: It's we got a little idiocracy, to be honest, it's

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Speaker 3: really quickly.

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Speaker 4: I'm just so excited I had to share. I am

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Speaker 4: going to my first WWE events on Monday. I'm going

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Speaker 4: to see what w w E raw show. I'm pretty pumped.

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Speaker 2: You should call hop okay.

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Speaker 4: Get the special treatment.

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Speaker 3: Speaking of special treatment, right, the White House has had

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Speaker 3: some strangely I don't know, fluid information is not the

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Speaker 3: right word, contradictory statements about the role of ELM. Musk

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Speaker 3: in DOGE or Elon Musk, if you want to say

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Speaker 3: it that way. At various times they have said he

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Speaker 3: is a senior advisor to the president. At other times

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Speaker 3: they have denied that he makes any decisions whatsoever. And

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Speaker 3: then also from the President himself, they have claimed that

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Speaker 3: Musk is in fact the head of DOGE and does

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Speaker 3: make all the decisions. This is coming from the same place.

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Speaker 4: Except when they're openly beefing on Twitter.

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Speaker 3: Except when they're openly beefing on Twitter at least me five.

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Speaker 3: That's when Musk said he was pivoting from this initiative,

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Speaker 3: which again is not a real department, just to be

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Speaker 3: very clear about that.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's really strange to see initial reporting and

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Speaker 2: statements from Elon Musk himself in the early stages of

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Speaker 2: this January February twenty twenty five, when he's saying things like, oh,

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Speaker 2: I'm I think I'll probably spend a day, maybe two

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Speaker 2: days a week on government work, and then just imagining

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Speaker 2: being appointed to something that was touted as such an

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Speaker 2: important part of an administration, thinking that the head guy

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Speaker 2: would only be there, and he wasn't the only head guy, right,

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Speaker 2: there was another dude that was going to there were

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Speaker 2: gonna be co heads or something, Vivik Rebmaswami. Yeah, And

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Speaker 2: then they just splipped it and said, well, we like

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Speaker 2: this other we like Elon's way better.

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Speaker 3: So per their official website, Doge's official website Doze dot gov,

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Speaker 3: this initiative had already saved the United States hundreds of

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Speaker 3: billions of dollars per them. But if you look at

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Speaker 3: other government agencies gonna they're gonna tell you this has

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Speaker 3: already cost Uncle Sam almost twenty two billion dollars. And

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Speaker 3: then other analysts are gonna say doges actions will eventually

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Speaker 3: cost this country as much as one hundred and thirty

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Speaker 3: five billion bucks.

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Speaker 4: Well, that seems counter to the spirit of the initiative,

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Speaker 4: doesn't it. Right. It's almost as though there were another

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Speaker 4: reason to do the whole thing.

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Speaker 3: It's like starting a nonprofit called People for Cheese and

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Speaker 3: our first thing is to eliminate all cheesemongers.

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Speaker 4: Let just get rid of the middle. Yeah, yeah, go straight.

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Speaker 3: Straight from the utter.

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Speaker 2: Guys, I'm looking at the DOGE website.

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Speaker 4: Exists. Yes, it is.

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Speaker 2: Just a weird little legs out of different tables, I guess,

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Speaker 2: and you click on a couple of things around here.

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Speaker 3: It does Twitter speed.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what it feels like. You can't join it,

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Speaker 2: I guess. But it is weird to me that that exists.

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Speaker 2: But the USDs dot gov also still exists. Note well,

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Speaker 2: and now that we're gonna get to it, and I

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Speaker 2: don't want to spoil too much, but DOGE had a

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Speaker 2: limited time window that it was going to operate under,

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Speaker 2: and we're still in that window. But for some reason,

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Speaker 2: if you go to the USDs dot gov website, it's

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Speaker 2: still You will find DOSEE references in there, but it's

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Speaker 2: mostly back to USDs, which is weird.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it might be kind of a grift under the

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Speaker 3: maybe leadership of Musk Vivek Ramaswami and Amy Gleeson at

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Speaker 3: various points, Gleason's the one you're going to hear the

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Speaker 3: most directly attached to policy or action by Doge because

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Speaker 3: Gleason reports to the Chief of Staff for the White House.

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Speaker 3: Doge got unprecedented access to sensitive information on individuals, on businesses,

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Speaker 3: on government affairs, while also cutting tons and tons of funding,

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Speaker 3: more money than we could ever imagine, cutting tons of

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Speaker 3: funding to various existing government programs, as well as creating

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Speaker 3: what they call deferred resignation.

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Speaker 4: Remember that one, right, that was the letters that were

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Speaker 4: sick in the road working the road. And I gotta ask,

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Speaker 4: where does big Balls fit into this ORG chart?

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Speaker 1: Oh?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, that was one of the kids, right mm hmm.

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Speaker 4: I mean I believe he was kind of running the

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Speaker 4: team that stormed into some government's offices and demanded all

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Speaker 4: of these documents and access to terminals and sorry, terminals,

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Speaker 4: what am I doing? In the fifties, very very raid

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Speaker 4: like behavior. Folks were not giving the heads up. Heads

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Speaker 4: of departments were not told what was going on, and

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Speaker 4: it just felt very much like an invasion.

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Speaker 2: When many judges stopped specific actions from happening, or at least,

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Speaker 2: you know, put out we're going to get into it.

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Speaker 2: But there are several times there are attempted to be stopped.

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Speaker 2: But then there were also secret actions taking place that

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Speaker 2: we're going to talk about. Even when there was a stoppage,

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Speaker 2: a federal judge said no, and they're like, OK, well.

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Speaker 4: You also can't stop what has already occurred. You can

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Speaker 4: try to keep it from happening again, happening further. But

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Speaker 4: a lot of these things were just such a swoop in,

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Speaker 4: do the thing, the damage is done. Oh now the

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Speaker 4: judge weighs in. If you don't really you know, pay

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Speaker 4: attention or follow the orders of the judges, then it

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Speaker 4: doesn't really have much effect.

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Speaker 3: And to be clear, obviously one of the most important

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Speaker 3: things here is that we don't body shame. The guy's

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Speaker 3: street name is big Balls, and it might be a

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Speaker 3: medical condition.

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Speaker 4: It's more of an attitude.

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Speaker 3: You know, well, please get yourself checked, folks, is what say?

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Speaker 3: Walk down the street for that one ballsy.

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Speaker 4: M down by your giant balls.

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Speaker 3: Oh jeez, tell me about it. I mean, this is

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Speaker 3: divisive stuff. Right. It might surprise a lot of us

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Speaker 3: outside of the United States to know that some people,

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Speaker 3: a not insignificant portion of this country loved the idea

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Speaker 3: of DOGE because it spoke directly to ongoing concerns. Right,

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Speaker 3: the idea of big red tape, of massive bureaucracy, inefficient government.

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Speaker 3: You're taking my money and you're wasting it. Why so

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Speaker 3: if we could save the government and the taxpayer a

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Speaker 3: bit of scratch, a bit of cheddar, why not tighten

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Speaker 3: the belt? So other people absolutely hate this idea, and

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Speaker 3: they say, look, we're allowing a level of private involvement, influence,

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Speaker 3: and interference into public institutions. This will bite us in

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Speaker 3: the ass later. And now, as we record on February twentieth,

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Speaker 3: twenty twenty six, we are officially at later the Yeah,

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Speaker 3: officially ass bitten. Would Yeah, the leopards have eaten the face. Uh,

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Speaker 3: the ass has been didten. It's no surprise that a

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Speaker 3: lot of these critics and even a few early supporters

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Speaker 3: of DOGE have concluded it is less a government agency

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Speaker 3: and more a conspiracy.

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Speaker 2: Oh for sure, let's not forget when this thing was initiated,

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Speaker 2: the public statements were Doge is going to save the

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Speaker 2: government two trillion dollars in spending, and that that goal

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Speaker 2: went almost immediately down to one trillion, and then that

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Speaker 2: got slashed down to one hundred and fifty billion.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, always start big, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 2: But it makes you, it makes you call into question

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Speaker 2: what is this thing really for?

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Speaker 3: Right?

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Speaker 2: If it's not to save tremendous amounts of money on

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Speaker 2: operating costs, and you know, government budgets, what are they

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Speaker 2: actually doing.

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Speaker 4: They're trying to project twenty twenty five of five the

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Speaker 4: government like.

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Speaker 3: Five to five.

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Speaker 4: That's nice.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, depending upon whom you ask, Doge is not a warm,

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Speaker 3: fuzzy angel farts and Trumpet's good faith effort to clean

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Speaker 3: up financial waste. There is one criticism we want to

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Speaker 3: point out before we get to the crazy part, which

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Speaker 3: is the following quote. Under the auspices of finding fraud, waste,

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Speaker 3: and abuse, Doge has hurt the middle class, created chaos,

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Speaker 3: and attempted to usurp Congress's power of the purse with

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Speaker 3: illegal impoundments end quote. That quote is not from a

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Speaker 3: random podcast or person on the internet. That is from

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Speaker 3: the House Committee on the Budget. The government itself does

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Speaker 3: not like what the government itself is doing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, or at least the new digital services. This thing is,

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Speaker 2: let's do it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Okay, So what exactly is DOSE done? Why are

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Speaker 3: so many people concerned? Perhaps most importantly, what's it really for?

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Speaker 3: And what's it going to do in the future. We're

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Speaker 3: going to pause for a word from our sponsors and

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Speaker 3: hope our bosses don't catch up with us before we

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Speaker 3: finish this episode. Here's where it gets crazy. Despite being

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Speaker 3: around for a very short amount of time, DOGE has

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Speaker 3: already created a massive amount of controversy tsunamis of controversy,

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Speaker 3: some of which we talked about in earlier episodes, some

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Speaker 3: of which we mentioned in Strange News. I'm thinking of usaid, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: That thing is weird, I think specifically for the show,

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Speaker 2: because we understand the positives that something like the United

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Speaker 2: States Agency Agency for International Development can do, right, we

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Speaker 2: also know the pitfalls of that kind of money injection

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Speaker 2: to other countries, especially when you are quietly involved in

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Speaker 2: nation building and coups and things like that.

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Speaker 4: Well, let's also just point out too, that there is

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Speaker 4: a lot of opportunity for waste abuse and fraud within

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Speaker 4: these systems, which makes it such a solid cover story

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Speaker 4: because who doesn't want to eliminate some of that stuff

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Speaker 4: in bureaucracy and you know, to safeguard our tax dollars

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Speaker 4: and make sure they're going to the right things and

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Speaker 4: not being funneled into, you know, things that are a

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Speaker 4: little more untoward.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but there's you bring up a great point because

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Speaker 3: there is an interesting disconnect, a little bit of a

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Speaker 3: logical leap that the supporters of DOGE failed to clock

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Speaker 3: when the big cuts happened to fundy. It is not

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Speaker 3: as though you the individual get some kind of money back,

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Speaker 3: right USA funding gets cut. It's not as though everybody

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Speaker 3: in the United States gets a dollar thirty five back,

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Speaker 3: you know.

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Speaker 2: That is what the DOGE website says. Though it's like

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Speaker 2: this is the amount of money saved per American. So

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Speaker 2: it makes makes you feel as though, oh, I might

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Speaker 2: get that money back.

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Speaker 4: Wasn't there talk about issuing some kind of that was

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Speaker 4: the tariffs, issuing a dividend?

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Speaker 3: Cheh.

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Speaker 4: A lot of talk about you know, getting.

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Speaker 3: Anything but Epstein, you know.

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Speaker 2: Did you guys see the news from the Supreme Court

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Speaker 2: this morning on February twentieth, as we record the Supreme

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Speaker 2: Court is basically shutting down his sweeping tariffs.

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Speaker 4: Oh well, I'm cool.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, messing with the money and that's always going

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Speaker 3: to be the third rail outside of the theater of culture,

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Speaker 3: wars and politics.

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Speaker 4: We also mentioned enough of Mike this whole ten billion

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Speaker 4: dollars to the Bureau of Peace or whatever it's called.

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Speaker 4: Lit'll put a pin in that and save that for

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Speaker 4: another time, but very interesting use of our tax dollars.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Dylan. Dylan notes that there was a several thousand

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Speaker 2: and five thousand dollars DOGE refund that was like discussed several.

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Speaker 3: Times, discussed, discussed, Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, like, oh yeah, we're gonna do this

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Speaker 2: for sure.

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Speaker 3: I love discussing stuff because it's different. It's just close

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Speaker 3: enough to doing stuff.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we have an idea of a concept of a.

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Speaker 4: Concept of an idea concept.

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Speaker 3: It's actually it's funny you say that, guys, because I

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Speaker 3: was talking to our pal friend of the show, Josh

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Speaker 3: Clark about a potential collaboration as we're out in the

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Speaker 3: field and broad uh, and he said that sounds cool.

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Speaker 3: What are you thinking. I said, I don't know. I

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Speaker 3: think we should hang out. And he said so you

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Speaker 3: don't have a plan, and I said, we got the

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Speaker 3: concept of a plan, so you need Yeah. But the

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Speaker 3: thing is, we're talking about podcasting and doing fun shows

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Speaker 3: to entertain and educate. These folks are talking about billions

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Speaker 3: of dollars and they are putting lives on the line. USAID.

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Speaker 3: USAID was always targeted by Musk and the Doge folks

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Speaker 3: at all. For a while, Musk repeatedly stated on his

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Speaker 3: favorite social media platform that too much of the USAID

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Speaker 3: budget was either misappropriated through fraud or they weren't putting

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Speaker 3: the money in the right place. They were misprioritizing stuff.

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Speaker 3: Up until Doge, USAID had like fourteen thousand full time employees,

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Speaker 3: and now it's looking more like maybe three hundred, depending

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Speaker 3: on all the court stuff works out.

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Speaker 4: I think the part that really stuck with me too

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Speaker 4: about this was the food aid that was not distributed right,

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Speaker 4: that literally just sat in a warehouse to rhyme. So

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Speaker 4: it just seems like cruelty is at the heart of

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Speaker 4: a lot of that stuff, and not actual savings. Because

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Speaker 4: the money's been spent, why wouldn't I just distribute it

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Speaker 4: to the people who need it as opposed to like

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Speaker 4: throwing it in the fire.

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Speaker 3: I'm so glad you brought that up, because, like we're

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Speaker 3: saying on Strange News, when we first talked about that

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Speaker 3: food waste, it's it's just unclean. You're right, it's a

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Speaker 3: sunk cost. The food was already purchased, the food on

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Speaker 3: expiration date. The only real cost would have been transportation

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Speaker 3: and logistics, which already had a paid contract. Right, So

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Speaker 3: what are we saving. We're not saving people. We're definitely

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Speaker 3: not helping folks.

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Speaker 4: Let's send a message too that we that we don't

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Speaker 4: want to help folks, that we're trying to have much

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Speaker 4: more of an isolationist kind of approach.

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Speaker 2: It's also tremendously I was just gonna say, upsetting when

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Speaker 2: you think about this forty billion dollars being targeted as

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Speaker 2: the thing that's wasteful when everybody in the in that

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Speaker 2: world knows that it's the Department of Defense and the

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Speaker 2: military industrial congressional complex that is the thing that loses.

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Speaker 2: As we've talked about on this show, palettes of billions

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Speaker 2: of US dollars that loses, you know, who knows how

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Speaker 2: much to black budgets that just goes away, Money that

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Speaker 2: goes away that isn't officially appropriated, that doesn't officially exist.

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Speaker 2: We know this is just a fact, and it's so

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Speaker 2: much more than forty billion dollars.

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Speaker 4: There was a story recently about a lot of military

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Speaker 4: equipment that was just languishing in a warehouse and never opened,

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Speaker 4: or something along those lines. It might be crossing some

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Speaker 4: wires there, but stuff like that happens. Remember the electric

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Speaker 4: coffee mugs, that whole sugarfuffle, toilet seats, the hammers. How

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Speaker 4: much will Pentagon pay for one? Yeah, the pork barrel

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Speaker 4: spending is true. The stereotypes about high level American financial

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Speaker 4: corruption are true. These are not made up tall tales.

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Speaker 4: But we have to remember USAID, despite some of their

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Speaker 4: spooky doopy affiliations at times, this was the world's largest

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Speaker 4: foreign aid agency. It fed and clothed children, It funded education,

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Speaker 4: It helped people learn to read, It helped small businesses.

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Speaker 4: It genuinely made the US look a little bit better

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Speaker 4: in the global sphere. And the current administration via doge

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Speaker 4: as well. Even pre Doge, the current administration, for some

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Speaker 4: unknowable reason, wanted to hamstring USAID, so Doze was an

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Speaker 4: easy way to directly attack this current administration cut eighty

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Speaker 4: three percent of the existing USAID contracts, and then they

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Speaker 4: moved them under the State Department, which is kind of

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Speaker 4: like this sabitat.

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Speaker 3: That's what they did.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, they did. I like what you're saying, there been

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Speaker 2: because in my mind, this is one of the only

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Speaker 2: real open hand movements or or appendages that the US

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Speaker 2: government had for a while there the whole like, here's

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Speaker 2: some here's some goodwill right to anybody else outside of

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Speaker 2: the US, we will we will send you our help.

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Speaker 3: Right like the hospital boats kind of. Yeah, you don't

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Speaker 3: have to take a pledge of allegiance to the United States.

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Speaker 3: You don't have to agree with ideology. We just want

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Speaker 3: to feed your kids.

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Speaker 2: And install a couple of spies. That's it. That's one.

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Speaker 3: There's like one. I T guy, Okay, yeah, yeah, and

438
00:26:48,640 --> 00:26:51,560
Speaker 3: office is you know Steve. Yeah, Steve is a legend.

439
00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:57,160
Speaker 3: And congrats on the promotion, Steve. Uh yeah, it's it's

440
00:26:57,200 --> 00:26:59,880
Speaker 3: soft powers. It's a weird thing to cut to your

441
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:03,639
Speaker 3: earlier point there, guys. We also know this occurs in

442
00:27:03,720 --> 00:27:09,200
Speaker 3: step with the federal firings. You can hold them deferred

443
00:27:09,320 --> 00:27:13,359
Speaker 3: resignations if you like, folks, But they were firing people.

444
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:18,080
Speaker 3: They were offering to buy out federal employees. This was

445
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,879
Speaker 3: in the headlines. This was blamed on Doge, but it

446
00:27:23,040 --> 00:27:28,080
Speaker 3: actually came from the Office of Personnel Management the OPM. Still,

447
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:33,840
Speaker 3: I think Doge was running point there, especially with things

448
00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:38,879
Speaker 3: like musks fork in the Road email where he said

449
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:41,720
Speaker 3: what he gave people. We had a lot of you

450
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,760
Speaker 3: folks right into us about this. We have a lot

451
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:48,399
Speaker 3: of government employees in the crowd. There was such a

452
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:51,119
Speaker 3: limited time window, remember you guys, where they were like,

453
00:27:51,400 --> 00:27:55,200
Speaker 3: justify your job, do the following things. Do it by

454
00:27:55,440 --> 00:27:59,800
Speaker 3: you know, Tuesday or whatever. Because we're cleaning up the house,

455
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:01,880
Speaker 3: were dreaming, well.

456
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:04,880
Speaker 4: It's all such a you know, classic Silicon Valley hatchet

457
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:08,159
Speaker 4: man kind of behavior. You know, like when Musk, you know,

458
00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,399
Speaker 4: took over Twitter and came into the office holding the

459
00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:14,000
Speaker 4: what was it, the sink, right, Yeah, it's that kind

460
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:16,040
Speaker 4: of stuff. These letters with this kind of fork in

461
00:28:16,080 --> 00:28:19,000
Speaker 4: the Road language is sort of like ultimatums. It is

462
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:21,480
Speaker 4: very Silicon Valley coded.

463
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:24,119
Speaker 2: The weird thing about it, I think in the moment

464
00:28:24,160 --> 00:28:26,119
Speaker 2: when we were all going through that and reading it,

465
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,960
Speaker 2: we were doing some reading of the tea leaves. We're

466
00:28:30,320 --> 00:28:33,160
Speaker 2: you know, trying to understand the message behind the message,

467
00:28:33,440 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 2: and in that moment it did feel like a loyalty

468
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 2: test of some sort, especially because of what else was

469
00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 2: happening in the news at the time, like to all

470
00:28:43,920 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 2: of a sudden, get this, Hey, you can get out

471
00:28:46,120 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 2: now if you want to, cause we're we're doing new things.

472
00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:53,080
Speaker 2: That's while the Department of Defense, the Defense Department is

473
00:28:53,080 --> 00:28:55,800
Speaker 2: turning into the Department of War. That's when there's all

474
00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:58,600
Speaker 2: kinds of peat exists stuff happening in the news, and

475
00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:01,160
Speaker 2: it just looks I would say, the optics of the

476
00:29:01,200 --> 00:29:04,640
Speaker 2: administration where that we're changing things around here, and if

477
00:29:04,680 --> 00:29:07,320
Speaker 2: you want to get out, here is here's our little

478
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:10,160
Speaker 2: rights offering or.

479
00:29:10,200 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 3: Side a loyalty statement just so we know you're down

480
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:17,200
Speaker 3: to clown. This was also coupled with a lot of

481
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:24,200
Speaker 3: cryptic stream of consciousness post and statements by Musk himself.

482
00:29:24,240 --> 00:29:29,240
Speaker 3: There was one on uh, want to say, December seventh,

483
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:33,880
Speaker 3: I can't remember exactly which year, but said, we have

484
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:37,480
Speaker 3: to make sure that civilization takes the path most likely

485
00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:40,440
Speaker 3: to pass the Fermi Great filters.

486
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:44,440
Speaker 4: From some sci fi series. Yes, okay, y, yeah, it's

487
00:29:44,480 --> 00:29:45,520
Speaker 4: the idea that.

488
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:51,880
Speaker 3: Civilization the reason humans have yet to meet extra terrestrial

489
00:29:52,040 --> 00:29:58,720
Speaker 3: civilizations is because there is a series of predictable nigh

490
00:29:58,800 --> 00:30:05,040
Speaker 3: inescapable factors, or filters that prevent those civilizations from expanding

491
00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:09,760
Speaker 3: past a certain threshold. Actually, also, Musk said that Doge

492
00:30:09,800 --> 00:30:12,560
Speaker 3: had to exist so he could go forward with the

493
00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:16,040
Speaker 3: Mars colony. This guy was just like spitballing. He's got

494
00:30:16,080 --> 00:30:19,760
Speaker 3: he must have an amazing writer's room. I don't know.

495
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:23,120
Speaker 4: We also way out to me. Oh by time, he's

496
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:25,160
Speaker 4: also done with Mars. Now he's fine.

497
00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:27,600
Speaker 3: The Moon guy down, the Moon guy, he's a lunatic.

498
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:32,440
Speaker 3: Now that's funny for the etymology mark, Thank you, sir. So.

499
00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:41,880
Speaker 3: The current administration said about seventy five thousand employees took

500
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:44,960
Speaker 3: this offer before it closed down, before that time window

501
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:49,600
Speaker 3: collapsed on February twelfth, twenty twenty six. That's roughly four

502
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:54,000
Speaker 3: percent of the federal workforce. Doesn't sound that big, right,

503
00:30:54,280 --> 00:31:00,600
Speaker 3: four percent? Maybe not that big in the ratio numbers,

504
00:31:00,680 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 3: but it's gonna have a serious impact on the day

505
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,840
Speaker 3: to day life of people who live in this country.

506
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:09,280
Speaker 2: Let's talk about the day to day life of federal workers.

507
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,560
Speaker 2: Do you remember the thing that came after the Fork

508
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:16,040
Speaker 2: in the Road email. It was the thing about, hey,

509
00:31:16,160 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 2: every week, we need you to send an email to

510
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:22,280
Speaker 2: the Department of Personnel Management and you need to put

511
00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:26,600
Speaker 2: five things you accomplished this week in that email to

512
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:29,160
Speaker 2: justify your job. And they said it was because they

513
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:32,560
Speaker 2: were trying to identify federal workers that didn't exist but

514
00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:34,160
Speaker 2: were still on a payroll somewhere.

515
00:31:34,400 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 3: So much talk of that.

516
00:31:35,840 --> 00:31:38,960
Speaker 4: Not only that, but in like social Security checks going

517
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 4: to deceased people.

518
00:31:40,920 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 3: Which has happened, but just not as often as it's

519
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 3: used to dog whistles. So yeah, the federal employees did

520
00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:52,640
Speaker 3: have to write to the Office of Personnel Management OPM

521
00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:56,280
Speaker 3: and say like, here, my five good boy things.

522
00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,760
Speaker 2: But doesn't it make you think a little bit about

523
00:32:01,440 --> 00:32:05,160
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say spies, but people who work

524
00:32:05,200 --> 00:32:09,360
Speaker 2: in intelligence that aren't officially listed as let's say, a

525
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:13,520
Speaker 2: member of the FBI or an agent somewhere in the CIA.

526
00:32:13,560 --> 00:32:15,800
Speaker 2: But you wanted to have somebody that could function and

527
00:32:15,840 --> 00:32:18,920
Speaker 2: travel and go places, you could put them I don't

528
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,880
Speaker 2: know in any governmental department, even those if you wanted to,

529
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:24,880
Speaker 2: but just give them a paycheck. They're a part of

530
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 2: that thing. But really they're working for you know somebody.

531
00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:32,080
Speaker 3: I also my immediate question. I'm sure I'm not alone

532
00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:34,080
Speaker 3: in this. When you have to list the five things,

533
00:32:34,840 --> 00:32:37,760
Speaker 3: could you list responding to the email as one of

534
00:32:37,760 --> 00:32:39,760
Speaker 3: those five things that gets you a four.

535
00:32:39,920 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 4: We've all had to do employee self evaluations. They're all

536
00:32:43,360 --> 00:32:45,840
Speaker 4: they're so silly. You have to just it's such a reach.

537
00:32:45,960 --> 00:32:48,360
Speaker 4: Most of the time you even have to couch it

538
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,080
Speaker 4: in terms of like things that can be verified or

539
00:32:51,080 --> 00:32:53,760
Speaker 4: that can be measured, and it can often seem like

540
00:32:53,800 --> 00:32:58,080
Speaker 4: such a such a chore. You know, I am so

541
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:01,720
Speaker 4: on board with you in that one. Uh, maybe I've

542
00:33:01,760 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 4: been a little bit too fast and loose with some

543
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:06,400
Speaker 4: of that bureaucracy here in.

544
00:33:06,360 --> 00:33:13,160
Speaker 3: Our own corporate empire. Noel Matt Dillon. I started out

545
00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:17,080
Speaker 3: a self review not too long ago saying this year

546
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:20,680
Speaker 3: was a wild vibe for a conspiracy show. I think

547
00:33:20,760 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 3: we are doing good. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely no

548
00:33:25,560 --> 00:33:27,720
Speaker 3: shortage of topics.

549
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:30,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it is a weird thing too, especially when

550
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,040
Speaker 2: you are kind of tattling on yourself or trying to

551
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:37,240
Speaker 2: be honest about how well you have performed or how

552
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:41,719
Speaker 2: well the thing you're creating performed. That's a weird Oh,

553
00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 2: that's a weird thing to do to somebody.

554
00:33:44,680 --> 00:33:48,400
Speaker 3: Let's do it this way. Okay, guys, assuming the world

555
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:51,560
Speaker 3: doesn't burned down by the next time we have to

556
00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:57,240
Speaker 3: do those self reviews. Can we in our goals and milestones?

557
00:33:57,960 --> 00:34:01,600
Speaker 3: Can we all put complete did this self review as

558
00:34:01,680 --> 00:34:02,520
Speaker 3: one of the things.

559
00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:05,120
Speaker 2: I'm not doing it, man, I'm too scared.

560
00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:09,280
Speaker 4: We've even been like, you know, kind of counseled by

561
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:14,279
Speaker 4: our you know, our direct reports on the kind of

562
00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:17,400
Speaker 4: ways that you should word these things, you know, in

563
00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,920
Speaker 4: order to make them quote unquote achievable or measurable. So

564
00:34:21,120 --> 00:34:24,720
Speaker 4: all it's such an odd, bureaucratic little device.

565
00:34:24,800 --> 00:34:28,080
Speaker 3: You know, one time I jazzed a little bit too

566
00:34:28,200 --> 00:34:31,120
Speaker 3: much and I got a text from our top breast

567
00:34:31,160 --> 00:34:32,360
Speaker 3: that just said, come on, man, you.

568
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:33,000
Speaker 4: Got kicked back.

569
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:39,279
Speaker 3: Anyway, So we know that labor unions are part of

570
00:34:39,360 --> 00:34:44,840
Speaker 3: the federal workforce here, and they fought tooth and nail, hooked,

571
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:50,400
Speaker 3: tentacle and claw to stop these deferred resignation initiatives in

572
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:53,080
Speaker 3: the courts, but in the end all they got was

573
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:56,359
Speaker 3: a brief pause. Basically, they got a time out. They

574
00:34:56,360 --> 00:35:01,600
Speaker 3: didn't get the problem solved. And opponents argue that it's

575
00:35:01,719 --> 00:35:05,920
Speaker 3: not even guaranteed that the federal employees who did take

576
00:35:05,960 --> 00:35:10,399
Speaker 3: deferred resignation are actually going to get their payouts. It's

577
00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:17,560
Speaker 3: strangely similar to during the pandemic lockdown, notable US airlines

578
00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:22,919
Speaker 3: started offering their employees buyout packages, but they paid immediately

579
00:35:22,960 --> 00:35:26,160
Speaker 3: once you signed. That doesn't appear to be the case with.

580
00:35:26,239 --> 00:35:29,880
Speaker 2: DOGE now, at least according to Gosh. There was a

581
00:35:29,960 --> 00:35:34,920
Speaker 2: review by NPR that you can find by checking out

582
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:37,600
Speaker 2: All Things Considered, and it was dude, this was completed

583
00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:40,600
Speaker 2: in April twenty eighth of last year, twenty twenty five.

584
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:43,560
Speaker 2: Just it's titled what has DOGE done in Trump's First

585
00:35:43,600 --> 00:35:45,719
Speaker 2: one hundred Days? So that's just way back then. But

586
00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:48,839
Speaker 2: they were immediately in already finding that people were not

587
00:35:48,880 --> 00:35:51,920
Speaker 2: actually getting payouts from any of the things that were

588
00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:54,960
Speaker 2: happening and the incentives that were being pushed forward. And

589
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:58,080
Speaker 2: then you look at reviews and updates from like November

590
00:35:58,200 --> 00:36:01,719
Speaker 2: of twenty twenty five, and it's still seems like some

591
00:36:01,800 --> 00:36:03,680
Speaker 2: of that stuff was vaporware.

592
00:36:03,520 --> 00:36:06,600
Speaker 3: Definitely, And I think vaporware is a great word for it,

593
00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:09,520
Speaker 3: because you're running out the clock on the headlines, right

594
00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:13,080
Speaker 3: on the Zeitgeist on that limited attention span. We don't

595
00:36:13,120 --> 00:36:17,759
Speaker 3: have official confirmation yet even in twenty twenty six on

596
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:21,879
Speaker 3: how many workers have been fired or you know, iced,

597
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:26,759
Speaker 3: in total, but the latest figures available are something like

598
00:36:26,840 --> 00:36:32,160
Speaker 3: two hundred and twenty thousand federal workers. This is pretty nuts.

599
00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:35,839
Speaker 3: I guess you could say there's another there's another win

600
00:36:36,520 --> 00:36:40,680
Speaker 3: for Doge, which gets into our conspiracy theory here. If

601
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:45,800
Speaker 3: we're all comfortable eliminating those pesky rats at the Consumer

602
00:36:45,960 --> 00:36:50,759
Speaker 3: Financial Protection Bureau, what a bunch of buzzkills, what a

603
00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:55,640
Speaker 3: bunch of fun police. The CFPB doesn't want you to party,

604
00:36:55,880 --> 00:36:57,480
Speaker 3: say the billionaires.

605
00:36:57,120 --> 00:37:03,120
Speaker 2: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau boo. Wait wait wait, I'm a consumer.

606
00:37:03,200 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 2: I consume things are going to protect my financials.

607
00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:11,640
Speaker 3: As a bureau, I don't know. I think it's a

608
00:37:11,719 --> 00:37:19,680
Speaker 3: terrible idea, say the billionaires. This officially comes from a

609
00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:22,640
Speaker 3: guy who was in charge of the Office of Management

610
00:37:22,680 --> 00:37:27,439
Speaker 3: and Budget, Russell Vaught, back in twenty twenty five. Vough,

611
00:37:28,520 --> 00:37:35,760
Speaker 3: in his professional role, instructed ol CFPB employees to stop

612
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:41,240
Speaker 3: performing quote any work task, just a stop doing stuff.

613
00:37:41,400 --> 00:37:46,800
Speaker 2: Everybody, stop stop working, but also get back to the office.

614
00:37:47,040 --> 00:37:49,000
Speaker 3: Right, stop working.

615
00:37:49,040 --> 00:37:50,040
Speaker 4: Get back to the office.

616
00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:54,399
Speaker 3: Make sure you look busy when our bosses dropped by. Yeah,

617
00:37:54,440 --> 00:37:57,120
Speaker 3: but otherwise, you know, f you to the fullest.

618
00:37:57,440 --> 00:37:59,680
Speaker 2: We know there aren't enough computers, we know the WiFi

619
00:37:59,719 --> 00:38:02,239
Speaker 2: has down for at least two weeks. Just get back

620
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:04,240
Speaker 2: to the office and stop working.

621
00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:09,480
Speaker 3: We have an open door policy, by which we mean

622
00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:12,600
Speaker 3: the door is open and you should leave. That is

623
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:18,000
Speaker 3: how they treated the people here. The bureau does have

624
00:38:18,040 --> 00:38:22,480
Speaker 3: a weird financial thing. To be fair, It's money comes

625
00:38:22,480 --> 00:38:27,920
Speaker 3: from the Federal Reserve, not from a specific congressional decision

626
00:38:28,120 --> 00:38:32,839
Speaker 3: or appropriation. But Vought said, also, we're just not going

627
00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:37,000
Speaker 3: to fund it. Stop everybody, stop working. We're not going

628
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:41,480
Speaker 3: to fund this thing anymore. And critics immediately, I think

629
00:38:41,480 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 3: this goes to our larger thesis here. Critics immediately said,

630
00:38:47,320 --> 00:38:53,120
Speaker 3: this is not about government efficiency, right. The Consumer Financial

631
00:38:53,200 --> 00:38:57,239
Speaker 3: Protection Bureau is an a political good thing for people

632
00:38:57,280 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 3: who live in the United States. Noted that the CFPV

633
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 3: had a couple of looming investigations into the businesses of

634
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:11,840
Speaker 3: Ela Musk stuff like X, stuff like Tesla, stuff like

635
00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:12,760
Speaker 3: a third example.

636
00:39:13,080 --> 00:39:15,200
Speaker 2: Speaking of a third example, I'm trying to figure out,

637
00:39:15,320 --> 00:39:18,280
Speaker 2: actually what in the hell they do at the Consumer

638
00:39:18,360 --> 00:39:23,880
Speaker 2: Financial Protection Bureau. I'm heading over to Consumer Finance dot

639
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:28,800
Speaker 2: gov and it says they aim to make consumer financial

640
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:34,319
Speaker 2: markets work for consumers, responsible providers, and the overall economy.

641
00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:41,480
Speaker 3: Their hound dogs, dude, they they hunt for financial shenanigans.

642
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:44,560
Speaker 3: Oh really, that's their job. Yeah, they're supposed to. They're

643
00:39:44,560 --> 00:39:53,200
Speaker 3: supposed to identify institutions or businesses that have defrauded the

644
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:58,279
Speaker 3: average person. So presatory lending practices or RELs fargo maybe.

645
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:01,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, hidden fees, things like that, but also so private

646
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:06,799
Speaker 2: corporations also as like how what they do to their customers.

647
00:40:07,320 --> 00:40:09,800
Speaker 2: I wonder how much they look at contracts and stuff

648
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:12,560
Speaker 2: like that that come down from the government. So, okay,

649
00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:14,920
Speaker 2: it feels like a good thing, feels like a really

650
00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:15,319
Speaker 2: good thing.

651
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:18,080
Speaker 3: It is a I think it is a good thing.

652
00:40:18,440 --> 00:40:22,839
Speaker 3: They've been persistently Look, this is a relatively new thing,

653
00:40:23,320 --> 00:40:27,280
Speaker 3: a relatively new organization I think was twenty eleven maybe,

654
00:40:27,440 --> 00:40:33,040
Speaker 3: And ever since the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created,

655
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:40,080
Speaker 3: it has been persecuted by lobbyists in the financial sector, like,

656
00:40:40,120 --> 00:40:43,879
Speaker 3: come on, man, why you're stressing me people over get

657
00:40:43,920 --> 00:40:47,239
Speaker 3: overdraft fees. That's that's not my bad. Why are you

658
00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:50,560
Speaker 3: being weird about it fun police. So it is no

659
00:40:50,719 --> 00:40:55,840
Speaker 3: surprise that the CFPB was targeted, probably at the direction

660
00:40:55,960 --> 00:41:03,320
Speaker 3: of DOGE. We know that there are some serious issues

661
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:07,880
Speaker 3: of conflict of interest of access. This occurred in step

662
00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:14,320
Speaker 3: with the social media platform X formerly Twitter, announcing plans

663
00:41:14,360 --> 00:41:17,480
Speaker 3: for a mobile payment service. It's going to be called

664
00:41:17,480 --> 00:41:20,879
Speaker 3: an X money account, according to MPR. And I think

665
00:41:20,880 --> 00:41:24,799
Speaker 3: we all saw this. If this went through and the

666
00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:29,000
Speaker 3: CFPB was still a thing, then it would have had

667
00:41:29,239 --> 00:41:34,800
Speaker 3: oversight on how this new digital payment system worked.

668
00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:41,960
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. Yeah, huh so, okay, we see you.

669
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:44,480
Speaker 2: We see what you're doing here. I'm looking at a

670
00:41:44,520 --> 00:41:47,360
Speaker 2: thing on Consumer Finance dot gov from the Council of

671
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:50,480
Speaker 2: Economic Advisors, you guys, and it's doing this thing, Ben,

672
00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:54,160
Speaker 2: it's trying to estimate exactly how much the Consumer Financial

673
00:41:54,280 --> 00:41:57,200
Speaker 2: Protection Bureau is going to cost Americans and how much

674
00:41:57,200 --> 00:42:00,439
Speaker 2: it's already cost since twenty eleven. You know. It puts

675
00:42:00,440 --> 00:42:02,160
Speaker 2: it up in like the three hundred and fifty billion

676
00:42:02,200 --> 00:42:06,400
Speaker 2: dollar range, which you can you can understand why you

677
00:42:06,440 --> 00:42:09,080
Speaker 2: could justify that as a target to go after to

678
00:42:09,160 --> 00:42:10,720
Speaker 2: reduce spending.

679
00:42:10,480 --> 00:42:12,560
Speaker 3: Right, Yes, of course, if your.

680
00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:15,799
Speaker 2: Goal is to take away some of those safeguards that

681
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:20,399
Speaker 2: the US people have against you know, moves corporations are

682
00:42:20,440 --> 00:42:21,800
Speaker 2: going to make, or the government itself.

683
00:42:21,840 --> 00:42:27,080
Speaker 3: All these regulations. Man, it reminds me of years ago.

684
00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 3: Some of us in the crowd may be old enough

685
00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:33,960
Speaker 3: to remember this. Years ago, there were so many weird

686
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:38,640
Speaker 3: loopholes in the laws of Georgia and regulations. There was,

687
00:42:38,719 --> 00:42:43,840
Speaker 3: in fact, an exception for seat belts. You have to

688
00:42:43,840 --> 00:42:46,040
Speaker 3: wear a seat belt right if you're in a car

689
00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:49,520
Speaker 3: and a vehicle, except for a while in Georgia, you

690
00:42:49,600 --> 00:42:51,400
Speaker 3: did not have to wear a seat belt in a

691
00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:55,120
Speaker 3: pickup truck because one of the members of our state's

692
00:42:55,160 --> 00:42:59,920
Speaker 3: political class had a pickup truck and hated wearing seat belts.

693
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:01,919
Speaker 4: I thought it was curious that there are no seat

694
00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:03,480
Speaker 4: builts on school buses.

695
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:07,480
Speaker 3: But that I thought about that too. Yeah, that's a

696
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:10,839
Speaker 3: good point. Oh, let's pause for a word from our

697
00:43:10,880 --> 00:43:14,000
Speaker 3: sponsor and get to one of the biggest things which

698
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:26,520
Speaker 3: informs our conspiracy. Tonight, we're back the Treasury Department, all right,

699
00:43:26,719 --> 00:43:31,359
Speaker 3: The Treasury Department is a conspiracy in itself. Check out

700
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:37,920
Speaker 3: our earlier episodes. Doge gained access to Treasury Department databases

701
00:43:38,160 --> 00:43:45,400
Speaker 3: and files. The big question is how individualized that data was,

702
00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:50,880
Speaker 3: so like, do they, for instance, have Noel Brown's Social

703
00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:54,279
Speaker 3: Security number and all his W two's or what have

704
00:43:54,400 --> 00:44:00,040
Speaker 3: you know? All his charitable contributions? Do they know the

705
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:05,200
Speaker 3: spending history of Dylan tennessee pal Fagan. They're very strict

706
00:44:05,360 --> 00:44:09,880
Speaker 3: disclosure rules about this kind of stuff. Really, it's like

707
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:13,560
Speaker 3: ken Elon Musk, Now see my tax returns.

708
00:44:14,239 --> 00:44:18,200
Speaker 2: This is tough because we we kind of don't know

709
00:44:18,719 --> 00:44:24,040
Speaker 2: right right, and we've gotten mixed signals from news organizations

710
00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:27,560
Speaker 2: because a lot of people just weren't talking. There were

711
00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:32,160
Speaker 2: some whistleblowers though, that came forward to talk about what

712
00:44:32,320 --> 00:44:36,160
Speaker 2: all they were getting access to. And weirdly enough, even

713
00:44:36,600 --> 00:44:39,960
Speaker 2: even back in April of last year, the is it

714
00:44:40,040 --> 00:44:44,840
Speaker 2: the Oversight Committee? The House Oversight Committee was putting forward

715
00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:47,560
Speaker 2: and it is partisan, so it's like the Democratic side

716
00:44:47,560 --> 00:44:52,120
Speaker 2: of that committee was putting forward the concept that Doge

717
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:55,520
Speaker 2: had access to way more than we were being told.

718
00:44:55,880 --> 00:44:57,400
Speaker 2: I guess we'll get into it. Maybe we'll put the

719
00:44:57,440 --> 00:45:00,239
Speaker 2: seed here. This is where that House Oversite Committee is

720
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:05,160
Speaker 2: where you get this concept that there is potentially a

721
00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:09,920
Speaker 2: secret list and what would you guys call a data

722
00:45:09,960 --> 00:45:15,279
Speaker 2: set of all Americans stuff all of our private information. Yes,

723
00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:19,239
Speaker 2: that sounds creepy, but it also sounds like maybe why

724
00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:21,279
Speaker 2: this thing was created in the first place.

725
00:45:21,800 --> 00:45:24,160
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, a bit of a false flag, you know,

726
00:45:24,239 --> 00:45:27,560
Speaker 3: it's the the question is is it the wolf of

727
00:45:27,680 --> 00:45:37,360
Speaker 3: big data aggregation wearing the sheep's wool of financial conservation convoluted?

728
00:45:37,400 --> 00:45:41,520
Speaker 3: But we got there another thing. That another thing that

729
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:44,560
Speaker 3: folks are accusing Doze of. And to your point, Matt,

730
00:45:44,600 --> 00:45:48,719
Speaker 3: these accusations are coming from inside the house. These are

731
00:45:48,880 --> 00:45:53,160
Speaker 3: other members of the government and the political class, Pauli Malarkey.

732
00:45:53,600 --> 00:45:57,799
Speaker 3: So one of the big concerns is that Doge may

733
00:45:57,880 --> 00:46:02,000
Speaker 3: have gained access to something that honestly I had never

734
00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:08,880
Speaker 3: heard about before. The Integrated Data Retrieval System IDRS. That's

735
00:46:08,960 --> 00:46:14,040
Speaker 3: your treasure trove, right, that's your Aladdin's cavern with all

736
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:18,239
Speaker 3: the goodies and the bobbles. So this place I DRS

737
00:46:18,960 --> 00:46:24,279
Speaker 3: includes very detailed financial information about every single person who

738
00:46:24,280 --> 00:46:28,000
Speaker 3: pays taxes in the United States, every single business, every

739
00:46:28,080 --> 00:46:33,720
Speaker 3: single nonprofit again a Laddin's cavern. No one thing should

740
00:46:33,760 --> 00:46:36,520
Speaker 3: have all of this information of what's yep.

741
00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:40,760
Speaker 2: And the scariest thing I think about that having access

742
00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:44,920
Speaker 2: to that is that we know there were certain employees

743
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:49,080
Speaker 2: within DOGE that were uploading mass quantities of that data

744
00:46:49,680 --> 00:46:54,920
Speaker 2: onto services like cloud flare and cloud services that should

745
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:58,759
Speaker 2: not have this sensitive materials on though, no matter how

746
00:46:58,800 --> 00:47:02,959
Speaker 2: secure you think they are, the government has very specific,

747
00:47:03,120 --> 00:47:07,400
Speaker 2: rigorous security protocols for that kind of sensitive data.

748
00:47:07,520 --> 00:47:09,000
Speaker 4: We would like to think at the very least, I

749
00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:12,200
Speaker 4: mean talk about the ultimate data leak, you know, I mean,

750
00:47:12,560 --> 00:47:14,320
Speaker 4: this is this would be the big one.

751
00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:21,440
Speaker 3: Also again to that wolf Sheep's wool thing, this had

752
00:47:21,480 --> 00:47:30,200
Speaker 3: the petita of updating information technology, of modernizing tech. But

753
00:47:30,480 --> 00:47:32,880
Speaker 3: we have to remember, and we've said this before in

754
00:47:32,960 --> 00:47:38,360
Speaker 3: previous episodes, there is a series of very valid reasons

755
00:47:39,000 --> 00:47:44,440
Speaker 3: that your government has dumb technology for some things.

756
00:47:44,760 --> 00:47:46,640
Speaker 2: It makes so much sense, Ben, can you just tell

757
00:47:46,719 --> 00:47:48,359
Speaker 2: us a little more about that, like why, I mean,

758
00:47:48,480 --> 00:47:50,719
Speaker 2: I think I understand, but it would be good to

759
00:47:51,280 --> 00:47:53,279
Speaker 2: get another understanding.

760
00:47:53,800 --> 00:47:58,680
Speaker 3: Right, Okay, So we are let's say the five of

761
00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:02,200
Speaker 3: us you listening along home. Let's say we're all hanging

762
00:48:02,239 --> 00:48:06,920
Speaker 3: out and we're in charge of nuclear weapons, and it

763
00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:11,680
Speaker 3: takes the five of us to agree whenever we are

764
00:48:11,800 --> 00:48:16,080
Speaker 3: going to fire a puppy hug into Iran, Right, or

765
00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:19,279
Speaker 3: earlier it's a new missile. We're working on the puppy hug.

766
00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:24,880
Speaker 3: So okay, So if technology is modernized, we could agree

767
00:48:25,040 --> 00:48:28,560
Speaker 3: on the cloud. Right. The old school stuff means that

768
00:48:28,719 --> 00:48:32,239
Speaker 3: you don't touch the Internet in those kind of decisions

769
00:48:32,560 --> 00:48:36,200
Speaker 3: you get together in your weird, creepy rooms. You might

770
00:48:36,239 --> 00:48:41,080
Speaker 3: have a secure A to B conversation platform of some sort,

771
00:48:41,239 --> 00:48:43,919
Speaker 3: but it doesn't touch the Internet, and then all five

772
00:48:43,960 --> 00:48:45,640
Speaker 3: of us will say, okay.

773
00:48:46,600 --> 00:48:47,439
Speaker 2: Inserting my key.

774
00:48:47,520 --> 00:48:50,759
Speaker 4: We got to turn key three two one, go crack

775
00:48:50,840 --> 00:48:54,440
Speaker 4: the code, read the code to each other, like physically

776
00:48:54,480 --> 00:48:56,720
Speaker 4: written down on paper, analog style.

777
00:48:56,840 --> 00:49:00,719
Speaker 3: So I hope that answers the question those That's one

778
00:49:00,760 --> 00:49:05,360
Speaker 3: example of why technology is purposely nerved in some parts

779
00:49:05,440 --> 00:49:08,600
Speaker 3: of government, and it should be. Unfortunately it has.

780
00:49:08,520 --> 00:49:10,359
Speaker 4: To be same with voting systems. Right.

781
00:49:11,000 --> 00:49:13,240
Speaker 2: It makes so much sense to me when you consider

782
00:49:13,760 --> 00:49:16,960
Speaker 2: someone could take an action from any terminal, any you know,

783
00:49:17,239 --> 00:49:20,920
Speaker 2: machine that has access to the Internet and then steal

784
00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:24,200
Speaker 2: things from a machine that is also like, has access

785
00:49:24,200 --> 00:49:26,640
Speaker 2: to the Internet. You can't do it. It could happen.

786
00:49:27,040 --> 00:49:29,640
Speaker 2: In this case. When you're describing ben you have to

787
00:49:29,719 --> 00:49:33,520
Speaker 2: go to a specific sub basement level four to access

788
00:49:33,600 --> 00:49:37,840
Speaker 2: the filing the physical file records where the Social Security

789
00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:40,000
Speaker 2: Administration keeps all this stuff, which is not how they

790
00:49:40,040 --> 00:49:42,560
Speaker 2: do it. But if it were that way, right, you

791
00:49:42,600 --> 00:49:44,759
Speaker 2: could you could put a ton of security on that

792
00:49:44,800 --> 00:49:48,200
Speaker 2: building and people aren't getting in and they're definitely not

793
00:49:48,320 --> 00:49:52,959
Speaker 2: getting out with mass quantities of you know, physical paper.

794
00:49:52,880 --> 00:49:55,400
Speaker 4: Unless you like uploaded it to cloud flare, right.

795
00:49:55,520 --> 00:50:00,000
Speaker 3: Right exactly, unless you bypass that air gap, you know. Uh,

796
00:50:00,080 --> 00:50:03,400
Speaker 3: that's so that's the issue. And Washing Post had some

797
00:50:03,440 --> 00:50:06,919
Speaker 3: great reporting on this as well as in PR. They said,

798
00:50:06,960 --> 00:50:13,200
Speaker 3: this system allows you to access IRS records, which include

799
00:50:13,680 --> 00:50:17,120
Speaker 3: stuff like your Social Security number, stuff like your bank

800
00:50:17,239 --> 00:50:24,000
Speaker 3: account information. This was per the administration. This was legally

801
00:50:24,600 --> 00:50:28,360
Speaker 3: done and with the appropriate security clearances because we have

802
00:50:28,440 --> 00:50:33,760
Speaker 3: to bring efficiency to the FED, and also we want

803
00:50:34,320 --> 00:50:36,840
Speaker 3: all of your info. All of your data are belonged

804
00:50:36,880 --> 00:50:39,080
Speaker 3: to us. I mean, what me worrying?

805
00:50:40,480 --> 00:50:41,000
Speaker 4: Gosh?

806
00:50:41,040 --> 00:50:44,680
Speaker 3: Man? Yes, sorry, I got back into Mad magazine pretty hard.

807
00:50:46,040 --> 00:50:48,280
Speaker 3: Remember that guy.

808
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:53,080
Speaker 2: The term that NPR used back in April to describe

809
00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:57,359
Speaker 2: it as personal dossiers on every American citizen and non

810
00:50:57,440 --> 00:50:59,840
Speaker 2: citizen that is within the United State.

811
00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:04,400
Speaker 3: Record, your permanent record. Turns out that old grade school

812
00:51:04,440 --> 00:51:07,640
Speaker 3: conspiracy was true, but not in the way we thought.

813
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:12,239
Speaker 3: And but wait, there's more conflicts of interest. Guys, We've

814
00:51:12,239 --> 00:51:15,759
Speaker 3: got to talk about this one a little bit. How

815
00:51:15,800 --> 00:51:18,960
Speaker 3: do we respond? I don't want to tip the scale, hero,

816
00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:21,960
Speaker 3: I want to hear from guys. How do we respond

817
00:51:22,040 --> 00:51:27,279
Speaker 3: to the accusations or speculation that Elon Musk could have

818
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:32,480
Speaker 3: been spearheading Doge for ulterior motives?

819
00:51:32,760 --> 00:51:34,680
Speaker 4: No? What, I don't believe it?

820
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:36,440
Speaker 3: Okay, that says no.

821
00:51:37,520 --> 00:51:40,640
Speaker 2: Look, just because a guy gives two undred ninety million

822
00:51:40,719 --> 00:51:43,120
Speaker 2: dollars to some dude to run for president doesn't mean

823
00:51:43,120 --> 00:51:45,760
Speaker 2: there's going to be a conflict of interest. Who cares

824
00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:48,640
Speaker 2: if he's got government contracts with two count of two

825
00:51:48,800 --> 00:51:53,160
Speaker 2: separate private entities that are now all becoming one weird

826
00:51:53,239 --> 00:51:54,680
Speaker 2: conglomerate thing called X.

827
00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:58,160
Speaker 3: I think the Fox has some great ideas about henhouse

828
00:51:58,200 --> 00:51:59,759
Speaker 3: design and we should listen to them.

829
00:52:00,239 --> 00:52:04,759
Speaker 4: Let's remove the doors, no more chicken wire, open door policy.

830
00:52:06,120 --> 00:52:09,240
Speaker 3: So I mean, yeah, it's got to be a conflict

831
00:52:09,280 --> 00:52:09,760
Speaker 3: of interest.

832
00:52:09,840 --> 00:52:10,040
Speaker 4: Right.

833
00:52:10,239 --> 00:52:14,600
Speaker 3: Logically we're not saying this is definitely happening, But logically

834
00:52:15,400 --> 00:52:20,000
Speaker 3: it is naive to assume that it is not happening.

835
00:52:20,160 --> 00:52:23,280
Speaker 4: It just seems so utterly clear that it is.

836
00:52:25,000 --> 00:52:28,680
Speaker 3: I mean, you wanta you wanta cut regulations? U. We

837
00:52:28,760 --> 00:52:32,239
Speaker 3: see that happening now. It's happening in the automotive industry

838
00:52:32,560 --> 00:52:34,000
Speaker 3: quite recently, by the way.

839
00:52:34,320 --> 00:52:34,640
Speaker 4: Uh.

840
00:52:34,719 --> 00:52:38,279
Speaker 3: We see budget cuts, we see targeting of agencies that

841
00:52:38,320 --> 00:52:44,520
Speaker 3: have previously investigated elon musk business dealings, rollback.

842
00:52:44,120 --> 00:52:48,919
Speaker 4: Of environmental regulations that directly impact positively, you know, big

843
00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:49,840
Speaker 4: energy companies.

844
00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:52,560
Speaker 3: Yeah. You ever walk outside in the forest and you

845
00:52:52,600 --> 00:52:53,760
Speaker 3: think this place?

846
00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:59,040
Speaker 2: Yes, I wish I wish about a dozen technogarks would

847
00:52:59,080 --> 00:53:01,640
Speaker 2: come out here, that's all. And I don't know tech,

848
00:53:02,200 --> 00:53:04,360
Speaker 2: but did I wish they come out here really beautify

849
00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:05,640
Speaker 2: this place and make it more efficient?

850
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:08,120
Speaker 4: Plopped some data centers on these redwoods?

851
00:53:08,320 --> 00:53:11,000
Speaker 3: And thanks for the beet, Dylan. Sorry, I got a

852
00:53:11,000 --> 00:53:12,680
Speaker 3: little irritated with this word.

853
00:53:12,760 --> 00:53:14,000
Speaker 4: Yeah, you're you're right.

854
00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:17,799
Speaker 3: Guys like walk into a forest and then say, what

855
00:53:17,880 --> 00:53:20,800
Speaker 3: if you had to subscribe to each of these trees?

856
00:53:23,520 --> 00:53:26,480
Speaker 4: That's great? But no, I mean, we let's think about it.

857
00:53:26,560 --> 00:53:30,640
Speaker 2: Let's go quickly just on data centers and weird stuff

858
00:53:30,680 --> 00:53:33,640
Speaker 2: going on. I can't remember what episode it was I

859
00:53:33,680 --> 00:53:35,759
Speaker 2: mentioned that I'm seeing some weird stuff going on with

860
00:53:36,040 --> 00:53:39,640
Speaker 2: detention centers out where I am. Guys, about thirteen miles

861
00:53:39,640 --> 00:53:43,360
Speaker 2: from I am, there is another warehouse really close to

862
00:53:43,400 --> 00:53:46,120
Speaker 2: where I live that has been vacant for about a

863
00:53:46,239 --> 00:53:48,400
Speaker 2: year and looks like it was at least sold or

864
00:53:48,560 --> 00:53:51,479
Speaker 2: least to someone. But I went to the assessor's office,

865
00:53:51,520 --> 00:53:54,760
Speaker 2: I can't find any information about it. I'm genuinely interested

866
00:53:54,800 --> 00:53:56,719
Speaker 2: in this, and I'm trying to do the you know,

867
00:53:56,760 --> 00:54:00,279
Speaker 2: the correct avenues to find stuff. Yeah, it's another one

868
00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:03,960
Speaker 2: of these million square foot warehouses. I'm serious, million square

869
00:54:03,960 --> 00:54:07,600
Speaker 2: foot warehouses that is just empty. But they're changing the

870
00:54:07,640 --> 00:54:11,200
Speaker 2: outside of it right now, and it sure looks like

871
00:54:11,239 --> 00:54:14,680
Speaker 2: it could be used as either a data center or one.

872
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:15,720
Speaker 3: Of these detention centers.

873
00:54:15,880 --> 00:54:19,239
Speaker 4: Okay, it's like right down the road for me.

874
00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:20,160
Speaker 2: It's freaking out.

875
00:54:21,000 --> 00:54:25,480
Speaker 3: Let's go, let's go visit. I don't know if they

876
00:54:25,480 --> 00:54:29,160
Speaker 3: can't stop us from like being on a public.

877
00:54:28,880 --> 00:54:32,480
Speaker 2: Road, we could just be British. Oh yeah, like a tool.

878
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:39,080
Speaker 3: Like sure, come on in, just end every sentence, within't it. Yeah,

879
00:54:41,520 --> 00:54:45,279
Speaker 3: they've got a big warehouse, isn't it. So there's a

880
00:54:45,280 --> 00:54:47,080
Speaker 3: lot of stuff happening. There are a lot of legal

881
00:54:47,120 --> 00:54:51,479
Speaker 3: actions being taken against dose. So many what. I don't

882
00:54:51,560 --> 00:54:53,520
Speaker 3: know how far we want to get into this, but

883
00:54:53,560 --> 00:54:56,920
Speaker 3: there was a class action lawsuit filed in February of

884
00:54:57,080 --> 00:55:01,960
Speaker 3: last year, twenty twenty five, almost exactly a year ago today.

885
00:55:02,600 --> 00:55:08,160
Speaker 3: The lawsuit said, Hey, these Doge boys, big Balls, Musk

886
00:55:08,239 --> 00:55:13,080
Speaker 3: and so on, they improperly accessed personal data, financial data

887
00:55:13,160 --> 00:55:17,520
Speaker 3: from federal databases and they didn't have any legal reasoning.

888
00:55:17,600 --> 00:55:20,680
Speaker 3: They didn't have a green light. There are more privacy

889
00:55:20,719 --> 00:55:28,800
Speaker 3: and data security lawsuits, constitutional challenges, allegations of violating the

890
00:55:28,840 --> 00:55:34,640
Speaker 3: Federal Advisory Committee Act FACA. We are drowning in acronyms today. Guys.

891
00:55:34,920 --> 00:55:37,839
Speaker 3: I hate how the government does this. Why is there

892
00:55:37,880 --> 00:55:40,280
Speaker 3: an initialism for everything?

893
00:55:41,640 --> 00:55:43,319
Speaker 4: Efficiency? Efficiency?

894
00:55:43,520 --> 00:55:48,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's also just to make the whole thing

895
00:55:48,040 --> 00:55:53,200
Speaker 2: seem so complicated. We were looking at that initial order

896
00:55:53,239 --> 00:55:57,319
Speaker 2: that was put forward by the Trump administration establishing and

897
00:55:57,360 --> 00:56:00,520
Speaker 2: implementing the President's Department of Government Efficiency, And if you

898
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:03,640
Speaker 2: just look through that pretty simple like two pager on

899
00:56:04,400 --> 00:56:08,000
Speaker 2: this new thing called Doge, but you look at the

900
00:56:08,000 --> 00:56:11,840
Speaker 2: way there's so many acronyms in there. There's so many

901
00:56:11,880 --> 00:56:16,600
Speaker 2: things that are being talked about, and then the way

902
00:56:16,600 --> 00:56:19,520
Speaker 2: they're being talked about, it just feels confusing, and it's

903
00:56:19,560 --> 00:56:24,080
Speaker 2: such legal speak, you know. I think so often that occurs,

904
00:56:24,080 --> 00:56:26,279
Speaker 2: so that it just becomes boring and you tune out.

905
00:56:26,680 --> 00:56:29,279
Speaker 2: Ben you've said that before on purpose, like it's meant

906
00:56:29,600 --> 00:56:30,560
Speaker 2: to make you tune out.

907
00:56:30,920 --> 00:56:35,160
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, you are meant to be bored. You are

908
00:56:35,320 --> 00:56:41,680
Speaker 3: meant to stop doing difficult reading about numbers and acronyms

909
00:56:41,719 --> 00:56:45,840
Speaker 3: and so on, and go over to your dopamine casino right.

910
00:56:45,800 --> 00:56:47,680
Speaker 4: Needle in the haystack. Effect of all of it, like

911
00:56:47,760 --> 00:56:49,919
Speaker 4: not to mention the Epstein files, I mean so many

912
00:56:50,040 --> 00:56:53,040
Speaker 4: things that you're just have all this data dumped on

913
00:56:53,120 --> 00:56:56,240
Speaker 4: you where maybe there's something of interest or of value

914
00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:59,640
Speaker 4: hidden in there, but unless you are really, really, really diligent,

915
00:57:00,080 --> 00:57:01,840
Speaker 4: they never gonna find it, and you will likely just

916
00:57:01,880 --> 00:57:02,759
Speaker 4: get bored and give up.

917
00:57:02,960 --> 00:57:04,520
Speaker 2: Some of the Epstein files. Of course, you add a

918
00:57:04,520 --> 00:57:08,440
Speaker 2: little a couple buckets of trauma and you know horrific

919
00:57:08,920 --> 00:57:12,520
Speaker 2: details in there, which further makes it you want to

920
00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:13,319
Speaker 2: look away even more.

921
00:57:13,800 --> 00:57:17,000
Speaker 3: Mmmm. Yeah, that's a great point. I've got. I've got

922
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:20,080
Speaker 3: a question, uh for us all have you guys been

923
00:57:20,120 --> 00:57:21,200
Speaker 3: to Fort Knox yet?

924
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:21,840
Speaker 4: I have not.

925
00:57:23,200 --> 00:57:25,080
Speaker 2: Oh, it's been on a list before, and I was

926
00:57:25,120 --> 00:57:26,280
Speaker 2: near there, but I never got to go in.

927
00:57:26,360 --> 00:57:31,120
Speaker 3: Ben I didn't. Well, it depends on what we mean

928
00:57:31,160 --> 00:57:32,160
Speaker 3: by in, but.

929
00:57:32,600 --> 00:57:33,440
Speaker 2: I wanted to get in.

930
00:57:34,200 --> 00:57:35,760
Speaker 3: Oh, I get in Baby, Let me.

931
00:57:37,960 --> 00:57:39,720
Speaker 4: Bond movie A knock.

932
00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:45,760
Speaker 3: Well, there's this longstanding conspiracy theory in the United States

933
00:57:46,160 --> 00:57:50,840
Speaker 3: that you'll find in any number of uh folklore branches

934
00:57:51,120 --> 00:57:55,280
Speaker 3: right of conspiracy, which is that Fort Knox doesn't actually

935
00:57:55,400 --> 00:57:58,720
Speaker 3: have any gold in the vault, and that it is

936
00:57:58,880 --> 00:58:01,800
Speaker 3: just a tall tale that Uncle Sam has told other

937
00:58:01,920 --> 00:58:06,480
Speaker 3: countries so that it looks more wealthy than it is.

938
00:58:07,040 --> 00:58:10,400
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we can hide all the alien bodies there. Duh.

939
00:58:10,480 --> 00:58:10,760
Speaker 4: Right.

940
00:58:11,320 --> 00:58:13,800
Speaker 3: It's so weird that in step of the birth of Doge,

941
00:58:14,240 --> 00:58:17,920
Speaker 3: Musk brought up this conspiracy theory. Who was replying to

942
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:23,640
Speaker 3: a post from a senator named Mike Lee out of Utah,

943
00:58:23,680 --> 00:58:27,320
Speaker 3: and Senator Lee said, I was I'm a senator. I

944
00:58:27,360 --> 00:58:30,160
Speaker 3: was not able to enter Fort Knox. Why are they

945
00:58:30,200 --> 00:58:35,040
Speaker 3: denying access? Musk loved this, and he said, who's confirming

946
00:58:35,120 --> 00:58:38,040
Speaker 3: the gold wasn't stolen from Fort Knox? Maybe it's there,

947
00:58:38,120 --> 00:58:40,880
Speaker 3: Maybe it's not. That gold is owned by the American public.

948
00:58:41,120 --> 00:58:43,480
Speaker 3: We want to know if it's still there. So on

949
00:58:43,560 --> 00:58:48,040
Speaker 3: top of all the other things. This guy just added

950
00:58:48,280 --> 00:58:49,760
Speaker 3: the Fort Knox conspiracy.

951
00:58:50,640 --> 00:58:55,240
Speaker 2: Dude, isn't funny? I think, yes, we'll go check for you,

952
00:58:55,440 --> 00:59:01,240
Speaker 2: mister Musk. The weirdest thing is this all, this thing,

953
00:59:01,360 --> 00:59:07,360
Speaker 2: this doge concept is pulling away the facade that presidents

954
00:59:07,400 --> 00:59:10,160
Speaker 2: and senators used to always talk about. You know, you

955
00:59:10,160 --> 00:59:13,240
Speaker 2: wouldn't say anything bad about Fort Knox and the gold

956
00:59:13,280 --> 00:59:17,160
Speaker 2: supply on purpose because we have to pretend. We all

957
00:59:17,200 --> 00:59:20,480
Speaker 2: have to pretend or this whole thing falls apart. The

958
00:59:20,600 --> 00:59:22,920
Speaker 2: US is extremely wealthy, and yeah, a ton of it's

959
00:59:22,960 --> 00:59:26,080
Speaker 2: in Fort Knox and it's great. And also we don't

960
00:59:26,080 --> 00:59:29,400
Speaker 2: spend too much money. We make so much money, it's incredible.

961
00:59:29,680 --> 00:59:31,920
Speaker 2: But then you look at how some of these things,

962
00:59:31,920 --> 00:59:35,120
Speaker 2: these pillars are just being yanked away. It just makes

963
00:59:35,120 --> 00:59:35,800
Speaker 2: you wonder why.

964
00:59:36,120 --> 00:59:40,600
Speaker 3: It does make one wonder. Also side note, just to

965
00:59:40,600 --> 00:59:45,080
Speaker 3: be objective, folks, you cannot visit the vaults at Fort Knox.

966
00:59:45,680 --> 00:59:49,400
Speaker 3: You can go on the base depending on your circumstances.

967
00:59:49,720 --> 00:59:53,720
Speaker 3: You can walk around depending on your circumstances, but you

968
00:59:53,920 --> 00:59:57,680
Speaker 3: cannot go it. It's kind of like the It's kind

969
00:59:57,680 --> 01:00:02,760
Speaker 3: of like that church in Ethiopia that apparently houses the

970
01:00:02,880 --> 01:00:06,440
Speaker 3: arc of the Covenant. You can walk around it, you

971
01:00:06,480 --> 01:00:09,040
Speaker 3: could talk to people outside all the livelong day, but

972
01:00:09,160 --> 01:00:15,360
Speaker 3: you cannot enter. I don't know. It's strange because we

973
01:00:17,240 --> 01:00:20,680
Speaker 3: have a billion, perhaps a trillion dollar question here what

974
01:00:20,920 --> 01:00:24,920
Speaker 3: happens next answer is, we don't know, but we do know.

975
01:00:24,960 --> 01:00:28,720
Speaker 3: They're very disturbing signals from the halls of power. There

976
01:00:28,760 --> 01:00:33,600
Speaker 3: is clear internal descent which should not be occurring in

977
01:00:33,600 --> 01:00:37,200
Speaker 3: the way it's occurring now. It seems like a heist.

978
01:00:37,560 --> 01:00:40,440
Speaker 3: It seems like Doge is a heist. It seems like

979
01:00:40,640 --> 01:00:45,200
Speaker 3: it's kind of not very well thought out organized crime,

980
01:00:45,640 --> 01:00:48,880
Speaker 3: right like Hamstring. The coppers who are coming to get

981
01:00:48,880 --> 01:00:56,440
Speaker 3: me also give me leverage for future stuff and swindle

982
01:00:56,480 --> 01:00:59,640
Speaker 3: the American people think about the consequences later. I don't know.

983
01:01:00,600 --> 01:01:04,480
Speaker 2: Zabarra, I agree. There might be something even more insidious

984
01:01:04,520 --> 01:01:08,920
Speaker 2: here in a connection to the Department of Homeland Security

985
01:01:10,400 --> 01:01:14,160
Speaker 2: coming out of this NPR article, I'm just gonna read

986
01:01:14,280 --> 01:01:18,280
Speaker 2: these two sentences. The access Doge had is also being

987
01:01:18,400 --> 01:01:22,720
Speaker 2: used to further the administration's immigration policies. The Department of

988
01:01:22,720 --> 01:01:26,080
Speaker 2: Homeland Security announced last week that Doge helped overhaul an

989
01:01:26,120 --> 01:01:30,800
Speaker 2: immigration database to serve as a quote single reliable source

990
01:01:31,000 --> 01:01:34,440
Speaker 2: for verifying non citizen status nationwide.

991
01:01:34,960 --> 01:01:38,200
Speaker 3: Yeah right, So if.

992
01:01:37,520 --> 01:01:40,960
Speaker 2: You get access to all that that information that not

993
01:01:41,120 --> 01:01:44,160
Speaker 2: one group is supposed to have access to all of it,

994
01:01:44,280 --> 01:01:46,760
Speaker 2: then you can decide who is okay and who is

995
01:01:46,800 --> 01:01:48,960
Speaker 2: not okay according to the administration.

996
01:01:51,000 --> 01:01:51,280
Speaker 3: Yes.

997
01:01:52,120 --> 01:01:56,000
Speaker 2: The other weird thing to me is that DOGE only

998
01:01:56,080 --> 01:01:59,520
Speaker 2: had until July fourth this year, twenty twenty six to

999
01:01:59,600 --> 01:02:03,400
Speaker 2: a comp all of its goals, but already in November

1000
01:02:03,600 --> 01:02:06,840
Speaker 2: of last year, twenty twenty five, they've already seemed to

1001
01:02:06,960 --> 01:02:12,080
Speaker 2: have dissolved, as though dose doesn't actually exist anymore, at

1002
01:02:12,120 --> 01:02:14,000
Speaker 2: least according to Reuter's.

1003
01:02:13,640 --> 01:02:16,040
Speaker 4: Well, let's mission accomplished though, Man, Yeah, you know.

1004
01:02:16,960 --> 01:02:21,040
Speaker 2: But so that mission was save you know, one hundred

1005
01:02:21,040 --> 01:02:24,600
Speaker 2: and fifty to two hundred billion dollars in operating costs

1006
01:02:24,960 --> 01:02:26,840
Speaker 2: and then make these lists.

1007
01:02:27,160 --> 01:02:28,880
Speaker 4: That was, well, we were told the mission was, but

1008
01:02:28,920 --> 01:02:32,240
Speaker 4: I do not believe that was in fact the actual mission.

1009
01:02:32,680 --> 01:02:36,080
Speaker 3: I agree with you, Noel. The part of the mission

1010
01:02:36,240 --> 01:02:40,440
Speaker 3: was to appear to be doing those good faith things right,

1011
01:02:40,480 --> 01:02:44,280
Speaker 3: but the real mission again seems to be on the

1012
01:02:44,400 --> 01:02:48,840
Speaker 3: level of not super well thought out organized crime. The

1013
01:02:49,840 --> 01:02:54,800
Speaker 3: heist doesn't need to continue after you leave the bank,

1014
01:02:55,200 --> 01:02:58,800
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. For instance, if we are

1015
01:02:58,920 --> 01:03:04,600
Speaker 3: bank robbers and we dress in cool costumes, what's a costume?

1016
01:03:04,680 --> 01:03:06,200
Speaker 3: Somebody give me at.

1017
01:03:05,800 --> 01:03:10,080
Speaker 4: A stripey you burglar outfit and that's that bag man

1018
01:03:10,160 --> 01:03:10,680
Speaker 4: right there.

1019
01:03:11,720 --> 01:03:13,800
Speaker 3: All right, So we've got we've got our outfits on.

1020
01:03:14,280 --> 01:03:18,600
Speaker 3: We rob the bank, we get away. We're probably not

1021
01:03:18,640 --> 01:03:21,000
Speaker 3: going to wear those costumes for the rest of our lives.

1022
01:03:21,040 --> 01:03:23,240
Speaker 3: The heist is over, you know what I mean. It's

1023
01:03:23,280 --> 01:03:25,360
Speaker 3: on to the next score unless.

1024
01:03:25,040 --> 01:03:27,880
Speaker 4: You build a back door to the bank and that

1025
01:03:27,960 --> 01:03:32,600
Speaker 4: allows you to continue to heist over the time, right,

1026
01:03:33,640 --> 01:03:34,080
Speaker 4: I don't know.

1027
01:03:34,200 --> 01:03:38,160
Speaker 3: I mean, Look, there's so much more to explore here, folks.

1028
01:03:38,200 --> 01:03:40,320
Speaker 3: We cannot wait to hear your thoughts. Thank you so

1029
01:03:40,440 --> 01:03:43,600
Speaker 3: much for tuning in. Tell us what is the stuff

1030
01:03:43,680 --> 01:03:46,919
Speaker 3: they don't want you to know about Doge and what

1031
01:03:47,040 --> 01:03:51,040
Speaker 3: happens next? Please find us on the lines, give us

1032
01:03:51,040 --> 01:03:53,680
Speaker 3: a call on a phone, or shoot us an email

1033
01:03:53,840 --> 01:03:54,400
Speaker 3: in the dark.

1034
01:03:54,600 --> 01:03:56,240
Speaker 4: If you are on the lines, you can find us

1035
01:03:56,240 --> 01:03:59,520
Speaker 4: at the handle Conspiracy Stuff or Conspiracy Stuff Show, depending

1036
01:03:59,560 --> 01:04:02,840
Speaker 4: on your social media platform of choice. And there's more, Yes,

1037
01:04:02,880 --> 01:04:03,200
Speaker 4: there is.

1038
01:04:03,240 --> 01:04:05,760
Speaker 2: We have a phone number. It is one eight three

1039
01:04:05,840 --> 01:04:10,480
Speaker 2: three STD WYTK. Turn those letters into numbers, call them

1040
01:04:10,520 --> 01:04:12,600
Speaker 2: with your phone. You're gonna hear Ben's voice, and then

1041
01:04:12,640 --> 01:04:16,200
Speaker 2: you've got a voicemail system three minutes. You have give

1042
01:04:16,200 --> 01:04:17,720
Speaker 2: yourself a cool nickname and let us know if we

1043
01:04:17,720 --> 01:04:19,280
Speaker 2: can use your name and message on one of our

1044
01:04:19,360 --> 01:04:22,400
Speaker 2: listener mail episodes that show up in the audio feed,

1045
01:04:22,520 --> 01:04:24,600
Speaker 2: So you have to go find it, not on Netflix.

1046
01:04:25,040 --> 01:04:26,640
Speaker 2: If you want to send us an email, you can

1047
01:04:26,680 --> 01:04:27,120
Speaker 2: do that too.

1048
01:04:27,240 --> 01:04:30,320
Speaker 3: We are the entities that read each piece of correspondence

1049
01:04:30,360 --> 01:04:33,880
Speaker 3: we receive. Be well aware, yet's unafraid. Sometimes the void

1050
01:04:34,080 --> 01:04:37,000
Speaker 3: writes back. Hit us up with a random fact, get

1051
01:04:37,000 --> 01:04:40,240
Speaker 3: one in return. We'll see you out there in the dark.

1052
01:04:41,120 --> 01:05:00,560
Speaker 3: Conspiracy at iHeartRadio dot com.

1053
01:05:01,080 --> 01:05:03,120
Speaker 2: Stuff they Don't Want You to Know is a production

1054
01:05:03,240 --> 01:05:07,760
Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1055
01:05:07,840 --> 01:05:10,720
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.