Jen Briney | Legislation 2017: Corporatization, Backdoor Deals, Data, & DNA

00:05 This puppet master's almost surely have a There's clearly maybe something there And until you've thoroughly tested every last close justin Think you know the less you really do That's true, Dr. Seuss Edward without THC Cause we know they're lying to us Just don't look without THC The higher side chat show on wood company

00:44 Alright, Hireside Chatters. I think most of us will agree that we're living in a highly charged and emotionally erratic era and sometimes bringing it back to earth is just the medicine we need because it's hard to separate truth from fiction with such a finely tuned propaganda-and perception management machine in full swing And it's just as upsetting to see lifelong alternative thinkers throw their support behind a privileged upper crust douchebag with zero historical record of helping anyone outside his tiny circle So we're going to save the random guessing and wishful thinking for another day, and instead just dive into exactly what our government is actually doing on paper. To do this we're bringing back my friend and yours Jennifer Briney the host of the popular political watchdog podcast Congressional Dish where she walks her listeners through the sideshow circus that is our governmental process and breaks down in each episode exactly which bills are being introduced in congress who's behind them and which ones actually become law

01:39 As I'm sure you can imagine, it can be a daunting, dull and depressing task to navigate the shady backdoor deals, the overwhelming influence of corporate lobbyists and the complete lack of public accountability. But it still beats the old 9-to-5. Here she is America's walking talking cliff notes, The Great Curator Of Congressional Content Jen Briney welcome back to The Higher Side Thank you so much for having me. That's the best intro of my life. Fair enough, I appreciate that my job is done but it is great to talk to again always a pleasure and your sort of polarizing guest from my rabid fringe audience because you try to encourage people to actually pay attention to their government

02:20 And vote and actually get involved in some people are just too cynical for all that but it is a really interesting time to have you back because it's the end of the first year of the trump presidency and almost nobody actually knows what's going on many people just sort of formed an opinion along time ago and assume that what's happening is consistent with whatever is in their head. Also, the media hasn't made it any easier to get good information because they're covering his latest tweet or how he drinks water or they're beating the Russia drum and it's just like a win-win because the networks are getting ratings they don't actually have to cover anything of substance and it's a perfect smoke screen

02:57 But as someone who's able to see past all that, what are your thoughts on the legislation passed this year? Is it business as usual or has the changing of the guard really taken policy in a different direction at all. What's been really fascinating to me is that there really hasn't been much legislation passed into law. I mean, we've named a lot of post offices just like any other year but it's this month December of 2017 that i'm especially concerned about because in my experience...I've been doing this podcast now for five years so I've been reading bills and watching hearings and just kind of learning how Congress operates And what I've noticed is that most things get signed into law in these giant packages. So we have to fund our government by September 30th of every year, and for the fifth year in a row they didn't do it and the way it's supposed to work because we're supposed to have 12 different bills because there are twelve different sections of our government that need to get funded

03:53 And instead what they're going to do is they're going to pass one giant bill that funds the entire government at once for the rest of this year. And that's a great opportunity for them to jam all kinds of things into that giant law We won't have any time to read. We won't even know they're in there until their law and so that's the thing I'm most concerned about, everything they've been doing this year is a preparation for this government funding law we have coming. It's supposed to be done on the 22nd of December. I don't think it's going to be, who knows when they'll actually finish it? But when it's actually done, that's when the most sinister things will become law. What's stunning to me is that so far

04:32 we've escaped relatively unscathed during the Trump administration as far as actual laws are concerned. There really hasn't been anything too concerning signed, I mean there...I'm sure we'll get into this but there was something that had to do with DNA that I was concerned about that's probably the most concerning one, it was called the Rapid DNA Act. And so it allows these little machines about the size of a printer to go into any police station where they can collect our DNA just if we're arrested you don't have to be convicted of anything. If you are arrested they can take your DNA and keep it and then put it in the FBI database. So that has me concerned that every police station in the nation will be able to have this now

05:13 That's the only thing that has become law this year, that really matters to me. But I think we have a hell of December waiting for us. By the time the new year rolls around, we're going to have a different story to tell." Fair enough and you are so right about the holiday season. It's always a hotbed for the things they don't want us to know about, it's when everybody is looking the other way, it's how we got the Federal Reserve Act signed into law and I wouldn't be surprised if we see that again. And also concerning these giant packages, we've heard just in the past few years so often now

05:48 Even our own legislators are saying, hey I didn't have time to read that. The thing's 10 thousand pages long and they just gave it to me yesterday and asked us to sign it so... I'm sure its gonna be more backdoor deals more corporate favors a subtle twisting of the knife in the back middle class and more stuff that people we elect don't even read Yeah and what i witnessed this year on the bills they're just working on is rampant corporatism it's unbelievable right now that I'm watching the TV and they'll talk about the left versus the right when really its the vast majority of us who earn paychecks for a living, verses the owners of society being those are the two groups in we vastly outnumber them.

06:26 But they hold all the power and they are changing the laws actively in their favor every single day. I mean, Donald Trump as the head of this government is the perfect example of that he is a walking talking corporation. He's enforcing laws in a way that benefits corporations does not benefit normal people but he sees business owners as his friends those are his people and you can just see from every single agency whether it's the EPA Scott Pruitt is anti-environmental guy I've ever seen. And he's in charge of the EPA and no matter which agency you look at, they've put foxes in the hen houses." And so that is what I'm watching and concerned about because it's executive branch and it's definitely the legislative branch... And I'm not really sure what's going on then the judicial branch to be honest with you but the way the laws are changing are generally not in our favor if you're someone that earns a paycheck for a living. You're the help and you're not being

07:20 considered in these laws. Right? And look at Donald Trump's entire life, that is how he has thought of people. You know, he is constantly abusing the people who actually build the structures he makes his money off and you're so right. The line in the sand is really not left and right it's up and down. And it's so crazy how they're able to flip that in our heads and get so many people worked up about which side of the aisle they are on when really you are on the same side and that's the bottom side Financially, we're on the bottom side. But I also just... The framing of it is like up and down. Like, I don't feel like a little guy. I'm not a little guy. I'm normal person. I work hard. I'm just not greedy! My purpose in life is not to collect as much money as possible. And

08:05 that is also a big difference here. There are so many people in government and I don't want to blame the government, these are individuals there's people in Congress right now individuals who see the pursuit of money as a worthy lifetime goal where I see happiness and time with friends and family, and stuff like that. That's the most important stuff to me these are very different humans that we're dealing with. We're dealing with unchecked greed and they're changing the laws to allow that unchecked greed to happen without any fear of ever going to jail or being held accountable for funneling all the money to this small group of people. And in that respect, I mean what I'm watching right now is a conversation where people on welfare and people that take food stamps... People on Medicare and Medicaid are all being branded as moochers, right?

08:57 Why are we calling me investor class the moochers like i don't understand that these are people that use their money to gamble on wall street cause wall street really is a giant casino you're betting on companies and if those companies do better or fire a bunch of workers in reduce their labor costs. Will then these people get money in the pocket it mean it is bad on company's, And yet, we're structuring our entire economy to benefit them. If the stock market is up then we're pretending all is well in the world even though wages have been stagnant or falling for my entire lifetime." It's completely warped and this moocher class... I mean they can golf every day. They can sit by their pool and literally make millions while the numbers just change on the screen like those are society's moochers.

09:38 And yet we're calling people on Medicare moochers, people that have worked their entire lives. People that I mean... We have a janitor here in my building. I was just watching him work and it's like he's sweeping all day and cleaning toilets And then the guy at the post office, he's had a bad back. I've known this guy for four years. He has a bad back Christmas is a terrible time for him it physically hurts him He's working so hard and he'll probably end up on Medicare. He's not the moocher You know these rich people by the pool and at the golf courses Those are the moochers! framing in our heads and we realize what's happening, that the ultimate moochers are funneling all the wealth to themselves. We're going to keep losing these battles and right now we've given them the entire US federal government. And it's up to us to vote them out. We do have that power but we have to understand what's happening first." Absolutely well said! It is also a thing like

10:30 just sometimes one good tax loophole or one really good deal for a corporation can be enough money to dwarf the entire welfare budget. So this idea that it's always the poor people sucking us down, it's like they don't even have the collective resources to do that! They're barely getting anything and it is really the corporate welfare that if you look at the pie, the aspects where we're not getting the money we need... That's where it is I think you're right Yeah, look at us agreeing. Boom! Beautiful thing and so you're also right about corporatization being the name of the game in your episode about the first 14 bills that Trump did sign into law it did seem to be nothing but corporate favors and problems for us You mentioned that the government accountability office was given more busy work and a tighter focus on

11:21 the penny pinching kind of spending that actually goes to the poor. Trump also signed into law a bill that stopped requiring oil companies to report payments to and from foreign entities, and rolled back some regulations on their pollution and tendency to poison water supplies Also, Trump has now allowed telecommunication companies to sell our data. So even more people selling that information and those are the things that just a few of the things actually passed this year so the proof is on paper we know what's going on It is. But I think we also have to be careful not to blame all of this on Trump, because he is just the pen. He's the guy who's signing it into law. That's what's different when it comes to Congress. Congress in the last two years and the last few years of the Obama administration they were held back by Obama's veto pens so what's changed? Is that a different guy is there to sign

12:14 It's Congress that is writing this and it's Congress we have the most control over. So yeah, he is citing this stuff but these aren't Trump laws these are Republican congressman laws we should be blaming Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell above everyone else I mean I'm not saying Trump's innocent here at all. But we also have to be very careful about understanding who is actually doing this stuff like we can blame Trump completely for the way the law enforcement agencies are operating because he appoints the people that are operating those, but we can't really blame him for those laws because he has no power over writing them none

12:50 Right. That is totally a fair point and so on that subject, we should probably throw some shade at one of these congressmen and it'd be Liz Cheney I guess Dick Cheney's daughter was voted into the House of Representatives by the brilliant people of Wyoming such a wise choice You know, just in her first term I learned from your show she's taken over 100000 from the oil and gas lobby and push some legislation to open public lands to the oil companies which Trump seems to have signed. But there is a great example of someone who really should be a red flag just in the last name alone getting involved in government and doing exactly what you expect a member of the Cheney family to do.

13:32 Yeah, and she was actually given a very important and powerful position on something called the Rules Committee. So the Rules Committee is... It's one of these ones that no one knows about but it's actually my favorite because in the House they get to determine every single bill whether that bill gets amendments or what they do. They can do a closed rule and I think they've done all closed rules. I don't think there has been a single open rule yet which means that close rules don't allow amendments on bills But they get to touch every single bill that gets passed in the House. And it happens like the night before the vote, they can add things to it and their rules committee. It's a very powerful committee and even though she is a freshman she's brand new to Congress. Liz Cheney is on the Rules Committee now so she has gone up in the ranks of power I mean obviously a lot of this because who her dad is but yeah we have a Cheney in Congress! How do

14:27 How do we allow this to happen? But yeah, she's a real mess. I just looked it up and she's already taken almost $23,000 from oil and gas just this year for her upcoming election. She's taking 20 grand from the war industry. Yeah so she's just collecting more money. She is following in her dad's footsteps acting on behalf of oil in war. She's a Cheney. We shouldn't be surprised by any of this but yeah, she's in Congress and most people don't know that I can't say, I knew that for sure. And millions of people and we go to these same families it's ridiculous and i don't think you've done a full show on the tax reform plan of this year but i am curious if you've looked into it or what your thoughts are on it because i've had some people suggest to me that it might be the sole reason they shoehorn trump into the presidency is to get this thing passed

15:20 You know there's a lot of suggestion that our economy is kind of a snowballing problem of debt that obviously it's gonna hit the fan eventually and then some of this is to bring back the offshore money home to prop up the economy but also to shore it up to make sure that its really locked down for those elite families. We're talking about things like the estate tax and the dramatic term is the death tax, but I guess it's the inheritance tax that they're making a lot of changes in this regard things that would benefit a guy like Trump wanting to pass his own net worth down into his children. I'm just curious have you looked much at the tax plan or do you have any thoughts on it?

15:58 I've been following it, but the reason I haven't done an episode yet is because I think that there's almost 100% chance that this becomes law. The only thing thing that surprises me about the tax cut bill is that they didn't do it first. Why they went to health care first, I will never understand but yes this is exactly what the entire Republican Party has been agreeing on and has been salivating over the entire time I've been watching Congress they want to cut taxes for the wealthy and especially corporations we really have to look at that corporate rate cut because With all of the loopholes and stuff that we have in our tax code, yes. Our tax rate on paper is currently 35% for corporations but effectively it's much lower than that. And so even on paper we're going to cut it from 35-20%. When I look at... You know, when I look at like roads and bridges, that's something that I think all of us can agree we need government to do. We can't just go build a highway. We need to do it together. Well FedEx is a pretty big corporation. So is UPS

17:00 It's their semi trucks that are tearing up the roads, especially on the East Coast when it snows and stuff. My little Honda Accord that I hardly ever drive is not the problem. Its giant semi trucks those are corporate things so its like... When I look at our infrastructure they should be contributing to our society because they use our public common goods to get their crap to everybody and we're going to cut their taxes from 35%-20%. That's a massive, massive tax cut. And then you also had a very good point about the inheritance tax. This only benefits the wealthy because I don't have an inheritance of I would be my life would be so different if i did but yeah most of us don't have an inheritance it's only for rich people and the way that this is being done is quite truly the shadiest thing I've ever seen. For instance today we're talking right now on Friday, the...I don't even know the date but we're talking... 15th Thank you! We are talking about Friday the 15th and the tax bill, the final version of it is going to be released tonight at 530 p.m

18:01 So it's the Friday before Christmas week. They're going to release it Friday night I'm pretty sure that there's going to be some holiday parties this weekend, even in Washington DC. Maybe even some journalists that are holiday partying. This is all being done on purpose. It's being written without any Democrats having any say in it at all. So if you want to do the party thing, you really can't blame the Democrats for any of this. They've been completely powerless over the way this bill has been written. I have no idea what's going to end up in the final version here and they're planning to vote on this on Monday or Tuesday So, unless you're willing to spend this weekend reading the entire time and reading legislation which is I can testify it's not the easiest thing to do. A lot of people in Congress are going be voting on this without really knowing what's in

18:50 There's a lot of people in the Republican Party that don't read anything, that just vote party line and you can count on them. There are few that aren't we know their names John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins those are the ones that tanked the healthcare bill but there is a lot of people who just vote party line no matter what it is what they're there for why they get money So yeah, with this one just because I know ideologically every single Republican is down with us. I'm not bothering to track it as it's being created A because that was impossible but B because this has become a law and so I'll read it and tell you what they eventually do but I would be absolutely shocked if this tax bill fails. I don't see how its going too

19:28 I'm with you. And on the subject of current drama, of course we got to hit net neutrality early on here. You covered it so well in your last episode. The FCC just ruled on it yesterday. We're both independent online entertainers, I guess I could use the term? Yeah! We use our online income to survive. So it's clearly a big deal and I'm not sure it's as simple as people are making it out to be is it? No, and in fact it's so funny the feedback I've gotten from that episode because i wasn't freaking out. And so people are like don't you understand how important the internet is? And I'm like yeah! It's only my entire income of course I understand So people are being just crazy about it and its...I haven't dealt with this much

20:13 Emotional feedback since Hillary lost honestly this is the second wave of the year I'm just like wow this completely disconnected from reality because my take on it which when they listen to the episode they mellowed out but I'm not upset that the regulation was overturned. I'm not happy about it, and I don't think it benefits me but in the same way I wasn't like yes we got the regulation! The reason is it's a regulation so we're learning something about how government works here A regulation is the enforcement of a law And so it's up to whoever is in charge of enforcing the law. So in this case, the FCC, it's whoever is in charge of the FCC at the time they get to determine how the law is enforced. Tom Wheeler was the FCC chairman during Obama's era and he decided that he was going to enforce a lot in a way that cracked down on some of the Internet service providers practices

21:06 This new guy, Ajit Pai who's actually not that new he was on the commission at the time but he is now in charge and he has been against that regulation from the very beginning. So anyone who is surprised they got overturned hasn't been paying attention He promised us for years this exactly what he was going to do and I think thats why he was appointed So there's nothing surprising about this. The fact of the matter is that the law that's being enforced is a law that was written in 1996, well before we understood what the internet was going to be in our society. In fact when I watched the hearings from the 1990s, the conversation was about building the internet infrastructure. Well, that's pretty much done. There are some people in rural communities who don't have it yet mainly because the cable companies don't want to pay to install those wires but

21:54 For the most part, broadband's done. We have it! I'm talking to you from my house and i'm pretty sure you're talking to me from yours and a lot of people downloaded this either through their phones or via their broadband wire... It's done!" And so that's what the 1996 law was talking about when it came to the internet. That was it. The content side hadn't even been imagined yet. So the way I'm looking at it is that the internet law has yet to be written Which I see as good news, as long as we show up to vote especially in 2018 because We need to have people we trust In Congress To write that law And right now i don't trust these people As far as I can throw them So that was the second half of my episode Even if you think Democrats are The Good Guys and Republicans Are Evil You need to listen to this episode Because the Democrats are definitely in favor Of censoring the internet and I can prove it

22:45 I did prove it in that episode. So right now we have a lot of people that are paid off, party doesn't matter by all kinds of different interests but they are now seeing the internet as a threat and my theory on it is that We were operating under their radar for so long and it wasn't until last election when they did all their usual tricks but because things like Hillary's emails, and the Podesta emails were able to spread as far as they did on the internet despite pretty much a media blackout. I mean they reported that the e-mails were there but they weren't reporting on the content It was the internet that really spread that stuff. It was the internet that was really having the real conversation about who do we want in charge here? What are the dangers of this particular person and when she lost, I think what we're witnessing now is the people in power freaking out and realizing the power of the internet so these particular individuals are very dangerous and I don't want them writing that law

23:41 But the hope for the future is we do have the power every two years to change the House of Representatives in particular. The entire house is up for election and so if we can just get this idea out of our heads that we should sit on the sidelines and it's some sort of source of pride, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my entire life because the only way you're going to change our society is by making new laws which means that you need to have people you trust doing it And so I'm hoping that witnessing the hell that we're in right now and the mess that our government is, I'm hoping that we will step up elect some people that we trust to govern the internet. And then we can write that law because right now, the way it is with net neutrality and all of this just going to keep going back and forth back and forth because we're trying to enforce a law That doesn't make sense for the Internet It just doesn't! It wasn't written for it

24:29 Yeah, and I think that's so important for people to know because a lot of times we just get caught up in these buzzwords. And net neutrality is definitely one of those terms that got everybody's panties in a wad nobody knows anything about it and the only difference I really see between Democrats and Republicans as which corporate sectors get the most benefits? Which set of lobbyists is most effective But you are really right about the Democrats and the censorship issue. Those clips you played are so telling because they're grilling these executives from YouTube or Twitter and saying, why haven't you banned RT? Why haven't you banned Russia Today from your services?" And it's like, this is just a news network. You realize this is also a cable channel that is on in your house as well. Why is it YouTube or Twitter's responsibility to ban those voices and they were really grilling them as if they have some responsibility and that's telling because they want

25:27 this crackdown to happen, not necessarily that they want free speech to reign supreme and also we should be careful about are quote right to free speech when we're talking about private platforms because I'm not so sure that Google or YouTube has any allegiances to us. You know they don't really owe us anything in that regard if we're gonna let them blow up to the level they are and basically dominate the internet, We should be careful because they are private companies and they aren't beholden to laws like free speech Absolutely. And that's what scared me so much about those hearings is that as I'm watching it, its Facebook and Twitter and Google that we're telling our congressmen about the First Amendment and how it works all it takes is a different group of people in charge of those platforms and everything can change

26:14 it should have been the other way around because Google and Facebook and Twitter never took an oath to defend the Constitution. Our representatives did, so here they are telling these platforms like you should be censoring the internet, and it's completely backwards to me." And those were the members of The Resistance. I played mostly Democratic clips. I had a couple Republicans just because I think it's... Republicans are Kind of down with this stuff. I think we know that at this point, but the Democrats I mean there's so many people that are acting as if Having a D next to your name makes you automatically one of the good guys and you really have to judge these people by who they are. Because there were individuals in there, you know? There was Jackie Speier and Diane Feinstein And those were the people in particular that we're looking for internet censorship which we should all be concerned about considering those are the representatives of Silicon Valley

27:08 But at the same time, you do have people like Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is totally for the First Amendment he would never ask for RT to be taken off the internet so we do have to judge everybody as individuals The good news for all of us is that we only have to deal with three You have one person representing you in the House Two people representing you in the Senate Those are the only ones that you have any power over those are the only people you have to pay attention too So it's not as daunting as it seems But we really need our generation, the younger generation that uses the internet and understands the internet. We need to be the ones writing this rules. We can't have an 80 year old... Dianne Feinstein's up for election here in California I know you're a Californian too she's gonna be 80! I don't want her to be doing anything when it comes to legislating the internet

27:52 need to step up and vote. And the best news that I have is that in 2018, for the first time, millennials will outnumber the olds we will this is our chance The only problem with us is this idea that too many of us have that not voting is a good thing it's actually incredibly destructive because we're allowing our grandparents and our parents who don't understand this stuff to keep writing all the rules pissed off that nothing changes. It's like, well let's elect some people that can change the rules in a way we want them to and we finally 2018 is the first time we have the power to do so and I just hope you take advantage of it because the internet like you said is too important for all of us. That's how we get our news and how you and I get paid!

28:35 I agree. The small government issues are the ones people should pay the most attention to and it's actually the opposite, everybody pays attention to the presidential circus and no one even knows who their local representatives are that needs to change for sure in terms of net neutrality and these major corporations twitter facebook google they don't want to have to be responsible for the content other platform that would completely cripple them because there's just so much content on their that, definitely resistant to it but. I would never claim it can't get worse, of course. When Twitter, Google Facebook and even Patreon have used their power to suppress voices they don't approve of we should just be careful with this idea that it's really all that great right now or that it can't get worse. Oh absolutely! It absolutely can get worse like I said I'm so concerned

29:28 Watching the people that are in Congress now because I've been like, I said, I've been doing this for five years. I've never seen them focusing on the internet as a threat The way they are this year There's been a major shift since Hillary Clinton lost where it's like they seem to realize That the Internet is how they're gonna lose their control over all of us and That awareness I think is dangerous for us. And so this is the time we need to switch them or else they're going to legislate it in a way that they get their control back. Mm hmm. And I also sort of wish people would get more worked up about the control aspects of the Internet, the surveillance aspects, the selling of our data. But it seems like people only get upset when you mess with our entertainment options. That's the only time they actually put up a fight

30:15 See, I don't know about that. I'm just feeling some outrage overload because it doesn't matter what topic you bring up, you can get me yelling and so really... I think people care but there's just a limit to how much we can handle. FISA needs to be reauthorized at the end of this month December 31st like I said most dangerous time in the year. So that's the law specifically the part that says if you're communicating with someone overseas the government can collect the contents of those communications. So if you have a friend that's studying abroad in Germany, and you call that person, the government can collect that phone call and just store it hold on to it for whatever reason, and then sift through it later. And so now the conversation in Congress is whether or not they should require warrants. The House Judiciary Committee does want to require warrants, the House Intelligence Committee surprise surprise does not but this

31:05 But that is one of those things that we could get all upset about. And there's just so many things on our plate that most people don't even know it's happening and so I don't want to blame us in particular for not getting mad about every single thing, I think you have to pick your issue and vote accordingly and go outside and walk into sunshine once a while because really at this point, everything is bad. I mean no matter what... It's so awful to say that I don't have a lot of hope except for it's so bad that people who've never voted before —I've seen in my personal life— people who have never voted before and proudly sat on the sidelines are registered to vote in 2018. I think this might be our wake-up moment

31:45 But as for right now, I'm just trying to pay attention to the stuff that i think is most important. The stuff that I can actually change which is another reason that I wasn't focusing on net neutrality. I got badgered into doing that episode because we can't change it. Ajit Pai was always going to overturn that regulation and this is not the congress that I want legislating it so I'm doing nothing! I want to affect things where maybe I can change it That's not one of them. So I don't know, it's just so hard right now to be like why don't people care? I think it's because there's too much to care about. It's overwhelming. We kind of have to break it down into little chunks of like, I can affect this

32:21 And I think, I can affect three people in Congress is a really good place to start because those three people can change everything if you do your job and erect the correct three. You know what i mean? I'm with ya! outrage fatigue out there i've got it and we are in trouble times you can only pay attention to so much you got on plug eventually but. Let's also talk about a tnt because they been the focus of a couple episodes have done this year not only in that neutrality but, also the situation with first net what do you tell us about the history at nt and their shady tactics have a long running pattern of using taxpayer money to build their networks and then breaking promises after the fact don't die

33:07 Well, I don't know how AT&T originated. I don't know how much taxpayer money they were using in the beginning but AT&T before we were born was essentially a monopoly. They owned just about every telecommunications wire that we had and what they were doing is they were gobbling up all of the companies that made the actual equipment so the telephones telegraphs, whatever you were using at the time to communicate. They made it so that their wires were only compatible with the equipment that they own and so they effectively had a monopoly over our entire telecommunication system and in the 1980's, they got broken up. So they had to sell... It was called The Baby Bells when it was done. They had to sell their regional local carriers and they were allowed to keep their long distance

33:53 And get into the internet now fast forward all these years later AT&T is now back to buying up different companies they just bought direct TV there getting bigger and bigger this is no secret any of us. With that in mind I'm gonna tell you about first net now first night came out of nine eleven when the towers fell we found out that our police, are firefighters basically all our first responders weren't able to communicate with each other. They all had different equipment and the equipment was old and shoddy, it didn't work correctly. And so that was a huge problem when it came to 9-11 because there were people in the second tower that never got word that the first one fell down. So we had first responders who died needlessly because they didn't even know that the second one was down. When it fell they were still in there assuming that the building was going

34:40 So, Congress decided to do something that I consider good which is to create a nationwide first responder network so that if you're an EMT or a firefighter or policeman, you would be able to get on this network. It's only for first responders and it's a way that they can communicate with each other and its compatible no matter where you are. For instance, Oh, I don't know. A giant hurricane come and flood Houston people from all over the country could come and help that situation and be able to use their equipment to communicate it's a great idea so it's called FirstNet well for years and years and years they've been figuring out how this works And what they decided this year is that instead of actually building FirstNet instead of building a network just for our first responders

35:24 We're instead going to give $7 billion dollars to AT&T and use their network. So the way that this works is that AT&T is quite literally our first responder network when When there is no emergency, AT&T is allowed to use that extra capacity and sell it and profit off of it as their own network. And then in times of emergency they're going to have the power to kick us regular people off of their network in favor of whoever has whatever kind of code or whatever they're going to use I don't know the details of what they're planning this is all quite new But in whatever way they're going to, they're going to be able to kick us off in favor of these favored people. And you better believe congressmen and their families will probably have the code. So instead of actually building this national network AT&T is now our network so when you look at the corporatism I mean

36:18 We are now in a very real sense merging government and corporations to the point that AT&T, are they ever going to be too vital to fail now? If they are our first responder network how does the free market work. Are we just gonna let them fail and let our entire national Defense cuz i think about defending the home and i do think of walkie talkies for fireman i think that's on the list are we just gonna let them fail is the market going to allow that or are we now making these corporations so big and sewing green in our government. That we have to prop them up no matter what they do discover that this year isn't that fun it is so concerning because

36:58 Whenever you contract a corporation to do something like this, they're going to do it as cheaply as possible usually and they're going to throw the least amount of resources at it just to do the bare minimum because all they care about is corporate profits. And it's such a dangerous game Involve them with something so crucial i think it's a huge deal like you said it's like are they too big to fail now are the two integrated to fail and. Word pretty sure that they're not gonna get broken up in the future if they become this big monopoly which they basically are in that realm already with a small cartel of other companies but there definitely not going to,

37:37 Face the wrath of the US government and terms are breaking them up again because now they can just make the case well where's responsible for this giant network and i got a spot balls even more than they might have already. They do and then you kinda combine that and i still haven't quite processed what it means, But yesterday, they did overturn the net neutrality regulation. And AT&T is one of the companies that benefits from that so what are the repercussions of that? So the rules changed literally in the last 24 hours we now know that AT&T is our first responder network I don't know what that means but all these pieces are just coming together and AT&T wins in every single one of them Man

38:21 news. Of course, of course! Welcome to the Hireside Chats with Debbie Downer. Well it is what it is you know all you can do is report on it and I also wanted to ask you about cryptocurrencies too this isn't something you've dedicated an episode to I know but as two people who've got a little Bitcoin stuffed in the mattress largely thanks to our supporters regulation is going to be a big factor in how this all shakes out have you seen any bills come through that attempt to regulate this stuff in one way or another? No, they don't even know what it is. It's kind of like how the internet was operating under the radar. Bitcoin is so far under the radar these people don't understand that I don't understand it to be honest. So no there's nothing

39:04 I think once Goldman Sachs and all of those type of companies get involved in it, as they're planning to do... And I don't quite understand that they're going to have a futures exchange. Bitcoin is going to be a part of it? I don't understand it. I thought this whole thing was so that we didn't have to deal with the vampire squid but- Yup! ...I think once those big players get involved then we might see some conversations in Congress but the good news is no, I haven't seen a damn thing. Well that's probably good i mean they tend to compromise everything always be something that's a ground swell from the people and then of course they just come in and kinda car around it and adopt what they need you and cut out the things are super harmful for them so im

39:45 pretty confident that like most things, they'll find a way to manage it and co-opt it. Yeah the only thing that I know is that if you do take your Bitcoin and turn them into US dollars you're immediately in the system It does count as investment income And right now the IRS has been given so many tasks and is being underfunded and having their staffs cut So they might be too busy to deal with this But if you are selling your Bitcoin, you do need to pay taxes on it. If you just have it sit there... I don't know what the rules are but I kind of feel like if they can't see it how do they know? Yeah! It's just that if you convert it into dollars be aware that

40:28 The IRS is aware that people are making a lot of money on Bitcoin. So if you're cashing out, be aware of that. You could get in trouble with the IRS if you're just sitting there and watching it. I mean, I don't even know how they would know but... And I'm not an accountant like don't hold me to any of this but I'm just looking at my own stuff like I'm just kind of watching what mine do. Like you said, I've never bought a bitcoin but people have given them to me and I've never touched it. I just watch And so I'm not going to worry about it, but I'm not cashing out. So right on. And another major topic that you covered this year was that Equifax breach. Yeah, and I thought that was an excellent episode it's something that we lost over yet for sure thank you. It's something that was glossed over pretty quickly and i think its gonna have huge implications for a lot of people that might never be corrected over one half the country had their vital information compromised

41:23 I don't know. We never opted in to begin with, so I'm a little bit pissed about it but how bad is the situation really? Well, it was more than half. It was pretty much every adult in the United States had their information taken and that includes your social security number and that's a big deal because when it comes to identity fraud as a recent victim of identity fraud They really can mess up your life. I mean, they'll open up credit cards in your name if you have someone's social security number and their birth date, you can pretty much do that anytime you want to we have no idea who stole the information but it's out there now on just about every American adult so the only way that we can protect ourselves is to get credit monitoring which you have to pay Equifax Experian or TransUnion to

42:06 And so I wanted to see what are these companies and how do they even have my information. And it turns out from the very beginning, it was kind of a rumor mill put together by... But it started small like 150 years ago as businesses saying yeah This guy over here is a drunk. He's not going to pay his bills, just don't do business with him." It started small like that and then it became a community thing where they had these community meetings where they would have the rumor mill. And then it just became more digitized and countrywide and bigger and bigger and bigger until you ended up having these three companies that are the systematic rumor mill essentially so they're collecting a lot of information on us

42:46 They're sharing it with the banks to judge their risk of doing business with us. And so yeah, I told the whole history of how that happened and they've been shady since the very beginning Equifax in particular, their cybersecurity was a joke but there's no repercussions for them. There's nothing in law saying that if you lose every single American social security number this is the fine for that. You know? There's no per-security number fine that they have to pay and so there's been literally no repercussions As far as what this means for you, what this could mean is that you get your identity stolen. Which I'm sorry but it's now so possible and the only thing that you can really do

43:26 There is a free way. And this was because of a law, this was regulation... This is one of the examples of regulation doing something good for you by law these three companies have to give you your credit report once every year. You might remember like FreeCreditReport.com Well that's not the website that was Experian tracking you it's actually AnnualCreditReport.com And if you go there, that's how you can get your credit report for free once every year. You have to do it now because you have to check and make sure that all those credit cards are yours. You have to check and make sure that you're not racking up debt that you're not even aware of. You have to make sure that no one is taking out a mortgage in your name. I mean imagine if you own a house and you're $300,000 in debt on it and you don't even know

44:09 That's the type of stuff that's possible when someone has your Social Security and your birthday. And so many people in this country are not aware of that danger, and so yeah annualcreditreport.com. And then for me personally I am paying Experian just because I've already had my identity stolen. I know my information is out there and I'm now doing something publicly that pisses people off. So I'm spending $30 a month to monitor mine and my husband's credit And I've already noticed things on it. My identity was stolen last year and then just now, my credit went down by 150 points in one day because I didn't pay a $20 bill that I didn't know about at my dermatologist's. So that had nothing to do with identity fraud but that's the type of thing that ends up on your credit report. Had I tried to get a mortgage or car loan, my credit dropped so low that I wouldn't have been able to because of that $20 bill

45:01 We're just now in the era that we have to watch our credit reports in a way that I don't think we really had to before the Equifax breach. Every single one of us now knows we're in danger, whether you can have secure mail or you can do all of the things to protect yourself but Equifax just screwed it up for you. Man, and I really hate that kind of life maintenance. And I really hate just trying to deal with a major corporation. Just as an example people write me all the time and they say hey did you know that this YouTube channel is rebroadcasting your shows and stripping out all the branding? You should do something about that! And i'm like yeah let me just go

45:37 contact YouTube and get them to work on this issue for me. They don't give a fuck, and it's like I'm not gonna waste my whole day going through all this shit trying to stop somebody from reposting the show is just a stupid thing because you can ever get through these major companies and you make a great point it is the vast majority of people that were affected by this and this also isn't the only hack there's plenty of them so yeah if it wasn't this one maybe they'll get you on the next one but is there any real way to know for sure we were part of this particular compromised hacker or not? If you've ever opened a bank account, bought a car rented an apartment you are affected. Because the way that it works is that it's the banks and rental companies when you sign up for an application they check your credit And that's who they're checking with Experian Equifax and TransUnion

46:30 So that's how you opted in. You've never heard of these companies, chances are but you opted in by doing business with a bank or with a rental company or with a car company or anyone that checks your credit I mean... I had a Macy's credit card for five minutes and they ran my credit so that is how these companies are getting information on us. You pretty much have to be the Unabomber living in the woods to not have been affected by this one it was every single person that's done business with a bank Man and you know again one thing i really do love about your show is the clips you play from actual hearings and on this issue those clips were quite telling because,

47:10 When the Equifax executives were, or this I guess particular Equifax executive was being grilled they pulled out some previous quotes from him where he says fraud is a huge opportunity for us. Fraud protection is an exciting new market and they went on to show how Equifax just like you said now sells fraud protection services and they actually make more money when they have these breaches because there's zero consequences for it and they get a surge in all of these extra services that sell Absolutely. Elizabeth Warren did a beautiful job of making this obvious because she just brought up the point that Equifax, in the wake of this, they offered free credit monitoring for one year to anyone who wants to sign up and I think that one year is almost over but you could go and you sign up... You get it for a year and then Elizabeth Warren brought it up but if these people decide to continue with your monitoring service, even 110 of them decided to continue then

48:06 you just made something like, I don't know $30 million in profits. I don't remember what the exact number was." But she was just like, You're going to profit from this! And she's like that just feels so wrong and yeah the current law doesn't give us any way to do anything about it and even now what's so frustrating is that this happened And you would think that there would be some kind of follow up to make a law, to put in some kind of punishment for something like this. There's nothing. There is no one discussing it and writing it. I mean maybe a Democrat wrote it but its not being taken seriously by the people in power or the Republican party They're doing nothing. They're doing absolutely nothing it's up to us to protect ourselves now right and what about our frickin privacy like we did not sign up for that shit is just so annoying that you know, you can't get out of it and they're not even doing a good job I agree well like so many things I guess see there's so much to be outraged about

48:59 And you know, you mentioned this earlier but another topic you covered was the expanding DNA database. As you note in those show notes since 1994 the FBI has maintained a database with samples of DNA taken from convicted criminals in order to match those samples with DNA collected at crime scenes however over the course of the last two decades the DNA database has expanded to include many more people and This is a concern for sure, but can you elaborate on what bothers you most about this particular DNA database expansion? What bothers me the most is that it started as a DNA database of people who have been convicted of violent crimes. So if you are a rapist, if a jury has said, yup he did it then your DNA would stay in the database

49:45 This is being expanded to the point that if you get arrested, then you end up in the DNA database and that is far different. I mean, I could be arrested for walking down the street If I look like someone who may have done something. It's basically like oh someone called the cops there was someone who six feet tall and white walking down the street. I think she robbed my apartment. I could get arrested for looking like that They take my DNA and even though I'm innocent, even though I'm just walking down the street they already have it. And it's like finders keepers So that's the part that disturbs me so much. There should be a conviction or something attached to this That says like you are definitely in danger of society and that way we get to keep your most personal information your genetic code But just for being a person that gets arrested, I mean, I've been arrested twice both of them legit but the second time was because I was protesting in front of the White House and

50:37 So all I did, like if you look at the ticket it says failure to yield because I stopped walking in front of the White House. You're allowed to walk by it but not stay put that's what I was technically arrested for If they had decided to take my DNA because this law allows them to have a little printer thing It used to be harder to take the DNA but had they chosen to take the DNA of every person arrested that day because we were under arrest. I mean, I was cuffed. I was taken to a second location. I was fully under arrest. They could have taken my DNA even though the crime was just a misdemeanor and clearly no big deal on my ticket there's also failure to dispose properly of a refrigerator That's the level of crime that I committed So does that warrant them taking my DNA? In my mind it shouldn't rape murder fine

51:29 Proper disposal of a refrigerator? Don't think you need my DNA. That's the concern I have, they're just broadening how many people that can be put in the database... We're getting to a brave new world place here with how many people are going to be able to collected once they're able to carry these things around in the car. And again, can we really trust these people with that information? I don't think so. No. And the results when even they use this stuff, the results aren't even 100 percent and the whole culture seems more driven to solidify convictions more than truly finding guilty parties because a lot of times this DNA evidence is used in convictions that are wrong

52:12 Yeah, totally. And you also have to remember that DNA is shared I mean what about twins? You know like if they just go on fishing expeditions like oh we have this person's DNA from this crime scene they run it through the system there's gonna be people that are just picked out who are totally innocent because they have a twin somewhere so it's I don't feel like as a country we're having these conversations and making these decisions together. They're just happening because, you know, I didn't hear about this on the news and I still haven't heard about this on the news no one knows that these little printer things are coming to a police station near you And that's what disturbs me too had the news but not focusing on Russia for the last year We could have had this conversation. We could've done something but we are not even aware of it happening so our corporate media is also failing us in not talking about these things

53:01 I'm just some person with a computer if i can find it will flitzer confined at but they're not trying and that's frustrating to. I saw some other stat, that's kind of in this wheelhouse where I think actually John Oliver did a major piece about it, which when he is nonpartisan. I love some of the pieces he does but i think police seizure is getting so out of control at the last and the last year might have been higher than robbery. The amount of money that people claim was robbed from them was lower than the amount that police seized from people because they determined to be suspicious something like that but scary stuff too much power

53:40 Yeah, essentially if you have cash in your car they legally can just jack it. So I still don't understand how that's allowed in our system. I know that every single person that I've talked to that is aware that that's happening thinks that it's straight up wrong and yet Once again, we have a Congress that is largely out of our control functioning on behalf of the rich and the people trying to keep their power. They're not functioning on behalf of us because we're not paying attention and that's why this is allowed to remain law. We really... If we want to change the laws that we feel are unfair, we have one way to do that and that's electing good people in Congress but votes are essential. They're absolutely essential

54:23 And you've made that point a couple of times and I think you're right, but... I keep beating that drum. But I know our generation and I'm so frustrated with it right now that people are still saying that it's okay to not vote. It's not! It's not okay. You have to take some responsibility. I think voting for three people on the national level- if you're pissed at the federal government, that's how you fix it. You vote for three people? Why is that so hard?! Have to I agree and you also know your audience, you know You're here with a bunch of listeners who think that the system is just an energy suck And the best approach is hands-off which I disagree with that's how we got in this mess. I mean you gotta pay attention or

55:02 you have zero power, you have zero say. But I guess I would ask you when it comes to refocusing our attention on local government in particular—you're right it's not that hard to focus on three individual elected people but do you have any go-to resources or plans of action for people who might be motivated and think yeah you know I am going to start looking at this stuff? How should they start Well, the first thing you have to do is go to the post office and register to vote because it doesn't matter if you're researching if you're not registered. And most states have these weird deadlines when you have to register by so the best thing to do is just register now and that way it's done. So that's step number one in any of this

55:42 Then on the federal level, which is my thing. I use gov track dot us It's just aggregating all of the information from the federal government as far as like Which bills passed or where they are in the process how your person voted but i just really love the way that that it looks. It's really user-friendly where the government stuff is not so user friendly, so it's govtrack.us and that's where you can look up who your person is how they voted the bills they voted on there some good summaries especially of the bills that are big bills really important ones I know that they've hired an intern to take those summaries and write them in a way that anyone can understand and I read them their fair. So I really like that website

56:21 Right? On the state level, there's something called Bill Track 50 that does the same thing on a state level. And I haven't played with that so much...I've seen the California one but it functions in the same way you can find out who your state representatives are what bills they voted on what they've introduced That's a good way to judge people What are the bills that your person is writing They might not have gone anywhere But you can really figure out who they are by what changes they're trying to make So yeah, between GovTrack.us and BillTrack50... Those 2 resources alone will really help you. And then this is fun too if you want to look up your congressional representatives and senators and seeing where they're getting their money from that's OpenSecrets.org That's my favorite website because then you can just poke around and see what industries are funding their campaigns and you really learn a lot about someone

57:12 buy who they're taking money from. And a lot of times if you see them writing a corporate favor or writing bills for a certain industry, you can go straight to opensecrets.org and you can see the connection crystal clear in writing but when it comes to money I do it all the time so yeah GovTrack.us Billtrack50 and OpenSecrets.org Right? Opensecrets.org is the kind of thing I was looking for sure that's so important and It's like You know, people really love their content curated and your show does a great job. And it's also awesome how you do point out who introduces these bills and you also talk about who is paying them but we do need like a trustworthy Rotten Tomatoes or Yelp for political corruption and our representatives but of course that is an oversimplification also in who are going to trust to play that role? Exactly! We can't outsource it. You got actually pay attention Yeah

58:07 But again, when you break it down. It's not that hard. There are only three of them on the federal level because like when you see 535 people in Congress, that is overwhelming but when you break it down to three and realize those are the only ones you're in charge of... Not so hard! I mean really you can research this stuff in a day before the election takes a couple hours. It's not that hard Fair enough. Well, right on Jen always a pleasure you do a great public service because you cut through the bullshit and just tell people what's happening on paper they make it so difficult and tedious to find that information out on purpose and a person like you is really our best measure against that tactic So before we go tell the people how to follow up on you in the show support The project and maybe let us know about some of the things are digging into next if you can

58:53 Well, first I just want to thank you for having me back on. And I can tell you listen to the show this is one of the most informed interviews I've ever done so thank you for supporting me like this but you can find the podcast itself on congressional dish dot com it's now available on Spotify and iHeartRadio and of course in all of the podcast apps. As for what's coming my next episode is a hopeful one It's coming on Christmas Eve and I'm actually interviewing a friend of mine who's running for Congress we talk about the process of that and what it's like. And she's a really good person, so we're ending on a high note. And then we're starting the year with probably a lot of bad news because I'm going to read the NDAA over Christmas and that's the National Defense Authorization Act. This is what gives our government the permission they need to continue our war things. So I always learn a lot about where our government is. I can tell you right now that they gave us a list in one of the hearings... We are in 19 countries right now troops on the ground.

59:49 I'll definitely be looking into that. It's going to take me about a month to do, but that's the big project I'm working on now is the NDAA which was signed two days ago into law. Right? Another one of those great massive package deals that we get to deal with 786 pages. Merry Christmas to me! Well, I definitely appreciate you doing it and this has been awesome. I do like keeping Congressional Dish in my rotation. It's an awesome resource and you've done a great job growing it so congrats and keep doing what you do. Thank you so much You got it Holy Babylon and Black Mirror, here it is lords and ladies. The last THC of 2017 Man I hope you liked it! I know the audience gets a bit split when they feel like an episode is overly political but I would categorize this as legislative rather than political Political is the drama in Washington DC circus Legislation is what actually happened It's what politics are designed to distract you from

1:00:51 Why would anyone say that a well-spoken, definitely well informed guest who can talk to us about those details of what our government is actually doing isn't something we should have in the rotation? I know i've said we don't have to guess a lot lately on several shows because so many recent episodes have been about looking at the documents and history. Remember Matt Landman and the geoengineering episode It was a walkthrough of patents and military weather projects. So when someone mocks us for thinking chemtrails and geoengineering is a real thing, you just show them the documents and it's not a debate! See? Alex Jones was right all along

1:01:28 Same with Dr. Colin Ross, we talked largely about the facts and what the declassified documents do show Sure you can extrapolate from there but the facts give you a great base to not sound so crazy over the holidays when you try to tell mom and dad about entity invocation through mental trauma while you carve the roast beast But a lot of listeners have asked me to have Jen on again and personally I think she's pretty measured. You will have some thin-skinned Trump diehards who can't stand her criticism of the Republicans, but that's who is pushing this stuff through so what are you supposed to do? You know that she also gets a ton of shade from her listeners for not rallying around Hillary Clinton It's like if you try to be anywhere near the center your not extreme enough for either side

1:02:11 I kind of get that too, but if you stuck around to hear the segment about the Russia scandal and the geopolitics of that. I think it's clear she is not blinded by ideology because every liberal under the sun that i know of is drinking that Trump Is A Russian Agent Kool-Aid hard because they heard it from Chris Matthews and Rachel Maddow and it sounds good to them! They want it to be true And we did that a lot in 2017. We trusted untrustable people because they told us something we wanted to be true, something we wanted to hear. We say on one hand we don't trust the elite and they play this ridiculous long game and everything is planned out in Bilderberg and CFR meetings years in advance but Bitcoin is here to save us all

1:02:53 People have written me saying that clearly I don't understand blockchain technology and i always hate that. Telling someone your opinion is different so clearly you just don't understand How about, I know it just as well as you asshole and I just conclude differently how about that? With the crazy rush to cryptocurrency nobody knows which one will really reign supreme And many of them will work with the big banks Many of them are not decentralized Don't you think it's even possible that this Bitcoin situation was engineered and that when the time comes they'll either add new layers to the Bitcoin protocol, that quote solves problems and also puts it under their control? Or bitcoin will become the Lycos or the Netscape or the AOL or the MySpace of this blockchain technology. And another coin will come out in front maybe Bitcoin Cash maybe Ripple but something... That is more controllable I'm willing to bet

1:03:47 I mean the whole game is global financial slavery. It has been for decades, you think if Bitcoin was really this hero rising from the darkness that they'd open up cryptocurrency exchanges at Wells Fargo and start trading it on Wall Street? Ding ding ding! Think about that...I'm not saying that you can't make money or that the technology of digital cash person to person with no intermediary isn't awesome its totally awesome in fact I've seen people make life-changing amounts of money Seeing some new projects coin that's trading for one cent or ten cents buying a couple thousand of them and watching it soar to seven, ten twenty bucks? Yeah you can make thousands of dollars in weeks right now with this stuff. You just need to educate yourself on it like yesterday

1:04:34 Believe me, I'm a holder with the best of them. But it's naive to think that this couldn't possibly have anything to do with the elite's very real plan to get rid of cash and control all currency digitally, tie it in with their other programs and convince everyone else to deal with the risk and stress of being their own private bank without any legal recourse when you wake up and the ones and zeros tell ya your money is gone? Where'd you go?! We may hate the fractional reserve banking system, but aren't you at least a little relieved that your life savings are secured and insured? We can talk about bank runs but when was the last time that happened. And I can hear some of you screaming now, But Bitcoin is unhackable! You don't understand the encryption! To be honest guys do YOU understand the encryption or are you just parroting something you heard from Andreas Antonopoulos because you want it to be true

1:05:24 The Titanic was an unsinkable ship too, but the game plan of the elite is to make things sound impossible and then turn them on their head. Well we just didn't know this could happen! Oops? Look it's not about categorizing something all good or all bad it's just really about looking at what's happening and it IS just like the dot-com bubble It's a mad dash to use this blockchain technology in interesting ways A lot of these companies will go under But you can also make a lotta money by getting there early Again, just like the internet was this freedom-giving wrapper on a deep state surveillance and data mining monster. I think the Bitcoin and blockchain technology are going to have the exact same parallels when this is all said and done Don't just accept something because you want it to be true It's convenient to believe it

1:06:11 This goes for the recent Pentagon disclosure too. People have asked me if I'm going to do a show on this, well...I'm sure it's gonna come up but i don't think its wise to help fuel pentagon propaganda they put out this story and they are just hoping every conspiracy and paranormal show just falls in line and basically vouches for them! Im not gonna do that But they tell us that they ran a program to investigate UFOs called the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program in the 2000's. They release a few UFO clips that are fine, but I've seen better. They say they spent $22 million on this program which is nothing and they say even though they found UFOs, filmed UFOs, admitted that they don't know where they come from and can't be technology of any known country

1:06:55 They stopped the program because, to paraphrase, higher priority issues came up. Well what the fuck does that mean? What's higher priority than that if you've got the proof of something else out there?! It just doesn't make sense and now people who 99 days out of 100 will say never trust the Pentagon, never trust The Deep State everything they do is a lie and public manipulation and cultural steering I NEVER TRUST THOSE ASSHOLES! Well, until they tell me something I want to hear. Then I trust them! There's good people in there trying to get the truth out. I heard it from Tom DeLonge. I'm fucking around but it is true that now CNN Fox News and goddamn Good Morning America are showing you UFO footage and telling you about this program believe me that's very exciting I'm loving it and it's great for business right?

1:07:43 But you can't take it at face value. This is a calculated decision and we can't really know why it happened until we see what comes next, but keep your guard up! We're in the digital age and manipulation has never been easier or more finely tuned so be cautious of disclosure, be skeptical of cryptocurrency, and be critical of mainstream news narratives like Trump Is A Russian Agent Didn't think I was going to be able to bring that long-winded rambling rant back around, did ya? Well it's the last show of the year so believe it. The thing about Trump and international business deals is that I just think they've been par for the course for years and its really convenient to pin it all on Trump like it hasn't been going on in decades And thats why I think its not a big deal Its probably grains of truth but whos surprised by that

1:08:35 And when you see them trying to force that round peg in the square hole so hard, you gotta just step back and say, y'know what is going on here? So these are my stupid stoner college dropout thoughts on things. Don't rush to adopt opinions because you just don't know where they're really coming from sometimes And I think Jen is a valuable guest because again, we just talked about the corruption on paper. No need to huff and puff and speculate and say Trump is the devil and just chalk it up to some fun-to-say over-the-top political cliche—just the facts ma'am! People are going to comment on Jen's push to get people to vote happens every time but like she said it's the local elections we need to focus on and I completely agree there

1:09:20 The fact is, there are many pockets of this country where people have things that you don't because they demanded it locally. Fiber internet, legalized marijuana, banned abortions—whatever you want! Whatever you need! You can make those alterations if you're involved. Small victories in a largely one-sided war. Fuck it We did record this show before the tax bill had passed, but she was right. It did! Some think this is the whole reason Trump was elected to pass this tax plan to better secure elite wealth because that's what they care about right? Especially when they're worried about volatile economic times So yeah we all get like a 2% tax break but don't let them piss down your face and tell you it's rain or something like that it's like a guy robs a bank for a million bucks and throws you a couple 20s on his way out the door to keep your mouth shut about it

1:10:09 We've been bribed into complacency. Anyway, in this episode a lot of good things I think were covered AT&T, Equifax, net neutrality another one of these bait and switch issues either way i know there is a lot of value in this show even if it's not aliens from the inner earth and the reptilian origins of the elite we got plenty of time in 2018 for that believe me So that's the show. We've gone deeper than deep this year, I think we upped the overall sound quality, I think we made the website better, made the plus process better, added a really nice forum... Also, a listener by the name of Gabriel Zeros asked if he could start a THC Facebook group which i have no problem with! I just can't maintain any more pages with all this shit

1:10:54 But he did it and all of a sudden over 500 people are talking about the Hireside Chats, and I get 1000 notifications an hour which is a little annoying but fuck it. It's better than GameStop right? So I think we keep growing, keep moving in the right direction. I did a couple live shows that was new for me and set at The Legendary Comedy Store this year That's not nothing And now you can sign up for Plus through Patreon, and we're also upgrading the servers so you might see some weird behavior over the next couple of days. But I've already been on the Plus site on the new server and it loads a lot faster! So that's great too! We got a stellar server guy who reached out to me as a listener... ...I won't say his name because sometimes people like their privacy but we have him to thank for A LOT OF THINGS this year. And fuck Bluehost don't ever work with fucking Bluehost

1:11:45 Also another listener who does data analytics for some pretty huge companies out there, also is helping me to fine-tune the whole THC Plus infrastructure. So I really couldn't be happier got married over the summer and had a hell of a weeklong party with many friends who've never been to California all at once. Nabbed a great wife too by the way So I know there's a lot of bad things going on in the world, but i try to keep my bubble tight and distance myself from the system guard myself from it as much as I can. And really...I can't complain right now! I hope a lot of you guys are making moves too It's an uphill battle more than it has been in previous decades But I still get a lot of emails of people ditching the 9-5 distancing themselves from the system and the corporate products that fuel the machine

1:12:34 A lot of people have been inspired to take better care of themselves and get out into nature, and keep at it. The value in going down deep dark rabbit holes is...to do something with it not just get paranoid and depressed So keep your pimp hands strong And if you like THC please sign up for Plus in the New Year You're missing a lot and I only ask for a little 5 shows for $5 In today's second half, Jen got into her Puerto Rico coverage and disaster relief. Tracking the tug of war over health care this year and where we now stand. The Democrats' obsession with making a Russian scandal stick instead of running the country. Changes to veteran treatment and programs there. We talked about the prospect of impeachment—is it all hot air or are wheels in motion?

1:13:22 And of course the weed issue and the clauses that are actually keeping Jeff Sessions at bay, also subject to change in the latest government funding bill. I'm gonna have to find out what happened there But as always, all good stuff. Big thanks to Jen. Check out Congressional Dish to keep informed throughout the chaos and go forth to drink a little drink smoke a little smoke and have a happy new year you crazy animals I've done my part your move backdoor dealers corporate cocksuckers and corrupt councils and cabals of the legislative process Your fucking move This is important hear what i said I'm trying to tell you

1:14:02 It's not paranoia, not in my head. It's just the hard truth Knocked on your door while I still can To ask you a question Cause' I know your head is still in the sand Don't be sheep till ya slaughter for the rest of your life Oppressed, oppressed but you're getting woke You say you don't want to be stressed until the day you die Tough luck my friend Did you get the memo? Can't you see that we're so screwed? Don't you know we're our coon? Can't you just admit, We're screwed I'm gonna tell ya this anyway It's a scary world, scarier everyday Know whatcha say Scary time will be okay Can't you see that we're so cool You sit and wish but we don't have a choice

1:15:12 It seems we're stuck here, but you can find nose to drown out the noise. Now use that alter and up your magic game! And listen to THC, You know you go with the entities if you ever see Don't be sheep to your slaughter for the rest of your life Oppressed, oppressed but you're getting woke You say you don't want to be stressed until the day you die Tough luck my friend Did ya get the memo? Can't you say that we're so screwed? Don't you know we're our cum food? Can't you just admit we're screwed I'm gonna tell you this anyway It's a scary dark world Hurry up everyday

1:16:05 Can't you see that we're so, yeah Don't be sheep to your slaughter for the rest of your life Oppressed, oppressed but you're getting woke You say you don't want to be stressed until the day you die Tough luck my friend Did ya get the memo? Can't you see that we're so screwed? Don't you know we're Arkham food

1:17:00 Can't you just admit we're screwed? I'm gonna tell you this anyway It's a scary dark world So I'm scarier every day Scary, but it'll be okay Can't you see- Ooooooooh Yeah-eah-eh Can't you see that we're so screwed