Richard Belzer | Corporate Conspiracies, Robin Williams, & Media Mind Control

00:05 Puppet masters almost surely have a clearly maybe something there and until you thoroughly tested every last course just to think you know the less you really do. That's true, Dr. Seuss! Edward without TNT, clear by and to us just don't without TNT The higher side chat show of wood company

00:44 All right, Hireside Chatters. While we always try to keep a close eye on pockets of unchecked power it seems that over the years the nefarious elite have realized that they can come out from behind the curtain relish in the protection spell that is limited liability and coast on the ignorance and apathy of the masses as long as they offer up a catchy jingle and the fake smile of an underpaid PR shill Meanwhile, their true weapons of mass destruction—Merck, Monsanto, Dow Chemicals, Pfizer, Nestle, Exxon Mobil, Coca-Cola and a nearly endless list of corrupt corporations—ruthlessly consume market share as we the people and the planet itself suffer in their wake.

01:21 But lucky for us, today's guest Richard Belzer is not fooled and along with his writing partner David Wayne has just released a powerful book exposing the inner workings and dirty deeds of these very companies entitled Corporate Conspiracies How Wall Street Took Over Washington. Richard has had a long career as well-known standup comedian and actor, best known for his role as John Munch on the TV shows Homicide Life on the Street and Law & Order Special Victims Unit. But he's also one of few celebrities out there willing to use their popularity to draw attention things they don't want you to know, and has authored or co-authored several previous conspiratorial books including UFOs JFK and Elvis Conspiracies You Don't Have To Be Crazy to Believe Hit List An In Depth Investigation Into The Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses Of The JFK Assassination And Someone Is Hiding Something What Happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370

02:16 Finally, a guest who can actually say not only is he a conspiracy enthusiast but he plays one on TV and I'm psyched to have him here. The Bells himself Richard my man welcome to the higher side I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you. Yeah, man it is a real treat thanks for being here i know you've had a long career working with some of the greats and i really enjoyed this book too It's awesome that while you could just coast on that sweet sweet network money You still write about these subjects quite often and you don't need to get into these thorny subjects And sketchy conspiracy podcasts like mine so i find it all that more respectable That you do maybe

02:52 Start us off there. Talk to us about that decision, why do you find yourself compelled to draw attention to these things when you really don't have to? Yeah well I've always been thrown out of every school i ever went to and... You know for uncontrollable wit and I always questioned authority as a little kid would listen to what the adults were saying and kind of, at the risk of being a modest I was very curious and very smart. And adults would say things in front of me that they wouldn't say in front of another child. It was interesting. At any rate, you know, I've always been... You know, I was a newspaper reporter for awhile In fact if I wasn't an actor or comedian then I'd be a journalist So this is not far from my

03:41 You know interest the question of thirty and the fact that i'm a celebrity now is really. I am in france nine kind of don't work out much and i could just get back here with my five dogs are beautiful wife but now i have the leisure of studying interviewing you're really going into depth so i feel compelled to write this stuff, you know as a because of the journalistic part of me in my blood and it capitalized on my celebrity and Not sit back. And you know although I could very easily and I do your turn Well cheers to that. I mean it's a beautiful thing I'm curious Do you ever find people dismissing your serious book work because you are an actor? And you know You're not supposed to know anything about anything really yeah somebody

04:35 The other night I was being interviewed and a caller was saying, you know you actors You don't have time to really study the issues. And I said lady, you don't know me in my trailer five six hours a day reading on the phone on the internet, so to summarily dismiss a celebrity because they're compassionate and You know, look what celebrities have done in terms of the civil rights movement and the healthcare movements and education. The arts... Thank God that artists are compelled to be citizens You know, your occupation doesn't exclude you from being a participant in our democracy. Yes agreed I think it was John Malkovich had a great line, I act for free they pay me to wait around all day because you do so much waiting but everybody has to have a job So to think that like you can't have a job and also research conspiracies is pretty crazy

05:31 So this book about corporate conspiracies, of course it is dedicated to Robin Williams who you also wrote about in it. But some people might be surprised to hear that you considered his death a murder as another victim of corporate greed can you elaborate on that for us? Well we did a lot of research on pharmaceuticals for this book and we included very detailed charts showing what prescription drugs can do Now, Robin apparently was given four different powerful prescriptions in his final months. Mirtazapine, Remeron, Seroquel, Maripax, Sinemet... I mean the so-called side effects of these drugs include strong suicidal ideation thoughts of self harm depression psychotic like behavior and unusually strong unhealthy urges now one thing is you know Robin was clean and sober at the time of his death

06:26 But the news reports that no drugs were found in his body were misleading. Psychiatric drugs were found in his body, and our opinion and the opinion of many others was that it was the real cause of death what drove him to it." And you won't hear about this on the news, but Big Pharma is mainstream media's biggest advertising customer. And put that together with 23 thousand suicides are attributed to psychiatric drugs every year in America and so they're advertising the shit out of this stuff and they're not really following up too much on the ramifications of it because there's a tremendous amount of money that's involved

07:09 Right. The prescription drug problem is seriously out of control, these big pharma reps they bribe the doctors and offer them big commissions for writing prescriptions they don't really know a lot about and then we're also one of the only countries where you can advertise these drugs to people directly on TV so they hit us on both sides People go in asking for this stuff and doctors are set up to supply it It is pretty messed-up system Yeah...and one of the tragedies with this system we don't want to demonize these drugs for people that really need them. Do you know what I mean? And I think that's lost in the conversation. I mean, personally and I know a lot of people you know that after surgery or cancer whatever some of these drugs are prescribed for a reason it's the abuse of them that should be curtailed and i think there is a correlation between

08:07 Who is governing the country? What is at the head of the country, what is in the mood of the country and the amount of drug use and spousal abuse and domestic violence. And I dare say that barometer has gone up in the last few months. Do you know what I'm saying? You know where I'm getting at? Absolutely, the president even if they are just a puppet they at least set a tone for the country and their personality plays into the way people act Exactly! When John Kennedy was President everybody wanted to be in government. Then along comes somebody like Nixon

08:45 and Johnson and Nixon, disillusions everybody again. But you're right it's a... I forget who said it today Joe Scarborough maybe was you know the fish rots from the head down yes It is fascinating to me that there are so many corporate interests that control what we're supposed to think about do and what we ingest but people becoming more aware of so that's another heartening thing Right and it is sad though that it seems like every election were given choices between two people You know quote-unquote choices between people who on these issues that are in your book that we really care about There's very little wiggle room. They seem to be pretty aligned on most of those things

09:32 Yeah, that is true. And you know in Europe and France for instance 8-10 people run not just two right? And then they have primaries and they eliminate and people may vote for somebody extreme as a protest vote but when it comes to the main vote they vote more mainstream so I think it's healthier It's a sickness to have just, you know two parties. The Democrats you know the Depublicans or whatever we want to call them right they all are all owned To a degree but I think it's a matter of degree

10:10 That's true. Yeah, well said and so to get back to the big Pharmathane and Robin Williams situation you also read about Rob Schneider in that he was pretty vocal about this prescription drug problem and Robin Williams death And he got a pretty serious PR pummeling for it didn't he? You have to be careful because some people again because it's a celebrity speaking out But it's interesting why people would react that way for someone who was devastated by his friend's death and has an opinion. Right, as you put it in the book the media helped do a lot of damage control around Robin's death and we see Good Morning America defending these pharmaceutical companies and blasting Rob Schneider which airs on ABC which is owned by Disney. Which is one of the largest recipients of big pharma money so it gets to be pretty clear when you put it into those terms

11:05 Yeah, and you know when you watch the news sometimes you see McDonnell Douglas advertising on there. Like who's that for? Are you and I going to buy a jet plane? It's like they're just showing us who owns the news. Absolutely! Rob Schneider as well as Jenny McCarthy have both been pretty vocal on the vaccine issue too and if these drugs have a laundry list of side effects and dangers, why wouldn't we think vaccines made by the same companies you know why would we think that somehow they're completely perfect in immune to these same issues but what do comedians and playboy bunnies know about anything right? Yeah. Well you know Robin F. Kennedy Jr wrote an entire book on this subject

11:49 And as you know, he's not a bunny. He has concluded as many others have that it is because of the dangerous preservatives that the big drug companies put in the vaccines to maximize their profit by increasing vaccine shelf life. Just like with all these drug issues, Big Pharma uses its media machine as financial clout and the influence it has in Washington to keep the system from changing and they keep maximizing profit because they clearly care more about money than they care about people to put plain and simple. And the vaccine issue really worries me, because if you read between the lines and dig into the suppressed data on them, the case gets pretty clear but people just aren't open to it. Meanwhile how many people calling the anti-vax community paranoid and delusional actually know what the fuck thimerosal even is?

12:44 Yeah, that's a good point. You know people have a mindset and it's cognitive dissonance to tell them that something they may have trusted for years is untrustworthy It's very hard to break through that you think the reason would win out But there's a big emotional investment in a lot of these things and you know it's not just presenting people with the facts apparently It's very distressing because of their emotional element It is. And we also have a bit of a trend of big pharma making up new terms for diseases and conditions, some would say ADD is an example of that but it is a fairly common practice right? I mean make a problem and then sell the solution Well because of social media I think everyone now is diagnosing themselves looking things up

13:40 really confusing not only themselves, but also I think the ethical challenge of a medical community when somebody comes to them and says you know I saw this drug can i get it? And it's a whole other issue than in the old days when you went to the doctor and you trusted the doctor, and he paid $5 a visit. I'm aging myself but... It was it's a different time now. You don't know what the doctor unless you know the doctor well, you don't know what are you selling? And what is prescribing that as actually necessary or just vaguely in the ballpark of what you might need

14:21 Right and people get this false sense of security that well these aren't really drugs because they're regulated And you know they're produced legally, and they're far safer than these completely unregulated and dirty street drugs that are out there But that's really not the case. No it's not and you know people will convince themselves or delude themselves, however you want to say it. To justify what they're doing but at the same time would turn around and condemn others for doing the same thing. And so if we're talking about health issues from corporate products we gotta give Monsanto and Dow Chemical some mentions here too don't we? Well... You know The biggest most depressing thing is the enormity of these corporations in world

15:13 Worldwide reach my center has a reputation now being the world's most evil corporation and i can tell you that's a reputation well earned responsible for everything from say, didi agent orange hormones saccharin. GM foods roundup which is the world's best selling and extremely toxic. Planet polluting pesticides gmo farming is linked to the dwindling be population, the dwelling monarch butterfly population and soil toxicity water toxicity toxins in the food we

15:53 these rates we have now in the early onset diabetes and childhood obesity. So like I said, their reputation for evil is well-deserved. That's one company Yeah, it's so sad. I mean what are really the solutions for something like that? How do we keep a company from getting that big should we get rid of the corporate structure entirely and make each company have an accountable owner that has to be responsible for what their company does which would kind of keep their greed in check by making sure they can at least keep a handle on everything their companies doing. I mean I really don't know how to handle this stuff when they have this limited liability clause Well i think one thing that we can do is

16:34 Reduce the amount of money these corporations can give to politicians. That's a start and also boycotting products actually works, and I think people are more aware of that. These companies are like countries. We're not fighting the corner grocery store these are gigantic corporations with lawyers and political connections, but you know The day after the inauguration there is millions of people in the street so there is I'm not disheartened by American people waking up because of this last election and

17:17 taking on some of these issues that they never did before because they realized that our current government is totally a corporatocracy. Amen. And I've talked to many guests before about the EPA and the FDA and how they do provide a false sense of security because a lot of them are paid off, and they're not really doing their job but you note that in a 2010 California State Senate review it actually revealed that of the 83 thousand chemicals used in consumer products Only a fraction of them have actually been tested by the EPA, even if they were doing their job with full integrity. And I mean what the hell? That's pretty shocking man!

18:00 Yeah, they keep defunding the EPA. Now here's the thing that people have to pay attention to and will is we talk about the revolving door between banks and Washington it's because there's an obvious conflict of interest when a company like Monsanto, the head of Monsanto becomes the Secretary of Agriculture That's a conflict of interest When somebody from Goldman Sachs or Citigroup becomes the Secretary of Treasury You know, it's like it's so obvious. It's like that's throwing you right in their faces and make no mistake the loser the American people and the winner is Wall Street in a 1% or in some cases less than one percent And you know Elizabeth Warren Senator Warren noted that three of the last four Treasury secretaries under Democratic presidents starting with Robert Rubin have been affiliated with Citigroup

18:55 either before or after their service. And that's got to stop, and this whole thing about too big to fail? That's gotta stop. Amen! You mentioned the revolving door in Monsanto and that is such a great clear-cut example I had it written down here from your book This guy's name is Michael Taylor he was an attorney for Monsanto then joined the FDA as Deputy Commissioner of Foods then went back to Monsanto as VP of Public Policy, then went back to the FDA as Deputy Commissioner for Policy rigging the game for Monsanto all along the way. And that's pretty insane! I mean shouldn't the FDA commissioner of foods be like a leading nutritionist or something not just a freaking lawyer? Yeah i think wasn't the guy...the last head of the FDA was you know was a physicist or something what do you mean it was like there's a guy with some brains no you're right

19:51 disgustingly and obviously everything's a political appointee to meet the needs of the corporations. This all started with Reagan when he would appoint the heads of different departments, to disassemble those departments like education and agriculture. And so this has been going on for a long time. Bush was you know, a dream to corporations Imagine how much they love Trump. He's just like this, you know 12 year old albino gorilla bouncing off trees and eating whatever he can grab. Yeah man and there also is a real parallel between say the disinfo we experienced around cigarettes a few decades ago and what we're dealing with now when it comes to something like sugar and soda isn't there?

20:44 Good comparison. I mean, the tobacco industry spent millions and millions of dollars with these fake studies over years and years. I remember when I was a kid my doctor recommends Camel. And there would be pictures of doctors smoking so yeah that's a good model for these other industries. And I think you know that would lend itself to big oil too to convince them to at least start, to switch over to green. Because they can make just as much money with solar panels and thermal energy from the earth and wind farms... And there's all kinds of better batteries It is ridiculous that they're so drunk on oil Everywhere there is oil, there is human suffering I think this next generation coming up

21:40 You know, I was kind of losing all hope for a while there. But it looks like a lot of people are energized that never would have been before this election. Yeah, there's a little bit of hope in there and the oil companies that a lot of the modern pharmaceutical chemicals are derived from the products of these oil companies to Rockefeller medicine and so you know you look at these particular early industrialists and they are responsible for a helluva lot especially if you have some documentaries you mentioned in the book that I have seen interviewed people from before that go over the history of transportation and energy

22:16 and the manipulation and the suppression of alternatives that have been there for a long time, that people don't even realize. They think we're just now on the cutting edge of coming up with some of these electric vehicles and other technologies but that's really not the case I mean history shows it they have been there and they have been quarantined away from public knowledge. Yeah you know that documentary who killed the electric car? yeah There have been electric cars for a long time that work fine but then gm or four will buy the pattern and barry. Yeah rather than being cutting edge in that's what this is me they could make just as much money by adapting

23:03 to not choking the planet to death. Right, and it is such a shame that just these handful of people maybe 100-200 people have taken us down a course of serious destruction and set us back centuries And so many people are just oblivious they don't understand that yeah we really do have a pyramid hierarchy and there are couple people at the top who've influenced your life to incredibly detailed degrees and nothing gets done Well, people don't want to hear that. They don't want to believe that I have...I'm sure you have too. You've spoken to highly intelligent people and you tell them something that's factually true they go no! That's not true

23:47 And you go, yeah it's true. It's like part of the reason I write books is because I'm tired of people rolling their eyes at me at dinner parties. No kidding! But there are so many things that are true that aren't generally known and that's what i'm into finding those things out and just revealing them. You can draw your own conclusions but Facts are facts and this history of the corporatization of America is spelled out for us all to see now very easily, you know. Yeah couldn't agree more and You mentioned that you split your time between the United States in France And these companies we're talking about our international in scope But do you see these corporations? In the food and medical areas having as big a field day and Europe as they do in America

24:42 Well, some countries are much more careful and restrictive. For instance in the area I live in a farming area, a small village in the southwest of France and no GMO here all organic farmers no pesticides there are pesticides but they're natural And there's no hormones so I'm very spoiled here and there is no reason why it can't be that way everywhere The people in America don't realize how much garbage they eat every day, literally. And that's why I'm again this trend of buy local is catching on a lot of places and people are slowly coming around

25:30 Yeah, I mean there is a little hope in that especially here. I am in Southern California And I experienced it a lot But I grew up in Missouri where it isn't quite as prevalent and the idea of food deserts I mean those are quite real and that a lot of people in their smaller towns In the Midwest their only choices are the five fast-food restaurants in town The Pizza Hut or going to Walmart for their processed foods, which a lot of times are shit quality too. So a lot of times people are kind of up the creek without a paddle. And that's something that people do not want to hear because they feel it just sucks too much but if they put you know a really good like they're doing this like Whole Foods or somebody is purposely going into these neighborhoods where they just have the corner shitty little grocery store and

26:26 So, you know there's some corporate responsibility in this also. There is no reason why these more healthful outlets can't spread out more and it's good PR also. Speaking of PR we mentioned the media's work in doing PR for big pharma and you also talk about Movies like American sniper and zero dark 30 in the book is pretty transparent examples of propaganda designed to glorify The military industrial complex and the war machine, but how deep does this Hollywood arm of manipulation go? Are there less obvious examples that you might have picked up on in your career. Um I

27:05 I don't want to get too many people in trouble, but it's true that there are people in high levels of our government. I'm not making this up—this is in the public domain—from the CIA from the government from the Pentagon who certain filmmakers will get if they want an aircraft carrier or jet planes or you know they're doing a war movie or sci-fi movie any kind of movie that has those elements in it, then they have script approval. If I'm going to give you a battle fleet and 20 jets what are you writing about? So keep that in mind listeners when you go see one of these movies and there's all this hardware there A lot of that is not CGI, a lot of that is real And so that means there's script approval

28:00 My dog's agreeing with me. Yeah, I mean...I'm right there with you too. In these movies the military is always gonna be painted in a positive light because you're just not going to use their equipment without it and we also know the CIA has placed or at least trained certain people that they put in these positions in news media They push a narrative that's cooked up in the deep state and That's another area where I just wonder how far that influence spreads over other areas of Hollywood and other aspects of broadcasting besides just these major news networks that everybody seems to be waking up to at least. Well, in 1970 I think it was 74 roughly Carl Bernstein wrote a piece for Rolling Stone magazine in which he said there is...I think he listed a number like 320

29:04 publications that were getting information from the CIA directly. And when that came out, shortly thereafter there was an outraged piece in The New York Times admitting that they did it and saying oh no the number is much higher so you know in their own defense they inadvertently admitted that, you know everybody CBS Newsweek NBC ABC all these companies were getting information directly from the CIA talking points etc. And you know the CIA's nickname is The Company because it protects the corporate interests of the United States so if the CIA is giving talking points to network news those talking points could very well come from a major corporation

29:58 Right, man. And you know that article you mentioned is written in 74 Do you think we ever have had a free press or has this been a propaganda machine from the beginning? No I it's you know there are still people that are you know writing The truth as they find it but they're not and you know they're not you don't see blaring headlines Bleeding off the news every night But you know There are really good reporters out there who don't have millions and millions of viewers, but there are people doing the work. And even though that like if somebody works for a network for some reason certain people even though that network is beholden to some dark forces they allow certain people to say whatever they want because they're not afraid of the repercussions

30:48 You know what I mean? It's like, Lawrence O'Donnell is great. He's a great reporter every night you know he tells the truth as he sees it and i like Rachel Maddow 80-90% of the time she's fantastic and The Nation magazine is pretty reliable and Vox and if you fish around you can find things in the public domain You know, before the internet I used to read like 10 newspapers a day. And now fortunately i can read you know or at least reference a hundred newspapers. Right, and there are definitely good people in journalism as long as they don't go too far down the rabbit hole but you don't really need to control every individual person if you have an editor at each paper or producer at each network and you just have a list of well we don't talk about these ten things and other than that... Go at it! Yeah I think that's pretty

31:50 pretty close to reality. There are certain things that they could talk about but would be discouraged from talking about and there's certain things that you just know not to address the thing that I worry about especially with this president is self-censorship in other words thinking in your mind that you shouldn't say something, that's almost as bad as state censorship You know what I mean? It's like and I think Trump has Trying to instill this kind of dictator bully mentality over everybody that works for him And you know like you could be fired in a second right call me knows that all too well at this point Well, yeah. I mean you know the United States and then the fucking reality show This is serious shit and Every day no one can remember getting up every single day and going wait a minute

32:50 He's the president, what is he going to do today? It's every day changing or every hour. I don't think people were nervous systems are meant...I don't know how long this can last. These guys giving the world a nervous breakdown Right, and I was definitely shocked even though so much shocking things have happened. I was really surprised to see Comey actually get fired It seemed like pretty transparent what was going on there? But then you know You go to the other side and Bill Clinton he fired the FBI director just before they found Vince Foster's body Which is a big conspiracy Yeah, that's

33:32 Yeah, but I don't think they're comparable. I think there's certainly the Vince Foster death—I mean i've written about it so—is incredibly suspicious but I can't... Clinton's fingerprints on him although I wouldn't be shocked. Whereas in this situation he's admitting stuff to Lester Holt. So it's a different, you know what I mean? He had his whole administration go out and lie and then he goes on the next day and refutes everything they're saying. It's like no one has ever seen anything like this

34:12 Right. I mean, it is definitely more obvious and in your face but as you know with a lot of these conspiracies sometimes we don't get that smoking gun and we have to do a little speculation. I don't think it's too far to say that Vince Foster situation was quite sketchy as well. Oh yeah very suspicious incredibly suspicious So... You know I mentioned American Sniper and Zero Dark Thirty some movies that are made as examples of propaganda that you talk about the book Yeah Top Gun Oh, of course. And as an actor yourself I'm curious do you think that actors have any responsibility for this and the parts that they take in play? Uh...I think actors who feel they have a responsibility to themselves as artists into their fans will turn stuff down. I mean i know that's for fact so if you see somebody an actor in a jingoistic movie thats really repellent

35:09 Nobody put a gun to their head to do it. They did it, period. Some movies have an agenda and some are just garbage. Sometimes distraction is all that you need. Yeah! And I'm all for that if its entertaining and not malvolent at the core I mean, it is kind of a slippery slope to say they should take too much responsibility because you can always just find somebody else. I mean, I mentioned that I'm from Missouri and I have three friends who work at Monsanto and we just don't talk about it but really where else is a biochemistry major in Missouri going to work? You know people have to pay their rent but it does kinda bum me out. Yeah, I know exactly what your saying. I had a friend who was approached when he was in college by

36:00 Pentagon, CIA, ONI or this Office of Naval Intelligence because he was so smart and you know he had kind of modified holograms and was into this really brilliant stuff. And they just wanted to appropriate him for military purposes. Wow! He turned them all down and they offered him like his own lab and tons of money scholarships for his kids and all this stuff. And he didn't do it, so... And you know there were no like he wasn't... He didn't get cancer after that or run over by a car, so that's a plus!

36:44 Right One of the lucky ones yeah, right it is rare to have someone with such a successful acting career here Have you ever faced situations where in your career as an actor that's conflicted with your? Conspiratorial opinions or your books that you're writing are the personal beliefs. You have in these areas Have I ever faced this situation That was against my principles, is that what you're saying? Asking. Yeah where your acting career and your conspiracy interests were kind of conflicted. Yeah fortunately on Homicide and Law & Order... And this happened very rarely if there was something in the script that I didn't agree with or that i knew not to be true you know we would change it or at least meet me halfway so no I'm fortunate I was really never in that position. I've been censored

37:36 I was supposed to do this big, this is years ago. Appear at some symposium for this radio station and it turned out the owner of the radio station was how shall i say this delicately an anti-semite And he said no we don't want that New York comedian to do this New York comedian is a euphemism for Jew Jewish comedian and there's a couple other times where I was censored, but never... nothing egregious. Just kind of embarrassed people that didn't want to hear what I wanted to say who had invited me to certain things. Nothing really. I once asked—I know a few people in the CIA and in the Secret Service—and I asked this ex-Secret Service guy

38:35 because I was writing a book at the time about JFK and UFOs. And I said, is there anything I should worry about? He said no no you're a comedian they'll just...they won't kill ya' you know. What struck me was they do kill people but they won't kill you it's what he was saying like they won't kill YOU Yeah, man. That is something I've been worried about more and more as the show grows but i always say that I'm probably safe because it's the guests who are doing the research and as long they're still around I guess I should be fine no they don't you know Pete we are We can be easily marginalized although I mean You know I've gotten in trouble Actually a gun on I forgot to tell you one story And you may have known this I was on Fox News In The Morning No not Fox News

39:26 Anyway, it was a talk show not the one that's on now but another one and They were interviewing me about law and order and stuff And I said to them say hi all to your friends in the news division And I got in a lot of trouble. I almost got fired Damn, I believe it. I believe it That's a touchy subject and I gave them you know this salute because they fuck eight Fox News And you know i was got fired and sent to one of my bosses will go in a message that they have twenty four hours a day seven days a week i'm a comedian with the human time. TV show i don't think we can equate. Yeah stupid your stupid for doing it keep your mouth shut don't talk to the press

40:17 But they didn't fire me, so that's a good thing. That is a good thing! So I know as an actor you obviously move in those circles and have had conversations with other actors. Do you think in general most of the people in this field are aware how influential Hollywood mainstream media is? Or is it something that gets talked about among the actors or do you think some of it gets more glossed over? No, I think now more than ever People in so-called hollywood people are much more aware of their responsibility to their public. And so I think that's good, i think they're being more careful or active or whatever it's not like those innocent times where

41:05 You know, in World War II every major Hollywood star was raising money for the war and doing all this patriotic stuff. And nobody said what are these Hollywood people doing? Nobody questioned it so if anything I think celebrities have a responsibility because we are in the public eye to at least you know have some opinion or say you know I don't uh...or I respectfully decline or whatever. I think more people are aware of their responsibility of being a celebrity. And that's a beautiful thing, we're also in a really fortunate time where you can be an entertainer and reach a large audience without having to play ball with the media gatekeepers without potentially having to make compromises that you might not want to make just to have a job because the floodgates on the internet are sort of open at least for now

42:02 But you still don't know who's watching and listening and saying, I'll never work with that motherfucker again. His or her views but you know what? I'm kidding. I'm half-kidding So you also mentioned UFOs and one of my favorite quotes is from Bill Clinton's book where he says, just after the Apollo 11 mission astronauts walked on the moon an old carpenter asked me if I really believed that it happened. And I said sure I saw it on television. He disagreed He said that he didn't believe it for a minute and let them television fellers could make things look real that weren't. And back then I thought he was a crank, but during my eight years in Washington, I saw some things on TV that made me wonder if he wasn't ahead of his time." That is just such a provocative quote from an ex-president! But as someone who is more familiar with what can be done on a Hollywood soundstage do you think that moon landing footage is real or was that a fake? My feeling and this is purely from my years

43:03 Studying all this stuff. I think we went to the moon once and we were warned off and never went back. That's why we've never gone back." That's what I heard, learned, read and found out from a lot of different...from many many different sources who are really familiar with this and it seems like when they went up there they saw—I mean this is in the public domain—they saw row of lights on the horizon that were idling a craft Edgar Mitchell, who's an astronaut. You know there is no doubt several other astronauts said yeah they if you hear some of the recordings that were not censored the code word for UFOs was Santa Claus is here you know like and they had a couple terms to use so I believe that we could have gone back there There'd be mining, medical experiments We could do so much on the moon

44:11 in terms of scientific research and it would put us ahead maybe centuries because of the nature, the atmosphere up there and the minerals that are there. And what we could do there but no, it never went back so that to me says as I've heard this term, you know, we were warned off. So I tend I find that so provocative and i've heard those very same tapes where they talk about hey we got a Santa Claus coming up on our right and you're like hey, you're supposed to be out in space on your way to the moon there's not supposed to be a person for like tens of thousands of miles what are you talking about but that is super provocative do you think there was uh from what you've...I mean maybe some of your connections you've been able to extract some details but

44:59 Was there a real conversation there? Did it get beyond just seeing some saucers in the sky, did they actually land on the moon and have some type of meeting with people in the flesh or how serious are what kind of details about that warning off have you heard or been able to dissect. Yeah that's a great question I don't know how that was specifically communicated to us, meaning earthlings. But that's a great question I don't know if you know they got a message or they just you know maybe it was like somebody walking in the jungle and then coming to a clearing and there is like 500 thousand

45:45 men with spears pointed at you, you would turn around and probably wouldn't go back. Right right and I have heard some of those far-out conspiracies that the moon itself is some kind of alien base brought into orbit long ago to monitor And that is pretty far fetched but when you add this component You're like well it might be a base now at least Well there's two things about the moon that have yet to be explained one is the surface gravel and rocks are older than the rocks beneath it. Think about that for a second. Also, when the first shuttle landed on the moon, it reverberated like a bell. So that means you know was hollow and there's no reason to disbelieve

46:46 that it was not towed into place for whatever reason as a base to affect our tides, who knows? And that there's certainly a case to be made for it not being a naturally formed object. You know, it faces the same way I think its only celestial body in our solar system that doesn't rotate. Right which is kind of strange. I'm sure it's a good thing, but it's odd. I say the same thing. Yeah and I'm not allergic to the idea that that it's an artificial law

47:24 thing, you know. That's not so fantastic to me. I agree and to maybe talk about the wider alien ET UFO situation what do you think is going on kind of in a wider sense outside just that moon landing situation? Have some your contacts talked about to which degree they're knowledgeable about what might be going on with aliens? Well i've heard that we are in fact working with EBs, extra biological entities in the United States and some underground bases. And that has been going on for a while and there's some people who are not crazy

48:10 Who speak very matter of factly about it. There aren't many of them, but there are retired military or scientists and whatever And these people I think most of those people can be found on the internet and what's sobering about it is they're clearly not crazy And there's a lot, you know the people say well what is the proof? The proof is thousands of pilots and generals and sober civilians for years have seen craft that are not explainable by our physics. It's not distant idea it has been apart of at least since 1947

48:51 There's been so many cases of UFOs like over LA during World War II and over Washington in 1952, there were squadrons of ships that would be fired upon to no avail. And people go, No! But that happened. So it's a thing I keep going back to about cognitive dissonance People don't want it's like you don't want to believe your parents are having sex and next one You know not my mother father, you know, it's like maybe that's a bad analogy But just like no. It's a good one because the evidence is there that did happen Yeah, right so, you know, there are very few things I don't wanna know, you know, I think we can take it in actually 1962 the Brookings Institute did a study of

49:41 was commissioned to do a study about what the effect would be on the people of the United States if a flying saucer or craft from another civilization landed on Earth. And they concluded that scientists, science would be called into question. Could the military in fact protect us? It would cause great fear. Religion will be called into question. All these things were brought up Like people are children and they couldn't handle it I dare say that if a UFO landed today in an alien got out In three weeks, they'd have their own talk show on be folded into the culture. You know what? I mean People wouldn't be shocked they would perhaps the way they would have been 1962. I think people would

50:26 You know, accept it. And I think people will not believe it even though you're sitting there on television and the network news saying, you know, People of the Earth! We have been in existence for billions and billions of years, you know? Yeah man so alright...I'm gonna get a little weird on ya because I do- How much weirder can we get?! I know, who'd have thought? But you know i do a lot of interviews with researchers who will talk about conspiracies involving Hollywood but they're usually looking at it from the outside. They'll talk about things like Illuminati sacrifices this idea that you can't crack the top levels unless you're serving that agenda or in some cases they even talk about mind control being involved this kind of stuff

51:09 When it comes to some of those wilder claims, have you seen anything in your career that would suggest they have some merit or are those things largely overblown? I have. In my experience—you know, I'm not a kid—I've seen no evidence of people first, second, third, or fourth hand and I know all kinds of people believe me from drug dealers to superstars everything in between Not to brag or drop names, which I won't. But no, there's an element of like if somebody becomes a huge star

51:49 Maybe it's because they're, you know... It was the zeitgeist and because of their talent. And they met the needs of the culture at that time and they're good at what they do. Not some ceremony that they went to where they fucked a goat and said something and wore a mask or are indebted to a satanic or Illuminati I don't deny the existence of secret societies and I don't, you know if you want to get into that but i see no evidence of any of that remotely in the circles I've been in film and television and in the recording industry. Musicians actors, the theater...I mean I have not seen anything remotely resembling that

52:37 I wish it was interesting. Yeah, I wish they did it would be fascinating. Well, I had to ask because you're here but I figured you might say something along those lines have you seen... You mentioned secret societies any influence of you know just a broaden that out? Any influence from Freemasons or Skull and Bones or anything like that in Hollywood do they put their agents in that pie I think the Skull and Bones thing is a northeastern Boston to Washington DC corridor Yale entity. It's very far removed from Hollywood, it's more involved in high finance and international banking and stuff like that so no, Hollywood is not like the Northeast, you know, the Wall Street or Washington Corridor,

53:26 You know, there's an old joke that says Washington is Hollywood for ugly people. But you know there are some good looking people in Washington. So to get back to the book a little bit, another thing I wanted to bring up that we could actually put some laws in place to stop. We talked about that revolving door a little bit with Michael Taylor and the FDA but when it gets into regulatory agencies government agencies these CEO positions all these different deputy directors and commissioners and all these kind of bullshit titles

54:02 That is probably one of the most damaging things that creates these loopholes for corporations, and it also is one of those things that would be easiest to fix with legislation. Wouldn't you say? Yeah, that's one of the things we have in our book, what can we do about it. And one of the things is just end this revolving door like you gave an example before. You know when you have somebody who was crafting legislation to affect an industry they worked that should be against the law. I mean, and I think that people are becoming more and more aware especially with these town halls you know they're investigating more and more what does their congressman actually do? And they're finding out...you know..that it's not pretty and there is constituents needs

54:56 always. Your community that you actually can influence because you're not going to influence anything trump wants to do I mean it's gonna be difficult as an individual unless you get a lot of other individuals but. You yourself you can talk these local representatives in this low these local officials and fix the potholes in your neighborhood or get marijuana legalized or do any of the other things that you might care about work on your local water supply and keeping the pharmaceuticals and fluoride out of it, that kind of stuff. So I think people are waking up and there is some hope in going local in all kinds of areas

55:47 I'm glad you brought that up because that's exactly the way to do it. And that's what evangelicals did for years, for years evangelicals thought they were above politics and I don't know if we're old enough to remember them but then they became politicized and they started taking over school boards in legislatures and sheriffs and judgeships before you wake up turn around and we're in this kind of, you know, religio-semi fascist fucking country. So I'm with you 100%. The people have to on the local level start which, you know, local level as Tip O'Neill said, politics is local

56:35 And, you know if we...if people control their local politics and keep their congressman on his toes or her toes then that is a way of affecting the national dialogue. It is! Well said Before we run out of time I want to see if maybe we can offer a little inspiration to people on a personal level because all these problems with corporations that we've talked about, A lot of us have no other options for work for our careers and we go to these cog in the machine jobs barely enough to get by while the CEO buys a house for every day of the fucking week.

57:12 we put a lot of our dreams on hold and our talents go unused. And fear of failure plays such a huge role in why people play it safe in this regard too, and as a guy who has taken that leap many years ago and has had it pay off quite well what would you say to advise people who might have similar dreams but also have a lot of fear around pursuing them? Well I think I said before the worst thing we can do is self-censorship And it's the thing I fear most, almost as much as state censorship. But you know, it's 2017. The world is not spinning out of control.

57:54 I think that now is the time for anyone who has any notion of, you know doing something for themselves should go about it a bit more fearlessly and look around to other examples of people that you admire. There's so many people i know and i'm sure that everyone knows who have overcome seemingly impossible odds or at least some difficulties And life as Jack Kennedy said Life is unfair And sometimes we have to, you know work a little harder than an ex-person. But the main thing is maintaining our self esteem and dignity and having an uncertain future certainly doesn't help but it's something that I think people can exercise their will...I don't think everything is predestined. I think you can exercise your will over your fate at least in my experience

58:49 Well, yeah. I mean that's also what they say in the esoteric circles for sure! I also agree and i think that getting into this conspiracy stuff yes we would like to see some major structural changes to the system that we have but on an individual basis I think the value in learning about this stuff is to get just a more accurate map of the world that we live in. And with a more accurate map, you can navigate it more appropriately for yourself. Maybe you see all the damaging things these corporations do and the way they undercut their own employees and the way pensions are going away and benefits are cut.

59:28 I'm not going to be able to work for AT&T for the next 30 years. I'm gonna have to go do something on my own." And, I think that kind of that's the value on an individual basis would you kinda concur with that? Yeah, and I think that's a well put. That some people just kind of reflexively fall in line so to speak Right. ...and others, y'know have an urge to maybe stop and step out of their line or look around, y'know. Mm-hmm But a lot of people need security that, you know their job there, their family, their rent or mortgage whatever. That when the leadership in the country is so uncertain it throws everything into uncertainty and you know that's its harder to do what we've been talking about than then it was 10 years ago I think.

1:00:28 I hope so too. And, you know we mentioned Trump a few times. I also wanted to throw out there...I saw clip of you actually got to roast Donald Trump at the Friars Club almost a decade ago and maybe even longer. 2004. You pointed out some of these same issues, the fact that he's made a lot of his money by abusing workers and taking advantage of people and making shady deals... I was just curious do you hold a bit of personal pride at this point? That you got that opportunity to kind of speak right to him?

1:01:04 Living in New York, we knew all about Trump before he went into politics. So that's who he was and has always been so when you became president it was like not him! Not our Donald! Not our bloviating pig Donald. He is the President? So, yeah. I'm very prideful over that. Well it's just so interesting that after everything we've been through with the back and forth from Democrats, Republicans and just things never changing that we would look to some billionaire real estate executive as the saving grace and the champion of the people. It really made zero sense Yeah! And don't forget he did not win The Popular Vote for one thing

1:01:54 Can you imagine what would happen if Hillary was president? There'd be hearings for, you know, for four years. It would have driven her crazy. Yeah it seems like we were in trouble either way yeah but I think that the activists and regular people that are woken up is very very heartening to me that Americans are taking the responsibility, as Jefferson said, to be an informed citizenry. And that's what happened. Yeah well said! That is a positive note and I love it man. I really do appreciate what you do in the way you choose to use your platform and i really enjoyed the book and hope people pick up Is there anything else you're working on or would like to tell people about before we wrap this thing? I have a talk show on YouTube

1:02:46 It's called Richard Belzer's Conversations, and I interviewed Robert Gottfried and Paul Schaefer. You know a bunch of really interesting people so you might want to check that out Yeah, very cool. Getting outside of the corporate stranglehold and going out on your own I love it Exactly You and Bill O'Reilly Who's that? Never heard of him Yeah me either Well man Richard thanks again keep fighting the good fight my man Okay Greg take care thanks again you got it Alright alright good people of the internet big guest today in Richard Belzer blowing the doors off some corporate conspiracies

1:03:25 This will be one of those shows where people I haven't talked to in many years from high school will see that. I posted this on Facebook and wonder what the hell is the law and order guy doing on Greg Carlwood stupid podcast? And those are fun moments for me But I thought we covered a lot of good ground too. I loved the book and it worked out because i literally was typing corporate conspiracies into Amazon to see what books came up, and of course Richards was top of the list AND a new release! And to add icing on that cake his people already knew about The Hireside Chats when I asked if we could get him on so everything slid right into place big thanks to him for taking the time

1:04:05 Also kind of did this one for my dad who's seen Richard a lot through the years is a bit of a fan And I think it's just cool for him to see this episode come to fruition too so shout out to pops also when I was going over some clips from Richards career, just looking at all the crazy stuff he's been a part of. I found a clip with Hulk Hogan apparently in the 80s or maybe early 90s Richard had his own show and Hulk Hogan was on it put him in a headlock and choked him out dropped him in his head slammed against the stage and pretty dramatic fashion in the crowd gasps. It was just one of those interesting real things didn't go expected on live TV moments that I always get a kick out of

1:04:51 So I did want to talk about his book of course, but also focused a lot of questions on the media and Hollywood because it is sort of rare to have such a well-known actor here. I wanted to get into that stuff, hear things from his side And i was also pretty big Robin Williams fan The guy really was one of kind and we do have researchers in the conspiracy world who are saying he faked his death or was an Illuminati sacrifice These are things that I will never know And you can have those theories, but Richard was a friend of his and I am more than happy to paint a target on Big Pharma for this one. I think that's fairly cut-and-dry there is a serious pill problem these days Also like i said in the intro Richard doesn't have to put out these books he doesn't have to draw attention to these things but he does so we should respect that

1:05:39 Even if we might disagree on some of the finer points. Personally, the only area I'd really disagree with him on would be that he seems to be a little biased when it comes to liberals and the Democrats. I don't know that he holds them to fire in the same way as he would Republicans For a conspiracy enthusiast, I just think its better to step outside both parties and consider them equally corrupt and unusable Of course, philosophically I do find more common ground with liberal-leaning folks but i do try to separate that from actual career politicians news anchors and team democrat in general.

1:06:16 But that's just me, and it really wasn't even the point or the focus of today's show. Obviously people have their own way of looking at these things and we can still come together and have a productive solid conversation about Big Pharma, the regulatory agencies that aren't doing their jobs, revolving door of politics in corporate players media manipulation, and some alien talk of course for good measure So I hope you liked it. I appreciate each and every one of you who listen as always an ad-free 1 hour version goes out to the world, And if you want to hear the extended 2 hour episodes just sign up with me for The Higher Side Chats Plus for 5 bucks a month

1:06:54 In this episode, we talked about the prison industrial complex. The drug war and its role in the big conspiracy. The bank bailout and why it shouldn't just be glossed over. The prospects for a bail out round two in our future? How Bayer developed heroin. What Richard thinks about the motivations behind the JFK assassination. Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Richard's thoughts on the Franklin scandal blackmail and pedophilia networks in elite circles And from that dark place, we got words of artistic inspiration and Richard's advice to people who aren't living out their dreams due to fear pressure and the multitude of things that hold us back. I thought it was important to hit that before we ended it because a lot of people out there are dreaming not living. And I know the corporate stranglehold in The Big Conspiracy can seem so overwhelming and absolute that the situation seems unfixable...and maybe in a lot of ways it is

1:07:51 But you can still live a good, happy successful life despite all that. And when it comes to the big system we absolutely know there are differences between the corporate stranglehold on a place like France versus the United States so don't say we can't do anything! We do have to pay attention. We gotta watch where we put our money call out bullshit and make sure politicians know that were just not fucking around anymore People will say, oh when you vote you give your power to the system and validate their paradigm and all that. Okay? So do nothing then! And then we'll only have assholes and criminals in office with even less accountability than they have now We have to actually watch them and we're really not...we gotta own that a little bit

1:08:36 But the world's a complicated mess. These are just some parts of it either way I love you guys Thanks for listening i'm out of here The higher side chats clothing dot com for all your conspiracy t-shirt needs and i'll see you in just A couple days with a new episode Your move big pharma pill pushers corporate food finanglers and alien moon base operators your fucking move Oh, no You see The world isn't random, it's attached to puppet strings Control over everything The 9-to-5 is trying to steal ya Now don't that job seem silly? Hello, can you hear me

1:09:31 Or should I play back recordings from some spike agency? Wish we were younger and free. I'll be thankful when it's all exposed, the vast conspiracy There is such a difference between me now and the Denver child Hollow from the highest high They're calling out a thousand cries They'll tell you the story Of everything that's been done And they'll call out deception Of the web that's been spawned

1:10:26 Hollow from the higher side The earth is hollow inside They'll tell you about something that no one else will Have you heard about Saturn? Have you heard about the real since long, long ago? They're cartoons It's so typical of me to talk about the stuff I'm sorry that's good and well Did you ever hear the argument That nothing really happens? It's no secret And that the best is plush It's doubling your time

1:11:32 Hello from the higher side They're calling out a thousand crimes They'll tell you something The elite have done And they'll call out deception Of the web that's been spawned Hello from the higher side I'm challenging your paradigm And i'll tell you someday That the battle's begun But we can't fight it with violence The mind's where it's won As the world's gone Oh, as the war, as the war Ooh

1:12:45 Hello from the higher side They're calling out a thousand times They'll tell you everything the elite have done And they'll call out deception of the web that's been spun Hello from the higher side I'm challenging your paradigm And i'll tell you someday that the battle's begun But we can't fight it with violence The mind's where it's won, that's the problem